Dark Deception Information

Dread Duckies

The Dread Duckies appear as large ducky floats made of hard plastic-like material, with round stubby wings, a jaw with rotten, human teeth, and large hollow eyes of asymmetrical sizes. Their lower jaws appears to be able to rotate open and closed. Their bodies are covered in grime and blemishes, due to floating in sewer water.

Inside their mouths is a mechanical spring attached to a smaller, spherical duck head with vertical pupils and several rows of sharp teeth. Their beaks are also longer and narrower.

Underneath their body is a large hole where two grotesque, shriveled rotten feet extend out. They appear humanoid in appearance and shape, resembling human or mannequin feet.

In frenzy mode, the Dread Duckies have a light gray-shaded body and like previous enemies, have red glowing eyes. They also appear to be more grimy, with the grime being darker in color as well.

ntro

The Dread Duckies are first seen floating behind a giant grate in the wall, revealed by light just as Bierce mentions them. Upon entering the sewer pools in zone 1, the Dread Duckies will begin to stalk the player.

Act I

The Dread Duckies rely primarily on camouflage to ambush the player. Across the water regions of the , countless floating Duckies can be spotted, all of which are identical in appearance and indistinguishable from a real one. The only ways to safely tell them apart are to use a red soul shard or Telepathy to outline them.

Unlike other enemies, the Dread Duckies do not pursue the player unless the player nears or passes by them. Upon nearing a real ducky, it will spring from its position and give chase before losing interest if far away enough. An advised method would to open as many doors as you can to avoid being cornered.Similar to and the , Dread Duckies are never usually aware of the player's exact position. They will only activate upon coming into close proximity to the player (usually after a 0.1 - 3 second delay), and will continue to chase them until they are at a far enough distance. They will then wander around the map in search of the player before returning to their initial position and returning to camouflage mode.

The Dread Duckies will attempt to attack the player at close range, as well as when they were activated or gets closer to the player, they will stand and use their long-ranged stun ability by extending their inner mouths at them, causing them to be stunned. Pressing the F key multiple times will allow the player to escape. While being stunned, the Dread Ducky will give the player time to be free by taunting them by dancing, delaying their movement for a short time.

It is also should be noted that when the Dread Duckies reset/respawned on their spot, they will face in random direction unlike the fake ones, which will always be fixed regardless of anything. However, they can only respawn if should the player look away from one of the real Dread Duckies' spawn spots, which they will only goes for nearby unoccupied spots near the player's location that the player isn't looking at regardless of how close they are from the spot. Sometimes, it won't reset when the player are too far from it. The player can't reset the Dread Duckies' position to prevent them from attacking when it sees them. Also, stunning an active Dread Ducky will not reset it's original position.

Another detail worth mentioning is that the Dread Duckies will try to avoid any floor grates on dry land. If the protagonist were to lure them onto dry land into a floor grate room, the Dread Duckies will instinctively go around the grate. It is unknown if this is a built-in mechanic or a glitch that has yet to be patched. Dread Duckies, however, will not avoid elevator platforms, but can get end up getting trapped in a pit if the player lowers it. This will most likely be patched in a later update.

When stunned, the Dread Duckies will lean backwards while shifting their body around and flapping their wings. They also move their jaw up and dow, and can be heard making unusual noises, such as duck-like quacks and shrill moans.

In a chase, the Dread Duckies' default running speed in Normal Mode is much slower than the player when on ground, and very similar to the . In Easy Mode however, the Dread Duckies' speed is much slower in a chase, so the player can easily lose it without even needing the Speed Boost power.

Act II

In Act 2 the Dread Duckies are more difficult to avoid and now there are 9 of them, they will no longer go into stasis after losing sight of the player, and will instead continue standing, pursuing the player if seen again. They may also hide in the shadows to surprise the player and give a chase. There also appear to be a higher quantity of lifeless Duckies. Though unconfirmed, there may be other potential differences in this zone.

Boss Battle

Two Dread Duckies, now in frenzy, will be summoned during the battle with the , emerging out of the pipes in the walls. During the fight, they will pursue the player, attempt to stun them, and kill them on contact. If the Doom Ducky will use his head to ram the player and if the player usse the pillars to slow him down, the Dread Duckies will be stunned along the Doom Ducky, giving the player enough time to turn the valves.

Final Act

The Dread Duckies appear once again in zone 1, on the way back to the portal. In this act, 13 duckies will be alive and are all in a frenzied state and the player must avoid them while being chased by Doom Ducky. Some will dance in front of the sewer doors, blocking them and forcing the player to take an alternative route. One final Dread Ducky (Revealed to be the middle duck from behind the grate in the beginning) will appear in the portal hallway and must be avoided, along with the Doom Ducky, who's head bursts through the secret doorway, to return back to the portal.

Dread Duckies, like the rest of the antagonists in the game, carry a murderous, sadistic, and highly aggressive nature. Along with that, they appear to enjoy taunting and stalking the player with their camouflage. Upon stunning the player the dread duckies start dancing, a way they use to torment the player which also carried out when they guard the doors in the final act.

Curiosities:

In 's preview, the Dread Ducky's silhouette turns towards the viewer before cutting to black.They are confirmed to be one of the only enemies to have a long range attack.The device duck head is confirmed to be inspired by the evil duck head from ""They may represent Anatidaephobia, the fear of when somewhere in the world, a duck/geese is watching you and/or Ludilophobia, the fear of toys (similar to the ). And maybe Aquaphobia/Hydrophobia, the fear of water and/or lakes and oceans.On March 23rd, the developers of the game posted a small clip on Instagram and Twitter, which showed that the Dread Duckies' extendable mouths will be able to stun the player.Due to a brief scene of a Dread Ducky being animated, (As seen in Devlog #5 at 5:39) it has become a joke which some have started to call the "Dread Ducky Dance".In addition, on April 27th 2019, a short video on Twitter by the developer titled "Duck Season" was uploaded which was of a Dread Ducky dancing.This dance can be seen when a Dread Ducky stuns the player, as a way of mocking.In one of the secret elevators of the Sewer, one can find 4 Dread Duckies doing their dance inside the bars of the secret room.So far, every enemy after ""(excluding Malak) has a jumpscare that takes place on the map.Vince Livings explained in "Meet the Dark Deception Team" that the reason for that was because they found a new way to animate the jumpscares in the map without making bugs.