Overseer

Overseers are thin, hologram-like beings that pop out of the ground rapidly and observe creatures in the world around them. One in particular has taken an interest in Slugcat's journey.

Appearance
Overseers are small, brightly colored, worm-like creatures with a single large eye surrounded by tendrils at one end and a tail tapering off at the other. They appear holographic and can project images onto the landscape. They can be found in 3 different colors in-game, and an additional 3 in Downpour: yellow, blue, green, red, white and purple.

Overseers have varying amounts of 'limbs'. The number typically falls between three and five, though two-armed Blue Overseers can exist. Their 'limbs' always end in a blue gradient. Overseers occasionally display a holographic shape consisting of a 3D prism surrounded by several regular polygons (or triangles, for the yellow Overseer), forming a circle around the prism, which rotates randomly. The number of sides a prism or polygon has varies. With the exception of two-limbed Overseers, the 'arms' seem to be placed equidistantly, though the two-limbed Overseers breaking this rule may be due to limits in the game's pseudo-3D rendering. Overseer 'arms' are seemingly able to rotate indefinitely.

When an Overseer moves from one location to another, a very faint light can be seen rapidly through the level geometry to the next position. The color of this light depends on the color of the Overseer.

Abilities & Behavior
Overseers are often seen observing various creatures and landscapes, but most often look towards. s often throw objects and s at them, prompting the Overseer to act skittishly and flee, or move to higher ground. They do not move in any method other than teleportation. Once at a comfortable spot, they simply wiggle around and observe their targets. If the Yellow Overseer is near the Slugcat, they may project signs onto the landscape. If approached, they blink away in another direction. They attempt to dodge all projectiles; a thrown Spear is the easiest way to kill one, as they are unaffected by and it is difficult to aim a  safely.

Overseers can, when in close proximity, reach their 'arms' towards each other and trigger a small blue electrical discharge. This behavior is called "talking" in the code, and is shown at the top of the article, where the discharge captured at the middle 'tentacles'.

Overseers do not generate pipe behavior when entering a room - rather, they simply travel off the borders of the screen. The path that Overseers take, unlike other creatures, is independent of level geometry. They do, however, prefer sprouting from valid terrain that Slugcat can (theoretically) interact with over background elements. They avoid s to the greatest extent possible, and try to avoid rooms with s, albeit less completely.

If an Overseer is killed with a Spear or, it drops an Overseer Eye, which can be brought to for some information about the Overseers.

Overseers seem to act independently of their Iterators. remarks that he "barely listens" to his Overseers, who constantly communicate regarding creatures' movements in his structure. On being given an Overseer Eye, Looks to the Moon tells Slugcat that she has lost contact with her own Overseers following the severance of her umbilical.

After Looks to the Moon has been re-activated, she informs Rivulet that her connection to her Overseers has been restored, and calls them to her can. At this point, around 12 Yellow Overseers appear, sprouting from the sides of the room. These Overseers project images of various events that occurred from before Looks to the Moon's collapse until the present, including her revival by, and bringing two. She admits that she only has "unread messages and Overseer recordings" to glean information from, implying that Overseers can only communicate to other creatures through projections and holograms.

AI
When not observing or following Slugcat, Overseers are patrolling the rest of the region. This behavior is called "roaming" in the code, and is shared between all Overseers, but is unobservable by the player outside Dev Tools. Their pathing is determined by a complex set of variables.

On spawning in their offscreen den, an Overseer selects a room out of a random pool of 20 rooms based on the room attraction level, the size of the room, and the number of Overseers already present in the room. Once in a room, an Overseer may choose to move into an adjacent room. Their choice depends on the room attraction level, the most interesting creature in the room, and how long ago they last visited the room.

The interest value of a creature also determines where an Overseer looks. The following is a table of creatures' raw Interest values: [*] Calculated by the formula, where k is Slugcat's current Karma, which is capped at a value of 5.

These raw values are affected by the Overseer's ID and the target creature's ID. Most of the time, Slugcat is the most interesting creature, so Overseers tend to watch and follow them, and linger longer in rooms the player is in.

Overseers' interest in Scavengers can lead to their death, as Scavengers do not hesitate to attack Overseers, who do not always flee and may continue to observe the offending Scavenger. All other creatures ignore Overseers.

Yellow Overseer
The Yellow Overseer appears at the beginning of the game and acts as a basic tutorial and as a guide. They are sometimes referred to as "Iggy" by the community and belong to.

Signs
As well as teaching the player the controls, the yellow guide also occasionally projects a yellow symbol with an arrow pointing at a subject of interest. The symbols are:
 *  Fourth & First Karma Symbol: This symbol, pointed at another creature, means "this wants to eat you". This symbol flashes between yellow and red, indicating that it's dangerous.


 * Batfly Outline: points towards colonies of tasty Batflies.
 * Shelter Symbol: points towards the direction of the nearest Shelter.
 * Fourth Karma Symbol: points towards the location of edible plants. Sometimes alternates between the Karma symbol and a Spear symbol, indicating a that must be opened with a Spear. This symbol is green, indicating something positive (eating).


 * Hologram: Occasionally the player is shown holograms inside yellow octagons, which are attempts to communicate messages about what Slugcat is expected to do.
 * For example, when near a, the guide shows an image of a , followed by an image of the Toll.
 * [[File:slugcat head.png]] Slugcat Head: points towards a route out of the current region, attempting to lead you in some new direction.
 * Alternate Head: points towards a route to its destination. This appears as a circle with three smaller circles within, along with two lines on either side of the big circle. It represents something the player has yet to come across on their journey.
 * Neuron Symbol: Points a path upwards, towards a new destination.

Blue Overseers
Blue Overseers appear randomly and observe the player. These creatures can be found alone or in groups - usually of two to three, but rarely up to five. Blue Overseers can be seen interacting with each other, connecting their 'tendrils' together to generate little sparks. These can be killed and drop an Overseer Eye, which can be brought to for some information about the Overseers. These Overseers belong to rather than.

While playing as the, Blue Overseers guide the player towards Shelters and alert them of enemies, similarly to the Yellow Overseer.

Blue Overseers in project various advertisements targeted towards the departed Ancient population.

Red Overseer
Red Overseers belong to Seven Red Suns. 's Red Overseer was sent to observe and guide Spearmaster on their way to deliver their message. This Overseer is uniquely immune to s, but can still be damaged or killed by. If killed, it respawns shortly in the same room.

There is an 0.01% chance for a Red Overseer to spawn in any region (except Shoreline and Submerged Superstructure) for Slugcats besides Spearmaster. This chance is increased in.

After Five Pebbles reads Seven Red Suns' message, he kills the Red Overseer in his can. A few Broadcasts later, Seven Red Suns admits to No Significant Harassment that they have lost contact with all of their other Overseers in Five Pebbles' facility, which may have been caused by Five Pebbles initiating a facility-wide lockdown. Spearmaster can no longer encounter Red Overseers after this point.

Special Overseers
On very rare occasions, a Green Overseer may spawn. The Green Overseer can be found in and, as any Slugcat except ,  and. As they are strictly a cosmetic variant, they can be found in all the same variations as Overseers.

There are 2 additional variations found in Outer Expanse. These are White and Purple, which have spawn chances of 0.387% and 0.086% respectively.

Arena
"Main article: Arena"There are four Overseers in Arena mode with unique colors that are used to place item and creature spawns. They are white, red, yellow, and dark blue/black, each corresponding to one of the four players. The Arena Overseers are restricted to Arena mode and are not generally considered canon.

In arenas with lethal water, it is possible to kill the Overseers by aiming the reticle on the bottom of the screen, which causes them to approach and touch the acid, getting damaged and eventually killed. They drop an Overseer Eye, and the corresponding crosshair becomes fainted and distorted. Despite this, the player can place and remove objects, and move the reticle as normal.

In Safari Mode, a player-controlled Overseer controls moving between rooms and selecting or deselecting a creature to play as. This Overseer adopts the color of the Slugcat whose map was selected. It is possible, when playing as a, to eat and destroy this Overseer, which softlocks the player.

Trivia

 * When presented with an Overseer eye, states that s attempt to spear Overseers as an act of defiance, which is a behavior from them that can actually be seen in game.
 * The symbols the Yellow Overseer flashes are related to the Karma symbols seen upon hibernation. It flashes the fourth Karma symbol in reference to edible objects, and this has been deciphered (using other in-game evidence) to be a symbol representing gluttony. The first Karma symbol, likely wrath, is used in conjunction with the fourth gluttony symbol when the Overseer points at a threat, meaning "This thing kills/eats you".
 * Large numbers of Blue Overseers may gather at the top of The Wall, which is a subregion of.
 * If the Slugcat eats Neurons, the Yellow Overseer flashes an image of the Slugcat with a Spear in their head, then shines a red X over said image. Afterwards, they no longer guide the player. However, the player can still follow the storyline path by interacting with strange yellow objects that appear after eating the Neurons. The Yellow Overseer returns to guide the player when enough Neurons are brought to Looks to the Moon, if she is still alive.
 * It is worth noting that there are more Neurons later in the game, so eating Looks to the Moon's is not necessary to see the strange objects.
 * The Yellow Overseer can light up dark areas (particularly in ) for the player when playing as to aid their traversal.
 * Overseers appear to have a form of communication among themselves. They usually communicate with their own type of Overseer; however, they do occasionally appear to communicate with others of different origins. They frequently stare at each other for a while, shining holograms towards each other. They also occasionally touch 'tendrils'.
 * The Yellow Overseer always returns if killed by a . This makes it possible to "farm" Yellow Overseer Eyes.