The Alien Mothership — How to Board It and Complete the Raid
The Alien Mothership in 99 Nights in the Forest: how to repair the Command Ship with 5 Alien Batteries, board the raid, clear the three side rooms with corpse-scanner doors, and the Alien Shotgun, Dissolve Ray and badge rewards — plus the older entry method.
The Alien Mothership is the flagship raid of the game's alien event — a multi-room dungeon in orbit that you can only reach by repairing a crashed Command Ship first. It is where the alien-tech loot comes from, and it is the one alien set-piece that plays like a proper raid rather than a random UFO crash.
Last verified: 2026-10-02.
Quick Answer
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What it is | An event raid — the alien flagship, reached from the crashed Command Ship near your campfire |
| When it runs | During an alien event; the current raid shipped with Aliens' Revenge (27 June 2026) |
| How to board | Collect 5 Alien Batteries, repair the Command Ship, walk into the green beam |
| Inside | Three side rooms behind corpse-scanner doors, then a final wave and the reward chest |
| Drops | Alien Shotgun, Dissolve Ray, Alien-tech blueprints and crafting materials |
| Badges | Engineering, Mutiny, Xenotech — all three can be earned in one clean run |
Is It Even Available Right Now?
Only while an alien event is live. The Mothership is not a permanent fixture — it exists as part of the alien invasion event, and the version most players know is the one that shipped with the Aliens' Revenge update on 27 June 2026. That event window has closed, so outside a live alien event the Command Ship will not spawn and there is nothing to board.
Practical rule: check the Update Log and your own lobby on a patch Saturday. If the alien event is not active, everything below is what to expect when it returns.
How to Board It
1. Wait for Night 3. On the third night a cutscene plays showing UFOs crashing near your campfire, and a large Command Ship (a giant UFO) appears wrecked behind the camp. No purchase or trigger needed — but sources disagree on whether Night 3 fires in every run or only some of them, so check your own campfire rather than assuming it will happen. See the FAQ below.
2. Collect 5 Alien Batteries. These are the green cylindrical items that repair the ship. Sources name four ways to get them, and they are all over the map's alien structures:
| Source | Risk | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alien Sites | None | Passive loot — an Alien Chest and a battery sitting unattended |
| Alien Outposts | High | Towers guarded by alien mobs; clear them, then climb to the battery at the top |
| Alien Ponds | Low | Glowing green water; fish the battery up alongside normal catches |
| Alien Drops | Medium | Blue launch pads — deliver 3 alien corpses to activate; pays a battery + a chest |
If you have the map/scanner, Outposts show as marked locations, which makes routing much faster. A widely repeated tip: plan your battery route before Night 3 ends rather than after.
3. Repair the ship, then walk into the beam. Insert the batteries into the open compartment on the wreck. Once the last one is in, the ship lifts off and projects a green light beam underneath. Walk into the beam to ascend and board the Mothership.
One small discrepancy: most guides say you need five batteries, but one (BloxBoom) says one is already installed and you only need to find four more. Same structure, same end result — just do not be surprised if the ship only asks for four.
The older entry method (worth knowing)
Before the 2026 rework, the Mothership was reached directly: during the original Alien Invasion event (18 July 2025), one of the crashed UFOs carried a portal/teleporter that took you straight up to the ship — no battery repair step. If you see older guides describing a UFO portal rather than a Command Ship, that is the version they are describing. The current raid adds the battery-repair gate in front of the same flagship.
Inside the Mothership
The ship is a linear raid with locked rooms. You clear aliens, use corpses as keys, and push toward the reward chest.
Who you fight
| Enemy | Role |
|---|---|
| Alien Engineer | Melee attacker; the common mob |
| Alien Trooper | Ranged attacker; the other common mob |
| Alien Commander | Orange ranged unit — its corpse unlocks doors |
| Alien Scout | Small blue melee unit — its corpse unlocks doors too |
The door mechanic is the whole puzzle. Throughout the ship are locked hatches fitted with alien face scanners. They do not take keys — they take bodies. Kill an Alien Commander or Alien Scout, carry its corpse to the matching scanner, and the door opens. Every locked section costs you one fresh corpse, which is why a rushed solo run is really a loop of "kill, carry, scan" three times over. Corpses do not stack, so you ferry them one at a time.
Three side rooms, then the final chamber. You must clear all three side rooms to progress. Clear them all in a single run and you also trigger the Xenotech badge. After the side rooms, the final chamber opens: it can look empty, so be ready — several aliens spawn in the last fight (one guide notes they come in carrying Rayguns). Win that wave and the big reward chest in the middle of the room unlocks.
Then leave through the "Teleport to Earth" door. A green doorway in the same room returns you to the forest and completes the run. Do not die in the final wave: dying there forfeits both the chest loot and the badge credit for that run, so it is worth retreating and re-boarding if it goes badly.
Rewards
The chest holds the alien event's headline loot:
- Alien Shotgun — a new alien ranged weapon (the Alien Scientist class also spawns with one)
- Dissolve Ray — another alien weapon from the same patch
- Alien-tech blueprints — crafting materials for the alien tech tree
- plus other high-tier alien crafting materials
Three badges, all earnable in one well-planned raid:
| Badge | How to get it |
|---|---|
| Engineering | Repair the Command Ship — deposit all 5 batteries and trigger the tractor beam |
| Mutiny | Defeat the Alien Command Center, the boss in the main Mothership room |
| Xenotech | Enter every side room in one run — the longest objective, since it forces the three-corpse door loop |
Badge progress resets between runs, so the efficient play is one purpose-built raid that does everything rather than three quick ones.
A limited cosmetic. The event also offered the Alien Wolf Skin, available only during the event window. Like every limited cosmetic in this game, treat it as gone once the event closes.
The Alien Scientist class
The patch's new class, Alien Scientist (600 Diamonds), is the thematic fit: it starts with an Alien Shotgun, a Dissolve Ray and a Raygun, plus +4 sack space. Its perk line dissolves weakened enemies into "Essence" — enemies below 10% HP at level 1 (rising to 15% at level 2), and collecting Essence speeds up Alien Energy regeneration; level 3 adds a sprint-speed bonus from Essence.
It is not required — any class can repair the ship and complete the raid. See All Classes for where it sits.
Is It Worth Running?
Yes, if the event is live. It is the source of the Alien Shotgun and Dissolve Ray, it pays alien-tech blueprints, and it is the only way to clear the Mutiny and Xenotech badges. It is also the natural companion to the Alien Armour and the alien weapons — the same event feeds all of them.
Two practical warnings. First, bring ranged, not melee — the Alien Commanders and Elites hit hard up close, and every guide recommends keeping distance. Second, stock healing before you board: you cannot easily resupply mid-raid, and dying in the final wave costs you the whole run's loot.
FAQ
How do I get to the Alien Mothership? Repair the crashed Command Ship near your campfire with 5 Alien Batteries, then walk into the green beam under the ship to board.
When does the event happen? On Night 3 of a run, during a live alien event. The current raid shipped with Aliens' Revenge (27 June 2026). Most guides describe Night 3 as automatic; one detailed guide says it is now a chance rather than a guarantee, and that bed multipliers do not affect it. We cannot confirm which is current — check your own campfire on Night 3 rather than assuming either.
Where do the Alien Batteries come from? Four sources: Alien Sites (unattended loot), Alien Outposts (clear the guards, then climb the tower), Alien Ponds (fish them), and Alien Drops (deliver 3 alien corpses to a launch pad).
How do I open the locked doors inside? With corpses, not keys. Carry an Alien Commander or Alien Scout body to the matching face scanner.
What does the chest give? The Alien Shotgun, the Dissolve Ray, alien-tech blueprints and other high-tier alien materials.
How do I leave? Through the green "Teleport to Earth" door in the final chamber.
Do I need the Alien Scientist class? No. It helps (strong alien loadout from minute zero), but any class can finish the raid.
Sources
Checked 2026-10-02. The board sequence — Night 3 UFO crash cutscene, the Command Ship behind the campfire, 5 Alien Batteries, lift-off and the green tractor beam — is described identically by MrGuider, Olles, BloxBoom, Roonby and BloxGuidesGG, all covering the Aliens' Revenge update (27 June 2026); the "one battery pre-installed, find four more" variant is BloxBoom alone and is flagged in the text. The four battery sources (Alien Sites, Alien Outposts, Alien Ponds, Alien Drops) come from the same set, with Olles and BloxBoom naming the fishing and corpse-delivery sites slightly differently. The interior — Alien Engineers (melee) and Alien Troopers (ranged) as the common mobs, Alien Commander and Alien Scout corpses as door keys, three side rooms, and the final wave before the chest — is stated by Roonby, Olles, MrGuider and BloxGuidesGG; BloxBoom calls the door-key enemy the Alien Elite, which is the older name for the same progression unit. The chest rewards (Alien Shotgun, Dissolve Ray, alien-tech blueprints) are identical across all five. The badges (Engineering, Mutiny, Xenotech) and their criteria are from BloxGuidesGG and MrGuider, and the Alien Scientist class details (600 Diamonds, Alien Shotgun + Dissolve Ray + Raygun, +4 sack, 10%/15% dissolve thresholds) are from MrGuider, Olles and BloxBoom. The older entry method — a portal on one of the crashed UFOs leading straight to the Mothership, with no battery step — is the fandom UFO Event page and the Miraheze Mothership UFO page, both describing the original Alien Invasion event (18 July 2025). Where the 2025 and 2026 versions differ, the page labels them by update rather than blending them. The Alien Wolf Skin cosmetic is Roonby and BloxGuidesGG.
Related Pages
- How to Get the Alien Armour — the body piece from the same event, and the Cyborg's starter
- How to Get the Laser Cannon — the alien weapon most players are chasing
- How to Get the Laser Sword — the melee alien weapon, and whether it is still in this chest
- All Locations — where the alien crash sites and the Command Ship sit on the map
- Update Log & Patch Notes — the Aliens' Revenge update, and whether an alien event is live now
- All Classes — the Alien Scientist and the rest of the roster
- The Frog King — the other wave-based event raid, and how the two compare
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