The aim of this guide is to clarify once and for all how to beat this hell of a night, seriously, it is a living hell and, for me, it makes no sense that you spend three nights in a childish playground and then you have this wall of difficulty but, anyways, it’s still trial and error.
Stopwatch Method
Using a stopwatch for this night is really helpful. The night lasts 3 whole minutes from the very moment in which baby circus opens the mask and let you wind the springs. You can use any kind of stopwatch, the one in your phone, an online one if you have a second screen,… The possibilities are endless.
If you don’t have a second screen nor have the ability to check your phone while focusing on the game, Steam’s new interface has a possibility to add a stopwatch to the screen while playing. Just press shift + tab and when the steam in-game interface opens, click on the icon highlighted in the image below.
Once you’ve done that, the stopwatch will pop up and you’ll have to set it up. It’s kinda easy, but I will explain how to do so just in case you get lost. Simply click on “+1m” three times until you have three minutes and
DON’T FORGET TO CLICK ON THE TACK AT THE TOP LEFT (ALSO HIGHLIGHTED IN THE IMAGE BELOW). IF YOU DON’T DO IT, THE STOPWATCH WON’T BE SEEN WHILE PLAYING.
If you’ve done everything correctly, the game should look like this.
Please, notice that in order to start it you will have to press shift + tab, click on “start” and close the interface, preferably by clicking on the “X” at the top right in order to avoid in-game problems due to pressing “Esc”.
REMEMBER: The night lasts 3 whole minutes from the very moment in which baby circus opens the mask and let you wind the springs, so make sure you’ve activated the stopwatch just then, not before and not after. Using the stopwatch in your phone is way easier, I would use the steam stopwatch if and only if you don’t manage to keep track of the time when using the one on your phone.
The Basics
THIS SECTION OF THE GUIDE AIMS TO EXPLAIN HOW THE NIGHT WORKS, IT WAS ALSO EXPLAINED IN AMBIENCE’S VIDEO, SO IF YOU’VE ALREADY SEEN IT, YOU DON’T NEED TO READ THIS SECTION.
Think of this night as a the music box from FNAF2, but this time you have 10 music boxes, 5 at the left and 5 at the right. The idea is the same, you will have to wind them so they never reach zero. If you do so, puppet will jumpscare you and trigger a game over. That’s very much it, now, how is the right way to do this?
You should start winding the first spring at the top left and then follow always a counterclockwise rotation.
The problem here is that you will have puppets making your life harder. The ones you have to look out for are the puppets climbing from both the left and right side. The ones climbing from the middle are completely harmless and are just an indicator that the spring are unwinding faster. If you let the puppet either at the left or the right climb over your head, you will get jumpscares and get a game over. In order to avoid this, you have to wiggle (using A+D). According to a reddit user, there’s a bit of RNG implied in how many wiggles it takes for a puppet to fall of.
This person is partially right. It is true that the springs doesn’t always start with the same progress and that some puppets fall of with more wiggles than others, but it is not as dramatic as it sounds. The springs are not a problem at all since at the beginning of the night you will have plenty of time to wind them all. As for the puppets, well, try not to wiggle too much since each wiggle makes all the springs lose progress. I will explain how I manage this RNG aspect in the next section of the guide.
The Strategy
TIP: YOU DON’T HAVE TO CLICK EVERYTIME YOU WANT TO WIND A SPRING. HOLDING YOUR MOUSE AND GOING OVER THEM IS ENOUGH. THEREFORE, HOLD THE LEFT CLICK FOR 3 MINUTES AND JUST FOCUS ON MOVING THE CAMERA.
Think of the springs as little clocks. The first 2 minutes in the stopwatch are a preparation for the last minute of the night. During those 2 minutes, you just worry about maxing the springs and avoiding puppets from reaching the top of your head. The first trick to beat this night is in the timing in which you decide to wiggle. You want to delay the wiggle as much as possible in order to make two puppets fall of at the same time, two birds one stone. Which is the best time to wiggle? When you don’t see the right puppet’s head. At that moment, just wiggle three times, if it doesn’t fall of, wiggle one more time. If it falls off, the one at the left should have fallen of as well.
Notice how the head of the puppet can barely be seen. Just wait one or two more seconds and that’s when you have to wiggle.
But, what happens if you saw the puppet at the right climbing and you have to go back to winding the springs at the left? Well, if you’ve given this night a couple of tries, you should already have an internal timing in your brain which tells you when to wiggle depending on the position of the puppet; just remember that their climbing speed never changes. However, there is an easier way to calculate this. If you’re winding the left side and see the puppet there more or less in the middle of the helmet, you must wiggle because that means that the puppet at the right is almost at the top. They are always synchronized, the puppet at the left will never have more progress than the puppet at the right.
As I said before, during the first two minutes just worry about winding the springs until 12 o’clock (remember to think of them as little clocks) and wiggling. After those two minutes, during the next 15 seconds worry about taking the springs until 2-3 o’clock and the next 15 until 4 o’clock. By that time, you should have been already 2 minutes and a half in the night, so only 30 more seconds until the shift is completed!
For the next 15 seconds, just take the springs to 6 o’clock. The last 10-15 seconds are the hardest part of the night. In the last 15 seconds, you will only care about the puppet at the right; as soon as you see it, wiggle to make it fall of and forget about the puppet at the left since it should never kill you. All the springs should be showing red lights at this moment, just follow the same order you’ve been following until now but this time just giving them a few ticks; don’t spend more than 1-2 seconds in each spring.
If you’ve done everything I’ve told you, after some tries to refine and get used to this strategy, you should be able to see the so awaited “shift complete” screen.
Please, take into account that some RNG is implied and the time stamps I’ve given are based on my own experience, especially those from the last 30 seconds of the night. Just remember that in the last 20-15 seconds the puppet at the right should be taken care of as soon as possible since the one in the left won’t have time to kill you. If you do that and have a decent speed when moving between springs, you should be fine. When to stop winding the springs, and just winding them for a few ticks at the end of the night, will be also key to beat this night.
