Endings

Per Silent Hill tradition, there are multiple endings to receive based on your actions throughout the game. While there's no joke ending this time, there's still four different endings that can each be achieved in your first or any other attempt.

What are they based on? Two things: whether you take care of Eileen and perform well enough in the final fight to save her, and whether you do or do not clear the hauntings that appear in your apartment in the game's second half.

Escape

The happiest ending available, achieved by actively managing both your neighbour Eileen and your apartment. Perform the following:

• Save Eileen by finishing the final battle before she dies
• Clear 80% or more of the hauntings that appear in Room 302

To allow yourself to even have a chance of saving Eileen at the end, you'll need to take proper care while escorting her. Limit her damage, only leave her when you must and never leave her in rooms with enemies. This will ensure she walks slower rather than fast in the finale, making her possible to save.

To clear hauntings, simply eradicate them upon appearing and ensure there aren't any active when you leave to fight the final boss. Requiring a clear rate of 80% usually allows for one that be missed, although in a quick run on PC (where fewer appear) you may need to clear them all to reach that figure. Save yourself a bit of trouble on console by avoiding the Shabby Doll.

Mother

Achieved by taking care of Eileen but not your apartment, do the following to receive this ending:

• Save Eileen by finishing the final battle before she dies
• Do not clear 80% or more of the hauntings that appear in Room 302

Eileen is the only concern here. The better a job you do to protect her in the field and less you leave her alone, the slower she will walk towards the bloodbath in the final battle and the more likely you'll have any chance of saving her. Simply forget about hauntings or only clear the ones that are really bothering you.

Eileen's Death

The second worst ending with one part of it obvious, this one is obtained by doing the following:

• Finish the final battle after Eileen dies in the blood pool
• Clear 80% or more of the hauntings that appear in Room 302

Disregarding Eileen in the field by often leaving her alone and in rooms with enemies will ensure she becomes more possessed so that she walks to a very quick death in the final battle. But even if she walks slowly, just delay killing Walter until she dies. Otherwise, clear each haunting once it appears or ensure they're all gone before heading to the final fight, although you may be able to leave one on most runs and still be okay. Avoid picking up the Shabby Doll (on console) to prevent one haunting.

21 Sacraments

The worst ending imaginable, this one is achieved by showing a disregard for everything. That means:

• Do not clear 80% of the hauntings in Room 302
• Do not save Eileen in the Final Sacraments battle

Disregarding Eileen and often leaving her alone will ensure she's more possessed and walks quickly in the final battle, or simply just wait for her to die even if she walks slowly. Ignore all hauntings in your apartment or at least make sure you don't clear most of them.

The main requirement of saving Eileen simply comes down to killing Walter in time before she walks to her death inside the blood pool, but understand that how good a job you do of taking care of her before that will dictate whether this is even possible.

The more Eileen takes damage or is left alone while Henry escorts her, the more blood flow will appear on her body and the more possessed she will become, making her walk faster in the final fight.

After taking enough damage with Henry, she may kneel over with an exhausted exhale and gather herself. If this happens just once you should be totally fine, but any more and you're entering dangerous territory, at least on the hardest difficulty.

As her condition deteriorates, the blood flow over her body will become darker and more prevalent and she'll start getting more and more scared (or "scawed") as she begins talking like a child. At some point she may call out for her mommy and daddy (no Henry, that's not you). By this point she is likely compromised or at least very difficult to save.

As Eileen reaches her worst condition, she'll have dark blood flow all over her body and she'll have brief moments where she'll begin to turn into a Ghost Victim. Her body will begin to convulse, she'll utter some alien-speak (subtitled like "%#$%#$"), and your screen will flash red if nearby, harming you in the process just like a Ghost. If you've reached this point... she is completely gone and you almost certainly won't be able to save her on any difficulty.

So how can you take action? First, you must understand what impacts her condition.

Eileen's status will worsen if:

• She spends time alone while Henry is somewhere else.
• She takes damage or bumps from enemies.

Eileen's status will DRAMATICALLY worsen if:

• She spends time alone in rooms with enemies.

The last point is the most important one. Even if you do a good job of otherwise protecting Eileen, leaving her in a room with enemies for just a few minutes can completely compromise her. I've personally witnessed this by leaving her in a room with Ghosts in the subway, after which she reached 100% possessed status by flashing my screen red as she began to turn into a Ghost just below the subway.

Okay, so exactly what should you do if you want to save her? This:

• Always take Eileen with you when possible -- her taking a few hits is always better than time spent alone, even in rooms without enemies.
• When you must ditch her, leave her in a room with no enemies, do your business and return as quickly as you can.
  SPECIFICALLY, ONLY LEAVE HER ALONE 3 TIMES:
  1. Subway World: In the southeast maintenance room as you open up the new route with Cynthia's Commuter Ticket (or southwest room if the other is locked).
  2. Water Prison World: 3F 1 o'clock cell as you jump down to the basement.
  3. Building World: B12 elevator as you acquire and use the Billiard Ball and get the Volleyball on the way.
• In areas with lots of enemies where combat is tough to avoid, give Eileen a weapon to defend herself and focus on clearing enemies around her (or leave her in a previous room without enemies and quickly clear them, but do not leave her for long).

As for the fight itself, you'll need to maximize your efficiency. Run straight for the large body and use the Umbilical Cord, then run for the four Spears on one side and stab them all in together. Now repeat on the other side and prepare to unleash your charge up swing once Walter stands.

The Rusty Axe is perhaps the best and most reliable weapon for this fight with charge up attacks on repeat, but just be sure to step back out of Walter's bodyslam range after landing each hit. The Spade can be very effective as well, especially if you can back Walter into a corner where he has nowhere else to step back to and you can attack him from the same location just outside of his pipe range.

Note that even after killing Walter, a few seconds will pass before the end cutscene begins. Eileen can still die during these moments. I've experienced it on both sides where I heard her screams maybe 2 seconds before the cutscene and she officially died, but I've also heard her just starting to scream for a half second or less before the cutscene and got an ending where she lived. So just do you best and hope those extra few seconds don't undo your work.

What About the Holy Candle Trick?

What about the trick where you place a Holy Candle at Eileen's feet right before grabbing the Umbilical Cord? It clears up her status, right? Well, I used to believe this worked and many others are adamant it does, but I have tested it extensively on PS2 (NTSC and PAL versions) and PC. I've found it to actually have zero effect whatsoever.

I've dropped Holy Candles right before the Umbilical Cord, in the lobby, right at the start of Outside Room 302 or before, and even multiple of these places or multiple candles together and even candles next to her platform and stairs in the final battle. I've tried it on every difficulty and each general state of possession (light, medium, heavy). Every single time she walked to her death within the same couple seconds, candle or no candle, accounting for any variance such as text prompts or how quickly cutscenes are skipped.

I genuinely used to think this worked and helped me in the past, and some some people still claim it works. But after my extensive testing more recently, I'm absolutely convinced it's the placebo effect or other factors, such as the multiple enemies on the way to the Umbilical Cord. When I killed all enemies and saved in 302 to even the playing field for every test attempt, it never made any difference.

Anyone noticing some difference probably comes down to doing a better job of getting Eileen to the Umbilical Cord safely. And possibly just doing a better job on Walter. I understand that seeing the blood flow disappear from Eileen's body can be a powerful thing... but the only trick the Holy Candle carries over to the final fight is one that tricks your mind into thinking it's doing anything.

So it all comes down to the old-fashioned method. Take proper care of Eileen if you want to save her. The single most important thing you can do is to never leave her alone in rooms with enemies.

This is the other factor that dictates which ending you'll receive. Here we'll only do a brief overview on how to treat them, while the Hauntings section dives into each and every haunting one by one.

The official requirement for the hauntings side of the endings is whether you do or do not clear 80% or more of the hauntings. Usually this gives you a buffer of one you do not have to clear, but understand that in a quick speed run, especially on PC where fewer hauntings appear, you may need to clear all that show up to reach that figure. So instead of the 80% thing, try to focus on clearing all hauntings and you'll be better off.

To do this, simply exorcise each haunting that appears when you return to Room 302. Leave the living room radio on to speed things up, knowing that it will blare static if there's a haunting somewhere in your apartment that you cannot see. If the radio is quiet, you're good to go. If you leave it on, it'll remain on for every visit, which is very helpful.

Note that some hauntings will go away on their own after some time and these count as uncleared. Don't take the risk and always clear them if you can as soon as they appear. Also note that some hauntings will come back even multiple times. You didn't do anything wrong, it just happens.

To clear a haunting, find where it is and place a Holy Candle either on the floor or on a chair right near the object, depending on where it is. Your screen will flash and you'll hear a distinct sound indicating the haunting is close, even if you can't otherwise see it.

Note that Saint Medallions can also be equipped to exorcise hauntings, but those are better saved for the outside world and will degrade quickly if used for hauntings, but go ahead and use them if it's all you got at the moment. One is usually only enough to clear one haunting and about half of another before breaking.

And that's it. Refer to the Hauntings section for a list of all hauntings and where to place the candles.