(Normal) Pyramid Head Blue Creek Strategy

This strategy results in a fight of about 56 seconds. It's over 4 seconds faster than standing and shooting. It will only work on PC since it requires the reload key.

Video contains annotations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxDVB0Qe3Jk

This strategy takes advantage of reloading during this boss's invincibility frames, as well as moving him towards the stairs while damaging him. This gives a nice speed up.

When you shoot, you can hear the sound of metal. If you do not hear that sound, then the boss did not receive damage. 34 bullets of the handgun will defeat the boss.

The boss is invincible while stepping with his right foot (while he is lowering it). There are also invincibility frames during his attack animations, but they will not occur using this strategy.

(Normal) Pyramid Head x2 Great Knife Strategy

Speed Strategy for Hotel Pyramid Head fight on Normal.

Video contains annotations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I93VQ5vhzXg

IMPORTANT: The AI of the Pyramid Heads in this fight is affected by their position on screen. Playing in lower or higher resolution may result in a different battle. This strategy is tested and working on 320x240 and 640x480. When playing on 640x480, the initial attack of the PH on James's right executes a bit earlier. I found better patterns on 640x480, but the strategy is the same.

Good to note, Pyramid Head will not attack James if it is aimed at by Great Knife.

Any% Tutorial 2022 (updated strats)

Still watch Punchy's tutorial as he explains certain things better, but I go over most of the innovations since that last video was made.

https://youtu.be/o_30tKKXhQU

Consistent Out of Bounds Method

So this one is different than the usual method which is just going for it. As well it serves as a handy tool to have the general idea of where you should be going after you are out of bounds

https://youtu.be/Twy_r3SED3Y

Find which PC version of the game you have

There are 3 main versions of the game: North American 1.0, North American 1.1, and European (Director's Cut), and of those there are no-cd crack versions flying around. 
If you want to know which version you have, upload your sh2pc.exe file to this site: https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha1_checksum.html
Make sure it's in SHA1 mode and compare the number you get with those below:

Vanilla
 DC 9cfb34b42da3a40975a1afa8df92c0335aeef43a
 1.0 41f100f3f93b448bee739342acb9539c428dc1c8
 1.1 9f34031fab283ca36d4511ae28464f1bfc7ef8f3

No-CD
 DC 6a89158a97a0749aec9b8fe49e774b6ec3c6dd3e
 1.0 3d7e1161772e0a39cb9d57d92cfaf8b5e4871b04
 1.1 9f34031fab283ca36d4511ae28464f1bfc7ef8f3

No-CD +icon
 DC f64dbc94d0a90ffebc9218983cf753bfd12204df
 1.0 d7e1d39889fc037368c791d5bd2aff3298244e00
 1.1 d3774346e9dba506ec7890dcb9e1fb5ab2ac7256

If your exe is one of those, and you have no d3d8.dll file in the same folder as sh2pc.exe, you should be running a legal build.

Flesh Lips Normal/Normal Fight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWTyaGcsxI

The whole idea is that Flesh Lips is aggro'd by the light. By immediately turning it off and gunning the first one the second won't notice you giving you an instant kill and a safe kill after that.

This should consistently get you 3 shot Flesh Lip kills on Normal/Normal

How to transfer SH2 saves PC

Follow this tutorial: https://youtu.be/bEdedNV_fqk

If you'd like the FOLDER 01 in the video here it is https://www.mediafire.com/file/z82rj7bcplas53b/Folder_01.zip/file

PC Tutorial by DMJ

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/124016825

Wanted to share so others may see. The strategy for skipping the map can be done a different way, but still great info in the tutorial.

RNG Manipulation mini tutorial

https://youtu.be/2obKxF7N8FI

RNG Chart: https://www.speedrun.com/tools/RNG_Chart_kwzmv.7z
Lucky Hill: https://github.com/JokieW/LuckyHill/releases

Special thanks: Finicky45 (aka sh2_luck), Jokie

Search view mechanics / Optimizations and minor route changes

Basically just explaining all of the optimizations present in Finicky45's runs on archive.org and applying them. 

https://youtu.be/_CGvA2oorjI

Setting Up & Getting Started (PC Version)

Silent Hill 2 was ported to the PC in late 2002 (2003 in Europe as "Director's Cut") by Creature Labs and was released on 3 CDs (there is no DVD version for PC). I have made this portable version which all you have to do is simply extract the .7z to somewhere (preferably OUTSIDE of Program Files so it doesn't need to be ran as admin).

#Getting up and running

You will need 3 things (click each to download):

[Portable Game](https://discord.gg/e8zE75EQau) (check pinned messages, can't link to it directly on SRC)
[DxWnd](https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/)
[DxWnd config](https://www.mediafire.com/file/ssicto2755d7us9/Silent+Hill+2.dxw)

Now, make a folder on your C:\ root called Games, then extract and move the game folder to it so you have "C:\Games\Silent Hill 2" (if you want to change this read on).

Next extract DxWnd (I recommend moving it to My Documents, its a very good application for running older games and making them windowed too). Open DxWnd and right click in the window and selection "Import..." select "Silent Hill 2.dxw".

Now in DxWnd just double click Silent Hill 2 and the game should launch in a 640X480 window. There is no need to run the game in compatibility mode or make any changes in the game folder at all, just DxWnd and ingame settings.

#Changing Game Directory

If you want to place the game elsewhere, in DxWnd right click "Silent Hill 2" and click Modify, then change "Path: C:\Games\Silent Hill 2\sh2pc.exe". If you plan to move the game to Program Files you must run the game and DxWnd as admin to save, change settings etc.

https://i.imgur.com/a7DTfyu.png

#Changing Resolution

In DxWnd right click Silent Hill 2 and click Modify, then change "Window initial position and size" to something like 1280X960. This will simply upscale the game from 640X480, for speedruns its recommended to keep the ingame resolution at 640X480.

https://i.imgur.com/uxf0JQV.png
https://i.imgur.com/Zi5Mqld.png

#Windowed or Fullscreen

By default I've set the game to run in a modal window (borderless), to make it run fullscreen or on a second monitor, set your monitor resolution to match DxWnd, for example 640X480. In Windows 10 go to Display Settings, select the monitor you want to use for the game, scroll down and check "Make this my main display". Next scroll down to Advanced Display Settings and click "Display adapter properties for Display X", click "List All Modes" and select "640 by 480, True Color (32 bit), 60 Hertz"

https://i.imgur.com/LAPojKO.png

The game should now launch as "fake fullscreen".

#Controllers

This game being as old as it is does not "see" analog buttons such as triggers (L2/R2/LT/RT), what you need to do is download:

[JoyToKey](https://joytokey.net/en/)

Extract and move it to somewhere like My Documents and then run it (if you're running sh2pc.exe as admin you must also run this as admin). JoyToKey should see every input from your controller, all you need to do is map buttons to keys and then assign those same keys ingame. Leave the analog sticks as "none", the game will handle these fine.

https://i.imgur.com/2Au4hog.png

For speedruns you want to map ENTER and ESCAPE to something on the controller, you can skip certain cutscenes (particularly ones that add to IGT) on the first frame by holding escape before a cutscene starts.

#Livesplit

Download the "In-Game Time Script" from the Resources tab, then in Livesplit right click > "Edit Layout", then "+" > "Control" > "Scriptable Auto Splitter". Click OK then right click Livesplit > "Edit Splits..." and click "Activate". Finally, right click Livesplit > "Compare Against" > "Game Time". Livesplit must be ran as admin if sh2pc.exe is running as admin.

Silent Hill 2 Any Difficulty Tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nawgONEJtyU

Silent Hill 2 Endings guide

Hey, so, it came to my attention on the Discord server that the exact way in which the endings are decided weren't known yet.
So I looked at the code and extracted them in a simple guide:
https://github.com/JokieW/SilentHill2Endings/blob/master/README.md
These were taken from the PC version, but they should apply to the other versions as well.

Hopefully this is useful to you!

Supergamer57

Jokie

Punchy

Aaron

Plywood

Ecdycis

Kais

GalacticLightN

Silent Hill 2 (PC)

FailedUplink

ChazUltima

Anariina

Normal

Any Difficulty

Hard

QS/QL

Difficulty

Going forward we will be requiring a visible IGT timer on submissions on the PC version, preferably using the LiveSplit script. Most people already do this, but we're making it mandatory to make run verification easier. Thank you for your understanding.

Runs submitted prior to this change will no

Namn	Författare
(Normal) Pyramid Head Blue Creek Strategy	Supergamer57 7 years ago
(Normal) Pyramid Head x2 Great Knife Strategy	Supergamer57 7 years ago
Any% Tutorial 2022 (updated strats)	GalacticLightN 1 year ago
Consistent Out of Bounds Method	Ecdycis 4 years ago
Find which PC version of the game you have	Jokie 3 years ago
Flesh Lips Normal/Normal Fight	Ecdycis 4 years ago
How to transfer SH2 saves PC	Kais 11 months ago
PC Tutorial by DMJ	Plywood 6 years ago
RNG Manipulation mini tutorial	Aaron 4 years ago
Search view mechanics / Optimizations and minor route changes	GalacticLightN 1 year ago
Setting Up & Getting Started (PC Version)	Aaron 2 years ago
Silent Hill 2 Any Difficulty Tutorial	Punchy 5 years ago
Silent Hill 2 Endings guide	Jokie 6 years ago