The Long Dark: The Power Plant Walkthrough

The Long Dark: Episode 4 – Chapter 2: The Power Plant Walkthrough & Guide.

The Long Dark: The Power Plant Walkthrough

Well, at least Mathis didn’t beat us up for going outside. Our next mission is to check out the power plant that supplies the entire prison complex. I do wish they hadn’t let us out in the middle of the night, but not much you can do. At least we have a new map icon showing where we need to go.

Once you’ve picked up all your gear, head out the main entrance. As you walk away from the prison, turn back and look up; you’ll see a large tower with power lines extending from it.

This is what the game means when it says to follow the high voltage power lines. If you’re not a fan of the map, you can just follow these lines to the Old Substation. That will lead to to a climbing rope which descends to behind the substation. You can also just follow the road like we did in chapter 1, but turn right at the fork instead. From here, just follow the road until you see the truck below.

The Old Substation is just behind it.

Now, there isn’t anything story-related inside the station itself, but I’d check it out anyways since there’s a lot of good stuff inside. There’s also a bed if you need to take a rest. Once you’re ready to head on, go back to where the truck is and take the left path. It will lead you to a bridge that you’ll want to cross.

If you had come here during Chapter 1, the bridge would have been broken. From here, just follow the road. You’ll eventually come across a cave-like entrance. This is actually a landslide that Will needs to bypass. Just veer off to the left and head up the hill.

Honestly, this part is extremely linear. The big thing is to go right at the T-intersection if you’ve gone up the hill indicated in the picture. Going left will take you back to the bridge since there was an option to leave the road earlier. You’re on the right track if you see this fallen log bridge.

After crossing, just keep going where the game directs you. There will be some mini cliffs that Will needs to climb and more tree bridges. Eventually you’ll find the mini frozen pond below.

As labelled, go right if you need to take a rest in the cave or shelter for a little bit. Anyways, just follow the path until you reach a climbing rope. Go down it and straight ahead to find the road again.

If you look to your left immediately after descending the rope, you’ll find a burnt down cabin (circled above). The important part is the workbench (if you need more noisemakers) and rifle that seems to spawn in all difficulties.

You may also want to climb up to the powerline shown in the picture below. There’s a guaranteed distress pistol spawn next to the dead body at the top.

Back to the story. To get to the power plant, turn left once you reach the road and follow it. The power plant will come into view soon.

The gates to the external catwalk are locked so just head in via the front door. Once you take a few steps, the phone will ring. Pick it up to have a longer conversation with the mystery person. She reveals her name is Jace and that she were stranded here after the First Flare knocked out her car. Will agrees to prove that he’s trustworthy (and keep the psychopath Donner locked up) by breaking the door mechanism to solitary. Hopefully this will ensure the doors stay locked, even if the convicts find the button that opens it.

To leave, you need to exit via the circled door below.

Just a short walk away is the door to the maintenance tunnels. Head inside and just follow the tunnels until you reach the first open room. On the right you’ll find a bedroll and note that explains the steam tunnels are having pressure problems. You’ll also find a frozen door, which will introduce you to the basics of this area’s puzzle mechanic.

So, the basis of the upcoming puzzles is that the steam pipes and/or valves have frozen from the cold. Will’s job is to direct enough steam through the pipes that the valves and/or doors that the pipes lead to defrost. After the first tutorial door, you’ll enter an area with the door below in front of you, and two hallways to the left and right.

If you go down the hallway to the left, you’ll find the control room door, which is where we want to go. As you can see, it’s completely frozen solid. You’ll also see some pipes on the wall, but ignore those for now.

Go down the other hallway on your right, and you’ll come to another big room with the following machine.

Okay. Puzzle time. From the big room above, go down the hallway on the left. You’ll come across a mess of pipes and levers.

The good news is that there are only two big sections like this. The bad news is that the physics don’t make complete sense. As you can see from the pop-up in my picture, the goal is to make the gauges reach green. That indicates there’s enough steam to melt the ice. But the flow of steam doesn’t always fit how flow physics works. To combat this, I’ve taken two pictures; a before and after of the pipes. This will show the exact layout you need to melt the ice on the door(s). I will also list a step-by-step for the pipes since you will sometimes have to mess with the levers a bit just to get them all defrosted. The levers are labelled with the numbers used in the instructions on the before pictures.

Pipe Puzzle 1

1. Close lever 1
2. Open lever 2
3. Close lever 4
4. open lever 3
5. Open levers 5 and 6
6. Close lever 3
7. Open lever 4

After finishing that puzzle, return to the room with the big machine to find that the left side’s lever can now be opened. Do so, and the make your way back to the control room hallway, watching out for the steam gushing out of the pipes.

Pipe Puzzle 2

1. Open lever 1 (the only one you can manipulate)
2. Close lever 2
3. Open lever 3
4. Close lever 4
5. Open lever 5
6. Close lever 8
7. Open levers 6 and 8
8. Open lever 7
9. Open lever 9

After this puzzle, go back to the room with the big machine. Now the right side’s level will be defrosted. Pull it, and go back to room with the lockers. You’ll find that the first door’s lever is defrosted. Pull it to unfreeze the door and head on through.

Here you’ll find more lockers and the following lever. Pull it.

From here, head left from the new lockers you should find the door circled below. Go through it and down the narrow hallway to find the second lever you need to pull.

Pull it. The lever from before defrosted it. Now, you want to backtrack and go to your left when facing the door above. There will be a hallway with pipes splitting it down the middle Find the small hole on the left side and crawl through it.

It will lead you to another door for the control room, but this one is locked with a padlock. Still, the important part we want is the lever next to it. Oh, and pick up the heavy hammer on the shelf.

Like before, pull it. Even though it’s not immediately obvious, you’re done. Head back to the original control room door to find that its lever has been defrosted. Pull it and head on through.

The machine we want to break is on your left and pretty obvious. If you didn’t pick up the heavy hammer from before, go back and get it since Will can’t destroy the machine without it. You’ll be treated to a nice cutscene of Will most likely venting his frustrations at the convicts. Once he’s done smashing up the machine, you’ll be given the prompt to return to the prison. And the cool thing is that there’s a nice shortcut via the tunnels. First, grab your stuff from the lockers. Then, head back to the control room. If you just go straight from the entrance we opened, there’s another door we can go through (the door on the right is the padlocked one).

Just head on through and follow the linear path. You’ll eventually come to a stairwell (search the green box before ascending). At the top is another door that leads out to the maintenance yard portion of the prison. This also unlocks the door so you can go back through to reach the steam tunnels/power plant.

When you’re ready, head back to the prison entrance. And don’t forget to hide all your gear.