The Murder Monkeys are some of the many enemies in Dark Deception. They make their first appearance in Chapter 1 as the only enemies and are the only enemies of the level "Monkey Business".
The Murder Monkeys appear as anthropomorphic monkeys. They lack any real hands, as they have been replaced with large bloody blades or knives on their sleeves instead.
To accentuate their heavily deranged appearance and nature, their heads are bigger than their humanoid body with their mouths filled with sharp bloody teeth. They have large, beady eyes, with pink lines over their eyes and the left eye being a lazy eye. Unlike real monkeys, however, they lack a tail completely. On their backs are large wind-up keys, meaning that they are probably robotic, or like a wind-up toy.
They wear red bellhop uniforms with yellow buttons and stripes, with black collars and forearms, as well as a red hat, with grey pants on their lower body. Once the Monkeys go into a frenzy, their eyes will glow red, and their clothing will turn purple
The Murder Monkeys are always aware of the player's location and will relentlessly pursue them throughout the level. They will always maintain a pace faster than their regular walking speed, and will not slow down unless they are stunned. They will also take the shortest path to the player, allowing them to surround the player in corner rooms.
They will often make breathing sounds and can be heard slashing their knives when close by. To avoid the Murder Monkeys, it is highly recommended to group them together or obtain a red shard to predict their movements. When stunned, the Murder Monkeys will stay still and lean their heads forward, bobbing them in a dazed condition.
While interacting with the hotel doors, the player may open a door revealing a monkey peeking from behind it. These monkeys do not harm the player, however, and close the door shortly after.
In their original designs, the monkeys originally didn't have an oversized head as they do in the current version, look less detailed, and had less bloody teeth, They also had an animation when turning the corner, as if sliding.
The monkeys were inspired by the promo cover for a horror movie called "Monkey Shines," when the creator of Dark Deception was young, they thought the movie was about a monkey similar to the Murder Monkeys themselves.
Agatha is one of the many enemies in Dark Deception. She makes her first appearance in Chapter 2, and is the main enemy in the level "Elementary Evil".
Agatha has little resemblance to a human child, as she has demented features such as hollow black eyes and a large smile filled with rotten teeth coupled with black marks on her cheeks, reaching up to her ears. She also has long shoulder-length black hair.
Agatha’s key features are her long arms with five sharp claws. The arms themselves look as they are burned or rotten.
She wears a dark tattered grey dress, with a white undershirt. She is totally barefoot and her right leg appears to either be a cast or bandage. Once she goes into a frenzy, her eyes will glow red, her skin will turn ghoulish gray, and her white undershirt will turn red.
Agatha first appears in the "Elementary Evil" level, as the primary enemy of the school map.
Unlike the rest of the enemies, she is on her own, and she will play a "Cat and Mouse" game, meaning she will search for the player and chase them once she sees them. She can also detect the player whenever they open a door.
According to Vince, Agatha's AI is programmed to relentlessly search and torment the player. When stunned, she will lean back and face upwards and will shift her arms and head around. If one were to come close to her, they could hear her groaning in disorientation.
Unlike other enemies, Agatha is never aware of the player's whereabouts, and will only pursue them if they are within her line of sight, which makes her a sizable threat when the player is spotted, especially in Act II. However, this also means she loses track of the player the second she loses sight of them, making evading her relatively easy. In addition, Agatha is attracted to sound, which can include doors being opened, and will head in the direction of the sound.
Before the level starts, Agatha will teleport onto a stage in front of a wall drawing of her. She welcomes the player to the school, and refers to them as the "new classmate." She will teleport away later on, as the school bell rings.
Agatha speaks as though she's a plain little girl. Sometimes when she speaks, she speaks with a sweet voice, then a raspy voice.
At first, she deems herself friendly, such as welcoming the player and even saying nice things, by referring to the player as her "best friend", but soon reveals her psychotic, malevolent, bloodthirsty, and outright sadistic nature towards the player. Despite this, she gets easily angered as she says she worked hard on trying to be nice, but instead ends with the protagonist stealing her "friends" (In which, she refers to the Soul Shards). Also, she has essentially shown to turn her victims into toys for her to play with as well as turning the school into what Bierce calls a "dollhouse".
While searching, she taunts the player by saying unnerving sentences, like she can hear/smell them, and calling them scared.
Currently, Agatha, the Murder Monkeys, and Malak are the only enemies to have a dark background when killing the player. Vince Livings explained in "Meet the Dark Deception Team" that the reason for that was to prevent bugs from happening.
In the 2014 build of Dark Deception, there were multiples of her, and her A.I. was completely broken, as she would always catch up to the player by teleporting immediately.
Around the school are drawings of her, posters, writing such as "Agatha was here", and one saying to vote Agatha for school president.
The Gold Watchers (sometimes called The Watchers) are some of the many enemies in Dark Deception. They make their first appearance in Chapter 2, and are the main enemies of the level "Deadly Decadence".
The Gold Watchers resemble a male human partly made of gold, and seen wearing white 18th-century uniforms, complete with a strap, bowtie, cravat, and tricorn hat, with intricate patterns of gold woven on them.
All Gold Watchers have the same look, with wide smiles, and are sometimes seen saluting. Some of their other poses consist of pointing, waving, shushing, and sometimes brandishing axes.
When killing or at one of their stationary poses, their mouths open wide and extend downward, revealing large, blocky teeth, and their eyes dilate and narrowed, as if they are screaming. Their faces also appears to be marred with cracks.
Once the Watchers go into a Frenzy, their eyes will glow red and their clothing turns a dark shade of blue. Their skin will also turn to a much darker shade of gold.
Some of the lifeless Watchers in the exterior maze are made of entirely grey stone.
The Gold Watchers first appear in the "Deadly Decadence" level, as the primary enemies of the Manor map.
Unlike the other enemies, the Gold Watchers will only move if the player is not looking in their direction, requiring players to be careful with how often they look away. According to Vince, the Gold Watchers have the most aggressive AI of all Dark Deception enemies so far, especially due to their speed, and, similar to the Murder Monkeys, their ability to always be aware of the player's location.
Despite their speed, the Gold Watchers always slow down near the player, meaning they can be outran at normal speeds. When stunned, the Gold Watchers will lean back and face up with their hands cupping their heads. Once their stun period is over, they will not move from this pose until the player looks away from them again.
Before the first act of the level starts, one Watcher made of stone can be seen saluting on a statue stand. Once the player passes the statue and towards the gate, his laugh is heard. If the player chooses to turn around, the Watcher is seen staring at him. Once the gate is opened, if the player turns around to check on the Watcher, he disappears but is never seen again.
Not much of their personality is known, other than that they are insane, gleefully sadistic, and love to taunt the protagonist, by laughing, and even saying "Psst", as though they are trying to throw the protagonist off. One thing we do know however is that they want to use the power of the ring piece they have to create more watchers by bringing the other statues to life by using it. They view the protagonist and any other visitor of the mansion as "peasants". This is expressed by several plaques in the mansion stating things such as "Peasants shall serve." and, "He who has gold makes the rules."
Their behavior is based on that of the Boo from the Mario games, only moving when the player is looking away. However, they are much faster than the average Boo.
All the Gold Watchers were originally made of stone in 2014. In the exterior maze of the Manor, there are Watchers made of stone, but those ones don't move except for one who appears above the portal while escaping, and one who appears in the front of the gate to the Hedge maze who is never seen again.
A larger version of the Watchers, made of stone, can be found behind the wall where the portal is. This statue is the same one behind the "Beyond these gates, Judgement awaits" plaque, though this one appears more worn down.
"They're trying to blend in, eh? Let's see how well you pay attention to details."
Said by beirce when starting to collect Shards
The Dread Duckies are some of the many enemies in Dark Deception. They make their first appearance in Chapter 3, and are the main enemies of the level "Stranger Sewers", sharing the level with the boss enemy Doom Ducky.
The Dread Duckies appear as large duck floats made of hard, plastic-like material, with round stubby wings, a jaw with rotten, human teeth, and large hollow eyes of asymmetrical sizes. Their lower jaws appear to be able to rotate open and closed. Their bodies are covered in grime and blemishes, due to floating in sewer water. They also wear dirty, traffic cones on top of their heads.
Inside their mouths is a mechanical spring attached to a smaller, spherical duck head with vertical pupils and several rows of sharp teeth. Their beaks are also longer and narrower.
Underneath their body is a large hole where two grotesque, shriveled, rotten feet extend. They appear humanoid in appearance and shape, resembling human or mannequin feet.
In Frenzy mode, the Dread Duckies' bodies turn a light gray, and like previous enemies, have red glowing eyes. They also appear to be grimier, with the grime being darker in color as well.
The Dread Duckies are first seen floating behind a giant grate in the wall, revealed by light just as Bierce mentions them. Upon entering the sewer pools in zone 1, the Dread Duckies will begin to stalk the player.
The Dread Duckies rely on camouflage to ambush the player. Across the water regions of the level, countless floating Ducky bodies can be spotted, all of which are identical in appearance and indistinguishable from a real one. The only surefire way to safely tell them apart is to either use a red Soul Shard or the Telepathy power-up to outline them.
Unlike other enemies, the Dread Duckies do not pursue the player unless the player nears or passes by them. Upon nearing a real ducky, it will spring from its position and give chase before losing interest if the player is far away. An advised method would be to open as many doors as possible to lower your chance of being cornered.
In a similar vein to Agatha and the Clown Gremlins, Dread Duckies are never usually aware of the player's exact position. They will only activate upon the player coming into close proximity to them (usually after a 0.1 - 3-second delay) and will continue to chase them until they are at a far enough distance. They will then wander around the map in search of the player before returning to their initial position, camouflaging themselves again.
The Dread Duckies kill the player on contact. However, if the player is in close proximity to them, they will stand in place and use their long-ranged stun attack by extending their inner mouths towards the player, though the player can snap out of it by mashing the F key multiple times. While the player is stunned, the Dread Ducky will dance, delaying their movement for a short time after the player breaks free, allowing them to get some distance between the player and the pursuing Dread Ducky.
It should be noted that when the Dread Duckies reset/respawn, they will face in random directions, unlike the fake ones, which will always face in a fixed direction. However, they can only respawn should the player look away from one of the real Dread Duckies' spawn spots; however, they will go for unoccupied spots near the player's location that the player isn't looking at, regardless of how close they are from the spot. Sometimes, however, the Dread Ducky won't reset when the player is far away. The player can't reset the Dread Duckies' position to prevent them from attacking when it sees them. Also, stunning an active Dread Ducky will not reset its original position.
Another detail worth mentioning is that the Dread Duckies will try to avoid any floor grates on dry land. If the protagonist were to lure them onto dry land into a floor grate room, the Dread Duckies will instinctively go around the grate, though it is unknown if this is a built-in mechanic or a glitch that has yet to be patched. Dread Duckies, however, will not avoid elevator platforms but can get end up getting trapped in a pit if the player lowers it.
When stunned, the Dread Duckies will lean backward while shifting their body around and flapping their wings. They also move their jaw up and down and can be heard making unusual noises, such as duck-like quacks and shrill moans.
In a chase, the Dread Duckies' default running speed in Normal Mode is much slower than the player when on ground, and very similar to the Murder Monkeys. In Easy Mode, however, the Dread Duckies' speed is much slower in a chase, so the player can easily lose it without even needing the Speed Boost power.
Dread Duckies, like the rest of the antagonists in the game, carry a murderous, sadistic, and highly aggressive nature. They also appear to enjoy stalking the player, camouflaging themselves among the lifeless Duckies in hopes of surprising the player. Upon stunning the player, the Dread Duckies start dancing with glee, which is a way they torment the player which also carried out when they guard the doors in the final act.
So far, Dread Duckies, Doom Ducky, Reaper Nurses, and Penny the Chicken are the only enemies in Dark Deception to have a long-range attack.
They may represent anatidaephobia, the fear that somewhere in the world, a duck or goose is watching you, and/or ludilophobia, the fear of toys (similar to the Trigger Teddies). Another possible phobia could be hydrophobia, the fear of water.
In one of the secret elevators of the Sewer, one can find 4 Dread Duckies dancing behind the bars of the secret room.
