Nomes

Nomes are characters in Little Nightmares.

Appearance
The Nomes are pale-skinned creatures with comically large conical hat on their heads, covering their entire face. They appear to only wear a dirty white shift, and their feet are completely bare. The Nomes are very small, even shorter and scrawnier than Six.

Locations
The Nomes are found throughout the game, dead or alive. Somehow, the monsters do not seem to mind them, as if they've grown used to their appearance. Even stranger, there are no Nomes in the Lady's Quarters. While there are many that can be spotted running away, there are 13 specific Nomes that you can 'collect' (by hugging) in Little Nightmares, to gain the Achievement or Trophy "Little Lost Things". They are far more frequent in the DLC, Secrets of the Maw, where The Runaway Kid must befriend them to aid in his escape.

The Prison
Nome 1 - In the room where you encounter the refrigerator, a Nome will scatter into a dark opening on the right. Crawl into the opening.

Nome 2 - After you reach the first room with the petrifying eye, climb up the mountain of cages to the right of the spotlight, but stop before you reach the floor above. There’s a Nome in a cage to the far right. You can reach the cage by walking along the top row of cages, then jumping to the right, or by taking a running jump to the right and grabbing the ledge (if you’re just short) by holding R2 (PS4) or RT (Xbox) to stop yourself from falling to the floor (and dying). Crawl through the cage and into the next room, then grab the Nome.

Nome 3 - After you climb the filing cabinets to turn off the power a second time, move to the far left side of the room and light the lantern, then look in the background and pull open the crate to free the Nome. It runs back into the room to the right and hides in the (darkened) left corner of the room. Go back into that room and hug the Nome.

The Lair
Nome 1 - There’s a long flight of stairs near the beginning of the area. The first flight climbs to the right, then the second long flight of stairs climbs to the left. After the first flight, you will need to enter the room to the right, then drag a chair onto a secret panel on the floor, opening a secret door in the wardrobe. Inside that secret room, you'll have to flush the Nome out, and it will run out of the room to the left. You can then follow it up the next flight of stairs, where it will be cowering on the far left of the second landing.

Nome 2 - Once you pick up the lever on the floor and insert it into the pillar to open the hatch on the floor, drop down into the hatch. In the next room to the right you can climb the crates to the right, but instead, climb up the ladder in the background on the right. Move the boxes at the top to reveal a small passage, then drop down into the next room to find a Nome.

Nome 3 - After the hallway of clocks you’ll enter a room with numerous stacks of books. Crawl under the desk on the far right side and a Nome will run away. Now head to the far left to find the Nome standing to the left of the stack of books in the middle of the floor near the left wall. You may have to move a few books to see the Nome clearly.

The Kitchen
Nome 1 - After picking up the key go back into the bathroom on the far right to find a Nome to the left of the double toilets.

Nome 2 - After picking up the key and heading into the elevator, instead of continuing to the right to unlock the door, go left into the pantry to find a brown jar on the floor that can be making noise and jumping around. Break the jar to find a Nome.

Nome 3 - When you reach the room with the sausage maker and the lift that leads up to the freezer area, look under the table that the sausage maker is sitting on to find a Nome hiding there.

The Guest Area
Nome 1 - At the very start of the area, go left instead of right to find a secret room with a Nome. (This area is actually at the very end of the Kitchen, but it is counted as one of the Guest Area Nomes for some reason.)

Nome 2 - In the room where you have to run across the top of the bar, dodging guests left and right, before you make that run look on the far right side of the room to find a stool pushed up against the wall near the foreground. Move the stool to the left to reveal a hole behind it. Crawl through the hole to find a Nome.

Nome 3 - After shattering the mirror in the bathroom and walking along the elevated pipe back to the elevator, take the elevator to the next floor, but head left instead of right. In the first guest quarter there’s a Nome about to wake up a sleeping guest.

Nome 4 - You can’t miss this Nome, even if you tried. When you start to get hunger pains keep walking to the right until a Nome offers you a sausage. Unfortunately you opt for a different kind of food, which counts as hugging the Nome.

The Secrets of the Maw
In the second episode of the Little Nightmares DLC, the Runaway Kid is tasked with hugging Nomes and enlisting their help as he explores the furnace sector of the Maw. As he gathers Nomes, they follow him to a giant pile of coal where they instinctively gather the coal to toss into the furnace, which in turn enables a coal lift to operate. When the Runaway Kid gathers enough Nomes, the coal lift operates and he disembarks to the level above.

As he continues to explore, the Runaway Kid stumbles upon a hideaway for the Nomes. They gather around the heat and light of a small furnace. The shadows of the Nomes are revealed to be those of children.

In the third episode of the Little Nightmares DLC, the Runaway Kid is captured by the Lady and turned into one of the Nomes. He runs into the Guest Area, following some other Nomes into a room with a sausage innocently laying in the middle. It is left to assume that this is the unfortunate Nome Six encounters near the end of her adventure.

Official Summary
Playful Oddities

"Unpredictability can be found throughout The Maw, and so can The Nomes. Though experience has taught them to be skittish, some still try to make friends with strangers. These Nomes rarely survive."

Possible Theories

 * They might be good children that didn't want to work anymore for the Lady.
 * The Nomes are enchanted by the Lady to run The Maw by feeding coal to the engines.

Trivia

 * At the end of the game, as Six is walking up the stairs, all of the Nomes she hugged will appear at the bottom of the stairs, not including the one she ate.
 * Nomes are featured as outfits for Little Toggle to wear in the "Little Nightmares Asset Pack" in Little Big Planet 3, a game which Tarsier Studios helped with.