How does stealth work in Mutant Year Zero?

Exploration runs in real time with your lamps off and the squad hidden. You can move into position, split enemies away from the group and take shots with silenced weapons without starting a full fight. Anything that survives a silent shot raises the alarm, so the whole phase is about picking off targets your silenced damage can actually finish.

Which silenced weapons are there?

Three in the base game: the Ancient Pistol that Selma starts with, the Crossbow that Dux starts with, and the MIMIR Needle Pistol found at The Fallen Angel. All three deal 4 damage with 10 range. The pistols have 10 percent critical chance and 2 ammo; the Crossbow has 5 percent and 1. Seed of Evil adds the Wraith at 7 damage, 14 range and 4 ammo.

Why do my stealth kills keep failing?

Almost always because the target has more effective health than 4. The silenced weapons do not scale into the late game the way loud ones do, so the same opening that cleared early camps stops working. Raise critical chance rather than expecting more base damage — that is the only axis the game gives you.

Is the Crossbow or the pistol better for stealth?

The pistols, slightly, despite the Crossbow being the iconic stealth weapon. Both deal 4, but the pistols have double the critical chance at 10 percent and twice the ammo at 2. Since Silent Assassin multiplies base critical chance, a 10 percent weapon becomes 20 percent while hidden and a 5 percent one only becomes 10.

Should I always clear a camp silently before fighting?

Clear what 4 damage can clear, then start the fight deliberately. Trying to empty a whole late-game camp silently wastes real time and usually ends with a bad alarm anyway. Mutations recharge on kills, so a fight that starts after three stealth kills also starts with your abilities closer to ready.

Does the DLC change stealth?

Considerably. The Wraith deals 7 rather than 4, with 14 range instead of 10 and 4 ammo instead of 2. That is not a small upgrade — it roughly doubles what a stealth phase can remove, and it is the clearest mechanical argument for Seed of Evil if you like this part of the game.

Mutant Year Zero Stealth — The Silent Weapon Ceiling

The pitch for Mutant Year Zero is that you scout a camp in real time, split enemies off, and quietly remove them before committing to a turn-based fight. It works, it is the best thing in the game, and it has a hard ceiling that the game never states.

The base game contains exactly three silenced weapons, and all three deal 4 damage.

That single number decides how much of any camp you can clear. Not patience, not positioning, not how carefully you split the patrol — 4 damage per silent shot, times however many shots you can land before something survives one and screams.

The three silent guns

Weapon	Damage	Crit damage	Crit chance	Ammo	Range	Where
Ancient Pistol	4	5	10%	2	10	Selma starts with one
Crossbow	4	5	5%	1	10	Dux starts with one. Irida sells one at level 30
MIMIR Needle Pistol	4	5	10%	2	10	The Fallen Angel, by the chest guarded by ghouls
Wraith (Seed of Evil)	7	9	5%	4	14	DLC encounter at The Sea Titans, may be random

Three identical damage values is not a coincidence, it is a design decision: the stealth phase is meant to remove stragglers, not camps.

The Crossbow is the weapon the game hands Dux and the one most players treat as the stealth weapon. On the numbers it is the worst of the three — same 4 damage, half the critical chance at 5 percent, and 1 ammo instead of 2. Move Dux to a Needle Pistol when you find one and give the Crossbow to nobody.

Critical chance is the only lever

If base damage is fixed at 4, the only way to raise the ceiling is to crit. The game gives three tools, and they multiply the weapon's base chance rather than replacing it.

Tool	Effect	Cheapest on	Note
Silent Assassin	Doubles critical chance while hidden	Farrow (5 points)	Doubles the weapon's number, so a 10% pistol becomes 20% and a 5% crossbow only 10%
Alpinist	50% critical chance shooting at targets below you	Dux (5 points)	A flat value from high ground, not a multiplier — the most reliable of the three
Skull Splitter	100% critical, minus 25% accuracy	Dux (1 point)	Guaranteed, recharges on 3 kills. One point on Dux, nine on Magnus

Alpinist plus height is the most dependable stealth opener, because 50 percent does not depend on the weapon. Silent Assassin is better on paper and worse in practice on a low-crit weapon, which is exactly the trap the Crossbow sets.

How to run a stealth phase

1

Scout with the squad split and lamps off

Move one character ahead to read patrol routes while the other two hold back out of detection range. You are looking for enemies that walk away from the group, not for a clever angle on the group itself.
2

Take high ground before taking a shot

Height gives Alpinist its 50 percent and costs nothing but time, which stealth mode has plenty of. Super Tendons on Selma at 5 points removes the need for a ladder entirely.
3

Count what 4 damage kills

This is the whole judgement. If the target survives, the camp activates and you have started the fight from a worse position than if you had chosen the moment yourself.
4

Kill the stragglers, then open deliberately

Once the easy removals are done, pick the turn and the position and start the fight. Mutations recharge on kills, so the stealth kills you just made have already paid part of the bill for the abilities you are about to use.
5

Do not chase the last one

Late-game camps cannot be emptied silently on 4 damage. Trying costs real time and usually ends in an alarm on the enemy's terms rather than yours.

Why this makes the DLC matter

The Wraith deals 7 instead of 4, with 14 range instead of 10 and 4 ammo instead of 2.

That is not a marginal upgrade — it is close to doubling what a stealth phase can remove, and the extra range means you can shoot from positions the 10-range weapons cannot reach. If the stealth layer is why you are here, Seed of Evil is the part of the package that extends it.

The DLC also adds Stalking Death, a 3-point upgrade to Chameleon that keeps Dux invisible after a successful kill. Combined with the Wraith, that is the only configuration in the game where chaining silent kills genuinely works.

Common mistakes

Keeping the Crossbow on Dux. Same damage, half the crit, half the ammo.
Expecting stealth to scale. It does not. 4 damage is 4 damage in the last area too.
Taking Silent Assassin on a 5 percent weapon. Doubling 5 is 10. Doubling 10 is 20.
Shooting from level ground. Alpinist is the most reliable crit source and it costs only height.
Emptying the camp. Stealth is for stragglers. Choose when the real fight starts.

Where mutation points should go, and why Skull Splitter costs Dux one point, is in the mutations tier list. Who should carry which silent weapon is in the characters guide, the opening hours are in the beginner guide, and the honest review covers whether the rest of the game lives up to this part.