The Unwritten Rules of Silent Hill f Explained

Silent Hill f is, in some ways, a return to form for the franchise. Despite having a wildly different setting than the games that preceded it, Silent Hill f’s focus on atmosphere, mature storytelling, and shamelessly obtuse design elements puts it in fervent conversation with its early predecessors like Silent Hill 2.

Like those older games, Silent Hill f can also be relentlessly difficult at times, with its higher combat and puzzle difficulty settings making for some truly challenging gameplay passages. Silent Hill f's melee-action focus means that it unfolds at a quicker pace than many of its contemporaries, and things can quickly get unmanageable if players don't mind their resources and strategy. For optimal success, it's good to have a strong understanding of the game's structural and design pillars, so as to better tackle the bizarre and brutal challenges hidden therein.

These tips are especially important for those playing Silent Hill f on Hard mode, where resources are scarce and enemies are more deadly.

The ABCs of Silent Hill f, and How to Succeed

Use Items Wisely and Frequently

One of the most interesting aspects of Silent Hill f is its abundance of consumables—an item category that is usually rather sparse in the franchise's other entries. There are standard healing items like painkillers and bandages, but also items that correlate to the game's other two combat resources, stamina and sanity. Healing is important for obvious reasons, restoring sanity in a pinch can turn the tide of battle, and refreshing or fortifying stamina can be the difference between dodging and dying. As such, players ought not to be conservative with these items; if they have them, they should use them.

Something important to note is that once an item is dropped, it can't be retrieved again—all the more reason to make use of what's on hand, ensuring that there's always storage space for new inventory. This rule applies to weapons as well: if a player swaps a weapon out for a newer one, they won't be able to pick the older one up again. In this same vein, Toolkits in Silent Hill f can be used to replenish an item's durability, but since they always fill the durability meter by about half, they should only be used when a weapon is close to breaking.

Master the Focus Attack

As previously mentioned, having sufficient sanity in Silent Hill f can be the difference between life and death, and Focus Attacks are a major reason why. The game calls this maneuver a devastating attack, but arguably undersells just how useful it can be. Focus Attacks border on being overpowered, dealing massive damage in a single blow while staggering most enemies, including bosses, giving players the chance to use items or continue with follow-up attacks. Thus, getting a feel for the attack's charging sequence, prioritizing sanity upgrades, collecting sanity-fortifying items, and using sanity-or focus-boosting Omamori like Hawk and Hound can effectively lead to a Focus Attack build, turning Hinako into a much more formidable combatant.

You Don't Always Have to Fight

This is especially important to remember in the early game, when Silent Hill f is being generous with weapons, items, and Toolkits; the game becomes much more stingy with these later on. Indeed, especially on Hard mode, Silent Hill f isn't at all afraid to leave its players without any means to defend themselves, which can lead to some frustrating situations. There are Omamori that can slow weapon degradation, but ultimately, the best way to ensure that Hinako isn't left up a creek without a paddle is to avoid unnecessary conflict. There's no real reward for killing every enemy she comes across, so unless a foe is directly in Hinako's path, it's usually wise to turn tail and run, saving resources for when they're really needed.