Reject the patient when any reliable check fails: face or body looks wrong, photo or CCTV does not match, paperwork conflicts, or audio cues sound distorted. Anomaly spotting is a layered confirmation routine. A patient can look normal at the window and still fail photo, paperwork, camera, or audio checks.
A good anomaly check starts with the obvious body scan, then moves into the quiet details. Eyes, teeth, mouth, posture, and movement catch the fast rejects. Photo, CCTV, paperwork, and audio catch the ones that look normal from the window. One bad check is enough to keep the Shutter shut.
In actual runs, I keep the order short enough to remember while alarms and room prompts are going off: Check visible features. Compare photo and CCTV when available. Read paperwork before trusting a normal-looking patient. Reject on one clear failed check. That order keeps the desk from drifting open while someone is still fixing a room or recovering Sanity. It also gives public lobbies a simple rhythm: one player says the job, one player handles it, and nobody adds a fresh patient until the current problem is under control.
Do not wait for every system to disagree. The dangerous animals often give you one clear mismatch and then pressure you with the queue. If the photo looks wrong, the paperwork does not fit, or the camera shows something the window does not, reject and move on.
The habits that save the run are small but noticeable. One failed check is enough to reject. Do not open while a teammate is still reading the photo, paperwork, or camera detail. Start with eyes, teeth, mouth, body shape, and movement. Photo, CCTV, paperwork, and audio matter more in later Shifts. When another player already has the problem covered, the best help is often boring: hold the Shutter, watch the next patient, or finish the room that got interrupted. Crowding the same spot usually hides the next mistake instead of fixing the current one.
For quick lobby decisions, the answers stay simple. Can one mismatch justify a reject? Yes. One clear mismatch is enough to keep the Shutter closed. Can an anomaly look normal? Yes. Paperwork, photo, and camera checks can expose a patient that looks normal at the window. If the lobby feels messy, name the active problem out loud: unchecked patient, unfinished treatment, low Sanity, enemy, fire, ambulance, or ritual. Once the group knows which one is active, the next move is much easier to choose.
After the danger clears, I like taking one short reset before speeding up again. Check Sanity, check the room that got interrupted, and check whether the next animal outside has been fully screened. That tiny pause feels slow, but it stops one mistake from turning into three.