A/N: Well, I just realized I made a rather sizable mistake. I completely forgot to incorporate the Blacklight Switch…which is how the Hard Modes work in Help Wanted. I'll have to find a way to correct that mistake at some point down the road, or retcon the Blacklight Switch into the prior chapters if necessary. That's a giant "whoops" on my end either way.
I actually bought FNaF Help Wanted last week and played through all of it (excluding the Curse of Dreadbear DLC). Most of it was a lot of fun, as well as both challenging and fair. However…FUCK Fun With Plushbaby. Somehow a bunch of little Baby plushies turned out to be the most aggravating little shits I had to deal with in that game by a LONG shot. Ennard? Nightmarionne? Springtrap? Nightmare Fredbear? All a bunch of pussies in comparison. And the less said about Nightmare mode, the better. For BOTH the normal and nightmare mode, I only won by stalling to 6 AM because the battery ran out of power at 5 AM, after DAYS of trying. Thank God the bug where you could still get jumpscared and lose at the 6 AM screen was fixed because if I got jumpscared by a Plushbaby during the 6 AM victory screen I would have punched a hole in my fucking computer!
*Takes deep breath to calm down.* Anyways, I've decided to revisit the FNaF 1 and address the FNaF 2 minigames in Help Wanted, because the strategy for those is actually somewhat different to beat those than in the original game, and there's enough differences in the FNaF 2 mode that I could definitely write a chapter covering them. There's also the fact that most of the levels left besides the Nightmare ones cover Funtime animatronics, and we all know which ghost kid will be a best fit for those.
On an unrelated note, Merry Christmas everyone! Or Happy Holidays, depending on what holiday you celebrate in December (even though it's long past Hanukkah lol).
Tuangaming86/MegaMaster 78: I know practically nothing about them, so for now I'm going to say they don't exist in the MNGF universe.
RedisSus: I'm not going to add yet another "Greater Evil" just for the sake of adding a "Greater Evil." We already have Glitchtrap and we have Fazbear Entertainment. And Glitchtrap at least is going to be a bigger problem than what the chapters currently suggest. However, I do agree that there are multiple other characters that could potentially fall victim to Fazbear Entertainment's massive fuckups…if they aren't properly informed. But that will come later.
TobiasRieper: If you're going to call me out on William discovering immortality seemingly randomly, then you have to call out Scott too, because in the games at least he practically provides no information on how William discovered immortality either. And no, he doesn't have any justified excuse for his evil in the canon game universe either. William Afton's always been and always will be a sociopathic, murderous piece of shit, no matter what any "Purple Guy fanboys/fangirls" say otherwise. I'll address both issues in the next Ultimate Custom Night chapter, but I want to make it abundantly clear that William has no such excuses or rationale where game canon (or even book canon, where he has more of his personality fleshed out) is concerned.
Greenden: You'll have to wait and see 😉
Guest: William Afton was indeed much smarter…back when he was still human. All of his cunning, his intelligence, his discovering of immortality, the schemes that actually paid off…this was all back in the earlier days of the FNaF timeline. But we're not talking about William Afton in the past. We're talking about William Afton in the present. A man who suffered an agonizing death in a springlock suit, was isolated and trapped behind a wall for thirty years, an experience which almost certainly destroyed most of his sanity and left him only marginally more intelligent than a frenzied beast as Springtrap. He couldn't successfully kill the Night Guard of FNaF 3 despite trying for six days, and even after he escapes Fazbear's Fright, he willingly wanders into a trap pizzeria despite knowing something was wrong simply because he couldn't resist the urge to kill and kill again. And he's been brutally tortured by the Nightmares ever since his final death, tortures that make the springlock suit look like a cute Halloween costume by comparison, which have almost certainly destroyed whatever sanity he had left. William Afton was absolutely a cunning mastermind during the early years of the Fazbear franchise, but after decades of isolation and torture, that has all but completely fallen apart.
Chig Chug: Sadly, not every evil or unsavory piece of shit is named "William Afton."
Guest: Never heard of "Rescuers Down Under."
RicAlbuquerque: Thank you very much! I'll take your suggestions into consideration for future "Fun with Video Games" chapters.
Jack0Lanterns: If you go by the Sister Location spoiler cutscenes, Michael Afton's body rotted and decayed, and then he spit Ennard out into a storm drain…right in plain sight of the open street. I don't consider it unfeasible that a bunch of people saw this and started sharing horror stories about a metal abomination taking possession of people's bodies. Add in the fact that there's clearly some overlap and connection between CBEAR and Fazbear Entertainment, and somebody might have gotten footage of Ennard from all the way back then…or an employee spilled the beans to FE. But they don't know about Liz, at least…I just don't see how that's possible.
ThomasTheTank: I don't think Mike would pin the blame on Fazbear Entertainment's shitty practices on Mr. Averus. Even though Mike might hate Mr. Averus for what he's doing now, the man isn't responsible for the deaths of the night guards back several years ago or the policies which allowed the killing streak to go on for so long. Mike might not give a shit about playing fair with his enemies, but he isn't going to wrongly condemn people, even people he hates personally, for crimes that he knows that they're innocent of.
Properman: Colm was just a one-shot character when I designed him, as was Nelson. Although I MAY do something with the two of them later. And as for their growing hatred…that will be definitely be addressed later, and sooner than you think.
FrostTheFrozenFox: I changed my mind :P
Awesomesniper86: Man, I'm really dropping the ball with these typos lately, aren't I? Thank you for pointing that out, it should be fixed (and if not', it's a problem with the site).
AlchemyWriter: Liz isn't going to be happy, that's for sure. And it's entirely possible that there's more overlap between the two businesses than I assumed.
Fnaffan418: I always assumed that Liz just called the metal abomination she and the other Funtime animatronics became "Ennard," or that someone else like an employee called it that when seeing it on a camera and that the name stuck.
FireFlamerx9z: Fortunately, there's no feasible way for that to be possible. Cause if Nightmare did find out his clan were being used in such a manner, he'd probably kill everyone responsible, consequences be damned.
Chapter 119 – VR Help Wanted Part 5
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?"
Rockstar Foxy winced as Circus Baby screeched the words out in disbelief, horror, and frustration. "THEY ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT ENNARD?" she howled.
Rockstar Bonnie shook his head. "Apparently, they knew more about what went on in Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental than we thought," he muttered. "I don't know how though."
The Security Puppet scratched the chin of her mask thoughtfully. "We only destroyed Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental fairly recently," she mused, "and that was long after the place had been all but completely abandoned. Maybe there was some camera footage of Ennard from a long time ago that Fazbear Entertainment managed to get their hands on."
"It's also possible that some employees from CBEAR talked to Fazbear Entertainment," Rockstar Freddy suggested, "willingly or otherwise. We know they're not above blackmailing," he added with a scowl, thinking about how they had threatened Scott.
"And didn't you say that after you took over Michael's body and escaped from the Scooping Room, he ended up vomiting you into the sewers…out in the open public?" Mike pointed out. "If anybody saw that, that could easily be the reason why it showed up in this game. A mechanical monstrosity taking over people's bodies that got exposed in broad daylight?" He shook his head. "Yeah, I can easily see why that evolved into an urban horror legend."
It was honestly impressive how stormy and unhappy Circus Baby could look despite looking like a clown and having a smile permanently on her face. "The real question is, what ELSE do they know about?" she crossed her arms, and a flash of worry appeared in her eyes. "Do they know about…what I did down there?" she asked fearfully.
Mike thought for a moment. "Maybe some of your actions," he conceded, before quickly adding, "but I'm pretty sure they don't know about you specifically, Liz. Did you ever reveal who you were underneath that Circus Baby suit back then?"
Circus Baby shook her head. "My memory is kinda fuzzy, but no…I'm pretty sure I didn't," she replied. "I all but accepted that I was Circus Baby at that point and pretty much just went with it."
"All right, that's good," Mike commented encouragingly. "In fact, from what I can tell, I honestly don't think there's any references to ghost stories at all. A lot of the stuff in this game seems to focus specifically on the animatronics themselves. Which given what we just learned, honestly suits me just fine."
Circus Baby reluctantly nodded as Mike looked over to the rest of the Rockstars. "All right, Cassidy, I think you're next to play."
"Yep!" Rockstar Golden Freddy confirmed. As he reached out for the headset, Mike suddenly remembered something. "Oh, I forgot to mention this yesterday," he quickly interrupted her. "Apparently there's one level in this game that only opens after you unlock all the other levels. So I think you may have to play through every single one of the levels anyway, even if there aren't any Tapes in them."
"All right, I can go through those levels again," Rockstar Golden Freddy offered. Upon hearing no objections, Rockstar Golden Freddy put on the VR headset and launched himself into the world of the game.
"Is that Spring Bonnie thing still here?" Cassidy asked herself worriedly once she found herself in the Main Hub. She glanced over to her right, but to her surprise there was nobody there waiting for her in the darkness. She wasn't stupid enough to think that it hadn't disappeared entirely though, not after multiples of her siblings had seen the Spring Bonnie waving at them in the distance. Regardless, there was nothing she could do about the Spring Bonnie for now, so she focused her attention back on the level hub and picked Night 2 of FNaF 1. "The Office does look really cool," she admitted as Night 2's Phone Call began to play. Not in the mood for any distractions, Cassidy promptly muted the call and focused her attention back on the animatronics.
"Do the animatronics really work the same way that they did back in the old game?" she wondered. She quickly checked on all of the animatronics, noticing how they actively moved on the cameras instead of simply switching from one place to another. Cassidy didn't receive any visitors until half past 1 AM, when she heard footsteps marching down the West hallway. Having heard from Jeremy how the animatronics would often stop and stare into the door, the former Golden Freddy inhabitant didn't bother checking the lights, instead focusing the camera on the corner to make sure that Bonnie showed up. To her relief, Bonnie walked into the corner and stared up into it, exactly as Cassidy had hoped.
"Can they even attack directly from the Halls?" Cassidy wondered as she shifted the camera back to Pirate's Cove. It was something that they could do regularly in the original game, but it didn't sound like they could attack in that way from what Jeremy had seen. Then again, he had only done Night 1. When she heard footsteps again, she flashed the door light, and just as she expected Bonnie was waiting at the door, staring soullessly into the office as the ominous sound from the original game echoed in the background.
Cassidy slammed the door shut, only to realize that she had a new problem. "Wait," she gasped, "I can't see Bonnie's shadow in the window? How am I going to know when he's gone?" She fidgeted around in the office, trying to decide when would be a good time to open the door. She knew she couldn't keep it closed forever, but if she opened it too early then she would almost certainly be jumpscared by Bonnie. With a sigh, Cassidy decided to wait 20 seconds before opening the door. To her relief, she wasn't immediately greeted by a screaming Bonnie, and checking the lights confirmed that the animatronic was gone.
"Oh thank God…" she breathed out as she went back to the cameras. Chica visited her shortly after in a similar manner as Bonnie, moving to the East Hall Corner first before approaching the door, but fortunately it was much easier to expose her since she positioned herself at the window first, and Cassidy had no problems identifying when she was gone with the lights.
Nothing significant happened around 2:30 AM, when the camera on Pirate Cove flickered with static, and suddenly Foxy appeared, drawing the curtains back as he looked up at the camera with his mouth open in a soundless snarl. "The heck?" Cassidy exclaimed in disbelief. "But I checked Pirate Cove all the damn time! Why is Foxy still moving?"
A scowl appeared on the ghost girl's face as she realized that she might have to deal with the very real possibility of Foxy attacking her office, even though she could have sworn she was checking Pirate Cove like she was supposed to. With nothing else to do at the moment, Cassidy continued to switch back and forth between the Hall Corners and Pirate Cove to watch for any potential attacks from the three animatronics. Bonnie visited her room once again, attacking in the exact same manner from the West Hall Corner that she expected, and once again waiting 20 seconds with the closed seemed to be enough to drive him off.
"The power consumption seems a lot more generous," Cassidy noted as she watched the in-game clock switch from 3 AM to 4 AM. Even though it had been a while since she had played the original FNaF 1, she was pretty certain that she had never had 50% power at 4 AM unless she had been goofing around with all the animatronic AI levels set to 0. "Or maybe it's just the nights are faster? I don't know."
She gazed over at the screen again...and jolted. Foxy had already been in his third phase, stepping outside of the Cove with his entire head covering the camera. And now…he was gone, the curtains of Pirate Cove fully open, with the sign transformed from "Out of Order" to "IT'S ME!"
"Ack!" Cassidy exclaimed as she slammed the left door down. Only a few seconds later, she heard the sound of scurrying footsteps rushing down the hallway, followed by a slam on the door that she had just closed. But unlike the original game, where Foxy had merely knocked on it a few times before leaving, this version of Foxy tried to force the door open, with a hideous screeching noise that sounded like he was scraping his hook against the metal. Cassidy shuddered as Foxy furiously banged on the door again before finally leaving her alone. With how frenziedly Foxy had attacked the door, Cassidy hadn't dared to open it before the horrific noises stopped entirely, even though opening it early was an exploit you could have done in the original game. "Geez…" she muttered as she heard Chica approach the East Hall Corner to her right again. "I don't remember Fritz being that violent back in those days…"
It also worried her how Foxy had attacked her, even though she had maintained a diligent watch over Pirate's Cove throughout the night. Cassidy was fairly certain that the original game's Foxy wouldn't have even peeked out of the Cove by 4 AM with how frequently she'd been checking the Cove, let alone straight-out attacked her. "Is he going to attack me no matter what I do?" Cassidy asked herself, before sulking. "Great…God, please don't give me another thing I have to deal with."
Unfortunately, God seemed to have heard her prayer…and promptly laughed in her face. Deep laughter suddenly echoed in the distance, and Cassidy abruptly focused her attention back on the screen. A look into the Dining Hall confirmed her worst fear – Freddy had moved.
"Okay, WHAT?" Cassidy exclaimed. "I KNOW that's not right. Freddy didn't move until Night 3 in the original game. This version's changing all the rules!"
Fortunately, whatever new dynamics were in play with the VR game's version of FNaF 1 didn't stop Cassidy from completing the night. Apart from another visit from Bonnie, there were no other threats that the former Golden Freddy inhabitant had to deal with. Something that DID concern her was the fact that Freddy moved again to the bathroom some time between 5 AM and 6 AM, but he didn't get anywhere near the office before the level completed. Cassidy grinned as 6 AM arrived and she won a Bonnie bobblehead as her prize, but she wasn't feeling as happy about winning as she would have been normally. She had a feeling that despite the many similarities, the incarnation of FNaF 1 she was playing now was fundamentally different than what she was used to, and if she didn't adjust her plan to match those changes she was screwed.
"I don't think this is gonna be as easy as Dad's time in the Office," Cassidy muttered as she started up Night 3. Not for the first time, she was thankful that she and her fellow victims had been so tactically incompetent and predictable during their attacks on Mike. She didn't even want to begin to imagine just how much her new life on Earth would have changed for the worse if the man hadn't entered the picture and adopted them.
Cassidy proceeded to play through Night 3, and as she did so the differences between the original game and this version of FNaF 1 became more pronounced. As the level progressed to 2 AM, it soon became clear to Cassidy that the strategy of camera stalling, which had been so effective and fundamental to survival in the original game, was all but completely useless here. No matter how many times she focused the camera on Freddy and Foxy, it didn't seem to hinder them at all. Freddy moved to the Dining Hall, then the Bathrooms, then the Kitchen, while Foxy was already out of the cove and poised to attack by 2 AM. The only part of the game that seemed to be easier than the original was ironically Bonnie and Chica, who seemed to act much more predictably by moving to the corners before attacking at the doors. And unlike the original game, where how long they stayed at the doors was completely random, both of them seemed to stay at the doors for about 20 seconds consistently before leaving, making it much easier for Cassidy to time when to check if they had left and open the doors despite Bonnie's shadow not being as prominent.
Knowing that Foxy seemed to act differently in this game than in his original incarnation, Cassidy paid special attention to his movements. Her vigilance was paid off, as Foxy attacked her left door as she had expected, this time around 3 AM instead of 4 AM. Cassidy was ready and had the door shut by the time he attacked, though she still flinched when she heard the violent manner with which Foxy assaulted the door. "Geez, Foxy, calm down!" the former Golden Freddy inhabitant muttered as the animatronic finally stopped his attack and left. The other problem was Freddy, who had advanced to the Bathrooms with no signs of stopping after being checked on by the cameras.
Cassidy decided not to worry about Freddy for now, instead focusing her efforts on Bonnie and Chica. She was able to successfully deflect attacks from both of them without any major issues, and it wasn't until well into 5 AM that she started to grow worried again, as she had heard Freddy laugh several times throughout the night and he was now staring up into the camera from the East Hall Corner. "Can I even stop him at all?" she asked worriedly. "I've been trying to slow him down with the camera, but…"
Her thought process was interrupted by another laugh from Freddy. "SHIT!" Cassidy cursed, praying that she hadn't fucked up and Freddy wasn't already in the Office. She pressed the Lights to the right door…and felt a weird mix of fear and relief upon seeing Freddy standing at the right door, glaring menacingly into the Office with the faint white light in his black eyes. Cassidy slammed the door down, blocking the bear animatronic from progressing any further into the room. "You're not gonna go away, are you?" she asked rhetorically, before shaking her head with a sigh.
At least she didn't have to worry about Chica anymore, but she would have to play the rest of the night using 2 blocks of power instead of just one. It wasn't a major concern for her this time since it was already well into 5 AM and Foxy wasn't going to get another attack in time (leaving only Bonnie as the main threat), but the power level was now going down much faster than previously, and this didn't bode well for the last few nights. "I think I know why the power is so generous now compared to the original game," Cassidy thought as 6 AM arrived, giving her a slice of cake from the Gift prize box for her efforts.
Cassidy's happiness at her win didn't last long this time, however, and it was quickly replaced by dread at how much harder the last 2 nights could be. Even though Freddy had only arrived outside her Office by the end of Night 3, she was all but certain that he would arrive there sooner than that on Night 4. And adding Foxy's increased aggressiveness on top of that…
"Something tells me I'm gonna have a bad time in Night 4," the former Golden Freddy inhabitant muttered.
And her prediction would soon be proven right. Bonnie and Chica attacked their respective doors more frequently, not that Cassidy had expected anything different. Foxy also attacked the Office earlier as well, making a break for the door as early as 2 AM. She scowled as she heard Foxy claw and bang at the door before finally giving up. "Can you just LEAVE ME ALONE?" she shouted at the animatronic that she knew was waiting to kill her in-game avatar, before shaking her head in bemusement. "Geez, I'm starting to sound more and more like Dad."
The former Golden Freddy inhabitant was thankful that Bonnie and Chica were more predictable in their actions, at least. Their relatively consistent behavior (in contrast to their unpredictability) in the original game made it much easier for Cassidy to time when she needed to shut the door on them, and how long she needed to shut it for. Otherwise, she was pretty sure that she'd be screwed when (and not if) Freddy arrived at her Office and forced her to use a minimum of 2 power bars for the remainder of the night. She still continued to check on Freddy and Foxy via the original cam-stalling strategy out of habit, but by now she had all but given up that plan having any actual effectiveness.
Most of the night occurred without incident, and as 4 AM rolled into 5 AM Cassidy started to think that she'd get through the whole night unscathed. And then Freddy laughed for the sixth time, signaling that he was right at the right door and was about to attack. "Gah!" Cassidy exclaimed as she shut the door, blocking him from entering. Right as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief…
"SHIT!" she exclaimed. "I forgot to check on Foxy!" She quickly turned the camera over to the Pirate Cove…and her eyes widened in horror. It was empty, the curtains drawn back and the sign transformed once again.
"No, no, no!" Cassidy babbled incoherently as she heard rapid footsteps approaching. She tried to reach the door button, but she was too slow. Foxy lunged at her, snarling like a wild beast as he attacked her with berserk rage, sending her screen into static and the unwelcome sight of the Game Over screen.
"DAMMIT!" the former Golden Freddy inhabitant howled in frustration. "I was SO close, too!" she pressed the RESTART button on the table. "I'm not letting that happen again!"
Cassidy proceeded to blow through Night 4 with a vengeance, determined not to get beaten a second time. This time, she had a good idea of when Foxy was going to attack both times, and she refused to be taken by surprise again. She had also perfected her counting technique whenever Bonnie or Chica showed up at their respective doors, keeping them both down for the appropriate amount of time whenever one of them (especially Bonnie) showed up. By the time she had reached 5 AM, she already had the right door sealed for when Freddy arrived, and was focusing all of her attention on the left door.
"Get out!" Cassidy shouted triumphantly as Foxy banged on the door fruitlessly. Her smile faded slightly, however, when she realized that her power had shot down from 27% to 21%. "Oh no," she realized, "I forgot that Foxy drains more power each time he bangs the door!" To make matters worse, Bonnie showed up at the door to attack, forcing Cassidy to shut that door too and run on 3 bars of power instead of the 2 she had planned.
"Come on, come on, come on," Cassidy groaned as she saw her power meter sink faster and faster. "6 AM, I need you!" And as if God were answering her prayer, the time changed from 5 AM to 6 AM, right when the power dropped to 10%. "YES!" she cheered. "I did it!" She pumped a fist in the air in triumph. "Night 4, taken care of!" She turned the Gift prize box at the victory room and received a Freddy action figure for her troubles. "Man, this really is different from the original game, isn't it?" she mused as she transported back to the main hub. "There's no way Dad's old strategies would have worked here."
This time, when she arrived back at the main hub, she found the glitchy Spring Bonnie figure staring at her, its arms down at its sides as it let out some garbled noise that she couldn't understand. Cassidy decided to ignore it for now, instead deciding to leap into Night 5 without any further delay. She blitzed through the instruction controls and…
"WHOA!" Cassidy stared at her surroundings. "The heck is this?"
The office had changed. For one thing, the entire room was now in shades of black, white, and gray, all the color that had been there in the previous levels now completely removed from the equation. But more disturbingly, the cupcake that had sat upon one of the monitors, which had previously appeared so innocent and harmless, had been replaced with a grotesque version of itself with frenzied eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. "That thing looks creepy as hell…" she muttered.
Cassidy eyed the hideous cupcake suspiciously, waiting for it to attack. But after it didn't move or even so much as make a sound, she reluctantly decided to ignore it, deciding that it wasn't a problem until it became a problem.
What was a problem, however, was that a few seconds after the level had started and Freddy and Foxy had already started moving, the power suddenly flickered crazily. "Gah!" Cassidy exclaimed as both doors suddenly slammed up and down, completely out of control. Cassidy fumbled with one of the door switches, trying to regain control of the doors, before she finally managed to force it back open again as the power restored itself. "The heck was that?" she mumbled as she checked her power meter. To her dismay, it was 4% lower than it had been. Whatever that weird outage was, it had caused her to lose more power than she otherwise wouldn't have needed.
"God, I hope Bonnie and Chica aren't near either of the doors when that happens," the former Golden Freddy inhabitant muttered. As if on cue, she heard footsteps on her right signaling the arrival of Chica to the East Hall Corner, and sure enough Susie's former animatronic arrived at the window a few seconds later. "Nope!" Cassidy muttered, slamming the door down. She silently prayed that the power outage wouldn't occur again and give Chica free reign into the office, but she was lucky this time. Not only did the chicken animatronic leave as predicted, but a few seconds later the weird outage occurred again. "What the heck is even causing this?" Cassidy wondered as she fought to regain control of the doors again.
At around 2 AM, around the same time that he had attacked on Night 4, Foxy made a break for the Office. Cassidy slammed the door down, wincing as Foxy attacked it as savagely as ever, and then opened it again once she was sure he was gone. Judging by Night 4 had gone, she was pretty sure that the pirate animatronic would attack again, and she would have to make sure she was ready to react when that happened. Cassidy's mood only soured further as she heard Freddy move again, at a much faster rate than he had in the other levels. At this rate, he was going to arrive at the Office way before 6 or even 5 AM, and she'd have to play a good portion of the night with 2 bars of power permanently.
"You know, I just realized something…" Cassidy mused as she fended off an attack from Bonnie. "Where am I in this game? Errrr…I mean Golden Freddy?" Her former animatronic hadn't attacked at all throughout any of the nights. Not only that, but she hadn't any sign of him or even his poster, despite the fact that in this version of FNaF 1 she had been checking the West Hall Corner frequently to track Bonnie's movements in the earlier nights. If there had been any night where she would have expected Golden Freddy to attack, it would have been Night 5. But even in the hardest level of that series of minigames, there had been no sign of him.
Cassidy shrugged. "Oh well, that's one less problem for me to deal with," she commented as she focused her attention back to the cameras. It wasn't as though she didn't have plenty to deal with already, given the four animatronics already in the game and now the random power outages.
She heard footsteps to her right, heralding another arrival from Chica. Cassidy closed the door and went back to looking at the cameras, thinking that she knew perfectly well how to deal with her…only for an outage to send the doors haywire several seconds later.
"Wait, WHAT?" Cassidy shrieked. A sudden, horrifying realization struck her as she remembered that Chica was still at the door. Cassidy desperately tried pressing all the buttons, trying to regain control of the door to close it again, but she was too slow. Chica barged into the office, screaming into her face and shaking the screen frenziedly, sending a disbelieving Cassidy to the Game Over screen.
"Wait, ARE YOU SERIOUS? That was SO not fair!" Cassidy complained. "Are you telling me that this is luck-based and if there's a power outage when an animatronic arrives at the door, I'm fucked no matter what I do? FUCK!" she shouted furiously. She restarted the level, jamming the button down. "I'm going to beat this goddamn level if it's the last thing I do!" she vowed.
This time, when the power went out, Cassidy wasn't taken by surprise. She decided to try and experiment to see what would restore control over the systems the fastest, and she noticed that pressing the lights right after the doors went up and down seemed to get things back under control the fastest. To make things even better, she was able to block off the attack from Foxy successfully at 2 AM, and none of the power outages seemed to coincide with an attack from Bonnie or Chica so far. Unfortunately, Freddy laughed his sixth laugh between 3-4 AM, signaling that he had arrived at the Office, and she had no choice but to close the right door permanently for the rest of the night.
At around 4 AM, Foxy attacked for a second time, and Cassidy was only able to just barely slam the left door down to block him in time. At this point, it was a matter of whether or not she had enough power to support using 2 bars continuously, and Cassidy honestly wasn't sure if she had pulled it off.
"20% at 5 AM?" she muttered. In the original game, that would have been more than enough power to secure a win in Night 5, but this was the VR game's version, where all the rules had been changed. Not to mention the fact that she was running on 2 bars of power instead of just 1.
She heard footsteps to her left and groaned. "Oh God no, no Bonnie attack please…" Cassidy pleaded. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to survive running on 2 power bars, but she was fairly certain that she wouldn't be able to survive running on. But Bonnie showed no mercy. The bunny animatronic arrived at the door, glaring into the office, forcing Cassidy to shut that door down too. "Crap…" she muttered as she watched the power drain down like crazy, knowing that she was very probably screwed now.
The power meter hit 0%, and the entire office plunged into darkness. Cassidy groaned, her mood souring even more as Freddy arrived at the left door almost immediately. "Oh, you're doing your short version, aren't you?" she muttered. "Greeeaaaaat…" She wasn't even scared at this point, mostly just disappointed. She raised her fingers and began counting down. "Three…two…one…"
Freddy leapt out of the darkness screaming, sending Cassidy back into the Game Over screen. "Dammit!" she scowled. "How was I supposed to do any better?" she demanded. She was about to press the Restart button, when she suddenly paused. "All right, let's think about this…" she decided. "Is there any way I can save power?" she asked herself. She thought back to her two previous attempts. She was pretty sure that Foxy's two attacks were inevitable no matter what she did, so that was out. She couldn't slow down Freddy either, even by cam-stalling, so there was nothing she could do there either.
"Wait…" she thought. Back in her first failure, when Chica had attacked her during the power outage…she hadn't attacked immediately. It was only at the end of the outage that she had attacked. "So that means…Chica actually waits a couple of seconds at the door before she attacks!" Cassidy realized. "But how long?" She honestly had no idea. Five seconds? Ten? Fifteen?
"I guess ten seconds and then reopen the door at 20?" she theorized. It wasn't like she had any better ideas. Cassidy restarted the game and returned to the grayed-out office, determined to win this time. She was able to test her theory as soon as Bonnie attacked the office shortly before 12 AM, waiting 10 seconds before closing the door and another 10 seconds after that before opening it again. To her delight, there was nobody waiting in the hall when she checked the lights. "YES!" Cassidy whooped. "I think I got it!" Her smile faded a bit. "Now I just gotta hope that the power doesn't go apeshit if someone else is around."
Now that Cassidy had a new strategy in place, she could, in theory, reliably counter every animatronic and problem this night could throw at her. She knew when Foxy could attack, she knew when Freddy would arrive at her door, and she knew the best way to regain control over the power when it went crazy. She even knew how long she needed to wait before putting the doors down on Bonnie and Chica, and how long she needed to wait before she could safely raise them up again. All she needed to do now was put it into practice.
And that was exactly what she did. She managed to pull off most of the night exactly as planned, with minimal mistakes. "I can do this," she thought fervently. "I can do this!" When Freddy laughed for the sixth time, arriving at the Office, Cassidy waited 10 seconds before closing the door, sighing in relief when he didn't attack in that time. She heard the rushing footsteps to her left and slammed the door down, blocking Foxy from his second attack of the night. By now, she was used to the violence of Foxy's attacks, although she still wasn't pleased with the fact that his attack had forced her power percent down into the low 30s. "Now all I can do is watch out for Bonnie," she thought, taking a quick look at Pirate's Cove to make sure that Foxy wouldn't somehow attack her for the third time that night. The curtain was still closed, making such a prospect incredibly unlikely (which was fortunate for her, since if he attacked a third time he would take out 11% of her power and almost certainly destroy her run in the process).
When 5 AM approached, Cassidy could hear Bonnie approaching the West Hall corner in preparation for another attack. "Oh, please no…" she thought as she eyed her steadily dwindling power. When the bunny animatronic arrived at the door, she dared to risk counting for 12 seconds instead of just 10 before closing it, a gamble that seemed to pay off since Bonnie didn't attack during those few extra seconds. "Come on, come on, no power outage," she prayed. Luckily for her, no such outage happened before Bonnie finally left, causing Cassidy to sigh in relief as she realized that she had likely been spared from another death caused solely by bad luck. "You know, come to think of it…" she mumbled, "I don't remember seeing another power outage ever since Freddy showed up at my door. Does he stop them somehow?" She wasn't sure if that was true or not, but she sure as hell wasn't complaining. With another Bonnie attack unlikely before the run ended, she eyed the power meter apprehensively. It dropped to 5%, then 4, then 3…2…
DING! DONG!
The screen faded to black, replaced by the digital clock turning from 5 AM to 6 AM. "YES!" Cassidy cheered, elated at her victory! "I did it! I DID IT!" She eagerly turned the gift prize box, revealing a bag of "El Chip's Tortilla Chips Bold and Spicy." "That's all I get?" Cassidy asked indignantly, shaking her head in disappointment. "Ugh, whatever, I'm just glad I got this out of the way."
When she got back to the main hub, the Spring Bonnie figure was gone again. She looked down at the coin counter monitor and the tape recorder resting on top of it. "No new coins or tapes so far," she muttered. "I think we already cleaned those out of the FNaF 1 levels anyway. I only wanted to get that taken care of so we'd get closer to that one level that we need to win every other level to unlock."
Still, Cassidy didn't want to leave just yet. Even though she might have beaten all the FNaF 1 levels to clear a path open to that last level for the rest of her family, she hadn't actually contributed yet to finding out some of the secrets hidden behind the VR game or the process behind its creation. "I might as well take this time to listen to the Tape logs," she reached out and touched the Tape recorder, which transported her over to the dark tape room.
"Maybe I'll find something that the others have missed."
/
A/N: And that's the rest of FNaF 1 covered. I originally wasn't going to cover the FNaF 1 segment of Help Wanted, but it turns out that the strategy for beating that segment is dramatically different from the original games, and it was different enough that I thought it was worth covering.
It's kind of funny that I'm writing this from the perspective of the VR game, because I'm actually writing the strategy based on the experiences that I had in Flat Mode. There may be some differences between the VR version and Flat Mode, but the only one that I could actually play out was Flat Mode. So for FNaF 1 at least, here's the Flat Mode strategy (which I got by combining guides from DJ Sterf and EthGoesBOOM):
For those of you who didn't catch the strategy from Cassidy's thoughts:
Bonnie – Unlike his more unpredictable incarnation in the original game, he will always attack by going to the West Hall Corner first, and THEN going to the left door. You will hear one set of prominent footsteps to your left when he goes to the corner and another set of footsteps when he goes to the door. Do NOT flash the light while he is going through the hallway to the corner, cause otherwise he will turn around to face you and attack you immediately. There MAY be a low chance that he'll attack the door straight from the hallway, but I'm not 100% sure. Once he arrives at the door (more specifically once you start hearing the footsteps that mark his arrival, count 13 seconds and then shut the door, before opening it again at 17 seconds. Cassidy closed at 10 seconds and opened at 20 seconds to be safe, and that's what I did too because I get nervous easily and don't want to get jumspcared by opening it too early).
Chica – Same as Bonnie, except she goes to the East Hall Corner and the right door instead. Do the same 13-17 second thing (or 10-20 second thing) that you do for Bonnie, except it's easier to tell when to open the door because Chica stares at you from the window and when she disappears you can safely open the door.
Foxy – Unlike the original game's version, he will ALWAYS attack you at certain points throughout the night (Phone Guy's advice is bullshit here).
Night 2 – attacks at 4 AM
Night 3 – 3 AM
Night 4 – 2 AM AND 5 AM
Night 5 – 2 AM AND 4 AM-5AM (I'm pretty sure I've seen him make his second attack during both hours)
When you hear him banging and clawing at the door, DO NOT OPEN the door while you hear that. This was a trick you could do in the original game to save power, but in this version opening the door while he's making those sounds WILL KILL YOU. Also, keep your mouse/hand/whatever on the door when it's nearing the time for Foxy to attack, because he moves quickly and won't give you a lot of time to react.
Freddy – Unlike the original game's version, he cannot be cam stalled. He WILL inevitably arrive at the right door at some point. When you've heard the SIXTH laugh, that means he's at your door. You will have 23 seconds to close the right door permanently before he jumpscares you (I usually close it at 15-20 seconds because I'm nervous), after which you must keep the door closed permanently for the rest of the night and run at 2 blocks of power at minimum. This is why power conservation during the early nights is so important, because you have to keep the right door closed later in the night.
Night 2 – He starts moving, but doesn't arrive.
Night 3 – Usually arrives at the end of the night.
Night 4 – Usually arrives around 5 AM.
Night 5 – Usually arrives between 3-4 AM.
The above is just a ballpark estimate. Use the laughs to tell where he is, and remember that it's the SIXTH one that matters the most.
Power Outages – After the doors go down and up 3 times, turn on and off the lights at the left door to regain control. You won't have to worry about outages if Foxy or Freddy are near.
Anyways, I hope this was a big help for you if you're struggling with this particular series of level in the FNaF 1 segment of Help Wanted. Hope you guys enjoyed!
