The Dentist
The final shift’s pursuer, and the only threat in the game with no counterplay at all. Your weapons do nothing to him and traps do not stop him. You survive Shift 13 by running until Sheriff Clyde ends it in a cutscene — there is no second method.
Last verified 5 August 2026 · game version: 29 July 2026 patch
The Dentist is described as completely immune to your weapons, and traps do not stop him. The only stated option is to keep running until Sheriff Clyde deals with him in a cutscene. If your instinct when something comes through the door is to reach for the arsenal, this is the encounter that punishes it.
Source: Game Rant monster list.
When he arrives
The Dentist is the Shift 13 encounter — the last night of Story Mode. He is not a random spawn you might dodge on a good run, and he is not something you can prepare for by buying better gear during the preceding shifts.
He is also not a surprise. He appears earlier in the story in forms that pose no threat, and the game foreshadows him repeatedly before the final night. That build-up is the point: by the time he is actually chasing you, you are expected to already know who he is, which is why the game never bothers explaining him mid-chase.
Everything you normally rely on is dead weight
It is worth being specific about which tools fail, because the failure is not partial.
| Firearms and melee | Confirmed ineffective — he is described as immune |
|---|---|
| Traps | Confirmed ineffective — they do not stop him |
| Barricades | No reliable source either way. We are not claiming they work or that they do not. |
| Sheriff Clyde | The only thing that ends the encounter, and it happens in a cutscene |
Compare that with the rest of the roster and the difference is stark. The Shrieking Doll dies to a few shots. The Marionette is tanky but killable. Even the Demented, which cannot be shot down, has a defined solution involving traps. The Dentist has no equivalent. Every honest piece of guidance about him is about movement.
What to do, step by step
- Stop treating the shift as a job. Quota, shelves and the counter are over. Nothing you do at the register affects this.
- Move toward Sheriff Clyde and keep moving. He is the resolution, so distance from him is the thing that is actually costing you.
- Do not hide. Hiding is the correct instinct against a hunt; it is the wrong one here, because nothing ends the encounter except reaching the cutscene.
- Do not stop to look back. Turning to check costs you the only resource you have.
Steps 2–4 — run straight for Clyde, do not hide, do not look back — are reported by a single source and not independently confirmed: Neon Lights Media. The immunity to weapons and traps is the part corroborated elsewhere.
Common mistakes
- Spending the last shift’s money on weapons. Gear does nothing here, and money is the variable that decides which ending you get — see below.
- Applying the Demented playbook. Holding your gaze on a threat freezes a Demented. There is no source saying it does anything to the Dentist, and standing still to find out is how the chase ends.
- Trying to verify him. He is not a doppelganger and he is not a counter problem. There is nothing to scan.
- Laying traps in advance. Traps are confirmed not to stop him. Preparation time spent on them is time you did not spend banking money.
Which achievement this is tied to
The Dentist has no achievement of his own — there is no "kill the Dentist", because you cannot. What he is tied to is the True Ending, held by 16.0% of players.
The two variables are decided elsewhere. After Shift 12 you choose whether to call Sheriff Clyde, and at the end of Shift 13 the game checks whether your personal savings are $250 or more. Not calling Clyde and finishing with at least $250 produces the True Ending, in which the Dentist appears and Clyde helps destroy him, and both Clyde and your pet survive. Calling him instead gives Grave Decision (33.1%), where Clyde dies. Not calling him with under $250 gives Empty Home (10.1%).
So the practical takeaway for this page is blunt: how you handle the chase does not change your ending — the choice after Shift 12 and your bank balance do. Full breakdown on the endings page.
Ending conditions: KeenGamer. Unlock rates: Steam global stats, read 13 August 2026.
What changed in the patches
No patch since launch has touched the Dentist directly. Two changes affect the run that leads to him. The 29 July patch removed the patience mechanic, so verifying customers in the shifts beforehand is no longer timed — which matters because careful verification is how you avoid losing money and shifts on the way to the $250 threshold. The 23 July patch raised the lobby ceiling to six players, though the developer still designs around three.