Survive a Psycho Survivor Strategies: Fight, Heal or Run

Survivors can win by taking down the Psycho or lasting through the three-minute round. Choose your immediate action according to the space and time you have.

Shoot the same Psycho as nearby survivors to combine your damage. As the killer approaches, back away instead of holding one firing position. Keep a route through a doorway, room, or aisle behind you so you can continue moving when the fight reaches you.

With the Smart SMG, hold the left mouse button for sustained fire. An empty magazine triggers a reload; use that interruption to move through a building, room, or shelving lane, then resume shooting when you have space. Use your equipped abilities alongside gunfire when they are available. The abilities guide explains their controls and effects, while the weapons guide covers other gun choices.

When injured, leave your current firing position and move into an adjacent room, behind building cover, or up a staircase. Once you have room, turn back to contribute damage.

If you enter smoke and see HIDDEN and +5 HP/S, you recover 5 health per second while that state is active. You can still aim, shoot, and reload during it. If Smoke is on cooldown, keep moving through nearby routes to create space while you wait.

When the clock is nearly out, use connected rooms and stairs to keep the chase going instead of risking your life to finish the Psycho's health bar. In one Arasaka Tower round, the last survivor continued moving on the stairs with about four seconds left and won when time expired. The same choice can be useful whenever survival to the end is safer than continuing the fight.