Playthrough specific guide, based on my several hours of playing this game
- The Predator (or predators in cases of double predator mode) will ALWAYS spawn in the cafeteria, and they’ll decide to either head straight into the 104/105 classrooms, 101 classroom or the Nurse’s office area.
- The Predator has around 30 second cooldown before moving, so you’ll have all the time to run in places at the start of the game.
- Check open areas that aren’t locked. Good example is that while in the very start of the game, check the 2F bathroom or the 1F bathroom first for keys, if there’s no open doors on the first floor. Mainly useful for Nightmare Mode, but it can work for Normal Mode as well.
- If there’s no key in the 2F bathroom, go straight into the 1F bathroom.
- After looking in the 1F bathroom for items, either go straight to the Storage room, Security room if it’s open, or the auditorium for keys (Make sure to look EVERYWHERE on the auditorium).
- Check for lockers or water fountains, or areas where you spotted an item where you normally don’t see. There are also keys lying around the floors (Especially since the keys can sometimes blend in with the purple stairs too lmao).
- If you know that the pred is far away from you in another floor (Ex: Pred is in the Cafeteria while you’re on the 2nd floor), you’re free to run, provided if the predator isn’t too hungry.
- If the predator is too hungry, it’s risky to run, because the predator will dash to the nearest loudest sound creates.
- In a case of the above tip (And especially for Nightmare Mode), always drop your keys immediately upon use, away from the room that you’re entering to distract the predator.
- If you hear the predator’s footstep (Or wings for Tulpy), crouch and sneak, or hide to the nearest room. Sometimes the predator will walk back to the same area you’re in, so make sure to wait just a little longer until it’s safe to come out of hiding.
- The rooms that aren’t locked are all of the bathrooms (2F, 1F, B1), Storage, Auditorium, and Cafeteria. Make sure to go there if you have the chance.
- Completely optional, especially for ones without any items in hand (And at least 1 or 2 bell dings), but you can immediately restart the game if you’ve been spotted by the predator and there’s absolutely no way to escape.
- In a case of Bella and having an apple on your hand, make sure to drop the key before she spots and chases you, since the game is hardcoded to prevent you from dropping any items if you’re already being chased by a predator AND will eat both of your held items. Bella is the only predator that favors apples instead of you, giving you a small window of time to escape, despite taking both of your held items.
- Following from the above tip, predators that’s not Bella will still eat you regardless of if you’re holding any apples or not. In case of that happening, make sure you have at least a Green Apple that increases the chance of escape… If you gamble to win the lottery ticket. 😆
- Hiding behind the Cafeteria table is overpowered, to the point that with good positioning, you won’t be seen by the predator at all.
- If you’re doing Nightmare Mode, you should know that all keys are the same color (white). You’ll have to drop your keys next to the door to avoid mixing up keys that are already opened.
- During Nightmare Mode, aside from the mentioned 32 second cooldown, the predator will become hungry at the start of the game and will chase to the nearest loudest sound possible. Sometimes, but rarely, will chase after you even if you’re not running, so make sure your hiding spot is almost foolproof, like the Library or the Cafeteria.
- Following from the above tip, hiding in one of the opened classrooms (Especially in the 1F classrooms) is a good suggestion as well. Just make sure to keep an eye on where you’ve last seen the predator, like if they’re going to the cafeteria or going to the 2nd floor.
- If you really want to know the predator’s location, you can simply drop the key nearby so that the predator (if hungry) will dash to the location you created the sound. However, It’s strongly advised to keep track of where the predator is heading towards, otherwise, you’ll have moments where you’ll encounter the predator a floor above, below, or unexpectedly. A good example is that if the predator’s footsteps (Or wings for Tulpy) is heading towards you, and there are no signs of the predator, they’re either a floor above or below you.
- As mentioned in the devlog’s guide, you can trick the Apex Predator to devour the other students, if you properly position yourself behind the other student. If you did it correctly, the predator will devour said student you tricked instead of you. If not, there are moments where even if you’re behind the student, you’ll still be eaten regardless. This tip is not very ideal when it comes to Nightmare Mode, with even the mere sight of the Apex Predator will made them run away (If the apex is chasing them that is). It’s a bit difficult to position yourself when the student is always moving, so I tend not to use this technique.
- Sometimes the key RNG will grant you the exit early (And also the book if you haven’t collected it) if you’re lucky, and if you’re unfortunate enough, you’ll have to go through (Almost) ALL of the keys to unlock (Almost) ALL of the doors to get the exit key… 🙃
- If you can’t keep track of what keys you’ve found (Especially on Nightmare Mode), you should open up a program either Notepad or similar to keep notes to remember in the future.
- You’ll have 32 minutes to escape (Which is 12 minutes per dings, and the max dings is 3, despite the Guide stated otherwise). In the June build, it was previously 4 dings with the original 8 minutes per dings, which is 32 minutes.
More information should be in the devlog’s guide Will be editing here more if I have more tips to share.