Propnight: Beginner’s Guide (Beta Version)

The purpose of this guide is to give you a leg up on the basics using what little hands on experience we’ve had access to with the game. Surely, a lot will change, so this guide will focus on the fundamentals to make sure you are prepared to overcome the basics as smoothly as possible, which can admittedly be a little rough to learn while under pressure.

If you have questions not covered in this guide, feel free to comment and I may work it in. I’ve included numbers and specifics I remembered but glazed over those I didn’t as these are likely to change anyway, and thus won’t be very important to be precise at this point.

This game has 4 teens trying to escape 1 monster. You can pick between 5 kids, and each have a limited use item, so your choice is not just cosmetic (although they can obtain each other’s items in chests). There are 3 monsters with completely different abilities, and the same monster may be very easy or hard to play as depending on the map. (fortunately the map is revealed first)

The monster wins if all 4 kids are killed. The kids win if time runs out, or if 5 propmachines are repaired (there are more than 5 present) and an exit door is pulled open and at least 1 kid escapes. (the game will continue while any kids have yet to escape)

To kill a survivor, a monster must knock them onto their knees with enough damage, then pick them up (F on pc) and carry them to the nearest hypnochair (highlighted in red through walls). If the survivor is not freed by another player before their time runs out they will die, and the 3rd time they are placed in a hypnochair they auto-die.

Survivors can struggle to escape a killer’s arms (left and right repeatedly on pc) before the killer puts them in a chair. When freed from the chair a kid will be filled to at least 1/3 max life. A kid can also get back up while on their knees after a set amount of time passes, and they can crawl slowly. Their teammates can help them up too.

Survivors

Survivors can turn into a prop by selecting one nearby to copy it. In this form you can roll on the floor and double jump, you can even smack into the monster to momentarily stun it and drop some coins to pick up. The monster can also be stunned by slamming a door on them, which also need to be destroyed for them to enter. (Survivors can reopen closed doors)

The survivors need to find propmachines and repair 5 of them. (There are more than 5 total) You simply hold the interact button (F for pc), and occasionally a quicktime event will require you to press a button (space for pc) while a marker on a gauge is on the highlighted segment. The end of this segment has a short mark where ending there will give 100 coins instead of 75, and help repair the machine a little faster. If you fail the quicktime event, a little progress will be lost, and the monster will be alerted!

When you repair machines or move into floating coins you will get propcoins. With 1000 coins you can get another item by opening a chest. You can open the same chest over and over (so long as you can pay the fee), and hold up to 3 items simultaneously. (Floating coins give 300)

Starting Items:

Jock: Has energy drink to run faster for 9 seconds. Removed after 1 use.
Bookworm: Has magic book to become invisible for a short time. Removed after 1 use.
Valley Girl #1/#2: Has medkit to heal 10 HP (of your 100 max). Removed after 6 uses. Can be used on teammates too.
Geek: Has a camera to stun a monster for 4 seconds. Removed after 1 use.

Side note: One of the girls seemed to have an alternate outfit worn by some players, so this may indicate how survivor and killer customization will work: not individual hats and clothing, but entire costumes.

Monsters

The map is the first thing you will know when starting a session (unless you chose to only join as a survivor or killer). As a killer the map is extremely important. The Farm is a big open space, and if you are the tuxedo monster with a dagger, you may find it hard to actually damage the teens, even if you are close to them. However the grandma has projectiles and a generous wide slash, and the nun can run and do an area of effect scream, so I recommend you use these two for open stages. The House is the opposite, with a closed in space, the tuxedo monster is able to use its’ tricks to change into props (for a limited time) and even into teens to be devastating here, while grandma’s throwing knives have a harder time getting a clear shot as the kids can round corners easier. If you want to focus on one monster to be good on both stages, then the nun will be ok on either. The grandma’s invisibility will also help it stay fairly effective in either case, over all.

Abilities:

Nun: Can scratch with claws. Can shout to damage anyone (even in disguise) in the immediate area. Can sprint.
Grandma: Wide slash with knife. Leave a magic knife floating like a mine. Can go invisible briefly.
Tuxedo Man: Can stab with a dagger. Can imitate a survivor. Can turn into a prop for 30 seconds.

All monsters can put curses on propmachines. Curses cause the machine to fail sometimes while being repaired and alert you, and may make quicktime prompts harder and more frequent. You’ll need to wait awhile before you can curse again.

Camping

This deserves it’s own section, as during the beta a lot of fuss was poured into how much camping the monster would do, with players fervently complaining or even dropping out. I don’t believe it is as big a deal as all of that, and I’ll give my recommendations how to counter it best.

First, if a monster is camping a nearly complete prop machine, simply focus on others. This is why there are more machines than the requirement to progress. (for exits, there will always be at least 2)

Now if a monster is camping a captured player, if they are not rescued before time runs out, they will die, even if it is their first capture. Thankfully, there is a generous amount of time before they succumb, so if there is no opening, use this time to get a lot of work done. If the monster is visible, then one option is to stun them, either with a camera or by hitting them as a prop. In the worst case scenario, the rescuer can try to sacrifice themselves and let the other person go, to spread out lives. I must emphasize you have a lot of time, and the survivors can get so much done if the monster plays this way.

Another form of camping for the survivors is to become a prop and roll under a table, out of reach. Some monsters may have abilities that can damage, while others, like the tux man may not. Your best bet is to move on, and maybe double back to see if they came out. Their other choice is to waste their own time, but it is also your choice to waste your own.

Unfortunately the monster loses if time runs out, making this form of camping more problematic in some situations even though it is less talked about. So I do hope the deadline will be changed to a monster victory, to support a hopeless doomed feeling of foreboding for the survivors. I expect that will happen, but we’ll just have to wait and see to find out.