 Stockholm Syndrome |
Mastermind: Controller | Tier 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Basic (3 pt): Civilians are intimidated by the noise you make and remain intimidated 50% longer. | ||
| Ace (6 pt): Your hostages will not flee when they have been rescued by law enforcers. Whenever you get into custody, your hostages will trade themselves for your safe return. This effect can occur during assaults, but only 1 time during a heist. | ||
Mechanics
Stockholm Syndrome allows you to cause civilians in a large area to cower on the floor by making noise, be it from unsilenced gunfire or explosions. It essentially works as a wider, non-directional version of shouting, preventing civilians from getting up and raising alarms or calling the police.
While the specific range is not specified, the intimidation radius is as large as the noise created. Each weapon has their own noise range, however in general most weapons will cover the central areas of any map once heisters have taken care of any wandering pedestrians.
Note that drills placed by a heister with Stockholm Syndrome do not generate intimidating noise - civilians are suspicious of drills they can see but do not consider the sound of a drill to be threatening or dangerous.
You do not have to see the civilians for them to be intimidated, allowing for easier and quicker crowd-control. Like the shout, civilians need more than one interaction in order to lay down. The first sound will make them stop running (or do the panic animation), and a second will make them lie on the ground. Automatic weapons are exceptional at placing civilians under control. Note that the noise alerts created by firing a weapon have a cooldown of 1.5 seconds. During this time, additional alerts will not register and will not have any effect on civilians. Source - Long Guide
Because of this, players should fire one round at a time; there is no need to spray bullets indiscriminately.
Additionally, do note that the intimidated civilians will require repeated noise to keep them down. To do that, keep creating noise at regular intervals to keep them intimidated. Once the civilians are controlled at least 45 seconds can pass between gunshots, meaning that almost any reasonable concealment weapon can maintain crowd control for over half an hour.
The "remain intimidated longer" effect is not part of this skill.
Acing the skill also causes civilians to remain in the general vicinity after being released by the police, giving their captors more time to tie them back down if they so choose. It also relieves pressure on the crew as a whole by letting civilians trade themselves in automatically to free an arrested player; they will even do so during assaults, though each player with the skill are entitled to only one such release per heist (or day of a heist).
Strategy
Stockholm Syndrome is very valuable for players who need to control the area quickly. This is particularly valuable in civilian-heavy stealth heists like Bank Heist (includes Firestarter day 3), Jewelry Store or GO Bank.
By simply firing off bullets at any direction, civilians will quickly be frightened and get down, allowing the heisters to subdue them without going through the lengthy phase of shouting at them, even allowing you to keep them down without tying them, or standing in their general vicinity. This can also be useful for preventing civilians from getting up during a firefight and getting themselves killed in the crossfire.
Most usefully, the OVE9000 saw can be used to create noise without using ammunition simply by aiming it away from any objects. The combination of Stockholm Syndrome and the saw is particularly useful on Bank Heists, where it can ensure crowd control of the entire bank area while sawing open deposit boxes inside the vault.
Note that Stockholm Syndrome is arguably a hindrance on Mallcrasher as panicked civilians will not flee from the shops, meaning that heisters must choose between throwing in a grenade and accepting the cleaner costs, tying the civilians and moving them as hostages or carefully shooting/meleeing each item of value.
Trivia
- This skill has been completely changed from its Pre-Update #100 incarnation, incorporating the Control Freak effect and getting entirely new unique aced effect.
- This skill is named after a real-life syndrome of the same name that causes hostages to feel an irrational sympathy towards their captors, to the point of defending and even assisting them in their wrongdoings. This is reflected by the skill's effect on nearby civilians, who will risk standing up in a firefight to assist the player, albeit briefly.
- The effects of this skill are demonstrated in the Big Bank trailer, as seen when the central character Bob came to Dallas' aid when the heister was wounded in the shootout.
Patch Notes
- With Update #100, Stockholm Syndrome Aced was completely bugged, often working for players who did not have the skill and for an unlimited amount of times during assault waves. The "released" hostage would sometimes stand in one place and cannot be moved. Update 105.2 (Hotfix) rectified the issue.
- Patch #107 moved the "Civilians remain intimidated 50% longer" part of this skill to Confident basic.
