The Toddlers

The other children left behind. Finding them is optional; keeping them alive is what most of the score is actually made of.

Names

There are 10 possible names, cycled through as more toddlers spawn over a run: Pip, Moo, Bibi, Tog, Nell, Dot, Wex, Bun, Cricket, Snib.

Spawning

Every morning, a fresh batch scatters into rooms away from your classroom: clamp(2 + floor(night/2), 2, 5) — 2 on nights 1–2, rising to a cap of 5 from night 7 onward. They never spawn behind the staff room's locked door, in the boiler room, in your own classroom, or in a hallway. Any toddler still marked "taken" from the previous night is removed first, so the count each day is always the fresh batch, not an accumulation. Each toddler in that fresh batch is rolled independently for an injury — a flat 25% chance — the instant it spawns.

Injuries

About one in four toddlers spawns hurt: a red cross floats and bobs over their head, and a red scrape shows on one knee. A hurt toddler behaves differently from a healthy one:

• They don't wander. A healthy "lost" toddler wanders a little during the day; a hurt one just sits still where it spawned, all day and night.
• They whimper. Starting 4–12 seconds after spawning, then every 12–20 seconds after that, a hurt toddler emits a real noise event at level 0.6 — loud enough for Bob or Grump to hear — with the subtitle "[name] is hurt and crying. The nurse's office has plasters." if you're within 14 units.
• Calming still works. Giving a hurt toddler a teddy sets it calm and suppresses the whimpering entirely, exactly like it does for a healthy one — but it does not heal them. A calmed, hurt, un-bandaged toddler still can't be kept safe (see below).
• They show red on the map instead of the usual orange, labelled "(hurt)". See The Map.
• They cannot be made safe until bandaged. Carrying a hurt toddler into your own classroom and putting them down does not mark them safe — they're set back to "lost" on the floor, a deny sound plays, and a toast reads "[name] is hurt. Take them to the nurse's office for a plaster first."

The nurse's office

The fix for a hurt toddler is always the same: get them to a nurse's office and play the plaster minigame.

• Carrying one there: once you're inside a nurse's office with a hurt toddler in your arms, the prompt changes to "Sit [name] on the nurse's bed" — a 0.3-second hold that puts them down on the spot and immediately opens the minigame.
• Already there: if a hurt toddler is standing (not being carried) inside a nurse's office — because you put them down there, or they happened to spawn there — walking up to them prompts "Put a plaster on [name]" directly, no pick-up required.
• Anywhere else while carrying one: the put-down prompt instead reads "They are hurt: carry them to the nurse's office (red cross on the map)."
• Winning the minigame (see The Nurse's Office on the Minigames page) bandages them permanently: the cross disappears, a plaster and a head band appear instead, and it's worth +60 score. They can then be carried home and put down safely like any other toddler. Losing just ends the attempt — the toddler is still hurt and un-bandaged, and you can try again as many times as you like.
• Co-op: whichever player is holding the toddler plays the minigame on their own screen; if that player isn't the host, a win is sent to the host as a request (act: 'bandage'), which the host applies and then progresses the "Patch someone up" job from.

Picking up and carrying

• Your hands must be free (no fuel can, teddy, or other toddler already held) to pick one up — a 0.45-second hold. Picking up a hurt one shows "(hurt)" on the prompt, with a hint pointing you at the nurse's office.
• Carrying a toddler slows your movement more than any other big item: speed ×0.76 (versus ×0.87 for a fuel can, teddy, or hamster).
• A carried toddler rides along with you and doesn't need to be "aimed" — it just follows your position.
• If you go down while carrying one, it's released back onto the floor at your position rather than vanishing or staying stuck to you.

Calming with a teddy

Give it a teddy: an 0.8-second hold while holding a teddy in your hands. Marks the toddler calm permanently — for a hurt toddler this stops the whimpering (see Injuries), and it's simply a kindness for a healthy one, since healthy toddlers make no noise on their own either way. Worth +45 score.

Getting them safe

Carry a healthy toddler — or a hurt one that's already been bandaged — into your own classroom and put them down (E, or automatically detected on entry) to mark them safe. This is worth +120 score the first time, plays a ding sound, and a toast confirms it by name. Putting one down anywhere else just sets them back to "lost" on the floor there. A hurt, un-bandaged toddler is refused, as described under Injuries above — the nurse's office has to come first.

Safe isn't risk-free

If Grump (turned) catches you, there's a 70% chance he also drags one already-safe toddler back out of your classroom as an extra cost — another −100 score, on top of whatever the catch itself did to you. See Grump.

Being taken at nightfall

The instant night falls, every toddler still marked lost (not carried home, not already safe) is taken by Grump, one at a time, off-screen: −80 score each — hurt or not, bandaged or not, it makes no difference once night has actually begun. If any were taken, a big-line banner reads "[names] is not here any more" with a stinger sound. Getting every toddler either safe or actively being carried before dusk is the only way to prevent this.

Scoring summary