South Hell Beginner Guide: Keys, Hiding, and Escape

Finding a key means little if you can't find your way back before Cartman catches you. This South Hell beginner guide covers searching lockers, surviving chases, and reaching the exit without losing track of your objective. Learn the return route early so every supply run brings you closer to escaping.

Get Started: The Bus, Basement, and Crowbar

1. Choose Easy while learning the school

Play South Hell on Roblox, head to the bus stop, and join a group. The host selects the difficulty; choose Easy when you're hosting your opening run.

Servers hold up to 24 players, but coordinate with the people boarding your bus. Agree on who's searching and who's carrying a key instead of assuming someone else is handling the exit.

2. Clear the boarded passage

When the starting passage is boarded up, find the crowbar and use it to remove the boards. On keyboard, follow the E interaction prompt.

Let the person with the crowbar finish. Shoving teammates while they're interacting interrupts an already crowded opening and does nothing to help you search.

3. Memorize the exit before exploring

Locate the locked exit in the starting basement area. Notice the room signs and turns connecting it to the school.

Take that route deliberately on your first trip out. Later, when your flashlight is low and you're carrying a key, recognizable landmarks are more useful than another frantic lap through unfamiliar classrooms.

Find Keys Without Searching in Circles

Image: Roblox / S00NR

4. Listen for jingling lockers

Search lockers for the four keys needed at the exit. Key-containing lockers jingle, so pause and listen when entering a new section.

Don't skip every quiet locker, though. Searching also turns up supplies and money. Work through a room methodically, then move on rather than repeatedly opening the same empty storage.

5. Deliver each key promptly

You can carry only one key at a time. Bring it back to the basement exit and use it before continuing your search.

If you discover another key while carrying one, remember the room name and tell a teammate. Leaving a key behind without communicating its location can turn the final search into a long, unnecessary sweep.

6. Divide the search area

Send teammates to different rooms or hallways instead of following one another through already searched areas. Leave searched lockers open as a visual reminder.

Use short, useful callouts: a key's room, an approaching threat, or the route back. Before declaring the last key missing, ask whether someone is already carrying it.

Stay Alive Around Cartman

Image: Roblox / S00NR

7. Keep unnecessary noise down

Cartman can hear your microphone. Running and walking over broken glass also make noise.

Walk while searching, watch the floor, and save sprinting for getting away from danger. On keyboard, Shift lets you run. Avoid casual whistling and constant open-mic chatter while your group is trying to move quietly.

Keep your distance from Ike, too. His screams add another hazard to an already noisy school.

8. Hide before Cartman watches you enter

Hiding lockers give you somewhere to break away from a search, but climbing into one directly in front of Cartman won't protect you.

Identify a hiding spot before you need it. Once inside, follow the circle-clicking prompt to stay hidden, and keep your microphone quiet.

Pay attention to the interaction label: opening a locker to search and entering one to hide serve different purposes.

9. Preserve stamina for the next turn

Don't sprint through every empty hallway. Recover stamina while checking lockers so you have enough left when a chase starts.

Avoid retreating into a room before checking its exits. A dead end becomes much harder to escape when you've already exhausted your sprint.

Manage Your Flashlight and Distractions

10. Balance battery use against insanity

Darkness raises your insanity, so leaving the flashlight off indefinitely creates another problem. Use it to navigate and keep searching, then watch its charge rather than waiting for the beam to fail.

Collect spare batteries from lockers. Follow the flashlight's on-screen prompt to use a battery or crank the light when that option appears. Recharge before setting out with a key whenever you have the opportunity.

11. Use tools to create space

Several items can help you get away from Cartman:

• Fried chicken: Throw it to distract him, then use the opening to move.
• Alarm clock: Place it where you want to draw his attention. Account for its activation delay rather than treating it as an instant rescue.
• Bear trap: Place it along his approach to interrupt a pursuit.

Use these tools with an escape route in mind. Standing beside your distraction leaves you close to the threat you're trying to avoid.

12. Respond to a power outage

When the power goes out, the objective directs you to the basement fuse box. Restore it rather than continuing a long search through the dark.

Tell your team you're handling the fuse box so everyone doesn't abandon their section to do the same job.

Handle Extra Tasks and the Final Escape

13. Keep extra objectives separate from key progress

Extra tasks include ringing three school bells, finding Ike's rubber duck, and answering a ringing phone.

Complete nearby tasks while moving through the school, but keep track of the key objective separately. Finishing the bell task doesn't mean your team has delivered the remaining keys.

14. Read the objective after delivering the last key

Reaching the key requirement doesn't always finish the door sequence. If the exit jams and asks for cranking parts, search for the highlighted white objects and follow the new objective.

Split into separate search areas again. Check the objective before repeating a door interaction that now requires another item.

15. Head back when the exit opens

Once the exit opens, stop searching and return immediately. Use the basement route you learned at the beginning, watching room signs instead of following teammates blindly.

Keep enough flashlight charge to recognize the final turns. Reach the open exit and move through it to finish your escape.