Looking for the best Alan Wake 2 Words of Power? Remedy’s horror sequel has a lot of upgrades available when playing as the titular character. These upgrades are obtained by finding yellow arrows using your flashlight that point to a circle made of words. Shining your light on one of these gives you a point in one of seven categories that permanently increase Alan’s abilities.
Each of these categories has three options, most of which can be picked three times. Some feature a single upgrade, although these are much less common in Alan Wake 2. While most Words of Power are helpful in their own right, some are simply far more useful than others in the horror game. As a result, we’re going to shine a light on the ones that we think are the best to pick to give you the best chance in combat.
Here are the best Alan Wake 2 Words of Power:
- Wellness Retreat
- God Rays
- Personal Space
- Paint the Town
- Goes Around
- Tourist Map
- Magic Pocket
- ER
- It’s Personal
- Lucky Strike
Words of Power have a variety of uses, from combat to more practical things like inventory expansion, so seeking out the wordy circles is well worth the effort. It’s important to note that these upgrades aren’t missable, as you can freely return to locations in the Dark Place to find any of them.
Tim Breaker can be found humming in each area accompanied by a map that highlights any containers and Words of Power on it. Words of Power, in particular, are marked with a yellow circle with a question mark inside.
Wellness Retreat
It’s no secret that health is extremely important and Wellness Retreat is the way to increase this stat. The max upgrade boosts Alan’s health by 50%, making him able to withstand far more damage than usual. This is easily one of the most important Words of Power, we recommend picking this one up right away.
God Rays
God Rays increases the maximum amount of health that all Safe Havens provide. While you normally have to use healing items to restore your life, putting points in God Rays allows you to run into a Safe Haven to heal up to a designated amount. If you want to avoid having to think about healing, God Rays should be extremely helpful.
Personal Space
Personal Space increases the knockback force of Alan’s shotgun blasts. Enemies in Alan Wake 2 love to run right at you, so having this upgrade can give you some much-needed breathing room. Considering how powerful the shotgun is at point-blank range, this upgrade makes the weapon even more devastating.
Goes Around
Unlocking the Goes Around upgrade restores health every time you shoot a flare directly at an enemy. As the flare gun is one of the best weapons in the game, this is something you can do fairly often.
Magic Pocket
Magic Pocket adds an extra row to Alan’s inventory, making it one of the most necessary upgrades of the bunch. Without Magic Pocket, Alan’s inventory can seem cramped, especially once he gets his shotgun. In fact, without the upgrade, bringing the shotgun along crowds your inventory so much that you won’t have room for much else if you’re carrying it. Unless you want to carry around just one weapon, you’re going to need to use Magic Pocket.
ER
ER makes trauma pads more effective. Since healing pads are your principal healing item, it’s a good idea to grab one of these upgrades. This makes it much easier to keep your health topped up, which should help you stay alive at least a bit longer when getting hacked to pieces by Taken.
It’s Personal
Much like Personal Space, It’s Personal increases the knockback on attacks used on enemies nearby. Putting points into this upgrade makes you do more damage to enemies that are in your face, so if you’re fighting up close, you can massively increase your damage to help eliminate Taken much quicker than before.
Lucky Strike
With three points in the Lucky Strike upgrade, you have a 75% chance to regain a flashlight charge upon killing an enemy. Since flashlight charges are so indispensable, being able to use them more frequently is extremely useful, not just for making enemies vulnerable, but for slowing them down if they’re advancing.
Those are the best Words of Power in Alan Wake 2. If you’re playing as Saga, you can use the Alan Wake 2 weapon upgrades to power up her shotgun, crossbow, and rifle. Having the right assortment of Words of Power is the best way to give Alan a stronger fighting chance, so try your best to find those yellow arrows. Finally, give our Alan Wake 2 review a read to check out our verdict on the potential GOTY contender.