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 The and The '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 four different colors in-game, yellow, blue, red, and green.

Overseers have varying amounts of "limbs", typically between three and five, though two-armed blue Overseers can exist. Linked to this, 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 prism has a number of sides which may be equal to the number of arms the Overseer has, but can vary at random - likewise for the polygons. The polygons have a random amount of taper. 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 rotate with remarkable freedom of movement, seemingly able to turn 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 looking towards. s often throw objects and at them, prompting the Overseer to act skittishly and flee, or fly higher. 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, and dodge all projectiles other than Spears. They have been known to cluster in great amounts on The Wall.

Overseers in general, when in extremely close physical proximity (given the opportunity to exist undisturbed, and not a yellow Overseer, which seems to use different movement scripts,) nearly touch their arms together, with a small gap remaining, at which point blue electrical discharge can be seen. The meaning of this behavior is unknown; two potential possibilities are communication and energy transfer. This behavior is shown at the top of the article, with the discharge captured at the middle tentacles.

Overseers do not generate pipe behavior when entering a room - rather, it simply travel off the borders of the screen. The path that Overseers take, unlike other creatures, is independent of level geometry save that Overseers prioritize 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.

Yellow Overseer
The yellow Overseer met at the beginning of the game, sometimes called "Iggy", acts as a basic tutorial and as a guide.

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.
 * Level 4 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, instead of , like one might expect from the color.

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

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

Red Overseer
Only seen during the 's playthrough and in, the Red Overseer belongs to Seven Red Suns and is used to observe and guide their messenger. Spearmaster's Overseer is uniquely immune to s, as their death is scripted, but can still be damaged or killed by.

Special Overseers
On very rare occasions, a Green Overseer may spawn. The Green Overseer can be found in and  with only having a 1% chance to spawn in Subterranean. As they are strictly a cosmetic variant, they can be found in all the same variations as Overseers.

Exclusively in the Outer Expanse, two more variations have an incredibly low chance to spawn, being White and Purple. While both of them are rare, the Purple one happens to be slightly less common than the White one.

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.

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.
 * The Yellow Overseer usually follows Slugcat around from room to room, but occasionally disappears from time to time. When this occurs, they are patrolling the rest of the Region, rapidly moving through rooms. The purpose of this behavior is not specifically known.