Shade
Survive until every Innocent and Cult is dead. From Night 2, possess an unprotected non-Ruler and leave a forged husk, or wither a player with one basic attack.
YOUR WIN CONDITION
Survive until every Innocent and Cult is dead. From Night 2, possess an unprotected non-Ruler and leave a forged husk, or wither a player with one basic attack.
A RUMOUR AT COURT
The court once executed a stranger whose shadow stayed behind. Now it attends every banquet in borrowed company, leaving the lanterns to disagree about who entered the room.
THE ART OF PLAYING YOUR PART
How to play Shade
You are a Neutral killer who can abandon one body and possess another. Survive until every Innocent and Cult participant is dead; other Neutrals do not have to die. A successful possession eliminates the target’s participant, moves you into their living body and leaves your previous body as a corpse with the class and faction you chose to counterfeit.
Night 1 is for listening. From Night 2, choose one action: Possess a living non-Ruler and select a permitted corpse disguise, or Wither a living target with a basic attack. Possession is a change of body, not a second action or a second set of powers.
FROM THE LIVE GAME RULES
Your abilities
NIGHT ABILITY
Possess
Take an unprotected non-Ruler body after ordinary attacks resolve; leave your former body as a forged corpse.
Permitted corpse disguises: Seer, Examiner, Lamplighter, Eavesdropper, Physician, Warden, Cupbearer, Locksmith, Duelist, Archivist, Herald, Steward, Mastermind, Assassin, Acolyte, Wayfarer, Martyr, Claimant, Ashkeeper, Usurper, Advocate, Bookmaker. This is the public list of legal choices, not a record of any player’s choice.
- Available from Night 2.
NIGHT ABILITY
Wither
Make one basic attack. Protection and detention can stop it.
- Available from Night 2.
Charge counts and ability text come from the game itself. “No charge limit” does not remove timing, targeting, or other restrictions.
YOUR CLASS ACHIEVEMENT
A name to earn.
Shade
Borrowed Lives
Title: The Borrowed Face
Complete 10 successful possessions as Shade across completed matches.
No passive bonus. Your title changes no match powers.
A LITTLE WISDOM GOES A LONG WAY
At the table
- 01
Choose a disguise that fits the dated claims and visits around the body you leave behind; every class except Ruler and Shade is permitted, and the forged faction follows that chosen class.
- 02
You keep Shade powers and your own objective after a transfer. You do not acquire the victim’s class abilities, reports or other private information.
- 03
Use Wither against the Ruler, who cannot be possessed, or when moving bodies is less useful than a direct attack.
- 04
Both your current body and the intended host must survive the ordinary attack batch before possession can succeed. A failed hop leaves you where you are.
- 05
One living Shade blocks the normal victory of both primary factions. You still need an ending before the day limit or quiet-cycle draw.
Mind the trap.
- Shade appears only in the advertised sixteen-seat Shade Court, beside one ordinary Neutral.
- Detention can stop your possession. Any active single shield or full ward on the target blocks the transfer. You cannot possess the Ruler or inherit their office.
- The old body is publicly dead even though you live elsewhere. It shows your selected class disguise and its faction and your own saved journal, not the victim’s private record. It is not publicly marked as a forgery; the occupied target body remains alive.
- An Archivist can expose an abandoned husk as truly Shade and Neutral, but the audit does not reveal your new destination.
- Executing the Martyr ends the match immediately; possession does not override that ending.
WHEN YOU FACE THIS CLASS
Counterplay
- 01
Treat every claim and investigation as dated evidence about the occupant at that time. A familiar seat can contain someone else later.
- 02
Compare a Lamplighter’s visitor list and an Eavesdropper’s destination with the timing of a suspicious corpse. A visit alone still does not prove possession.
- 03
Audit a suspected abandoned body with the Archivist. Public corpse labels can be false in Shade Court; a private audit can uncover the true Shade identity without naming its next host.
- 04
Protect or jail a likely possession target, or detain the suspected Shade when its body remains eligible. In v0.7 and later courts, a body jailed earlier stays immune even after possession; immunity does not follow the Shade into another body. Do not assume a dead body means the killer’s participant has been eliminated.
- 05
An Advocate assigned to the Shade keeps a bond to that participant. The private client location can follow the Shade after dawn; an Advocate whose ordinary client is possessed instead loses that client.
- 06
Surviving Cult members can notice a possessed ally disappear from their living private roster after dawn while that body remains alive. Taking a known Cult body can therefore expose you to those allies.
- 07
Use the stable rules of the advertised variant, not a missing account name or AI badge, to reason about possession. Those controller labels are concealed throughout active Shade Court play.
