Alan Wake 2: How To Beat Nightingale

In Alan Wake 2, you’ll be venturing through many strange areas, unsettling locations, and encountering all sorts of dangers around every corner and in every dark shadow. Early on in the game, Saga returns to Cauldron Lake in pursuit of the monster, Nightingale, a former FBI agent who went missing 13 years ago.

After Saga takes her first steps through the Overlap in pursuit of Nightingale, navigating the looping, shifting terrain on the forest around her, she comes face to face with the monster. Nightingale is the first boss you’ll encounter in Alan Wake 2, and for many players, he will be the most challenging. This guide will walk you through the structure of this boss encounter — what to expect, tips to deal with this aggressive foe, and ultimately how to come out on top.

Phase One – Nightingale’s Weak Spot

After navigating the confusing, looping Overlap, you’ll enter a clearing and come face to face with Nightingale. Nightingale utilizes a massive tree branch, dealing slow but powerful blows. He’ll also intermix quick and aggressive grabs, which if you aren’t careful, will quickly drain your health down. If you take one of these blows, it can bring you dangerously low on health, which will quickly put you out of the fight should he rush in with that grab attack. When this happens, try to put some space between you, use your flashlight to stun for a moment, and down a healing item if you have them.

Depending on your difficulty setting, ammo can get very scarce, so make every shot count.

Staying topped off in this fight can mean the difference between survival and starting over. When the fight starts, immediately use your flashlight to burn away the darkness protecting him. Once that’s clear, focus fire on the glowing red weak spot on his chest. Once that bursts, focus on dodging his heavy blows and landing headshots.

Phase Two – Follow The Path

Once you’ve dealt enough damage, Nightingale will teleport away, up onto a nearby hill, and he will summon a major storm of darkness and rage that will steadily advance toward you. This overwhelming force is not to be faced; turn tail and run toward the nearby opening on the clearing.

If you’re quick, you can loot a small cooler supply cache in this clearing, but don’t linger; that storm will kill you.

Once out of the clearing, you can head either to the left or right along a thin wooded path. The direction doesn’t matter here; only the forward advancement. The Overlap is built upon loops and layers, so it’s more about continuing forward than choosing a ‘correct’ path.

Along this path, Nightingale will appear at set intervals. Along this trail, you’ll also periodically come across caches of supplies. When approaching them, beware; Nightingale frequently appears right as you’re looting, shaving off previous moments for you to prepare and react.

Try approaching these caches, opening them, but pause before looting. If Nightingale doesn’t show up in that moment, you’re safe to loot.

When Nightingale appears on the forest path here, utilize the core tools of Alan Wake 2’s combat — stun him with the flashlight, then focus on headshots and dodges again until he vanished.

• If he grabs you, mash the prompt to hit him with your flashlight, breaking the hold.
• Be mindful of your positioning, especially when blindly dodging away. The foliage is dense on these paths, and dodging a bit too close to the edges can put you in a terrible camera position to see his coming attacks.
• If he raises his weapon high overhead, dodge to the side, not back — it sends out a shockwave straight out toward you, even if you’re a decent distance away.

The Sawed-off Shotgun makes a huge difference in this fight — these forest path encounters especially. A well-place headshot with the sawed-off can force him to disappear.

These ‘random’ forest path encounters will take place 2-3 times, after which the path will eventually lead up into a clearing, leading to the final encounter with Nightingale.

Phase Three – Defeat Nightingale

The principles of this fight are the same as the phase one encounter, but this time, Nightingale has nowhere to run. Be mindful of his heavy attacks, timing your dodge at the last second so you don’t get struck by the tail end of his club. The Sawed-off Shotgun can make quick work of him here; some well-placed headshots will keep him stunned long enough to reload and keep unloading into him. Continue to reload and land those shots, and you’ll take him out in no time.

Without the shotgun, you’re in for a tougher fight, needing to land more headshots with your trusty pistol and needing to nail those dodges every time. Just a few direct hits can send you all the way back to the start, so be careful here. Make sure to have healing items equipped in your quick slots, and be mindful of your spacing.