Alan Wake 2: 10 Best Tips And Tricks

Alan Wake 2 is quite an intricate game with many mechanics which can often get confusing. It also offers many collectibles and has certain mechanics that are worth leveraging. By knowing the Alan Wake 2 best tips and tricks, you’ll be able to make the most of your run.

Alan Wake 2 Best Tips And Tricks

Below, I’ve summarized all the best tips for you below: 

Tips and Tricks	What It Offers
Return To Older Areas	Go back to areas visited before, to collect items that might've been missed.
Collect The Maps	Collect maps to reveal hidden collectibles and to aid navigation.
Don’t Hoard	Avoid hoarding resources since they are generated based on what you already possess.
Create Manual Save Files	To avoid significant autosave gaps use Manual Saves in the Break Room to bridge them.
Be Careful While Upgrading	To obtain upgrades, collect Manuscript Fragments for Saga and Words of Power for Alan Wake.
Clues At Bottom Left	Symbols at the bottom left of the side screen give tips on what to do next and help locating connectibles.
Use The Street Lamps	The points where street lights shine light down are safe from enemies.
False Enemies	Not all shadows are hostile, shine the flashlight to make some vanish while saving up the battery.
Use The Crime Board Often	Regularly checking the Case Board is essential for tracking progress and staying focused.
Inventory Upgrades	Expand your inventory by finding upgrades throughout the game and use the Shoebox to manage it.

1. Return To Older Areas

The thing with many non-open-world games is that, usually, you cannot go back to the older areas. That means if you miss some sort of collectible or upgrade, you often can’t get back to it unless you have an old save file. Luckily, in Alan Wake 2, that is not the case.

• As you progress in the storyline, you will unlock more areas.
• But you will also get the option to go back to these areas at any time by walking up to your car.
• Therefore, don’t worry about collecting every single item in an area, as you’ll get the chance to come back later (before the point of no return).
• Additionally, it is easier later down the road when you can freely switch between Alan and Saga. 

2. Collect The Maps

Whenever you visit a new area, you won’t immediately have its map available. Although it can be tedious to hunt for the map, I suggest that you collect the map of every place you visit as they sometimes tend to show hidden collectibles or areas and overall make it easy to navigate through the regions.

• Usually, the maps can be found pinned up on boards. 
• You can completely miss the map of every single area you visit if you don’t go out of your way to collect them.

Collecting the maps helped me getting intricate details of the location and whereabouts of the useful items.

3. Don’t Hoard

Although Alan Wake 2 is a survival-styled game, I suggest not hoarding all of your resources. That is because many resources you’ll find in different crates or stashes will be randomly generated based on what you already have.

• If you already have a good amount of ammo for a particular gun, you likely won’t receive it in the next crate you open up.
• That is why ensure you use anything that is helpful, as you’ll eventually get more of it later down the road with ease. 

4. Create Manual Save Files

Although you get the autosave option during the gameplay, there are times when there is a huge space between two significant autosave checkpoints. In such cases, I recommend utilizing the manual save option.

• Manual saves can only be created in Break Rooms.
• The first one gets unlocked almost an hour into the storyline.
• These Break Rooms because extremely handy in situations where you need to defeat an annoying set of enemies.
• After defeating them, ensure you create a save to avoid the hassle. 

To learn more about this, read my guide on how to do manual save in Alan Wake 2.

5. Be Careful While Upgrading 

Whenever there is a sort of skill tree or any set of upgrades, the first desire is to be able to unlock everything that the upgrades offer eventually. Unfortunately, like many survival games, you cannot purchase every single weapon or ability upgrade.

• To get upgrades, you need to get Manuscript Fragments for Saga and Words of Power for Alan.
• These require you to go into obscure areas.
• But once you get enough of them, ensure you only spend them on upgrades that actually matter to you. 

6. Clues At Bottom Left

There are many indicators that you need to be mindful of. One of the more useful ones is the different symbols that appear on the bottom left side of the screen. These symbols represent different things, such as tips on what to do next or even the location of nearby collectibles.

Here, I will mention the meaning of a few of the symbols:

• Egg-like stones represent Alex Casey’s Lunchboxes nearby.
• Twin Triangle symbols mean nearby Cult Stashes.
• Radio Noises mean a Nursery Rhyme Puzzle is within the vicinity.
• Reflective Yellow Arrows point towards Words of Power. 
• Spirally circle tends to mean you need to Profile someone to move on.
• Report file means that you need to visit the Case Board. 

7. Use The Street Lamps 

A lot of areas in the map will tend to have street lamps that shine light down.

• Alan Wake 2 does earlier tell you that these are points where you are safe from the enemies and can also heal for a bit.
• But what you might notice is that you’ll usually be able to spot these lit-up areas before actual enemies.
• My recommendation is first to enter that area and assess the situation of the enemies rather than directly skipping past the safe area.
• That way, you’ll be able to get enough health for a new encounter and also have a good idea of the enemies’ pattern. 

8. False Enemies

In the Dark Place, not all shadowy figures are hostile or solid. As Alan, when these adversaries emerge, approach cautiously and shine your flashlight briefly on them.

• Many will vanish without depleting your battery.
• However, some might attack or try to grab you and must be dealt with like regular opponents.
• When surrounded by numerous shadows, use a Hand Flare to quickly disperse them, allowing you to focus on genuine threats.

9. Use The Crime Board Often

Saga Anderson’s journey is guided by the Case Board, a tool located in the Mind Place for monitoring missions. From the onset, starting with the Alan Wake 2 incident, this feature becomes integral. As you gather relevant data, ranging from insights about the Dark Place updates on investigations to tracking side missions and items, it can be logged onto the Case Board, unlocking further explorative possibilities.

I would suggest you visit this board often, as it gives you a good perspective of the progress and keeps you aligned with your objectives.

10. Inventory Upgrades 

There are many types of upgrades in Alan Wake 2. But the most important one is the inventory upgrades. There are a few ways to get more inventory in Alan Wake 2, by collecting the upgrades spread across the map. But, what you should also utilize is the Shoebox in the Break Rooms to clear up your inventory while you look for the mentioned upgrades. 

My Verdict

With that, you know all about the Alan Wake 2 best tips and tricks. There are many tricks to make your life easier but of course, as you play, you’ll find your own mini hacks to make life easier in the mysterious world of Alan Wake 2. You can take notes from my tips and suggestions to progress in the game more efficiently. If you’re just getting started, check out my guide on the best difficulty for the smoothest experience. 

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