Doors Groundskeeper Lore – The Story of This Outdoors Entity.

Who is the Groundskeeper really, and what are his intentions? Find out in this Doors Groundskeeper Lore guide the complete story of this strange entity, and why he behaves as he does.

Start playing Doors via Roblox. For a general guide on the Groundskeeper and how to bypass him during Outdoors runs, check out my Groundskeeper guide.

Doors Groundskeeper Lore

Who Is The Groundskeeper?

To begin, let’s talk about the basics of the Groundskeeper. This entity, added for the Great Outdoors, wields a scythe and isn’t naturally hostile towards players unless they step on the grass.

Throughout the Outdoors run, he will randomly emerge from an outhouse to patrol the grass and watch the player as they traverse. However, a few odd cutscenes and dialogues have led players to wonder more about the Groundskeeper and his intentions.

For example, if present when the player is attacked by a Mandrake, he will kill the entity. But that isn’t all!

SPOILERS AHEAD

At the mid-way point of the Outdoors, the player will encounter Eyestalk, which initiates a chase. If you reach the end and jump the gap, Eyestalk will close in, only to be halved by the Groundskeeper, who hauls him off on his shoulder.

Sure, he could just use him for wood to fuel his resting area. But entities don’t often entangle like this, and their mutual hostility to the player rarely creates a conflict of interest. Not to mention the Groundskeeper isn’t naturally hostile, so has no real reason to help or hinder the player, either.

Another cutscene will play shortly after, showing the Groundskeeper once again. This time, he begins a fight with Bramble, preventing the untimely demise of the player before they reach the final challenge of the Outdoors… The Maze!

At the end stages of the Outdoors, the player must avoid Bramble whilst traversing a maze and hacking down the large vines. After cutting the final one, Bramble gives chase, and again the player must outrun him. The end cutscene shows the Groundskeeper lunging at Bramble and fighting him a final time, causing an escape bridge to collapse, and the player gets swept away by the current and ends up in The Mines.

So, from all of this, we learn that the Groundskeeper is somewhat of a secret ally, who has a distaste for the other entities he shares the Outdoors with, prompting him to protect the player through to succession, so long as they stay off the grass.

Why Is The Grass So Important?

The Grampy NPC, whom I’ll cover later, has plenty of dialogue for the player to cycle through. One of which talks about the grass and how it siphons the player, creating an evil entity version of them, that intends on replacing the original. (not directly quoted).

So, the Groundskeeper once again is saving the player, this time from an unseen evil… Now, even if you stand on the grass indefinitely, this doesn’t happen, but for lore reasons, let’s trust Grampy and move on.

Grampy NPC

As mentioned, Grampy cycles through several dialogue options, including:

“Sonny’s real serious bout his work. Best leave him be.”
This references the Groundskeepers’ honest and labour-intensive work of keeping all players off the grass.
“Me n Sonny been tryin’ to deal with this Parsnipian infestation. Them little buggers can grow just ’bout anywhere.”
Parsnipian infestation describes the Mandrake perfectly, which is an entity the Groundskeeper will kill for you.
“Sonny’s been huntin’ down that treewalker for a minute. Thanks to ye for luring the booger in.”
Treewalker… This is the Eyestalk! Grampy also thanks the player for helping the Groundskeeper slay it.

Let’s not gloss over Grampy calling him Sonny. This NPC is entirely passive, and simply rocks back and forth on a chair, offering to make the player a Lotus Flower in exchange for 8 Lotus Petals, an item that completely revives if fallen.

Sonny implies that Grampy is related to the Groundskeeper, possibly his father or, more likely, grandfather. Grampy seems to regard the Groundskeeper well, so it wouldn’t make sense for him to give such an overpowered item to the player unless the Groundskeeper was also on the player’s side and wished for their succession, right?

It’s also speculated that the Mill where Grampy lives is where the Groundskeeper sources his don’t step on the grass signposts.

So, Again, Who Is The Groundskeeper?

The Groundskeeper is a complex and entirely unique entity, unlike any we have encountered before in Doors. I hypothesise that he stalks the players to ensure they stay off the grass and waits for them to lure out the other entities that he’s hunting to restore the Outdoors. This makes sense since Grampy implies that the Groundskeeper has been after the likes of Eyestalk and Mandrakes for some time.

But what about Bramble? Well, the World Lotus (the viney end-game “boss” plant the player chops during the maze) is in control of all organic entities, including Bramble, Mandrakes, and Eyestalk. So, the Groundskeepers’ hostility towards Bramble is probably because he and his Grampy want to reclaim the Outdoors before the World Lotus infests it, turning the grass evil, and creating more hostile bioorganic plant-like entities.

In short, the player and the Groundskeeper have the same goal, but different ways to accomplish it. He is the secret ally entity that you never knew you needed…

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