Tormented Souls: Basic tips for Anxiety and Amnesia achievements

Getting the Anxiety achievement for beating the game in 3 hours might sound hard, but it’s actually pretty easy. When trying to get this achievement, I ended up with a time of 1:43:05, so I guess I was doing something right. So I’d figure I’d make this guide to share the strategies I used. And I’m not an expert speedrunner or anything, so if I can do it, so can you.

The game timer is always counting. I’ve even heard that the timer doesn’t stop when the game is paused. So, obviously, if you want the best time, you have to always be moving and making progress.

If you’ve beaten the game at least once, you should already have a basic idea of how to solve the puzzles, even if you don’t remember the exact solution. But, obviously, if you want the best time you should either memorize the solutions or have notes.

• Skip cutscenes.
• Skip books (unless you need to grab a maintenance log to help solve a puzzle).
• Don’t talk to the priest unless he’s going to give you an item. These would be:
  • the X-ray room in the basement where you first meet him (nailgun).
  • The dining room where he’s eating soup (bolt for electric lock puzzle).
  • After you reattach his arm (flashlight).

Saving the game can take up a lot of time. Especially since Caroline will sometimes start talking after you’ve finished saving. If you’re ever planning on getting the Amnesia achievement, you’re going to be speedrunning it anyway since you have to beat the game in one sitting. So, in my opinion, you should try to get Anxiety and Amnesia at the same time (the achievements, not the mental problems).

Being in the “Danger” status really slows you down, and this can add up quickly. Heal out of the “Danger” status as soon as you can. This game throws a lot of healing items at you, so you shouldn’t have much trouble with this.

Some rooms don’t have anything besides a diary entry and maybe a healing item or some ammo. Some examples are:

• The Public Restroom near the ladder that goes down to the Boiler Room can be skipped.
• The Sewing Room doesn’t have much besides the Stethoscope, so you can skip that room if you remember the combination for the library door knocker.

If you’ve played classic Resident Evil, you’re probably already familiar with this strategy. It’s often faster to run away or stun enemies than to make sure they’re permanently dead. Here are the general rules I follow when deciding what to do with an enemy:

• If it’s in a room that I frequently return to, kill it.
• If it’s in a room that I only need to visit once…
  • run around it if I can.
  • knock it down if I must.

And, on the topic of knocking down enemies…

Usually in Survival Horror games I save ammo for powerful weapons as much as possible. This is not one of those games. When I face the final boss I only use 4 shotgun rounds: one to shoot the boss’s body the first time, and three for its tentacles. I use the nailgun to shoot the boss’s body and stun him the second and third times. This means all the rest of the shotgun ammo is free to use.

Since the electric lance is guaranteed to knock an enemy down, and the shotgun is the same as long as you’re close, they’re perfect for knocking down enemies quickly instead of wasting time trying to knock them down with weaker weapons.

• Do not combine key items in advance (like the two pieces of the plastic heart). It’s generally going to be a little bit faster to combine whatever you need right before you use it.
• Don’t reload weapons until you really need to. You might need to use the menu for something else, so you’ll have an opportunity to combine ammo with a weapon at that point for better menu usage efficiency. If you don’t get a chance to reload while doing something else, you can always reload right before fighting an enemy (I have a habit of reloading right after fighting an enemy). Reload by combining in the menu instead of going through the whole reload animation, unless for some reason you feel like the animation would be faster than your menu usage.

This is a pretty obvious thing to do, and probably the best way to save time. Here are some specific ways to navigate more efficiently.

Start the generator first, before collecting pieces of the plastic heart. The two halves are in rooms that are really close together, so it’s faster to get them both in one trip.

Only go back in time to the chapel once. Make sure you already have the Battery, Blood Bag, and Mold before going back in time. You should already have the Floppy Disk at this point, too. Back in the present, collect Frozen Blood Medallion, set the keyword on the Floppy Disk, and collect the Charged Battery.

Also, I’m not 100% sure if this is the fastest, but the first time I get to the Main Hall I head towards the chapel first, collect the Nitric Acid from the Warehouse and the Iron Door Knocker outside of the Closet. Then I go upstairs towards Meeting Room, and I’ll already have the door knocker for the library door.