Night 1 is a timer, not a boss kill. You win by keeping doors, windows, power, and camera intel intact until morning. The notes below match the August 21, 2026 house rework. Closets are no longer a free pause. Read closet QTE before you hide.
Before midnight
- Mount four cameras and aim them at approaches, not the sky. Placing all four outdoor cameras before midnight is the Technician badge.
- Barricade in this order: front door, kitchen exterior window, piano or living-room window, then a side door. Interior doors are a trap for new teams because they spend planks the Mutant is not hitting yet.
- Fuel the shed generator and stage another gas can. See the meter note below.
- Reset any tripped fuse breakers and confirm lights stay on when cameras are live.
- Turn the radio on. It telegraphs the first roar.
- Split roles: camera caller, hammer, fuel runner, floater for planks.
The living-room television is optional. Play the radio, share the shed ladder with the cameras, and repair the satellite beside the fuse box with a Wrench. Around 9 PM the set can cut to factory-spill news. Police cars on the road can run you over. Skip the TV if daylight is already gone.
Larry at a window
He becomes active at 12 AM and comes from the bushes toward a window, or the front door if you left it open. He breaks glass, then planks. Turn that room's lights on to scare him. Turn the lights off again once he leaves. Leaving them on blows the exterior fuse.
Once he is inside, lights only flicker. He roams toward the nearest player, chases the first person he sees, and can spit a trap. Hide, or the chase keeps going. If he sees you in the closet, win the QTE and he leaves the house. After 4 AM, shut the front door before every generator run. An open door lets him skip windows.
Camera flash is the other scare. A Night 1 monitor note says the flash needs two of three charge bars, stuns him at a window, and scares him if he is outside. Overcharging cameras can break the fuse box.
The shed meter
Two post-rework writeups describe fuel differently. One says pour one full can before night and stage a second. Another, updated in October 2026, says the shed generator holds about 100 charges, drops about one charge every two seconds, and gains about 30 charges per gas can. At zero, indoor oxygen fails and players inside can suffocate.
If both are true, one can does not fill the meter. Top it off before midnight, scare him off a window before you run outside, pour, and get back in. A Bloxy Cola is documented as the stamina tool for outdoor runs after about 3:30 AM to 4 AM. Do not cross the yard while his position is unknown.
Why squads wipe
The camera player starts hammering and nobody calls the flank. Two windows get half a repair instead of one full fix. The generator dies and everyone treats the blackout as a breach. Someone hides during the window phase instead of hitting the light. The front door stays open after 4 AM.
You do not need a second gas can's worth of heroics if the first breaches are repaired. Consistency on this night matters more than queueing Night 3 for a bigger story payout.
Related: The Mutant, house generator, modifiers.