How to play › ADVENTURE
NIGHTGRID
Lowhaven is an old city on a wet estuary, and its Municipal Grid is older. Nightgrid puts you on the night desk as the new operator, with one console, one desk and every district's lights between dusk and dawn.
PLAY NOW ▶The goal
Keep the city lit. Each work order is a live relay board: turn relays until power reaches every block, keep the plants from overheating, and never let the hospitals go dark. Over twelve nights, keep the districts trusting you, and decide who holds the switch when the council votes.
How a shift plays
You work from a glowing operator desktop with mail, a city map, the shift board, the bank, your console rig and a tool rack, while a news ticker reacts to every blackout. Open a work order to get a relay board. Turn relays to route power from the plants to every block, splice lines broken by storms, and shed a block if a plant is about to overheat (hospitals are never shed). When the board is stable, you can hand it to the day shift early.
Jobs earn stars for how much service you kept. Tools from the rack help: the LINE CREW mends a broken line, the ROUTE PROBE sets a relay right, COOLANT vents every plant and the SURGE CAP lets plants carry more for a short time. Rig upgrades improve your splices, tool capacity and forecast.
The career runs twelve nights in three acts. Districts whose trust falls to zero are sold to Kronemark Holdings, the private grid across the river, and the story has a choice and three endings.
Controls
| Keyboard | Pad | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Arrows | Stick / d-pad | Move the cursor |
| Z | A | Open a window, turn a relay clockwise, shed a block, shut a breaker, splice a line |
| X | B | Close a window, turn a relay back |
| Q / E | L / R | Cycle windows; swap tools on a board |
| C | C | Use the selected tool (on the desktop: the shift board) |
| Space | START | Hand a stable board to the day shift early |
In NETWORK WAR, the arrows pick a node, Z sends a crew, X recalls one, C fortifies and Q / E jump between targets in reach.
On a phone or tablet, a see-through joystick and A, B, C, L, R and SPACE buttons appear over the game and do the same as the keys above.
Gamepad: the stick or d-pad moves and the buttons follow the Pad column (Start is START). Esc, P or Back pauses, and the HOW TO PLAY button over the game shows the basics any time.
Modes
- NEW CAREER: the twelve-night story. Overtime nights continue after the ending.
- NETWORK WAR: a head-to-head against a rival utility. Take the rival's headquarters to win outright, or hold more of the map when the clock runs out. Nodes cut off from their plant fade after a few seconds.
- DAILY SHIFT: the daily, below.
Mastery stars
Each star pays tickets the first time you earn it.
- Bronze: The Night Desk: clock out of the fourth night.
- Silver: The People's Grid: keep the grid public, with the districts behind you.
- Gold: The Whole Map: win a network war on HARD.
Daily challenge
Yes. The DAILY SHIFT is the same for everyone that day and plays on NORMAL.
Beginner tips
- Power the hospitals first. If a hospital's backup runs out, the job can earn at most one star.
- Keep an eye on plant heat. Shedding a block is better than letting a plant overheat.
- Stuck on a relay? The ROUTE PROBE sets the relay under the cursor right.
- Once a board is stable, you can hand it to the day shift early with Space.
- Read your mail. An engineer who signs herself W. has things to say about the blackouts.