Been a long time since I’ve done one of these, huh? Long time since anything, in fact.

A lot of things have changed with how the game works. Some of these changes are available in the Night 1 Demo currently available, some things aren’t.

This is gonna be a long one, so hang in there.

To start this off, let’s discuss how the equipment works.

There’s 6 equipment types in-game: Weapon, Chip, Suit, Head, Body, and Accessory. 

• Weapons are self explanatory, these are your combat tools. Certain skills will require a certain weapon to be equipped. Withered Bonnie is a great example of this, as two of his primary skills are “Iron Grip” and “Stunning Swing.” Withered Bonnie can equip either Iron Fist or Wire Whip, which will allow you to use that corresponding skill.

• Chips are an interesting feature. In combat, you can choose to use your melee weapon, use a skill, use an item, or guard. Chips change what guarding does. Without one, guarding protects against half of any incoming damage in that turn. There’s currently two chips implemented currently, those being the Recovery chip and the Power chip. The Recovery chip recovers 25% of your current HP and MP. The Power chip increases your damage dealt for 5 turns.

• Suit, Head and Body are all basically self explanatory as well. These are the attire the animatronics wear, all of which give different stat buffs and debuffs. (For example, the Fazbears having higher HP and Attack, but the Foxes have higher Agility and Luck.)

• Accessories are personalized items that give certain bonuses to their respective animatronics. Bonnie has a Retro Speaker, which boosts the damage of his attacks by 15. Foxy has a Treasure Chest, which reduces MP costs by 50%.

All of these equipment types are purchasable at the Prize Counter, which is always found nearby the dining area in the restaurants. At this point in development, Chips and Accessories are the only things that can be purchased, but extra armor may be added in later demos.

Speaking of, let’s discuss what the Night 1 Demo fully contains.

• The Night 1 Demo is the first segment of the full game, containing the opening prologue and the first level, 1993.

• There are 4 animatronic party members to play as, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy.

• The story isn’t fully revealed in this demo, as it’s moreso just to get you accompanied with the animatronics and get a feel for the game. (What’s going on starts to become clear in Night 4. ;) )

The demo features a significant change to the random encounter enemies. As you may remember, these used to be plushies of the main 4. The plushies have now been replaced by endoskeletons, which each have a chance to drop Skill Chips upon defeat. These are basically flash drives which contain data of new skills. (The name “3rd Drive” is a clever play on this, 3rd being my 3rd and final attempt of this story, and drive being these flash drives, since they’re a core mechanic.)

Each animatronic has 4 base skills already unlocked when you first play as them, and finding these skill chips allow up to 4 special skills to be unlocked. At this current point, a large amount of the skills aren’t yet in the game, but they’ll be included as time goes on.

Speaking of, let’s discuss all of the currently available skills.

Freddy currently has 1 base skill and 2 special skills implemented. 

• “Mic Bash” costs 25 MP and has an 85% chance of success. It’s a harder-hitting version of his melee attack, dealing 15 more damage. 

• “Toreador March” costs 50 MP, hits an enemy 3 times, and has an 80% chance of success on each hit. Freddy plays his music box, effecting all enemies. Each hit has a 50% chance of applying sleep, rendering the target unable to do anything for 3 - 5 turns unless attacked again. Each hit deals 95 damage.

• “Parasite” costs exactly 311 MP, (Freddy’s maximum amount at lvl 20) and deals exactly 2000 damage. Golden Freddy takes control for a moment, causing Freddy to let out a deafening roar. However, the stress of this action causes Freddy to have a breakdown, rendering him unusable for the rest of the battle. 

Bonnie currently has 1 base skill and 1 special skill implemented.

• “Bash Jam“ costs 25 MP. Bonnie jams out on his guitar, releasing a sound wave loud enough to stun. It deals 65 damage and has a 20% chance to stun the target.

• “Grab Bag“ costs 55 MP. Bonnie reaches into a bag and causes 1 of 6 random skills to occur. “Pizza Pass“ and “Soda Send” heals 100 of HP and MP respectively. “Fire Bomb,“ “Light Bomb,“ and “Poison Bomb“ each have a 95% chance of success. They deal 100 damage each and inflict the target with their respective status effects. Fire causes significant damage for the rest of the battle. Light temporarily blinds the opponent, causing them to miss 70% of attacks for 1 - 3 turns. Poison causes a small amount of damage for the rest of the battle. The last possibility causes an explosion, dealing 150 damage to all allies. Grab bag is sort of a risk/reward skill.

Chica currently has 3 base skills and 1 special skill implemented.

• “Infestation“ costs 85 MP and has a 90% chance of success. Chica sends cockroaches to deal damage between 1 - 8 turns.

• “Throwing Star Pizza“ costs 35 MP, hits 1 random enemy 5 times, and has a 90% chance of success. Chica throws metallic slices of pizza, each dealing 30 damage.

• “Ally Block“ costs 40 MP. For some reason, this skill is broken. What’s meant to happen is that Chica takes damage in place of allies with lower HP. It’s advised to not use this until I can get this fixed.

• “Hell’s Kitchen“ costs 150 MP and has a 95% chance of success. Chica sets all enemies on fire, instantly dealing 300 damage and also causing the Blaze status effect. (See Fire Bomb above.)

Foxy has 2 base skills and 3 special skills implemented.

• “Optimism” costs 35 MP. This buffs all allies’ defense for 3 turns. Use it again to double the buff.

• “Blinding Eye“ costs 20 MP and has a 70% chance of success. (50% in the demo. Will be buffed next update.) Foxy flashes his eye, blinding the enemy. (See Light Bomb above.)

• “Data Scan“ costs 20 MP. Using his eye, Foxy can see the stats of enemies.

• “Stalk“ costs 45 MP. Foxy slinks into the shadows, raising his evasion rate to 85%.

• “Psychic Surgery“ costs 60 MP. Using his eye’s spiritual powers, Foxy removes any and all negative status effects from an ally.

Regarding Night 2, it’s coming along pretty well. I’d say I’m somewhere around 60% - 70% complete with it, all that’s left is the finishing cutscene and playtesting before it’s ready.

Thanks for sticking around, I hope to bring you more content soon, and I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait. Until next time!