What the failure actually is
Being caught is not a stealth roll. The game page describes a mascot who climbs walls, crawls through vents, and hears everything: your footsteps, your chat, and your voice on the microphone. If he answers you, he already knows where you are.
That reframes the problem. You are not hiding behind cover; you are managing the noise you create.
How to recognise that you gave yourself away
| Channel | What produces it | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Footsteps | Sprinting, walking on hard floors, pacing while you search | The most common cause; you leak position continuously while moving |
| Chat | Typed messages in the game chat | Instant, and it happens at the exact moment you try to warn a teammate |
| Microphone | Voice chat | The loudest channel, and the one players forget because they are talking to each other, not to him |
The tell is the answer. If a subtitled line from Grinsworth appears, he heard something. Two verified lines show how far this goes:
- "Tell me where your friend is, and I'll let you go." He negotiates, and he negotiates with information you have.
- "Come out and I might let you live." This one arrives with an on-screen prompt offering Come out or Stay.
We have not confirmed what either choice causes. The line and the prompt are on screen; the consequence is not documented here.
How to recover
Four tools exist. They are not interchangeable, and the game page names three of them explicitly.
| Tool | What the game page says | Best used when | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grapple | Escape | You have distance and a line to a higher or further surface | It will not save you from a grab you have already taken |
| Camera flash | Blinds him | He is closing and you need to break his pursuit | It is not a weapon |
| Locker | Hide quietly | You have broken line of sight and can stay silent | It is not documented as a safe room; quiet is the condition, not the box |
| Flashlight | Not listed as a general tool | While he is climbing toward you, one recorded bay warning says to shine it on him | We only saw that instruction in a bay context; it is not a universal escape |
Order that fits most situations: break line of sight first, then choose. Flashing or grappling while he is staring at you spends the tool without buying distance.
How to avoid it next run
- Crouch between rooms. Footstep noise is the cheapest thing to remove and the most constant.
- Treat chat as an alarm. Say nothing while he is near, even to warn a teammate.
- Do not speak to him. He answers, which is exactly the wrong outcome.
- Search in short bursts. Long sweeps of one room generate a continuous noise trail; short moves give you quieter stretches to listen in.
What we could not confirm
Three questions come up constantly and none of them have a documented answer:
- How loud is loud enough for the microphone? The game page confirms the microphone is a channel. The threshold is not published and we have not measured it.
- Can he open a locker? Nothing in the sources says either way.
- Is there a fixed number of seconds before he loses you? Not documented.
If you test any of these, the useful record is a clip with the timer running: what you did, what he did, and how long it took.
Where to go next
If the noise that gave you away was a teammate, read multiplayer and agree on a voice rule before your next session. If you want to know which store items change the hunt, the store page lists what each pass does and marks every price as unconfirmed.