PREHISTORIC [HORROR] Beginner Guide: How to Survive Your First Night

Quick answer

Set the lobby to NIGHT 1 - LIGHTS OUT and press START NIGHT. The curfew runs from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM: stay inside, keep lights away from windows, close curtains, lock doors, board broken windows with planks, keep the garage generator fueled, and hide silently through any break-in until sunrise.

• The animals hunt by sound, by light and in packs. The SOUND meter shows how much noise you make, and running is noisy.
• Lock doors with Q. Pick planks up with E and use them on broken windows to raise the SECURE meter.
• If MAINS flips OFF, grab a gas can from outside, refuel the yellow garage generator, then pull the cord.
• When a break-in is announced, hide in the pantry, a closet or under the stairs and make no sound until it has left.

Surviving your first night in PREHISTORIC [HORROR] is one connected job: hold your house in Fossil Creek until the clock reads 6:00 AM. Everything the night asks of you — locks, boards, fuel, silence — serves that goal, and the loop is very learnable. This guide walks the full route from the host lobby to the sunrise screen.

The first-night route at a glance

Roadmap

1. 1

   Set up the lobby

   Start the right night with the settings you want.

   • Pick NIGHT (1 - LIGHTS OUT)
   • Set DIFFICULTY and TYPE
   • Press START NIGHT
2. 2

   Learn the curfew rules

   Know the three rules before the animals arrive.

   • Read the emergency broadcast
   • Stay inside and keep lights away from windows
   • Close curtains and lock doors
3. 3

   Secure the house

   Raise SECURE before problems stack up.

   • Close and lock every door
   • Take planks with E and board broken windows
4. 4

   Keep the power on

   Stop MAINS from switching OFF.

   • Watch the FUEL meter
   • Fetch a gas can from outside
   • Refuel the garage generator and pull the cord
5. 5

   Handle alerts and break-ins

   Clear objectives quietly and survive intruders.

   • Pull the smoke alarm battery
   • Spray out fires with the extinguisher
   • Hide silently until a break-in leaves
6. 6

   Reach sunrise

   Survive to 6:00 AM.

   • Keep the SOUND meter low
   • Hold out until the SUNRISE screen

The recorded Night 1 run below shows the same loop in motion, starting at the curfew broadcast.

Set the night up in the lobby

The host builds the session before the night begins. In the lobby you pick the NIGHT, the DIFFICULTY and the TYPE (the example lobby ran FRIENDS ONLY), then press START NIGHT. A typical setup reads NIGHT (1 - LIGHTS OUT), DIFFICULTY (NORMAL), WEATHER (CLEAR), PLAYERS (2/2) and TYPE (FRIENDS ONLY). Night selection genuinely chooses which night you play, and starting opens a chapter loading screen such as PREHISTORIC NIGHT 1 - LIGHTS OUT, 12:00 AM - 6:00 AM. For a first run, leave the night on 1. The lobby settings guide explains the options in detail, and how to play with friends covers the multiplayer side.

Controls to know before midnight

These are the official mappings from the game's Roblox page. On Night 1, E and Q do most of the work: E interacts, takes items and hides, while Q locks doors and boards windows. F is the flashlight — the BEAM meter tracks its battery — and R is the flare, the item the broadcast says may draw the sound-hunting animal away.

The curfew rules

At midnight the TV opens an EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM message from the Fossil Creek Office of Civil Defense: a mandatory curfew is in effect from 12:00 AM to 6:00 AM. The rules are:

1. Stay inside your home.
2. Keep all lights away from your windows.
3. Close your curtains and lock your doors.

Then comes the line that ties them together: if you can see the animals through the glass, they can see you. These animals hunt by sound, hunt by light and hunt in packs. A later Night 1 broadcast turns that into concrete behavior: a large animal on the main road is believed to hunt by sound, so move slowly, do not run inside your home, and keep in mind a lit flare may draw it away.

Reading the HUD

The top bar carries the in-game clock, the NIGHT 1 badge and the LIGHTS OUT status, plus three meters, while the right side of the screen adds two more:

Check the SOUND meter constantly — it tells you exactly how much noise you are making, and running makes noise, which is precisely what the broadcasts warn against.

First job: lock the doors, board the windows

Your opening objective reads "Something's outside. Lock the doors 1/3." Walk the house, close each door with E, and lock it with Q — door prompts show [E] OPEN DOOR / CLOSE DOOR and [Q] LOCK. Then deal with the glass. Broken windows are sealed by picking up planks ([E] TAKE PLANK) and using them on the window, and later objectives point at specific breaks, such as "Board up the broken upstairs hall window." Every lock and board feeds the SECURE meter, the percentage that measures how sealed the house is.

Second job: keep the generator running

FUEL drops over time, and at 0% the MAINS meter flips OFF with the warning "POWER LOST - the generator ran out of fuel." Restoring power takes one trip outside:

1. Grab a GAS CAN — gas cans are found outside the house.
2. Carry it to the yellow generator in the garage.
3. Use [E] REFUEL GENERATOR.
4. Use [E] PULL THE CORD.

When the status line reads "The generator is running.", power is back. Watch FUEL through the night and refuel before it empties rather than improvising in the dark. The generator guide covers the loop in more depth.

Nightly alerts and fires

Between the big jobs, the house throws quick objectives at you. A red alert like "Shut off the smoke alarm upstairs" is cleared by interacting with the SMOKE ALARM and using [E] PULL THE BATTERY — the alert then shows COMPLETE. If a fire starts, with the objective "Put out the fire," grab the fire extinguisher, hold LMB to spray, and finish to COMPLETE. Neither task is complicated, but each pulls you away from stillness and quiet, so handle them calmly with the SOUND meter in mind.

Break-ins: hide and make no sound

At some point an urgent broadcast fires: "A BREAK-IN HAS BEEN REPORTED AT YOUR ADDRESS. HIDE IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT MAKE A SOUND. REMAIN HIDDEN UNTIL IT HAS LEFT. DO NOT STAY HIDDEN LONGER THAN YOU MUST. THEY FIND PEOPLE BY SMELL." The objective banner names your spots: HIDE! the pantry, a closet or under the stairs. While you hide with E, a dinosaur patrols through the house. Stay hidden and stay silent until it has left — and, per the broadcast itself, do not stay hidden longer than you must. For more on hiding spots and quiet movement, see how to hide and the stealth guide.

The FOSSIL CREEK SECURITY shop and your inventory

The panel in the bottom-right corner is the FOSSIL CREEK SECURITY shop, which sells items including CAR ALARM (R$40), FUEL TANK (R$29), LOCK DOWN (R$64) and TEAM REVIVE (R$29). Weapons are bought with in-game currency — a shotgun purchase confirms with "You have successfully bought Shotgun (6 shells)" — and everything you carry shows in the inventory bar: SHOTGUN, pistol ammo, PLANK, GAS CAN and FLARE slots. Draw a weapon with G or H ("Press H to take it out") and click to use it.

Your first night can be won with the basics — locks, boards, fuel and silence — and the shop exists for players who want extra tools layered on top. When you are ready to compare gear, the weapons guide and the power ups guide break each category down.

Sunrise

Reach 6:00 AM alive and the screen announces SUNRISE - YOU MADE IT THROUGH NIGHT 1, with RETURN TO LOBBY taking you back out. Surviving Night 1 in Fossil Creek is also tracked as a badge on the experience, so that first sunrise leaves a permanent mark. Later nights remix the loop, but every night still ends at sunrise.

What changes after Night 1

Nights are distinct chapters with their own names, rules and threats, so do not expect Night 1 habits to carry over unchanged. Night 2, DON'T LOOK UP, opens with the task "Draw 10 curtains," adds its own rule set (lights away from windows, doors locked, home quiet) and introduces an animal of enormous height: it is drawn to light and movement, tall enough to look into upstairs windows — the game's warning is "IF IT IS LOOKING IN, DO NOT MOVE" — and it has been seen landing on rooftops to listen through the ceiling. A T-Rex can even break into the living room and be driven back with the shotgun. The chapters guide lists the full night list of lobby nights.

Where to go next

Once your first sunrise is on the board, the survival tips page collects the habits that matter on harder nights, and our codes and updates pages track everything that changes around the game.