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I've put at least 3 hours into Alien Isolation already, so it's not like I just started the game, albeit I'm still in the early stages I suppose.

I've encountered more than a half dozen stations where I can re-route power from one system to another. All of these stations, save one where I think I used some speakers to distract the Alien, seemed to have no purpose what-so-ever. And even the one I mentioned that might have had purpose, is ambiguous at best.

What is the purpose of re-routing systems?

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4 Answers 4

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There are various things that you can do, depending on the options in the rewire box. Often they open doors and the like, but also:

  • Air Purifier fills the area with smoke that reduces visibility, allowing you to sneak past enemies. They also allow you to remove poison gasses from some areas so that you can get through them.
  • Alarm and Speakers cause enemies to go and investigate - for the Alien this can be a very small window, as it goes there, looks about and often then comes straight back. Alarms work from further away but take a lot longer to reset and be used again.
  • Lights turns lights on an off. Both can be useful as enemies will investigate the change of state.

Check the map on the right of the box, and RB and LB can switch rooms for many rewire boxes, as you can see exactly where the distraction will happen.

The distractions can be especially useful when the Alien is loitering where you need to go, which it seems to do all the time, and rewire boxes can buy you the time you need to get to the next objective. They're incredibly useful.

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    In a few places, rewire boxes can also enable/disable doors and vents.
    – Powerlord
    Oct 22, 2014 at 4:51
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The Rewire Boxes do have limited uses, the most common ones I've found are to turn off security systems (cameras) which will stop alarms going off, opening vents / doors, distracting the alien via the speaker system and turning off the air purification which creates a temporary cloud around the area making you more difficult to see which is useful for stealthing.

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    So distracting the alien via speakers DOES work, it wasn't my imagination?
    – Ender
    Oct 9, 2014 at 12:28
  • Yeah it does work, but it's a brief window, same as (I don't necessarily mean length of time) noise makers.
    – MattR
    Oct 9, 2014 at 14:34
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Although I still cannot find any purpose to the power stations I've previously mentioned, I'm convinced that they either had a use I didn't notice, or were there merely for the purpose of immersion, as I've found one just recently that I had to use to accomplish my objective. So at the very least some of these stations are important and have a purpose.

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  • Maybe others will become useful as the game progresses?
    – Shadur
    Oct 9, 2014 at 8:05
  • @Ender are you playing on easy or something? I found these rewire boxes essential to surviving multiple encounters. In the first room with humans I used smoke and speakers to sneak past them to the door, and then speakers again to lure the Alien away so I could hack the lift. In comms I used lots of smoke to sneak past working joes and in quarantine the alarm bought me the time I needed to enter the door code, and so on. Rewire boxes are lifesavers!
    – Keith
    Oct 12, 2014 at 13:33
  • @Keith no I'm playing on hard, And mostly haven't needed to use the boxes at all, however, I'm a super good hider.
    – Ender
    Oct 12, 2014 at 18:13
  • Also to be fair, since I've posted this question and heard many of the tips presented, I've seen a great deal more use in them, but many of the effects were as stated, ambiguous. I wasn't really SURE if they did something, or I just got lucky\ experienced a coincidence, sometimes you just need another players confirmation so you know your not imagining it.
    – Ender
    Oct 12, 2014 at 18:24
  • @ender - yeah, this isn't a game that holds your hand. There's more than one way to solve most situations, but I found the rewire boxes super useful.
    – Keith
    Oct 12, 2014 at 20:01
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They do a few things and some are useful like door access and lights but I learned the hard way that opening the rewire box makes enough noise to attract the alien if nearby so use with caution.

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