A Plague Tale: Innocence would count as a straightforward historical drama were it not for the armies of flesh-hungry rats. You can get some background details on the history and culture of 1300s France by looking around for Curiosities, a collection of random tools, toys, books, alchemy devices, and other artifacts that teach you more about the culture of this specific time and place.
Find 13 of the 26 Curiosities to earn the Curiosities hunter trophy/achievement. If you manage to find them all, you’ll get the Curiosities collector trophy/achievement.
The Curiosities are some of the harder-to-find collectibles in A Plague Tale, and discussing their locations requires a few mild spoilers. Try not to read further until you’ve had the chance to beat the game for yourself.
Curiosity Locations in A Plague Tale: Innocence
1: Cinnamon
Before you go upstairs to see Amicia’s mother, Beatrice, in Chapter 1, go into the kitchen’s back room and climb the ladder near the fireplace. The dish of spice is on a table against the far wall.
2: Tablecloth
In Chapter 1, when you go upstairs, go into the open hallway past Louise before you double back to see Beatrice. This item, the surprise Louise mentioned, is on Amicia’s bed. If you wait until after you’ve spoken with Beatrice, the hallway door is locked and you won’t be able to backtrack for this.
3: Soap
Once you reach the village proper in Chapter II, take the first right and go across the short stone bridge. Keep an eye on your right to find a dark, easy-to-miss alleyway that leads to a cul-de-sac. The collectible you want is in the corner nearest you as you enter.
4: Incense and Herbs
When you go upstairs to change your clothes in Chapter II, before you open the chest, look on the desk to the left of the bed.
5: Brew
Shortly after the rats first make the scene in Chapter III, you’re asked to knock a brazier off the ceiling to set it swinging, then follow its arc to make it to the other side of a room. Instead of doing so, hop the fence halfway across to find the monks’ brewery. Inspect the cauldron on the workbench to find this Curiosity.
6: Crusader Tabard
After you catch up to Hugo in the monks’ old barracks in Chapter III, climb the ladder up to where he was hiding to find this in an open chest on the second floor.
7: Hermetic vessel
At the beginning of Chapter IV, look at the base of the tree stump near the small campsite by the side of the path.
8: V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
Just before or after you meet Laurentius in Chapter IV, go into Lucas’s bedroom to the right of his, on the second floor of the farmhouse. You’ll find this formula on the desk.
Notably, you get a different conversation about it depending on when you pick the VITRIOL up. You may want to wait until after you’ve met Lucas, as he has a bit to say about it.
9: Sickle
Upon reaching the early bit where you have to push the cart in Chapter V, look forward and to the left. There’s a soldier in the distance with a torch in his hand who can be easily sniped from a distance with your sling, and he’s standing next to an open chest.
Kill him, then push your cart in that general direction to find the Sickle and a few reagents in the chest he was guarding.
10: Oliphant
After you knock down the two hanging corpses to distract the swarm in Chapter V, don’t go straight forward into the siege tower yet. Instead, hang a U-turn to your left to find a hidden cache of reagents, with this horn on the ground nearby.
11: Pounds sterling
As you leave the officer’s tent with Melie in Chapter VI, don’t follow her left into the soldiers’ mess hall. Instead, take a detour right, around the cart, to a well-hidden side room. Here, you’ll find some Sulphur, some Fabric, and a stack of English coins.
12: Declaration of War
After you free Hugo in Chapter VI, cut across the main drag to the left side of the camp and work your way towards the exit. The Declaration is on a stool in the smithy, near a couple of horses.
13: Horseshoe
After you get past the mill’s wheel with Melie and Hugo at the start of Chapter VII, take a look through the gap in the wall near the workbench. There’s a lock in the next room that you can break off with a sling stone, which reveals a hidden door in the previous room next to the mill’s lever.
Go back inside with Melie to boost yourselves up into the hidden area, which contains nothing besides this collectible. It’s actually a little hard to spot, but it’s the only interactive object in the room so you can keep an eye out for the little white circle that marks it.
14: Map
When you emerge into the clearing full of guards in Chapter VII, right after Melie teaches you how to make Devorantis, clear out the patrolers along the right side. One of them is poring over this collectible, spread out on a table under a tent to the right of your destination.
This does require you to kill a few more of the soldiers than would be necessary if you were simply trying to escape. Fortunately, they’re in the Inquisition, so it’s hard to feel too bad about it.
15: Iconography
When you wake up in Chapter VIII, follow Hugo. The curiosity in question is at the end of the wrecked staircase in the first tower you pass through above Lucas’s new laboratory.
16: Bird Language Manual
At the end of Chapter VIII, you can talk to Melie near the fireplace to progress to Chapter IX. Before you do that, go back to the ramparts where she and Amicia had their conversation. This book is hidden behind a barrel on the rampart where Melie was standing.
17: Sheepskin
In Chapter IX, after you knock down a hanging corpse to get a pack of rats out of your hair, a guard immediately bursts in with a lantern.
There’s a chest with this curiosity in it near the door he used to get in, but you have to be careful to not dispose of the guard in a place that renders the chest impossible to get to. Ideally, you can lead him a bit and let him get further into the room, then destroy his lantern and let the rats take care of the rest. You do have to be careful to not let him get too close, however, as Amicia doesn’t do well at point-blank range.
18: Piece of Transis
In Chapter IX, once you’ve managed to maneuver the old cart to the ledge in the graveyard, backtrack a bit. There’s a part of the fence in the courtyard where you found the cart that you can vault over.
Do so, and you’ll find this Curiosity inside a mausoleum at the end of a short path.
19: Study of a skinned person
As you pursue Rodric’s captors through the university in Chapter X, you’ll enter a lecture hall with seating to either side. The right side is blocked but features this Curiosity on a seat on the near side. You’ll either need to move fast and grab it while the guards are distracted, or wait for most of them to leave and kill the guy they left behind.
20: Theriaque
When you reach the hidden library in the university’s basement with Rodric in Chapter X, check the corners of the room. One of them hides an easy-to-miss study with this item on its desk.
21: Harnois helmet
In Chapter XII, in the kitchens of the de Rune estate, you’ll find a second servant whose body has been totally untouched by the rats. This Curiosity is in the open hope chest behind her, against the wall, where it’s easy to miss among all the flickering shadows in the room.
22: Family tree
When you finally reach Beatrice’s laboratory in Chapter XII, this can be found on a table in the corner. It’s really easy to find as long as you go exploring while the room’s still dark, just like the game has been trying to condition you not to do.
23: Rag doll
At the end of the village section of Chapter XIII, before you go through the door Clevie’s guarding, look to your left. There’s a hole in the wall that’s half-hidden by a hedge, and you can find Hugo’s doll on the other side in an old cradle.
24: Knight figurine
When you reach Hugo’s room in Chapter XIII, before you go to his little fort in the corner, check in Beatrice’s workroom. This curiosity is on the table in the center.
25: Discipline
In Chapter XVI, once you reach town, go straight forward and put out the first torch to unleash your first pack of rats. Use them to take out the next two guards, then take a look to your right. The curiosity is in the little side yard, next to a dead guy, and is somehow grosser than the corpse.
26: Inquisitor’s Manual
Once you’ve punched through the last of the guards between you and the cathedral in Chapter XVI, look to the right of the gallows’ stairs, behind the barrels.
If you’ve missed any of the Curiosities on your first run, you can use the chapter selection option in the main menu to skip right to each stage you’ve reached or completed. Picking up a Curiosity saves it to your Codex on the spot, so you don’t have to finish the level for it to count.
To finish off your time with A Plague Tale, consult our other guides for the game’s Gifts and Hugo’s Herbarium. If you’re still on the fence about it, see what we’ve got to say on the subject in our review.
