How to use the Plot Board in Alan Wake 2

The story of Alan Wake 2 revolves around two characters, and both have their own jobs to see through as the chaos forms around them. For the writer Alan Wake, his Plot Board in his mind allows for the Dark Place to shift to his whim, inspiration allowing.

Here is how to use the Plot Board to progress the story in Alan Wake 2, and how to use it to solve puzzles and traverse the Dark Place.

How to use the Plot Board to progress in Alan Wake 2

Both Saga Anderson and Alan Wake have ways to use their skills to progress through tough points in the game. FBI agent Anderson uses her detective skills through a Case Board in her mind, connecting dots and assuming motives to ask the right questions and look in the right spots. 

As for writer Wake, being stuck in a world partly of his own creation, his mind is his only way out, and he has to write a story of his escape to do it using a Plot Board to draft his tale.

If you’re familiar with how the Case Board works, the Plot Board functions in a very similar way, but with one key difference. Instead of helping you find information like Anderson, you’re creating the information. 

One of the best examples of this is in the subway tunnels in Initiation 2: Casey. You come up to an area where a crashed subway train blocks your path, but Wake is aware that he can add to his Casey detective story to shift the environment. He has two options: The murder cult is the next plot point, or Casey is.

When he chooses the option connected to the scene on the Plot Board, it shifts reality. But, if he isn’t gaining the information he needs, he can change the scene to the other. Then, after investigating said scene in real time, he can come up with more scenes to open blocked routes.

As the location gets more in-depth, the more the plot has to adjust as Wake is writing a story while living it out. At the same time, the more he writes, the more he learns about his own story, considering his memories of what he’s written while stuck in the Dark Place for 13 years are scrappy at best.

Either way, the Plot Board just revolves around finding a location—a scene—as Wake. Then, using the interact button to plant a scene, choose a plot point to follow on the Board and change the surrounding setting to fit it. That will allow Wake to discover information, and progress through the location.