Alan Wake 2 Words of Power locations

Oct. 27, 2023

Where to find Words of Power in Alan Wake 2 and upgrade abilities

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Collecting Alan Wake 2 Words of Power lets you upgrade Alan’s darkness-fighting capabilities, allowing you to better survive the horrors of the Dark Place. There are several different types of Word of Power you’ll find as you explore as Alan, with each one linking to a small selection of upgradeable perks. You can then spend these words on things like increasing the effectiveness of Alan’s weapons, to revealing collectibles on the map.

However, there are fewer Words of Power than there are unlockable perks inAlan Wake 2, which means you’ll need to choose your unlocks wisely. Fortunately, we’ve found them all and can help you do the same with some maps to guide you, so here are all the Alan Wake 2 Words of Power locations.

Alan Wake 2 Words of Power explained

There are seven types of Words of Power in Alan Wake 2 that act as a sort of skill or perk tree. They appear as circles of words, usually tucked away out of sight, with a trail of arrows that only show up under torchlight to help you find them. All you have to do it look at themjust right- you’ll feel the pad shake and hear a noise when you’re lined up - and you’ll claim them and their effects.

Each time you find one you can put a point into one of three options it controls, up to a maximum of three times. Their effects are are fairly indirect, giving you options for things like regaining some health for a certain activity, or a chance to not use a torch charge when burning the darkness off an enemy and so on. They’re less about a direct ‘+1 COMBAT’ increase to stats and more about buffs and boosts to certain actions.

Here are all the Words of Power in Alan Wake 2 and what they do:

While your objective is pretty direct in the Dark Place - get to the subway - it’s a large area to explore withsix Words of Power to find at first. This is also where you can find a character, for the first time, that will mark your map with questions marks indicating anything interesting to find. In this case that’s mostly Words of Power. You can find this person up around where number 3 is.

Number 7 you’ll be able to find laterwhen you come back to the Dark Place with the goal of heading to the Oceanview Hotel (and will need theAlan Wake 2 Oceanview Hotel door code).

Here are the Dark Place Words of Power you can find:

Check the gallery belowfor shots of where can find all the Dark Place Words of Power if you’re having trouble tracking them down or you can’t find the arrows that point them out.

There’s a few Words of Power to find in the Subway but it’s a convoluted place to get through, with a lot going on. So it’s easy to miss some as you solve various puzzles to progress (theAlan Wake 2 Subway ritualis a particularly tricky beat). The character that can mark your map also appears here again, found where the yellow arrow is above.

Here are all the Subway Words of Power in Alan Wake 2.

The gallery belowwill help you narrow down all the Subway Words of Power shown on the map above.

There are three Words of Power in the Oceanview Hotel, all of which are pretty accessible from the point you unlock each floor. They’re just a little more hidden than usual.

The gallery belowwill help you narrow down all the Oceanview Hotel Words of Power shown on the map above.

There are three Words of Power in the Poet’s Cinema in Alan Wake 2, all of which can be found while playing through that part of the story, but also all can still be reached if you want to come back later on.

The gallery belowwill help you better locate all the Poet’s Cinema Words of Power shown on the map above.

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I’m GamesRadar’s Managing Editor for guides, which means I runGamesRadar’s guides and tips content. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.

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