When you leave the Sheriff’s Station in Alan Wake 2, in Saga’s chapter, “Return 7: The Summoning,” you’ll head back to Cauldron Lake for one final time, to finally put an end to it all.
Anyone who played the original Alan Wake will know what’s coming here, especially after Saga phones the Old Gods of Asgard while on her way to the car to make one final trip. Yes, you guessed it: you’re about to battle against waves of countless Taken while the Old Gods of Asgard rock their socks off.
This wave-based encounter is pretty damn relentless on every difficulty, and can be tricky to battle your way through, so we’ve come to offer some handy tips to get you through it.
Preparation is Key - When you get down to the Cauldron Lake beach, you’ll have plenty of time to make sure you’re ready for what’s to come. Firstly, there are a load of ammo crates around that you can use to replenish your supplies, so do that first. There’s also a shoebox as well, so use that to grab any supplies you have stored that you think you’ll need. You’ll also want to make sure you have everything you need equipped in the Quick Slots. For this encounter First Aid Kits are useless because of how long they take to use, so quick slot both Painkillers and Trauma Pads, as they’ll be handy here. Make sure all your weapons are upgraded as much as you can, assigned to your Quick Slots and are all reloaded. On top of that, you’ll want a good supply of Hand Flares and Flashbangs if you have them too. If you’ve got Rocket Flares, now’s the time to use them all!
Charm Offensive - Now, if like us, you’ve got the Mayor Setter and the Coffee World Token Charm equipped, switch them out. They’re effectively useless from this point on. You’ll want at least one Coffee Mug Charm (which gives you an extra life, effectively) as well as the Hammer Charm (which means attacks stagger enemies more often), the Anchor Charm (which gives you a chance to stun an enemy with a Flashlight Boost) and if you’ve got the fourth slot from completing all of Alan Wake 2’s Nursery Rhymes, then equip the Deerfest Charm too (which significantly increases the time before the Darkness Shield regenerates). These 4 will set you in good stead. Check out our list of all Alan Wake 2's Charms if you want to weigh up your options.
Trap Master - And finally, if you have any Propane Tanks at this point, we honestly suggest dotting them all around the arena - use them all up here, as you won’t need them again after this encounter. This will mean that you’ll have a target to wipe out a group when things get truly mental.
And now, before we get on with the fight itself, just note that everything you do now will set you up for not just this encounter, but for the fight directly after too. There’s no time to fiddle after the summoning ritual, like restocking at a shoebox. This is your setup for a brutal 10-15 minutes or so.
Right… now the fight itself.
As soon as you speak to Tor and Odin, things are about to get hairy very quickly. Here’s our Alan Wake 2 Summoning tips:
Follow the Light - The biggest bit of advice we’ll give for the relentless summoning encounter is that you’re not in this alone - although it may feel like it. Casey and Estevez will be up in the rocks, and will periodically assist by throwing flares into the mix. When they do, run over to the flare and stand above it. This will give you some much needed protection, as well as destroying the Darkness Shields of anyone that comes your way.
Loot Goblin - If you’re struggling with ammo in this encounter, keep an eye out for two things: 1. The loot crates that Casey will drop in; and 2. The Taken you kill will almost certainly drop a decent amount of supplies. Whether it’s healing items or ammo, they’ll be valuable in this situation.
Tactical Retreat - In this encounter enemies can come from all directions, but because they always hone in on you, it’s always a viable option to run and give yourself some space every so often to either reload, heal or just get your breath back. The bigger the distance you can keep between you and the crowd, the better.
Crowd Control - Speaking of crowds, using Flashbangs and Hand Flares when you find a group of Taken bunched up is vital. This will allow you to “kill” multiple birds with one stone. And by kill, we mean destroy their Darkness Shield, making them susceptible to headshots. If you’ve got Rocket Flares, these are great for crowd control too. And finally, if you did set those Propane Traps like we suggested in the intro, make sure to utilise them when they’re at the feet of more than a few Taken.
Aim Assisted - If you’ve got Aim Assist on in Alan Wake 2 (it’s on by default), don’t continually aim down sights, use the left trigger flick to lock onto a Taken’s head, drastically improving your headshot success rate.
Creating Space - One of the things that the game doesn’t ever tell you, as far as we can remember, is that if you hit the button without having pressed down, you’ll actually melee. This can be handy to create space if you need to reload, are being swarmed or a Taken gets too close.
Weapon Choice - For the most part in this fight, we’d suggest using the pistol and the Pump-Action Shotgun, because that means you can then save the Hunting Rifleand the Crossbow for the more elite Taken that turn up later in the fight. If you’ve got the Crossbow’s homing ability too, it’s worth popping that into the elite Taken that spawn, before then flicking to any other weapon to do follow-up damage. This is a great way to conserve ammo. If you don’t have that Crossbow ability, fear not, it’s not a game changer.
Put into practice all those tips and you’ll have no issues at all in Alan Wake 2’s Summoning fight. When the fight is ready to end, the Taken will rush the stage and you’ll eventually get a prompt to use the Clicker.
How to beat Scratch in the Summoning
After a brief switch of perspectives, you’ll be knee deep in the final fight of the game. Like we said, there’s no time to resupply here, you’re thrown straight into it.
The good news is that Scratch is a cakewalk compared to the previous wave-based encounter, and this fight will be very similar to the one you experienced in chapter 6, “Return 6: Scratch.”
While in that one you had to turn on a number of cubes, in this encounter you’ll have to do the same, but use the winches on the back of the two lights down on the beach.
So, similarly, like in chapter 6, you’ll want to shoot Scratch until you do enough damage, at which point Estevez will stun him with light. At this point, you need to run up to one of the light arrays and hold down the button on it to rotate it and move it in place.
Firstly, you won’t be able to do this in one attempt - it’ll likely take you 2 or 3 attempts per light, minimum. And secondly, you need to do it until the light clicks into place and there’s no longer a button prompt next to it.
The only real thing you need to watch out for are his darkness shockwaves, but if you retreat when he’s charging up, you can strafe and then dodge when they’re getting close to fully avoid them. On top of that, when he’s close, dodge, and put some distance between you and Scratch.
Our best bit of advice for making easy work of the Scratch fight, however, is to drag Scratch pretty far away from the handles on the lights, and then run to the lights and go to town on Scratch from a distance, while he makes his way to you.
This does a few things: 1. It cuts down the travel time you waste if you’re nowhere near the lights when he gets stunned; and 2. It gives you longer to turn the handle, as Scratch will need to make his way to you after he’s recovered from the light stun. In fact, this strategy was so good that I nearly did one of the lights in 1 attempt.
So, if you want to make short work of Scratch, use that strategy.
And finally, when both lights have been rotated and clicked in place, run into the containment cube and the cutscene will roll. All that awaits now is a ton of story to wrap up what is an excellent video game.
Wednesday, November 01, 2023
When you leave the Sheriff’s Station in Alan Wake 2, in Saga’s chapter, “Return 7: The Summoning,” you’ll head back to Cauldron Lake for one final time, to finally put an end to it all.
Anyone who played the original Alan Wake will know what’s coming here, especially after Saga phones the Old Gods of Asgard while on her way to the car to make one final trip. Yes, you guessed it: you’re about to battle against waves of countless Taken while the Old Gods of Asgard rock their socks off.
This wave-based encounter is pretty damn relentless on every difficulty, and can be tricky to battle your way through, so we’ve come to offer some handy tips to get you through it.
And now, before we get on with the fight itself, just note that everything you do now will set you up for not just this encounter, but for the fight directly after too. There’s no time to fiddle after the summoning ritual, like restocking at a shoebox. This is your setup for a brutal 10-15 minutes or so.
Right… now the fight itself.
As soon as you speak to Tor and Odin, things are about to get hairy very quickly. Here’s our Alan Wake 2 Summoning tips:
Put into practice all those tips and you’ll have no issues at all in Alan Wake 2’s Summoning fight. When the fight is ready to end, the Taken will rush the stage and you’ll eventually get a prompt to use the Clicker.
How to beat Scratch in the Summoning
After a brief switch of perspectives, you’ll be knee deep in the final fight of the game. Like we said, there’s no time to resupply here, you’re thrown straight into it.
The good news is that Scratch is a cakewalk compared to the previous wave-based encounter, and this fight will be very similar to the one you experienced in chapter 6, “Return 6: Scratch.”
While in that one you had to turn on a number of cubes, in this encounter you’ll have to do the same, but use the winches on the back of the two lights down on the beach.
So, similarly, like in chapter 6, you’ll want to shoot Scratch until you do enough damage, at which point Estevez will stun him with light. At this point, you need to run up to one of the light arrays and hold down the
button on it to rotate it and move it in place.
Firstly, you won’t be able to do this in one attempt - it’ll likely take you 2 or 3 attempts per light, minimum. And secondly, you need to do it until the light clicks into place and there’s no longer a button prompt next to it.
The only real thing you need to watch out for are his darkness shockwaves, but if you retreat when he’s charging up, you can strafe and then dodge when they’re getting close to fully avoid them. On top of that, when he’s close, dodge, and put some distance between you and Scratch.
Our best bit of advice for making easy work of the Scratch fight, however, is to drag Scratch pretty far away from the handles on the lights, and then run to the lights and go to town on Scratch from a distance, while he makes his way to you.
This does a few things: 1. It cuts down the travel time you waste if you’re nowhere near the lights when he gets stunned; and 2. It gives you longer to turn the handle, as Scratch will need to make his way to you after he’s recovered from the light stun. In fact, this strategy was so good that I nearly did one of the lights in 1 attempt.
So, if you want to make short work of Scratch, use that strategy.
And finally, when both lights have been rotated and clicked in place, run into the containment cube and the cutscene will roll. All that awaits now is a ton of story to wrap up what is an excellent video game.
Enjoy!