Nightmare

Nightmare

Gallery

Theme

Nightmare
Official 3D render of the Nightmare.
Biography
Aliases	Demon (Milkman’s/game filename) Demon Children (Milla’s/game filename) Creepy Guy (By Raz)
Gender	Undisclosed
Race	Systemic Mental Figures
Age	Unknown (could vary the mind)
Abilities
Other Abilities	Portal Creation Vocal Mimicry Underground Movement
Relationships
Associates	Censors (allies) Personal Demons (allies) Doubts (allies) Regrets (allies) Bad Idea (allies) Enabler (allies) Judge (allies) Panic Attack (allies) Bad Mood (allies)
Physical Description
Skin Color	Dark Purple Color Palette
Eye Color	Fire Color Palette
Gameplay
Appearances	Psychonauts
Mind	Milla's Dance Party The Milkman Conspiracy

Note: Not to be confused with Nightmare Maligula or Nightmare Lungfish

“These things can take you through a world of pain, trust me.”

–Milla Vodello

Nightmare is a mini-boss from Psychonauts. These creatures embody trauma and powerful feelings of guilt, they’re seen In both Milkman Conspiracy, and Milla's Dance Party.

Background

As other systemic mental figures that represent negative emotions or feelings, Nightmares are the physical incarnation of one’s fears but specially trauma. Milla Vodello’s case has to do with the voices that kept haunting her by not being able to save the children from the orphanage she used to work at when it was caught on fire, while Boyd Cooper’s case is the consequence of the deterioration of his mind thanks to his paranoia to being involved in a conspiracy where he believes everyone is against him.

Appearance

The Nightmare features a dragon-like skull that includes a snout with a flexible jaw, two long curled horns on the top like the ones of an insect and a pair of sizzling eyes. The body is amorphous and liquid looking, presenting screaming faces all over it and it can pull out six different types of limbs through some flaming looking maws. The limbs themselves vary from two human arms to a hook, an insect appendage and two demon hands; one stumpy while the other crooked.

Their way of moving around the mind is under the ground through some portals with shapes of maws, this tactic is used a lot to stretch their arms through the surface to attack or pull someone underneath with them. Once completely defeated they gain a petrified appearance with their limbs and eyes fully gone.

Psychonauts

A group of these creatures debut as an easter egg in a secret room of Milla's Dance Party. In the first dancing lounge at the left side of the large fan; a tiny nursery room makes its presence including a toy chest which inside presents a large cage with a bunch of Nightmares trying to get out as well as speaking with ghost child voices which blames Milla for not helping them. Two more aggressive Nightmares are encountered in the Milkman Conspiracy, where, after exiting the post office and the book depository respectively; these creatures pull Razputin into their realm, a hellish cave with fire surrounding the area and lava cracks in the floor.

These two roaming through Boyd’s mental world has to do with how unstable his mind is while Milla, someone who still has a grip on reality, manages to keep them locked away; technically this being the healthy way to cope with these demons.

Psychonauts 2

While not appearing directly in the game, a Nightmare takes the form of Maligula and attempts to ruin the performance of the Feast of the Senses which Raz must stop with the help of Helmut Fullbear and his band.

Strategy

“Oh, be careful with people's nightmares, son. They'll pull you into their nightmare world and never let go. You gotta feed them some of their own medicine. Avoid their grab attacks and try to hurt them to the point that they split open. And then grab any chunks of their victims that you can find, use TK to throw them into the gaping hole and that should choke up its system. When it turns to glass you can shatter it with one good punch.”

–Ford Cruller advising Raz from the bacon.

The Nightmare will move in a erratically way, occasionally summoning one of its claws which will attempt to attack Raz. To defeat the Nightmare, Razputin must PSI-Blast it until it spits the remains of Personal Demons out of its mouth; PSI-Punch is a good option too but the player must dodge or Shield at the right moment. The last step requires the use of Telekinesis to pick up one of the bombs and toss it into its open mouth, not doing it before the 10 seconds and the nightmare will fully recover, having to repeat the entire process. The Nightmare will turn to stone if the process is done correctly, which can then be destroyed with a single punch.

Abilities and Health

• Hellish Scratch: The Nightmare summons a claw through one of its portals and scratches frontally, receiving the hit will cost Raz 4 hit points of his mental health (1 whole brain).
• Hunting Claws: The Nightmare once half of its health is depleted hides inside a portal and spawns 4 claws nearby Raz in order to scratch him. Getting scratched It’ll cost him 4 hit points of his mental health.
• Nightmare’s Abduction: The Nightmare attempts to capture Raz if he stands extremely close to it. Not dodging nor shielding will result in him getting abducted and pummeled underground, costing him 4 hit points of his mental health.
• Kidnapping: The Nightmare opens a portal and rises its limbs to capture a victim, this technique is used by the two Nightmares in order to drag Razputin into their personal realms.
• Personal Demons: The Nightmare splits half of its body, releasing 8 Personal Demon heads which upon getting close it’ll make them explode but also cost Raz 4 hit points of his mental health.
• Demonic Restoration: The Nightmare once it splits itself in half, starts sucking energy through its mouth which slowly helps to regenerate all of its health. This process takes a total of 10 seconds.
• Vocal Mimicry: The Nightmare can change or use a different voice according to what trauma of the mind it symbolizes, example: Milla’s Nightmares talk with ghostly voices of children.
• Underground Movement: The Nightmare can adapt itself to move underground with the usage of its portals. With this, the Nightmare can capture its victims much efficiently.

The Nightmare requires 12 hits either shooting or punching but including the one Personal Demon Raz must throw to the nightmare, and the last hit to destroy it when fully transformed into stone, it makes a total of 14 hits. For being a mini-boss, it has a decent resistance compared to other bosses.

Nightmare Introduction.

The "Hellish Scratch" attack animation.

The "Hunting Claws" attack animation.

The "Nightmare’s Abduction" attack animation.

Nightmare’s Abduction dodged.

The "Kidnapping" technique animation.

Nightmare under the effects of Confusion.

Nightmare damaged (front and behind).

Nightmare Defeat.

Quotes

Milla’s Secret Room

• "Milla, where are you?"

• "Help us, Milla!"

• "Milla, why don’t you help us?"

• "Why did you let us die?"

• "Miiiiiiillaaaaa…"

• "Milla, save us!"

• "We’re all alone now, Milla."

• "Ow! It’s hot! It’s burning!"

Trivia

• The nightmares in Milla's Dance Party speak with the tormented voices of her dead children, but Boyd's nightmares are entirely mute.
• Both Milla's and Boyd's Nightmares relate to fire: Boyd was responsible for at least one department store fire, whereas Milla must simply have felt responsible for not being present to mitigate the tragic fire at her orphanage.
• Using Clairvoyance on the Nightmares will show Raz as a shadowy figure covered in question marks.
• The Nightmares were originally called "The Demons".
• The Nightmare battles in the Milkman Conspiracy are a remnant of an abandoned subplot for the game. Originally, the Nightmares in Milla's Dance Party were intended to escape during the course of the game, forcing Raz to retrieve/defeat them before they could ruin the mental worlds of others. This was later changed (due to the developers feeling that Milla would never allow her Nightmares to threaten the safety of the camp), however the Nightmares that lurk in Boyd's mind still remain. They could have been left in the game accidentally or intentionally to show the harmful effects of Boyd's paranoia on his psyche.
• Much like the Personal Demons, the Nightmares do not appear in sequels to Psychonauts. However, they do have a similar enemy counterpart in Psychonauts 2, which is the Panic Attack. This is likely because both enemies have an uncannily similar appearance and share the same status as mini-bosses.
  • Normal enemies like Doubts and Bad Ideas also possess a slight resemblance to the Nightmares.
• The devilish eyes for the nightmare originally come from an early design for the Censors. Including the detail that this eyes planned to have animation at some point. For more info check out this page

Video Battle Walkthrough

Psychonauts - All Bosses -No Damage-

Gameplay by Gellot. (16:49 and 17:47 for the fight)