PAPERHEAD pencil
Three uses: bomb, door, graffiti. Sketch then kick. No ink number is public.
The pencil in PAPERHEAD is not a melee reskin. Official copy: it is a weapon and a tool that changes the room. Sketch a bomb. Draw a door. Write on a wall because you can.
Three documented uses
| Use | Store wording (paraphrased) | What to actually try |
|---|---|---|
| Bomb | Sketch bombs, then kick them at enemies | Treat this as craftable grenades. Draw, then boot. |
| Door | Draw doors to kick down | Soft lockpick. If a wall looks too blank, try a door. |
| Words | Write redacted words on walls, "no reason needed" | Flavour. Don't stand in a fight to graffiti. |
That is the entire public pencil kit. There is no published mana bar, durability number, or "ink" resource. If a YouTube overlay shows a meter, it is that creator's HUD mod or a later build — not something this page will copy.
How it sits next to the shotgun
The pencil is the answer when the room is the puzzle. The shotgun is the answer when the room is already solved and something is still standing. Mixing them is the point:
- Draw a bomb before you peek a doorway that already exploded its barrel.
- Draw a door when a corridor dead-ends in cardboard that looks thinner than the load-bearing stuff.
- Do not draw during a stomp chain. The movement verbs in combat are faster than a sketch.
Devlog 4's example "going all-in on pencil" is the closest thing to a named build. That run spends golden clips on pencil upgrades (unpublished) and regular clips on ammo you hopefully will not need. Until 1.0 lists the tree, "pencil main" just means: default to sketch, shotgun as backup.
What the pencil is not
- Not a map editor. You are not rebuilding the facility.
- Not confirmed as a one-shot boss skip. Nobody official has posted a "draw the ending" clip.
- Not the same as EP.0's last-second prop-carry. Prop-carry is a separate, optional 1.0 upgrade bought with golden clips.
- Not infinite by documentation. We do not know if sketches cost a resource. Play like they are cheap, and re-check after launch.
Practice in EP.0, if you have it
The prologue is the only legal sandbox still on a Steam library. Use it to get the muscle memory of "draw then kick" so 1.0's shops are extra, not a tutorial. If a wall did nothing, you probably drew on geometry the build does not mark as drawable. There is no published highlight shader.
When 1.0 lands, this page will add: whether sketches cost clips, whether doors persist, and whether written words do anything besides look funny. Until then, the pencil is three verbs and a warning not to invent a fourth.
FAQ
Can I draw a shotgun? Not listed. Weapons come from the 1.0 shop, not from sketches.
Can I draw a bridge / floor? Not listed. Doors and bombs are the two spatial uses.
Does writing on walls trigger events? Official text says "no reason needed." Treat it as flavour until a player reproduces an effect.
