Nil Mode Concept

NOTE: This blog post is basically complete, but things like dialogue and wave structures are missing. However, as there’d be a lot of dialogue to write in one go and I just can’t really make wave structures for TDS, those are secondary, from my point of view.

For highly experienced veterans who are seeking a gruelling challenge.

―Gamemode Description

Description

Nil mode is one of the seven main survival modes. Nil mode has 45 waves. It is named after the theme of its enemies, which originated from the Null and Void event.

Cash is only gained if an enemy is killed, or in some cases, damaged by a specific amount of health. Additionally, the amount gained is a set amount of cash, which is not always equal to the enemy's health. It uses a slightly different method of distributing cash between players, as enemies split their cash between players, regardless of how much damage the player dealt to it. If, in a duo, one player does all the damage to an enemy, both players will receive 50% of the cash the enemy would normally give in solo. This means that in solo, you receive 100% of the cash when an enemy is killed, or it is damaged enough. With each additional player, this is reduced to 50% in duo, 33% in trio and 25% in quad. If it is a decimal, it gets rounded up or down depending on the decimal value. If it is at least 0.5, it gets rounded up. If it is less than 0.5, it gets rounded down.

The health of enemies in this mode scales with the player count, starting at two players. The increase 15% in duo, 25% in trio and 40% in quad. It is applied after attributes, like Bloated, meaning they can affect the health of an enemy. The increase is not always the stated amount.

Rewards

The game calculates how many Coins and EXP you receive based on how many waves you survived and if you won a match. During periods of 100% more EXP (Friday – Sunday), any EXP earned is multiplied by 2x through the XP Boost modifier. The VIP gamepass also multiplies any EXP earned by 1.25x through the VIP Boost modifier. These two boosts are additive. Some maps like Mason Arch can also increase all rewards by a specific amount. Regular EXP boosts are multiplicative with other modifiers.

Any rewards that end in a decimal point is rounded down, no matter the first figure of the leading decimal.

Rewards are calculated as:

Coins Reward	Gem Reward	EXP Reward
1,500 ÷ (1 + [(40 ÷ Current Wave) - 1]^1.3) + 1,000 (Triumph Bonus)	75 (Triumph Bonus)	300 EXP ÷ (1 + [(40 ÷ Current Wave) - 1]) + 150 EXP (Triumph Bonus)

Triumphing Nil mode can give out an additional reward, which can be a crate, consumable or ticket. These additional rewards have a 75% chance of being awarded every triumph. That means in 25% of Nil mode matches, only currency is given without these additional rewards. These items are:

Uncommon (46.28%)
- Sandcastle (Consumable) (4-5)
- Easter Egg (3-5)
- Cooldown Flag (3-4)
- Range Flag (3-4)
- Damage Flag (3-4)
- Mid Grade Crate (1-2)
- Santa's Air Strike (3-4)
- Festive Tree (3-4)
Rare (32.44%)
- High Grade Crate (1-2)
- Napalm Strike x3
- Blizzard Bomb x4
Epic (17.87%)
- Heatwave (3-4)
- Ducky Squad (3-4)
- Necromancer's Tome (Consumable) (3-4)
- Unholy Storm (3-4)
Legendary (3.41%)
- Nuke (1-2)
- Molten Monster (1-2)
- Holy Hand Grenade (1-2)

Badges/Achievements

There are badges and achievements that you can or could obtain when playing this mode, which may have additional rewards alongside them. These are:

Defeat the Rift Walker
✔ OBTAINABLE

Defeat the Rift Walker in Nil Mode.

players earned this

Elite
✔ OBTAINABLE

Triumph in Nil mode.

Rewards:
1,000

players earned this

Enemies


Nulling Wave 1 15 Health	Null Runner Wave 2 18 Health	Null Dredge Wave 3 60 Health	Null Scout Wave 5 500 Health

Null Freezer Wave 7 450 Health	Null Goon Wave 10 350 Health	Lost Glitch Wave 12 425 Health	Null Warden Wave 15 4,500 Health

Null Shrieker Wave 18 500 Health	Null Pyromancer Wave 21 4,000 Health	Null Electroshocker Wave 23 1,250 Health + 250 Shield Health	Null Crook Boss Wave 25 3,500 Health + 750 Shield Health

Null Medic Wave 26 1,000 Health + 1,500 Shield Health	Null Engineer Wave 27 15,000 Health + 12,500 Shield Health	Null Sentry N/A^[1] 750 Health	Null Pursuit Wave 30 15,000 Health + 5,000 Shield Health

Null Beast Wave 31 10,000 Health + 5,000 Shield Health Also has Aggro	Null Brawler Wave 33 10,000 Health + 2,500 Shield Health	Null Commander Wave 35 75,000 Health + 75,000 Shield Health Only a boss on Wave 35	Null Missile APC N/A 2,500 Health Ability applies a 20% Fatigue Debuff for 3 seconds onto towers

Null Necromancer Wave 38 30,000 Health + 30,000 Shield Health	Gravestone N/A^[2] 500 Health + 2,500 Shield Health Also has Lead Ability triggers automatically if not killed 30 seconds after spawning	Null Guardian Wave 40 250,000 Health Spawns once	Null Guardian Clone N/A^[3] 10,000 Health Also has Aggro

Null Accelerator Wave 42 50,000 Health + 25,000 Health	Void Mirage^[4] Wave 44 200,000 Health Only spawns once	Rift Walker Wave 45 600,000 Health The Lord EXO’s Rebirth ability now only decreases the current base health by half and rounds decimals up by 1 DP (e.g. 25 health -> 13 health since it rounds 12.5 up to 13). If the base health is 1, all towers are stunned for 3 seconds and all units take 5,000 damage instead. Overheal health is considered. Has 40% defence, which increases to 80% for 15 seconds when the Ancient Anger ability is used. Only spawns once

Wave Bonuses

Nil mode has three wave bonuses, based on the current wave. Between waves 1 to 20, the wave bonus is calculated as:

$225 + ([Waves Completed - 1] × $60)^1.03

Between waves 21 to 40, it is calculated as:

$275 + ([Waves Completed - 1] × $65)^1.05

Between waves 41 to 45, it is calculated as:

$325 + ([Waves Completed - 1] x $70)^1.07

Depending on player count, the wave bonus is reduced using multipliers. These multipliers are:

Players	Reduction per Player	Total Reduction
Solo	0%	0%
Duo	5%	10%
Trio	8.33%	25%
Quad	10%	40%

The wave clear bonus appears when every enemy from that wave was killed and no damage was dealt to the base health. It is 20% of the wave bonus in solo, while for duo, trio and quad it is 10%.

Trivia

This concept was inspired by Frost mode in two ways.
- The first way it was inspired is the bug with Quests that caused Frost mode to be referred to as “nil” instead of ”Frost”.
- The other way it was inspired is that enemies were reused from the Operation I.C.E event, in which Nil mode reuses enemies from the Null & Void event.
At the time of this concept being made, there actually was and still is some wave dialogue for Nil mode. However, right now, the dialogue is heavily unfinished and will most likely be left that way for a long time.
If Nil mode were added to the game, it would not be canon as it has no place in the storyline.
- This is another detail that Nil mode shares in common with Frost mode, however, that similarity is more indirect.

Update History

April 1 2026 - Concept created but unfinished.
April 7 2026 - Update history section added. A few enemies have been added as well as a few other minor changes.
April 19 2026 - Updated the concept further, most notably adding more enemies.
July 31 2026 - Nerfed the gem reward. Concept is practically complete, at this point.
August 28 2026 - Made various balancing adjustments to account for the Frost mode rebalance, as well as correcting other details.

↑ Can only be spawned by the Null Engineer.
↑ Can only be spawned by the Null Necromancer.
↑ Only spawned by the Null Guardian.
↑ Boss enemy that is a purple phantom of Kronus. Statistically and visually equal otherwise.

[1] Can only be spawned by the Null Engineer.

[2] Can only be spawned by the Null Necromancer.

[3] Only spawned by the Null Guardian.

[4] Boss enemy that is a purple phantom of Kronus. Statistically and visually equal otherwise.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]