Lori's Nightmare Nightmare Kit Rankings

Nightmare ranks in Lori’s Nightmare are about the clock, not the jump scare. Children win by restoring TVs. You win by making those TVs fail, by converting downs into lost time, and by spending Unleash when a group is actually on an objective. Camping a spawn is penalized. This list assumes you already know how to play Nightmare and that you will patrol unfinished CRTs instead of a dead body.

Pair every letter with the Children tier list. A lobby full of Spy plus Hiro is a different game from a lobby of free Loris. Kit numbers, quotes, and coin costs are on the Nightmare roster. The parent overview is the Tier List hub.

Rounds last eight minutes, plus 15 seconds per restored TV, minus 10 seconds when a Child dies unsaved. All Nightmare specials can interrupt a television. That interrupt is the real weapon. If you only chase, you are playing B-tier even when you paid for S-tier.

S-tier — break the objective

Phantom (2,500 coins) is the TV killer. Sabotage TV on a 66-second cooldown turns a finished or in-progress CRT into wasted work. Unleash Spectre lasts 12.5 seconds, speeds you up, and ignores doors on a 101-second cooldown. Children who hid behind a door just lost the door. Phantom’s line, “Echoes from a forgotten child,” matches the kit: you are not a hallway bully, you are the reason the last tape never plays. Against TVE, you still sabotage; they can find the set, they cannot stop the sabotage unless a stun lands. Against Luna, your door phase is a mirror — win the timing, do not mindlessly Unleash into Ghostify.

Tarantula (5,000 coins) is map control. Shoot Spider Web cocoons and stuns on a 45-second cooldown. Unleash Spider lasts 12 seconds, speeds you up, and leaves webs, on a 120-second cooldown. “Fallen into the web of the mind” is the point: you do not need to win every chase if the hallway behind the last TV is illegal to walk. Webs punish Maggi puddles that were meant to peel you, and they punish Flynn grapples that needed a clean line. Tarantula is the most expensive Nightmare. Buy it when you already understand patrol routes from the maps guide.

Both S-tier kits pressure the objective. Phantom deletes progress. Tarantula deletes pathing. That is why they sit above a killer who only downs people.

A-tier — snowball

Carnivore (1,350 coins) is Eat Meat plus Unleash Meateater. Eat Meat consumes a downed Child, cuts their timer, and grants speed, 89-second cooldown. Unleash Meateater is a 15-second frenzy that ignores stun, 110-second cooldown. This is the anti-S-Children pickup. Hiro’s Sword Strike and Pigi’s Bear Trap bounce off the frenzy window. If the lobby is already feeding, Carnivore turns two downs into a wiped repair crew. If the lobby never goes down — Spy calls you, Maggi slows the approach, nobody tunnels — Carnivore looks overpriced next to Phantom. A-tier means “buy this when the Children are stun-heavy or sloppy,” not “always better than free.”

Carnivore is also the mid-shop step. Free Nightmare teaches the two-button kit. Carnivore is the first paid hunter. Phantom and Tarantula are the objective upgrades. Do not skip learning Mind Trap just because Eat Meat looks greedier.

B-tier — free and honest

Nightmare (free) is Mind Trap and Unleash Nightmare. Mind Trap lasts 90 seconds on a 60-second cooldown — a long trap, not a panic button. Unleash Nightmare is 12.5 seconds of speed and tracking on a 110-second cooldown. “Nightmares lurk in the darkest places” is the whole plan: lurk on routes to unfinished TVs, do not lurk on a downed body. This kit is B-tier because stun teams (Pigi, Hiro, Maggi) delete Unleash, and because you have no Sabotage, no webs, and no Eat Meat. It is still the correct teacher. Every paid kit reuses the Unleash idea. If you cannot win a round on default Nightmare against a messy lobby, Phantom will not save you.

Play default until you can interrupt a TV without tunneling, until you drop Mind Trap on a real path, and until you save Unleash for grouped repairs. Then spend coins.

Bot Roytt, Ghost, and the 9,000-coin ballpark

If the Nightmare player leaves, Bot Roytt takes the slot. Do not DC to “reset” a bad map; the bot still hunts. After a Child dies, a Ghost lingers about 30 seconds. Use that window to pressure a nearby TV, not to emote.

Community chatter often prices owning every Nightmare kit around 9,000 coins. Treat that as a ballpark, not a guarantee. Shop order still follows the letters: free Nightmare, then Carnivore if you want snowball, then Phantom for TV control, then Tarantula if you can afford the web kit. The coin farm tool is for that path. There are no live promo codes as of September 2026 — the codes hub will say otherwise if that changes.

Matchups versus Children ranks

From the Children rankings:

• Spy makes default Nightmare miserable because Locate Monster deletes ambush. Phantom still sabotages after being seen. Tarantula still webs the TV they run to.
• Pincat decoys punish tunnel vision. Look at the TV, not the first sprint.
• Maggi puddles are why you do not walk the obvious Hotel corridor in Unleash unless you are Carnivore in Meateater.
• Pigi traps belong on the last CRT. Pre-swing the room or sabotage from an angle that does not step on the plate.
• Hiro is the reason Carnivore’s ignore-stun frenzy exists. If you see a sword, save Meateater for that window.
• TVE plus Gus means you must interrupt, not just down. A revive on a finished TV still loses you the clock.
• Luna and Peri/Dani are door and invis answers to Phantom’s phase. Track sound, not silhouette.

Controls stay WASD, with Child-side Ctrl prone and E hide. Your job is to make prone and hide expensive by standing on the objective. Hotel, School, Daycare, Hospital, and Orphanage all have different trap tiles — learn them on the maps guide instead of repeating a Hotel camp.

What not to do

Do not rank Nightmares by “which model looks scariest.” Do not buy Tarantula first if you still miss Mind Trap placements. Do not ignore the Children roster and then complain that S-tier killers “get stunned.” Stun is the Children S-tier. Your S-tier is the kit that still wins the TV after the stun.

For the full two-button and paid kit text, open the Nightmare roster. For the other half of this category, open the Children tier list. Event modifiers that temporarily change these letters belong on events, not here.