“You avoid it by looking at it. You catch on from what it doesn’t do, which is talk, write and move when you look at it, because that’s when it goes still.”
The Skinstealer copies a survivor: their name, their posture and the object they carry in hand. This entry gathers what the archive has been able to measure of its behavior, its numbers and its voice. To learn what it is and where it is found, start with Skinstealer, and for its passage through the corridors of Level 0 read Skinstealer in Level 0: Movement and Scare.
The phases of its behavior
No two encounters are alike, but wanderers who have survived several always describe the same sequence of thirteen phases.
| Phase | What is observed |
|---|---|
| Wanders | Walks at 3.0 m/s within a radius of about 45 m |
| Notices you | Stays still for 3 to 8 seconds |
| Shadows you | Keeps 9 m away, closes in at 4.6 m/s and holds out for 25 s of patience |
| Statue | Within 20 m and within 60 degrees of your gaze, freezes for up to 6 s |
| Ambush | Leaps at 5.5 m/s from 5 to 16 m, only if hungry, for 6 s at most |
| Unmasked | A 1.6 s scream that does not yet give it away completely |
| Sprint | Accelerates for 1.5 s up to 7.29 m/s, holds for 5 s, then pants for 3 s at 3.5 m/s |
| Hunt and grab | Chases you and holds you for 2.5 s |
| Search | Looks for you for 12 s after losing you |
| Peeks and stalks | Appears at 12 or 20 m and hides again |
| Flight | Withdraws |
It notices you at 15 m within a cone of about 120 degrees. If there is light, it sees you at 38 m. If you run, add another 8 m. When it copies a gesture, such as crouching or switching objects, it does so with almost a second of delay, 0.8 s.
The voice
Ten distinct sounds have been heard from it: the unmasked scream, the search scream, a growl when it hears noise, stalking breath, a distant answer, a roar of satiety, a whimper of hunger, the gasping of the sprint and the missed strike. None repeats within 6 seconds. Some of its voices have never been heard, and others closely resemble the cries of something older than the archive has yet identified.
What it never does
- It is never exposed for good. If it loses you, it can go back to passing as one of you.
- It doesn’t obsess over the impossible. When it isn’t advancing toward you, it notices and changes course, even if it touches no wall.
- It can’t reach you through walls. To grab you it needs a clear path, and being close is not enough.
- It is not identical to another Skinstealer. Each has its quirks, and one waits a little longer while another runs a little less.
How to spot it
It wears no label and has no different shape, so your gaze is your only defense. Notice whether it talks, whether it writes and whether it goes still when you look at it. Other creatures of Level 0 give themselves away, like the Watcher or the Smiler, and the Skinstealer doesn’t. To compare them, consult the Field Guide. A companion who doesn’t answer to their name is not always a Skinstealer.
What people say
- A woman from the shelter says she heard one call out to them in the voice of someone from her group.
- Others speak of a deformed laugh that comes from the far end of a corridor and of their own name repeated without a face.
- There is talk of messages spray-painted on the walls, “I SAW YOU LOOKING” and “IT’S NOT YOU.” Nobody knows whether an impostor can write.
- Some swear the footsteps of the disguise don’t match those of the person it imitates.