The Evil Within, which is now part of Xbox Game Pass, is a survival horror game that incorporates classic elements from the genre's predecessors while implementing its own takes. Players have to battle through horrific hordes of enemies while managing their stamina and resources carefully, which can wear some players down.
Keeping a level head is the best thing players can do while playing The Evil Within, and the advice doesn't get much better than that. The next level from there is understanding the mechanics of the game, its enemies, and what it expects of the player.
Green Gel Tips
Green Gel is a liquid found in glass jars throughout The Evil Within. Players can use Green Gel to upgrade various parts of their character and equipment. From a lore standpoint, it's implied that the gel is applied directly to a patient's mind, and then improves some sort of neural function, which enhances certain capabilities.
Green Gel earlier in the game should be mainly used on match capacity and stamina levels. Players are often tempted to upgrade melee damage, but enemies are easy to stealth kill in the early sections of the campaign so that should be the focus.
Conserve Ammo
Like any survival horror game, resource management is the main skill players should learn while playing The Evil Within. Ammo is hard to come by and expensive to purchase so players should make every shot count. Learning an enemy's weak points and behavior patterns will go a long way in terms of saving Green Gel and ammo.
Stealth kills are another great way to conserve ammo since most basic enemies are weak to them. Stealth kills are performed by sneaking up to an enemy from behind and press the attack button when the prompt appears.
Angel Statues
These statues can be found throughout the game and are actually destructible items. Breaking a statue usually drops a key that players can use to open lockers in the safe havens. Lockers contain randomized items, that are usually very helpful to the player. Sometimes they'll have Green Gel, other times they'll contain ammo, and occasionally it's completely unpredictable what will be inside.
As the game progresses, lockers and keys become more important since resources become more expensive and rarer. In the second half of The Evil Within, lockers begin to follow a pattern of what items are hidden inside so it should be easy to guess what players are going to get.
Save Often
There's no penalty for saving a game state in The Evil Within so be sure to use the feature often. It sometimes feels like it's the only part of the game on the player's side. Saving often helps to guarantee progress and prevent loss of important items when the player dies. The Evil Within can be very unpredictable so it's best to approach every encounter with caution.
Saving also helps players bypass certain game mechanics like the safe haven's lockers. Early in the game, the lockers contain random items that might not be what players want. It's best to use the lockers for Green Gel, so they should always save before opening one. If they don't get what they want, reload the save and open the locker again until the desired item is obtained.
Run Cautiously
Sprinting is an important tool to use in The Evil Within since it helps create distance between the player and any slow-moving enemies in the area. The only downside to sprinting too much is that it depletes Sebastian's stamina meter and leaves him winded. When he's winded, he'll stand in the same spot until he can catch his breath, leaving himself open to any attacks.
It's because of this winded animation that it's important to upgrade stamina as much as needed. Higher stamina levels mean it'll be easier to outrun enemies and create that much-needed space. When players have space they can reload, heal, and assess the situation much better than from close range.
Take It Slow
This tip should be pretty intuitive but it's something a lot of new players struggle with. The Evil Within loves to stack the odds against the player in numerous ways, one of them being traps. Littered through battle arenas and hallways of buildings are bear traps and tripwires that can deal annoying amounts of damage if players aren't careful.
The good thing about these traps is that players can dismantle them for parts. Breaking down a trap allows players to upgrade their crossbow and ammo. It is also possible to lure enemies into traps to conserve resources for later fights.
Try New Tactics
Every boss in the game has some sort of trick or gimmick players can use to defeat them faster than by normal means. Some bosses spawn traps on the battlefield that players can farm indefinitely to craft better crossbow ammo and deal big damage to them. Players who don't use crossbows often might not notice this, and they might try their classic run and gun strategy to no avail.
Each boss is a puzzle of sorts that players should explore new things with. The game wants players to shift their perspective and play style for each boss, and doing so yields a lot more reward than charging in headfirst.
Burn Your Enemies
Throughout the game, certain enemies will fall as if they've died but will return when the player turns their back. It's important to burn corpses to prevent them from coming back. Stealth kills and headshots prevent these fake deaths but if enemies are killed any other way, it's better to be safe than sorry.
This applies to bodies that already seem dead too. Players can come across corpses that reanimate after they've walked past them and that creates an inescapable pincer attack nobody wants to be a part of. These bodies are the most important to burn since there's never a guarantee they won't reanimate.
Weapon Priority
The Evil Within prioritizes certain weapons over others, especially earlier in the game. In the first parts of the game, melee is king so players should use this time to save as much ammo as possible for later. After this, players will receive the most ammo for their pistol, so they should upgrade that pretty far along since it can be used a lot. This ammo should still be conserved, though, since certain bosses can take a lot of hits from it.
Crossbow upgrades are the second most important since this weapon is the most versatile. The different kinds of bolts make it generally useful in almost any scenario and it deals decent damage.
Crossbow Tips
Players learn pretty quickly that the crossbow is a great friend of theirs in The Evil Within. The various kinds of bolts help against different types of enemies and can get a player out of a sticky situation. For starters, players should keep some trap parts handy in case they need to craft bolts on the fly. Filling up on bolts isn't always a safe bet since certain bolts work best on certain types of enemies.
Freeze bolts, for example, are especially effective against larger enemies, restricting their movement and giving players time to regroup. Harpoon bolts are also good for enemies who wield chainsaws since they can't deflect them. Upgrading the crossbow is almost never a bad idea and try out different bolts against certain enemies to see what effects they might have.