The hunting rifle is one of the most powerful weapons you can acquire as Saga in Alan Wake 2, and it is the only true marksmen weapon in the whole game.
But, this gun isn’t given to you for free. In fact, you can miss the chance to get the Hunting Rifle altogether if you aren’t keeping a keen eye open. Here is how and when you can unlock this powerful long-ranged gun in Alan Wake 2.
When can you find the Hunting Rifle in Alan Wake 2?
The Hunting Rifle can only be found and used as Saga. Towards the end of the Local Girl chapter, the player controls Saga to investigate strange happenings in the Valhalla Nursing Home while simultaneously trying to track down Tor and Odin.
After a brief and decently eerie stroll around the Manor portion of the Nursing Home, you will be given access to the Wellness Center, where the Hunting Rifle can be acquired by solving some nefarious puzzles. Just a heads up—I mentioned the Manor is decently eerie…the Wellness Center is complete nightmare fuel. I’d say it’s one of the creepier portions of Alan Wake 2.
Once in the Wellness Center, there are several tasks and riddles you’ll need to complete before you can get your hands on this devastatingly powerful rifle.
How to unlock the Hunting Rifle in Alan Wake 2
The first thing you need to accomplish is solving the Wellness Center computer password riddle. This step is needed to progress through the Wellness Center, and by proxy is needed to progress. Because the computer password bit isn’t specific to the Hunting Rifle, I’m not going to cover its solution in detail.
Instead, I’ll just point you in the direction of this comprehensive guide on solving the Wellness Center computer password riddle.
Once you have gotten into the computer and turned off the magnetic locks on the various doors throughout the Wellness Center, you are ready to find and unlock the Hunting Rifle. There’s just the little matter of one more pesky riddle to tackle first, however.
Hunting Rifle location in Alan Wake 2
Open the map of the Wellness Center, and towards the top portion, you’ll be able to see a small room that actually has an icon for the Hunting Rifle within. Head down the long hallway, at the end of which you’ll come face to face with…a door with no knob. You have to find the missing knob for this door before you can open it and snag the Hunting Rifle waiting within.
How to find the doorknob for the Hunting Rifle room in Alan Wake 2
As badly as you probably want to just rip through that door with your Sawed-Off Shotgun, you aren’t allowed to do that. You need to locate and replace the doorknob, it’s the only way through. If you return to the admin computer from the previous riddle in the Wellness Center, you can find an email that hints at the doorknob‘s location.
This email has the subject line “RE: Riddle for your Rifle,” and the email reads:
- “I’m a little doorknob that’s out of place, but solve these clues and you can trace the way to your private space! I meet you at the greet inside a bright glassy cage where pretty flowers bloom.”
Now, I’m not complaining, but the Cult of the Tree’s aggressive obsession with cute little riddles makes them far less menacing. Anyway, feel free to work through this rhyme’s meaning on your own if you’d like, but:
- The location the rhyme is describing is the inside of the glass receptionist cubicle in front of the Wellness Center. This is where the doorknob is located.
Before the magnetic locks were deactivated, this glass cubicle couldn’t be accessed. Now, you can head back to the front of the Wellness Center and stroll right in, where you will find the doorknob to the Hunting Rifle room sitting in a cardboard box.
Return to the door at the end of the long hallway in the Wellness Center, where you can now place the doorknob found inside the receptionist’s cubicle. Once the doorknob is in place, you can open the door and loot the Hunting Rifle.
Just a heads up—the Hunting Rifle takes up a whopping four inventory slots. It is well worth the space, but make sure you stop by the Break Room in the Wellness Center and drop some things in the Shoe Box so you don’t have to discard anything to loot the Hunting Rifle. Also remember that the four slots have to be in one straight line, or the game will act like you don’t have enough free inventory space to loot the rifle. Happy hunting!
