Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 story and ending, explained

A toy-making factory on the surface with a nefarious prison hidden deep underground, this is Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4. We’re getting closer and closer to the end of Poppy Playtime, but who stands in our way of retribution?

Here is our rundown of Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4; its story and ending explained.

Warning for spoilers throughout.

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 plot, summarized

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 follows on from the third chapter’s conclusion. After watching The Hour of Joy, we begin our descent into Playtime Co., knowing new threats await us. Poppy’s plan is cut off again, this time by the screams of her dear friend Kissy Missy. The chapter starts with Poppy leaving us, taking the elevator back to the surface in hopes of saving her friend. Alone once again, The Player is immediately greeted with the sight of giant piles of discarded toys. In the midst of all the rubble, bloody, limbless toys lie, preyed on by larger Bigger Bodies. Most from The Hour of Joy retreated to the depths of Playtime, feasting on staff, orphans, and Bigger Bodies. It was the survival of the fittest.

The goal of this chapter is to enter the Playtime Prison, a facility deep underground that contains the experiments. This also became a temporary home for staff and orphans, desperately trying to survive the aftermath of The Hour of Joy. It is the first chapter that shows the devastation of The Hour of Joy, as blood coats the walls, and decomposed bodies and toy parts lay across the prison floors, warning you to stay away. After a decade of pure survival, toys remain starved and frightened, hoping someone will come save them. But innocent orphans aren’t the only things lying in wait as you unlock the doors to the prison wards. The Doctor and The Prototype have their own plans for you.

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 story, explained

Safe Haven takes place primarily within the Playtime Prison. Notes and VHS tapes describe the events of how certain experiments came to be and what happened to Harley Sawyer (creator of the Bigger Bodies Initiative). The Player enters the prison and has to fight off a hoard of bloodthirsty Nightmare Critters. Ordered by The Doctor (Harley Sawyer), we’re shown right off the bat the desperation and wickedness of the Playtime experiments and have to battle our way to the Safe Haven. Separated from Poppy, we’re told there are allies deep below the surface and are introduced to Doey the Doughman, who leads The Player to safety.

Finding the Safe Haven

The underground prison is filled with booby-traps, installed by The Doctor to keep the toys inside. They haven’t been killed yet because the Safe Haven runs on a different security system outside of his Omni-Tool’s reach. But The Doctor has control of everything else. Kissy Missy and Poppy emerge, and Kissy is badly injured. Parts of her head are missing, and her arm is in a sling. Who attacked her? A shadow stalks you with spider-like legs. It’s The Prototype. You’re saved by Poppy and Kissy Missy and reach Safe Haven to finally learn Poppy’s plan (it only took her four chapters to tell us).

Poppy wants to burn down the factory, bringing The Prototype down with her. While this sounds like a great plan where Poppy is the martyr, we quickly realize that she wants to make sure no one gets out of Playtime alive. This means letting many innocent lives perish.

Doey doesn’t agree with this plan, but most blindly follow Poppy, even though they don’t fully trust her. But why is this? It turns out that Poppy knew about The Hour of Joy, making her disappearance far more questionable. This is confirmed both by The Doctor and the children in Safe Haven. Poppy hadn’t been seen since The Hour of Joy, meaning she left Doey to protect the other toys for a decade. What’s clear, however, is how much Doey cares for the other toys.

Defeating The Doctor

To ensure everyone is safe, Doey gives us the primary objective to defeat The Doctor. We must first face his minions before we can take him on, however. These include (in order) the Nightmare Critters, Yarnaby, and Baba Chops. To progress, we’re often forced to destroy organs by causing a power surge. The Doctor talks to us throughout the journey, making us question our role in Playtime and our morality, forcing us to take the lives of the innocent for our own survival.

The Doctor tries to stop us by placing obstacles in our way, but he can’t do much as an observer. It is only when we try to confront him that we see his power in the form of prison security bots. When we finally meet The Doctor, there’s no intense boss fight or villain monologue. Instead, we see him as a brain in a vat, surrounded by security bots and monitors. His life source is threatened as The Player overloads the system. His last ditch effort to survive is to charge at you with his sentries upon removing his precious Omni-Tool. The energy surge causes an implosion, killing Sawyer. His last words “you…saved…no one.”

Taking down Playtime

Returning to Safe Haven, Poppy wants us to move on with her plan. We head to the gas tanks, tasked to place explosives against the pipes housing lethal gas that will implode once it ignites. This is the plan to bring the factory down to defeat The Prototype and end the suffering once and for all.

The assault on Safe Haven

The death of Sawyer gave The Prototype the opening to attack Safe Haven. Doey tries to distract him, but he fails. A massacre befalls the Safe Haven, where Doey blames himself for not being there to protect his friends—his family. He wants someone else to blame and lands on The Player, transforming into a reptilian monster with three heads in its mouth, representing the three boys that make Doey who he is. The main boss fight of this chapter ensues, once again forcing us to defeat someone who deserves to live.

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 ending, explained

A massive theory is finally confirmed as Ollie is revealed to be The Prototype. Trapped in what’s clearly a life or death situation, The Player, Poppy, and Kissy Missy have to come face-to-face with the reality that they were fooled by a voice that pretended to be good this whole time. It makes perfect sense that Ollie was The Prototype; after all, he was the one to help us “fix the generator” which led to the assault on Safe Haven. Ollie knew Doey would go out and distract The Prototype. Their plans foiled from the start, The Prototype manipulates Poppy to flee from her friends once again.

Sacrificing others for the sake of her own wellbeing—terrified of spending another moment in the glass case back in Chapter One—Poppy’s tiny frame lets her escape the room, leaving Kissy Missy and The Player behind. The room explodes, causing the floor below you to give way. Kissy Missy grab you, trying to save you from the fall, but her wounded arm severs from her body, and you plummet to the ground. All you have left of your friends is Kissy Missy’s arm, but this doesn’t mean she’s gone for good.

While Ollie being The Prototype is a huge revelation, many were expecting it. The most surprising part about Safe Haven‘s conclusion is that Huggy Wuggy is alive after all. Located in a green house-style sector representing the secret labs of the Playtime factory. The alarm sounds as you play Leith Pierre’s tape, signaling it’s time for the return of Poppy Playtime‘s mascot, Huggy Wuggy.