Wall Dwellers are humanoid monsters lacking arms with a set of flat plate-like coverings on its front to camouflage into walls. Wall Dwellers have no discernible eyes or other bodily features, besides human-like mouths with split lower jaws and sharp teeth.
Mechanics
When a player enters a new room, a Wall Dweller may generate in it, camouflaged within a wall. After the player enters the next room, the Wall Dweller will quietly emerge from its hiding spot, advance towards them, and, upon getting close enough, kick them to the ground and rip out their neck, killing them. If spotted before it gets too close, the Wall Dweller will cease hunting before it emits a loud noise, and runs away.
After initially being spotted and running away, Wall Dwellers have a chance to try and kill the player again after they are out of sight.
Dweller Chunks
If an emerged Wall Dweller comes into contact with a node monster or is detected and shot down by a turret, the Wall Dweller is killed and left as a corpse on the ground. The player is able to interact with the body and take a piece of edible flesh named a dweller chunk. Eating this dweller chunk will result in the player's health bar turning purple and the player gaining a similar passive healing effect to the Party Special. They will also receive the "We Outta Wall Dwellers" Achievement.
Notes
Sebastian can rarely sell the Wall Dweller chunk in his shop. They cost 400 research each.
It is possible to spot Wall Dwellers by looking closely at walls, as they break up the material patterns and have a slight outline.
If you are hiding in a locker and a Wall Dweller catches up to you, it will stand outside of the locker until you leave, after which it will kill you.
There is a 1/62 chance for a Wall Dweller room to spawn as the next room.[1]
Wall Dwellers behave identically in The Ridge (aside from spawning at a much more frequent rate), but are much less of a threat due to the high prevalence of node monsters.
Wall Dwellers emit a faint sound of water trickling when emerging, indicating nearby players of their presence.
Wall Dwellers can crawl, allowing them to follow players into vents.
The 'Friendly Fire' update introduced a Wall Dweller 'variant' dubbed the Mutated Wall Dweller. The front of the Dweller is covered in Rotten Coral that can be found in some rooms of the Blacksite. They can only spawn in rooms with Rotten Coral. Additionally, Mutated Wall Dwellers emit a lower pitched noise compared to normal Dwellers.
Upon death, Wall Dwellers convert into a ragdoll state with collision. Players who walk into a Wall Dweller corpse can move it around.
Wall Dwellers that have gotten stuck, due to a pathing issue, will retreat shortly after as if the player had looked at them.
Strategy
The most efficient strategy when dealing with Wall Dwellers is to pay attention. Their footsteps are quite audible, with a slight distinction that separates their footstep sound from the Player's. If you hear footsteps that seem out-of-sync, it is best to turn around.
While Wall Dwellers can camouflage, as noted, there are still ways to spot them in the walls, if you're paranoid enough:
Be on the look-out for slight inconsistencies in the textures of the walls.
You can typically make out a faint outline of the Dweller in the walls.
It is possible for Dwellers to hide poking significantly farther out from the wall than normal, making it much easier to spot their outline.
Once you have identified a room with a Wall Dweller, keep your eyes on said room as you enter the next one. This will guarantee that you scare it off before it can catch you off-guard. Once a Wall Dweller has been scared away, players should still remain on guard, as they have a chance of returning. If they return, they will run at the player with faster footstep sounds, requiring extra caution.
A deceased Wall Dweller disguised with Rotten Coral
Ditto, with the emergency lights on
A spot in the wall from which a Wall Dweller emerged'
A player getting killed by a Wall Dweller upon leaving a locker
Z-90 in development stages.
Trivia
Wall Dwellers were originally going to be an "A-90" type entity for Zeal's rooms game.[2] Both entities have a similar goal of disincentivizing the player from constantly advancing forward without paying attention.
Wall Dwellers are based on Filth from ULTRAKILL, having the same general shape.
When eating a Wall Dweller chunk, the "Yummers" quote is a reference to Homelander's line from "The Boys".
Wall Dwellers taste like the insulation that is stuffed inside walls. [3]
Of the 29 specimens brought in by Urbanshade, only 12 Wall Dwellers are known to currently exist. The other 17 have likely been killed by The Angler and other various monsters.[4]
Of the thousands of EXR-P teams that were sent into the facility, only about 100 of them made it in deep enough to encounter the Wall Dwellers.[5]
Zeal has stated that in a future update, if a Wall Dweller follows a player into Sebastian's Shop then Sebastian will shoot them with his shotgun.[6]