2017 Update Log
-Updated of Professional Flashlight due to +1 Endurance buff it received in update #27.
-Updated Phileas' description slightly due to Intimidating buff.
-Fixed spacing on "calculating stats" page.
-Updated Darcy section due to recent buff.
-Updated Stealth in "investigator stats" section due to the buff it received.
-Updated Idol section with the newest Idol, Coven.
-Updated Vincent section due to introduction of Coven nerfing him heavily.
-Updated Olkoth's and Subject 23's section with extra builds using Coven.
-Updated quotes on Phileas, Anna, and Jean Luc's section.
-Fixed grammar in the first section of the guide.
-Added bigger descriptions for recommended builds for Olkoth, Rusalka, Subject 23, and Darcy
-Added bigger descriptions for Difficulty level and Skill Ceiling for Olkoth, Darcy, Subject 23, and Rusalka.
-Massive overhaul of all of the descriptions of the flashlights.
-Stealth description removed from investigators and flashlight stats page.
-Stealth has now been given its own section due to its complexity.
-Iker has had a slight altering of his description and builds due to the Stealth change.
-Rinko has a slight description change due to the Stealth update.
-Vincent has had a Replicant outfit description change due to Stealth update.
-Phileas has had a Casanova outfit description change due to Stealth update.
-Maria has had a Childish outfit description change due to Stealth update.
-Anna has had her description tweaked slighty due to the Stealth change.
-Reworked descriptions of all non classic investigators due to some meta shifts and the Stealth change.
-Reworked descriptions of all classic investigators due to meta shifts and the Stealth rework.
-Added quotes to the flashlights, although non-canon, they spice them up a little.
-Changed Vincent and Chuck sections a bit as they were both buffed.
-Investigator items now have their own section, and the Flashbang and Energy Bar items have been added.
-Added Metal Flashlight section.
-Added Fungus to idol guide section.
-Added new builds with fungus to Subject 23 and Rusalka.
-Added new builds with the Metal Flashlight to Iker, Anne Marie, and Phileas.
-New investigator walkthrough videos section, two videos have been added to said section.
-Added new flashlight combos to try for Anna.
-Updated 1 flashlight combo for Hannah.
-Updated Rusalka's Korowai description due to a nerf to it.
-Reduced Rusalka's skill ceiling due to recent nerfs.
-Added (Classic) to the characters that originated from White Noise Online.
-Fixed Chuck having 2 solo strength rankings.
-Updated Fun Facts, Trivia section.
-Reduced Vincent's skill ceiling due to Experienced no longer carrying over in death.
-Slightly tweaked Kurt's and Jean Luc's description due to Leader and Helpful no longer carrying over in death.
-Reworked Periscope section due to +1 Range buff.
-Reworked Camping Lantern section due to +1 Range buff.
-Added Astaroth section, it is now complete.
-Added Additional section for the very basics.
-Changed "Beginner's Tips" section to "The Basics, Continued"
-Added a small patch to the 'stealth' Section.
-Added two new placeholders for the next two investigators .
-Updated info in the 'Fun Facts, Trivia' section.
-Updated Rinko's and Anna's Neg trait stats.
-Updated Astaroth's Maleficent Trait
-Reworked some grammar and general structure of these sections:
-Update Log
-Introduction
-The VERY Basics
-The Basics, continued
-Gamplay mechanics
-All about Clues
-Creature Abilities
-Creature stats
-Updated Olkoth's page.
-Updated Subject 23's page.
-Updated Darcy's page.
-Updated Rusalka's page.
-Updated Astaroth's page.
-Edited grammar on Idol Guide page.
-Edited grammar on Monster tips and tricks page.
-Added Yumi and Nikolai.
-Various grammar fixes.
-Added Investigator Ranking (Still undergoing revision).
-Reworked descriptions for all starter characters.
-LORE! - Added The origins of where characters came from (Confirmed from devs Via Discord)
-Added possible personalities to (Classic) Characters (Not certain, but sounds close to what they would be).
-Updated (Testing) Investigator Ranks.
-Changed Skill Ceiling to Meta Rating on all characters, and changed some descriptions as a result of that.
-Removed Section - Investigators by Ranking due to the constant Changes of Ranks.
-Updated Vincent and Hannah's sections due to buffs to both of them.
-Added Shaira's, Corey's and the two new flashlights to the guide. Both Shaira and Corey don't have any recommended builds yet because they're still being playtested.
-Recovering the guide....
-Guide is now completely restored.
-Added tiers for monsters.
-Added monster tier list, more will be coming soon!
-Added a full tier system and a tier list for Idols and investigators.
-Changed Iker and Astaroth's pictures due to changes to them.
-Sphynx Idol now Stealth nerfed, picture changed due to this.
-Added another build to try for Sarah (don't).
-Added two quotes to the Paid DLC flashlights.
-Changed Sarah's Tier from a C- to a B-.
-Added Base Section to Okiku.
-Fixed some issues and miscorrection in the Clues section.
-Completely finished Okiku's section.
-Changed King of Metal outfit description on Iker due to buffs to it.
-Changed Shaira's description slightly due to buffs to her traits.
-Added Purger idol.
-Changed tier list position of Sarah, Blister, and added Okiku and Purger to the tier lists.
-Added Stealth effects on Okiku's powers.
-Added base info updates on the new skins for the first 4 investigators. (Iker, Anna, Rinko, Phil)
-Added base info updates on the new skins for the next 4 investigators they made. (Vincent, Maria, Shaira, Corey)
-Made the Update Log more compact.
-Okiku was added.
-New tier list.
-Updated Kurts 'Solo strength'.
-Reworked descriptions of all investigators, creatures, flashlights and idols. The guide is now revamped.
-Changed all Battery Management stats to Flashlight as the stat was changed to reflect its true meaning.
-All Flashlights have had pictures retaken due to their actual stats being shown after the calculation
-Calculating Stats section has been removed as the developers put the actual calculations in the game, thus making the section useless.
-Minor grammar fixes throughout the guide.
-Added extra trivia.
-Vincent and Maria have changed places due to the Vitality changes in the tier list.
-Added information about the Speed penalty upon being grabbed.
-Massive grammar updates on the whole guide.
-Updated Shaira and Okiku's pages to reflect their buffs.
-Updated Shaira and Morgul's tier list rankings to reflect meta changes.

Please note that this guide has both facts and opinions. The stats and traits, etc, of all the monsters/investigators/flashlights/idols are provided, although the descriptions and ratings of them are opinionated. Please do not assume that "literally everything I say is a fact", just because X investigator is rated poorly does not mean you're terrible for using them. Feel free to mess around with your own builds and try out new things, it's not expected that you follow this guide religiously.

All co-creators are credited. They all originally chipped in and their work is still here. They all allowed me to use their work originally. Big thanks to all of them for their contributions.

And remember that above all else that you don't have to use meta builds and characters just because someone said so, like in my guide. Skill will ALWAYS be more important than a good build. Don't assume you can pick high tier characters from the tier list and automatically win the game or pick low tier characters and be doomed to fail.

Skill >>>>> Builds/Character being used

You can win very easily with C and D tiers just as easily as you can lose with S tier characters. Please keep this in mind while going through the tier lists.

This guide was a team effort by multiple people, they all contributed in a valuable way and this guide could not have been created without them, my thanks to:

(Her name has no capital) fairy for massive help with Rinko's section and advising on the usefulness of some flashlights.

Average-Medic for helping on Sarah's section and getting some screenshots for the guide. Also for continuing to add information to the guide and tier placements.

Camaraderie for helping with Anna's section and for general advice on making guides, etc.

HanD for helping me by being a friendly creature and letting me get pictures in game without the threat of being attacked.

Vitaliy for moral support and advising on Kurt's and Iker's section.

YT/KevinsGaming22 for helping film videos for this guide, which was a huge help since the rest of us didn't have any recording software. Also assisted in taking screenshots when HanD was not around and fixing about 80% of this guide. Also being a great friend who has helped me through alot.

Trojan Man for some videos as well.

NallyNally and SubjectMoon for starting up the meta originally, they also made the first legitimate game guide you can find here: http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=791258682

Caziban for restoring this guide when it was originally completely deleted. It would not exist without him, special thanks to him.

SelflessSoothsayer for helping with tier placements and fixing the grammar issues that literally everyone else missed. This guide would be considerably messier without him.

Welcome! This is a guide made for anyone that needs help in White Noise 2. There is plenty of information here to help you get started, or if you simply want some more advanced tips.

Some general information about White Noise 2:

White Noise 2 is an asymmetrical 4v1 horror game. In this game you can either take control of one of four Investigators who's job is to find 8 clues hidden around the map and then banish the Creature by destroying the artifact linking it to the Earth, or you can play as the Creature and devour them all, protecting your artifact from being destroyed.

Before I get into this, let me remind you that this is a guide, I can make recommendations and suggestions, but it's ultimately your decision on what to use. You don't have to listen to anyone when picking an Investigator or Creature, and trying goofy builds can be fun! Just try not to screw over your team while doing so, remember, you're a TEAM, going alone usually won't work well and doing your own thing while your team gets clues may get you killed, so don't think it'll be a walk in the park.

Feel free to skip ahead to sections you want to know about as this guide is very long and it takes a long time to read through in its entirety.

Lingo/Terms used in game:

Guard/Duelist: Commonly referred to as a guard, this is an unofficial term for any investigator that has high Speed and Endurance but pays in Exploration, Stealth, and Flashlight Range. They tend to be the last ones alive, and their job is mostly to guard the leader from being attacked by the creature. They usually rush in to stun the creature while the rest of the team watches from a safe distance, and then rushes back out.

An example of a guard would be Hannah.

Leader: The most valuable investigator on any team, the leader can be any investigator with an Exploration rating of 6 or more. The job they have is to lead the team towards the tapes since their Exploration will enable them to use the compass more and hear clues from further away. It's highly recommended to have at least one of these investigators on your team to speed the game up significantly.

An example of a leader would be Vincent.

Caboose: These investigators tend to have high Range flashlights to "snipe" the monster or stun it from long range to make it easier to escape from the monster. They don't have great Stealth, and usually sacrifice a little mobility too, but a caboose can be very intimidating against the creature as their long range lights make them difficult to approach. They also tend to stare at the monster for longer than any other investigator to slow the creature down as well.

An example of a caboose would be Chuck.

Snipe: When a monster is stunned from a Range that makes it extremely difficult to catch up to the rest of the investigators. You need at least a Flashlight Range rating of +1 (6/10) or higher to pull off a Snipe.

Stealth Split/Scout: Also commonly referred to as the Split, these investigators will usually leave the group on purpose to cover more ground and speed up the game by collecting as many clues as possible while alone.

Due to the nature of going alone you are NOT expected to survive until the end of the game as a split, you are only expected to find 2-4 clues to considerably speed up the pace of the game and pressure the creature on time. It is HIGHLY recommended that you have at least 6 Stealth or more if you plan to split (unless you're playing as Chuck) and at least average Exploration unless you know the map REALLY well.

An example of a split would be Sarah.

Symmetry: Any investigator that has at least average stats in all or most categories. These investigators are designed to be a substitute for a role that has already died. Although they may be weak at specializing, their lack of weaknesses makes them strong in their own way.

An example of a symmetry would be Kurt.

Tape Camping: Refers to the monster strategy where a monster camps a tape (or clue). Usually this is only reserved for Subject 23 due to his Scarecrows. Unlike camping in other games, this is counterable by disabling Subject 23's scarecrows and stunning Subject 23 himself, waiting for him to be banished. In a worst case scenario, someone tanks a hit for the team and you get the tape.

Rushdown/Rushing: Refers to the playstyle of being incredibly aggressive towards the investigators. This is usually Rusalka's main playstyle. It can also mean the act of investigators collecting clues very quickly as to end the match sooner.

Fishing for stuns: The act of a guard or caboose waiting for the Creature to make a move before trying for a stun and running away. This is mostly common in high level play where the main part of the match are the mind games the investigator and creature play at in a direct confrontation.

Duel: A duel refers to a 1v1 confrontation between the creature and an investigator who's alone. A duel is usually always creature favoured due to how weak many investigators are while they're by themselves. A duel is usually won by the creature in low level play where as in high level play it's all about mind games and being baited into a sanity drain or Shutdown/Unfazed, since it can be anyone's win.

Stun and Stare: When a new player believes that they can prevent the creature from moving by continually staring at it, so they stun the creature and continue to stare at it instead of running away. Pro tip: The "stunning" that happens to a creature only lasts a second or two, after that light will only slow it down, NOT stop it. So don't stun and stare.

Corner Cheese: When Olkoth/Subject 23/Darcy waits around a corner (out of sight) for an investigator to get near, then uses Shutdown/Unfazed/Mourn to prevent them from getting stunned, usually forcing a free grab.
It's usually counterable by turning corners widely to prevent getting instantly grabbed or just having fast reflexes in general, but this tactic tends to easily catch people off guard. If a monster is constantly corner cheesing, turn corners widely and if you hear the sound effect for Shutdown/Unfazed run away instead of looking around for the monster. If you try to spot the monster first, it'll be too late.
This might be frowned upon but you ARE the monster so, it's your game, do what you will.

Now that you know terms commonly referred to in the game, let's get onto some other things.

For those that are true newbies and need a very basic explanation on how to play White Noise 2, this is the best place for you to be. Here I'll go over the basic rules in 5 steps that should help you last longer against the monster. The section "Beginner's Tips" goes into this in more detail.

1. You will need to defend yourself! You will be a quick snack for the monster if you don't know what to do as an investigator. To fight back, you need to make use of your flashlight to ward the creature off.

When the creature is exposed to your flashlight, it will "scream" and be stunned for around 2 seconds. When this happens, you want to immediately turn around and run for your tiny life. CONTINUING TO EXPOSE THE MONSTER TO LIGHT WILL ONLY SLOW HIM, IT WILL NOT STOP HIM, RUN, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ESCAPE THE CREATURE OTHERWISE.

2. Your main objective besides staying alive is to find "clues", these are usually tapes that will be scattered around the map and make a static noise when you're close to them. You can use your compass (the R button by default) to point you in the general direction of the nearest one. Clicking on them when you're close will pick them up and earn your team a "clue found".

You may get a clue that is different from your standard "grab tape" clue. When you see these, either look to the highest level investigator in your group for directions, or refer further down in the guide on how to solve these other objectives as they're too complex to describe here.

3. Stay with your teammates! As an investigator you WILL DIE if you're alone. When you lose sight of your group, pressing G (Shout by default) will alert both the creature and other investigators to your EXACT location. Since it reveals your location to the creature as well I'd recommend you only use it when you're lost, you wouldn't want to needlessly give away your group's position, would you?

4. Turning off your flashlight IS NOT a good idea. Sure, it's much much harder for the monster to find you, but that's completely useless in a group where other people have their flashlights on. You also move much slower and can't save teammates when your flashlight is off, so please, do keep it on.

5. My final tip, which will absolutely save your life, is to check behind you often. For the 1000 times you DON'T see the monster, it'll be worth for the 1 time you do and it saves your life. I'm not kidding when I say that more noobs die to this one issue than probably anything else. You are NEVER safe, always check behind you, always.

Here are some more beginner's tips that are a bit more in-depth for the slightly more advanced user. I know I may sound like a broken record repeating some of the stuff in "The VERY Basics" section of the guide, but believe me, the stuff I repeat is the most critical information and it may save your life later on.

-Don't stare at paranormal things for too long! As soon as the creature is stunned by anyone's flashlight you'll want to turn around and immediately run. When the monster is stunned it will be forced to flee in a few seconds, and staring at the creature will drain your sanity. If you run out of sanity, you go insane for a few seconds and you won't be able to move at all. However, you may be forced to stare at the creature to slow it down. Make sure to manage your Sanity and stop staring at the monster before it fills your entire screen up or you WILL go insane. And you will always have to run eventually, so make sure to both run and stare sometimes.

-Try to keep your flashlight ON when the creature is chasing you. When your flashlight is off you lose exactly 15% of your movement speed (unless you're playing as Sarah). So although it might conserve your battery life, it will slow you down significantly. Keep it on as your flashlight does not completely die when you're out of battery life.

-Also try not to forget to use your abilities when you need to; it doesn't matter if you're an investigator or the creature since they help a lot in the right situations. Every compass is helpful, and every sprint will assist you. Remember that the lower Skill Usage and Exploration you have, the less frequently you will be able to use your abilities, so make sure you know what you're doing with your stats, every stat in question will be covered in another section so you know what they all do.

-As an investigator, try to not shout unless you need to. Shouting alerts all nearby investigators to your position, but it also lets the creature know your exact location. This should only be used when you're lost and need help getting back to the group. And for reasons covered in her section, you should not shout as Anne Marie. There is no negotiation for this rule.

-Make sure to pay attention to the audio in game. Every monster (besides Darcy!) will make growling noises of some sort. This is random and may not occur either, so don't rely on it completely. However, it may save your life. Keep in mind that the higher Stealth you have, the easier it is to pinpoint the creature's direct location when it growls.

-Remember that as a creature you should NEVER be afraid to rush. If you are exposed to an investigator's flashlight you WILL eventually be forced to teleport. (Besides Darcy, she's special) Even if you aren't exposed to any more light after the initial exposure.

-Remember that teamwork is essential. You will need to work together to survive when you're playing on the investigator team, and you will not survive without a basic strategy, coordinate wih your team!

-Alternatively, as a creature you CAN hear the voice chat as well as the text chat of the investigators, so make sure to exploit that as much as you can. Beware that they may try and feed you bad information, and/or be using a different form of communication via Teamspeak or Discord, so keep that in mind as well.

-One last tip is how to avoid idols. Idols will alert the creature when an investigator is near them, but will not tell the creature where the exact position of the investigator is, unless the idol in question is the Watcher idol. The best way to avoid them is to turn your flashlight off, as the detection range of an idol is halved if while it's off. This is especially important for Stealth Splits as an idol detecting you might screw you over.

Now that we've got through the things most newbies mess up on, let's get to some other things you may want to know about White Noise 2.

Finding clues is one of the core mechanics of this game. The investigators' goal is to gather 8 clues so that they can find the location of the artifact and banish the link the creature has with this world. If a clue is found/solved within 10m of the creature, the creature is instantly banished regardless of circumstances.

On the opposite side of things, the creature must protect its clues to avoid the location of the artifact being found out.

Clues can be found by using your compass which will point in the direction of the nearest one. There are several different types of clues, they are:

Tapes: Easily the most common clue, you'll find around at least 5 or 6 of these on the map, and upon being picked up will count as a clue being found.

They make a static-like white noise when you're near one, which will alert you to their presence.



A tape. (This is the only clue where there are multiple of them per game)

Arcane Chest: There is only 1 chest on the map, the chest will have three symbols on it, and these symbols have to be pressed in order from left to right. They will be scattered near the chest and make a specific sound when you're near them. When you've pressed all the buttons in the correct order you may go back to the chest to open it, which will count as a clue being found.

There may be only 1 Chest on the map at a time.



A chest.



A button that opens the chest when pressed in the corrent order.

Light Prism: This giant crystal is unstable and when exposed to light will eventually be destroyed. Simply stare at it with your flashlight on for a bit and it will break, counting as a clue being found, the more investigators staring at the prism the faster it'll break.

There can only be 1 Light Prism on the map at once, and glow sticks do NOT contribute towards breaking the prism.



The light prism.

Grimoires: These books will be scattered near each other. Grimoires also emit sound so it's easy to find them. They take time to read and upon reading the correct one the rest of them will disappear and it will count as a clue being found. It's impossible to determine which book is the correct one, so try them all, you'll find the right one eventually. Multiple investigators do NOT read the same book faster.

There is only 1 set of Grimoires on the map.



A Grimoire, the amount of Grimoires in 1 set depends on how many investigators there are in the game.

The Rift: This portal can be closed by gathering 6 shards (with 4 players) of it around the area it spawns in. These shards also emit sound so you can find them easily. Then you will need to perform the ritual, which takes a little time. The amount of shards is less than 6 if the match has less than 4 investigators. Multiple investigators do NOT seal the rift faster.

There is only 1 rift that spawns in the map.


The rift.


A shard.

The Finale: When all clues are collected, the Finale begins. In the Finale, the creature will get much more aggressive since it will be able to see your outline from anywhere on the map, regardless of your Stealth.

It is HIGHLY recommended that the remaining alive investigators get back together as anyone who is alone is very likely to die. When in the Finale, the objective of the investigators is to destroy the Artifact linking the creature to this world by destabilizing it.

To do this, the investigators must destroy a set amount of sigils that are stabilizing the Artifact. These are scattered near the Artifact and are easy to see. Remember that anyone, investigator or creature, can see the Artifact from anywhere on the map. (Unless the Creature is near a Stauette, but that will be covered later.)

Each sigil takes time to break, so make sure to have a teammate watch your back while you're doing this or wait until the creature is banished before breaking a couple, since if no one is there to watch your back the creature gets a free grab, on the house. And if you're on the last life it's an easy kill. It is also important especially to protect Rinko at this stage since if she's near death the creature will move in for the kill and stun everyone with her Adorable trait. There are pictures below of the sigils and the Artifact so you know what to look for when you finally get to the Finale.

The Artifact:



(The only this thing does in game is show you its position, otherwise it doesn't do anything.)

A Sigil:



(The number of sigils you have to break in the Finale is the number of investigators that there were at the beginning of the game times two. For example, if the game started with 2 investigators, 2 investigators x 2 sigils = 4 sigils that are required to be broken.) Multiple investigators do NOT break the same sigil faster.

Investigator death: When an investigator is fully devoured by the creature they will come back as a Ghost. Ghosts can still use their Compass, have increased Exploration, and can also place Spirit Flames that function similarly to a glow stick. They can also banish idols and shout without the monster knowing where they are.

In the Finale each Ghost may only banish a single sigil. They are unable to see the creature. They also have nightvision similar to the Creature and move at a constant running pace. Note that you cannot break a sigil as a ghost if you have broken one while you were alive.

Your job as a Ghost is to banish as many idols as you can, and then get to a clue and spam your shout button so that the investigators know where it is. Do not say "There is a tape over here!" Or anything else since the monster may be preparing an ambush at the location where you've found a tape and you won't even know it. Just spam your shout button when you're right next to a tape so the investigators can come and retrieve it.

Before you do that, however, it is recommended to banish all of the idols like mentioned above. It's a huge help to the investigators since the bonuses the idols give to the creature are huge, and destroying them helps the investigators sigificantly, so make sure to banish them before you do anything else. Note that you can also kill the creature's traps (such as Decoy's) if you are near them.

Although you can't see the creature, you can still see certain creature's particle effects when they activate specific abilities (like Darcy's Misfortune), as well as hear the general direction of others (like Morgul's Rebirth), and can be used to strategize accordingly.

Idols: These alien "idols" can be spawned by the creature in fixed locations all around the map. They drain the Sanity of any investigator that looks at them and will alert the creature if someone is near the idol, with the detection range being based on it's base Range, the creature's Idol Influence, and the Stealth of the investigator.

(Sarah is undetectable by idols while her flashlight is off, everyone else has their idol detection range halved while their light is off, running does not change the range of which you can be detected by an idol.)



The default idol.

Sanity: This is the biggest thing you should worry about as an investigator, right behind the amount of lives you have. Sanity determines how long you can stare at paranormal things before going insane.

Each investigator starts at a Sanity of 1,000, think of this like a "HP" bar. Staring at paranormal things will make you lose Sanity, and if it hits 0 you suffer from a mental breakdown, which stuns you for around 4 seconds and gives the creature your exact location, and if the creature is anywhere near you, that's a free grab.

This 1,000 Sanity cap slowly degrades over the course of the game, each time you lose Sanity, even if you don't go insane, your cap of 1,000 Sanity will decrease by % of how much Sanity you lost. (It is unknown how big the % is)

For example, let's say you go insane by staring at the creature and lose all of your 1,000 Sanity points and that the Sanity degration is 10%. This would mean that you would lose 100 points of your Sanity cap, making it go down to 900, making it easier for you to go insane the next time. (The sanity degration is not actually 10%, this is for example purposes only)

There is a minimum cap of how low your Sanity HP bar can this minimum cap is 250 points of Sanity or 1/4 of your original Sanity.

The only way to negate Sanity cap damage is to either take painkillers, which are scattered around the map. (Iker has an alternate way which will be covered in his section)

Beware that running also slowly depletes your Sanity cap by 1.5 points every second, so if you've run a lot over the course of the game you're going to pay for it later when the creature eventually attacks you. This won't amount to anything significant if you only run when the creature finds you, however. (Anna has a different mechanic when running which will be covered in her section)

Bravery changes the rate of which you lose Sanity, but that will be covered in another section. On the opposite side, the Horror stat of the Creature will increase how much Sanity you lose when staring at it, but again, that will be covered in a later section.

Paranoia: Paranoia is a very hidden mechanic that was only released recently. What it does is alter how much Exploration and Bravery you have depending on how many people you're close to. The numbers are as following:

Started the game with 4 Investigators:

One player far away from you: Exploration and Bravery decreased by 6.4%
Two players far away from you: Exploration and Bravery decreased by 12.8%
Three players far away from you: Exploration and Bravery decreased by 19.2%

Started the game with 3 Investigators:

1 player far away from you: Exploration and Bravery decreased by 9.6%
2 players far away from you: Exploration and Bravery decreased by 19.2%

Started the game with 2 Investigators:

One player far away from you: Exploration and Bravery decreased by 12.8%

Paranoia is not active if the game started with only one investigator.

Note that Stealth changes the values of Paranoia on yourself, but it is unknown how much it changes the numbers, only that at 8 Stealth all Paranoia effects are reduced to 0%.

Now that you know the basic gameplay mechanics, let's get onto the bulk of the guide. (Investigator lives, another important mechanic, will be covered in another section)

The Creature has four basic abilities that is shared amongst all of them, they are:

Teleport: Teleports you close to the investigators. This ability has a long cooldown but essentially lets you get to the investigators for free, so use it when you have it. Note that Stealth impacts which investigator you will teleport close to. Its cooldown is altered by the Perception stat of the monster you're playing.

Compass: Functions exactly the same as the Compass does on the investigators. The only difference is that it leads you to the investigator with the lowest Stealth instead of to the nearest Clue. This will be your main tool in tracking down the investigators and is the most useful ability early game, although late game the power of it is null when all 8 clues were found, since then you can see their outlines anyway.

Red means the nearest investigator is far, yellow means the nearest Investigator is at a fair distance, blue means the Investigator is close, and a blue circle means the investigator is in the general area, but at that point you'll probably see their outline anyway unless they've got their flashlight off.

Sprint: Sprint is a very useful ability. This is mostly used for map traversal rather than ambushing since it automatically cancels if you get too close to an investigator, although it's silent so it won't give away your position when you stop sprinting. Don't use this if you think you're about to get stunned by light as it will cancel the speed boost and will force you to recharge it again to use it.

Summon Idol: Going to an area with the white outline of an Idol will allow you to summon one in that location, this has no cooldown so as long as you find places to put idols you can place them as much as you want with no penalty, beware that it takes a little while to summon one though, so that's more time for the investigators to find clues, so spamming a bunch of these may waste too much of your time. The summoning speed of an Idol is altered by the Idol Influence stat of the monster you're playing.

Horror: Modifies how much Sanity Investigators lose when they stare at you, or when staring at sanity draining creature powers. (Each point in Horror increases or decrease how much Sanity the investigators lose by 10% per point.) This is especially useful against lower Bravery investigators and helps prevent people from staring at you for too long.

Perception: Modifies the base distance of which you can see an outline on an investigator when they are running, or when their flashlight is ON. This is especially useful against high Stealth investigators. It also alters the cooldown of your Teleport ability.

Speed: Modifies your base movement speed and Sprint power speed by 6.5% per point. Nice to have, but isn't the key to everything. (Shoutout to boop bop for getting this information.)

Light Resistance: Modifies how much Speed you lose when you're exposed to any light source and modifies the time before you're banished when you've been dazzled/stunned by the flashlight of an investigator. Your Light Resistance will raise the more you're banished, so in the later game you will be much stronger than in the early game.

Skill Usage: Modifies the cooldown of all of your creature powers besides Teleport. The higher this is, the more you can spam abilities, so make sure to account for that when playing as the creature. Also increases or decreases the time it takes to summon idols by 0.25 seconds per point. Creatures with standard (5) Idol Influence summon idols in 3 seconds. Note that Subject 23 is the exception to this due to one of his traits.

Idol Influence: Modifies the Range and Horror of your idols. Investigators will never go insane from staring at idols unless they're really clueless about the game, but the increased detection range will help you track down Stealth Splits if they aren't careful. It also increases or decreases the time it takes to summon idols by 0.25 seconds per point. Creatures with standard (5) Idol Influence summon idols in 3 seconds. Note that Subject 23 is the exception to this due to one of his traits.

Strength: Modifies the time before an investigator you've caught is devoured. This doesn't change the time as much as Vitality does. It rarely helps you get a 1 hit kill, but if you're feeling lucky....


(Unofficial, these just rate certain aspects of X feature on the Creature.)

Difficulty: How hard it is to use the Creature effectively to the point of being able to win games at minimum.

Meta Rating: The tier ranking of a creature.

S tier: Strongest in the current meta.

A tier: Above average

B tier: Middle of the road

C tier: Below average

D tier: Only situationally strong, and generally weak

I tier A or even S tier material in some circumstances, but D or C tier in others, inconsistant winrate.

Stats:

Light Resistance: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Idol Influence: 5/10 (Standard)

Perception: 5/10 (Standard)

Skill Usage: 5/10 (Standard)

Horror: 5/10 (Standard)

Strength: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 35/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Stigma: Investigators that have been caught and survive have their Endurance permanently decreased by 8%. (Doesn't stack with multiple grabs)

Rancor: Your skills are instantly recharged by 20% when you are banished by any Investigator.

Powers:

Shutdown: All flashlights will be disabled for a time period of 10 seconds. This effect is canceled immediately as soon as an Investigator is grabbed. The time of which an investigator has had their light disabled is altered by Stealth. (Which means that 10 seconds time is only on a default Stealth investigator)

Decoy: Places a decoy that sounds like a tape and is treated like a clue on the Compass until destroyed by either a ghost or an alive investigator.

Invisibility: Become invisible and immune to light, but makes a loud noise on cloaking and uncloaking, automatically deactivates when getting too close to an investigator, or doing another action.

Skins:



Mudman: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Horror:

You will get stared at for longer due to the horror reduction, but will be able to use Lights Out and other powers more frequently from heightened Skill Usage. Excellent for more strategic gameplay, horrible for mindlessly rushing.



Rotten: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Perception:

Reduced Perception means you won't be attacking the investigators as often, but the higher Light Resistance means you'll be harder to banish when you do. Recommended if you're confident in your tracking skills.



Half Orc: +1 Strength, -1 Idol Influence:

Less Idol Influence means you won't be finding the investigators as often, although still more than using the Rotten skin. Higher Strength may net you a one hit KO if you're feeling lucky.



Frozen: +1 Perception, -1 Strength:

Higher Perception means more attacks against the investigators, making Olkoth's playstyle more rushdown. Strength loss will weaken your chance for a one hit KO but is mostly worth the trade off.


About Olkoth: Olkoth has set the standard for basic monster gameplay. He's got the most basic arsenal, but by no means is he weak.

He's easy to learn, but hard to master. His traits are very beginner friendly, and so are his powers, being useful in novice and veteran play. Ultimately, Olkoth easily fills the role of being the jack of all trades and the master of none, since he's easy to learn, hard to master, and is good at both rushdown and tape defense when played properly, even if he's weaker at both of those individually.

Olkoth's stats, traits, and powers: Although his outfits add variety, Olkoth ultimately has very uninteresting stats, have 5/10 in all of them.

Shutdown is widely considered to be the best of the "free grab" creature spells. Disabled lights means investigators are slower and can't stun you, which is extremely powerful if used correctly. However, beware that higher Stealth investigators will not be down for long and Sarah doesn't lose Speed when her light is off, so make sure you plan Shutdown's usage carefully.

Invisibility makes Olkoth excellent at setting up his position. As long as you use it a fair distance away from the investigators they get no notification of when you are close and light doesn't slow you or make noise, so that helps getting past a glow stick minefield as well. Note however that it makes an unmissable noise when you get too close to the investigators, so it's very weak for actually trying to attack the investigators, but as for positioning, it's the best power in the game.

Decoy has the highest skill cap of any creature power in the game. A well placed one will buy you 2-3 minutes of time where the investigators are doing nothing, where as a badly placed one will either be avoided altogether or be destroyed by a guard that rushed ahead; thus being wasted. It is recommended that you place these in common tape spawn locations so they appear real at first.

Olkoth's Playstyle: Jack of all trades. Trying to defend your tapes by placing decoys and rushing with Shutdown and thus creating a balanced playstyle suits Olkoth well, just remember that attempting to specialize isn't usually a good idea.

Recommended Builds:

Hunter + Purger:

If set up properly gives strong results. As long as investigators are not on the side of the map where you haven't placed Idols yet, this all-around combo will do wonders with a few Decoys and can greatly extend matches in your favor. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Purger won't be as effective.

Rotten + Bark:

Very easy to use build. High Light Resistance especially with Shutdown makes Olkoth very potent in duels, just beware that it may take time before you build up momentum.

Mudman + Pustule:

Very tactical build for those that want more opportunites. Considerably increased Skill Usage can be a massive upgrade or a minor one depending on your playstyle, planning your strategy before using this build is recommended.

Half Orc + Coven:

If you manage to split investigators up frequently, this build may be useful. You can kill people very fast if you get them alone, just beware that your idol detection range is very low.

Frozen + Pazuzu:

Very strong if used right. Massively increased Perception with 10 idols up helps you to be the most aggressive Olkoth possible with very frequent teleports. Just make sure you know you can capitalize on that fact if you plan on using this.

Difficulty: 3/10: He's the second easiest. The fact that he has no weaknesses unless you choose a skin means he's easy to learn, and the fact that there's no effort required to get the most out of your traits and your powers (besides Decoy) means that he isn't hard.

Meta Rating: B+ tier

Stats:

Horror: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Skill Usage: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Speed: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Light Resistance: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Strength: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Perception: 8/10 (Highest) (+3)

Idol Influence: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Stat total: 35/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Unholy Power: Each idol on the map increases your Skill Usage by 5% up to a maximum of 50% or 10 idols.

Hypnosis: Upon being stunned your Horror is elevated by 50% for the next 5 seconds.

Powers:

Tapeworms: Summon worms all around the map that drain the Sanity of the investigators who stare at them.

Ambush: Teleport behind an investigator. Your target is influenced by the Stealth of said investigator, and if they're highlighted or not. (Game will prioritize highlighted investigators) You will make a loud noise when you do this and cannot move for 1 second after teleportation.

Energy Trap: Places a trap that will trigger when an investigator steps close to it. When triggered, the energy trap will recharge your ambush power, highlight the investigator to you, and disable their flashlight for a time. (Affected by Stealth)

Skins:



Undead: +1 Horror, -1 Idol Influence:

Your idols aren't good at all, you take much longer to summon them, and you likely won't be detecting anyone with them, but the increased Horror means your worms drain more and with Hypnosis you can make people go mad very quickly. Use with care.



Korowai: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Speed:

No longer the queen of Rusalka builds as it used to be. Very high Skill Usage means you ambush even more, but the Speed loss makes you even weaker than before.



Venous: +1 Speed, -1 Light Resistance:

Makes you extremely fast, but don't count on lasting long at all. 1 Light Resistance is just awful and you will feel it if you choose this skin.



Crimson: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Skill Usage:

You won't be able to attack as much due to the Skill Usage reduction, but increased Light Resistance makes you potent in the lategame. The polar opposite of the Korowai skin.


About Rusalka: Both the most aggressive and easiest monster to use in the game. Ambush charges very fast especially with 10 idols up, and tapeworms inflicts reliable sanity damage at all times. This makes Rusalka very noob friendly and very much a spammer.

Rusalka's Stats, Traits, and Powers: Rusalka has some very defined strengths. Her Speed stat is the highest in the game compared to any other Creature, and coupled with Venous you're extremely fast, but her Light Resistance is also the lowest, thus caboosing counters her very hard and she won't be sticking around long after a stun.

Her Perception and Skill Usage are both boosted however. This means she can spam her powers more frequently, and means that it's easier to track stealth splits, even without the usage of Ambush. However, lower Horror and Strength means making people go mad is hard unless you have Hypnosis up and one hit KO's are extremely rare besides against Stealth splits.

Lower idol influence is a bother but usually doesn't matter due to the ridiculous Perception Rusalka has.

Rusalka's traits are powerful. Unholy Power is very easy to abuse and gives a lot of payout, although Hypnosis needs tapeworms up to do some real damage. Beware though that smarter investigators will avoid staring at you when you're initally stunned as they'll know how effective it is.

Her powers are atrociously easy to spam. Ambush is both the easiest skill to use in the game, and the one with lowest skill ceiling. Upon use you teleport behind an investigator, but beware that you can't move for 1 second after teleportation, and it makes a loud noise that the investigators can hear loudly, which means that even slower investigators CAN afford to stun you and escape, this is NOT overpowered.

Tapeworms are the strongest power in the game for reliably inflicting Sanity damage, you can use them at your leisure, even if you aren't going in as the damage they deal is permanent. You can also make people go insane by using this while attacking people which if planned right is very possible against lower Bravery investigators like Jean Luc.

The Light Trap is difficult to use but can be a very rewarding skill. On use you place a trap which is difficult to see and if an Investigator steps within its (deceptively high) range these three things happen all at once:

1. Your Ambush skill is instantly recharged to 100%
2. All investigators close to the trap have their flashlight disabled for a period longer than a normal Shutdown
3. They are highlighted to you, and Ambush will teleport you to them.

This essentially means you get a free grab, but make sure to place them properly because these traps can be disarmed if an investigator walks over it with their light off and presses the disarm key, they also make a loud noise upon being deployed, so don't think you can hide around a corner and place these just as the investigators are coming to you.

Rusalka's Playstyle: Aggressive. You want to attack the investigators as much as possible to reach that hard cap on your Light Resistance, which is especially powerful lategame. However your mindgame potential is very low even with Light Traps, so don't think you'll be doing many strategic plays.

Recommended Builds:

Siren + Construct:

You can't spam your abilities as frequently as the Korowai skin, but you won't be as hindered by the reduced speed. This skin still has it's own utility depending on the occasion.

Korowai + Construct:

Even more spammy than normal. With 10 idols up and being near one of them you get 100% increased Skill Usage, which is a colossal amount that rivals even Darcy's Bloodlust skin. It will take time to do this however.

Crimson + Bark:

Your Light Resistance is standard with 10 idols up, and this makes it easy to catch up to investigators since your Speed is high. However you will be considerably less aggressive since it takes time to place all the idols and with lower Light Resistance to boot.

Venous + Fungus:

Super Speed! This is the best build possible for Speed in the game, you can cross the map VERY fast with this build. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Fungus won't be as effective.

Undead + Hellspawn:

You can play the sanity drain game with this build, as the sanity drain you inflict with 10 idols up and with tapeworms while being stunned can really hurt the lower sanity characters, just make sure to prepare for it before you go in there.

Difficulty Level: 1/10: She's the easiest monster in the game to use simply because all you have to do is get a couple idols up and then spam Ambush/Tapeworms.

Meta Rating: C+ tier

Stats:

Speed: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Light Resistance: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Horror: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Perception: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Strength: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Skill Usage: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Idol Influence: 8/10 (Highest) (+3)

Stat total: 35/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Sorrow: Ghosts move and banish idols 33% slower.

Wraith: You make no noise at all until you've been exposed to light and you move 20% faster while sprinting. Light also does not slow you as much as it does for other creatures.

Powers:

Cairn: Place a cross that will teleport an investigator to its location if they're grabbed by you and then saved. These can be dismantled by ghosts or alive investigators and have max range, outside of that max range they will only teleport an investigator to a maximum of 50m away.

A teleported investigator has their flashlight shutoff, Speed reduced, and highlighted to you for a period of time that is altered by the Stealth stat of the investigator.

Mourn: For a set time (changed by the Stealth stat) all investigators anywhere on the map cannot run and have their sensitivity reduced so that they cannot turn around as fast. Their vision will be obscured with chains when used.

Misfortune: Can only be used while stunned. Once used will instantly recover your stun and require the investigators to stun you with their flashlights a second time to banish you.

Skins



Spectral: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Strength:

Having the lowest Strength in the game means you won't kill anyone in a single hit unless you've grabbed a Stealth Split, but the ridiculously high Light Resistance should easily make up for that.



Lady of the Lake: +1 Perception, -1 Idol Influnce:

If you prefer tracking the investigators yourself, this is the ideal skin for you. Your idols won't be as amazing, but they'll still be much better than average.



Bewitched: +1 Horror, -1 Idol Influence:

Lowers your overall tracking ability a bit, but you can't be stared at for as long since your Horror isn't as low like it used to be.



Bloodlust: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Perception:

You get even lower tracking ability than the Bewitched skin, but your Skill Usage goes up even higher. This is excellent for those that would like more opportunities with faster charging skills.

About Darcy: Unique playstyle as she has very high Light Resistance in exchange for not so great Speed, which is something no other monster has. Darcy is effectively a tank because of this, as she lasts a really long time before being banished.

This type of 'slow but strong' playstyle means you have to be patient using her and strike as soon as possible since you won't have many opportunities, make them count!

About Darcy's stats, traits, and powers: Very high Light Resistance but lower Speed to balance it out, as well as the highest Idol Influence in the game but distinctly below average Perception. This is why Darcy has the 'slower but stronger' playstyle, as she needs a lot of time to find the investigators.

Sorrow is mostly useful in the early game. If you manage to kill someone then, it's quite powerful, however in the Finale it's effectiveness significantly dinimishes. Wraith is a very well rounded perk and will always help you, as no growls helps you position yourself without the investigators noticing, and sometimes that's all it takes to get a grab.

Her powers require some know-how to use efffectively, but when used effectively are quite strong. Mourn in paticular is difficult to time properly, but if used in a well timed ambush is almost always a grab since it makes it very difficult for the investigators to flee you unless they spam a ton of glowsticks.

Cairn is strong if placed properly. It can net you a one hit KO or can end up just being a minor annoyance to the investigators. It is recommended you place these in hard-to-reach areas to increase your chances of a one hit KO, just make sure not to accidently create a Stealth Split.

Misfortune is very powerful as the second stun it gives you sometimes is just enough to grab someone. Pairing it with Mourn is especially effective as it makes getting away difficult with the higher mobility investigators, and nigh impossible for the lower mobility ones.

Darcy's playstyle: Very tactical. You want to grab an investigator with a Cairn and then see if you can pair a Mourn + Misfortune into a one hit KO. If it works you can easily cripple the investigator team. Other than that she's - like mentioned above - a 'slow but strong' type that can take a lot, but won't be moving very fast.

Recommended Builds:

Banshee + Coven:

Very strong if used properly as most investigators will not be able to run away from you with a -18% Endurance reduction on top of a Mourn and Misfortune.

Spectral + Bark:

Takes a while to get going, but when it does you're a really strong tank. Investigators can barely do anything to slow you down, just be aware that it takes a while to set up, so the investigators might rush the map while you're doing that.

Bloodlust + Watcher:

Increased Skill Usage means you can spam Mourn, Misfortune, and your Cairns even more. It's great for those that want to use their powers more frequently. And the increased Idol Influence + Watcher nullifies her terrible Perception, meaning you can be much more agressive. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Watcher won't be as effective.

Bewitched + Hellspawn:

Really chips away at the investigator's Bravery as the game drags on. Sure your Horror isn't anything to write home about, but considering you'll be stared a lot and it just might win you a grab if the investigators aren't watching their sanity.

Lady of the Lake + Fungus:

The increased Perception and Speed from Fungus helps Darcy be a lot more aggressive, and the more times you encounter the investigators, the more chances of grabs and thus kills. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Fungus won't be as effective.

Difficulty: 5/10: Not too hard. Her stats mean that a total noob might have trouble with her, but an experienced player will be able to work with it. She's not too hard.

Meta Rating: S tier

Stats:

Horror: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Skill Usage: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Light Resistance: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Strength: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Perception: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Idol Influence: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Stat total: 35/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Brute: All investigators die in one less grab. (Vincent dies on his first grab and Phileas dies on his third grab.)

Rage: The initial stun from being exposed to the flashlight of an investigator has a 30% shorter duration.

Powers:

Offering: Quickly summon an idol from long Range.

Rebirth: Teleport to the nearest idol to the investigators. Investigators close to the idol will be marked and have their flashlights turned off for a time. (Values changed by Stealth). Destroys the target idol on use.

Surge: Investigators within 12m of you will have lights disabled for 12 seconds and be marked to you for 30 seconds. (Values changed by Stealth)

Skins:



Scout: +1 Idol Influence, -1 Light Resistance:

More Idol Influence means it's easier to use Rebirth, but the nerfed Light Resistance hurts Morgul a lot. This skin isn't recommended viability wise.



Infected: +1 Horror, -1 Skill Usage:

You won't be able to use your powers as often, which hurts since you can't use Surge as much, but 7 Horror means investigators below 7 Bravery will be hard pressed to caboose you, which may be useful in some situations.



Hardened: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Idol Influence:

Less Idol Influence means you can't use Rebirth as much and won't be finding the investigators as much in general. However, increased Light Resistance may or may not be the difference between a grab or not, so it's still a good re-skin.



Militia: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Horror:

Average Horror means you will get stared at more often and investigators will have an easier time managing their sanity, but more Skill Usage helps get your cooldown off Surge faster, which will give you an additional grab or two if you use it tactically.

About Morgul: The character with the lowest Speed and native Perception in the game. He has massive issues tracking investigators outside of Rebirth/Surge/Idols and can be outran by even the slowest investigators.

However, high Strength and Brute means he needs less grabs before everyone is dead, and that can win games, but the low Speed and only slightly better than average Light Resistance means getting a grab in the first place is difficult, if not impossible against higher mobility investigators.

About Morgul's stats, traits, and powers: Low Speed means Morgul is very much reliant on his powers to grab investigators. Surge especially. -2 Speed is extremely difficult to deal with and Fungus doesn't help him much.

High Strength, above average Light Resistance and Idol Influence are helpful, but the worst Perception means his tracking ability is the worst in the game.

Offering helps set up idols more, which means his time to set up is actually more average than anything, and Rebirth helps sklp the tracking process altogether and get right to the investigators, along with disabling lights, but Surge is Morgul's real weapon.

It's fast cast time means it's potent at getting grabs, especially if the investigators are all grouped up, and it can be used in a chase, which is sometimes useful. This means corner grabbing + Surge is the ideal strategy, and like it or not you will have to use it to find success on Morgul.

Morgul's Playstyle: Sluggish but powerful. If you can plan ahead with Morgul you can kill investigators quickly due to Brute and Surge, but you must be extremely careful as Morgul since he faces the most difficulty against the investigators in a straight up duel.

Recommended Builds:

Enraged + Thorns:

Ambushing an investigator near a Thorns idol just might give you grabs, and with Surge especially it gives you a good chance, just make sure to place the idols strategically to prevent them from being avoided. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Thorns won't be as effective.

Scout + Watcher:

Gives Morgul the best tracking potential he can possibly have with great Idol detection range. You'll be weaker than the investigators in a duel, but encountering them more often will help newer players.

Infected + Coven:

Makes the investigators get winded faster, which will force them to attempt caboosing you, and with high Horror it might just make them go mad if they're not careful. This build helps Morgul's chances of getting a grab in a duel.

Hardened + Bark:

The greatly increased Light Resistance makes this build favor long chases which may slow the game down a lot. This chips away at the investigators' sanity slowly and will lead to extended games if you think you can capitalize on that. It can rival even Darcy in terms of Light Resistance.

Militia + Pustule:

High native Skill Usage paired with a 10 stack Pustule makes this the corner grabber's dream build. If you want to corner grab as much as possible, try this.

Difficulty Level: 10/10 Low Speed means you really have to plan your strategy carefully with Morgul, as getting stunned is all it takes to foil all of your plans.

Meta Rating: C- tier

Stats:

Horror: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Speed: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Perception: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Skill Usage: 5/10 (Standard)

Light Resistance: 3/10 (Very low) (-2)

Strength: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Idol Influence: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Stat total: 36/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Summoner: You can summon Idols 33% more quickly.

Ancestral: You cannot be slowed or stunned by light at all when immobile and further away than 5m from any investigator.

Powers:

Unfazed: For a limited duration you are unable to be stunned, athough light will still slow you. You will make a loud noise when you do this.

Scarecrow: Places a copy of yourself that will explode when an Investigator gets too close, which temporarily highlights them to you and massively decreases their sanity while they're highlighted. How long this effect lasts depends on Stealth of the investigator. You cannot place two Scarecrows very close to each other or they will automatically self destruct.

Prescience: Teleports to the location of a compass target of an investigator, this is influenced by the Stealth stat of said investigator.

Skins:



Carved: +1 Strength, -1 Horror:

Decreased horor means you will be caboosed for significantly longer, making you weaker in a duel against the investigators, although you have the highest possible Strength in the game (tied with Morgul), making your one hit KO power the highest as well.



Raw: +1 Horror, -1 Light Resistance:

You can camp tapes and abuse Ancestral much easier with this; and even Anne Marie will scream at you if you play your cards right. Considerably decreased Light Resistance will be crippling if you aren't playing tactically though.



Troglodyte: +1 Speed, -1 Skill Usage:

Your Skill Usage is lower, but you're much faster. Excellent for a rushdown playstyle, just beware that you won't be able to use your powers as much and therefore promotes less strategic gameplay with your powers.



Golem: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Speed:

Makes you get punished much less for being stunned, although the Speed decrease does hurt a bit. Great for those that want a mix of aggressive and planned gameplay that isn't offered by using the Troglodyte skin.


About Subject 23: Subject 23 is without a doubt one of the toughest monsters to play in the game. He's more focused on tape defense than being aggressive, and very decreased Light Resistance means it's very easy to lose duels against the investigators, and your Speed isn't high enough like Rusalka's to compensate.

However, Subject 23's traits and powers offer him the most strategic gameplay in the game and if used properly makes him the most powerful, but beware that in the hands of a novice he is quite weak.

Subject 23's Stats, Traits, and Powers: Good Speed but terrible Light Resistance, good Perception and average Skill Usage, with a side dish of terrible Idol Influence. These are the things that make Subject 23's playstyle.

Ancestral sounds broken on paper, but in game even standard mobility investigators can afford to stun you and run away, so don't thing you can abuse it much. Summoner cuts downtime considerably, so make sure to abuse that.

Unfazed is a very special "free grab" spell. On paper it doesn't look good however. Their lights stay on unlike Shutdown so they can just outrun you, but remember that the duration of this is considerably longer than Shutdown, and cannot be countered by Stealth, meaning you can rundown lower mobility investigators if they don't get help.

Scarecrow is the hardest of Subject 23's powers, as it must be utilized with precision to ensure a grab. Best used to shutdown hallways, it's excellent if you're near it as well as investigators cannot tell the different between a Scarecrow and the real one if you're standing still. This can be a free grab if they walk up to you with their lights turned off to try and "disable" you so make sure to plan that. Keep in mind that Scarecrows will always face the investigators (client-side), despite them facing walls to you, and you should also face the investigators when trying to mimic one of your Scarecrows.

Prescience helps improve Subject 23's tape defense style a lot, allowing you to be one step ahead of the investigators at all times, just make sure to not spam it too much as it makes you VERY predictable.

Subject 23's playstyle: Mostly tape defense. Subject 23 is very weak in a duel except with Unfazed, thus meaning guarding tapes with Scarecrows and trying to make investigators go mad is your best option, just make sure you ALWAYS plan before going in, as Subject 23 can be pretty difficult to play as if you try and mindlessly rush with him.

Recommended Builds:

Alien + Pustule:
Placing a lot of Pustule idols will ensure you can bait investigators with Unfazed very frequently, either be the infamous corner cheesing or tricking someone into thinking you're a Scarecrow. It can also help you use Prescience more often to guard other clues more efficiently.

Raw + Hellspawn:

This is 23's best tape defense build. Raw skin paired with Hellspawn means you can do some ridiculous amonts of sanity damage in a short time, just make sure you know how to play Subject 23 before you try this at is makes him even weaker at rushdown.

Golem + Bark:

This is 23's best build for beginners. Deploying several Bark idols and rushing the investigators is decently effective, especially if you don't know how to play him and are just trying him out.

Troglodyte + Fungus:

You move really fast when in the vincity of one of your idols, and paired with Unfazed you just might pull some cheesy grabs. Thorns is also a substitute for this if you don't have the Fungus idol unlocked. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Fungus won't be as effective.

Carved + Coven:

The king of Strength builds, Carved + Coven kills investigators very quick, and with a little luck you just might land a OHKO if you split the investigators up.

Difficulty: 7/10: He's one of the hardest creatures in the game to play due to most of his powers being difficult to utilize, but when used properly, his mindgame potential is also quite high.

Meta Rating: B tier

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Light Resistance: 5/10 (Standard)

Skill Usage: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Perception: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Idol Influence: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Horror: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Strength: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 35/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Maleficent: Every time you are stunned, your Horror stat is increased by 2%. (The maximum cap to this ability is 30% or 3 levels of Horror)

Veneration: Each time you summon an idol, all of your skills are recharged by 12%.

Powers:

Splinters: Places a trap that once triggered by an investigator will lock them in place for several seconds, it will also highlight them to you and slow them after they escape from the trap. Duration is affected by Stealth. They can still look around and use their flashlight for this duration. The trap can only be disarmed by Ghosts, but has a very small range.

Disruption: Switch places with a random investigator. Useless against a Stealth Split, helpful for sowing chaos if you teleport to the main group. You cannot act for several seconds after teleportation. Note that an investigator will only be teleported 75m away at maximum from their original position.

Breakdown: All investigators on the map go insane and start running in the direction they're facing. It also chips away at their sanity from the constant sprinting (except for Anna). They can still "steer" their investigator left and right while this power is in effect. Duration is affected by Stealth.

Skins:



Invocation: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Light Resistance:

A hard to use skin. You're weaker against the investigators due to reduced Light Resistance, but you can use powers a lot more. If you're good at using Astaroth's powers to get grabs, this is the skin for you.



Infernal: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Horror:

You last a lot longer before being banished, but the investigators can afford to stare at you more too, this balances it out and gives Astaroth roughly the same duling potential as if you were using his default skin.



Mantis: +1 Perception, -1 Idol Influence:

Helps you to actually be able to track for once. Your Idol Influence takes a hit, but it's probably worth in this senerio since -2 Perception is hard for even experienced players to play around with. It's Astaroth's best skin for newer players.



Overlord: +1 Horror, -1 Perception:

You Perception really is extremely terrible. You can't find very much, but if you do, you're basically impossible to caboose due the highest Horror in the game, even Anne Marie will go mad staring at you. This is for those that are the absolute best at tracking the investigators with basically nothing to help them.


About Astaroth: His playstyle is similar to Olkoth's and Darcy's, being both the jack of all trades and the tank due to high horror stat and powers. His stats are pretty basic, and don't lean towards much unless you pick Infernal, then he leans towards Darcy's side. And due to his powers being very general use he can camp, or be aggressive much like Olkoth can.

In general Astaroth is great at sowing chaos and is a good monster pick in any situation, although he does take a bit more skill to use and abuse unlike Olkoth.

Astaroth's powers, traits, and stats: His stats pretty good. Idol Influence is nice and allows him to use any idol effectively, and he has the highest horror stat in the game without skins coming into play, meaning that even Anne Marie will have trouble caboosing you for extending periods of time, coupled with Maleficent you can make even the bravest investigator go mad easily.

Astaroth has issues though. The stupidly low Perception means you'll have issues tracking outside of idols and the low Skill Usage means he doesn't get a great amount of milage out of his powers.

Veneration is strong if abused, meaning you can afford to spam idols and still be aggressive. Just simply put a ton down and use Disruption, easily getting you back in the action. Maleficient is very strong if you manage to get stunned ten times through the game, which isn't uncommon, and with 10/10 Horor no one will be able to stare you for long.

Breakdown is Astaroth's big "free grab" spell. However it takes the most skill to use as if used improperly will makes investigators GAIN ground on a tape. You have to use it well, like while around a corner the investigators are about to cross since then they'll run into you.

Splinters are the most unique trap. They have the smallest range, but cannot be disarmed besides by a Ghost. If you can play these properly the investigators HAVE to tank it assuming no one has died yet, and that's a free grab for you.

Disruption is extremely powerful and can singlehandedly win games. If you isolate an investigator into a trap, you essentially get a free one hit KO if theyre far enough away, and although you can't use it much you only need one or two of these to completely flip the game.

Recommended Builds:

Duke + Hellspawn:

As both this creature and Idol come from the same DLC pack, it's just too convenient they synergize. It has more perception than Overlord, more horror than Infernal, more light resistance than Invocation, and more idol influence than Mantis. Truly an all-around skin that will plague the investigators' sanity.

Infernal + Bark:

It's about the same as Rotten Olkoth, you get carzy high levels of Light Resistance, and with the increased Horror from your Maleficent trait it becomes increasingly difficult for the investigators to caboose you.

Invocation + Construct:

Significantly increases your power recharge, which is really strong considering how much you can setup Disruption + Splinters. This is probably the best build for more experienced players. Beware though that you're weaker in an actual fight against the investigators.

Mantis + Pazuzu:

With enough idols you'll actually have decent Perception for once, which is something Astaroth normally sorely lacks. If you need help tracking by yourself, this is an excellent build.

Overlord + Watcher:

People would normally say: "Why not Hellspawn + Overlord?", it's because it makes your tracking so abysmal that your best hope is that they have an investigator with -2 Stealth because otherwise you will have massively terrible issues finding them. On the other hand when you do find investigators, it's nigh impossible to caboose you efficiently.
Anyway, this is Overlord's best build as the Watchers will help you a lot if you spam them, and you won't lose much time spamming idols since you can just use Disruption after getting enough cooldown %.

Difficulty: 4/10: He's harder than Olkoth, but if you consider yourself a middle-of-the-road player you won't have any issues playing him effectively.

Meta Rating: A tier

Stats:

Light Resistance: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Speed: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Idol Influence: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Perception: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Skill Usage: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Horror: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Strength: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Stat total: 22/70 (Lowest in the game)

Traits:

Adaptation: Your Speed, Light Resistance, and Horror are all increased by 7% each time you get banished. This is capped at a 70% boost to all stats.

Transfusion: Your Strength, Sprint Speed, and Skill Usage is increased by 8% each time you grab an investigator even if the grab does not kill them. This is capped at a 128% boost in all stats assuming the max number of grabs per game.

Powers:

Sabotage: Can only be used when near an item. When used that item is sabotaged. Sabotaged items are destroyed upon being picked up, lower Battery Life, disable the flashlight of the investigator that picked it up, reduce their Sanity cap for a bit, and highlight them to you. Duration is affected by Stealth.

Innocence: On use will automatically stun you as if an investigator had stunned you with their flashlight, but for the duration of the stun you will move faster instead of slower when exposed to ANY light source. This will NOT count towards her Adaptation trait.

Exhume: May only be used while stunned. On use you auto banish yourself. However, you cause an explosion on doing so and any investigators within the explosion radius will have their flashlight disabled and be highlighted to you. This will NOT count towards her Adaptation trait.

Skins:



Medusa: +1 Speed, -1 Skill Usage:

Very nice as it helps you get stacks faster as you move to investigators faster. Skill Usage is easily written off in this case as the Speed is more important.



Geisha: +1 Light Resistance, -1 Skill Usage:

Mostly a downgrade from Medusa. You have the same downgrade but you get Light Resistance instead of Speed, and Speed is usually more important unless you're playing with the Bark idol.



Entombed: +1 Horror, -1 Light Resistance:

Unfortunately redundant. The Light Resistance loss is too bad to even consider the higher Horror, as Okiku's Horror is already good enough when stacked high enough. Only recommended for niche builds like Hellspawn.



Arachnid: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Horror:

For more tactical gameplay, Arachnid is excellent. The increased Skill Usage helps utilize powers more often, and the Horror isn't a problem when stacked high enough.

About Okiku: She has a very unique playstyle, being the weakest monster by far in the early game, but then being extremely powerful in the lategame. Okiku is the best monster for longer matches, even better than Subject 23 or Astaroth, but she also is weaker than both of those in the early game.

This ends up with Okiku being a very hit-or-miss kind of monster. She either gets a couple of lucky spawns in the early game to build her power up quicly, or gets nothing until 2 tapes have been grabbed and can't build up momentum to be a threat.

If you can build up the momentum, Okiku will definitely destroy people, but before that she's the weakest monster in the game and you will need to play several games before you get very good at her, considering her unique playstyle requires a different mindset from normal monster gameplay.

Okiku's powers, traits, and stats: Her stats are weird. She has 2 in everything besides Idol Influence and Perception, which are 6. This statistically makes her the weakest monster, but her traits are where everything goes down.

Adaptation and Transfusion are the two best creature traits in the game, they both are incredibly powerful towards the end of the matches. Adaptation especially can give you insane amount of Light Resistance and Speed, which makes her extremely broken, but only if the Okiku player is good enough to be that aggressive.

Her powers are pretty decent. Sabotage is great if you place it near tapes as that's usually where investigators will pick them up, so try sabotaging the batteries there for maximum effectiveness, otherwise it's hit-or-miss.

Innocence is her "big spell" power and is quite powerful. If used properly it's a free grab and unless the investigators are all playing high speed characters they will not escape it, but beware that it has a very long cooldown, more so than most powers, so make sure to make it count when you have it.

Exhume is great with teleport. It disables the investigator's flashlights for longer than Shutdown so if you combine it with Teleport or Sprint after being banished you can get some free grabs.

To conclude, Okiku is a very unique monster that requires a very different mindset than all of the other monsters. This makes her difficult to play, but if you play her properly she just might be the most powerful monster in the game.

Recommended Builds:

Maiden + Purger:

Spam a ton of idols to slow the game down, and then go to town on the investigators. It's great for stalling games out, if you think you can capitalize on the increased game time. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Purger won't be as effective.

Arachnid + Pustule:

The increased Skill Usage from Pustules and Arachnid is very useful and can net you some grabs if used with Innocence. Just make sure you know not to spam too many idols lest you waste too much time and can't build up momentum.

Entombed + Hellspawn:

Considering you have very low Light Resistance, if you plan on using her Horror skin you should use an Idol that emphasizes it. If you're feeling lucky you might get a feel good spawns and build your power very quickly, not only you'll be very fast but investigators won't be able to stare at you for long.

Medusa + Fungus:

You want to be fast? This gives the highest possible speed you can get with Medusa, and is seriously competitive. Good idol range is nice too. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Fungus won't be as effective.

Geisha + Bark:

If you have time, this set up is fairly strong. Increased Light Resistance from Bark means you last forever if you get enough Stacks from Adaptation, just don't spam too many like with Arachnid + Pustule so you can have time to power up from your traits.

Difficulty: 9/10: She's extremely difficult. Getting a ton of stacks early on is really hard, but if you play your cards right she can be very powerful, but do NOT expect to win any of your first 5 games with her unless you're playing against newbies.

Meta Rating: I tier

Stats:

Light Resistance: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Idol Influence: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Perception: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Skill Usage: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Horror: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Strength: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Stat total: 30/70 (Poor)

Traits:

Charm: The closest investigator to you will lose sanity slowly as long as you're within 18m of them. A specific sound will be played to you when this happens.

Sadist: Each time an investigators sanity reaches 0 you gain 2% increased Light Resistance, Perception, and Skill Usage

Powers:

Glaucoma: Place a trap. Upon an investigator coming into it's trigger radius it will explode in a few seconds. Investigators within range of the explosion automatically go insane. It can be disabled if an investigator has their flashlight off just like Rusalka's Light Trap.

Terror: Gain a Speed boost and become immune to light until within 6m of an investigator. Also increases the power of Charm to affect all investigators within its 18m range and drains sanity faster while the power is active.

Cocoon: Place a blob-like thing that you can teleport to by using the same skill again. It will destroy itself eventually if unused for too long. It is also consumed upon usage.

Skins:



Fiend: +1 Speed, -1 Light Resistance:

Increased Speed helps you control the map and traverse it better, although decreased Light Resistance means light slows you down really hard and you won't last very long before being banished. It's an equal tradeoff mostly.



Wyvern: +1 Skill Usage, -1 Horror:

More Skill Usage helps if you know how to use Lilith's powers well, although the decreased Horror might be a problem since she depends on making investigators go insane.



Polyp: +1 Horror, -1 Speed:

Less Speed really hurts traversing the map, but making people go insane will be a lot easier. If you think you've got what it takes to drive people mad, it may be worth the trade off. You can also build up your powers very quickly, and the faster investigators aren't that fast if they're busy screaming.



Archangel: +1 Perception, -1 Idol Influence:

Helps your teleport cooldown by making it faster and you find people on your own much easier, but your idols won't be able to track people as well. It's also an equal trade off like Fiend.


About Lilith: A monster with a very patient playstyle. You want to stick close to the investigators, but not too close to get stunned. Let Charm do its work and then maybe go in. Lilith's Light Resistance is terrible, so fighting the investigators head on is usually not an option.

Lilith's Playstyle: Careful and patient. Getting stunned hurts your position in the game a lot since low Perception means you won't find investigators often and low Light Resistance means you disappear quickly. However, Charm can net you a very easy grab if you stay close to an investigator for very long and Sadist makes you get very strong if you make people go mad a lot.

Her powers are pretty good. Glaucoma is excellent when placed next to clues as people kind of have to tank it, giving you free Sadist stacks. Terror is nice to counter cabooses as it makes all Range outside of 6m useless, which is very powerful. The Speed boost can also help you rush investigators before they can stun you as well.

Coccoon is very powerful if used properly. If you know you're going to be stunned, drop one of these and teleport back after. It also might win you the game in the finale if you can teleport to the final investigator before they can break your sigils, which may save the game.

If you favour a patient and tactical experience as the monster, Lilith may be just the monster for you.

Recommended Builds:

Mistress + Purger

By placing a lot of these Idols down you can really stall games, and you can slowly chip away at the investigators' sanity while they're lost looking for tapes. Keep in mind that as soon as ghosts are in play Purger won't be as effective.

Fiend + Bark:

Not necessarily a min/max build like the other creatures with reduced Light Resistance, but if you get enough stacks of Sadist then this can be a combo to be reckoned with.

Wyvern + Construct:

Since Lilith's playstyle consists mainly of waiting, this Idol should be a better choice than Pustule. It also allows you to spam your abilities much more frequently, although the reduced Horror it provides might make it more difficult to drive investigators insane. The upside is that Glaucoma instantly makes them mad regardless of your Horror, and once you get enough stacks you can spam Terror indefinitely.

Polyp + Pustule:

The reduced Speed can hurt Lilith on certain aspects, and for this fact you should use Pustule instead of Construct since you'll need to follow investigators instead of camping a particular spot. You won't get as much Skill Usage early like the combo above, her increased Horror however makes driving investigators insane a walk in the park, and it does wonders on low bravery characters like Jean Luc or Denali.

Archangel + Sphynx:

Placing a lot of these Idols means investigators will have a harder time managing their sanity due to Lilith's Charm. While you do get reduced Idol detection range compared to Lilith's other skins, the increased Perception should allow her to be more agressive by teleporting very frequently, so finding investigators on your own is quite easy.

Difficulty: 8/10: If you aren't patient and just keep rushing, you will fail at playing Lilith. You have to play her patiently, and sometimes that's very difficult.

Meta Rating: B- Tier

Disclaimer: You're not an idiot if you pick low tier characters, and you're not going to be an MLG pro if you pick high tier characters. Most of the monsters are fairly balanced, some are just slightly more effective than others and/or get have better strengths against certain investigators. You can still win games with Morgul, as well as lose games with Darcy.

S Tier:



Darcy: Darcy is essentially the queen of monsters. All of her powers are useful and with the caboose changes she becomes a tank in the late game. She might be the least aggressive monster due to lower Speed, but with the highest Light Resistance in the game AND the best "big spell" power (Mourn) Darcy has become the best monster when it comes to flat out fighting the investigators as long as the player knows how to track properly.

A tier:



Astaroth: Very strong if played correctly, Astaroth is excellent at causing disorder amongst the investigators, with the best power to split the investigators up and a trap that is undisarmable and sometimes unavoidable, Astaroth is a powerhouse.

Disruption itself is already enough to singlehandedly win games, as the power to split people 75m away is very powerful and can easily give you a one hit KO if you teleport someone into your trap. The incredibly high Horror is just icing on the cake.

However, he does have his downsides. Low Perception means you're stuck with either Mantis or the Watcher idol if you want to find people, and his powers can work AGAINST him if they're used without a plan. Disruption can create a split, and Breakdown can give investigators more speed to get to tapes faster. These reasons are what hold Astaroth back from becoming S tier material.

B tier:



Olkoth: He's a lot weaker now due to flashlight changes and power nerfs, but Olkoth is still viable if played properly. The Decoy power can stall games for a very long time and Invisibility power means Olkoth can position himself very easily without the investigators noticing.

However, Olkoth has weaknesses. Shutdown is no longer a huge threat like it used to be because of the Speed of investigators only going down 15% instead of 20% like it used to be, and now Stigma is only 8% instead of 10%. So although Olkoth is still viable, he's no where near the powerhouse he used to be.



Subject 23: Very specialized and hard to master, Subject 23 is difficult to pin down. On one hand his mindgame potential is off the charts and a good 23 is very hard to beat, but on the other hand 23 is very hard to learn how to play and with painkillers, most of the sanity drain Subject 23 inflicts will be negated.

If 23 plays smart he can defend tapes very well and wall people out, but he's also predictable in a way. It's very likely he'll be around the tape the investigators are going to and it'll also be likely that he's standing still as Ancestral and Prescience are tools he needs to utilize to win.

What you end up with is a monster that although has good mindgame potenial, he's also predictable, and if the investigators are smart they'll end up being one step ahead of him instead of it being the other away around.

He can still win games, but in the higher ranked games he gets a lot weaker since people know how to counter him with ease.



Lilith: A very average monster. If played properly Lilith makes Jean Luc, Denali, and Corey unplayable. This is her main strength as the Sanity damage she inflicts is enough to make the lower Bravery characters go mad.

However, Anne Marie, Shaira and other high Bravery characters can afford to tank the sanity damage and stun Lilith, so she struggles with them. Couple that with the fact that she's very hard for a newbie to play and you've got a middle of the road creature. Although the advantage of hurting lower Sanity characters helps, she also has fair weaknesses against other investigators that don't have Sanity issues.

C tier:



Rusalka: She's the noob stomper. Her entire kit is geared around aggression, regardless of the cost, and that cost comes at being extremely weak in Light Resistance, having the lowest in the game. When it comes to newbies, she just crushes them because most newb games are decided by how often the monster is attacking, and Rusalka is the most aggressive monster in the game. Against vets she's absolutely terrible. She has no "big spell" either. You could consider her Light Traps that, but they take pre-planning where all Olkoth has to do is press a button.

Although her extremely fast speed makes dueling her alone extremely difficult, most splits have enough stealth that they won't get teleported on, although if they do they usually will die, so although that is a sell point, it is in no means a reason to play Rusulka as most veterans will cursh Rusulka with chain caboose strategies.



Morgul: Even with a full Light Resistance cap lower mobility investigators can STILL outrun him, and caboosing slows him down hard as his Light Resistance isn't good enough to nullify the penalty. Low Perception also means Splits never get found by him, and Sarah especially is essentially invisible to him.

This means Morgul is stuck to corner grabbing strategies as his most consistant way of getting grabs, and most higher level investigators know this and will prepare for it. Although Brute and high Strength means he kills investigators quickly, he has significant issues grabbing them in the first place and with no aggression like Rusalka he ends up being the absolute worst monster in the current meta.

I Tier:



Okiku:

She's truly the most swingy monster in the game. On one hand you might get a couple lucky spawns and get super powerful super quick and murder everyone. Or you might spawn on the other side of the map from the investigators several times and lose with no way to win, which sucks.

She's amazing against a full team of 4 investigators sticking together, but splits speed up the game too much for her to keep up, again making her inconsistant on the winrate. She's a gamble, but if the investigators you're playing constantly stay in a 4 stack, Okiku might just win you the jackpot.

Baiting: Remember that baiting a guard into a Shutdown or Unfazed tends to always lead into a free grab, so if the investigators you're fighting tend to rush a lot, try to bait them and see how it goes.

Using Powers: Remember to use your powers as often as you can. When a power isn't recharging it's best to use it as soon as you need it rather than saving it for a later time. Remember that using most powers will prevent you from using any other power for a couple seconds, although there are some combos that do work with the right setup, the most notable being Sprint + Compass.

Comboing Powers: Comboing powers is difficult to get right, but can definitely lead to some significant benefits to you if you manage to pull them off. Combos like Ancestral + Unfazed and or Splinters + Disruption are good example of this.

Countering High Speed: High mobility investigators like guards tend to be the hardest investigators to take down, it's recommended to get them while they're alone with an Ambush rather than dueling them head on. It tends to always be worth to seperate the group since most guards are weak while alone due to Stealth and Exploration issues, so if you see an opportunity to split up the gang, do it.

When to place Idols: For most idols it usually just boils down to spamming a bunch of them to get their results, but placing them in smart locations like next to a tape or decoy is always better. In general, you want to place 1-3 idols more than normal if you're Rusalka at the start of the game since the Unholy Power trait makes it worth your time.

Finding investigators fast: It shouldn't be hard to find the investigators, but this depends on the map and their Stealth. You won't find investigators that have high Stealth on purpose often due to your compass not targeting them, but if you do find them they're easy to take down since they often sacrifice survivability for high Stealth and Exploration. Do NOT actively attempt to find them as most of the time you'll find splits by accident, and you WILL waste a lot of time trying to find stealth splits if they're trying to stay hidden.

If you're having trouble finding investigators: Then it's a good idea to play as Rusalka or Subject 23 as they have high Perception, and paired with an Idol that has high range it should make your job tracking them significantly easier. Remember that the higher Skill Usage you have, the more you can use your Compass, which helps a lot when it comes to tracking.

As mentioned in the Default Creature Abilities section, every creature can summon idols which can assist them in tracking down and killing their prey. There are several types of idols, and they all serve a different purpose. Here are the categories idols are based on:

The ones that maim: These idols are focused on debilitating investigators in some way, either decreasing their Speed, or hurting their Exploration among other things. These idols are strong if used effectively, but must be used with their effects in mind, as most aren't as useful without planning in mind.

The ones that improve: These idols are focused on helping the creature in some way, either by increasing Skill Usage, or increasing the Speed of the creature, etc. These idols are generally easier to use and tend to be utilized well even if mindlessly spammed.

All idols drain the sanity of investigators when they are looked at, and they all detect investigators that are close to the idol itself. The range and rate of sanity drain differ between idols however.

Horror: The rate of sanity drain an idol inflicts on investigators staring at it.

Range: The detection range of an idol.

Remember that the Idol Influence stat on the creatures themselves increases the Range and Horror of all idols placed, so if you need stronger idols, pick creatures that have better Idol Influence.

Now lets review every idol in the game.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Idols that have effects that stack with multiple idols placed (i.e: Prisoner) will STILL grant bonuses or negatives to the investigator team after you reach the cap, the only difference is that subsequent idols will have their bonus provided decreased by 80%.

This means that after you place 10 Prisoner idols, which give a 50% Interaction Speed debuff, other Prisoner idols placed after will only grant a 1% Interaction Speed debuff instead of the usual 5%.

Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Horror: 5/10 (Standard)

Corruption: Each idol decreases the Exploration of all investigators by 3%.

Description: Slows down the game a bit, which always benefits the creature as the longer a game goes on, the more time you have to attack the investigators and kill them, just beware it loses all value in the Finale where Exploration is mostly useless, so try and get these idols up early.




Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Horror: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Disturbing: Investigators within 15m of any idol regain sanity 150% slower than normal. (2.5x slower!)

Description: If you can ambush someone near one of these things, it can be very useful. Lower sanity regeneration means people can't stare and therefore slow you down as much, but note that most smart investigators will try to avoid these as much as possible, so try to place them at chokepoints or clues so they're forced to suck up the effects.




Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Horror: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Maim: Investigators within 18m of any idol lose 18% movement speed.

Description: The effects of these are really potent if you can set them up in the right places, and on closed off maps like the Hospital it really slows down the pace of the game, just remember that much like the Sphynx investigators will avoid this idol like the plague, so make sure you place it well or it will be ignored entirely.




Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Horror: 5/10 (Standard)

Withering: Each idol reduces the Endurance and Vitality of all investigators by 1.8%.

Description: Very strong if you place 10 of these, as the effects are unavoidable until someone dies, just beware that you have less detection range and no extra Horror to compensate, making this one of the weaker idols in terms of pure idol strength.




Range: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3)

Horror: 8/10 (Highest) (+3)

Nightmare: Each idol placed reduces all investigators Bravery by 1.6%.

Description: Very strong with higher horror creatures as if you have 10 of these up each investigator loses a little over 1 point of Bravery, but be careful. This idol has the absolute worst detection range in the game, do not expect to detect even just standard stealth investigators with this idol as the Range is just abysmal. At the very least the Horror is good, but don't expect to make anyone scream because of it.




Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Horror: 7/10 (Very high) (+2)

Prohibition: Investigators within 20m of any idol have their Exploration reduced by 75%.

Description: Can be quite powerful if placed properly, as it dramatically slows down the pace of the game, and most investigators don't avoid it either as the effects are less noticable than other idols with the same radius based abilities. Just make sure to place them properly so they don't get passed over against smarter investigators.




Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Horror: 6/10 (High)

Binding: Each idol placed decreases the speed of which investigators pickup, use items, and banish idols by 4%.

Description: Very unique idol that does something almost none of the others can. Reduced item speed adds up to a bit after a while and does slow down the pace of the game. It also slows down idol banish time, so these things will stay up longer once an investigator has died. Just be wary of the awful detection range.




Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Horror: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Prostration: Each idol placed reduces all investigators movement speed by 0.5%.

Description: It's the speed equivalent of Coven, but is a little less strong due to the effects being a little more useful. 5% decreased Speed is surprisingly powerful as it slows down the pace of the game a bit and makes investigators much easier to catch. However most investigators will banish these things the first chance they get as soon as they become ghosts, so don't count on it being of much use in the late game.




Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Horror: 6/10 (High)

Unnerving: Investigators within 20m of any idol will have their Stealth reduced by 20%.

Description: Has higher than 4 Range as the Stealth reduction means most investigators will get seen by the idol. It also helps track splits as that -20% might just be enough for you to track them down with your compass. And since most creature abilities are affected by Stealth, investigators near this Idol are easier to catch if you use Shutdown or Mourn when they're near.

Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Horror: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Channel: Each idol summoned increases the creature's Skill Usage by 4%.

Description: Very powerful if put on the right creatures. Rusalka and Subject 23 especially get a lot of use out of this one as they rely the most on their powers. However it is distinctly below average in Horror and Range, so don't pick this for idol strength.




Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Horror: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Telepathy: Investigators detected by any idol will be marked to the creature for 8s. (The range of which a marked investigator can be seen by the creature is infinite.)

Description: Very helpful for creatures that need help tracking as it shows the marked investigator's exact position for a while, and for the lower Stealth ones that's for a lot of the game as they'll be detected for further away. Great if you need help tracking, but you would be better off using something else if you're already good at finding them.




Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Horror: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2)

Assimilation: Each idol placed increases the creature's Light Resistance by 5%.

Description: Very useful for any creature as increased Light Resistance means you last longer before being banished, therefore there are more opportunities to catch an investigator within that time frame. Sure your Horror isn't great but your Range is still average, making it have overall better idol stats than the Pustule idol.




Range: 6/10 (High) (+1)

Horror: 5/10 (Standard)

Spores: The creature's movement speed is increased by 12% when within 18m of any idol.

Description: Very nice as it increases the creature's overall map traversal ability, meaning more opportunities to outplay or attack the investigators. The increased Range and no downsides makes this one of the stronger idols for pure idol strength too.




Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1)

Horror: 7/10 (Very High) (+2)

Minion: When the creature is closer than 8m to any idol, their Skill Usage is increased by 50%.

Description: Very good for monsters with poor Skill Usage, as one of these can be placed for a quick recharge. Pustule might only be 10% shy of this thing's 50%, but being able to instantly get 50% Skill Usage to recharge some skills fast is definitely worth picking this idol if you think you'll need it. Also since it's effects are very quick, Ghosts do not hurt the viablity of this idol as most of the time you'll be raising a new one for another recharge anyway, so take advantage of that.




Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Horror: 5/10 (Standard)

Pact: Each idol placed increases the creature's Perception by 8%.

Description: 80% is quite a lot. Makes tracking way quick and easy and makes the cooldown on the Teleport ability very fast, increasing the creature's ability to be aggressive significantly. This idol is recommended on any creature as it's always useful.

Speed: The base speed of your investigator. Each level increases or decreases your walking and running Speed by 4% per point. When you have standard (5) Speed you move at 100% base Investigator Speed. Higher Speed means it'll be much easier to caboose and escape the monster, but it isn't everything. You can still easily survive a game with low Speed.

Endurance: The base stamina and stamina recovery rate of your investigator. This is more useful in a chase than for map traversal. This is the best stat for actually running away from the monster. (Unless you're playing Anna, then it's also great for map traversal.) Each Endurance point changes your base Endurance by 18%. Investigators with standard (5) Endurance run and recover stamina at 100% the normal rate.

Bravery: The rate of which you lose Sanity. Each level modifies how much Sanity you lose when staring at paranormal events by 15% per point. This is incredibly helpful in all stages of the game since it helps you stare at the creature for longer, and slow it down for more time before needing to run away. Investigators with standard (5) Bravery lose sanity at 100% the normal rate.

Flashlight: Changes both how long your flashlight lasts before going dim and how much its range is modified. Each Flashlight point changes your battery duration by 15% and your flashlight's base Range by 7% or a one point increase or decrease in your flashlight's Range and Battery Life depending on your investigator's flashlight stat. An investigator with standard (5) Flashlight does not change the base Range or Battery duration of their flashlight.

Note that in some pictures the Flashlight stat may be called "Battery Management" this is from an older version of the game. The effects are the same reguardless.

Exploration: Changes the base cooldown of your Compass and changes the base cooldown of your Lightstick abilities by 15% per point. (Assuming you are playing with 4 investigators, less than 4 means your cooldowns are faster by default.) Also changes the distance from which you can hear a clue. You usually want at least 1 person with 6 or more Exploration per match to find clues quickly. Investigators with standard (5) Exploration have the default cooldown on their abilities and can hear tapes from an average distance away.

Vitality: Modifies the time before you're devoured when the creature grabs you and how significant the Speed penalty is while injured. Useless if you're alone, but might kill you or save you if you're in a group. The exact worth of one Vitality point is unknown.

Stealth/Evasion: Extremely complicated and will have its own section due to how difficult it is to explain.

Ratings

These are unofficial, and just an opinion how effective x quality of the investigator is.

Difficulty: How difficult it is to play an investigator and at the very least survive until 4 clues have been collected at minimum.

Solo Strength: How strong an Investigator is in the solo gamemode and while he's lost from the group. (Split Strength)

Meta Rating: The overall rating of an investigator.

S Tier: Highly effective in all situations and extremely versatile, very above average.

A Tier: Effective in all or most situations, above average.

B Tier: Effective at what they do, average.

C Tier: Situationally effective at what they do, below average.

D Tier: Either too situational or ineffective at what they do, far below average.

I Tier: Inconsistant; cannot give them a real tier rating as their playstyle is so focused on the skill of the player playing them that attempting to give them a tier rating was inconclusive.

A + next the letter means a character is at the top of their respective tier, and a - means a character is at the bottom of their respective tier.

Stealth/Evasion: Officially called Stealth, but also sometimes called Evasion by some WNO veterans, Stealth is easily the most complex stat in the game, and the reason it has its own section. For starters, it alters how easy you are to find. An investigator with higher stealth won't be targeted by the monster's compass as much and has to be closer to the monster before they'll be seen with their light on, or while they're running. Each Stealth point increases or lowers your Stealth by 12% per point. Investigators with standard (5) Stealth get detected at the normal rate and have the normal resistance to creature abilities.

-With your light off Stealth will increase or decrease the range of your nightvision, so higher stealth characters can see more in the dark, and lower stealth characters can't see much at all in the dark. It's to especially be noted that when your light is off the monster CANNOT GET AN OUTLINE ON YOU NO MATTER YOUR STEALTH LEVEL. Running will still give the creature an outline if your light is off, but it will be at a shorter range than if you ran with your light on, so do keep that in mind.

*Also keep in mind that Anna's trait reduces how far away the monster can see her while she runs. Her outline will have 50% less range when running.

-Another thing to keep in mind: Stealth changes how easy it is to hear the creature's snarls and voice in general, so if you have high stealth it'll be easy to pinpoint the exact location of the creature IF it makes a sound, where as lower stealth investigators will only be able to hear the monster's voice in a general direction.

-Stealth in general means that you'll be found less often by the creature if you're alone, but if you're in a group and everyone DOES NOT have the same Stealth as you, it'll be a waste. However, while alone Stealth may save you as you're harder you are to detect. In solo it determines how aggressive the monster is.

-However, Stealth is more than just that. It also changes the effects some of the monsters powers that directly impact you, these are:

-All creatures teleport power: Will teleport near you less often if you have higher Stealth, and more often if you have lower Stealth.

-Rusulka's Ambush: Will not target you as often with high Stealth, and will target you more often with low Stealth.

-Rusulka's Energy Trap: Doesn't last as long if you have high Stealth, but lasts much longer with low Stealth.

-Olkoth's Shutdown: How long a Shutdown lasts on you is determined by your Stealth, higher Stealth characters need less time before their flashlights will turn back on, where as lower Stealth characters need more time before their flashlight will begin working again.

-Subject 23's Prescience: Will target you less with high Stealth, and more with low Stealth.

-Subject 23's Scarecrows: High Stealth will reduce how long the tracking and Sanity drain effect will last, where as low Stealth will increase how long it lasts.

-Darcy's Cairns: The higher Stealth you have, the closer you to be to a cairn to get teleported to it, and this range is increased rather than decreased if you have low Stealth.

-Darcy's Mourn: Will not last as long on higher Stealth characters, but will last longer on lower Stealth characters.

-Astaroth's Disruption: Will target you less with higher Stealth, and more with reduced Stealth.

-Astaroth's Splinters: Stealth cuts the duration of the effects of splinters.

-Astaroth's Breakdown: Stealth decreases how long you Breakdown lasts on you, or increases it if you have lower Stealth

-Okiku's Sabotage: The time of which your light is disabled and you're highlighted on is dependant on your stealth, higher stealth it won't last as long, and lower stealth means it will last considerably longer.

-Okiku's Exhume: You won't be highlighted and have your flashlight disabled for as long if you have high stealth, but will have your flashlight disabled for longer and be highlighted for a longer time with low stealth.

Paranoia: Stealth does alter how powerful Paranoia is against you, but only one effect of Stealth on Paranoia is known. When your investigator's Stealth is 8 or higher, Paranoia has all of it's effects reduced to 0%.

-Flashlight Stealth/Evasion: The exact same as the Stealth on investigators, but each stat point is only worth 6% a point compared to an investigators stealth changing it by 12% per point. (For example, a flashlight with 7/10 Stealth would actually only have 6/10 Stealth.)

There are a variety of items the investigators can find and use on the map while in game. Every item may only be used once and they take a certain amount of time to be picked up and used.

*The time to pick up and use them varies depending on which item you're using, and if you're playing Iker or Maria, who both have traits that change the time to pick up/use items.

The Transmitter



The Transmitter is a radio-like device. When used it will show you the exact position of the nearest clue. It will outline the nearest clue in blue, and will flicker depending on how far you are from the tape. Keep in mind that there is a maximum detection range, so if you're outside that range you will not see the clue. But this is very rare in normal gameplay to have this occur since that range is huge.

The outline of the tape looks like:



(If the next clue is not a tape, it will highlight the entire clue.)

The Painkillers



Painkillers are a very good item. They have the second fastest use time out of all of the items, and when used will instantly restore some of your maximum Sanity back to you, give you a temporary Bravery boost, and will remove any progress you might've had towards going insane.

*If you have the white static on your screen it will instantly be removed upon eating the painkillers.

The Medkit



The medkit is the most valuable item in the game. It has the longest use time out of any items, but when used will restore a life back to you. These are preferably used when next to a tape so just in case the monster attacks you'll be safe. There are 2 medkits that spawn on the map.

The Incense



The Incense is an item that upon use will show you the location of the monster, no matter where, no matter when. Unlike the Radio the Incense's outline on the monster does not flicker and has an unlimited range.

The Energy Bar



The Energy bar shares many similar characteristics with the Painkillers. Upon usage, your maximum Speed and Endurance will be marginally boosted for a time. The use time of the Energy Bar is the fastest in the game, being just slightly faster than that of the Painkillers, so using them in a chase is viable. (This "fastest use time" does not include the flashbang considering that it has no use time at all.)

Also note that you will instantly recover all stamina and tiredness upon eating the Energy Bar, which is helpful if you need a boost to get away from the creature.

The Flashbang



The only real aggressive weapon you have against the creature (besides your flashlight), and the only one with an instant use time. When used it does one of two things.

#1: If the creature has not been stunned, the flashbang will stun it.
#2: If the creature HAS been stunned, the flashlight will automatically banish it.

This makes the flashbang a very powerful emergency weapon that can absolutely save you from a grab if used probably. It's range is huge so don't worry about being too off target either. Also note that you can throw it to free an investigator being grabbed through a wall that you normally wouldn't make it to otherwise, and this fact CAN save lifes.

Be sure to use it effectively though as there are only 2 flashbangs on the map and a careless tap of the item use button will be sure to waste it.

The Statuette



The Statuette, when used will be placed on the ground. When placed on the ground messes with the monster's ability to track you by making itself the monster's compass target, and removing the monster's ability to see outlines. Beware that like Olkoth's decoy ability this thing has a limited range, and outside that range it will not be effective. Although the range itself is quite large so it will never be a waste to place one of these down.

Please note that the Statuette has the second longest use time, being behind the medkit. The only thing the creature can see when within the Statuette's effective range is the Statuette itself, anything else will NOT have an outline at all (including the Artifact if it's the Finale.)



The Statuette when deployed.

Now that you know of all the items scattered around the map, let's get over to investigator abilites. Keep in mind that each investigator has the same abilites, making them different than the monster.

The Compass: The Compass is probably your most important investigator ability. When used it will lead you to a clue somewhere on the map. The colour of the Compass depends on how far away the clue is. Beware that Olkoth can place decoys which will show up on the compass, which may make you waste a Compass or two and a couple minutes of time. Note that Rinko's compass is more accurate than others due to her positive trait, Intuition.



A red compass means the next tape is far from you.



A yellow compass means the next tape is moderately close to you.



A blue compass means the next tape is close to you.



A blue circle means the clue is in your immediate area, check around, you'll probably hear it.

Shout: The next investigator ability we'll cover is the Shout ability. On use your investigator will shout. This will reveal your location to all nearby investigators and the creature. This should only be used when you're lost and want to get back to the group, especially in the Finale. This should never be used when in a group as you will reveal your location to the monster and is frowned upon.

Shouting is significantly more viable after you have collected all tapes since then the monster can see you from anywhere on the map, making shouting a flat bonus to your team. And for that reason it is recommended to quickly group up since anyone alone will die very quickly.

*Unless you're playing as Anne Marie, then you shouldn't shout period due to her neg trait, Noisy.

It is not known how the long the cooldown is of the Shout ability but it does seem to rise the more you do use it, it is unknown if Exploration changes its cooldown.

Lightsticks: The last ability the investigators have is to throw a lightstick. These will light the way for you and slow down the creature, although they only last for about ~20 or so seconds before disappearing, so don't think you can flood the map with them. The ability to throw a lightstick is on a 45 second cooldown, and each level of Exploration will increase or decrease the cooldown by 5 seconds. Holding Q will drop a lightstick at your feet, tapping Q will throw a lightstick.



A lightstick, keep in mind that this is only the default colour, you can change this colour in the settings of the game.

Investigator "Lives:" Each Investigator has three "Lives" besides Vincent and Phileas. These determine how many times you can be saved before dying. This means that you can resist two grabs from the creature before dying, and on the third grab the monster becomes immune to light until you're devoured.

If you're Phileas, then your positive trait, Big Boy, allows you to be saved on your third grab, and die on your fourth. If you're Vincent then you'll die on your second grab due to his neg trait, Elder. Keep in mind that each Medkit you use will restore one life to you, however be aware that it's a waste if you are healthy, so only use them while you're injured.

Note that you being injured gives you a speed penalty depending on how many grabs you've taken.

1 grab taken(your screen is bloody): Speed reduced by 5%.
2 grabs taken(your screen is bloody and black and white): Speed reduced by 10%.

Note that Phileas will only lose 10% Speed on his third grab and Vincent will immediately lose 10% Speed on his first grab. Medkits will heal the speed loss, but only if you go from either a black and white screen to a bloody screen, or from a bloody screen to a healthy one.

It's also worth noting that Vitality changes the Speed penalty when grabbed (so higher Vitality investigators don't lose as much Speed as lower Vitality ones) but the exact values of these effects are unknown.

Now that we've reviewed the items and abilities, let's get down to reviewing the investigators.

Without difficulties there's no adventure or journalism.
-Iker

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Exploration: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Bravery: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Stealth) (100%)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130% Battery Life, 114% Range)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Optimist: You recover 10% of your Sanity when a clue is found within 15m of you.

Clumsy: You pick up items, batteries, and use items, and banish idols and sigils 10% slower.

Outfits:



Holiday Suit: +1 Exploration, -1 Stealth:

The stealth loss hurts, but since you don't lose mobility you become the best leader in the game that still has a decent ability to outrun the creature without help, and that is very powerful.



King of Metal: +1 Stealth, -1 Flashlight:

It turns Iker into a very strong generalist pick. Higher stealth means splitting is a viable strategy, but note that the reduced flashlight means you can't stun the creature from as far away, and that does decrease your survivability somewhat.



Biker: +1 Bravery, -1 Exploration:

You have no weaknesses and 7 Flashlight, which means you can kind of go nuts with different flashlight builds; thus making Iker the ultimate Symmetry.



Journalist: +1 Flashlight, -1 Exploration

If you want a really good late game caboose, this is the perfect build for you. Super duper high range combined with Optimist makes you a huge threat against the creature, but the average Exploration removes your ability to lead, so make sure someone else in your group is leading.

About Iker: The starter leader, Iker is a solid pick at any time. He has great Flashlight and Exploration and an excellent trait in Optimist.

He's a great leader, but can also be a caboose or even Symmetry due to the flexibility his outfits give him, just remember that you will not be able to play multiple roles with Iker at once, so when you commit to a role with him, you have to do so fully. (Besides if you decide to play him as a Symmetry.)

About Iker's traits, and stats:

The increased Exploration AND Flashlight means Iker can actually use leader flashlights like the Rusty or Smartphone without having to worry about batteries much, and this means that he'll have more Range than normal too. This means Iker has great synergy with a Smartphone or Rusty Flashlight.

The Bravery loss isn't much to worry about; Optimist means Sanity loss is almost never a problem, making Iker an excellent player in the lategame as well.

Clumsy can either be useless or something that kills you. If you have a good caboose that covers you whenever you pickup an item, it's fine. If you've split from the group or are just alone in general, you'll probably get murdered trying to read grimoires. In general the only time it reliably becomes a pain is in the finale, and because of it I'd recommend you guard your team rather than break sigils yourself in the finale. And with Optimist keeping your sanity alive for the entire game, it shouldn't prove too much of a problem.

Besides that, Iker is one of the only two characters that can afford to run, all the time. Optimist will cure his sanity issues, so don't ever worry about losing sanity from running, since when you get the next clue it'll negate any sanity damage done, so keep that in mind.

Primary Role: Leader

Secondary Role(s): Caboose, Symmetry

Good builds to try:

Holiday Suit + Smartphone:

You have ridiculous Exploration at 8.5/10 and with average mobility. This gives you the highest Exploration in the game with higher mobility, and with Vincent it gets even cheesier. Just beware that your stealth isn't great at 3.5/10.

King of Metal + Electric Lighter

Excellent build for splitting or guarding with a little leading ability too. You have great Stealth, slightly above average Exploration, and excellent mobility along with a trait that lets you run forever.

Default outfit + Rusty Flashlight:

You're a pretty basic leader that has extra Speed and Flashlight Range, giving you above average survivability. Notably great in public matches where you don't have confidence in being guarded by your teammates.

Metal Flashlight + Biker:

An excellent caboose build. 8/10 Range with no mobility loss is especially strong, and with a battery that doesn't drain very quickly it makes this build very well rounded.

Journalist + Railroad Lantern:

Excellent range, excellent battery life duration and a tiny bit less Speed. This build makes you a cookie-cutter caboose with some very minor downsides.

Difficulty: 4/10: Not super difficult, but still a bit more specialized than normal. Iker isn't hard to use, although I'd say Kurt is easier. He is the second easiest starter to play though, so keep that in mind.

Meta Rating: S Tier

Solo Strength: 5/10: With King of Metal and the Electric Lighter he's pretty decent, but ultimately a nerfed Anna considering Clumsy will get you killed trying to pick stuff up. He's alright, but not great.

I will survive this. You? Not so sure.
-Anna

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (118%)

Bravery: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85% Battery Life, 93% Range)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (112%)

Exploration: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Athlete: Your maximum sanity does not decrease when sprinting and your Stealth is decreased by 50% less while sprinting. On top of all of this, you recover from tiredness faster.

Suspicious: You move 3% slower when closer than 8m to another investigators.

Outfits:



Adventurer: +1 Exploration, -1 Stealth:

You will be found more often due to only standard Stealth, but the increased Exploration means your clear time is the highest of any split. If you think you can fend off the creature well enough alone, this is an excellent skin.



Trendy Office Lady: +1 Endurance, -1 Exploration:

Kind of like an inverse Adventurer. You lose map clearing ability due to only average Exploration, but you gain survivability due to increased Endurance. It also means you can abuse Athlete more.



Gothic Girl: +1 Bravery, -1 Vitality

Bravery isn't very useful for a split, and nor is Vitality. It's still a good skin and the Bravery does offset the Vitality loss (since if you're splitting you die in one grab anyway) but do your best to not get grabbed if you want to be a guard with this skin.



Casual Friday: +1 Stealth, -1 Bravery

You'll go insane easier due to subpar Bravery, but you can sneak around a lot easier due to 7 Stealth, and it helps in a group too if you want to resist the monster's powers better. On a sidenote it looks a lot more formal than casual.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): Guard

About Anna: She's a decent split and an okay guard. She has less mobility from Suspicious but Athlete means she runs forever. This roughly equals out to a guard that has slower than average mobility but can just keep running, or a split with high clearing times.

About Anna's stats and traits: Anna's stats are very subtle. They aren't nearly as extreme as some other splits like Sarah or Maria, but they do help a lot. She also has the smallest weakness of all the splits only -1 Flashlight, which isn't very notable.

Her three high stats, High Exploration, Stealth, and Endurance, make her very good at splitting. And due to her naturally high Stealth, she can resist Olkoth and Darcy better, which is a huge plus for you.

Athlete is a strong trait as well. It allows you to run the entire game, you won't want to stop. No sanity penalty and barely any stealth penalty makes Anna a permanent rusher.

Suspicious is a bit penalizing though. -3% Speed is one less point of Speed in a group, and that isn't good at all. Combined with lower stun Range from the lower flashlight makes Anna a little lackluster in a duel between the monster unless she's alone.

To conclude, Anna is an ok guard or split that has her Strengths and weaknesses and is very middle of the road.

Good builds to try:

Sport Jacket + Minimalist Flashlight:

Makes you an average Split. 7 Stealth and 5.5 Exploration combined with 6 Endurance is nice, and with workable Range at 2.5 and average Battery Life.

Trendy Office Lady + Traffic Wand:

A decent guard or split loadout. Higher Stealth means you can help your team against monster powers and higher mobility should counter Suspicious, if should work alright if you know how to properly play Anna.

Adventurer + Electric Lighter:

A good team carry loadout. Good mobility, great Exploration, and enough Stealth to split if you need to. If you need to carry your team, this is an excellent build.

Gothic Girl + Periscope:

A very well rounded build. Averagish Range at 4.5 to caboose the monster a bit with high Battery and Bravery. Your Endurance, Stealth and Exploration are all a little higher too, so you can split if you need to.

Casual Friday + Jack-o' Lantern:

Your Stealth is about as good as Sarah, which helps a lot for staying away from the monster even if you still get detected by idols unlike Sarah. However, your Bravery and Range and both really bad, so it makes dueling the monster a pickle, so don't get found in the first place!

Difficulty Level: 5/10: She's ok, she is a bit lackluster if you don't know how to play her properly though as it takes game knowledge to abuse Athlete, and avoiding Suspicious is difficult as well.

Meta Rating: A Tier

Solo Strength: 10/10: She'd be the best investigator in the game if Phileas didn't exist, simply because of ridiculously high compass cooldown in solo and no neg trait, coupled with extra Stealth and you've got a queen of solo players.

Come on, let's go you slowpokes!
-Rinko

Stats:

Speed: 6/10 (High) (+1) (104%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Bravery: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (88%)

Flashlight: 5/10 (Standard) (100% Battery Life, 100% Range)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Intuition: Your compass is more accurate.

Adorable: When you die, every other alive investigator loses their sanity instantly and their Bravery is decreased by 10% for the rest of the game.

Outfits:



Winter Clothing: +1 Exploration, -1 Battery Management:

Less Flashlight means less Range and therefore less general survivability, but higher Exploration makes Rinko an excellent Speed leader.



Fake Blonde: +1 Endurance, -1 Bravery:

You become a better guard due to a mobility increase with the buffed Endurance, but a worse caboose as your maximum caboose time is much lower with the nerfed Bravery.



Daring Style: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

Even less Stealth makes you even more vunerable to monster powers than before, but higher Bravery makes you on par with Anne Marie, if only with less effective range and weaker to monster powers.



Guerrilla: +1 Stealth, -1 Exploration

An inverse Winter Clothing. You lose Exploration which conflicts with your positive trait and just makes leading in general harder, but standardized Stealth makes survival while split easier and just makes you stronger to monster powers in general.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): Leader

About Rinko: An awful character for new players but a great character for veterans, Rinko has very inconsistant results. She either dies first and triggers Adorable, which cripples the rest of your team and makes them more likely to lose the match, or in the hands of a veteran becomes a royal pain that the monster cannot get rid of.

About Rinko's stats and traits: High Speed and Bravery are all indicators that Rinko can play as an average guard. However, her traits are really what change it up. Intuition can make Rinko a stronger than average leader on outdoor maps, and although the extra accuracy isn't usually required for indoor maps, every little bit of accuracy will assist in finding the next clue.

However, the downfalls of a bad Rinko are strong. Low Stealth means a split Rinko is a dead Rinko. Along with this, Rinko has one of, if not the worse negative trait in the game with Adorable. -10% Bravery and a free insanity stun very well mad you lose you the game, and as such Rinko is an awful character for both splitting and new players.

However, in the hands of a skill player Rinko might just be the best carry investigator in the game as her ability to lead and defend herself with high Speed and Bravery makes her very dangerous against the creature when played correctly.

Recommended Builds:

Winter Clothing + LED Lantern: A very strong leader build. 7 Exploration is excellent for finding clues when paired with Intuition. If you don't have the LED Lantern flashlight DLC I'd recommend the Smartphone instead, even if you can't see where you're running with it.

Fake Blonde + Traffic Wand:

+1.5 in both mobility stats is very strong, and all you lose is -1 Stealth and -2 Range. This is an excellent generalist guard build that you can't really go wrong with.

Daring Style + Heater:

The Heater counters the low Stealth, leaving you with a decent 8 Bravery investigator, just make sure you have enough batteries to keep your Range high enough.

Default outfit + Rusty Flashlight:

You move faster and have more Exploration. Less Stealth would be a problem, but you move faster and have higher Spread to see where you're running, so you should be able to run away from all your monster power problems.

Guerrilla + Railroad Lantern:

High Range and normal Stealth with high Bravery makes you an effective caboose. You lose a bit of Speed, but you'll still be faster than standard Speed investigators. An extra touch of Exploration is nice as well.

Difficulty Level: 10/10: Her difficulty level is high simply because of Adorable. The monster is going to target you all the time because of it, making Rinko harder to play then she should be, due to all the pressure to not die.

Meta Rating: I- Tier

Solo Strength: 6/10: She's pretty good since the raised Exploration in solo goes well with Intuition, and you don't need help from anyone to fight the monster. In a 4v1 it's not recommended though since you only to be grabbed once for an instant death, and then for Adorable to trigger.

Don't you dare get in my way...
-Phileas

Stats:

Speed: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (96%)

Endurance: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (136%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Bravery: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (88%)

Battery Management: 5/10 (Standard) (100% Battery Life, 100% Range)

Vitality: 6/10 (High) (+1) (>100%)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Big Boy: You can resist 4 grabs from the Creature instead of 3.

Intimidating: Other Investigators have their speed reduced by 3% when they are closer than 8m to you, this effect is lost if you die.

Outfits:



Old Fashioned: +1 Bravery, -1 Flashlight:

You will need to get closer to stun the monster, but 7 Bravery means you can be exposed to a lot more before going insane. If you think the tradeoff is worth it, go for it.



Professor: +1 Endurance, -1 Bravery:

You lose caboose strength since your Bravery is only average, but you can run for super duper long, longer than anyone else in the game, in fact. If you'd rather run than stare, this is the outfit for you.



Casanova: +1 Exploration, -1 Stealth:

Your Stealth really does create a vunerability to monster powers, so make sure you have a guard with higher stealth than you to protect you. Besides that the Exploration makes you a Leader with highish survivability provided the monster doesn't exploit your Stealth weakness.



Kingpin: +1 Stealth, -1 Exploration

It shifts the Stealth weakness to an Exploration weakness, which is a good thing in this case since most Cabooses don't need Exploration anyway and tend to suck on Stealth, so if you plan on using a low Stealth flashlight like the Cinema Spotlight, this may be a viable option.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): Guard

About Phileas: Phileas is definitely the easiest investigator to play in the game. With high Vitality and 4 grabs instead of 3 he gets the highest alive playtime of any investigator in the game, which is great for new players that struggle to survive.

His stat Spread make him fairly well balanced and with proper builds he can fit different roles, but don't expect to play multiple at once in a single match.

About Phileas' stats and traits: Very high Endurance vs lowish Speed equals out to a llttle above average mobility in a chase, although only barely. Slightly lower Stealth only means you will die if you're alone, but otherwise shouldn't make you too weak to the monster's powers unless you're using Casanova or a low Stealth flashlight. High Bravery is great for caboosing, and the higher Vitality along with Big Boy means the penalty for being grabbed isn't as much of game changer as it is for other investigators.

Big Boy gives Phileas excellent survivability and makes him the best pick for newbies, and although -3% Speed seems bad, it's worth it unlike Anna's trait as the fourth grab can and will net your team the win in prolonged games.

Recommended builds:

Antique Dealer + Firefighter Flashlight: Your Stealth isn't great at all, but your Range is great, and with average Battery Life you won't be as concerned about batteries if you went the Spotlight either.

Old Fashioned + Light Bar: Standard guard loadout. High Bravery and mobility to bait stuns and run, low Range, all the trademarks of a cookie cutter guard. Light bar is just to offset the Flashlight weakness.

Professor + Reading Lamp: 8 Endurance and average Speed makes you the ultimate survivalist, and having an ever smaller Stealth penalty helps as well.

Casanova + Heater: The Heater helps tone down the Stealth weakness, and gives some extra Speed and Endurance as well, which is great for Casanova which needs all of that.

Kingpin + Metal Flashlight: Caboose with less Range and more average stats. Your only weakness is less Speed and Exploration, both of which aren't troubling when you consider higher Bravery, Range, and Endurance.

Difficulty Level: 0/10: He's super easy. His increased survivability means that he gets the most playtime out of any investigator, which is good for beginners trying to learn the game.

Meta Rating: A tier

Solo Strength: 11/10: He's strong like Anna simply because he can take one extra grab, and he can rush the map about as well as Anna can too. I'd say he's probably the king of solo.

This reminds me of one of my movies...
-Vincent

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (64%)

Bravery: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130%)

Flashlight: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85% Battery Life, 93% Range)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (112%)

Exploration: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (145%)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 38/70 (High)

Traits:

Experienced: Other investigators have their Exploration increased by 40% when closer than 18m to you, this effect is lost if you're dead.

Elder: You can resist 2 grabs instead of 3 from the Creature.

Outfits:



Replicant: +1 Flashlight, -1 Stealth:

Splitting isn't viable anymore, but higher Flashlight is useful to stun the creature from further away, and with -2 Endurance you're going to need all the range you can get.



Nosferatu: +1 Stealth, -1 Vitality:

Even higher Stealth makes monster powers even weaker and splitting a legitimate tactic, but if you're grabbed it's very hard to survive the remainder of the match as you have a speed penalty of over 10% along with being dead on the next grab, which is quite punishing. Use with caution and/or a medkit.



Detective: +1 Endurance, -1 Exploration:

Gives your Endurance a much needed boost, but cuts your Exploration down to not as amazing heights. Excellent if you need more survivability, horrible if you want more map clear time.



Gentleman: +1 Exploration, -1 Bravery

A bit of a stupid skin. You get more Exploration than you'll ever need, but lose even more survivability. If you're really confident in your monster survival skills, go for it. Otherwise, you should probably pick some other skin.

Primary Role: Leader

Secondary Role(s): None.

About Vincent: Vincent is a very risky investigator to take into the match. He's extremely squishy and easy for the creature to devour if the person playing Vincent doesn't know how to escape the creature.

However, Vincent has a ridiculous reward. Experienced makes it possble for any other investigator in the game to be able to lead, including Hannah with the right flashlight. Experienced is a little ridiculous, and it makes playing Vincent with his terrible survivability worth it, if you can handle it.

This essentially makes Vincent the glass cannon of White Noise 2. He gives the entire team guidence the likes of which no one else in the game has, but he gets killed in two grabs and a very punishing -2 Endurance penalty makes him very fragile if the team isn't protecting him.

About Vincent's stats, and traits: Vincent has the worst Endurance in the game, and coupled with low Flashlight it makes him have the lowest survivability in the game out of all investigators in the game, and that's not including Elder, which makes Vincent even worse at surviving since he essentially starts the game with 1 grab already taken, and don't forget the increased Speed penalty of 10% when grabbed, which is also terrible.

In exchange for all these downsides, Vincent has the highest Exploration of all investigators. He also has higher Stealth and very good Bravery as well, meaning it's very hard to cripple him in terms of powers or sanity drain.

Experienced itself is also crazy. It turns guards into leaders, it turns EVERYONE into a leader with the right build, which increases your clear time tenthfold. If you think you can handle the high risk but also decently high reward that is Vincent, you just might succeed with him. Just make sure you have a bodyguard at all times.

Recommended Builds:

Detective + Traffic Wand:

Your Speed is higher, your Battery Life is normal, and your Endurance isn't as sucky as it normally is. This is great for newbies that want to try Vincent out as it gives at the very least slightly below average survivability, which is a big upgrade from 0>survivability.

Nosferatu + Electric Lighter

The ultimate Stealth Leader. Your Stealth and Exploration are both very very high, so much so that splitting might actually be a viable tactic, just beware that you can't take a grab to save your life without a medkit, and your Range won't be anything useful.

Replicant + Steampunk Flashlight

Gives you decent Range and boosts your Endurance a bit, which is great for more tactical Vincent players that want more caboose opportunities from higher Ranges.

Gentlemen + Smartphone

The GPS build! With this you have -1337>survivability, but the highest leading potential in the game. At an Exploration that is >10, you will hear tapes so far away that it isn't unlikely to hear more than one at a time. If you want to gamble with the crappiest survivability, you'll get the greatest clear time.

Difficulty Level: >10/10: He gets killed really really fast if you don't play the game basically perfect, his low Endurance and one less grab prove to be dauntingly difficult to master, which is why he's so hard. Traffic Wand and Detective help, but you can't nullify a neg trait.

Meta Rating: I+ Tier

Solo Strength: 0/10: He's the worst in solo. The 8 Exploration is already overkill in solo, and since he has no one to defend him he gets murdered fast. Nosferatu + Electric Lighter helps, but you still have crap survivability and no positive trait with a terrible neg trait.

I'll get my revenge!
-Maria

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (118%)

Exploration: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Battery Management: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (70% Battery Life, 86% Range)

Bravery: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Vitality: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (>>>100%)

Stat total: 39/70 (Very High)

Traits:

Sleight of Hand: You pick up batteries, items, and use items and banish idols AND banish sigils 30% faster.

Stubborn: Your Exploration is decreased by 7% when closer than 8m of other investigators.

Outfits:



Childish: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

The Bravery increase makes Maria a potent caboose, but the Stealth downgrade kills split potential. For guarding? It's great. For splitting? No.



Survivor: +1 Exploration, -1 Endurance:

You lose survivability due to only average Endurance, but higher Exploration increases map clear time. Great for leader builds and not much more.



Plumber: +1 Stealth, -1 Exploration:

You don't clear any faster than average, but increased Stealth helps keep you safe while alone, and for splitting you need all the Stealth you can get.



Mechanic: +1 Battery Management, -1 Bravery:

Helps a lot for caboose builds since your Range isn't total suck anymore. The Bravery loss isn't good, but average Bravery itself isn't bad to have, just make sure to manage your Sanity properly.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): Split

About Maria: The first split you unlock that doesn't actually have great Stealth. This makes Maria harder than average to play as if you don't split, you can't clear well due to Stubborn, and if you do split you have to be on your guard as only average Stealth means you will be found by the monster at least once.

At the very least, Maria's survivability is higher than average, which helps as in a solo duel with the monster as only the strongest survive, and if you're good with Maria you will survive a bit longer than most.

About Maria's stats, and traits: Maria has some unorthodoxed stats. Her only weakness is Flashlight, but in exchange she has good Endurance, Exploration, Bravery and has the highest Vitality in the game (tied with Nikolai), which means the penalty she recieves upon being grabbed is very small if there is one at all.

Sleight of Hand is a helpful trait. For splits it helps since getting killed while picking up items can happen, but not for Maria who picks them up quick, and is helpful if grouped as well since Maria can destroy sigils like nobody else, making her one the strongest investigators if she survives to the late game.

Stubborn simple removes Maria's leading potential while grouped, unless you use the Survivor outfit of course.

Recommended builds:

Childish outfit + Light Bar: Standard guard loadout. High Bravery and mobility with low Range. The Battery Life on the Light Bar synergizes especially well with Maria too.

Survivor outfit + LED Lantern: Decent Leader build, your Range and Speed both aren't great, but your Exploration and Bravery are nice for a Leader and should help you survive.

Town Girl + LED Spotlight: Very good allrounder build. Good Battery Life, not completely terrible Range, and slightly above average mobility and Stealth. If you need a generalist Maria build, this just might work for you.

Plumber + Traffic Wand: Decent split build. You have great mobility to duel the creature, and with decent Stealth and Bravery it should do you well, if you know how to duel the monster as a split.

Mechanic + FireFighter Flashlight: An okay caboose build. Your Range is actually really good for once, which is a rarity while playing Maria. Your Exploration is okish too, so your clear time isn't too bad either. If you want an unorthadoxed build for an already unorthadoxed investigator, this is fun to play around with.

Difficulty Level: 2/10: She's easy to learn since the only thing you really have to keep in mind with Maria is hog batteries, but otherwise she's not difficult at all.

Meta rating: B+ Tier

Solo Strength: 8/10: She's strong because of Sleight of Hand, which means she needs no help picking stuff up. She's not super powerful like Phileas or Anna, but she is pretty dang strong.

You no worry, Nikolai strong!
-Nikolai

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (118%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Bravery: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130%)

Stealth: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (76%)

Flashlight: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115% Battery Life, 107% Range)

Vitality: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (>>>100%)

Stat total: 40/70 (Very High)

Traits:

Survivor: Your Stealth, Flashlight Battery Life, Bravery, and Exploration are all increased by 30% each time you are grabbed by the creature and survive.

Boastful: Your Speed stat is cut by 5% until you're grabbed by the monster once. (After being grabbed once this neg trait is removed.)

Outfits:



Rancher: +1 Exploration, -1 Stealth:

-3 Stealth is nothing to scoff at, but Survivor means you gain 2 points of Stealth on your first grab, making the penalty a bit less severe. Along with that you gain 8 Exploration after your first grab, which is very powerful too.



Colonel: +1 Bravery, -1 Exploration

8 Bravery is ridiculous as you go to 10 on your first grab. The Exploration penalty is also gone after your first grab as well, which is quite nice.



Siberia: +1 Endurance, -1 Battery Management:

7 Endurance means you kind of have Phileas mobility when not grabbed, and when grabbed you get even better mobility than Phileas. You won't be able to caboose as well as you lose Range which can't be substituted for with Survivor, but the Endurance show be worth it.



Agent: +1 Flashlight, -1 Exploration

Higher Range is excellent and the Exploration penalty doesn't matter when you gain it back after your first grab. If you want a great sniper build, look no further than this.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): Leader, Guard

About Nikolai: He's a BIG STRONG RUSSIAN MAN!!!! He's got some solid stats, making him a mix between Chuck and Anne Marie, having decent Bravery AND Flashlight, although his Stealth sucks so beware that you will die VERY quickly if alone.

About Nikolai's stats and traits: He's got High Bravery and High Battery Management, making him a neat cross between Anne Marie and Chuck. His high Vitality also means being grabbed doesn't faze him much along with Maria.

Survivor is either gamebreaking or useless. If you're good at avoiding the creature it doesn't do anything and Boastful is at full capacity the entire game, but if you tank a single grab or more you get really high stat bonuses and you lose your negative trait.

It is recommended Nikolai tank 1 grab and heal from 1 medkit. From that point you're the strongest investigator in the game for pure duel strength, otherwise he's very lackluster.

Recommended Builds:

Rancher + Jack-o' Lantern:

Jack-o' Lantern should help ease the terrible Stealth and give more Exploration, which can lead to you hearing tapes from miles away, just don't expect to be great early on.

Siberia + Toy Torch

Run forever? Check. High Exploration and Bravery on Last grab? Check. Cookie cutter guard build? Also check.

Agent + Spotlight:

As you lose lives, your flashlight battery life will steadily increase, which makes batteries a less important matter as time goes on.

Colonel + Railroad Lantern:

Decent caboose build. Not as much Range as if you went Agent, but you'll be stalling the creature much longer, which is something you have to decide on.

Rags + Steampunk Torch:

Very average caboose build. Great Range and Bravery along with better than average Endurance, effective, simple, and easy.

Difficulty Level: 7/10: He's high risk high reward. If you can survive with only 2 grabs you should be fine, but if you're not confident in being able to tank a grab and survive the rest of the game with only 2 grabs, don't play him until you get more confident.

Meta Rating: B Tier

Solo Strength: 3/10: He has -2 Stealth, which isn't great. He gets found out fast and if you haven't tanked a grab yet you're going to get killed. I can't recommend him for splitting or in solo.

I have to take a picture of this!
-Yumi

Stats:

Speed: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (114%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (118%)

Exploration: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85%)

Bravery: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (88%)

Flashlight: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (70% Battery Life, 86% Range)

Vitality: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Stat total: 34/70 (Low)

Traits:

Curious: You gain 5% Speed as long as your Battery Life is over 50% and your flashlight is on.

Distracted: Both your Stealth and Exploration are cut by 10% when further than 15m from other investigators.

Outfits:



Cute: +1 Flashlight, -1 Bravery:

Less Bravery means caboosing is riskier business and you will have more issues with sanity drain, but not extremely terrible Flashlight means you can take advantage of Curious more and have a longer stun Range, and as such it comes down to personal preference.



Groupie: +1 Bravery, -1 Exploration:

Your terrible Exploration goes down even further, but your Bravery gets upped to a much better level, making it considerably less risky to caboose the monster. If you have confidence in your leader, this skin is great, if you need to carry your team, you might have a problem.



Cheerleader: +1 Endurance, -1 Stealth:

Considering Yumi's mobility is already the highest in the game with Curious, this outfit is fairly redundent. The increased monster power vunerability is not good either, so use this skin with care. It's best used with a heavier light like the Professional Flashlight to take advantage of the ridiculous mobility.



Wonderful: +1 Exploration, -1 Endurance

Excellent for leading if stacked with a Smartphone or Camping Lantern. The average Exploration helps more than you think, which is good considering the Endurance loss is something to be concerned about. Less survivability, more map clear time, that's the decision of the Wonderful skin.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): Caboose

About Yumi: Yumi is like Hannah in a lot of ways stat wise. She's extremely quick-footed, has good Bravery, and tends to be a tad noisy due to low Stealth. Unlike Hannah, she is actually capable of finding tapes, but, also unlike Hannah, she has extremely poor Flashlight so she can't defend others very well.

About Yumi's stats and traits: Yumi's high Speed, Endurance, and her positive trait means that she's THE fastest character in the game, able to outrun the creature with ease. It's almost to the point of literal overkill, she can outrun the creature in almost any situation if she has a flashlight that supports her amazing Speed. On the other hand, all this amazing mobility can be sacrificed by choosing really heavy flashlights like the Camping Lantern, which will balance out her negatives.

As previously stated, Yumi can find tapes unlike Hannah, however her play style strongly discourages loud splitting. If Yumi attempts to split and draw attention to herself (As Hannah sometimes does), she gets stuck with horrible Exploration that makes finding clues frustrating, and terrible Stealth that makes escaping strong spells like Shutdown and Mourn very difficult. Even if Yumi chooses a flashlight that attempts to negate these effects, the percentage Distracted takes away from her Stealth and Exploration will leave her helpless with less mobility, and little Exploration/Stealth to make up for it.

Curious is excellent, but don't worship it. Some Yumi players will hog batteries because they "needed" the 5%, but if worst comes to worst, you can sacrifice it. Other than that, higher Battery Life lights help her a lot and it is highly recommended you use them if you plan on picking Yumi.

Other thing of note is that Yumi has lower Vitality, which means the Speed penalty she recieves upon being grabbed is much higher. As such do your best to not be grabbed when playing Yumi as it hurts her mobility a lot.

Recommended Builds:

Cute + LED Lantern: Balances out Yumi's negatives while not hurting her Speed too much. It also gives great Battery Life too to keep Curious in play for longer.

Groupie + Light Bar: Very competitive build. High Bravery, ridiculous mobility, and some ok Battery Life to keep Curious alive. If you need a strong build, pick this.

Cheerleader + Professional Light: A caboose build where you can run like a guard, and doesn't have very terrible Battery Management either. In general this build is strong because you can do everything in a duel against the monster. You have Range, Speed, Endurance, and Bravery too.

Student outfit + LED Spotlight: Helps your Battery Life and Stealth come back to almost the normal 5/10 level. This is a great allrounder build, and is recommended if you have no idea what to pick.

Wonderful + Camping Lantern: Very interesting build that actually allows Yumi to lead. It nerfs you survivability to actually catchable levels, but it's still above average.

Difficulty: 1.5/10: She's unappealing due to really low Battery Management, but if you pick her, you shouldn't have any problems playing her.

Meta Rating: B Tier

Solo Strength: 3/10: She's meh. She's kind of a gimped Hannah when it comes to splitting, so that's her one downfall.

"Time to farm some experience!"
-Jin

Stats:

Speed: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (96%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (118%)

Exploration: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (70%)

Bravery: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (145% Battery Life, 121% Range)

Vitality: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Quick Reflexes: Creature powers have their effectiveness (ie duration or chance to target you) cut by 40%.

Tense: Your Bravery is cut by 15% each time you're grabbed by the Creature.

Outfits:



Beachy: +1 Endurance, -1 Exploration: Your Exploration becomes the absolute worst in the game at a tiny 2, but your mobility goes up to Phileas level, which isn't too bad at all. If you're find being stuck defending your team, it's okay trade off, but if you don't have confidence in your Leader, do not consider this outfit for a minute.



Student: +1 Exploration, -1 Bravery: You lose caboose power with only average Bravery, and with Tense it may be a problem for you on your last grab, but you don't have garbage map clear time anymore and might actually be able to contribute to finding a tape. Best glossed over if your leader is good, excellent pick if you think you may have to carry.



Stuntman: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth: Extra Bravery is really nice to help caboose the monster for longer, and the Stealth loss isn't a big deal since Quick Reflexes will counter it. Helps prevent your negative trait from being a real problem too.



Dressed Up: +1 Stealth, -1 Battery Management: Higher Stealth makes Jin even more obnoxious at countering the monster's powers. If you plan on being a Stealth guard more than a caboose, this is the outfit for you.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role: None.

About Jin: He's an incredibly powerful caboose and should not be taken lightly if the person playing him knows what they're doing. Quick Reflexes paired with the highest Battery Management in the game makes Jin very strong at dueling the monster, and extra Bravery is just a cherry on top of the cake so to speak.

However, he has lower mobility than Chuck and Tense makes him scream really quickly if grabbed enough, which is a serious issue if the player is taking a lot of grabs as Jin, and even painkillers don't help much, thus the effectiveness of Jin is nearly purely based on the investigator playing him, and if the team has a decent leader.

About Jin's stats and traits: Flashlight, Bravery and Endurance are all the hallmarks of a great caboose, and Jin has all of them. However, he has terrible Exploration and Speed. Although the Endurance increase gives him average mobility, he has way slow map clear time as his compass recharges at a terrible pace and he walks slower too.

Another thing is that Jin has low Vitality as well, so coupled with Tense being grabbed gives massive debuffs, so DO NOT get grabbed with him without a medkit as it will hurt you considerably.

This means Jin is permanently stuck defending his teammates unless he goes the Student outfit, which still has sub-par map clearing at best and still horrible at worst. However, this isn't exactly a bad thing as Jin's kit is geared around defending his team.

Quick Reflexes is extremely powerful and not should be underestimated, it invalidates Shutdown, Mourn, Breakdown and a lot of other potent monster powers, and this combined with very High Battery Management means Jin can use high Range lights and still not worry about being hurt from low Stealth.

Tense is useless with a good player, and awful with a bad player. It stacks with things like Nightmare or Adorable, so you better not be getting grabbed a lot as painkillers don't help either.

In turn Jin is a very powerful force in the hands of a good player but downright useless in the hands of a bad one, so if you're picking him, make sure you have a experience in the game otherwise you're in for a bad time.

Recommended Builds:

Pro Gamer + Steampunk Torch: The Steampunk should give some decent additional mobility, and with Range on the higher end of the spectrum at 9/10, this build should give you no problems and is great for general use.

Beachy + Spotlight: Great Range, still average mobility and Bravery as well. This is the ultimate "true caboose" build for Jin.

Student + Rusty Flashlight: Okayish team carry build. Your clearing time goes from awful to averagish. You gain Speed, which might help you escape the creature as well.

Stuntman + Metal Flashlight: A good caboose build geared more so for stalling than sniping the monster. 9/10 Range is great and 7/10 Bravery means you can stare for a long time. You only have 4/10 Stealth which shouldn't be a problem considering Quick Reflexes negates it.

Dressed Up + Heater: You have the worst caboose power out of all of the Jin builds, but monster powers last ~50% less on you, which is ridiculously strong at countering any power the monster has, making this the ultimate Stealth guard loadout.

Difficulty: 8/10: The specilization Jin has makes him very unforgiving if played improperly. Do not play him if you're not confident as you will die otherwise.

Meta Rating: S+ tier

Solo Strength: 5/10: He has a good shot of surviving due to Quick Reflexes, especially with the Dressed Up outfit, but isn't recommended that you split with him though as his clear time is awful.

"We seek after knowledge, and you call us criminals."

Stats:

Speed: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (112%)

Endurance: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (64%)

Exploration: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85%)

Bravery: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (70%)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (112%)

Flashlight: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130% Battery Life, 114% Range)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Hacker: All items within 14m of you are outlined for you to see, and when used their effectiveness is increased by 100% for you alone.

(Medkits restore one extra life, painkillers restore your Sanity back to full, Energy Bars, Radios, and Incense last 2x as long on you. Flashbangs are unchanged by Hacker.)

Envious: Your Speed is decreased by 10% for 14 seconds when an item is picked up within 14m of you.

Outfits:



Raider: +1 Exploration, -1 Flashlight: If you stick her with a Smartphone, she can actually lead alright, which is nice and is the only real defined role she has. Your Battery Management is still above average too, which helps with the leader flashlights that have bad Battery Management.



Heritage: +1 Stealth, -1 Flashlight: You lose dueling power, but can Split a lot easier with 7 Stealth and the increased monster power resistance is a welcome addition.



Hipster: +1 Flashlight, -1 Stealth: You can become an okayish sniper, but you won't be able to stare for any amount of time, so don't think you're a caboose with this.



Thug: +1 Bravery, -1 Exploration: Your clear time gets down to Hannah levels of awful, but extra Bravery really helps Denali's survivability since she can stare for a lot longer. If you have a great leader it's an excellent skin, although you might be in trouble if they suck.

Primary Role: N/A (See description)

Secondary Role: N/A

About Denali: Denali represents the most interesting confliction in stats in the game; she is a confliction paradigm. Because of this, she has no defined role. She does however, have a use as an item scouter.

Hacker helps find things like medkits or painkillers that you might not have seen, and this is especially true on closed maps like the Hospital if you spot them behind a wall. The increased effectiveness is very nice as well.

About Denali's stats and traits: High Speed like a guard, but terrible Endurance, so she can't guard well. Great Flashlight like a caboose, but no Bravery so she can't caboose well. High Stealth to split, but terrible Exploration and by extension terrible map clearing, so she can't split well.

Hacker is what gives Denali her niche though. It allows her to scout items otherwise passed that weren't seen, and makes them a lot more effective. Medkits get especially cheesy as if Denali hasn't taken a grab until the Finale with a medkit she can take 4 grabs before death by running into the monster on a stun, which is essentially a free win. Incense and Radios last a whole minute too, so make sure to abuse that.

Painkillers do give Denali a saving grace in Sanity, and the same can be said for her poor Endurance and an Energy Bar. This in turn makes Denali far better than most people give her credit for, and her unorthadoxed strength just might be what you're looking for.

Recommended Builds:

Underground + Traffic Wand: Gives your mobility a nice boost without hurting anything else besides your Range. Your Flashlight should offset that one weakness as well.

Raider + Smartphone: Denali's only build where she's actually a true Leader, her only role. She can only do this with this specific build though which is why it's not considered even a Secondary Role.

Heritage + Minimalist Flashlight: Makes you decent at guarding your team against the monster's powers, which is exactly what this build aims for. Increased Endurance is a welcome addition as well.

Hipster + RailRoad Lantern: You might not be able to stare, but at least you can snipe well enough to get away from the creature. Your mobility might take a hit at least you can afford to take it as a snipe is very hard for the creature to comeback and get you from.

Thug + Electric Lighter: ALMOST removes Denali's weaknesses, although not quite. Although your Bravery and Endurance are both sub-par, they're much better than they used to be, making this build the best for survivability on Denali.

Difficulty: 6/10: She needs a good build to survive, so sticking a Professional Flashlight on her will get you killed, although she isn't too hard when you get the hang of her.

Meta Rating: A- tier

Solo Strength: 6/10: You're going to need a radio to find clues, but high Stealth makes her okayish.

I didn't do it! It was an accident!
-Corey

Stats:

Speed: 6/10 (High) (+1) (104%)

Endurance: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (82%)

Bravery: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (88%)

Flashlight: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130% Battery Life, 114% Range)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 35/70 (Below Average)

Traits:

Handy: When you pick up a Battery, all other investigators within 15m of you gain 30% Battery Life.

Vandal: Items besides Medkits, Flashbangs and Batteries you pick up and use are 25% less effective.

Outfits:



Troublemaker: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

Standard Bravery is surprisingly helpful for Corey, since it allows him to take advantage of his 7 Battery Life to caboose the monster for longer. 3 Stealth may be troublesome though as it makes you very weak to monster powers.



Trendy: +1 Flashlight, -1 Bravery:

Your Bravery goes down to an even worse level, but your Flashlight becomes the highest in the game. This makes Corey kind of like Denali. High Speed and Battery Management, but terrible Endurance and Bravery. It's alright.



Posh Kid: +1 Exploration, -1 Flashlight:

Your Flashlight is no longer super great, but it's still very above average for a leader. On another note this guy is one of the two 6 Speed 6 Exploration leaders, right next to Executive Jean Luc, so if you want a Speed leader and Jean Luc is taken, try this.



Biker: +1 Endurance, -1 Stealth

It's a very strong outfit. Standard Endurance and high Speed paired with high Battery makes Corey a very potent caboose or guard. It does have the same weakness as the troublemaker skin with super terrible Stealth, so be careful of that.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): Leader, Guard

About Corey: He's got an interesting playstyle. He's like a Speed caboose, but at the same time he's also a support character like Jean Luc or Vincent due to Handy. His outfits spice him up quite a lot too and give him a very large amont of diverse playstyles to choose from.

About Corey's stats and traits: He's got high Speed but low Endurance and Very high Flashlight but low Bravery and Stealth. This makes him a weirdish caboose that can snipe, but has issues staring at the monster. His outfits do help him in the caboose department though.

His traits are very strong. Handy is a very useful team buff as long as you hog all the batteries, so it just might be worth to take all of them even if you're not below 75% as the buff it gives to your team is very useful. Vandal is only an issue with painkillers. Medkits and Flashbangs are unaffected, and Radios and Incense can be passed off to someone else, but painkillers make managing Sanity difficult even with troublemaker, so make sure you run as sparingly as possible.

In conclusion, Corey's strengths outweigh his negatives, and his unique playstyle while hard to learn it's also hard to counter, making Corey a very strong investigator if you know how to play him properly.

Difficulty Level: 6/10: The reduced Endurance and increased Speed along with low Bravery makes him a little hard to handle, but at the very least you can hog all the batteries to abuse your positive trait to its fullest potential, which isn't hard.

Meta rating: C Tier

Solo Strength: 5/10: He's a little meh. He has no positive trait and a pretty bad negative one. He can fight the monster, so that helps, but he's still kinda bad

Recommended Builds:

Troublemaker + Steampunk Torch: Helps you become a very average caboose. No underaverage Sanity, no real mobility problems, and high Range.

Posh + Smartphone: You have great Battery Life, great Exploration, and great Speed. This is an excellent leader build for those that want to speed lead.

Trendy + Cinema Spotlight: Fun build to mess around with. You can snipe the monster from super duper far away but can't stare. It's alright, but in the lategame you will have massive Sanity issues.

Biker + Railroad Lantern: Another caboose build with highish Range and average mobility. You won't be able to stare too much, but enough to get away from the creature.

I foresee dark times ahead...
-Shaira

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Exploration: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (130%)

Bravery: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (145%)

Stealth: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (124%)

Flashlight: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (70% Battery Duration, 86% Range)

Vitality: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Stat total: 38/70 (High)

Traits:

Medium: As long as you're alive, all ghosts have their Exploration increased by 25%. This effect is increased to 80% if they're closer than 20m to you. All ghosts also move and interact 10% faster.

Static: As long as both your flashlight is over 60% Battery Life remaining and turned on, you lose 10% of your Exploration.

Outfits:



Entrepreneur: +1 Flashlight, -1 Bravery:

Helps prevent your Range from being total garbage at the cost of less caboose time. It's good for what it does since when you're at low power to get rid of Static you're going to need all the Range you can get.



Occultist: +1 Endurance, -1 Stealth:

It makes you even stronger at fighting the monster, but you'll have to fight him more often too due to reduced Stealth. It's great for what it does and the - Stealth is definitely worth it if you can handle it, but newer players will want to stay away from it because it's much harder to split with since you might actually see the monster while splitting with it.



Fortune Teller: +1 Exploration, -1 Flashlight

Yes, 8 Exploration is nice, but it's balanced up by absolutely terrible Battery Management. It's so bad that any flashlight you use with this skin automatically loses 3 points in Range, so you better be using a high Range flashlight to counter that otherwise you will have issues using this skin.



Safari: +1 Stealth, -1 Bravery

Giving Shaira the same Stealth as Sarah while still having speed unlike Sarah. However, less Bravery means slightly less survivability and you won't actually be as Stealthy as Sarah since you can still get detected by idols. It's still a great skin despite that, and recommended for newer players that want to split.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): Leader

About Shaira: She's the only Leader/Stealth Split mix in the game, and can turn into Sarah or Vincent with her outfits as well. This gives Shiara a unique playstyle that no other investigator has, and her traits add to this as well.

They take specific conditions to activate, but her traits are okay as well if they're used properly, but if used improperly are a pain.

Shiara also wins the award for being the most overbuffed investigator in the game. No investigator has jumped so many tiers in the tier list and become so viable from buffs.

About Shaira's stats and traits: 8 Bravery combined with 7 Exploration and Stealth makes Shiara a very powerful split, although it's balanced out by 2 Flashlight and 4 Vitality. (which is useless for a split) Your stun range is abysmal, but your caboose time will be long, and with 7 Exploration and <60% Battery Life you're going to clear maps very quickly. The trick to Static is to only grab batteries at 0%, as then you'll only feel Static at the beginning of the game.

Medium is very useful in both classic and while playing with newbies as it makes your clear time ridiculously high with a Ghost as 80% increased Exploration is nothing to scoff at. Although if Shiara is killed she loses the 80% bonus, the +20% Exploration and +10% Speed and Interaction Speed are uncounterabe and permanent, and apply to Shaira herself too.

Difficulty Level: 7/10: She's hard to use effectively. Static is difficult to play around and her stats make her a lot more specilized, making her easy to use in the wrong way.

Meta rating: B Tier

Librarian + Metal Flashlight: Seems weird for a split, but the Metal Flashlight is actually a great choice as it helps prevent your Range from going really low.

Entrepreneur + Basic Flashlight: Your Battery duration should be just about normal, and when you get under 60% it will take longer until you need batteries, which is nice if you plan on going without them for a while.

Fortune Teller + Smartphone: Yes, your Range is absolute garbage, but you can run away unlike Vincent, and with 9.5/10 Exploration, that's really good. If you stack this build with a Vincent player it gets even crazier.

Occultist + LED Spotlight: Very popular build among Shiara players as it gives nice stats. You run for a little longer, have great Clarity with the LED Spotlight, and have decent Stealth. If you like a cookie-cutter split build, try this.

Safari + Electric Lighter: The chances of the creature finding you are very low, and if he does find you, just run, your Endurance and Speed will be high enough to outleg the creature.

"Don't worry, I'm a professional"
-Kurt

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Exploration: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Bravery: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 5/10 (Standard) (100% Battery Life, 100% Range)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

Traits:

Leader: Other investigators have their Bravery increased by 25% when closer than 18m to you, this effect is lost if you're dead.

Cautious: Your speed is reduced by 5% when further away than 20m from other alive investigators.

Outfits:



Gamer: +1 Exploration, -1 Endurance:

You lose survivability due to a decrease in Endurance, but higher Exploration means you clear maps faster, making it a risk vs reward outfit.



Camo: +1 Stealth, -1 Vitality:

The Stealth helps resist monster powers, which just might save your life. On the other side of things the increased Speed penalty due to lower Vitality might kill you. It's an equal tradeoff more or less.



Halloween: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

Less Stealth means monster powers are stronger against you and if you lose the group you will die a very fast death, but the higher Bravery gives you additional survivability which is sometimes what you need on a Leader.



Autumnal: +1 Flashlight, -1 Bravery:

Less Bravery means you can't stare for as long and will have Sanity issues, but higher Flashlight means you can stun the monster further. It's a fair tradeoff more or less if you can handle bad Bravery.

Primary Role: Leader

Secondary Role(s): Symmetry

About Kurt: With Kurt, you have to stay with the group. His playstyle enforces the classical "don't go alone!" He is a natural Symmetry with no weaknesses, which makes him well rounded. He's an excellent Leader if you can't stand Iker and his positive trait is a huge boon for the team, especially against Subject 23 or Resulka.

He may be a bit boring to play, but your friends will love you, especially Denali and Jean Luc, since it fixes their crappy Bravery, and coupled with the fact that his neg trait doesn't exist as long as you stay with the group you've got a very solid pick on any team.

About Kurt's stats and traits: Kurts basic stats have no weaknesses, which is one of the best things about him, and although this may make him boring to play, this also means he's the only investigator in the game that is a natural perfect symmetry and leader at the same time.

Kurt's Leader trait is possibly one of the best in the game, too. It is extremely helpful for Jean Luc and Denali since it cures their Bravery issues, and this is amazing on characters with +3 Bravery since they will basically never go insane, no matter the circumstances. Just remember that you need to stay alive, as if you die, Leader is wasted.

However, Kurt's Cautious trait is crippling in bad situations. Being the opposite of Suspicious, lowering your speed when you're far away from the team, but the speed penalty is higher. This in turn means Kurt is never a viable split as his speed gets dumptrucked.

In the end Kurt is a solid leader and he's easier to use than any other leader in the game, making him recommended for new players, even if he's also probably the most boring character to play.

Recommended Builds:

Hoodie + Smartphone: Very general Leader build. 7.5/10 Exploration is very nice. You lose survivability due to less Range and Stealth, but as a Leader your job isn't to fight the monster, only lead your teammates, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Halloween + Periscope: Very well rounded build. High Bravery and average Range makes you an okay mid range caboose, and with high Battery Life your Range should stay good for a long time. Your Stealth is also not too bad at 4.5/10.

Gamer + Chinese Lantern: Another boring but effective Leader build. 7/10 Exploration for 4.5/10 Endurance is a very good tradeoff, and with the Endurance buff you shouldn't really notice the dereased Endurance.

Camo + Camping Lantern: You're going to be a lot slower than normal, but this build is great as it gives you great Exploration and Stealth to resist monster powers, and you'll always need one higher Stealth character to guard monster powers, so use this if you need to.

Autumnal + Rusty Flashlight: Higher Range and Speed should make up for lower Bravery, making this yet another easy to use Leader build.

Difficulty Level: 0.5/10: Due to no weaknesses he's super easy to use, not as easy as Phileas as you're punished for going away from the group, but aside from that there's no real gimmick to playing Kurt, he's the best leader in the game for beginners to play.

Meta rating: B Tier

Solo Strength: 5/10: Kurt is actually somewhat strong in solo, due to when being the only alive investigator or in solo, his negtrait is disabled and he stays at 5 speed. In respect to all of this, Kurt has exploration that could lead him clue after clue.

"I should've stayed home..."
-Sarah

Stats:

Speed: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (96%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stealth: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (136%)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Bravery: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 5/10 (Standard) (100% Battery Life, 100% Range)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Shadow: You can't be detected by idols when your flashlight is off. You also don't have a 15% penalty to speed when your flashlight is off.

Scaredy Cat: You lose sanity 15% faster when further than 15m from other investigators.

Outfits:



Racing Suit: +1 Endurance, -1 Stealth:

You will actually get found once or twice due to 7 Stealth, but the increased Endurance means you might actually be able to escape the monster. This makes it great for veterans, not so great for newbies.



Plain Clothes: +1 Exploration, -1 Bravery:

Makes Sarah's clearing time much better, but -2 Bravery and -1 Speed will surely spell doom for you if the monster finds you.



Farmer: +1 Bravery, -1 Exploration:

It's actually pretty nice to have. It cancels Scaredy Cat which will absolutely save your life, and only nerfs Exploration, which isn't too bad considering most Stealth lights have good Exploration anyway.



Autumnal: +1 Stealth, -1 Exploration:

Gives Sarah ridiculously high Stealth to the point of being literally undetectable on the compass with a flashlight to boost her Stealth even higher. If you want to be truly invisible to the monster, choose this. You will clear maps a bit slower though.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): Guard

About Sarah: Sarah is the best investigator for Stealth in the game. Since she has the highest native Stealth, it's extremely difficult to track her, since the creature has to get very close to get an outline on her, and the Compass the monster has will track her considerably less, favoring investigators like Hannah to point at over her.

She excels at being a stealth split or Stealth guard as her super duper high Stealth means monster powers last barely any time on her at all, which is very strong.

About Sarah's stats and traits: The only thing she loses is a bit of Speed in exchange for 8 Stealth, which is good. Sarah is best used as a stealth split, but she has seen some action in the guard class due to some of her outfits, like mentioned above, now let's get onto her traits.

Sarah has a strong trait too, Shadow. This trait is incredibly helpful for getting around quickly without the monster seeing you, and also means she doesn't have to worry being detected by idols unlike most other Stealth splits. This also gives her a better than average ability to survive a Energy Trap or Shutdown since she isn't slowed down like most investigators are.

Scaredy Cat is bad though. It reduces your Bravery when you're far away from other investigators. Fortunately due to the nature of Stealth Splits this isn't as much of an issue because you won't see the monster much if at all, but it still may screw you over in the Finale if no one is near you, so be wary of that.

Recommended Builds:

Racer Skin + Reading Lamp:

Your mobility is above average and your Stealth is 7.5, making this an excellent build for actually trying to escape the monster if he finds you.

Plain Clothes Skin + Electric Lighter:

Somewhat popular build as it allows Sarah to run away instead of caboosing the monster when found, which is the weakness of the Plain Clothes outfit. And you can afford to lose Exploration as well since you have 6 by default to counter the Lighter's 4.5.

Farmer Skin + Rusty Flashlight:

Rusty Flashlight offsets the negative Speed and Exploration, and you have standard Bravery, giving you just slightly under average survivability when alone, making it a surprisingly good split build

Autumnal + Jack-o' Lantern:

Makes you completely invisible to the monster while upping your Exploration back to average. If you want the ultimate Stealth build, look no further than this.

Difficulty Level: 6/10: She's not as hard since you don't have to worry about getting attacked by the monster much unlike Anna. You can also stick with the group too.

Skill Ceiling: I Tier

Solo Strength: 6.5/10: Since she had ridiculously high Stealth, the monster isn't aggressive at all, so she's roughly alright until the later game, Anna would still be a better pick though.

CHALLENGERS ONLY
This Build is NOT Recommended for new players. You are most likely not going to survive against any odds with the build that is about to be present.

Plain Clothes Skin + Camping Lantern:
Hey, I played White Noise Online so i'm used to the snail-like speed
- Average-Medic

This build is purely for the people who want a challenge, giving sarah 3 speed, basically making it almost impossible to survive the match. She gets 9.5 stealth so she can split without ever being spotted and she has 7.5 exploration to easily find tapes. The 4 bravery with her 3 speed can also be her downfall because her neg trait will heavily effect it. Sarah's speed can go down to 1 if shes grabbed by olkoth, or is near thorns.

"My glasses! Where are my glasses?"
-Anne Marie

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (82%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Bravery: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (145%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115% Battery Life, 107% Range)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 38/70 (High)

Traits:

Scientist: When a clue is found within a 15m range of you, you gain 50% of your battery life back.

Noisy: When you shout, the monster sees your outline for 12 extra seconds. (The investigators cannot see your outline for those 12 extra seconds)

Outfits:



Black and Purple: +1 Endurance, -1 Exploration:

Less Exploration means less tapefinding ability and less glowsticks, but most caboose don't need extra glowsticks, and attempting to lead with this outfit isn't going to be a good idea in the first place.



Soviet Jacket: +1 Exploration, -1 Battery Management:

Average Range means you aren't as strong as a caboose as you previously were, but more Exploration means Anne Marie can take on the Leader role if she so chooses, which may or may not be useful to you depending on if there is already a Leader.



Autumnal: +1 Battery Management, -1 Bravery:

Your maximum caboose time is reduced from the Bravery reduction, but your ability to stun the monster from further away is increased significantly. It's worth the tradeoff, and is dependant on you. Range or more caboose time? Your choice.



Spring: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

Less Stealth means you can't split at all and will die trying it, and monster powers will hit you harder, but having 9 Bravery, the highest possible in the game currently, is incredibly powerful if utilized properly.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): None

About Anne Marie: An investigator that is hard to play right. She has poor Endurance, something which is usually enough to bar someone from being a caboose, but the highest Bravery in the game and high Battery Management, which is very very useful on a caboose.

This makes Anne Marie an investigator that is difficult to play properly. If you caboose too much the monster will get too powerful in the lategame, and if you caboose too little the monster will outleg you. You have to find the perfect balance to play Anne Marie properly.

About Anne Marie's stats and traits: Low Endurance but extremely high Bravery and notably high Battery Management makes Anne Marie a weird midrange caboose. She has difficulty outrunning the creature, but can stall the monster with ease. This gives her a playstyle that is akin to outlasting the monster. Stunning the monster, running, then turning around to slow the monster, then running again. If you can manage that, Anne Marie shouldn't be too hard.

Her traits are effective. Scientist completely removes the need for Batteries as long as your team is getting clues at a reasonable pace, and Noisy is non-existant if you don't shout, which isn't hard. If you get lost you can simply tell your teammates to shout for you to get back to the group.

In turn all these factors make Anne Marie a caboose that although effective, requires a playstyle that is much different than other cabooses and requires the player to adapt to her specific playstyle to be utilized properly.

Recommended builds:

Investigator + Chinese Lantern: Gives Anne Marie almost average mobility at no additional cost. For people just starting to play Anne Marie, I'd recommend you start with this build as it is the easiest to use effectively.

Black and Purple + Spotlight: Really high Range and Bravery makes Anne Marie one of the strongest cabooses in the game, as long as you can keep up the momentum. If your team isn't getting batteries often it might be an issue since your Battery Life isn't the greatest, so ensure your Leader is smart before picking this.

Soviet Jacket + Rusty Flashlight: Anne Marie's only Leader build. The Rusty Flashlight still has average Range to caboose along with higher Speed, which helps Anne Marie escape the monster better. 6.5/10 Exploration is also good as well for leading the group.

Autumnal + Steampunk Torch: 8/10 Range and 7/10 Bravery along with better than average Battery Life makes this build stronger than the Black and Purple one for consistancy as you don't need to worry about Battery power as much. Average Stealth and Exploration might also be prefered as well, which is something the Black and Purple build doesn't have.

Spring + Periscope: The Periscope gives Stealth and Endurance, both of which the Spring outfit needs. It also has high Battery Life and standard Range to caboose with. Lower Spread makes this the most difficult build to play, so only use this if you're confident.

Difficulty Level: 8/10: The Endurance makes her no cakewalk, and being a caboose with
lower Endurance is difficult, so you're going to need a few games to get the hang of Anne Marie.

Meta Rating: A Tier

Solo Strength: 7/10: Much like Sarah, she's alright. Her neg trait will never hurt you in solo either, and since the monster has no Light Resistance you shouldn't have a problem running away. She never has to worry about leaving her back exposed to pick stuff up either since Scientist will sustain her.

"Oh god, it's behind me, isn't it?"
-Jean Luc

Stats:

Speed: 6/10 (High) (+1) (100%)

Endurance: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (136%)

Bravery: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (70%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 5/10 (Standard) (100% Battery Life, 100% Range)

Vitality: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Stat total: 35/70 (Below Average)

Traits:

Helpful: Other investigators have their Endurance increased by 20% when closer than 12.5m to you, this effect is lost if you're dead.

Delicious: When Jean Luc is killed by the creature, the creature has it's Skill Usage increased by 15%.

Outfits:



Old Rocker: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

The most broken outfit for Jean Luc, and in general, the game. +1 Bravery for -1 Stealth is ridiculously strong on a character that has high mobility, and this outfit and Kurt removes that weakness completely. Stealth can be written off in this case as for a -2 Bravery character that extra point makes all the difference.



Executive: +1 Exploration, -1 Flashlight:

Less Battery Management makes Jean Luc's already low caboosing power even lower, but higher Exploration makes him one of the only two Speed leaders in the game alongside Posh Corey. If you want to Speed lead, this is great for that.



Autumnal: +1 Flashlight, -1 Endurance:

Your caboose power gets stronger as you have longer Range, but the Endurance may prove troublesome. If you want to pair it with Light Bar to get crazy Battery LIfe, it's ok, but otherwise it's not great as extra caboose power for a -2 Bravery isn't useful in most cases.



Champs Elysees: +1 Stealth, -1 Exploration:

Extra Stealth helps ward off monster powers and might save you if you're alone, which is something you might need if you have issues staying with the group. Lower Exploration means you aren't an effective split, but at least you won't be targeted by the monster much.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): None.

About Jean Luc: On paper, Jean Luc looks at least decently average, but in game? Jean Luc is extremely effective at both keeping himself and his teammates alive. Both his stats and traits are excellent and always useful no matter the circumstances.

Jean Luc's usefulness is further increased by his strong selection of outfits that give even better stats, all these factors contribute to Jean Luc's continued viability despite the ever changing metagame that is White Noise 2.

About Jean Luc's stats and traits: On paper, his stat spread looks balanced. High mobility is balanced out by the worst possible Bravery in the game (along with bad Vitality). However, players that excel at managing their Sanity will find that Jean Luc has ridiculous reward.

Super high mobility means Jean Luc runs forever, and although that may seem like a selfish pick in a meta centered around caboosing, Helpful, Jean Luc's positive trait, means other investigators can run for a long time as well, making Jean Luc an excellent support character too.

However, Jean Luc is slightly squishy. Lower Vitality and Delicious means a bad Jean Luc can significantly hurt the team if they die first or second. This in turn makes Jean Luc a higher risk vs reward character, although still not as high risk as Rinko is.

As long as you know how to survive, Jean Luc is an excellent pick for any team, but if you can't handle the pressure of staying alive lest you give the creature Delicious, pass him off to someone else.

Recommended builds:

Executive + LED Lantern:

High Exploration, good Battery Life from the LED Lantern, and good mobility to top it all off. Low Bravery and Range seems like an issue, but a leader should never be confronting the monster in a 1v1 anyway.

Old Rocker + Electric Lighter.

You're unkillable due to insane mobility, just don't stare and don't run if you value your Sanity, this is good if you want to support your team with Helpful and especially strong if you have a Kurt on your team.

Autumnal + Light Bar:

If you want both super high mobility AND Battery Life, look no further than this. Otherwise it's just an okay guard loadout.

Champs Elysees + Heater:

Gives super high Stealth to resist monster powers better, which helps if your team wants to go all lower Stealth investigators. It's also not a problem if you lose sight of the group.

Student + Chinese Lantern:

A very safe loadout for those that don't know what to pick. High Endurance and standard Range makes you ok at defending your group.

Difficulty Level: 5/10: A little hard like Rinko due to Delicious, but since you can run fast and forever you don't really have to know the game much to play him well, just RUN.

Meta Rating: S- Tier

Solo Strength: 8/10: Your positive trait and negative trait are both useless, but your stats are strong, so he's not bad at all.

"I should've brought my hair comb."
-Chuck

Stats:

Speed: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (118%)

Bravery: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Exploration: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (88%)

Flashlight: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (145% Battery Duration, 121% Range)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

Traits:

Lone Wolf: When further away than 15m from other investigators your Exploration and Bravery are both increased by 25%.

Carefree: Your Stealth is decreased by 15% when closer than 10m to other Investigators

Outfits:



Woodcutter: +1 Endurance, -1 Flashlight:

Less Range for more Endurance. It's a fair tradeoff, more or less. It has the same effectiveness as the default outfit, so use at your own preference.



Aged: +1 Exploration, -1 Endurance:

It's a flat out downgrade in terms of survivability, but average Exploration means you might actually find tapes as a split, which is what this outfit is great for.



Autumnal: +1 Stealth, -1 Bravery:

Another outfit that is a flat out downgrade for survivability, but the increased Stealth means you won't need the Bravery as much due to not encountering the monster as often.



Cadet: +1 Bravery, -1 Stealth:

This makes your Stealth even more terrible, which is horrible for a Split. But the even higher Bravery means you can handle fighting the creature more, just hope that the creature doesn't use their power on you as that will be the end of you if they do.

Primary Role: Split

Secondary Role(s): Caboose

About Chuck: A very weird split with lower Stealth and Exploration, which is something a Split shouldn't have. However, his traits are fantastic for splitting. No neg trait and increased Exploration and Bravery make him the sole best investigator for fighting the monster while alone.

This ends up making Chuck a hard to use split as you will encounter the monster more often, making him hard for newbies, and ok for intermediate and up players. And if all else fails, slap a Spotlight on him and caboose. He might have no Stealth, but at least he'll be able to defend the team alright.

About Chuck's stats and traits: High Flashlight and high Endurance make Chuck a very high survivability investigator. Pair that with Lone Wolf and you've got a strong split. However, he does have his downfalls. His Stealth is not good, which means the monster will find you more and one good Shutdown or Mourn might be all it takes to end you, so split with Chuck with caution.

Low Exploration would be an issue if Low Wolf didn't exist, but it does so it's only a hinderence in a group. Chuck's neg trait is a very bad one though as it forces Chuck into the split role most of the time. -15% Less Stealth means he gets seen from ridiculous ranges and is super weak to monster powers, so if you plan on playing a caboose Chuck, make sure to have a more discreet guard to cover your back.

Recommended Builds:

Leather Jacket + Spotlight: His greatest Caboose build. Excellent Range, excellent mobility, but just beware that you will be a tracking beacon to the monster.

Woodcutter + Toy Flashlight: A weird split caboose. The Toy Flashlight doesn't hurt your Endurance too much, so you should be able to outrun the creature while alone, while still having high Range and good Exploration, which is something useful for Chuck.

Autumnal + Heater: The only build Chuck can use which gives him ok Stealth. 6.5/10 isn't actually all that bad, and Lone Wolf should cover the lower Bravery.

Aged + Traffic Wand: The Traffic Wand gives great mobility, and has almost average Range with Chuck's high Battery Management, all while not reducing Exploration, giving you a decent map clear ability.

Cadet + Light Bar: The distraction build for those that want the monster on them 24/7. Even alone you will have super duper low Stealth, but with super high Bravery, Speed and Endurance, you just might be invinicible if you run back checks enough.

Difficulty Level: 8/10: The hardest split in the game, even when played well he's hard to master, and playing him in a group makes him a gimped caboose.

Meta Rating: B- Tier

Solo Strength: 9.5/10: Much like Anna, he's ridiculously strong in solo. He can run, he doesn't go insane, and the increased Exploration in solo makes your 4 Exploration nothing to worry about. You have no neg trait either.

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
-Hannah

Stats:

Speed: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (121%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Bravery: 6/10 (High) (+1) (115%)

Exploration: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (85%)

Stealth: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3) (64%)

Vitality: 5/10 (Standard) (100%)

Flashlight: 5/10 (Standard) (100% Battery Life, 100% Range)

Stat total: 35/70 (Below Average)

Traits:

Agile: You walk backwards 30% faster.

Deafness: Your hearing range is permanently decreased by 40%.

Outfits:



Amber: +1 Endurance, -1 Flashlight:

Less Range means less of an ability to protect your team, but even higher mobility makes you even quicker. This makes you a great guard, but a poor caboose.



Tennis Shorts: +1 Flashlight, -1 Exploration

If your Exploration was bad before, it's nothing compared to what it is with this outfit. The Battery Management helps you protect your team and caboose the monster, but it will be the only thing you can do as you have the worst tape finding ability in the game.



Autumnal: +1 Bravery, -1 Endurance:

Increases how long you can stall the monster for, which is excellent for a midrange caboose. The mobility loss isn't an issue as Hannah's mobility will still be higher than average even with this outfit.



Topaz: +1 Exploration, -1 Flashlight:

You again lose out on your ability to defend your team as well, but the increased Exploration means you might actually be able to find tapes and defend yourself. Hannah's tapefinding ability will still be bad even with this, but it's no where near as gimped as it used to be.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): Caboose

About Hannah: Hannah has been described as being a "fast character with no sense of direction". She's quick, not so quiet, and all kinds of trouble if the person playing her is good at what they do. Most of the time Hannah is usually only killed from surprise grabs around corners or when her power vunerability is exploited, as she is nearly unkillable in a straight up fight with the monster.

About Hannah's stats and traits: Hannah is all about Speed. Her extremely high Speed and Bravery stat means she can easily flee from the creature without getting grabbed and without suffering too much Sanity loss.

However, the lowest Stealth in the game and terrible Exploration with Deafness means she is entirely dependant on her team to get tapes. Even with Topaz she won't be able to find clues without help (Help being Vincent). Her Stealth weakness is crippling as well as monster powers hit her harder than any other investigator in the game besides maybe Cadet Chuck.

If you want to play Hannah, remember, you're great at defending your team due to Agile and high Speed, but horrible at anything BUT that.

Recommended builds:

Sportswear + Electric Lighter: A standard guard build. You can run fast and forever, and since the Lighter gives some ok Stealth you aren't as weak to monster powers as you used to be.

Amber + Light Bar: Excellent mobility and ok Battery Life from the Lightbar which helps your terrible Battery Management. Just beware the even lower Stealth.

Tennis Shorts + RailRoad Lantern: Still very high mobility and amazing Range, this build makes Hannah amazing at defending her team.

Autumnal + Chinese Lantern: Almost average Endurance and 7 Bravery, making Hannah an excellent midrange caboose.

Topaz + LED Lantern: Gives Hannah great Exploration, which significantly helps her ability to find tapes while also improving her Stealth and equalling her poor Battery Management with good Battery life.

Difficulty Level: 1/10: She's super easy to learn because she walks and runs so darn fast. Just don't expect to find tapes at all with her.

Meta Rating: A+ Tier

Solo Strength: 6/10: She's okayish because in Solo your Exploration is much higher, but you'd best be using a higher Exploration flashlight to help you out.

-Tanking Grabs: Always remember how many grabs your fellow investigators have taken, if the creature is cornering your weak friend, run to the creature if you feel like your friend can't escape, the creature will more so go for your friend and you want to make sure he grabs you and not your friend. When you get grabbed by him, your friend should stun and save you, forcing him to teleport away, this saves your friend an additional grab for later, and is always worth it if your friend is on their last grab.

-Traps: Both Subject 23's Scarecrows and Resulka's Energy Traps can be disarmed. This is done by turning off your flashlight, walking up to the trap in question, and then pressing the prompt which will disable the trap with no side effects.

-Running: Make sure you know when to run, as each time you do so your maximum Sanity decreases, the two best times to run are when the monster is chasing you, or if you're just gabbed the 8th tape since at that point you want to finish the game as fast as possible since the monster is significantly more powerful in the Finale where it can see you from anywhere on the map, so running to the Finale is not a bad decision, otherwise try not to run too much.

You can run for as much as you like as Anna as her maximum Sanity does not decrease when she runs due to her positive trait, Athlete. But you still lose Stealth while you're running, so keep that in mind.

As of a recent update, running without the monster near you is even more discouraged as the more you run, the slower your run speed is and the lower your maximum stamina is. This will regenerate back over time, but if the monster attacks you while you're trying to get a breather it may as well be a free grab.

-Flashlight on or off?: It's usually best to keep your flashlight on. While your flashlight is off the monster cannot get an outline on you and your Battery Life doesn't drain but you move 15% slower than normal and you need to have sharp eyes to see much in the darkness, unless you have high Stealth to see in the dark.

It's not recommended to turn your light off in a group as it'll just slow everyone down, but if you're alone it may save your life since the monster will have a significantly more difficult time finding you with your light off. But keeping your light off in a group for Stealth purposes is generally useless.

-Saving your lightsticks: Saving your lightsticks for when the monster attacks is a good idea. This is especially true if you're alone or have low Speed or Endurance as it may make the difference between getting grabbed or not. Stunning the monster and turning around to run while dropping a lightstick at your feet is a very strong way to escape the monster.

You can hold Q to drop a lightstick at your feet if you have one you can use.

-Teamwork: This is the most important tip in the game. Teamwork is absolutely key to success and most of the time good teamwork can get you out of any situation as long as you and your team are coordinating well and know what to do. Calling out via your microphone is extremely valuable and it's heavily encouraged to talk while playing.

Calling out simple things like:

"I have a compass, tape over here!"

"The creature is behind us!"

"I can hear the tape!"

"Batteries here!"

"Anyone need a medkit?"

Can be extremely valuable and aid in your survival.

Even just using contextual chat (C) will help a lot. Contextual chat, when used, will alert the investigators to whatever you're doing. For example, if you were using a medkit and pressed the C button, your investigator would call out: "Cover me, using a medkit!" So if you don't have a microphone, then contextual chat is a good alternative.

-Knowing when to caboose the monster: Caboosing the monster is high risk and a high reward. If you have a long enough ranged light staring at the creature to slow it down is a viable strategy. Make sure not to do it too much though since the monster will start gaining resistance to the speed loss from your flashlight if you stare at it too much, and if you lose your Sanity from staring too much you will be stunned, which is a free grab for the creature unless it just got banished as you went insane, so make sure to not caboose for too long!

Be wary of paranoia when splitting us into smaller groups, as Paranoia will punish you with less Exploration and Stealth for doing so unless you have high Stealth.

While playing as the investigators, you should be made aware of several strategies you can use to make it harder for the monster to take you all down at once. Keep in mind that if the game doesn't start as a 4vs1 then the creature will be nerfed in certain aspects and the remaining investigators will be buffed in others, here's what you need to know when the game doesn't start as a 4vs1

4vs1: Creature has standard stats, investigators have no additional Exploration bonus. There are 8 sigils to break in the Finale.

3vs1: Creature has somewhat decreased Skill Usage and slighty decreased Light Resistance, investigators have a small Exploration bonus. There are 6 sigils to break in the Finale.

2vs1: Creature has moderately decreased Skill Usage and Light Resistance, investigators have a moderate Exploration bonus. There are 4 sigils to break in the Finale.

1vs1: Creature has tremendously reduced Skill Usage, Light Resistance, and Perception, and Speed. The one investigator has massively increased Exploration and can resist 3 grabs on their own. (Phileas can take 4 and Vincent can take 2.) There are only 2 sigils to break in the Finale.

As you can see, the creature gets considerably weaker the less investigators the game starts with. Note that these bonuses DO NOT apply if an investigator leaves the game after it starts, so please don't leave, it makes the game exceptionally more difficult, especially when the game was originally a 4vs1. Even as a ghost you can still be really helpful.

The bonus provided do not mean you are invincible either, you should still fear the creature the same in a 2vs1 game as much as in a 4vs1 game, if not more due to the reduced amount of grabs your team has as a whole before you all die. Now that you know the differences between a 4vs1 and a 2vs1 we'll look at team builds you can play as to help you win. Note that most of these usually only work in a 4vs1 game.

(4vs1) 4 stack: The most commonly used strategy. A group of 4 investigators is the hardest for the creature to take down in a showdown, but also has the worst clearing time of any team composition. This is best for new players as it's easy to do and has the smallest risk.

(4vs1) 2/2 split: The strongest team composition in the game, but also the one that requires each team member to know what they're doing. A 2/2 split is less risky than a 3/1 split, but requires more shared effort among all of the investigators. This is recommended for experienced players and requires AT LEAST 2 Leaders which are both not in the same group. The other 2 investigators should be guards or cabooses to protect their leader.

(4vs1) 3/1 split: 3 man team goes together, split goes alone. This team composition requires a bit more effort on part of the lone investigator, and is more risky, but is easier to pull off then a 2/2 split and if the lone investigator is good at splitting tends to be about as good as a 2/2 split. This is best used when you have 3 slightly less experienced investigators and 1 very experienced investigator. The 3 man team should have a leader, and one or two guards and maybe a caboose to hold the back.

The split just needs to have good game sense to split effectively, so make sure you know someone is good at the game before asking them to split from the group.

(3vs1) 2/1 split: This is the only other team composition where I can recommend two groups of investigators, any other team composition where you do this is extremely risky and not recommended. In general the 2/1 split is riskier than any other strategy in the game, but can be pulled off. The 2 split should have a guard and a leader, and the split again should just have good game sense. In general I'd just recommend a 3 stack in a 3vs1, but this is a viable strategy if you and your team know what you're doing.

(3vs1) 3 stack: In general a 3 stack is the best idea in a 3vs1, just make sure to have one leader, one guard, and usually a caboose. It's recommended you put the most injured person in the middle of the group so he doesn't get killed quickly.

(2vs1) 2 stack: In a 2vs1 you really don't a need a leader simply because since your base Exploration is roughly increased by a factor of ~1.5 you really only need two guys with standard Exploration to make it through the game. In general a 2 stack is the hardest in the game to pull off simply because you only have yourself and another person, and you both better be good at the game since it's very difficult to survive with even just 1 inexperienced investigator.

The following are videos on investigator gameplay if you wanted a taste of that. Keep in mind that all players in each video are experienced and have around 100+ hours in the game. This section will be added on to, so be sure to check the update log to see if addition walkthroughs were added.
Norwood, 2vAI, nightmare difficulty.


St. Johns Hospital, 2vAI, nightmare difficulty.
Abbey of the Saviour, 4vsAI, nightmare difficulty

S tier investigators are those deemed top picks by most high level players and are used frequently at the highest level of play. These characters might not necessarily be the best in the hands of a newer player, but they are considered the best investigators in the hands of a skilled player.

1. Jin



Jin is widely considered to be the best guard/caboose in the game. His positive trait is extremely powerful and effectively neuters Olkoth, Astaroth, Darcy, Rusulka, Okiku, and Morgul. He also has excellent Flashlight and Endurance, allowing him to either bait stuns with a light bar, or snipe from afar with a Spotlight.

For these reasons, Jin is considered extremely powerful in the hands of a professional player and his raw duel strength cannot be underestimated. (However he does lose a lot of viability in the hands of a newer player.)

2. Iker



Iker is another investigator that enjoys a high pickrate, and this is due to the high amount of utility he has. Along with a great stat spread, Iker enjoys a positive trait that can remove Sanity degration as a feature from the game fom himself, and a negative trait that is easily played around.

This balanced utility gives Iker a usage in virtually all playstyles and situations, making Iker a go-to pick when you need survivability and map clear time, and sometimes even Range if required.

3. Jean Luc



Jean Luc was the original king of the meta, but after several changes, he's dropped down a little bit, however he is still one of the best investigator choices in the game, except in certain circumstances.

His high mobility paired with the best support trait in the game gives Jean Luc great usage in almost all situations. However, in circumstances where the monster has a high Horror stat Jean Luc does struggle a bit, and Delicious can increase the chances of the monster winning the game, but neverthless, Jean Luc is still useful in 90% of situations and is rarely a detriment to the team.

A tier investigators are investigators that picked either as slightly weaker alternatives to S tier characters or for different niches. All A tier characters excel well if played correctly even if some of them have some questionable weaknesses.

4. Hannah



Although she suffers from major Stealth and Exploration weaknesses, Hannah is still useful in most circumstances. Her extremely high Speed and Agile give her dueling power better than any other investigator in the game......assuming the monster doesn't use any powers on you.

Although Hannah might be great at dueling and protecting her team, her low Stealth cripples her if the monster uses any powers on her. However, this weakness is easily offset by bringing Jin in, which is why the Stealth doesn't make Hannah get dumped into a lower tier.

5. Anna



With Paranoia nerfed and increased Endurance, Anna has risen back through the ranks after previously being C tier. Her Athlete trait makes her amazing in the late game, and with high Exploration, Endurance, and no Speed penalty while alone, Anna just might be the most powerful maprusher/split in the game.

Be wary however that Suspicious coupled with a grab penalty can make Anna a slug, which is why she isn't S tier material unlike what she used to be.

6. Anne Marie



An underrated and underestimated caboose with high utility after the stun speed changes, Anne Marie is the highest ranked investigator with flat out lower than average mobility. Her amazing Bravery coupled with virtually unlimited Battery Life makes Anne Marie a caboose to be reckoned with.

Although her Endurance can prove to be a liability, and Jin can beat her out in some circumstances, Anne Marie is still a very solid investigator choice that can be very powerful if played correctly and with the right setup.

7. Phileas



A very strong tank and average caboose, Phileas has earned his spot in A tier for his crazy high survivability. 4 grabs paired with high Endurance makes Phileas a tough target to take out.

However, his negative trait is very detrimental to some characters, and can make the difference between another investigator getting grabbed, but if Phileas is doing his job correctly and tanking grabs, he is something to be feared by the monster.

8. Denali



Although her low Endurance and low Bravery make her a questionable choice in statistics, the trait game is really where Denali shines. With her you may well find the medkit which may be life or death for you or another investigator, and painkillers restore her low Sanity to max capacity, which is useful in a pinch, and if she gets a medkit, the fun begins.

However, in circumstances where items are no where to be found, Denali may as well be a gimped Yumi, which is why she isn't placed higher.

B tier investigators are very middle of the road. They have strengths and weaknesses that essentially counter each other out. They aren't as strong as the A tier or S tier investigators, but aren't as weak as the C tier investigators. Usually B tier investigators are good at one niche, and they should be used as such.

9. Maria



A slightly above average guard, Maria is an investigator that is a good pick in some circumstances. Her high Vitality makes her very newb friendly, and her trait is useful in all stages of the game, especially the later game.

However, Maria is forced to higher Range flashlights or a certain skin as her Range is extremely poor, and she cannot make usage of her high Exploration unless she is split from the group, and splitting as Maria is risky business.

10. Yumi



Surprisingly low on the tier list for her high pickrate. Reason being is that she doesn't really bring much to the team other than having very high mobility. She can lead, but is forced into a specific build to do so, her low Range means she has issues caboosing, and she cannot loud split like Hannah can due to her negative trait.

However, Yumi has very high survivability as she's better at finding tapes and resisting monster powers than Hannah is, and if you're playing with new players she might just work out for you, even if she has little utility in high level play.

11. Shiara



After the buff she's back up into B tier. Low Battery Management makes her worse than Iker, but a positive trait that sometimes helps noobs and usually high Exploration help pull her weight. Just beware that her stun range is garbage and you will likely need a caboose to help you out in all circumstances besides splitting.

12. Kurt



A very average character, and his position reflects this. He's smack dab in the middle of B tier, he's not awful, and not amazing either. He's good in some situations, and bad in others. If you have no clue what you want to do, I can recommend him as his trait is usual for lower Bravery characters and his negative trait is easy to avoid. For those that want to be the master of none, Kurt is your man.

13. Nikolai



A tank with some decent utility. He gets ridiculously strong as he gets grabbed, and high Vitality like Maria the Speed penalty for getting grabbed is almost nullified. He's especially useful in high ranked games as monster players don't want to grab him as they know how potent he gets when grabbed.

However Nikolai walks a very fine line. Getting grabbed too much may lead to him being black and white way too early on and dying quickly, where as getting grabbed to little makes him a gimped Anne Marie with less Speed and Stealth, so the person playing Nikolai has to be specially good at resource management to utilize him to his full potential, which is why he's here in B tier.

14. Chuck



A very weird investigator. His stats point to him staying in the group and guarding them from the monster with his high Range, but his traits point to him being a split. This makes Chuck a very weird caboose/split. If he plays as a caboose, he's faster than Jin but way way weaker to monster powers, and if he plays as a split he has a ton of extra stat buffs and no negative trait, but still has low Stealth and will have to fight the monster a lot.

If you think you can handle 1v1ing the monster constantly as Chuck, he just might be ok, but otherwise, Jin is 99% of the time a flat out better caboose. (Except in cases where Chuck gets teleported by the monster away from the group, in which case he would in theory be a better pick than Jin for that one odd senerio.)

C tier investigators are the weaker investigators in the game. They aren't as weak as the I tier investigators, but their niches aren't very useful unlike the B tier investigators.

15. Corey



Once a great investigator, now abandoned. His bad Bravery AND Endurance can't be nullified with items unlike Denali as he actually loses item effectiveness thanks to his negative trait, and low Stealth means monster powers hurt him a lot too.

His positive trait is powerful, but most people forget to spam pick up batteries with him these days and Anne Marie can kind of simulate it as she gives everyone else 25% more Battery Life because she the batteries she would've picked as another investigator go to someone else instead. This makes Corey hopelessly outclassed in virtually all circumstances.

I tier is a very eccentric tier. The I stands for "inconclusive." These investigators vary so much on viability depending on player skill or specific circumstances that they all get specific tier just for them. Generally speaking I tier investigators are A or even S tier if played perfectly, but C or D tier if played poorly, which is why they're give a special tier. The higher rated an investigator is on this, the more consistant they are.

16. Vincent



The glass cannon of White Noise 2. He has the highest possible map clear time in the game, but the absolute worst survivability. If the person playing him plays perfectly, he has no negative and can speed lead everyone else through the map.

However, if it's a new player, he'll likely die before the second tape is found because he's so weak and his team isn't protecting him. But, good Vincent players the most common of the I tier investigators and he's definitely powerful if he's played well.

17. Sarah



The most stealthy split in the game, and the most inconsistant. Sometimes the monster never sees Sarah and she gets 4 tapes for free while the group gets the other 4, and sometimes she gets found and killed immediately as her duel strength is close to that of Vincent.

A good Sarah can definitely be scary for the monster as she just never gets found, but sometimes you just get unlucky and the game decides the monster will find her first and kill her first because her dueling power is just so bad, grouped or split.

18. Rinko



The investigator of the most weird viability in a group of investigators with weird viability. Rinko is an investigator of extremes. If the person playing Rinko is good, she's basically an unstoppable force. High Speed, Bravery, and a trait that allows her to find tapes easier along with a useless negative trait.

But...as is usually the case..Rinko can also be massive sandbag weighing down on the team. If the person playing her is a new player, you can bet she's going to be tunneled to death first by the monster, and then her horrible horrible negative trait comes into play that will most definitely make the rest of the game not enjoyable for any investigator.

If you can play Rinko to a level of perfection, she's at a power the likes of which would be S tier material, but if you're a new player, stay away from her as she's the worst of the worst in the hands of a new player.

Refilling your Battery Power: There are three ways in the game to do this the first of which is by picking up batteries:



A battery.

Each battery will refill 50% of your battery power and takes time to pick up, Iker's Clumsy and Maria's Sleight of Hand will alter the time it takes to pick up a battery. 30 batteries will always spawn on the map at the start of the game.

Scientist is the second way, this is a trait that only Anne Marie has that refills her battery life by 50% when a clue is found close to her. Check out Anne Marie's section if you haven't already to get more information on this.

Handy is the third way, this is a trait that only Corey has that refills everyone else's battery life by 30% when he picks up a battery within 15m of them. Check out Corey's section for more information on this.

Battery Power: Your batter power will drain over the course of time. The normal amount of battery life with standard in everything is 6 minutes. When your battery life hits 0% your flashlight DOES NOT shut off. It is only significantly harder to see.

Stunning Range: Each flashlight has a Range value, and this changes how far away your flashlight lights, it also increases or decreases how far away the monster has to be before it'll be stunned by you. The stun Range of a flashlight is approximately 66% of its actual Range. Also, when your Battery Life is at 0%, your Range will only be at 70% it's maximum value. This means that at 0% Battery power remaining, your effective stun and viewing Range is decreased by 30%, so keep that in mind.

Flashlight off: While your flashlight is off your battery power will not drain and the monster can only locate you via eyesight, they will not get an outline on you. However, it is significantly harder to see unless you have only one grab left before being devoured and you lose 15% of your movement speed.

This also means if your flashlight has been forcefully disabled for whatever reason you will be crippled with reduced speed and have no ability to defend yourself from the creature. Turning off your flashlight is recommended only if you're alone since it makes you significantly harder to track.

Remember, after stunning the creature with your flashlight continued exposure to light WILL ONLY SLOW THE CREATURE, IT WILL NOT STOP IT. If you plan on stalling the monster make sure you can run away afterwards as no matter what monster it is they CAN afford to grab you if you stare at them after you stun them.

On a sidenote, you can customize the look of your flashlight by pressing the CTRL key while hovering your mouse over the flashlight you want to use. These paintjobs are purely cosmetic, but look really cool, they are not shown here since they do not change gameplay stats, or anything else other than asthetics.

Range: The range that you can see with the flashlight and the range that you can stun the monster at. Beware that these are seperate ranges, and although you may see far, the range that the monster can be stunned at is just a bit closer. This stat is modified by the base Flashlight of your investigator. This is an extremely valuable stat for caboosing the monster, so the higher Range you have, the better. Each point changes your stun and slow range by 7%.

Battery Life: Changes how long the battery life lasts. When you have standard in this stat you have 6 minutes of time before you run out of power completely. Note that this stat has more of an impact on a flashlight's overall battery life duration compared to the Flashlight stat on the investigators themselves. Each point changes your total Battery Life by 15%.

Spread: The width of your flashlight beam. This changes both how much you can see on your screen with your flashlight and how directly you have to be looking at the monster to stun it. At the highest possible Spread you will stun the creature around corners, and at Very Low you have to be staring directly at him. It is unknown how much % each point changes.

Speed: Modifies the base speed stat of your investigator by 4% per level. This is more useful in traversing the map then escaping the creature, although having high speed still helps.

Endurance: Modifies the base stamina and stamina recovery rate of your Investigator. This is more useful for escaping the monster than map traversal. Each level changes your base run time and stamina recovery by 18%.

Stealth: See the Stealth section for more information. Too complex to cover here.

Exploration: Modifies the base Exploration of your investigator. This means the higher the number, the faster your Lightsticks and Compass recharge, and the bigger the range of which you can hear tapes from. Each Exploration point changes your tape hearing range and ability cooldown by 15%.

Ratings:

Unofficial terms used to describe how easy it is to handle the flashlight, etc. They are not in the game and do not change stats or anything. All ratings are out of 10.

Visibility: How easy it is to see with the flashlight.

Difficulty: How easy it is to use the flashlight.

Meta Rating: How strong the flashlight is in general, taking into account several factors such as light visibility, stats, and investigator synergy.

The Basic Flashlight

"The one defining quality about this thing is that it's nothing special."
-White Knight

Stats:

Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

About the Basic Flashlight: Very average light with no defining qualities. High Battery Life and visibility are the only things it brings to the table, which makes it a dependable if lackluster flashlight.

It has usage on Lower Flashlight characters like Maria or Shiara, but otherwise there are better options out there.

Primary Role: Symmetry

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 8/10: Very good. High Battery Management means you have higher Range and visibility for longer. Even at lower battery life you can still see fairly well, which is what this flashlight is good at.

Difficulty level: 0/10: Very easy and the first flashlight unlocked in the game.

The Spotlight

"Does anyone see a battery?"
-RNG

Stats:

Range: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (+21%)

Spread: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (>>100%)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-9%)

Battery Life: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (-30%)

Exploration: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+7.5%)

Stealth: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-6%)

Stat total: 37.5/70 (High)

About the Spotlight: Very standard caboose class flashlight. High Range, high Spread, low mobility. It does suck on batteries a bit with 3/10 Battery Life, making it recommended on higher Flashlight characters like Jin.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 6.5/10: The poorest for a caboose class flashlight. At >50% Battery Life it's visibility is good, but <50% your visibility gets so poor you'll stun the creature before you see it.

Difficulty Level: 5/10: It needs some experience on the part of the player to be used effectively as putting it on a low Battery Management character makes it one of the worst flashlights in the game. Use it with a plan.

The Periscope Flashlight

"Not even I can see with this thing."
-Podrick, Spocky Ghoost of Bread

Stats:

Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Spread: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (<<100%)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+9%)

Battery Life: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (+30%)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+12%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 36.5/70 (Very slightly above average)

About the Periscope Flashlight: An odd flashlight. It has high Endurance and Battery Life combined with increased Stealth for 3/10 Spread. This means you'll sacrifice visibility for stats. If handled well it's a very powerful flashlight, but it bobs down when you run and has the worst visibility in the game at <50% Battery Life, making it difficult to use effectively.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): N/A

Visibility: 2/10: Very difficult. It has a very tight Spread even at 100% Battery Life which gives you a sort of tunnel vision, and at <50% Battery Life it gets red tinted and therefore incredibly difficult to see with.

Difficulty: 8/10: Very hard to use. Bobbing down when you run means you may bump into things, and that can get you killed.

The Rusty Flashlight

Hope you had your tetanus shot.
- Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Spread: 6/10 (High) (+1) (>100%)

Speed: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+2%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-15%)

Stealth: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-6%)

Exploration: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+7.5%)

Stat total: 35.5/70 (Very slightly below average)

About the Rusty Flashlight: A leader flashlight which gives survivability as well with higher Speed. This makes it an excellent pick for leaders that want to be able to defend themself well enough.

It does have lower Battery Life and Stealth, so you will have trouble splitting from the group and will need batteries more, but it's still a worthy tradeoff for Speed and Exploration.

Primary Role: Leader

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 7/10: Doesn't bob down much when you run and you can see where you're going at high and low power. It's not hard to see with.

Difficulty: 2/10: Less Battery Life means you can't just go and use it on Shiara, but it's still an excellent choice in any circumstances and something you can almost never go wrong with.

The Professional Flashlight

"It might be a dinnerplate, but.....it's MY dinnerplate."
-RNG

Stats:

Range: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (+21%)

Spread: 6/10 (High) (+1) (>100%)

Speed: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-2%)

Endurance: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-9%)

Exploration: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+7.5%)

Battery Life: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (+30%)

Stealth: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-6%)

Stat total: 40/70 (Very High)

About the Professional Light: A Spotlight with less Speed and a lot more Battery Life and visibility. It's great on high mobility investigators like Yumi or Maria who need the added Battery Life, but anyone with less than above average mobility will have issues running from the monster with it.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 10/10: Extremely clear at all levels of Battery Life remaining, and it has no imperfections in the light. It's the best flashlight for visibility in the game.

Difficulty level: 8.5/10: Truly for only those that know what they're doing. Low mobility means you need to plan your investigator around it. Don't use this flashlight if you aren't confident.

The Light Bar

"A better version of the Toy Torch! Right guys? Guys?"
-Camaraderie

Stats:

Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (-14%)

Spread: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (>>>100%)

Speed: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+4%)

Endurance: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+9%)

Battery Life: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (+30%)

Exploration: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-7.5%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-12%)

Stat total: 38/70 (High)

About the Light Bar: The first guard flashlight you unlock and a staple among many guard builds due to high mobility and Battery Life. This makes it great on guards that don't have great Flashlight themselves and makes the Lightbar very difficult to play in the wrong way.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 8/10: Very clear even at low Battery, and you can see where you're running with perfect clarity. High Battery Life helps too.

Difficulty Level: 1/10: An excellent choice in most situations like the Rusty Flashlight, as its weaknesses aren't super noticable to amount to much. Putting it on any investigator usually works.

The Camping Lantern

"If it's so heavy, why don't we hit it over the monster's head?"
-NallyNally!

Stats:

Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (-14%)

Spread: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (>>>100%)

Speed: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-4%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (+45%)

Exploration: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+22.5%)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+12%)

Stat total: 40.5/70 (Highest in the game)

About the Camping Lantern: It has only two crippling weaknesses of both low range and Speed, which really hurts your survivability. However, on high mobility investigators the Battery Life, Stealth, and Exploration really really help, so sticking it on investigators like Yumi or Hannah is recommended.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): Leader

Visibility: 8/10: Identical to the Lightbar, the only difference is the different coloured light. High Battery Life means you keep it at high power for longer too.

Difficulty: 10/10: Yep, the hardest in the game. If you don't pick specific high Speed investigators you will die using this light, make no mistake.

The Traffic Wand

"Once used to direct vehicles, now to fend off the supernatural."
-YT~KevinsGaming22

Stats:

Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (-14%)

Spread: 6/10 (High) (+1) (>100%)

Speed: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+2%)

Endurance: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+9%)

Battery Life: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

About the Traffic Wand: The most generalist guard flashlight in the game due to very small weaknesses. It only loses -2 Range, with no Exploration or Stealth penalty like other guard flashlights, meaning even some leaders or splits can use it too.

If you have no idea of what flashlight to use, this flashlight will work in any situation.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 7/10: The red light isn't as clear as the Light Bar, but it's still okay if you can keep your power >50%.

Difficulty: 1/10: Little drawbacks make it the hardest guard flashlight to use improperly, even harder than the Light Bar.

The Jack o' Lantern

"Why does this require batteries?"
-RNG

Stats:

Range: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3) (-21%)

Spread: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (>>100%)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Stealth: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+18%)

Exploration: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Stat total: 37.5/70 (High)

About the Jack o' Lantern: It's varient on the Camping Lantern with more Speed and less Range and Battery Life. It also doesn't light around you. However, the Stealth it gives is super high, making it fantastic for splits. The boosted Exploration is excellent as well.

If you need a flashlight with great Exploration AND Stealth, look no further than this.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role: Leader

Visibility: 0/10: The worst in the game. The light is a pumpkin face, which means parts of the middle of your vision aren't lighted up, and -3 Range makes the distance that you see in front of you is smaller too, and at less than <25% power it gets so dim you may as well have your light off.

Difficulty Level: 8/10: It's hard to handle due to the terrible light. This isn't a good choice for beginners because the terrible visibility will make you bump into things, which can get you killed, especially for newbies who have trouble seeing things.

The Reading Lamp

"I can't handle this thing!"
-Hachiro

Stats:

Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-7%)

Spread: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Speed: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+4%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Stealth: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+6%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 35.5/70 (Very slightly below average)

About the Reading Lamp: A varient on the Periscope that has Speed instead of Endurance, which is mostly more useful. It has less Battery Life but more general visibility as well, and increased Stealth.

It's a great Split or Guard flashlight if you can handle it, but the bobbed down light when you run means you need to get used to it first.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): Split

Visibility: 4/10: It bobs down when you run, making it very hard to handle, but the light itself isn't super duper tight like the Periscope and you can still see alright at low power, making it better than the Periscope in that respect.

Difficulty: 7/10: The Speed can carry you through things if you can run blind, but it takes a while to get used to running blind, so you won't be able to pick it up and immediately use it well.

The Toy Flashlight

"For those with a young heart."
-RNG

Stats:

Range: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+7%)

Spread: 6/10 (High) (+1) (>100%)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-9%)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Exploration: 6/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+7.5%)

Stat total: 37.5/70 (High)

About the Toy Flashlight: A generalist caboose flashlight much like the Traffic Wand as it only suffers from a -1 Endurance penalty. This makes it an okay choice for Maria, Chuck, and Jin as they need the Exploration and Range to go with it.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 8/10: The better than average Range and Spread mean it isn't hard to see with, and you don't have bad Battery Management like the Spotlight either. The light is a little hard to get used to at first, but it doesn't take long to get a feel for.

Difficulty: 3/10: Much like the Traffic Wand it has very small weaknesses that are easily workable, it's not difficult to use in the hands of a new player.

The Chinese Lantern

"Try not to break it when your legs give out."
-Average-medic

Stats:

Range: 5/10 (Standard)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+9%)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 35.5/70 (Very slightly below average)

About the Chinese Lantern: A rare Symmetry class flashlight much like the Basic Flashlight. It has no downsides but extends your Endurance slightly. This makes it excellent on low Endurance characters like Vincent or Anne Marie.

This makes the Chinese Lantern a very rough and tumble flashlight. You can't go wrong with it.

Primary Role: Symmetry

Secondary Role(s):

Visibility: 7/10: Has a Spread like the Light Bar, giving it excellent visibility.

Difficulty: 0/10: Again like the Basic Flashlight, you have no gimmick or weakness, which means that it's super easy to use.

The Toy Torch

"Sure looks professional. You bought that at the Dollar Tree, didn't you?"
-RNG

Stats:

Range: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3) (-21%)

Spread: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (>>100%)

Speed: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+6%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+18%)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Exploration: 3.5/10 (Lower) (-1.5) (-22.5%)

Stat total: 35/70 (Below Average)

About the Toy Torch: Very powerful guarding tool as it gives extreme mobility. However, it has the lowest Exploration in the game, so using it without a strong leader will be difficult as this flashlight severely hinders your ability to find tapes yourself.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): N/A

Visibility: 6.3/10: -3 Range makes it difficult to see far with. You can see clearly for whatever is directly in front of you, but anything else you will have trouble with.

Difficulty: 4/10: It's not difficult to use, but the garbage Exploration means that it isn't super easy either.

The Cinema Spotlight

"For big strong men!"
-White Knight

Stats:

Range: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (+21%)

Spread: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (>>>100%)

Speed: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-2%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3) (-45%)

Exploration: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+22.5%)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-12%)

Stat total: 38/70 (High)

About the Cinema Spotlight: Very eccentric flashlight. It has the highest flashlight stats in the game, giving 8 Spread and Range, along with 8 Exploration. However, it has a tiny 2/10 Battery Life which makes you extremely battery dependant.

Less Stealth and Speed also make this a bit more risky than most caboose flashlight picks, use with caution.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): Leader

Visibility: 8/10: It would be 10/10 if it's Battery Life wasn't the lowest in the game. At the very least even at low power the light is still easy to see with, so you shouldn't have visibility problems.

Difficulty Level: 7/10: Low Speed and Battery Life means it requires specilized investigators to use it properly an effectively, so I wouldn't recommend this if you don't have a lot of experience.

The Smartphone

"Smile, your death will be on camera."
-Average Medic

Stats:

Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-7%)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-6%)

Exploration: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+22.5%)

Stat total: 35/70 (Below Average)

About the Smartphone: It gives the highest Exploration without hurting your survivability significantly like the Camping Lantern or Cinema Spotlight. It's Range and Stealth are still lower than normal though, so it does somewhat reduce your ability to defend yourself.

However, average mobility and the highest Exploration rating make this a potent leader flashlight in the right hands.

Primary Role: Leader

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 3/10: It bobs down while you run like the Periscope or Reading Lamp, and it has no boosted Battery unlike them either. At low power you can't see anything with it too.

Difficulty Level: 7/10: Difficult much like the Periscope or Reading Lamp as you will bump into things if you're not careful.

The Electric Lighter

"I wanted a light source, guess this will do."
-Camaraderie

Stats:

Range: 2/10 (Lowest) (-3) (-21%)

Spread: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Speed: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+2%)

Endurance: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+27%)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+12%)

Exploration: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-6%)

Stat total: 33.5/70 (Very Low)

About the Electric Lighter: A guard flashlight that gives Stealth, making it a slight variation of the Light Bar. It also has the highest Endurance rating in the game without reducing Exploration too much.

However, beware that the stun power on this flashlight is the absolute worst in the game. -3 Range and -1 Spread make it super terrible even if its visibility is great.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): Guard

Visibility: 7/10: Surprisingly great visibility, even if the effective stun range of that is actually much more narrow.

Difficulty Level: 4/10: Mobility makes it not too hard, but sometimes the stun range on this gets weird, so using it on Low Battery Management characters is not recommended.

The Heater

"The hottest flashlight out there."
-Average-medic

Stats:

Range: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-7%)

Spread: 6/10 (High) (+1) (>100%)

Speed: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+2%)

Endurance: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-9%)

Battery Life: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-15%)

Stealth: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+18%)

Exploration: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+7.5%)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

About The Heater: A varient of the Rusty Flashlight with a lot more Stealth, but less Range and Endurance. It's a great choice for splits and for removing a low Stealth weakness. It's especially good on Racer Sarah or Chuck as it synergizes very well with their stats.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 6.5/10: Not great, but you'll be able to see where you're going and where you're running, so it shouldn't be too hard.

Difficulty Rating: 3/10: It's hard, but being unlocked at a very late level means you'll likely be experienced enought to use it well.

"Finally! A flashlight that's worth bringing out there."
-RNG

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Range: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+7%)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): Symmetry

About the Metal Flashlight: Excellent caboose flashlight. High Range and standard mobility makes it very strong on any investigator that wants extended Range. Just beware that its visibility is actually poor despite having high Range.

Visibility: 6/10: It gets very transparent at <50%, so you may have issues seeing with it. You'll also stun the monster outside of your viewing Range sometimes too, which is a little funny.

Difficulty: 0/10: Again, like the Basic flashlight or Chinese lantern, it has no real drawback for the +1 Range, making it easy to use.

The Railroad Lantern

Old-Timey, with just a touch of tetanus.
- Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (+114%)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-2%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Exploration: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+7.5%)

Stat total: 37/70 (Above Average)

About the Railroad Lantern: Very average caboose light. 7 Range, less Speed. Nothing else to write home about. It's excellent on Rinko, Hannah, or Denali.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 8/10: It's good although average for a caboose flashlight. Still really great and you should've have problems seeing with it.

Difficulty: 4/10: -1 Speed makes using require some brain cells, but not much. Just don't stick it on a - Speed character and you should be fine.

The LED Spotlight

Perfect for everything except monster hunting!
- Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+7%)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-6%)

Battery Life: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (+30%)

Stealth: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+6%)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 38/70 (High)

About the LED Spotlight: The only high Range and high Stealth flashlight in the game. This makes it excellent for splits that need extra Range like Maria or Anna. The Endurance loss is a problem though, so make sure you couple it with a high Endurance character.

Primary Role: Stealth Split

Secondary Role(s): None.

Visibility: 7/10: Pretty good, and the increased Battery Management means you won't be going below 50% much if at all.

Difficulty: 4/10: Slightly difficult due to the decreased Endurance, but no where near as difficult as the Periscope is.

The handle is pretty small, do you have different sizes?
-Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (-14%)

Spread: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Speed: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+2%)

Endurance: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+12%)

Battery Life: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Stealth: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+12%)

Exploration: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-7.5%)

Stat total: 35/70 (Below Average)

About the Miniamlist Flashlight: A variant on the Electric Lighter. It trades one less Endurance for more Range and Battery Life. This makes it a better flashlight for caboosing and stunning the monster, but worse for running away.

The decreased Endurance is worth the higher Battery Life and Range, so it comes down to your personal preference on if you want to use it over the Electric Lighter.

Primary Role: Guard

Secondary Role(s): Split

Visibility: 5/10: It leaves a little to be desired, but you certainly won't have issues seeing what's in front of you or bump into things while running. It just has visibility issues when at <50% Battery Life.

Difficulty: 4/10: Not hard. It's visibility is clear enough to see and it works with most investigators without difficulty. Just make sure you don't drop below 50%.

The only thing flaming hot in here is ME boys!
-Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 7/10 (Very High) (+2) (+14%)

Spread: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (<100%)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-9%)

Battery Life: 5/10 (Standard)

Stealth: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-6%)

Exploration: 6.5/10 (Higher) (+1.5) (+22.5%)

Stat total: 36/70 (Standard)

About the Firefighter Flashlight: Another caboose light that has crazy high Exploration like the Cinema Spotlight. It also has less Spread for more Range, making it a little weird. It can still stun the monster pretty well, and 7 Range with standard Battery Life is very nice. Just be aware that the Spread takes some getting used to, and you may run into walls with it if you're not careful.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): Leader

Visibility: 6/10: It's ok. The light beam itself is narrow, but extends a very far Range, so you can see very far in front of you even if it's only directly in the center of your screen.

Difficulty: 5/10: Low Stealth and Endurance means you can't just use it on just anyone, but a little bit of forethought into the investigator you're putting it on goes a long way with this light.

Reminds me of the ocean, be my light now, little ocean buoy.
-Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 3/10 (Very Low) (-2) (-14%)

Spread: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (>>>100%)

Speed: 4.5/10 (Below Average) (-0.5) (-2%)

Endurance: 5/10 (Standard)

Battery Life: 8/10 (Highest) (+3) (+45%)

Stealth: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+6%)

Exploration: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+15%)

Stat total: 40/70 (Very High)

About the LED Lantern: A less extreme variant of the Camping Lantern. It has less Exploration and Stealth, but you move a lot faster with it. It's a lot better than the Camping Lantern for sticking with the group, but a bit worse at Splitting.

This makes it the go-to choice for a high Battery Life as it doesn't make you an extreme slug like the Camping Lantern while still having ridiculously High Battery Life. If you want to try it, go for it.

Primary Role: Split

Secondary Role(s): Leader

Visibility: 10/10: Even more clear than the Camping Lantern since the light is blue, giving this flashlight fantastic visibility for the distance you can see.

Difficulty: 6/10: It's horrible if used improperly. Sticking it on anyone with lower mobility is probably going to die. If you're going to use this Latern, stick it on a high mobility investigator like Yumi or Jean Luc who can still run away and need the extra Battery Life.

You made that for your DIY channel, didn't you?..
-Average-Medic

Stats:

Range: 6/10 (High) (+1) (+7%)

Spread: 5/10 (Standard)

Speed: 5/10 (Standard)

Endurance: 5.5/10 (Above Average) (+0.5) (+9%)

Battery Life: 4/10 (Low) (-1) (-15%)

Stealth: 5/10 (Standard)

Exploration: 5/10 (Standard)

Stat total: 35.5/70 (Slightly below average)

About the Steampunk Torch: It's a Metal Flashlight that runs out faster but allows you to run for longer. It's absolutely incredibly on Anne Marie, Chuck and maybe even Jin for this reason. On lower Battery Management investigators like Shiara, Maria, and Yumi, stick to the Metal Flashlight as you run out of Battery Life and therefore Range very quickly on them.

Primary Role: Caboose

Secondary Role(s): N/A

Visibility: 7/10: Just average. It has a slightly dirty lense, and you might have problems seeing at 0%, but otherwise it's pretty standard.

Difficulty: 2/10: Less Battery Management is easy to work around. Just stick it on any high Battery Management investigator and it works fine.

-All of the Classic Characters are from White Noise Online, making this somewhat of an expansion.

-Some the skins for the Classic Characters are from White Noise Online. In White Noise Online each reskin was treated as a completely different character with different stat spreads altogether. However, in this game they only slightly changed stats.

-Some classic character skins give a stat related to their previous stats from the game White Noise Online.

-Shaira is the tallest female Investigator.

-Phileas is the tallest male Investigator.

-Rinko is the shortest female Investigator.

-Corey is the shortest male Investigator.

-Shiara is the only investigator to have a base stat of 1. (Fortuneteller outfit turns her Flashlight down to 1.)

-Rusalka was the first character added into the game after its release.

-The only flashlight that came from White Noise Online is the Basic Flashlight.

-In 2-3 of the updates, Subject 23 had a different Name and his (classic) was changed aswell.

-Astaroth is the first character to be paid DLC

-Yumi is the First investigator with having all her base stats be a different number than 5.

- Okiku is the only monster whose base stats can reach 1.

-Okiku is the only Character who has their majority of stats changed over the course of the game.

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