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Getting to the end of a Survival run inAge Of Darkness: Final Standrequires a lot of preparation, exploration, and being willing to fight to the last. Each wave that assaults your Keep will be significantly stronger than the one before it, so you need to keep ramping up your defenses throughout the game to have any hope of making it to the end.
Knowing exactly what’s in store for you so that there are no surprises goes a long way toward earning your first win. This guide has everything you need to know, including tips for weathering the storm.
How Many Waves Are There?
Survival has aday/night cycle, occasionally interrupted byDeath Nights.During the day, Nightmares are weaker, making it easier to explore and expand. At night,Elite Nightmares spawnand small groups of enemies mayattack your buildings.
Nightmares won’t move close to a light source unless provoked, so if a building keeps getting attacked eitherbuild a tower to defend itora light sconce to drive the Nightmares away.
On a Death Night,one of the Dark Crystals on the map will shatter, causing a Nightmare Swarm to spawn at its location and attack your keep.There are five Death Nights in total, one for each Crystal.
A Death Night only ends whenevery Nightmare in the oncoming Swarm has died.Wandering Nightmares don’t count toward this; even worse, they’llrespawn in any areas covered by the Death Fogonce the Death Night is over.
Which Crystal Will Spawn The Swarm?
The order of the Dark Crystals shattering israndomized and hidden.You will be alerted to which Crystal is about to shatterthe morning before a Death Night, giving you onlyfive minutes of real time gameplayto prepare. During that time, you should:
The first Dark Crystal shatters at sundown on the fourth day; after that, a Crystal will shatterevery sixth night.That means that in total, there are28 days,including the Final Stand, unless you destroy any Crystals early.
TheCrystal ScoutBlessing tells you which Crystal is about to shatter and what path the Swarm will takeone day early.
Should You Destroy A Crystal Early?
If you send an expedition to the edge of the map, usually led by your Hero, you maycome across a Dark Crystal that hasn’t yet shattered.If you may get to it, you candestroy it, causing a Death Night to happen in five minutes' time.
Doing so means that you haveless time to build up your defenses, but itgives you control over where the Swarm is coming from.Since you destroyed the Crystal, you know from which direction to expect an attack and can prepare accordingly.
Destroying a Dark Crystal also yieldsa large reward of Dark Essence, which can be used to buyhigh-tier upgrades in the Skill Tree.You can collect a smaller amount of Dark Essence byvisiting the site of a Dark Crystal that already shattered naturally, but the yield is much lower and rarely worth the danger.
Every Dark Crystal on the map will shatter eventually, so if you reach one and leave it intact, you’re just delaying the inevitable.
What Is The Final Stand?
After the fifth Death Night, aten-minute timerwill start counting down. When it reaches zero, it’s time for you to make yourFinal Stand.A massive Nightmare Swarm will emerge fromevery previous Dark Crystal site at once, and they will all converge on your Keep following the same paths that they did before. You’ll need todefend your Keep against tens of thousands of Nightmares, and your Hero will only be able to fight on a single front at a time. It’s the ultimate test.
Your biggest advantage is that youalready know which paths the five incoming Swarms will take.After each Death Night, make a note of what worked and what didn’t, andincrease your defenses along that Swarm’s routeslowly over the remainder of the game. Thicker walls, more towers, and additional choke points along the route will all serve to slow and whittle down the numbers of the Swarms.
Definitely build some defenses around your Keep as well, and upgrade it all the way if you haven’t already. At least one Swarm is bound to break through in most cases.
If you’re able toeliminate the entire Final Swarm before they can destroy your Keep, you’ll claim victory!
Important Buildings
It’s essential to have aSiege Factory ready and producing Impalersby the third Death Night to deal with Crushers, and by the fourth Death Night you should haveGrand Bellows Towersresearched and constructed at key choke points.
The Grand Bellows Towersinglehandedly clears Crawlers that enter its radiusas long as you’re able to keep it protected, leaving your Hero, troops, and other defenders to focus on larger threats without getting bogged down.
