The Medium | How to Reach the Niwa Hotel, How to Enter Niwa Hotel

After making it through Jack’s apartment in The Medium, the next section of the game will take you to the abandoned Niwa Hotel.

Before you enter the Niwa Hotel, you’ll need to find a way past the blocked entrance area after parking your motorcycle. Then, you’ll need to make your way through the woods towards the hotel, and after that, find a way inside the hotel itself. 

While you’re doing all of this, inspecting items and picking up collectibles is key, not only to understanding the story but also in regards to unlocking achievements.

To help ensure you don’t miss anything, and to help you reach Niwa, we’ve put together our second walkthrough for The Medium! 

The Medium | How to Reach the Niwa Hotel, How to Enter Niwa Hotel

Your journey to the Niwa Hotel begins after Marianne steps off her motorcycle. In front of you is a gate that’s blocked, forcing Marianne to look around for a different way inside.

After inspecting the gate and confirming it’s locked, look to your right to inspect a map covered in graffiti. 

Then, head to your left inside a cluttered office and look by the desk to pick up your first collectible postcard.

You can press Y to read the text on the postcard, which is written by someone whose name begins with the letter F.

The text on the postcard reads: 

“Niwa says hello! 

You would love it here, my dear. Amazing dayroom for kids and free art lessons. Lots of families. And the hotel is huge! I’ve never seen anything like it. Wish you could be here with me. 

Miss you! 

F.”

After collecting the postcard, head up to the office window and press X to look outside. When you do, you’ll see a mysterious man slowly walking off to the right.

The man won’t respond when Marianne calls out to him. Once you’ve finished watching him walk away, head out of the office and over to your left to spot a dumpster.

Press Y to climb on top of the dumpster, then Y again to climb over the wall. In doing so, you’ll have successfully bypassed the locked front gate.

On the other side of the gate, Marianne will give a little backstory to the Niwa Hotel and an event that happened there called The Niwa Massacre. When she’s finished talking, head up and inspect the map.

Next, head left and up the road holding LT to jog. Keep heading up the road until you reach a broken section where you can drop down by pressing Y.

As you enter the woods, a ball will roll towards you, and Marianne will kneel down to inspect it.

While Marianne is kneeling down, you’ll see a prompt to press LB to activate Insight.

Using your Insight, you’ll be able to see ghost footprints on the ground which you can follow to help guide you through the forest.

As you follow the footprints, you’ll come across a tree where you can press X to inspect it and see a ghost handprint along with a wood carving that reads: “T + K 1968” inside of a heart.

The rest of the woods are uneventful. You’ll sometimes see a ghost handprint on a tree, but none of these can be inspected. Keep following the ghost footprints and handprints until you come across a fort area.

Head to the right to see a sign that you can inspect which reads: “Warning! Due to the recently unearthed remains, renovation works have been suspended pending archeological examination.” 

To the left of the sign is an open entrance that you’ll use to make your way inside the fort. 

 
Head straight, then press X and move forward through the blocked rock path. 

After stepping through, Marianne will jolt and you’ll begin playing in Dual Reality. 

How To Turn On Fort Power Box

Pull yourself up the ledge using Y and head over to the power box. You can inspect it using X in the material world or A in the spirit world. 

You can’t press any buttons, and without the power box being on, you can’t get through the metal gate. 

To turn on the power box and unlock the gate, you’ll need to head left until you come across a small ledge.

Press X to hug the wall and slowly move across the ledge towards a glowing light that you can only see in the spirit world.

Approach the light source and press A in the spirit world to collect the spirit energy. After that, head back through the ledge area and towards the power box.

Near the power box, you’ll see a prompt to hold RT to use your Spirit Blast. Hold RT and you’ll feel it lock in halfway, when it does that, let go of RT to release your Spirit Blast.

In doing so, you’ll turn on the power box, unlocking the gate and allowing you to move through to the woods on the other side.

In the woods on the other side is a path, head up and follow the path. On the left, you’ll eventually see a small sign that you can inspect.

The sign reads: “Caution! Fire Hazard.” Pretty straightforward, albeit a little odd to see out in the middle of the woods.

The path through the woods will naturally lead you straight through. When you reach a fallen tree as shown in the image above, head right to find a dead deer.

It’s not clear what exactly happened to the deer. It’s pretty creepy, though. After looking at the dead deer, head back to the fallen tree, then head left.

Keep following the woods as they lead you forward. Eventually, you’ll reach what appears to be a little wood bench. You can head either right or left.

Head to the right and follow the path to find an odd little Easter Egg of sorts.

It’s appears to be a stone grave marker. If you inspect it and look up towards the top, you’ll see a monkey with cymbals just hanging out, looking super creepy.

When you’re done looking at the little monkey with cymbals, head back to the wood bench, take a left, and the camera will pan above you.

Keep following the path until you come across a tree that you can crawl underneath by pressing X.

After you crawl under this tree, you’ll exit into the Niwa Hotel parking lot.

There will be a cutscene where Marianne gets a glimpse at what Niwa looks like in the spirit world, and after that, you’re free to explore a bit.

Rather than go around the parking lot, we suggest heading up to the front entrance area first to get the necessary prompts about the door being locked and needing to find another way in. 

Near the front entrance you’ll see a phone, which will ring when you get near it. Also on the sidewalk, you’ll see a letter symbol in chalk. 

Approach the phone, pick it up, and you’ll get a prompt asking you to hold LB and then rotate the phone until you spot a line of light.

Items that have this line of light have an Echo, which can be interacted with to hear a short audio clip.

Echoes are a form of collectible in The Medium, so whenever you have the chance to find an interact with an item, look to see if it has an Echo attached. 

If you collect all Echoes in The Medium, you’ll unlock a special achievement.

When you’re done listening to the Echo, head up the steps to the Niwa Hotel’s front entrance. When you approach and interact with the door, you’ll see it’s locked.

Because of this, you’ll need to find another way inside the building.

Head to the right of the front entrance door and you’ll see a butterfly on the ground in chalk, and another door.

Unfortunately, you can’t open this door either, but Marianne notes that if she had something to use as a handle, she might be able to get the door open.

This is your clue that you need to look for something to use as a door handle. To find this item, you’ll need to head back out to the parking lot.

If you head to the right from the Niwa Hotel you’ll find a cute little hopscotch setup and if you hold LB while looking at it, you’ll see the same ghost footprints as you did in the woods.

On the left side of the parking lot near the Niwa Hotel entrance, you’ll find a sign that gives you additional information about the Niwa Hotel.

You can press X to get a closer view, and then Y to have the text pop up, making it easier to read.

The sign offers some interesting backstory about the Niwa Hotel’s architect, Mister Rekowicz. Keep track of this name, because it’s someone important who’ll pop up later.

“NIWA Resort

Summer of 1969 Inauguration.

The First Secretary of The Polish United Workers’ Party Comrade Władysław Gomułka honoured Cracow and took part in an official inauguration of the NIWA RESORT – the new centre of the socialist joy and recreation. Working class of Lesser Poland finally has a place to spend family time in the bosom of nature. The main building and the lodge area are comfortable yet simple as simple are the socialistic spirit and philosophy. Special thanks to the architect, future manager and a committed party member, Mister Rekowicz, without whom the NIWA RESORT would be impossible to design, construct and build.

XXV ANNIVERSARY OF ESTABLISHING POLISH PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC.”

Another note is that Władysław Gomułka isn’t fictional, he was a real Polish politician. The mention of him as the First Secretary of The Polish United Workers’ Party is also accurate.

You can read more about Władysław Gomułka here if you like.

Continuing through the parking lot, keep heading left for another collectible.

In a lower recessed area with benches in this left portion of the parking lot, you’ll find a magazine.

The magazine is called Broad Horizons and in the top corner, it’s shown that the magazine was published in 1993. 

The text on the front of the magazine reads:

“Buron Programme

New Soviet spacecraft soon to depart.

Handheld mobile phones

The future of communication?

Global eradication of smallpox

The greatest medical achievement of our times.” 

The final object of interest, and the most important when it comes to getting inside the Niwa Hotel, is an abandoned car.

As mentioned in a promotional video for The Medium called “9 Uncanny Facts” one of the facts mentions what this car is.

The car is a Maluch described by Bloober Team as a “cult classic Polish tiny car, now valued by fans of retro automobiles” and while they don’t expand upon why the car is a cult classic, there are websites online that talk about the Maluch in greater detail.

If you want to learn more about the Maluch, you can read up about it here.

Looking inside the Maluch, you’ll find another collectible postcard on the front seat. 

The postcard text reads:

“My love! 

Summer is in full swing, the resort is stuffed to the gills. And you know what that means – more work for yours truly. But it’s good work. Honest work. Mr. Rekowicz said he’d like to keep me on. Can you believe it? I won’t screw this up! Not this time. Promise.

F.”

With this postcard, we can piece together that the writer works at the Niwa Hotel and is employed by Mr. Rekowicz, who we earlier determined was the architect and the manager. It seems like the Maluch belongs to “F” the postcard writer.

After putting away the postcard, look to your left and you’ll see something you can interact with to help you pop open the front hood of the car.

Inside the front hood you’ll find a screwdriver, the item you need to open the side door at the Niwa Hotel front entrance.

Take the screwdriver, then make your way back to the front entrance of the Niwa Hotel.

How To Enter The Niwa Hotel

With your screwdriver, approach the side door, select it from your inventory, and use it as a handle to gain entry to the room with the dumpster inside.

The first dumpster closest to the door is the one you want to focus on. Approach it from the rear, press X, and begin pushing it out the door.

Keep pushing until the dumpster comes to a natural stop.

Approach the dumpster, press Y to climb on top of it, press Y again to get up onto the ledge.

In doing so, Marianne will crawl through the broken window and make her way inside the Niwa Hotel.

After Marianne drops down to the floor inside the Niwa Hotel, you’ll soon be free to move around again and explore inside.

Need additional help?

Below, we’ve got a link to the next portion of our walkthrough of The Medium that goes over the first floor of the Niwa Hotel, where to find all collectibles there, and how to reach the second floor. 

Related: The Medium | Hotel Lobby Walkthrough, How to Reach Second Floor