Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals – Heather Mason and Dawko Guide

How to be successful with Heather Mason and Dawko in Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals.

How-To: Heather / Dawko

Note: Credit goes to Ketchup

Context

We’ll be covering TWO characters at once due to how similar in playstyle they are. The two characters in question are Silent Hill’s Heather Mason and Youtuber Dawko. Yeah…it’s an odd choice, since these two have nothing in common besides being horror-themed, but that’s outside of Monsters and Mortals. Here, they share many characteristics and playstyle to the point where they’re almost interchangeable. Key word is “almost,” because there’s instances where one tends to outperform the other. This primarily involves what map got selected, as some require Heather’s skills more than Dawko’s and vice versa. Either way, we got a lot to cover, so let’s get this show on the road.

Background Info

Heather Mason is a Mortal that belongs to the Support class. This means she excels in, well, supporting her teammates. Like other characters of the type, she has above average movement speed, above average hp, and the ability to heal other Mortals with your heavy attack for 5 hp per hit. In order to compensate for these abilities, she has below average damage output. However, 20 damage per heavy hit isn’t too awful bad; at least it isn’t PenPen’s damage output. Her high stats everywhere else make up for her low damage, allowing her to actually fight pretty well if she’s forced to and if the player using her is good in combat. She can take on most Monsters well, but she’ll have to beware of Power Monsters if Seal of Metatron (details below) isn’t ready, as despite her stats, she can still die quickly to them if she isn’t careful.

Similarly to Heather, Dawko also shares the Support class with her. This means he is good at providing healing to teammates, combat if needed, and collecting soul shards. He shares the same attributes with her as well; having above average speed, hp, and the ability to heal others for 5 hp per hit with his heavy attack, but also having below average damage output. What separates him from Heather is his Darkest Desire. Yes, that song is the name of his Ult (details below), and it functions similarly, but also differently to Seal of Metatron. I’ll explain when it’s time to talk about it.

Both characters lose 35 shards upon dying, which is a fairly high amount, but also makes sense since they have a lot going for them. However, this means caution should be taken when in combat. Unlike PenPen, these two are actually able to defend themselves rather well, but choosing when to cut your losses is important, otherwise you’ll cause a shard deficit if too many deaths occur.

Can we also talk about how ridiculous their healing mechanic is? I’m pretty sure the opposite effect would happen if you got smacked upside the head with a metal pipe or straight up stabbed. What? You thought I meant their ability to heal others is broken? Not really, they only heal in very small amounts, and you will likely have to follow your teammate since they most likely won’t stop moving. Takes a lot of time away from getting shards too.

Ultimate: Seal Of Metatron

Both characters have Ults that actually provide team support, unlike Bierce’s (more like self-support). In Heather’s case, her Ult is referred to as “Seal of Metatron.” This is a self buff that applies to yourself, as well as the entire Mortal team if you’re playing on Maze Escape. The Ult applies an 80% Defense increase and a 15% speed increase for all Mortal players for 10 seconds. This is an absolutely amazing Ult, and the reason Heather is seen very often, as while under the effects, Monsters can’t dream of catching or dealing meaningful damage to you or your teammates. This even includes their Ults as well. Most Ults get neutered while this is active, even obnoxious ones like Ducky Surprise and Magma Charge get reduced to nothing. When in combat, pretty much every Monster in the game will disengage and run away or simply stalk until the Ult’s over. As a result of this, it provides time for you and your teammates to gather shards and/or exit. As icing on the cake, it also applies against traps and bosses as well. Basically, this Ult makes everyone a walking armored tank, and most Monsters can’t do anything about it.

Ultimate: Darkest Desire

Whereas Heather’s Ult focuses more on resisting damage of all kinds, Dawko’s version is providing full immunity to ONE kind. Yes, you read the title correctly. Dawko’s Ult is named after one of his most popular FNaF songs, “Darkest Desire.” This causes everyone’s reality, mentality and everything else to change so rapidly as he provides himself and his team immunity to light and heavy attacks. In Soul Collection, this Ult is fantastic since most Mortals don’t have damaging Ults, leaving them unable to hurt him. In Maze Escape, it’s still really good, but also a little bit of a mixed bag at the same time. Yes, everyone’s immune to basic attacks, but opposing Ults, traps, and bosses can still provide damage, meaning caution should still be taken. This is why I view Dawko and Heather as “map dependent” characters; one’s better on a set of maps, while the other’s stronger on another. Now that both Ult’s are covered, we can begin talking about that viewpoint in the next section.

Maze Escape

In Maze Escape, both Heather and Dawko are terrific Support class characters to play. Both are good in PvP and both are good at defending teammates. At least when compared to Bierce, who just feels like a Balanced character with Support stats; in other words, they’re PROPER Support characters. Their Ults prove to be massively helpful to the entire team, as it can get them out of tight spots or even turn the tables on their pursuer. However, unlike most other Mortals, these two vary in effectiveness depending on the map that’s being played. Heather performs better in maps that have very threatening traps and bosses to assist the Monster player, whereas Dawko performs better on maps where the traps and bosses aren’t that beneficial to the Monster player. This is due to how their Ults function; Seal of Metatron is more valuable when stuff like steam, fake portals, Pyramid Head, etc. are active, as the risk of getting hit while focusing on the Monster is too high. Meanwhile, Darkest Desire’s better when all you have to worry about is the Monster player’s Ult.

As you could probably infer from the last two sentences of the above paragraph, Dawko performs best on less chaotic maps, such as Monkey Business, Deadly Decadence, and Stranger Sewers. This is due to the traps and bosses being relatively low on the threat list, allowing you to focus more on avoiding the Monster with their Ult active. Heather on the other hand, prefers maps such as Silent Sacrifice, Monstrum Madness, and Elementary Evil, as those maps’ traps and bosses are very threatening, to the point where it’s more efficient to take massively reduced damage to everything than to just be immune to basic attacks.

PvP Matchups (Heather)

• Performs Well Against: Murder Monkey, Nurse, Agatha, Fiend, Dread Ducky, Clown Gremlin, Robbie
• Performs Decently Against: Gold Watcher, Malak, Brute
• Performs Poorly Against: ???

Gold Watcher and Malak are her only problem matchups since their Ults can potentially shred her even with Seal of Metatron up. So besides these two, Heather essentially walks on everyone else if used properly. However, she is NOT broken, because this of course, only applies if Seal of Metatron is up. Without it, she’s much easier to pressure.

PvP Matchups (Dawko)

• Performs Well Against: NURSE, Fiend, Clown Gremlin, Murder Monkey, Robbie
• Performs Decently Against: Agatha, Brute
• Performs Poorly Against: Dread Ducky, Gold Watcher, Malak

Since Darkest Desire doesn’t stop Ults, Dawko is still vulnerable to getting attacked by them. Brute is able to be played around similarly to Murder Monkey, and Dread Ducky and Agatha can still snipe him. However, he absolutely destroys the Monsters he is good against, especially Nurse and Fiend. Fiend can only hurt him with Mind Pull, so unless that 10% damage ends up killing him (which is exceedingly rare in the first place) or he plans a trap involving it, Fiend’s forced to flee. Nurse is just ultra boned in this matchup since her Ult is a self buff, hence why she’s in all caps.

You may be wondering why there’s no Teammate Viability section here. That’s because these two have Ults that benefit everyone pretty much equally. Hence, there’s not really a reason to discuss it. Actually, there is one thing that should be said; Heather and Dawko’s Ults can be active together, so if those two are in a match, combine them with 8-BitRyan or Cybil for one of the most cancerous Mortal teams for the Monster to play against.

Soul Collection

Just like in Maze Escape, Dawko and Heather are excellent picks in Soul Collection as well. The lower power level of the Mortals causes their somewhat mediocre damage output to become less of an issue, allowing them to reap the benefits of the rest of their traits. Bulky and fast, Support class characters are already meta defining in Soul Collection, but these two are at the top of the class thanks to their Ults. Just like in Maze Escape, their best performances depend on the map being played, but Dawko in particular benefits even more here, as only 8-BitRyan, SuperHorrorBro, and Cybil have Ults that are able to do damage, meaning his Ult is basically free invincibility against everyone else provided the user’s good at avoiding traps and bosses. All in all, these two Mortals are high/top tier in this gamemode thanks to having a slew of desirable traits and having extremely good Ults to back them up.

PvP Matchups (both):

• Performs Well Against: Doug, Evans, Bierce, Nikson, PenPen, Borisov, Heather (herself), Dawko (himself), SuperHorrorBro
• Performs Decently Against: Vince, 8-BitRyan, Cybil
• Performs Poorly Against: ???

There are currently no Mortals in the game that can safely engage against Dawko and Heather with their Ults up. The only way to realistically kill them is hope they screw up during Trap/Boss time or engage while their Ults aren’t active/ready. That or become one with Monke, but unfortunately, he doesn’t count since you have to lose the game to even use him here.

Closing

Heather and Dawko are both seen as very good Mortals to use in both gamemodes in which they’re allowed to be used in. Their overall above average stats for Mortal standards would make them frequent faces in general, but their Ults cause them to become some of the best Mortals in the entire game, especially Heather. In Maze Escape, they serves as proper Support characters unlike Bierce, being very good at rescuing teammates who are in danger through the use of Seal of Metatron and Darkest Desire, as well as helping them overcome potential hazards a lot easier. In Soul Collection, both are among the best Mortals for the gamemode since they can abuse their Ults to great effect.

As for which one is better…most people consider Heather to be the all around better option, and I would agree with that as well. However, in cases where there’s not much happening, Seal of Metatron’s effects aren’t really necessary, as Darkest Desire can get the job done as well, proving Dawko has a niche over Heather in this regard. Overall, use whichever you want, I believe both are interchangeable depending on the map being played.