Shadows of Evil:
Secrets

The secrets of Shadows of Evil: the radios of Snakeskin Boots, the microphone of Cold Hard Cash, the Shadowman round skip, Sal's laundry ticket, the free Mega GobbleGum, the Trip Mine upgrade, the Margwa Head, Noir mode and the hidden details.

3 min read
5 chapters
updated 2026-10-18

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Snakeskin Boots

The main Easter egg song of Shadows of Evil, a jazz swing piece by Jack Wall, sung by Rick Riso. Hold the use button on three small wooden radios:

Waterfront District

In the boxing gym, on a desk on the upper level.

Canal District

At the entrance of the Ruby Rabbit, on a table to the left.

Footlight District

At the Tram station, on a bench.

Using one of the radios twice, then the two others once, plays the instrumental version instead. None of the radios is in the starting alley: the song cannot be played in a First Room game.

Cold Hard Cash

The second song, by Jack Wall, sung by Antonia Bennett. Collect the three parts of a microphone, then use the stage of the Black Lace Burlesque in the Footlight District:

Wire

Under the stairs from the Ruby Rabbit down to the canals.

Microphone stand

In Nero’s apartment, to the left of a bloody knife-throwing target.

Microphone

In the Underground, next to a trash can, near the portal to the Waterfront District.

The Shadowman round skip

At the very start of the game, the Shadowman stands on the fire escape above the gate of the starting alley. If every player shoots him before he vanishes, the game jumps to round 5, with 1000 points for every player. He comes back at the start of the next round, and doing it again leads to round 10, then round 15, for 4000 and then 11000 points in all. On the ZFRR board, shooting the Shadowman is not allowed.

Side quests

Sal’s laundry ticket

Clothes hang in Chang’s Laundry, just outside the gate of the alley, with a ticket pinned on them. A cooked grenade timed to burst right by the ticket drops it on the box in front of the window: it bears the signature of Sal DeLuca, from Mob of the Dead, and gives 500 points.

The free Mega GobbleGum

In the Canal District, up the stairs that the Beast opens near the entrance, four lion heads line the walls of a room. A Widow’s Wine grenade thrown into each mouth leaves a plain white gum to pick up. Placed on a plate in the window of the ice cream shop of the Junction, it grows into a free Mega GobbleGum a little later. It has no use on the ZFRR board, which allows no gum.

The Trip Mine upgrade

The city has four Devil-O-Donuts carts and three Holly’s Cream Cakes carts. To side with one brand, damage every cart of the other one with a Trip Mine explosion; hitting a cart of your own side locks the quest for the game. The new Trip Mines look like the pastry of the chosen side, hit harder and wider, and scatter pastries when they blow.

The Goddard Apparatus

Charge through at least ten zombies with the Rocket Shield twelve times in a row. A bowling strike sounds at each good charge, and a cheer when the shield is upgraded, with more health and a fourth charge.

The Margwa Head

After six Margwas killed, six Margwa Hearts appear on signs around the city. Shot from the Tram within two rides, they make Margwa Heads appear in the ritual rooms, invisible, seen only as a flash of light to pick up. Worn, the head cuts the damage of the Margwa’s slam by 25% and adds 15% to the damage dealt to Margwas.

Upgraded Li’l Arnies

100 kills with Li’l Arnies, a top hat, a bow tie and a cane, then a dance on the stage of the Burlesque.

The Apothicon Servant and the Li’l Arnies

Hidden details

The jumpscare

Once Pack-a-Punch is open, zooming with a sniper scope on a glowing window of the large ship in the harbour, in front of the boxing gym, shows a zombified Richtofen with a high-pitched scream.

Noir mode

On the upper floor of the boxing gym, a line of pictures hangs above the window over the ring. Used in a precise way, one of them turns the whole map black and white, for good.

Ciphers and scraps of paper

Put together, Richtofen’s notes give four coordinates: Lower Silesia, Hohenwerfen Castle, Pohnpei Island and Volgograd, the settings of the next maps.

The room under Pack-a-Punch

A Beast can reach a secret room under the Pack-a-Punch machine. There is nothing in it.

The Icarus

Once Pack-a-Punch is open, the plane of Mob of the Dead flies over the Junction.

Spare change

Going prone in front of a perk machine gives 100 points, once per machine.