The Evil Within

The game starts out pretty stealthy, and you'll need to be stealthy to survive. This is quickly dropped and you become pretty powerful, but you still need to keep an eye on ammo.

Upgrading sprint is pretty important. The last level of it, though, maybe not so much.

I'd recommend upgrading the amount of agony bolt ammo you can carry.

You do not NEED to burn bodies of enemies you kill. There was some confusion when this game came out about what matches were for, and a lot of people seemed to assume that enemy bodies, if left unburned, would eventually resurrect and come after you again, much like REmake. This is not the case - enemies can play dead sometimes to trick you, but once you actually kill them, they're dead for good. Matches are primarily for saving ammo by getting instant kills on vulnerable enemies, and burning corpses that other enemies are standing near (which will cause the living enemy to get caught in the blaze and be killed).

There are quite a few "mash X a million times to turn a crank/valve/handle/etc. in order to slowly open a door" prompts in the game, but the big secret about them is that you don't actually have to button-mash. Press X one time and Sebastian will turn whatever wheel you're standing in front of about a third of the way. Wait until after he's finished turning and has stopped moving his hands completely, then press X again, wait again, press one more time and it's open. Mashing doesn't appear to affect the speed at which he does this. (Look, I realize this may not seem important, but destroying your controller just to open a stupid door is bullshit and should be illegal.)

If you upgrade their damage, harpoons can become the best weapon in the game. They hit like a truck, are very accurate and easy to aim, and ammo for them is plentiful (assuming you disarm every trap and don't waste a ton of parts making specialty bolts). I'd recommend the first four damage upgrades to pretty much everyone (the fifth, while cool and fun, is probably a luxury you can do without).

... that said, the fifth damage upgrade for harpoons turns them into flaming harpoons, which despite being pretty expensive can be extremely useful later in the game. Most regular bosses can't be lit on fire so it's not much help there, but there are plenty of pain in the ass normal enemies that can't be headshot-critted, but can be insta-killed by a flaming harpoon regardless of where it hits, and several miniboss-type enemies that will really hate being barbecued. Also, a certain optional boss who hates fire becomes way more manageable once you can light her ass up at will.

Feel free to use health boosts whenever you are running a little low - there's never a point in the game that I've found where your health is restored, so it's not like you're 'wasting' them.

AlterEgos (first encountered in Chapter 7) take a lot more damage than your standard enemy, but for whatever reason are always instantly killed by Sebastian's "stomp" move regardless of how much health they have - so if you knock one down or see one lying on the floor trying to trick you, run up and mash the melee button until you stomp it. It may take a few tries depending on your position, but if you do it early you can save on ammo/matches.

Enemies don't set off motion traps, which is bullshit.

Run from bosses unless you're forced to kill them. Always run from the guy in the hoodie.

If you have a few matches, knocking enemies down and burning them while they're still on the floor can save you a lot of ammo. This can take the form of a precise shot to a leg, or simply shooting in their general direction with the shotgun (bonus if their head explodes from it instead).

The story is nonsense, I wouldn't try to follow it that closely.

Melee is useless.

The above is worth emphasizing: seriously, it's pretty useless. A punch can briefly stun an enemy who's about to throw something at you, and if an enemy is lying prone you can sometimes curb stomp them (instantly killing AlterEgos, otherwise just doing more damage), but absolutely do not upgrade your melee damage, punching will never be an efficient way of killing things.

Always be collecting brain juice. Look in every nook and cranny, check if there's a bubbling pile of it left behind from enemies and bosses.

Also look for keys, which are used to unlock body cabinets in the morgue for sweet prizes. Keys are sometimes out in the open, but most of the time they'll be hidden in little statues of...goddesses? Angels? No idea. Little gray statues about the size of your calf that need to be broken.

The cabinets in the morgue will ultimately end up giving you the same exact stuff on every playthrough so don't sweat it too much, but the order in which you get that stuff is mostly random, so if there's a specific kind of ammo you want you can usually just reload until you get it. That said, it seems like sometimes you're guaranteed to get green gel on certain keys, guaranteed NOT to get it on others, etc.

It's not a bad idea to try and save-scum the cabinets until you get mostly green gel for your first few keys - most enemies early in the game can be killed without ammo if you're crafty and willing to run and hide a lot, and those early few stock upgrades can really help you load up for later.

The first real boss (Chapter 3) can be killed without firing a shot. Make sure to wipe out every regular enemy before you trigger him, and learn the environment. A single torch can be used to light multiple haybales, all of which do solid damage if the boss is close to them when they go up, plus there are at least three reusable spike traps hidden throughout the level. As long as you don't let him catch you, you can just lead him around the level, slowly killing him with the environment and saving yourself plenty of ammo for later.

Melee attacks can be used to break boxes and vases and shit, which is where goodies hide. If you're holding something throwable, like a bottle, use the triangle or Y button to attack without using the item in your hand (no idea what it is on the PC).

Upgrade your match capacity to max ASAP. They are how you save the scarce amount of ammo the game gives you.

For most enemies you'll want to shoot them in the legs(or with the shotgun if you need to do it quickly) to knock them down and then run up an use a match to kill them instantly. Bonus points if you happen to catch multiple guys with one match since it kind of has a radius when you light a guy up.

Using the above strategy, you can get through the game just fine without buying any damage upgrades for the basic revolver or shotgun, using them as tools to knock down standard enemies that you can't kill with stealth/single-use weapons/etc., and using your harder-hitting weapons (like harpoons) as actual damage-dealers on bosses or more dangerous regular enemies.

The basic pistol is pretty solid for making regular enemies' heads pop if you buy a few crit upgrades for it, but it'll be infuriating to use if you don't also buy some accuracy upgrades as well. Also, keep in mind that, much like RE4, a lot of enemies later in the game will get wise and start wearing metal masks.

You can do stealth kills from the front if you hit an enemy in the face with a bottle which is kind of hard to do and i don't think it works if they have a mask on but it's worth the saved ammo if you can do it.

Past the first 3 chapters the game doesn't really expect you to stealth the entirety of rooms(there is even an enemy type that will remind you of the las plagas guys from RE4 that CAN"T be stealth killed) so it's okay if you get spotted just work on taking out as many as you can before inevitably have to fight. With that said the game makes it very clear when you ARE suppose to be sneaky and not get caught at all though.

The game's story doesn't make a lot of sense and isn't even really talked about or even explained a little bit until much later so don't worry about being confused.

When you see a long haired bloody lady for the first time you are suppose to run away from her

Yes the grab attacks are very annoying, there's not a lot you can do other than just be slightly far away enough so that you don't get grabbed