Demented
The one threat that plays by Weeping Angel rules: as long as you look straight at it, it does not move. It is also the one you cannot simply shoot down — the confirmed solution is to break your gaze and lead it into a trap. 79.8% of players have Freed.
Last verified 5 August 2026 · game version: 29 July 2026 patch
While you are looking directly at the Demented, it cannot move — and you cannot damage it either. That combination is what makes it awkward: the state that keeps you safe is also the state in which you can do nothing to it. The confirmed way to remove one is to look away and lure it into a trap.
Source: Game Rant monster list.
Why the standard approach fails
Everything else in the bestiary sorts into two buckets. Some things die to gunfire — the Shrieking Doll in a few shots, the Marionette with enough ammunition. Some things cannot be fought at all, like the Dentist. The Demented is in neither bucket. It can be removed, but not by you directly.
So the resource that matters here is not ammunition. It is knowing where your traps are before the encounter starts, because the trap does the work and your only job is aiming the Demented at it.
Confirmed: it does not move while observed, and luring it into a trap is a working solution. Not confirmed: whether weapons can damage it under any circumstances at all. Sources describe the trap route and nothing else, so that is the only method we will publish. If you see a page quoting a weapon or a damage number for this entity, it is not coming from anywhere we could verify.
What to do, step by step
- Look at it and keep looking. This buys you time at zero cost. Nothing about the encounter gets worse while your eyes are on it.
- Work out where your nearest trap is while it is frozen. If the answer is “I do not have one placed”, that is the real problem, and it was created earlier in the shift.
- Reposition so the trap sits between you and it. You are not running away from it — you are arranging the room so that its path to you runs through the trap.
- Break the gaze deliberately, not accidentally. Looking away is what lets it advance, so do it when the geometry is right rather than when you panic.
Steps 1 and 4 restate the confirmed mechanic. The ordering in steps 2 and 3 is our reasoning from the two confirmed facts — it freezes while watched, and the trap is the solution — rather than a sequence lifted from a published guide.
This is the one encounter where a second player changes the shape of the problem rather than just adding damage. One person holds the gaze — that is their entire job, and they do not move — while the other sets or repositions the trap without any time pressure at all. Nothing advances while the watcher watches. Note that this follows from the confirmed freeze mechanic; we have not seen it written up as an official tactic. See the co-op guide.
The sources disagree about its speed
One account describes the Demented as the fastest-moving threat in the game; another does not characterise it that way at all. Both agree on the part that decides the encounter, which is that it cannot act while you are watching it.
The practical reading: assume it is fast. If the faster description is right, the cost of assuming so is nothing; if it is wrong, you have simply been careful with your positioning. Do not treat the gap between you as time in the bank.
It is not rare
You will find this one described as an uncommon encounter. The achievement data does not support that. Freed — Kill a Demented — is held by 79.8% of players, which is more than the share who have killed a Marionette (41.6%) and roughly four players in five overall. Something four in five players have done is not rare, and planning your shift on the assumption you probably will not meet one is a bad plan.
Unlock rates from Steam global achievement stats, read 13 August 2026.
Common mistakes
- Emptying a magazine into it. The one thing every source agrees you cannot do. The noise also tells the rest of the hunt where you are.
- Turning to run. Turning away is precisely the input that unfreezes it. Back off while facing it instead.
- Having no trap placed. The encounter is lost during the calm part of the shift, not during the encounter.
- Blinking through a door. Losing line of sight around a corner has the same effect as looking away, so doorways and aisle ends are where a controlled retreat quietly stops being controlled.
What changed in the patches
Neither the 23 July nor the 29 July patch touched the Demented. The 23 July patch reduced Marionette health and raised music box volume; the 29 July patch added a second firearm, added the Rake to endless and post-story modes only, and removed the patience mechanic. None of that changes how you handle a Demented — a second gun is still a gun. Timeline on updates.