In revisiting Silent Hill 2, developer Bloober Team has remained pretty faithful to the original game–most of the story and dialogue are unchanged, and while a lot of puzzles have been altered, they tend to remain true to the spirit of those in the original. Silent Hill 2 also maintains the multiple endings of the 2001 release, but in keeping with the rest of the remake’s philosophy, it seems to have changed how you unlock them, while adding a few new ones, as well.
There are eight total endings to the Silent Hill 2 Remake, with two new ones added to the six that were previously available in various Silent Hill 2 releases. That includes the four original endings and two infamous joke endings. We’ve been scouring Silent Hill 2 for all the information we can get about the puzzles, story, and endings, in order to compile everything you need to unlock them all.
Here’s how to unlock each of Silent Hill 2 Remake’s endings.
Note: Obviously, this guide contains ending spoilers, although we’re trying to minimize them. This guide is also a work-in-progress as we keep playing through Silent Hill 2 Remake and its new game plus mode to unlock all its endings. We’ll update it as we discover more.
“Leave” Ending
This is the ending that players seem most likely to get, and is considered the “good” ending, so far as any ending of Silent Hill 2 is good. This one has James coming to terms with his situation and leaving Silent Hill with Laura.
As with the original release of Silent Hill 2, the three main endings to the game seem to be dictated by your behavior throughout a playthrough. The actual requirements for the Leave ending are potentially a little hazy, but as in the 2001 game, they generally seem to require James showing dedication to Mary over Maria. Spend as little time with Maria as you can, don’t visit her repeatedly, and maybe don’t show too much desire to save her when she’s in trouble. You should also try to keep James at full health whenever possible, and it might help to inspect Mary’s photo in your inventory a few times during your run as well.
“Maria” Ending
If the “Leave” ending is about James’ dedication to Mary, the “Maria” ending is the opposite. Here, James leaves Silent Hill with Maria at the end of the game.
The requirements here seem to be the opposite of those in the Leave ending. Try to spend more time with Maria, keeping her close to James when they’re together–so don’t sprint off and leave her. Prioritize helping Maria if she gets into trouble with monsters and help keep her from taking damage. Avoid looking at Mary’s photo, and when Maria suggests something–like leading you toward Laura when she heads to Brookhaven Hospital–listen to her rather than heading off in a different direction to explore.
“In Water” Ending
The worst of the three main endings, In Water sees James succumbing to his grief and trauma and choosing death over life.
The primary driver for this ending seems to be playing James as if he doesn’t care about himself. You want to avoid “excessive” healing–that is, healing James immediately after he’s hurt or up to and over full health; instead, heal him only when it’s dire, and without overdoing it. You can tell when James is damaged by the blood spots on his jacket; if you heal with a health drink after two or three hits, James will likely still be a little hurt, allowing you to avoid over-healing, or using more healing than is necessary to get him to full health. By the same token, don’t use syringes, which are enough to fully heal James, unless death is imminent. You can also try inspecting the knife in James’s inventory from time to time during your playthrough, which suggests that James is contemplating hurting himself.
“Ritual” Ending
The Ritual ending only becomes available after you’ve beaten the game once and unlocked the New Game Plus mode, which makes several additional items available throughout the game. In this paranormal ending, James rows out to a sacred spot on an island in Toluca Lake and attempts to resurrect Mary with an occult ritual.
We’re still working on finding the components for this ending, but it seems likely that it hews closely to what’s in the original Silent Hill 2. In that game, you needed four items to reach the ritual ending: the Book of Lost Memories, the White Chrism, the Obsidian Chalice, and the book Crimson Ceremony.
If the UFO and Dog endings are any indication, it seems these items might not be in their same locations from the 2001 game. However, all you need to do for this ending is find all four items and then complete the game–but you should then avoid doing the things required for the UFO ending or the Dog ending (including finding the complete Dog key).
“Dog” Ending
Silent Hill 2 also includes two joke endings that suppose some alternative culprits behind the events of the game and James’s torment. We won’t say more about the Dog ending than that.
To get this ending, you need to start a New Game Plus run and find a new item: the Dog key. Grabbing it requires scouring the town of Silent Hill when you have the ability to search its streets, before you complete Brookhaven Hotel. First, check Big Jay’s pet shop on the corner Katz Street and Neely Street, before heading to Wood Side Apartments. In the back room of the store, inside a pet carrier, you’ll find the Broken Key Part.
After visiting Rosewater Park and meeting Maria, you’ll again get access to the streets of Silent Hill, albeit in a new area. Keep your eyes out in the neighborhood here for a dog house, which was formerly behind a closed gate. You’ll get the second item, the Bone Key, inside it. Combine the two items to make a complete key. Save it until you reach the Lakeview Hotel at the end of the game, and after watching James’s video tape, use it to open the nearby Observation Room.
“UFO” Ending
This is another weird one that requires taking part in multiple steps, and also suggests some other intelligence working behind the scenes in Silent Hill.
In New Game Plus, you need to find a specific item and visit several key places in the game with it to unlock the UFO ending. You can get the clues to what you need in the Groovy Music store, where you find the Broken Record and Vinyl Glue items early in the game, before visiting Wood Side Apartments. Check the bench on the right side of the store from the entrance, near the display cases, to find a magazine. It contains several clues, telling you there’s an alien device in a Silent Hill storefront, and that strange things have happened on a rooftop, near Toluca Lake, and at Lakeview Hotel.
First, you need the alien device: the Blue Gem. Smash the window of the storefront just north of Big Jay’s on Neely Street and you’ll find it in a jewelry box there.
This is a new key item that will stay in your inventory for the rest of the game.
Next, head to the rooftop mentioned on the magazine cover–the roof of Saul Apartments on Saul Street. You need to go to this location anyway to get the Jukebox Button to solve the puzzle at Neely’s Bar.
As you make your way through the apartment building, the linear path will eventually take you to the roof, where you should hear some strange, vaguely sci-fi sound effects. When you hear it, inspect the Blue Gem; it’ll glow and you’ll hear more strange sounds.
We’re still working through this ending, but the clues suggest you will also want to pull out the Blue Gem at Toluca Lake–likely on the dock after completing the prison, before rowing across to Lakeside Hotel.
The final location will be inside Lakeside Hotel. We’ll update this section of the guide as we nail down exactly where that is.
New Endings
There are two new endings in the Silent Hill 2 remake, but so far, details on how to access them are scarce. It’s unclear if these become available after the other endings are uncovered and what the requirements are for them. However, the Silent Hill 2 remake does include two new collectible elements that might have something to do with them. The first is a series of 26 Polaroid photos scattered throughout the game, which seem like they might shed additional light on James and Mary’s story.
You can also find many locations throughout the game where you can trigger Memories, or freeze-frames that reference occurrences in the original Silent Hill 2, acknowledging elements that have been changed between the 2001 version and the remake. The Polaroids and Memories each reward you with a Trophy/Achievement if you find them all, but only if you get them all in a single run through the game. It seems possible that either the Polaroids, the Memories, or both are related to the Silent Hill 2 remake’s new endings, and we’ll update this section of the guide as we uncover more details.
There are many more puzzles and confusing sections in the Silent Hill 2 remake. For more help with Bloober Team’s remake, use our Silent Hill 2 Remake guides hub.