What is the survivor obsession with pallet blinds?
This perplexes me because in many games it seems like an obsession that the only thing that matters is to blind at a pallet and because you blind me at a pallet you are now going to lose the game.
If you throw the pallet and i start to kick and you blind or you blind before i kick you have literally achieved nothing.
I am already locked into an animation for the majority of the blind and you have not moved for a portion of that either. by the time the break animation has ended there is barely any blind left and i already am going to know what the other possible and likely routes are on the other side of the pallet as well as i can both hear you and have game knowledge to come out of the blind right on your back literally well over 90% of the time. in the last 100 pallet blind i can honestly say i have not lost a single chase or even lost more than 1 second or so of chase momentum by any pallet blind.
you could have just made distance. but there seems to be this weird thing where if a surv has a flashlight they think they HAVE to use it at every opportunity.
pallet blinds are a waste of your item on any killer whos somewhat experienced at the game.
I just had a game where 3 of the 4 survs had flashlights and EVERY SINGLE PALLET they would pallet blind and then they would be down because of it when they could have gained an entire new loop if they just didnt do that.
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They're trying to be a distraction, not necessarily trying to get away and lose you. Keep you focused on them while team does gens, makes saves/heals, find hex totem, etc.
Rift challenges, old tome challenges, or achievements that require blinding the killer. Easiest way to get those blinds is at pallet while killer is in animation so can't look away. One of those times where a player will basically throw just to complete the challenge/achievement.
Or they watched some content creator video where they blinded the killer a bunch and are trying to recreate it but lack the skill/game sense to be as successful.
i didnt think about the quests. ive never really done them as they dont interest me so i didnt think of that. It does seem to have had a dramatic increase lately and with flashlight users in general and i do think it would be pleasant if the flashlight meta chilled down a tiny bit
It's fun.
It is annoying and invites the killer to chase them and get distracted. You can try faking the pallet break, and/or going around, and/or try short swinging when they camp a pallet. Or simply ignore them and find someone else. Sometimes I shake my head a few times and they understand… and eventually their flashlight will run out - good luck!
theres no reason to fake it or avoid it because them blinding you is an action that means you have a higher chance of downing them than if they didnt and had continued to work the loop or go chain the next one.
when you pallet blind me i have a good chance of hitting you before you hit the chained loop as where i wouldnt if i had to move all the way around a rock and then spend 8 seconds chasing you down then you hit the next loop and repeat.
Personally I am not that good at following while blind, but I've had it plenty of times where I looked to the side, avoided the blind and then caught them off guard before they made it somewhere else. Still developing my M1 skills so always room for improvement :)
it will probably take some practice but if you eat the blind and break the pallet than not only do you gain the benefits of a useless loop, the survivor at most only has 3 possible directions to go and healthy or injured they will make a sound that (at least with headphones) you should be able to tell at least which 50% of the possible directions the survivor is going and if you just move in that 50% youll have vision and be right on the surv.
literally the only thing you need to know what to do is which direction to move during a half second window and you will almost always have a hit or a down i promise you.
edit: just wanted to clarify that you want them to blind you right as you tsrat to break the pallet which vast majority of survs will do. thats causing the overwhelming majority of the blind to be wasted and the surv is still just standing in front of the pallet that is being broken so they end up right in front of you when your vision clears.
Not counting perks that benefit (residual manifest/champion of light) an underrated aspect is also that it just kind of helps you get better at using flashlights if you're not confident with them. The killer breaking a pallet is a very low stress environment to work on your muscle memory of how long it takes to blind, where to aim with the flashlight (on killers that aren't chucky at least), things like that.
that is a good reason!
The point is to force you to break the pallet or mind game around it. If you know you will be blind each pallet break you may try mind gaming first. This is in hopes they can burn your time.
If the survivor just ran pallet to pallet without checking, the killer could go around closing the gap before the next pallet. Not to mention its an inefficient use of resources.
Personally, i only do it when i'm trying to do a quest or something that requires me to blind. It is usually at least a single guaranteed blind, maybe even 2 if i get a pallet stun. Otherwise it is legitimately a waste of time as you'd be better off just gaining distance instead. Any decent killer will hear where you go anyway.
It does stuff at lower MMR to disorient killers but once you realize it's almost always better to just break the pallet and eat the blind and follow by sound it feels silly.
They serve as potential sacrifices in the name of our Lord and Savior Lightborn. Praise be our Lord. 🫲😎🫱
If you are full health it might have some benefit as you are quieter so you can try to mind game the killer and walk past him after the break but when you are hurt and don't have something to make you quiet I usually see flashlighting on the pallet more of a waste of time for the survivor. Another is if you have a flashlight that has the faster blind add-ons so you can do it fast or if you are running Champion of Light as that will cause Hindered to the killer for six seconds but in most other situations survivor would get more value by running withtout blinding.
It's easier to blind at a pallet than most other times in a match
Yeah, I just assume people do it for one of two reasons:
1. They're going for some sort of blind challenge
2. They are inexperienced and think it will actually help them win the chase (which is pretty much only true against potato killers)
I almost never use flashlights myself, but I have only done this when trying to complete a blind challenge because it is the most easy/reliable way to get them.
It's the easiest guaranteed way to get a blind. Makes good bloodpoints, and it can actually be helpful if you play it right.
I've made a habit of FoV teching killers after a blind (when I'm uninjured) and it's surprising how often it works and actually lets me slip out of chase. Or simply crouch walk out of sight after pulling a blind. Again works well, particularly if you use urban evasion or fixated. Even if you just straight up run it gains you precious time even if it is only a second or two.
As killer I'm generally pretty good at counterplaying flashlights. Good set of headphones lets you lock in on footsteps or pain grunts while blind and I can usually keep up with survs after they blind me.