On the menu, go into settings, general, and then switch specimens off but keep jumpscares on. Enter the mansion on a new save. What this will do is increase the odds of finding the notes as they don't spawn when a specimen is chasing you. They can also spawn on specimen 1 (the cardboard jumpscares) so that's why you want to leave jumpscares on.

Simply enter the mansion and go through scanning each new room for a note, you will more than likely get this achievement by the end of the 1000 rooms. There is a total of 3 different perspectives from 3 different people from these notes, the first person writes 7 notes and the other 2 write 5 notes being a total of 17 notes you need to find.

Don't worry if you think you missed one as the notes cannot progress till the next note. So the note will be the same note until you picked up the current one in rotation.

This is a link to the wiki that has all the randomly generated notes incase you want to know which ones you are after:
https://spookys-jump-scare-mansion.fandom.com/wiki/Notes##5

If you have not got the Pacifism achievement already, you can achieve this during this run if you dont swing the axe unless your clearing terrain (blocked doors, webs etc.) or your at the final room, fighting the final boss.

After reaching 1000 rooms you should have the 5 room achivements (start a new game, reach room 250, 500, 750 and 1000)

You should get the first 13 specimens for specimen researcher by playing story mode with specimens on. You can also get the rest apart from 5 from playing the dlcs: Karamari Hosptial and The Doll House with specimens on.

THE UNKNOWN SPECIMENS:

There are 5 specimens that will only appear in endless mode and only endless mode. These can be a bit of a nightmare to find especially due to the randomness of endless mode but here's some tips to hopefully help make this achievement easier:

Go into settings and turn specimens and jumpscares off. Then enter Endless mode. It is recommended that you enter endless mode after completing the main game.This is a bit ironic but makes it a lot easier to get the specimen researcher achievement by switching specimens off.

Despite them not spawning in, when you enter a specimen spawn room, the achievement will still register as spotting the specimen, even though they're not there. Keep running through the endless mansion monster-free whilst you gather the research.[1*]

If you want to see the specimens, then during the entrance part of the specimens (such as the forest/cabins for specimen 8) you can turn specimen back on in the menu. This will the spawn the specimen in when you get to their spawning rooms. Some of the specimens you won't be able to do this for as their spawn room is the only room that you enter and with some others it is wise to turn specimens back on as they don't have their own rooms (like unknown specimen 3).

Reminder: if you do start a chase with a specimen, you can turn specimen back off to stop other specimens from chasing you during that time BUT it will not stop the specimen that has started chase at the beginning until their current chase finishes.[2*]


NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE
For this achievement, whilst you are running around in the endless mansion you may encounter a piano tune that is very 8-bit/pixelated like. This is the cue that Unknown Specimen 1 is about to spawn and attack you. If you don't have them on already, turn specimens on so that u can get the specimen to chase you. The environment should change to become more pixelated. When you see a white floating head, that's Unknown Specimen 1 and this is where you need to do the exact opposite of what you usually do and run at it to be dealt damage till you game over.[3*]

Unknown Specimen 1 is unique in that it can talk to you after you get a game over, it will approach you in a dark room with a body bag hanging from the ceiling. It will have your name on it [3*] and will then ask you to confirm the word 'CLOSED'. DO NOT CONFIRM and erase the word 'CLOSED' and then type in 'OPEN' (GORE/EPILEPSY WARNING) and click confirm. This will open the bag in all of its gross gutty glory and then you will get respawned back into the game on 1 health being chased by Unknown Specimen 1. During this Respawn chase, Unknown Specimen 1 will behave differently and will no longer teleport and can no longer go through walls. Also, you do not heal during this chase. Unknown Specimen 1 is also MUCH slower here so getting away is extremely easy if you keep sprinting. After a while, you will respawn back into the normal endless mansion and start regaining health again and should then net you this achievement. You can then turn specimens back off to continue your mansion research. [2*]


THIS ISN'T THE END?!
This achievement is to reach room 1001 in endless mode. DOES NOT MATTER if specimens or jumpscares are on or off. Just reach this room number and you'll get the achievement so you can easily get this whilst completing other endless achievements.





[1*] This monster-free approach should work with unknown specimen 2,4,5 and I think it works with unknown specimen 1. I have only tested this approach with unknown specimen 4 and monster 5 as those were the last 2 I needed so I do not know how good this approach is and if it works with certain specimens due to lack of testing. If it doesn't work for certain specimens, turn specimens on till you find them.

[2*] I have not tested to see if the specimen that chases you can activate a re-chase later if specimens are turned off after the initial encounter.

[3*] Unknown Specimen 1 will grab your name when you die to it but don't worry it just grabs the name that has been registered to the computer you are playing on, for example if my login-in name for my pc was John, it will have John on the bag despite me not being named John

Now there's not a way to make this achievement easier, you just got to get lucky. But I have a few suggestions that might help.

If you reach past room 1000 on endless with jumpscares and specimens on, then you will unlock the SCARE system. When starting a new endless run, within the grounds before entering the door, you can find a bunker door with a wooden plank over it, destroy the plank with either the sword or axe and enter this bunker. This is where SCARE is which will allow you to choose which specimens you want to chase you. You have to have seen/registered the specimen at least once before it pops up on this system.

Use this SCARE system to select specimen 2, then activate a chase with it. Because specimen 2 is in the re-chase pool from the beginning been chased by specimen 2 may 'Hopefully' cause another specimen 2 to appear during the first one's chase sequence.

Another note is that I seem to have quite good luck at getting doubles of Unknown Specimen 1. I not quite sure if that Specimen has increased odds or not but since its the only double that i have found TWICE before any other double, i suggest also hunting for this specimen for the achievement. If you are going after this specimen, you can get the Near-Death Experience achievement (if you haven't got it already) explained earlier in this guide.

Not really cheesy but just some info I want to relay. YOU CANNOT get A_Rival Mode and Speedrun Strats at the same time. You have to complete these 2 achievements in 2 separate runs.

A_Rival Mode is aquired by reaching room 1000 with BOTH jumpscares and specimens turned OFF. They both have to be turned off or you will not get this achievement. Prepare for 2-3 hours of door opener simulator.

SPEEDRUN STRATS
Speedrun Strats despite having speedrun in the name, doesn't require you to be fast. You can go as slow as you want as long as the specimens don't get you. For this achievement, you just need to complete story mode (The main mansion) without saving ONCE. You need BOTH jumpscares and specimens ON. They both need to be on or you will not get this achievement.

This achievement may seem scary but here's some tips I can pass on:

-A recommendation is to attempt this after going through the main mansion with specimens on at least once as this can give you confidence knowing you have dealt with these monsters before and can easily do it again.

-Search the wiki and watch youtube videos for info on how to deal with specimens if you feel like you still dont 100% understand how to avoid them.

-The biggest threat for this run is Specimen 9 and going AFK. Specimen 9 appears down the endless corridor where theres a door to the left and a room to the right, if you enter this room ignore the ominous dark hallway directly infront and head to the door on the left. Specimen 9 will spawn and will go after and try to insta-kill players who go idle for 1 minute and 10 seconds. The game registers you as idle even if you are: moving the mouse, attacking, pressing the sprint key and pausing. Pausing the game stops the timer but will not reset it. To stop being idle you must either move with wasd, interact with something with e or space, or read a note. You do not go AFK if you're currently reading a note. Specimen 9 does not spawn in arcade rooms or cat-dos rooms meaning those are safe to be AFK in but its would be just better and just safer as a whole to pause the game whenever you need to leave the keyboard.

-The second biggest threat out of all specimens during this run is specimen 12. This is because during the fake mansion if you fail to hide, specimen 12 can insta-kill you. But if you have gone through the mansion once you will sort of know where the hiding spots roughly are and how long to stay in them. You also do not have to worry about specimen 9's AFK shenanigans whilst you are hiding. If you are hiding, you are not AFK.

Another Hint about specimen 12 is this insta-kill is only in affect until you grab the key in the basement to exit out of the fake mansion back into the actual mansion. So the moment that you grab that key, you can tank 2 hits as he deals 45 damage rather than killing you instantly.

-Whilst in the elevator rooms and rest rooms (250, 500, 750) DO NOT interact with the save point, doing this will prevent you from getting the achievement. You can accidentally save via reflexes so just walk to the other side of the room and completely avoid it entirely.