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!

The Last Of Us Part 2 Beginner’s Tips

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!

Now Playing: The Last Of Us Part 2 – 7 Tips To Keep You Alive