Animal Hospital Anomaly Finder
Not sure if a patient is an anomaly? Select the signs you notice and we will tell you what you are dealing with.
By Animal Hospital Guide · Site Maintainer: CT
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Step 1: Select a Check Type
Check the patient's appearance at the front desk window
Step 2: What Do You Notice?
Select signs above to see matching anomalies.
How to Use the Finder on a Real Shift
The finder is a reference tool, not a replacement for the three-layer check at reception. It works best when you use it the way you would use an index at the back of a book: after you have already noticed something, to work out what it means.
- Pick the check type you have actually performed.The finder sorts anomalies by where the tell appears, so selecting "CCTV Signs" when you have not opened a camera will return matches you cannot act on yet.
- Tick only what you are certain of. Every sign you add pulls in more matching anomalies. Adding a guess dilutes the results and can hide the entry that actually fits what you saw.
- Read the recommended action before you react. Some anomalies are answered with an item, some by closing a door, some only by a weapon. Acting on the wrong counter burns the one window you had.
- Treat an empty result as a clue. If nothing matches, the tell you noticed probably belongs to a check you have not run yet. Go and run it rather than re-ticking signs until something appears.
Which Check Type Should You Start With?
The four categories are not four equal options. They differ in how many anomalies they cover and in what they cost you to perform, which is exactly why they run in a fixed order.
| Check type | Anomalies covered | What it requires | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Signs | 8 | Nothing beyond the window | Always — it is the free check with the widest coverage |
| Photo Signs | 5 | The printed polaroid | The window looks clean but something still feels wrong |
| CCTV Signs | 4 | Access to the camera feed | You can afford the Office detour for a camera scan |
| Scanner / Tool Signs | 2 | A Scanner item (added in Harlow's Update) | You already carry one, or play Secret Agent |
Read the coverage counts as reach, not as importance. Visual is the widest net and the cheapest to cast, which is why it runs first — but the categories that cover fewer anomalies cover the ones nothing else can see, and those are the tells that end shifts.
Reading Your Results Correctly
The difficulty badge describes detection, not danger. An entry marked Easy means the tell is easy to notice; it says nothing about whether the anomaly itself is forgiving once it is inside. Do not let a green badge lower your guard.
The "Detected via" line is a self-check. It tells you which layer is supposed to catch this anomaly. If it names a layer you have not actually performed, the match is coincidence rather than evidence.
Multiple results almost always mean reject. The finder matches any anomaly sharing a sign you ticked, so overlapping tells will return several entries. Trying to pick the right one out of that list is exactly the hesitation the one-tell rule exists to remove — when the results blur together, the answer is the shutter.