Alan Wake 2: How to solve the Valhalla Nursing Home basement combination code lock

What lurks beneath.

An in game screenshot of the Valhalla Nursing Home in Alan Wake 2.
Screenshot by Dot Esports.

As you venture through the Valhalla Nursing Home in Alan Wake 2, you will eventually have to make your way through the basement in order to turn the power back on. 

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If you explore a little bit whilst you are in the basement, you will come across a red locked box that requires a combination to be opened. 

This is one of the simpler locked box puzzles to solve in the game, but it is often easy to overthink these kinds of things, especially in a game like Alan Wake 2 which is full of puzzles and riddles. With this in mind, we are going to be breaking down how to solve the combination code for the locked box in the Valhalla Nursing Home basement in this simple guide. 

How to get into the Valhalla Nursing Home basement in Alan Wake 2 

An in game screenshot of the Valhalla Nursing Home map in Alan Wake 2.
The basement door can be found at the location marked by the yellow player arrow on the map above. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Once you have spoken to Rose near the pond after watching Tor venture into the Overlap, you will obtain her key fob and be able to access previously locked areas. With the key fob in hand, head to the basement so that you turn the power back on in the building. 

An in game screenshot of the Valhalla Nursing Home basement door in Alan Wake 2.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to find the basement door. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

I genuinely had a bit of trouble actually finding the door to the basement, which definitely made me feel more than a little dumb at first. I circled the building about three times before I eventually spotted the door. To be fair, it’s much more difficult than you might imagine to find the basement door due to how dark it is in-game.

The basement door can be found on the location marked on the map above, but I’ve also included an image of the door itself with Saga shining her flashlight on it so that you can get a better look.

Be wary as you start to explore the basement, as there are several Taken dotted around the area waiting to jump out at you. They can easily jump-scare you here, as the basement is quite a claustrophobic area. It is also very, very dark, so keep your flashlight ready at all times. 

Make sure that you are stocked up on ammo, flashlight batteries, and health items before you go down there, as the Taken can get the jump on you pretty quickly if you aren’t vigilant. 

How to find the Valhalla Nursing Home basement combination code lock in Alan Wake 2

An in game screenshot of interior of the Valhalla Nursing Home basement in Alan Wake 2.
if you squint, you can see the red lockbox in the left-hand corner. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

As you search for the fuses that are needed to turn the power back on in the nursing home, you are likely to come across the locked box as well as the combination, as they are all scattered around the same areas that you will be searching in. 

The lock box itself can be found behind the room with a boiler in it, as far back as you can go in the basement. A defining feature here is that there is an old-timey film projector in the same room that will play an odd clip if you return to the room once you have switched the power back on. You might not immediately spot the lockbox, but it’s hard to miss the projector, so keep an eye out for it if you are struggling to find the box. 

An in game screenshot of the Valhalla Nursing Home lockbox  code in Alan Wake 2.
The code can be found on a corkboard in the basement. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

The code for the locked box is written on a piece of paper attached to a corkboard, as shown above. There are no cryptic codes or clues with this lock combination. It’s simply written on the paper, which is a nice change of pace. The code is 273, so all you have to do is return to the lock box and enter the code on the padlock. You’ll get some ammo, bandages, and a manuscript page for your efforts. 

Final thoughts

As I said before, this is definitely one of the easier boxes to unlock in the game. That said, it is easy to get turned around in the basement as even though it is a small, contained area, it’s even darker down there than it is outside. 

It is hard to miss the lockbox if you are doing a bit of exploration whilst on your mission to find the fuses and get the power back in the nursing home, so do a bit of hunting around whilst you are in the basement, and you are sure to find both the lockbox and the piece of paper with the code written on it in no time. 

Author
Image of Antonia Haynes
Antonia Haynes
Antonia Haynes is a freelance general gaming writer for Dot Esports who resides in a small seaside town in England where she has lived her whole life. Beginning her video game writing career back in 2014, and having an avid love of gaming since childhood, she became a staff writer in 2018 before becoming freelance in 2023 with her role at Dot Esports. Her ideal day would consist of junk food, fluffy pyjamas and video games because quite frankly going outside is overrated.