Chris Afton FNAF Guide

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Chris Afton is a fan-made name for the Crying Child, who is generally theorized to be Evan Afton, son of William Afton, sibling to Michael and Elizabeth Afton, and the ghost that haunts Golden Freddy. Admittedly, I, as well as the FNAF community, did not know a lot about this character until Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 came out in 2015, starring Chris as the main protagonist.

I had seen depictions of him across previous games, but to see a game that promoted the character from an easter egg to a protagonist was very exciting at the time. The game, albeit a prequel, was an important stepping stone in refining the early timeline of FNAF’s lore, as well as piecing together the Crying Child’s story.

Scott Cawthon loves mystery and often leaves many details open-ended, but I was very pleased to see one such major mystery see some light! As such, in this guide, I’ll be discussing FNAF’s early lore as well as the Crying Child’s involvement in it which is also depicted in the games.

Appearance

Chris is one of the few named human characters in the FNAF series as the cast is ironically filled with more animatronics than humans – such is the universe Scott Cawthon has crafted. Other than that, Chris also stands out as one of the more human-looking characters unlike other personalities such as Purple Guy (William Afton) or Michael Afton (after the Scooper event).

There’s most likely some symbolism involved but I’m still not sure why Scott depicted William Afton in a a purple figure. Anyhow, appearance-wise, Chris is a boy with peach-pink skin and black eyes, having brown, short hair from which hangs his signature cowlick.

He wears a sleeveless black shirt that distinguishes itself through its linear design, featuring two horizontal gray stripes running through the chest – that’s quite unheard of as pixelated human characters in FNAF usually have bland outfits!

Regardless, towards the lower body, Chris is seen wearing simple blue shorts above a brown, unbranded pair of shoes.

Keeping the above description in mind, I can only summarize his getup to be summer-based, an important detail for theorizing at which time of the year the Bite of ’83 took place.

But I’ll talk more about that later. Attire aside, one important detail that should not be overlooked is his expression.

Chris, whenever shown in the games, is always seen either crying or on the verge of tears, earning him the nickname of “The Crying Child” – this is what everyone, including myself, called him until his real name was revealed in FNAF 4.

Role in the Games: Five Nights at Freddy’s 1

Chris Afton FNAF

Crying Child Posters

In FNAF 1, the hallucination mechanic was intended to show easter eggs out of the blue. As such, they happened randomly with a fixed probability every time you performed a particular action. For instance, one such hallucination was in CAM 4A where every time you opened the camera, there would be a 1/100 chance of the regular posters getting replaced by crying paper pals, featuring the Crying Child’s ghost.

At first, I thought there was some hidden danger behind it, but fret not, Scott is not that cunning!

Golden Freddy Killscreen

The Golden Freddy hallucination is particularly different as it is dangerous and can get you killed if you’re not careful enough. Essentially, every time you open your camera and browse to CAM 2B, there is a 1/100000 chance of the regular Freddy poster getting swapped out by a close-up shot of Golden Freddy.

You will hear the voice of a young girl (which will be explained later) and upon switching back to the Office, Golden Freddy himself will appear before you. There is a five-second window for you to bring the camera back up and shun the animatronic away before it not only kills you but also forcefully crashes your game – pretty creepy, right?

Ultimately, there is no avoiding the summoning of Golden Freddy as CAM 2B is an important camera for monitoring Bonnie’s advances. Nonetheless, if you are unfortunate enough to get the Golden Freddy Poster, be prepared to shun him away. Don’t be like me, who simply kept staring him during his first encounter, and inevitably freaked out when he killed me.

1-9-8-7 Easter Egg

crying child fnaf

Of course, how can we forget the classic 1-9-8-7 easter egg? After beating all six nights, you unlock a custom night where you can configure the animatronic AI to your liking and play through your own customized night. However, if you set Freddy’s AI to 1, Bonnie’s AI to 9, Chica’s AI to 8, and Foxy’s AI to 7 (making 1-9-8-7 or 1987), you’ll get a Golden Freddy jumpscare followed by a game crash.

In all of video game history, this has to be my most favorite easter egg because somehow, it can legitimately close your game – my geekiness fails to comprehend such sorcery.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2

Post-Night 3 Cutscene

In FNAF 2, the completion of each of the first five nights is followed up by a cutscene. More specifically, in the cutscene that plays after night 3 where Freddy’s field of view is shown as he looks at the other animatronics, Golden Freddy is seen in its original form.

Being in the centre, Bonnie is present to Golden Freddy’s right while Chicais present to its left.

Withered Golden Freddy (Antagonist)

Withered Golden Freddy is one of the antagonists that are introduced to the game in night 6 onwards, although it does have an astronomical chance of spawning in the previous nights. Regardless, Golden Freddy can appear in one of two scenarios so listen closely.

First, if you see it spawn in your office in its usual crumpled-up position, you can either put on the Freddy mask to ward him off or bring up your camera monitor, though I would recommend the former. Second, there is a slim chance of Golden Freddy’s head appearing in the hallway – if you flash your flashlight on it too much, it will fly out towards you, jumpscaring and killing you.

As such, ignore it for a while, periodically checking back to see if it has disappeared – I had to learn that the hard way…

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3

Chris Afton Five Nights at Freddy’s 3

Office Décor

If you look at the far left end of your Office screen, you will see a replica of Golden Freddy resting against the wall. Fret not, it’s only an easter egg and means no harm to you across the game – as someone who beat the game 4 times, I guarantee that!

Happiest Day Minigam

The Happiest Day Minigame can be accessed on any night by double-clicking on the Puppet’s drawing in CAM 03.

However, to truly unlock the minigame’s intended ending, you must play through the previous five minigames and get their respective Cake Endings – not many players catch on to that, and I was no exception in my first playthrough…

Once obtained, you can now proceed to play through the Happiest Day Minigame. You take control of the Puppet and are supposed to move across the room, giving each child a cake.

Upon doing so, the fifth and last child (most likely the Crying Child) will put on the Golden Freddy and all five children will disappear, leaving their masks behind. This is an indication that they have found peace and passed on to the afterlife.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 4

Protagonist

Chris Afton is the main protagonist of FNAF 4, being the child you play the game with across the six main nights. Every night you must survive in your bedroom till 6 AM, warding off nightmare versions of well-known animatronics that stalk the hallways and can even creep into your closet or onto your bed.

How exactly did these animatronics turn out this way? I’m super excited to discuss that in the lore section! Regardless, all that Chris has to defend himself is a flashlight and his sense of hearing – of course, I initially found that to be extremely limiting in my first playthrough, but more challenge is fun, right?

Anyhow, the flashlight is sufficient enough for pushing back any monsters that have made their way to the far end of each hallway. However, shining the flashlight at an animatronic right at the door means certain death, making sound cues an integral aspect of survival.

Lore-Based Minigame (Cutscenes)

Evan Afton There are a total of seven lore-base minigames (or cutscenes as many refer to them) in FNAF 4: one before night 1 and the remaining six after each of the six nights. They all revolve around the five days until Chris Afton’s birthday, which is when the Bite of ’83 took place.

Pre-Night 1

Five days before the party, Chris finds himself locked in his own room by none other than his bullying brother, MichaelAfton. Despite being lonely, he finds solace in the animatronic plushies around him, which he considers to be his only friends – Fredbear, in particular, stands out the most in this regard.

An important detail to note is that Foxy’s plushie is missing its mask, which Michael snatched from Chris earlier – bet you didn’t notice that! Regardless, drawing courage from his plushie-like friends, Chris bangs on the door repeatedly but to no avail. Eventually, he gives up before crumpling up and crying in disappointment.

Post-Night 1

After being trapped in his room for an entire day, with four days before the party, Chris is finally let out of his room. However, his brother awaits him outside and he most certainly has a jumpscare planned for him.

Even so, Chris ventures off into other rooms of his house – you’ll notice the presence of a Fredbear plushie in each room, with moving eyes fixated on the child. I take pride in saying that I caught onto this detail the first time I saw it!

Once Chris makes his way to the TV lounge and walks by the TV, Michael springs out from behind the device to jumpscare him.

Of course, Chris is absolutely terrified and immediately starts crying on the floor. Does Micheal not have better things to do? Think about all the things he could’ve done instead of waiting for an indefinite amount of time before Chris walked in on him….

Post-Night 2

Three days before the party, Chris is purposefully left alone at Fazbear’s diner by his brother and must somehow muster the strength to leave.

An employee encourages him to face his fears and get past the animatronics in front of him in order to get help – kind of a job’s comforter I’d say. Chris, on the other hand, is on the verge of mental collapse, but sets his sight on the exit anyways.

Upon making his way to the left and up to the Fredbear and Spring bonnie animatronics, the employee blocks the path behind, implying that there’s no going back. Unfortunately, the pressure is too much for Chris, who then collapses and starts crying under the table.

Post-Night 3

The next day, Chris is finally able to exit the establishment and heads straight home. He meets several children along the way; some talk about how cool their animatronic plushies are, some talk about Chris’s upcoming birthday party while some banter about peculiar Fazbear rumors.

Regardless, the child eventually finds his way back home, but yet again, his brother lies in wait, which I still question to this day.

Chris hurdles across the TV lounge and the main corridor towards his room, but as soon as he is reunited with his friends, Michael slides out from underneath his bed to jumpscare him. Once again, Chris is horrified and breaks down in tears.

Post-Night 4

Chris Afton Post-Night 4 The night before his birthday, Chris is once again locked inside a room, this time the spare parts room of Fazbear establishment. He’s surrounded by different parts of an animatronic suit such as a headpiece, a hand, a headless suit, and an endoskeletal head amongst others.

In close vicinity of the objects he fears, Chris’s claustrophobia kicks in as he starts screaming for help before the screen blacks out – that was a little unnerving at first because I personally can not fathom how a child can get bullied to this extent with no one batting an eye…. Poor Chris….

Post-Night 5

On the day of his birthday, Chris is dragged into the Fazbear restaurant against his will by Michael and his friends. They torment him for being a crybaby who’s afraid of animatronics and decide to give him the most terrifying experience he’s ever witnessed – here I thought the previous cutscene was the worst of them all.

And of course, at the front of all this, Chris’s brother is one leading the charge – a heart-aching sight to say the least. The group carries Chris over to the Fredbear suit, who’s standing on the main stage and performing.

Stating that he should “kiss” Fredbear, the bullies hurl Chris into Fredbear’s mouth, literally putting him in the mouth of what he fears the most. Chris, at this point, is bawling his eyes out and shaking uncontrollably inside Fredbear’s mouth.

Ultimately, a spring lock failure occurs due to excessive moisture and the Fredbear suit springs back to its default position, closing its mouth tightly whilst crushing Chris’s head. Thus, the Bite of ’83 I had heard the phone guy talk about so much in previous games had taken place.

Post-Night 6

In the aftermath of the Bite of ’83, Chris is now in a coma, clinging to a thin film of life. As his consciousness fades away, Chris hears his brother apologizing and the rest of his plushie-like friends departing, one after the other. As they fade away with his life, the plushies assure Chris that they are still his friends, and that they will put him back together.

Eventually, when Chris is the only one left, he, too, inevitably fades away and the faint sound of a flatline can be heard, indicating that he has passed. Chris’s backstory genuinely has to be one of the most tear-jerking and detailed one of them all.

Ultimate Custom Night

Golden Freddy (Antagonist)

It’s no surprise to see the FNAF 2 antagonist return in Ultimate Custom Night. After all, the whole selling point of the game was to include over 50 different animatronic antagonists from past games and put them together into one, epic, customizable night.

Its gameplay mechanics are not that different from Night 6 in FNAF 2. It will occasionally appear in the office in its traditional slumped form and can only be warded off by either putting on the Freddy mask or flicking the camera monitor up and down.

Void Cutscene

After unlocking every cutscene, the Void Cutscene is unlocked and played towards the end of the game. It shows Golden Freddy violently twitching while being dragged away into the darkness, away from the camera.

This is a follow-up to the Happiest Minigame ending from FNAF 3, indicating that Golden Freddy’s ghost had not yet made peace with its circumstances. But how can that be possible as we clearly saw Golden Freddy’s soul depart in the aforementioned minigame? Keep reading to find out!

Lore

Chris’s Childhood

Chris Afton was born to William and Clara Afton, after his brother Michael and before his sister Elizabeth. He had grown up in the golden time of Fazbear Entertainment’s business run, witnessing his father’s company rise to fame and profit.

As such, it’s no surprise to see that he came to love his father’s work a little more than the average child.

Chris’s favorite animatronic was Fredbear, which suggests that he was likely of age at the time when Fredbear’s Family Diner was opened. The restaurant was his father’s first business venture, whose mascots were Fredbear and Springbonnie, the first two animatronics to ever be made.

Apart from playing with these animatronics at their establishments, Chris also maintained a collection of animatronic plushies. Chris viewed the animatronic plushies as his only friends, expanding them as more and more animatronics were added to Chica and Foxy’s franchise.

Although that is quite heartwarming for someone like me, who, too, was very fond of plushies in my childhood, such a perception likely hints toward an introverted personality, which, although passable, was about to take a severe toll on his mental health soon.

Circus Baby’s Pizza World

His Sister’s Death

Despite living a very happy and simple life, let me remind you that the Afton household was ultimately headed by a madman – nothing good ever comes out of that in my opinion. The first blow to the family and its company was the Missing Children’s Incident involving five children’s disappearance in Fazbear’s Pizzeria.

The prime suspect was none other than William Afton himself, but the dust never settled due to the lack of tangible evidence; not quite sure how William got away with it, but I suppose forensic technology was not so advanced back then.

The second blow, more to the family this time, was the death of Elizabeth Afton at the hands of William’s creation, Circus Baby. After getting away with the Missing Children’s Incident, William, instead of doing the killing himself, installed a secret killing mechanism in his next state-of-the-art animatronic, Circus Baby, to do the killing for him.

However, unlike a human killer, who can discriminate between his victims, Circus Baby was designed to kill all isolated children – despite how adorable Circus Baby is, even I wouldn’t want to be around her all alone… It’s important to note that Elizabeth’s murder was not intentional on William’s end. He knew that a child-killing machine could very well target his children, thus forbidding his children from playing with Circus Baby.

However, he underestimated a child’s relent to play with the toy they are most fond of, and as such, Elizabeth herself snuck out to play with Circus Baby alone and met her unfortunate demise.

Aftermath

Everything before Elizabeth’s death was under William’s control and within the scope of his calculations. But after her death, William went into a shocking dilemma of blaming himself or his creation – his own child was never meant to die, yet he was here, burying her with his two hands.

By the time William moved on from the episode, one would imagine him completely doing away with murder and turning over a new leaf, but no, the man had resolved to do something far worse. William resolved never to let his child die again. Obviously, the easiest way of doing so was never to make child-killing machines in the first place.

However, William disregarded this option and instead decided to instill the irrational fear of animatronics in his children so that they never approached his animatronics again – quite illogical for a man as intelligent as William, I’d say.

Michael was almost an adult and thus, didn’t qualify as a child that the animatronics would usually target – Chris, however, was. Knowing that stubbornness, ignorance, and arrogance caused Elizabeth’s death, and seeing Chris follow in her footsteps, William crafted a plan that would hopefully stop Chris from visiting the restaurant for good.

Nightmares

Chris Afton Nightmares

One night, Chris awoke to the sound of someone running down the halls outside his bedroom. He sprung out of his bed and hurried to the door, opening it slightly to peek at what was making that sound.

However, he was terrified to see that it wasn’t a person, but an animatronic – not just any animatronic, but a scarier, nightmare variant. Taken by surprise, Chris immediately slammed the door shut with the weight of his little body.

His heart was racing while his mind was still processing the image it had to bear moments ago. He heard footsteps running away until pin drop silence ensued; he peered through the door again, and the animatronic was gone. As he took a deep breath of relief, he heard rattling from his bed and footsteps in the opposite hall – Chris was in for a horrifying night. Was this a dream? Yes.

In reality, I theorize that Chris was experiencing an extremely real nightmare projected to him by his father, William Afton. The engineer must have been using Sound Illusion Discs to emit high-pitch frequencies outside the normal range of human hearing.

These frequencies overload the human brain, deceiving it to experience whatever the emitter wanted them to perceive. Thus, William showed him terrifying versions of the very animatronics he was fond of every night.

Phobia for Animatronics

William would end each simulation at the break of dawn, 6 AM, before monitoring Chris’s fear levels – they rose, little by little, each night. Slowly but surely, Chris came to develop an extreme phobia for animatronics, to the point that he would break down in the presence of life-sized animatronics; talk about messed up.

However, that’s not to say he came to fear the plushies – in fact, he confided in them more as his own source of solace. What made matters worse was his brother, Michael, who took advantage of his brother’s newly developed fears as a means to bully him even more.

He would frequently steal Chris’s Foxy plushie’s mask and wear it to get the jump on Chris, often resulting in the child bawling his eyes out – but did Michael ever remorse over his actions in the slightest? No. In fact, on the other hand, William would not even bat an eye to such behavior, as it ultimately pronounced Chris’s phobia and kept him away from Fredbear’s, which I suppose furthered his agenda.

Bite of ‘83

Michael would often jump out of nowhere and scare Chris while wearing a foxy mask; even so, his most mischievous scheme was yet to come. On the day of Chris’s birthday, Michael organized his birthday party at none other than Fredbear’s, forcing Chris to come along with the help of his dillenquint friends.

On the other hand, Chris pleaded to them, crying that he wanted to leave, but Michael’s plan was yet to reach its climax – he suggested bringing him closer to the animatronic suits to get a closer look. The quartet lifted Chris from the ground and carried him over to the Fredbear animatronic suit, putting him face-to-face with the animatronic – I was on the edge of my seat at this point.

Evan was shaking uncontrollably at this point until Michael made the most disturbing suggestion he’s ever made: putting Chris inside Fredbear’s mouth. Jokingly stating that Chris should kiss Fredbear, the bullies hurled him into the jaws of that which he feared the most – I can not begin to comprehend what that must feel like.

The child was flowing with tears, and as the bullies around him sought amusement from the scenario, the animatronic bit down on Chris in a shocking splat of blood.

I believe the situation was set up for disaster the moment Chris was forced into Fredbear’s mouth. Being the first two animatronics, Fredbear was a spring-lock suit, and these suits are known for spring-lock failures that occur when there’s excessive moisture.

When a spring-lock failure occurs, the animatronic and all of its joints reset to their default position – in other words, Fredbear’s open mouth closed shut, essentially biting down into Chris’s skull.

Becoming Golden Freddy

Chris Afton

After the Bite of ‘83, Chris came to possess the animatronic that killed him: Fredbear. However, I reckon he was not the only one who utilized the animatronic as his host and means of revenge, as one of the victims of the Missing Children’s Incident (who was stuffed in the animatronic back then) must’ve also harbored the suit.

The two coexisted, with the singular goal of vengeance in mind, although Chris’s desire for revenge was significantly stronger.

Chris, however, was not as mobile as the other haunted animatronics as the suit had its endoskeleton removed after the Bite of ‘83 incident. What now remained of the animatronic became known as Golden Freddy, one of the most vengeful animatronics in the game!

Golden Freddy was the last animatronic to find peace and move on to the after all. I would imagine Chris to move on after William first died in the backrooms, as all five victims of the Missing Children’s Incident did – but no.

Neither did Chris make peace then, nor did he let it go when William died for the second time in the Fazbear Fright’s fire set ablaze by Michael. He wanted to finish William off for good – that’s what you call the epitome of resetnment.

Moving On

Henry had opened a Fazbear establishment purely to attract all the rouge animatronics (including William) to the premises. He intended to salvage them and lock them away in an underground, inescapable labyrinth; once all the rouge animatronics had been rounded up, he would issue a lockdown and burn the place to smithereens.

As William neared certain death, Chris finally made his move and pulled his soul into purgatory, where he subjected William to an eternity of torture.

Recalling all those terrifying nightmares his father would subject him to, it was intense to see Chris throw over 50 animatronics at the madman as they ripped him to shreds, giving him the sensation of death over and over again. Chris watched it all, seeking the satisfaction of revenge.

After an eternity of witnessing William’s torture, Chris finally moved on with the help of a spirit, who advised him to “leave the demon to his demons” – couldn’t have said it better. Having seen his brother Michael redeem himself with his efforts, his sister (Circus Baby) and mother (Ballora) find peace, and his father rots in the deepest pits of hell, Chris finally moved on to the afterlife.

FAQs

Question: Who was the Other Soul that Possessed Golden Freddy?

Answer: Micheal Brookes came to possess Golden Freddy (initially Fredbear) when the Puppet gave life to the animatronics by fusing their remnant with William Afton’s victims. Micheal was amongst the first five children William killed in the Missing Children’s incident.

Question: Is Chris Afton in FNAF: Security Breach?

Answer: There are popular theories suggesting Gregory being the crying child (Chris Afton), given their physical similarities. However, unless there’s a hidden concept of reincarnation, there is no way Chris Afton lived long enough to become known as Gregory.

Question: What Happened to Clara Afton?

Answer: Two popular theories explain what happened to Clara Afton. The first suggests that she was murdered by William Afton, while the second, more credibly, suggests that she committed suicide as a result of emotional/mental instability after the death of her children.
Later, she came to possess Ballora, who eventually fused with Ennard and faced incineration in the form of Molten Freddy at the end.

Chris Afton FNAF Guide: Conclusion

Chris Afton is a very unique protagonist in the sense that he is one of the few characters who were able to witness the entire FNAF timeline from start to finish. He witnessed first-hand the foundation of Fazbear Entertainment along with its financial boom as well as its end, with the demise of William Afton.

Another unique point about Chris is that his level of resentment towards William Afton was unmatched, which is what I personally find to be the most intense aspect of his character. On top of being indirectly murdered by him, Chris was mentally tortured to the point that that which he loved the most became his biggest fear.

Of course, such a level of resentment was far succeeded in its payoff, as Chris cursed his father to a never-ending cycle of death.

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