How to get Boltcutters in Alan Wake 2

In Alan Wake 2, you need Boltcutters to open certain locks that can’t simply be opened by a combination or key. Here’s how to get your hand on Boltcutters in Alan Wake 2.

How to unlock Boltcutters in Alan Wake 2

The Boltcutters are unlocked as part of Saga’s main story. You don’t get your hands on them until the Return 5 – Old Gods chapter.

The Boltcutters can be found in a tool cabinet in the basement of the Valhalla Nursing Home. When Saga is exploring the basement to find Cynthia and rescue Tor from the Overlap, she finds a room with a barricaded door, metal shelves, and a Tool Cabinet on the right. Interact with the cabinet and you’ll find it requires a key to open.

To open the cabinet, you need to pull the lever to the left of the Tool Cabinet, which turns on the lights and makes the cabinet disappear (don’t worry, this is OK). Doing this does, however, open the previously barricaded door (this is on the side of the room with a large window). Go through the door and keep going straight until you reach the far wall. There is a lever on this wall too, pull it to turn on the lights.

As you’re facing the lever, do a 180-degree turn so you’re facing the door to the room with the tool cabinet. Go towards the wall on your left and you’ll find an old desk. Search the drawers and the Tool Cabinet key will be inside. At this point I also advise hoovering up all the resources you can from the file cabinet drawers in this room, you’re going to need them when you find Cynthia.

Go back to the room that the Tool Cabinet was in and flip the lever back to turn the lights off. The Tool Cabinet will reappear. Open the Tool Cabinet using the Tool Cabinet key and you will find the Boltcutters inside. Picking up the Boltcutters rewards you with the Cut Short trophy.

The Boltcutters can then be used to open the locked door on the right of the room you found the keys in, but they can also be used to open any other doors in the game that require Boltcutters and have a look that looks like the below image.

It’s worth revisiting locations where you found these types of locks now you have the tool, but make sure you do so before you get Saga’s End Game message. You can revisit locations by using Saga’s car.