Campaign

Ten nights played in order, each a complete shift. The difficulty curve lives in the campaign: the fleet grows, the pace rises, the grace window narrows, and incidents start arriving together.

The ten nights

It is no accident that the curve is not smooth. Nights 1–3 have a single incident each, 4–5 introduce overlap, and from 6 onward incidents arrive compound — a second failure riding on the back of the first.

What each night introduces

New server roles join on a schedule, and the fiction lines up exactly with the mechanics: load balancers on night 3, the cache on night 4, workers on night 6. New incident types unlock together with the roles they need. Nothing appears before the game has taught you how to see it.

Reputation

Winning a night grants reputation scaled by the grade — from +15 for an S down to +3 for a C. Losing costs 5. The cap is 100.

Reputation is converted automatically into the next night's budget at $2 per point, up to a maximum bonus of $150. A good streak accumulates; a bad night makes the next one harder.

The finale

Night ten differs in kind, not just in degree. Once half the shift has passed the pace surges another 1.35×, the mercy window drops from 45 seconds to 20, and the minimum gap between injections tightens. The design intent is that it stops being fair — holding the line until 06:00 is the achievement itself.

Difficulty

Difficulty is applied on top of all of this. On easy, campaign mode is the only place the pause command works.