You’re crouched in the mud. It’s pitch black outside the walls of Talmberg, and the only thing you can hear is the rhythmic clinking of your own armor—which, honestly, you probably should have taken off before trying to sneak into a literal fortress. This is the infamous "Night Raid" quest in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. If you’ve played it, you know exactly what comes next. The Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm is basically inevitable. No matter how many times you reload your savior schnapps or how high your stealth stat is, that bell starts clanging, the torches flare up, and the mission turns into a chaotic sprint for the ladders.
It's frustrating.
Most people go into this quest thinking they can pull off a Splinter Cell style infiltration. You’ve spent dozens of hours leveling Henry from a bumbling blacksmith’s boy into a semi-competent warrior, so you figure a little kidnapping and rescue mission should be well within your grasp. Then the guards start shouting. Then the mission objective updates to "Run!" and you realize the game just played you.
The Scripted Reality of the Night Raid
Here is the thing that catches most players off guard: the Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm is heavily scripted. In a game that prides itself on realism and player agency, this feels like a betrayal. You can drink a Padfoot potion, wear the quietest dark clothes in Bohemia, and move like a ghost, but the game is designed to force a retreat.
Warhorse Studios built this specific quest to serve the narrative, not necessarily your power fantasy. The goal isn't actually to save Lady Stephanie and Sir Radzig in one clean sweep. The goal is to show the desperation of the siege. When the alarm triggers, it’s not always because you stepped on a twig or bumped into a guard. It’s because the plot demands that the rescue mission fails, forcing the army into a different tactical approach.
Does Your Stealth Level Even Matter?
Well, yes and no. If you’re incredibly sloppy, the guards catch you early and you get a "Game Over" screen because you died in a pile of angry soldiers. If you’re good, you get to progress a bit further, maybe even reach the hostages, before the inevitable happens.
I’ve seen players spend hours trying to "ghost" this mission. They'll strip Henry naked to get a 0 noise rating. They'll wait for specific moon phases. It doesn't change the outcome. The Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm will sound. The game effectively pulls the rug out from under you to ensure the story stays on its rails for the final act of the game.
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Common Mistakes That Trigger the Alarm Early
While the failure is scripted, how you fail matters. You don't want to trigger the guards before you've even cleared the first wall. That's just embarrassing.
First off, Henry’s equipment is usually the culprit. Most players forget that "visibility" and "conspicuousness" are two different stats. You might be quiet, but if you’re wearing bright yellow hose in the middle of a midnight raid, a guard is going to spot you from twenty paces. You need black or dark grey gear. No exceptions.
Noise is the second killer.
Check your boots. Heavy leather boots clack on stone. If you aren't wearing "Quiet Dark Shoes" or just going barefoot (which is actually a viable strategy in this game, weirdly enough), you're making too much noise. Even a noise rating of 10 is enough to get a guard to turn his head.
Then there’s the issue of the NPCs. You aren't alone on this raid. You have Hans Capon and a squad of soldiers with you. Sometimes, the AI pathfinding just breaks. Hans might decide to walk directly into a torchlight, or a fellow soldier might get stuck on a piece of geometry, causing the guards to go into high alert. It’s annoying, but that’s the "Eurojank" charm we've all come to love and hate about Kingdom Come.
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The Importance of the "Kill" Objective
During the raid, you’re tasked with taking out the sentries on the battlements. This is where most players mess up and trigger the Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm prematurely. If you use a bow, you better hit the headshot. If you miss, the guard shouts. If you try to sneak up and choke them out, make sure your Strength and Stealth stats are high enough to win the struggle quickly.
If a guard manages to let out even a half-second yelp, the whole castle wakes up.
Technical Bugs and the Infamous "Infinite Loading"
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. This quest is notorious for being one of the buggiest in the entire game. Even years after release, players report that the Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm sequence can sometimes trigger a black screen or an infinite loading loop.
This usually happens when the game tries to transition from the stealth gameplay to the cinematic escape. If your PC or console is struggling to keep up with the script triggers, the engine just gives up.
- Save often: Use your Savior Schnapps before you even approach the ladders.
- Check your mods: if you're on PC, some lighting mods or AI overhauls can break the script for the Night Raid. Disable them if you keep crashing.
- Stay with the group: If you wander too far off the "path" the developers intended, the triggers might not fire correctly, leading to a soft lock.
Can You Actually Succeed?
Technically? No. The game does not have a "success" state where you walk out with the hostages and the credits roll early. You are supposed to retreat.
However, "success" in this context means reaching the cutscene where Henry realizes the hostages aren't in the expected location and then making it back to the ladders without getting turned into a pincushion by archers. If you make it back to the camp and everyone is alive, you've done it.
The Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm is a lesson in humility for Henry. It shows that he's still a kid playing soldier against a professional garrison. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially since the game spends so much time teaching you how to be a master of your craft. But from a storytelling perspective, it makes the eventual climax of the game feel much more earned.
Tips for Surviving the Chaos
Once the alarm goes off, stop sneaking. There is zero point in crouching once the bells are ringing.
- Sprint: Your stamina is your best friend. Don't waste it on heavy swings; save it for the dash back to the walls.
- Follow Hans: The AI for Hans Capon is programmed to lead you to the exit. If you get turned around in the dark, look for his quest marker.
- Don't Loot: It's tempting to try and grab some high-tier loot from the guards you killed, but the weight will slow you down. Speed is the only thing that saves you here.
- Ignore the Archers: You'll see arrows whizzing past your head. Don't stop to shoot back. Just keep moving.
The night raid is one of those moments that divides the fanbase. Some love the tension and the narrative "gut punch" of a failed mission. Others hate that their skills feel marginalized by a script. Regardless of where you stand, it's a sequence you'll never forget—mostly because of the sheer panic that sets in when that first alarm bell rings.
What to do next
If you're still stuck or frustrated with the Kingdom Come Deliverance night raid alarm, try these specific steps to get past it once and for all:
- Check your Noise stat: Open your character menu. If "Noise" is anything above 0, start stripping off metal armor until it hits 0.
- Wait for the Script: Stop trying to find a secret way to save the hostages. Follow the NPCs exactly, kill the sentries they tell you to kill, and when the alarm sounds, run directly back to the ladders without looking back.
- Reload a Save Before the Quest: If the mission is bugging out or the alarm triggers the moment you climb the ladder, you might have a "corrupt" quest state. Reloading a save from before you accepted the mission from Sir Hanush usually fixes the logic triggers.
- Update the game: Ensure you are on the latest patch (1.9.6 or later), as many of the hard-locks associated with this quest were addressed in the Final Edition updates.