How in the world does one actually loop??

LordRegal

So, to preface this: I've got about a thousand hours in the game, been playing since 2017, between Hag and Doctor. I prefer killer, but I do play roughly 50/50 since I find survivor less stressful. I've had 100% achievements two separate times and hope to eventually get back there again (some of the deathslinger's chapter's achievements are awful!), so I've played the game enough to have been rank 1 on both sides, earned every adept there is to earn...

And I can't loop. I cannot do it. I'm so, so bad at it I look boosted 99/100 times playing survivor if I get into chases. Normally this wouldn't bother me, but the "be chased for 300 seconds" challenge has revealed just how god-awful I am at this mechanic. I'm good at not being found, I'm good at intelligent, smart plays around the killer, and if it's a killer who can't be looped, I'm automatically a better survivor. Deathslingers and Spirits I can keep busy for a while, and Nurses unless they're gods I'm able to run them long enough to make them give up (due to the fact I mained Nurse the first year I played and all her weaknesses are extremely exacerbated by the nerfs she got a while back). Huntress...I'm not great against, but I blame the fact her song actually does something to me psychologically, I can't play as her or against her more than a couple times a night without my mood just tanking.

But a basic M1 killer? I'm going down, and I'm going down fast. It's just not something I've ever been good at and not something I've ever felt like I've gotten better at. A Deathslinger today eventually just gave up trying to shoot me and ran and M1ed me, that ended the chase in no time at all, and this was a rank 1 Deathslinger so I'd like to think he wasn't terrible.

I can't do it. Never figured it out. For a long time I didn't care to figure it out because I hated doing it as a killer. It's not fun for me as a killer to run in a circle and have that be the best strategy. But ever since the emblem system, it became clear that losing a chase, and preferably never getting into a chase, isn't the way the game is "meant" to be played. Which means when it's one of the 16 killers that the answer is to loop, I currently don't end with anything above bronze chaser because I simply can't get in a chase if I'm going to survive. I know it's strong, I know it's the "best thing you can do to waste the killer's time" but it just has never made sense to me or worked.

I'm currently red ranks after coming back this reset to green survivor/killer (took a break) so clearly I'm still capable of surviving alright and being an asset to the team, but when it comes to what has become such a "core" component of the game...I'm a level 1 Dwight. What the heck am I missing that makes looping such a powerful tool?

drimmalor

Looping is much more than just running around a pallet and dropping it when the killer gets close. A lot of it comes with experience, and it will take time to get good at it, but there's a lot of factors that many people don't consider when it comes to looping:

1. Running the loop tightly. If you're taking a wide path around the loop and not hugging the wall, you're losing the mathematical advantage that a killer could take advantage of. This could easily add an extra loop if done correctly - practice running against the wall in such a way that you still have the same speed (i.e. not running directly perpendicular to the wall, of course) but aren't taking corners wide. Think of it like drawing the smallest shape you can around the wall.
2. Running the loop the best direction. Know where windows spawn in tiles, and run in directions that favor fast vaults. That's basic stuff I'm sure you know already. Approach loops with a plan, and an idea of where you want to go next. The loop doesn't stop when you get to your destination, because eventually you'll have to use it up and go somewhere else. For example, if you're running towards a loop in the corner of the map, approach it so that when you run through the pallet, you're going back towards the center of the map. That's where tiles, and other loops, are. If you get "trapped" in the corner after dropping the pallet, you'll lose a lot of distance that you could make on the killer.
3. Deciding when to get hit. Conserving pallets will up your loop game immensely, especially if you get to the point where you know which pallets are worth saving for emergencies only. Sometimes, it's better to take a hit and use the speed boost to go to a different tile rather than wasting a good pallet that could be used later in a better situation. This topic is a lot more nuanced than this brief write-up, and I could write so much more about it if you would want more insight into it.
4. Chaining tiles. This is closely related to running loops in the best direction, but is more of a macro-knowledge concept. Identifying when you can run to a different tile during a loop safely to utilize a window or pallet that isn't necessarily in that same spot is something I rarely see. Most survivors will find a pallet and attach to it, even if it's not the safest loop. Judging the distance you have from the killer, and capitalizing on distance to run further away before dedicating to a loop, will make a huge difference.

There's so much more to looping than these 4 things I could come up with right now, especially once you have to consider what the killer is doing - if they're mindgaming, switching directions, or if they also know how to counter everything I just mentioned. Killers ultimately control the direction of the loop, but in the case that you as a survivor get to decide, it's good to know what I mentioned above.

(Sorry if it's a bit long-winded, I've put a lot of thought into looping concepts!)

LordRegal

@drimmalor said:

Looping is much more than just running around a pallet and dropping it when the killer gets close. A lot of it comes with experience, and it will take time to get good at it, but there's a lot of factors that many people don't consider when it comes to looping:

1. Running the loop tightly. If you're taking a wide path around the loop and not hugging the wall, you're losing the mathematical advantage that a killer could take advantage of. This could easily add an extra loop if done correctly - practice running against the wall in such a way that you still have the same speed (i.e. not running directly perpendicular to the wall, of course) but aren't taking corners wide. Think of it like drawing the smallest shape you can around the wall.
2. Running the loop the best direction. Know where windows spawn in tiles, and run in directions that favor fast vaults. That's basic stuff I'm sure you know already. Approach loops with a plan, and an idea of where you want to go next. The loop doesn't stop when you get to your destination, because eventually you'll have to use it up and go somewhere else. For example, if you're running towards a loop in the corner of the map, approach it so that when you run through the pallet, you're going back towards the center of the map. That's where tiles, and other loops, are. If you get "trapped" in the corner after dropping the pallet, you'll lose a lot of distance that you could make on the killer.
3. Deciding when to get hit. Conserving pallets will up your loop game immensely, especially if you get to the point where you know which pallets are worth saving for emergencies only. Sometimes, it's better to take a hit and use the speed boost to go to a different tile rather than wasting a good pallet that could be used later in a better situation. This topic is a lot more nuanced than this brief write-up, and I could write so much more about it if you would want more insight into it.
4. Chaining tiles. This is closely related to running loops in the best direction, but is more of a macro-knowledge concept. Identifying when you can run to a different tile during a loop safely to utilize a window or pallet that isn't necessarily in that same spot is something I rarely see. Most survivors will find a pallet and attach to it, even if it's not the safest loop. Judging the distance you have from the killer, and capitalizing on distance to run further away before dedicating to a loop, will make a huge difference.

There's so much more to looping than these 4 things I could come up with right now, especially once you have to consider what the killer is doing - if they're mindgaming, switching directions, or if they also know how to counter everything I just mentioned. Killers ultimately control the direction of the loop, but in the case that you as a survivor get to decide, it's good to know what I mentioned above.

(Sorry if it's a bit long-winded, I've put a lot of thought into looping concepts!)

Thank you very much for that, I'm a little blown away by how in depth this is! Really, really appreciate it. 1 is one I know I need to be better at, but seeing it in concrete terms helps a lot. 2, 3, and 4...I understand at a conceptual level, at a practical level...I'm very much going to need to put a good chunk of time into learning that stuff, as none of it is intuitive to me at all.

This is, retroactively thinking, a good reminder for myself that what I as a killer get so frustrated at for being "easy"...isn't, so much. Not really. There's a lot to it and it's a lot more complex than it looks. Just a little daunting to have to learn it for real in red ranks.