Summary
Alan Wake 2is a beefy single-player journey that will take you anywhere between 15 and 18 hours to complete. The reality-shifting narrative will stick around in your head for days afterward. Still, if you’re looking for more to do in the game, take some advice from the entries below.
There is plenty we’d also recommend doing outside of the game to deepen your appreciation of Alan Wake 2, specifically watching the movies and TV shows that inspired it and playing the other games from developer Remedy. However, this list sticks specifically to what you can do within the game itself.
There is a moment after completing Return: Chapter 6 and before Return: Chapter 7 where the game warns that you are on the point of no return.Save here and keep that save fileso you can easily go back and explore the open environments after reaching the credits.
Updated on July 25, 2025, by Jason Wojnar:Even though Alan Wake 2 is a purely single-player adventure, that doesn’t mean it can’t be upgraded and improved through updates. Remedy has not only been fixing various bugs and glitches, but it also has added new content to the already stellar story. This list has been updated with two new entries to reflect what you can access with these new patches after beating the game.
12Play The Final Draft
New Game Plus
Since Alan Wake 2 is unlike every other game out there, it is only right that the New Game Plus should shake things up too. Called The Final Draft, this new game plus mode is more than just letting you play through the games with all of your weapons and upgrades.
There are some changes to the story and even a different ending. The additional collectibles only found in this mode make it a must-play for anybody invested in the narrative.
11Play The Game On Nightmare Difficulty Mode
The Ultimate Alan Wake 2 Challenge
Some players decry the core gameplay of Alan Wake 2. In a survival horror game, sometimes the increased difficulty is exactly what’s needed to make the gameplay shine. In Nightmare Mode, you need to scrounge for every bullet and health item you can find.
Every resource counts when the enemies have so much health and do more damage. You will also need to pick your battles wisely and decide when it is necessary to run versus taking a stand and fighting.
10Fill Out The Rest Of The Map
There’s More Than Just Where The Story Takes You
Alan Wake 2 isnot quite open-world, but the environments are big enough to allow exploration. If you have not done so already, go back to your save point before the point of no return and go to all the areas of the map the story does not take you to.
The parts of the map you have not been to yet are greyed out. Now that you havethe boltcutters,you can reach many of these areas that were previously locked off.
9Find The Writer’s Journey Videos
A Collectible For Alan’s Journey In The Dark Place
During Alan Wake’s segments in The Dark Place, you come across videos that detail Alan’s bizarre writing process and comment on the story taking place.
There are only eight in the whole game,and a couple of them can be missedif you don’t acquire them on your playthrough. If you did skip them, you will have to play through the game again to find all of these collectibles. Since so few of them exist, they are pretty easy to track. We’re not fans of collectibles that can be missed, but they are just bonuses rather than essential to understanding the plot.
8Find All Of The Lunchboxes
It’s Not Food, But It Will Make You More Powerful
Saga Anderson stumbles upon lunchboxes that each come with a cryptic message. You do not know who is leaving these around, but they help you purchase weapon upgrades in the mind palace. You know one is near in the woods when you see colorful knitted squares hanging on trees.
They are helpful during the game, especially before the harder encounters in the endgame, but you should go back and find these to complete the case on the case board. You’ll also learn who was leaving these lunch boxes if you haven’t deduced it yourself already.
7Finding All The Manuscript Fragments
The manuscript fragments are a part of the story, helping Saga Anderson and Alex Casey crack the case. You find a lot of them on the main path, but numerous optional pages are lying in wait in Bright Falls, Caldrun Lake, and the Watery Area.
They all detail events you either experienced or are about to experience as the play. Go back to the point of no return and explore the areas to find all of the pages. It is another great way to hear more of Alan’s voice as a writer.
6Activate All The Echoes
Hear More Of That Trademark James McCaffrey Voice
Max Paynefans will especially want to find all of the echoes in The Dark Place while playing as Alan Wake. A handful of them are a part of the narrative, but optional ones are off the beaten path.
Explore thefantasy New York Citysetting to find all these blue lights and dive deeper into the fictional Alex Casey’s head while he investigates the cult of the tree. If you missed Max Payne’s voice, this should satiate you for a while since the character is a direct nod to the neo-noir detective created by Sam Lake.
Alex Casey’s voice actor, James McCaffrey, tragically passed away on July 18, 2025, making Alan Wake 2 one of his last performances. He was a frequent collaborator on Remedy’s games, starting with 2001’s Max Payne where he voiced the titular character.
5Find All The Word Of Power
Upgrade Alan To The Max
Where Saga Anderson upgrades her equipment through the lunchboxes,Alan Wake becomes stronger by finding the Words of Power. These don’t add to the narrative in the way the other collectibles do, but any completionist should be sure to find them all to extend the replay value in Alan Wake 2.
Finding them is a game of hide and seek as yellow arrows guide you to their resting place. Shine the light on the center until you activate them, accessing another upgrade to Alan’s skills.
4Open All The Cult Stashes
Solve These Puzzles To Get Their Equipment
The Cult of the Tree has left stashes for its own members throughout Bright Falls and their surrounding locations. Finding them is only half the battle. Opening each requires a small puzzle, each of them varying in difficulty. Sometimes it is a simple memory game, while other times you have to find the lock’s combination in the environment or solve a riddle.
The messages are threatening at first, but once you discover the cult’s true nature, you understand they were just trying to scare people and are actually protecting Bright Falls.
3Solve The Nursery Rhymes
Like with some of the other collectibles, you must do more than simply find these nursery rhymes to unlock the charm associated with them. You have to read the riddle and place the dolls correctly to unlock them.
This extra thought and challenge makes Alan Wake 2’s collectibles feel unique and more than just busy work. There is usually logic in these riddles if you think hard enough, and they don’t just require obsessive trial and error to solve, though that does work, too.
