Amnesia: The Bunker – How the Monster Roughly Works

Many players are very confused and puzzled about how Monster A.I work and that’s fair. We did not uncover the A.I’s code just yet so this guide should help you understand how the Monster works in rough ways (nothing is fully confirmed).

Monster Roughly Explained

Please note: all credit goes to Thekillergreece!

Introduction

The Monster behaves similarly to the Alien: Isolation. It will react accordingly to the player’s actions such as what noises are they causing and what kind of noises. It is fairly capable to kill players instantly in one hit but may sometimes just wound them instead in some cases.

It can be scared of through various ways but that will only anger it, making it stronger in the end.

Noises

The Monster will react to any noise the player will cause at any point throughout the game’s playthrough. There are no scripts, nothing is scripted to force-spawn the Monster, it is completely independent and will behave on its accord.

Before I start explaining; the game’s difficulty matters as it will give certain modifiers in certain difficulty modes that dictate how often a Monster could emerge. Even if you cause the following noises, the Monster might not always emerge when there are active powered lights in the area.

Let’s talk about the noises. I’ll name them two types of noises; Quiet and Loud.

The following are considered quiet noises:

  • Cranking up the flashlight.
  • Running.
  • Tossing objects.
  • Tossing empty bottles.
  • Flares.
  • Destroying doors.
  • Slamming doors.

The following are considered loud noises:

  • Gunshots.
  • Explosions.
  • Prisoner yelling.

If a quiet noise is done, the Monster may or may not emerge from a hole. Causing quiet noises will only increase the random chances for the Monster to emerge out and is not a guarantee that it will definitely come out.

For example, running for two seconds is not a guarantee that it will emerge but the more you run, the higher chances it will emerge. The same goes for how many times you crank your flashlight in a row. You only need to crank it twice.

On the other hand, if a loud noise is done, the Monster WILL most likely emerge. So, if you shoot a keychain or whatever, seek a hiding spot. You may hear the Monster crawling into a wall before emerging from a hole.

When either noise is caused and the Monster emerges, they will investigate the source of the noise. Whichever hole they seek to emerge, it’ll be the closest to the source of the noise.

How long the Monster will investigate seems to be dependent on how many and how loud the noises were. If an explosion was caused, it may take up to a minute. If two explosions, it could be two minutes.

In either case, the Monster emerging does not mean they are fully aware of your presence just yet.

When the investigation is completed, the Monster will enter a hole again, making it safe for the player to travel. You may hear the Monster crawling elsewhere.

Certain actions do not seem to cause any noise such as pulling in or out the flashlight and any other item so you are safe to do those.

As mentioned above, if you are playing in EASY mode, the Monster might not emerge at all even if you cause loud noises. In NORMAL mode, the chances are standard. In HARD mode, it’ll likely emerge more frequently and patrol for longer times.

Holes

The Bunker is full of holes. Fortunately or unfortunately for you, the Monster uses those holes to emerge and roam freely or investigate noises. They are its main ways to navigate through any part of the Bunker effortlessly. You, in the meantime, have to find keys to unlock doors in order to navigate through the Bunker. You – 0 Monster – 1.

At times, you can hear the Monster crawling through the ceilings and into the walls. You can see dust falling from the ceiling which is usually an indicator that the Monster is crawling or just crawled before it stopped somewhere. Do not confuse the falling dust from the random artilleries that land outside the Bunker.

When a noise is caused, usually quiet ones, the Monster may crawl to the nearest hole where the source noise is caused and stay. When that happens, you’ll see dust coming out from the hole constantly. Walking through an active hole or standing next may result in the Monster snatching you into the hole, killing you instantly. It may sometimes surprise you by emerging out of the hole, injuring you in the process and knocking you out for a moment.

When a hole is active, some nearby lights may start to flicker at a slow pace.

Holes can be blocked with a heavy object. Doing so will prevent the monster from emerging from that hole and will try to emerge from other holes in the vicinity instead.

Lights and Darkness

Having the lights powered on by the generator may decrease the game’s difficulty in some ways and can be a lifesaver. Having the lights off will plummet the entire bunker into pitch darkness which not only makes your navigation in the bunker difficult but it permits the Monster to roam freely for any reason and that’s bad news for you.

With the lights powered on, the Monster will not roam freely in powered areas. Instead, it will remain in the holes. It will, however, emerge if you cause enough noise. When that happens, lights near the monster will start to flick rapidly. This is your cue that the monster is definitely near the spot where the lights flick rapidly. Distant lights will flick slowly. This is why the lights can be a lifesaver because they give away the Monster’s rough position.

With the lights off, the Monster will roam freely at any time for any reason and, sometimes, may not return to holes. Furthermore, it will most likely emerge from holes when a noise is caused in contrast to powered areas where it might not appear at all sometimes.

Using explosions can destroy nearby lights, rendering those areas dark for the Monster to roam freely so be careful.

Attacks

The Monster can see you at long distances and, when spotted, will stand up on its legs and roar before breaking into pursuit until it catches you up and kills you. There’s no way to avoid its grasp as it can overpower you and kill you.
It may sometimes injure you instead such as emerging from a hole when you are near one.

The Monster will not instantly break into pursuit upon sight. It’ll always roar first before starting a pursuit, giving you enough chances to react and flee or defend yourself.

There are a few ways that you can defend yourself; Shooting at it, using gas grenades or any explosion. Injuring it will cause it to flee into a hole and leave the area temporarily. However, it will eventually return much angrier than before.
This means that further defenses will not always work against it.
For example, if a single gunshot from a revolver made it flee, you will need up to 3 gunshots from a revolver to make it flee again and so on. The same goes for any other defensive tools.

If the Monster loses sight of you, it will go to the latest spot that the noise was caused (ie. running before you stopped running). It’ll then investigate the immediate vicinity and may break down doors, tables, etc. The Monster is also capable of going through vents as well.
During the investigation, the Monster may stand idle as if it’s trying to listen for any noise you may make (ie. cranking flashlight).

The Monster cannot break down locked metal doors (ie. save room). If you are injured, the Monster can smell your blood and easily track you.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 8076 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

11 Comments

  1. I guess working pump station near the tunnels and radio in soldiers querters also consider as noises. Not sure about last one, but the first one is definetely is loud noise.

  2. Something I noticed. On Easy, at least, the Beast will kill you outright if it spots you in the open and charges you (outside the final encounter), but if the Beast finds you by smashing your hiding spot, you’ll only take some damage.

  3. Pro Tip: At the start of the game, the monster will not emerge out of his holes until you find a new valve for opening the Lockdown emergency doors. this means you can go around in the darkness and do as much noises as you can. Just don’t get near the holes or he will drag you and kill you. That way you can get all the items you can find at the start area and don’t use fuel for the generator until you gathered everything.

  4. I’m unsure about the AI. It seems like the monster will almost always find you if youre hiding. For example, the monster was still coming out of a hole, so I ran into a closet in a different room. After not moving for like 30 seconds, the monster eventually attacks the closet, killing me. Same deal for the rat flare in maintenance. Immediately hid in a the corner of a different room, and he tracks straight to me after about a minute. I was not bleeding either time.

  5. Great guide. But I have one thing that experienced different from you.
    So for the first encounter, you mentioned the beast will only show up after picking up the red wheel crank. While in my first playthrough, when I was searching for crank, I saw the dust coming out from the hole. Then I tried to crank my flashlight to see what happen and I just saw the claw of the beast, which means it is coming out from the hole. I ran away and hide. I don’t know if the beast really came out, but seems like it will try to hunt you down before picking up the wheel crank.

    • I was using debug console and I could see the Monster was marked “false” on emerge flag, making it unable to emerge. It will still stick its hand out from time to time, however. I haven’t tried too much if it would snatch me but I think it’s safe to assume it will snatch you.
      Only when you pick up the crank wheel and start leaving that room the Monster will be flagged as “true” on emerge, meaning it can now emerge.

    • No. Sometimes the monster wilo reach his hand out and feel around the hole. If nearby it kills you but if you’re not within range it doesn’t hurt you. If you stay quiet when this happens it usually doesnt emerge. Before getting the red crank ive never seen it come out.

  6. depends on whats in front of the hole, I had him hit a barrel 3 times before he came out. And yes the monster can enter the save area and the generator room.

  7. Should probably mention that the monster will break through a heavy object that’s blocking a hole on the second attempt it tries to emerge from that hole. Unless you’ve had a different experience, that’s how i’ve seen it.

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