Are you tired of dying from the Phantom? If you answered yes, then this guide is for you!





The correct way to end a Phantom game.

I wrote this guide because a lot of players don't know how to correctly play against the Phantom. The mechanics of the Phantom are very different from the Lurker. Because of this, I don't see too many Phantom games anymore. The Phantom requires a different mindset and gameplay style in order to succeed. Hopefully, this guide will help the Phantom not seem so overpowered and make Phantom games occur more often.

Most lobbies ban the Phantom.

The Phantom.


The Phantom is a new monster in Damned that was introduced in patch 0.44a. What's different about the Phantom is that the Phantom can only see you through sound. What does that mean for you? This means that playing against the Phantom requires a different play style in order to survive.

As stated before, the Phantom sees through sound. The Phantom is always in physical form and floating around on the map. It moves slightly faster than a walking survivor. The Phantom does not have to set traps because they're set automatically. The Phantom can not see doors and can move right through them. There are a few ways that the Phantom can see you.

• Trap(s) automatically going off with you and Phantom close to the trap.
  
• Sprinting when the Phantom is nearby.
  
• Flicking your flashlight on and off when the Phantom is nearby.
  
• Being extremely close to the Phantom (Almost touching) if you're not moving.

When the Phantom sees you, you will hear the monster chase music. Incase you're not sure what the monster chase music sounds like, I put together a small video demonstrating it.












At the start of the video, I was standing still. When I start sprinting into the wall, the music starts playing. When the chase music starts, you are a solid, white outline on the Phantoms screen. The Phantom can see this outline through walls, floors, and doors. Assuming that no other noise has been made, this will only last approximately 3 to 5 seconds.

Here's an example of the Phantom seeing a survivor.




















Here's another example. The Phantom can see your outline through floors and walls.










Note: The Phantom can only see the flashlight if the survivor is outlined. As soon as the outline disappears, so does the light. It does not matter if you use your flashlight or not. What does matter is the clicking of the flashlight. This creates sound which makes you visible to the Phantom.

You know how the Phantom works. You may be asking yourself, "Ok. So how can we survive against it?".

Here are some tips for when you're not visible to the Phantom

• Do not sprint when the Phantom is nearby. If you know that you're far, far away from the Phantom, then you can safely Sprint. However; reserve some of your sprint energy just incase the Phantom hears the trap and starts coming to your area. Remember; aslong as you don't hear that music, the Phantom does not know exactly where you are. It only knows that you're in the area where the trap was set off.
  
  
• Do not play with your flashlight when the Phantom is nearby.
  
  
• Keep every single door that is unlocked wide open. The Phantom can't see if doors are open or closed and can go right through them. Leaving the doors closed only hurts you.
  
  Unlocked doors should always be like this.
  
  
• If you're stuck in a room with a Phantom, don't move. Find a random spot that's not a corner. You can be standing still extremely close to the Phantom and it still won't see you. Once it passes you, wait a few seconds, then walk away safely. Watch your back incase the Phantom suddenly changes direction. If the Phantom is heading towards your direction, get ready to sprint away or through it depending on if it's coming up to you or from behind.
  
  
• If you're stuck in a corner or a tight place like a narrow hallway and the Phantom is coming straight for you, sit tight and don't move. Right before the Phantom touches you, sprint through the Phantom. There's usually no time for the player to react in time to swipe at you. The video below shows how fast a player would have to react
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Here are some tips for when you are visible to the Phantom.
  
  
• There's a way to juke the Phantom. It requires a little bit of timing but once you figure out the timing it's really easy. Remember how the Phantom can only see your outline if you hear that music? Walk in a certain direction pretending that you want to go in a room or down a hallway for example. As soon as the music stops, change your direction. Most players i've played against always fall for this small trick. They think you went into that room or hallway when really you did a sudden change of direction and went somewhere else.
  
  
• Another thing you can do is run away and stand at a spot where there are multiple paths. As soon as the music ends, pick one of the paths and move. Make sure you run away far enough so there's time for the Phantom to not see you anymore and for you to walk away without being seen. This will confuse the Phantom player because they have no idea where you're going.
  
  
• Don't use all of your sprint energy when running away. Sprint for about 4-6 seconds, While the Phantom is busy catching up to you, you are re-gaining your sprint energy incase you have to sprint again. Hopefully traps won't go off in this process that will expose your position for a longer time.
  
  
• If you're out of sprint energy and see a pool table or a big table, head straight for it. Have the Phantom chase you around the table until you gain some sprint energy. After you have gained some sprint energy, repeat the process of running and juking until you're safe.

Not working as a team and not following these tips usually leads to this

Even though the Phantom can not see the doors. it can still interact with them. A good Phantom will swipe at a door and check to see if the door is closed or not. If the player can't swipe where the door is, then it means that the door is either locked or shut. The player can hold left click on the door and move it like a survivor would if it's unlocked. This will make it harder on survivors because the Phantom can check the survivors progress in the map.

The insanity system was added to the game in patch 1.0a (the first beta patch). The system makes the survivor's experience more horrifying. In terms of gameplay, it makes it slightly more difficult to survive against the Phantom. In this section, I will go over all the events and give tips for each event.

The events that can trigger while playing are:

• Your screen suddenly being dark.
  
• Your flashlight flickering.
  
• Your screen suddenly being black and white.
  
• Your sound being muted temporarily (you can hear a faint beep).
  
• Hearing a fake trap go off.
  
• One of your keys to stop working (W, A, S, D, Sprint, Crouch) for a short while.
  
• Multple arms raising from the ground to slow you down (reduces character speed and all sprint energy is lost).

Note: All events are client side. This means only you can see or hear these events.

• Your screen suddenly being dark
  
  This event reduces your gamma by a significant amount for a short period of time. If you don't hear the Phantom music, then turn your flashlight on so you can see better. Turning on film grain in the options also makes it easier to see.
  
  
• Your flashlight flickering
  
  This event causes your flashlight to flicker on and off constantly for a short period of time. The flickering does not create sound and the Phantom (along with everyone else) can not see the flickering. This event can actually be helpful if you want to turn on your flashlight but are afraid to because the Phantom is nearby.
  
  
• Your screen suddenly being black and white
  
  This event causes your screen to be black and white for a short period of time. The only thing that's worth mentioning here is that when this event is triggered, it also triggers the sound that plays when the Lurker goes through you in its non-physical form. If you're playing against the Phantom, then this can safely be ignored.
  
  
• Your sound being muted temporarily (you can hear a faint beep)
  
  This event causes your sound to be muted for about 5 seconds. This can be very bad if the Phantom is nearby. If you know the Phantom is nearby; follow these steps:
  
  
  • Ask yourself if you heard the chase music or the Phantom music before going deaf.
    
    • If chase music, run. Chances are you were already running away from the Phantom.
      
    • If non-chase music, stop.
  • Look around.
    
  • Make sure you don't go near a trap.
    
  • Wait a few seconds for the deafness to wear off.
  
  Most of the time, this won't be an issue. Worst case scenario is the chase music starts right before the deafness starts (which is bad luck). In that case, run!
  
  
• Hearing a fake trap go off
  
  This event causes you to hear a random fake trap go off. Keep in mind that as long as the chase music isn't playing, then you are not visible to the Phantom. A real trap is louder than a fake trap especially when you're right next to the real trap.
  
  
• One of your keys to stop working (W, A, S, D, Sprint, Crouch) for a short while.
  
  This event causes one of your movement keys to stop working for a short while. There is a sound that plays when this event is triggered. The sound could be from any of these sound files.
  
  
  • monster_spawn.ogg
    
  • monster_spawn2.ogg
    
  • monster_spawn3.ogg
  
  Once you hear one of these sound files play, immediately check all movement keys and the crouch/sprint keys to figure out which one got disabled. The only thing you can do here is to adapt quickly.
  
  
• Multple arms raising from the ground to slow you down (reduces character speed and all sprint energy is lost)
  
  This event causes arms to come out from the ground around you and attempt to slow you down. You can go around them or if there is enough space you can go in between the arms. Always keep an ear out for hearing these arms spawn.
  
  An example of arms attempting to block a path

Patch this guide was created: 0.77a
Patch this guide was last updated: 1.5a