Summary

The story ofLies of Phas much more depth than it initially seems to, and a perfect example of this is the phenomenon that kicks off the events of the game, the Puppet Frenzy. The impact of the Puppet Frenzy can be seen as soon as the game begins, but the true nature it, and the motivations behind it are left murky until the last moments of the game.

Even upon completing Lies of P, the reason for the Puppet Frenzy might still be unclear. So, what is the Puppet Frenzy, why did it happen, and is any character in Lies of P to blame for it happening?

P fighting three puppets on a wooden platform in Lies of P.

Spoiler Warning

Updated on July 21, 2025, by Kyle Chamaillard: We’ve decided to revisit this article to tidy it up a bit, making it easier to understand more about the Puppet Frenzy from Lies of P.

What Is The Puppet Frenzy?

The Puppet Frenzy is the name given to the phenomenon thattransformed the Puppets in Krat into killers. In the opening cinematic for Lies of P, the events are portrayed concisely: you see the society of Krat, and how since puppets were invented,society grew to rely on them to complete a wide variety of jobs.

Puppets were fully integrated into Krat after Ergo was discovered as a power source for the complex machines.However, for an initially unknown reason, almost every puppet in Lies of P is shown to turn violent, and attack the humans that they once worked for.

P walks through Krat with a giant weapon over his shoulder in Lies of P.

By the time P awakens at the beginning of the game, you can seethe corpses of the citizens of Krat lining the streets, and themurderous puppets roaming in search of more victims. However, the puppets have not been successful, and there are still survivors, but many of those who have survived are suffering from the secondary threat, petrification disease.

The location of most survivors of the Puppet Frenzy is in the Hotel Krat, which is found after completing Chapter 1. There are other survivors, like the stalkers, who can be found roaming different areas. Most of the stalkers are powerful enough to survive, butangry about the circumstances.

The King of Puppets and Romeo from Lies of P.

Since Geppetto is well known to be the creator of the puppets,he is blamed initially for the Frenzy, which can be seen when he is being harassed by theMad Donkey during Chapter 2.

Throughout the game, you can find more and more survivors who have becomeembittered towards puppets.

Manus revealing himself as his new grotesque mutated boss form to Pinocchio in Lies of P.

They want revenge on them for what they have done, even if they are innocent like P, with an example beingthe White Lady in Chapter 6 who challenges P to a deadly duel as soon as she discovers him in Rosa Isabelle Street.

Whilethe puppets and Geppetto are to blame by the majority for why the Puppet Frenzy happened, the truth of the violence is more complex.

Romeo stands menacingly in front of fire in Lies of P.

Why Did The Puppet Frenzy Happen?

Throughout the early hours of Lies of P, you are left in the dark to what may have caused the Puppet Frenzy, but the first potential explanation wecome across is in Chapter 3when you are told about the King of Puppets.

King Of Puppets

As the name suggests, the King of Puppets is the leader of the puppets, and when you learn about communication via Ergo waves, Venigni surmises thatthe King of Puppets was using these Ergo waves to order the puppets to attack humans.

There’s not much of an explanation for why the puppets might be doing this, but it can be assumed that puppets were doing this togain independence from the humans who had grown to rely on them.

A close-up of Geppetto from Lies of P when you first meet him in the game after the Mad Donkey boss fight.

However, after beating the King of Puppets in Chapter 6, who is shown to have a humanoid puppet similar to P inside of him called Romeo,the puppets are still violent.

In the area following the King of Puppets, the puppets aremourning the passing of the King of Puppets, but they will still attack P if he attacks them, and after this, puppets are just as violent as before.

Pinocchio’s legion arm holding a flame of Blue Ergo amid the background structures of Krat as appearing on the game’s cover art.

Simon Manus

The first clue to the true motivation behind the Puppet Frenzy is revealed in Chapter 5. After beating the first iteration of the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, P can raid their base, and in therehe finds a portrait of a boy that resembles him. This portrait can be returned to Geppetto in the Hotel, who will inform P thatthis is a portrait of his deceased son, who P was modeled after.

After this, and after the defeat of the King of Puppets, P is soon given a new villain to aim towards, beingSimon Manus, the head of the alchemists.

P standing next to Polendina at Hotel Krat in Lies of P.

You are introduced to Manus after defeating Victor in Chapter 7, and since he is framed as the new main antagonist,it is easy to assume that he might have something to do with the Puppet Frenzy.

However, in the following chapters, you learn more about Manus, and nothing ever hints at him being behind the Puppet Frenzy, andhe is instead to blame for the mutated carcass enemiesthat are just as common as puppet enemies in the latter half of the game.

The nameless puppet stands besides Geppetto in Lies of P.

Romeo’s Message

The hints towards the truth of the Puppet Frenzy are actuallyrevealed through Venigni’s invention.

Earlier in Lies of P,P is gifted an Ergo wave decoder, which translates the Ergo waves that are being used by the puppets to communicate.

At intervals throughout the game you return to Venigni to develop this piece of technology, but it is not untillate in the game that there is an important message to listen to.

The message is from a character whorefers to themselves as Romeo, the name of the King of Puppets, and isaddressed to Carlo, the name of the boy P resembles.

During this message, there are two important revelations;Geppetto is to blame for the Puppet Frenzy,and this was doneusing a secret command in the Grand Covenant.

The Grand Covenant is the set of rules thatstops puppets from being able to rebel against humans. Romeo states that Geppetto installed an extra rule in theGrand Covenant that makes them all subservient to Geppetto, their original creator, if he takes control.

Of course, you can doubt Romeo, since he is a previous boss, but this plants an obvious seed of doubt.

This message alsocontextualizes the garbled puppet language that is spoken to Pduring early-game puppet boss encounters, as well as the strange behaviour from the King of Puppets before the boss encounter in Chapter 6.

Romeo’s message explains that he wastrying to recruit P to aid him and the puppets in his fight against the alchemists and Geppetto.

This is why, before fighting the King of Puppets,the giant puppet is shown to offer peace to P before starting the fight.

The King also displays a puppet play where he showsa puppet resembling Geppetto removing the heart from a puppet resembling P, and putting it into another puppet. This is a cryptic scene at the time, buta grim foreshadowing to the end of the game.

Once understood, this tragic twist recontextualizes all of the violence against puppets during the early hours of Lies of P.

Geppetto All Along

By the time this revelation has occurred, it is revealed thatGeppetto has been kidnapped by the alchemistsand is being held on their island, so P’s confrontation with him about this has to wait.

During the raid on the Isle of Alchemists,P learns more about Carlo’s history with Romeo, as well as more about the alchemists and their intentions.

Geppetto is freed near the end of the chapter, but before he can be questioned, P has to take down Simon Manus. Upon defeating Simon,he mirrors Romeo’s message, and warns P about Geppetto, but isn’t able to reveal too much before dying.

P is then met with Geppetto, who reveals to P that all of the events that took place were done forhis grand goal of reviving his son.

The Puppet Frenzy was achieved by using the Grand Covenant command, and was done todistract the alchemists, as well as give P a reason to collect massive amounts of Ergo.

This was done toenhance the P-organ, a puppet-like heart, that P holdsto make him become more human.This is why P is able to lie, and becomes visibly more human after making certain choices.

However, the plan backfires, andP rebels, not wanting to give his heart to Carlo’s corpse. In a final fight against the puppet, controlled by Geppetto, P breaks free of his fathers' manipulation, who ends up dying to the Nameless Puppet he used to attack P.

The Puppet Frenzy And Ergo

While the Puppet Frenzy was created by Geppetto to distract the alchemists and give P an excuse to farm the ergo and humanity needed to revive Carlo,the event had unintended consequences as well.

For example, how the Puppet Frenzy intertwines with Ergo. Throughout the narrative of Lies of P, it is revealed thatErgo is the crystallized form of people’s life essence. This is why it is gained after P kills someone, but also why it is such an efficient power source for humanoid puppets.

However, by using life essence as a battery, it has unintended effects, likeimbuing puppets with human characteristics, the best example of this being Polendina’s affection for Antonia, and Arlecchino killing Venigni’s family.

This is why the Grand Covenant was put in place to stop puppets from becoming violent. However, with humans being exposed to so much Ergo, itstarted the petrification disease, which transforms the skin of humans into a hard blue-ish surface similar to Ergo crystals.

With so muchErgo being siphoned by the alchemists from dead humans, thanks to the Puppet Frenzy, the petrification disease spread even more aggressively.

Why Isn’t Every Puppet Affected By The Puppet Frenzy?

Even after learning the truth of the Puppet Frenzy, you might wonder why not every puppet has turned violent. The best example of this is howP is still in complete control of himself, and able to communicate with humans.

However, this can be explained awayby the P-organ, the device installed in P that helps him become more human. This shows thatP’s humanity and autonomy was intended by Geppettoas part of his plan to revive Carlo.

In spite of this, we can still question whythere are certain other puppets that are not violent as well. This can be seen most notably inPolendina and Pulcinella, two puppets who are shown to still be subservient to their masters, and who aid P as vendors throughout the story.This aid for P is exactly why it is implied that these puppets remained peaceful.

Because the purpose of these puppets is to aid P in growing stronger and harvesting more Ergo for Geppetto’s revival of Carlo, they are able to stay in control, sincethey serve a different purpose.

Geppetto’s True Goal

In spite of Geppetto’s goal to revive Carlo, his even deeper true intentions are put into question when he gets his way in the bad ending.

Even when Carlo is revived, he isstill under the control of Geppetto in spite of being ‘human’, which is shown in how Geppetto orders him to kill everyone in the Hotel.

However, even once he has got his way,Geppetto still abandons Carlo again, like he did in the past. In Carlo’s memories that are shown to P in Chapter 11, you learn that, in life,Carlo hated Geppettofor abandoning him at the Monad Charity House.

Geppetto’s habit for being an absentee father is shown to return, even when he manages to bring P back. To imagine that Geppetto went to all the effort to carry out the Puppet Frenzy just to revive the son he would once again abandon seems questionable.

Geppetto’s true intentions, creating a form of immortality as Simon Manus aimed to, may be related to the Krat Experimentmentioned by Paracelsus in the post-credit scene.