Shift at Midnight Marionette Guide: Find the Jack-in-the-Box (Music Box) & Kill the Ghost
In Shift at Midnight, the Marionette is a flying ghost that’s hard to kill, for sure. You should fail to rewind the Jack-in-the-Box music box and let the song play through three times to make the Marionette spawn. If you get him to spawn and kill him, you’ll also unlock the achievement called Last Performance, worth 100 Gamerscore.
In this guide, I walk you through how exactly to do that to make him spawn and what’s the best way to take him down. With that said, let’s begin the hunt.
Table of Contents
What Is the Marionette Ghost in Shift at Midnight?
Right off the bat, the Marionette is like a ghost that floats around. Maybe getting him to spawn isn’t that much of a big deal, but certainly you shouldn’t underestimate him. This isn’t like Norbert, the gnome you can wave through the counter and forget about. The Marionette is one tough son of a gun that won’t go down easily. I’ll give him that.
Shift at Midnight Music Box Location (Jack-in-the-Box)
From my research and understanding there’s no fixed location for the music box. Just listen carefully for the music and thoroughly search the ground floor in the storage area. Don’t forget to search aisles and spaces beside the supermarket doors, too.
How to Spawn the Marionette with the Jack-in-the-Box
The music box in Shift at Midnight is the same object that the game calls Jack-in-the-box. The Marionette becomes a threat from Night 9 in Story Mode. At the start of the night, you get a notice that a Jack-in-the-box has appeared near the entity.
Once the hunt begins at the end of the day, that Jack-in-the-Box is active in the level. Just do what the notice says you shouldn’t: fail to rewind it, which means interact with it and release the button halfway. Let the song play through three times to make the Marionette spawn.
How to Kill the Marionette in Shift at Midnight
To kill the Marionette, you should keep shooting at him. It’s simple. But you have to understand that since the Marionette always floats, then bear and explosive traps aren’t going to do you any good. But before any of that, let’s take care of the entity first.
Before the actual fight, when the eight-legged creature spawns, divert all your attention towards it first. Don’t think about anything else. Lay bear traps and explosive traps on its routes, like the supermarket aisles. (Feel free to check out our Shift At Midnight Doppelgangers List guide to learn more about them.)
Don’t forget to barricade doors and equip your automatic weapon from the Emergency Weapons Arsenal in the storage room.
When there’s like 20% of the entity’s health left, try to fail to rewind the Jack-in-the-Box and let the song finish three times to get the Marionette to spawn. Once the entity has been taken care of, there’s a message at the top of the screen that says, “The entity has left. Eliminate remaining creatures to reach safety.”
When you see the Marionette, just run around and keep your distance and throw everything you have at him. Shoot him from the storage room door to the supermarket, then when the Marionette closes the distance, retreat to the other side of the supermarket through the other door and repeat this.
Best Weapons to Beat the Marionette
Use the flamethrower when it’s far and wreck it with your shotgun when it’s close. Be careful, though, because the Marionette appears to move faster as it takes damage. The final part of the fight is the toughest, so keep circling the supermarket and don’t stop.
While circling the supermarket, make sure to jump over those bear traps of yours. Imagine yourself as the Doomguy, that helps. Just saying. For the record, I burned the unholy monster into ashes with the flamethrower.
Pro tip: If you’re fighting him with a group of your friends, it makes the entire encounter much less painful. Focus on the spider first, then go ahead and finish this miserable, ugly Marionette creature.
