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Unlock Max Mahon by defeating 1,000 Nurglings in a single Warhammer 40,000 run. Use Imperial Shipyard for its Nurgling waves. If the 25-minute mission ends before you reach the target, collect its Maelstrom Key and enable Endless War for a later attempt.
Imperial Shipyard route
| Step | Requirement or action |
|---|---|
| Open Imperial Shipyard | Reach level 50 on Ork Stronghold. |
| Follow the right goal | Track Max Mahon’s 1,000-Nurgling objective in the Objectives menu. |
| Collect the kills | Defeat Nurglings during the Shipyard run; other enemy kills do not complete this objective. |
| Extend a later attempt | Find the Maelstrom Key, then enable Endless War before starting the next mission. |
The Shipyard includes Nurglings in multiple enemy waves. The objective is a single-run total: kills from separate attempts do not add together. Its 1,000 target is separate from the run’s overall kill count.
Use stage unlocks if Imperial Shipyard is still locked. The main route goes through Gallowdark and Ork Stronghold before the Shipyard’s level-50 unlock.
Maelstrom Key and Endless War
The Maelstrom Key is on Imperial Shipyard and unlocks Endless War for the 40K universe. Collect the Auspex on Desert Wasteland to reveal hidden items, then return to the Shipyard to find the key. Map relics covers the scanner route.
After collecting the key, enable Endless War in mission selection for the next attempt. It replaces the final boss with repeating enemy cycles. Those cycles become harder, so the extra time also brings more pressure. Mission modifiers distinguishes Endless War from Limitless, which changes the late upgrade pool.
Optional spawn-pressure items
Da Lucky Stikk increases Bait and Chance as it levels. Use the Auspex to find Makari on Ork Stronghold to unlock it. It was part of DirkSteele’s completed Imperial Shipyard attempt.
Corruption also increases enemy pressure, including health and speed. The objective requires the Nurgling kills; it has no Corruption threshold. Increasing Corruption is therefore a tradeoff rather than a missing condition for the unlock.
Counter problems
Check the tracked Nurgling objective while the run is active. If it stays unchanged while Nurglings are being defeated, record the stage, mission options, game version and platform in a report to the developer. A high overall kill count alone does not show whether this counter is progressing.
Sources
- Auroch Matty and players: the 1,000-Nurgling objectiveDeveloper reply #5 confirms longer time limits and denser stages as approaches. DirkSteele #7 reports an Imperial Shipyard completion with Da Lucky Stikk; #13 reports a stalled counter.
- Warhammer Survivors DB: build 26581996Single-run Nurgling objective, Max Mahon reward, Imperial Shipyard waves, Maelstrom Key, Endless War and Da Lucky Stikk.
- Auroch Digital: hotfix 2.1.6Steam release on November 11; the announced changes do not list a Nurgling-objective counter fix.
