Surviving a night in Keep the Door Locked comes down to one skill: telling a real guest from an Anomaly before you touch the door. Some Anomalies give themselves away with a twisted body or a see-through outline on camera, while others slip into the room and demand a specific counter. Get the read right and you can sleep for the night. Get it wrong and your run ends.
Quick answer: Lock the door on any visitor with visible body defects or a camera-only tell (translucent body, a doppelganger, or a dead copy in the hallway). Let in one confirmed human to sleep. For in-room and window threats, follow the exact response below (hide under the bed, stand on the bed, open the curtains, use the flashlight, or complete the minigame).
Check the cameras before every door decision
You only need to let one genuine person inside to go to sleep, and sleeping ends the night and stops your Sanity from draining. But some Anomalies look completely normal through the peephole and only reveal themselves on the hallway camera, so run a full camera check on every knock before you decide.
Note: On the first night, the very first person to knock is always a regular human, so you can let them in without testing. That safety net does not apply in Bloodmoon mode, the harder difficulty, where you must check every visitor including the first.
Door visitors you must keep locked out
These Anomalies arrive as visitors. The only correct action is to keep the door locked. Some tells show at the door, but the translucent and doppelganger variants only appear on camera, so never open based on a normal-looking peephole view alone.
| Anomaly | How to spot it |
|---|---|
| Physical defects (broken neck, broken arms, twitching or spasming limbs, long arms) | Visible at the door or on camera as an obvious body abnormality |
| Neck Craner | Neck bent backward, staring at the ceiling |
| Translucent Guest | Body is see-through on camera; you can see your own door through them |
| Doppelganger | A copy of the visitor is slumped against the wall beside them on camera |
| Dead Doppelganger | A dead version of the visitor lies in the hallway near the stairs |
The Scientist is a special case. He can arrive as a normal human looking for safety, in which case test him like any visitor because he may be a translucent Anomaly. If he instead offers a solution to restore Sanity, take it and let him help.
Safe visitors worth letting in
Not every knock is a threat. Several visitors are always human and often restore Sanity or help you survive, so let them in when they arrive.
The Pizza Guy is never an Anomaly. Open the door and take the pizza to recover Sanity. There are seven slices in total, so save them for moments when your Sanity drops dangerously low.
John Pork works the same way but delivers Shawarma. It costs more and restores more Sanity, so it is worth the price. The Cake event looks like a trap, with a clown and a slice of cake left in the hallway, but it is safe. Open the door and eat it to recover Sanity.
The Hazmat Guys always arrive as a duo on Day 4 to talk about the Spider Event, and they are safe. Pick them as your roommates for the night and they will deal with a Spider for you in the morning. The Nun wants to enter and complete a ritual; let her in, stay out of her circle, and she leaves peacefully in the morning.
The Homeless Man simply asks for money. You can give it or refuse, and if you refuse he tries and fails to break in. Neither choice appears to affect the outcome of your run.
Window threats: reset them before they reach you
The Ghost, also called the Window Seeker, announces itself with murmurs, footsteps, knocks, and scratching from the window. It moves through three stages and breaks in to kill you if it completes them. Open the curtains and look at it to scare it off, which resets it to stage one, and repeat this all night whenever it returns.
Tip: Opening the curtains drains Sanity, so peek down through the blinds first. You can usually spot the Ghost in the trees without fully opening up. Only open the curtains when you confirm it is there, then close them quickly.
The Wendigo also appears at the window, but the counter is different. When it shows up you get a prompt not to move. Stand perfectly still and it goes away. Just be aware of any Spiders overhead while you wait.
In-room threats and their exact counters
These Anomalies get past the door or appear inside the room. Each one has a single deterministic response, so learn the pairings below and react the moment it triggers.
| Threat | What to do |
|---|---|
| Door Breaker (gaunt white creature that screams and forces the door) | Hide under the bed until it enters, lingers by the bed, and leaves; get out fast because hiding drains Sanity through Anxiety |
| Floor Crawler / Vent Ghost (drops from the vent, screams near you) | Get onto the bed and stay there until it climbs back into the vent |
| Room Hider (hides under the bed or behind the closet) | Look at it to trigger the jumpscare and make it leave |
| Shadow Figure (stands in a corner, Sanity drops before you see it) | Stop any door interaction, turn on the flashlight, and point it at the figure until it vanishes |
| Tall Lady / Silent Lady (stares silently; door can’t be opened or locked) | Step away to the laptop and look at her through the camera until she turns away |
| Jade (Weeping Angel type) | Never look away; she kills you the instant you take your eyes off her |
| Headbanger (bangs head on the door and can get in) | Complete the timing minigame, clicking when the moving line is inside the strip |
| Bathroom Monster | Have at least one confirmed human sleeping in your room, or it attacks you in the night |
The Room Hider cannot physically harm you, but each jumpscare chips away at your Sanity until you spot it, so sweep the room instead of fixating on the door.
The Floor Crawler is far more dangerous than the Room Hider. Every time it gets close it screams and takes a chunk of Sanity, and it can drain you to zero if you freeze. The moment it drops from the vent, climb onto the bed and wait it out.
The Tall Lady freezes both door controls, which is the tell that you should walk to the laptop. Expect a jumpscare when you reach it, then keep staring at her on camera until she turns and tries to scare you through the feed.
The Headbanger minigame is lenient and forgives a few mistakes, so stay calm and click on the strip. The Shadow Figure warns you early by draining Sanity, so stop whatever you are doing at the door and get the flashlight on it quickly.
The Knife Man and the lights-off rule
The Knife Man first appears on Day 3. That visit is harmless; he frightens you and leaves. He returns on Day 6, signalled by a call from the front desk and another knock. The real danger comes at bedtime. You must switch off your room lights before getting into bed. Leave them on and he kills whoever is in the room, then you, ending the run.
In Bloodmoon mode there is no warning. Treat his first Day 3 appearance as your cue to turn the lights off before sleeping, because forgetting ends the run early.
Spiders and the Roach King: food and ceiling hazards
Spiders appear on the ceiling and their many legs make a distinct pattering sound. If they stay too long they explode, and standing beneath them when they do causes serious harm. Move out from under them and clear them with Spider Spray. You start with only three uses, and you can buy more through the Upgrades section in the Lobby.
Leave the first Spider you see on Day 4 alone. Right after it appears, the Hazmat Guys knock. Let them in and they remove that Spider in the morning, saving your spray for later encounters.
The Roach King shows up when you have food in the room, either Pizza or Shawarma. Let him in and hand over some food. He takes about five Pizza slices, and fewer if you have Shawarma. Refuse and a swarm of normal cockroaches floods the room.
Technical and dream events
A few Anomalies do not attack directly but waste time or drain Sanity. Handle each one and get back to your routine.
| Event | What to do |
|---|---|
| Signal Lost error on the laptop | Reboot the laptop to restore the camera feed |
| Hacked laptop (cameras blocked with a decode message) | Pay $300 to decode it and regain camera access |
| Breaker Failure (power goes out) | Go out to the hallway behind the stairs and flip the Power Breaker back on; you lose Sanity while outside and are not fully safe from attacks |
| The Hands / The Darkness (screen goes dark, you are teleported) | Follow the lights until you reach the doorway back to the real world; the void drains Sanity, so move quickly |
| Day ??? (Lucid Dream, day counter shows question marks) | Walk toward the flashing light in the hallway and away from the bed to exit the dream |
Once you can name each threat on sight and pair it with the right response, the night becomes a checklist rather than a gamble. Keep the cameras in rotation, protect your Sanity, and let in exactly one confirmed human before you sleep.
