Psychonauts Collectibles Guide - Figments, Baggage, Cards, and Rank

Psychonauts by Double Fine Productions is a platforming collectathon where cleanup is also progression. Figments, emotional baggage, memory vaults, mental cobwebs, PSI Cards, Challenge Markers, scavenger items, and brains all feed Raz’s rank route, and ranks unlock or improve powers that make more cleanup possible.

This is a completion planning guide, not an all-location checklist for every figment, tag, card, vault, cobweb, brain, and scavenger item. Use it to decide when to sweep each category and where the risky cleanup breaks are.

Overview

Category	Value
Individual figments	1,537
Figment points	1,600
Emotional baggage	50
Memory vaults	19
Mental cobwebs	54
Loose PSI Cards	117
Found PSI Challenge Markers	9
Scavenger Hunt items	16
Jarred brains	19
Main completion target	Rank 101
Key cleanup gate	Pre-final sweep before freeing Lili

The clean route is to separate physical-world cleanup from mental-world cleanup, then use rank gates to decide when to return. Cards, markers, scavenger items, brains, and shop purchases live mostly in the real world. Figments, baggage, vaults, and cobwebs live inside mental worlds.

Quick Checklist

• Collect loose PSI Cards as you explore camp and Thorney Towers.
• Buy PSI Cores when you are ready to convert nine cards into one Challenge Marker.
• Revisit early mental worlds after Levitation for missed figments and movement checks.
• Buy the Cobweb Duster before treating mental-world cleanup as serious.
• Match every emotional baggage tag to its bag before leaving a mental world.
• Crack memory vaults when you see them instead of saving them for memory.
• Use Raz’s journal grid to identify exact missing figments by page, row, and column.
• Return brains to Cruller and keep the Scavenger Hunt moving during asylum cleanup.
• Make a pre-final cleanup pass before freeing Lili.
• Leave exact Golden Helmet and achievement edge cases for a dedicated checklist.

Route Priorities

1. Use Rank Gates as Your Route Signal

Ranks are not only completion numbers. Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Invisibility, later power upgrades, Regeneration, and Infinite Ammo are all tied to rank or story progression. When you are short of a new power gate, collect efficient rank sources first instead of forcing a difficult platforming cleanup pass with the wrong toolset.

2. Keep Real-World and Mental-World Lists Separate

Physical-world cleanup covers PSI Cards, found Challenge Markers, Scavenger Hunt items, brains, and purchases such as PSI Cores and the Cobweb Duster. Mental-world cleanup covers figments, baggage, vaults, and cobwebs. Mixing those lists makes it too easy to think a level is clean because one category is finished.

3. Treat Figments as a Journal Puzzle

Figments are the easiest category to make messy because they are numerous, some move, and the total is based on points rather than a flat one-point counter. Use a first pass to collect visible figments, then open the journal and look for the missing page, row, and column slots before searching with a guide.

4. Do Not Force Early Mental Worlds Too Hard

Some early collectibles are easier or only reachable after later powers, especially Levitation. Basic Braining, Brain Tumbler sections, Sasha’s Shooting Gallery, and Milla’s Dance Party all reward return visits. Clear the story lesson, then come back when movement and cleanup tools are better.

5. Buy and Use the Cobweb Duster

Mental cobwebs are not normal pickups. They require the Cobweb Duster, then they need to be woven into PSI Cards. That makes them part of the same rank economy as loose PSI Cards and PSI Cores, so do not ignore them until the final hour.

6. Respect the Pre-Final Sweep

Before freeing Lili, clean up remaining camp cards and markers, Scavenger Hunt progress, Thorney Towers brains and cards, Ford’s Sanctuary turn-ins, and mental-world leftovers. The researched completion route expects a high-rank checkpoint before the final Meat Circus cleanup.

Collectible Plan

PSI Cards and Challenge Markers

Pick up PSI Cards whenever you pass them, but convert them deliberately. Nine loose cards plus one PSI Core make a PSI Challenge Marker, and each marker increases rank. Some markers are found directly in the world, so track loose cards and found markers as separate lines in your notes.

Real-world cleanup should happen in passes:

Pass	Focus
Early camp	Kids’ Cabins, Main Campgrounds, Lodge, GPC and Wilderness
Midgame	Sasha’s Lab, Boathouse and Beach, Reception Area
Late asylum	Thorney Towers cards, brains, and final physical cleanup
Turn-in	Ford’s Sanctuary for card/core conversion and brain returns

Scavenger Hunt Items and Brains

The Scavenger Hunt has 16 items, and some need later abilities. Do not treat the list as a single early-camp errand. Mark items you cannot reach yet, then fold them into your real-world revisit route.

Brains belong to the asylum cleanup phase. Return them to Cruller instead of carrying the task mentally while also tracking cards, cobwebs, and figments.

Figments

For figments, the strongest habit is a two-pass method:

1. Clear the mental-world route normally and collect visible figments.
2. Before leaving, check the journal’s figment detail grid.
3. Note missing page, row, and column positions.
4. Search only those missing shapes or slots.
5. Revisit after Levitation or after the world becomes calmer if the completion route says the revisit is easier.

Milla’s Dance Party deserves extra patience because the race has a large figment cluster and may take multiple runs or a slow post-race track walk. Black Velvetopia can also be less painful on a return visit after the bull is no longer active.

Emotional Baggage

Every mental world has the same bag types: Dufflebag, Hatbox, Purse, Steamer Trunk, and Suitcase. You need both the bag and its matching tag. The right habit is to tag the bag as soon as the pair is available, then use the world exit as a final count check.

If you found four bags in a world, do not assume the fifth is optional. The completion route counts all 50, and the pre-final route expects 45 sorted before the final stretch.

Mental Cobwebs

Cobwebs are a purchase-gated cleanup category. Once you have the Cobweb Duster, sweep mental worlds with walls, corners, backstage spaces, and return routes in mind. After extracting cobwebs, weave them into PSI Cards so they actually feed rank progress.

Use the cobweb pass as a reason to re-check baggage and vaults. Cobweb locations often put you back into side rooms and routes that can hide other cleanup targets.

Memory Vaults

Vaults are easy to postpone because they move and do not look like normal platforming rewards. Crack them when you see them. If you leave them for a late mental-world sweep, they become one more category to untangle from figments and baggage.

Mental World Cleanup Notes

World	Cleanup Priority
Basic Braining	Finish the lesson, then revisit for cobwebs, vaults, and rank cleanup once movement is stronger.
Brain Tumbler / The Woods	Treat each return visit as a separate pass; the level changes across story visits.
Sasha’s Shooting Gallery	Revisit after Levitation because some disk-area figments are not reachable on the first pass.
Milla’s Dance Party	Slow down for the race figments; repeat or walk the track after the race if needed.
Lungfishopolis	Watch scale and sightlines; small vaults and city cleanup can be easy to pass by.
The Milkman Conspiracy	Bring Cobweb Duster and Telekinesis, then use Clairvoyance and disguise routing carefully.
Gloria’s Theater	Pair puzzle progress with collectible checks across stage, backstage, catwalk, and audience routes.
Waterloo World	Sweep after solving board-state routes so buildings, bridges, and castle access are stable.
Black Velvetopia	Revisit after the bull pressure is reduced for less stressful figment and side-route cleanup.
Meat Circus	Treat this as final cleanup, not a place to discover that earlier worlds are still messy.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Leaving a mental world without checking the journal - Missing figments are much easier to identify by grid position than by memory.

2. Trying to finish early worlds before Levitation - Some cleanup is designed for a return visit.

3. Collecting cobwebs without weaving them - Extracted cobwebs need to become PSI Cards before they help your rank route.

4. Counting found PSI Cards as finished markers - Nine cards still need a PSI Core and a Ford’s Sanctuary conversion.

5. Ignoring baggage tags until the end of a world - Tags and bags are paired, so match them while the route is still fresh.

6. Pushing past the pre-final cleanup point too early - Finish the camp, asylum, Ford’s Sanctuary, and mental-world sweeps before freeing Lili.

7. Tracking all collectibles in one note - Separate cards, markers, scavenger items, brains, figments, baggage, vaults, and cobwebs.

Summary

Category	Top Tip
Rank Route	Use collectibles to hit power gates instead of forcing cleanup under-ranked
Figments	Use the journal grid to target missing page, row, and column slots
Baggage	Match each tag to its bag before leaving the mental world
Cobwebs	Buy the Duster, extract webs, then weave them into PSI Cards
Cards	Convert nine cards plus one PSI Core into Challenge Markers at Ford’s Sanctuary
Final Sweep	Clean up before freeing Lili, then finish the Meat Circus route