GTFO: Beginner’s Guide: Tips to Know Before Starting

by Yannis Vatis / Game Guides, Tips & Tricks / 01 Sep 2023

GTFO is the most challenging co-op survival horror game in early access now. It has a low tolerance for mistakes, making it a title that’s not for the faint of heart. However, gluttons for punishment who like to push themselves will feel right at home. Even still, if you’re new to the game, you’ll have a lot of learning to do as you go.

To give you a running start, we’ve assembled the top 5 tips and tricks for beginners to GTFO.

Sleeper Weak Points

The majority of enemies you’ll encounter are the Sleepers. These creatures can be found sitting individually or clustered together in groups. Stealth is the name of the game when dealing with them, as waking these creatures up will surely mean trouble. Therefore, it’s essential to know how to dispatch them quickly. Because you’ll want to conserve resources, it’s best to take out Sleepers with your hammer as much as possible. Their weak points are their head, stomach, and back, with the head being the safest bet. Striking them with a half-charged melee attack will take them out in one go.

Re-Sync Glowing

Inevitably, you’ll run into a room containing a cluster of Sleepers, and their glowing may be out of sync. This means that one Sleeper may have been somehow triggered while the others are still snoozing away. To “re-sync” your Sleepers, you’ll need to use your trust GTFO flashlight. As you probably know, flashing lights onto Sleepers will trigger them. If you do a quick swipe of your flashlight across the group, making sure the light touches all of them in the process, you’ll see their bodies will wiggle for a bit. After that, they’ll all settle down again, meaning you can safely get in and bash in their disfigured skulls.

Run and Melee

Nobody’s perfect, especially when playing GTFO. One small slip, a misfire, or something else will inevitably cause a room of sleepers to awaken and try to munch on you. These are the times you’ll need to fight, but bullets are scarce. It’s not uncommon to run out of resources with plenty of enemies to take out. The best strategy, in this case, is to run and use your melee. Sleepers have a hard time hitting you while you’re on the move, and your sprint is unlimited, so don’t stop moving. As you do so, charge up a melee attack, and once it’s at full capacity, use it to take out an enemy, then rinse and repeat.

Sniper and Biotracker

Deciding on equipment for your team is arguably an essential success factor in GTFO. However, there are certain weapons and equipment that’ll make your life easier. At least one player with a sniper rifle is essential for taking out Scouts (also known as tendril or tentacle heads). Because you can’t get close to them easily, having a long-ranged high-damage weapon like a sniper is invaluable. The biotracker is also a great piece of equipment, especially for beginner groups. It will effectively show you what situation you’re about to walk into, which will help inform your entry strategy.

Security Doors

Doors with alarms are a pesky thing for beginner GTFO players to deal with because it’s not immediately clear what you need to do. Essentially, when you encounter a door that reads “Warning” and “Alarm Detected”, you have some prepping to do because you run in guns blazing. These doors are effectively events that’ll trigger waves of enemies until you clear them out. Before pulling the lever, discuss and strategize, then set up your defenses before gritting your teeth for the hell that’s about to be unleashed.

Yannis Vatis

Yannis is a veteran gamer with over 30 years of experience playing a wide spectrum of video games. When not writing about games, he's playing them, and if he's not playing them, then he's definitely thinking about them.
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