This run is a start to finish playthrough of Silent Hill 2 on Normal Action/Normal Riddle with a finishing time of 45 minutes and 20 seconds done in a single segment; no special weapons or endings are allowed.

First of all, I would like to thank all members of Silent Hill speedrun community who supported me during my grinds; special thanks go to shunpuk (http://www.twitch.tv/shunpuk/) and Slayerofbabies (http://www.twitch.tv/slayerofbabies/) whose ideas made these new records possible. Without them I would never made it this far.

This run is a start to finish playthrough of Silent Hill 2 on Normal Action/Normal Riddle with a finishing time of 44 minutes and 18 seconds done in a single segment; no special weapons or endings are allowed.

This WR run is based on Ekudeht/Introverder's routing and fight strats with implementing new glitches and making some alterations to bossfight strats.

Here's the list of new discoveries/alterations made (you can count this as a description for my single segmented and multi segmented main scenario normal/normal category runs):

1. In PC version of Silent Hill 2 that was made by Creature labs quicksave/quickload feature is implemented, also Unequip weapon and Previous weapon functions were added. Shunpuk found out that the text box that displays during pressing quicksave ("GAME SAVED") has the same attributes as any other text box in the game. That means that just by simply pressing quicksave you can refill James stamina making him run in full sprint constantly (text boxes, picking up objects, changing locations also refill stamina, that's the trick Introverder used in his run — offing his flashlight and trying to read the map caused game to display a text box => refill stamina);
2. GAME SAVED quicksave text box appearance also causes game to override/grab all other text boxes displayed. This basically means that you can go to locations that game prevents you going to with a text box. As a result, you can skip map, wooden plank and radio entirely. Also pressing quicksave during several game engine cutscenes allows you to control James in the cutscene. You can perform this trick in the scene when James arrives at Rosewater Park, goes down in the hotel elevator, listens to the music box in the hotel etc. You can also move during scream event in Woodside when quicksave is pressed, but it will softlock the game. To go out of softlock, you need to equip a handgun in the previous location and after the trick is performed you need to press aim mode button.
3. Unequip weapon button cause James' falling animation to be interrupted making him controllable much earlier. There are two places where this glitch is used — falling in a swimming pool in Wood Side apartments and falling right after the transition from prison "well" to another section of the prison/Strange area 2;
4. Healing with ampoule causes James' stamina to remain full for several minutes. This discovery was supposed to be that major breakthrough and implemented in the run but the quicksave refill stuff was found out the next day. :)
5. It's not really a glitch but rather an observation — strafing has almost no acceleration delay while walking/running have a small delay before James can run in full sprint. That simply means you can move faster with strafing when it comes to short distances. I use it as much as possible in my run. With strafing it's possible to avoid the hit from a nurse when exiting room with a basement key in it. If try to rotate James and then run — she will always hit you. I should say that there are placed where strafing would seem to be suitable but causes weird camera angles.

Boss fights:

1. Blue Creek PH. 4 handgun clips from one corner, nothing to optimize here. That's the Introverder's strat.
2. Flesh lips/hangers. Instead of taking a risk and trying to kill them by shooting right from the start I bruteforced a set of action that allows you to somewhat control/predict hangers' movements:
   • I aimlock on first hanger, that rotates James and makes his back point towards the corner;
   • I go backwards to the corner with aim lock on;
   • Do one shot;
   • Immediately after that one shot you need to strafe to the opposite corner. This is the key element — when you strafe half way across the room camera angle changes, for some reason that new angle also causes Hangers to change their movement directions. In particular, second Hanger goes to other opposite corner providing you with time needed to finish off the first hanger.
   • Then you strafe back to the initial position and kill first hanger.

   With this strat you won't exceed 12 shotgun shots. Just try to be as close as possible to them and then you will easily get 3-4 shots on each one. Also, if you point James right at left/right Hanger's side the creature will glitch and won't be able to rotate itself to perform an attack. Third hanger is always killed in this manner.

   Avoid standing under dead hanger, it is supposed that other hangers won't be able to hit you that way but game will increase their attack range enormously — they will be able to hit you ignoring obstacle (dead hanger). This is a very nasty glitch.

   When you are as close as possible to hanger and start to shoot him pay attention to the monster's behavior. You generally would spend 3-4 shot in the closest position. If you interrupt hangers attack (choking) animation with your second shot — do NOT try to finish him off with your third shot, you won't be able to, James is too slow. What you need to do is to rotate James around hanger a little bit to trigger hanger's search mode again. You do this by holding aim lock and pressing strafe keys. This way James will rotate in circle around hangers. You may rotate James to face hangers side — as said above, this will glitch them. If you see that hanger starts twitching towards you (in closest position) that means he's gonna attack you, when you spot twitching you need to rotate James or strafe away immediately as attack happens slightly faster if twitching preceded.

   If you managed to kill them with 9 shots then you have 3 shots left => 1 shell to kill a monster that blocks your way in a catacomb section and 2 shell for Eddie => no need to pick up additional shells in the prison elevator => one object less to put on the shelf in the hotel.

3. Abstract Daddy fight is skipped entirely using quicksave text box grab, so nothing to write here. :)
4. Eddie. I did a slightly altered version of Intoverder's strat — in the second part of the fight you supposed to kill him with ~5 shotgun shots but I opted for 2 shots and GK overhead hit. Saves about 2-3 seconds.
5. 2 PH. Old GK strat was used. You do 1.5-2 steps towards the door and then you perform secondary quick attacks while shifting your aimlock between two PH. This cause James to swing the knife a little bit faster. This amount of steps needed to ensure that second PH would perform long ranged attack (slow swing hitting first PH) and give you time to equip GK and start attacking.
6. Mary/Maria. 4-6 GK hits using bed as an obstacle between James and the demon. The final shot is made with handgun (fastest way).

Puzzles:

1. Clock puzzle. My standard is that time difference shouldn't be more than 3 hours;
2. Bugroom keypad. Bug room is a unique location — by interrupting key pickup with quicksaving you softlock the game. When you press quickload, game reverts changes made in the room — key is there, door is opened once again, flashlight is on but the key is still in your inventory. As a result keypad puzzle is skipped;
3. Arsonist puzzle. In this WR run I got a blind rope pull. Always pull first rope when performing a blind rope pull because of the shortest distance.
4. I skip thinner in the hotel's basement and bruteforce the code on the suitcase lock. There are 20 combinations possible. I used a slightly altered version of radgecast's (http://www.twitch.tv/radgecast/) bruteforce pattern:

mama

---4V

4V--- damn

--1^-

---3V dark

--1^-

-3^-- dose

3^--- lose

--3^- love

---1^ lock

-2^-- luck

3V---

--3V-

---7V dust

--3V- dull

6V--- null

-4V-- kill

1V--- hell

---2^ help

---1V

--3V-

-2^--

3V---

-1^--

--2^- open

-2^--

---3^ over

--4V-

-4V--

2V--- mist

3^---

--2V-

---2^ time

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with this run, although I really want to see an ultimate run with blind rope pull and all the best luck in bossfights. In conclusion, I would like to thank my brother who introduced me to Silent Hill 2.

PC build and software used:

QuadCore Intel Core i5-3570K, 3400 MHz

ASRock Z77 Pro3

8076 MB (DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM)

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7770

Hitachi HDS721050CLA362 HDD

OBS 0.635b to capture the game

D3DWindower to run the game in window mode (1280x1024 ingame resolution)

You can contact me via:

http://www.twitch.tv/bigmanjapan/

bigmanjapan@mail.ru