NTE Lonely Player Anomaly Guide: How to Find All Wandering Puppets

Hi, Appraisers!

Lonely Player is one of the trickier Anomaly Commissions in Neverness to Everness. It is not hard because of combat. It is hard because the quest loves hiding progress behind tiny side tasks, time changes, one-use items, and mini-games that can waste a lot of time if you miss the trick.

In this guide, we’ll go through everything you need: the prep work, all Wandering Puppet puzzles, the piano solution, the Cheese camera step, and how to finish the Anomaly without running around Clement Academy in circles.

 

Lonely Player Anomaly Overview

Item	Details
Location	Clement Academy, Illusion Town
Main Goal	Invite 8 Wandering Puppets and finish the final performance
Best Time to Start Puppet Hunt	20:00
Important Time Window	20:00–06:00
Key Items	Peepy’s Sunglasses, Empathy Eye Drops, Cheese

Before you chase the puppets, don’t rush straight into the night section. A few daytime tasks make the whole commission much easier, and one of them gives you a single-use item that you absolutely do not want to waste.

 

What to Do Before Hunting the Puppets

There are three main prep tasks worth doing first: help Peepy, get Empathy Eye Drops, and get Cheese. You can also help the Irritated Student for The Guide, but that item is more of a convenience tool than a hard requirement for finishing Lonely Player.

1. Find Peepy and Knock on the Wall Cracks

Peepy is the little wall-dwelling oddity that helps you solve the cup puzzle later.

You need to interact with the cracked wall spots around the academy. At each spot, choose to knock three times. The first wall starts the Peepy chain, and the later spots help Peepy settle into a new home.

The Peepy chain includes these general areas:

Peepy Spot	Where to Look
First spot	Outer wall near the southeast side of the academy
Second spot	Rooftop area of the main school building
Third spot	Outside the gymnasium area
Fourth spot	Near the track field / bleachers
Fifth spot	Cooking club or classroom area on the third floor of the smaller building

After finishing the chain, you’ll get Peepy’s Sunglasses. More importantly, Peepy can point out the correct cup during the cup-and-ball puzzle. That saves a lot of guessing.

2. Help the Student Who Lost Her Diary

Next, find the student who lost her diary near the school grounds. After talking to her, look around the nearby circular seating area. The diary should be sitting on the seats.

Return it to the student to receive Empathy Eye Drops.

These drops are especially useful in the gymnasium puzzle. That puzzle asks you to find invisible puppets, and the eye drops let you see hints from the puppet’s point of view. You can brute-force the puzzle without them, but honestly, don’t do that to yourself.

3. Help the Irritated Student

You may also meet an Irritated Student who needs help finding the Occult Club room. Lead her there, and you can obtain The Guide.

The Guide is not mandatory for clearing Lonely Player, but it is still worth picking up while you are already inside Clement Academy. It is useful for exploration outside this quest too, so there is no real downside.

4. Get Cheese from the Occult Club Student

Cheese is the most important prep item because it has a single-use time-stop effect. Save it for the hallway puppet. Do not use it randomly.

Start by finding the Occult Club Student inside the school. Choose the dialogue option about Cheese, then follow him through three campus locations. Each time, pick the correct answer.

Location	Correct Answer
Track field bleachers	Time Stop
Rooftop	Control small Oddities
Basketball court	Don’t use it, work harder on our own

After the final answer, you’ll receive Cheese.

Again, be careful: Cheese only gets one proper use. Use it too early or from the wrong position, and the hallway puppet can become a headache.

 

Set the Time to 20:00

Once you have Peepy’s Sunglasses, Empathy Eye Drops, and Cheese, open the time menu and set the in-game time to 20:00.

Most Wandering Puppets only appear at night. If you run around during the day and wonder why nothing is happening, the time is probably the problem.

Now the real puppet hunt begins.

 

All 8 Wandering Puppets and How to Invite Them

The puppets do not all need to be cleared in the exact same order, but some are much easier if you already have the right prep item. The route below groups them by gimmick, so you know what each one wants instead of blindly following a timestamp list.

Wandering Puppet: Basketball Court

This is one of the simpler puppets.

Head to the outdoor basketball court. The puppet will move around the court and may make your character float or get pulled into its little trick. Don’t overthink it. Stay near the middle area between the courts and wait for the Invite Puppet prompt to appear.

Once the prompt shows up, interact immediately.

Wandering Puppet: Track Race

This puppet is found at the track field.

Start the race, but here’s the catch: you must keep the puppet in your line of sight. If you turn the camera away or let obstacles block your view, the puppet can instantly rush ahead and win.

The safest method is to run backward while keeping the camera locked on the puppet. Move around obstacles carefully, but don’t lose visual contact.

Once you win the race, invite the puppet.

Wandering Puppet: Gymnasium Hide-and-Seek

The gymnasium puppet is one of the more annoying parts of Lonely Player.

At first, the gym entrance may look open, but an invisible puppet blocks the way. Use a basic attack at the entrance to reveal it, then go inside.

Equip or quick-slot Empathy Eye Drops. Use them to get visual hints, then attack the suspected hiding spots.

The common hiding spots include:

Step	Where to Attack
1	Near the volleyball net and basketball area
2	Around the closed back door / large green door area
3	Upstairs, after climbing the ladder to the second floor
4	Around the stage
5	A random spot, often near the stage or court area

The final hiding spot can vary, so use a character with a wide attack range if you have one. If the puppet refuses to show up or clips into a weird spot, leave the gym and reset the area by changing time to the next night.

After finding the last hidden puppet, invite it.

Wandering Puppet: Hallway and Cheese

This is the one that makes Cheese important.

Go to the hallway area where the puppet breaks apart or pushes you back with a strange wind effect. Do not waste Cheese from too far away. Get into a safe position near the broken puppet, equip Cheese, then use it to stop the puppet and reveal the interaction.

As soon as the puppet appears, select Invite Puppet.

If you already used Cheese somewhere else, this step may not work properly. In that case, you may need to redo the Cheese-related chain or reset the situation depending on your game state. The safest plan is simple: save Cheese for this hallway puppet only.

Wandering Puppet: Music Room Piano Puzzle

This puppet is inside the school building, in the music room area on the third floor.

When you enter the room, the piano may not appear right away. Stand near the central pillar and run around it until the puppet and piano show up.

The piano puzzle uses numbered white keys from left to right. Ignore the black keys. After each melody, press OK before starting the next one.

Use these three sequences:

Part	Piano Notes
Part 1	4 - 10 - 8 - 6 - 1 - 10 - 7 - 5
Part 2	1 - 5 - 10 - 9 - 10 - 5 - 10 - 5 - 1 - 5 - 10 - 9 - 10 - 5 - 10 - 5
Part 3	8 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 8 - 7 - 5 - 8 - 7 - 5

After finishing all three parts, invite the puppet.

Small tip: don’t leave the piano screen between parts unless the game forces you to. Play the notes, press OK, then move to the next sequence.

Wandering Puppet: Garden / Disappearing Puppet

This puppet is usually found around the garden-like area, close to where the diary-related task takes place.

The trick is that it disappears if you approach badly. Don’t walk straight into its face and wait around. Dash toward it and interact as soon as the prompt appears.

If it vanishes, leave the area for a moment and come back. You can also listen for footsteps or watch for the puppet’s reappearance cue, then try again.

Once you get close enough in time, invite it.

Wandering Puppet: Cup Puzzle with Peepy

This one happens near Peepy’s final location.

Talk to the puppet to start the cup-and-ball game. The puppet hides a ball under one cup, then shuffles the cups around. You need to pick the correct one three times.

If you completed Peepy’s wall-crack chain, this puzzle becomes much easier. After the puppet finishes shuffling, talk to Peepy or check Peepy’s hint. A marker or hand-like clue will point you to the correct cup.

Win all three rounds, then invite the puppet.

If you guess wrong, the puzzle can reset, so don’t gamble unless you absolutely have to.

Wandering Puppet: Miniature Puppet Classroom

For this puzzle, enter the classroom chain near the hallway building. The puppet will hide miniature versions of itself across several rooms. You need to find each one, then continue through the special door to the next room.

Here’s the order:

Room	Mini Puppet Location
Room 1	Sitting on a desk near the center of the room
Room 2	On the shelf / cabinet area, often near books or a trash can
Room 3	Inside a locker near the far corner
Room 4	Behind or inside a vase near the back cabinet / chalkboard area
Final Room	Invite the full-sized puppet

 

How to Finish Lonely Player

Once all 8 Wandering Puppets have been invited, go to the auditorium or assembly hall area of Clement Academy.

Make sure it is still night. If the time has moved past 06:00, set it back to 20:00.

Inside the hall, approach the stage area and interact with the main prompt. When the performance ends and most of the puppets disappear, look for the remaining Wandering Puppet in the audience area.

Talk to it to complete Lonely Player and nullify the Anomaly.

 

Lonely Player Rewards

After completing the commission, you can claim:

Reward	Amount
Hunter Level EXP	450
Annulith	60
Fons	20,000
U-00NE	40
Beetle Coin	10,000
Anomaly Material Selection Box I	6

 

Conclusion

That’s the full guide for NTE Lonely Player, including all Wandering Puppet puzzles, Peepy, Cheese, the piano notes, and the final auditorium step. Once you’ve got the key items ready and set the time to night, the whole Anomaly becomes much easier to clear.

And if you’re planning to keep exploring Hethereau and preparing for more Anomaly Commissions, don’t forget to check out LDShop for fast, secure, and discounted NTE top-ups. A few extra resources can make your next run a lot smoother.