Night by night, without a 40-minute video

How the week is structured

Night 1 —calibration

Only the core loop is live: Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and the music box. There is no salvage before it, so there is nothing to prepare. Use the night to learn two sounds properly rather than five badly: the left-door drone and the right-door drone.

• Wind the music box at the start and again around 4 AM.
• Keep both doors open until you hear a hum.
• Check Pirate Cove once per hour rather than staring at it.

Night 2 —the first real decision

Your first salvage lands here, and with it the first permanent trade. The withered pool is the cheapest place to learn because each threat introduces one system in isolation.

• Take one withered, not the highest payout. A cue you can hear is worth more than tokens you cannot spend safely.
• Start the mask search if you want the Good or Ultimate ending. Masks live inside locations, and you do not get a second pass at one you have left.
• Balloon Boy becomes relevant. Below Lunatic he activates on Night 2; he is a mask check, not a door check.

Night 3 —the pile-up

The night where the office stops being a single-threat problem. Two salvaged animatronics plus the core cast can produce three simultaneous cues, and the music box timer does not pause while you resolve them.

Priority order: music box, then the door threat already in progress, then the second door. Anything that is still approaching can wait one second.

• Wind the box before answering a door, never after.
• Do not open a door to check whether the threat is still there; use audio.
• If you are on Fritz, this is the first night where the door slot queue is visible.

Night 4 —economy night

Nothing new is introduced, which makes it the best night of the week to farm. It is also the last night where a mistake is comfortably recoverable, because Night 5 squeezes the shop.

• For Money or Ultimate: this is the rental night. One Circus Baby's salvage, no more.
• For Good: finish the mask set now; Night 5 has other demands.
• For Evil: clear the requested list. Partial compliance fails quietly.

Night 5 —the last shop

The shop disappears after this point. Every route item that requires a purchase has to be bought tonight, and the office is at its most expensive to run because you now carry a full salvage load.

• Buy Talbert's Files first if Money or Ultimate is the target.
• Skip comfort upgrades. A working night with the files beats a comfortable night without them.
• Do not take a Lolbit salvage tonight; the price inflation directly attacks this purchase.

Night 6 —the finale

The finale changes shape with your route. The Evil route ends in a boss encounter with Salvage; the Good route ends in a platforming sequence with checkpoints; the Ultimate route adds a true final encounter after the normal finale.

Two mechanical notes that save runs: the escape sequence penalises you with cash rather than removing your mask progress, and the platforming section checkpoints at each cleared level.

The true final encounter

Only opens when the files are read rather than sold. Because the shop is gone, the finale night is shortened to roughly two in-game hours, which makes it dense rather than long. Expect the hardest single encounter in the game and bring a solved office, not a speculative one.

If a night goes wrong

• Lost to a blackout at 5 AM: you over-closed in the middle hours. Audit door discipline, not the ending.
• Lost to the music box: wind it on every monitor pull. This is muscle memory, not strategy.
• Lost a route item: check the ending planner before replaying. Sometimes a different ending is still open and worth finishing.
• Lost the finale: the pre-finale night can be replayed. Nothing is permanently consumed except purchases and collected items.