An Overview Guide of Baldi’s Basics+ (v0.3.2)

Overview

A guide to hopefully get you more familiar with the Basics of the game! Learn a bit more about BB+, as well as potentially get some tips. This guide covers multiple topics about basic gameplay!

Learning the basics

In Baldi’s Basics+ (henceforth BB+), your goal is to collect all notebooks scattered throughout the schoolhouse and reach all exits without letting Baldi catch you. Each level is randomly generated, so who you’ll encounter, the items you find, and even what rooms are where will vary from seed to seed

By default, the mouse/keyboard controls are as follows:

• WASD to move/explore Advanced Map
• Mouse to look around
• Scrollwheel/number keys to select items
• Left-click/E to interact with doors/pick up items
• Right-click/Q to use items
• Spacebar to look back/jump* (*Playtime’s minigame)
• Shift to sprint
• TAB for the minimap
• M for the Advanced Map
• Q/E to scroll in/out on the Advanced Map
• ESC to pause (Or skip the intro dialogue for field trips)

You have 5 main components to your HUD, though not all are displayed at all times:

• In the center is your reticle. The reticle transforms into a pointing hand when you’re able to interact with something!
• In the bottom left, you have the Staminometer. Your stamina is indicated in green and will drain to red as you sprint. When you run out of stamina, red text saying “YOU NEED REST!” will appear above the indicator. Stand still* to regain stamina!(*except in Playgrounds, see “Rooms abound!”)
• In the top left, you have your notebook counter! This tells you both how many notebooks are on the floor, but also how many you’ve grabbed.
• In the top right, you have your inventory. Your currently selected slot is highlighted in red, and text below the inventory bar will tell you what you have currently selected.
• In the bottom right is the Baldicator. The Baldicator pops up when Baldi hears a noise you caused, letting you know that he heard you as well as if that’s his current priority!

The Baldicator’s warning works as follows: If Baldi has no clue where you are and you make a sound, the Baldicator will display a smiling face. If Baldi’s priority was elsewhere and then he hears a noise from you, the Baldicator will display a confused face.

Not a default part of the HUD, but it can be enabled via the Options menu. Subtitles appear as a translucent black rectangle with colour-coded text on top with the transcripts of what sound is playing. The colour of the text matches corresponds with the sound’s source, unless it wasn’t made by an NPC- then it will be white. Subtitles are dynamic; Changing both size and position based off how close and in what direction the sound came from.

The map is uncovered as you explore the schoolhouse, showing where you’ve been, what rooms are where, and even if there’s items/notebooks you hadn’t picked up! Your position on the map (as well as current orientation) is indicated via a white triangle
The map indicates the various rooms as follows-

Finally, items are indicated by a white question mark, while notebooks are indicated by a notebook sprite. Please note that if items are close enough, there may only be one question mark!

There are two ways to view the map:

• The Minimap is where the map is overlayed onto your screen, allowing you to still play the game normally while seeing what structures/items are nearby.
• The Advanced Map is, as implied, much more advanced- appearing akin to the original game’s You Can Think Pad, the Advanced Map allows you to look around what all you’ve explored, zoom in/out, and pauses the game while it’s opened

You Thought Points (otherwise known as YTPs or points) are awarded to the player for completing different tasks. Said points are used in Johnny’s store inside the elevator to purchase items, fill out your map for the upcoming floor, or expel someone from the school (planned).

Current ways to earn points are as follows:

• Solving math correctly (+25 YTPs)
• Attending Mrs.Pomp’s Class (+100 YTPs)
• Playing with Playtime (+25 YTPs, -5 for every missed jump)
• Collecting a stray Notebook (+10 YTPs)
• Attending a Field Trip (+100 YTPs per star earned)
• Your grade per level
• Completing the floor quickly and getting a time bonus

Grades are based off your performance on a floor and will always grant YTPs, though how many you get depends on how good your grade is. Starting with +100 YTPs for an A+, and decreasing in intervals of 5 with the lowest grade, F-, granting +15 YTPs

There doesn’t appear to be any way to lose YTPs, meaning that any points you earn on F1 will stay when you die- potentially allowing you to buy an item from Johnny’s store that you couldn’t before

Gamemodes

When you sign-in to your profile on BB+ (per Baldi’s instructions) and click “Play”, you’ll be brought to a menu with multiple modes on it. These modes give you more to play around with than you might get with just the default game

The default gamemode, and what this guide will be most applicable to. Beat this mode to unlock the ability to input custom seeds!

Similar to Hide-and-Seek, except Baldi isn’t chasing you! Use this mode to explore seeds freely and see what all they have to offer

Taking place in what’s functionally F3 of any given seed, the goal of this mode is to beat high-scores by gathering the most notebooks you can before Baldi catches you. There is no ending (hence, “Endless”), and Baldi’s speed increases gradually over time- However, grabbing notebooks slows Baldi back down a little, so keep collecting!

This mode’s definitely different than your average gameplay. In challenge mode, you’re given a scenario that changes aspects of the game, though your goal is still largely the same. In the future, more challenges will be unlocked by playing the main game.
Currently, there are only 3 challenges to play:

• Speedy
• Stealthy
• Grapple

Hovering with your mouse over the buttons for each challenge will cause text to display, explaining more about the challenge. Namely, how many notebooks you have to grab and what the premise is.

This option is just to allow you to practice field trips and improve your skills, though there are only 2 field trips at this time. (see “Let’s take a trip!” for more info)

Pressing and holding escape will let you leave a field trip early in this mode (v0.3.2)

Welcome to Baldi’s Schoolhouse

Baldi’s Schoolhouse (otherwise known as “the school”,”school”,”the level”, etc.) is, as previously mentioned, randomly generated via a seed upon starting the game(With the exception of challenges). You start in an elevator (also known as “exits”) and are welcomed by Baldi, who requests you play hide-and-seek with him. (Again, aside from in challenges)

Before you enter the level, however, you see many things in the interior of the elevator.
The seed is shown in the upper-right corner of the frontmost wall, telling you your current seed(Which is also viewable in the pause menu!). This seed will always generate the same level, unless the game’s level generator was updated in a way that the generation is no longer possible.
The Floor number is shown in the center above the elevator doors.
On the rightmost wall, you’ll see 3 green cylinders labeled Power Tubes. These are your lives! You have 3 lives per floor, so don’t worry too much if you slip up a little
Johnny’s Store will appear on the other side of the doorway before you enter a floor. You can purchase many helpful things from here using YTPs!

When you transition between floors, a screen will pop down in the center and display statistics for your current run. On this screen, you will see:

• Time (Being fast can award bonus YTPs!)
• Grade (How well you did! The higher your grade, the more YTPs you earn)
• YTPs Earned (How many points you earned on that floor)
• Total YTPs (Self explanatory, being the total amount of points you earned thus far)

Currently, each level has 3 floors (referred in-game as F1, F2, and F3) and on each floor the requirements are typically the same across all seeds.

The only exception may be if a floor generated in a way that did not allow for the maximum amount of classrooms, to which it will be one less.

Another thing that’s consistent is that on each floor, you will encounter 2 of the same characters-
Baldi himself, and Principal of the Thing. Aside from them, however, you have a randomly selected character set that appears on each floor.
There are 5 NPCs to begin with, with another character being added per floor. Some characters have floor restrictions, though they are very few: both Playtime and Mrs. Pomp appear on F2 and up, but The Test only appears on F3. These characters’ spawns are restricted due to the difficulty they can add to the game, and other characters that can cause major trouble for the player will also be restricted as the game’s updated to increase fairness.

In the future, some character combinations will not be possible if they make the game too hard, but currently it’s not known if there are restrictions on that due to difficult NPCs being uncommon. (Though it may be very likely that Mrs. Pomp and The Test cannot appear on the same level, I don’t have evidence to back that up. If someone can please let me know I would much appreciate it!)

Speaking of the Principal, Baldi’s school has a few school rules to be aware of:

• No running
• No entering Faculty rooms
• No bullying
• No drinking
• No escaping detention
• No fourth wall breaks

(List taken from in-game poster explaining the rules)
Rules not listed on the poster include:

• Looking in other people’s lockers
• Being in school after hours (Stealthy challenge)

If you’re caught breaking any of these rules, it’s detention for you! Getting detention can really hinder your run, as well as alerts Baldi to your location, so be careful-
Detention initially lasts just 15 in-game seconds, but will increase in time until you’re stuck for around a minute in detention.

Eventful events

During your playthrough, you may occasionally hear a bell ringing- That’s an event! Events happen every so often and are also one of the many randomly generated components of the level. The further up the floors you go, the more events happen. Typically, most events are able to help you during your run (but can also likely hinder you slightly at the same time), though there are some events you gotta watch out for!
Currently, there are 6 events in-game:

• Baldi’s Fog Machine Malfunction – Fog fills the school, lowering visibility for everyone in the schoolhouse
• Schoolhouse Flood – Water slowly floods in, slowing down everyone. Watch out for whirlpools!
• Party at the Principal’s Office – Self-explanatory. You can get a good item by attending, or use it as a distraction as most everyone thinks they’re invited
• Test Procedure – You know school drills? Imagine that, except with testing lockdown doors. Doors lower for a short period of time, blocking some hallways
• Mystery Room – A mysterious room appears somewhere in the schoolhouse; Find it for a chance at a good item!
• Broken Ruler – Accidents happen, right? Baldi breaks his ruler, and for a short period of time doesn’t make a sound. Watch out, he’s still searching for you! But thankfully, Baldi cannot catch you with a broken ruler.
• Gravity Chaos! – Gravity’s been messed up! Everyone gets flipped upside down, and grey shapes akin to Win95’s Maze Screensaver appear throughout the schoolhouse.

The duration of events depend on the type of event, so some events may last much longer than others.
During the malfunctioning fog machine event, it’s hard for anyone to see anything… Though Baldi can still hear you! Keep in mind how noisy you are and do your best to avoid other NPCs, whom you can commonly start to see before they’re able to see you. Very few things are unaffected by the fog, however, namely the text on Math Machines.
During the flood event, water fills the schoolhouse and opens most doors, although swing doors are unaffected. Sometimes, a whirlpool will spawn, drawing you or affected NPCs towards the center. Be careful, however! Getting caught in a whirlpool takes you somewhere else on the floor, so you’ll never know where you will end up! (v0.1.4)
The party event spawns numerous balloons in the Principal’s office and has up-beat music playing during its duration. Most NPCs (including Baldi!) are drawn to the party and will stand inside the room upon entering. If you attend, you can grab a pretty good item… Alternatively, you could just use it as a distraction, but be aware that Baldi won’t attend if he sees you.
The test procedure event starts after a few moments and is probably the shortest-lasting event currently in-game. Lockdown doors will close, blocking off hallways they’re attached to.
The broken ruler event may seem scary since you can’t tell where Baldi is, but Baldi can’t catch you without his ruler!(v0.2) The event doesn’t last long, however.
The gravity chaos event is perhaps the most confusing of all, thanks to its disorienting flipping motions and the rules attached to the shapes and orientation. Be aware that if an NPC has to make contact with you to interact, they can’t touch you if you two have different gravities. If you or an NPC touch one of the 3D floating shapes, the affected person gets flipped!
(The mystery room event is self explanatory)

Doors, doors, doors

There’s a multitude of doors in BB+, though there are two main types: Single doors and double doors (henceforth known as “Swing doors” or “Swinging doors”). Doors are not only passageways, but also give a bit more information on what’s on the other side!

Single doors connect small/average sized rooms to other sections of hallway or other rooms. These doors must be clicked on to open, and can become locked in some cases. Locked single doors can be unlocked with the Principal’s Keys. Single doors may also be temporarily silenced by a WD-NoSquee, which lasts for 4 uses.
There are currently 4 single doors used in-game:

• Blue 99 doors
• Wooden “School Faculty Only” doors
• Orange “Supplies” door
• “Mystery Room” door

Blue 99 doors are used for classrooms and the Principal’s office, as well as being the default door texture for when a door connects to a hallway or non-faculty room. As such, they’re one of the most common doors you’ll see in-game.
“School Faculty Only” doors are self explanatory, appearing when the room on the other side is only intended for faculty.
The “Supplies” door is only used for one room, being the Janitor’s closet.
The “Mystery Room” door is also only used for one room, and only appears in a hallway during an event. If you see a portion on your map where there would be a door but there isn’t one, that would be the Mystery Room’s door!

A single door will display a different texture on its other side to help signify what’s behind it. Most the time unobservable thanks to the blue 99 door being most common- but if you see a Faculty room with a blue door, you know that what’s beyond that door is safe to walk in!

Swinging doors are used to connect some sections of hallways or large special rooms to a hallway, and have 2 windows to peek through to the other side. They, unlike single doors, can appear in the middle of the hallway and do not need to be clicked to be walked through. Swinging doors can be locked by the player via a Swinging Door Lock
There are much fewer types of swinging doors:

• Default swing doors
• Pay doors
• One-way doors

The default swing doors are basics yellow swinging doors with no special property, and are the most common type of swing doors you will find.
Pay doors have a large coin slot on them and act like a wall until you pay the fee, which then they turn back into regular swinging doors.
One-way doors are the most unique type of door currently in the game as you can only open them from one side. You can walk through these doors from either side if they happen to be opened, however.

Rooms abound!

There are many types of rooms in BB+! And yet, there are also likely more rooms to come as the game gets updated.

The 2 most common rooms you’ll encounter is the Classroom and School Faculty Only Rooms (henceforth Faculty rooms). But even then, there are multiple types of these rooms to find.

Classrooms currently have two types: Your basic classroom, and a Math Machine classroom. Classrooms will spawn with a teacher’s desk, a chalkboard, and a varying amount of student desks. Unless it spawns with a Math Machine, in which the teacher’s desk is replaced with said machine. Math Machines do not spawn on F1, and classrooms they’re in are filled with colourful number balloons used to solve math.
Each classroom will have one notebook, and perhaps even hold a more common item on one of the student desks.

Faculty rooms currently have three types:
The original faculty room type (with the teacher’s desk), one that contains round tables and vending machines, and one that contains a long table, lockers, and a water fountain. Faculty rooms may spawn with a window, usually if at least two walls have another wall on the other side.
Faculty rooms tend to have more valuable items inside, having typically at least one on one of the tables present. Faculty rooms are also the only type of common room that doesn’t have to be directly connected to a hallway, and can spawn only accessible via other rooms.

The 3rd most common room, but only once per floor! The Principal’s Office (sometimes referred to in the community as the detention room) is unique in that it holds a variety of purposes, unlike other rooms which mostly are used for one or two things. The Principal’s office will always contain 5 NPC posters, each of which tell the name of and give a small description for what characters are present on that floor. (Even if more than 5 NPCs are on the floor! In which case only a handful of NPCs will get a poster) Other features of the Principal’s Office is multiple desks, a Tape Player, multiple globes, and often has at least one window.
This room is also where you’re sent by Principal of the Thing for detention (obviously) and has an event tied to it, being the Party at the Principal’s Office event mentioned prior.

Special rooms are rooms that either have a special structure or unique properties to them. Currently, there are 6 special rooms:

While a chart is handy, there’s a lot more to most these rooms. Many special rooms either give access to or simply hold a more useful item somewhere within, though not all.

Large special rooms typically have 2 swing doors attached to hallways, and are capable of having other rooms attached to them. Their size may vary slightly, always take up a good chunk of space.

• Cafeterias hold many long tables, and at least two vending machines. They use the default brick walls, yellow-ish floors, and tile ceilings.
• Playgrounds can hold multiple merry-go-rounds, trees, and even a basketball hoop. A Playground’s tree might even have an apple in it! The walls are made of wooden fences and the floor is a very green grass(read: rotini pasta). As mentioned above, this room has the special property of a 2x stamina regen speed- meaning that you don’t lose stamina when running, and can even regain stamina when walking. Additionally, the Playground is the only room where running is permitted.
• Libraries are very maze-like with a wide open space in the center. Unlike other large special rooms, the Library will always hold 2 items somewhere within its maze. The Library has blue carpet, tile ceilings, and is lined with bookshelves on every wall. As mentioned above, this room is absolutely silent inside- You can’t hear a thing! Luckily, however, the swinging doors don’t seem to attract Baldi’s attention; allowing for silent shortcuts

The Library is the only special room that cannot have an elevator attached to it.

Average-sized special rooms are more event-based; Whether it be actually tied to an event, or give the player a break from the main game. There are currently no average-sized special rooms that can connect to anything other than a hallway

• The Mystery Room is both an event and a special room. With pitch-black interior, the Mystery Room holds a single powerful item. The Mystery Room’s door only appears to the outside during a short period of time when the event is active, but on the inside the door is always present.
• Field trip areas are outdoor areas where Baldi, in appropriate matching attire, offers to take the player on a randomly generated field trip. Despite being outdoors, you aren’t allowed to run nor can you regen stamina quickly.

The Supplies closet (also known as “Gotta Sweep’s closet”, “the janitor’s closet”, or “the broom closet” by community members) is by the far the smallest special room in the game. Tied to Gotta Sweep’s presence on the floor, it is the spawn location for the broom and is, as mentioned earlier, a specified size upon generation. The closet doesn’t have any special properties and uses the same textures as hallways do. It also currently never holds any items, but may occasionally connect to another room or host a poster.

What else can you expect to find?

Aside from doors and rooms, there’s a few structures scattered throughout the school that can help or hinder the player.

Water fountains are perhaps one of the most useful structures there are. Water fountains can spawn in hallways or (as mentioned earlier) inside specific Faculty rooms. When used, they instantly refill the player’s stamina to 100%!
Vending machines are another common type of structure, and come in 2 variants:

• BSODA Machines
• Zesty Bar Machines

All vending machines cost a quarter and give you the appropriate item in return. While they most commonly spawn in rooms with at least one of each type, occasionally you may see a stray machine situated in a hallway. As of v0.3, Vending Machines can only dispense one item before they become “Out of Goodnes”.
Blue Lockers spawn randomly within sets of red lockers found in hallways, and can be clicked on to hide from most characters. Be careful, as although currently unlisted, looking in other people’s lockers is against School Rules. That, and with Baldi’s amazing hearing, he can hear when you’re inside! Using a WD-NoSquee will make Baldi unable to hear you use a locker for 3 uses.

The Tape Player spawns once per floor inside the Principal’s Office. When used with Baldi’s Least Favorite Tape, the Tape Player will play a disorienting noise that disrupts Baldi’s hearing ability for 30 seconds!
The Noise Phone is a large phone that typically can be found in dead-ends. Costing 25 cents, the Noise Phone will play the same disorienting noise as the Tape Player
As of 0.1.5, both these objects now have a cooldown after being used.
(See my items guide for more details about items mentioned throughout this guide!)

Buttons are objects attached to the wall that can be found mostly in rooms, but occasionally in hallways. A button controls a nearby structure, but you may not know what they do until you press them!

Here are the following structures currently controlled by buttons:

Lockdown doors can be confusing, because there may not be a button! If there are many lockdown doors in a level, that means that most (if not all) are controlled by an event. If it’s a lone door or two, then a nearby button will control it. Lockdown doors typically start in the ‘open’ position, except in the Grapple Challenge.
Conveyor belts are moving floors that take up an uninterrupted hallway segment that move most entities in the direction it’s currently going. Conveyor belts move slightly slower than the player’s current walking speed, so going against them can be a difficult endevour unless you run or have a Grappling Hook.
The RotoHall is a turning structure that spawns in hallway intersections. They can exist in 90 degree and 180 degree variants, and typically spin clockwise. They will keep spinning until they make a valid intersection, so some button presses may make you wait for a while!

Structures aren’t the only things you see lining the walls and filling the halls(+Rooms)!
A Poster can spawn on any valid wall and often give the player hints for gameplay mechanics. Posters are often multi-coloured and vibrant, while only taking up a small section of the wall they’re on
A Chalkboard will spawn inside classrooms and specific faculty rooms. Chalkboards often don’t offer the player as many tips as a poster might, but at least two chalkboards do give a hint at this time. If a chalkboard in a classroom is blank, that means Chalkles can spawn in that location- so watch out!
Large posters may be seen occasionally along the walls that do not offer hints, but simply exist to help make the school’s walls more interesting. Some images seen in-game were provided by Kickstarter Backers as a reward for the $500 backer tier.

Many decor and structures have collision. Desks, tables, merry-go-rounds, trees, Math Machines, vending machines, and red lockers all have collision and can block your path… They can also, subsequently, block an NPC’s path as well, causing them to have to move around slightly to get to you. Please note that NPCs have a smaller hitbox than you, so something you might not be able to get by may not stop a character from reaching you! The differences in hitboxes can also be helpful, such as preventing yourself from being pushed any further

Johnny’s Goodies and Stuff

Added in v0.2, Johnny’s Goodies and Stuff is the in-game shop where you can spend You Thought Points earned when beating the previous floor. Accessible until after you beat the final floor (though you can only see it on F1 if you died with YTPs), Johnny’s store sells up to 6 random items, and two favours in the form of non-random items.
The description for the store states:

Welcome to Johnny’s Store!
Just click on any items you want to buy. Once you’ve picked your favorite items, click and drag them into your inventory. It’s that easy! Any items left on the counter when you leave will be lost.

• To the left is the available items in Johnny’s shop. What items appear are random, so sometimes not all slots have an available item inside! Prices for each item appear in the bottom left of the item’s display. The map and expel items are the only non-random purchasable items, and have a tag attached to them that displays their price.
• The counter is where most interactions happen. Text appears on the front of the counter depending on what your cursor is hovering over.
• The countertop has a green cash register on it, which lists your current YTPs in its display in red text. The countertop is also where items appear if your inventory’s full as well as where you place items you no longer want.

The Map item, when purchased, fills out your map for the upcoming level.
It’s possible prices can range anywhere from 50 to 350 YTPs, depending on what floor you’re purchasing on. (Changed v0.3.. The earlier the floor, the cheaper the map!) This price will vary slightly each time you visit the store.
Its description states:

Fill your map!
Buy this and your map will be completed instantly! With this you could plan a route before even stepping foot in a level, and maybe even discover some secrets!

The Expel item is currently unavailable, but would be used to remove an NPC for the rest of your run. Presumably, a menu may pop up so you can select the NPC you wish to expel, but since this isn’t implemented it is unknown how you choose what NPC you don’t want to see.

If you still have items on the counter when you press to exit the store (button at the very top left) a confirmation screen will pop up, reminding you that any items left behind will be lost.

Let’s take a trip!

Field trips, as mentioned earlier in the rooms section, are little areas where Baldi offers to take the player on a field trip in Joe’sBald’s Bus to a randomly generated location. These trips offer variety from the main gameplay as well as giving the player the opportunity to earn some good items. The amount of items you earn depends on how well you do, the maximum being 3 and the minimum being 1. Doing well also gives you more YTPs, +100 for each star you earn. Please note that if you attend a field trip but lose a life after, the field trip becomes no longer available!

When you enter a field trip, you have to complete a task within a time limit while avoiding making mistakes. The average length so far seems to be about a minute, though your goals will vary from trip to trip. The field trip will end prematurely if you run out of stars.
Currently, there are only two field trips the player can go on

In the camping field trip, you’re in the woods with Baldi- but oh no! Night’s coming, and you have to help Baldi keep the multiple fires going! Logs will drop from the top of the screen with a math equation on them, and you must line the campfire with the correct number up with the equation it matches up with. You swap fires by pressing on purple arrows that appear between each campfire as you hover over them with your mouse. If you get the equation wrong, you lose a star! Lose 3 stars, and the trip’s over.

Baldi will give you 10 rounds of math questions, adding a 4th campfire after 6 rounds. During the last couple rounds, Baldi may throw in more multiplication, though, so don’t be discouraged by the ramp in difficulty- That just means you’re almost done!

In the farm trip, you accompany Baldi to a farm with a barn in the top+right corner and a massive corn maze attached to it. But, the farmer needs your help getting all the animals back to the barn! Baldi will instruct you on which animal to bring to the barn, but pay attention- you have to get all of the requested animal to the barn under a time limit. If you bring the wrong animal or run out of time, that’s one less star for you!

There are 3 rounds, all lasting 20 seconds, and in each round you have to bring an increasing number of animals to the barn. The first round is 4 animals, and the number of animals increases by 1 per round for every successful round. (So if you lose a star, the number of required animals won’t increase!)

Some tips to help you succeed

Now that you’ve (presumably) read up about what to expect, here’s some info to help you start off in a new round!

When you start up a new game of Hide-and-Seek, you’ll have to the count of 10 once you leave the elevator area to grab as much as you can. While grabbing notebooks before the chase starts no longer affects Baldi’s final speed (v0.3), it can still make a difference earlier on! Grab what you can to take advantage of that, or alternatively use the time to get items you want, or some good distance from Baldi! (Please note that solving math incorrectly before Baldi begins the chase does not make him faster!)

When a round starts, if Baldi can’t see you and doesn’t hear you, Baldi doesn’t know where you are. That means if you’re in a room when the round begins, he might just wander off away from you!

Baldi mostly relies on his hearing to find the player, so if you take a few turns before he can catch up with you, he’s officially lost you until he sees or hears you again. In hallways that don’t branch off this isn’t as helpful as he might not turn around, but through a couple of intersections? No idea where you are.

Opening doors will make Baldi go to that door and peek in whatever room/area that connects to, and tends to get turned around if he doesn’t see you there… Even if you are. Hiding behind a Math Machine or using a Dirty Chalk Eraser in the corner will prevent Baldi from seeing you in a room, providing you safety from Baldi until he sees/hears you again!

While Baldi relies on his hearing most the time, the most useful indicator of where to find you is if he actually sees you. If he loses track of you, where he goes tends to be in the following order:

1. Where he last saw you
2. Where he last heard you
3. Somewhere he hadn’t checked (Essentially, wandering off randomly)

He’ll continue to do this until he spots or hears you again, which then becomes his next priority. He won’t inspect sounds immediately if his priority is elsewhere, though, so be careful!

As mentioned in the overview, the Baldicator can tell you if a sound he heard was his priority based off the facial expression it makes. Pay attention to it and it might just be your warning that Baldi’s already headed your way!

Unless you’re playing the Speedy Challenge, it’s not just you and Baldi in the schoolhouse. Other NPCs will wander the hallways, interacting with or ignoring the player for most the round. If the situation’s right, you can use them to help progress through the level

Most commonly, if you follow behind a character through a doorway, Baldi doesn’t hear you. Waiting by doors for others to open them is a genuine strategy that can help with stealth! Additionally, if a character leaves a door but you aren’t quite close enough to enter- just holding the door open by clicking on it also keeps it silent!

Other characters’ abilities may sometimes help the player, as well. Such as using Gotta Sweep to quickly get to another area or him sweeping away other characters, or using Bean’s bubblegum to temporarily stick an NPC behind you in place. There are very few characters won’t really benefit the player, however, so try to figure out what others do early on! Posters in the Principal’s office also can provide hints on what and what not to do, so if you get the chance: Read them! (Alternatively, you can read my characters guide for more detailed info on characters!)

Sprinting can help you gather distance, but you only have so much stamina.. Luckily for you, you don’t need to run if Baldi doesn’t know where you are and nobody else’s after you. If you’re safe, walking tends to be just fine- Unfortunately as you grab more notebooks this becomes less true.. Baldi begins to get faster than you at 4 notebooks (Unless you grabbed some before the round started), so having some stamina can be really helpful!

Another thing that generally helps is not grabbing notebooks ASAP after the round has begun. Baldi starts slow, so you can take the opportunity to map out the level, grab some useful items you find, and plan your strategy. However, since Baldi now stops to congratulate you when you get Math Machine questions right, it’s best to do those later so Baldi has less opportunity to move when he’s faster! (v0.3)

Because the levels are randomly generated, you can be confused on who all’s on your current floor with you. The Principal’s Office currently holds 5 posters within that give some information on NPCs on that floor, but on later levels this causes a problem because not everyone’s listed… Fortunately for you, most characters have some sort of sound cue to listen out for! You can usually hear a character before you see them, unless you’re unlucky and start the round near where they spawned.
There are currently only 5 characters that don’t have an idle sound:

• Chalkles (Which you can just look for a blank chalkboard to see if they’re there)
• Arts and Crafters (Who, if he’s on the floor, you’ll likely see him around anyways early on)
• Gotta Sweep (Find the Supplies Closet to see where he starts!)
• It’s a Bully (Doesn’t move from his chosen spot until he gets bored or detention, has a sound cue if you get close enough to him)
• The Test (This one’s tricky- but he luckily has a 5 second activation timer when you do inevitably find him for the first time)

Another helpful thing is that who you get on earlier floors will be on later floors. If you start with It’s a Bully on F1, he’ll show up on all floors for that seed!

Delaying a character is a handy skill that can certainly help if you’re able to pull it off in the right situations. For instance, using BSODA on a faster character can give you enough time to get away without giving them a chance to catch up! Other ways to delay characters is using structures to redirect an NPC’s path (e.g. Rotohall, Lockdown door) or even just hiding from said character so they don’t catch you.. Though only some NPCs will give up the chase. Alternatively, some items like the Portal Poster or Dangerous Teleporter allow you to delay the inevitable by making a quick enough escape, though this won’t help against everyone

As you may’ve gathered from Baldi’s priorities, you can make Baldi take a detour by letting him see you in one location then going to a different one. This is most helpful if you have an item that allows you to travel distance quickly, but if you’re about to get detention this can make Baldi take much longer to get to you since his priority will be elsewhere! If a structure or NPC makes a sound, that may work as well, but be aware that sight will always be top priority.

That’s it! (Author’s note)

Apologies for this being a long guide. I would’ve loved to explain more about each character or the items found in-game but then this guide would’ve been even longer and I doubt people want to scroll for 10-15 minutes^^”

I’ll probably likely write more guides later on to cover more topics later on as the game gets more content.. Another thing to keep in mind is that the accuracy and contents of this guide will change as the game updates, so I’ll try to hopefully keep it up-to-date

Good luck playing!
(Other guides by me: Characters guide,Items guide)