How to beat Nightingale in Alan Wake 2

The first major boss you’ll encounter in Alan Wake 2 is Nightingale, a former FBI agent whose murder Saga is investigating. 

Nightingale transforms into one of the Taken—a monster taken over by the shadows—and goes on a murderous rampage, despite being dead himself and not having a heart. It’s up to Saga to track down Nightingale, and she eventually finds him in The Overlap after discovering his FBI badge along with a few manuscript pages. 

Although you’ll have made it through several smaller fights by this point, the Nightingale battle is the first time the game puts everything you’ve learned so far to the test. If you’re new to Alan Wake and are only just getting to grips with the combat and flashlight usage, this is even more the case.

With this in mind, we’ll go into the easiest way to beat Nightingale in Alan Wake 2, including some useful tips to help you get through the fight with as little stress as possible. 

Alan Wake 2 Nightingale boss guide

How to find Nightingale

Saga needs to solve several tasks and complete part of the story before you get to the Nightingale fight. You’ll need to follow his trail, consulting manuscript pages for help, before you connect the dots and conclude he’s in an area in the woods called The Overlap. This area acts as a bridge to The Dark Place, where the supernatural darkness originates. 

In order to cross over to The Dark Place, Saga will have to perform a ritual that involves Nightingale’s preserved heart, which she will find in the freezer in the abandoned Cauldron Lake general store. Most importantly, while you’re in the store to get the heart, solve the puzzle to unlock the gun case and get the sawed-off shotgun. The shotgun will make your fight with Nightingale much easier thanks to its extra firepower, so keep this in mind while you’re retrieving the heart from the store. 

Once you have the heart and have performed the ritual—which involves saying certain words while placing the heart in the empty space on the witch sign near the Witch’s Hut—the bridge to The Overlap will open up through the Witch’s Ladle tree (the tallest tree in the forest). Nightingale will be there and ready to fight, but be aware that the surroundings of The Overlap are constantly changing, which can catch you off guard if you aren’t prepared. 

Preparing to fight Nightingale

Make sure to have both your sawed-off shotgun and pistol assigned to quick-select slots before beginning the fight. Depending on the ammo you have available, you’ll likely to need to switch between your two weapons quickly. Nightingale isn’t particularly fast, but his attacks pack a powerful punch, so you don’t want to be wasting time manually equipping weapons. 

Additionally, it will help to have your medical supplies equipped to quick-select slots as well. In Alan Wake 2, these can be first aid kits, bandages, or painkillers. Equip everything that restores health to quick-select slots so you can grab them as fast as you can whenever they’re needed.

Nightingale’s attacks and abilities

Before we get into the best way to tackle this fight, we’ll first cover the ways in which Nightingale attacks. Getting to grips with his fighting style will give you the upper hand when it comes to dodging and countering him. 

Nightingale uses part of a tree trunk as a weapon, and if he manages to hit you with it, it will take out a significant chunk of your health. You can dodge his tree trunk attacks, but it’s far better to stay out of his melee range entirely.

This fight’s hit detection might be a little skewed, at least it seemed to be in my opinion, as there were several times when I tried to dodge and thought I had gotten away from Nightingale’s melee attack, only to be hit hard enough to almost kill me. The changing environment and often debilitating darkness can make it particularly difficult to tell how close Nightingale is to you, though, so make sure to be extra vigilant to avoid losing your bearings altogether. 

Another reason to keep your distance is to avoid Nightingale’s grab attack, which drains your health very quickly. If he is close enough and gets the opportunity, Nightingale will grab you by the throat and try to kill you instantly. If this happens, you will be prompted to mash the action button until you shine your flashlight directly into Nightingale’s face, at which point he will drop you. 

While this does give you a small window of opportunity to shoot him while he is stunned by the light, I would advise using those few seconds to put some distance between yourself and Nightingale rather than immediately trying to shoot him. I’m saying this from experience, as when I attacked straight away, he quickly regained his posture and grabbed me again. Keep your distance and dodge as much as you can to avoid his melee attacks. 

How to beat Nightingale in Alan Wake 2

Now that you know how to get to Nightingale, how to prepare, and what his attacks are, let’s move on to how to actually beat him. First off, you need to burn off some of the darkness on Nightingale with your flashlight before you can attack him with your weapon. Those who played the first Alan Wake will know this is par for the course with the Taken. You’ll know when you’ve burned off enough darkness as the shadowy coating on Nightingale’s body will disappear.

After getting rid of his darkness with your flashlight, you’ll notice some red glowing areas on his body. A prompt will appear on the screen telling you about them, and they’re called Source Points. Anyone who’s played a video game before knows the glowing spots on a bad guy are its weak points, and Alan Wake 2 is no exception.

Nightingale has one major Source Point on his chest. Shoot it as best you can, as it will stun him and give you the opportunity to shoot again. The Source Point will disappear once damaged, so for your follow-up attack, aim for the head. Again, this is standard video game practice for boss fights, but it can be tricky to get your shot right due to the encroaching darkness of The Overlap, as well as the erratic and creepy nature of Nightingale and his movements. 

After you have done a certain amount of damage, Nightingale will switch up his attacks, moving faster and becoming a dark mass highlighted only by the red glow of his Source Point. You can’t do much against him here, so it’s best to simply run and dodge until the attack ends. 

You will find that you need to run around the area a lot as you fight Nightingale to avoid him getting too close, and when you do, you’ll come across coolers with supplies in them. These coolers were lifesavers for me as I kept running out of ammo, so I would recommend taking advantage of them when you can. 

Be careful when you do, though, as you don’t want to have your back turned to Nightingale for too long. Keep your eyes on him as much as possible, as he’ll close in on you incredibly quickly if you aren’t paying attention. It can be difficult to stay facing him when you are looking for the coolers, so stay vigilant even when your back is turned.  

Final verdict on the Nightingale fight in Alan Wake 2

Keep fighting, shooting the Source Points on his body, collecting supplies from the coolers, and dodging when you need to, and eventually Nightingale will go down. Don’t just charge into the fight guns blazing, as you’ll run out of ammo very quickly and likely die to Nightingale. That’s exactly what happened to me the first time I fought him. 

Instead, play smarter by aiming for the Source Points when you can, and going for headshots when the Source Points disappear. Dodge as much as you can and try your best not to turn your back to keep yourself protected.

Remember there are coolers containing ammo dotted around The Overlap, but try not to forget about Nightingale’s melee attacks in your rush to find them. Play it safe and keep your distance, and you’re sure to beat Nightingale with ammo and health to spare.