How to Kill the Marionette and Get Last Performance

Quick Answer

The Marionette can appear after I fail the Jack-in-the-Box Music Box mechanic during a Hunt. If I only want to survive, I rewind the Music Box before its song completes three times. If I am deliberately chasing Last Performance, I prepare a loaded ranged weapon, spare ammunition, healing and an open firing lane first, then allow the Marionette to appear and commit to killing it. The important mechanic is that the Marionette gets faster as it takes damage. Faster does not mean invulnerable.

The Marionette was one of the easiest enemies for me to misunderstand.

My first encounter looked like this:

I was already dealing with the Hunt.

Then I heard the Music Box.

I kept fighting instead of immediately resolving the special mechanic.

A fast creature appeared, started chasing me through the store and kept accelerating while I tried to shoot it.

By the time I understood what had happened, the Music Box was gone and I could not return to the normal rewind solution.

I died.

The death screen finally identified the attacker:

Marionette

and explained the part that makes the fight feel broken the first time:

The more damage it has taken, the faster it moves.

That changes how I approach the entire encounter.

The Music Box and the Marionette Are Two Parts of the Same Failure Route

I separate these two things.

The Jack-in-the-Box Music Box is the mechanic I can prevent.

The Marionette is the threat I have to deal with after that mechanic fails.

The warning tells me to rewind the Music Box and not allow its song to finish three times.

If my goal is simply to finish the Shift safely, I do not deliberately spawn the Marionette.

I find the Music Box and complete the rewind instead.

The full floor-search order, confirmed hiding areas and failed-interaction fixes belong in my Jack-in-the-Box Music Box Guide.

For this page, the important boundary is:

successful rewind = avoid the Marionette problem

while:

failed Music Box = be ready to fight the Marionette

How I Deliberately Trigger the Marionette

There is only one reason I intentionally allow this problem to happen:

Last Performance

The achievement requires me to:

Kill a Marionette

So when I am specifically making an achievement attempt, I reverse my normal Music Box decision.

I wait until the Music Box mechanic is active during a Hunt, but I do not complete the rewind before its three-song failure condition.

I only do this after preparing for the fight.

I do not discover the Music Box, intentionally ignore it, and then begin shopping for weapons.

By then I have given the encounter control of the timing.

My safer sequence is:

1. recognize that this is a Music Box Hunt;
2. decide whether this run is a Last Performance attempt;
3. prepare my weapon, ammunition and movement lane;
4. keep healing accessible;
5. only then allow the Music Box failure;
6. switch immediately from Music Box management to Marionette combat.

What I Prepare Before Letting It Loose

I do not need an elaborate store-wide fortification just for the Marionette.

What matters more is having the fight ready before its speed starts increasing.

I want:

• a loaded ranged weapon;
• spare ammunition I can reach without searching;
• healing nearby;
• one open aisle or central movement route;
• as little floor clutter as possible along that route.

If the entire Hunt itself is causing problems, I use the Entity Assault Guide for the broader entrance, trap and Emergency Arsenal setup.

For the Marionette specifically, my priority is simpler:

damage + distance + a clear route

I Do Not Wait to Identify It After It Starts Chasing Me

This was one of my biggest mistakes on the failed attempt.

Once the special threat was already flying toward me, I was still asking:

What is that thing?

That lost the most valuable part of the fight: the period before its movement speed becomes difficult to manage.

Now I use a much simpler recognition rule.

If I have deliberately allowed the Music Box failure and the fast Marionette appears:

the achievement attempt has started

I stop:

• checkout work;
• cleaning;
• restocking;
• driver tasks;
• searching unrelated rooms.

None of those matter until the Marionette is dead.

How I Kill the Marionette

I treat the Marionette as a damage race that becomes harder the longer I am in it.

It is killable.

The trap is assuming that its increasing speed means my shots are doing nothing.

My fight order is:

1. start with the main ranged weapon already loaded;
2. begin firing while I still have distance;
3. move through the clearest open lane instead of backing into shelves;
4. keep applying damage as long as I have a safe shot;
5. reload or switch weapons before the Marionette closes the entire gap;
6. continue firing even after its movement visibly speeds up;
7. stay on the kill until the threat is actually gone.

I do not publish an exact bullet count.

Weapon choice, missed shots and balance changes make a fake number less useful than the actual mechanic.

What I care about is:

the Marionette has health, damage works, and every stage of that damage makes its movement more dangerous.

Why the Marionette Feels Invincible

My first death produced exactly the wrong impression.

I shot it.

It got faster.

It reached me more easily.

I shot it again.

It became even harder to escape.

That creates a natural assumption:

shooting it is making the fight worse, so maybe it cannot be killed

The death screen explains what is actually happening.

The lesson I take from that is not:

stop shooting

It is:

do not start the damage race until I am prepared to finish it

Poking it with a few shots and then spending the next several seconds looking for ammunition gives the Marionette the better side of its mechanic.

I have made it faster without finishing the job.

Why I Prefer Ranged Damage

I do not deliberately turn this into a melee chase.

As the Marionette takes damage, closing distance becomes increasingly dangerous.

A ranged weapon lets me use the early, slower part of the fight to do as much work as possible.

That also gives me a better chance to:

• back through an open aisle;
• reload before contact;
• switch weapons;
• recover if the first burst misses.

The closer I am when the acceleration starts, the less room I have to fix a mistake.

I therefore spend preparation time clearing a route before I spend it making the store look perfect.

What I Do When It Starts Moving Much Faster

Once the Marionette accelerates, I stop trying to make tiny positional adjustments around shelves.

I want one obvious route.

If I have space:

keep distance → keep aim → keep damage going

If I need to reload:

create space first → reload or switch → resume damage

If I am nearly trapped:

move through the open lane rather than turning into a cluttered side area

The worst pattern from my failed encounter was:

shoot → panic → search for an answer → get hit → run into another tight space → shoot again

The Marionette benefits from every delay.

Once I decide to fight it, I want the encounter to be short.

I Do Not Go Back to the Music Box After the Marionette Is Loose

Before the failure, the Music Box is the solution.

After the Marionette is actively chasing me, I do not waste time trying to reconstruct the prevention route.

In my failed encounter, the Music Box was already gone while the Marionette was attacking.

At that point I needed to solve the enemy in front of me.

That gives me a clear decision line:

Music Box still active → solve the Music Box

Marionette released → fight the Marionette

Mixing the two states is what made the first encounter so confusing.

What Happens If the Marionette Kills Me?

This is why I do not deliberately spawn it on a bad attempt.

When I died to the Marionette, I did not restart immediately before the fight.

I returned to the beginning of the active Shift.

That meant I had to repeat:

• that night’s customers;
• current task progress;
• the special event;
• the route back to the encounter.

The replacement customers were not identical either.

Earlier completed Story Mode shifts remained completed, so it was not a campaign-wide wipe.

But losing the whole active Shift was enough to make an unprepared Last Performance attempt expensive.

The broader restart and checkpoint behavior belongs in my Save System Guide.

For this fight, I use one practical rule:

If I am not prepared to lose the current Shift, I do not intentionally release the Marionette.

When I Attempt Last Performance

I attempt Last Performance when four things line up.

I Have the Right Event

The Music Box mechanic is active during a Hunt.

I do not wait for one exact calendar night or force unrelated Entity attacks.

I Have Enough Damage Ready

My primary ranged weapon is loaded and I have enough backup ammunition that I will not need to start shopping after the Marionette appears.

I Have an Open Route

I can move through at least one useful aisle without immediately catching on:

• boxes;
• trash;
• dropped equipment;
• other clutter.

The Current Shift Is Worth Risking

If I am already struggling with a critical Story Mode objective, I would rather complete the Music Box normally and take the achievement later.

The achievement is permanent.

A bad encounter can make me replay the entire active Shift.

Last Performance Is a Kill Achievement

The important distinction is that simply encountering the Marionette is not the objective.

The requirement is:

Kill a Marionette

So I do not expect Last Performance from:

• hearing the Music Box;
• finding the box;
• rewinding it;
• seeing the Marionette;
• surviving until it disappears.

I need the Marionette kill itself.

That is also why the normal Music Box solution and the achievement route point in opposite directions.

For a normal safe run:

prevent the Marionette

For Last Performance:

prepare first → allow the failure state → kill the Marionette

In my achievement snapshot, Last Performance was at 12.4%, which fits how easy it is to finish Story Mode without deliberately turning a preventable Music Box problem into a much more dangerous fight.

The Mistakes I Avoid Now

Trying to learn the mechanic after the Marionette is already on me

I make the spawn decision before the Music Box fails.

Assuming faster means invulnerable

The acceleration is the Marionette’s damage mechanic, not proof that my shots are useless.

Doing a few points of damage and then searching for ammunition

That gives me a faster enemy without enough pressure to finish it.

Chasing it through clutter at close range

I create one open firing lane and let ranged damage do the work.

Spawning it just because I found the Music Box

If I do not need Last Performance or my preparation is bad, I rewind the box.

Treating death like a quick boss retry

My failed encounter restarted the active Shift, so I only force the fight when I am willing to pay that price.

The Marionette stopped feeling mysterious once I separated its two states.

Before it appears:

the Music Box is the problem.

After it appears:

speed is the problem.

And once I deliberately choose the second state, I do not hesitate between the two solutions.

I create distance, keep the lane clear and finish the damage race.