Nivalis Nights Curfew Guide: Cameras, Shelters & Stealing
Lowtown is under a CorpSec lockdown, the Localized Unity Zone, because of the serial killer known as the Aseptic. Every night a mandatory curfew sends everyone indoors. You can obey it, or use it.
When it starts and what happens
Curfew starts at 02:00. That is the time written into the Better Time mod and players’ new-player guides; a few remember it as 1:00. A broadcast announces it and the streets empty. It does not end by itself: you go to sleep (at home, in a shelter or on your boat) and wake up to the next day.
Time stops during curfew. Ava’s own pitch for staying out: it is easier to buy and sell illegal items, and a chance to visit rival businesses. That is the single most important rule. Nothing ticks while it lasts, so it is free time for anything you can do in the dark: fishing from the boat, harvesting, moving furniture, or burglary.
If you get caught
Cameras on walls (and drones, per Ava) sweep the streets. Being seen fills a security bar; at 100% you are caught and fined the next morning. One player reports 50 lims the first time and 60 the next; others put it at 50 to 60. If you are caught carrying something, it goes back where it came from. It is not a run-ender.
Camera tips from players:
- Watch the sweep pattern and move between passes.
- Standing directly underneath a camera, tight against the wall, usually keeps you out of its view.
- Duck into side alleys.
- Avoid rain and lightning. Flashes make it hard to see where the camera is pointing, and players report getting caught more in storms.
The “After Curfew” achievement is held by 17.7% of players.
How to get home after curfew
- Press C. During curfew the scanner shows safe houses, public shelters you can sleep in. Each district seems to have at least one; the map’s district summary counts them with a moon icon.
- Your boat. It has a bench in the cabin you can sleep on, and there are no cameras on the water.
- Your apartment. The starter one in Lowtown is in the back right corner of the area when you arrive by taxi from Meridian Market, up a flight of stairs behind a concrete entryway.
Players searching “where are the shelters” and “where is shelter docks” mean these safe houses. They only show while curfew is on.
Stealing from rival venues
After curfew you can walk into a competitor’s venue, pick up their appliances and furniture, and carry them home. Reddit players add that you need a venue of your own in that district: you carry the item into your venue’s green placement zone, set it down once, and only then can you store it.
- Each object you pick up adds 10% CorpSec alert. Picking it up counts even if you put it back. That means about 9 objects per night.
- After the Dotson’s Detective Agency side quest, each pickup adds only 5%, so about 19 per night.
- You cannot pocket stolen objects. You carry them in your hands, at walking pace. Place them in your own venue, then press X to store or keep them in place.
- The next morning the rival is dealing with CorpSec, and the object is yours to use or sell.
- Appliances (fridges, ovens, food processors) are worth the most.
Stuck holding stolen equipment
A reported bug: if your venue has no free space to place the item, you can end up stuck holding it. Clear space first. See the fixes page.
Sabotage, both ways
Curfew also opens sabotage: hacking a rival’s security, or planting trouble such as rats, to cut their custom for a while. Whatever you can do to them, the game can do to you. One player’s bar crashed for days after a competitor planted rats in it.
Night quests
Some quests only work during curfew. Rat Whisperer (“help rat whisperer Gladstone on a secret mission during curfew”) is one; only 0.4% of players have it so far.
Thanks. Mind the cameras on the way home.