“Pay attention, Daniel. It’s important that you keep going straight and make sure not to stray.
”Alexander when Daniel asks about the darkness in the Refinery.
The Refinery is a room in Brennenburg Castle that can be accessed from the Entrance Hall. It was featured in the Demo, as the second of the three areas included. It is the seventh area explored in the game and the last accessible from the Entrance Hall.
Information[]
To enter the Refinery, you must find the ingredients for the acid, and pour it on the organic residue preventing you from entering, dissolving the tissue and making the area accessible. The Refinery is also the first area with a potentially dangerous encounter with a gatherer. It won't chase Daniel unless he quickly runs towards it, and in this regard may be treated like the sighting in the Wine Cellar. In the demo, it doesn't attack at all, as it will vanish if the player chooses to run directly for it.
This area is cloaked in darkness. The Shadow has forced its way into this area under the castle, causing structural damage and resulting in cracked walls and crumbling ceilings. In the very beginning of the level, the player can observe the Gatherers' attempts at reinforcing Refinery's interior in form of fully boarded-up walls, with long planks and working tools such as hammers and saws still lying on the floor.
Fleshy residue can be found in random spots in every room. Prolonged contact with it will cause Daniel to take minor damage and is thus should be avoided. There are six rooms to be explored after the room with the Servant Grunt and the barrels. Things such as Tinderboxes, Oil, diary entries, Laudanum, and Notes can be found in these rooms. Daniel will experience a lot unsettling events here, such as hallucinating a Gatherer trying to break down a door, or the Shadow blowing open a door with a roar, resulting in substantial sanity loss before the player could even reach the final section of the map.
The door to the furthermost room in the Refinery is blocked from the inside. Luckily, there's a small hole in the wall behind some boxes, just large enough for Daniel to crawl through. Inside, a large hatch can be found. To open it, you must first remove the stick clogging the opening mechanism by throwing an object on it or removing it by hand.
Layout[]
Light sources[]
There are 9 Candles, 12 Torches, 12 Lamps, and 0 Fires.
Flashbacks[]
1. Triggers at beginning of the level.
Walkthrough[]

- There is nothing of interest in the tunnel at the beginning of the level.
- When you reach the end of the tunnel, you will see a Grunt walk past. Wait for it to go through a door on the right. It will slam the door behind it and disappear.
- This Grunt is only dangerous if you run towards it, so stay put and wait.
- There are doors on both sides of the room. These smaller rooms connect to the next room, so you do not need to enter them just yet.
- Going through the door that the Grunt used, there is a tinderbox on the floor to the right.
- The open door will take you to one of the side rooms, where there is a tinderbox on a shelf to the right.
- In the room through the door on the right, there is a diary entry on a small table. To its right, a tinderbox sits on the lower part of a wine rack.
- Hard Mode tip: Approaching the table with the diary entry will damage your sanity by 10. It is important to avoid both of the optional sanity-draining events in this level, as the mandatory ones deplete your sanity heavily. The script area for this event extends from just before the right corner of the wine rack on the left to the left edge of the barrel on the right, with its corner near the edge of the spilled wine on the floor.
- There is a tinderbox to the left of the wine rack on the opposite side of the room, hidden by a barrel.
- Returning to the room you entered from, go to the door at the other end. Leave this door open, as it avoids a sanity-draining event where it opens.
- Hard Mode tip: This event drains sanity by 15, so triggering it puts you at risk of dying due to sanity loss.
- This room has another diary entry on a small table and laudaunum in a wine rack behind it.
- In the room to the left, there is an oil potion on a shelf at the far end. A tinderbox is higher up on the same shelf; you will have to jump or stand on something to reach it.
- To the right of the shelf is a tinderbox, hidden behind some barrels.
- Back in the room you came from, there is a locked door. Beside it to the right, there is a pile of crates. These crates conceal a hole in the wall. Crouch through it to get into the room.
- There is a oil barrel past the lit torch on the right.
- To the left on the back wall, a tinderbox rests on a shelf.
- Continuing left, you will come upon a small chest with two tinderboxes inside.
- Turning around, the locked door from earlier is on the left. Moving the barrels in the way will unblock it.
- Next to the door is a crank, which is connected to a rope that raises the nearby hatch. When attempting to use the crank, you will discover that it is stuck. This is due to a piece of wood jamming the pulley. Either throw an object at it, or yank it out by hand. Doing this will give you a much-needed sanity boost.
- Turn the crank to open the hatch. Drop down into the tunnel below. Avoid the Shadow's fleshy residue and exit to the Cellar Archives.
Collectibles[]
Puzzle items[]
- There are no puzzle items in this area.
Tinderboxes[]
- Main article: Tinderbox
- There are two tinderboxes in a small room to your left after entering the area you see the Grunt in. One is on top of a shelf, and the other is behind a group of barrels.(37 & 38)
- If you instead enter the room to the right, where a part of Daniel's diary can be found, two tinderboxes can be found. One is in a corner on the floor to the left of the entrance, and another is on a shelf to the right of the entrance. (39 & 40)
- Proceeding from the room mentioned above, another tinderbox can be found on shelf just left of the entrance.(41)
- In the large room with the table, a tinderbox can be found on the floor opposite the hole in the wall.(42)
- Going through the hole in the wall to the room with the trapdoor and the crank, three tinderboxes can be found. One of them is on a shelf to the left of the trapdoor, and the other two can be found in a chest at the far end of the room.(43, 44 & 45)
Oil[]
- Main article: Oil
- Canisters
- An oil container can be found in the room to your left as you enter the room where you see the Grunt.
- Barrels
- An oil barrel can be found in the room with the floor hatch.
Laudanum[]
- Main article: Laudanum
- Near a piece of Daniel's diary in a tiny room.
Documents[]
- Daniel's Diary - Return – Found in two parts: one by entering the room to the left of the hall where you see the Servant Grunt; and another on a table in the corresponding room to your right.
Trivia[]
- The primary purpose of the Refinery seems to be distillation of alcohol. However, an installation for these purposes would be called a distillery, whereas a refinery would be a facility where substances such as oils and natural gases are processed and refined. To wit, the name of the level in code is "distillery"; in-game it's formally known as the "Refinery."
- This misnomer is explained by Thomas Grip, one of the lead developers of the game, in a commentary node found at the beginning of the level.[1]
- Should the player run back into the tunnels or keep the Servant Grunt out of their view without provoking it once it appears, a smear of blood, a pair of bones and a torn leg will be in the spot where it would otherwise be found idling indefinitely. Considering that the location is all-too confined for the Grunt to simply 'disappear' in, it can be assumed, not without a modest stretch, that the Shadow, which made noticeable territorial gains in the place, covertly slays the servant while Daniel has no chance to witness it, thus making it the first known instance of the cosmic entity killing a Gatherer.
- This area is featured in the trailer of the game, "Lost in the Dark."
Gallery[]
Video[]
References[]
- ↑ Developer Commentary: "How Names Come About". Grip, Thomas. Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Frictional Games, 2010, "06_thomas_how_names_come_about.ogg".
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