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REFERENCE

Silent Hill 2 (2001) Puzzles: Answers for Every Riddle Level

Puzzles
Eleven in the main story and one in Born from a Wish, per one guide.
Random
Several codes change on every run, so no guide can give them; this page says how to read them.
Riddle Level
Easy, Normal, Hard and the hidden Extra change the clue and often the answer.
Optional
The apartment safe and the hospital's Trick or Treat chest can be skipped.

How Riddle Level changes the puzzles

💡
Your Riddle Level decides which clue note you find and, for several puzzles, which answer opens the lock. Some puzzles share an answer across two levels (Easy with Normal, or Hard with Extra), some have four different answers, and some draw a new code on every run. A random code is never in any guide: the game hides it in a note, a photo or a wall you have to read. The answers below are for the 2001 game, not the 2024 remake. Check your Riddle Level on your save file if you are not sure which one you are playing.

Answers that never change

PuzzleWhereEasyNormalHardExtra
Grandfather clockWood Side ApartmentsSet the hands to 9:109:109:109:10
Old coin desk (slots left to right)Blue Creek Apartments, room 105Old Man, empty, Snake, empty, PrisonerEmpty, Old Man, Prisoner, empty, SnakeEmpty, Old Man, empty, Snake, PrisonerOld Man, empty, Snake, Prisoner, empty
Third-floor patient wing keypadBrookhaven Hospital7335733513281328
Free the innocent manLabyrinthKidnapperArsonistCounterfeiterThief
Music boxes (left to right)Lakeview HotelAny box in any slotCinderella, Snow White, Little MermaidCinderella, Little Mermaid, Snow WhiteSame as Hard

Notes on those answers

  • Coin desk: three guides give the same four orders. There are only three coins (Old Man, Snake and Prisoner); two of the five slots always stay empty. The desk gives the Lyne House Key, which opens room 209.
  • Keypad: two guides give both codes. On Hard and Extra the whiteboard clue speaks of the letter T, and 1328 traces a T on the keypad.
  • Free the innocent man: two guides give the four answers. Find the innocent man among the hanged corpses, then pull the rope in the same position in the room of nooses.
  • Music boxes: two guides say the clue is the same on Hard and Extra, and both give the two orders above.
  • Grandfather clock: two guides give 9:10. One adds that you need the Clock Key; the other, that once the time is right James can push the clock aside.

Codes that change every run

  1. Apartment safe (optional)

    Two guides explain it. Read the code from the note, then turn the dial: any direction to the first number, right to the second, left to the third, right to the fourth. On Hard some numbers are Roman numerals; on Extra letters stand in for numbers above 9, counting a as 10, b as 11 and so on.

  2. The Louise box (hospital)

    One guide: combine the two keys and use them, then enter the code from the typewriter's carbon paper on the button lock and the code written in blood on the wall on the dial lock.

  3. Historical Society keypad

    One guide: two or three keys light up. The code uses only those digits, so try the few possible orders.

  4. Box of faces (Labyrinth)

    Two guides say an upside-down face with yellow eyes works on Easy and Normal; one guide adds the upside-down face with green eyes. On Hard and Extra both say the answer varies: one guide says to turn the cube until two doorways in the metal room line up.

  5. Hotel briefcase

    One guide: use the Thinner from the basement elevator on the photo on the bed to wipe off the ink and reveal the code.

Small puzzles and Born from a Wish

  • Trick or Treat chest (hospital, optional): one guide gives the buttons as 3, 1, 3.
  • Gravestone in the Baldwin Mansion (Born from a Wish): one guide says to insert the White and Black boards as they are, and the Red board turned 90 degrees to the left.

Cross-checked

Cross-checked on 24 October 2026 against Andrew Haffenden's (Conquerer) puzzle page and FAQ as published on Silent Hill Memories, the Silent Hill Wiki on Fandom (pages for the Clock Puzzle, Coin Puzzle, Whiteboard Puzzle, Free the Innocent Man, Music Box Puzzle, Safe Puzzle and Rotating Cube Puzzle, and the Silent Hill 2 secrets page), and William Quick's coin puzzle guide on TheGamer. The coin desk orders come from all three; the other answers in the table come from Silent Hill Memories and the Fandom wiki. The count of puzzles, the Louise box, the Historical Society keypad, the green-eyed face, the cube doorways, the briefcase, the Trick or Treat chest and the Baldwin Mansion gravestone come from Silent Hill Memories alone. Not from a playthrough: nobody here has played it.
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