Baldi vs Ghostface (Baldi's Basics vs Scream) VS Prediction Blog
"All comedy is derived from fear" - Garnet
Baldi, the easily angered math teacher of, well, the thing with his name in it
Ghostface, the infamous serial killer of the Scream series, or Stab in-universe
Horror is a genre that can feel overplayed at times, especially in regards to trends common in the very popular examples of it. Nothing exemplifies this more than Slasher films and Mascot Horror games, which can be effective when handled well, but often fall into similar pitfalls when handled poorly. These two are from series that take a look at the trends common in these fiction types and satirize them, but still show respect to their genres and give some fresh scares of their own in the process. These two guys in particular start out by being seemingly benevolent figures, only to show their true colors and try to murder you when you get their odd questions wrong. So, can Baldi manage to make Ghostface be the one to Scream for once, or will Ghostface show Baldi how to count to zero? Let’s find out.
Before We Begin
To establish what’s on the table for Baldi, that’s basically anything from all the versions of his games, along with supplemental material like the original Baldimore comics. As for Ghostface, he’ll be composited between all the guys who took on the mask throughout the films and TV series, as they all should be roughly comparable by virtue of being a threat to the same cast and being portrayed as relatively grounded humans in universe. He’ll also be getting equipment and feats from crossover games and other media, including Dead By Daylight, Halloween Horror Nights, and the scariest game of all time, Among Us. Finally, for both I’m only including things that can be said to have some sort of official tie to their main series, so no fan mods or animations for Baldi, and no Scary Movie or Terrordome stuff for Ghostface.
Also general content warning, as some clips for Baldi will include earrape and heavy visual distortions, while some clips of Ghostface will include gore. If you’re uncomfortable with any of that, please use viewer discretion.
Background
Baldi
“Welcome to Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning! That's me!”
Released as part of a game jam in 2018, Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning at first glance seems to be a simple throwback to old computer edutainment games. But the game is a bit more than it looks like under the surface. When starting, players are met with the titular Baldi Baldimore, a nice math teacher here to give you some basic math instruction through 7 notebooks. However, the player will find that on trying to solve these problems, one of these will be rendered as an illegible series of glitched out numbers, which they will naturally be unable to answer correctly. This, unfortunately, causes Baldi to get upset with the player, and will begin hunting them down through the school with ruler in hand to kill or punish the player. This forces them to make their way through the schoolhouse, collecting the other notebooks while dodging the bizarre people running around, and after this, they’ll get out while they still can, winning the game.
Not too much is known about Baldi’s origins, as it’s been deliberately left vague. We do know he was originally part of a series of comics made by his creator, and he might have a wife and son, but their canonicity is unclear. He’s had various other games he’s done with the player, including a camping trip, a trip to a barn, and a birthday party. But there was something odd happening in the game under the surface. Random glitching out, and some weird dude named Null who asked for you to destroy the game for some reason. Eh, it’s probably nothing to worry about.
Baldi himself would keep starring in these games, adding more methods to do math and starting a game of hide and seek. Though he did still have some issues with his anger, it seemed to be more playful rather than outright antagonistic. Eventually, after an epic boss fight with Null ended with his deletion, Baldi would get some sense of normalcy back, seemingly staying as a somewhat playful but still violent when angry school teacher.
You would not believe how hard it is to try and write a story segment for this guy jesus christ-
Ghostface
“What's your favorite scary movie?”
In the town of Woodsboro, a girl named Sidney Prescott was not having a great time. Her mother had been killed the year before, and to make things worse, there was a mysterious serial killer in a white mask killing teenagers in the town and harassing her. After a fateful night where a party between friends turned deadly, it was revealed that the killer was actually her boyfriend Billy Loomis and classmate Stu Macher, whom were really behind the death of her mother and was caused by them being fans of horror movies, as well as Billy wanting revenge on Sidney’s family due to viewing them as responsible for breaking up his family. Sidney would manage to turn the tides on them, killing them both in self defense with the help of the snarky reporter Gale Weathers and the bumbling police deputy Dewey Riley. However, her new nightmare was far from over, as many people would take up the mask themselves to kill people for their own reasons, with Sidney often in the center of them. Not helping is that the events of the killings were adapted into a series of horror movies within these horror movies known as Stab, which would further inspire many of them. As such, while Billy and Stu died that night, the legacy of Ghostface would live on.
There were many other killers that came after these two to take on Sidney Prescott. First, after going to college, she’d end up targeted by Mickey Altieri, a classmate of hers who wanted the fame of a big trial, and Nancy Loomis, who was out for revenge for the death of her son, Billy. Then, after a string of killings connected to a production of Stab in Hollywood, Sidney would confront Roman Bridger, director and only sole Ghostface of the main series. He was revealed to be Sidney’s half brother and was abandoned by her mother due to being conceived amidst a sexual assault from her time as an actor, who later manipulated Billy & Stu into killing her out of revenge. A few years later, a new string of murders would be caused by Sidney’s cousin Jill, who had become envious of Sidney’s fame due to the killings and would try to orchestrate herself as a new final girl, with the help of the similarly fame hungry Charlie Walker.
After this, another group of teens led by Sam Carpenter, who was revealed to be Billy Loomis’ illegitimate child, would end up having her younger sister, Tara, targeted by a new set of killers. The original trio would help them with this, though sadly Dewey would end up dead in the process. This pair turned out to be Sam’s boyfriend Richie Kirsch and one of Tara’s friends Amber Freeman, who were both horror movie fans trying to inspire a good film in the Stab series by giving it new real life inspiration. After this, Sam and Tara would end up in a college in New York, where another 2 horror movie teens were trying to set up yet another killing. However, they would end up killed by a new set of killers, who had a more personal grudge killing in mind. They’d end up being revealed as the police detective Wayne Bailey and his kids Ethan and Quinn, who were out to take revenge on Sam for killing Richie, their secret third child/sibling.
There have been other characters that have taken up the mask of the killer beyond these guys of course. In a universe where the killer was instead known as the Lakewood Slasher and had a different mask, Piper Shaw and Kieran Wilcox would be the killers, with Piper taking up the identity of her supposed father to take up his torch, and Kieran avenging her after she was killed in the end of the first season of the series. The guy they took the identity from was also revealed, though the series got rebooted before we could see who he was. In said other universe, a more traditional Ghostface killing would be orchestrated by Jay Eliot, a guy trying to avenge the death of his half-brother, and Beth, a sociopath who had been trying to make her own horror movie due to being a fan of them.
Finally, within the world of Dead by Daylight, there’s Danny “Jed Olsen” Johnson, a reporter who had been moonlighting as the serial killer to give himself headlines. Though he was forced to flee due to evidence stacking up, the Entity would take notice of his skill and bring him into his variety of killers that endlessly kill random survivors. There have been other guys who have taken on the mask beyond this, like a Stab movie fanatic that hijacked a Universal Studios tour, a soldier killing for the Warsaw Pact in Call of Duty, or a shapeshifting alien killing astronauts, but there’s no question he’s become an iconic killer in the horror genre that many should watch out for.
Intelligence & Skill
Baldi
As his whole role is as a math teacher, Baldi is pretty smart. While some of his methods can be a bit questionable, he still shows a surprising amount of skill in actually teaching when he’s not flying off the handle, so he probably has a legitimate teaching degree. He’s also a surprisingly skilled inventor, having invented portals, a shrinking machine, and other stuff.
Ghostface
Ghostface is an intelligent killer, typically able to easily outwit other people and kill them, which typically tends to include several cops and guys who have previous experience dealing with similar killers. To give a few more specific examples, Roman was able to mastermind the events of the first film by manipulating Billy, and he managed to kill a man by tricking him into activating a lighter in the middle of a house full of gas. Jill was able to mastermind a plot that would make her look like one of the victims and give her fame, which only went awry due to Sidney not dying and her accidentally making an innocuous comment. Wayne managed to use his position as a police detective to fake the death of his daughter to take away suspicion of her, and managed to kill 2 other guys that were attempting to take up the mask themselves. Finally, Danny was a reporter that had gone on a long rampage through several towns while posing as a reporter covering the events, escaping justice in each whenever something came up that could incriminate him.
Equipment
Baldi
Ruler
Baldi’s main weapon, which he uses to measure things, and smack people who get his questions wrong.
Bear Traps
Baldi sets these up in an earlier version of the Camping Trip mode, which will cause whoever walks across them to be stunned in place for 5 seconds. I have never seen this get used to trap an actual bear oddly.
Fog Machine
An unseen device which in certain events can cause the school to be covered up by fog, which can make him harder to track. Though Baldi is also hampered by this, needing to rely on his hearing more.
Portal Poster
An item equippable by the player, which was noted in its description to have been made by Baldi himself. It can be placed on any wall, creating a portal that lets you pass through it. Though it has to be on a wall that has no objects blocking it on either side.
Torch
From one of the Baldimore comics, in which Baldi laments the fact he is bald, before promptly lighting the hair of several people on fire.
Ghostface
Costume
A common halloween costume every Ghostface has worn. The dark robes allow them to fade into shadows pretty easily, as well as being able to disguise the wearer’s identity. It’s also been shown to have a built-in voice changer that lets the wearer talk in the identity’s disguised voice, which also helps in concealing their identity.
Knife
A Buck 120 Hunting Knife which is the typical weapon of Ghostface for killing people. It’s good for stabbing and slashing stuff.
Phones
Commonly used by Ghostface, to call his next victim and threaten them before they’re attacked and potentially killed.
Pistol
After being unmasked, the killers typically pull out one of these to threaten the alive characters and get them to do what they want. They’re usually either a Beretta 92FS or a Glock 17
Rope and Duct Tape
Used a few times by them, whether that be to keep people captured or to string up recent kills.
Voice Changer
In Scream 3, Roman used this to imitate various people, perfectly allowing for him to disguise his voice. This even included someone that had been dead for years. Somehow.
Bulletproof Vest
Also used by Roman in Scream 3, this is a vest that protects him from bullets. Amber and Wayne were also implied to have used them to survive bullets themselves.
Shotgun
In Scream 6, Wayne ends up confronting the new group in a bodega, at which he steals the shotgun of the owner that tried to stop them. He used it pretty effectively, likely thanks to being a police officer. This is also notably the first time Ghostface used a gun while still in costume.
Drug Filled Syringe
Used in Scream Resurrection, to kill Shane by injecting it directly into his eye. Gross.
Bonesaw
Also used in Scream Resurrection, as after Amir thought he got away in an elevator, he’d end up being stabbed from behind, before the elevator would go upwards, bisecting him in the process.
Call of Duty Guns
Since Ghostface is a playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War for some reason, he has access to a lot of potential guns, including Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns, Tactical Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, more Pistols, Shotguns, and Rocket Launchers. I won’t list them all here, just because it’s not really that necessary, but here is a full list of them.
Abilities
Baldi
4th Wall Awareness
Baldi is well aware that he’s in a video game. The game starts with him talking to you on the title screen, he explains several gameplay mechanics, wrote a readme document in the game's files, and acknowledges when he’s within a demo, even ending it by directly advertising his full game. He also once ate dialogue in a comic, though it is clearly for a gag.
Enhanced Hearing
His most notable power is his excellent hearing. He can tell where any sound in his schoolhouse came from, as well as being able to detect who made the sound. He can also apparently hear bad math, though that could just be an insult.
Rage Power
The more questions your character gets wrong, the angrier Baldi gets, which also leads to his movement speed increasing by way of decreasing the time between his ruler smacks. It’s unclear if it affects his strength though, given he will one shot you regardless of his anger.
Spatial Manipulation
After collecting all 7 of the notebooks, he transforms the school into a red form, and is able to block exits that the player approaches that aren’t the correct one. He does this in the Birthday Bash to get the player to the titular party. He also may be able to cause glitchy visuals, though that is less clearly his doing.
Gravity Manipulation
He’s also able to reverse gravity. It’s unknown how he does this, but the pop-up does directly blame him for it, so presumably it’s either one of his inventions going haywire, or an extension to the aforementioned spatial manipulation.
Possible Cloning
There’s a few instances in the game of there potentially being multiple Baldis at once. In the intro of Plus, he’s able to appear in the hallway and at the bus in front at the same time. And in the ending of Classic Remastered Birthday Bash, he’s able to appear glitched out and floating in the air and scared in a hidden room at the same time. Though the first instance might just be down to gameplay mechanics, while the second instance could be more down to the world glitching apart
Ghostface
Stealth
Ghostface regularly shows a good amount of stealth, able to sneak up on and stab various victims to death pretty easily.
Ghost Mode
In the Scream 4 mobile game, he can activate this mode to just turn invisible until he kills someone. You’re gonna have to take Multiverse Match’s word for it, since it’s the only footage I could find of someone actually using it, as this game is apparently not very good and no one talked about it before it got shuffled off the app market.
Shapeshifter
From Among Us, this is a special role imposters can get. The Shapeshifter has access to the Shift ability, which allows them to transform into any living player in the lobby, or any players that were alive at the end of the last emergency meeting. The disguise lasts for a limited time and leaves evidence behind that it happened, but it is useful for sneaking around and pinning the crime on another crewmate.
Also yes I know I could technically include the other special roles for him, but it just feels right to stick to the idea that they’re the imposter, you know?
Night Shroud
His main ability within Dead by Daylight. When activated, this will disable Ghostface’s Terror Radius, which is what allows survivors to detect when a killer is nearby by listening for the sound of their own heartbeats. Survivors within close proximity to him can detect him if they look in his direction for 1.5 seconds, automatically ending the mode. It can also end if he attacks someone within the mode. The mode also allows him to stalk a target until they’re marked, which basically means they’ll be knocked down in a single hit instead of the usual 2. Also he can crouch, which is pretty useful.
Teachable Perks
Ghostface also has 2 other perks, but they are pretty reliant on mechanics from being within the Entity’s realm, meaning they’re not too useful in a one on one situation under neutral ground like this.
Add-Ons
He can further modify Night Shroud using these objects, which are all based on certain objects from his past, and he can equip up to 2 of them at a time. All 20 of them are listed here, but to break down the more notable ones:
Associates
Baldi
Playtime
A little girl who will approach the player and make them jump rope with her, which can leave them open for others to find them. You can get out of the rope by cutting it with scissors, though this will make her feel sad.
Arts and Crafters
A sentient sock puppet who will initially flee on seeing the player. However, after getting the 7 notebooks, he will rapidly run around and, if provoked, will teleport Baldi directly to the player’s location while potentially teleporting them around as well.
It's a Bully
A big bully who will block a path, not moving at all unless the player gives him an item. In the camping trip mode, he can outright attack and steal your items directly while disguised as a tree, though you can get them back if you catch him.
Principal of the Thing
The principal of the school, he patrols around the school to see if there’s anyone breaking the rules. If they are, he’ll relentlessly chase them down before directly teleporting them to detention for increasingly more seconds.
1st Prize
A robot which won the science fair, this silly little guy loves hugging people and will do so by ramming into them at rapid speeds. Though he can’t turn corners very fast.
Gotta Sweep
A sentient broom that will go up and down the halls, sweeping them while sweeping up anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way.
Cloudy Copter
A weird thing that will go to the ends of hallways and start blowing wind that will push or pull people moving down the hallway.
Chalkles
A sentient chalk drawing that can trap the player within a classroom for 15 seconds.
Beans
A frankly disgusting looking child who blows a bubble of bubblegum before spitting it out in a wad that will drastically reduce the Player’s movement speed for 10 seconds, though it can hit other characters and give them the same effect.
Mrs Pomp
A woman in a shoe, who is also the only other teacher in the school. She’ll approach the player and tell them to go to her class. If they fail to show up, she’ll angrily search for them, drag them to her room, and stomp around for a bit while keeping them locked with her for 15 seconds. If you go to the class she just lets you leave immediately so I assume it’s the principle of the thing that gets her upset about it.
The Test
A scary looking guy that might be a fucked up son of Baldi’s. If the player does not get out of this guy’s line of sight, he’ll turn off the lights and make it harder for them to see where everyone is.
Ghostface
Accomplice
Ghostface is famously known for working in pairs, with Roman from the third film and Danny from Dead By Daylight being the only ones who were known to have worked alone, and the Baileys outright being a trio. When “working”, the usual MO is to have one person call the home of the person they’re stalking and distract them, or pretend to be caught up as a victim to draw off suspicion, while the second comes inside and kills their targets. Though there have been instances of them killing in tandem, most notably with the Bailey kids, who managed to stab Chad to near death by attacking him together.
Also worth noting is in the Halloween Horror Nights maze, you can notably see more than 2 Ghostfaces at a time. But given how those kinds of mazes work, it’s doubtful this is meant to be confirmation of a massive amount of them in universe.
Feats
Baldi
Overall
Very smart teacher and inventor
Only character in original game that can defeat the player
Power
The player can survive being slammed into walls by Gotta Sweep and First Prize (51,054 joules and 18,320 joules respectively)
Speed
Can slap his hand at twice that speed (29.22 m/s)
Can eat an entire apple in 10 seconds, which is 3.8 times faster than the world record
Durability
Slaps his hand hard enough to make a sound repeatedly and doesn’t seem hurt by it
Survived being in a shrink machine as it malfunctioned and exploded on him
Ghostface
Overall
Total cumulative confirmed kill count: 78
Revitalized horror movies as a genre
Several were able to worm their way into the group of friends of their target
Roman set the events of the whole series into motion
Jill planned a murder spree that would make her famous
Power
All are able to slash and stab people to death pretty easily
Debbie tossed a girl through a window and then off a balcony
Roman knocked out Dewey by smacking him in the face with the hilt of a knife
Danny can shatter a wooden door in two kicks (258,322.12 joules)
Speed
Roman looped around a large movie set in the time it took for Sidney to run half that distance
Amber snuck up on and attacked Chad faster than he could react
Wayne aim dodged a shotgun blast before slipping away from sight
Danny can outpace various survivors, including an athletic rugby player, trained military members, and Nicholas Cage.
Durability
Billy got smacked in the face with a freezer door and several beer bottles
Jill took a 360 Joule defibrillator shock to the head and got up later
Weaknesses
Baldi
Baldi’s hearing is impressive, but it can be disrupted or tricked by using some sort of loud noise. His constant ruler smacking also acts as a good way to keep track of his movements, which can make him easy to predict. He can also get distracted if handed an apple, as he will drop everything to eat it. Finally, he seems to have some issue with object permanence, as if he’s not actively looking at the player, he will go to other noises if he thinks they’re the player, even if he’s in the middle of a chase.
Ghostface
One universal constant for most of the Ghostfaces is their tendency for clumsiness, which has caused many embarrassing moments. This is all because the various killers are still humans that are as vulnerable to damage as the people they kill, as many have died to basic gunshots and stabbings. Finally, they also have a tendency to go on long monologues over their plans and motives when they get unmasked and think they won, which directly led to many of their deaths.
Before the Verdict
What’s the deal with Baldi Lore?????
A very important discussion on any indie horror series, I feel it’s worth trying to break down exactly what Baldi lore is, since it potentially does offer him significant power depending on the interpretation. Now, there are several instances in the game which implies Baldi’s control of the school is on a more metanarrative level, mainly from several instances of him seemingly causing the game to glitch out or crash.
However, there is an alternate explanation offered by the existence of Null. Initially a character from a secret ending who was just a jab at the “guy trapped in a video game” trope, later updates would expand on his presence within the game slightly more seriously. He’s always seen wanting the player to delete the game, and in one game mode, he outright attempts to confront you himself, during which he blatantly shows far greater capability to cause the game to glitch out. He can also cause the game to crash when catching you, and the rare standard game overs that crash the game as well are colored red like him, implying they are his doing.
Now, what does that mean for Baldi? Well, notably, in the ending of this mode, Null ends up seemingly getting outright deleted from the game entirely. This has several effects on the game, which most notably for the purposes of this doc, replaces Baldi’s standard “Get Out While You Still Can” scream with a less earrapey line, and several secret endings where he showed up are replaced with Baldi doing more mundane things. Though there is also an ending which implies he may not have been fully deleted.
Now, all this can be taken several different ways. But for me, I interpret this as meaning a lot of the more glitchy stuff that happens in the game is not from Baldi having control over the game, but from Null’s influence corrupting it. Baldi clearly is treated as below him in terms of power, as in several of the endings where Null is in control, he’s notably either seemingly incapacitated or hiding in a corner. This implies that the big story currently is that the game is a fairly normal if odd schoolhouse game, and the glitchy stuff was from Null being sealed within it that Baldi has no direct control over. This means that the idea of Baldi having any sort of literal control over the game itself is not applicable for the purposes of VS, so no, he’s not some sort of metanarrative threat.
Can Baldi Teleport?
(above gif is a glitch so ignore the phasing part)
Another important distinction here, but despite his main movement appearing to be teleporting at first glance, he clearly is not actually teleporting. He still has to follow the layout of rooms and can’t go through walls or locked doors, indicating his movements still are from him physically moving around. The one exception is being able to go through the doors of the principal’s office when you’re trapped there, as well as other objects, but given how he’s consistently portrayed as being blocked by locked doors and such, this is likely just a case of game mechanics instead of him literally being able to phase through matter at will.
The Baldoons
In certain endings of the game where stuff gets glitchy, these end up spawning instead of the standard balloons. The red balloons specifically seem to cause significant damage to the school’s map, completely destroying props and even parts of the hallway, but when they hit Baldi, there’s no effect, and when they hit the player, they just slow them down. This could be seen as a decent feat of durability, but the fact they seem to only be able to effect the map and not people in it implies either the not hitting people is due to gameplay mechanics or they are incapable of harming any living being, either of which would prove that being able to survive getting hit by them is not really a feasible durability feat.
Country Level Baldi???
Finally, something I didn’t know about until after finishing this blog for the first time. In a video celebrating hitting the Kickstarter goal, Baldi’s head flies into orbit very fast. Someone calced his speed to be between Mach 68 and 9.6% the speed of light, which at its highest end would be the potential kinetic energy of 3 teratons, or small country level. However, as funny as it would be to use this for his stats, this is clearly a gag feat that Baldi never demonstrates anywhere close to the power of anywhere else, meaning it is an outlier.
Verdict
Stats
These two are surprisingly pretty close physically speaking. In terms of strength, Baldi’s best feat would be upscaling to Gotta Sweep’s 51 kilojoule pushing, as he can oneshot the player despite them being unharmed by getting pushed. The exact degree to which he should upscale is a bit unclear, given the “unharming” part of it could involve gameplay mechanics, but it should reasonably be within the same range as Ghostface’s strongest attack, which would be Danny smashing apart a door at about 258 kilojoules. So strength is effectively equal.
In terms of durability, though, Ghostface takes the edge. In terms of overall force, they should both reasonably scale to each other’s attack potency. But the various takers of Ghostface generally have a lot more notable instances of being able to tough it out through pain, with many of them being able to power through lethal circumstances to deliver one last scare. While Baldi does have some cartoony displays of durability, the best one would be the shrink machine exploding on him, which is hard to really quantify due to it being entirely offscreen.
Finally, speed. Ghostface doesn’t have a lot in terms of really quantifiable speed feats, but most of his feats would put him solidly in the athletic to peak human range at best, which Baldi can surpass due to moving at superhuman speeds, and potentially further when he gets mad. So he should likely take speed, though it is unclear by how much.
So in conclusion, they’re both equally strong, Ghostface is a bit more resilient, and Baldi is a bit faster, though neither are to that big of a degree, meaning stats are overall pretty even.
Arsenal & Abilities
Now when it comes to just their base arsenal, there’s not really much question that Ghostface has the edge in terms of effectiveness. Baldi’s ruler is certainly an effective weapon in his hands, but a knife and especially guns are just objectively far deadlier. Additionally, Baldi’s never demonstrated anything close to the speeds needed to dodge bullets, so that does somewhat subside the speed gap. And Baldi doesn’t really have any ranged options, so he’d be at a major disadvantage, especially if Ghostface starts busting out his COD arsenal.
Now in terms of their wackier bullshit, the abilities Baldi has do seem to be a bit more than what Ghostface has, but there’s a bit more to that than it would seem, as Ghostface actually has several counters to Baldi’s capabilities. His ability to see auras would counter the fog machine or turning off the lights, and the fact he works as a duo would counter Baldi’s potential cloning. And while Baldi could shape the school around them to his will, the only thing he does with it is block off exits and flip gravity, neither of which would be too inconvenient. And while he can shape the school’s layout to a degree, he never demonstrates the ability to make the school into a death trap to kill you in normal play, so there’s no reason to assume he’d just do that here.
Finally, when you compare the two’s main modus operandi, I feel Ghostface would definitely be able to consistently outpace Baldi here. Not only is his stealth capabilities pretty good, he has multiple methods of being able to move undetected and set up whatever ambushes he wants. He could turn invisible or shapeshift to disguise as one of the schoolhouse denizens, both of which are things Baldi’s never really able to counter. And Night Shroud, while potentially less effective, does offer a way to specifically mask his presence to those that even have good senses.
Certainly not helping matters would be the fact that Baldi is going to be outright announcing his presence everywhere he goes by hitting his ruler, which combined with Ghostface’s ability to see auras, will inevitably mean that he will have a far easier time tracking Baldi than vice versa. Baldi could silence himself by breaking his ruler, but that would also be bad for him given he is breaking his only real weapon. Finally, while Baldi’s rage could get him faster, there’s not really any reason to assume it would also increase his strength, and Ghostface has plenty of options to end the fight before it becomes too big of a deal regardless. So overall, Ghostface has the edge here.
Tertiary Factors
Now in terms of intelligence, Ghostface pretty clearly has the advantage. Baldi is likely smarter on an academic level, given the fact he’s a teacher and inventor, but he really hasn’t shown much in terms of combat experience besides chasing a possible child. Ghostface, on the other hand, regularly shows a good ability to keep up with and kill people, which includes trained police officers, people with previous experience with other killers like him, or in a few cases both. So he definitely would edge out in terms of knowledge that would be more useful in a fight.
I would imagine Ghostface would certainly be caught off guard by Baldi’s wackier shenanigans, but Baldi would need to be able to properly capitalize on this advantage, and I really doubt he could. His only known experience in anything resembling fighting has been with a possible child that physically couldn’t fight back, and his anger could potentially impair his judgment. He also isn’t really implied to have any sort of direct control over the other denizens of the schoolhouse, with them basically just happening into being an obstacle, meaning any strategy will be hard to implement.
Speaking of which, Baldi’s group of friends does offer a lot of chaos and manpower, which does seem like it could overwhelm Ghostface on paper. But when you actually break it down, not many of them are able to do much that would actually end the fight. Aside from Gotta Sweep, First Prize, and I’m A Bully, most of them are only able to either keep people in place or teleport them elsewhere. Baldi is still the only guy in the school capable of actually ending the game, so all the others do is offer an obstacle.
Meanwhile, Ghostface being able to have essentially a second clone of himself running around is going to be massively helpful to his chances. Sure, Baldi could arguably do the same, but that still means Ghostface essentially has double the killing potential going in, whereas most of Baldi’s other help is just going to be a minor annoyance at best. In fact, given there’s not any gameplay mechanics protecting them, there’d be nothing stopping the Ghostfaces from just stabbing or shooting them to death before they can even do their funny gimmicks, which means that chaos causing won’t even be that big of a deal in practice. (Please ignore the grimness of that implication, given at least three of them are children.)
Even if you wanted to be a bit more down to earth with Ghostface and just stick to stuff from the films and series, the result here wouldn’t change much. He’d still be packing more deadly weapons than Baldi, he physically has a few other wall level feats that get in the same range as Baldi, he has more demonstrated instances of toughing it out through pain, and his stealth is going to be something that Baldi would have a hard time contending with.
Finally, given how pragmatic some of the more recent wearers of the mask have been, there’s absolutely nothing stopping Ghostface from just shooting Baldi in the head and ending the fight there, before he even has the chance to pull any of his wacky stunts. Baldi never demonstrates anything close to the durability needed to survive multiple gunshots, so a couple bullets and it’s game over for him. Ultimately, there’s really not that much Baldi and his company could do in the face of Ghostface besides delaying the inevitable.
Conclusion
Advantages:
Roughly equally strong
Potentially a bit faster
Help is greater in number…
Has wackier arsenal
Disadvantages:
Less deadly arsenal
Less experience in fighting
…but would ultimately be a minor annoyance at best
Advantages:
Roughly equally strong
Potentially more resilient
Help is a lot more reliable…
Deadlier arsenal
More fighting experience
Is a real Ghostface Killah
Disadvantages:
Potentially slower
Could be caught off guard by the wackier abilities
…though they are still massively outnumbered
Never killed Sidney despite having 5 shots at her
Overall, while Baldi on paper does seem to have more wacky stuff to pull, he really doesn’t have what it would take to counter Ghostface’s deadlier arsenal and greater experience. This is just one question Baldi doesn’t have the answer for, while Ghostface has the cheat sheet, meaning he knows the answer is DEATH.
…that analogy fell apart jesus fucking christ-
The winner is Ghostface
NEXT TIME
Oersted vs Garland
(Live A Live vs Final Fantasy)
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