Dayan

Hunt

When a player is within 10 m of the Dayan (on the same floor or not), her hunt threshold and her speed depend on what the nearest player is doing:

The nearest player…	Hunt threshold	Speed
is standing still	45%	fixed, 1.2 m/s
is walking	65%	fixed, 2.25 m/s
(no one within 10 m)	50%	normal (1.7 m/s, speeds up with line of sight)

• If no one is within 10 m, she hunts like a standard ghost.
• With someone nearby, the line-of-sight speed-up keeps building “in the background” and is applied all at once as soon as she no longer has anyone nearby. That’s why leaving her range doesn’t always slow her down.

Other details

She’s always female: she uses a female name and ghost model.

Strategy

• Rule her out by gender. If the ghost has a male name, or shows up with a male ghost model and voice during a ghost event or a hunt, it’s not a Dayan.
• She’s one of the most dangerous ghosts, because she speeds up when you move near her. Ideally, identify her and finish without letting her hunt.
• Since you can’t avoid walking near her, assume her threshold is 65%: she just hunts less often before 50%.
• During a hunt, Incense and Tier III Salt are key to buying time, hiding or getting out of her 10 m range. If you have neither, crouch behind an obstacle, out of her sight, and stay still until it’s over. If she sees you, breaking line of sight is a last resort, because she catches up fast.
• Outrunning her. If you can’t break line of sight, you can try to outrun her: her top speed in range is just slightly lower than yours. Stopping to catch your breath looks like a good idea because of her ability, but it’s better to keep walking. At normal speeds she’s slightly faster than you and, under ideal conditions (ignoring corners), she catches you in about 80 s.
  • With slower ghosts or faster players on the difficulty, you can avoid her forever, though you’ll have a hard time getting out of her 10 m range because the line-of-sight speed-up keeps building.
  • With faster ghosts or slower players, stopping to catch your breath is the better play in theory, but she’ll very likely catch you first. Keep moving, even on high difficulties.
• In multiplayer, her speed depends on the nearest player, even if she hasn’t detected them. A player standing still in a hiding spot can slow her down as she passes by and save whoever is running from her.
• Tier III Sanity Medication gives a speed boost you can use to get out of her range, unless it’s better spent restoring sanity before the hunt.

Trivia

• The dayan (or daayan) is a malevolent ghostly presence from the folklore of India, Pakistan and the rest of South Asia. In English it’s translated as “witch,” but it’s described more as the vengeful spirit of a woman than as a living person.
• According to tradition, she’s a woman who suffered abuse and cruelty and came back this way after she died. She haunts her family and drinks their blood, starting with the youngest male until he turns old, and then moves on to the other men. She’s also said to target young families to “make the young become older.”
• She’s one of the two ghosts you can rule out by gender alone. The other is the Banshee.

Change history

Version	Change
0.15.1.0	Added the Dayan.