| — Official Little Nightmare website |
The Prison is the first area Six passes through in Little Nightmares. It is where Six first awakens and the game begins. The Runaway Kid also awakens here.
Description
It is a very dark and lonely area and seems to be located starboard of the Maw in the lowest compartments. Various cabins are connected by vent shafts or thick metallic doors that Six cannot open. The Prison also gives Six her first glimpse of the Janitor but the most frequent antagonists encountered here are leeches and Eyes. There are very little encounters with other beings and Six spends the majority of her time in the Prison alone. The Prison is also where Six encounters the Hanging Man.
Its name implies that the children who can be seen throughout Six's journey are being held there as unwilling 'guests'. The Janitor seems to be their caretaker and keeps them in line. They even have a play area, but are prohibited from escaping by electric bars on both sides. Six also sees a cafeteria where another child gives her a piece of bread to subside her hunger.
Solution
Six must escape the Prison while avoiding the dangers within it.
Upon waking up, Six must head immediately towards the right, at the end of the corridor she’ll find a vent that she can open and through. Once through, she can climb the stairway and crouch through the small opening in the boarded up door.
To get through the next room, Six must jump onto the cardboard box, then the bed to reach the small window. In the room with the hanging man, the next door’s doorknob is too high for Six to reach so she must drag the wooden chair to get higher.
The Refrigerator.
Once through, she must open the refrigerator door which will then act as a makeshift ladder to reach the top of the wooden structure. After climbing to the top of the wooden structure, Six must run along its roof and jump over the gap while avoiding the leeches that will drop from the pipes above. She will then reach a small chamber with a lever that must be pulled down to open the next door. Jumping over a gap will bring her to a boarded up door, but the bottom board can be removed, providing a small gap she can crawl through.
The dark chamber filled with Leeches.
The following area is where Six’s lighter will be most important in the game. While pursuing a Nome, she will fall through some weakened floorboards into a dark chamber filled with black goo and Leeches. Six must continue right and avoid the creatures until she reaches a wooden door that will give way with one push. This will grant her access to a large chamber filled with wooden walkways and ladders.
The wooden walkways revealed by light.
There will be one noticeable gap she will need to jump over after the first set of stairs. After the second set of stairs, Six will reach another walkway shaped like a ¢. At the opposite end is a pulley that can be used to open the next door but it will slowly unwind when let go. Six must open the door all the way then run towards it before it closes again. This can only be done by jumping over the gap in the walkway.
After crossing another room, Six will find herself crossing a bridge while the Janitor will be seen dragging a cage on a walkway above. This is purely cinematic and Six can immediately begin climbing the rope of bed sheets. This will bring her to a restroom connected to a playroom by an electrocuted metal grill door.
The switch is hidden behind a wooden door.
To safely squeeze through the bars, Six must first cut off the power by pulling the switch hidden behind a wooden door. The switch itself can only be reached if Six drags a box of toilet paper rolls that she can climb onto. Once the switch is pulled, a timer will begin and Six must quickly run through the first electrocuted metal grill door, and continue running through the playroom as there is another electrocuted metal grill door on the opposite end that is turned off by the same switch. Should the power return before Six makes it across the room, she can return to the restroom by using the teeter totter to reach a small window.
The first of two eyes encountered in the Prison.
After passing some prison cells, Six’s path will be blocked by an Eye surveying the next room. It moves between three positions and rotates between them like a pendulum (left, center, right, center etc.) Six must wait behind the shadow of the pillar for the Eye to be at the rightmost position then run to hide behind the overturned bed in the center of the room. Once the Eye switches to the leftmost position, she must keep running until she reaches the wall shadow on the right. Alternatively, Six can run to the frontmost area of the room, not often surveyed by the eye; be careful to the right of the room and wait for it to look left before escaping its sight into the shadow. There Six will find several stacked cages which can be climbed like a ladder to reach the next floor.
Further to the right is an open door that will lead to a bedroom. Once Six enters, a gust of wind will close the door shut and the Janitor will enter the bedroom through another door in the background. Six must stealthily hide under the nearest bed and wait for the Janitor to exit through the same door she came in. Once the area is clear, she can make her way to a closet to the right and climb some more cages to reach some shelves. By jumping onto them, she will reach a vent that will bring her to a corridor alongside a cafeteria. There Six will experience her first hunger pains, but if she continues walking right, she’ll find a child that will pass a piece of bread to her. After consuming it, Six will regain her ability to run and jump, so she can climb the boxes and pass through the bars to reach the next area.
Some of the these drawers are jammed and cannot be opened.
After passing through a shower room, Six will find her path obstructed by another electrocuted metal grill door. She must climb the box closest to the electrified bars and make her way to the cages in the background that can be climbed like makeshift ladders. Once at the top, Six must wait for the cages hanging from the chain to swing towards the right and then take a running jump to reach them, using the wooden boards to get as close as possible. Once Six is within range of a platform above, she can jump onto it and climb to another platform just above it. There she must pull a switch to activate a lever which when pulled to the right will bring the cages closer to her. Then she must pull the switch to the left and take another running jump to the cages on the chain as they will begin moving to the far left. Once across, Six can climb the chain to reach another platform and head left through a doorway.
Levers and switches found in the Maw can operate different machinery.
To shut off all power, Six can pull the leftmost lower and middle drawers and climb them to reach the switch. With the power now off, all electrocuted metal grill doors will be deactivated, including another one just to the left of the drawers. After Six squeezes passed the bars, she must push a box down a hole, which will cause a noose to be pulled to the top. She can jump and grab onto the noose which will enable her to slowly but safely descend back to the floor below. After letting go of the noose, Six can make her way back through the shower room, but will need to evade a handful of leeches that are now crawling about.
The second eye will follow the movements of this cart.
After passing through the now deactivated metal grill door, Six will find herself in a room with another Eye surveying a room with boxes as well as a janitorial cleaning cart. This Eye like the previous one will rotate between three positions but whenever it is in the middle position, it will also track the movement of the cart as it slides from one side of the room to the other (due to the swaying of the Maw). Six must hide behind the boxes and wait for the cart to come to a halt on the left side, then proceed to stand in its shadow. As the Maw starts tilting to the right, the cart will begin moving again and Six will have to run to remain hidden behind it. Once Six is safely hidden behind the cages located on the far right, she can wait for the Eye to move to the leftmost position and head for the doorway to the final room in the Prison.
The final obstacle in the Prison.
Once she’s down some steps, they will retract into the wall and the walkway will slowly begin retracting itself. Six must take a running jump across the gap forming between both walkways before it gets too wide and then climb onto the box to make it above the ledge. Once through the doorway, Six will spot a pair of Nomes running away as she exits the Prison.
Theories
- The children are kept in a nursery and may even have separate rooms if they are older and bigger (implied by the many locked doors along a hallway Six runs down into a room with a bed).
- Once the children are old and big enough, the Janitor takes them away to be sent to the chefs.
Trivia
- The Prison is the first place where Six can see other children.
- There appears to be a suicide note below the hanging man but it cannot be read.
Gallery
In-game
Little Nightmares
Secrets of the Maw
Concept art
