Monsters and bosses

Night by night

Each night's last wave arrives about 60% of the way through the night and carries that night's newest monster. Monsters also get tougher every night: about 12% more health and harder blows per night, so a ghoul on night 5 has about half again the health of one on night 1.

Night monsters

Torchlight slows most of them to about half speed. At first light, any night monster still out in the open starts to burn.

• GhoulNight 1 on. 42 health. The common dead: they pour out of the treeline and go for the nearest person, or a house to smash. Walls hold them, towers thin them, light slows them.
• BatsNight 2 on, in pairs. 14 health, faster than you. They fly straight over walls. Towers, bowmen and your blade bring them down, and they stay home in a storm.
• Bone archerNight 2 on. 30 health. Shoots over walls from 12 m and backs away from anyone who comes close. Towers outrange it, or go out and cut it down: it's frail up close.
• Rat swarmNight 4 on, four at a time. Small enough to slip through gates, and they go for your food stores. Spike traps and a slam scatter them. Keep the granary inside the walls.
• FirebugNight 4 on. 22 health, no blows. It ignores people, climbs walls and slips in from the quiet side to set wood alight with blightfire, or lobs an ember from 9 m. Light doesn't slow it and arrows only do half. Guards and your blade stop it; hit it while it rears to stop the ember.
• The HandNight 3 on, in pairs. Long dark arms that snuff out lights and drag anyone outdoors into the dark, and from night 4 reach into dark houses. It can't enter strong light: the hall, a brazier's glow, a flare. Your own blow drives it off. Reach someone it holds before dawn and they live.
• StalkerNight 6 on. 64 health. Unseen in the dark, it hunts heroes, hits hard from hiding, then leaps back and circles. It hisses a moment before it strikes: hit it then and it reels, stunned and visible. Torches and flares show it.
• ShamanNight 6 on. 55 health. Every 4 seconds it heals and hastens every monster within 7 m. Kill it first: the pack falls apart without it.
• SapperNight 6 on. 110 health. A blind grub that tunnels to an unguarded watchtower and caves part of it in, then gnaws the rest. The more towers you build, the more come. A spike trap nearby or a guard within 9 m drives it up early, and a trap then bites it hard.
• Wall-breaker giantNight 7 on. 640 health, slow, and few walls survive two blows. It goes for walls, gates and towers first. Keep it in tower range and hit it from behind while it's busy with a wall.
• BurrowerNight 10 on. 48 health. Tunnels under walls and comes up beside whoever is out alone. Torchlight drives it up, dazed: strike then.
• Hollow stagThe shy white deer you hunt by day unfold into tall, quick hollows at night (120 health). Hunting them by day feeds the village and keeps the nights smaller.

By day and in the wild

• ProwlerFrom day 2, stray more than 30 m past your land for 40 seconds and a stalker comes for you (you get a warning first). It never sets foot on your land, and outposts count: head home, or turn and fight.
• WolvesFrom day 3, some mornings bring a pack of three that grows over the days, more often in autumn and winter. Guards on post keep the fields safe, and each wolf is 4 food.
• DensMonster dens grow if you leave them, and new ones appear every few days from day 4. Strike one and its pack turns on you; from day 2 a struck den howls and nearby dens send help. Grown dens send scouts by day: kill them before they get home, or that den raids you at dusk.
• BanditsTwo camps in the Wildwood: a small camp and the walled stockade behind it. From day 4 they may raid and take a quarter of your wood and stone. Cut a raider down to get the goods back, or burn their camp to take it all.
• The UnlitA cult camp that never raids, but holds two strangers who are lost two days after you first see it. Light both braziers at the altar at once to break it, and everyone it held comes home.

Razing a wild lair or nest makes the next night bigger, so pick your moment.

Blood moons

Every fifth night (nights 5, 10, 15 and so on), or every fourth on Extreme, the moon turns red:

• Half again as many monsters, coming from three sides.
• A Brute leads the last wave: 520 health, a heavy swing and 40 damage to walls. Bring the guards to it, slam to clear the crowd, and dash out of its swing.
• One more giant (from night 7), Hand, Firebug and Sapper than usual.
• If the bandit stockade is angry with you, its fire arrows hit three buildings at dusk instead of one.

Omens

From the second night, each dusk offers three omens. Take one for a harder night and a reward at dawn, or take none. A good trade when your walls are up, a bad one when they aren't.

The bandit chief

The stockade is a palisade ring with one gate and a bowman on each of its four platforms. Come within 40 m and the chief and his bowmen come out.

• His shield stops most of a blow from the front. Hit him from the side or behind, or use your special.
• Close in and he winds up and slams the ground around him: step out of the red ring.
• Keep off and he braces, then charges in a line. Step aside and let him hit a wall, a building or a rock: he's stunned for a couple of seconds.
• At half health he calls his bowmen down. Beaten, he kneels.
• The gate has 600 health and only a hero can damage it; a slam or special does double a normal blow.

Break the gate and bring the chief to his knees, in either order, and the stockade falls. Burn it for wood, stone and his stash (and the village learns signal flares), or hold it as an outpost and his band fights for you, as long as you feed them. Be warned: once you stir the stockade up, from night 3 it shoots fire arrows at your outer wooden buildings every dusk until it falls.

Dragons

Up to two dragons nest in the highlands, each guarding the ground around its nest. A dragon has 900 health, flies faster than you can run, and breathes fire that sets wood alight.

• From night 6, each dusk a living dragon may raid the village, one at a time. It flies home when badly hurt, or at dawn.
• Stone walls don't burn, and the hall, towers, quarry, barracks and granary resist fire. Put stone around the heart of your village by night 6.
• Towers and bows reach it in the air. Its nest can't be torn down while it lives.

The wandering lord

Every valley has one named lord, with an old king's lantern on his shield. On the dawn of day 4 (day 6 while you're still learning) he sets out for your nearest outpost, or your hall, breaking whatever stands in his way. He doesn't burn in the sun. Hurt him badly enough and he gives up the hunt; beat him for 150 wood and 150 stone, and the Blight seal he may carry. Some mornings after that he hunts again.

Where the Lantern King's ruins stand, he is the King's knight, resting at his camp until his day. You can set him free: restore the two beacons, light each once at dusk, then stand by him at a dusk. He kneels, gives you his seal, never hunts you, and fights for the village on the last night. Leave him bound and he rises in the last siege with a war band of his own.

The Hollow King

The valley's first lord sleeps under the strongest great lair, on one of the Blight seals. Raze the lair and an old stair opens. Below is a hall of stone knights whose swords fall where you're about to be, then the throne room. Cross its threshold and the doors shut behind you, and he stands. At the door you choose whether your squads come in with you or hold the village.

• Light cracks his armour. Out of strong light your blows barely scratch him. Fight him in the light of the six braziers, a flare pot or the great lantern, and hit him from behind for extra damage.
• Make him kneel. Hurt him fast while he's lit and he drops to one knee. If his long lunge ends beside a lit brazier, he crashes into it and kneels too.
• Below about two-thirds health he roars, drinks the nearest lights, and starts leaping at you: watch for his shadow and get clear of the landing. He'll also reach for lit braziers to snuff them; three hits during the reach break it off.
• Below about a third he seems to die, every light goes out, and the stone knights wake. He rises bare-handed and faster, and sends out pulses that hurt anyone not standing in light. Relight the great lantern from the dais, or with a flare.

Falling in his throne room doesn't cost you a fall: you wake at the door, but he's back on his throne at full health. Beat him for his seal.

The Hunger

The Hunger is the Heart's own will, and the last siege is her night. In your first game after the opening, she comes back on night 7. In every run after that, she comes at the dusk after you destroy the Heart of the Blight. That night has twice the monsters, from every side, with three Brutes.

When the great push thins out, or a minute in, the ground cracks just outside your walls on the Heart's side and she claws out, then walks for the hall. While she lives, the night won't end.

• Claw rake: two swipes in front of her.
• Tail breath: as her fire builds (faster when she drinks your lights or buildings burn near her), her tail curls up like a scorpion's and breathes blightfire in a long cone that sets buildings alight.
• Blight stamp: if guards crowd her or a hero keeps behind her, she stamps a ring that hits guards very hard.
• Firebug broods: below about two-thirds health she spits Firebugs, roars out the lights near her, and her breath starts to sweep.
• Blight rain: at about a third she falls as if dead, gets up enraged, and rains blight over the village.

Kill her, by anyone's hand, and dawn comes: the valley is free.