Firewatch: Complete Guide

This guide covers how Firewatch plays, what your choices change, a spoiler-light story outline, every achievement including the easy-to-miss ones, and the Free Roam and Audio Tour modes.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the 21 December 2021 Steam update (the latest patch). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• It's a first-person narrative adventure. There's no combat and you can't fail. You explore the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming in the summer of 1989 as Henry, a new fire lookout.
• The radio is the heart of the game. Your supervisor Delilah is always a button press away. Report anything interesting to her. Many objects and places have unique conversations.
• Your conversations are timed and optional. You can pick a reply, stay silent, or let a moment pass. This shapes the tone of Henry and Delilah's relationship.
• Use the map and compass the way you would in real life. Henry pulls out a paper map and compass. There's no GPS arrow, so learn the trails by name and follow landmarks.
• Supply caches matter. Caches around the forest hold notes, supplies, and gear. Map notes and tools you pick up open new routes (a rope, for example, lets you climb down certain drops).
• Take photos. You pick up a disposable camera early in the story. Using up all its shots earns "Shutter Bug".
• Some achievements are easy to miss: the turtle, the raccoon, the bee sting, and the Ol' Shoshone tape. See the achievement table below.
• It's short. Most players finish in roughly four to six hours. Plan one or two sittings.

Controls and Interface

Keyboard and mouse or a controller both work. The December 2021 update added automatic detection for DualShock 3/4, DualSense, Xbox 360/One/Series, and wireless Switch Pro controllers, and on-screen icons now switch to match whatever you last pressed.

Action | What it does

Move / look | Standard first-person movement

Interact | Pick up, examine, open, climb

Radio | Talk to Delilah about what you're looking at, or pick dialogue replies

Map | Pull up the paper map (with your notes and discovered caches)

Compass | Held alongside the map for orientation

Camera | Take a photo with the disposable camera

Options worth knowing:

• Minimum HUD (added 2016) hides the reticle and tooltips for a cleaner experience.
• Subtitles are available in several languages, including Japanese (added 2018).
• The settings screen shows the game's version number (added in the May 2018 patch, which displayed 1.09 at the time). Use it to confirm you have the December 2021 fixes if something below doesn't match your experience.

How Choices Work

• Prologue: The game opens with short text choices about Henry's life with his wife Julia before he takes the job. These set the emotional context and color some later conversations.
• Radio replies: Most interactions with Delilah give you a few reply options or silence. The replies change how open, flirty, sarcastic, or guarded the two of them are.
• What doesn't change: The overall mystery and its resolution stay the same. Firewatch's choices are about tone and relationship rather than branching endings.
• Report things: Picking up an object and calling it in often unlocks a unique exchange. Players who report everything get far more dialogue.

Story Outline (Spoiler-Light)

The story is told across a series of days over a summer, each introduced by a title card.

• Arrival: Henry hikes to his lookout tower at Two Forks and meets Delilah over the radio. Your first jobs are about noise complaints and fireworks from teenagers near the lake, and they teach you the map and trails. ("Good first day.")
• Settling in: The routine of a lookout sets in, with chores, supply caches, and radio banter. ("Back to work.")
• Something's wrong: Unusual events suggest someone else is in the forest and is watching. ("Someone's out here.")
• The mystery deepens: Henry and Delilah dig into missing teenagers, strange equipment, and a history tied to a previous lookout.
• Fire season: A wildfire grows over the summer, and events build to the conclusion. ("Burn the place down.")
• Resolution: The final radio conversations and the ending. Finishing the game earns "Firewatch".

Spoiler section: Henry's tower is ransacked on his first day, and a phone line turns up deliberately cut. The two teenage girls he confronted at the lake are later reported missing. Henry finds belongings of Brian Goodwin, the young son of a former lookout, and stumbles on a fenced camp that seems to have been recording his and Delilah's radio conversations; that camp is later set ablaze. The mystery centers on Ned Goodwin, the former lookout and Brian's father. Henry eventually finds Brian's body in a locked cave and learns from Ned that Brian died in a climbing accident years earlier, and that Ned has been living secretly in the forest ever since, watching Henry. The missing teenage girls turn up safe. The game ends with an evacuation order as the fire spreads, a final goodbye with Delilah over the radio, and Henry leaving by helicopter. The ending is deliberately low-key, and it's a story about grief and running away rather than a conspiracy thriller.

Achievements

Achievement | How to get it | Missable?

"Good first day." | Story progress (first day) | No

"Back to work." | Story progress | No

"Someone's out here." | Story progress | No

"Burn the place down." | Story progress | No

Firewatch | Finish the game | No

Bee Plot | Get stung by a bee. Since the November 2016 patch it can unlock in any mode and on any day | Low risk

Love Turts | Adopt a turtle as a pet | Yes, grab it when you see it

Shutter Bug | Fill the disposable camera with photos | Yes, if you ignore the camera

The Life and Times of Raccoon Carter | Get attacked by a raccoon | Yes

Ol' Shoshone | Listen to the Ol' Shoshone tape | Yes

Tips for the missable ones

• Love Turts: A box turtle can be found in the wilderness. Pick it up and Henry keeps it as a pet. Keep your eyes on the ground near trails and creeks.
• Shutter Bug: Take photos steadily through the game instead of saving them. Each shot counts toward filling the camera.
• Raccoon Carter: Raccoons can ambush you around supply caches and camp debris. Open every cache you find.
• Ol' Shoshone: A cassette with this song turns up during exploration. When you find a tape, play it.
• Bee Plot: Bees swarm around certain trees and hives. Walk into a swarm.

If you miss any of these, try Free Roam (below) for the exploration ones, or start a new game. It's short enough that a second run is painless, and it's a good excuse to try different dialogue.

Free Roam and Audio Tour

Mode | Unlock | What it is

Thorofare Free Roam | Finish the game. Then Special Features in the main menu | Objective-free wandering with a dynamic 24-hour day/night cycle, miles of trails, and "a few new things to find"

Firewatch Audio Tour | Added in the September 2016 update | Developer commentary delivered through cassettes placed in the world

Free Roam is also the best way to take photos in different light and to finish any exploration achievements you missed.

Exploration Tips

• Learn the trail names. Delilah gives directions by landmark. Matching her words to the map makes navigation natural.
• Mark caches. Discovered caches are noted on your map and make good waypoints.
• Look up. Rope points and climbable rocks are often slightly above eye level.
• Read everything. Notes in caches and camps add a lot to the story and set up later reveals.
• Tell Delilah about everything. Pick up odd objects (beer cans, books, signs) and radio in about them.

Performance and Technical Notes

• A 2018 patch fixed a threading crash on load screens and a frame drop when examining objects.
• The December 2021 updates fixed third-party software grabbing the mouse and some launch failures, and they allow simultaneous gamepad and mouse-look input.
• Objects like turtles and beer cans falling through the world were fixed in December 2021. If you're on a very old build, update.
• The 2016 Audio Tour update moved the game from Unity 5.2 to 5.4 and fixed several fall-through-world bugs.

A Suggested Plan for 100%

• First run, blind: Play naturally, report everything to Delilah, and take photos as you go. You'll likely pick up the story achievements, "Shutter Bug", and one or two of the exploration ones without trying.
• Check your list after the credits: The five story achievements can't be missed. The five exploration ones (bee, turtle, camera, raccoon, tape) are the ones to look at.
• Bee Plot first: Since the November 2016 patch it unlocks in any mode on any day, so Free Roam works fine.
• Other gaps: Load Free Roam and explore, or start a second story run with different dialogue replies. The story is short enough that a second run for the turtle, raccoon, and tape costs little, and the alternate conversations make it worthwhile anyway.

Platform Notes

• Windows, macOS, and Linux builds are all on Steam. The 2016 Audio Tour update added Windowed Mode and multi-threaded OpenGL on Mac, and the December 2021 update improved rendering, performance, and battery life on Metal-supported Macs.
• Controllers: Native DualShock 4 support on Windows arrived in May 2018; the December 2021 update extended auto-detection to DualShock 3, DualSense, Xbox 360/One/Series, and wireless Switch Pro controllers.
• Saves: Several rare save/load bugs were fixed in December 2021. If an old save misbehaves, make sure the game is fully updated before starting over.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Rushing between objectives. The best writing is in the optional radio conversations.
• Relying on quest markers. There aren't any. Use the map, compass, and landmarks.
• Ignoring the camera. You'll miss "Shutter Bug" and good memories.
• Skipping caches. They hold notes, items, and the raccoon moment.
• Expecting a branching ending. Choices shape tone. Don't replay just to change the outcome.

Advanced Tips

• Replay for dialogue. A second playthrough with different replies (silence versus sharing, joking versus serious) shows a surprisingly different Delilah.
• Minimum HUD for immersion. After you know the controls, turn it on and navigate purely by landmarks.
• Mix mouse and controller. Since the 2021 update you can use both at the same time. A gamepad for walking and the mouse for looking works.
• Audio Tour after the story. The commentary spoils everything but explains how the forest and story were built.

FAQ

How long is Firewatch? Usually around four to six hours for a first playthrough, depending on how much you explore.

Do my choices change the ending? Not the core events. Choices change your relationship with Delilah and the tone of many scenes, but the mystery resolves the same way.

Can I miss achievements? Yes. The turtle, raccoon, camera, tape, and bee achievements depend on things you do while exploring. Free Roam, which unlocks after the ending, is useful for cleanup.

Where is Free Roam? Finish the game, then look in Special Features on the main menu for Thorofare Free Roam.

Is Firewatch suitable for kids? The developers note it's "a video game about adults having adult conversations about adult things." There's strong language and mature themes such as dementia and grief.

Does Firewatch support controllers? Yes. Since December 2021, PlayStation, Xbox, and wireless Switch Pro controllers are auto-detected without third-party software.

Sources

• Firewatch on Steam
• Firewatch Steam achievements
• Firewatch Steam News: Free Roam, Audio Tour, and 2018/2021 patch notes
• Firewatch on Wikipedia