The short version
The Masked look like your crew. That is the entire threat.
They cannot be scanned, they show the same blue radar icon as a real crew member, and they can follow you outside. Stay in groups and watch behaviour, not the monitor.
What the Masked are
They are humanoid entities also known as Mimics. They spawn inside the facility and move around like ordinary employees.
On contact with an employee they kill them, and that employee reanimates as another Masked. One becomes two, and two becomes a problem.
They are one of the few entities that can leave the facility and keep hunting outdoors. Most things stop at the door. These do not.
Why the usual tools fail
Two of the checks crews rely on do not work here.
Scanning does not reveal them. They are one of the only entities that cannot be scanned, alongside the Ghost Girl.
The radar is misleading. They appear with a blue radar icon exactly like a real crew member. Someone watching the monitor cannot tell them apart by icon alone.
That leaves observation. The crew has to identify them by what they do rather than by what the tools say.
The three phases
Their behaviour runs through three states, and knowing them helps you judge the risk.
Roaming. They spawn in this state and move around the facility on their own.
Following. They pick up a target and pursue them. This is the phase where crews notice something is wrong.
Hiding. They break off and wait. A Masked that has stopped following is not gone.
The dangerous part is that all three look like a crew member walking around. There is no visual marker that separates the phases.
How to spot one
Since tools do not help, use behaviour.
Count your crew. If you see more people than you have, that is the answer. Say it on the radio immediately.
Watch how they move. Crew members loot and call out. A figure that walks with purpose toward people, and never picks anything up, is not crew.
Check whether they respond. A real crew member answers the radio. A Masked does not.
Watch who is alone. They prefer isolated targets, so the diver who wandered off is the one to check on.
The count is the fastest check. Crews that keep a headcount catch these early.
Fighting one
They can be killed, and a crew should take that fight rather than avoid it.
Fight as a group. They target isolated players, so numbers remove their advantage entirely.
Use a shovel. Two or three divers swinging end one quickly.
Do not chase it alone. Chasing is how a diver becomes isolated, which is the situation the Masked wants.
Expect it to fight back rather than run. They are not shy once engaged.
A group of three handles a Masked comfortably. A single diver should not try.
Outdoors
This is where they differ from almost everything else in the game.
They can leave the facility. Reaching the entrance does not mean the encounter is over.
They can follow you to the ship. Boarding is the reliable end, not stepping outside.
The surface favours them if the crew has scattered. Open ground with separated divers is exactly their preferred setup.
Call it before you leave the facility. If one is following you inside, assume it is still following you outside.
Treat the walk to the ship as part of the encounter, not as an escape from it.
Where they appear
They are not on every moon, and the odds are published.
The highest base spawn chances are on Artifice, Rend and Titan, with a much smaller chance on Adamance. The cheaper moons crews start on are effectively free of them.
That is useful for planning. A crew learning the game will not meet these until it moves up to the harder destinations, which is when a headcount habit starts paying for itself.
The mask item
There is a second way a Masked appears, and it is worth knowing about.
An employee who holds a Dramatic Mask to their face for too long dies and becomes a Masked. Both mask variants do this.
The practical rule is simple: do not hold a dramatic mask to your face. It is not a cosmetic toy, and the transformation is instant.
If a crew member does it, the crew is now one down and one threat up.
Mistakes that get people killed
- Trusting the radar icon. It looks like a crew member because it is designed to.
- Scanning to check. They cannot be scanned.
- Wandering off alone. Isolation is the trigger condition they want.
- Assuming the entrance ends it. They follow you outside.
- Holding a dramatic mask to your face. That creates one.
Reading it in the bestiary
The Masked is one of the 16 indoor entities in the monster database, and it is the one that does not respect the indoor boundary.
Our source data does not populate hazard or health fields for it. We describe behaviour and published spawn chances rather than invent numbers.
Masked or zombie: why the name sticks
The Masked is regularly called a zombie, and the game does not help: a masked employee looks like a person in a suit until it is already moving at you.
The behaviour that matters is not the name, it is the hit response. Every time a Masked is hit there is a 40% chance it starts sprinting at its target — and a 100% chance if it is down to 1 HP. That is the “zombie” moment people describe: you shoot it once more than you should and it commits.
A double-barrel will usually deal lethal damage at sufficient range. The trap is doing it in a corridor with a teammate behind the target.
Related guides
- Indoor monsters guide — all 16 facility entities and how they differ.
- Co-op guide — staying together, and why it matters most here.
- Moons tier list — which moons put these in your facility.
- Outdoor monsters guide — the surface threats they can join.