Dungeon stealth playbook — LOS, crouch pacing, escapes, enemy misdirection

Stealth assumes every enemy owns not just a vision cone but a patience clock—/audio queues stack faster than rookies intuit. LOS discipline means aligning camera empathy: could a guard realistically spot your silhouette if desks, barrels, drapes were removed? Goblin Vyke rewards honest answers not wishful leaning.

Crouch timing is choreography: preempt corners before accelerating; release crouch sparingly unless verticality demands bursts. Silence is currency; sprinting prematurely spends it like gambling rent.

Auditory breadcrumbs—coins clinking, clumsy vases—should remind you scouting routes exist expressly to minimize collision with physics props.

Mischief resembling coin beetle diversions steals attention across patrol loops; deploy when routes intersect so guards peel predictably—not randomly—giving you scripted windows resembling dance counts.

Sleep-associated hazards mimic nap traps in marketing blurbs; treat teammates’ descriptions as tonal hints—they reward timing throws when guards pause near sconces or chokepoints.

Smoke mimicry or smoke-like fades obscure transitions; pair them with grapple hook anchors emphasized on official feature lists—you verticalize escapes instead of brute forcing doors.

When tension spikes mentally rehearse egress: nearest ladder, dangling rope shortcut, grapple-friendly beam, rewind-style recovery gimmicks forgiving mis-taps sparingly—not infinitely.

Shadow rewind analogies evoke undoing clumsy arcs; treat charges as prestige currency—preserve them unless detection truly compounds.

If cornered physically, staged play-dead antics buy seconds only when animations align cleanly—experiment in low-stakes floors first.

Looping patrols crave patience: annotate mental timestamps when guards crest hall ends. Toss distractions only once cadence aligns; mis-throws waste resources and accelerate alert states.

Peeking doors from oblique angles keeps cone edges truthful; avoid cheese angles that crumble when stealth scores tighten late campaign.

When several guards overlap, sequence small baits instead of one noisy throw—scatter AI is messy and hard for newcomers to predict.

Hiding interacts with occlusion boxes and elevation swaps; memorize which props actually break LOS versus cinematic fluff testing patience.

Vertical repositioning leverages shelves, chandeliers, scaffolding—anything letting you skim overhead arcs while foes hunt horizontal noise.

Blend hide-and-relocate loops: dipping into barrels or alcoves resets suspicion decay counters if pacing respects AI memory windows.

Limp out with partial hauls gracefully if margins still beat replacement night costs—shop time sells modest loot elegantly while prepping consumables discounted via employees.

Charm loadouts tweaking stealth odds carry opportunity costs impacting shop luck—alternate sets between nights consciously.

Steam achievement hunters scouting pacifism-style entries should skim achievements article after reinforcing stealth glossary here.