Silent Hill f: Character Upgrade Locations & Interactive Tracking Guide

Character Upgrades — known in-game as Ema plates — are the wooden prayer plaques that permanently boost Hinako's core stats in Silent Hill f. There are 22 Ema plates in total across all three required playthroughs, and collecting all of them demands playing the game on New Game, New Game+, and New Game++ cycles.

Every base-game Ema location is tracked on the Silent Hill f interactive maps, with spawn conditions noted for the time-gated pickups.

NG+- and NG++-exclusive Ema are covered separately in the NG+ Character Upgrade guide.

What Character Upgrades Are in Silent Hill f

Ema plates are small wooden plaques — traditionally a Japanese votive offering — repurposed here as collectibles that, when brought to a Hokora shrine, permanently expand one of four stats: Health, Stamina, Sanity, or Omamori Slots.

Omamori Slots determine how many Omamori protective charms Hinako can carry simultaneously — expanding from 1 slot at the start to a maximum of 5 across NG+ playthroughs.

Increasing Omamori Slots early in a playthrough is widely recommended since the defensive flexibility outweighs raw stat gains at most difficulty levels.

Four Stats, One Trophy: What Ema Upgrade

Ema upgrades are permanent — there is no reset or respec. Each Ema is assigned to one of the four stats, and the stat improved is determined by which Ema is found and which upgrade option is selected at the Hokora.

Alongside the Ema itself, each upgrade also consumes Faith — a resource earned by enshrining Offerings at Hokora shrines. The Faith cost for each subsequent upgrade in the same stat increases, so planning which stats to prioritise early avoids a Faith shortfall before reaching a critical upgrade.

Fully upgrading Health, Stamina, and Sanity across all playthroughs requires a total of 22,500 Faith.

How Ema and Faith Work Together

At any Hokora shrine, select Pray to spend an Ema alongside Faith and apply the permanent upgrade. The Faith requirement goes up with each upgrade tier — early upgrades are cheap, later tiers expensive.

Building Faith through regular Inventory Upgrades and consistent shrine offerings throughout each playthrough keeps the Faith economy healthy. Rushing toward later Ema without accumulating Faith first stalls the upgrade chain at the worst possible stage.

In NG+ and beyond, Ema plates that were already collected in the previous playthrough are replaced in the world with Offerings.

The NG+-exclusive Ema are found inside Inari-sama Boxes and behind Inari-sama Doors, accessed after acquiring the Brooch. All NG+ Ema are documented in the NG+ Character Upgrade guide.

Close to the Sun: 18 Ema, Not 22

The Close to the Sun trophy requires collecting and using 18 Ema plates — specifically the Ema that upgrade Health, Stamina, and Sanity. The 4 Omamori Slot Ema do not count toward this trophy.

Collecting all 22 is required for maximum stats and full Omamori capacity, but 18 is the threshold for the achievement. Since approximately 11 Ema are found in the base game, the trophy requires at least one NG+ playthrough regardless of how thoroughly the first run is completed.

Spawn-Triggered and Hidden Ema in the Base Game

Three of the 11 base-game Ema are not available on a standard first-pass through an area:

• Ebisugaoka — one Ema spawns on a small wall in a back alley on the path toward Ebisugaoka Middle School. It does not appear until that route is triggered by story progression.

• Ebisugaoka (bench by house) — spawns and becomes collectible only after returning from the Main Hall.

• Ebisugaoka (barrel by house) — spawns only after returning from the Treasure Hall.

• One further Ema is hidden in the Main Hall itself — on a small shelf inside a room behind an invisible wall. Hold the interact button while moving along the wall to pass through. The invisible wall's location is marked on the Main Hall map.

All Base-Game Character Upgrade Locations in Silent Hill f

The 11 base-game Ema plates are spread across Ebisugaoka (five, including three spawn-triggered), Main Hall (one, behind an invisible wall), Corridors (one), Shimizu Residence (two), and Worship Hall (one).

Every location is in the interactive guide below, with spawn triggers and access notes documented per entry.