Identifying doppelgangers
Doppelgangers are the most common enemy in the game and the only one you handle with judgement rather than combat. They copy a human's look, voice, mannerisms and background well enough to walk in and ask for cigarettes.
Last verified 28 July 2026 · game version: launch build (22 July 2026)
Your ID verification computer answers exactly one question: is this document authentic? It does not answer is this person human? and it does not answer is this person going to hurt me? Everything difficult about this game lives in that gap.
The two counterexamples that define the rule
Before building any identification habit, internalise these two:
- Norbert — fake ID, openly not what he claims, harmless. Arrives Night 2.
- The Dentist — does not register on the computer at all, and is lethal.
Any rule of the form "scanner says X, therefore do Y" is broken by one of these. The scanner is one input among several, and it is not the decisive one.
What identification actually rests on
Doppelgangers mimic four things: appearance, voice, mannerisms and background. Mimicry is imitation, and imitation has seams. The practical skill is knowing the baseline well enough to notice when something is off — which is why Night 1 is best spent simply watching normal customers behave normally.
Behaviour is generally more informative than paperwork. Norbert stepping around the counter is a behavioural anomaly the game shows you deliberately. A customer whose stated background does not match how they act is giving you more signal than a document ever will.
The reliable method is layering: what the document says, what the person says, and how the person behaves. One anomaly is noise. Two that point the same direction is a decision. Acting on a single flag — in either direction — is how you end up in the 96.6% who have killed a customer.
The cost of being wrong
Being wrong toward mercy lets something through your door. Being wrong toward suspicion kills a paying customer — the game tracks this with its own achievement, and the three rare hidden achievements (Grave Decision 26.0%, True Ending 13.4%, Empty Home 7.0%) may well relate to how you handled these calls. That last point is inference, and we label it as such.
In co-op
Three players can genuinely split this. One works the counter and the scanner, one watches the floor for behavioural anomalies, one keeps the store running. With proximity chat the floor watcher can flag something quietly without the person at the counter breaking eye contact. Three people all crowding the same customer sees less, not more.