Phantom tips: how to hide your cursed shape
As the Phantom, you are a ghost with one job: hide your cursed shape and protect it until time runs out. Your first few rounds feel hard because up to six Workers are looking for one object. These are the habits that keep a shape safe longer, all based on how the game works.
1. Copy the room, not your favorite colors
A bright shape in a dull room is found in seconds. In the Shape Designer (Tab), use Pick from world to copy a color straight off a nearby wall, shelf or counter. If you want a shortcut, the Cloner turns a real prop on the map into your shape. It only works during a round, and the host can switch it off.
In your first 2 Phantom rounds, the designer also offers 3 ready-made disguises for your shape on the current map. They are a good way to learn what blends in.
2. Put it where an object belongs
Workers do not scan every inch. They look for things that seem wrong. A box on a shelf is normal. The same box floating near a ceiling lamp is not. Place your shape where a real object of that kind would sit, with its face looking into open air (the game requires that).
The game also checks that your spot is fair. Part of the shape must be visible from places Workers can stand. So the goal is not a spot nobody can see. The goal is a spot nobody thinks twice about.
3. Guard it, but stay hidden
You can stay near your shape and watch who comes close. While you fly, Workers cannot see you. They can see you when you sit on a seat or prop, or while you drag your shape, so do not sit right next to it when a Worker walks in. Use what you see to pick your next trick.
4. Move when nobody is close
Move Shape drags your shape to a new spot up to 9 m from where you first placed it, once every 35 seconds. It screeches, so Workers nearby hear it, and they can see you while you drag. Use it when the team is busy in another part of the map, or right after their Scanner pointed at your old spot.
5. Save the Shape Cloak for the close calls
The Shape Cloak makes your shape invisible once a round, for 15 percent of the search and never more than 20 seconds. It cannot start in the last 45 seconds. The Cloak has fair tells: the shape still blocks Workers who walk into it, it shimmers when a Worker is very close, and the Scanner still finds it. It works best when a Worker is looking at your spot from across the room, not when they are standing on top of it.
6. Make the Workers argue
Your mic is off until your Hunt starts, but you still have ways to fool the Workers. The Echo Mimic replays a Worker's voice from a nearby spot you choose, which can pull a curious Worker away. If you picked it at the lockers, a Fake Marker plants a fake team mark on the wrong object. Workers who look closely see it flash red three times when it appears, so use it when they are busy.
The Signal Jammer, another locker pick, makes a zone where the Scanner fails. Remember that a Worker who reads SIGNAL INTERFERENCE knows something is nearby, so do not put the zone right on top of your shape.
7. Hunt far from your shape
Press H when a Hunt is ready. The Hunt gives you a compass to the nearest Worker, so go find them. Guarding is fine the rest of the round, but during a Hunt, if you stay within 7 m of your own shape for about 5 seconds, you turn to stone and the Hunt ends. Every Worker you catch is one fewer Worker who can confirm your shape.
Watch out for Ghost Salt, the Phantom Cage and Bob in the Box. All three still work on you during a Hunt. If Bob pulls you in during a Hunt, press H 3 times to break free. A cage stops your strikes, but your Hunt clock keeps running.
How you win
You win when the search time runs out, when every Worker is caught, or when the last Worker leaves during the search. You do not need to catch anyone. A shape that is never confirmed is enough.
For every number, read the Phantom page, All Tools and The Hunt. Playing the other side? Read Worker tips.