Lesser Known Tricks & Strats (v1.08)

Rare tricks and strategies that you may not know about!
This guide is up to date with v1.08.

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Things that are self explanatory and have no depth to them - things that have no special strategies or tips - will NOT be in this guide, as the title of the guide implies.

The title of the guide is "Lesser Known Tricks & Strats", not "A tutorial on literally everything in the game".

See all up to date Forewarned guides here:
https://steamcommunity.com/id/AveryHyena/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides&appid=1562420

Combat

Using the Torch

The torch doesn't have as bad range as you think. Aim a little to the left, and you'll have 'increased' range.
Why does this work? In Forewarned, all of the equipable items are actually physically in your hand. If this were a different game, swinging the torch would cast a ray from the center of your screen inline with your crosshair. But in Forewarned, physically hitting the enemy with the actual torch is what matters. The torch is on the right side of the screen, so moving your camera left makes it much easier to hit enemies. Aim with the torch, not the crosshair! And aim for mummy's and sleeper's outstretched arms for the same reason. You can also just run directly through these threats to ignite them without getting hurt, however it only works on ritual mummies, not regular reanimated mummies because for some reason, they have faster reaction times.
This also applies to all other equipment, including things like Akar's Staffs, Heka amulet, and metal detector.
As of v1.0.0, the torch now has a 'burst' visual and audio effect when you have successfully repelled a threat.

The Heka Amulet

You can use a Heka Amulet to repel certain ambient threats, including the versions found in banishment rituals. These ambient threats are; snakes, crocodiles, abominations and sand worms. (The massive albino crocodile CANNOT be repelled by any means). The amulet remains activated and effective if dropped on the floor.

Akar's Staff of Tempests

Getting hit with a bolt from this staff will make you drop your currently equipped item on the floor, as it electrocutes you. This both applies when the Mejai is using it to shoot at players in phase 2 of the banishment, as well as if a player hits another player with it in phase 3.

Akar's Staff of Tides

Getting hit with a waterball from this staff will cause you to start drowning, darkening your screen for a short time, similar to the effect of spiders. This both applies when the Mejai is using it to shoot at players in phase 2 of the banishment, as well as if a player hits another player with it in phase 3.

Abominations

If you repel an abomination and it backs away, that means it's going to come back to attack again. If it fully turns around and runs away, that means it's going back to a spawn point (the area covered with webs). This also applies to the ones in rituals - if it's backing away, it's going to attack again. And if it turns around, then it's going away to despawn.

The Snake

You can blow up the snake before it's even left its hole.
If you repel the snake after it has left its hole, it will return and stay there for 40 seconds before roaming the halls again. This time is not affected by difficulty.

Massive Albino Crocodile

He can literally never hit you as long as you keep running. You can run through him and even if he attacks, he will miss. Stopping at any time, or standing in a corner = you WILL be hit.

Sleepers

Sleepers are enemies found in the TNT area of the Sand-Spider tomb variation. (And in the embalming room of the Snake tomb variation).
They act similarly to sprinting mummies. If one has targeted you, to avoid getting injured, you can bait an attack and wait until it swings twice - one for each arm - and then you are safe to go in and attack with your torch.
Another good way of dealing with them is to stealth-kill them. They only aggro and lock onto a player once their getting up animation is complete. Using this knowledge, you can stand behind it until the animation is finished, after which it will just slowly walk away and you are safe to easily set it on fire.
Be aware, sleepers can activate other sleepers should they walk over one.

How To Actually Get Evidence

Important info

- All evidence is chance based
- You CANNOT rule out evidence except in extremely specific circumstances. Eg. Evidence from ectoplasm is always guaranteed, evidence from some spirit events can be guaranteed. DO NOT rule out evidence just because "we haven't gotten it yet".
- The chance of getting evidence increases based on the amount of the tomb you explore, the amount of objectives you complete, and the amount of treasure you collect.
- All evidence besides electronic and tremors requires the Mejai's Sah or Shut form (invisible or wraith) to be in the immediate area for there even to be a chance to get it in the first place.
- You will know if the Mejai is near you if it either manifests into its Shut form, or you get a sound cue. The sound cues that alert you to the Mejai's presence are creepy sounds that are ALWAYS accompanied with hearing your own heartbeat. Do not confuse them with regular tomb ambience. Trying to get evidence without knowing the Mejai is close is a waste of time.

Destruction

- A spirit event that destroys sarcophagi counts as destruction, not disturbed tombs.
- In tomb variation 5 (Underground Palace), the spirit event with the Mejai's Shut form flying around in a circle will ALWAYS destroy the statues if the Mejai has destruction as evidence. If it does not destroy the statues but still does this spirit event, you can completely discount destruction being evidence.
- Do not get fooled! If you see a broken pot, it does not always mean you have destruction! Things can be broken by default before you've even entered the tomb, and TNT also has a massive range for destroying objects.
- Using the transmitter and aiming your crosshair at a destructible object, you can command the Mejai to destroy something by saying, "Destroy this" / "Destroy these", for the chance to get this evidence.

Disturbed Tombs

- When the Mejai disturbs a tomb, it plays a very specific sound of the sarcophagus lid slamming that isn't used anywhere in the game. A trained ear could discern disturbed tombs happening across the map.
- If you are not sure you heard disturbed tombs, you can use your tablet to look inside a sarcophagus. If it has been disturbed, there will be purple-blue scratches on the inside.
- Using the transmitter and aiming your crosshair at a sarcophagus, you can command the Mejai to disturb it by saying, "Disturb this tomb" for the chance to get this evidence.

Electronic Disturbances

- Electronic evidence is always global, every player gets it at the same time (eg. flickering flashlight) no matter where they are in the tomb.
- You can place a radio in the tomb to increase your chances of getting this evidence.

Extinguished Flames

- Using the transmitter and aiming your crosshair at lit flames, you can command the Mejai to extinguish them by saying, "Extinguish these flames" / "Extinguish this fire", for the chance to get this evidence.

Footsteps

- Just like disturbed tombs, footstep evidence has specific sounds that are not used anywhere else, including for player footsteps.

Metallic Signature

- Just like any other regular evidence, metallic can be given randomly by the mejai. But it can also be detected from ectoplasm.

Radar Detection

- As with most evidence, radar also requires the Mejai's Sah or Shut form to actually be in its range. So either spread out multiple radars through the tomb, or make everyone stand the main entrance where the radar is, as a player's presence attracts the mejai to them.

Radioactivity

- Just like any other regular evidence, radiation can be given randomly by the mejai. But it can also be detected from ectoplasm.
- I have to put this here because I've seen it too many times: I know it's green and glowing, but Ectoplasm DOES NOT mean radiation evidence. It only has a CHANCE to give radioactivity, just like how it has a chance to give metallic signature.
- Sometimes, if a geiger counter is already turned on, it will need to be turned off and on again before it can start detecting radioactivity.

Reanimation

- You can leave sarcophagi open to increase the chances of getting this evidence.
- Using the transmitter and aiming your crosshair at a mummy, you can command the Mejai to reanimate them by saying, "Reanimate them" / "Reanimate him" for the chance to get this evidence.

Tremors

- The only other evidence besides electronic that does not require the Mejai to be near you. As far as I understand it, the game spawns seismic "hotspots" around the tomb, one of which has the chance of becoming a reading over 10nm if the Mejai has tremors as evidence.
- The seismometer is based on your current position, not where you point it.

Vocal Response

- If your voice recognition isn't working, click on Forewarned on your taskbar instead of alt-tabbing!
- The vocal transmitter is the best evidence item, as it can give you vocal response, destruction, extinguished flames, disturbed tombs and reanimation evidence, whereas other evidence items can only give you one evidence type. It can also give you the ability to rule out these evidences. So the transmitter is essentially 9 evidence items in one!

Mejai

Inner Tomb Mejai Name Selection

The names of the Mejai are always in the same order:
Rathos | Necreph
Dekan | Talgor
Ouphris | Ataimon
Ptahmes

Difficulty Level's Effect on Mejai

The selected difficulty also effects Mejai's unique abilities. For example, how far Dekan can hear, how fast Ouphris attacks, or how fast Rathos' rage meter fills up and how many screams he has before he turns into a royal mummy.

Specific Mejai Tricks

Rathos
- It may sound counter-intuitive, but you DO NOT want to light any braziers around the tomb. Doing so increases his rage meter with almost no benefit to you, as he doesn't get stopped by braziers 99% of the time.
- If you have a lit torch in your inventory, (you don't even have to hold it, IF it appears on your hip), you can touch and walk through Rathos in his normal form and he CANNOT kill you. Just be careful he doesn't scream as you start to walk through him.
- Unfortunately, it seems completely random if the torch is put on your hip when you switch to another inventory slot. If you're switching to something else, make sure the torch is on your hip before being near Rathos (you'll be able to see the glow from the torch if it's on your hip).

Dekan
- You can still run vs Dekan, just stop when you hear footsteps coming closer. But even if Dekan hears you, you can move away from that location without making sound and Dekan will try to attack where you used to be.
- Crouching only matters on brutal and if you're close to him. Do not crouch-walk everywhere. Crouching while standing still also does NOTHING. You are already making 0 sound by standing still.
- Sound you make while moving is based on your movement speed, not if you're crouching, walking or sprinting. This also means that players using the bird pet are slightly easier for Dekan to hear.
- Dekan has Reanimation as evidence, which is more dangerous than usual, since igniting a mummy is a fairly loud sound that Dekan can hear. Wait until he's some distance away before burning a mummy!
- The torch itself does not produce sound. However, activating some equipment like the flashlight does make a little bit of noise.
- You can open a sarcophagus to produce a loud distraction. However, when Dekan hears it, he will destroy the sarcophagus, making it unusable.
- Taking damage makes sound that Dekan can hear.
- When pathing to a set waypoint, Dekan will always take the most efficient path (without dropping off ledges), so to avoid him while he's about to pass you, make sure you're out of the way of the most efficient path. For example, if he's going around a corner, stay on the OUTSIDE of the corner because Dekan will usually try to hug the inside.

Ouphris
- The Heka Amulet has a separate pool of uses for Ouphris. When an amulet prevents an attack, it subtracts 1 from this pool AND the regular pool of uses. There's three uses in the 'Ouphris pool', so you can do this three times before the amulet breaks and the rest of the uses are wasted. This is also per game, not per player.
- If you have no amulet charges left, you can run up the entrance ramp to lose him, if the tomb has a ramp.

Necreph
- Torches still produce light when put away in your inventory. Make sure to extinguish them with mouse2!
- Necreph is attracted to ALL light shone onto players, not just the light you're using. This means you are NOT helping by standing on the entrance ramp whipping a flashlight around the room, since this means no one can enter that room without you killing them if Necreph is there.
- It is possible to take a picture of Necreph without dying, you just have to be far enough away. This distance changes depending on difficulty.
- Necreph doesn't actually teleport. He just deactivates and turns invisible, then moves fast around the tomb until he reappears. His chains sound effect also follows him when he does this.
- Necreph appears near the middle of rooms and hallways, so hug walls and corners to avoid accidentally walking into him if he appears in front of you.
- Do not use the tablet's fullscreen mode. It's more disorienting and makes it almost impossible to see the blue lever.
- In tomb variation 6, the tomb is bright enough from the skylight to be able to see without the need of a tablet.

Talgor
- It seems to be a popular misconception that talking makes him go away. This is not the case. Your microphone only slows him down and stops him. Do not just stand in front of him.
- Torches are still useful vs Talgor. He ABSORBS flames, not just extinguishes them. When he does so, the flames get visibly sucked into him, giving you a good idea of where he is.
- Nightvision is BAD against Talgor. He distorts it and the loss of saturation isn't as noticeable. Just walk around with a torch and flashlight, and when he's near (loud sound and greyscale colors), use the normal tablet vision to locate him.
- If you are consistently loud enough, Talgor will completely stop moving. In this stunned state, he loses his hitbox and you are safe to walk through him. Just keep making noise or he will regain his hitbox.
- The radio is inconsistently effective on Talgor. If you turn on a radio and drop it in Talgor's path, he will slow to a stop. When stopped, he will instantly disable the radio and then, in most cases, turn around and go in the opposite direction, even if you are standing right in front of him. However, Talgor sometimes decides to not turn around and will just keep chasing you. This seems to be caused by dropping the radio too close to Talgor. Get some distance, then drop the radio and let Talgor walk into it. 99/100 times, this results in Talgor turning around and going in the opposite direction. Using the radio in your hands also does nothing, you HAVE to drop it.
- Talgor actually has terrible vision. A lot of the time if you move just 45 degrees to the side (or even less sometimes) he loses you and forgets that you're there.

Ataimon
- You can blind Ataimon with the camera flash.
- Ataimon can get stuck on his Abominations.
- When stunned, he fully loses his hitbox and you can run through him.
- After recovering from a stun, flashlights will continue to flicker for a short time, during which he cannot be stunned again.

Ptahmes
- When staring at Ptahmes, the time he takes before he teleports and disorients you decreases with difficulty.
- Ptahmes' 'enrage' timer instantly resets when you look away. You can stare at him for as long as you want, as long as you occasionally look away for a microsecond.
- When Ptahmes is teleporting, always keep moving as he will always teleport close by.
- Use the camera to stun him and force him to teleport without getting disoriented when you need to see to look for jars or if you don't know where to go. If you know where you're going, you don't need to waste a picture.
- Small things like the bird pet or the swinging chain trap will still block your "vision" to Ptahmes if your crosshair is over it so that it counts as you not looking at him. Be careful when around these things.
- When arriving from a teleport, Ptahmes will make similar "squishy" gore sounds at his destination that he makes when initially teleporting. Use this sound to determine where he has teleported to in order to avoid accidentally running into him.

Example of VS all Mejai on brutal difficulty, locked chests

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRt7NEBDK6o

Maps

There are 6 unique tomb variations, 2 per variation. One is the 'tutorial' tomb, one has snakes, one has sand and spiders, one has water and crocodiles, one has abominations and nightmares and the final one has sand worms and a complex layout.
See my map guide for more info! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3032600639

The Blue Lever

- Don't go looking for the blue lever too early. The blue lever only appears when the mejai has spawned. You will know when this happens because you will hear a loud roar, and a gameplay hint (if they are turned on) will tell you the mejai has assumed physical form. The blue lever's location is determined by players' current positions at the time the mejai spawns, so that it's not too far away or too close. This logic can be manipulated by spreading players throughout the map.
- The mejai also does not "guard" the blue lever. It's just RNG where they path to, it's all in your head.
- The blue lever cannot spawn in "special" rooms. For example, TNT areas, trap puzzle rooms, or the entrances to / inside of the prison chamber and treasury. The only exception to this is the Spinning Spikes and Platforms Puzzle Room in tomb variation 6, where the blue lever can still spawn despite it seeming like a "special" room.

Getting Lost?

A good strategy to make sure you've explored 100% of the tomb is just following one wall. The only time this goes wrong is occasionally on the older tombs or commonly on Outdoor Ruin, where loops will spawn, meaning if you just hug one wall you will either never see the rooms inside of the loop or you'll be stuck inside the loop forever until you change walls.
For finding your way in TNT mazes, see my TNT maze guide! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3061502951

Ushabti Puzzles

REMINDER:

Things that are self explanatory and have no depth to them - things that have no special strategies or tips - will NOT be in this guide, as the title of the guide implies.
This includes simple puzzles such as the Sarcophagus Puzzle, or the Defenders of Sobek puzzle, as there are no special strategies or tactics.

Sliding Tile Puzzle

Use a circular motion to move a specific tile to where you want it to go. Focus on top three first. You only need to remember one algorithm and perform it twice.
To know how to solve ANY configuration of tiles easily, see my sliding tile puzzle guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3221816322

'Lights Out' Puzzle

In general, you should aim for the whole puzzle to become symmetrical and make symmetrical actions to solve it. For the easy method, you only need to light two rows and remember seven algorithms, two of which are just reversed versions.
To know how to solve ANY configuration of lights easily, see my 'lights out' guide here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3221798100

Light Ray Puzzle

The solution is always the same per tomb variation, so you can just remember it.
For all laser puzzle solutions, see my laser puzzle guide!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3063056075

Library

The idea that books "spawn in" over time or after you start placing books is MISINFORMATION. All books are there from the start and does not require you to do anything to "make them spawn".
There are ten books in total.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG4DfqcL-KY

Circular Rune Puzzle

The symbols do not need to be in the correct orientation exactly like the pages, they only need to be in the correct positions RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER.
This means you will only ever have to turn a maximum of two rings to solve it, because technically, at least one symbol is always already solved

Lava Tile Puzzle

If there's two of the same letter, look one letter ahead to see what it could lead to. There is only one true path.

Metallic Button Hunt

The best thing to do is sprint along the wall and look up and down fast to cover as much area as possible in a short time. The metal detector only needs to detect the buttons for them to instantly appear.

Memory Puzzle

A trick to do all three stages easily and quickly is what I call memory storage - being aware of your personal memory capacity and changing data types when you run out of space. Try to remember as many of the symbols as you can, commit them to memory, then convert the remaining symbols into numbers based on their location on the wall. Because of how human brains store data, it's way easier to store 5 words and 3 numbers than it is to store 8 words!
Of course, you don't have to convert them to numbers, you could convert them to anything, like colors or places. I'm pretty sure this is how people remember digits of pi or perform massive math equations.
I sometimes do another "conversion" after that to remember the last two even easier. For example, remembering the 1st and 6th animals would turn into "sweet 16", the 4th and 7th might be "agent 47", and the 4th and 2nd might be "the meaning of life" (hitchiker's guide) etc. You could even do this with the whole sequence and create a story out of it, similar to a mind palace. For example, I could remember the sequence of 471624 as "Agent 47 at his 16th birthday party discovered the opposite to the meaning of life". Converting groups of things you need to remember into stories or ideas like this is a great way to remember them.
Also, words like "bug" are easier to remember than "scarab" or "beetle".

Directional Head Puzzle

The direction of north may differ, but the orientation the heads needs to be in is always the same. The order is Baboon (monkey), Anubis (jackal), Pharaoh (human) and Horus (falcon) for north, east, south and west respectively.

Extras

- You actually do not need to time pulling levers together. You can spam the lever and hold it up.

- Taking a picture of a dead teammate or the mejai's Sah or Shut form does nothing. This is not Phasmophobia.

- Lore pages and rare artifacts CANNOT spawn inside the inner tomb, however, levers and chests can.

- There is ALWAYS at least one rare artifact in every map. There is a very high chance for two (which is the maximum) to spawn, even on small maps.

- In the windowed room with the relic collection, there are 10 shelves for up to 50 Ushabtis. They are not map dependant, you just get a random Ushabti each time. Ushabtis also do not get reset when prestiging.

- Make sure to prestige when at least around 38,000 gold to get most of your equipment back to level V, besides from non-essentials, after prestiging. Here are exact gold values:
Essentials: 34,965g - Everything minus Smart Watch, Marker Flags, Timer, Divining Rod, and Hierodex
Essentials + Watch: 36,745g - If you play multiplayer and you want to upgrade the smart watch, it costs 1780g more
ALL EQUIPMENT: 45,825g

I have found the best way of farming is first doing 7 games to collect relics, then all you need to do is farm gold and treasure on a small map without bothering with the mejai.
- First, do seven games on Nekhbet Chasm, brutal, small. The modifiers you need are at least Spirit Interaction Frequency: Low, Locked Chests: On. These 7 games are mostly just for the relics.
- Then when all relics are collected, go to Cursed Sand Ruins, brutal, small. The modifiers you need are basically every single option that gives you a bonus - Medkits: Off, Blessing of Osiris: Off, Spirit Interaction Frequency: Low, Locked Chests: On, Starting HP: 1. You should be at a 65% bonus. When you load in, get something for light and the camera, metal detector, tablet and TNT. Speedrun picking up all of the gold, treasure and lore pages, using the equipment for spike trap rooms, invisible bridge rooms and TNT rooms. You can use the camera to take bonus pictures of bodies, mummies, hieroglyphs etc. Then GET OUT as fast as you can and leave without the relic.
I've found this gets you around 1,000-1,500 every 3 minutes, which I think is the fastest way to farm.
Using this method, it takes me about 1 hour 50 minutes to get the 45,825g required for all equipment.

- There are prestige icons up to prestige 30, after which you will have the same icon.

- It currently takes 33 points to buy everything from the point store.

[AveryHyena]

@leslie.drew Nope, you're wrong. Sorry. but I already know everything.
I left them out of the guide because this guide is for "Lesser Known Tricks & Strats", not "Every ushabti puzzle explained".
Things that are self explanatory and have no depth to them: things that have no special strats or tips, will NOT be in this guide.

[leslie.drew]

The remaining new puzzles I know of but you have yet to mention (I know it is because you haven't encountered them yet so I'll just try my best and give out less information on the puzzle so it won't be spoiled for you.)

are the "constellation puzzle", the "snake statue" puzzle and the "rotating wheel" puzzle.

[AveryHyena]

@Greenmovie13 It appears dependent on your viewmodel, not worldmodel. Unless it is on your hip, in which case it uses the worldmodel hitbox and acts as though it's on the ground on in a vr player's hands.

[Greenmovie13]

does the range of the torch depend on what you see client-side or does it depend on what anyone else sees? the animations swing in different directions depending on your perspective