What is the counter to Spirit?
Before I start, I should mention I’m a 50/50 player (Although recently much more killer than survivor), I’ve played Spirit and learned her to the point that I can comfortably 3k or 4k majority of my matches and my survivor build is Spinechill, Iron Will, Dead Hard and WGLF. Now onto the main post.
Spirit is one of the two killers I struggle playing against, the other one being Nurse. Although I may not have a great survival rate against others, these two are the ones I struggle with the most by a lot when compared to others. I tend to not complain about Nurse as she takes a long time to learn and is extremely buggy, something that I have decided against dedicating my time to.
My problem with Spirit however is that I’m not exactly sure how to counter her to a good extent as most tactics that are suggested here on the forums go out the window when Stridor is in play. So my question is, how do you counter a Stridor Spirit?
Also please don’t turn this into a thread going on about how she’s fine because she’s been nerfed before or that she’s fine because other killers are weak, as with the former, some things have been nerfed multiple times while with the latter I’m more than aware a lot of killers need buffs which is a topic for another day.
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Being unpredictable is the best thing you can do vs a spirit. I remember tru3ta1ent saying that if you crouch then your groans will have a reduced volume and the killer will think you are further away than you are and I've tested it a bit but I'm not certain if they missed me because I did that. Her standing still mindgame is the most annoying part of her kit and I wish it didn't exist. Otherwise its mostly about predicting how you think the spirit will play and playing against it.
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Besides certain perks take a guess at the where she will go and try to counter that
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You're gonna need this:
And this:
And you should be good to go. And if she's running stridor then it's literally just a case of "get lucky" and hope she went the wrong way for some reason.
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And perk the Yui Kimura "Lucky Break"
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Stealth play is the best against her. Actually, stealth is really good against lots of killers, but really strong against Nurse and Spirit. It's just the majority of people are bad at actual stealth.
You need to always position yourself facing the direction the Spirit will come from, difficult to do on center gens, but not so difficult to do on corner gens. The second Spine Chill lights up, walk towards the direction the Spirit will come from. Most of them will usually phase to the gens in hopes of a free grab or hit. By the time they reach it, you should be safe behind an LOS blocker, making your way away from her. Don't go back to the gen if it isn't almost complete because a lot of them will pretend to go away only to come back to it multiple times withing a span of 15 seconds.
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Possibly an unpopular opinion, a perk shouldn't be required to counter a killer, the same way a killer shouldn't be completely countered by a perk.
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This is actually really good advice, I'll try that out next time I face one. The only problem I can see with it is breathing noises, but I'm sure if I position myself right I'm sure itll be fine.
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Ignore all the 100h players saying you need perks.
Pallets and windows are useful, as they are vs all killers. You can guess pathing and play accordingly, or just drop pallets lol.
imagine her in her power a blight you can't see with a much heavier cooldown and shes 4.4 when not in her power.
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So try and predict her movement while being unpredictable in my own? Got it. Hopefully that works.
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That's a popular opinion and I fully agree with it, but this is literally the only way to counter a Spirit in a somewhat reliable way: bring perks. If you're not bringing perks you're relying on wildly guessing when she's phasing and where she's phasing to. There's no logic in her counterplay so you bring perks to add some logic to it.
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You make her react to you, not you reacting to her. You have to be proactive, not reactive.
Give her false information and force her to guess.
It's the complete opposite of most killers. If you're looking for feedback from her you're already playing against her wrong.
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Fair enough, luckily I use those two perks anyways but I'll try to make more use of it.
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Iron will, quick and quiet, dance with me, deception, sprint burst, lithe, balanced landing, windows, pallets, breaking away, doubling back, walking, crouching
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Yknow I might bring Diversion just for facing a Spirit.
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Walking to the hook and pointing.
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She doesn't have a counter, that's literally the community's biggest problem with her. Iron Will? No point. Most Spirit's run Stridor. So your only hope is to run around like a maniac to be as unpredictable as possible and absolutely slam those gens.
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Yes you're quieter crouched. Problem is the spirit too knows this and will get straight out of phase as soon as quiet audio is audible.
Standing still trick is probably going to go let's be real.
That's the problem though. Spirit reacting to you is guaranteed a hit if they play correctly. That's not equal opportunity for each player to perform. This is a pvp game. Nurse is the same but at least you can see her and Nurse is also forced to fatigue or second blink with a very limited time window to do so. Spirit has no such obligations. You cannot force her to do anything. If it was say spirit goes into a fatigue if they don't swing coming out of phase, then I'd agree with your statement. Alas, she has no such downside.
You may have no visual cues except for grass and scratch marks but that combined with audio is enough to get a hit every single phase in range.
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Don't run until it is absolutely necessary there's a jane perk poise maybe were you don't leave scratch marks that's the point don't leave scratch marks and don't stand on the other side of pilate while she is phasing I forgotten that lesson once or twice the hard way
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They’re all very good pieces of advice! Just questioning however, what’s the point of the 5th one?
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Iron Will, but then if she has Stridor, there's no counter.
Just pray.
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look at her animations and shards of glass on her skins when her animations reset or glass shards glow thats when shes phasing you can crouch to make less breathing sounds run iron will and stand still when you know she is phasing tbh she is not hard to counter
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There is 22 killers and you cant force people to use those perks because maybe get Spirit. If you dont get Spirit, you will waste 2 perk slots. And i know you will say "but they are good perks". Yes, they are good perks but not for my build. So Spirit is still has not counterplay and still op.
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Dont compare her to other killers. Other killers are garbage and badly designed its just “I dropped pallet therefore I an now 100% safe”
I would recommend playing Spirit a lot. When you understand her you’ll know what the best and most obvious play is for a Spirit in a given situation, they’ll always make that play when you go against them. You also need to read your opponent, if its a noob spirit you have nothing to worry about, if its a good spirit then expect more.
For example a lot of people sit on gens near spirit then end up getting grabbed off it. Someone familiar with spirit will never allow this to happen, because they know all about the sneaky switch target gen grab tactic mid chase. If shes phasing and was nearby then let go of the gen immediately.
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I personally can comfortably play against Spirit even with Stridor
Iron Will is usually basekit with me though so a lot of this will only be useful when you have IW.
1) Crouching, this lowers your injured noises by about 25% so this wont completely silence you against a stridor spirit but it will be VERY disorienting for them, if they get used to you crouching then mind game them with this a bit and crouch a bit and dont crouch a bit and make more distance. Of course not every Spispi will fall for this
2) Windows are your best friend. If you are making ground on a spirit and she begins to phase, try and make for the nearest longwall window (often shack or a jungle gym). If they don't reach you prior they'll often lunge at the window. If they do not, double back and slow vault over again, this will often place you on the other side of the wall against a Spirit with little to no phase left. Resume looping.
3) Creating scratch marks that are misleading
A lot of people don't know is if you fake running one way and fake the other a small amount of scratch marks will be created in the direction you faked. This can often be used to gain a marginal amount of distance on a Spirit when you are uninjured!
4) Learn the average timing for her phase to return, often Spirit's dont consider this when playing the standing still minigame and you can use this opportunity to hold W
5) Following from my prior point
Hold W, a lot of killers, not just Spirit, will often expect you to loop a structure. Holding W can cause them to mindgame themselves and allow you to gain distance
I hope I could be helpful
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Iron Will is still a counter to Stridor.
Tier 3 Iron Will + Tier 3 Stridor = Tier 1 Iron Will.
For a Spirit that is used to 150% groan volume, facing a survivor who's only at 50% is disorienting and without scratch marks, not so easy to gauge.
You forget that Spirits are relying on several cues at once. Sound, Scratch Marks, Movement (Grass/Pallets, etc.), and you need to be able to combine it all together. If one of those is off, like volume of groans, and you no longer have Scratch Marks to reference it by, you won't be able to pinpoint the survivor.
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But the Spirit can still hear you. Sure, it's harder for her to discern where you are. But if we're still talking about a GOOD Spirit player, then it isn't going to matter. She'll be able to know exactly where you are or what you are doing.
Iron Will works against inexperienced survivors or those who are bad. But just like Nurse, if the Spirit knows what she is doing, there's nothing you can do. All you can do is hope the killer makes a mistake, otherwise you die in 10-15 seconds.
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Only if you're experienced against both Iron Will and non-Iron Will users, and can discern (before beginning a phase) that this survivor has/does not have Iron Will.
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Hide near her motionless afterimage. All else fails, it's a good laugh.
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same as flashlight and lightborn. Sure your not required to bring it, you can moonwalk and look away but that leaves you open to body blocking and Sabo. Sometimes its better to have the perk. Case is no different here
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Read the other comment I made on this thread. I don't at all agree that perks should be the only way to counter a killer, but the guy asked for counterplay to the Spirit and this is literally all the somewhat reliable counterplay we have. So no, I'm not gonna say that.
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Stealth is your biggest advantage. Killers with strong chase powers only get to use their advantage after your found. The second counter is using her lack of visuals during the phase to mask your movements around loops to break away. Small pallet loops are the worst places for a stand off, aim for jungle gyms or loops with more than one path so mind games are possible.
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Wow first post where not all the survivors are toxic entitled [Bad Word] holes. I always here everyone say "there is no counter to spirit". There is counter play, your just a bad survivor. Perks counters killers, I have so many survivor mains saying "perks don't counter spirit".
For one, that ideas is so stupid. Second, spirit can't see survivors when phasing so wont quick and quiet + Dance with me be a counter.
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This may not be for most spirits, but as a spirit main the best thing you can do in a chase is just keep running. I get a lot of people when they try to loop and chases end very fast that way. The best way to prolong the chase is just to keep running.
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It's very much nuanced; there's no given single principal. Instead, it's a list of suggestions that you can hope to follow. These include:
- Hope to god you have iron will.
- Play unpredictably, try to run at sporadic intervals to deceive the killer, don't give off environmental cues, (grass rustling).
- Try walking away to make distance.
- Sometimes, if you know they're phasing, you can run back on your scratch marks (or walk back).
- If you can predict where they are, you can window vault or pallet vault, as they can't vault through while phasing.
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