Contains some spoilers! Here I’ll give you some advice (and tell the truth about the nature of the game) that might make the game less scarier. All it takes is to just realize how the game works; once you understand this, the game will appear much less scary and difficult. Only resort to this guide if you find the game absolutely too horrifying to play.

Sanity and health are both important part of the gameplay that you need to keep an eye on. You can check up on them when entering the inventory and seeing the brain and heart icons on the left. There are four stages of sanity: clystar clear, slight headache, head is pounding & hands are shaking and ”...”. There are also four stages of health: all is good, a few cuts and bruises, a wound is bleeding quite badly and barely conscious.

How the sanity system really works
When your sanity is low, you’ll begin to experience gruesome visions and hear noises that aren’t there. Cockroaches will invade your vision and the world begins to pulsate – at a very low level, your sanity will make your movements sluggish and the camera will sway. In this state, it’s extremely difficult to control the character so I advice you to avoid it. If the sanity happens to be at the lowest, kill yourself and you’ll regain some sanity.

Having a low sanity won’t make you any more visible to the monsters despite the game making you assume so. As the developers admitted in an interview, it’s just something they said to make the game scarier. It should be noted that Amnesia was made in 2010 by an indie team so it’s understandable.

On normal mode (this doesn’t apply to the hard mode), low sanity won’t kill you. You can also assume that having a low sanity will make the game play different since Daniel starts seeing things (like corpses etc.) that he wouldn’t normally see. So if it’s difficult for you to maintain your sanity, don’t worry; the game will hardly punish you for it.

Regaining sanity
Avoid the dark, stand near the light and make progress are the tips the game tells you. You can’t regain your sanity more than one level at a time and it takes a couple of minutes to see the effect. But I have another way that I discovered when I first played the game.

So there’s a simple way to restore sanity to the fullest if you are willing to ”fool” the game. Go to a safe area (like a hub area) and wait near a light source till your sanity has been restored one level - then save the game and exit to the menu. When you come back, keep standing next to the light source until your sanity has once again been restored one level. By repeating this, you’ll regain your sanity without risking anything or feeling rushed to progress. However, you won't be able to reach the highest level (crystal clear) with this method - it seems like only entering a hub area for the first time and progressing clears your head enough.

Regaining health
Health is more the thing you need to worry about. There are not many laudanums in the game to restore your health with so avoid taking damage from monsters. It will make your screen blood-red and you won’t be able to see well - if you run out of healing supplies, it won’t be nice to run around with a red screen. It’s even better to let the monster kill you. Three hits and you’re dead.

And now the most important: There are no penalties for dying. It won’t reset your progress nor will it change the story so don’t worry about dying. The developers did that intentionally to prevent the player from getting stuck in an area, maintain the creepy ambience, and avoid frustration.

This game is plentiful in terms of resources (especially tinderboxes) so you don’t need to worry about them. It doesn’t mean that you could have your lantern on all the times but if you look around a bit, you’ll find more than enough supplies to make it through the game. Whenever a memory is playing, darkness won't lower your sanity and you can save some oil by lowering your lantern. You can also save some during monster encounters (when you are forced to crouch in a pitch-black corner and the monster's growls aren't very audible so it's far enough from you) by raising and lowering the lantern in rapid (2-4 seconds) sequences. This will also protect your sanity to some extent.

Okay, I’ll say it clearly: The truth is that the monsters don’t pose a real threat to the player. They are there for the ambience and are literally like moving furniture that can attack you. When the player dies, the monsters of the area usually despawn or appear in another place. Sometimes, they are gone completely. You’ll just wake up in the same spot where you died or maybe you’ll be teleported a few meters away from it. Anyway, you’ll not lose any progress when you die.

How to deal with them? The best tactic for sure is to hide whenever you hear one nearby (one growl and hide!) and wait for a minute in the dark (remember: don’t worry about your sanity). Don’t come out of your hiding place to look around and wonder where the creature could be. More often than not it’s somewhere in front of you or blocking your way out so just hide behind a pile of boxes or whatever and let the monster pass by. They don't check random rooms - only when they've heard a loud noise. There’s literally no need for sneaking because the monster will eventually go away and despawn completely.

There are certain points in the game when the monster spawns in the area; often picking up an item triggers it or entering a certain room crucial for the game. When I figured out the monsters’ behavior, the game stopped being that scary and hard. It’s actually very easy – just run and hide in a corner. No need for stealth. Just wait for the music to stop and you know the monster’s gone. There is only one exception in the game (the last Brute in the sewer, it needs a distraction) that won’t despawn no matter how long you wait. But apart from this one encounter, all the other ones work in the same way; it just depends on the encounter how quickly the monster despawns.

Hiding and waiting will guarantee your survival if you are careful. I used this tactic and didn’t die in the game (only in the water part where you can't use these tips). But running around is out of question. Why? Because the monsters are faster than you. The Grunt can outrun you in a straight corridor but is slower on the turns. The Brute is not as common as the Grunts but unlike them, it is pretty much impossible to outrun it and if one is chasing you down, it’s REALLY important to close the doors behind you. This will buy you valuable time to hide. Oh, if you're wondering which is which, Grunt is the monster with the gaping mouth and Brute is the one holding the weapon.

The game tells you that some of the monsters are merely hallucinations and will be gone in a puff after scaring you mindless. There are only two (or three but one is extremely rare) hallucinations in the game: the Grunt in the archives and the first Brute in the sewer. So when you hear a monster growling, it's better not to test your luck. After all, 95 % of them are real.

Just remember that this game is old. The older the game, the stupider the AI (usually). These guys are actually silly stupid sometimes. I've found a great hiding spot right in front of their eyes.

Some areas are completely empty of the monsters, so called ”safe areas”. All the hub areas are safe and they are connect two or three areas. Here’s a list of all of the locations in the game that appear as follows:

Rainy Hall – completely safe
Old Archives – completely safe
Entrance Hall – completely safe/hub area
Wine Cellar – completely safe
Laboratory – completely safe
Archives – completely safe (the monster that appears is a hallucination)
Refinery – not safe (the monster appears only once and goes away soon)
Cellar Archives – dangerous (just avoid the water)
Archive Tunnels – dangerous (chase sequence in the water)
Back Hall – completely safe/hub area
Study – completely safe
Guest Room – not safe if you go to the right wardrobe
Machine Room – completely safe
Storage – dangerous
Elevator – completely safe
Prison – Southern Block – dangerous
Prison – Northern Block – dangerous
Cistern Entrance – completely safe/hub area
Cistern – not safe after the lights are blown out (avoid the water)
Morgue – not safe (the monster appears after you inject yourself)
Control Room – completely safe
Sewer – dangerous
Nave – completely safe/hub area
Cells – not safe (the monster appears after entering the hallway)
Choir – Entrance – completely safe
Choir – Main Hall – dangerous (just stick to the walls and you'll be fine)
Transept – completely safe
Chancel – dangerous
Inner Sanctum – dangerous (the monster despawns when you pull the switch)
Orb Chamber – completely safe

Skipping encounters
Some of the encounters can be avoided if you don't do certain things in the area.
Guest Room:
DON'T go to the wardrobe on the right because doing so will spawn the monster. Otherwise, the area is safe.
Storage:
DON'T open the second door on the right when you enter the area with the counter in the middle of the room. If you do it, Grunt will happen:










Chancel
When you enter the chancel (three times), there will be a monster on your way. The second encounter with a pack of Grunts is unavoidable and you'll get hit (part of the story). But the other times you can just wait near the bridge and start retreating back to where came from when the patrolling monster comes towards the entrance to Nave. Stand on the other side of the closed door, then go back to Nave when the creature starts breaking down the door. When you return to Chancel again, the monster should be gone.
Good luck!