How to solve the Silent Hill 2 Remake coin cabinet puzzle

The Silent Hill 2 Remake Coin Cabinet puzzle involves finding three coins to act out a series of poems. There's a lot to get through just to get the parts you need, including at least one other sub-puzzle and, even when you have what you need, there are multiple poems to work through with double sided coins. 

That's a lot to do and it's one of the first challenges to mix in multiple, smaller challenges to workout and overcome along the way. So if you need help finding the coins to solve the Silent Hill 2 Remake Coin Cabinet puzzle, here's what I did to complete it. 

How to solve the Silent Hill 2 Remake coin cabinet puzzle

You'll discover the Silent Hill 2 Remake coin cabinet puzzle when you arrive at Wood Side Apartments, not long after finding the greenish blue car in Silent Hill 2 that got you the key to get in. It's sitting in a room behind the reception area with a save point. However, you'll have to ultimately explore and clear most of Wood Side apartments to find the coins you need to solve it.

When you have the Man, Snake and Woman coins (locations listed below if you need help finding them), you will be ready to solve the Silent Hill 2 coin cabinet puzzle which is actually several stages. The first poem give you a location and order to place the coins on the machine to start things: 

Three bright holes in the five holes be, first sits the maiden under underneath the tree.
The wind from behind the maiden doth blow, a beautiful flower alone has to grow.
And here comes the man, so sleek and fine, in the pale moonlight his eyes doth shine.

So that means you place the woman coin under the tree, the flower (on the reverse of the snake coin) behind her on the far right so it's 'alone', and the man goes under the moon: 

• Slot 1 - Man coin
• Slot 2 - Empty
• Slot 3 - Woman coin 
• Slot 4 - Empty
• Slot 5 - Flower coin (the reverse side of the snake coin)

This will trigger a second poem: 

The man doth approach, his Blade now revealed, his face disappears behind shining steel.
Away from the man the maiden doth flee, towards the flower, away from the tree.

That's this order, with the man coin flipped to show a sword in slot 2 and both that and the maiden coin moved one space right: 

• Slot 1 - Empty
• Slot 2 - Sword coin (reverse side of the man coin)
• Slot 3 - Empty
• Slot 4 - Woman coin 
• Slot 5 - Flower coin (reverse side of the snake coin)

This reveals another new poem: 

Where once grew a flower, a venomous glee, where once was a maiden, but a stone doth be.
And over her grace the man doth remain, his blade never met the vile serpent's vein. 

That sees all the coins lined up on the right hand side, with the woman's coin flipped to show a gravestone and the sword flipped back to the man side. 

• Slot 1 - Empty
• Slot 2 - Empty
• Slot 3 - Man coin
• Slot 4 - Grave coin (reverse of woman coin)
• Slot 5 - Serpent coin

Who is to blame in the Silent Hill 2 Remake coin puzzle?

There's one last poem but, importantly, THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER - whatever you pick here will 'solve' the puzzle:

The Beast who its teeth in her flesh doth bore, He who has failed, She who is no more.
Now unto you falls a grievous chore, who carries the blame for what fate had in store? 

This is an entirely open question - whatever you pick will unlock the cabinet and get you the apartment 201 key needed to proceed. The fact any answer works at this point means the choice almost certainly ties into the ending calculations in some way. 

So, make your choice and move on. With the 201 key, the way ahead is open, eventually leading to the Silent Hill 2 Remake clock puzzle. This is another 'main' puzzle with a series of interconnected challenges that will have you crisscrossing a map to find all the parts you need. 

Silent Hill 2 Remake man coin

The man coin will be the first coin you can physically get, although you will see another along the way in a garbage chute (that's for later though). To reach it you'll need to unlock a lot of Wood Side apartments, including using the Silent Hill 2 Remake chute courtyard key to get out of the reception area and access more of the building. 

However, it's the Silent Hill 2 Remake Golden Apple that's important here. That earns you access to a room containing a Silent Hill 2 Remake Wood Side Safe, which contains the coin. You can check my guide for more detail on the safe, but the short version is that the pictures on the wall give you the combination 13-7-11, which will open the safe. That will get you the man coin and the key to get out of the room. 

Silent Hill 2 Remake snake coin

The snake coin is in the pool area you access after meeting Eddie for the first time. This is tied to basic story progression so you can't miss it, you just have to check the pram in the middle of the pool once you've killed the lying figures around it. 

Silent Hill 2 Remake woman coin

You will have seen the woman coin right at the start of your exploration of Wood Side apartments, lodged in a garbage chute. But you won't be able to do anything about it until you reach the laundry room off room 312. Like the Snake coin and meeting Eddie, this is part of your core progression so keep following the path until you find the room with the garbage chute and a pack of juice. To get the snake coin you just need to throw the juice down the chute to dislodge it then, finally, get all the way back to the courtyard you opened with the chute key when you first arrived. The coin will be on the floor to pick up.

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