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How do I counter 4 flashlight SWFs?
They don't happen very often, but when they do they're really awful. Even if I face a wall while picking someone up, a teammate somehow blinds me from behind and I drop. And even if I slug multiple survivors, the remaining survivors are somehow right there to blind me when I pick one up.
I had a game yesterday against 4 flashlight SWF and I was playing as carefully as I could and got blinded on every single one of the like 8 pickups I got that match. it took them a LONG time to do gens, but it didn't matter because I wasn't getting a single hook.
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Yea, Lightborn I would say to look away or check the area but odds are good swfs will make you pick up in the open.
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but you still drop when someone blinds you with lightborn.
EDIT: oh wait! did they change that??
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I guess Franklin's would also help...
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You physically can't be blinded by any means if you have Lightborn.
You don't even really need it though, you can just play slug heavy if they're trying hard to get saves.
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seems like they also always all have unbreakable, though. :|
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yeah, but they only get so many Unbreakables.
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Look at walls?
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I have to drop roughly three survivors for every hook. Then they're too busy picking each other up to flashlight me. It's not easy and you're looking at a long game since they'll probably have Unbreakable.
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Slug them. These groups usually spend minimal amounts of time on gens, especially when all 4 are following after you, so you can afford to spend some time slugging them all to waste up their Unbreakables. Eventually they'll make a mistake and that will allow you to either get a hook or get them all down. These games a LONG but if know when to slug and can capitalise off the mistakes they will inevitably make you can win.
Alternatively you can run Lightborn or Franklin's Demise to counter the flashlights. Infectious Fright and Forced Hesitation are good counters as well.
Or you could just play Pyramid Head or Sadako and never have to worry about them as you can just cage/condemn them :)
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"Even if I face a wall while picking someone up, a teammate somehow blinds me from behind and I drop."
At least attempt to read the post if you're going to comment, lol.
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☝🏽All of this, all the way☝🏽
(Except I never play PH, but kno it works👌🏽…n I rarely EyeEmUp mid-match w her, but Sadako’s a perfect remedy; as well as Demise to combat the in-realm “rave” some of them enjoy so dearly.
4Clickeys in a lobby is often SWFly pre-established, or at least mutually, nonverbally aggreed upon by all.
When it starts getting obnoxious, it’s time to avoid abuse n switch up the approach.
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Tunnel one of them out.
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yup. Flashlight saves are completely impossible if the killer has lightborn. Tbh i always use lightborn if there is 2 or more flashlights in the lobby. Yes you can play unpredictably to avoid them but i find it so much easier to just slap lightborn on and then forget about it. But i still pretend to avoid the beams so it takes them longer to realise i have it.
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slug if they got downed in the open, otherwise face an object high enough. play some survivor with a flashlight so you'll have a better understanding of how they work and how you can or can't get an angle.
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Lightborn is good for a set-and-forget option. If it looks like a flash squad, probably the best to run. You'll still be affected by Blast Mine, however, since that's a blind/stun combo. The downside is once flashlight trolls figure out they can't blind you they typically just DC.
Franklin's is good in a mixed item environment because it will make survivors drop any non-special item. Not only knocks the item to the ground but it erodes the charges the longer it's on the ground (90 seconds and it's useless). I find it's more useful vs flashlight SWFs because most of them only know one trick, so if you make them drop the flashlight many survivors will actually stop to pick it back up or try to swing back by to get it, giving you easier downs. This both tends to make them mad and want to get even so they'll keep coming at you, and are less likely to DC so you can get more points out of them (plus torture them for doing this crap).
If you're feeling plucky (or just want to meme) and are are good at your killer, run both. Makes survivors think you're just running Franklin's so they'll still put in effort to try to blind you and pick up the dropped flashlights, and usually takes them longer to figure out it's not working and thinking they just got a bad angle. They'll keep making risky plays and not spending time on gens, giving you more downs and time to get downs. You can rotate through them making them burn their Unbreakable so slugging is also an option, if you want to put them in a timeout. You'll get called so much sh*t in EGC it's good for the laugh.
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Run lightborn, or if you don't want to waste that slot, this is good, basic advice:
- If the surv goes down near a wall or tall solid object, put your face in it when picking up. Like straight in it.
- Do a 180 just as you are picking up the surv (but mix it up; do a different turn each time so you're not predictable). It's far from foolproof, but can make getting into save position a lot harder
- If the surv goes down in an open area, slug them and/or fake the pick up and look for the vulture waiting for the save, and then slug them as well.
- ALWAYS assume a flashlight save attempt is coming, on every down, and play accordingly.
Flashlight squads used to be the bane of my existence as killer, then I watched OhTofu's flashlight vid. Now maybe 1 in 20 flashlight save attempts work against me, and even then almost always because I was just being careless. They're actually weak items once you get the counterplay down. Especially since the locker save nonsense was scrubbed.
It becomes like second nature; I kept doing these things reflexively even when flashlights were recently disabled.
Plus those squads waste all sorts of time following chases around, scumming for save attempts that almost always fail.
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Don't use lightborn: you will never get used to counter flash saves doing this.
Many people said the basic: hug your face into a wall to avoid a flash save. Always do a fake (stand right on top of the downed survivor, pretend to pick up but don't do that); some survivors will get hushed, get out of their hiding then you can hit them and do the pickup.
Some killers like the Knight/SM/Trapper/Twins/Singularity can use their powers to deny or hinder the flash save.
And the most important: think that if someone is waiting for a flashlight and you make them go down, its a enormous pressure you get -> 2 people downed and you everyone needs to leave gens to get saves and heals.
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This just sounds like a skill issue. They're probably not hugging the wall well enough.
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Lightborn exists for this very reason
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I've had a game in which I could barely pick up a single survivor, because nearly every single time, those coordinated SWF-cheaters managed to appear out of nowhere and blind me.
Personally, I'm done. I'll make Lightborn a permanent fixture in my loadout. If survivors want to cry to me about how unfair that perk is and I'm denying them challenge progress, they can whine about it. I'm completely done with them and the BS they are constantly allowed to pull in this game.
The most common advice to any problem here seems to be "equip perk xy". Alright, Imma do exactly that.
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You can run Lightborn and Franklin's, but you really don't need to. Look at a wall or any tall-ish object when you pick up. If you can't, slug them and find the person lurking nearby. Just follow a basic flowchart: can I safely pick up>no>slug and find the lurking survivor.
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Didn't read more than the title, eh?
Looking at the wall is mentioned in the second sentence.
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All hail to our lord and saviour Lightborn 😎
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With the new background layer buff, walls are required, or you have to hope they make mistakes. Otherwise, flashlight saves are guaranteed (thanks BHVR...).
However, here is a video of how I handled a 4 flashlight bully squad as ghost face. You gotta know every dirty trick survivors use...baiting out hiding nearby if you down someone, baiting CJ Tech users, etc...
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Not to mention it's uncommon enough that flashers will just keep trying, giving you that 8 second aura every time.
I consider it a perk that fills a slot unless I need that slot, but I get so much value. Agitation is the other slot-filler, and the two of them save me a ton of time on hooking. I don't have to look around, I don't have to be careful, I jog to the hook.
When you're going for 12 hooks, even 5 seconds each is a minute, not counting the time it saves you by not losing a hook.
Underrated Perk if there ever was one. Power isn't just what you can do, it's what you can ignore and what you can stop.
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Finding the nearby person is no longer an option with background player being buffed. They can literally be half an entire map away on some maps (that's not overexagerrating, btw) and still be in range of a flash or pallet stun save.
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Lightborn is your friend.
Other than that, don't play their game. Make them play yours. If they keep trying to lure you to a certain part of the map, then you do not want to be there. They probably know why they do this and will blind you in spots where you can do almost nothing. If you have the chance to get someone into the basement, then use it. The basement is a pretty dangerous place for survivors and if you have someone down there, that can easily snowball into a win, if they don't play carefully.
Also, keep facing walls and try to stand as close to the wall you face as possible when you pick up. That makes it even harder to blind you. If you know, you won't be able to pick up that survivor because there is another in the area, then you can pretend to pick up to bait out the other survivor. This works especially well, if you first pretend to chas after them and then quickly make your way back. Chances are, they will run close to you and you can get a free hit.
The most important thing is to stay calm. As long as you stay calm, you will play to the best of your abilities, which means you can punish survivors for playing risky and making themselves vulnerable.
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Lightborn. I usually get a down or two of value from faking not having it.
It's a bit of a crutch perk, but if they're not playing around it you'll do well
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Lightborn on all killers 24/7 cause funny, lol
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Eh, it's a bit iffy I find, sometimes they still get me when I'm staring at concrete, lol
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Mad grit mad grit, lol
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You don't have to get used to it if you always use lightborn
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If they follow you with beamers it makes it much easier to apply pressure to them. Prioritize injures rather than downs as when you do eventually get a down, theyll be more hesitant to go for the save.
Slugging goes well with the above, that can also pressure Survivors which might also prevent them from going for a save al together once enough is applied.
If a wall isnt nearby try picking up at the oddest angle possible, and believe it or not that can sometimes be a completely open space. When a Survivor goes for a save they have to be pretty darn close and dont have much time to be in the right position. Downing some one and simply looking towards an open space might make a Survivor start running from behind cover and into your line of sight, which is an easy hit. (This is a sort of bait)
Some killers can easily bait pick ups, the 2 most prominent are Hag and Trapper who have a very similar animation to picking up a Survivor when placing a trap.
FL squads are some of the most fun groups to go against for me as its pure action, no dilly dallying around. Use the above to your advantage and hope this helps :)
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oh then they're hacking and you report them
its also possible you didn't face the wall as well as you think you did but we'll assume that's not the case
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rather than hacking, I think the issue is that a lot of people here are saying that you have to "bury your head in the wall" when you pick someone up to avoid getting blinded, but that's entirely dependent on how close the survivor is to a wall when you pick them up. Since they're playing flashlight SWF, they're gonna know not to hug walls, and if they're a meter away from a wall when you pick them up then you can't just "bury your head in the wall" so you're gonna get blinded. Just facing the nearest wall isn't enough when the nearest wall is a few feet away and you can get blinded by a survivor ~120 degrees from your facing direction.
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Dont do anything, it would be such a waste of good suffering
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If i see at least two flashlights before the game begins, I swap out a perk for lightborn
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Everyone is saying lightborn, but sometimes you don’t pay attention and don’t have it but imo you don’t need it
Just slug everyone, depending on what killer and perks you’re playing this can be either very easy or alittle harder then easy
if you’re grabbing a survivor and they blind you and save them don’t panic it’s not the end of the game just try again but instead of grabbing look around your surroundings for a bit then go and wait a moment over their body and hear for footsteps if you don’t then go ahead and grab if you do then immediately try and hit them and rinse and repeat.
Edit: i didn’t completely read it but if you are slugging and stuff then like I said wait a beat and continue looking in your surroundings typically if you manage to slug 3 people you try your best to look for the 4th survivor
even if you get 2 downed they will be occupied trying to heal the downed one while you hover over the other
at the same time some games are just not meant to be sometimes the survivors play their cards right and manage to avoid you or have the perfect thing for you, sometimes got to just got do your best and move on
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Lightborn.
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It'd be awesome if mad grit had no cooldown at all, even after getting a hit, lol
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This is good for a new player, but if we are talking about those with experience you actually want them to try and waste time blinding you. The OP himself said that it took them forever to do gens, and this was the reason.
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Eh people will say lightborn but then they realize that and then just sit on gens. Lose lose situation and if you do bring lightborn you will most likely get some messages post game.
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Literally just lightborn. It not only counters flashlights, I find it makes killing easier if they’re attempting to blind. I always being it if I see 2+ flashlights
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Alot of flashlight users just DC or give up if they realize lightborn. And what are these messages post game? If you bring meta perks they cry, if you bring weak perks they cry.
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I can't believe you don't have more up-votes. That's a succinct yet complete answer.
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