Searchers

***"On the plus side, I got a new character I think people are going to love."***
- Henry Stein
This article may contain unmarked details of **spoilers**. If you wish not to read without spoiling yourself, play the game, watch the cartoon, or read the book first, depending on the article's topic.

## Battle Information

### Health

Low (3) (*BATIM*)
TBA (*BATDR*)

### Damage

Low (6) (*BATIM*)
TBA (*BATDR*)

## Locations

### *Bendy and the Ink Machine*

*Chapter 2: The Old Song** Music Department Entrance
* Flooded Stairwell
* Recording Studio
* Infirmary]]

*Chapter 3: Rise and Fall*

* Inner Chamber|Alice's Lair
* Lobby Workshop
* Metro Station
* Indoor Balcony
* Toy Storage
* Stairways
* Sunken Room

*Chapter 5: The Last Reel*

* Stone Corridor
* Lost Harbor
* Administration Maze

### *Bendy and the Dark Revival*

*Chapter 1: Drawn to Darkness*
*Chapter 2: The Demon's Domain*
*Chapter 5: The Dark Revival*

**"***YOU DON'T HAVE TO KILL ME***"**
— **A message written by a Searcher,*Bendy and the Dark Revival: Chapter 1***

The **Searchers** are the Cycle realm's ink-comprised creatures and one of the most common enemies that appear in the *Bendy* series. They are the souls of human civilians trapped in the Cycle.

## Overview

### Physical Appearance

The Searchers are creatures resembling human torsos and entirely made of black ink. They have very flexible bodies, elongated arms, and the lower part of their bodies seem to melt into puddles of ink. Whenever they crawl to move, they leave ink trails behind. Their ghoulish, human-like faces sport a gaping mouth, two indentations in the place of eyes, and movable broad eyebrows. They seem to be humans, but their legs are stuck in the ink.

In *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, the Searchers are simple and smooth-textured, and the lower parts of their bodies always attach to the floor. In *Bendy and the Dark Revival*, they appear more realistic, textured, and a lot human-like in *Bendy and the Dark Revival*.

### Behavior

In *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, they were first witnessed as puddles of inky, bubbly slime in their idle state. Upon being approached, they materialize and attack. The puddles will still remain after killing the Searchers. When spawned, the Searchers start following Henry until they get the chance to attack. Upon hitting them with a weapon, they will collapse into ink and disappear, allowing Henry to continue. On occasions, they can come in packs. Sometimes, a Searcher can unexpectedly spawn to startle the player. Each will take 6 hits to kill Henry. If Henry takes enough damage from attacks, he will be killed, sending him to a Bendy statue to respawn.

### Strategy

In *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, the Searchers are very basic enemies and easily killable. However, the Searchers can be very dangerous when spawning in large pack. If Henry manages to outrun the Searchers or get inside the Little Miracle Station, they will vanish and will only reappear if Henry approaches them. Timing may be difficult since they are almost as fast as Henry.

 Axe, Tommy Gun, Pipe Wrench

## In-Game Appearances

### *Bendy and the Ink Machine*

#### *Chapter 2: The Old Song*

As the very first encountered enemies, the Searchers make their first appearance as the only main enemies in this chapter. Their moaning sound is first heard when opening the entrance to the Music Department hall after completing the first puzzle. The Searchers start to become active after activating the "**POWER**" switch from the stairwell to bring lighting to the area. Before the pack in this department spawns, one Searcher's slime form will be noticed dropping above from the pipe atop the department's logo.

The pack of Searchers is first encountered in the Music Department entrance. One can be encountered in the stairwell, the Utility Shaft 9 and its entrance of the T-shaped corridor.

The second wave of Searchers is later encountered in the recording studio after turning the first valve from Sammy's sanctuary. After wiping the second wave out, another Searcher can also spawn in the band area and even inside Sammy's sanctuary upon revisiting.

They are last encountered in the Sacrifice Room after the off-screen "murder" of Sammy by The Ink Demon's hands.

#### *Chapter 3: Rise and Fall*

The Searchers will become active when Henry starts his errands for Twisted Alice. They will spawn in all locations except the Safehouse and the Inky Abyss on Level 14. Once killed, they will respawn after a while.

On Level 9, during the task of defending Twisted Alice's room from the Butcher Gang, the Searchers will spawn rapidly around the entrance area of Alice's Lair if Henry walks close to the area near the elevator, making the battle confined and risky.

#### *Chapter 5: The Last Reel*

They make their first appearance in a hallway outside the base of Allison Angel and Tom. They can also be seen after the boss fight with Sammy in the Lost Harbor (built by the Searchers with the Lost Ones according to Allison Angel) as ink pools appear, serving as spawning points for the Searchers. They work alongside their counterparts, the Miner Searchers, and the Lost Ones to confront Allison, Tom, and Henry.

### *Bendy and the Dark Revival*

#### *Chapter 1: Drawn to Darkness*

The first Searcher is encountered after Audrey gains the banishing ability and was used to test out her ability.

#### *Chapter 2: The Demon's Domain*

The Searchers appear in the Men's Lockers after Audrey upgrades her Gent Pipe for the first time as they rise from puddles and pop from lockers, triggering an enemy battle. Audrey will have a choice to either fight the Searchers or flee from them to skip the battle.

#### *Chapter 5: The Dark Revival*

The Searchers last appear with the Lost Ones to battle Beast Bendy during the finale climax.

## Trivia

* The Searchers were made when developing *Chapter 2: The Old Song* for *Bendy and the Ink Machine*. The concept art originally depicts the enemies to have a reflective face (additional empty eyes included as well), less smoother body, and three-fingered hands. They were also originally called the "Seekers".
* Their model from the second *Bendy and the Ink Machine* chapter's first release slightly resembles to their original concept art, and they were slower and more fragile. Instead of crawling, they just move in a similar fashion to a slug's movement while swaying their thin arms. They easily collapse into pieces by simply running into Henry for damage or even into obstacles or walls like self-sacrifice. Afterwards, when getting killed, the glob-like masses where the Searchers spawned from slowly shrink into the floor and dissipate.
	+ The early version of their "idle" model appears to look like a chunk of clay instead of bubbling slime, and killing the Searchers will cause their ink chunk to shrink away. They were removed upon *Chapter 3: Rise and Fall*'s release but re-added with their newer design for the release of *Chapter 4: Colossal Wonders*.
* The Searchers had their own Patreon named "The Searcher Dance Party", where Mike Mood showcases their beta models as rag dolls performed randomly. Due to theMeatly Games' (before being renamed to Kindly Beast) Patreon account being disabled, the post was deleted.
* In *Bendy and the Ink Machine*, the Searcher has an unused animation of them crawling without tilting their body side to side.
* In *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 2*, from the chapter's first release, each can be spawned from the entrance of Sammy's office and near from the hallway between the Music Department hall and the recording studio while Henry is preparing to solve Sammy's music puzzle.
* From *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 2*'s game files of the first pre-update before *Chapter 3* was released, there are several unused audio files of the Searchers' dying moans, meant to occur when killing them. These sounds never occur in-game, however. Upon *Chapter 3*'s release, while the Searchers' models are updated, one of the unused death audio files is recycled for the newer sounds.
* In *Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 3*, if walking to Alice's entrance on Level 9's main chamber location to do Twisted Alice's next fetch quest while the Searcher is following after Henry, it will "retreat" to vanish away, similar to the result when Henry head inside the Miracle Station or outrunning.
* In one of the random sketches in the storyboard papers found in Joey's apartment, there is a Searcher wearing a fancy but ridiculous-looking hat.
* The Searcher's new look for *Bendy and the Dark Revival* was first revealed in the 2019 gameplay trailer, where it spawns from the back halls and attempts to pursue Audrey.

## References

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1. ↑ "*My original concept illustration for the "Searchers" (called "Seekers" at the time). Drawn for #BATIM: Chapter Two. :) My, how these guys have changed since this design! ^\_^ #BENDY*" - theMeatly. November 25, 2020. Twitter.