Solo the seemingly impossible
The delightful horrors of GTFO are generally best shared with others. Sometimes, though, you’ve just gotta go it alone…
The idea of a solo Rundown may seem panic-inducing at first. After all, the odds are stacked wildly against you, even with a full team. It’s not impossible, though, especially when you’re armed with these eight essential tips.
1. How to go it Alone
You’ll need to avoid all matchmaking and disable bots to play GTFO solo. On the Rundown screen, pick the level you want, then hold on ‘host lobby’. Click on the red text beneath each bot and change their status to ‘locked’. Now you’re ready to drop the cage solo!
2. The Right Tools for the Job
When you’re rolling with a two, three or four-player squad, there’s a lot of potential for loadout variety. Rolling solo, though, it’s worth sticking to the kind of tools that offer the best chance of success. Try the machine pistol and shotgun with a mine deployer. The shotgun and mine deployer let you set traps and clear choke points with relative ease – and the machine pistol will make handy work of stragglers. Plus, the hammer is a popular melee weapon pick for its one-shot Sleeper dispatching ability.
3. Practice Makes Perfect
Sure, GTFO randomizes enemy placements and tools, but Rundown layouts are the same. Do an initial solo scouting run and give yourself permission to die (because you almost certainly will). This way you can get a feel for the layout (including probable locker and crate spots), objectives, chokepoints, and potential problem points for your solo Rundown.
4. Play It Secret, Play It Safe
Managing health and ammo is critical to success. Avoid combat at all costs. If possible, find paths that let you move past enemies without alerting them. If you do have to go loud, funnel enemies into a chokepoint (like a doorway or corridor) for easier-to-manage frags.
5. Put Sleepers Into Perma-sleep… Quietly
Sleepers are the main enemy type in GTFO. They’re creepy but unthreatening in their namesake state. But wake one up and they’ll rouse their flesh-hungry friends. You really don’t want that, especially not when you’re in the middle of creeping through a room. Practice melee-ing two Sleepers in quick succession. Bonus points if you can get it to three Sleepers.
6. Shine a Light on Your Issues
Get used to creeping around a lot in the dark in GTFO. If you’re looking to solo, you may already know that shining a flashlight on a Sleeper can aggro them. But it’s also a critical tool. Flick your flashlight on and off near out-of-sync Sleepers to synchronize their alert states. Now creep in for the (quiet) kill.
7. Widen Your Perspective
If you find that you’re getting flanked by foes you didn’t see, consider upping the field of view (FOV). By default, the vertical FOV is set to 55, which is roughly 85 horizontal FOV on a typical 16:9 monitor. Bumping the FOV to between 63 and 73 is a good middle-ground for peripheral view with enemies that don’t look too tiny.
8. Remember the Name of the Game
If all else fails, run away! This game is called GTFO for a reason. Kiting enemies so they bunch up for easier frags is a very viable strat – and an essential survival skill.
See what you are made of with GTFO, available via Steam.
