How to Unlock Tasks and Clear Briar Hollow in The Walking Dead: Aftermath

To unlock the core mission system in The Walking Dead: Aftermath, you must successfully clear the Briar Hollow chapter and defeat the Terminus Hunter boss. This milestone is a critical progression point that transitions players from basic survival to a structured objective-based experience. By focusing on positioning and managing boss mechanics during this encounter, you can efficiently finalize the chapter, secure your survival, and gain permanent access to the game’s task tracking features for future challenges.

Defeating the Terminus Hunter Boss

The Terminus Hunter serves as the primary obstacle in Briar Hollow. Success requires prioritizing damage output while maintaining enough distance to avoid heavy melee strikes.

Focus Fire: Direct all squad attacks onto the boss immediately upon spawn to interrupt his ability to summon smaller waves of enemies.
Mobility: Utilize the map terrain to kite the boss, ensuring your survivors are not clustered together, which prevents the boss from landing area-of-effect damage on your entire team.
Ability Timing: Save your most powerful survivor skills for the final phase of the fight to burn through the boss's remaining health quickly once he begins his enrage animation.

Escaping Briar Hollow

Once the boss is defeated, the path out of Briar Hollow becomes accessible. Navigation here requires careful attention to environmental triggers.

Pathing: Follow the marked mission path closely to avoid unnecessary combat encounters that drain your health reserves before the final extraction point.
Survivor Health: Use any available healing items before triggering the final cutscene to ensure your roster is ready for the upcoming challenges that follow the conclusion of the chapter.
Loot Cleanup: Take a moment to sweep the immediate area for resources dropped during the boss encounter before exiting, as these materials are vital for early-stage upgrades.

Unlocking the Task System

Completing the Briar Hollow chapter is the specific trigger to unlock the "Tasks" function. This system is essential for your long-term progression in The Walking Dead: Aftermath.

Feature	Description	Benefit
Task Tracking	Provides a clear list of current objectives.	Prevents getting lost in open-world segments.
Mission Rewards	Grants resources upon task completion.	Speeds up survivor leveling and gear crafting.
Progression Map	Highlights the next primary story node.	Ensures you remain on the optimal leveling path.

After the mission concludes, navigate to the main menu to see your new task list. Prioritize these objectives over side-exploration to maximize your efficiency during the mid-game transition.