After numerous delays, The Last of Us Part 2 is finally out on PlayStation 4, offering a follow-up story to one of last generation’s most acclaimed games. Whether you’ve already dived into the game or are just going to be picking it up for the first time, we’ve assembled an extensive array of tips and guides to help you make the most of the experience. That includes essential beginner’s tips that you’ll want to be aware of before starting to play. Not only that, but we also have a full walkthrough for each chapter of the game, alongside a suite of guides covering all the game’s collectibles.
We ended up Platinuming The Last of Us Part 2 during our time spent playing it, so we’ve accomplished and collected everything you can get. Suffice to say, our coverage is comprehensive, so you’ll need not look any further than what we’ve got in this roundup of our spoiler-free walkthrough and guides.
And don’t worry, we won’t be discussing or showing off any sort of story spoilers. We’ve made sure to clearly mark our articles with spoiler tags to ensure you get the most out your time in The Last of Us Part 2.
For more about how the game stacks up, be sure to read our The Last of Us Part 2 spoiler review. Otherwise, scroll down to find everything you need!
Gameplay-wise, The Last of Us Part 2 is similar to its predecessor, albeit with a more open-ended structure in combat encounters and new enemy types. So if you’ve played the first The Last of Us, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with this sequel. Regardless, if you’re looking for a few pointers prior to setting out in The Last of Us Part 2, here are a few tips and tricks to help you survive.
Always Be Lootin’ So You Can Always Be Craftin’
Looting is a big part of the gameplay loop in The Last of Us and that is also true for its sequel. In between each encounter you should be scanning the environment–look for drawers, cupboards, and other compartments as you clear abandoned buildings and pass by rusted cars. As you loot, you’ll find the necessary supplies for crafting useful items like explosives and health bandages as well as ammo like shotgun shells and arrows.
The amount of supplies you can find will directly correlate to the difficulty you choose. The easier the difficulty, the greater the amount of crafting materials and ammo you’ll find. It’s worth mentioning that finding supplies doesn’t grant you “one” of the supply, but fills up your meter until you have three in total. However, if you’re unhappy about how much or how little loot you’re finding, you can also adjust the amount of items you can find without impacting the combat difficulty.
Adjust Approachability And Accessibility Settings
Which is a nice segue into our next tip–don’t be afraid to change up your settings to get your ideal experience. The Last of Us Part 2 has a ton of settings options for you to tweak and manipulate to your heart’s content. You can change the enemy AI’s level of awareness, the amount of resources you can find, the damage you take in combat, and the usefulness of allies in order to adjust how approachable the game is. Likewise, you can also adjust aspects of the game like subtitle size to tweak how accessible the game is.
If you’d like to adjust all the settings right from the start, select the Custom Difficulty option. However, we recommend picking one of the standard difficulty options first, and then adjusting individual approachability and accessibility options as desired. You can change the difficulty settings in The Last of Us Part 2 at any point, so you won’t be penalized for adjusting on the fly. For more about the various options, be sure to check out our in-depth accessibility explainer.
Use The In-Game Settings To Find Collectibles
And that second tip segues into our third one. So as you might know, Naughty Dog loves shoving a ton of collectibles into its games and that’s no different in The Last of Us Part 2. Collectibles come in many forms, including artifacts, trading cards, and journal entries.
Most of these collectibles are only found in non-combat areas but there are a few exceptions–the most notable one is hidden under a bed in the Hillcrest section, so keep your eyes peeled. So if you are a completionist, we recommend turning on high contrast mode and enhanced listen mode in the accessibility settings. The former highlights interactable objects in your environment when you swipe the touchpad and enhanced listen mode causes a ping sound to ring out when you’re close to collectibles. Both make it a lot easier to find difficult-to-find items.
Safe To Say That You Should Open Safes
As you explore the world you’ll also come across locked combination safes. You want to take the time to find the combinations for unlocking these safes–they typically contain the training manuals that unlock new skill trees as well as brand-new weapons. Even if a safe doesn’t contain either one of these, they will always offer a nice bundle of extra ammo and supplies.
Several combinations can just be found on letters left behind, but there are a few trickier ones that require you to explore and carefully survey nearby rooms in order to find environmental clues. The combination will almost always be close to the safe itself. If you encounter a point in the environment where you have to hold down the triangle button in order to proceed, then turn back–these button prompts typically mark points of no return where you leave one area for another. The clues for unlocking a safe will always be in the same area as the safe.
Break Brittle Bones With Bricks And Bottles
Now that we have all of the exploration-focused tips out of the way, let’s talk about combat. In The Last of Us Part 2, combat is fast, tense, and difficult if you aren’t prepared. Sometimes it’s still all of those things even when you are prepared. If you find yourself low on ammo or supplies, look for bricks or bottles in the environment. Not only can you use them to distract enemies, but a well thrown bottle or brick can also stun an enemy, serving them up for an easy one-hit melee kill. This can be clutch on harder difficulties when supplies and ammo are scarce.
Deal With Dogs As Quickly As You Can
The Last of Us Part 2 introduces several new enemy types–one of which you’ll encounter fairly early on: dogs. If a dog intersects with your scent, it will follow it until it finds you or loses the trail. You can see your scent trail by going into listening mode, which will help you know what path the dog and its owner is going to take to track you down.
As much as it pains us to say, it is in your best interest to dispatch these good boys and girls as quickly as possible. Show them no mercy. One of the simplest ways to take care of a dog on your trail is by placing a trip mine, as the dog will just eventually follow your scent into the explosive and be killed. For a non-lethal approach, throw a brick or bottle and the sound will temporarily distract the canine.
However, be warned: whether you kill or distract, the sound created when interacting with dogs will likely cause nearby enemies to drop their scripted patrol patterns in order to investigate the disturbance. The only way to silently get away and keep all enemies on script is to just put as much distance as you can between you and the dog tracking you so that it just eventually loses your scent.
Running Is A Legitimate Strategy
Just like in the original game, you can run from pretty much every encounter in The Last of Part 2. If you’re spotted while you are trying to stealth your way through an area, you can run out of enemies’ line of sight and reposition yourself, or you can try to escape to the next area without killing anyone if you’re feeling particularly merciful. If you play on Survivor, running away should always be considered as a viable option, as circumnavigating encounters will conserve your precious ammo and resources for the fights that you can’t avoid.
The Last Of Us Part 2 Full Spoiler-Free Walkthrough
Below are links to our spoiler-free walkthrough of the entire game. Consult them for strategies and details on how to get through combat sections, where to find collectibles, and more. Though if you’re curious about more specific subjects and items, then chances are we have an article about it in the guides section below. Regardless, be mindful of the spoiler block text on the latter half of the walkthrough list below, as the names for Parts 6 through 9 can be considered spoilers for early players.
The Last Of Us Part 2 Guides
Aside from a full walkthrough, we’ve also got a ton of guides devoted to specific aspects and collectibles in the game. If there’s any other subjects you’d want us to make a guide on, be sure to let us know in the comments below.
Downtown Seattle Complete Guide – Where To Find Everything
Like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Last of Us Part 2 also has an open-ended area to explore where you can take your time gathering resources and uncovering secrets. To ensure you get the most out this section, we’ve written up a guide devoted specifically to this section, so that you don’t miss a thing!
Safe Codes Guide
You’re going to find plenty of safes during your time playing The Last of Us Part 2, and if you’re like us, trying to figure out how to open them is going to drive you crazy. To spare you the trouble, we’ve gathered every single safe code, so that you can continue on your merry way with a clear and peaceful mind.
Antique Ring Location Guide
There are quite a few Easter eggs, pop culture references, and callbacks scattered throughout The Last of Us Part 2. Most are story beats or set dressing you can find throughout the world, but a few are more involved than that. Among the many collectibles in the game are two special items you can find that unlock Trophies: the Antique Ring and the Strange Relic. Both are fun callbacks to Naughty Dog’s games of the past–but they’re also both easy to miss. Here’s everything you need to know to track down the Antique Ring.
Weapon Workbench Locations
There are 25 Workbenches scattered throughout the game, and they can be pretty essential to your survival. They’re the only places that you can use gun parts you scavenge throughout the game to upgrade your weapons, increasing their fire rate, upping their damage, and adding accessories like scopes that make you much more effective in combat. Here’s every single Workbench in the game, divided by chapter, to help you get the most out of your weapons and stay alive as you seek revenge.
Weapons Locations
To survive in the treacherous world of The Last of Us Part 2, you’re going to need some firepower. We’ve outlined where you can find every weapon to help make sure you find every advantage against both the infected and the cutthroat survivors out to kill you.
Manuals Locations
Aside from raw firepower, you’ll also need to upgrade Ellie’s skills to successfully navigate the dangers that await. Manuals are your way of increasing her capabilities, so it’s in your interest to acquire as many of these special upgrade items as you can. To help you do just that, we’ve outlined where to find every single one.
Trading Cards
Soon after starting the game, you’ll discover one of the game’s main collectibles: Trading Cards. These nifty, little things are often found off the beaten path, so we’ve compiled a guide detailing where to find them all.
Coins Guide
Like the Trading Cards, Coins are a fun collectible that are hidden all throughout the game’s world. If you’re looking to Platinum The Last of Us Part 2, then you’ll want to find every single one. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a guide detailing the location of every single one.
Strange Relic Location Guide
As mentioned above, there are two special items in the game that unlock special Trophies and are just fun callbacks to Naughty Dog’s past. The Strange Relic is one of those items, and we’ve got the details on how to find it.
Part 7 & Part 8 Boss Guides
We’re going to remain vague, but if you’ve made it to this point in the game, chances are you know exactly what these two boss guides deal with and you likely need help. Fortunately, we’ve compiled guides to help you get past both of these tough encounters.
How To Get These Secret Trophies
If you’re trying to Platinum The Last of Us Part 2, you’ll notice that there are three secret trophies. We’ve compiled a guide detailing what they are and how to get them!
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Artificial intelligence‘s recent rise to the forefront of business has left most office workers wondering how often they should use the technology and whether a computer will eventually replace them.
Those were among the highlights of a recent study conducted by the workplace communications platform Slack. After conducting in-depth interviews with 5,000 desktop workers, Slack concluded there are five types of AI personalities in the workplace: “The Maximalist” who regularly uses AI on their jobs; “The Underground” who covertly uses AI; “The Rebel,” who abhors AI; “The Superfan” who is excited about AI but still hasn’t used it; and “The Observer” who is taking a wait-and-see approach.
Only 50% of the respondents fell under the Maximalist or Underground categories, posing a challenge for businesses that want their workers to embrace AI technology. The Associated Press recently discussed the excitement and tension surrounding AI at work with Christina Janzer, Slack’s senior vice president of research and analytics.
Q: What do you make about the wide range of perceptions about AI at work?
A: It shows people are experiencing AI in very different ways, so they have very different emotions about it. Understanding those emotions will help understand what is going to drive usage of AI. If people are feeling guilty or nervous about it, they are not going to use it. So we have to understand where people are, then point them toward learning to value this new technology.
Q: The Maximalist and The Underground both seem to be early adopters of AI at work, but what is different about their attitudes?
A: Maximalists are all in on AI. They are getting value out of it, they are excited about it, and they are actively sharing that they are using it, which is a really big driver for usage among others.
The Underground is the one that is really interesting to me because they are using it, but they are hiding it. There are different reasons for that. They are worried they are going to be seen as incompetent. They are worried that AI is going to be seen as cheating. And so with them, we have an opportunity to provide clear guidelines to help them know that AI usage is celebrated and encouraged. But right now they don’t have guidelines from their companies and they don’t feel particularly encouraged to use it.
Overall, there is more excitement about AI than not, so I think that’s great We just need to figure out how to harness that.
Q: What about the 19% of workers who fell under the Rebel description in Slack’s study?
A: Rebels tend to be women, which is really interesting. Three out of five rebels are women, which I obviously don’t like to see. Also, rebels tend to be older. At a high level, men are adopting the technology at higher rates than women.
Q: Why do you think more women than men are resisting AI?
A: Women are more likely to see AI as a threat, more likely to worry that AI is going to take over their jobs. To me, that points to women not feeling as trusted in the workplace as men do. If you feel trusted by your manager, you are more likely to experiment with AI. Women are reluctant to adopt a technology that might be seen as a replacement for them whereas men may have more confidence that isn’t going to happen because they feel more trusted.
Q: What are some of the things employers should be doing if they want their workers to embrace AI on the job?
A: We are seeing three out of five desk workers don’t even have clear guidelines with AI, because their companies just aren’t telling them anything, so that’s a huge opportunity.
Another opportunity to encourage AI usage in the open. If we can create a culture where it’s celebrated, where people can see the way people are using it, then they can know that it’s accepted and celebrated. Then they can be inspired.
The third thing is we have to create a culture of experimentation where people feel comfortable trying it out, testing it, getting comfortable with it because a lot of people just don’t know where to start. The reality is you can start small, you don’t have to completely change your job. Having AI write an email or summarize content is a great place to start so you can start to understand what this technology can do.
Q: Do you think the fears about people losing their jobs because of AI are warranted?
A: People with AI are going to replace people without AI.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Tuesday that it would provide up to $325 million to Hemlock Semiconductor for a new factory, a move that could help give Democrats a political edge in the swing state of Michigan ahead of election day.
The funding would support 180 manufacturing jobs in Saginaw County, where Republicans and Democrats were neck-in-neck for the past two presidential elections. There would also be construction jobs tied to the factory that would produce hyper-pure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other technologies.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters that the funding came from the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. It’s part of a broader industrial strategy that the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, supports, while Republican nominee Donald Trump, the former president, sees tariff hikes and income tax cuts as better to support manufacturing.
“What we’ve been able to do with the CHIPS Act is not just build a few new factories, but fundamentally revitalize the semiconductor ecosystem in our country with American workers,” Raimondo said. “All of this is because of the vision of the Biden-Harris administration.”
A senior administration official said the timing of the announcement reflected the negotiating process for reaching terms on the grant, rather than any political considerations. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss the process.
After site work, Hemlock Semiconductor plans to begin construction in 2026 and then start production in 2028, the official said.
Running in 2016, Trump narrowly won Saginaw County and Michigan as a whole. But in 2020 against Biden, both Saginaw County and Michigan flipped to the Democrats.
Although no one likes a know-it-all, they dominate the Internet.
The Internet began as a vast repository of information. It quickly became a breeding ground for self-proclaimed experts seeking what most people desire: recognition and money.
Today, anyone with an Internet connection and some typing skills can position themselves, regardless of their education or experience, as a subject matter expert (SME). From relationship advice, career coaching, and health and nutrition tips to citizen journalists practicing pseudo-journalism, the Internet is awash with individuals—Internet talking heads—sharing their “insights,” which are, in large part, essentially educated guesses without the education or experience.
The Internet has become a 24/7/365 sitcom where armchair experts think they’re the star.
Not long ago, years, sometimes decades, of dedicated work and acquiring education in one’s field was once required to be recognized as an expert. The knowledge and opinions of doctors, scientists, historians, et al. were respected due to their education and experience. Today, a social media account and a knack for hyperbole are all it takes to present oneself as an “expert” to achieve Internet fame that can be monetized.
On the Internet, nearly every piece of content is self-serving in some way.
The line between actual expertise and self-professed knowledge has become blurry as an out-of-focus selfie. Inadvertently, social media platforms have created an informal degree program where likes and shares are equivalent to degrees. After reading selective articles, they’ve found via and watching some TikTok videos, a person can post a video claiming they’re an herbal medicine expert. Their new “knowledge,” which their followers will absorb, claims that Panda dung tea—one of the most expensive teas in the world and isn’t what its name implies—cures everything from hypertension to existential crisis. Meanwhile, registered dietitians are shaking their heads, wondering how to compete against all the misinformation their clients are exposed to.
More disturbing are individuals obsessed with evangelizing their beliefs or conspiracy theories. These people write in-depth blog posts, such as Elvis Is Alive and the Moon Landings Were Staged, with links to obscure YouTube videos, websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Regardless of your beliefs, someone or a group on the Internet shares them, thus confirming your beliefs.
Misinformation is the Internet’s currency used to get likes, shares, and engagement; thus, it often spreads like a cosmic joke. Consider the prevalence of clickbait headlines:
You Won’t Believe What Taylor Swift Says About Climate Change!
This Bedtime Drink Melts Belly Fat While You Sleep!
In One Week, I Turned $10 Into $1 Million!
Titles that make outrageous claims are how the content creator gets reads and views, which generates revenue via affiliate marketing, product placement, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Clickbait headlines are how you end up watching a TikTok video by a purported nutrition expert adamantly asserting you can lose belly fat while you sleep by drinking, for 14 consecutive days, a concoction of raw eggs, cinnamon, and apple cider vinegar 15 minutes before going to bed.
Our constant search for answers that’ll explain our convoluted world and our desire for shortcuts to success is how Internet talking heads achieve influencer status. Because we tend to seek low-hanging fruits, we listen to those with little experience or knowledge of the topics they discuss yet are astute enough to know what most people want to hear.
There’s a trend, more disturbing than spreading misinformation, that needs to be called out: individuals who’ve never achieved significant wealth or traded stocks giving how-to-make-easy-money advice, the appeal of which is undeniable. Several people I know have lost substantial money by following the “advice” of Internet talking heads.
Anyone on social media claiming to have a foolproof money-making strategy is lying. They wouldn’t be peddling their money-making strategy if they could make easy money.
Successful people tend to be secretive.
Social media companies design their respective algorithms to serve their advertisers—their source of revenue—interest; hence, content from Internet talking heads appears most prominent in your feeds. When a video of a self-professed expert goes viral, likely because it pressed an emotional button, the more people see it, the more engagement it receives, such as likes, shares and comments, creating a cycle akin to a tornado.
Imagine scrolling through your TikTok feed and stumbling upon a “scientist” who claims they can predict the weather using only aluminum foil, copper wire, sea salt and baking soda. You chuckle, but you notice his video got over 7,000 likes, has been shared over 600 times and received over 400 comments. You think to yourself, “Maybe this guy is onto something.” What started as a quest to achieve Internet fame evolved into an Internet-wide belief that weather forecasting can be as easy as DIY crafts.
Since anyone can call themselves “an expert,” you must cultivate critical thinking skills to distinguish genuine expertise from self-professed experts’ self-promoting nonsense. While the absurdity of the Internet can be entertaining, misinformation has serious consequences. The next time you read a headline that sounds too good to be true, it’s probably an Internet talking head making an educated guess; without the education seeking Internet fame, they can monetize.
