SCP Declassified: SCP 682 Explained (2024)

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In this article:

SCP 682, or the hard-to-destroy reptile, is one of the most iconic anomalies in the SCP containment files.
It’s a Series I SCPs, which were written before the stricter editorial policies that later helped solidify SCP’s identity.
SCP 682 is one of the most hated SCPs which has led some fans of the SCP Foundation to suggest that SCP 682 has cognitohazard properties.
The SCP Foundation’s methods for containing SCP 682 don’t seem to be a match for the reptile’s abilities.
SCP 682 has undergone more experiments than most anomalies, largely because the Foundation is desperate to find a way to destroy it.

Since its first official launch on January 19, 2008, the SCP Foundation has been the source of many of the internet’s top spooky stories. The most iconic of these stories are the containment files for Series I SCPs.

That said, Series I SCPs have a reputation for being hit and miss compared to the later SCP’s in the Foundation’s roughly 7,000 and counting database. While coming first has helped gain Series 1 SCPs a ton of fame, it also meant that their files were written before the Foundation had a solid identity and stricter editorial policies.

And that, my fellow agents, is how we ended up with SCP 682, an indestructible lizard that’s basically the Gary Stu of villains. But that doesn’t make SCP 682 any less iconic.

What Is SCP 682?

All SCPs in the Foundation database are given a nickname on the Series index. In SCP 682’s case, the nickname is “Hard-to-Destroy Reptile” which tells you most of what there is to know about the creature.

SCP 682 is a virtually indestructible reptile-like anomaly that can adapt to any attempts at harming it. It has exhibited advanced regenerative abilities in previous experiments attempted by the Foundation.

If you’re imagining something like Wolverine’s abilities, think again, because SCP 682 can recover from complete transfiguration into a patch of flowers as seen in the experiment with SCP 166.

Though it looks like a reptile, no one really knows what kind of reptile SCP 682 is. The creature doesn’t match any existing or extinct reptiles on Earth or any of its other alternate universe versions. All that can be observed about SCP 682 is that it’s monstrously large and possesses the ability to think and speak.

Everything from there just gets weirder. SCP 682 regenerates and generates limbs, organs, and appendages instantaneously in the presence of a threat. It can also eat and gain energy from anything, even inorganic or actively toxic materials.

Foundation researchers hypothesize that SCP 682 is capable of this because of the filtering gills inside of its nostrils which can turn any material into usable energy. The exact process behind it is unknown.

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If SCP 682 Is So Indestructible, Then How Do They Keep It Contained?

The Special Containment Procedures for SCP 682 aren’t guaranteed to keep the creature from escaping, which is how it ended up getting a Keter classification.

SCP 682 is kept contained in a 5 x 5 x 5 meter box made of reinforced steel plates. The box is then filled with hydrochloric acid until SCP 682 is completely submerged in the corrosive liquid. Foundation personnel are instructed to restrain SCP 682 if it moves.

The anomaly’s insane regenerative powers and blatant hate for humans make it vital for on-site personnel to stay alert and ready for potential containment breaches.

But if you think about it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

The very concept of what SCP 682 is as an SCP is that it adapts quickly to its environment, so quickly that it’s virtually indestructible. Elsewhere in the document, SCP 682 is said to be able to move and speak even after its body is rendered 87% destroyed. If SCP 682 can regenerate fast enough that killing it is a Sisyphean task, it doesn’t make sense that it can be contained by just hydrochloric acid.

A video by Hallucinate me! shows a chicken leg being submerged and left to sit in a beaker of hydrochloric acid. It takes 12 hours for the entire chicken leg to be dissolved by the acid. At such a slow rate of destruction, SCP 682 should, based on its own file, be able to regrow its flesh fast enough that hydrochloric acid would be little more than a bubble bath for it.

Plus, its containment chamber is just a regular room lined with acid-resistant steel plates. If you account for SCP 682’s abilities and compare it to its containment procedures, the reptile monster should have broken out permanently on Day One.

The implications of the Foundation’s sloppy containment procedures are horrifying when you realize that SCP 682 is an existential threat to all life on Earth.

Why Does SCP 682 Hate Humans So Much?

This isn’t true. SCP 682 hates everything that lives. It despises the very concept of life itself, leading some personnel to speculate that the creature is a living embodiment of hatred.

Addendum 682-B of SCP 682’s file shows a partial transcript of an interview conducted by one of the Foundation doctors on SCP 682. In it, the doctor asks why SCP 682 killed a group of farmers.

Since this is the first interview on the log, we can infer that the SCP 682’s murder of the farmers is how the Foundation found it.

At first, the SCP didn’t answer, but after a series of repeated questions, SCP 682 admitted that he killed them because they were “disgusting.” The interview ended when SCP 682 presumably dragged the D class personnel holding the mic and proceeded to kill him.

But why does SCP 682 hate all life? The answer depends on which version of the SCP Foundation canon you want to go with. Outside of the official documents, there are multiple storylines about the Foundation written by different authors. The Foundation explains this phenomenon in its lore as multiple alternate universes existing at the same time.

In Dust and Blood, SCP 682 is said to be the child of the Scarlet King, an SCP so ancient and powerful that it has ties to the true nature of SCP 001. The story depicts SCP 682 as a destroyer of the Tree of Knowledge’s roots, a reference to the destruction of Yggdrasil‘s roots and the Norse myth of Ragnarok.

An Overview of the SCP 682 Experiment Logs

SCP 682 has one of the longest experiment logs in the Foundation based on the number of experiments conducted. This is mostly because of the Foundation’s ceaseless attempts to find a way to destroy SCP 682 and learn the secrets of its biology so they can use its abilities against other SCPs.

The first experiment conducted on SCP 682 was with SCP 017, a child-shaped shadow that consumes everything in its path. After being placed in a containment chamber together, SCP 682 tries to break out with SCP 017.

Another notable experiment with SCP 682 involves SCP 053. SCP 053 is a 3-year-old girl who causes any person older than her to enter into a paranoid and homicidal stage. The Foundation expected SCP 053 to have the same effect on SCP 682 or for SCP 682 to kill SCP 053. Neither of these things happened. Instead, SCP 682 plays with SCP 053 and even lets her draw on his carapace.

There are two theories as to why SCP 682 didn’t attack SCP 053. The first theory claims that SCP 053’s cognitohazard property doesn’t make other people homicidal but instead reverses their mental disposition. When exposed to her, SCP 068 becomes docile.

The second theory is a lot more complicated. Remember the storyline where SCP 682 is one of the children of the Scarlet King? That same story lists several other Series 1 SCPs as the Scarlet King’s children. Among them are SCP 999 (yes, the happy jelly) and, as some fans speculate, SCP 053.

An experiment involving SCP 173 was also performed by the Foundation to see if SCP 682 would be killed as quickly as human subjects. SCP 173 is an anomaly known for being able to instantly kill any creature if no one is staring directly at it.

The Foundation’s hopes of taking out SCP 682 were thwarted when it became clear that not only could SCP 682 forgo blinking for hours but it could also grow hundreds of eyes to ensure its safety around SCP 173.

There were also two separate instances where the Foundation locked SCP 682 up with an ordinary human child which sounds irresponsible and wasteful, even for an organization trying to study anomalous beings. And you know what? It is.

Much like the containment procedures for SCP 682, there are a lot of pointless experiments in Series 1 documents that contribute little to the file besides gore. These experiments started to decrease in frequency and have mostly disappeared by the time Series IV was released.

People Hate SCP 682 as Much as It Hates People Which Has Led to an SCP Conspiracy Theory

SCP 682 is a memorable anomaly, but as we’ve seen, it suffers from a problem that many SCPs in Series I have: being cliche. As amazing as the Foundation’s menagerie of dangerous creatures is, it’s also full of cliches like “X anomaly is going to cause the end of the world if it escapes,” every other sentence contains a [REDACTED], SCPs that are edgy Gary Stus/Mary Sues, and anomalies that are indestructible just because.

SCP 682 falls into the last category.

In a thread asking about what personnel consider SCP cliches, one agent writes: “Item is indestructible for no reason. I’ve seen it so many times, but I don’t know why it’s such a trend. I think it’s mainly a Series 1 [thing] though because I don’t see it as much in newer stuff.”

Others list random breaks in protocol and general unprofessional conduct, the latter of which occurs in SCP 682 when one researcher suggests dropping SCP 682 out of an aircraft to see if it will go splat.

SCP 682’s stark difference in tone and quality with other SCP files has led some personnel to speculate about why its file wasn’t “retired” during one of the mass edits in the early history of the Foundation.

Some say it remains so that it can serve as an excuse to not add another indestructible monster to the database. It’s sort of like the way that Able, SCP 076-02, is used to prevent self-insert SCPs from being added to the wiki. This is supported by the Foundation document Cliches And You: An Educational Film.

But that’s boring.

For an in-lore explanation as to why everyone seems to hate SCP 682, we have to turn to the theory that SCP 682’s true nature is that of a cognitohazard.

Cognitohazards are anomalies in the SCP universe that alter the way sentient beings think. Some cognitohazards spread ideas while others cause changes in perception and cognition. SCP 682 is theorized to be a cognitohazard because of how obsessed everyone in the Foundation is with killing it.

Inside the SCP universe, the Foundation’s researchers are obsessed with finding a way to destroy SCP 682 while in our “real” world, personnel are fixated on the notion of removing SCP 682’s indestructibility.

Why is everyone suddenly convinced that SCP 682 is a cognitohazard? The answer seems to be in the lore of SCP 5000.