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What's the deal with these guys? What do we know about them?
Let's dig into it.
The Nightmares. The Shadows. The Darkness. They've got a lot of names, but none of em are official. Their overworld sprites are referred to as 'shadowmonsters' in the game files, but that's almost certainly not their intended name. One key detail is that Dan’s chat will identify them as ‘shades’, but that’s now what they ARE, just what type of enemy they are, like how Jennifer is listed as ‘cursed’ even though she’s clearly a human/house centipede hybrid. So the closest thing we have to go on is the fact that their battle sprites are referred to as 'danger(insert number)(large/medium/small)' in the game files... which is similarly very utilitarian, but I think it's very fitting.
Danger. The Dangers. That's what they are. That's all they can be.
It’s also a bit more distinctive of a name than ‘Shadows’ so I’m gonna stick with that. Not one single line of dialogue in the entire game acknowledges the Dangers directly. Part of the difficulty in analyzing these guys is just how little is concretely known about them, but that's not to say we don't know anything!
The most relevant piece of information to keep in mind is that they can appear all over the place, with odds influenced by your danger meter. The higher it is, the more likely you are for them to appear. This has led some to conclude that this implies Dangers are a shared hallucination by Sam and his party, but I do not believe that to be the case for reasons we will circle back to.
…And that’s it! That’s the only relevant spawning criteria! A few sources claim that nightfall or stress are relevant factors, but this doesn’t seem to be the case at all thanks to information from my sources. All that matters is the danger meter!
Dangers on the overworld (even when you can see them) are notable for their rapid flickering in and out of reality. Where they're flickering from and to is unknown, but they make a lot of eerie hissing and clicking noises while they do it. These noises are evidently Quebec curses played backwards, which is funny, but certainly does seem to imply that these things used to be human!
That said, we cannot accurately say whether or not Dangers are cursed! Don't get me wrong, they're definitely associated with the Visitor somehow! But I think it's either a Frederick situation where some as of yet unseen cursed human is creating more Dangers, or a Baby Teeth situation where a cursed human is actively spreading their affliction. Otherwise, it seems unlikely that so many humans would warp in such specific and similar ways entirely independently from one another.
Support for the theory that something is spawning the Dangers lies with Dan’s chat system: while his chat lists the small and medium Dangers as ‘shades’, the largest sizes are actually listed as ‘cursed’, possibly implying they were once humans that saw the Visitor, and are spawning the lesser Dangers! This one’s far from explicit canon, esPECIALY since Dan’s chat has a lot of labeling errors (for example, none of the botanical monsters having an enemy type listed at all despite clearly being cursed), but it’s certainly something to keep in mind.
In combat, any Danger can perform basic melee attacks, absorb stamina, and have between 0-2 skills entirely unique to them. Their basic attacks have the ‘shadow’ element. Additionally, they are resistant to crushing, slashing, piercing, bullets, and cold damage. They are weak to fire and to explosives. Compared to other enemies, they have abnormally high evasion (20% compared to the 5% pretty much everything else has). They generally give very little EXP for how difficult they can be, and have a chance to drop a 'Black Ooze' on defeat, with the largest Dangers being guaranteed to drop it.
These basic facts, while limited, actually give us a lot to work with!
Dangers are able to physically harm humans despite their strange habit of dipping in and out of existence.
Dangers all have the same resistances, implying that they are all made out of (approximately) the same stuff.
Dangers are able to inflict various statuses through a wide variety of physical and mental means.
Dangers DO HAVE unique attributes from one another beyond appearance.
Dangers leave behind a physical trace of their existence when killed.
The fact that Dangers have the same resistances and weaknesses is especially interesting because it implies that Dangers do have some kind of biology/physiology to them! This alongside the fact that their damage is considered shadow element is primarily what kills the 'they're hallucinations' theory... well, that and the black ooze.
Black ooze, oh how you vex me.
This stuff is the most solid evidence that the Dangers aren't purely psychological terrors, that they are instead very much REAL. While black ooze can be 'used' on a character, all it does is deal a massive chunk of damage, somewhere between 72% and 108% of a character’s max health. Ouch. No shopkeeper in the game will buy it, and it is left up to interpretation whether they simply do not want otherworldly filth (understandable), or if they can't even see the stuff. Which is very possible!
No character other than Sam will ever react to the presence of a Danger. For example, one can appear in Lyle's room, but it ignores him and he ignores it. There are other examples of rooms with NPCs that can have a Danger spawn near them as well, but the key is that these characters are in their homes. And where is the one place you are always safe from Dangers? That's right. Inside your home.
I propose that the primordial feeling of safety being home provides is an active shield against the Dangers. Resting at home, even, is enough to make the Dangers either unable or unwilling to attack you. But the Dangers are still there, one must assume.
Look Outside is not a game that pulls 'it was all in your head' twists. Ultimately, it's more horrifying that the Dangers are real and we just have absolutely no clue what they are. But they're all over the building, even if you can't always see them.
But they can see you.
And they just cannot wait for your fear to allow them to touch you.
Thus ends the compilation of all known information! I could have mentioned the possible connection between the Dangers and the Shadow, or the idea that the Dangers could be connected to the teased 'infinite dungeon' that the creator wants to implement, but those are nothing but raw and unfiltered speculation on my part!
Did I miss anything about these goobers? Feel free to let me know!
Credit to @goawaypopup and @lily-wisp for some juicy 'under the hood' information, as well as @nastymajesty! Compilation images of all the Dangers are by me, feel free to use em.
Here's a bunch of Dangers exposed to the light as a reward for making it all the way through! Look at them. Nakey.
Pre-Visitor Hellen.... I rlly wanted her face to match how she talks, thus I gave her the biggest RBF ever. She means well, though. Also, I hc'd that she has reading glasses VuV (she still uses them in her afflicted form)
I get sad thinking about characters prior to the games timeline. She really did just simply wanted to just wanted to tend to her plants and nothing more. She was rlly driven to survival mode
Body Horror warning bellow, it's my interpretation of her face's transformation...
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