How to open the Cargo Manifest safe in Alone in the Dark

Sometimes you encounter a puzzle that makes you scratch your head for a very long time. And sometimes, when you figure out the solution, you can’t believe how simple and easy it is. This is the case for most puzzles in Alone in the Dark for better or for worse.

With that in mind, we’re going to visit the wharf and figure out how to open the Cargo Manifest safe in Alone in the Dark.

Alone in the Dark — How to enter the Pregzt Shipping Company

Chapter 3 of Alone in the Dark takes you to a few different places on your quest to figure out what’s going on. Eventually, you find yourself at the Pregzt Shipping Company, searching for more clues about Jeremy. However, the front door is locked, and you must find an alternate way inside. There are even a few Lagniappes available for those who want to do a bit of sightseeing.

This can be fairly easy if you know where to go. Thankfully, the only thing standing in your way is a few enemies and a giant crane. Head to the right of the shipping building and deal with the enemies in whatever way you see fit. If you go all the to the right, you’ll notice a large crane blocking a sewer entrance by the water. What’s more, you need a key to move the crane, which is located in the small building to the far left of the crane.

If you didn’t deal with all the enemies in this area, there could be a few lurking around the building. Deal with the monsters, and head to the back of this small structure where a ladder leads to the roof. Jump through the small hole in the ceiling, and next to the door is Stevedore’s key to the crane. Grab it and head back to the crane. Insert the key to move the crane out of your path. Once you have dispatched the creatures sprung from the sewer, navigate into the sewer and you’ll find yourself in the Pregzt Shipping Company.

Alone in the Dark — How to open Cargo Manifest safe

• Make it into the building via a ladder from the sewers, walk upstairs to the office, and get ready to work. If you need help finding things around the building, you might want to change your Player Guidance settings. Inside the office, you’ll find some ammo, a Tommy Gun, and a clue related to the safe in the left-hand corner of the room.
• The clue details an experience with the Dark Man, with the ending stating the papers you need are in the safe. Along with this, there’s a riddle-type clue at the end, stating: “What is left, Later is right, And Hell is back again.” Now I don’t know about you, but this was undoubtedly the hardest puzzle in the entire game for me. I spent almost 15 minutes staring and walking around the building trying to figure out what the clue meant.
• However, much like other puzzles in Alone in the Dark, the solution is the path of least intelligence. By dissecting the number of letters in the words “What,” “Later,” and “Hell,” you get the combination 4-5-4. This isn’t the end of the clue however, because if you thought you needed to move the dial on the safe 4 times to the left, 5 to the right, and 4 back left to get it open, you’d be wrong.
• Instead, you need to rotate the dial to the left until it reaches the number 4, then move it to the right once, and then back to the left. The safe opens, and you can grab the next clue leading you ever closer to the Dark Man. You’ll encounter more safes like this one in the game, though they don’t make you struggle as hard as this one.

That being said, the brain puzzle you find later in the game hopefully gives you a more enjoyable experience than this safe.