A/N: Sup, everyone. I have at least two "fun" filler chapters in mind before I consider getting the wheels for Security Breach in motion. One of these chapters will take me significantly more effort and time to write than the other.

Since I'm on a time crunch right now what with a very busy month at the hospital and some research that I'm doing at the same time, I'm gonna do the less intensive and less time-consuming filler chapter first.

Have you ever wondered how EXACTLY the mechanics of FNaF 1 work? The Schmidt family is about to find out, and it's…definitely not what they were expecting, is all I'll say about that.

All credit goes to the Youtube Channel "Tech Rules" for creating the video that this chapter is based on. For the sake of brevity, small bits of the video will be skipped so that I don't spend over 10 chapters covering the dialogue of a 20 minute video.

Chapter 186 – Dissecting the First Game

With the crisis of Special Delivery more-or-less resolved save for the actual identification and capture of Glitchtrap's possession victim, life returned to what qualified as normalcy within the Schmidt household. The ghost kids checked online every day for any signs of either Glitchtrap unleashing chaos or Fazbear Entertainment's latest act of grand stupidity, but there was no news of anything related to either except for the fact that Fazbear Entertainment's Special Delivery was continuing to experience modest but far from impressive success.

Without any clue to go off of, the ghost kids had gone back to their routine of enjoying life as children in a way that they never could have thanks to William Afton's depravities. And it was during one such day where everyone was hanging out in the living room (except for Mike, who had gone out to get groceries) that Gabe brought everyone's attention to a Youtube video that he had found.

"Hey, guys!" the former Freddy inhabitant called out to his siblings. "I found this Youtube video online that I think might be pretty interesting. It's called "Ruining FNaF by Dissecting the Animatronics' AI" by Tech Rules…I think it's about the first game and how it works."

"That sounds pretty interesting," Jeremy remarked, floating over to where his older brother was sitting. "So it basically explains how the game works?"

"I guess…" Susie shrugged. "I've always been a bit curious about that, to be honest."

"Normally I'd call you guys all nerds," Fritz commented, before looking a bit sheepish, "but even I have to admit I've always kinda wanted to know that too."

"Let's all watch it together!" Cassidy exclaimed.

The ghosts all stopped whatever they were moving and floated over so that they were all gathered in front of Gabe's laptop. After a brief sponsor introduction, the video opened with a lightning strike and a familiar picture of Foxy in Pirate's Cove glaring at the camera, having already moved the curtain to the side in his first stage of attack.

"Beware," a voice ominously intoned, "the scenes that you'll find in this educational video might be disturbing to some viewers." The scene shifted to the picture of Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy all staring directly at the player from the Show Stage. "It contains scenes of graphic…" the ominous music abruptly stopped and the scene tilted cartoonishly down to the bottom left, "edu-ca-tion…"

"Ah yes, education," Charlie deadpanned. "Truly the most terrifying thing in existence."

"If anybody watching this didn't already know that this video is gonna be the exact opposite of scary," Liz added with an equally dry tone, "this just pretty much gives it away right there."

"…and…okay, this is a dumb bit."

"Wow, he gave up trying in just 24 seconds," Susie raised an eyebrow. "That's gotta be some kind of record for throwing in the towel that fast."

"Oh, I'm sure there's faster," Jeremy deadpanned.

"It's not gonna be necessary anyway because this video is the opposite of scary!" the voice declared, abruptly switching to a cheerful and not-even-remotely-creepy tone. "You know when you have to explain a joke it's not funny anymore? I think the same could easily be applied to horror."

"That's…a good point, actually," Liz admitted. "Things are a lot less scary if you know what's going on. It kinda takes away the…feel, of something, you know?"

"Yeah, I agree," Fritz acknowledged. "I was a little more scared of FNaF 2 just because I barely remember anything about what happened back then, and FNaF 3 cause, you know, it had our fucking murderer in a rotting bunny suit."

"A lot of the fear these kinds of things instill in you is through making you ask questions. What exactly is out there? What does it want from me? Is it going to kill me? These kinds of questions are what Five Nights at Freddy's capitalizes on."

"I mean, for us it's a little different," Gabe observed. "We know the answers to these questions, cause we were the ones who were trying to kill everyone. I think for us, the experience is different because we're reliving those events through the perspective of the people we tried to kill, like Dad."

"That just makes it sad more than anything else," Cassidy agreed with a sad sigh. Susie wordlessly placed a hand on her shoulder for comfort and solidarity.

They silently listened to the speaker describe the basics of the game, which they were already well familiar to. "Well, wonder no longer, because I think it's safe to say that Five Nights at Freddy's is, by most definitions, pretty dead."

"Wait, really?" Susie exclaimed. "Didn't the VR game come out a few months ago? How's the series dead already when Fazbear Entertainment still keeps trying to cash grab the story of our tragedy?"

"I'm not saying the FNaF series itself is dead or anything. I'm talking about the original, stand-alone title. The very first Five Nights at Freddy's."

"Okay, that makes more sense," Charlie conceded. "At this point, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people who figured out how to beat 4/20 mode, and everyone's already posted every easter egg from the game on the Internet a long while ago."

"And what do you do when fascinating creatures die? You dissect them."

"All right then, let's see what this guy has to say," Jeremy invited. The ghosts silently listened to the speaker finish his introduction and present an ad for Skillshare (which they promptly skipped), before listening as the speaker provided a brief rundown of how Five Nights at Freddy's works.

"For the sake of unnecessary categorization, let's put Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica in a category named Bullies because they're constantly harassing you."

Susie giggled a bit sheepishly. "I mean…I can't really say that's wrong," she admitted.

Gabe frowned. "I feel like that's more accurate for Bonnie and Chica, though, Freddy didn't really act like that when we played the game."

"And let's put the remaining animatronics in a group called Foxy. Cause that's his name."

"Ha!" Fritz cheered. "I knew it! Foxy's so special and cool he gets his own category."

Liz rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you and your Foxy obsession. Keep it down a bit, will you?" she deadpanned.

The ghosts listened to the narrator describe the gameplay of Five Nights at Freddy's, already very familiar with said gameplay thanks to both their own experience with the game and their own behaviors when they had hunted the night guards as the animatronics.

"The game is intentionally designed to have a confusing and inconsistent AI. Almost every action or decision the animatronics can take has some sort of luck factor involved. And I do mean almost every single one of them. That makes it hard to understand how the AI truly works, because patterns people pick up on might just be the result of lucky coincidence."

Cassidy gave her siblings a confused look. "What does he mean by that?" she wondered. "Was it because Bonnie and Chica tend to wander around randomly?"

"I think we're gonna find out the answer to that question once he explains it," Charlie theorized. "Let's just hear what he has to say for now and see if that helps."

"The whole seeing patterns where there actually aren't anything? Yeah, it happened. A lot, actually. In fact, let's do a little true and false game about the most common theories. Gameplay theories, I should mention, not lore. I'm not opening that can of worms."

"If you think about it, we're the only ones who actually know the true story behind these games, since we were the ones who lived through it," Jeremy remarked. "I bet all this mystery and fighting over theories would get cleared up really quickly if somebody ever got the chance to just ask us."

"Yeah, but that would mean exposing ourselves to the public," Susie countered. "And Dad made it really clear why that would be a gigantic mess."

"And even if they did ask us, there'd be some parts we'd have to hide anyway," Charlie added with a frown. "Unless you want to tell the full story about how Liz was evil for a while."

Liz shuddered. "Let's not, please."

"Let's get back to the theories, I want to see what's true and what's not about the actual games," Gabe steered the conversation back to the video, for Liz's sake more than anything else.

"Theory," the speaker presented, "you have to look at Foxy to keep him in Pirate's Cove, but looking at him too much will become aggressive."

"I heard somebody say that before, it's like a balancing act with Foxy between looking at him too much and not looking at him enough," Susie commented.

"Answer: FALSE."

"Oh shit, really?" Fritz asked, his eyes widened in shock. "You don't have to worry about using the camera too much at all?"

"This one isn't even hard to test, but it seems so common. Just set Foxy's AI to 20 and keep flipping the camera up and down, you'll see that he can't move an inch."

"So we can just keep flipping the tablet up every second and not have to worry about setting Foxy with too much camera usage, then," Charlie mused. "Good to know."

"Theory: You don't actually have to look at Foxy to keep him away," the speaker continued. "Camera usage is the only thing that matters."

"Bruh, that's obviously false," Fritz declared. "That's the whole point, you have to look at Pirate's Cove to stop me from coming after you."

"Answer: TRUE actually!"

"Wait, WHAT?" everyone exclaimed, this time all of them unable to hide their shock at this revelation.

"This is something that's genuinely help to know, too, because it lets you keep the camera on something more important, usually Freddy."

"So…in theory, you never have to look at Pirate's Cove even ONCE," Gabe concluded, "and you can still get through the entire night without Foxy even opening the curtain, let alone coming out to attack you."

"That just seems so wrong," Cassidy muttered.

"I feel like more people should know this, though, because the game literally tells you something along those lines."

Phone Guy's voice suddenly emanated from the video. "The character in there seems unique in that he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like being watched. I don't know."

Fritz was still trying to wrap his head around this revelation. "But…but…if you're not looking at me through the cameras when they're up, then how are you stopping me from attacking? None of this makes any sense!"

Charlie sighed. "The only thing I can think of is that when you turn the tablet on, ALL of the cameras turn on at the same time, not just the one that you're currently looking at." She frowned. "Seems like a waste of electrical power, but I guess if it stops Foxy from coming after you that easily then at least something good comes out of it, I guess."

Liz scoffed. "This is Fazbear Entertainment we're talking about. Do you expect any good decisions to come from them at all?"

"Touché."

"Theory: When you run out of power, DON'T MOVE. This will give you a little time before Freddy attacks. Answer: FALSE."

Now it was Gabe's turns to throw his hands up in frustration. "Okay, what the hell?" he spluttered. "That's literally the exact opposite of what Phone Guy says in his call!"

"I'm pretty sure this theory comes from the game too." Once again, Phone Guy's voice burst out from the video, this time advising the player on "playing dead" to avoid getting stuffed in a Freddy Fazbear suit, after which the speaker's voice returned. "People understandably took this as a hint, but surprisingly, there's nothing in here that checks whether or not you're moving during the blackout phase. The duration of each blackout phase is extremely variable, so I can see how easy it would be to believe this because of sheer confirmation bias."

Jeremy snorted. "So apparently, Phone Guy's advice on this particular topic is complete and utter shit. Great. So theoretically you could get out of the chair when the power goes out and Freddy shows up, jump on the desk, howl like a monkey, and juggle three bowling pins. And there wouldn't be any difference between doing that and just staying still like we were all doing whenever we ran out of power."

Everyone snickered at the mental image the former Bonnie inhabitant helpfully provided. "Well, that's not necessarily true," Charlie disagreed. "Keep in mind, you guys probably behaved differently in real life than the animatronics do in this game. For all we know, staying still might have actually worked on Gabe and saved people in real life." She rolled her eyes. "Guess it doesn't do anything here, though."

"Okay, last theory. There's a hole behind the Freddy Fazbear poster in the office that Freddy can use to bypass the door."

"The fuck?" Fritz spluttered. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"Okay, that's definitely bullshit," Gabe shook his head. "My memory isn't that great, but I definitely would've remembered something crazy like that."

"Answer: What?"

"See, even this guy has no clue what to think about this theory," Cassidy deadpanned. "That one's just plain weird."

"I know, it sounds like I'm making this up, I used to hear this all the time. My best guess is that this theory came from an old Markiplier video where he closed both doors and still got attacked shortly after."

"More likely he probably just messed up and Freddy snuck into the office without him realizing it," Charlie commented. "That makes more sense than whatever the heck this theory is. It's hurting my brain just thinking about it."

"I'll explain why this can happen in a little bit, but that's…definitely not why. I can't find evidence of anyone saying this now, but I swear I'm telling the truth. Someone back me up in the comments, PLEASE. Prove to everyone that I'm not crazy, including myself, I guess.

"Yeah, no kidding," Susie shook her head. "This game would just go straight into WTF territory if that was actually a thing."

"I don't remember seeing anybody EVER mention something like this before," Jeremy mumbled. "I feel like I'd remember something that crazy if I read it."

"This was probably back when the game first came out, so we wouldn't be able to find it now that the game's been out for a couple of years," Liz explained.

"Let's just move on, the less I think about this, the better," Gabe muttered as he continued the video, not even waiting for his siblings to offer their input. They continued to silently watch until the speaker began to talk about the AI aggression system, along with a brief introduction to the Custom Night mode and the ability to manually set the animatronics' AI from 0 to 20. The ghosts were briefly spooked when the speaker set the AI to 1-9-8-7 and triggered the Golden Freddy jumpscare, though by now they were familiar enough with it to only regard it as a minor surprise.

"It probably didn't take much effort to implement this at all because the 0-20 AI system is used throughout the entire game. In fact, I have the numbers right here to share with you."

"Ooh, let's see what they are!" Cassidy excitedly declared. The ghosts watched as the numbers appeared on the screen corresponding to each night.

Night 1: 0-0-0-0

Night 2: 0-3-1-1

Night 3: 1-0-5-2

Night 4: ?-2-4-6 (? Being 1 or 2, 50/50 chance)

Night 5: 3-5-7-5

Night 6: 4-10-12-16

"Oh, wow," Gabe whistled. "I never realized that the numbers for most of the nights were that low, and it's still pretty challenging for people who don't have a good strategy."

"Night 3 is kinda weird, isn't it?" Susie commented. "Chica gets a LOT more aggressive compared to the earlier nights, and Bonnie just straight up doesn't do anything to begin with even though he was at AI level 3 on Night 2."

"Wait…hold on," Cassidy suddenly realized something. "If Night 1 had 0-0-0-0 for its settings, then how come the animatronics still move in that night? Heck, I could have sworn I saw Foxy peak out of Pirate's Cove one time when I was playing Night 1!"

As if the video had heard her question, the speaker immediately started addressing her curiosity. "This list is probably raising some red flags, right? After all, I did say that animatronic AI 0 means the animatronic is disabled. That shouldn't make sense because Night 1 still has plenty of movement from the 3 animatronics. That's because the game does something really sneaky."

Fritz smirked. "Oh, this should be interesting."

"As it turns out, animatronic AI levels actually increase as the night goes on. At 2 AM, Bonnie's level goes up by 1 AI level. At 3 AM, everyone but Freddy goes up 1 AI level. And at 4 AM, everybody Freddy goes up yet another AI level."

"Ohhhhhhh…" everyone murmured as the revelation was made.

"That makes so much sense!" Gabe exclaimed. "No wonder Bonnie and Chica started moving so late at Night 1. Everyone becomes slightly more aggressive as the night goes on!"

"That's really sneaky," Susie agreed. "And it also explains why Foxy can still attack you at Night 1 even though Phone Guy doesn't actually talk about him until Night 2!"

"It's so simple, yet so brilliant," Jeremy admitted.

"This means that by 4 AM, Night 1's levels are 0-3-2-2 and Night 6's levels go as high as 4-13-14-18, with Foxy being only 2 levels away from Max AI. This also means that Freddy is the only animatronic that does not get a max AI increase throughout the night. And as such, is the only one who will remain disabled through the entire night."

"That's probably for the best," Gabe admitted. "Otherwise new people would have to deal with Freddy from Night 1 and that might be too much for them to handle."

"Dang, I didn't realize I got so aggressive at Night 6," Fritz commented. "Makes me wonder how hard this would be if Night 6 just put me at AI 20 from the start."

"A massive pain in the ass, probably," Cassidy replied dryly. Fritz made a face at her but didn't argue, as her statement was probably correct.

"So, if you plug those levels in the Ultimate Custom Night mode, you'll get an experience that is similar to playing on that night. However, there will be one major difference."

"Really?" Susie raised an eyebrow. "What's the difference if the AI levels we put in are identical?"

"That difference is power drainage," the speaker explained. "When you get to Night 2 and onward, extra penalties are added to your power consumption. The penalty in question is dropping your power by 1% every few seconds."

"I KNEW it!" Cassidy exclaimed. "I KNEW that the power was dropping a lot faster in the later nights than in night 1."

"I noticed that too," Jeremy acknowledged, "but I didn't know if it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Good to know that I wasn't going crazy then."

"Night 2 takes 1 power every 6 seconds, Night 3 every 5 seconds, Night 4 every 4 seconds, and Night 5 and onwards takes 1 power every 3 seconds," the speaker explained, listing the values up on the screen as he described them. "That being said, the custom night also shares the 3 second penalty, so using the AI levels on Night 5 and 6 will give you an almost identical experience with no noteworthy differences."

"That explains part of why Night 5 and 6 felt so much harder when we first played them," Charlie remarked. "It isn't just the animatronics moving faster. It's also you having functionally less power overall on the later nights."

"It's also worth mentioning that the AI levels can never go higher than 20. Well, they can, but it doesn't make the animatronics any more aggressive. The reason for that is simply because the AI levels are, in a way, percentage-based. Here's how Five Nights at Freddy's uses these numbers."

"Get ready, guys," Gabe alerted everyone. "I think we're about to learn the core mechanics of our animatronics' AIs here."

"Yep," Fritz reassured him, "we're all listening."

"Approximately every 4 to 5 seconds, the animatronics are allowed to do what I'm going to call a movement opportunity," the speaker explained. "The game decides whether or not each animatronic is allowed to move during this opportunity by sheer luck. The game will pick a random number between 1 and 20. That number is then compared to the animatronic's current AI level. If the level meets or exceeds the number, then the animatronic will move."

"Oh, so THAT'S how that works," Susie mumbled. "It's basically a roll of the dice, and the higher our animatronics' AIs are, the more likely it is that we're gonna meet that requirement and be able to move."

"That actually makes so much sense," Liz nodded in understanding. "That's why the animatronics moved a lot more in Night 6 than in the other nights, even Night 5."

"This makes the AI numbers sort of like percentages," the speaker continued his explanation. "AI level 1 gives the animatronic a 1 in 20 chance, or 5% chance, to move at every movement opportunity. AI level 5 gives the animatronic a 25% chance, 10 would give a 50% chance, and finally, a max AI level of 20 will guarantee a 100% chance to move at every single movement opportunity."

Cassidy suddenly snickered to her siblings' surprise. "What's up, Cass?" Susie asked. "What's so funny?"

"I just had this picture in my head of the animatronics rolling one of those D20s that Dad always uses for his Dungeons and Dragons campaigns," the former Golden Freddy inhabitant explained, and it was obvious to everyone that she was trying not to laugh out loud. "And every time they roll a low enough number, they're able to move."

Everyone shared a laugh at the image that Cassidy had conjured up in their heads. "So is, like, a 20 a critical fail and a 1 the new version of a natural 20?" Gabe wondered. "Cause it seems like if we want to move based on what this guy is saying, the lower the number that's rolled, the better."

"I guess, unless the animatronic AI is 0," Jeremy acknowledged. "But if your animatronic AI is 0, then why the hell would you even bother to play until 2 AM when the AI numbers go up?"

"That's fair," Gabe acknowledged as they shifted their focus back to the video.

"This won't make each animatronic move at the same time, though," the speaker pointed out. "They each take a slightly different amount of time to get their movement opportunity. Freddy gets one every 3.02 seconds, Bonnie every 4.97 seconds, Chica every 4.98 seconds, and Foxy every 5.01 seconds. So while the animatronics may be able to move at similar times in the beginning, their movements will quickly desynchronize."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Charlie agreed. "Once you get late enough into the night, Bonnie and Chica rarely move at the same time or even close to it."

"When one of the animatronics succeeds in their movement opportunity, they'll, you know, move. Chica will randomly choose adjacent rooms on the right side, and Bonnie will straight-up teleport to different rooms on the left just because he feels like it. That's lore now, that's canon."

Jeremy couldn't resist a grin. "Can you imagine if I was able to straight-up teleport to all the different rooms on the left side whenever I wanted to?" the former Bonnie inhabitant asked. "I'd be the most OP animatronic out of all four of us by a long shot."

"You'd also be the most successful murderer out of all of us if that was the case," Susie pointed out, wiping the grin off Jeremy's face instantly.

"I don't think even in this game the teleportation is as OP as this guy is saying," Charlie commented. "I tend to follow all the animatronics on the earlier nights, and at most I've seen Bonnie move through 2 rooms at a time. He isn't gonna just go straight from the Dining Hall to the Office, that's for sure."

"That's cool and all, but what about me?" Fritz complained.

The speaker, fortunately, was ready to answer his question too. "Foxy on the other hand, uses his movement opportunities a bit differently. Every successful movement opportunity will advance Foxy 1 stage closer to attacking. But, as we mentioned earlier, his greatest weakness is the cameras themselves. While the cameras are on, Foxy will enter a state that we will call locked. While in this locked state, Foxy will automatically fail all of his movement opportunities, regardless of what random number he pulled or what number his AI is."

Liz smirked at him. "So does that technically make Fritz the biggest loser out of everyone here when it comes to actually making movement opportunities?" She asked teasingly.

"Hey!" Fritz protested, to the amusement of everyone else. "Just because you guys succeed at your movement opportunities, doesn't mean you actually do anything with them! Every time I succeed, the player KNOWS I'm getting one step closer to kicking their ass! Half the time Bonnie and Chica just dick around in random rooms not doing anything! There was one time Chica never attacked me until 5 PM while I was playing Night 6!"

"That's…actually a good point," Jeremy was forced to admit. "It's easier for me since I can move 2 rooms instead of one, but I've had times where I never actually DID anything even though I was moving around all over the place."

"He'll remain locked the entire time while the cameras are on, but when you finally turn the cameras off, he doesn't immediately spring back into action. In fact, he will remain locked for a random amount of time ranging from 0.83 seconds to around 16.67 seconds. It gets very specific, too. The random amount of time the game decides on can literally be ANY frame between those two numbers, so yeah, quite a range."

Gabe whistled. "No kidding. So Foxy could theoretically go anywhere from getting ready to attack almost as soon as the cameras are down, to basically sitting on his ass doing jack shit for several seconds afterwards." He let out an amused giggle. "That's kinda funny. And really random."

"That would explain why sometimes when I played Night 6, Foxy would sometimes just stay in the Cove not doing anything even though I was neglecting to look at the cameras when Bonnie and Chica were both attacking me at the same time," Charlie observed. "And it would also explain why sometimes Foxy would move up and get close to attacking even though I'm pretty sure my camera game was on-point for a run."

"Once he hits phase 4, he'll attack either when you check the Left Hall, or at around 25 seconds has passed. If he's blocked by the door, he'll take whatever amount of power he's supposed to at the time and immediately return to Pirate's Cove, starting at either Phase 1 or Phase 2. You probably know what happens when the door isn't shut."

"Jumpscare!" Fritz declared, lifting his hands and making tiger claws with them. "Rawr!"

The speaker proceeded to transition into explaining how attacks worked for Bonnie and Chica, describing how whenever they were right outside the doors, they would attempt to attack the office at their next successful movement opportunity. Success would lead to them invading the office, while failure would send them back to the dining hall. The ghost kids were already familiar with how attacks worked whenever an animatronic was already in the office. However, they did find it interesting how, despite AI 20 being extremely difficult in most aspects, it did provide a small amount of mercy in that Bonnie or Chica would be guaranteed to attack and invade or depart in 5 seconds. By contrast, on lesser difficulties, it was entirely possible for Bonnie or Chica to simply remain stuck right outside the door for several seconds on end, which was incredibly irritating since it would force the doors to remain closed for extended periods of time.

"That would explain why sometimes Bonnie or Chica would sometimes sit their fat asses outside the door for so long," Cassidy commented, ignoring the mildly dirty looks from Jeremy and Susie. "I always got so annoyed whenever that happened."

"Can you imagine on Night 1 where you had Bonnie or Chica somehow pass every movement opportunity to go straight to your office, only to just sit out there for the rest of the night forcing you to keep your door closed for entire hours?" Liz asked, shaking her head as she did so. "That would be the most god awful luck ever."

"I'd ragequit the game if that ever happened to me," Fritz replied with a scowl. "Like seriously, that would be the most bullshit thing ever."

"I wouldn't even blame you for that if you did," Jeremy agreed.

"Now, you may have noticed that until now, I've avoided talking about Freddy much. That's intentional, because Freddy…is a doozy."

"Oh boy, time to hear how I operate in this game," Gabe breathed out. "Let's hear it, I'm the only one left."

"Similarly to Foxy, using the cameras while Freddy takes a movement opportunity will automatically cause him to fail it. However, when he does get a successful movement opportunity, he doesn't immediately start moving. Well, usually."

"Wait, really?" Gabe wondered. "I don't? Why do I act differently from all the other animatronics who get going the moment they pass their opportunities?"

"I'm pretty sure he's about to explain that," Charlie assured him. "Let's just keep listening."

"Instead, he starts a sort of countdown. The simplest way to describe the countdown would probably be that it's 1000-100X frames, X being Freddy's current AI level. For example, the countdown would be 900 frames at AI level 1, 800 frames at level 2, and so on. This game would run at 60 frames per second, so those times would be about 15 seconds and 13.33 seconds respectively with each increase in AI level taking another 1.67 seconds."

"So I basically wait a couple of seconds once I pass my movement opportunity before I actually get to move," Gabe commented with a bemused look. "Kinda lame."

"They probably did that to stop you from being too OP in the earlier nights," Susie theorized. "I mean, do you remember when Charlie did 20-20-20-20 mode? Freddy literally just went straight to the office the moment the night started and there was literally nothing anyone could do to stop him."

"Once Freddy's AI reaches 10 or higher, you might notice that the countdown will start at 0. While the countdown might as well not exist on higher AI levels, it's important to remember that Freddy only ever goes up to 4 outside of custom night. It's pretty clear Freddy wasn't exactly designed to be a very fair fight past AI level 9, let alone 20. That's why micromanaging him is such an important part of 20-20-20-20 mode."

"Yeah, like I said earlier, it's to stop you from being too OP in the earlier nights," Susie repeated more confidently.

"I'd also like to add that Freddy's the only animatronic that always gets closer and closer to the office every time he moves," Jeremy added. "Bonnie and Chica move around randomly and go back to the dining hall every time they get blocked. With Freddy, he just keeps getting closer and closer, and there's no way to send him back once he moves. If he was able to move without waiting just like Bonnie and Chica, he'd be way too OP."

"Yeah, you guys make good points," Gabe conceded.

The ghosts listened to the video speaker explain about Freddy's movement pattern, and how he changed his behavior once he arrived at the East Hall Corner. "His attacks behave on a completely different set of rules. Once Freddy goes from his show stage to camping snuggly in the right corner besides your office, he goes into attack phase. While in attack phase, Freddy can no longer be frozen by the cameras. He does, however, reveal a couple new weaknesses."

"So do I basically act like a completely different animatronic at that point?" Gabe raised an eyebrow. "Wow, I'm definitely the most complicated animatronic out of the four by a mile. Everyone else seems so simple compared to me."

"I mean, this game is called Five Nights at FREDDY'S for a reason…" Charlie pointed out.

"While the cameras themselves no longer stop him in his place," the speaker continued. "Looking directly at the camera 4B will. And unlike Bonnie and Chica, Freddy cannot directly enter the office while the cameras are down. That means that the only opportunity he'll get to attack is while you're looking at a camera that isn't 4B. And don't forget that movement opportunities are still a factor in this. No matter what the circumstances are, Freddy still can't attack until he's succeeded in a movement opportunity. Granted, that becomes less significant the more aggressive his AI is but it's still a notable factor."

"So it's basically the complete opposite of how Bonnie and Chica work," Susie commented. "He can't attack the office by himself, and looking at him with the cameras is actually really important for stopping him unlike how it is with us."

"Once these two conditions are met, however, Freddy will immediately attempt his attack. If blocked by the right door, he won't return to the dining hall like Bonnie and Chica. He'll just return to the hall and try to go back into the corner for another attempt. Yeah, once Freddy's there, he's there for good."

"Which is why I always try to stop him from getting anywhere near there in the first place," Charlie remarked. "Although obviously, when I did 20-20-20-20 mode, there was literally nothing I could do apart from making sure he never got into the office itself."

"I remember when you first beat 20-20-20-20 mode," Cassidy commented. "And after hearing this, I'm pretty sure Freddy's the biggest reason why screwing up even once pretty much kills your run on the spot."

"And of course, if you're unfortunate enough to be ignoring Freddy while the right door is open, he'll enter the office. Now, all he's left to do is perform his jumpscare. Which, as it turns out, may not be guaranteed after all?" the speaker finished his sentence with a confused tone.

"Wait, really?" Fritz looked equally confused. "But…Freddy's in the office. You're pretty much fucked at that point."

"There must be some underlying mechanics to Freddy being in the office which don't exist for Bonnie and Chica," Liz observed. "Freddy really IS the most complicated animatronic in the game, holy crap."

"First of all, the jumpscare will only occur if your camera is down, and if you choose to hide in your camera, Freddy won't ever flip it down himself. And when you aren't in your camera, there seems to be only a 25% chance for Freddy to do a jumpscare every second. That means the range of time for Freddy to jumpscare can range from 1 seconds to…never. Realistically speaking, though, you're not going to dodge every 25% chance for the entire night, unless you're really close to winning, I guess. But I just thought it was interesting."

"Wow, Freddy really is the opposite to Bonnie and Chica even with how he works in the office," Jeremy remarked. "His jumpscare can be triggered randomly by keeping the camera down instead of putting it up, and it goes off completely randomly while you're sitting there unlike with Bonnie and Chica where you have to lift the laptop up first before it goes off."

"Hold on, though," Susie interrupted with a question. "If Freddy got into your office, couldn't you theoretically just keep your camera up forever to make sure that Freddy can't ever jumpscare you?"

"I guess, but that wouldn't really work in the long run," Gabe countered. "Even if you tried to keep Freddy from jumpscaring you by keeping the camera up forever, that means you literally can't do anything to stop Bonnie, Chica, or Foxy. And one of them WILL get you eventually, especially if we're talking about 20-20-20-20 mode."

"Oh yeah, you're right, I forgot," Susie conceded a bit sheepishly.

The ghosts listened as the video transitioned to one final part…the part of the night that triggered whenever the power goes out.

"When you run out of power, the game essentially stops normal gameplay. There's nothing you can do during a blackout except look around and hope the clock hits 6 AM before you die. There's not really much to explain either. All animatronic AI is essentially halted at this point. Even if Foxy was already on his way for Freddy is in your office already, none of it matters."

"That's like the one good thing about a blackout if you're so close to 6 AM," Charlie commented. "You know that you can't get jumpscared by anything OTHER than Freddy when he shows up at the left door."

Cassidy suddenly snickered. "The whole thing is kinda funny if Freddy was already at the right corner," she commented. "He decides to go all the way up the right hall, through the dining hall, and down the left hall so that he can show up at the left office door. Instead of, you know, just walking into the office from the right hall corner like any normal person would."

"If I really did act like that back then, then I take the reward for stupidest decision-making out of this entire family," Gabe deadpanned. "Arguably even stupider than Chica deciding to go into the kitchen to waste time doing literally nothing important."

"Hey, making pizzas are very important!" Susie protested.

"Speaking of which," Jeremy interrupted as the video began to showcase Freddy's glowing face in the doorway and the accompanying Toreador March, "how are you able to make your face glow up and play the Toreador March like that?" he asked. "I just realized that we never actually asked you this before."

Gabe shrugged. "Honestly…I have no idea," he admitted. "It's just something I can do, I guess."

A few of his siblings sent him bemused looks, but as there was no real way to reply to that, they shifted their attention back over to the video. "All that matters is timers. Every 5 seconds, you have a 20% chance for Freddy to show up and play his music box, up to a maximum of 20 seconds. If he doesn't show up within the 20 seconds, he'll show up automatically. The music box duration has the exact same chance: 20% ever 5 seconds, up to a maximum of 20 seconds. After that, the lights will flicker off and the final section will begin. This one has a 20% chance every 2 seconds. And when that chance, succeeds, well…"

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Freddy leapt up from the darkness and lunged at the screen, before dissolving the world in static. "Jumpscare…and then, game over screen."

"Wow, I never realized just how much this game's mechanics actually depend on luck," Jeremy commented as the video continued to describe how Golden Freddy worked, which none of the ghosts were particularly concerned about since they all already knew that he had a very small chance of randomly showing up in the West Hall Corner whenever you looked at it. "Like…even the last part of the night where your power goes out pretty much depends entirely on luck, too. You can't even control what happens by staying still like we thought you could before we watched this video."

"Could you imagine if there wasn't a maximum time limit to how long it takes Freddy to show up, play his music box, or jumpscare you?" Liz asked with a giggle. "You could have something really dumb and wacky where your power goes out at like 3 AM and you could theoretically still make it all the way to 6 AM just because you were just THAT lucky."

"I still find it amazing that all of our animatronic movements basically boil down to a reverse D&D campaign where rolling lower is better," Susie commented. "I bet Dad'll have a nice laugh when we tell him about this video."

"I do have to admire the level of research and dedication that this speaker put into his video," Charlie complimented approvingly. "When he said he was going to dissect this game, he really meant it. I can't think of anything that this guy forgot as far as important game mechanics are concerned."

"There's still one thing I'm wondering about," Liz remarked with a thoughtful look on her face. "If all you need to stop Foxy is just opening the cameras without actually looking at them…then, couldn't you just play 20-20-20-20 mode by JUST looking at Freddy and only occasionally checking on Foxy every couple of seconds to make sure that he's not coming after you while keeping all the doors shut?"

The ghosts looked at her, and then each other, as realization dawned in their eyes.

A Few Seconds Later…

"Holy crap," Gabe commented as he watched Charlie effortlessly play through 20-20-20-20 mode with the strategy that Liz had suggested. While the former Marionette had been able to beat the hardest mode of FNaF 1 on the first try in the past, the sequence of actions that she had used had still been very methodical and complex enough that she had been forced to concentrate on her movements and actions to make sure that she didn't make a single mistake.

This time, however, the strategy was pretty much the exact opposite of complex. All Charlie needed to do this time around was flip up the tablet while keeping it at the East Hall Corner, check the left door, flip the tablet again, check the right door, and then repeat over and over again throughout all of the night. The ONLY variation that Charlie introduced every few seconds was closing the right door and switching over to Pirate's Cove to make sure that Foxy wasn't about to attack her, but so far she had been flipping the camera up so frequently that Foxy hadn't even poked his head out of Pirate's Cove yet despite his AI being set to 20.

"This looks so easy," Gabe shook his head in disbelief. "Like, I can't believe how easy this looks. Is this all it takes for someone to beat 20-20-20-20 mode on this game?"

"Yeah, now that I know how this game works, FNaF 1 as a game just feels completely different to me now," Jeremy agreed. "Especially this mode."

Fritz, however, had a much different idea on his mind. "Hey, can you imagine if we were the first ones to beat 20-20-20-20 mode like this and we recoded it?" The former Foxy inhabitant asked excitedly. "If we posted it on Youtube, we'd be super famous in the video gaming world!"

"I hate to break it to you, Fritz, but somebody already beat 20-20-20-20 mode using the strategy that we're doing now and posted a video on Youtube a couple of months ago," Liz apologetically held up her laptop, showing the Youtube video towards him.

"Dammit!" Fritz pouted. "We missed our chance!"

"…and done!" Charlie declared as the simple yet delightful 6 AM screen appeared on the computer. "I didn't even run out of power, it was that easy!"

"So basically, the solution to solving the hardest mode of this game is switching over to the East Hall Corner and then alternating between checking the doors and whacking your face with the tablet for several minutes," Cassidy commented, giggling. "Wow, this game is less scary than ever."

Gabe smirked. "I just can't wait to hear what Dad thinks about his entire experience in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria being boiled down to a bunch of luck-based timers and a reverse D&D campaign."

/

A/N: Somehow, this "less intense and effort-requiring" chapter ended up being 16 pages on Word and over 7000 words long. Go figure.

Anyways, I found this video extremely fascinating when I saw it and I couldn't resist having the ghost kids comment on the mechanisms behind the very first FNaF game. Especially with the comparisons of the AI levels to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

I don't have much to say here. Hope you guys enjoyed!