The Patients

**The Patients** are the third minor enemies encountered in *Little Nightmares II*. They are encountered in The Hospital chapter and are the main antagonistic faction of said chapter.

## Website Description

> *The Patients cannot live with their selves. They look in the mirror and hate what stares back. Seeing nothing but the flaws and ugliness of nature, they beg the Doctor to fix them, to work his magic, and make them whole again.*
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## Appearance

Patients appear to be amalgamations of human remains and artificial mannequin parts. Just as any other residents, they are much larger and taller than the protagonists of the game, they vary greatly in appearance and size, from full bodied bandaged human heads and torsos with prosthetic limbs, to scuttling rotten hands. The larger Patients are three times the height of Mono and Six. Most of them appear to be wearing the same set of clothing.

Apart from the basic prosthetic hands and feet equipped by the majority of Patients, many Patients can additionally wield a variety of unique parts: grappler arm hooks, metal peg legs, and incomplete facial prosthetics. Some Patients lack a few prosthetics on their body, ranging from missing hands, arms, legs, to even their entire head. Few of them are completely limbless but still active. The Patients' prosthetics seem to be made of plastic or wood, with metal joints to link limb and facial sections in place, giving them a rather weak structure with their actual weight centering around their torsos.

## Background

The Playstation Blog sheds some light on the Patients' past. The Patients were actually people who came to the Doctor for "a medical solution to the boredom infecting their lives." The Doctor stitched various organic and porcelain body parts together, to create the Patients as we see them now.

## *Little Nightmares II*

Although there are a lot of Patients seen throughout the Hospital, only a small percentage that are encountered by Mono are active.

After Six gives a boost for Mono to start a journey for the second fuse for the main elevator, a Patient will be seen blocking the bars. Mono has to distract it out of the way by turning the lights off. Not long after, he encounters more of them in a ward.

Later, several Patient arms burst through numerous cell doors in a corridor. Mono has to avoid these arms and keep moving forward. Afterward, some Patients with no legs break out of the doors and pursue Mono. Mono manages to escape them by climbing up a cabinet file, entering the vent above to arrive in a shower room.

In the shower room, Mono encounters a Patient sitting on a wheelchair, its weight making the chair immovable. Mono is able to get the Patient to move away by turning off the lights, luring it into the shower room. Mono turns the light back on to freeze the Patient. Before finally finding the second fuse, Mono is faced with a large dark room filled with countless Patients, about half of which become active. Mono eventually makes it to the other end of the room where a set of nailed wood boards barricade Mono from the hostile Patients, who begin reaching at him through the gaps.

After taking the elevator down, numerous inactive Patients are found being littered around the morgue and some being operated and checked on by The Doctor. A still-breathing Patient is seen when Mono and Six try to stay unseen by the Doctor while trying to obtain a fuse. However, Mono has to shut down its life support to distract the Doctor.

Following the final encounter with the Doctor, Mono and Six at last escape the hospital through the waiting room, where the duo encounter numerous inactive Patients waiting around one final time.

## Strategy

Some Patients can chase Mono (and Six), but only in the dark. Mono can either direct the flashlight at them to freeze them, or lure them to an external light source or a dead end, allowing Mono to escape through narrow gaps. If they catch up with Mono, they will not hesitate to reach and grab him, which will result in a game over.

Players normally do not have to worry about any pursuing Patients breaking obstacles or wooden barricades, as their weak structures are not powerful enough to push through them.

It may also be worth noting that some Patients sprint while others walk more sluggishly. The latter moves at about the speed of Mono's run, have a harder time turning or maneuvering around obstacles and can even be dodged if they reach to grab Mono (though doing so is still highly difficult). Patients that sprint can be identified by being more hunched over when active while Patients that merely walk have a more straightened posture. Although some Patients do not posses leg prosthetics, they are still capable of crawling at a fast pace using their hands alone.

## Theories

* It is speculated that the Patients were once the Viewers themselves and that any source of light is interpreted by their bodies as light shining from a T.V. screen as it aired the Transmission, which would have originally kept them still and pacified before becoming the Patients of the Hospital.
	+ Contrary, given the Hospital's setting and due to the Patients having undergone various surgical procedures which resulted in their body parts being replaced with prosthetics, it is speculated that just like how any typical patient refrains from moving during an operation, a Patient's body will refrain from moving as they instinctively interpret any source of light that touches them as an operating light. This includes the light from Mono's flashlight.
* Despite being capable of moving and chasing Mono, the patients do not make any efforts to avoid any source of light to prevent themselves from being petrified, leaving suspicion that any consciousness they once had is now gone and any actions they take is the result of reflexes brought about by basic instincts that remain within their bodies.
	+ It is additionally speculated that so long as the main torso is shrouded in darkness, any prosthetic limbs attached to their body is still capable of moving around despite being exposed to a source of light. This is supported by the numerous prosthetic arms within a single hallway attempting to reach for Mono despite being exposed to his flashlight. Once a patient breaks through the doors, they once again become petrified as the light touches their bodies.
* Patients encountered in the morgue will not pursue Mono and Six despite being shrouded in complete darkness. Given the setting of the morgue and the various beds and medical supplies, it is speculated that any Patients in the morgue do not harbor any ability to move but are in the process of being treated by the Doctor to become final products that can move in the Hospital.

## Trivia

* In the attic of the Hunter's shack, a number of prosthetics can be found. These prosthetics are similar to the ones the Doctor uses to "heal" Patients all throughout the hospital.
* After dealing with the first Patient and arriving at the hallway, there will be a visible limbless patient on a shelf. If Mono climbs onto the shelf and stands beside the body, the body will suddenly wiggle around loudly, causing a jump-scare to those who aren't aware.
* After Mono escapes several of the Patients, their arms will reach out of the boarded up doorway he used to escape. Mono can find a ball in the room where the chase ends and throw it at the Patients arms, which they will catch and throw back. Mono can do this over and over, similar to a game of catch. This will earn the player an achievement.
* In the pre-launch trailer for *Little Nightmares II*, one of the Patients moves without any problems and tries to get out of bed, despite being exposed to light from the window. It is likely that at that time the mechanics of using light against Patients had not yet been invented and developed.
* One of the Doctor's Patients is shown to still be breathing, laying on a bed with life support activated.
* Originally, there were going to be younger-aged Patients according to concept arts.
* Parts of the Patients prosthetics can be identified within the ashes of a cremator, implying that the Doctor may discard failed experimental bodies in a crematory machine.
* None of the Patients retain their biological hands and feet. All the Patient's limbs are reattached with prosthetics. Only the corpses spotted throughout the hospital still retain biological limbs, as evident by their intact feet.
* The Patients share the same theme with The Man in the Purple Suit and The Dummy from *The Sounds of Nightmares*, that being *Still Life*.

## References

1. ↑ https://blog.playstation.com/2020/10/23/a-first-look-at-little-nightmares-iis-hospital/

Noone • The Counsellor • The Candleman • The Workers • The Prisoners • The Tall Woman • The Child with Gooey Hair • Cici • The Bathers • Jester • The Merchants • The Shopping Mall • The Counsellor's Professor • The Performing Children (Rusty) • The Man in the Purple Suit • The Carnival People • The Dummy • Nomes • The Naughty Kids • The Balloon-Headed Man • The Puppet
Animals • Children • Unidentified Characters