Corpse Tree Riddle Solutions - Old Woods Walkthrough
All Elderfield Corpse Tree riddles with the exact answers for every roll tier, including the roll-1 trap where the correct answer kills your character.
FAQ
Where is the Corpse Tree?
What is the answer to the three friends riddle?
Can the Corpse Tree kill you?
The Corpse Tree is the Old Woods’ cruelest mystery: instead of a straight die roll, your roll picks a riddle and your answer picks the fate — and on the lowest roll, the correct answer is the one that kills you. Full solutions below, spoiler-folded per riddle.
How the Corpse Tree Works
It stands in the Old Woods clearing, one of the Blood Trees’ neighbors. Investigating rolls the mystery die (Luck-modified, with the system’s hidden 0 and 7 results — mechanics in the mysteries guide), and the roll tier selects which riddle you must answer. Like every mystery, it resets when you take a bath.
| Roll | Riddle | Answer | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5–6 | Three friends walk into the woods | 0 | Emerald Bone Ring (first lucky roll) + 2 Cleansing Balms + 3 Bones; wrong 3 → undocumented; other wrong → 1 Cleansing Balm |
| 3–4 | Detective, gravedigger, teacher | 2 | 3 Blessings; wrong → 3 Curses + permanent −1 Agility |
| 1–2 | The fool’s 1-out-of-9 survival question | 9 | 0 = death; 1–4 = 4 Curses + combat; 5–8 = combat; 9 = the corpse falls silent |
Riddle 1 (Roll 5-6): Three Friends Walk Into the Woods
“One has a secret. One has a knife. One is immortal. How many friends survive?”
Solution (spoiler)
Answer 0. The phrasing invites counting to 3 — the trap, and the wiki marks 3 as the flagged wrong answer (its outcome is undocumented). Any other wrong number still hands you a Cleansing Balm as consolation. Answering 0 pays the full haul: an Emerald Bone Ring (after the first lucky roll), two Cleansing Balms, and three Bones.
Riddle 2 (Roll 3-4): The Resurrection Riddle
Three bodies lie in a row: “In life, the first was a detective. The second was a gravedigger. The third was a teacher. Which will be resurrected?”
Solution (spoiler)
Answer 2. A correct answer pays 3 Blessings. A wrong answer costs 3 Curses and a permanent −1 max Agility (flagged as a one-time outcome) — the harshest non-lethal penalty on any mystery table. If you are unsure mid-riddle, the combat guide explains what curses do to you before you gamble Agility on it.
Riddle 3 (Roll 1-2): The Fool’s Survival Question — the Death Trap
“A fool wanders into an ancient forest. They stumble upon a corpse, impaled by a tree. They choose to speak with the corpse. On a scale of one to nine, how likely are they to leave the woods alive?”
Solution (spoiler — lethal)
Every answer on the 1–9 scale is now documented, and the trap sits at the edge: answering 0 executes the character — the tree’s kill, elegant because 0 sits outside the question’s stated 1–9 scale. Among the real answers, 9 is the safe silence (“The corpse falls silent”); 1–4 apply 4 Curses and start a fight, and 5–8 start the fight clean. At low Luck, skip the tree entirely — raise Luck first (the ATM’s blessing loop in the mysteries guide) or bank a save at home before walking into the clearing.
The Pattern: 0 Is the Trick Answer
Across the tree’s riddles, 0 is the answer that sounds like surrender — and it flip-flops between jackpot and execution: correct on the 5-6 riddle, lethal on the 1-2 question. If a new riddle appears post-launch with an unlisted answer, remember the consolation Cleansing Balm on wrong 5-6 answers makes even failures mildly profitable for the farm.
Getting to the Clearing
The Old Woods open past Tanner’s cabin at the woods entrance. The clearing’s other mysteries — the Blood Trees and the Well near the Abandoned Mill — are covered in the mysteries guide; the Campsite’s dragonfly fishing is in the fishing guide.
Keep Exploring
Was this helpful?
Thanks for the feedback!