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R.E.P.O.’s Clown is a giggling creature of ill-intent, capable of wiping out whole teams (along with a C.A.R.T. of valuables) if a crew doesn’t learn how to predict its movements and deadly laser beam. While it has a notorious reputation, the good news is that predicting that laser and getting where it isn’t can be much easier than might first seem.
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This guide will discuss the Clown’s capabilities, some strategies to kill it, and how to avoid it if you’re not in the fighting mood.
The Basics of the Clown
The Clown is a fairly dangerous foe if you’re unprepared, able to quickly kill crewmates and destroy loot when attacking.Its main form of attack is a deadly laser beam. This attack is signaled by the Clown getting into a crouching position, typically giggling (although keep in mind you won’t always hear it), and then firing a sweeping beam that targets the crewmate it is currently focused on.While it doesn’t intentionally attack multiple crew or valuable items in an area, this beam sweep can devastate whatever is in front of it and potentially clear a whole room. If you get hit with the laser, expect to die. The specifics of dodging this beam are discussed later.
This beam has a cooldown timer, but it also isn’t the Clown’s only attack. The Clown can run towards foes and kick them. This kick technically deals 50 damage, but will often be lethal even if you’re at full health due to the physical damage you’re likely to take upon smashing into whatever wall or floor is behind you when the kick knocks you back. The Clown also has a behavior seemingly designed to ambush the crew for this kick attack, where it will sometimes sit in one position (often around a corner), crouched and still. Then, when someone gets in range, it strikes.
The Clown has 250 health and is heavy, requiring an often impractical 13 Strength to lift and thusmany upgradesto get off its feet without the assistance of items. It is relatively fast, although it is going to frequently pause when aggressive to fire its beam, making it moderately easy to outrun. Between its booming footsteps, giggling, and loud beam, it’s usually very easy to hear coming (although keep in mind that it sometimes will briefly wait in ambush).
Fighting the Clown
If you intend to fight the Clown, you need to learn how its beam functions. As long as you’re paying attention, it’s easy to predict when the beam is going to fire. Whoever the Clown is aggressive towards should be standing before it fires, as the Clown targets its beam based on height. Immediately once it fires, anyone standing nearby can crouch and the beam will typically miss (assuming you’re all on a flat elevation, anyway). It’s often easiest to move, note the beam is about to fire, and then do the Sprint Crouch. This is a technique where you press the Crouch key while running, causing you to slide at a low angle.
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Keep in mind that this beam also severely damages items and that it will extend seemingly forever until it hits something (including walls and other surfaces). You typically don’t want to fight the Clown near your C.A.R.T. or any important treasure for this reason.
The easiest way to attack the Clown is to quickly punish it immediately after it fires its beam or (as is true of basically all monsters) attack it from behind when it isn’t aware of you. This can be done by slamming an item of medium weight (like the Clown Toy) into it, hitting it with a melee weapon (the Baseball Bat and Sledgehammer both work great), or even nailing it with an explosive. The two lethal firearms in the game, the Gun and Shotgun, can also trivialize the fight by keeping you out of kick range and dealing heavy damage.
Once it takes a hit, the Clown will briefly go limp. A core part of combat in R.E.P.O. is learning to capitalize on this monster state without letting a monster surprise you by jumping out of the state and suddenly attacking again. Assuming you want to actually kill the creature rather than run, learn to use this state to deal as much damage as you can. Youcanstunlock monsters with repeated hits, but it’s also easy to get caught up in an assault and miss a few too many swings of a melee weapon or make some other error that allows them to hop up and attack multiple crewmates while everyone is around and trying to go for the kill.
Depending on your items and upgrades, you may also be able to lift the Clown, which can likewise render it useless as you wail on it. However, this requires 13 Strength if you don’t use items like the Feather Drone to reduce how heavy the monster is.At the time of writing, there is also soon going to be an update to reduce the efficacy of this strategy, adding an “Overcharge” mechanic where holding a monster for too long will cause you to explode.
Choosing Your Battles
The Clown is a risky foe, not only because it can quickly kill unprepared players but because of how quickly it can destroy value. Even once you’ve mastered the relatively easy skill of predicting how its beam will fire (and how to dodge it), it’s a much harder thing to control the flow of battle so that the beam doesn’t have a high risk of destroying at least some items in the same room you’re fighting the creature in.
With that said, it isn’t extremely tough once you understand how it operates and oftentimes killing it is going to make sense if you’re looking for extra profit or just want some more breathing room. At 250 health, it doesn’t taketoomany hits to kill compared to something tanky likethe Trudge. It’s also an enemy that can relatively frequently cause some “Do-or-Die” moments, as an aggro Clown near your C.A.R.T. probably needs to be whacked as soon as possible if you want to reduce the risk of it smashing some (or all) of your valuable loot.If it fires a beam that sweeps a full C.A.R.T., it has the potential to destroy huge amounts of value in seconds.
It’s also important to remember that the orbs monsters drop are valuable but notextremelyvaluable. Killing the Clown can net you several thousand extra dollars, but that doesn’t mean as much if you’re using thousands of dollars of explosives to kill it. Even the pips of energy using melee weapons and guns can use stack up, as recharging with new crystals can get pricey too. Monster Orbs are also very fragile, sohandle with care.
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