The Alan Wake 2 Nursery Rhyme found above in the Bunker Woods leading to the Wellness Center is among the game’s trickier puzzles.
In fact, it’s possible many players won’t have the required tools to solve this Rhyme when they encounter it in their first playthrough, and they won’t even have any way of knowing what they’re missing. Read on to learn exactly how you can solve this troublesome Nursery Rhyme in Alan Wake 2 when you find it.
Where is the Bunker Woods Camp Site Nursery Rhyme in Alan Wake 2?
This Nursery Rhyme is located in the woods to the left of Bright Falls, which means you’ll need to be on the latter half of the Local Girl chapter before you can find it, as this area is blocked off in earlier chapters.
Follow the path that leads straight out of the Elderwood Palace Lodge and into Bunker Woods. After a while, you will come to a small bridge that goes over a stream and has a Break Room on the other side. Past this break room, there is a fork in the road—a main leading south on the left, and a smaller path continuing straight.
Follow the smaller path that leads straight west, and after 50 or so meters it will veer wind up towards the northernmost portion of Bunker Woods. Follow the path, which will now end in a lasso shaped camp site. Head east from the campsite into the woods, and you will find this Nursery Rhyme in a straight north-to-south line with the Break Room from before (the Rhyme is directly north of the break room, but you can’t reach it that way. The loop around through the campsite is the only way to access the area with the Nursery Rhyme).
As it happens, finding the Bright Falls Camp Site Nursery Rhyme was the easy part. If you find you’re stuck on solving it, it’s very possible you simply don’t have the dolls needed for this Rhyme.
What dolls are needed for the Bunker Woods Camp Site Nursery Rhyme?
You only need two dolls to solve this Nursery Rhyme, but neither of them is found on location. They aren’t even found in Bright Falls. To solve this Rhyme, you need:
- The Mother Doll
- The Child Doll
These Dolls are both found in the Lighthouse Trailer Park in Watery, not in Bright Falls. If you don’t have the Mother and Child dolls, head back to the Trailer Park in Watery. At the southernmost portion of the Trailer Park, there is a dock that leads out onto the lake.
Towards the beginning of this dock, both the Mother Doll and the Child Doll can be found sitting on a green bench. Now, if you don’t have these dolls, you likely haven’t been on this dock before, which means you also likely haven’t solved the Nursery Rhyme located at the end of this dock in Lighthouse Trailer Park. Here is a guide for solving that one.
How to solve the Bunker Woods Camp Site Nursery Rhyme
I hope you enjoyed your trip back to Watery to grab the Mother and Child Dolls! You’re now ready to return to Bright Falls and solve this Nursery Rhyme. I mentioned at the beginning of this article the Bunker Woods Camp Site Nursery Rhyme can be one of the most difficult in all of Alan Wake 2—that is only because the dolls are absurdly far away from the Rhyme, not because the solution is difficult once you have the proper dolls.
Read the Nursery Rhyme east of the campsite in Bright Falls, which reads:
Mother, may I go outside, may I run and play? I say to you my Daughter dear, go outside and play But only in the light of day and only 'round the trees so grown Never near the lake, my child, and never may you drown.
You’ll notice I emboldened two words from the Rhyme. I’m embarrassed to admit I was well over halfway through the game when I realized Nursery Rhymes capitalize words as clues for which dolls are needed to solve the Rhyme. This Rhyme capitalized Mother and Daughter, so we know that we need two dolls—a Mother and a Daughter. There’s no “Daughter Doll,” but the Child Doll is close enough.
To solve the Rhyme:
- Place the Mother Doll on the chalk drawing of a house
- Place the Child Doll on the chalk drawing of a tree
After doing so, you’ll get the telltale inky screen indication the Rhyme has been solved.
Follow the path of toys after correctly placing the dolls
This Nursery Rhyme takes you on quite the goose chase to find the Charm after you’ve solved the riddle. A breadcrumb of children’s toys will lead you along the path from the Rhyme to the location of the charm. Keep an eye out for toy boats, rubber ducks, dollhouses, and toy airplanes, all of which will be sitting on puddles of black ink.
The trail of toys leads you back through the campsite and down the path towards the Break Room from before. About halfway to the Break Room, you will find the Lantern Charm. Before you can grab it, wolves will attack you, so make sure you’re prepared for trouble.
The Mother from the Rhyme was so concerned about her Child potentially drowning, she ordered her to only play near the trees in the forest. Tragically, it seems wolves ate the child in those very same trees. You hate to see it. RIP.
Bunker Woods Camp Site Nursery Rhyme reward
After you defend yourself from the wolves at the end of the children’s toy breadcrumb trail, you can pick up the Lantern Charm, which is a favorite of mine.
- The Lantern Charm adds an extra charge to Saga’s Flashlight
If you look at the bottom right of your screen, you’ll notice flashlight batteries don’t drain linearly. Rather, there are four chunks of battery life, and one chunk is consumed every time you focus your flashlight to make an enemy vulnerable. The Lantern Charm gives you a fifth beam, which essentially means all flashlight batteries have 25 percent longer lifespans.
If you haven’t been caught in an Overlap without batteries yet, you might not fully realize how fantastic the Lantern Charm is, but don’t worry—you will. You will…
