Red Smoke

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Red Smoke
Scent	Poppy
Chapter	Chapter 3: "Deep Sleep" Chapter 4
Appears In	Chapter 3 Interactable ARG, in a video. Chapter 3, as CatNap's main weapon against The Player. Chapter 4

Red Smoke is a semi-hallucinogenic, sleep-inducing gas produced in Playcare's Gas Production Zone. It was used by Playtime Co. employees to put children to sleep in Home Sweet Home at night. In 1990, a Red Smoke delivery apparatus was attached to CatNap's respiratory system, allowing him to directly administer the Smoke via his mouth.

Effects

The Red Smoke's primary effect is putting whoever inhales it to sleep. However, on several occasions, the smoke has been noted to have the potential to cause intense nightmares and hallucinations. For example, Marie Payne saw some sort of "Colorless Monster" after inhaling the smoke. The Player was also exposed when first entering Home Sweet Home, experiencing a nightmare that ended with a distorted version of Huggy Wuggy eating The Player. Later, they encounter it again at the Counselor's Office, causing a vision showing many places around Playtime Co. as Poppy asks them several rhetorical questions, ending with The Prototype reaching through the roof of the Main Lobby.

Gameplay

So far, the Red Smoke has only appeared in Chapter 3: "Deep Sleep", where Ollie instructs The Player to shut down the production of Red Smoke via the Gas Production Zone. After the power goes out, The Player heads to Home Sweet Home to try and restore it. Upon entering, they find a big cloud of Red Smoke blocking their path. Forced to inhale the smoke, The Player encounters a maze of hallways, hearing several radio reports of Playtime Co. News Coverage about a dead child and, at one point, spots CatNap slipping away. At the end of the maze, they enter a room to watch a Welcome To Playtime tape that slowly becomes more and more disturbing, until Huggy Wuggy crawls out of the TV and eats them. After waking up from their hallucination, The Player finds the invaluable Gas Mask, allowing them to safely traverse through the Red Smoke; from this point, the smoke is lethal in normal gameplay.

The smoke is also encountered in the Counselor's Office, where The Player must make their way through it to power the building. At one point, CatNap knocks the Gas Mask off The Player's head, causing them to inhale the smoke once more, sending them into another nightmare. Floating through a void of Red Smoke, Poppy talks to The Player about their return to the factory as the scene shifts, showing The Player Playcare's children when the orphanage was still operational. The Player's dream ends with two more visions, first of Huggy Wuggy in his Chapter 1 statue form and then finally the Prototype's massive hand reaching from the sky through the ceiling of the Huggy statue location.

The Player tries one last time to decommission the Gas Production Zone, only for CatNap to interrupt and fill the area with more Red Smoke. This causes The Player to hallucinate CatNap as distorted and skeletal, then see multiple fake versions when trying to shut down production in the Safe Room above the Gas Production Zone. After being electrocuted at the end of his boss fight, CatNap tries to administer one last dose. However, the smoke is revealed to be highly flammable and proves to be his undoing, setting him alight. Soon after the flames die out, the Prototype visits CatNap, kills him, then lifts him away. The remaining Red Smoke dissipates, and The Player finally shuts down the gas production for good.

Trivia

• The "Colorless Monster" Marie Payne had seen might have been CatNap's hallucination form.
• The Red Smoke also appeared at the end of the Smiling Critters Cartoon.
• The Red Smoke shares similarities to DC's Scarecrow's signature weapon: Fear Toxin.
• The Red Smoke's abilities bear some similarities to the gas used in the Fear Experiments in the Five Nights at Freddy's book Dittophobia. Both are able to produce distorted and horrifying depictions of otherwise less disturbing creatures and put their victims in torturous nightmares. Both were also used to experiment on children given new homes in an underground facility.
  • Despite the similarities, this is most likely just a coincidence, since Chapter 3 was already deep in development by the time the book was released.
  • Although the exact ingredients aren't known, some can be inferred from the gas's characteristics and its name. The theorized ingredients include opium, a glucocorticoid, an anesthetic, potassium bromide and bromine, and a flammable gas likely to be oxygen.
    • While Opium, the drug that is used in the Red Smoke, does cause relaxation and a euphoric rush, it is not a hallucinogen and neither does it help its recipient go to sleep. However, opioid-induced hallucinations can occur, although uncommon, and are usually attributed to another underlying cause rather than the opium.
    • The gas may contain the stress hormone Cortisol, present as an aerosolized glucocorticoid, to cause horrific nightmares.
      • Aerosolized means the suspension of liquid droplets in air or other gas.
    • The gas may contain some kind of anesthetic considering its ability to put the recipient to sleep.
    • The gas may contain some kind of flammable ingredient, with the most likely candidate being oxygen, as it may have been needed to ensure the recipient didn't pass out from oxygen deprivation.
    • The gas may contain Potassium Bromide, the possible active ingredient and Bromine, giving it a red colour.