This guide contains light structural spoilers, including the campaign length, act layout, branching choices, and the existence of the final boss encounter.
Fast answer
The answer before the background
There are five major Death Nights in Survival mode, followed by the Final Stand, which is the mode’s climactic defense rather than a sixth normal Death Night. The story campaign is different: it has ten distinct missions across three acts, plus an introductory prologue. Campaign missions may include pressure waves, scripted attacks, and a final encounter, so there is no reliable official figure for the total number of enemy waves across all ten missions. If you are asking how many stages you must clear, plan for the prologue and ten numbered missions.
Direct answer
Five Death Nights in Survival, ten missions in the campaign
The most important distinction is between Survival and Campaign. Survival is the traditional settlement-defense mode: expand your base, prepare for scheduled Death Nights, and withstand increasingly dangerous attacks. The official game description identifies five Death Nights, while the Final Stand is the end-stage defense that follows the normal sequence.
The campaign uses a mission structure instead of one fixed wave ladder. The full-release campaign contains ten unique chapters or missions and one major boss encounter. A short prologue comes first as an introduction, but the official ten-mission count refers to the numbered story campaign rather than counting that tutorial separately.
Therefore, the practical answer is five major wave nights for a Survival run, or ten numbered stages for the main story. Do not add the two figures together: they describe different modes and different progression systems.
- Survival: five Death Nights, then the Final Stand.
- Campaign: ten numbered missions, preceded by a prologue.
- Campaign wave totals vary by mission, objectives, difficulty, and scripted encounters.
| Mode | Main structure | What ends progression |
|---|---|---|
| Survival | Five Death Nights followed by the Final Stand | Survive the last defense and complete the run |
| Campaign | Prologue plus ten story missions across three acts | Complete the current mission and its required objectives |
| Campaign finale | Final numbered mission with a boss encounter | Defeat the final encounter and finish the closing sequence |
Players often use “wave” to mean both a scheduled Death Night and any scripted enemy attack inside a campaign mission. The game does not present those as one shared counter, so a campaign guide should describe the mission objective and encounter rather than promise one universal wave total.
Campaign map
How the ten story stages are arranged
The campaign is divided into three acts. The first act covers missions 1 through 3 and establishes the core conflict and basic settlement systems. The second act covers missions 4 through 7 and introduces more consequential faction and objective choices. The third act covers missions 8 through 10 and leads into the final boss encounter.
A prologue precedes mission 1. It functions as a guided introduction rather than a full settlement-building stage, so it is best treated as an extra tutorial level when estimating how much content remains. This explains why some player guides describe eleven playable entries while the official game page and launch announcement describe ten campaign missions or chapters.
Mission 4 is the main structural point to watch. Available references describe a choice involving the Order and the Rebels, with different objectives or routes depending on the decision. That choice does not turn the campaign into a completely separate branching campaign, but it can alter what you do inside the route and how the world-map progression is presented.
- Prologue: introductory tutorial section before the numbered campaign.
- Act I: missions 1 to 3.
- Act II: missions 4 to 7, including a notable faction-related choice.
- Act III: missions 8 to 10, ending with the campaign finale and boss encounter.
| Story section | Stages | Progression focus |
|---|---|---|
| Prologue | Tutorial before mission 1 | Learn movement, combat, and basic objectives |
| Act I | Missions 1–3 | Establish the campaign and core systems |
| Act II | Missions 4–7 | Resolve faction-related objectives and expand the conflict |
| Act III | Missions 8–10 | Handle late-game objectives and the final encounter |
The three-act grouping and ten-mission total are supported by official launch information and the game’s current campaign descriptions. Exact mission titles and every objective sequence are less consistently documented, so this guide avoids treating community naming conventions as official stage names.
Progression gates
What unlocks the next level
Campaign progression is mainly completion-based. Finish the active mission’s required objectives, survive its final encounter when one is present, and the next story location becomes available on the campaign map. Optional objectives can improve completion results, but they are not automatically the same as the gate required to continue.
The safest way to avoid getting stuck is to read the objective panel after every major event. Some missions ask you to rescue units, clear an area, defend a structure, escort a character, or wait for a scripted attack. Destroying nearby enemies is not always enough; the next objective may require interacting with a location or reaching a particular trigger.
Choices can alter the route or objectives, especially around the faction decision in the middle of the campaign. If a branch appears, note which side you selected before replaying the mission. A replay may show different tasks even when the mission number stays the same.
Later patches addressed campaign progression-saving problems and several mission-specific trigger issues. If a completed mission does not unlock the expected next step, first verify the mission really reached its victory screen, then reload the most recent completed save or restart the affected mission. Keeping the game updated is the most practical fix for older progression bugs.
- Complete required objectives, not merely optional tasks.
- Watch for escort, rescue, defense, interaction, and timed triggers.
- Record your faction choice when the campaign presents a branch.
- Update the game if a mission victory fails to unlock the next stage.
- Treat replays as route-specific: a different choice can change objectives.
| Gate type | How to clear it | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Objective gate | Finish every required task shown in the mission panel | Assuming all nearby enemies must be killed |
| Encounter gate | Survive a scripted attack or final encounter | Moving away before the trigger completes |
| Branch gate | Choose a faction route and complete its altered objectives | Expecting the other route’s objectives |
| Save or trigger issue | Confirm the victory state, then reload or replay | Continuing from an incomplete or outdated save |
Before a major attack, pause expansion long enough to confirm the next objective. Campaign missions are more scripted than Survival, so spending resources on defenses in the wrong location can leave you ready for a wave that the objective never actually sends.
Wave planning
How to prepare for each mode
For Survival, plan around the five Death Nights rather than trying to count every individual creature group. Each night is a strategic checkpoint: secure resources, improve production, scout likely approaches, and build layered defenses before the warning arrives. The Final Stand is the decisive end sequence, so save enough economy and military capacity for the last defense instead of spending everything after the fifth regular night.
For Campaign, prepare for the mission’s stated objective rather than assuming every stage follows the Survival rhythm. Some missions emphasize exploration or human enemies, while others use pressure attacks, Nightmare waves, or a large final encounter. A mobile hero group is useful for clearing routes and responding to scripted threats, but static defenses still matter when the objective requires holding a location.
Difficulty changes the pressure and can change how forgiving a wave feels, even when the campaign’s stage order remains the same. If you are learning the game, Easy is a valid way to understand objectives and map triggers before replaying on a higher setting. The official launch announcement specifically points to multiple difficulty settings, so difficulty is a better adjustment lever than expecting a different campaign length.
- In Survival, reserve resources for the Final Stand after the fifth Death Night.
- In Campaign, prioritize the current objective over a generic wall-and-tower plan.
- Use heroes to scout and clear threats, but do not leave required defense points exposed.
- Lower difficulty when learning a mission’s trigger order rather than treating failure as a progression lock.
- Replay completed stages when you need to learn alternate objectives or improve optional completion.
| If you are asking… | Use this answer |
|---|---|
| How many major Survival waves are there? | Five Death Nights, followed by the Final Stand. |
| How many campaign levels are there? | Ten numbered missions, plus the prologue tutorial. |
| Does every campaign mission have the same wave count? | No. Encounters and scripted attacks vary by mission. |
| What unlocks the next mission? | Completing the current mission’s required objectives and victory state. |
No authoritative source located for this guide publishes a complete wave-by-wave count for all ten campaign missions. Any total assembled from playthroughs would be version-, difficulty-, and route-dependent, so it would be misleading to present one as universal.
FAQ
Common questions
Is the Final Stand a sixth Death Night?
Not in the usual structure. Survival is described as five Death Nights, followed by the Final Stand as the climactic end defense. It is better understood as a separate final phase than as another regular night.
Does the prologue count as a campaign mission?
It is a playable introductory section, but the official full-release description counts ten distinct campaign missions or chapters. For planning purposes, count the prologue as an extra tutorial before those ten numbered stages.
Are there ten or eleven campaign levels?
Both numbers can appear because they use different counting conventions. Ten is the official numbered campaign total. Eleven includes the prologue as an additional playable entry.
Do campaign missions use the same waves as Survival?
No. Survival revolves around scheduled Death Nights, while campaign missions use objective-driven encounters that can include pressure waves and scripted attacks. Their wave patterns are not interchangeable.
What should I do if the next mission stays locked?
Check that the mission ended on its full victory state and that every required objective was completed. If the problem persists, update the game, reload the latest completed save, or replay the affected mission because older versions had campaign progression and trigger issues.
Sources
What we checked
Official listings establish current availability and product facts. Community pages are used for mechanics and build history, then labeled separately.
- OfficialOfficial game page
- OfficialOfficial full-release announcement
- OfficialOfficial campaign and Early Access update notes
- ReferenceSteam campaign patch notes and mission fixes
- CommunityCommunity achievement and campaign guide