Scarescraper is the Luigi’s Mansion series’ quientiesential multiuplayer mode. Climb a tower while fighting ghosts until you reach the top. Simple enough, right? For the most part, it is. But have you ever wondered how to play this mode effectively? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
For this article, we will be discussing Hunter Mode specifically. The other modes have different rules and regulations, but many mechanics remain the same. So, we’ll stick to Hunter Mode for now.
The Basics
Once you start up a game, you will be loaded into a floor. Sometimes, you will spawn in with your fellow Luigis; other times, you’ll all spawn on different parts of the floor. In either case, you need to explore immediately. There are two types of rooms for you to explore: light rooms and dark rooms. Light rooms are safe to explore away from the threat of ghosts, while dark rooms are crawling with them. You must clear out all the ghosts on a floor to clear the floor.
It’s best to split up and cover more ground. Floors can have many rooms, so players going in different directions and opening up more rooms makes it easier to clear the floor faster. Trust in your fellow Luigis, and let them do their share!
Many obstacles will be in your path. Besides the ghosts, there will often be locked rooms for which you must find a key. Keys are usually hidden within invisible objects, so be sure to use your blacklight to uncover these objects and retrieve those keys.
On that note, be sure to utilize your flashlight’s functions. Besides revealing hidden objects, the blacklight can be used on paintings to obtain items, such as hearts or bombs. The blacklight can also be helpful in revealing haunters’ locations, making it easier to catch them. The Strobe Bulb is also very important. Besides catching ghosts, the Strobe light can be used to open vaults, which may contain items or money. They can also be used to activate bombs. The red bombs are only meant to hurt you, so stay as far away from them as possible. The gold bombs, on the other hand, will give you a little cash, and using the Strobe light is the only way to activate them.
It’s important to note that not all doors need to be unlocked. Some locked doors just make it easier to traverse the floor, so while obtaining the key could be helpful, it is not absolutely necessary. So make sure to check your priorities lest you run out of time.
The floors can also contain other obstacles, such as ice floors, making it more difficult for players to traverse each room. Remember to keep your priorities in check and focus on clearing out the ghosts to clear the floor.
Besides being unable to catch all the ghosts in time, there is another way for players to lose. If every player’s HP reaches zero, then it’s game over. So be sure to keep your teammates healthy and revive them quickly if they go down.
There are also several traps that you and your teammates can fall into. There’s the rug trap, the curse trap, and the dreaded pot trap. For the rug and pot trap, you can pull on the end or the chain on the pot to free your teammate. As for the curse, use your blacklight to cure your fellow player.
One final tip is to explore as many rooms as possible. This will not only help you in your search for ghosts but will also be vital in finding all of the red coins after clearing the floor. Splitting up can help with discovering every room, but the wardrobes are also quite helpful. Certain wardrobes will quickly transport you from one room to another, making it easier to explore another part of the map and helping to reveal hidden rooms quickly.
Related: Luigi’s Mansion 2 vs. Luigi’s Mansion 3: Who Has the Better Scarescraper?
Red Coin Hunt
Once each floor (besides the top floor) has been cleared, the red coin hunt will begin. Four red coins will scatter across different rooms on the floor. Players will have a limited amount of time to collect all four coins. If players collect all of the coins, a roulette will be spun after the results for each floor have been shown. This roulette contains several different power-ups, such as more powerful vacuums, Blacklight Goggles, or even a map of the next floor. One player will be randomly chosen to receive the power-up, and the more red coins a player has collected, the more likely they are to receive the power-up.
The best strategy to collect all the red coins is to simply split up. Red coins can be clustered together, or they can be spread very far apart, so players should divide and conquer. If players are bunched too close together, they’re not likely to succeed in the red coin hunt. So be sure to split up for efficiency.
Boss floors are a little different. Each boss floor only has four rooms, so there will always be a red coin in every room. Each player can tackle a room if you’re playing in a full lobby. Even if you aren’t in a full lobby, though, these floors tend to be easier for collecting red coins, so collecting them should be a breeze.
The Bosses
The final thing to discuss is the bosses. To start, there are the floor bosses. Every five floors, you’ll encounter a boss. There are dozens of different bosses to encounter, all of which are a variation of the basic ghosts. Each boss has its different challenges, such as the sneaker bosses summoning tornados that teleport players to other rooms. This can make these ghosts difficult to face. The best thing to do, especially with fewer players, is to keep up the pressure and avoid their attacks as much as possible.
If you’re trying to collect the different boss ghosts, going for 25 floors is the best option to collect as many as possible. If you really want to grind for as many as possible, you can do the infinite Scarescraper, but keep in mind that this doesn’t end until you lose, so be prepared.
Then, finally, there’s The Brain, the final boss of the Scarescraper. He resides on the top floor of the Scarescraper and is honestly relatively easy to defeat. The Brain will constantly disappear and begin throwing books at you, all the while spawning ghosts that will attack you. Trying to flash The Brain with your flashlight can sometimes result in him blocking with a book. Eventually, though, you’ll be able to stun him and suck him up.
As you’re sucking him up, he will occasionally fire a large blast to knock you down. This can be prevented by using the power bars on your vacuum. Once you’ve gotten his health down to 0, you’ll suck him up, officially beating the Scarescraper.
Scarescraper can be a frustrating mode at times, but hopefully this guide can help you fare better as you climb the tower. Remember to be a team player, divide and conquer, and have fun as you climb your way to the top.