How to make the game less scary?

1. Lower the music volume and/or sound effects to 10% or so.
This considerably reduces the impending sense of fight or flight that usually comes with the games score and makes for a more composed approach.

2. Play in short intervals of two or three hours max.
This will help you stay focused and engaged.
It should be enough to clear a chapter from start to finish or at least most of it.

3. Be prepared
Always check your ammo stock, and reload each weapon before moving onto the next room or doorway.

4. Make use of your quick menu:
This is what I did. You're absolutely free to mix it up the way you like.
a) Assign your most upgraded and stocked weapons to slots 1 and 2
b) Assign your slow-firing weapon / grenade to slot 4
c) Assign the Syringe to slot 3.
Get used to where you assign each weapon and muscle memory will do the rest.

1. Take your time
The Evil Within is the exact opposite of a run and gun game. Taking it slow at least on your first playthrough is the way to go.
You can try and speed through, but the game actively punishes you if you run around corners blindly.

2. Stay crouched
This will:
a) prevent you from getting detected and swarmed. This will in turn help you conserve ammo.

b) enable you to sneak kill enemies.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932497372

c) make it way easier to detect bear traps, wire traps, and even prevent wall-mounted explosives from triggering.
An extreme example of a hidden trap being detected by being crouched and moving slowly: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932729048
This works best when combined with your lit lantern.

If you don't trigger traps, your health bar remains as full and you save up on medical items. These will prove invaluable in scripted fights in which you'll inevitably lose hp.

d) enable you to safely approach and disarm all trap devices. This will net you 1-2 spare parts for each disassembled trap.
You can use these to craft different types of bolts for your crossbow.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927657926

Switch to Toggle Sneak in your options (ESC>Options>Controls).
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927097230


3. Explore. Explore. Explore

a) You will be short on ammo and everything else basically all the time.
There's enough lying around if you take your time looking around.

b) There are a ton of collectibles in the game. The journal entries and voice recordings are usually found on your way.
Other collectibles, however, especially keys and map fragments, are well hidden or need at least some exploration of each chapter.
Some are hidden inside lockers, perched up somewhere, tucked away in a semi-hidden passageway or behind a closed gate.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927660876
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927661203
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2929318741
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930163361


4. Conserve your ammo

a) Take your time aiming. Go for headshots (especially with your handgun). Upgrade your Critical chance skill to land more one-headshot kills.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931367195
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931364061

b) Go for leg shots when faced with more than two enemies. The shotgun works best for this tactic.
Run to the downed enemy to stomp on them 3-5 times till you hear a squishy burst! sound.
If there's more than one downed enemy close to each other, use a single match on the middle one to light them up en masse!
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931364952
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931365618

This proves useful especially if you haven't upgraded the critical chance skill yet or if aiming proves to be not very smooth at first, rendering headshots tricky.
This is something you'll experience because this is a port to PC after all and controls take getting used to.
What I found helped quite a bit was setting Mouse Sensitivity to 50.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932808609

Experiment with the setting till you hit the sweet spot that works best for you. (ESC>Options>Controls)

c) Kite enemies to group them within your sights before aiming for their legs. This saves you from wasting buckshots and matches.

5. Conserve your matches
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927153884

A. Group enemies together before lighting your match:
a) Set a trap for an enemy running toward you: Sit behind a corpse; as soon as the enemy is about to step into touching distance of the corpse and you, light the corpse. You just got two for one!
b) Knock enemies down with your shotgun, then light the one in the middle. All enemies around that enemy will be torched as well.

B. Light hanging enemies on fire only when you're in a standing position. Using a match on them while crouched just wastes the match.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932729329
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932730139

C. Don't holster your weapon near a corpse. The game will consider you issuing an order to burn the corpse instead and you'll lose one match.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932807933

The Evil Within features an upgrade system: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927154485
Green gel, your upgrade currency, is found in gel containers and drops from defeated enemies in various amounts.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931701169

6. Spread your upgrades over several weapons
Upgrade as many of your weapons as you can afford, especially the damage and critical chance skills.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931703951

Ammo being scarce makes it the smarter choice to have several weapons upgraded halfway rather than maxing upgrades for a single weapon.

7. Prioritize upgrading your Health and Sprinting abilities
These two skills are invaluable for your survival.

This worked very well:
Health> level 4
All around good to have.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931703874

Sprinting> level 3
This gives you 6 seconds of sprint time.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932805057

Bonus upgrades tip:
First save at the nurse's counter, then choose your upgrades, go back into the world and try them out.
That way, if you feel an upgrade isn't all that useful to you, you can reload your save and select a different one.

8. Find the collectibles
When you see a save point available, go there and read the journal entries and freshly placed news clippings. This will make for a much more coherent story.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927154673

On the same note, always search for and listen to the tape recordings.
There are only 10 of them in the whole game and they hold the biggest reveals apart from some endgame cutscenes.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927659173

9. Make the best use of your save points
Save when you have cleared a sizable amount of the level but haven't hit a checkpoint yet.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927988478
Some save points become inaccessible when you move a few steps away; others stay available for much longer.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930161137

The game features a mechanic to prevent accidental deletion of saved games.
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932803536

When your health nears zero, it regenerates to about 10-15% if you're not in combat and standing still.
Otherwise you need to manually restore your hp.

To do so, you can use two items:
1.

• This restores 30/100 of your hp by default. It can be upgraded to restore more. Decent amount to be found.
  
• The Syringe can be used midfight free of any side effects.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932728553

• Upgradeable with two skills: amount of hp restored + the amount of Syringes you can carry

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932804493

2.

• This fully restores your hp no matter how low it is. It also increases your maximum health by a certain small amount.
  
• Save for extreme situations.
  
• Rare: One medikit found every few chapters.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927659453

• Consuming a Medical Kit disorients you for about 5 seconds.
  
• You cannot sprint or use weapons in that down time, so better be in a safe spot far from enemies before using one.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932802527

1.

• Good for headshots.
  
• Plenty of ammo to be found.
  
• You start with this by default. The other weapons you need to find.

2.

• Very good for knocking down enemies, especially when they try to swarm you.
  
• Decent amount of ammo to be found.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927659846

3.

• Versatile for every combat need.
  
• It features five different bolt types; each serves a different purpose.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927657307

The crossbow is the only weapon that offers two methods of acquiring ammo:

• You can craft bolts from spare parts that you get from deconstructing traps. This is your main source of crossbow ammo.
  
• Average amount of ammo (spare parts) to be found.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2932805920

Types of crossbow bolts:
a) Harpoon bolt

• Default bolt.
  
• Cheapest to craft at two spare parts.
  
• Good against the weakest enemies.
  
• Cannot be set as a trap. Must be shot directly at the enemy.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930183865

b) Explosive bolt

• Useful against all enemy types, including bosses.
  
• Can be shot and left on the ground or wall as a trap for passing enemies.
  
• Can be easily collected later if not triggered by enemies.
  
• Has a small area of effect.
  
• Average cost. Requires three spare parts to craft.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927657819

c) Flash bolt

• Stuns enemies.
  
• Useful against bosses.
  
• Cannot be set as a trap. Must be shot directly at the enemy.
  
• Has a small area of effect.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927661607

d) Shock bolt

• Halts enemies in place for a few seconds.
  
• Invaluable against bosses (and another peculiar adversary).
  
• Can be shot and left on the ground or a wall as a trap for passing enemies.
  
• Can be easily collected later if not triggered by enemies.
  
• Has a small area of effect.
  
• Expensive to craft (five spare parts required).

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927951506

e) Freeze bolt

• Freezes enemies. Larger enemies thaw after a few seconds. Weaker enemies shatter after a few seconds, but it would be a waste of spare parts to use Freeze bolts on them.
  
• Useful against fast moving bosses.
  
• Cannot be set as a trap. Must be shot directly at the enemy.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2930163438

Disadvantages include aiming not being the easiest or fastest plus you need to get used to winding your bolts before releasing them.
Otherwise it's a unique weapon and possibly the signature weapon of The Evil Within.

4.

• Very useful against bosses and groups of enemies.
  
• Limited ammo to be found.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927657391

5.

• A bolt-action sniper rifle.
  
• Slow but extremely accurate and powerful.
  
• Automatically crits on headshots.
  
• The sniper is required for at least one scripted part; otherwise using it is optional.
  
• Limited ammo to be found.

6.

• Powerful handgun.
  
• Higher chance of by-default headshot crits.
  
• Extremely rare ammo.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931363852
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2931702616

I did the following for better immersion:
1. Muted chats and notifications.
2. Dimmed the lights.
3. Used my headphones. The score and sound effects are something else!

The Evil Within is my very first game in the survival horror genre.
I made this guide to help others who are new like me.
I hope you liked it! Hopefully it comes in handy.
Feel free to suggest additions to this guide or ask about something I might be helpful with.

~