Nightmare Frontier

Nightmare Frontier is a tactical extraction game about leading a crew of Scavengers into a ruined City to fight monsters and bring back everything they can carry. A newspaper ad promises a new gold rush in the City, where riches are free for the taking. Behind it is Doc, a snake-oil genius with blueprints for harnessing the Nightmare to power a new future. As you explore the City district by district, the story reveals what Doc is building and what is happening there.

Build your crew

Each Scavenger you rescue on a raid carries one of 16 Fears. Every Fear draws its own Dreadweaver, the locals’ name for these Fears made flesh. The monsters range from spiders packing six six-shooters to creepy puppets armed with scissors. Choose who joins each raid: your crew determines which monsters and hazards they encounter and which resources they can harvest from carcasses.

Between raids, you manage your roster at the Hideout, the only Nightmare-proof corner of the City. Upgrade equipment, unlock new Compounds and prepare a loadout for the next raid; choosing the right gear for your prey can mean the difference between a payday and a funeral. The four Compounds have unlock trees that let you develop your crew’s combat style and appearance, and open new ways to fight the monsters.

Tactical shootouts

Combat is turn-based, vicious and fully deterministic, with no dice rolls or hit chances. Each fight is a battlefield puzzle filled with interactable objects and hazards. Ricochet bullets off a milk can, shove a beast into a burning stove or push an enemy into a partner’s line of fire. Chain kills to keep your turn going; reading the battlefield well can determine whether you lose your crew or clear the board in a single turn.

Risk and rewards

The City’s districts are infinitely and randomly generated. Map nodes lead to combat, useful facilities, anomalies that alter the run and quests. Going deeper raises the Nightmare Level, making fights harder but the loot more valuable. Backpack space is limited, and if you fall in battle you lose everything, so you must decide whether to push farther for better loot or return to the Hideout with what you have.

Bring weapons, gear, Nightmare Essence and monster parts back to the Hideout. Combine harvested eyes, teeth and spines with ordinary junk and ideas ahead of their time to upgrade your reason-defying equipment.

What the game contains

• 16 Fears and Enemies
• Over 80 upgradable items
• Over 30 interactables and hazards
• Four playable character classes
• Four unlock trees
• Four districts
• Eight unique Tactical Objectives
• An endless, procedurally generated Nightmare