Powers are a feature in Dark Deception, Super Dark Deception and Monsters & Mortals.
In Dark Deception and Super Dark Deception, power are obtained consecutively from Chapters Two through Five; beginning from "Elementary Evil", each level entrance will contain obstacles that cannot be bypassed through regular means or any current Powers the player possesses. Before the player can get past them, they must obtain a power from the ring altar. Each power can then be used to the player's advantage throughout each level, making the search for soul shards easier.
Each power plays a part in Doug's survival, and offers its own advantage in collecting soul shards or avoiding enemies. Two powers can be used at once, toggled through the two circles on the top half of the tablet's screen. While some are instant, others are active for a certain duration of time.
Completing each level will also reward the player skill points, determined by a number of factors. These can be used to upgrade existing powers at the ring altar, primarily duration and cooldown time. In Bearly Buried, the player has to collect all the ring piece in order to retrieve the powers back.
In Monsters & Mortals, the Speed Boost, Primal Fear, Telepathy and Vanish powers can be obtained in matches through Portal Boxes.
Speed Boost[]

The Speed Boost ability is unlocked before starting "Elementary Evil".
This ability increases the player's speed drastically, helping them to outrun enemies and can burst through red barriers. As of Chapter 3, the Speed Boost allows you to outrun most, if not all, enemies in the game. However, purple barriers are not under this limit, as they only break if all the soul shards in that area are collected or when the player defeats a boss.
Speed Boost Upgrades
Upgrade Level | Speed | Duration | Cooldown |
---|---|---|---|
2 (Default) | 870 | 6.75 seconds | 8.5 seconds |
3 | 890 | 7.5 seconds | 8 seconds |
4 | 910 | 8.25 seconds | 7.5 seconds |
5 | 930 | 9 seconds | 7 seconds |
6 | 950 | 9.75 seconds | 6.5 seconds |
Upgrade Level | Speed | Duration | Cooldown |
---|---|---|---|
1 (Default) | 1.4 | 7 seconds | 15 seconds |
2 | 1.55 | 7.65 seconds | 14 seconds |
3 | 1.66 | 8.25 seconds | 13 seconds |
4 | 1.77 | 9 seconds | 12 seconds |
5 | 2 | 10 seconds | 10 seconds |
Teleportation[]

The Teleportation ability is unlocked before starting "Deadly Decadence".
This ability allows the player to teleport forward a certain distance (which can be increased by upgrading at the Ring Altar) through enemies and traps, especially when being cornered in its respective level. When teleporting, any soul shards that you have teleported through are picked up. However, it cannot be used to teleport through walls and/or doors.
Teleportation Upgrades
Upgrade Level | Cooldown | Distance |
---|---|---|
2 (Default) | 5 seconds | 1000 |
3 | 1125 | |
4 | 1250 | |
5 | 1375 | |
6 | 1500 |
Upgrade Level | Cooldown | Distance |
---|---|---|
1 (Default) | 8 seconds | 5 |
2 | 7 seconds | 6 |
3 | 6 seconds | 7 |
4 | 5 seconds | 8 |
5 | 4 seconds | 10 |
Telepathy[]

The Telepathy ability is unlocked before starting "Stranger Sewers".
This power reveals the positions of all enemies in the zone by highlighting them in red smoke. Red smoke can be seen through solid objects and works on all enemies, including Malak. In the context of Stranger Sewers, this power distinguishes the real Dread Duckies from the fake ones.
Telepathy Upgrades
Upgrade Level | Duration | Cooldown |
---|---|---|
2 (Default) | 5 seconds | 8.5 seconds |
3 | 6 seconds | 8.0 seconds |
4 | 7 seconds | 7.5 seconds |
5 | 8 seconds | 7.0 seconds |
6 | 9 seconds | 6.5 seconds |
Upgrade Level | Duration | Cooldown |
---|---|---|
1 (Default) | 5 seconds | 7 seconds |
2 | 6 seconds | 6.5 seconds |
3 | 7 seconds | 6 seconds |
4 | 8 seconds | 5.5 seconds |
5 | 9 seconds | 5 seconds |
Primal Fear[]

The Primal Fear ability is unlocked before starting "Crazy Carnevil".
The ability serves as a portable Stun Orb with far less range, stunning all enemies within a small radius. As suggested by a death tip, this power can be utilized against large groups of enemies. This ability does not work against Malak as well as most of the boss enemies. Using Primal Fear on the Trigger Teddies will instead cause them to explode, thus destroying them.
Primal Fear Upgrades
Upgrade Level | Range | Cooldown |
---|---|---|
2 (Default) | 1500 | 35 seconds |
3 | 2000 | 32 seconds |
4 | 2500 | 29 seconds |
5 | 3000 | 26 seconds |
6 | 3500 | 23 seconds |
Telekinesis[]

The Telekinesis ability is unlocked before starting "Torment Therapy".
This power emerges a blue radius that will bring all the shards in the said radius to the player. It's very effective against walls, rooms with high amount of soul shards or any shards that's far from the player. This ability does not attract special shards such as the Red Shards and Stun Orbs.
Telekinesis Upgrades
Upgrade Level | Range | Cooldown |
---|---|---|
2 (Default) | 2000 | 10 seconds |
3 | 2250 | 9.5 seconds |
4 | 2500 | 9 seconds |
5 | 2750 | 8.5 seconds |
6 | 3000 | 8 seconds |
Vanish[]

The Vanish ability is unlocked before starting "Mascot Mayhem".
This power makes the player invisible from the sight of the enemies and security cameras in Mascot Mayhem. It's very useful when they need to pass through waves of enemies. However, this is not effective against bosses, Clown Cars, and Malak, and the player can still be killed if they get contact with the lethal traps or enemies. Certain enemies react to vanish in different ways:
- Murder Monkeys, Agatha, Dread Duckies, Clown Gremlins, Reaper Nurses, Lucky the Rabbit, Penny the Chicken, Hangry the Pig, and Trigger Teddies go back to their wandering states.
- While Disguise sends active Dread Duckies back to their wandering state, diguised Dread Duckies will largely ignore the effects of vanish, as a disguised Dread Ducky will still wake up if a player using vanish gets too close, and if woken up while the player is under it's effects, will ignore the effects of vanish and chase the player.
- The Gold Watchers and Mama Bear freeze in their current positions until the effect ends.
Vanish Upgrades
Upgrade Level | Duration | Cooldown |
---|---|---|
2 (Default) | 15 seconds | 28 seconds |
3 | 24 seconds | |
4 | 20 seconds | |
5 | 18 seconds | |
6 | 15 seconds |
The following information contains spoilers. To view them, click the [show] tag. |
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Summon (Unofficial Name)![]() This ability is unlocked before starting "Prison Panic". This power will allow for the player to summon Puppets. These puppets will distract the enemies. |
Origin and Other Users[]
The powers seen in Dark Deception originally belonged to Malak. One Reaper Nurse says "Lord Malak's infinite power was never meant for mere mortals. [Doug] has been using them quite recklessly. There may be dire consequences for [Doug's] health." While this may be just a bluff and the Reaper Nurse only said this as part of her charade, it is also likely that what she said is true, that the usage of these powers will slowly take their toll on mortals who use them, likely due to the dark, demonic, and overall powerful nature of these abilities being too extreme for their bodies and/or souls to handle. Because these powers originally belonged to Malak, it can be reasonably assumed that the abilities possessed by the monsters in the game were provided to them by him. Unsurprisingly, he gets mad whenever another being he did not give his abilities to uses them, as can be observed in the second and third zone of "Bearly Buried", where he yells "Those are [his] powers!" whenever the player uses one of his abilities.
It is notable how each power that the player has unlocked is usually connected to the abilities of the monster they faced prior to gaining that power, though some monsters after a certain power are unlocked may also have that ability.
- The Murder Monkeys and the Chef Monkeys have some form of Speed Boost. They would speed up once they catch sight of the player. The only time they are not seen running is when the player uses Vanish or manages to get far away from them.[1] According to Vince, the Murder Monkeys' rage apparently also acts as the Speed Boost power.
- In "Mascot Mayhem", Lucky the Rabbit is capable of using his own Speed Boost to catch up with the player during a chase. This appears to be unrelated, but can be seen as a challenge to the player's Speed Boost; Lucky's enhanced sprint matches that of a low-level Speed Boost, though this may be enough to encourage players to upgrade their Speed Boost and thus be able to further guarantee that they can escape Lucky even when he is running.
- Mama Bear also seems to possess a form of Speed Boost, though it seems to only activate when she's close enough to make the player's screen blur and glitch, and is thus probably just another aspect of her "Bloodlust" ability.
- Agatha actively uses Teleportation in Zone 2 of "Elementary Evil" to catch the player off-guard. She also uses it back-to-back during her boss fight, appearing and disappearing around the room repeatedly to catch the player.
- The Gold Watchers possess Telepathy, as they are always aware of the player's location, regardless of where they are or how many barriers are in between them.
- The Murder Monkeys from "Monkey Business" also appear to have this power to a degree, given how it is hard - but not impossible - for them to lose sight of the player, indicating that their Telepathy is limited compared to the more potent ability of the Gold Watchers.
- Mama Bear from "Bearly Buried" also demonstrates Telepathy on account of her constant awareness of the player's location, though her Trigger Teddy "children" don't seem to have the same ability.
- The Dread Duckies and their leader, the Doom Ducky, possess the power of Primal Fear, as they are capable of stunning the player from a distance with their inner mouths (or, in the case of the Doom Ducky, one of its several hands). They usually do not capitalize on this, however, as they prefer to taunt the players with quacks and dance instead (though a Dread Ducky accompanying the one that stunned the player may go in for the kill), giving the player time to recover and escape.
- The Reaper Nurses from "Torment Therapy" also demonstrate this ability, using pills to stun the player rather than something connected to their body like the Dread Duckies, allowing their attacks to travel further. Unlike other enemies with Primal Fear, the Reaper Nurses do not give their victim time to recover, instead immediately closing in.
- Penny the Chicken from "Mascot Mayhem" combines traits from both the Dread Duckies and the Reaper Nurses for her own Primal Fear attack. Like the latter, she throws a proper projectile rather than springing out a part of her body, allowing her projectile, an egg, to travel further in a straight line. Like the former, however, she does not take advantage of a successful hit, instead taunting a player with a dance, allowing them to recover and escape unless one of her allies kills the player while they are stunned.
- The Clown Gremlins have some form of Telekinesis. In Zone 1 of "Crazy Carnevil", they likely control their car with this ability (regardless of whether they are in or out of it), and they later use Telekinesis to attract nearby Clown Gremlins if they spot the player in Zone 2.
- The Reaper Nurses can Vanish, turning invisible for a short period to ambush the player.
The following information contains spoilers. To view them, click the [show] tag. |
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The Puppet King can Summon mannequins to kill the player. |
While not the same, some characters from Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals possess similar abilities, usually (but not always) matching what they can do in their series of origin, or, at least, reference the themes they are connected to.
- Law enforcement officer tactics include shining a bright at their target to blind and disorient those who may potentially be hostile, hence, Detective Evans can use his flashlight to stun an enemy for five seconds when using his ultimate ability, "Freeze Flash", reflecting Primal Fear.
- Nikson Sita is the programmer of Dark Deception. Hence, in Monsters & Mortals, he can use his ultimate ability, "Shard Hack", to collect a maximum of Soul Shards in a 20-meter radius around himself. Hence, he can be considered as using something analogous to Telekinesis, using his programming knowledge to hack the game he helped make and get nearby shards rather than having his mind literally grab nearby shards.
- Pen Livings, co-founder and art director of Dark Deception, uses a combination of powers similar to Speed Boost and Primal Fear, rushing at great speed and stunning those in her path for two seconds.
- The Brute is just as fast as - but not faster than - normal humans when chasing them in Monstrum, and, by using its great mass and momentum to accelerate quickly, can charge faster than humans in Monstrum 2, able to fatally injure and even kill those in its path. In essence, it has a more lethal version of the Speed Boost. In Monsters & Mortals, The Brute's ultimate ability, "Magma Charge" allows it to rush faster than Speed class characters while fully ablaze, causing massive damage and lingering burn damage to any opponent that comes in contact with it in this state.
- The Fiend's large brain grants it increased intelligence and psychic powers, which it uses to fly, unlock doors, seal shut the doors around it to prevent prey from escaping, and, as long as it can see its target, damage prey from great distances with Telekinesis. Upon catching its victim, The Fiend would then kill them in gruesome ways, snapping their bones and rupturing their organs with just its mind. In Monsters & Mortals, The Fiend's ultimate ability, "Mind Pull", has it use Telekinesis to force the weakest enemy player to Teleport in front of it regardless of where they are on the map, inflicting fear on them in the process.
- The Red Pyramid Things reflect Silent Hill's past as a place of execution, being the distorted memory of the town's robed and hooded executioners, one of which was depicted in the painting "Misty Day, Remains of the Judgement", standing amidst executed convicts in suspended cages. Hence, in Monsters & Mortals, the Red Pyramid Things can stab the ground with their Great Knife, generating a shockwave that causes a cage to rise up from the grated floor of the Otherworld, trapping and stunning those who have been caught in the shockwave for five seconds, in essence having an effect like Primal Fear. The Red Pyramid Things can also lunge forward towards nearby players in a supernatural manner, providing them something like a very short Speed Boost. If there are no nearby targets, the Red Pyramid Things would Teleport right next to a player, fitting given how they, like most monsters in Silent Hill are manifestations of certain people's subconsciousness, and thus, would be with those who require their punishment no matter where they go.
Audio[]
Used | Audio File |
---|---|
When a power is refilled. | |
When a power is not ready. (Removed in-game) | |
When a power is unlocked or upgraded. | |
When selecting a power. | |
When Speed Boost is used. | |
When positioning the Teleportation power. | |
When Teleportation is used. | |
When Telepathy is used. | |
When Primal Fear, Telekinesis and Vanish is used. |
Trivia[]
- The Teleport power works functionally similar to the Blink from Dishonored.
- Nikson stated that he and Vince Livings regret adding Teleport to the game due to it causing a lot of map exploits while being the hardest power to program.[2]
- Players once had the option to cancel their teleportation. This option was later removed due to an exploit that turned the player invincible to enemies and traps.[3] with Nikson never planning to re-add that feature as a result.
- Vince said that, because the old version of Telepathy causes significant frame drops, it will not be returned, and Telepathy may not even come back for Dark Deception 2.[4]
- Strangely, both Telekinesis and Vanish reuse the same sound effect as Primal Fear.
- Vince stated that their sounds are slightly different. However, replacing the sound effect of Primal Fear also replaces the sound effects of Telekinesis and Vanish, proving that all three abilities share just one sound effect.[5]
- While possibly be a placeholder, given the denial that these three powers use the same sound effect, this feature is not likely to change in the future.
- Vince Livings originally stated that there are no more new powers to gain after Vanish.[6] This was either a cover-up or a decision that was changed overtime, as he later said that the two extra slots for powers in the ring altar are intentional,[7] then eventually outright confirmed that there will be two more powers in Chapter 5.[8]
- In the 27th Q&A, Vince confirmed that these powers will be unlocked after Holiday Horror.
References[]
- ↑ Dark Deception - Do Monkeys Walk?
- ↑ Teleportation!
- ↑ (PATCHED) Dark Deception - God Mode Glitch
- ↑ Vince Livings stated that, because the old Telepathy is too performance-intensive, it won't be returned, and may not even reappear in Dark Deception 2.
- ↑ TK and Vanish re-uses Primal Fear sound effect! | Dark Deception
- ↑ Dark Deception Q&A Live with Vince Livings: Episode 18
- ↑ Dark Deception Q&A Live with Vince Livings: Episode 25
- ↑ Vince Livings confirmed that the fifth chapter of Dark Deception will have two new powers.