Keep the lights on in Static Dread: The Lighthouse
Here are our tips to help you survive the night in Static Dread: The Lighthouse.
Static Dread: The Lighthouse is a little bit of everything. It's a bottle episode that takes place in a handful of rooms. It's cosmic horror. It's a management and decision sim with a dash of survival thrown in. And its creepy as hell.
Here are our tips to help you survive the night in Static Dread: The Lighthouse.
Turn down the lights (IRL, not in the game)
At first blush, Static Dread’s crunchy, lo-fi aesthetic might not come across as creep-inducing, but the game delivers. It’s spooky. There are jump scares. The occasional eyeball will grow out of the wall (don’t worry about it). And that sense of dread is constantly building in the background.
Lean into it. It’s meant to be unsettling. And some of the choices you make are meant to be hard. Choices like…
Rules are made to be broken
Specifically here, I’m referring to the rule about never letting anyone into the lighthouse. Think of this one as less of a rule and more of a vibe check. The lovelorn sailor you meet on the first night? He’s probably safe to invite in (fair warning: it might not work out great for him, though). The dead-eyed child who shows up alone in the middle of the night and speaks in riddles? He can stay the hell outside.
For the most part, you should follow the rules about guiding ships. It is your job after all. Take what the Chief tells you as fact (except for the part about letting people in … mostly). The other voices on the radio, that’s up to you.
Especially the demonic voice. Maybe don’t listen to that one. Or maybe do. I’m not your boss.
Take care of everything before your shift
There are a lot of rules in Static Dread. There are the rules about guiding ships and keeping people out of the lighthouse that are a bit more flexible and voluntary. Then there are rules that are concrete. These are things like keeping the lighthouse running, keeping the inside lights on, and staying awake.
When you throw the switch to turn the lighthouse light on, your shift will start (and so will the creepiness). Things happen fast during your shift. Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to prepare for the long night, and you can do most of it before your shift starts.
Before you throw you switch, clean up any occult graffiti, make sure all the lights are on, check the windows, and make sure your stats are topped off. And …
Check on the wife and kid
During the introduction, your wife will tell you that they’ll be on channel 237 in the evening. The game doesn’t tell you, though, that this is something you have to do manually — ideally before you start your shift.
When you check frequencies on the radio, you can scan for any signals that are coming through, but you can also dial in whatever frequency you want. Before your shifts, check in with your family — there's a whole story going on there that might impact your decisions on shift.
Keep your desk organized
As things get more complicated and spooky, you’ll end up with a lot of paperwork on your desk. You’ll get rules, maps, reference lists, photos, and commendations. And they’ll just kind of pile up if you let them. Whenever you get a chance, move the papers around so that you can keep an eye on the important ones — and hide the more unsettling ones.
Keep the lights on and use your flashlight
When things start going all creepy, you’ll be juggling a lot. One of the more important things is keeping the lights on inside the lighthouse — the overhead, interior lighting, not the lighthouse beacon. Darkness drains your sanity and brings all sorts of nasty things with it (like ghosts and eyeballs and floor tentacles).
Either I missed it in the introduction, or the game doesn’t tell you, but you have a flashlight with you at all times. Hit F on the keyboard or X/square on a controller to pull it up whenever the lights go out.
Speaking of sanity …
Go fish
One of the first things you can buy from the Courier when he opens his shop is a fishing pole. Get it. Once you buy it, you’ll find it next to the cardboard box with your food off to the left of the front door. You can only fish before your shift. Go fishing before each shift, and pick up a few snacks to get you through the night.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a limit to how much you can catch, but the time between bites gets a lot longer after about the third fish or so. Don’t waste too much time. No matter what you catch, the fish will give you a boost to at least one of your stats — keeping you awake, sane longer, or moving faster.
Stock your shelves
To the left of the box where all of your purchases land, there’s a cabinet and shelf. You can pick up anything with the left mouse button/right trigger and move it around. Empty out the box whenever it’s there (it disappears when it’s empty) and sort through your provisions. Each type of food and drink (and fish) give you a different boost to your stats, and having them sorted by type will help you find exactly what you need.
Once your stats are full, you don’t have to worry about them for a while and there’s no benefit to overfilling any stat.
This post originally appeared on BigFriendly.Guide
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