Stealth guide for GTFO: Best weapons, tips, and tricks

William Davis Published 12/07/2023

GTFO isn’t always a high-octane horde shooter, but constantly messing up stealth can sure make it seem that way.

As a horror-themed cooperative shooter, GTFO is all about preserving resources. The most straightforward way to do that is to bash enemies’ heads rather than blast them with precious ammo and tools. Stealth makes up a huge chunk of the game, and messing up even a small room can lower your chances of survival once the real hordes show up. If you’re looking to improve stealth in GTFO, here’s everything you need to know about enemy alert levels, weapon choice, and dealing with larger threats.

How stealth works in GTFO

Stealth is the core of GTFO, and it relies on managing alert levels, proximity, timing, and more.

When entering a new room, make sure to crouch down and turn your flashlight off. Standing and emitting light makes it easier for sleepers to detect you. Rounding a corner to find a clutch of enemies suddenly waking up is a recipe for disaster. Other forms of movement, like dropping off ledges or climbing ladders, can also alert enemies. However, they don’t wake up right away. Sleeping enemies in GTFO have four different alert levels.

Level 1 – Asleep with no light and ambient sounds
Level 2 – Disturbed with little red light and sounds
Level 3 – Pulsing with lots of light and rumbling sounds
Level 4 – Awake

Enemies will start out at Level 1 but slowly work their way up as players make noise and emit light near them. Sources of noise include moving, climbing, jumping, dropping, and attacking nearby enemies. Turning does not make noise, but moving from crouching to standing and vice versa does. Shing your flashlight Certain actions, like physically touching sleepers or shooting near them, will automatically wake them up.

Enemies that go into Level 2 or 3 will revert back to 1 after a few seconds. If you see one starting to wake up, simply sit still for a while and wait for it to calm down. There’s not really any reason to stop moving at Level 2, so if you’re confident, you can keep moving and stop during Level 3. Enemies that wake up are impossible to put back to sleep.

But let’s say you make a mistake. Either you kill a sleeper too close to another one or accidentally keep your flashlight on and wake one up. There are a few options. Sleepers have to yell before waking up the rest of the room, so you can kill the awake one and resume stealthing as normal. If they’re too far away from the melee, it may be best to immediately switch to a gun and start clearing the room during the wake-up animations. Whatever you decide, make sure to communicate with your team to avoid confusion.

Even with all these guidelines, there are definitely times to break the rules. Areas with low fog may require you to sneak while standing up to avoid taking infection. Sprinting up to kill a waking sleeper can often prevent an entire room from waking up.

What are the best weapons for stealth?

All of the weapons in GTFO have their uses for stealth, but some have specialties that make them extra useful in certain situations.

The hammer is the jack-of-all-trades melee for a reason. It wrecks Sleepers with attacks from any angle and can be used to take out Scouts in a pinch. Its only real niche is in panic situations, as it can kill from any angle and can be charged while running. If you wake up a far-away sleeper on accident, the hammer can potentially keep the room quiet.

The spear is more difficult to use, with a long charge time that disabled sprint. However, it is the absolute best weapon for killing bigger threats from stealth. The spear can kill Scouts from the front or back of the head. It’s also the ideal weapon to knock the head off a Giant, and with a little elbow grease, it can be used to solo them safely and silently.

The knife is next to useless against big guys, but it’s especially useful for dealing with small clusters of sleepers. Its lightning-fast charge time allows players to kill multiple sleepers in a chain without letting any of them wake the room. If you expect to pull double or triple duty, grab the knife.

The bat is probably the least-useful weapon for stealth. Its specialty is opening locked containers quickly, which can be useful during error alarms. However, it charges slower than the knife and deals less damage than the hammer. It deals solid stagger damage and can be used to help bring down Giants and Hybrids, but consider it the least-useful choice for long stealth sections.

How to do stealth scans in GTFO

If you’re starting to dig into ALT://Rundown 5, you’ve probably encountered stealth scans. These are some of the most difficult stealth sections in the game, but there are a few guidelines players can follow to make them easier.

As with other stealth sections, players should keep crouched with their flashlights off. While the scans are clusters, its best to tackle them in a group. The cluster scans tend to be in a wide area on the same side of the room as the door, so it can be a good idea to clear out some of the threats beforehand.

The real problem with stealth scans is dealing with them when things go wrong, as often happens in GTFO. The best strategy is to ignore the scans entirely and retreat to a different room. Many of the stealth scan sections are filled with larger enemies like Hybrids and Giants, so consider bringing spears and hammers, and heavy-hitting guns for the inevitable mistakes.

William Davis

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