Complete Little Nightmares lore timeline explained

Little Nightmares meshes beautiful artwork with creepy monsters, creating a unique brand of cozy horror. It features doomed protagonists, time loops, and plenty of grotesque villains – what more could you want? 

Below, you’ll find The Escapist’s full breakdown of the Little Nightmares timeline. This article will combine fan theories with confirmed lore, but it’ll be made apparent when something isn’t canon. There will be spoilers for all games below.

The Escapist recaps

• The Little Nightmares franchise centers around a time loop, which means that defining a timeline can be quite complex.
• The chronologically appropriate way to play the games is Very Little Nightmares, Little Nightmares 2, Little Nightmares, then Little Nightmares 3. 
• There are additional sources of lore for the wider franchise, including a series of mobile comics and an audio drama podcast series called The Sounds of Nightmares.
• Currently, it does not appear that Little Nightmares 3 is directly related to the other games, although it’s safe to say that they take place in the same world.

Escaping The Nest

The most widely accepted starting point in the community is with Very Little Nightmares, the mobile spin-off game.

This game features Six – but she’s not the protagonist. The protagonist in the yellow rain jacket is simply referred to as The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat, and Six shows up alongside her at several moments in the game.

Both characters are attempting to escape a mysterious mansion on a cliff called The Nest. The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat doesn’t make it, falling to her death at the very end of the game and losing her iconic yellow jacket, but Six makes it out alive.

Six finds the yellow jacket on the ground in Little Nightmares 2, which is believed to be the next game in the series timeline.

After Six escapes The Nest on a raft, she is captured by The Hunter and imprisoned in his forest cabin. 

Fan theories on how long she is kept in his cabin differ, but it seems to be around a month; she’s kept in a singular room with only a music box for comfort.

The room plays a big role in understanding the Little Nightmares storyline, as it is covered with chalk drawings that seemingly tell the story of the franchise, including locations like The Signal Tower and a falling character that could theoretically be The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat. 

These drawings have never been officially decoded, but they’re a strong indication of a time loop, or at least a time-warped storyline. 

Mono witnesses the kidnapping of Six – shown in the mobile comic series – and ends up freeing her, escaping with his new companion, and using a raft to travel to the Pale City, which is where they encounter The Signal Tower. 

Into the Pale City

Almost every character in the Pale City appears to be in a trance due to the gargantuan tower at its core. Six appears to be affected by The Signal Tower, indicated by her drawing of it in the cabin and the way she stops to stare at it.

TVs play a big role in the game – they keep the residents transfixed, and Mono discovers he can travel through them, akin to Low with the mirrors in Little Nightmares 3. 

Six ends up being snatched by a villain called The Thin Man in Little Nightmares 2, who is believed to be the source of The Signal Tower’s power. It is revealed that Mono shares incredibly similar powers to him.

Six is imprisoned in The Signal Tower, which turns her into a monster. She’s held captive in a room with notable items like a giant music box and a briefcase that looks like the one she starts Little Nightmares in, adding credence to the idea that the first game is actually the third in the timeline. 

Mono manages to free Six from her monster form, and the pair attempt to escape once more, but Mono slips while crossing a gap. Six catches him, but chooses to let him go.

Mono ends up being held captive in The Signal Tower, eventually turning into The Thin Man, which is why he shared his powers and is one of the biggest indications of a time loop.

There are plenty of theories on why Six lets Mono fall – the most credible is that she finally sees his face when catching him and recognizes him as The Thin Man, her kidnapper.

Six escapes the tower through a TV, which appears to be aboard The Maw, based on a nearby poster. The Maw is the ship on which Little Nightmares takes place. 

Aboard The Maw

Part of Six seems to have been left behind in The Signal Tower, which is where her ravenous hunger appears to originate from. 

Six goes from eating meat, to killing a Nome, to finally killing the end boss of Little Nightmares, The Lady, and consuming her powers. These powers allow Six to harvest the energy of all the guests on board the Maw and seemingly escape from the ship, but they appear to doom her as well, turning her into a corrupted being once more. 

It’s unclear how Little Nightmares 3 plays into this story – if at all. This article will be updated once Secrets of the Spiral launches to confirm if further details exist. 

Low is seemingly a patient in a mental health facility or hospital, with Alone being his imaginary friend, so there is a possibility that Six or Mono could actually be within a similar location, based on previous villains and locations like the dormitory area in Little Nightmares. This is a vague theory, though.

The Little Nightmares storyline is vivid and morbid, with a seemingly endless time loop at its core and multiple doomed protagonists. It’s not a happy story by any means, but it is a fascinating one – and there are still plenty of questions that will hopefully be answered with future DLC or games. 

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