Animal Hospital Anomalies: Every Tell & How to Spot Them
What Anomalies Are
Anomalies are animals with one or more abnormal traits, and rejecting them at check-in is the core of the game. They are typically aggressive when hungry — patients arriving by ambulance are victims of anomaly attacks, which hit the town every five shifts. Lore-wise, anomalies are infections caused by Animal Corporation experiments on hospital patients, transformed gradually over repeated visits; the character encounters fill in that story.
Let one in by mistake and the usual outcomes are a death ritual, a monster emerging in the room, or a treated anomaly muttering “I’m hungry…” and attacking someone on the way out.
The Three Checks at the Window
- Look at the face. Appearance anomalies are visible with no equipment at all.
- Take a photo. Photo anomalies only show in the desk snapshot — wait for the photo to fully develop before inspecting it, because inspecting a still-developing cursed photo drains sanity.
- Watch the camera. Some tells (staring, twitching) can only show on the security monitor.
If any check fails: shutters closed, patient rejected — that pays 0.5 Animal Coins and keeps the ward alive.
Facial Tells (No Equipment Needed)
| Tell | What you see |
|---|---|
| Smiling with creepy eyes | Large eyes, black pupils, under-eye bags, drawn-on smile (the smile vanishes if tased) |
| Three eyes | Three off-center glowing red eyes replacing the patient’s own |
| Crooked face | Distorted smile, sharp teeth, mismatched eyes set too high |
| X-rayed face | Small wide circular eyes with realistic teeth; looks normal when the expression changes |
| Hollow face | Dark hollow eyes, twitching, hunched — not always hostile, but guaranteed to start a death ritual in recovery |
| Twitching | Arms, head and neck twitch; hunched back; sometimes camera-only |
| Tiny anomaly | Extremely small pink bunny with a high-pitched voice and three red eyes; turns hostile after check-in |
Two traps worth memorizing: staring alone is not proof — Ratthew stares and is explicitly not an anomaly — and after shift 10 a static photo is no longer a guaranteed anomaly, so the safe play late-run is rejecting rather than shooting.
Photo Tells
- Incorrect photo — the snapshot differs from the animal at the window: face, ear shape or ear color.
- Static photo — grainy, static-covered image. Early on this is a reliable tell; from shift 10 it stops being a guarantee.
Photo anomalies do not drain sanity themselves — the cursed photos do, if you inspect them before they develop.
Camera Tells
The security monitor catches what the window hides: patients who stare at the camera, twitch, or behave wrong in the waiting area. Some anomalies are only detectable this way, which is why Dr. Harlow unlocks cameras after shift 1 and why the Deployable Camera item exists.
When One Gets Through
Admitted anomalies become enemies — Mimics, rituals, monsters emerging mid-treatment. The events guide covers each emergency, and the Journal pays Animal Coins for logging every anomaly type you encounter. If you would rather shoot your way out of mistakes, the Secret Agent class exists for exactly that.
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