All the Stranger Things monsters: from the Demogorgon to Vecna, the complete bestiary
Universe · Bestiary · Seasons 1 to 5
Each season of the show brings its creature, and all obey the same logic: they come from the Upside Down and, since season 2, they are the members of a single organism. Here is the complete bestiary, in order of appearance, with what you need to know for each.
The essentials
- Season 1: the Demogorgon
- Season 2: the demodogs and the Mind Flayer
- Season 3: the flesh monster (the “Flayed”)
- Season 4: Vecna and the demobats
- Season 5: the whole menagerie, under one master's orders
Contents
The monsters of Stranger Things: the Demogorgon (Season 1)
The first monster is a faceless humanoid predator whose head opens into five petals lined with teeth. It crosses the walls between worlds, drawn by blood, and carries its prey into the Upside Down: Will, Barb, then lab soldiers. The boys name it after a demon from Dungeons & Dragons.
He is defeated by Eleven, who disintegrates him in the middle-school classroom at the cost of her own disappearance. A full page is devoted to him on the site.
The Demogorgon T-shirt, head open or closed.
In the shopMen's 3/4-sleeve baseball Demogorgon sketch T-shirt44,90 €See the product
The demodogs (Season 2)
In 1984, Dustin takes in a small creature he takes for an exotic tadpole and names D'Artagnan, “Dart.” It is a young Demogorgon. In a few days, Dart goes through several molts and becomes a quadruped the size of a large dog, with the same petal head: a demodog, a word coined by Dustin.
The demodogs hunt in a pack and obey the Mind Flayer. They are killed in a mass when Eleven closes the gate, except Dart, who lets the children through in the tunnels out of attachment to Dustin, then dies with the others. A specimen resurfaces in Season 4, kept by the Russians in a Kamchatka prison.
The Mind Flayer (Seasons 2 and 3)
Season 2's real enemy has no body: it is a gigantic shadow, in the shape of a spider, that dominates the Upside Down and controls all its creatures the way a brain controls limbs. It possesses Will, then, in Season 3, takes a body in our world by fusing the flesh of its hosts, Billy first.
That body, the “flesh monster,” is destroyed in the Starcourt mall when the gate is closed. The shadow, for its part, stays in the Upside Down, and season 4 reveals who really commands it.
One organismSince Season 2, the show insists: Demogorgons, demodogs, demobats and vines are not independent species but parts of a “hive mind”. Hurt the master and you weaken the rest, and that is the principle of every final battle.
The demobats (Season 4)
Bats of the Upside Down, with a prehensile tail and a miniature Demogorgon mouth, that fly in swarms and guard the Creel house. They are the ones who kill Eddie Munson during his diversion, and who badly wound Steve in the lake. They collapse at once when Vecna is hit: one more proof of the link between the master and his menagerie.
Vecna (seasons 4 and 5)
Vecna is different from the others: he is not a creature born in the Upside Down, but a man, Henry Creel, Brenner's first subject, transformed after being projected there by Eleven in 1979. He kills through the mind, by slipping into his victims' traumas, and he is the brain behind the Mind Flayer and everything it commands.
He has his own page on the site. Keep this in mind: music protects you from his hold, and he can only be reached physically while he is killing.
| Creature | Season | Weakness | Defeated by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demogorgon | 1 | The fire, Eleven's powers | Eleven, at middle school |
| demodogs | 2 | The closing of the gate | Eleven, at the lab |
| Flesh monster | 3 | Fireworks, shutting down the Russian machine | Joyce and Hopper, under Starcourt |
| Demobats | 4 | The death or wounding of their master | The assault on the Creel house |
| Vecna | 4-5 | The music, the attack from a distance | See the dedicated page |
The figure of the monster that scared you the most.
In the shopLego articulated Demogorgon figure 350 pieces30,90 €See the product
What Season 5 adds
The last season does not create a new species: it unleashes all the old ones on Hawkins at once, Demogorgons included, in a town under quarantine. The playbook of the previous seasons still holds, on a much larger scale, and the link between the master and his creatures becomes the central stake of the battle.
The spider from the Abyss, the last form
The last chapter adds a creature to the bestiary, and it is the first of them all. Henry's lair, in the Abyss, turns out to be the very body of the entity the show called the shadow, then the Mind Flayer: a colossal spider that rears up and attacks the group that arrived by the radio tower. Nancy draws it into the right position, fire and explosives weaken it, Eleven enters it to face Henry, and the bomb finishes the job.
Its origin is revealed in the same episode: a briefcase, opened by Henry as a child in a mine, which contained a fragment of that entity. Every creature in the show, from the first to the last, is one of its forms or servants.
The complete bestiary, in one table
| Creature | Seasons | What she is | How you defeat it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demogorgon | 1, 4, 5 | Humanoid predator with a petal head, drawn by blood | Eleven in 1983; the fire in 1986; Will in 1987 |
| Demodogs and Dart | 2, 5 | The juvenile stage, in a pack, driven by the hive | The gate closed in 1984; a dryer in 1987 |
| The giant shadow | 2 | The silhouette of the entity above Hawkins | Heat to free Will, the gate to cut it off |
| The flesh monster | 3 | Flayed melted into a creature | The fireworks, Billy, the Russian gate |
| The demobats | 4 | The flying swarm that guards the Upside Down Creel house | The fire, the blades, Vecna's defeat |
| Vecna | 4, 5 | Henry Creel, number One, transformed by the Upside Down | Burned in 1986; arm torn off, impaled, beheaded in 1987 |
| The spider of the Abyss | 5 | The body of the briefcase entity | The fire, the explosives, the bomb |
The possessed humans, a bestiary apart
The show also has its human monsters, the ones the entity occupies. Will, in the fall of 1984, screams numbers, draws tunnels, and sends the soldiers into a trap: it is the shadow seeing through him. Billy, in the summer of 1985, recruits the possessed at the steel mill and leads them to the monster. Heather, Tom, Bruce, Mrs. Driscoll, and dozens of townspeople melt to form the Starcourt body.
In 1987, Henry reverses the logic: instead of possessing, he abducts children to make them “vessels.” And Will, the former possessed, turns the connection against him. The monster of the show has never been only a creature: it is what enters people.
The whole menagerie of the Upside Down is in the shop.
In the shopWhite Demogorgon Park sweater75,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
What is the monster of Stranger Things called?
The first, Season 1's, is the Demogorgon. The next are the demodogs (Season 2), the Mind Flayer and its flesh monster (Seasons 2 and 3), the demobats and Vecna (Season 4).
How many monsters are there in the show?
Five large creatures or groups of creatures, all tied to the same organism: the Demogorgon, demodogs, the Mind Flayer (and its flesh form), demobats, and Vecna.
What is the strongest monster?
Vecna, because he commands all the others. The Mind Flayer is the most imposing physically, but season 4 reveals that it is itself directed by Henry Creel.
Do the monsters have a common weak point?
Yes: they share a hive mind. Wounding Vecna instantly weakens demobats, demodogs and vines.
What is the last monster of the show?
The spider from the Abyss, in the last chapter: the very body of the entity the show called the shadow then the Mind Flayer, born from a briefcase opened by Henry as a child.
Who was possessed in the show?
Will in 1984, Billy in 1985, then Heather, Tom, Bruce, Mrs. Driscoll and dozens of Hawkins residents, melted into the Starcourt monster.