Arts and Crafters is a white and gray long-sleeved sock puppet sporting googly eyes (the right eye being bigger than the left as well as reflecting the room if looking closely), a black mouth, and a red tongue made out of cardboard. The black mouth is only slightly visible when his mouth is closed and his tongue can only be seen when he opens his mouth. If observed closely, there is a slightly off-color part on the top of his head, possibly covering a brand name. Arts and Crafters is being worn by a right hand.
Personality
Arts and Crafters first seems to be very shy, preferring to stay by himself and avoiding other people. However, after the player collects all the notebooks on the floor, he ultimately becomes more aggressive, starting to run after the player out of jealousy for having more notebooks than himself when the player sees him. He does not emit any audio containing words, but only makes a noise resembling a static sound.
Arts and Crafters can be inferred to be an artist or a scrapbook writer, as he has a lot of notebooks, and his jealousy could stem from the thought that because the player has so many notebooks, they are more prolific than him in his field of work.
Artificial intelligence
Main gameplay
When the player begins the game, Arts and Crafters will spawn in one of the rooms or rarely behind Baldi's bus and avoid being seen by the player. However, he is invisible until he teleports to a random hallway. When the player is in Arts and Crafters' sight for a few seconds, he will flee away from them at high speed. The player will more commonly find him at the end of a hallway, but he can also be found in a room in rare occasions. Sometimes, Arts and Crafters may teleport to the end of the hallway where the player is looking at.
Arts and Crafters charging towards the player in Baldi's Basics Plus.
Arts and Crafters attacking to teleport the player.
Once the player collects all the notebooks in Hide-and-Seek and Explorer Mode, or 7 or more notebooks in Endless Mode, Arts and Crafters will become hostile towards the player and only then will he become a threat. If the player makes eye contact with Arts and Crafters for more than one second, his mouth opens and he will charge towards the player at an extremely high speed, emitting a loud static-like roaring noise. If he fully reaches the player, he starts running around in circles, "attacking" the player, cloning himself into five, and getting faster. After 10 seconds of "attacking", he teleports Baldi 5 tiles behind the player in front of a random elevator. Arts and Crafters will remain invisible and not be active afterward.
When provoked, Arts and Crafters moves at such a high speed while charging the player that he is occasionally unable to turn around corners, causing him to continuously miss the entrance to a perpendicular hallway in the middle. He can be temporarily avoided in this phase if the player enters a room since he does not go inside rooms himself, but he must eventually be interacted with along the path to beating the floor, as he is too fast to evade in the halls.
If the player repeatedly looks back while facing Arts and Crafters to avoid looking directly at him for too long, he will not become provoked and will continue moving normally. He will also remain calm if the player is facing away from him but looking back at him for over 1 second. Using a BSODA on Arts and Crafters will push him away while chasing the player, making BSODA a defense mechanism. This is usually wasteful as he will quickly return to increased speed after the BSODA leaves him behind; it is only recommended if the player is very close to the final elevator. If the Faculty Nametag is in action, Arts and Crafters will not attack the player, but it does not work if he is already triggered.
Arts and Crafters appeared in the camping field trip until V0.3 of Baldi's Basics Plus. Arts and Crafters would only start attacking the player if they wandered behind the "NO" signs for more than 10 seconds. He will endlessly loop around aimlessly in an attempt to catch the player until he can teleport them to the campfire.
Other appearances
Arts and Crafters charging towards the player in Classic/Birthday Bash.
In Baldi's Basics Classic, Arts and Crafters has the same behavior as in Baldi's Basics Plus. He spawns in the cafeteria and he will only attack if the player collected all 7 notebooks. This occurs in both Story Mode and Endless Mode. When he reaches the player, Arts and Crafters will instantly teleport the player and Baldi to the T-shaped hallway where the game begins, it can be helpful because the player can use this teleport to their advantage by quickly reaching the final exit after the other three have been activated. Even without running, it is possible to just barely avoid being caught by Baldi after teleporting there, so it comes in handy if the player has run out of stamina and is about to be caught. Also, if the player still has a Swinging Door Lock, they could use it to prevent Baldi from going through the swinging door in the T-shaped hallway.
Arts and Crafters appearing with the original cast for a birthday surprise.
In Baldi's Basics Birthday Bash, Arts and Crafters has the same appearance in Classic, but he is one of the few characters not to wear any birthday accessories. Furthermore, he was not able to shout out a word to surprise the player with the original cast after reaching the last exit in the cafeteria. Instead, he just opens his mouth.
In Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered, Arts and Crafters will teleport the player and Baldi to a random exit that has not been reached. While the teleporting mechanism is similar to Baldi's Basics Plus, other mechanisms are same as in Baldi's Basics Classic/Birthday Bash.
In Baldi's Basics - Field Trip demo: Camping, Arts and Crafters can take the player's logs away after teleporting and can even teleport angry Baldi back to the same place with the player after spawning if the campfire is out.
Arts and Crafters was originally intended to speak actual words instead of just screeching, as mystman12 has confirmed that the "Let's play!" line was originally for him before he realized that it would fit Playtime more and that's how her voice "came to be".[2]
In the Kickstarter video, mystman12 can be seen hitting Arts and Crafters with his ruler.[3]
The sock puppet used to create Arts and Crafters in the Kickstarter video.
Arts and Crafters is intended to have a beanie plush, but it has yet to be released in the new standard set.
Arts and Crafters' design was inspired by Sussie from The Amazing World of Gumball when mystman12 tried to edit a picture of Sussie in the dark from far away.[4]
His behavior is based on photo-based characters staring at people from a distance.[5]
Baldi's Basics Plus/Classic Remastered
Arts and Crafters is the second fastest character when he moves at maximum speed, with The Test being the fastest after the player looks away from him 9 times. Arts and Crafters is so fast that he often misses the entrance to a hallway, as well as being faster than 1st Prize and Gotta Sweep.
Despite the Arts and Crafters' speed, it is easy to lose him.
Arts and Crafters keeps accelerating, making him really fast when using hacks or hiding in a blue locker to not get caught.
If looking carefully at Arts and Crafters when attacking at the player, the hand inside of him appears more vividly, grasping to make his mouth open
Invisible Arts and Crafters gets hit by Beans' bubble gum.
Beans can hit Arts and Crafters, even while invisible.
While Arts and Crafters is in the same room and the player is looking at him, collecting the last notebook will immediately result in Arts and Crafters attacking the player.
Arts and Crafters cannot teleport the player if they are being sucked in a whirlpool or teleporting while the Dangerous Teleporter is in effect. However, he can still teleport and attract Baldi.
Baldi's Basics Plus
On floor 2 and 3, there is a very rare chance that Arts and Crafters can teleport the player to the mystery room without the mystery room event starting.
Arts and Crafters can try to charge towards the player even if they are looking at The Test or Mrs. Pomp reminds them for joining her class, despite they are able to freeze other NPCs in those cases.
Baldi can catch the player immediately, if they are in the location where Baldi will be teleported after Arts and Crafters teleported both characters.
Prior to V0.3.2, Arts and Crafters did not clone himself, but instead, he would distort himself across the players screen while attacking the player. He could teleport Baldi and he would know the player's location. In this version, he would only teleport the player to a random location near the elevator.
Since V0.3.3, Arts and Crafters teleports and attracts Baldi again.
Arts and Crafters' sprite has complete quality and is entirely un-dithered, having the highest resolution sprite in the game. It also has a yellow sunset-like lighting instead of the gray daytime-like one. This was changed since Full Game Early Demo.
Arts and Crafters' attacking sprite is referred to as Crafters_Ohno.png in the texture files.
A full map in a 3D model program showing the invisible Arts and Crafters triggers.
Arts and Crafters can be controlled by eight triggers, but these triggers can only be seen in the 3D model map. However, the map does not show the other two triggers.[6]
If the player enters one of the triggers, Arts and Crafters will go to a "goTarget", as internally called in the triggers' script, if he is not angry. If the player exits this trigger, he will go to a "fleeTarget" and have his sprite be forced visible by the game for 3 seconds, if he is not angry.
By using hacks to make the characters' names visible, it is revealed that Arts and Crafters becomes invisible rather than truly vanishing. He will turn invisible once the player gets close enough.
If the player moves fast enough to enter a room before Arts and Crafters catches them, they will get stuck in there, because getting out will have Arts and Crafters catching them, and Arts and Crafters constantly zips back and forth in front of the door, unless the room has more than one door.
On the poster of Arts and Crafters, his picture is slightly smaller than it appears in Baldi's Basics Plus.
Baldi's Basics Classic
In V1.0, Arts and Crafters' old description said: "Truly an incredible sock puppet. I've never seen one like it!!". It was changed because it gave no hints of what he would do.
The updated poster also reveals his true gender, unlike his older poster that simply referred to Arts and Crafters as an "it". This was likely referring to the sock puppet, not Arts and Crafters himself.
However, Arts and Crafters is referred to as an "it" in the Baldi's Basics Plus V0.3.3 development log as well.
His old description was strangely used for the first version of Full Game Early Demo. Also, the sprite for the picture was still unchanged.
Glitches
Baldi's Basics Plus/Classic Remastered
Arts and Crafters will run away if he tries to chase or teleport the player.
Arts and Crafters clones when teleporting the player will have different orientations during the Gravity Chaos event. This can be seen when Arts and Crafters touches the gravity flipper while he is cloning himself.
Sometimes, Arts and Crafters will not try to "attack" the player even if they look at him for more than a second.
Baldi's Basics Plus
If Arts and Crafters is attacking to teleport the player in a dark tile, Arts and Crafters will permanently become darker.
If Arts and Crafters happens to be teleporting the player while The Test has been spotted, he (and his clones) will be frozen in the same position until the player gets blinded.
Since V0.4.1, his caption is not removed even after teleporting.
Prior to V0.1.3, when Arts and Crafters teleports the player hiding in a blue locker, the player would not exit from the locker.
Prior to V0.3 in the camping field trip, even after Arts and Crafters teleported the player, his caption still remained on the screen.
Arts and Crafters gets stuck in a wall.
Prior to V0.3.2, Arts and Crafters rarely got stuck in the wall while trying to charge at the player. He could not teleport the player and Baldi in that case.
Arts and Crafters teleporting the player into the merry-go-round.
Arts and Crafters can teleport the player into the merry-go-round or cafeteria table. This glitch would also occur when the player used the Dangerous Teleporter or sucked in a whirlpool, but it was fixed in V0.3.5.
Prior to V0.3.5, even if Arts and Crafters was upside down during the Gravity Chaos event, he could "attack" the player, unlike other characters that cannot directly interact with them while they are oriented opposite.
In V0.4, Arts and Crafters' screeching noise while attacking was not affected by audio settings.
Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered
When Gotta Sweep pushes Arts and Crafters near the Principal's office, there is a chance that he will get stuck inside unless the player is medium distance away.
Prior to V1.3, a bug could occur where after Arts and Crafters teleports the player, he did not dissapear and instead becomes frozen in place and turned wide and stretched, with his loud noise continuously playing until the player completes the floor. This bug could be seen several times in this livestream, where it happened each time after Arts and Crafters is activated on the floor. However, using BSODA on him after this happens still worked.
Arts and Crafters stretched and wide after teleporting the player.
In V1.3, due to the new sound propagation system, Arts and Crafters' charging sound rapidly mutes and unmutes while he spins around the player.
Arts And Crafters, along with half of the cast, in the "Thank you!" image after the game's Kickstarter was successful.
Arts and Crafters from the Amazon merchandise page image.
Arts and Crafters in the Baldi's Basics Classic Remastered teaser.
Arts and Crafters figure with the other character figures at Basically, Games!' office.
An Arts and Crafters figure behind mystman12 wearing sunglasses.
Arts and Crafters' body inside Spike's Mouth, an art by Padre Snowmizzle.
References
↑ 1.01.1"As for the audio, that came from a ROM corruption of Donkey Kong Country 2 I made. I probably still have the corruption saved somewhere but I'd probably have to do a lot of digging to find it." - mystman12. June 24, 2023. Instagram
↑"Actually, when I recorded Playtime's line, "let's play," I was actually doing it as a test for Arts and Crafters, I went "let's play!" (clown-like voice) and then... I remembered I actually had a plan for Arts and Crafters which was a screeching noise he has, so I was like, 'Oh, I must just use it for Arts and Crafters,' then I realized this is perfect for Playtime, so that's how her voice came to be." - Livestream archive 18:28-18:56
↑"The idea for Arts and Crafters came from... like... Have you ever seen the character Sussie from The Amazing World of Gumball? The idea for Arts and Crafters is for some reason years back, I liked photoshopped a picture of Sussie like standing out like far the distance like this dark... dark like porch at night, you know like, because I thought it looked really creepy. And so that was the inspiration for like Arts and Crafters would have like a creepy like thing like far away a photo-realistic object like far away off the back end of like a hallway or something like that." - Mystman12 (Baldi’s Basics) Q&A - CultureFreak 1:40~2:17
↑"the creepy factor of seeing some photo-realistic character like that just staring at you from a distance stuck with me. That's pretty much entirely what defined Arts and Crafters' behavior in-game." - mystman12. June 24, 2023. Instagram
