Nicky Roth

Nicky Roth, also commonly known as The Player, or The Protagonist is one of the two main characters in Hello Neighbor.

For info on the 2015 version of the Player, Pre Nicky Player

Description
Nicky Roth was affected by Raven Brooks as a kid. He got trauma for 19 years and made an enemy, Theodore Peterson. He did finally get some actual friends before losing them, and enjoyed eating at the sushi place.

Nicky was exceptionally curious about the Peterson house and the family that lived inside it. That curiosity rose when Aaron Peterson invited him over and the two developed a friendship.

He began a spying campaign that tracked Mr. Peterson day and night. He snuck around the Peterson house, rummaging through trash and even secretly following Mr. Peterson on late night trips to the Golden Apple Amusement Park.

For Nicky, nothing was too dangerous in pursuit of the truth.

Moving In
In 1995, Jay, Luanne, and Nicky Roth move into Raven Brooks, Missouri. His family moved around a lot due to not having the right jobs. Nicky chose his bedroom and decided to not unpack fully yet. He messed around with his lock-pick set and noticed someone across the street, watching him. They left a note complimenting his lock-picking skills. The next day, Nicky decided to hang out with the kid. His name was Aaron Peterson, and he had a little sister named Mya Peterson. Nicky meets the family (and is creeped out by Theodore Peterson, Aaron's dad) and him and Aaron go to the Golden Apple Factory.

Aaron shows him around the factory, and brings Nicky into the forest. They come across the Golden Apple Amusement Park. Nicky questions why Aaron brought him here and Aaron claims it was an accident. Later, at the university Luanne works at, Nicky finds newspaper pieces on the Golden Apple Amusement Park, and discovered that people burned it down shortly after the death of Lucy Yi, a first grader.

One day when Nicky is at the park, Mya is there too, and she tells Nicky her dad is getting worse. After Diane Peterson, Aaron's mom, dies in a car crash, Mya is not present at her funeral. Nicky is worried. Aaron tells Nicky to not see him again, and Aaron goes missing after the funeral, leaving a note for Nicky with blood on it, reading "I make bad things happen".

Nicky questions the truth behind their disappearance.

Investigations
Nicky convinces his friends Enzo Esposito, Trinity Bales, and Maritza Esposito to help him find Aaron and Mya. Theodore told the town they were with a relative in Minnesota, but Nicky does not believe it. He has recurring nightmares about mannequins and his grandma.

One day, since Trinity and Enzo aren't available, Nicky uses the help of Maritza to steal a phone book (to call Lisa and confirm if Aaron and Mya are with her) from Theodore's house. Theodore almost finds him hiding in a closet but he escapes because Maritza bribed a mailman to ring the doorbell to the house. Nicky calls Lisa and she hangs up when he mentions Theodore left Aaron and Mya with her. Nicky and Maritza also find out that Theodore goes to the Golden Apple Amusement Park to collect parts.

Theodore steals the phone book back by breaking into Nicky's bedroom.

Framed
On Nicky's thirteenth birthday, him and his friends go to a park called Spree Land and ride on "Scream School", which was designed by Theodore Peterson. The ride operator finds a drawing in Nicky's seat and returns it to him, but Nicky doesn't remember having the drawing. He flips over the drawing and notices it's one of the missing posters of Aaron and Mya. Maritza notices the drawing and starts to get angry at Nicky for tearing down a missing poster, which he did not do.

A break-in involving a mannequin happens at the Natural Grocer, and Nicky gets blamed for it, which he is still confused about.

Nicky is chasing a rubber ball and notices Theodore locking up Aaron, but Nicky runs home before Theodore can get him.

Nicky finds a duffel bag buried in Theodore's back yard, which he finds pieces of cassette tapes in. He repairs the casette tapes and takes them to the factory. After watching two of the tapes, which involve conflict between Aaron, Mya, and Theodore, he heads home and finds His parents, two cops, and his friends in his room. On his floor is a bunch of torn down missing posters, which are not his. The next night, he heads back to the factory and watches the last two tapes. The final tape shows Mya on the roof, getting away from Aaron, who is trying to play with her. She falls off of the roof and dies, and Aaron calls himself a monster.

The Infiltration
Nicky is walking home from the Golden Apple factory and is chasing a rubber ball down the street, which he's seen before. It is late at night and storming badly. He walks up between his house and Theodore's house and grabs the rubber ball. The wind calms down, and he knows exactly what he's going to do. Once the wind picks back up, Nicky perfectly times his throw of the rubber ball straight into Aaron's window so that thunder rumbles as soon as it hits. Earlier that morning, Mr. Peterson cut down the tree that led to Aaron's room.

Nicky grabs an old tool shelf and some cardboard boxes and leaps onto the roof, slick from the rain. He gets inside Aaron's room. He finds nothing but shelves lining the walls, but a flash of lightning illuminates a lever on the wall. After pulling the lever, Nicky hears a platform rise and notices a lift just below Mya's window. He grabs some keys that look like car keys and he leaps for the lift.

Making the jump, he enters Mya's room and finds a red key sitting on a drawer. He grabs it and notices the stairs outside the room have a hidden gate. Nicky finds the lever for the gate and heads into the main hallway. He sees creepy paintings of eyes and then comes upon the basement door. The rainstorm is still going. He puts the red key in and descends into the basement.

The Basement
The basement door locks behind him. He comes across a normal-looking room but notices something is off with the washing machine. One quick pull of the door and the rest of the basement lies in front of him. Theodore shoves him in the washing machine and shuts it, so Nicky can't turn back now. He goes into a fake-looking room with paintings Aaron drew, which have the rest of the basement behind them. He grabs a candle, and ventures down a few hallways. His candle goes out and he's lost. Suddenly, a flashlight rolls to his feet and he has a light source again.

After finding a hallway lined with boards and dirt, Theodore comes up behind him. Nicky runs to the end of the hallway and finds a padlock on the door. He slams the flashlight down on it, Theodore right behind him. He makes it into Theodore's office, with the OMEN papers and park blueprints, along with a mirror given by Diane. The next room has a theme park and Aaron is in it. Nicky is stuck down there with Aaron.

The Escape
After being captured by the Neighbor, Nicky isn't sure how much time has passed. Worse yet, if he doesn't get out soon, he'll probably lose his mind, too. Nicky once was so desperate to get into Mr. Peterson's house- Now he'd do anything to never see it again.

Nicky has changed in intervening time between acts. His legs have sprouted, and his clothes are an ill-fitting mess. At his hands are bandages and at his feet, he's missing a shoe. Regardless of whether Nicky is ready, it's now or never. Escaping the basement, Nicky gets away from the Peterson house. While Mr. Peterson wants to hunt you down, a last terrified scream calls from his house, and he goes to investigate it. Nicky escaped the Neighbor, but can he ever really escape what happened to him?

Trauma
When we pick back up with Nicky, everything about his life has changed. Years have passed since his time in captivity with Mr. Peterson. Nicky now lives in his own apartment, but something still haunts him from his youth, and that's what brings Nicky back to Raven Brooks, along with an eviction due to non-payment.

After years of tragedy and cover-ups, the little town has finally succumbed to a cruel fate. Once-shining parts of the community have become destroyed, and at the heart of the rot is one ruined property: Mr. Peterson's house. Now a pile of charred walls and broken memories, the home looks almost harmless. As he walks the streets, Nicky starts becoming haunted by the Thing- a supernatural beast. Nicky then takes the key to his house from his car trunk, and discovers that the phone at his house is still connected. Nicky has an evil feeling. He takes a nap and tries to shrug the feeling off, but that's right when his final adventure begins.

In his mind he hears screams. Aaron's screams. Across the street, instead of a burnt down house, there is a gigantic house instead. Theodore trips over a chair, stumbles, and grabs Aaron to lock him up. Theodore sees Nicky and Nicky gasps, opens his eyes, and realizes he is reliving Act 1. But not a normal version. This is a distorted Act 1 that his trauma caused. After beating his fears and getting into the basement, he finds "Aaron" yet again.

No More Fears
The room with the fake Aaron is destroyed by a giant version of Theodore. After entering the house on Theodore's back, there are no more mysteries to solve. Just ones to witness.

In the midst of a broken psychic household, you'll find a younger version of yourself, a stand-in for all the wayward kids who have crossed Mr. Peterson. This child has no goal but to run from the Thing that prowls outside the window.

This Thing is the full-blown form of the monster that's been haunting Raven Brooks and Nicky's own memories for years. Whether it was the cause of Mr. Peterson's madness or something born from his black soul, the Thing seems all-powerful in a tantrum that shatters room after room of this flimsy house. Nicky follows his younger counterpart to protect him from the Thing and grow stronger, beating his fears.

When the dust clears, all that's left is the pure void and one final house. This small, dilapidated structure is the final resting place of Mr. Peterson. In the end, the Neighbor could never really escape the horrors he unleashed on his own family, and so it's his fate to live with what he did in a house alone for eternity.

Whether Nicky's final run against Mr. Peterson took place or whether it was all in his mind, no one can say. But as he wakes up the morning after, he seems finally unburdened by his past. In the light of day, the remains of the Peterson household no longer look evil. Instead, they're just some old burnt boards waiting to be swept away so Raven Brooks can be rebuilt. While Nicky's childhood home is in shambles after years of abuse, he's ready to settle back here full-time and put both the house and himself together.

Act 1
In Act 1, Nicky is a 13-year-old kid with a blue and green baseball cap. He has a green bracelet and blue/orange sneakers. His teal shirt has a sharkatron on it, and his brown shorts have a golden apple on them. He has brown hair and brown eyes with a longish red nose.

Act 2
2 months after Act 1, Nicky seems to be beaten-up. His shirt is ripped and is losing its color. He no longer has his baseball cap, and one of his shoes are gone. His skin became more of a yellow-ish tone and he has bruises on his knees. He has a bandage on his right arm.

Act 3
19 years after Act 2, Nicky is still recognizable, but still looks different from his younger self. His hair is spikier than as a kid, and he has a poorly shaven beard now. His eyes look tired and his nose is longer. His skin tone is back to normal. Nicky has a plaid shirt unbuttoned, with a red/white blouse underneath. He has a brown watch. He also has red and white sneakers, with a star on them. His blue jeans have skull emblems on the buttons for the pockets.

Personality
Nicky as a child was very introverted and not your average teenager. Instead of playing sports and doing other things, he stayed at home picking locks and trying to find out about the town's history. He had 3 friends, but he cared more about finding Aaron and Mya than them, which causes them to get annoyed at him. He's smart when it comes to creating stuff. He has made things like an electro-magnet and a combination of a periscope and binoculars.

Nicky is scared of the dark, as we learn in Hello Neighbor: Buried Secrets. He has nightmares about the dark constantly. He also seems to be claustrophobic, as he freaks out when he gets pushed in the washing machine door in the basement.

Nicky always wants to do stuff on his own but sometimes screws up and usually ends up almost being captured by Theodore.

Abilities
In Alpha 4, after passing two Fears, he gets additional abilities: a double jump and the opportunity to escape from the hands of the Neighbor when he caught him. In Beta 1-3, the abilities after passing nightmares remain the same, it was originally thought that after passing the Fear Factory, the hero increases the force of the throw, but in Beta 3 and Release it is available from the beginning and in all acts. Also, there is the ability to become invisible (on Ctrl) after passing The Fear Supermarket. However, it does not work during The Neighbor's pursuit of the player.

Appearances
Hello Neighbor - December 8, 2017

Hello Neighbor: Missing Pieces- August 28, 2018

Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek - December 6, 2018

Hello Neighbor: Waking Nightmare- December 26, 2018

Hello Neighbor: Buried Secrets - July 30, 2019

Trivia

 * Nicky was originally the Neighbor's son before the full game. On the earliest Xbox patches of Hello Neighbor, the achievement for beating the game was called "like father like son" and the Beta 3 story seemed to hint at it with the painting, before they changed Nicky to always be Theodore's neighbor instead.
 * Nicky canonically watches Duck Tales.
 * In Hello Neighbor Alpha 2, Nicky's face was not shown. However, from Alpha 3 to Release, his face was shown.
 * Nicky seems to like sleeping on couches.
 * As an easter egg in Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek, Nicky is at his own house outside, which you can see from the second floor in Stage 1.
 * Nicky has moved around many towns with his parents. Raven Brooks is the last known town they moved to.
 * When Nicky's family moved into Raven Brooks, their house looked abandoned and had torn wallpaper and rotten wood.
 * In an unused Hello Neighbor Beta cutscene/trailer, Nicky attempts to jump out of his apartment window to escape Theodore, who's knocking on his door, but Theodore catches him.
 * In the E3 2017 trailer, Nicky is shushed by Theodore Peterson, who is with him at a window.
 * Adult Nicky is barely explored in the lore and seems to have no personality compared to his child self.
 * Nicky resembles multiple male characters in the franchise. Some include Aaron, Theodore, Quentin, and Leslie.
 * Unlike his ingame version, the concept art of Nicky has a bandage on his nose and a yellow smiley face on his shirt.
 * In Act 3 of the full release, Nicky Roth’s face is not textured during gameplay for some reason.
 * It is speculated that Nicky will return in Hello Neighbor 2 due to Nikita saying in a Q&A that some old characters will be in the full release of Hello Neighbor 2.
 * Nicky was not dreaming in Act 3.