[Guide] How to counter the new Onyro
Hello all, i see a lot of confusion going around with how the new sadako is being received. either shes really strong, really weak, balanced, etc. and i just wanted to help everybody understand how to counter the new sadako as she works entirely different now then how she did before. This guide should also help players perspectives on her current state of balance too! Without further ado, lets get into it.
Cursed Tapes
The most common issue players are having right now is her cursed tapes. everybody is complaining of the fact that they are getting condemned WAY faster than before, in which i have to say, thats why the rework happened. the rework was supposed to make condemned become faster to apply so survivors would have to interact with her power more often. the best way to counter her cursed tapes is to simply, at the start of a trial, just grab a tape from a turned on tv. i know what you may be thinking, "oreoslurpee, why would i take a tape if its cursed and apart of what makes her stronger?" well i will tell you my friend, it quite actually works as a protection for survivors.
the change the developers have made is where Projection (the power where she travels through a TV) grants 3/4ths (0.75 stacks) of condemned to every survivor on the map. meaning Condemn from a TV covers 188 square tiles of a map aka globally. theres also a change implemented Post-PTB where if your holding a tape and sadako hits you, it breaks the tape instantly and you receive 2 whole stacks of condemn. however, it comes with a HUGE downside. if you hold a tape, you will quite literally NEVER receive condemn stacks unless you put the tape back in a TV or if you get hit, and you no longer passively gain condemn. you should almost always retrieve a tape from a TV at the start of a trial since sadako cannot use her power for about 30 seconds at the beginning of a trial, and since you have a tape, you are protected from receiving condemned.
Also a quick note to add for players who might not know this, you CANNOT retrieve a cursed tape from a turned off TV.
Manifestation
A Manifested sadako is just a normal M1 killer as any other M1 killer could be, she doesn't have any special anti-loop mechanics, and actually the recent nerf to Reiko's Watch has nerfed her chase potential by a long mile! There's not much to counter Manifest as all you have to do is loop her, but De-Manifest is something thats very much counterable.
De-Manifestation
A De-Manifested Sadako is VERY easy to counter, as she cannot hit you. However, be cautious of her at least a tiny bit as she CAN phase through you and trick you! But while shes De-Manifested, shes awfully weak. Not many players know this, but she has something called a Lullaby, there are a few Killers who have this who consist of The Huntress, The Nightmare, and The Trickster. A Lullaby, simply put, is the quiet melody you hear when the killer is near, but not yet in their terror radius yet. in De-Manifestation, Sadako doesn't have a terror radius but instead has a Lullaby, which for players like me that use the heartbeat visual in the Accessibility options, it puts a red cloud with a black center of your character indicating the killer is near. This completely nullifies Sadako as a Stealth killer as other Stealth killers don't have a Lullaby. The Stealth killers are consisting of The Ghostface, The Shape, The Onyro, The Shape, The Wraith and The Pig. Everybody in that list besides The Onyro don't have lullabies because a Lullaby on a Stealth killer makes no sense right? as it would alert the survivors of where the killer is? yeah i dont know why sadako has one since shes supposed to be a Stealth killer, but use it to your advantage so you can gain knowledge on if shes near you!
Also take into notice now that she both loses bloodlust and she cant be stunned by a pallet in De-Manifest!!!! If she loses bloodlust, she loses all that chase potential she could've had against you so use it to your advantage to go to another loop since whenever she is in the process of Manifesting or De-Manifesting, she gets slowed to a speed of 3.68m/s down from her normal 4.6. its also funny how her phasing makes her slower than the nurse, but thats a topic for a different day. Since she can't be stunned while De-Manifested, and she moves slower while phasing, you should almost always drop a pallet on her so you can become separated from the sadako meaning you can gain distance while shes breaking the pallet (potentially). Use loops to your advantage against her as the sadako player would most likely be trying to use mind games with her power.
Projection
The recent changes to Projection actually make her map pressure quite better since she can apply condemn to survivors globally, if they aren't holding tapes. her TV's turned off by Projection turn back on after 45 seconds have passed, and if you put a tape in a TV it turns off that TV for a duration of 70 seconds instead. Projection now also puts her TV Travel on a 10 second cooldown, so make sure to count down in your head every time she teleports! Also, a good note to pass by is that a turned on TV usually has a screen of static. That changes to the glitchy faces survivors see because the TVs change to that whenever a survivor is near the TV, giving the Sadako player free information on if a survivor is near her.
Besides that, there's not much to say about Projection really, but make sure to keep ahold of a cursed tape so you don't receive global condemn!!
That is how you counter the new Onyro for players who are still having trouble going against her, I really hope this helps people understand going against her better!
also make sure to check out the new guide One Pump Willie released
Comments
Biggest problem at the moment is that there is never a TV to get a tape from when you need one. Even if you take one at the beginning with very high chance you have to return it sometime and get another 1.
I've died to the fact that i could not find tv while doing circles on the map since other survivors + Sadako were closing them.
EVERY “how to counter” guide is a novel long, maybe even longer. i wanted to go in depth through her entire kit, that’s why i added de-manifest and manifest. i didn’t HAVE to, but i CHOSE to so people can learn how to counter every aspect of her kit whether it’s before or after. after all, with your point, i could’ve just said “just grab a tape at the start of a match and hold onto it, if you get medium condemned or higher than grab a tape and put it in TV” and that would mean the rework MUST be a success since it’s not a novel long.
Yeah, I died to a Sadako very quickly last night because I couldn't find a tape early (we all spawned on the same side of the map and my teammates snapped them up).
Also, grabbing a tape is only part of the solution because if she is running the iri tape add-on and mother's comb, she can see when you take a tape, and you can only leave the tape in one particular TV (like it was before), and the tape is destroyed if she hits you. If the player is even decent, this makes the new condemned strat pretty mindless to execute.
Sadako is probably my most played killer, and I have never played for condemnation (I keep in mind, and if it happens it happens, but I don't strategize around it),but while it didn't fully see it at first, this is almost too easy to do unless you're facing a coordinated SWF.
i find it so funny how their goal was to strive her away from iri tape, but they made it even MORE of a must to have addon lmao