Overseer



Overseers are thin, hologram-like beings that pop out of the ground rapidly and appear to be watching the Slugcat. One in particular has taken an interest in guiding the Slugcat to serve some goal...

Appearance
Overseers are generally defined by being small and brightly colored, in contrast to the world's dreary and dark landscape. They are worm-like creatures characterized by a large eye at one end and the tail tapering off at the other. They appear to have multiple sensors coming off the sides of their bodies. They appear almost holographic and can project images onto the landscape. They appear to be color-coded to identify which Iterator they belong to.

Behavior
Mysterious beings with mysterious purposes, Overseers are often seen observing various creatures and landscapes, but most often looking toward the Slugcat. Scavengers often attack them out of defiance towards the Iterators, prompting the Overseer to act skittishly and flee, or fly higher. They cannot move, it seems, in any method other than teleportation. Once at a comfortable spot, they will simply wiggle around and observe their targets. Occasionally, a holographic shape consisting of a 3D triangular prism surrounded by six triangles forming a circle around the prism, will appear above their eye, and will rotate randomly. If the Yellow Overseer is near the Slugcat, it will project signs onto the landscape. If approached, they will blink away in another direction, and will dodge all projectiles other than spears. They have been known to cluster in great amounts on the Wall.

Yellow Overseer
The yellow Overseer you meet at the beginning of the game (known by some as "Iggy") acts as a basic tutorial and as a guide.

Signs
As well as teaching the player the controls, the yellow guide will point to things and generate a yellow symbol with an arrow pointing at the subject. The symbols are:
 * Fourth & First Karma Symbol: This symbol means "this wants to eat you" when the yellow guide points to something. This symbol will flash 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 Popcorn Plant that must be opened with a spear. This symbol will be green, indicating something positive(eating).


 * Hologram: Occasionally you will be shown images inside yellow octagons, clumsy attempts to communicate important messages about what you are expected to do.
 * 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 will observe the player. These creatures can be found alone, or in groups of two or three. Blue Overseers can be seen interacting with each other, connecting their tendrils together to generate little sparks. These can be killed and will drop an Overseer eye, which can be brought to Looks to the Moon for some information about the overseers. These overseers apparently belong to Five Pebbles, instead of Moon, like one might expect from the color.

Note: Blue overseers can very rarely be found in groups of five.

Green Overseer
On very rare occasions, a green overseer will spawn instead of a blue one. The change is purely cosmetic, but it is implied that the overseer belongs to a more faraway being that sent the Hunter on their quest. The green overseer can only be found in subterranean with a 1% spawn chance.

Trivia

 * When presented with an Overseer eye, Moon states that scavengers attempt to spear Overseers as an act of defiance.
 * 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 will kill/eat you".
 * Large amounts of Blue Overseers will gather at the top of The Wall, which is a subregion of The Exterior.
 * It is heavily implied that Iterators have the same color pearls as they do Overseers.
 * If the Slugcat eats Moon's neurons, the Yellow Overseer will flash an image of the Slugcat with a spear in its head, and will shine a red X over said image. Afterward, it will no longer appear to 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 will return to guide the player if enough neurons are brought to Moon.
 * It is worth noting that there are more neurons later in the game, so eating Moon's is not necessary to see the strange objects.
 * The yellow Overseer can light up dark areas within the Shaded Citadel for the Slugcat when playing as the Monk in order to aid it in its 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 will frequently look at each other and stare for a while, shining holograms towards each other. They also occasionally touch tails.
 * If a Scavenger kills the Yellow Overseer, it will always return . This makes it possible to "farm" Yellow Overseer eyes.OverseerIllumination1.png

Arena
There are four unique overseers in the arena sandbox mode, a white, a yellow, a red and a black overseer, and they are used to place objects in the map. Each of the overseers' colors indicate their Slugcat's color, the white one teams with the white the Slugcat, the yellow one teams with the yellow Slugcat, the red one teams with the red Slugcat and the black one teams with the unnamed black Slugcat.

It is worth noting that while the first three Slugcats appear visually identical to the three different difficulties in-game, they are functionally the same as The Survivor in terms of physical strength and prowess, so no unfair advantage is given to one of the players.

Once all items & creatures are in their places and the edit mode is exited from, the colorful overseers will disappear and the Slugcats will consequently appear. Just like the black Slugcat, the colorful overseers don't appear in single-player mode and are most likely not canon. In addition, the yellow overseer in the arena mode has a stronger color than the one we see in single-player mode, which likely indicates that the two are not the same overseer.