How to play Nightcount

The goal

Every run starts the same way: you pick a spot in the valley and found your Town Hall there, with your hero and two villagers. From then on, each day is a chance to grow, and each night is a deadline.

To end the nights for good, you have to kill the Heart of the Blight, which sits deep in the outermost ring of the map. It's protected by three wards, and each ward only breaks when your hero carries a Blight seal to it. One seal is always in the Hollow King's great lair; the other two are hidden somewhere different in every valley, so reading the inscriptions at the King's ruins (they mark seals on your map) pays off. Every ward you break gives you a boon, and makes the next night meaner.

Killing the Heart doesn't quite win the run. At the next dusk comes the last siege, from every side at once, led by a monster called the Hunger. No dawn comes while she lives. Kill her, hold out until morning, and the valley is free.

Day and night

A full day takes about four minutes: a long day, a short dusk, the night, and a brief dawn. Seasons turn every few days. Summer days run longer; in winter the fields freeze and stop making food, and the nights get longer.

By day

• Build and gather. Place buildings from the build menu, and chop trees and break rocks yourself when you need wood or stone fast.
• Explore. Raze monster dens, open chests, rescue survivors, and hunt the pale stags for food.
• Level up. Each level offers a choice of boons for your hero.
• Heal. Your hero recovers health by day once they've been out of a fight for a few seconds.
• Ring the bell if you're ready and want the night to start early.

At dusk

From the second night on, dusk offers you a choice of omens: take a harder night in exchange for a reward at dawn, or take none.

At night

Waves come out of the treeline. A line under the clock tells you which directions they're coming from and how many are left. Clear every wave and the night ends early. At dawn, any monster still caught in the open burns, and everyone in the village eats.

Controls

Heroes

You start with the Knight. The others unlock as you survive more nights, across all your runs together. Unlocks are kept on the device you play on.

• KnightSword and shield. Holds the line up close, and the slam scatters a crowd. Ready from the start.
• RangerA longbow for fighting from range; a volley hits the five nearest enemies. Survive 5 nights to unlock.
• MysticLantern magic: a beam burns whatever it touches, and a nova sets enemies alight. Survive 10 nights.
• WardenTower shield and mace. Guards near you take less harm, and a rally heals everyone around you. Free a valley or survive 15 nights.

Surviving nights also unlocks start modifiers (Frontier, Twin dens and Lean years) that change how a run begins.

Building your village

Your village runs on three things: wood, stone and food. Houses bring more villagers, and villagers work your buildings.

• Getting resources: Woodcutter, Quarry, Farm and Hunter's Lodge. A Granary lets you store more food.
• Defence: Palisades and gates, then stone walls, watchtowers, torches and spike traps. The Town Hall's build menu has a one-tap "Wall our land" that rings your village with walls.
• Guards: a Barracks trains a squad of three, with spears or bows. They patrol by day and man the walls at night, and you can call them to follow you.
• Workshops: one each of the Smithy, Chapel and Alchemist. They research upgrades like iron bands, a night-time healing vigil, fire arrows and oil pots.
• Growing: an Outpost claims new land, and the Town Hall can be enlarged twice.

Chests give blessings (Vigor, Might, Swiftness, Mending), and the wild lairs hold relics. Every relic has an upside and a catch, so read it before you take it.

What hunts you

Nights add new enemies one at a time, so you learn each before the next arrives. Ghouls come first, then bats and bone archers, then stranger things. The in-game bestiary fills in as you meet them.

• Blood moonsEvery fifth night (fourth on Extreme): bigger waves, from three sides, with a Brute.
• The HandShadow arms that snuff out lights and drag people into the dark. Strong light stops them.
• DragonsTwo nest in the highlands. From night 6 they may raid and set wooden buildings on fire.
• Giants and sappersGiants break walls; sappers go for your towers. Spike traps and a posted guard help.
• ShamansThey heal and speed up the pack around them. Kill them first.
• By dayWolves, bandit raids, a prowler if you wander far from your land, and the wandering lord, who marches on your village.

Bigger foes wait out in the valley: the bandit chief in his stockade, and the Hollow King, who wakes when you raze his great lair. His armour cracks open in strong light.

Tips for your first nights

1. Heal by day.Your hero only recovers on their own during the day and at dawn. Go into the night at full health; healing at night needs the Chapel's Vigil.
2. Raze the dens near you early.Dens you leave alone grow, and new ones appear from day 4. Grown dens send scouts: if a scout makes it home, that den raids you at dusk. Kill scouts on sight.
3. Light is a weapon.Ghouls slow down inside torchlight, and light drives burrowers up out of the ground.
4. Watch your food before winter.Everyone eats at dawn, and two hungry dawns in a row means someone leaves. Fields stop in winter, so fill a granary while you can, and hunt pale stags by day.
5. Go stone once dragons appear.Palisades burn; stone walls don't. Put stone around the core of your village by night 6.
6. Don't wander too far by day.Stray well past your land and a prowler comes for you. Outposts count as your land, so claim ground before you push out.
7. Take omens when you're strong.A harder night for a dawn reward is a good trade when your walls are up, and a bad one when they aren't.

Modes and difficulty

• Begin a run drops you in a new random valley.
• Today's world is the same valley for everyone on the same date. The title screen shows your best for today, so you can compare with friends.
• Normal gives you 2 falls: if your hero is cut down, they rise again at the hall, with a scar that weakens them for two days. Hard has more and meaner enemies, smaller stores and 1 fall. Extreme is one life, with a blood moon every fourth night.

When a run ends, the recap shows how the nights went, remembers your fallen villagers by name, and gives you a link to the same world so you can try it again or send it to a friend.