Most players treat Broken Frontline as a clear-it-and-leave mode. It is not. Clearing a level is the floor, and the score is the whole point, which is why people who grind it for an hour sometimes end the week behind someone who ran it twice with a plan.
How a week works
Broken Frontline runs on a seven day cycle. Challenges open Monday at 05:00 and close at 01:00 the following Monday, with the four hours between 01:00 and 05:00 reserved for settlement. If you leave it to Sunday night, you are racing a hard cutoff, not a soft one.
There are three areas, and you must begin in the Low-Risk Area:
- Low-Risk
- Medium-Risk
- High-Risk
Each area holds three levels, and each level offers three difficulty tiers: I, II and III.
The scoring, which is the part that matters
Your score on a level comes from three inputs:
- Clearance time
- Monsters defeated, counted separately for regular and elite enemies
- Boss HP lost
Then the tier multiplies it. Tier I multiplies by 1, Tier II by 2, Tier III by 3.
Your area total is the sum of your best score on each of the three levels, so levels are scored independently and only your best attempt on each counts. There is no penalty for a bad run beyond the time you spent on it.
Three consequences fall straight out of that, and they are the whole strategy:
Farming Tier I is a trap. A flawless Tier I run still multiplies by 1. A scrappy Tier III run that barely survives multiplies by 3. Attempt the highest tier you can finish, even ugly, before you consider optimising a lower one.
Boss HP lost means partial credit. You do not have to win to score. If Tier III is beyond you, a run that strips a large chunk off the boss before collapsing can still out-score a clean lower-tier clear, because the damage is counted whether or not the fight ends in your favour.
Clear time rewards burst, not attrition. A grid that wins slowly through sustain scores worse than one that deletes the room. This is the mode where your Umbra AoE core and Reticle burst lines earn their place, and the team comps tier list is the page to build from.
Two reward tracks, and only one resets
This trips people up every week.
| Track | Unlocks at | Resets |
|---|---|---|
| Point Rewards | Area point thresholds | No, permanent |
| Level Rewards | Per-level thresholds | Yes, weekly |
So Point Rewards are a one-off ladder you climb across your account's lifetime, and Level Rewards are the weekly income. A week where you clear everything you cleared last week still pays the Level Rewards. It pays no new Point Rewards.
That changes what a low-effort week should look like: if you are busy, hit the per-level thresholds and stop. The permanent ladder will still be there when you have time to push.
Promotion, and the one rule the wiki contradicts itself on
Meeting an area's point requirement advances you to the next difficulty area the following week. Clear the Low-Risk requirement and next Monday you start in Medium-Risk.
Past High-Risk sits the Dark Area, a newer addition reached after meeting the High-Risk requirement. It works in stages rather than as a fixed board: its monsters, levels and features change over time, and crucially its Point Rewards reset with each stage rather than being permanent like the rest.
Be aware of one inconsistency before you plan around it. The wiki states in one place that players who reach the High-Risk Area will not progress to more difficult areas, which sits badly next to the Dark Area existing and being described as the thing past High-Risk. One of those is out of date. Treat the Dark Area as the real ceiling, check the in-game notice when you get there, and do not build a week's plan on the older line.
What to actually do on a Monday
- Open it early. The window is seven days minus a four hour settlement, and the reset is the start of your week, not the end.
- Probe Tier III on each of the three levels first, even if you expect to lose. You are buying information and boss damage at the same time.
- Drop a tier only where Tier III is hopeless, and treat that level as the one to improve next week.
- Bring burst, not sustain. Clear time is in the formula.
- Hit the per-level thresholds so the weekly income is banked, then push for area points if you have time.
If your roster is not deep enough to field burst yet, the best Sinners guide covers who to build first and the Crimebrand guide covers the gear layer that turns a serviceable Sinner into one that deletes a room. The full roster sits on the tier list.
Sources: the Path to Nowhere wiki's Broken Frontline page for the area structure, the three scoring inputs, the tier multipliers, the weekly window and settlement period, the two reward tracks and the Dark Area. Exact point thresholds vary by area and stage and are not reproduced here; the in-game panel is the authority.
