Hidden Haunted Seek

Quick Start

You join a dark horror map. Every round, one player in every four becomes a Ghost - invisible, silent and hungry. Everyone else is an Investigator with a flashlight, a laser and a few tricks. Find the ghosts before they find you.

1. Check your side. The top-left of your screen says GHOST or INVESTIGATOR. Roles rotate every round, so everyone gets a turn as a Ghost.
2. Use the menu. Press M (Choose Team) or say /menu; B opens the weapons shop. A menu never opens by itself and closes after 20 seconds.
3. Ghost? You are invisible. Follow the PREY line on your HUD and hunt the humans.
4. Investigator? Press F for your flashlight. A green laser means nothing is there; a red laser means a Ghost is in your sights - fire!
5. Win by banishing every ghost, surviving until dawn, lighting all three candles, or shattering the Ghost Anchor. Ghosts win by killing every Investigator.
6. Level up to unlock Ghost classes, weapons, roles and perks. Say /howto for the in-game guide.

What is Hidden Haunted Seek?

Hidden Haunted Seek (HHS) is a horror hide-and-seek game mode for Counter-Strike 1.6, written as an AMX Mod X plugin by Néć[Ř]ø /A/. It is designed for dark, atmospheric horror maps and for roughly 8 to 16 players.

One side is hidden - completely invisible and silent. The other side is armed, but afraid: it is dark, their nerves are failing, and the thing they are hunting can be standing right behind them.

How a Round Works

• Round startRoles are rotated automatically (one Ghost per 4 players - whoever was a Ghost longest ago goes first). Press M (Choose Team) to open the menu.
• Freeze time, then the huntA banner tells you your role, and special nights (a rare moon or a modifier) are announced. The dawn timer starts counting down from 4:00.
• Shortly after the hunt beginsInvestigators get a buddy. With 6 or more players, an objective appears: three candles or a Ghost Anchor.
• Every 60 secondsA respawn wave brings fallen players back (up to 3 waves, never in the last 20 seconds before dawn).
• Between 1 and 2.5 minutes inTrick or Treat: one random event for everyone.
• ThroughoutThunder, lights flickering, soul orbs, infection and Last Rites, abilities and skills - see the sections below.
• Last 90 secondsThe last minute: the timer turns red - hold on until dawn.
• Dawn - or earlierWhen the timer hits zero the ghosts are banished and the Investigators win - unless the round ended sooner. A recap shows the MVP and the leaders, then roles rotate and the next round begins.

How to Win

Playing a Ghost

You are the thing in the dark. Nobody can see you, nobody can hear you - until you make a mistake.

The basics

• Invisible and silent, but fragile: only 150 HP. You leave no body when you die.
• You fight with a knife that hits about 3 times harder than a normal one. You can't buy anything or pick up weapons.
• Night vision: a slight glow around you that only you see (/gnv switches it off and on). F toggles your private coloured flashlight - only other Ghosts can see it.
• Other Ghosts appear to you as a coloured aura (you choose your own aura colour).
• Soul Drain: every knife hit heals you 15 HP.
• Your HUD shows PREY - the distance and direction to the nearest Investigator.
• Infection: every human you kill rises as a Ghost after about 8 seconds, so every kill grows your team.

Energy

Everything a Ghost does costs energy. You have 100 plus 3 per level (Phantoms +20, plus 8 per Deep Reserves rank), it refills at 4 per second, and you gain 35 energy every time you claim a human. Watch the ENERGY bar on your HUD.

You are not perfectly hidden

• You shimmer into view for half a second when you attack or get hurt.
• Standing still for ~6 seconds leaves cold mist at your feet.
• Salt traps, wards, Spirit Scans, marks, Holy Grenades and lightning expose you.
• EMF detectors beep when you are near, and the lights flicker when you are very close.
• A laser sight that touches you turns red - even when you are disguised with Mimic.

Ghost Classes

Pick your class in the menu. You can change class during the first 40 seconds of a round; after that, the change waits for your next spawn.

Abilities and Energy Powers

Abilities are your 7 core tricks (open with /ab). Energy powers are 15 more tools in four groups (open with /powers). Bind your favourites - see Key Binds.

Abilities

Self

Traps and zones

Mind games

Team

Evolution and Special States

Evolution

Every kill makes you stronger, up to three levels. It resets when you die.

Special states

Playing an Investigator

You are armed, you have a light - and it is very dark. Stay together, stay calm, watch the laser.

Weapons and money

Press B (or M, then Buy Weapons) to open the Weapons Shop. It lists every gun with its level next to the name, works anywhere on the map for 30 seconds after you spawn, and every gun comes with at least 100 spare rounds (200 for the M249). The old buy menu, auto-buy and the buy-ammo keys are replaced by it. Ammo costs stamina: refill the weapon in your hands (40) or all your weapons (90) at any time, up to 200 spare rounds.

The shop remembers you. Your last primary gun, pistol, armor and grenades are equipped again a moment after you spawn - every round, and the next time you play. Buy something else and that becomes your new default. /autoload turns it off, /forgetload clears it.

Your tools

• Flashlight (F) with a battery: it drains 4% per second while on, recharges 2.5% per second while off, and flickers when low. You can pick its colour.
• Laser sight on every gun: green = clear, red = a Ghost is in your sights. Ghosts can see an Investigator's laser, but they never have one.
• EMF detector: the bar on your HUD shows how close the nearest Ghost is (up to 900 units). Soft beeps fade in only when one is within 500. /sound sets the volume.
• Health: every Investigator has 500 HP (Thick Skin adds 25) and healing never goes above 500. The normal CS HUD stops at 255 - the mod's HUD shows your real HP.
• Holy Grenade: your HE grenade also reveals Ghosts caught in the blast and drains their energy.

Sanity

Sanity keeps falling while no teammate is within about 500 units of you, and while your flashlight is off. It recovers when you stay close to teammates with your light on (Priests recover 50% faster), near your buddy, and in Salt Sanctuaries. Below 40% you start to hallucinate - fake footsteps, brief noise, false EMF alarms - and the screen edges get darker. Below 30% your mind starts to cost you health: you lose HP every second, faster the lower your sanity gets (up to 8 HP per second at zero) - by default it stops at 1 HP and never kills you. Ghost abilities like Scare and Fear Aura attack your sanity directly, so stay together and keep your light on.

Stamina

Stamina is the fuel for your skills. You have 800 plus 10 per level (+100 with the Stamina Reserve perk). It regenerates 10 every 5 seconds - 1.5x faster near a teammate (within 600 units), 1.25x in light, 0.6x alone in the dark, and 15% faster under a Full Moon. You also get +50 for banishing a Ghost and +20 for helping light a candle.

Stamina Skills

Open /skills (or the Stamina Skills menu). Skills are grouped as Support, Hunting, and Defense and utility.

Support

Hunting

Defense and utility

Tools, Roles and Perks

Tools

• Salt Trap (/trap): hidden salt on the floor. A Ghost that steps on it is revealed for 6 s. 2 per round.
• Flare (/flare): lights up the dark where you aim for 25 s. 2 per round.
• Holy Grenade: see above.

Ghost Vision goggles

The old buyable night vision is gone. At level 20 you earn Ghost Vision: night-vision goggles that show every Ghost in range as a green glow. Switch them on with /nv, the N key or the menu.

• Expensive: every activation costs 300 stamina.
• They overheat: heat builds while they are on (about 12 seconds from cold). At 100% they shut down and are locked for 45 seconds. A warning appears at 75%.
• Switching off early keeps the heat - the goggles cool down slowly, and you cannot switch them on again while they are still hot.
• A Ghost under Shadow Veil stays hidden from the goggles. Range is about 1200 units, and they tint your screen green.
• The HUD shows GHOST VISION ON, the heat, or the overheat countdown.

Roles

Choose one in the menu (Role & Perks).

Perks

Teamwork

Buddy system

Every Investigator gets a partner at the start of the round (and a new one if theirs dies). Stay within 600 units of your buddy and you gain sanity, stamina and XP. Your HUD shows where your buddy is when they wander off. Two minutes together earns the Inseparable achievement.

Quick Comms

Open /comm and pick a call. Your team sees a coloured beam and a HUD line with the direction and distance; the other team never sees it. Ghosts have their own set.

When you are dead

• Spirit Whispers (open the menu while dead): warn the teammate you are watching - "Ghost behind you!", "Ghost on your left!" and more.
• /ping: sense a ghost near the teammate you are spectating (Investigators).
• Spirit sight: dead Investigators see Ghosts as faint outlines.
• Vote: fallen players vote on the next night's modifier.
• Revenge: if a Ghost killed you, the spirit menu offers one revenge per death - your killer is exposed to the whole team for 6 seconds (/revenge).
• Respawn wave: the HUD counts down to the next one.

Survival Systems

Auto rotation

At the end of every round the server rotates the Ghost role: one Ghost per 4 players, chosen from whoever was a Ghost the longest time ago (new players first). You do not need to change team yourself - and please don't (see the rules).

Tasks, Events and Streaks

Small goals, big moments and a few scares, so no two rounds feel the same.

Thunder at Dawn

When the sun rises or the round ends, lightning strikes 1 or 3 random Investigators: a bolt from the sky, a white flash, a shaking screen and a thunderclap for everyone. It is a show by default (ht_thunder_dmg 0).

Objectives and Haunted Doors

Haunted doors

A Ghost can seal the door it is looking at (Haunt Door). A red beam marks it, Investigators can't open it, Ghosts walk right through. It unseals by itself after about 20 seconds - or an Investigator can break it open at once with the Break Door skill. This works on the map's normal doors.

Light, Dark and Weather

The night is part of the game, and it is pitch dark: the map is always light style a, with a neutral, almost black fog. Your flashlight, flares, candles and the odd lightning flash are the only light. (Server owners can switch this off with ht_pitch 0 to get dimmed-but-visible nights, where the moon changes the darkness.)

Moon phases

Round modifiers

About 6 rounds in 10 get a modifier (and Storm Night is picked more often than the others). Fallen players can vote on the next one.

The weather and the lights

• Pitch dark: there is no first light - dawn simply ends the round. With ht_pitch 0 the sky brightens in the last 90 seconds.
• Thunderstorms: Storm Night has lightning every 6 to 14 seconds; every flash exposes the Ghosts. Normal nights get distant flashes too.
• Power flickers: the lights flicker now and then - and always when a Ghost is within about 250 units of an Investigator.
• Fog: Investigators see a dark fog that Ghosts don't (red on a Blood Moon). Fog Bomb and Night Falls thicken it.
• Changing the light yourself: Investigators have Flares, Flashlight Surge and Light the Sky. Ghosts have Blackout, Light Drain, Fog Bomb and Night Falls.

Halloween preset

An admin switch (ht_halloween 1): double XP, a modifier every round, and pumpkins that appear around the map - touch one for XP and a small boon.

Ultimates

Everyone has an ultimate meter. It fills slowly by itself, and fast from kills (+30), Last Rites (+35), lighting candles (+25), salt traps and wards (+12) and scares (+10). When it hits 100%, say /ult (or bind it).

XP, Levels and Titles

Your level, XP, class, colours, talents and settings are saved automatically between sessions (by your Steam ID, or your name on LAN). There are 60 levels.

Earning XP

(Server owners can change these. The Halloween preset doubles all XP.)

Levels

Reaching level N takes 25 x (N-1)² XP in total - for example level 5 needs 400 XP, level 10 needs 2,025, level 20 needs 9,025 and level 60 needs 87,025.

Rank titles

Your level and title appear in chat next to your name: [LV 12 Veteran] NAME : message.

What each level unlocks

Roles and perks also have tiers: Tier 1 at the unlock level, Tier 2 ten levels later and Tier 3 after twenty. Each tier makes the bonus 25% stronger (for example a Hunter's +15% becomes +18.75%, then +22.5%). The Role and Perk menus show your tier.

Talents

Every level gives you 1 talent point. Open /talents and spend it on a permanent upgrade. Each talent has 3 ranks.

Spend 10 points in total for the Talented achievement.

Achievements

There are 18 achievements, each worth 100 XP. Check yours with /ach.

HUD Guide

The HUD is deliberately light. By default you see two small blocks plus the dawn timer - nothing else unless it matters.

Illustration of a Ghost's clean HUD. The numbers are only an example.

What each part means

The colour of the centre block is a warning light: it turns red when your health is low and violet when an Investigator's sanity is breaking.

HUD styles

Cycle them with /hud (or Client Settings): Clean (the default), Full (a bar for every stat and more lines) or Off.

Other things on screen

• Online players: once a minute, for 5 seconds, the top of the screen lists who is online, how long each player has been playing, and who joined and left last. Hide it with /online.
• Round recap: after every round the MVP and the highlights appear on screen. /recap shows it again.
• Chat tags: your level and title show next to your name - [LV 12 Veteran] NAME : message.
• Real health: the original CS HUD stops at 255 - the mod always shows your true HP.

Menus and Settings

Press M (the Choose Team key) or say /menu. The menu never opens by itself. It closes after 20 seconds (ht_menu_time), or at once when you press 0, which also gives the number keys back to your weapons. Every choice plays a soft click.

MENU (M key - four useful lines first, the rest after)
├─ Investigator  1 Weapons Shop · 2 Stamina Skills · 3 Gear & Gadgets · 4 Quick Comms · 5 Character, Settings & Help
├─ Ghost         1 Abilities · 2 Energy Powers · 3 Ghost Class · 4 Quick Comms · 5 Character, Settings & Help
└─ Fallen        Spirit Whispers · Vote on the next modifier · Character, Settings & Help

CHARACTER & HELP
├─ Role & Perks (Ghost: Ghost Class) · Talents · Profile & Stats
├─ Settings  Mod Settings · Client Settings · Server Settings · Other Server Settings
└─ Help, Rules & Binds   the 20-page in-game guide

GEAR & GADGETS  Salt Trap · Flare · Ghost Vision · Low Gravity

Paging: every menu shows at most five entries. When there are more, 8 = Back and 9 = Next are spelled out, and 0 = Exit always closes the menu.

Client Settings

• HUD style, sound volume, menu and effect sounds, the online list.
• Ghost night-vision glow: on or off (/gnv).
• Auto-equip my last loadout: on or off (/autoload).
• Set the recommended key binds, or list them all.

Server Settings

• /retry or /reconnect - rejoins the server for you (runs the console command retry / reconnect).
• /spec - goes to spectate so you can be AFK. Say /spec again to come back on a random team; you spawn in the next respawn wave or round.
• Other Server Settings - runs the server's own /settings menu.

Colours

Seven flashlight and aura colours: Red, Green, White (from the start), Cyan and Blue (Lv 3), Purple (Lv 6), Orange (Lv 9).

Key Binds

Open the console (the ~ key) and type a line to bind a key. Because roles rotate every round, the best binds are the universal ones - the same keys work whether you are a Ghost or an Investigator.

Universal binds (recommended)

Don't want to type? Say /autobind in game and these keys are set for you. (They are free keys in a normal CS setup.)

Keys with a job already: M (Choose Team) opens the menu, B opens the weapons shop, F is your flashlight, N toggles Ghost Vision goggles (level 20), and E (use) is the Nightcrawler's wall climb and the Grappler's hook.

Examples for one side

Everything you can bind

Every chat command also works in the console as ht_ plus its name - for example /scan is ht_scan.

Everyone: menu ht_ult ht_fav ht_q1-ht_q4 ht_comm ht_status ht_sound ht_hud ht_talents ht_spec ht_retry

All Commands

Type these in chat (with the slash) or in the console with ht_ in front. Search or filter by side.

Rules

Play fair and everyone has a better night. In game: /rules and /modrules.

FAQ

Tips and Strategy

Installation and Settings

This section is for people who run a server. Players can skip it.

Requirements

• A Counter-Strike 1.6 dedicated server with AMX Mod X 1.8.2 or newer.
• These AMX Mod X modules enabled in modules.ini: fakemeta, hamsandwich, fun, cstrike, engine (the main loop runs on its server_frame) and nvault (only needed to read saves from older versions).
• A dark horror map works best, with roughly 8 to 16 players.

Install

1. Compile horror_hunt.sma with the AMX Mod X compiler and copy the .amxx file to addons/amxmodx/plugins/.
2. Add a line horror_hunt.amxx to addons/amxmodx/configs/plugins.ini.
3. Restart the map. Players do not need to download anything.

The two files: settings and player stats

Both live in addons/amxmodx/configs/.

• hhs_settings.ini - every setting (all 276 ht_ cvars) in one commented file, grouped into 11 sections. It is read when the map starts, after amxx.cfg, so it overrides it. Change a value and run amx_hhs_reload (admin flag CFG), or just change map.
• hhs_stats.ini - every saved player on one line: SteamID (or name on LAN), XP, level, kills, class, role, perk, colours... It is rewritten every 5 minutes, at map change and on amx_hhs_stats_save. To promote or demote a player change level= (the XP follows) or xp=; to add a player add a line; to reset one delete the line. Edit it while the server is stopped, or run amx_hhs_stats_save, edit, then amx_hhs_stats_reload.
• Players from older versions are read from the old vault once and move into hhs_stats.ini the next time they are saved.

Round log

Every round adds one line to logs/hhs_rounds.log: map, night, moon, players, how many ghosts and investigators, the winner (DAWN, CT or GHOSTS), seconds and who was left. It is meant for balancing: after a week you can count which side wins. Switch it off with ht_roundlog 0.

Admin menu

Players with the CFG admin flag can open the admin menu with amx_htmenu or /htadmin: choose the next round's modifier, bring the dawn now, switch infection, automatic rotation and the Halloween preset, change the night darkness, or give yourself XP.

Server browser name

The game name in the server browser comes from ht_gamename (default Hidden Haunted Seek); set it empty to leave the normal name. It changes live, no restart needed.

Admin commands

For admins with the CFG flag, in the console (or rcon). A target is a name, #userid, or @all @t @ct @alive @me. hhs_admin prints this list in game.

Settings (cvars)

Put these in amxx.cfg (or server.cfg). Defaults shown.

Glossary

The whole mod in 26 letters.