Download Hints

Get quick and convenient access to just the hints you need for Half-Life 2, without staying on our website. Just download a free trial version of our UHS Reader software and a copy of these hints. You will get the same gradual hints you see here -- unlike ordinary cheats or a walkthrough that can spoil your game.

You can also buy the full version of the UHS Reader for Windows or macOS. For just $14.95, you get full access to hints for hundreds of games and 1 year of free updates. You can also search, decode, or print an entire game's worth of hints at once.

Ask the Author

If you have questions about a puzzle that aren't answered anywhere in these hints, you may contact the author.

Half-Life 2 Hints

Secret Area

  • 1 of 7: Boat on back to where you see the covered round entrances to two large pipes in a concrete wall.
  • 2 of 7: The grate on the left pipe will be slightly open, allowing you to jump up and enter the pipe.
  • 3 of 7: The pipe is full of radioactive sludge, so sprint as quickly as you can down it and around to the cave.
  • 4 of 7: TIP: Don't just run straight down the middle of the pipe -- instead, hug one side or the other and jump constantly while sprinting forward. It won't look like it's helping, but you will emerge in the cave with a little less damage.
  • 5 of 7: In the cave are several supply crates and a vortigaunt roasting a headcrab for dinner. Yum!
  • 6 of 7: You can talk to the vortigaunt (via the "Use item" key) over and over to get a whole lot of different replies, but you can get the very same stuff from some other vortigaunts in the game, including the one at the resistance hideout where you got your gauss gun and the one at NLO in Chapter 7. The only thing this vortigaunt does differently is that throaty humming sound he makes when you first enter the cave.
  • 7 of 7: When you're ready to leave, head back out through the radioactive sludge, using the same constant-jumping tip as when you entered. You should make it with only a little health left (but you can go heal up in the dam's huge supply building).