Nightfall: Survivors guide: skills, enemies and all five boss fights

How a run is structured

A run is a timeline. Enemies spawn around you from the first second, faster and tougher as the clock runs: the gap between spawns shrinks from over a second to about a quarter of a second, and every enemy's health grows by the full starting amount again every four minutes. On top of that, fixed events arrive at set times:

Killing the third main boss wins. Both maps use the same timeline and rules.

Levelling and chests

Your first level needs 6 soul points, and each level after needs about 18% more plus two. Common enemies drop 1 to 3, elites 3 to 7, mini-bosses 10 and bosses 15. The pickup radius starts small, and Soul harvest adds 45 per rank, which matters more than it sounds once the screen fills.

Chests give you a free upgrade choice plus healing: 12 health from a normal chest and 35 from a legendary one. Every boss and mini-boss drops a legendary chest, and elites have a 12% chance of dropping a normal one. A new chest appears near you every 30 seconds, so walking to it is always worth a short detour.

The skills that matter most

You start with Arc bolts at rank 1 plus your hero's signature skill. Each level offers three random skills that are not yet maxed.

• Arc bolts (max 5): fires at the nearest enemy, gaining 2 damage and 18% fire rate per rank. Your baseline single-target damage for bosses.
• Storm link (max 5): every 2.3 seconds, lightning jumps to 2 targets plus one per rank. Excellent against the dense early waves.
• Ember orbit (max 5): one more circling flame per rank, each dealing 8 plus 2 per rank and setting a 2-second burn.
• Winter pulse (max 5): every 4 seconds, damages and freezes everything in a ring that grows each rank. Frozen enemies stop moving and attacking.
• Ice lance (max 5): a piercing spear that slows everything it passes; from rank 3 it also briefly freezes.
• Ember meteor (max 4): the biggest single hit, 22 plus 10 per rank, with a burning crater afterwards.
• Skyfall (max 4): every 3.2 seconds, one strike plus one per rank that stuns its targets.
• Thorn ring (max 4): damages everything close to you twice a second.
• Living armor (max 4): 20 maximum health and 25 healing per rank.
• Windstep (max 3): 12% movement speed per rank and a shorter dash cooldown, down to 2.1 seconds at rank 3.

Companions (Wisp sentinel, Stone guardian), Blizzard and Soul harvest round out the 14.

Nova and dash

Nova, on E or its button, hits everything within a wide ring for 16 damage, freezes it for 1.5 seconds and pushes it back. It recharges in 14 seconds. Dash, on Space, launches you forward at four times walking speed and makes you untouchable for 0.45 seconds. Being touched by an enemy costs 8 health for common enemies, 10 to 14 for elites and 18 for bosses, followed by a short invulnerable window.

Elites and how to handle them

• Barkshield brute: its shield soaks 85% of shots from the front. Freeze it, hit it from behind, or use area skills, which ignore the shield.
• Bat hexer: hangs back and summons three bats that drop no souls. Kill it before the bats pile up.
• Blight bloater: runs in and swells for 0.9 seconds before bursting for 20 damage. The burst also hurts nearby enemies, so dashing away and letting it detonate in a crowd is an option.
• Rot mender: heals every wounded ally nearby by a quarter of its health, bosses by 3%. Kill it first, especially during a boss fight.
• Tide drakeling: locks a cone drawn on the ground, then breathes along it. Step sideways out of the cone.

The bosses

Every boss telegraphs its attacks. Below half health each one enrages: cooldowns drop by about a quarter, wind-ups get shorter, and attacks spawn more hazards.

• The Hollow Knight (280 health): drops ground slams on and around you, and leaps onto the spot you were standing. Keep moving so the leap lands behind you. Enraged, it adds a ring of blades.
• Tide Drake (340): breathes a long cone and fires a spread of five orbs at you. Circle it rather than backing straight away.
• Mother of Thorns (520): summons saplings with thorn hazards, slams around herself, and sprouts roots that slow you to about a third of your speed for over a second. Never stand in a root warning.
• Rot Colossus (560): fills the ground with poison pools and spawns small worms.
• The Eclipse (820): rains fire circles around you and fires rings of fire bolts. Enraged, each volley adds a second ring that travels more slowly, so the two rings spread apart as they fly outwards.

A plan for a first win

1. Before 1:00, take damage skills that hit groups: your signature, Storm link or Winter pulse, and Arc bolt ranks.
2. Save nova for the Hollow Knight's arrival, when the screen is busiest.
3. Take one or two ranks of Living armor and Windstep by the second boss.
4. Pick up every chest; legendary chests from bosses are your best healing.
5. From 2:30 onwards, target menders and hexers before anything else.

If you're stuck

Every boss attack and most elite attacks are telegraphed, on the ground or by a wind-up, and you can walk out of them. Take a Windstep rank early, keep dash for boss telegraphs, and keep moving in wide circles so the crowd stays behind you rather than around you.