We provide numerous fighting tips in our Story Walkthrough and Enemies sections, specific to each enemy and boss type. Here we compile some of them, and add some more general combat tips as well—things to keep in mind regardless of enemy or situation.
Target the head
This is the first rule of combat in The Evil Within 2. Nearly every foe in Union suffers extra damage when you nail them with headshots. Even the bosses, which have other target areas that are weaker, still suffer enhanced damage when you shoot them in the head. Headshots can take out lower level enemies like the Lost with just two Handgun hits or a single Shotgun blast. Note that The Keeper and The Matriarch do not receive extra damage from headshots.
Use shotguns in tight spaces
This is a fundamental combat tactic that many gamers may recognize, but it still bears repeating. All of the shotguns available in the game have great short-range punch, inflicting much more damage in close than other weapons. Shotguns also have a spread effect, with pellets spreading outward as they travel away from the gun barrel. This can let you hit more than one enemy per blast, if foes are bunched together.
Snipe dangerous foes from afar
Once you find and repair the Sniper Rifle, you acquire a highly effective tool for engaging powerful foes such as the Hysteric, Lament and Harbinger without suffering lethal damage in return. The rifle’s powerful scope has two levels of magnification, letting you zero in for precise headshots. On lower difficulties, the Lament and Hysteric can be dropped with a single sniper shot, though on Nightmare and Classic upgrades are required to get this result. The masked Harbinger requires a few more shots to kill.
Keep an axe in hand
Hand Axes are powerful melee weapons that inflict one-hit kills on most enemies. This makes them great for countering the ambush situations you face regularly in Union. When a monster unexpectedly bursts through a door or slithers out from under a vehicle, you don’t always have time to aim and shoot before you get grabbed. But with a Hand Axe in your arsenal, a quick punch of the melee attack button decapitates your tormentor before it can inflict damage.
Target axe-wielders first
Here’s a corollary of the previous tip. Yes, a Hand Axe gives you one-hit kill ability, but the weapon also breaks after a single use. Although you can find a few loose Hand Axes wedged in trees or woodpiles or dead bodies, most available axes are in the hands of hostile Lost citizens. When you spot a Lost with an axe, make it your priority target; it drops its axe for pickup when killed. If you get swarmed by a Lost pack, target any axe-wielders first so you can scoop up their Hand Axe and swing it through other attackers as they converge on you.
Try for multiple kills with one axe swing
One last Hand Axe tip: if you swing an axe at two or even three foes lined up side by side, your single strike can behead all of them!
Look for the red spots on bosses
When facing the big bosses—Watcher, Effigy, Matriarch—be aware that their weak spots glow red. Target those red spots to bring down these great monsters.
Upgrade to the Bottle Break skill
One of the most useful skills you can purchase in any upgrade tree is the awesome Bottle Break in the Stealth skill tree. Buy it as soon as possible. When you have Bottle Break, Sebastian automatically uses bottles from inventory to break free from most enemy grab attacks. When the foe makes its grab, Sebastian slams a bottle into its face, breaking its grip. Note that the Bottle Break skill is automatically given to the player on Casual difficulty, so there is no need to purchase it.
Note that Bottle Break only works if you have at least one bottle in inventory, so keep your bottle supply topped off. Fortunately, plenty of bottle pickups are scattered around almost every area in the game.
Try for Sneak Kills whenever possible
Ammo is precious, especially when playing in the harder difficulty levels. To conserve ammo, employ the Sneak Kill maneuver on any foe that you can manage to sneak up behind. This stealth attack lets you inflict one-hit kills with your Survival Knife on Lost, Albedos, Disciples (though not when they’re flaming), and Gluttons (though not when they’re swollen).
You can execute the move on Laments, Hysterics and Harbingers too, but one Sneak Kill is not enough to kill them—two usually does the trick. However, the first Sneak Kill on these tougher enemies inflicts heavy damage, so it’s worth the effort. Just remember that you have to hustle away after the first attack.
If you like Sneak Kills, be a Prowler… and later, a Predator
Creeping up behind enemies for Sneak Kills can be frustrating. Your targets can hear you if you approach while walking upright, but your initial Sneak (crouch-walk) speed is quite slow—foes will sometimes turn around and spot you before you can reach them. One solution is to spend some Green Gel on the Prowler 1 and 2 skills in the Stealth upgrade tree. These skills increase your crouching speed so you can move silently to targets from behind before they turn and spot you.
Later on, after you acquire some Red Gel to unlock further progress on the same upgrade path, the Predator skill lets you close swiftly yet silently on foes from behind for Sneak Kills. It’s expensive, but if you prefer stealth play, Predator is a must-have special ability.
Develop complementary skills
If you like straight-up combat, boost your Combat skills first, of course. But enhanced Recovery skills like Treatment and Quick Recovery are extremely valuable if you’re a fighter who regularly wades into combat situations. Second Chance is one of our favorite Recovery tree upgrades; when you suffer damage that would normally be fatal, Sebastian automatically uses a Medical Syringe instead of just dying. (You need syringes in your inventory for Second Chance to work.)
If you prefer more evasive tactics, work your way up the Stealth tree then pair those improvements with Athleticism upgrades like Endurance to let you sprint longer, and Reflexes to let you automatically evade certain attacks.