The Last of Us Part 1 tasks players with escorting Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, across the country in search of the Fireflies, a group of radical anarchists capable of developing a vaccine from her immunity to the deadly fungus that has laid waste to the world. On the journey, the player must face a wide range of life-threatening dangers to overcome and reach their destination.
One threat that players will commonly run into are other humans seeking to kill and rob the people they encounter. This guide will show players how to engage in stealth around the ruthless human enemies in The Last of Us Part 1.
How to Deal with Human Enemies in Stealth
From the offset, it’s important to survey the surroundings and learn enemy placements and patrol patterns. To do this effectively from behind cover, players can use Listen Mode outside of the punishing Grounded difficulty to see through walls at a distance determined by their supplement upgrades.
Upon pinpointing locations and patrols, players will need to sneak up behind enemies and grab them for a strangle. It’s best to maneuver around cover to do this, if possible, as their friends will investigate and alert others if a body is found, making stealth more difficult. It’s also worth mentioning that, though using shivs provides a quicker takedown animation, as a limited resource, they are typically worth saving for shiv doors or Clicker encounters.
When acquired a little while into the game, the Bow becomes the single most useful tool in a stealth player’s arsenal, allowing them to pick off enemies quietly from a distance. While most enemies will go down to a single shot from a fully charged bow, landing headshots with arrows gives an increased chance of retrieving arrows from the corpse.
Don’t Be Afraid to Go Loud
Unless players are extremely proficient at stealth – or very dedicated to save scumming – Joel will almost always be spotted, eventually. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, as it gives players a chance to loudly dispatch a few enemies. Moreover, players preferring a stealthier approach can always make use of Smoke Bombs to re-enter stealth.
That being said, it’s not always possible to fire arrows or perform takedowns undetected, as later segments of the game will pair up human enemies, having them guard narrow passageways. As such, throwing nail bombs or leaving them as traps won’t give away Joel’s location, and enemies will rush to investigate the noise. Alternatively, players can throw bricks and bottles as a distraction. Therefore, making a little bit of noise is always a viable option to avoid giving away Joel's position.
The Last of Us Part 1 is currently available for PS5 and is in development for PC.