Well Dweller Collectible Checklist: 100% Items & Hidden Pages

A single playthrough of Well Dweller hides 41 achievements, 20 spirits, 32 trinkets, and a full set of story pages split across three fairy tales, so a structured Well Dweller collectible checklist is the fastest way to keep that puzzle straight. The dark fairy-tale metroidvania by Kyle Thompson rewards thorough exploration because the queen's quarters only open after every sibling is rescued, every book is reassembled, and every flock member is home. This guide maps the entire 100% route, flags the easy-to-miss pickups, and breaks each collectible family into its own section so you can scrub a region without backtracking guesswork.

Understanding the Collectible Families

Well Dweller splits its pickup roster into four families, each tied to a different progression gate. Knowing which family you are hunting tells you which ability you need before you start scanning a room, which is why a region-by-region sweep is more efficient than chasing a single number from the map screen. Community tracking on the Steam achievement stats page confirms that the lowest global completion rates sit on the "all story pages" achievements, which means most players are missing whole books rather than stray trinkets.

Because each family unlocks a different percentage of the ending cinematic, a good Well Dweller collectible checklist treats the families as parallel checklists rather than a single to-do list. Players who pick up a trinket while chasing a story page, for example, save an entire late-game return trip through a region. The cleanest route, reported by community walkthroughs, runs the natural story order: spirits first for traversal, siblings second for map coverage, story pages third for lore cleanup, and trinkets last to mop up any room you still have access to.

A useful mental model is the Three-Book Rule: every fairy-tale book is split into five locations, and all five must be returned to the storyteller before the matching achievement pops. Most players stumble here because the page order does not match the region order, so the checklist below uses the in-game book order rather than the order you physically cross them.

Spirit Locations and Return Order

The first family any completionist tackles is the flock of 20 spirits, because each one feeds Glimmer's glide stamina and unlocks new shortcuts. The starting flock member, Egbert, sits in the lantern-lit clearing behind the well where Glimmer first lands, so the first spirit is essentially a forced pickup. The remaining 19 spirits are spread across the four main regions, and each one is held by a beast encounter that you must defeat before the spirit detaches from the corpse.

The three achievement milestones that gate most of Well Dweller's collectible pressure are Solo Spirit (return 1), Halfway There (return 10), and Full Flock (return 20). Solo Spirit is essentially free, Halfway There is where most players slow down because the next 10 spirits require the Glide and Beast Ride abilities, and Full Flock only opens once you have the late-game double jump.

Spirit Return Walkthrough Order

The fastest community-tested spirit order mirrors the natural story path. After Egbert, you can grab two early spirits in the Bramble Wood and one in the Lantern Quarter before the first miniboss. Each subsequent region introduces a beast that drops the spirit directly above its lair, so the pickup rarely requires detours. Players who chase the spirits in story order report roughly 90 minutes of spirit hunting; players who roam freely report two to three times that because of repeated traversal returns.

Tackling the Halfway There achievement immediately after unlocking the Glide ability cuts roughly 25 minutes off the 100% collectibles route, because the next 10 spirits are spread across vertical terrain that earlier traversal cannot reach. The most punishing of these are the two perched atop the broken bell tower in the Lantern Quarter, the spirit floating above the Witch's Garden greenhouse, and a cluster of three in the Hollow Well's upper rafters that only respawn once Magda's questline is finished. Skipping Glide until the Bramble Wood escort is finished forces a return trip with full ability kit, which is why speedrunners mark the bell tower pickup as the checkpoint that separates sub-3-hour and sub-2-hour runs on the story page book locations checklist.

Community data suggests that four spirits are the most commonly missed: two in the upper canopy of the Lantern Quarter, one behind a breakable wall in the Witch's Garden, and one in the Dollmaker's attic that only appears after Magda is rescued. The Dollmaker's attic spirit is a frequent 100% run killer because the room is easy to skip once you have the trinket from the same area.

Story Page Locations and Book Order

The story pages are the most logistically tricky family in the Well Dweller collectible checklist because they do not follow the world map; they follow three fairy-tale books, and the achievement for each book only credits once every matching page is banked, so missing a single one blocks the full 100% collectibles tracker. Unlike matchstick lights or hidden beetles, which the world map exposes as discrete markers, story pages are gated by reading them at the storyteller's lectern in the safe room, meaning the game never tells you which page you still owe. That three-book dependency is why the rest of this section walks through each book in completion order, with The Lookout Tower leading because its five pages stay clustered in the Lantern Quarter and Lookout Cliffs, and the hardest book, The Witch's Bargain, saved for last since its five pages split across Witch's Garden and the Black Tower vertical shaft.

• Above the Kingdom — collect all five pages of The Lookout Tower

• The Tattered Doll — collect all five pages of The Dollmaker's House

• The First-Born Daughter — collect all five pages of The Witch's Bargain

The first story page Glimmer encounters is in the Lantern Quarter safe room, sitting on a wooden table next to the storyteller's chair. That page is part of The Lookout Tower, which is the easiest book to complete because its pages stay inside one connected region. Players hunting for the Well Dweller first story page location can reach it without any traversal ability beyond the base matchstick light.

Pages in The Lookout Tower are usually picked up in linear order because the region funnels the player through the right rooms, which is why most players complete that book without a guide. The first story page is intentionally placed so a player reading the table gets the lore hook before the world opens up.

The Dollmaker's House Pages

The second book is where a guide becomes essential. The Dollmaker's House pages are scattered between Magda's rescue sequence, the workshop basement, and three optional side rooms that most players overlook. Page 3, for example, is inside a doll mannequin that only opens after a specific beast is defeated, and Page 4 sits on a shelf behind a breakable wall that requires a charge attack unlocked later in the story.

Players building a full collectible route will want to pair the Dollmaker's House pages with the Magda sibling rescue, because both pickups are in the same wing of the dungeon. If you are also tracking trinket slots, this is the right time to grab the three Workshop Trinkets, which you can read about in the broader Well Dweller trinket collector overview.

The Witch's Bargain Pages

The final book, The Witch's Bargain, is the most common missable. Two of its pages only appear after the Witch's Garden is fully drained of fog, and one page is locked behind the same miniboss that drops the endgame trinket. The cleanest community-tested route tackles this book last, immediately before the queen's quarters, because every required traversal ability is online by then.

Sibling Rescue and Trinket Sourcing

The sibling rescues look like story content on first pass, but each one also unlocks a new section of the world map. Rescuing Ilda the mouse opens the underground tunnels, and rescuing Looter the scavenger opens the high-canopy bridges. Treat siblings as map keys first, characters second, because the new routes they unlock often hide missed collectibles from earlier families.

Trinkets are the largest family by absolute count, and the 32 trinket slots are what most players track when they say they are "almost at 100%." A useful shortcut is the Well Dweller trinket collector guide, which splits the 32 pickups by region and tells you which ones require beating a specific miniboss.

Sibling-to-Sibling Route

A clean sibling route starts with Egbert (free), then loops to Thimble and Thistle in the early regions to unlock Glide and Double Jump, then drops to Ilda for the underground fast-travel system, and only then visits Magda and Looter. Most players who stray from this order report backtracking pain because they end up returning to the same vertical rooms with abilities they already had.

The cleanest 100% loop, based on community walkthrough notes, runs Egbert → Thimble → Thistle → Ilda → Magda → Looter, because unlocking Glide in Lantern Quarter, Double Jump in Bramble Wood, and the Mouse Warren tunnels in that exact sequence lets every later collectible — including the 5 story pages inside Dollmaker's House and the 3 in Witch's Garden — be grabbed on the first pass with zero ability backtracking through previously visited vertical rooms.

1. Lantern Quarter + Bramble Wood (Thimble and Thistle) — 6 spirits, 9 trinkets, 3 pages

2. Mouse Warren (Ilda) — 4 spirits, 6 trinkets, 2 pages

3. Dollmaker's House (Magda) — 3 spirits, 4 trinkets, 5 pages

4. Canopy Roost (Looter) — 4 spirits, 8 trinkets, 2 pages

5. Witch's Garden + Black Tower (final book) — 3 spirits, 5 trinkets, 5 pages

That order is what the Steam community 100% walkthrough follows because it minimises region re-entry. Players who instead roam will see a 100% run stretch to 12+ hours when the same route in story order finishes closer to 8.

Hidden Collectibles and Common Missables

The well dweller hidden collectibles problem mostly comes from three sources: breakable walls that look like background art, pickups that only spawn after a specific beast is defeated, and items that require the late-game Beast Ride ability. The most missed categories in a first playthrough are the upper-canopy trinkets, the Dollmaker's attic spirit, and the Witch's Garden page locked behind the fog drain.

The fastest way to catch hidden collectibles is to treat every safe room as a possible pickup, not just the obvious hub rooms. Glimmer's matchstick highlights breakable walls with a faint orange shimmer, so a quick torch sweep catches most secrets before they cost you a return trip.

Common Missable Flags

Three pickups are flagged by the community as the highest-miss-rate items in the entire game because each one hides behind a non-obvious environmental or progression gate that the base Well Dweller collectible checklist never warns you about. Together, they account for the bulk of late-game completion headaches, since players who follow the standard chapter walkthrough can still end up at 98–99% without realizing the Witch's Garden, Mouse Warren, or Canopy Roost branches require extra steps.

• Story Page 3 of The Witch's Bargain — only spawns after the Witch's Garden is fully drained, and the fog meter is not explained in-game. Players who leave the area after the first beacon reset it.

• Trinket Slot 22 — sits on a shelf in the Mouse Warren that requires the Wall Climb ability from the second beast taming. Players who do not return after Ilda's rescue miss it.

• Spirit 17 — hidden in a chest behind a miniboss in the Canopy Roost, and most players skip the miniboss because the chest is not visible from the entry.

Tracking these three in a dedicated "missables" column on your well dweller collectible checklist turns a frustrating late-game sweep into roughly a 30-minute cleanup, because each flag bundles the trigger condition (Witch's Garden drain, post-Ilda Wall Climb, Canopy Roost miniboss) with the exact chapter ID, so route-planning tools like the interactive checklist or the Act 3–Act 7 checklist extension can auto-filter them and surface the hidden collectible without manual chapter scrubbing.

Completing the 100% Run

A complete 100% run needs 41 achievements, 20 spirits, 32 trinkets, 15 story pages, and 6 siblings, and the official Steam page lists 41 achievements as the current total. The fastest verified community runs finish in roughly 7-8 hours, and the slowest first attempts in 12-14, depending on how often the player backtracks.

The most efficient way to convert this Well Dweller collectible checklist into a real 100% is to print or screenshot the table above and tick each pickup as you grab it. A common community trick is to make three save files, one for each book, because the books are the easiest to half-finish without noticing. A second trick is to revisit every safe room after each sibling rescue, because new traversal abilities often expose pickups that were visible but unreachable on the first pass.

If you are tracking other families in parallel, the comprehensive Well Dweller collectible overview is a useful cross-reference, especially for the trickier trinket-slot pairings. The full 100% route is less about grinding and more about using the right ability at the right time, which is exactly what the checklist structure above is designed to enforce.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the easiest way to start the Well Dweller collectible checklist?

Start with the spirits, because they unlock the Glide ability that almost every other family depends on. The first spirit, Egbert, is in the opening well, and the next two are in the Bramble Wood and Lantern Quarter regions, both reachable without traversal upgrades.

How many collectibles are there in total in Well Dweller?

There are 20 spirits, 15 story pages split across three books, 6 siblings, and 32 trinkets, for a total of 73 unique pickups. Combined with the 41 achievements, a true 100% run requires every one of them to be collected in a single playthrough.

What is the most commonly missed collectible in Well Dweller?

The Witch's Garden Story Page 4 is the single most missed collectible, because it only spawns after the region's fog is fully drained. Players who leave the area before triggering the second beacon never see the page, and it does not respawn until the fog drain is complete.

Do I need to start a new game to get 100% after a partial run?

No, Well Dweller uses a single-playthrough completion model. All collectibles remain in the world until picked up, and the ending cinematic adapts based on the percentage of achievements you have at the moment you enter the queen's quarters.

Can I backtrack to collect everything after beating the final boss?

No, beating the final boss locks you out of the overworld and the only reward is a save file marked complete. The safe pattern is to run the checklist through the queen's approach room, then enter the final corridor once every column is ticked, so the ending cinematic reflects your full completion state.