How to survive Lullwood

To survive Lullwood, the free first-person horror game you play in the browser, stay out of sight, keep your scent trail thin, and hide in bramble instead of trying to outrun anything. Wolves, bears and lions are all faster than your full sprint, so every escape comes from breaking line of sight, walking rather than running, and spending your mist veil at the right moment. Here is how each system works, using the game's real numbers.

How predators find you

  • Sight. The lion sees farthest (about 48 units), then the wolf (42) and the bear (30). Rocks, reeds, logs, bramble and larger trees block the line. A predator that sees you roars and gives chase.
  • Scent. Moving drops a scent point every 0.3 seconds. Each fades over 14 seconds, and the wind carries it up to 9 units downwind. Sprinting lays a wider trail (3.6 units against 2.2). Standing still lays none. A predator that crosses your trail follows it without seeing you.
  • Noise. Footsteps carry about 14 units walking and 24 sprinting. A roaming predator in range may hear you and come to investigate.

Don't linger. If no predator comes within 20 units for 30 seconds, the nearest is sent straight at you unless you are hidden. Night also falls: over the first two minutes, wolf and bear sight grows by up to 30%.

Hiding

Only bramble bushes are hiding spots. Rocks, logs and trees block sight, but pressing H does nothing there. Walk right into a bush and press H.

  • Hold still. Over about 1.2 seconds your detection range shrinks by up to 82%, and inside the bush a predator only sees you once it is close enough to touch you. Any movement breaks cover.
  • Hiding is noisy. Entering a bush alerts roaming predators within 20 units. Sprinting in or out snags you on thorns (40% speed for 0.3 seconds), so walk.
  • Don't camp. After 12 seconds in one spot the brush rustles every 5 seconds with the same 20-unit alert (16 and 6 on Lantern, 8 and 4 on Blackout).
  • Shuffle (R). Shifts you about a unit inside the same bush and resets that clock, with a two-second cooldown. It is silent into the wind and noisy downwind. Face your direction and press R without holding a movement key, or you step out.

A predator that loses you sweeps the area up to three times, 18 to 28 units from where it lost you, and keeps going while you stay within about 32 units of that spot. Moving on ends the search sooner.

A snow-covered rock outcrop in Lullwood's night forest, the kind of rock you can climb for a look over the fog

The mist veil and other tools

  • Mist veil (hold F). Mist rolls in over 1.6 seconds and predators see only 35% as far. It hides you from sight only, not scent or footsteps. Five seconds of holding empties it, and it refills at half speed. Drain it fully and it locks for about three seconds, so release early.
  • Veil overload (Q). Once per run, while a predator is chasing you and you have over a quarter of your veil charge. It burns the charge, and for 7 seconds predators can neither see nor smell you.
  • Scent veil (G). When a predator has your scent and you are moving into the wind, G spends 30% stamina to break every scent lock at once.
  • Stamina. Sprinting reaches 1.8 times walking speed and fades as stamina drains. Six seconds empties it, and refilling takes about 15. Holding sprint drains it even while you stand still.
  • Wind. The arrow at top right shows the map's wind. Moving into it shrinks your scent by 20%. Sprinting into it is 20% faster and quieter (about 17 units instead of 24).
  • Rocks (C). Climb a rock for 2 seconds to see over the fog, but predators see you from 60% farther while you are up.
  • Jump (Space). A 0.6-second hop, and the only way to dodge a charge.
  • Stones and the cave. A thrown stone draws predators within 24 units of where it lands. About half of runs have a cave that makes you undetectable for 25 seconds, once.

Each predator

You walk at 6 units a second and sprint at up to 10.8. Bears run at about 13.9, wolves 15.5 and lions 17.8. Once one spots you, expect roughly 9 seconds against a bear, 6 against a wolf and 4 against a lion: enough to reach cover, not to escape.

  • Wolf. Wolves hunt as a pack. When one chases you, the others move to points about 60 degrees either side of your escape line, so running straight can put you into them. One wolf each game is a Beacon Hunter: it ignores sight and scent and locks on the moment you sprint into the wind within its range. Its eyes turn blue-teal when it does.
  • Bear. The slowest and shortest-sighted, but the best nose: it picks up your trail from 40% farther and holds it about 11 seconds, against the wolf's 8. Bears never charge. Against a bear, manage scent: walk, stop, stay upwind.
  • Lion. The fastest and farthest-seeing, with the weakest nose; it loses a trail after about 6 seconds. From 90 seconds into a run its sight fades, to half by 150 seconds.

Charges. Wolves and lions charge when they can see you, you can see them, and they are 7 to 16 units away. A short tell is followed by a lunge, and the whole thing lasts one second. Jump inside it and the animal overshoots; it can't charge again for 10 seconds. Ducking into a bush mid-charge won't save you.

Difficulty tips

  • Lantern: one predator per species, sight cut to 70%, a child who glows 1.6 times brighter, and a minimap. Learn here.
  • Night: three per species at full sight, with a minimap. With three wolves, expect real flanking.
  • Blackout (default): nine predators at 70% sight, all hunting from the start, no minimap, and the child farther out. The only leaderboard difficulty.

Runs earn Embers (a win pays 1.75 times the Lantern amount on Night, twice on Blackout) for the shop: Deeper Lungs adds veil time, Quiet Step makes scent fade faster, and Pocket Stones gives two extra stones a run.

Reaching the child

The child is far across the forest. Follow her cry, which sounds from her direction, and the coloured lights on the six landmarks above the fog. Approach carefully: predators within about 32 units of her hear the same cry and investigate. Press E beside her to lift her. That wins the run on the spot and stops the timer.

Dense pine trees in Lullwood's night forest at ground level, where trunks and snowbanks break a predator's line of sight

Leaderboard runs

  • Play on Blackout with admin mode off for the whole run.
  • Win faster than the top rescuer (any win counts while the board is empty). The timer at top right stops when you lift the child.
  • Runs under about 15.7 seconds or over an hour are rejected.
  • Submit a nickname of 3 to 20 letters (a to z) and a country, at most once every 10 seconds and 5 times an hour.

Common mistakes

  • Sprinting everywhere. A wider trail, louder steps, and no stamina when a chase starts.
  • Trying to outrun a predator. Run to cover, not away.
  • Pressing H behind a rock or log. Only bramble works.
  • Camping one bush. Shuffle or move on before the brush gives you away.
  • Holding the veil until it locks. Short pulses keep it ready.
  • Veiling against a scent chase. The veil cuts sight only; use G or Q.
  • Sprinting into the wind near the Beacon Hunter. That is exactly what calls it.