Alan Wake

Alan Wake

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Meet the Deadline achievement in Alan Wake

Meet the Deadline

In "Mirror Peak," make it from the Coal Mine Museum to Cauldron Lake in 30 minutes.

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How to unlock the Meet the Deadline achievement

  • Removed Gamer
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    "Mirror Peak" is in chapter three. When you start towards Cauldron Lake, the timer starts—thirty minutes. Essentially, you'll need to evade every battle that you can, and the run will still be relatively tight. (You'll most likely come within five minutes of the deadline.) Try to only bother with the Taken/poltergeists DIRECTLY in your way. This run is good practice for doing Nightmare mode.

    Technique-wise: (1) Complete the level once, first. You won't be able to reasonably collect everything AND make the time on your first run. If you do a second run right afterwards, you'll be familiar with the locations of the ladders and switches. I linked a great collectibles guide for other Alan Wake solutions. (2) When you replay the episode (from the title screen), set the difficulty low. This will reduce the amount of health for each Taken/poltergeist on the chance that you need to defeat one. (3) Hit up the supply crates that do not take you far off the path, as your flares and flare gun ammo are extremely precious. Hold flares for escaping packs of Taken and for burning away poltergeist walls while under attack. Most of the time, you'll need to just run for the next light. If it's a generator, always throw down a flare while you start it up. (4) Either fight poltergeist objects with an object in your path (so they don't hit you), or dodge them so you can make a run for it. This goes for the train, unless you need the achievement for destroying it. (5) The car will protect you, stay inside of it.

    YES, you can pause the game, or even turn it off. It's counting the seconds you're running. I'm not sure how it handles deaths—you can certainly die a handful of times, and it has been said that your run times are based on your checkpoint times and not on your cumulative time in the level. This has been confirmed in the comments.

    And if you want a visual, here's a three parter from YouTube by Flikffxi:

    Guide not helping? View 4 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    SkelixI don't think deaths count the time against you, I died quite a bit as I was bulling through it just to get layout of it, still got it that first try. And if you die to the train sets you way back!
    Posted by Skelix on 25 Apr 17 at 18:02
    Apostle92627I got this on my second try while pausing and using video walkthroughs, so I can confirm pausing does NOT count against you. Died (and reloaded my checkpoints) a lot as well so I can also confirm that doesn't either.
    Posted by Apostle92627 on 30 Apr 17 at 22:20
    AllgorhythmMy recommendation is to first familiarize yourself with the episode during your normal run and get all collectibles except for the three nightmare manuscripts. Make a mental note of how you use the equipment in the mine so you don't have to do any puzzle solving.

    When you play your nightmare run, get all flares and flashbangs in the first half of the episode that you can and conserve them. Also get the one nightmare manuscript in the first half of the episode. I didn't use any flares against the bulldozer. I let it rampage around killing the three Taken. When they were out of the way I collected the flares from the supply boxes. Since I already had the bulldozer achievement, when I collected all the goodies, I just let myself out the gate.

    When you get the phone call that starts the timed run, you should have a full load of flares and almost a full load of flashbangs. Now, you can go through the episode like a hot knife through butter. Just follow the map using flares against poltergeists & birds and flashbangs against enemies. I had both flares and flashbangs left over at the end of the episode so, if you did a good job collecting them in the first half of the episode, you have plenty to deal with all the enemies you encounter.

    When you get to the place with the crosses that should be a cue that the Nightmare manuscripts are coming up. Just after you dispatch the enemies, there is a poltergeist car. Once you have dispatched the poltergeist car go in the opposite direction of the bridge to get the first nightmare manuscript in the timed run and the second of three in the game. Then proceed across the bridge. When you jump down (a point of no return) look to your left and the last nightmare manuscript of the episode is in a building. The building is in pretty poor shape and you can see the manuscript gleaming through the broken boards. Continue on.

    You pick up a flare gun and a few flares. I found I didn't need to use them but I liked the feeling that I had it as an insurance policy.
    Posted by Allgorhythm on 04 May 17 at 01:13
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  • GG#2309
    Locked 26 Sep 2010
    So as the achievement states, you have to make it from the Coal Mine Museum down to Cauldron lake in 30 real time minutes.

    NOTE: I set a timer for myself as a way to keep track and to ensure that I would not fail. Whatever you choose will work.

    This "timer" starts after you receive the phone call from the kidnapper and it pops up when the mini cut scene when Alan sees the flashing light once you are out of the mine and looking down on Cauldron Lake.

    Another tip for this achievement is do it separately from your play-throughs. I did it on Normal, and whenever possible, bypass the Taken. When you have the car by the train tracks, drive to the generator to switch it off, but before you get out, park it close to the stairs so you can easily get right back in and drive back to the previously electrified fence.

    Last note, if you get stuck or get lost, restart your checkpoint because it will also reset your time from what it was when you FIRST hit that checkpoint.

    Hope this helps!
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    YoshiMiyamoto+1 - I found this to be helpful advice. Also, the two negative comments here are a sick joke - someone with zero contributed solutions calling a contributor a parasite would be funny if it weren't so sad.
    Posted by YoshiMiyamoto on 23 Jun 11 at 21:28
    Alchemist xPTKxWhat the hell is everyones problem. I like this guide. Sometimes I just want a quick paragraph to read instead of 30 minutes of video.
    If you don't like a guide, ignore it. don't attack the person who put it up for free
    Posted by Alchemist xPTKx on 28 Nov 15 at 21:51
    Lord Noob SybotSolo P3t3r and rabid Guineapig are the reason why people dont like using this site as much any more for sessions these gamers are toxic as fk ignore them you did a good job with the post I'd much rather have a simple explanation like this then the other one doesnt mean I'd downvote his cause of my difference in opinion like these clowns
    Posted by Lord Noob Sybot on 28 Feb 21 at 19:27
  • SketchStoneSketchStone
    17 Jul 2010 29 Aug 2011
    It is a good idea to have played chapter three through a few times so that you are familiar with the landscape, Taken attacks, and tricky sections. This way you will be aware of big ambush locations, bottlenecks, and how much you'll likely need to ration your ammo (as well as how much of the good stuff you'll end up with).

    The key piece of advice is to handle this as you would the 'Gunless Wonder' achievement or a run through on Nightmare, i.e avoid every fight if at all possible, stay in the car as much as you can, and RUN. Large packs of Taken can be largely avoided through smart use of flares or by a well aimed/timed flare-gun/flash-bang shot, and poltergeist objects can be dodged and eventually outrun, so don't waste time and ammo on them unless you absolutely have to or have managed to get penned in.

    Don't waste time on collectables or out of the way chests and only go for 'safe chests' - namely the ones which don't come with a nasty Taken ambush - if you feel you need to. When you reach the train yard, there is a car at the exact point where you drop down. Use it. It will shave a large amount of time off your run and save priceless ammo and risk of death. Hop in, drive to the end of the yard and park up. As soon as you hit the switch, jump back in, ignoring the poltergeist objects and Taken and drive for the end of the yard where the broken fence is, ignoring everything, but avoiding a head-on with poltergeist stuff if you can. Don't worry if your car gets bashed to hell before the end, just bail out and run... as soon as you jump over the broken section of fence, no Taken can reach you or will follow you, so don't bother fighting and just make this your goal. The dodge move will be your friend here!

    The other big panic sections are the large Taken smashing down the door at the top of the mine (flashbang him for a swift exit, don't muck about) and Cynthia Weaver's old mansion. The mansion is the last big hurdle and is a royal pain if penned in. It will essentially be a bottleneck of Taken as you fall through the floor and have to get back up to the top again. Don't waste time fighting here... you won't need any gear from this point, so if you have flash bangs, then use them to clear your way to the stairs, or if you have flares, drop them. But don't fight, run. Head straight for the stairs (it can be easy to get disoriented in the confusion) and run up. Drop a flare behind you if you're panicky and keep going. Be careful how you jump the gap - you don't want to fall back down there - and drop down off the roof. Now breathe. And run.
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