Lights, doors & noise: civilian defense fundamentals

Civilian defense runs on three systems you already understand from being a person in a house at night: lights, doors, and noise. The v2 research sharpened all three — including demoting one "rule" to an honest trade-off.

Lights: every switch, including the bathroom

Keep every light on. Not most — every, and the guides that read this off gameplay specifically call out the bathroom, because any dark room lets Michael Shape Jump in through its windows and doors. A house that's lit except one closet has a service entrance for the Boogeyman.

The escalation to understand: Michael can switch off a power line or destroy it — and destroying is strictly better for him, because a destroyed line needs a repair kit while a switched line just flips back. When your block goes dark, check which happened before promising the team light: flippable is seconds, destroyed is a scarce item.

While he's invisible in transit, street lights flicker as he moves through them — and while invisible-but-lit he shows as a black arrow on your minimap. Reported The tells are covered in depth in countering Shape Jump.

Doors: the honest trade-off

Locking doors behind you is standard beginner advice — and the mechanic is real: locked doors force noisy entries in lit houses. But the v2 correction matters:

Locked out yourself? Look for the open window or back door — but know that window dives cost health for most characters (regenerating if the loss is under a quarter), while sturdy characters like Laurie dive free.

Noise: the two-way channel

• Your noise finds you. Sprinting and slamming through quiet houses broadcasts to a hunter with first-person ears. Move calm near danger; spend loud actions when he's provably elsewhere. (Tripping is also real — there's a perk against it.)
• His noise warns you. Door breaks, screams, a block going dark: the map narrates Michael. Call it in voice chat.
• Forged noise moves him. TVs and radios pull him across the map for free — the whole decoy discipline is at noise decoys.

The house-clearing rhythm

1. 01

   Enter, listen, light. Two seconds at the threshold, then every switch — yes, the bathroom.

2. 02

   Sweep with your exit mapped. Warn residents, loot, and know your window before you need it.

3. 03

   Lock what you're defending, not what you're fleeing through. Doors buy time where you'll stand and cost time where you'll run.