Bing Bong was the first thing I saw after waking up dazed in the sand after a traumatising plane crash at the start of Peak. His little green frame immediately caught my attention and his wonky eyes somehow filled me with peace amid the burning wreckage; this must be how the cast of Lost felt.
There are tons of helpful items that'll aid your ascent in Peak. You can find nutritious fruit hanging from trees and in bushes, first aid or snack bars in luggage that fell out of the plane and was scattered across the map, or some forbidden items in locked boxes. Everything's helpful in its own way, except for Bing Bong.
This green plushie lands next to you on the beach and is, well, just a green plushie. While I definitely got a morale boost from taking him up the mountain with me I ended up switching him out for some food when the hunger pangs started to hit. There is an achievement for managing to take Bing Bong all the way up the mountain, but that's about it; unless you are visited by his ghost.
Some players are getting jumpscared by Bing Bong, who suddenly, out of nowhere, starts talking to them. One group of scouts were joking around with the plushie and asked it to say "bong" if it loved Pride Month, to their surprise the toy spoke back with a simple "bong" followed by hysterics from the group. Another group of players were so scared by Bing Bong's antics that they cast the toy into the sea, only for it to appear on the beach again and utter the words "I am Bing Bong". Truly profound.
The mystery of the talking Bing Bong has confused Peak players for the last couple of weeks, with some wondering how it's possible. "Is it AI or is it a dev who is talking to the player via Bing Bong," n1tso asks in a Steam community chat. To which Landfall community manager Hanna quickly answers: "We're not using any generative AI for the game." This seems to suggest that it's the latter, and the developer is using Bing Bong to talk to Peak players. Although I've reached out to Aggro Crab and Landfall to confirm whether this is actually true.
Devs speaking to players in-game isn't completely unheard of. The Blackout Club actually had an "enhanced horror" setting which gave developer Question access to players' microphones so they could listen in on conversations and mess with you personally. It's a neat feature which feels underused in games, and even if Bing Bong hasn't taken the time out of its busy schedule to chat to me, I still think it's pretty cool.
