Waves¶
Distractors don't all appear at once. They arrive in three waves across the round, so pressure builds as the timer ticks down.
Wave timing¶
Within the 180-second round:
| Wave | Fires at | What arrives |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5s | The first distractor (Channel Surfer leads the intro). |
| 2 | 60s | The bulk of the roster fills in. |
| 3 | 120s | The toughest types — Elites and Bosses — enter. |
Later waves also upgrade the NPC types present: a level might open with a Basic distractor and, by wave 3, have swapped in Elites or a Boss (on higher difficulties).
How many distractors¶
The number of distractors alive at once is capped per level, and even solo players get a ramp (each wave spawns at least one):
| P1 | P2 | P3 | P4 | P5 | P6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Level 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Level 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Level 4+ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
The global maximum alive at once is 4. After Level 4 the count plateaus — extra difficulty comes from tougher NPC types (Basic → Slow → Elite → Boss), not more bodies. Only 5–6 player teams ever hit the cap of 4.
Which types appear¶
Which distractors can spawn is set by the level's NPC difficulty: - Easy — Basic and Slow types. - Medium — Slow and Elite types (no Basic). - Hard — Slow, Elite, and Boss types (max one Slow on the field).
Takeaway¶
Early game is calm — use it to collect fast. As waves 2 and 3 land, the map gets more dangerous, so aim to have most of the task done before the Elites and Bosses show up around the 2-minute mark.