Power and Floodlights in DONT LET HIM IN

In DONT LET HIM IN by dilly dally games, light is not mood — it is structure. The Locust (DoctorNowhere credit; Boiled One / Boy and the Bath also credited) does not breach lit areas. Floodlights and powered rooms act like walls. When the breaker fails or a cable is cut, those walls vanish and every dark door or window becomes a race. This guide explains how to keep light alive, how to restore it when it dies, and how flashlight batteries fit the same system.

Pair this with How to Survive for the full night loop, Getting Started for onboarding, and Hiding Spots for what to do when darkness and an indoor Locust arrive together. Index: Guides Hub.

Why floodlights win nights

Players who treat floodlights as optional decoration lose after the first serious outage. Lit exteriors and maintained interior light shrink the number of entries The Locust can usefully pressure. Your sealers get fewer simultaneous emergencies. Your ears get cleaner information because you are not sprinting through pitch black guessing which pane opened.

Conversely, a blackout multiplies threats: vision drops, floodlight denial collapses, and someone may need to leave the house. The creature’s kit includes cutting power — expect it, do not act surprised. Build a power plan in the first minutes of every night the same way you assign window watchers.

DONT LET HIM IN power and floodlights gameplay

Breaker and cable failures

When power dies, find the breaker / restore interaction and fix it. Some failures involve a cut cable that forces an outdoor repair. Outdoor runs are the highest-risk chore in the place: you leave the relative safety of sealed rooms, often with The Locust active, and you still need a way back in that does not leave the door wide open forever.

Procedure that works in co-op:

1. Call the outage clearly on voice.
2. One primary runner (optional one escort) leaves; everyone else stays on doors and windows.
3. Runner carries a charged flashlight and knows the path before stepping out.
4. Inside team does not follow for “sightseeing” — empty houses fail seals.
5. On restore, confirm floodlights and critical rooms relight.
6. Sweep every entry that may have opened during the dark stretch.
7. Only then resume normal patrol tempo.

Solo players must pre-stage batteries near the exit they will use and accept that seals will slip during the run. Hide afterward if The Locust exploited the gap — see Hiding Spots.

Floodlights versus flashlight

Floodlights / house power create the persistent lit zones The Locust will not breach. They are your strategic layer.

Flashlight is your tactical layer: scare or repel at a window, navigate black halls, survive outdoor cable work, and buy seconds when a room just went dark. Flashlights need batteries. Empty cells turn a confident runner into a blind target.

Do not dump your entire battery stock into early-evening panic flashes. Pulse when a window needs a scare, when you must cross a dark yard, or when a teammate is down and you need a lit path to a revive. Support players can specialize in battery looting and handoffs — a role worth listing on Players and ranking on the Tier List.

Lighting priorities inside the house

Not every bulb matters equally. Prioritize:

• Zones that feed floodlight coverage or major exterior approaches.
• Rooms that contain the breaker path and main arteries between wings.
• Areas adjacent to your chosen hide closets so you can reach them without a blind marathon.

Avoid lighting vanity corners while the breaker corridor stays dark. After any restore, walk the priority list in order instead of randomly flipping switches. If the place limits how you manage light, treat that limit as a resource puzzle: keep the denial zones that block The Locust first.

Outdoor safety habits

• Close the door discipline: leave a plan for who reseals the exit behind the runner.
• Shortest safe path beats scenic routes.
• If you hear pressure on the house while outside, finish the critical interact if you are seconds away; otherwise abort to live and retry.
• Never assume floodlights are still up just because you fixed the breaker once — re-check.
• After returning, announce “power up” so sealers stop using blackout protocols.

Blackout into indoor Locust

The nightmare stack is power down and The Locust inside. Do not try to be a hero electrician in the open if the creature is already hunting hallways. Hide first, survive the pressure, then restore power when the house is quiet enough. The embed on this page is useful for seeing how outages feel in real runs — watch how quickly dark houses lose control, then practice cleaner restores in your own sessions.

Coordination scripts (say these out loud)

• “Power down — I am runner, need battery check.”
• “Window left side while they are outside.”
• “Breaker restored — rechecking floodlights.”
• “Still dark in X room — flipping / fixing.”
• “Aborting outdoor, Locust on me — reseal.”

Short scripts beat vague screaming. Vague screaming is how two people both leave and nobody seals.

Common power mistakes

• Ignoring floodlights until the first death.
• Whole squad escorting the cable fix.
• Outdoor run with dead flashlight.
• Restoring power but not resealing entries opened in the dark.
• Burning batteries on pointless hallway spam.
• Applying Don’t Let Her In “only two lights” folklore or burglar Dominus tips that do not match this Locust place.
• Searching for redeem codes during an outage — there are no codes; see Codes.

Practice drills

1. Timed indoor breaker restore with a partner on windows only.
2. Outdoor cable run with a pre-agreed reseal person.
3. Blackout scramble where the squad must relight priority zones in order.
4. Full night where support never lets flashlight charge hit zero.

Master light and the rest of survival gets easier. Fail light and even perfect callouts collapse. Keep the floodlights alive. Fix the breaker. Save batteries for the moments that matter. Then hold until morning with the habits in How to Survive.