‘Kingdom Come Deliverance 2’ Players Horrified By Bizarre NPC Behavior At Night – What is Going On?

Players have discovered an interesting design quirk of NPCs in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and it’s kind of creepy. At night, Kuttenberg sees a mass exodus of characters migrating outside the city walls. Is it a KCD2 bug? A design choice? Whatever it is, it’s turning the citizens of Bohemia into the walking dead.

‘Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’ NPCs Have a Zombie Problem

The quirky NPC behavior was discovered in a thread on the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 subreddit. A user uploaded a video showing a mass horde of characters mindlessly shuffling down a long road that leads out of Kuttenberg. “Mass emigration from Kuttenberg? Is this some kind of bug or…?” the topic creator asked. The creepy clip immediately sparked discussion about whether it was a bug or a design mechanic.

Well, it turns out it might just be a design quirk of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s NPC scheduling system. According to players, the massive city of Kuttenberg doesn’t actually have real citizens. They just pretend to live there during the day. But at night, the NPCs who can’t find an inn to sleep in are simply programmed to walk outside the city—into oblivion. Apparently, none of the homes in Kuttenberg are even real. I never noticed this despite spending countless hours exploring the massive city, but it’s true!

Players reacted to the video on the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 forum and shared their own anecdotes about the creepy, nighttime zombie NPCs. One user wrote, “I had this happen too. I was following a dice player home to rob him for his cheating a** dice. Found out he, like many in Kuttenberg, doesn’t actually have a home—so they just walk into the black night outside the city. There weren’t quite as many, though.” Another commented: “In-game explanation: They’re travelers, merchants, hired hands leaving the city once their job is done. Real explanation: Not enough beds, so NPCs just walk off the map.”

Kuttenberg is Still Impressive

To be clear, Kuttenberg is still one of the most impressive feats in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. The city is absolutely massive. I actually felt overwhelmed the first time I traveled there because of it. Unlike cities in most modern RPGs, it truly feels alive, and the number of NPCs is mind-blowing. So I can only imagine how complex the design mechanics behind it must be. To save us from lengthy load times and memory crashes, it makes sense to have characters leave the city at night.

But I won’t lie—the KCD2 illusion is kind of broken once you start to see giant groups of NPCs shuffling outside the gates every time the moon comes out. Although, in all fairness, I do like the in-game explanation that these NPCs are actually traveling merchants and journeymen. That actually makes sense, lore-wise, as Kuttenberg is a massive trading hub.

I also doubt Warhorse Studios expected us to actually shadow a random NPC in KCD2 and follow their every move over a 24-hour period. I mean, I’ve put over 400 hours into Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and never once saw this mass migration of NPCs at night. So I think that speaks volumes about how clever this design solution actually is. Still, I can’t help but find the idea of a gigantic horde of characters leaving Kuttenberg every night amusing.