Babysitter should ignore Undetectable.
When someone says something in a game "hard-counters" something else, that usually means it overpowers the strengths of that thing to such a degree that it's basically useless to the player using it.
Undetectable does not hard-counter Babysitter. Against a stealth Killer, Babysitter is not useless.
Babysitter is a hindrance.
People like to say Babysitter is a weak Perk, but I disagree. I simply feel it to be niche. Most "altruistic" Perks in this game don't actually encourage real altruism; they just encourage being helpful to your team. Healing people, unhooking, et cetera is not "altruism". Altruism is a concern for others based not solely in kindness, but selflessness. Throwing yourself into the line of fire is altruism. And as far as Perks go, I'd say that Babysitter is the most altruistic Perk in the entire game. It is for a playstyle that not many people grasp or enjoy, but that is not to say it is a bad Perk. Sure, it's overshadowed by pseudo-altruistic Perks like Borrowed Time and We'll Make It, but that isn't to say it is in and of itself a bad Perk. It's not. If you like being truly altruistic and can pull it off, in my honest opinion, Babysitter is B to A tier.
And it's not unbalanced, either. The Killer loses pressure on the unhooked Survivor, sure, but it is not a free getaway for everyone involved. The rescuer throws themselves at the Killer, distracting them so that the unhooked person can make a quick escape. The Killer is, quite literally, handed a Survivor to chase, down, and hook, and the only loss of pressure is based on how good the rescuer is at being chased—in other words, the Perk's value is based on the skill of the person who uses it.
In my opinion, this makes Babysitter not only one of the most altruistic Perks in the game, but also one of the most balanced. It requires not only awareness of when to unhook so that the Survivor being rescued can make use of the lack of scratch marks and blood to actually avoid the Killer instead of just getting tunneled right off the hook, but if the Killer does come back, it is up to the Survivor who used it being good at the game to keep the Killer from getting more pressure off of a quick chase and hook. If the Killer decides not to tunnel, the aura-reading the rescuer gets is brief, but it provides the Survivor with the proper information they need to make a good judgment of what to do next. Should they put distance between themselves and the Killer? Do they have that option? What about the unhooked person? Are they safe enough to be healed, or do they need to travel somewhere else to avoid getting attacked? The Perk's usefulness is reflective of the user's game sense and ability to loop. Its usefulness scales up with your skill. It is indicative of how good you are at your job as an altruistic Survivor.
The Undetectable status effect takes all that balance and flings it out the window.
This works in multiple steps. First of all, the lack of seeing the Killer's aura erases the incredibly valuable information that the rescuer (to whom from now on we will refer to as "Steve" for brevity) receives from activating the Perk. This severely clouds their ability to judge where the Killer is, meaning that not only can they not make a decision of what to do with the knowledge that they are safe, but this also means that they cannot locate the Killer to head towards and subsequently distract them to buy the unhooked person (whom we'll call "Nancy") an opportunity to escape—the primary purpose of the Perk. By cancelling out this information, the Undetectable status effect cancels out Babysitter's entire existence.
So, Steve has been essentially cursed with an empty Perk slot when he activates Babysitter against a stealth Killer. By the subjective standard I defined above, the Undetectable status effect "hard-counters" Babysitter. This is already problematic as a Perk that is, in my opinion, as well-balanced as Babysitter shouldn't be cancelled out by the mere existence of certain Killers. However, the issue does not end there.
I have not been given the opportunity to test this out since Babysitter first hit the live servers, and I have never been lucky enough to get a Babysitter user while playing a stealth Killer, but as far as I know, the only change Babysitter has received since its release is telling Nancy that they are receiving its benefits. With that in mind, I am convinced this second problem still exists: the problem that turns using Babysitter against a stealth Killer from a useless Perk into an abject hindrance.
Despite the fact that Steve cannot see the Killer's aura while Undetectable is active, the Killer can still see his.
This is what makes the Perk counter-intuitive against stealth Killers. By removing the ability for Steve to see the Killer's aura, his ability to fling himself at the Killer for Nancy's sake is already severely limited or, most likely, near-impossible to reliably do. This issue is worsened when the Killer realizes that Steve is using Babysitter, because chance are if Nancy realizes that Steve has Babysitter as well (which she should, since the game informs her as such), and sees Steve running to some random direction rather than following her, she is going to run the other way, as that is where Nancy is led to believe the Killer is located, and Steve is distracting them as it is too unsafe for them to stop and heal. However, Steve does not actually know where the Killer is, and is instead making the best guess he could. The Killer, however, knows exactly where Steve is—and with the knowledge that Steve has Babysitter, the Killer can easily infer that Nancy went the other way.
Bam. The biggest problem with the Babysitter vs. Undetectable issue. Not only does Undetectable prevent Steve from reliably using his Perk to protect Nancy, but rather, it actually makes it easier for the Killer to find and tunnel her. To the extent described above, Babysitter accomplishes the exact opposite effect intended in its design. The mere existence of a stealth Killer in the lobby causes the Perk to go from a balanced, altruistic Perk, reflective of Steve's skill, to an RNG-based guessing game on Steve's part that will at best allow the Perk to work as intended in a much clunkier, less tactful way, and will at worst turn Babysitter on its head and cause it to completely and utterly backfire.
No one likes RNG. No one likes being disallowed to help their team when they wish to be altruistic. No one likes their skill not being reflective of the performance of their kit. No one likes having their build rendered utterly useless or a downright hindrance by the simple fact that their opponent just so happened to choose a certain character that they could not have anticipated.
Undetectable against Babysitter has all of these in spades.
I think this is wholly unfair. Babysitter is, as I've said numerous times, a well-balanced and skill-based Perk that encourages the incredibly rare playstyle of true altruism instead of the pseudo-altruistic, blindly benevolent actions of similar Perks. For a simple status effect brought about by Perks or, in the vast majority of cases, the baseline effects of a Killer's kit is, in my opinion, silly, unreasonable, and just another reason not to run this Perk over Borrowed or WMI or something of the sort.
It is with all this in mind that I staunchly believe that Babysitter should read the Killer's aura in all scenarios, regardless of the presence of the Undetectable status effect. It will not destroy stealth Killers as its aura-reading is only active when the singular Survivor utilizing it fully intends to throw themselves at the Killer. They cannot use it to avoid the Killer at all, and even if they could, they should not, as that is a dramatically suboptimal usage of the Perk. Basically, the Killer's stealth is irrelevant because the Survivor wants to be found. A lesser-used or lower-tier stealth Killer such as Wraith or Pig will not have their existences ruined by Babysitter's ability to see them in stealth mode. Considering the nature of Babysitter, the Killer will want to be seen so that Steve can find them and the Killer can be given a chase.
TL;DR: Undetectable causes Babysitter, a fair and balanced Perk, to do the exact opposite of what it was designed to do.
Comments
I don't think I've actually used babysitter outside of adept lol
Babysitter is trash. It's too situational at the moment with unhooks happening either in the killers line of sight or way too far from the killer to get any use. And even if you get it to work the killer can understand how to counteract you using it. If they want you now they know exactly where you moved to. If they want the unhooked person they just have to go the opposite direction you went to most likely find them (there is some slight mindgame possibility with this as survivor).
Perk Rating: Top of the F tier
And calm spirit counters spies from the shadows
Iron maiden counters the locker healing perk
Bt soft counters endgame unhooked downs
Object of obsession used to counter stealth killers entire existance
Distortion counters bbq and all aura reading perks/addons
A lot of things counter each other babysitter isnt really a special case since besodes T1 myers stealth killers arent always ising their stealth ability. Pigs are far less efficient if they crouch everywhere, demogorgon is only undetectable when using a portal (i assume i dont own them). Wraiths have to be cloaked for their speed boost but cant hurt you without the uncloak headstart.
I know you find babysitter suboptimal against stealth killers but that would just make it diet old object of obsession which good loopers wanted the killer to know where they are so they could waste their time.
I use Babysitter regularly and I will re-state what I said in the original post: Much like Oni, old Freddy, and Ghostface, Babysitter has the potential to be great, but only if you know how to use it, which the vast majority of people don't.
"It's too situational at the moment with unhooks happening either in the killers line of sight or way too far from the killer to get any use."
"If they want you now they know exactly where you moved to."
That is literally the point of the Perk.
" If they want the unhooked person they just have to go the opposite direction you went to most likely find them"
If they can pull this off, then you didn't throw yourself at the Killer hard enough. If you see the Killer trying to go for the unhooked person by judging their position relative to your aura, you tackle them head-on and either goad them into chasing you or bodyblock them, slowing them down until they hit you, which further slows them down, buying the Survivor the chance to fully utilize their missing scratch marks/blood pools and then some.
"And calm spirit counters spies from the shadows"
You know what it doesn't counter? Leaving sprint marks, which you are likely doing if you aren't crouch-walking past birds to avoid setting them off without the aid of a Perk.
"Iron maiden counters the locker healing perk"
Only if the Killer is already right there and can actually hit you in that measly 15-second Exposed timer. If you're any kind of distance from them or you have Head On, it does no such thing.
"Bt soft counters endgame unhooked downs"
BT is also a broken, abusable mess that should be nerfed.
"Object of obsession used to counter stealth killers entire existance"
Exactly, and it got nerfed to not do that—only it still lights up against stealth Killers without showing their aura, so if you know what you're doing, the nerf is much more minor than it seems.
"Distortion counters bbq and all aura reading perks/addons"
3 individual times, after which it becomes an entirely empty Perk slot.
"A lot of things counter each other babysitter isnt really a special case since besodes T1 myers stealth killers arent always ising their stealth ability. Pigs are far less efficient if they crouch everywhere, demogorgon is only undetectable when using a portal (i assume i dont own them). Wraiths have to be cloaked for their speed boost but cant hurt you without the uncloak headstart."
"I know you find babysitter suboptimal against stealth killers but that would just make it diet old object of obsession which good loopers wanted the killer to know where they are so they could waste their time."
I like this idea. Babystiier is not a strong perk, and it still wouldnt be strong even after that buff, but this change would certainly make it better.
Its one of those perks that cannot be abused, so breaking stealth shouldnt be an issue.
On top of the change you mentioned, I think the unhooked survivor should also see the killer's aura so they know exactly where they should run (or if they should run at all) instead of trying to run the opposite way where the Babysitter is going.
Man that's a lot of words and im a little messed up but i will say this, Baby sitter sucks not because its a bad perk, but because borrowed time exist. Thats a god tier perk and it makes other perks ######### by comparison
See but my issue is if you get unhooked, and the killer is far enough away not to just turn around and see ######### is going on, the killer is probably already doing something else! And guess what, could've had a BT and actually did something. IDK maybe im just a dumbass but i really feel like theres no justification to running it over borrowed time because BT is really OP. What if BS (lol) made it so you could take a free hit instead of them, like a reverse BT? That way you could use it to body block. I would obviously have to be for a very short time tho
The perk isn’t as good as you’re saying it is, I would rather run We’ll Make It, at least I can heal my teammate and give them a better chance on surviving than relying on “no scratch marks”. We’ll Make It last for 60 seconds so if the killer does find and slug the injured survivor, I can revive them