History VideoGame / FiveNightsAtFreddys1

** A non-humorous variant. Starting with the second night, you're taught to keep an eye on Foxy in the Pirate's Cove or else he'll rush you. By the end of the game, suddenly even so much as checking on the Pirate Cove can set him off, assuring your death if you're not fast enough.

** Before a patch in September 2014 nerfed Freddy and Foxy's more frustrating behavior, a strategy often used by [=LetsPlayers=] is something like this: switch the camera feed to Pirate's Cove and don't switch again until you see him leave, in which you can switch it to the West Hall ''after'' you seal the left door. Seal the right door before bringing the camera up, then open it after it is down. Check the vent lights for Bonnie and Chica; if they appear, seal the necessary door and wait until they leave and you can open it again. Rinse and repeat. If you do it correctly, this strategy works virtually 100% of the time and is particularly effective in the later nights (although it can't be denied that the 4/20 challenge does require [[LuckBasedMission a bit of luck]], especially whether Freddy is going to play his jingle short or long after the inevitable lights out).

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The animatronics are supposed to be roaming freely at night to keep them operational, but they actually stay put whenever you observe them. Except for Foxy, whom you can see running in the West Hall (although once he is back in Pirate's Cove, he is just as immobile as everyone else).

* OffscreenTeleportation: The robotic animals all use this, only moving when you're not looking at the camera feeds. Except for Foxy, who you can see run down the West Hall towards your office if you let him escape the Pirate's Cove room.

''WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong''

* ApocalypticLog: Though it's hardly an apocalyptic scenario, the Phone Guy's recorded messages are pretty nightmarish. [[spoiler:It becomes more true to the trope on Night 4, when as things seem to be going horribly wrong for him, from some... thing... banging on a door[[note]]which sound exactly like when Foxy bangs on your door[[/note]] and odd moans[[note]]which ''now'' can appear when viewing Chica or Bonnie in the cameras[[/note]] building up to a [[SoundOnlyDeath scream that sounds suspiciously like the scream the robots make when they kill you.]]]]
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: After completing [[spoiler:the "Custom Night", the management fires you for "tampering with the animatronics", "general unprofessionalism", and "odor."]]

* BehindTheBlack: One tactic they use is to slip into the room ''when your tablet is up.''

* BlackSpeech: The final telephone call, Bonnie and Chica's electronic gibbering from Night 4 onward, and the "IT'S ME" visual hallucination have this. Although some have pointed out that the sounds used were stock sounds that came with the game engine used, others deduced that it is actually a backwards masked message with the pitch dropped down. It's difficult to make out the entire message, but someone was able to figure it out. It is an excerpt from ''Autobiography of a Yogi'' by Paramhansa Yogananda. Appropriately enough, this is an excerpt from the section in which the yogi demonstrates that metal is alive.

* BloodlessCarnage: Surprisingly, this game contains no blood or gore, [[spoiler:aside from your character's eyeballs (with the veins in plain sight, so presumably still attached to the skull) appearing out of the eyes from the Freddy costume's head and a human set of teeth behind the costume's set on the game over screen]], despite the horrific manner in which your death is implied.

* BrutalBonusLevel: Night 6, unlocked after finishing the main game.
* CameraScrew: Sometimes the words "IT'S ME" will briefly flash on a camera screen if you look at them. Freddy's face will also flash from time to time, and they just get worse as the week goes on. Also, as the days go on, the animatronics may appear to flicker and twitch on your screen when in fact they're standing still.

** If Freddy and friends catch you, [[spoiler:you get shoved into a suit filled with sharp bits of metal, live wires, crossbeams, and animatronic devices. All that remains when it's over are your eyes and teeth. You can see the aftermath on the game over screen.]][[note]]The sheer horribleness of that may not be particularly evident to some people. Then you realize that would be ''excruciatingly painful.''[[/note]]

** Night 3 is when Freddy starts to move and will only move if you don't check on him often on camera.

* EasyLevelTrick: Subverted for Night 1. Both Bonnie and Chica will only attack you if you put down the camera, so one may ''think'' it's safe to just idle without using the camera at all. Doing so will activate Foxy, who will probably kill you. Granted, you can just wait till 2 AM, then lock the left door. Doing so will effectively make you safe for the rest of the night, so long as you don't bring the camera up.

* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: Both the Night 5 Call and some hard-to-hear speech from Bonnie and Chica when they're right outside your room are this.

*** There's also the popular assumption that, based on the music Freddy plays when the power goes out, that he's calling Mike out on coming back because he enjoys the thrill of it.

* FourIsDeath: There are four animatronics trying to kill you [[spoiler:and the Phone Guy ends up that way on the fourth night.]]

* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The animatronics are supposed to be roaming freely at night to keep them operational, but they actually stay put whenever you observe them.

** The pained 'breathing' the animatronics make if they've managed to sneak into your room while you're still looking through the cameras. You're doomed the moment you pull the monitor down. Or ''they'' do it for you.

** And then there's Golden Freddy, who will appear if both of your doors are closed and you view a strange poster through the tablet camera.

* MurderIntoMalevolence: It's implied that the animatronics are haunted by the ghosts of murdered children, and one of the possible reasons they're targeting the player is that they can't tell the difference between their killer and Mike Schmidt.

** [[spoiler:Which admittedly raises the question of how the blood and mucus showed up around the animatronics' eyes...Given we see your character's eyes in the suit at the Game Over screen, it wasn't the children's blood and mucus. It was from the guards shoved into the suits. This is given added support by the end of ''Sister Location'', in which your character's body is taken over by Ennard.]] Which raises a different question -- if the children weren't killed in the animatronics, what happened to them? The newspaper did say that the children's bodies were never found.]]
* NightmareFace: Aside from a robot screaming in your face, more unlucky players are likely to catch particularly creepy sights. Like a special Bonnie face, the hallucinations Golden Freddy gets you, or the sight of Freddy himself staring at the camera with glowing eyes right outside your station.

*** It uses the "Nothing at all" version, in which you are peacefully sitting in your room, flicking through all the cameras, and you see all the animatronics are scattered around, and nowhere near you. You put the camera tablet away, and... nothing but the fan. No sound, no monstrosities to defend yourself against. Nothing.

** A certain poster showing the rules of the restaurant may change as well. This poster is changed into one of four documents, all of which highlight the reveals of the game.
** All cemented by the fact that the [[RandomNumberGenerator RNG]] can have unpredictable things happen where it was thought impossible.Like Golden Freddy and Foxy coming after you on the ''first night.''

* TheTetrisEffect: In-universe, the protagonist starts hallucinating later in the week, seeing suit faces and "it's me!" when he blinks or changing camera views. Even "Golden Freddy" is implied to be hallucinatory. As for out-of-universe, I hope you enjoy sleeping with your doors and windows locked and all the lights on, or you'll be seeing the face of Freddy (Or Bonnie, or Chica, or Foxy) everywhere.

** If you run out of power, Freddy will stand outside the left door, staring at you, as if he's cherishing your last moments.
*** If it's 5 AM, and if you remain absolutely still, you ''might'' be able to hold on until 6 AM and survive the night. Any other time, kiss your ass goodbye.

* ArtificialStupidity: As capable as the AI is at messing with you, when the mascots ultimately come for you, they will always come from the same directions. [[spoiler:Bonnie and Foxy will only ever come at you from the left, Chica and Freddy always from the right; unless the power goes out, in which case Freddy comes from the left.]]

** A non-humorous variant. Starting with the second night, you're taught to keep an eye on Foxy in the Pirate's Cove or else he'll rush you. [[spoiler:By the end of the game, suddenly even so much as checking on the Pirate Cove can set him off, assuring your death if you're not fast enough.]]
** Both the trailer and the Steam summary of the game conveniently leave out Foxy. So, until you get the call from the previous guard about the Cove, you're left believing that there are only three animatronics to look after. [[spoiler:And even then, you've got absolutely no indicator that there is a Golden Freddy lurking about.]]

* BlackSpeech: The final [[spoiler:telephone call contains this. It's actually a backwards masked message with the pitch dropped down]]. It's difficult to make out the entire message, but someone was able to figure it out. [[spoiler:It is an excerpt from ''Autobiography of a Yogi'' by Paramhansa Yogananda. Appropriately enough, this is an excerpt from the section in which the yogi demonstrates that metal is alive]].

** [[spoiler:Bonnie's and Chica's electronic gibbering is another backmasked excerpt from the same chapter.]]
** Inverted as the sounds used were stock sounds that came with the game engine used.

* ControllableHelplessness: If the player allows either Bonnie or Chica to linger for too long outside of the doors while said doors are open, they will sneak into the room and disable the door and light buttons on that side. From here, the player can still look right and left, but can't check the camera.[[note]]If Bonnie or Chica enters the room, they will not actually kill you until you check the cameras and then lower them.[[/note]] This leaves them with virtually nothing to do but to click the broken buttons and, in the case of the left door being jammed, wait for Foxy to charge in. Or in the case of the right door, let Freddy sneak in and then pounce on you.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: One interpretation of the pizzeria's decisions. Despite The Bite of '87, the killer robots, and [[spoiler:all the possible death they've caused along with the kid's/guard's innards still implied to be inside them and never removed,]] they still tried to get parents and businesses on their side and [[WinBackTheCrowd keep everything going 'for the kids']] without ever fixing anything. [[spoiler:Although it may or may not be entirely their fault, it didn't work out for them.]]

** If the player so chooses, [[spoiler:on Night 7 he tampers with the electronics (aka uses the level editor) and can just reprogram the robots so that they don't try to murder everyone in sight rather than bothering with the resource management. Of course, this results in the management firing you.]] There are limits to this. While the player can [[spoiler:even set the AI to zero]], he's still not safe. [[spoiler:Lower settings make the characters ''less'' aggressive, but they still try to kill you.]]

* DevelopersForesight: On the custom night, you can set the four AI's difficulties anywhere from 0-20. If you enter the difficulties as 1-9-8-7 (1987; the Bite of '87), [[spoiler:Golden Freddy's death screen appears. This was done to kill rumors about Night 7.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: If you complete [[spoiler:Night 7, you get fired.]]
* EasyLevelTrick: Subverted for Night 1. Both Bonnie and Chica will only attack you if you put down the camera, so one may ''think'' it's safe to just idle without using the camera at all. Doing so will [[spoiler:activate Foxy, who will probably kill you]].
** [[spoiler:Granted, you can just wait till 2 AM, then lock the left door.]] Doing so will effectively make you safe for the rest of the night, so long as you don't bring the camera up.

* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: [[spoiler:Both the Night 5 Call and some hard-to-hear speech from Bonnie and Chica when they're right outside your room are this.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Yes indeed. [[spoiler:A specific poster of Golden Freddy will trigger his appearance in the office, and he will kill you unless you quickly pull up the monitor again.]]
* EvilDuo: Bonnie and Chica are ''almost'' always active together (on Night 1, it's possible to have just one walking around while the other stays onstage). [[spoiler:Unless you made one of them super easy on Night 7.]]
* EvilLaugh: If you hear one during gameplay, it means that Freddy's out and about. [[spoiler:Or that something else got in while you weren't looking...]]
* {{Expy}}: The four mascots are dark parallels of the original Chuck E. Cheese's characters, pre-redesign. Freddy is the face of the restaurant, with an iconic hat a la Chuck. Chica is a female avian like Helen, albeit a chick rather than a hen. Bonnie is similar to Munch in being a goofy-looking purple character with prominent teeth. And Foxy is a canid with a theme, akin to Jasper, but a pirate fox instead of a cowboy/country singer dog.

** [[spoiler:Golden Freddy appears to have no eyes in his costume's eye holes]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: For Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3. Phone Guy's line [[spoiler:"I'm gonna try to hold out until someone checks"]] foreshadows that the animatronic suits [[spoiler:actually CAN be worn without instantaneous death]] and that Phone Guy knew that. Evidently, he [[spoiler:was hoping that he could use that knowledge to avoid dying when he got stuffed, so that he could eventually get rescued]]. It's even possible he did. Possible, but not likely.
** When entering 1, 9, 8 and 7 in Custom Night, you get a Golden Freddy jumpscare.

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[spoiler:Golden Freddy can crash your whole game if you don't immediately get back on the camera after he appears in the office.]]

* GameBreakingBug: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], [[spoiler:see above. The game is programmed to crash immediately after Golden Freddy's attack screen, skipping the game over animation.]]

* GuideDangIt: Though each bot has its own attack patterns, the triggers for some attacks can be very difficult to spot. [[spoiler:Golden Freddy teleports inside your room if you look at a certain poster on your camera feed and will kill you in a few seconds unless you go back to looking at the camera, and Bonnie and Chica can sabotage your door buttons if you let them stand outside the office with the doors open for too long. And even if you deter Foxy when he decides to make a break for your office, and it looks like he's gone back to his booth, the second you stop observing him, he can immediately spring back out of his booth and attack you again without warning.]] These patterns are never brought up by the previous guard, and were frequently mistaken for glitches on the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} forums during the game's release week.

* HarderThanHard: The sixth night is hard enough as a DifficultySpike, but using the LevelEditor for the seventh night can make the AI even harder. The definition of this? [[UpToEleven All AIs set to 20,]] or [[FanNickname 4-20 mode]]. It's practically impossible, what with the huge amount of micromanaging, countering Freddy, and nearly unbeatable likelihood of the game being rendered {{Unwinnable}} by sheer RNG. Despite the difficulty derived from luck-based gameplay, several Let's Players have successfully completed this mode. See Awesome.FiveNightsAtFreddys.
* HauntedTechnology: According to WordOfGod the Animatronics are haunted in some way or another, also hinted with the game's strong connections between their behavior and the five missing children incident.

* ImpossibleTask: For a while, the [[spoiler:7th night (Custom Night) was thought to be impossible with every AI set to 20, due to the amount of luck and skill involved.]] Finally, on August 18th, Twitch streamer Bigbugz managed to [[spoiler:clear the seventh night on a 4/20 run]], proving the task is indeed possible, if extremely difficult.

** Bonnie and Chica can tamper with the cameras if you leave them alone for too long. Let them stand outside the office for long enough, and they'll even [[spoiler:break the door and light buttons]]. [[UnwinnableByDesign You're pretty much screwed if this happens]].
** [[spoiler:As the week goes on, the security guard will start having hallucinations.]]

** Every time you lose. [[spoiler:The animal that got you pops up and screams ''directly in your face,'' with an ear-piercing "SCCCRRREEEEEEEE".]] This is especially jarring if they sneak into the room while you're looking into the camera. You think you're safe, but even if you close the doors it's too late...
** Even worse with Foxy [[spoiler:as he is the fastest and pretty much bum-rushes right for you if you don't keep an eye out. This can even happen if you listen to the opening message each night after the second without viewing the camera]].
** And then there's [[spoiler:Golden Freddy, who will appear if both of your doors are closed and you view a strange poster through the tablet camera.]]

** For that matter, though, if the animatrons are trying to get you because they think you're an endoskeleton without your costume, why not just make a fake costume and wear it to trick them? [[spoiler: Interestingly, this actually is your primary defense mechanism in the second game. It doesn't work on all of the animatronics, though.]]
** Also invoked, [[spoiler:with Night 7, the Custom Night. Specifically, if the animatrons are run by an AI, why not just hack them and make them less aggressive? Turns out you can do that and it works, more or less. Still subverted, though, as even setting their AI levels to 0 still doesn't make them ''completely'' harmless, not to mention hacking the bots gets you fired.]]

* LevelEditor: Unlocked upon completing the normal five nights [[spoiler: and the sixth night.]] Instead of allowing you to create your own SuckECheeses map, it allows you to edit the AI of the animals to your liking.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The game at first makes it seem like you're just trying to survive malfunctioning killer robots. However, TheReveal, the [[spoiler:backmasked message on Night 5]], and several seemingly random events (IE: Gold Freddy, the [[spoiler:"IT'S ME!" message, blood and mucus oozing out of the animatronics]]) strongly imply that ''something'' much more sinister is going on.
** ''Very definitely on the magic side of things'' as of ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 2,]]'' as the Puppet floats around on its own...[[spoiler:and evidently has a bit of involvement with the hauntings, being shown to be the one responsible for the other animatronics coming to life.]]

** The reason they NeverFoundTheBody is actually given to you by Phone Guy in the Night 1 message: "Upon discovering that damage or death have occurred, a missing persons report will be filed within ninety days or '''as soon as property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached and the carpet has been replaced'''..." In order to try and stay open, the [[SarcasmMode wonderful people]] at Fazbear Entertainment[[TradeSnark ®]] will happily clean and sanitize away every trace of your messy demise. Which admittedly raises the question of how the blood and mucus showed up around the animatronics' eyes...
*** Given we see your character's eyes in the suit at the Game Over screen, it wasn't the children's blood and mucus; it was from the guards shoved into the suits. [[spoiler: This is given added support by the end of Sister Location, in which your character's body is taken over by Ennard.]] Which raises a different question -- if the children weren't killed in the animatronics, what happened to them?
** [[spoiler:The bodies of the five children lured into one of the pizzeria's backrooms were never found and are implied to have been shoved into the animatronics' suits.]]
* NightmareFace: Aside from a robot screaming in your face, more unlucky players are likely to catch particularly creepy sights. [[spoiler:Like a special Bonnie face, the hallucinations Golden Freddy gets you, or the sight of Freddy himself staring at the camera with glowing eyes right outside your station.]]

* NoEnding: After withstanding Freddy's unfiltered NightmareFuel for five nights, [[spoiler:you get a comparatively minuscule check and a note from your boss that implies you'll come in again next week.]] Granted, [[spoiler:there ''is'' a sixth night you can unlock, but it merely results in a slightly higher check and some overtime pay. That unlocks the Custom AI night seven, after which you're fired... which is easily the best thing that could happen]].

* NonStandardGameOver: [[spoiler:Freddy is the only animatronic with two kill screens. The first comes when he enters the office during normal play. The second is when the power runs out.]]
** [[spoiler:Golden Freddy appears in your office if you look at the poster at the end of the West Hall while it's displaying his mugshot. If you don't pull up the monitor and switch to a different camera within several seconds, you will be treated to robotic murmurs and hallucinations just before he kills you and crashes the game.]]
* NoodleIncident: The Bite of '87. "It's amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, y'know?" [[spoiler: It's (probably) shown in ''Five Nights at Freddy's 4''. If this is the case, then the incident was a young child being shoved into the mouth of a singing animatronic by his BigBrotherBully. The animatronic couldn't stop in time to prevent himself from crunching down on the poor kid's head.]]

** [[spoiler:Night 7 makes this even more blatant, as the player tampers with the robots' programming and can make them either easier or even more difficult. In other words, making the robots safe can be effortlessly done by a random night watchman and yet the owners are ''still'' too cheap to bother fixing anything. In fact, they actually ''fire'' the protagonist for this.]]

** The kitchen. All you get is an audio-only feed, with no way of determining what's going on in there. There's supposedly not even actual assets for what it looks like. But Chica and Freddy like to visit it as a blind spot to your cameras, and sometimes you can hear Chica ''eating''... something, [[Understatement presumably pizza.]]
** No information is given about Golden Freddy at all in game. The only things we know are that [[spoiler:he's an empty costume, he can teleport, he appears when you set 1-9-8-7 on the custom night, and makes his presence known by appearing on a certain poster.]]

* ObviousRulePatch: Foxy serves this role to Bonnie and Chica. Bonnie and Chica only attack when you lower your camera, leading to the obvious solution of simply never bringing up the camera at all. To counter this, Foxy forces you to bring up the camera to watch and prevent him from rushing you, which also gives Bonnie and Chica the opportunity to attack.

* OffscreenTeleportation: The robotic animals all use this, only moving when you're not looking at the camera feeds. [[spoiler:Except for Foxy, who you can see run down the West Hall towards your office if you let him escape the Pirate's Cove room.]]

* PlayingPossum: The previous night shift guard suggests doing this as a last resort to fool the animatronics into thinking you are simply an empty costume, but admits it would probably be a bad idea. [[spoiler:It can buy you a few seconds of extra time if your power goes out. Just don't break possum. Freddy will react... badly.]]
* PlotHole: Why the hell does the player keep coming back to such a low-paying job with such a high chance of being killed, and why doesn't he bring any weapons with him so he'll have a more effective defense than just doors?
* PressStartToGameOver: [[spoiler:If you set the numbers to 1987 on the custom night, all you get is a Golden Freddy caused game crash.]]

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: You might recognize that nice little jingle that plays [[spoiler:during the 30 seconds between losing power and Freddy killing you]]. [[http://youtu.be/YT1NhLTwwEg?t=8m10s It's actually]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DNGMoMNLRY#t=66 Les Toreadors, by Georges Bizet.]]

** And, by extension, every other night guard, including [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 Jeremy Fitzgerald]] and [[spoiler:Fritz Smith.]]
* PunchClockVillain: The animatronics can be practically strangling you to death by shift's end, but if you survive to 6AM, they apparently let you go and let you leave the building unmolested. The player character seems to just count his blessings and leave [[TooDumbToLive only to come back the next night]].
** Phone Guy says the animatronics aren't able to free roam during the day, not since the bite of 1987 happened anyway. Presumably, 6AM is when this daytime programming mode activates, causing them to change their behavior and leave the player alone.
* RandomEvent:
** Whether it's truly random or requires well-hidden triggers, all sorts of strange or unexpected things may happen that aren't a part of the robots' patterns.
** The sign in Pirate Cove will sometimes change from "Out of Order!" to [[spoiler:"IT'S ME"]].
** [[spoiler:On a very rare occasion, the static upon death and the game over screen will be replaced with a dead-still and soundless image of an eyeless, shadowed Bonnie, before light slowly fades into its eyes and the game returns to the main menu.]]
** A certain poster showing the rules of the restaurant may change as well. [[spoiler:This poster is changed into one of four documents, all of which highlight the reveals of the game]].
** All cemented by the fact that the [[RandomNumberGenerator RNG]] can have unpredictable things happen where it was thought impossible. [[spoiler:Like Golden Freddy and Foxy coming after you on the ''first night.'']]
* RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic: Averted ''entirely'' by the Phone Guy during his recordings for the player, reinforcing the feeling of immersion. He stutters, hesitates, stumbles over some words, repeats himself, goes silent as if to think, trails off during sentences, offers random interjections of 'okay?', says 'um' and 'uh' quite a bit, and in general really does sound like some guy who's just recording a message off the top of his head without a script.
** This is reinforced even further; when he dictates the company message to Mike, there are no mistakes, hinting that he's reading off a piece of paper. Same goes for his antique messages during VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Many have complained that it makes no sense why the doors fly open when the power goes out. Mechanisms are always designed such that -- when they fail -- they fail in the safest way possible. Assuming the doors' designer doesn't know the doors are keeping out killer robots, they would design the doors to open in a power outage so nobody gets trapped inside the office indefinitely.
** Specifically, the doors in the game appear to be armored security doors, which seem to be sealed electromagnetically. Electromagnetic doors are a common occurrence in many higher security locations, and for the safety reasons stated above, they will not remain locked if the power flowing to the locks is cut.

* RoboSpeak: [[spoiler:The Night 5 message and some inaudible dialogue from Chica when she's outside your room are this.]]
* SanityMeter: While lacking an actual meter, the protagonist can still suffer from ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''-style hallucinations, anything from cosmetic changes to a brief InterfaceScrew to [[spoiler:Golden Freddy attacks]], and it happens more and more often as the week drags on.

* SchmuckBait: [[spoiler:Following the steps to the popular 1987 AI setting myth simply leads to the Golden Freddy death as of the Steam release.]]
* SecondLawMyAss: The animatronics get around this by assuming you're a fellow bot out of your costume. [[spoiler:Or at least that's the reason Phone Guy gives you, no one knows for sure.]]

** [[spoiler:Your character as well has skewed priorities; either out of desperation for money, stupidity, or a combination of the two, or plenty of other reasons, you'll return to the screwed-up restaurant up to six times after the initial day, despite the obvious dangers.]]

* StealthPun: As noted in GeniusBonus and FreezeFrameBonus in the trivia section, the distorted messages on night 5 translate to lines from ''Autobiography of a Yogi''. Said distorted quotes are coming from a cartoon bear.

** The protagonist for staying on a job like this past the first night considering the fact that ''death robots designed as humanoid animals'' are after his blood, his coworker ''dies'' before his first week is over, and the fact that he's only paid minimum wage. [[spoiler:You can potentially wise up on the seventh night and use the level editor to make the robots not murder you. Or, if you're of the suicidal kind, [[SelfImposedChallenge you can crank up their AI to the max.]] Changing the robots' AI results in you being fired for tampering with the animatronics, but honestly, that's the best thing that could happen to you.]]
*** There is actually a little logic at work here. The only hint you get that the robots are dangerous comes from a recording made from a clearly...not completely sane man. And even after you verify that the animatronics do indeed move at night and try to reach your office, you still don't have real proof that they are going to kill you (the fact that a couple of robots are malfunctioning and acting in a creepy way is easier to believe than the fact that said robots can and ''will'' kill you). At least until the final night, the protagonist could have just decided to keep the robots out anyway, possibly as part of his job, without really believing that the risk was real.

* UnreliableExpositor: WordOfGod says that Phone Guy is this. Credence is lent to it in that Bonnie can appear ''in the same room as the unclothed endoskeleton '''at the same time''''', and does so only to leer into the camera, and ''not do a thing'' about the endoskeleton, which supposedly ''has'' to wear a costume.
* UnwinnableByDesign: The door and light on one side of the room can lock up and be rendered unusable. [[spoiler:Since there's no way to fix this, unless your shift is almost over and lady luck is feeling really merciful, you're pretty much screwed.]] This typically happens when you've screwed up and let one of the animatronics sneak into your room when you weren't looking.

* ViolationOfCommonSense: Dealing with Golden Freddy requires you immediately do something that will get you killed if you're threatened by another animatronic- [[spoiler: looking at the monitor. While this will cause all the other animatronics to attack you, Golden Freddy will just disappear.]]
* WalkingSpoiler: Golden Freddy. Not his very existence, but his role in the storyline and the other games. [[spoiler:It's implied that one of the missing children is haunting him as well. To make this even more shocking, it's also implied that he's Fredbear, and that he might have '''caused the Bite of '87.''']]

* AWinnerIsYou: When you beat the game, [[spoiler:all you get for your efforts is a screenshot of a check for the laughably small amount of $120, with the words "Good job, sport! (See you next week)" above it, while Freddy's tune plays in the background. Complete the Night 6 BonusLevel, and you get a check for $120.50. Complete Night 7, and you get a notice of termination for tampering with the animatronics]].
* YearX: The game takes place on November of the year XX, [[spoiler:according to the paychecks you receive at the end of Nights 5 and 6]].

** If [[spoiler:either door jams on you, it's because Chica or Bonnie is right outside, had enough time to disable the switches, and will kill you the moment you look at the camera]] and you don't have long to live... unless you are seconds away from completing the shift. Worse, [[spoiler:if you see Freddy sporting his game face in the East Hall Corner, and have the right-hand door open, then hear him laugh after you put the camera down, it means he's likely invaded the Office.]]

* PlotHole: Why the hell does the player keep coming back to such a low-paying job with such a high chance of being killed, and why doesn't he bring any weapons with him so he'll have a more effective defense than just doors? Also, why do the doors need power to stay closed? If they need power for anything, you would think it would be to stay open.

* AloneWithThePsycho: Just you alone in a closed pizza joint with four murderous robots from midnight to dawn. [[SarcasmMode Great job, eh?]]

* DeadToBeginWith: Every antagonist is possessed by a [[spoiler:murdered child ([[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 3rd game]]). The two reasons for this is [[GreaterScopeVillain William Afton]][[note]]he is first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, practically his physical form is shown in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and his real name is first introduced in Sister Location[[/note]] who killed the children in the first place and [[BigBad The]] [[BigGood Puppet/Lefty]][[note]]originally murdered by William Afton, was Cassette Man's/Henry's daughter and is also DeadToBeginWith[[/note]] who gave the murdered children life by stuffing them and their souls into the second location's animatronic mascots, allowing their remnants to possess the suits. Golden Freddy/Fredbear was also given life by The Puppet.]]

** The kitchen. All you get is an audio-only feed, with no way of determining what's going on in there. There's supposedly not even actual assets for what it looks like. But Chica and Freddy like to visit it as a blind spot to your cameras, and sometimes you can hear Chica ''eating''... something, presumably pizza.

* DeadToBeginWith: Every antagonist is possessed by a [[spoiler:murdered child ([[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 3rd game]]). The two reasons for this is [[GreaterScopeVillain William Afton]][[note]]he is first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, practically his physical form is shown in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and his real name is first introduced in Sister Location[[/note]] who killed the children in the first place and [[BigBad The]] [[BigGood Puppet/Lefty]][[note]]originally murdered by William Afton, was Cassette Man's/Henry's daughter and is also DeadToBeginWith[[/note]] who gave the murdered children life by stuffing them and their souls into the second location's animatronic mascots, allowing their remnants to possess the suits. Golden Freddy/Fredbear was also given life by The Puppet.]]

* DeadToBeginWith: Every antagonist is possessed by a [[spoiler:murdered child ([[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by the [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3 3rd game]]). The two reasons for this is [[GreaterScopeVillain William Afton]][[note]]he was first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, practically his physical form is shown in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and his real name was first introduced in Sister Location[[/note]] who killed the children in the first place and [[BigBad The]] [[BigGood Puppet/Lefty]][[note]]originally murdered by William Afton, was Cassette Man's/Henry's daughter and is also DeadToBeginWith[[/note]] who gave the murdered children life by stuffing them and their souls into the second location's animatronic mascots, allowing their remnants to possess the suits. Golden Freddy/Fredbear was also given life by The Puppet.]]

* DeadToBeginWith: Every antagonist is possessed by a [[spoiler:dead child. The two reasons for this is [[GreaterScopeVillain William Afton]][[note]]first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, practically his physical form in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and his real name was first introduced in Sister Location[[/note]] who killed the children in the first place and [[BigBad The]] [[BigGood Puppet/Lefty]][[note]]murdered by William Afton, was Cassette Man's/Henry's daughter, also DeadToBeginWith[[/note]] who gave the murdered children life by stuffing them and their souls into the second location's animatronic mascots, allowing their remnants to possess the suits.]]

* DeadToBeginWith: Every antagonist is possessed by a [[spoiler:dead child. The two reasons for this is [[GreaterScopeVillain William Afton[[note]]first introduced in Five Nights at Freddy's 2, practically his physical form in Five Nights at Freddy's 3 and his real name was first introduced in Sister Location[[/note]] who killed the children in the first place and [[BigBad The]] [[BigGood Puppet/Lefty[[note]]murdered by William Afton, was Cassette Man's/Henry's daughter, also DeadToBeginWith]] who gave the murdered children life by stuffing them and their souls into the second location's animatronic mascots, allowing their remnants to possess the suits.]]

Good job, sport! ''[[spoiler:[[HereWeGoAgain (see you next week)]]]]''
----

* BloodlessCarnage: Surprisingly, this game contains no blood or gore, [[spoiler:aside from your character's eyeballs (with the veins in plain sight, so presumably still attached to the skull) appearing out of the eyes from the Freddy costume's head and a human set of teeth behind the costume's set on the game over screen]], despite the horrific manner in which your death is implied.

* LevelEditor: Unlocked upon completing the normal five nights. Instead of allowing you to create your own SuckECheeses map, it allows you to edit the AI of the animals to your liking.

* LastStand: [[spoiler:This game is this for Fazbear Entertainment. With the second and fourth game being prequels, the fifth game being a sequel, taking place in its sister location run by a different company entirely, and the third game being the current chronological GrandFinale, taking place 30 years after the pizzeria closed permanently, this is very likely the final incarnation of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.]]

[[http://scottgames.com/]] (2014) is a horror-themed strategy game by Creator/ScottCawthon and the first in [[Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys the eponymous franchise]]. It's based around resource management: you have a nonrenewable source of electricity that drains every time you use the cameras, shut the doors, or turn on the lights. If an animatronic enters the office, it will kill you instantly. If you make it to 6 AM, you live to work another night shift. Each animatronic (Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and the titular Freddy) has a different pattern and triggers, which makes learning those patterns and triggers a must if you want to win. The real horror from the game comes not from the jump scares that happen when you lose (and sometimes even when you win), but from the frantic horror of trying to keep an eye on your potential killers while handling your electricity in the most efficient way possible.

[[https://fivenightsatfreddys.co Five Nights at Freddy's]] (2014) is a horror-themed strategy game by Creator/ScottCawthon and the first in [[Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys the eponymous franchise]]. It's based around resource management: you have a nonrenewable source of electricity that drains every time you use the cameras, shut the doors, or turn on the lights. If an animatronic enters the office, it will kill you instantly. If you make it to 6 AM, you live to work another night shift. Each animatronic (Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and the titular Freddy) has a different pattern and triggers, which makes learning those patterns and triggers a must if you want to win. The real horror from the game comes not from the jump scares that happen when you lose (and sometimes even when you win), but from the frantic horror of trying to keep an eye on your potential killers while handling your electricity in the most efficient way possible.

''Five Nights at Freddy's'' (2014) is a horror-themed strategy game by Creator/ScottCawthon and the first in [[Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys the eponymous franchise]]. It's based around resource management: you have a nonrenewable source of electricity that drains every time you use the cameras, shut the doors, or turn on the lights. If an animatronic enters the office, it will kill you instantly. If you make it to 6 AM, you live to work another night shift. Each animatronic (Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and the titular Freddy) has a different pattern and triggers, which makes learning those patterns and triggers a must if you want to win. The real horror from the game comes not from the jump scares that happen when you lose (and sometimes even when you win), but from the frantic horror of trying to keep an eye on your potential killers while handling your electricity in the most efficient way possible.

* {{Kawaisa}}:
** Oddly enough for a game like this, the little cupcake with huge eyes is adorable.
** The game takes the creepy animatronics and makes [[FunSize little adorable plushies]] out of them, taking this trope UpToEleven.
** You can actually buy the plushies in real life. They wouldn't look out of place in a baby's crib (like [[http://twisted-dubstep-girl.deviantart.com/art/Lyra-and-Foxy-636583901 here]]), and they are quite cuddly.

''{{What could possibly go wrong}}?''

[[redirect:Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/768_8964.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[MemeticMutation Are you ready for Freddy?]]]]
-> ''"Family pizzeria looking for security guard to work the nightshift. 12 am to 6 am. Monitor cameras, ensure safety of equipment and animatronic characters. Not responsible for injury/[[BreadEggsMilkSquick dismemberment.]]"''
--> -- Newspaper ad for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza

Congratulations, you have a new job as the night watchman at [[SuckECheeses Freddy Fazbear's Pizza]]! It couldn't be simpler: you spend the night watching the security cameras for any sign of trouble...not that you would have to expect any trouble at such [[BlatantLies a quiet, innocent place]].

...well, if we're being ''completely'' honest, we know you've probably heard rumours that the animatronic characters tend to...wander a bit at night. And if they spot you, [[CruelAndUnusualDeath they'll stuff your fleshy body into an empty costume filled with needlessly sharp metal components]]. But even ''if'' those were true, you don't need to worry, because you can just close the doors to your office.

...okay, if you want ''full'' disclosure, closing the doors will use up part of the small amount of generator power you're allotted each night. Yeah, the company doesn't like to waste money on things like needless amounts of electricity, especially for a night shift. Checking the cameras and turning on the lights to check your blind spots will also use up power. But really, what's the worst that could happen if the power goes out? You sit in the dark for a while with two very open doors, no big deal.

You really don't have ''anything'' to worry about. You acknowledged as much when you signed your legally-binding employment contract. It's just five nights.

''[[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong What could go wrong?]]''

'''''Five Nights at Freddy's''''', released in 2014, is a horror-themed strategy game based around resource management: you have a non-replenishing source of electricity that drains every time you use the cameras, shut the doors, or turn on the lights. If an animatronic enters the office, it will instantly kill you. If you make it to 6 AM, you live to work another night shift. Each animatronic (Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and the eponymous Freddy) has a different pattern and triggers, which makes learning those patterns and triggers a must if you want to win. The real horror from the game comes not from the jump scares that happen when you lose (and sometimes even when you win), but from the frantic horror of trying to keep an eye on your potential killers while handling your electricity in the most efficient way possible.

You can purchase the game on [[http://www.indiedb.com/games/five-nights-at-freddys Desura]], [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/319510/ Steam]], [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scottgames.fivenightsatfreddys&hl=en Google Play]], and the [[https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id912536422?mt=8 iTunes App Store]].

The game's surprise success ensured the release of three sequels: ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'', (released in November 2014), ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'' (released in March 2015), and the series finalé, ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' (released in July 2015).

[[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/video-game-five-nights-at-787061 Warner Bros. picked up the rights to make a film based on the games in April 2015.]] It is set to be directed by WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse director Gil Kenan and [[{{Defictionalization}} the animatronics will be built by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.]]

Along with that, [[http://kotaku.com/five-nights-at-freddy-s-creator-is-making-an-rpg-1730892115 a new spin-off game has been announced]] called ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddysWorld'', a LighterAndSofter RPG where you can choose to play as any of the animatronics.

''This game has its own [[Characters/FiveNightsAtFreddys Character Page.]]''

----

!!''Five Night's At Freddy's'' provides examples of:

* AdultFear: Those slightly off-putting animatronics have been disturbing parents for years, but kids still come to the pizzeria and have parties. The fact that [[spoiler:at least five were murdered - and seemingly stuffed into the animatronic suits - on restaurant grounds, and the animatronics subsequently developed a foul smell and became stained with "blood and mucus,"]] doesn't help matters.
** For that matter, [[spoiler:the murders themselves. A psycho dressing up as a kid-friendly character, luring a child into a back room, and brutally murdering them is practically lifted from parents' nightmares.]]
* AIIsACrapshoot: According to the Phone Guy, the mascots aren't acting maliciously, they're simply taking a poor friend who forgot his suit and helping him to put it on. On the other hand, Foxy's behavior, [[BrainFood the Bite of '87]], the Night 5 phone message, and the fact that our pal Freddy can seemingly sneak in through locked doors on Night 6 seem to indicate something more sinister is going on with the lovable mascots of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.
* AloneWithThePsycho: Just you alone in a closed pizza joint with four murderous robots from midnight to dawn. [[SarcasmMode Great job, eh?]]
%%* AndIMustScream: A popular idea is that the animatronics are haunted by the spirits of the children murdered and stuffed into them several years ago, but they are helpless to control the dangerous faulty AI of the robots themselves. By this theory, each would be an ApologeticAttacker if they could speak, since they can't help it. Even worse, they've been condemned to be trapped inside the suits of the ''characters they loved'', witnessing attacks by the robots through the suits. It's even possible the animatronics were helplessly haunted when the Bite of '87 happened. Horrifying for the witnesses? What about the child who was trapped inside the bloodthirsty animatronic?
%%** However, in a weird sort of [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] to one half of this trope, screaming seems to be the only thing the spirits trapped in the suits CAN do. The full scream effect when a robot catches you sounds disturbingly like a child's scream, implying that the ghosts are trying to be heard.
%%** Another less popular idea is that the animatronics themselves are [[BenevolentAI friendly]], but [[OurGhostsAreDifferent the ghosts are vengeful or angry]], and are using the robots to seek revenge on the living.
* AntagonistTitle: Freddy's the default BigBad[[note]]though, by the second game, it very quickly becomes clear that he's not ''the'' BigBad; the role belongs to someone [[WouldHurtAChild much,]] [[SerialKiller much]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters worse]][[/note]] of the game. He's also in the title for the game, as well as the game's cover art.
* ApocalypticLog: Though it's hardly an apocalyptic scenario, the Phone Guy's recorded messages are pretty nightmarish. [[spoiler:It becomes more true to the trope on Night 4, when he runs out of power and Freddy kills him in the middle of his recording.]]
* ArcNumber: 1987, the date [[BrainFood the Bite of '87]] occurred.
* ArcWords: The phrase [[spoiler:"IT'S ME"]] shows up in a lot of late-game interface screws.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: After completing [[spoiler:the "Custom Night", the management fires you for "tampering with the animatronics", "general unprofessionalism", and "odor."]]
* ArtificialStupidity: As capable as the AI is at messing with you, when the mascots ultimately come for you, they will always come from the same directions. [[spoiler:Bonnie and Foxy will only ever come at you from the left, Chica and Freddy always from the right, unless the power goes out, then Freddy comes from the left.]]
* AscendedMeme: The tagline for the Android port of the game is "Are you ready for Freddy?", a phrase popularized on 4chan.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** A non-humorous variant. Starting with the second night, you're taught to keep an eye on Foxy in the Pirate's Cove or else he'll rush you. [[spoiler:By the end of the game, suddenly even so much as checking on the Pirate's Cove can set him off, assuring your death if you're not fast enough.]]
** Both the trailer and the Steam summary of the game conveniently leave out Foxy. So, until you get the call from the previous guard about the Cove, you're left believing that there are only three animatronics to look after. [[spoiler:And even then, you've got absolutely no indicator that there is a Golden Freddy lurking about.]]
* BearsAreBadNews: Oh yes they are. [[spoiler:Golden bears are ''even worse''.]]
* BehindTheBlack: One tactic they use is to slip into the room ''when your tablet is up.''
* BlackComedy: The sheer awfulness of working at Freddy's is lampshaded in the phone messages and sometimes played for dark laughs. In the [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150119023045/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/3/38/2014-08-29_00001.png newspaper's "Help Wanted"]] section, there's even this message: "Not responsible for injury/dismemberment."
* BlackSpeech: The final [[spoiler:telephone call contains this. It's actually a backwards masked message with the pitch dropped down]]. It's difficult to make out the entire message, but someone was able to figure it out. [[spoiler:It is an excerpt from ''Autobiography of a Yogi'' by Paramhansa Yogananda. Appropriately enough, this is an excerpt from the section in which the yogi demonstrates that metal is alive]].
-->(Omitted: Sir,) it is lamentable that mass agricultural development is not speeded by fuller use of your marvelous mechanisms. Would it not be easily possible to employ some of them in quick laboratory experiments to indicate the influence of various types of fertilizers on plant growth?" "You are right. Countless uses of (omitted: Bose instruments) will be made by future generations. The scientist seldom knows contemporaneous reward; it is enough to possess the joy of creati- (omitted: -ve service.)
** [[spoiler:Bonnie's and Chica's electronic gibbering is another backmasked excerpt from the same chapter.]]
** Inverted as the sounds used were stock sounds that came with the game engine used.
* BloodlessCarnage: Surprisingly, this game contains no blood or gore, [[spoiler:aside from your character's eyeballs (with the veins in plain sight, so presumably still attached to the skull) appearing out of the eyes from the Freddy costume's head and a human set of teeth behind the costume's set on the game over screen]], despite the horrific manner in which your death is implied.
* BrainFood: The Bite of '87.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick:
** '''Newspaper Advertisement:'''
--> Family pizzeria looking for security guard to work the nightshift. 12 am to 6 am. Monitor cameras, ensure safety of equipment and animatronic characters. Not responsible for injury/dismemberment.
** And from the East Hall, we have the Rules for Safety:
--> '''1. Don't run. 2. Don't yell. 3. Don't scream. 4. Don't poop on floor. 5. Stay close to mom. 6. Don't touch Freddy. 7. Don't hit. 8. Leave before dark. Thank You, Management'''
* BringMyBrownPants: If you finish a custom level, [[spoiler:you get fired for "general unprofessionalism" and "odor".]]
* BrutalBonusLevel: Night 6, unlocked after finishing the main game.
* CameraScrew: Sometimes the words "IT'S ME" will briefly flash on a camera screen if you look at them. Freddy's face will also flash from time to time, and they just get worse as the week goes on. Also, as the days go on, the animatronics may appear to flicker and twitch on your screen when in fact they're standing still.
* CasualDangerDialogue[=/=]DangerDeadpan: Phone Guy on night 4 [[spoiler:seems pretty unconcerned that he's about to die]].
* CatchPhrase: Phone Guy has "Hello, hello", which he says at the start of his voicemails.
* ControllableHelplessness: If the player allows either Bonnie or Chica to linger for too long outside of the doors while said doors are open, they will sneak into the room and disable the door and light buttons on that side. From here, the player can still look right and left, but can't check the camera.[[note]]If Bonnie or Chica enters the room, they will not actually kill you until you check the cameras and then lower them.[[/note]] This leaves them with virtually nothing to do but to click the broken buttons and, in the case of the left door being jammed, wait for Foxy to charge in. Or in the case of the right door, let Freddy sneak in and then pounce on you.
** If you run out of power, the cameras, lights, and doors stop working, but you can still turn and look around for a short while until Freddy kills you. However, if you move at all during this period, Freddy will kill you more quickly. If you're close to the end of the night, playing dead might buy you the extra few seconds you need to win the night.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: One interpretation of the pizzeria's decisions. Despite The Bite of '87, the killer robots, and [[spoiler:all the possible death they've caused along with the kid's/guard's innards still implied to be inside them and never removed,]] they still tried to get parents and businesses on their side and [[WinBackTheCrowd keep everything going 'for the kids']] without ever fixing anything. [[spoiler:Although it may or may not be entirely their fault, it didn't work out for them.]]
* CosmeticAward: Stars adorning the main menu screen are rewarded upon completing the fifth and sixth nights, and after people started to beat the custom mode with the hardest AI difficulties, the maker of the game added an unlockable third star for the menu to showcase it.
* CowerPower: Phone Guy tells you to play dead (i.e., don't move at all) if you're ever caught. Doing this when power runs out can buy you some valuable time before your shift ends, possibly even enough to make it to 6 AM.
* CrapsackWorld: The backstory of the Pizzeria, and the fact that it's SOMEHOW still open, can give this vibe. [[spoiler:On the other hand, the fact that it's bankrupt and due to close by year's end indicates there's SOME amount of justice.]]
* CreatorCameo: Scott Cawthon himself voices Phone Guy.
* CreepyShadowedUndereyes: Between their eyes directly attached to their endoskeletons, and the eye holes of their costumes, the animatronics all have this.
* CripplingOverspecialization: This series is ''nothing'' without its jump scares. Players who aren't especially susceptible to jump scares, or who aren't willing to put up with games made of jump scares and nothing else, are very unlikely to think highly of the series.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath:
** If Freddy and friends catch you, [[spoiler:you get shoved into a suit filled with sharp bits of metal, live wires, crossbeams, and animatronic devices. All that remains when it's over are your eyes and teeth. You can see the aftermath on the game over screen.]][[note]]The sheer horribleness of that may not be particularly evident to some people. Then you realize that would be ''excruciatingly painful.''[[/note]]
** [[spoiler:The worker who talks with you over the phone suffers the above fate on the fourth night. Then the calls get...weird.]]
* CuttingTheKnot:
** If the player so chooses, [[spoiler:on Night 7 he tampers with the electronics (aka uses the level editor) and can just reprogram the robots so that they don't try to murder everyone in sight rather than bothering with the resource management. Of course, this results in the management firing you.]] There are limits to this. While the player can [[spoiler:even set the AI to zero]], he's still not safe. [[spoiler:Lower settings make the characters ''less'' aggressive, but they still try to kill you.]]
** On the robots' side, Foxy will simply charge you if you don't keep the camera on him regularly.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Unlike most games, pressing Esc doesn't pause the game; it closes it.
* DangerousWorkplace: In the day the place should be safe. By night the four killer mascots will haunt the restaurant and stuff the night watch in a Freddy suit full of animatronic parts.
* DarknessEqualsDeath: If you let the power drain too early in the night, Freddy walks into your office unopposed. Unless you're very close to the end of the night, death is unavoidable at this point.
* DaylightHorror: [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] by the Phone Guy's account of The Bite of '87, stating it as the reason why the characters are no longer allowed to roam during the day. It also heavily implies that The Bite took place during the business hours of the restaurant, in front of many children and parents.
* DeathGlare: In the trailer, the animatronics briefly turn and stare at the camera with the angriest expression they can manage; in the actual game, Foxy sports a deranged-looking glare with GlowingEyesOfDoom when he starts emerging from his curtain, not helped by the fact he's holding his hook to his chin as if pondering whether to attack you or not.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: On the custom night, you can set the four AI's difficulties anywhere from 0-20. If you enter the difficulties as 1-9-8-7 (1987; the Bite of '87), [[spoiler:Golden Freddy's death screen appears. This was done to kill rumors about Night 7.]]
* DifficultySpike:
** Night 2 officially introduces you to Foxy, who will rush your position if he is left unattended by the camera. He'll even attack if you spend too long just listening to the phone. Despite this, Foxy is still a threat during the first night, as he still won't hesitate to attack if you fail to check Pirate Cove at all. Later on in the week, he'll attack if you check Pirate Cove ''too often'' as well. You also have to contend with Freddy himself, who seems designed to exploit flaws in how the player has been going about things.
** [[BrutalBonusLevel Night Six]] is this to the entire game. Can also be [[InvokedTrope inv]][[SelfImposedChallenge oked]] by the bonus LevelEditor.
* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: Just like ''VideoGame/GameDevTycoon'', a pirated version is "bugged", causing a JumpScare every time the game is closed. The game is still fully playable, however.
* DramaticDisappearingDisplay: When you lose all of your power, the power and usage HUD will disappear. The clock and night number also become absent.
* DropInNemesis: The entire game revolves around this trope.
* DummiedOut: According to [[http://www.reddit.com/r/fivenightsatfreddys/comments/2vc0bt/my_examination_of_the_five_nights_at_freddys_1 this analysis]] of the source code, Scott had originally planned a system of lives, where the player would be brought back to Night 1 after five deaths. This was dropped for pretty obvious reasons.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Very light on story compared to future installments (what the latter games made a big deal of were effectively EasterEggs), has flashing hallucinations that don't show up ever again, maintaining power and dying when the lights go out is only in this one, Golden Freddy's appearance is preceded by a poster changing instead of him just showing up, and Freddy actually has a distinct role as opposed to the others where he's pretty much on the level of every other animatronic.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: If you complete [[spoiler:Night 7, you get fired.]]
* EasyLevelTrick: Subverted for Night 1. Both Bonnie and Chica will only attack you if you put down the camera, so one may ''think'' it's safe to just idle without using the camera at all. Doing so will [[spoiler:activate Foxy, who will probably kill you]].
** [[spoiler:Granted, you can just wait till 2 AM, then lock the left door.]] Doing so will effectively make you safe for the rest of the night, so long as you don't bring the camera up.
* TheEighties: The year [[ArcNumber 1987]] is commonly referred to throughout the first two games. The first game mentions the Bite of '87, in which an animatronic bit off someone's frontal lobe.
* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: [[spoiler:Both the Night 5 Call and some hard-to-hear speech from Bonnie and Chica when they're right outside your room are this.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Yes indeed. [[spoiler:A specific poster of Golden Freddy will trigger his appearance in the office, and he will kill you unless you quickly pull up the monitor again.]]
* EvilDuo: Bonnie and Chica are ''almost'' always active together (on Night 1, it's possible to have just one walking around while the other stays onstage). [[spoiler:Unless you made one of them super easy on Night 7.]]
* EvilLaugh: If you hear one during gameplay, it means that Freddy's out and about. [[spoiler:Or that something else got in while you weren't looking...]]
* {{Expy}}: The four mascots are dark parallels of the original Chuck E. Cheese's characters, pre-redesign. Freddy is the face of the restaurant, with an iconic hat a la Chuck. Chica is a female avian like Helen, albeit a chick rather than a hen. Bonnie is similar to Munch in being a goofy-looking purple character with prominent teeth. And Foxy is a canid with a theme, akin to Jasper, but a pirate fox instead of a cowboy/country singer dog.
** In a way, they're also the Rock-A-Fire Explosion, signature animatronic band of Showbiz Pizza Place. Not only are they full-figure animatronics -- something Chuck and his gang didn't get until after the merger -- but Foxy's positioning on a separate stage, and his possession of a unique accessory that takes up his right hand, actually brings him closer to the Rock-A-Fire's Rolfe De Wolfe.
** Eurogamer compared the mascots to the [[Series/DoctorWho Weeping Angels]].
** [[spoiler:Golden Freddy is essentially Slender Man with no tentacles and a different appearance, down to his face covering the screen when he kills you. There's no static, of course, because he's not there when, y'know, you see the poster and you're not looking at him through the camera when you ''do'' see him. Looking directly at him ''does'' cause increased hallucinations, though.]]
* ExcusePlot: The owners' ignorance of the killer animatronics and [[TooDumbToLive the player character's insistence on continuing to work the job]] don't make much sense, that's for sure. Ridiculous as the plot may be, however, it's ultimately just a setup for some gameplay that was given ''much'' more TLC.
* EyeScream: {{Inverted|Trope}}. Your character's eyeballs and teeth are the only things that remain of their body after a game over.
* EyelessFace:
** Sometimes, the Animatronics will have their faces right in the camera, specifically [[http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/562142740722855170/65D92863FD958DB7D3036D5166681308A99E8D93 Bonnie]] and [[http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/570023530206785201/345A39D640A80E7209B4F22A796C9F92787F9D0B Freddy]]. When they do this, they appear effectively eyeless.
** [[spoiler:Golden Freddy appears to have no eyes in his costume's eye holes]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: For Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3. Phone Guy's line [[spoiler:"I'm gonna try to hold out until someone checks"]] foreshadows that the animatronic suits [[spoiler:actually CAN be worn without instantaneous death]] and that Phone Guy knew that. Evidently, he [[spoiler:was hoping that he could use that knowledge to avoid dying when he got stuffed, so that he could eventually get rescued]]. It's even possible he did. Possible, but not likely.
* FourIsDeath: There are four animatronics trying to kill you [[spoiler:and the Phone Guy ends up that way on the fourth night.]]
* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[spoiler:Golden Freddy can crash your whole game if you don't immediately get back on the camera after he appears in the office.]]
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Foxy is framed as this among the animatronics, since he's not advertised in-game or in-universe, he's secluded, and you have no warning about him.
* GameBreakingBug: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], [[spoiler:see above. The game is programmed to crash immediately after Golden Freddy's attack screen, skipping the game over animation.]]
* GameFace: The animatronics normally have tame facial expressions. But then they begin to turn fiendish...
** Bonnie's DeathGlare into the Backstage camera. Those pinprick eyes vault him straight to ''[[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140824235245/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/c/c8/555.png diabolical]]''.
** And then there's [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140830192000/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/b/b9/Freddy_Staring.jpg Freddy's]] [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140825033550/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/0/00/Cam1B_freddy.png numerous]] [[http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140825033834/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/8/81/Cam7_freddy.png glares]], with the very worst showing up [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/freddy-fazbears-pizza/images/8/8a/486.png when he's at the precipice of killing the player]].
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The animatronics are supposed to be roaming freely at night to keep them operational, but they actually stay put whenever you observe them.
* GenreSavvy: Can be invoked by the player on night seven, [[LevelEditor if they choose to tamper with the bots]] and set them on the lowest difficulty setting. However, most people prefer to set them to the highest level in order to win the [[HarderThanHard notorious]] 4/20 mode.
* GigglingVillain: Freddy uses an unnerving girl's giggle, slowed down. The unaltered sound clip plays whenever the player looks at Golden Freddy's poster.
* GuideDangIt: Though each bot has its own attack patterns, the triggers for some attacks can be very difficult to spot. [[spoiler:Golden Freddy teleports inside your room if you look at a certain poster on your camera feed and will kill you instantly unless you go back to looking at the camera, and Bonnie and Chica can sabotage your door buttons if you let them stand outside the office with the doors open for too long. And even if you deter Foxy when he decides to make a break for your office, and it looks like he's gone back to his booth, the second you stop observing him, he can immediately spring back out of his booth and attack you again without warning.]] These patterns are never brought up by the previous guard, and were frequently mistaken for glitches on the UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} forums during the game's release week.
* HanlonsRazor: A lot of the horribleness from working at night comes from the management being too incompetent to deal with the robots, if not outright getting rid of them.
* HarderThanHard: The sixth night is hard enough as a DifficultySpike, but using the LevelEditor for the seventh night can make the AI even harder. The definition of this? [[UpToEleven All AIs set to 20,]] or [[FanNickname 4-20 mode]]. It's practically impossible, what with the huge amount of micromanaging, countering Freddy, and nearly unbeatable likelihood of the game being rendered {{Unwinnable}} by sheer RNG. Despite the difficulty derived from luck-based gameplay, several Let's Players have successfully completed this mode. See Awesome.FiveNightsAtFreddys.
* HauntedTechnology: According to WordOfGod the Animatronics are haunted in some way or another, also hinted with the game's strong connections between their behavior and the five missing children incident.
* HellIsThatNoise:
** '''[[JumpScare SSSSSCCCRRRRRRREEEEEE]]'''.
** The tune that plays when Freddy catches you when the power runs out. If the night doesn't end before the tune finishes playing, then see directly above.
** When you stare at one of the animatronics through the camera, sometimes you hear a disturbing ambient noise along with the above mentioned camera screw. This noise can last even ''after'' you look away from them.
** The pained 'breathing' the animatronics make if they've managed to sneak into your room while you're still looking through the cameras. You're doomed the moment you pull the monitor down. Or ''they'' do it for you.
** A sound effect sometimes plays to indicate an animatronic is on the move. If you hear running footsteps, you'd better think fast.
** If you try to close a door after Bonnie or Chica have slipped into the office, you'll get an error sound instead. At that point, your death is almost certain.
** The sound of everything turning off. Made worse by the fact that it's possible to win after that, making it potentially a terrifyingly suspenseful HopeSpot too.
** Freddy's laugh, serving as a warning he's changed position, and growing progressively louder as he nears the Office. ''Especially'' if the game is set to 4/20 mode, where Freddy '''refuses''' to quit moving, flooding the whole pizza place with the incessant sound of his evil laugh.
** Occasionally, clowny music will faintly play in the background of the game. This is somewhat uncommon, but it seems to happen more when Bonnie or Chica are approaching their respective hallways.
** Dum dee dum dum dum....
* HereWeGoAgain: After you complete the fifth night, you receive a check and a message that says "Good job, sport! [[spoiler:(see you next week)]]".
** Three words: [[spoiler:"Grand Reopening 2015"...nope]].
** Four words: [[spoiler:"I am still here"...NOPE]].
** Three more words: [[spoiler:"The Final Chapter"...[[RunningGag NOOOOPE.]]]]
* HoldTheLine: The entire goal of the game is to survive from midnight to 6 AM, taking an entirely passive role against the robots.
* HomicideMachines: The animatronics kill anyone they come across after dark.
* HopeSpot: That ''silence'' when the light finally fizzles out to complete darkness after Freddy finishes his song, which seems to last forever. You'll either be greeted with the clock rolling over to 6 AM if you made it long enough...or Freddy's shrieking face rushing you.
* IKnowYoureWatchingMe: If you find one of the mascots, chances are it will be [[NightmareFace leering]] into the camera.
* ImpossibleTask: For a while, the [[spoiler:7th night (Custom Night) was thought to be impossible with every AI set to 20, due to the amount of luck and skill involved.]] Finally, on August 18th, Twitch streamer Bigbugz managed to [[spoiler:clear the seventh night on a 4/20 run]], proving the task is indeed possible, if extremely difficult.
** It took LetsPlay/{{Markiplier}} [[{{Determinator}} seven hours]] to do so, but he managed it as well, proving that Bigbugz's run wasn't just a fluke.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5aPPW4ftWc This guy]] did it too, with a fantastic reaction to [[spoiler:being fired.]]
* InfantImmortality: Averted [[spoiler:in the backstory, where five children were kidnapped and murdered]].
* InfiniteSupplies: [[DefiedTrope You]] ''[[ResourcesManagementGameplay wish]]''. Each night, you're allotted a given amount of electricity that starts at 99% and drains constantly thanks to the light inside the guard station; checking your cameras, turning on the lights in the nearby hallways, or closing the guard doors further saps from your total. Manage it carefully.
* InstantWinCondition: As long as you reach 6 AM, you win -- even if Freddy is staring right at you, just finishing up his song after you reach zero power. Waiting until 5 AM and then stalling can actually let you survive sometimes... if he feels like playing the full song before killing you, anyway.
** You could play dead, however. [[spoiler:Really. Don't move. Or Freddy doesn't feel like playing the full song.]]
** One possible explanation for why they leave you alone exactly at 6 AM is that their programming makes them switch to day-time mode at 6:00 AM
* InterfaceScrew:
** Bonnie and Chica can tamper with the cameras if you leave them alone for too long. Let them stand outside the office for long enough, and they'll even [[spoiler:break the door and light buttons]]. [[UnwinnableByDesign You're pretty much screwed if this happens]].
** [[spoiler:As the week goes on, the security guard will start having hallucinations.]]
* {{Irony}}:
** According to the paycheck you get on Night 6 (which is the hardest night to complete unless you up the ante on Night 7 with the Level Editor), the date is November 13. Although [[ThirteenIsUnlucky the date]] is an unfortunate number, November 13 is ''World Kindness Day''.
** For a pizzeria managed by people who go out and beyond to clean all physical traces of gore in the building, [[spoiler:you'd think they'd give the costumes said treatment since they smell like corpses and leak bodily fluids]].
* JumpScare: Very effectively used. Rather than as a replacement for actual atmosphere, they're used to complement the atmosphere. The jump scares, as they're [[{{Understatement}} unpleasant]], cause the player to play the game in constant terror and paranoia of them. The atmosphere and danger of the animatronics is greatly enhanced knowing that [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou at any minute this game could actually "hurt" you should you fail]]. Rather than mistaking "startling" for "scaring", this game makes you ''scared'' of being ''startled''. Examples of where they're used:
** If you turn on the lights in the hallway when there's a mascot there, you're treated with a ScareChord.
** Every time you lose. [[spoiler:The animal that got you pops up and screams ''directly in your face,'' with an ear-piercing "SCCCRRREEEEEEEE".]] This is especially jarring if they sneak into the room while you're looking into the camera. You think you're safe, but even if you close the doors it's too late...
** Even worse with Foxy [[spoiler:as he is the fastest and pretty much bum-rushes right for you if you don't keep an eye out. This can even happen if you listen to the opening message each night after the second without viewing the camera]].
** And then there's [[spoiler:Golden Freddy, who will appear if both of your doors are closed and you view a strange poster through the tablet camera.]]
** Perhaps worst of all is Freddy himself sneaking into the Office. Unlike the other animatronics, Freddy does not just roar in your face. He outright ''pounces'' on the player out of the blue, and sports those soulless BlackEyesOfEvil in the process. With '''no''' warning of his imminent attack beyond his evil laugh and the right Office door being open at just the wrong time.
* JustEatGilligan:
** {{Subverted|Trope}}. According to the former employee leaving you voice mail messages, the killer animatrons in the game will attack you because they don't know what humans are -- they think you're an animatronic endoskeleton without your costume, and will try to force a costume onto you, killing you in the process. At one point, he suggests the obvious answer of playing dead, so they think you're an empty costume instead. He quickly thinks better of it, saying that if they think you're an empty costume they'll try to shove a metal endoskeleton inside you, which would be even worse.
** For that matter, though, if the animatrons are trying to get you because they think you're an endoskeleton without your costume, why not just make a fake costume and wear it to trick them? [[spoiler: Interestingly, this actually is your primary defense mechanism in the second game. It doesn't work on all of the animatronics, though.]]
** Also invoked, [[spoiler:with Night 7, the Custom Night. Specifically, if the animatrons are run by an AI, why not just hack them and make them less aggressive? Turns out you can do that and it works, more or less. Still subverted, though, as even setting their AI levels to 0 still doesn't make them ''completely'' harmless, not to mention hacking the bots gets you fired.]]
* {{Kawaisa}}:
** Oddly enough for a game like this, the little cupcake with huge eyes is adorable.
** The game takes the creepy animatronics and makes [[FunSize little adorable plushies]] out of them, taking this trope UpToEleven.
* LevelEditor: Unlocked upon completing the normal five nights. Instead of allowing you to create your own SuckECheeses map, it allows you to edit the AI of the animals to your liking.
* LightsOffSomebodyDies: Fail to keep the power up and the lights go out. The lightbulb goes out and the last light you will see is Freddy's eyes.
* LuckBasedMission: 4-20 mode, or setting all four AI's to level 20 (maximum difficulty). Even if one plays the night perfectly down to the second, there's no telling if the animatronics (mostly Freddy) won't just go "fuck you" and change the rules to kill you anyways. One example (and probably the worst) is getting to 5am, waiting for the power to drain to 0%, and waiting for Freddy to appear. If you're dreadfully unlucky, he won't bother with the footsteps; instead he'll instantly appear outside with the jingle, cut the jingle off much too quickly, and wipe you out. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DfCRVKLUuA This was fixed.]][[note]]For those of you wondering how this works, opening the camera on ''any'' room will hold Foxy back (as opposed to just Pirate Cove specifically). Looking at Freddy frequently when he gets to the East Hall Corner will keep him from heading straight to the door, saving you the power it would take to close the right door every time you put down the camera. This allows you to reach 6AM without running out of power or refraining from doing anything, removing the element of luck.[[/note]]
* MascotVillain: The titular character, like the other animatronics in the game, is trying to kill you because it's malfunctioning. He's also an InUniverse example because he is also the mascot of the abandoned SuckECheeses that serves as the setting.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The game at first makes it seem like you're just trying to survive malfunctioning killer robots. However, TheReveal, the [[spoiler:backmasked message on Night 5]], and several seemingly random events (IE: Gold Freddy, the [[spoiler:"IT'S ME!" message, blood and mucus oozing out of the animatronics]]) strongly imply that ''something'' much more sinister is going on.
** ''Very definitely on the magic side of things'' as of ''[[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 2,]]'' as the Puppet floats around on its own...[[spoiler:and evidently has a bit of involvement with the hauntings, being shown to be the one responsible for the other animatronics coming to life.]]
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: The animatronics have 2 sets of teeth, the outer ones that are part of their costume, and another which is part of their robotic skeleton.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: This game is basically extreme "Red Light, Green Light".
* NestedMouths: The animatronics add to their overall creepiness by having these inside the external mouths of the animal suits, complete with their own sets of teeth. It's most apparent in Chica, whose suit jaw hangs perpetually open, [[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140818205453/five-nights-at-freddys/images/f/f3/Cam4B_chica3.png showing the second pair of gnashers at all times]].
* NeverFoundTheBody: It's indicated that because Freddy and his friends don't leave behind a body when they kill someone (apparently no one ever bothers to check inside the suits), the Freddy Fazbear management can just clean up the blood and report whoever just got killed as a "missing person", thus shielding themselves from legal liability.
** The reason they NeverFoundTheBody is actually given to you by Phone Guy in the Night 1 message: "Upon discovering that damage or death have occurred, a missing persons report will be filed within ninety days or '''as soon as property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached and the carpet has been replaced'''..." In order to try and stay open, the [[SarcasmMode wonderful people]] at Fazbear Entertainment[[TradeSnark ®]] will happily clean and sanitize away every trace of your messy demise. Which admittedly raises the question of how the blood and mucus showed up around the animatronics' eyes...
** [[spoiler:The bodies of the five children lured into one of the pizzeria's backrooms were never found and are implied to have been shoved into the animatronics' suits.]]
* NightmareFace: Aside from a robot screaming in your face, more unlucky players are likely to catch particularly creepy sights. [[spoiler:Like a special Bonnie face, the hallucinations Golden Freddy gets you, or the sight of Freddy himself staring at the camera with glowing eyes right outside your station.]]
* TheNineties: Although the year when the five nights take place is listed as [[YearX the year XX]] in-game, the game is set in 1993 if the minimum wage rate ($4.00 per hour) is of any indication.
%% The above trope is based on the sequel's minimum wage rate being accurate to 1987.
* NintendoHard: The game's main source of excitement and horror is just how ''hard'' it is. It's very easy to run out of power, and it forces the player to learn the various mechanics of the game extremely quickly.
* NoEnding: After withstanding Freddy's unfiltered NightmareFuel for five nights, [[spoiler:you get a comparatively minuscule check and a note from your boss that implies you'll come in again next week.]] Granted, [[spoiler:there IS a sixth night you can unlock, but it merely results in a slightly higher check and some overtime pay. That unlocks the Custom AI night seven, after which you're fired...which is easily the best thing that could happen]].
* NonindicativeName: "Haunted SuckECheeses" probably wasn't the first thing to come to mind when one heard the title.
* NonStandardGameOver: [[spoiler:Freddy is the only animatronic with two kill screens. The first comes when he enters the office during normal play. The second is when the power runs out.]]
** [[spoiler:Golden Freddy appears in your office if you look at the poster at the end of the West Hall while it's displaying his mugshot. If you don't pull up the monitor and switch to a different camera within several seconds, you will be treated to robotic murmurs and hallucinations just before he kills you and crashes the game.]]
* NoodleIncident: The Bite of '87. "It's amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, y'know?"
* NoOSHACompliance:
** The managers of the pizza joint decide that it's cheaper to supply a night watchman with limited power than it is to safely contain the mannequins, leading to the plot of the game.
** [[spoiler:Night 7 makes this even more blatant, as the player tampers with the robots' programming and can make them either easier or even more difficult. In other words, making the robots safe can be effortlessly done by a random night watchman and yet the owners are ''still'' too cheap to bother fixing anything. In fact, they actually ''fire'' the protagonist for this.]]
** When the power goes out, the powered doors don't simply stop working, [[FailsafeFailure they actually open themselves.]] Then again, in any other situation, when the power goes out, you'd want a way out of the room.
* NothingIsScarier:
** There will be many moments where the robots are nowhere near your room and there's merely dead silence.
** The kitchen. All you get is an audio-only feed, with no way of determining what's going on in there. There's supposedly not even actual assets for what it looks like. But Chica and Freddy like to visit it as a blind spot to your cameras, and sometimes you can hear Chica ''eating''... something, presumably pizza.
** No information is given about Golden Freddy at all in game. The only things we know are that [[spoiler:he's an empty costume, he can teleport, he appears when you set 1-9-8-7 on the custom night, and makes his presence known by appearing on a certain poster.]]
** The game uses all three versions of this trope, all to the scariest possible effect:
*** It uses the "Wait for it" version, in that using the cameras littered around the facility, you can always tell where the enemies are, either through simple deduction or being able to see them. There are blind spots around your room, and since you can usually tell when an enemy is there.. then you press the light, you're treated to an Uncanny Valley, still picture of the animatronic abomination, and then you slam that "shut door" button like there's no tomorrow. Then there's Foxy, who [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140815104916/five-nights-at-freddys/images/c/ca/Satan_be_runnin.gif rushes]] down your position, but it can be hard to tell when.
*** It uses the "Nothing at all" version, in which you are peacefully sitting in your room, flicking through all the cameras, and you see all the animatronics are scattered around, and nowhere near you. You put the camera tablet away, and... nothing but the fan. No sound, no monstrosities to defend yourself against. Nothing.
*** It uses the "He was there all along" version in that the animatronics can sneak into your room and not be noticed until it's too late, [[HopeSpot which is equal parts terrifying and frustrating]].
*** This version is also used with Foxy. It is (rarely) possible for him to get you on the first night, but he most likely won't and you won't be told about him until the second night. So by the time that rolls around and he's specifically pointed out to you, you realize there was a fourth potentially deadly animatronic the whole time and you had no idea.
** After Freddy finishes his song after you run out of power, everything goes pitch black and dead silent for a painstakingly long time before Freddy kills you. ''However'', if you're incredibly close to 6 AM, you have to sit there and wait for Freddy to decide your fate.
* ObviousRulePatch: Foxy serves this role to Bonnie and Chica. Bonnie and Chica only attack when you lower your camera, leading to the obvious solution of simply never bringing up the camera at all. To counter this, Foxy forces you to bring up the camera to watch and prevent him from rushing you, which also gives Bonnie and Chica the opportunity to attack.
** Same thing with Freddy, who exists to force you to keep you from constantly looking at Foxy on the camera.
** Freddy used to have the ability to come into the office if you kept both doors closed, but if Bonnie and Chica have both made it to the office, you're forced to keep both doors closed- thus summoning Freddy. This was quickly patched out.
* OffscreenTeleportation: The robotic animals all use this, only moving when you're not looking at the camera feeds. [[spoiler:Except for Foxy, who you can see run down the West Hall towards your office if you let him escape the Pirate's Cove room.]]
* OhCrap: Don't deny it; every player thought this at some point. Whether it be Foxy leaving Pirate Cove, seeing one of the animatronics near one of the doors, or seeing Freddy up close in the camera.
* PlayingPossum: The previous night shift guard suggests doing this as a last resort to fool the animatronics into thinking you are simply an empty costume, but admits it would probably be a bad idea. [[spoiler:It can buy you a few seconds of extra time if your power goes out. Just don't break possum. Freddy will react... badly.]]
* PressStartToGameOver: [[spoiler:If you set the numbers to 1987 on the custom night, all you get is a Golden Freddy caused game crash.]]
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: You might recognize that nice little jingle that plays [[spoiler:during the 30 seconds between losing power and Freddy killing you]]. [[http://youtu.be/YT1NhLTwwEg?t=8m10s It's actually]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DNGMoMNLRY#t=66 Les Toreadors, by Georges Bizet.]]
* PunchClockHero: Mike Schmidt (the player character) and Phone Guy can both be counted as this, seeing as the entire reason they're in the pizzeria that has ''[[HomicideMachines homicidal,]] [[HauntedTechnology haunted]] [[UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot animatronics]]'' running around at night and have to develop genuinely {{Badass}}-level reflexes to survive is because it's literally a job they got out of the newspaper.
** And, by extension, every other night guard, including [[VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2 Jeremy Fitzgerald]] and [[spoiler:Fritz Smith.]]
* PunchClockVillain: The animatronics can be practically strangling you to death by shift's end, but if you survive to 6AM, they apparently let you go and let you leave the building unmolested. The player character seems to just count his blessings and leave [[TooDumbToLive only to come back the next night.]]
** Phone Guy says the animatronics aren't able to free roam during the day, not since the bite of 1987 happened anyway. Presumably, 6AM is when this daytime programming mode activates, causing them to change their behavior and leave the player alone.
* RandomEvent:
** Whether it's truly random or requires well-hidden triggers, all sorts of strange or unexpected things may happen that aren't a part of the robots' patterns.
** The sign in Pirate Cove will sometimes change from "Out of Order!" to [[spoiler:"IT'S ME"]].
** [[spoiler:On a very rare occasion, the static upon death and the game over screen will be replaced with a dead-still and soundless image of an eyeless, shadowed Bonnie, before light slowly fades into its eyes and the game returns to the main menu.]]
** A certain poster showing the rules of the restaurant may change as well. [[spoiler:This poster is changed into one of four documents, all of which highlight the reveals of the game]].
** All cemented by the fact that the [[RandomNumberGenerator RNG]] can have unpredictable things happen where it was thought impossible. [[spoiler:Like Golden Freddy and Foxy coming after you on the ''first night.'']]
* RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic: Averted ''entirely'' by the Phone Guy during his recordings for the player, reinforcing the feeling of immersion. He stutters, hesitates, stumbles over some words, repeats himself, goes silent as if to think, trails off during sentences, offers random interjections of 'okay?', says 'um' and 'uh' quite a bit, and in general really does sound like some guy who's just recording a message off the top of his head without a script.
** This is reinforced even further; when he dictates the company message to Mike, there are no mistakes, hinting that he's reading off a piece of paper. Same goes for his antique messages during VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3.
* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:The backstory of Freddy's reveals that the horrific, uncontrollable behavior of the robots and the seedy history of the joint has basically bankrupted it. The restaurant is going to close down by the end of the year.]]
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Many have complained that it makes no sense why the doors fly open when the power goes out. Mechanisms are always designed such that- when they fail- they fail in the safest way possible. Assuming the doors' designer doesn't know the doors are keeping out killer robots, they would design the doors to open in a power outage so nobody gets trapped inside the office indefinitely.
** Specifically, the doors in the game appear to be armored security doors, which seem to be sealed electromagnetically. Electromagnetic doors are a common occurrence in many higher security locations, and for the safety reasons stated above, they will not remain locked if the power flowing to the locks is cut.
* ResourcesManagementGameplay: You have a finite amount of power each night that can be used for operating cameras/doors/lights. If you run out and you're not ''extremely'' close to the end of the night, you die.
* {{Retirony}}: Phone guy tells you on night 1 that he's finishing up his last week as he records his messages for you. [[spoiler:He doesn't make it past night 4.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:The restaurant is planned to close down by the end of the year. Years ago, a man dressed in a mascot costume lured five children into a back room where he presumably killed them. The man got caught, but the bodies of the children were never found. Sometime after these disappearances, the robot mascots were reported to ooze blood and mucus from their bodies and smell like corpses, which implies that the children suffered the same cruel death you receive when Freddy and the other robots find you. Ever since these events, the restaurant has fought tooth-and-nail to become popular, but has seemingly failed to do so.]]
* RoarBeforeBeating: All of the animatronics will shriek in your face if you let them into your office.
* RoboSpeak: [[spoiler:The Night 5 message and some inaudible dialogue from Chica when she's outside your room are this.]]
* SanityMeter: While lacking an actual meter, the protagonist can still suffer from ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''-style hallucinations, anything from cosmetic changes to a brief InterfaceScrew to [[spoiler:Golden Freddy attacks]], and it happens more and more often as the week drags on.
* ScareChord: It plays if you hit a light switch, with an open door, while one of the robots is right outside.
* ScaryTeeth[=/=]MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: The robots all have creepy teeth, but Foxy gets special mention for having sharp teeth and a broken jaw and Chica for having her endoskeleton's teeth visible in certain shots.
* SchmuckBait: [[spoiler:Following the steps to the popular 1987 AI setting myth simply leads to the Golden Freddy death as of the Steam release.]]
* SecondLawMyAss: The animatronics get around this by assuming you're a fellow bot out of your costume. [[spoiler:Or at least that's the reason Phone Guy gives you, no one knows for sure.]]
* ShaggyDogStory: Congratulations! You survived your first week at Freddy's. [[spoiler:"See you next week!"]]
* SkeleBot9000: The endoskeletons.
* SkewedPriorities:
** The management has known that Freddy and his friends are dangerous since at least 1987, but continue to run the family restaurant all the same. You get stuck with looking after the robots because it saves money.
** [[spoiler:If you "tamper with the electronics" (read: make your own custom level) on night 7, you get fired. Yes, you can get fired for making the robots safe to be around. Then again, you could also make them more dangerous...]]
** [[spoiler:Your character as well has skewed priorities; either out of desperation for money, stupidity, or a combination of the two, or plenty of other reasons, you'll return to the screwed up restaurant up to six times after the initial day, despite the obvious dangers.]]
* SoundtrackDissonance: If you run out of power, Freddy plays happy, tinkly music right before murdering you.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To titles such as ''Project Guard'' (if it was a horror game), ''VideoGame/NightTrap'' and ''VideoGame/DoubleSwitch'', minus the whole "trapping" part.
* StealthPun: As noted in GeniusBonus and FreezeFrameBonus in the trivia section, the distorted messages on night 5 translate to lines from ''Autobiography of a Yogi''. Said distorted quotes are coming from a cartoon bear.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: The game's backstory can only be found on the hidden newspaper clippings that may randomly appear in the game (or by [[http://freddy-fazbears-pizza.wikia.com/wiki/Story reading the wiki]]).
* SuckECheeses: Where the game takes place.
* SuperPersistentPredator: The robots, especially Freddy himself, who actually adapts to your strategies, at least on day 5.
* SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids:
** This is a robot designed entirely for singing on a stage, and yet is capable of lifting a grown man and restraining them long enough to force a suit onto them. Hell, just moving around and running in general. Usually these things have cables, and there is ''no'' reason for them to be on the security rooms, or restrooms, let alone getting there in two seconds in Foxy's case. Owner must've bankrupted himself twice over just buying the damn things.
* TacticalDoorUse: Your sole concrete defense. You can only survive via barring access to your station. Of course, the ideal solution is "all doors closed at all times," so this is combined with ResourcesManagementGameplay to ensure your lack of safety.
* TheTetrisEffect: In-universe, the protagonist starts hallucinating later in the week, seeing suit faces and "it's me!" when he blinks or changing camera views. Even "Golden Freddy" is implied to be hallucinatory. As for out-of-universe, I hope you enjoy sleeping with your doors and windows locked and all the lights on, or you'll be seeing the face of Freddy (Or Bonnie, or Chica, or Foxy) everywhere.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: When the power runs out, if it ever should, it will not be pleasant.
* TooDumbToLive:
** The protagonist for staying on a job like this past the first night considering the fact that ''death robots designed as humanoid animals' are after his blood, his coworker ''dies'' before his first week is over, and the fact that he's only paid minimum wage. [[spoiler:You can potentially wise up on the seventh night and use the level editor to make the robots not murder you. Or, if you're of the suicidal kind, [[SelfImposedChallenge you can crank up their AI to the max.]] Changing the robots' AI results in you being fired for tampering with the animatronics, but honestly, that's the best thing that could happen to you.]]
** The Freddy's management in general seems to be unbelievably incompetent and completely unaware of how to properly run a business. [[spoiler:In fact, they're ''going out of business''. You find out near the end of the game that by year's end, Freddy's Pizza is going to shut down.]]
** Played With with the Phone Guy, who has apparently stuck around with his job even longer than the player. However he's probably not outright stupid to survive for so long, presumably without the same tips he gives you, [[spoiler:though he does eventually get killed right before retiring]].
* {{Undercrank}}: Starting on Night 4, if you look at the animatronics for more than 5 seconds, their heads start twitching uncontrollably, and they constantly twitch on Night 5.
* UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot: Exactly why anyone would think these terrifying, murderous animatronics who have a history of killing and mauling people would be great for children's entertainment is never really addressed. That said, apparently they're just fine with children.
* UnreliableExpositor: WordOfGod says that Phone Guy is this. Credence is lent to it in that Bonnie can appear ''in the same room as the unclothed endoskeleton '''at the same time''''', and does so only to leer into the camera, and ''not do a thing'' about the endoskeleton, which supposedly ''has'' to wear a costume.
* UnwinnableByDesign: The door and light on one side of the room can lock up and be rendered unusable. [[spoiler:Since there's no way to fix this, unless your shift is almost over and lady luck is feeling really merciful, you're pretty much screwed.]] This typically happens when you've screwed up and let one of the animatronics sneak into your room when you weren't looking.
** Once the power has been depleted too far too early in the night not even the most skilled player will be able to reach 6am before the power goes out and Freddy kills them.
* ViciousCycle: As described by SmoshGames' Honest Game Trailers show, "the more scared you get, the more you look for monsters, and the more you look for monsters, the less power you have, which makes you more scared, which makes you look for more monsters, and so on until it finally ends in a JumpScare that makes you scream. Even though you totally know it's coming."
* WestminsterChimes: These sound to signal that you've made it to 6 AM. ''Yaaaaaaay!''
* WhamLine: "Good job, sport! [[spoiler:(see you next week)]]"
* WhoWatchesTheWatchmen: The official job description claims that you're ''protecting'' these things.
* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: Even in a horror setting, this scenario doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
* AWinnerIsYou: When you beat the game, [[spoiler:all you get for your efforts is a screenshot of a check for the laughably small amount of $120, with the words "Good job, sport! (See you next week)" above it, while Freddy's tune plays in the background. Complete the Night 6 BonusLevel, and you get a check for $120.50. Complete Night 7, and you get a notice of termination for tampering with the animatronics]].
* YearX: The game takes place on November of the year XX, [[spoiler:according to the paychecks you receive at the end of Nights 5 and 6]].
* YouAreAlreadyDead:
** If [[spoiler:either door jams on you, it's because Chica or Bonnie is right outside, had enough time to disable the switches, and will kill you the moment you look at the camera]] and you don't have long to live... unless you are seconds away from completing the shift. Worse, [[spoiler:if you see Freddy sporting his game face in the East Hall Corner, and have the right-hand door open, then hear him laugh after you put the camera down, it means he's likely invaded the Office.]]
** If you see Foxy running down the hall through your security feed, you're a goner: he'll be in your office by the time you reach for the door.
** If you run out of power, Freddy will stand outside the left door, staring at you, as if he's cherishing your last moments.
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Good job, sport! ''[[spoiler:[[HereWeGoAgain (see you next week)]] [[note]][[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Yeah, no]].[[/note]]]]''
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