Unfortunate Spacemen – Ultimate Lockdown Perks Guide

Short guide covering the basics of what the perk lockdown does, and going in depth on how to maximize its potential.

Guide to Lockdown Perks

Lockdown Attributes

Lockdown (Aggression)

• Instinct: Pressing 3 while in monster form initiates an animation (approx 5 sec) that when completed will lock all currently lockable doors on the map.
• While performing the animation you gain damage resistance (75% to all sources).
• While performing the animation you gain the ability to see all spaceman through walls similarly to the vision enhancer (might be limited to close range only)
• From when the animation starts to when the lockdown effect ends (any doors that it locked would now unlock), all doors (locked or not) gain 50% damage resistance from all sources.
• You must be grounded to use this ability, and you will remain mostly stationary for the duration of the animation

How and When to Use Lockdown

Lockdown serves various purposes to help you get the edge on the spacemen and it will be up to you to improvise and decide when and how to best to use it in every situation.

Example Strategies/Tactics

Escape

Lockdown can serve a fleeing monster greatly. You can lock the pursuing spacemen while making your escape, but make sure you plan this out so you do not delay yourself as well with locked doors. This is best used after you reach a large open area where you can cover a lot of ground before being stopped by a door, most likely a non-oxygenated zone.

Division

Of course, in a group that lacks a VIP, lockdown can easily turn a fight with 6 into one with 3. If you are able to watch a group from a closeby hidden location, you can time the doors to lock as a group transitions through a door to divide the party. Even if they have a VIP, the locking doors can cause some confusion within the group giving you the perfect time to ambush.

Redirection

Alongside decoy and host, lockdown offers many options for redirecting the spaceman where you want them. Most spacemen if caught in a lockdown outside, VIP or not, will likely head to the nearest door to shoot it down, unlock it, or wait out the lockdown before running inside. This applies even heavier to a group with only one or two VIPs as they will all rush to the door they unlock. This tactic gives the monster many opportunities to utilize eggs, burrows, and more to set up an ambush on the other side of a door or get the spaceman to temporarily give up on their current task.

Forcing 1v1s

A tactic that pairs well with a monster that heavily utilizes redirection, lockdown can easily give the monster its preferred environment in a fight. If an overly cocky spaceman is hunting you down while you escape, bring them through a door into an area where you would probably perform an escape lockdown. Hide out of sight and begin the animation, the spaceman will most likely chase you and only realize what has happened after it has already happened. This sets up a combat encounter you should almost definitely win. Even if the spaceman has VIP, they will use both their cards to lock & unlock the door to escape, meaning you can use your trusty VIP card to pursue the spaceman with both their cards on cooldown.

Giving Yourself Some Breathing Room

Lockdown can really help delay spaceman when you are pinched down, giving you time to think or prepare for a fight as they wait out the lockdown. This can be very helpful in small rooms containing health stations, allowing you a relatively safe heal by locking the entrances and granting you thermals to check your nearby surroundings.

Explore New Paths

Get creative when using lockdown, try using it and venting into an isolated room across the map, or possibly unlock a door you just locked with lockdown by using VIP to surprise a now trapped spacemen who hopefully didn’t know you were there. I also strongly suggest learning and utilize unique parkour paths or monster only paths to help you easily traverse the map unimpeded by doors or spaceman during a lockdown.

Playstyles and Perk Synergies

Playstyles

Mutation choice will most likely be the most defining factor on your playstyle regarding lockdown and how you use it.

Void

Void fits the playstyle of a monster primarily using lockdown to redirect spacemen into traps and for escape purposes. Paired with blink you can quickly get distance while escaping spacemen, and block the path of pursuing spacemen with lockdown. On the other hand, you can utilize your egg to flawlessly ambush spacemen rushing back inside for air following a lockdown.

Acid

Acid specializes in the heavily aggressive usage of lockdown, finding its moments of strength in close quarters combat, something lockdown can reliably give you. Utilize dividing groups of spaceman or trapping them in small rooms to put the spaceman in an environment where you can coat the floor with acid and rip them to shreds, while soaking them in your poison blood.

Host

From experimentation with this loadout combination, various tactics may arise. Crumerians serve as an excellent distraction and form of redirection for the spaceman, allowing you to lure them outside as they seek the source, where they can be promptly locked out and eaten.

Corpse Lord

When using corpse lord and lockdown, consider using similar tactics to void with your eggs, catching spaceman with a parasite egg as they scramble back inside for air. Besides this corpse lord also allows for aggressive plays with lockdown, as zombies shine in combat where their enemy has nowhere to run, allowing you to gain a free follower.

Perk Synergies

Decoy

Decoy boasts the highest capabilities for distracting the spacemen, and synergizes with lockdown well because of it. Utilize the on-transform decoys to distract spacemen as you transform out of sight and perform the animation, hopefully preventing them from realizing they need to get inside until it is too late. Also use the burrow/remote arm decoys to lure spaceman towards them, distracting them and giving you the opportunity to lock them out in a favorable environment.

Membrane

Membrane is a go to perk for a lockdown monster looking to redirect the spacemen right into a burrow chomp, utilize the immunity to thermal/map scanners to remain undetected as you wait for your prey.

Welder

A welder on the hip is the best friend to a lockdown player, allowing them to repair doors to a working condition where they can be affected by lockdown once more. As a monster, try to repair outside doors to utilize in trapping spacemen without O2 and forcing 1v1s, but consider leaving doors which block important passageways broken to prevent spacemen from locking you out as they flee.

VIP Keycard

Alongside welder, VIP is a go to perk for any lockdown player. This boosts your aggressive capabilities to insane heights, allowing you to put yourself in dangerous situations for major plays without worrying about dying because you burned your own bridge to escape.

Antibodies

In general antibodies is a fantastic choice for any monster, however when you are using lockdown it becomes a lot more useful. When using lockdown you might notice you start slowing down, committing to dangerous situations only when you have lockdown off cooldown, which is why it is important to be able to eat every corpse you can secure. Secondly the other primary contender in the defense category, blast shield, loses much of its value as you can easily tank a grenade or rocket utilizing the 75% dmg reduction while performing the lockdown animation.

Investigator

Out of all of the professions, investigator is the only one with a clear synergy with lockdown, not to say others don’t work well. Utilizing the ability to track spacemen with magboots, you can predict where almost every spacemen is headed and allow you to redirect them, provided you can locate their footprints.

Counters

What to do when locked outside?

• If you aren’t stocked up on oxygen start heading to a nearby door, try to recall where other spacemen were prior to the lockdown, as they may have VIP and can let you in. Do not let your guard down and be aware that the monster may be trying to redirect you into an ambush.
• If you have any bonuses to your oxygen supply via oxy filters or an oxygen tank and are relatively full on oxygen and health, you should be able to continue your business as normal and the doors should unlock shortly after you would normally go back inside.
• Use an alternative path to reach O2, many maps offer availability to oxygenated areas without requiring door access, examples include skylights and open walls.
• The simplest counter when you are locked out is to open a door by any means necessary. If you lack VIP, trying hollering for other spacemen to get some assistance. With enough firepower a single spaceman can blow down a door quickly, and a group can take down a door with sidearms relatively quickly as well.
• If you are having trouble with lockdown consider one of these perks: Cultist, Recruit, Doctor, Oxy Filters, VIP Keycard.

Planning Your Movement

Once you are aware of the presence of a lockdown monster you should adopt various tactics to help you more safely maneuver the map.

Set Up A Lifeline

When facing a lockdown monster, a VIP is a valuable ally and spacemen should seek to group up with one, and the same vice versa. Even if someone doesn’t have VIP, it’s a great idea to group/partner up when facing a lockdown monster as 2 people with ARs/LMGs or a small group of spacemen armed with only handguns can easily take down a door if locked outside.

Be Cautious Travelling Outside

Try to limit your excursions outside when facing a lockdown monster and when forced to walk outside, try to keep close to doors as you can use the light flickering that comes a second before the doors lock as a que to quickly get inside.

Lockdown & Welders

When facing any other monster, repairing doors is usually the default action one takes, however against lockdown a spacemen must be more careful. As a spacemen with welder facing lockdown I would recommend doing the opposite of what is suggested in the synergy section for a monster with welder. Repair most doors inside, unless it provides strong ambush opportunities. In most cases, refrain from repairing doors to the outside as they can easily weaken and endanger spacemen caught outside during a lockdown, and any spacemen caught outside with the monster is most likely dead regardless of whether they can lock the door or not.