Wood Side Apartments - Silent Hill 2 Remake Guide - IGN

This Silent Hill 2 Remake Wood Side Apartments walkthrough and guide includes solutions to the safe code in Apt. 206, the coin cabinet puzzle, where to find the Flashlight, and more.

First things first: grab the Wood Side Apartments Map off the bulletin board directly ahead of you.

Second, enter the front desk area to find a save point. There's also a back room where you can find a new puzzle, the Coin Cabinet, and a box of handgun rounds. The Coin Cabinet looks important, but you can't do anything with it until you've found a few key items.

The only other door that's currently open on 1F goes to the janitor's closet, where you can find more handgun bullets. You can also check the mailboxes underneath the stairs to find a new memo, which provides a hint to the location of a new weapon.

There's nothing left to do but go upstairs. The doors to 3F and the roof are barricaded, but you can find more handgun bullets at the top of the stairwell. From there, backtrack to 2F.

Once again, there's only one door that's currently open. Enter Apt. 202 to find the Flashlight on a dressmaker's dummy. As soon as you grab it, you'll be jumped by a new monster.

Mannequins are ambush predators that are often found lurking around corners and behind furniture, ready to spring out at you. If you see a box of ammo or a health drink just sitting out in the open, it's safe to assume that there's a Mannequin waiting somewhere next to it. You'll be running into them on a regular basis for the rest of the game.

A single Mannequin is a classic "glass cannon"; it can do a lot of damage if you aren't careful, but it doesn't have much health. If they get the drop on you, dodge immediately to duck the Mannequin's opening strike. You can't power through their attacks with a melee swing; the Mannequin will take damage, but you'll take a hit in return.

If you're exploring a new area and you see something around a corner or under some furniture that looks like it might be a Mannequin, it probably is. Go ahead and put a bullet through its knee while it's standing still. The easiest way to handle a Mannequin one-on-one is to stagger it with 1-2 handgun shots to its (bottom) legs, then knock it down with your melee weapon.

Once the Mannequin is down, grab the Chute Courtyard Key from the dresser behind the dummy. You can also inspect the dummy to get a reaction from James, although it won't make sense for a while.

With your new key, head back down to the first floor. You can now open the locked door by the janitor's closet to get outside, where you'll find a horribly clogged garbage chute in the building's inner courtyard. Next to it, grab and push a cart to the open window. This lets you get into Apt. 112.

The one item of interest in 112 is the newspaper on its kitchen table. It may look like one more piece of throwaway lore like a half-dozen others you've spotted before now, but the information in this article is useful later.

Leave 112. The only other available room in this hallway is Apt. 109, which contains a Mannequin guarding a box of handgun bullets. Otherwise, proceed to the end of the hall and inspect the fence at the end; James will try to grab a key off the floor just behind it, but will get thwarted by a little girl. Not his proudest moment, really.

Afterward, use the nearby door to unlock it and reenter the courtyard.

If you head back towards the front desk, you'll hear the girl laughing. This and James annotating his map are the only clues you get that she's unlocked one of the doors in the lobby. You can now enter the east hallway on 1F from its other end.

Initially, there isn't much here. Go to the other side of the barricade, near Apt. 107, to pick up the 2F Hallway Key. 107 is mostly empty, aside from a drawing on the wall that the girl left behind, but there is a health drink in a drawer in the bedroom.

On your way back to the lobby, stop in Apt. 109 to grab the Golden Apple Handle off the wardrobe in the back. In the hall, a Lying Figure has broken out of Apt. 106. If you dodge or kill it, there's a box of handgun ammo in 106.

When you return to the lobby, the security gate on the west hall has lifted. There are two Lying Figures on patrol in that hall, which can be a tough fight at this early stage of the game. If and when you deal with them, you can enter Apt. 102 to find a Strange Photo on the teacart by the window and a syringe or health drink in the first-aid kit on the bedroom dresser.

With that done, head back to the second floor with your new key. You can now unlock the door to the hallway.

2F is in much worse shape than the first floor and much of it is inaccessible. Right now, in fact, there are only two open rooms.

One is the 2F laundry room, which isn't labeled on your map, but you can inspect the trash chute to see that the blockage has a shiny coin on top of it. You're going to need that.

The other is Apt. 213. It's currently pitch-black in here, but you can find some odd scratches on the bedroom wall that are good for a flashback.

Use the hole in 213's living room wall to access the hallway beyond. You'll notice a padlock on the back stairwell with a note next to it, but for the moment the more important destination is Apt. 217. Head inside to find the handgun on a shopping cart in the center of the room, with a couple of boxes of bullets for it nearby.

For now, try not to use the handgun if you can avoid it. There's a fight coming up that's a lot easier if you've got a healthy reserve of ammo.

Return to Apt. 213 and you'll discover somebody's redecorated while your back was turned. The most crucial element of this is the Apartment 212 Key on the side table by the TV.

Use that, as one might expect, to get inside Apt. 212 across the hall. Grab a free health drink from beneath the sink in its kitchenette, then use its balcony to reach Apt. 210 next door. Here, deal with a Mannequin ambusher in the living room, then grab some handgun bullets from its fridge and a Strange Photo off the windowsill by the TV.

In the hall outside Apt. 210, fight a couple more Lying Figures. The open doorway overlooks the courtyard, and you can use a lever on the wall here to lower some stairs as an easy shortcut to 1F.

The door to Apt. 207 is open. Here, you can deal with a Lying Figure and a Mannequin, the latter of which is waiting in the bathroom in ambush position, to claim two boxes of handgun ammo.

If you've got the bullets to spare, shoot all 11 balloons in the WELCOME HOME display in Apt. 207 for a sneaky trophy/achievement.

Afterward, go to Apt. 208. There are some bullets in the kitchenette, but the real draw is the wardrobe with the note next to it. Use your Golden Apple Handle to unlock the wardrobe, which lets you push it out of the way and access Apt. 206. This also locks you inside.

You can't leave this room until you figure out the combination to the safe. Your first clue is the poem written on the wall by the door. That poem, in turn, contains a clue about the safe's combination.

The poem is different on every puzzle difficulty, but always contains a mention of 3 specific objects. These correspond to 3 pieces of graffiti that are hidden around the room.

The relevant pieces of graffiti are hard to spot on their own, but each one was made with specially reflective paint that shows up in greater contrast in your flashlight's beam. Find all 3 pieces of graffiti, make a note of the numbers on them, and compare them to the lines of the poem.

Input the combination into the safe to receive the Coin (Man) and Steel Key. The latter opens Apt. 208's door.

Cross the hall to Apt. 205, where you'll find a few Creepers guarding the 2F Small Staircase Key. There are also some bullets in the kitchenette and a first-aid kit in the living room that contains a health drink. If you like, you can return to Apt. 207 via Apt. 205's balcony, but you've seen what's there already.

Instead, open the hallway door next to Apt. 205 to get back to the main hall, then go north. A Lying Figure will burst through the formerly-blocked door between you and the stairwell, but after it's handled, you can use the 2F Small Staircase Key to open the building's back stairwell. This also contains a new save point.

For the sake of efficiency, go back down to 1F from here. You can open the lock on the stairwell door to get back to the lobby, grab a box of bullets from the debris stored under the stairs, and visit a formerly-inaccessible block of 4 apartments. Only Apt. 116 is open, where you'll make your first acquaintance with Eddie.

Grab a box of bullets out of the kitchenette's drawer, then use the open window in Apt. 116 to reach the pool area. It's crawling with Lying Figures and naturally, the gate to Rosewater Park is chained shut.

The only thing to do here is grab the Coin (Snake) out of the abandoned baby carriage in the pool. You never have to come back to this area, so there's no reason to fight your way in. Just drop into the pool, take the coin, and climb back out before the Figures reach you.

Thus equipped, go back to the back stairwell and go to the third floor. The whole place is infested with Mannequins, so keep an eye out. Go straight forward out of the stairwell to grab a box of bullets, then double back and enter Apt. 311 via the hole in its wall.

Take a health drink off the workbench and deal with the Mannequin that's in ambush position in the kitchenette. There's a second Mannequin in the back room, but there's nothing else in there.

Leave Apt. 311 via the hole in the wall to get to Apt. 309. Take some more bullets out of a drawer in the kitchenette, then go into the hall. If you go to the west, you can find half of Apt. 310 that's blocked off from the rest, where you can grab more bullets out of a first-aid kit, then ransack the desk for a particularly manic file.

Go back out into the hall to fight 2 more Mannequins in the other half of Apt. 310. Use the balcony to reach Apt. 312, where you can find another Mannequin guarding a health drink in its bedroom, as well as a memo tacked to the wall near its sealed front door.

There's a bloody crawlspace in Apt. 312 that you can use to get into the laundry room next door, but before you leave, check the nearby balcony for a first-aid kit. It contains a syringe.

In the laundry room, pick up the case of Canned Juice and use it on the trash chute. This destroys the blockage and dumps the last coin you need into the central courtyard. You can now unlock the laundry room door in 3F and take the back stairwell to 1F. Take the Coin (Woman) off the ground

Now you've got everything you need for the puzzle in the reception room. Return to the lobby and install your 3 Coins into the cabinet.

If you haven't noticed it already, each of the 3 Coins you've found is double-sided:

The poem on the cabinet's plaque contains some suggestions about where to insert each Coin, and what side should be facing out when you do. Each time you successfully complete a poem, the plaque will rotate to a new stanza.

On the easiest puzzle difficulty, there are only 3 open slots in the cabinet. You could brute-force this if you had to, but the poem also isn't that hard to interpret.

Stanza 1:

Three bright coins, three actors in play,and under the tree, the Maiden dared lay.And behind the Maiden, where she would not know,With no one nearby, a Flower would grow.And then came the Man, so gallant and fine,In the pale moonlight did his golden eyes shine.

The center slot is directly underneath a great tree, while the left slot is beneath the crescent moon.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 2:

The Man drew his Blade and she froze in fear,For she did not know the Serpent drew near.

This just requires you to flip the Man and Flower coins over.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 3:

The venomous beast is now lost to the night,the grand chevalier's grand despair in daylight,and under the tree, where the maiden did lay,a memory now lies, confined to a Grave.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 4:

The Beast who its teeth in her flesh doth bore,He who has failed, She who is no more.When you pass the judgment on figures of play,Which here is the sinner, which carries the blame?

You can pick Man, Woman, or Snake here and still solve the cabinet. Move the Coin you select to the top slot below the poem.

On Standard, all 5 slots on the cabinet are open, but the poem is still reasonably intuitive. Whenever a relevant term is capitalized, that's a fairly naked hint as to what side of a coin should be displayed.

Stanza 1:

Three bright coins in the five holes be,first sits the Maiden underneath the tree.The wind free behind the Maiden doth blow,a beautiful flower alone has to grow.And here comes the Man, so sleek and so fine,In the pale moonlight his eyes doth shine.

Easy enough: the Maiden's still under the tree, the Man's still under the moon, and the Flower is "behind" the Maiden, who faces left.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 2:

The man doth approach, his Blade now revealed,his face disappears behind shining steel.Away from the man doth the Maiden flee,towards the Flower, away from the tree.

Pay attention to the choreography, so to speak; the Man drew his Blade and moved towards the Maiden, and the Maiden only had one direction in which she could go.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 3:

Where once grew a Flower, a venomous glee,where once was a Maiden, but a stone doth be.And over her Grave the Man doth remain,his blade never met the vile Serpent's vein.

"Where once was" are the key words here. Neither the Maiden nor the Flower actually moved.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 4:

The Beast who its teeth in her flesh doth bore,He who has failed, She who is no more.Now unto you falls a grievous chore,who carries blame for what fate had in store?

You can pick Man, Woman, or Snake here and still solve the cabinet. Move the Coin you select to the top slot below the poem.

On Hard, the poem starts dark and gets darker. More importantly, it's much harder to interpret and doesn't offer any context clues.

Stanza 1:

Three bright coins, three actors in play,yet within the shade, not one doth remain.The one once so gallant has fled from day's sheen,As far as he could from the icon of sin.The one whom he swore to shield in her life,Now lays in a grave, away from his sight.

The Man is on the left side of the cabinet, beneath the moon, and has gotten as far as he could from the Snake. The Man also can't see the Grave from where he is.

Solution: Tap to Reveal Stanza 2:His blade strikes that which from the roots doth rise,followed by guilt and the mark of demise.The life he once had he has left behind,Where once there was love, now a stone resides.

The intuitive leap you have to make here is "that which from the roots doth rise" referring to flowers, rather than the snake. The Man is apparently so lost in grief that he's hitting the gravestone.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 3:

He kneels by the crown that casts a cruel shadeonto the visage of her who did fade.By them not a soul, not a sight, nor sound,And yet, evil slithers upon radiant ground.

"Radiant ground" is the sun-lit right side of the cabinet, so that's where you've got to put the Snake. The tree is about as close to a "crown" as you'll get here, and the Man and Woman have nothing near them.

Solution: Tap to Reveal

Stanza 4:

The Beast that from death and decay had spawned,He who has failed, She who's now beyond.Now you pass the judgment on figures of play,and choose where the burden of sin doth lay.

Again, either Man, Woman, or Snake will work. Move the Coin you select to the top slot below the poem.

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Your reward for solving the Coin Cabinet is the Apt. 201 Key.

As noted above, the final step of the cabinet puzzle on every difficulty asks you, the player, to make a judgment call about who's to blame for the tragedy of the poem. Picking Man, Woman, or Snake will work to complete the puzzle, whereas Grave, Blade, or Flower won't.

This wasn't confirmed until fans had the chance to start datamining SH2R, but your choice here has an impact on what ending you'll receive upon completing the game.

If this is your first run, go with your gut.

If it isn't and you're actively hunting for achievements, however, here's what you need to know:

Using this key is a point of no return. Before you head into Apt. 201, finish up anything that you've left undone in the apartments, such as checking out any remaining unlocked rooms.

In Apt. 201, grab a health drink out of the bathroom, then inspect the folded handkerchief on the table next to the easy chair.

After the ensuing cutscene, take the Handkerchief off the floor, then follow the monster through the big red door.

You'll unlock the trophy/achievement Otherworldly for escaping from Wood Side.

Next up, you'll have to get through Bluecreek Apartments.