The Monsters of Amnesia (Heavy Spoilers)

This guide's purpose is to inform the players of both the in-game lore of the enemies, and game-play aspects. Spoilers for both the main game and Justine DLC are present, be wary.

Introduction

Welcome to The Monsters of Amnesia guide. I hope we're able to inform you the lore and game-play aspects of this game's horrifyingly, but amazingly designed creatures. If you have not played the game yet, and you're reading the guide, tread carefully as this guide contains heavy spoilers for both the main game and DLC.

Now, let's get started.

Servant Grunt

The Servant Grunt is one of the most notable enemies in Amnesia, you'll see them a lot during your play-through.

Description
They all have scars around their bodies, reptilian eyes, hair only on the side of their heads, has no tongue, missing lower jaw, and has a out-stretched cut mouth which lies across the almost unrecognizable creature's chest. Now, because of their deformed mouth, they can't actually speak properly, although they do the usual growls, hisses and choking noises. You can sometimes make out what they're saying like: "I see you", "Where did you go" and "Who are you" in a garbled way. He also has razor sharp blades sticking where his fingers should be on his left hand.

Game-play
They may seem dangerous but one hit isn't enough to kill you. Your character, Daniel (who I will explain in another guide in the future) can take about two or three blows from Grunt. They also get confused very easily by your character hiding in a closet for example. They'll still look for you though and roam around to find you. After a while, they may leave the room. One way to know if a Grunt is gone, is if the music that plays when he is chasing you stops playing, but you should wait for a minute or two (just in case).

A few ways to easily confuse the Grunt, is to hold a book/painting/chair in front of your face and they'll most likely walk away.

Servant Brute

Brutes are one of the rarer enemies in the game and only appear a few times during the game.

Description
Brutes are deformed creatures that basically have an deformed mouth for a face, heavy body armor and a great steel blade for a left arm. Though they may seem to have no eyes, if you look closely inside of their mouth, you can see an eyeball. The sounds they make are reminiscent of cows or whales when they moan.

Game-play
Brutes can actually kill you in ONE HIT, full-health or not, so you're in for a total hard-core survival moment when you encounter one. Not only can they one-hit you, they're also much faster than you, so be sure to not look back while you're running because they can catch up to you quick.

The Shadow

The Shadow, also known as the Guardian of the Orb, is the otherworldly and mysterious guardian of the esoteric Orbs, that hunts down and kills those that come into contact with the orb that aren't skilled in the arts of Mithraic and being capable of wielding it's power.

Description
The Shadow seems to be some mysterious, and invisible creature. Through the areas it passes through, it leaves behind a red-fleshy, web-like residue which is dangerous for the player to touch and be near by.

Game-play
During one point in the game, the Shadow will chase Daniel, in which the player has to run from the grasps of the Shadow to get to safety. The fleshy webs that the Shadow leaves behind can lower the player's sanity bar if they are too close to it.

Kaernk

Kaernk is a water-dwelling monster that cannot be seen or heard other that it's footsteps in the water and also comes from the dimension Alexander comes from.

Game-play
Since it doesn't have the ability to see, it uses it's hearing to detect the player's motion in the water. If the player is on a crate when Kaernk is in the water, it will suddenly stop and wait for the player to tread the water once more. It is possible to kill this monster.

Rumor
Throw something that isn't flesh (a box for example) right at the fiend, and it will let out a roar before dying, then you will be safe from the underwater creature.

Alexander of Brennenburg (STORY SPOILERS)

WARNING: This page here contains major spoilers for the main game, so if you have not yet reached the ending of the game, DO NOT READ THIS.

Alexander is a supernatural being from a different dimension and says he desires to return home. In a painting of Alexander, at normal sanity, he looks fine, but at low sanity the painting becomes a deformed man with no eyes, nose, and has a gaping hole where his mouth (and nose) should be. You only see him in person, naked and levitating, at the end of the game. He is harmless to tell the truth. He's the only monster in-game that doesn't kill you (unless you go into one of the endings).

I hope you don't murder us for spoiling that.

[Justine DLC] Suitors

The Suitors are the creatures from the Justine DLC.

(Potential DLC-lore spoilers are present)

Aloïs Racine
Aloïs Racine is the first of the three suitors. Aloïs has a self-destructive fixation with her, voluntarily cutting and mutilating himself to prove his love. He has admitted to being madly and jealously in love with Justine, abandoning his friends and family to be with her. Aloïs may have been partially responsible for the downfall and capture of the other two suitors, as he states in one of his notes to Justine that he would gladly murder Basile for her. He also sedated Basile, allowing Justine to blind him.

Basile Giroux
Basile Giroux is the second and strongest of the three suitors. Basile hates Justine as she was the one who blinded him, after forcing him to say that "her beauty is blinding". He also appears to have retained the most of his sanity. Basile was a carpenter when he was human. Basile has vowed to kill her for blinding him.

Malo de Vigny
Malo de Vigny is the third and final suitor. Malo was a talented violin virtuoso, until he got drunk before the premiere of some newly-written songs and couldn't play them properly. He threw his bow down and passed out, only to be dragged offstage by Aloïs and Basile, obviously still human at the time, and replaced by a different violinist. It is believed that Justine, who was in the audience as he was dragged off, drugged him. Malo is now insane, craving human flesh. That said, he will eat either Justine or the prisoner in his area, Inspector Malot no matter what. Because he was a violinist, he has a heightened sense of hearing, making it impossible to hide from him.

Description
The suitors are mutilated beings with a metal cartwheel torture-device, being covered in scars and chains, and having no eyes.

Game-play
The Suitors play similarly to the Brutes in Amnesia, able to one-hit the player if they're low on health, and running much faster than the Servant Grunts, making them a formidable encounter during chases.

Did we forget anything? (Extras Included)

If any of us had forgot to add something notable or useful to this guide, feel free to leave a comment down below.

Extras:

Custom Creatures: In some custom stories/mods, there are more monsters to encounter. I can't name them because I don't know them except for the "My little Amnesia" creatures such as the pony monster.

Glitching out: Sometimes (We're unsure if it works though) you can glitch the monsters so they freeze and can have anything go through it. This video shows an example (video made by:CrazyShootin)

There are more of his videos where he glitches them out but we can't list all of them.

[Yogurt]

As for the Kaernk rumor of being able to kill it, no you cannot. But you CAN glitch it outside of the map. If you hover a box over on top of it and throw it, you will not kill, but push it outside of the map's boundaries and it will fall into the void and despawn. If you put the box too low, you will push it on top of the box and it will hit you.

The Kaernk also does not use sound to detect Daniel, rather it chases Daniel if they are in water regardless of how far apart they are from each other. Their status is instantly set to Patrol if Daniel steps foot into water even if he's as far away as possible, meaning "hearing" is irrelevant.

You also failed to mention the Kaernk can be fed dead body parts and will temporarily leave the player alone.

[Yogurt]

This guide is factually incorrect.

Brutes, Grunts, and Suitors all have exactly the same stats and AI. The only difference is damage. This also means suitors aren't blind, and can be observed seeing the player perfectly fine when they hold out the lantern (if the suitor is used in custom stories, that is).

As for the Brute's case, he does not run faster, all monsters have two different types of attacks - a standing attack, and a running attack. Running attacks have longer range than standing attacks. If you were to run in a straight line, you would be able to hear them trying to hit you from behind, but repeatedly missing, slowing down because they missed, which gives you the time you need to keep your distance away.

[AmbassadorLaZer]

Same!

[Shadeoskullex]

Jeez.. seeing all of these old comments make me feel old, including the guide itself. Me and my friend here Schism would like to thank you all for taking a look at our guide here for Amnesia the Dark Descent. We're happy to see that our guide here has 4 stars out of 5, and that's really amazing to see!

Hope you all have a good Halloween, and stay safe out there!

[spinozaSwag]

May I just say that the notion of the shadow having no shape or form is incorrect, the fleshy substance you encounter many times through the game is the physical form of the shadow.

[_MaZ_TeR_]

spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine

[Worksr]

Malo in spanish means, bad/evil.

[Veridi]

Guide unclear, which monster gives the best handjob

[(OLD) EmptyMag]

Yep, turns out it WAS Malo, I could tell that by the fact it canabalized me after brutally clubbing me to death.

[Schism]

I'm not so sure of that. I never played the justine dlc because my computer is laggy as crap nowadays so I collected info. I'm not going to explain that even if I knew. I'm not going to spoil too much.