While the party won the most seats - collecting 42 electorates on the night - there were more commiserations than celebrations because of what that success has cost the party.
By Jo Moir of RNZ
With not one single list seat won after only pulling in 29% of the party vote, National is about to endure a procession of political funerals for some of its most senior colleagues.
Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, and Gerry Brownlee are all gone.
It's a devastating outcome for a party that is still looking in a position to form the next government.
Election live: No clear winner - Luxon says too close to call, Hipkins says expect a wait
Proving that you don't need to be popular to be Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon is still in the hunt to keep his job.
With two confidence votes in his leadership and dire net approval ratings the entire term, Luxon's leadership lives on.
The question is for how long, once the caucus and wider party reach the anger stage of the grief process.
At this point Luxon has done enough - special votes allowing - to cobble a coalition together.
But he's looking set to be doing a deal with a combined Act and New Zealand First vote of 20%.
That's an incredible amount of power and influence for the two parties, which negotiated some significant coalition wins three years ago with just 14% between them.
It's not all bad news for National, but with so much loss it certainly took the shine off the wins for first-time MPs Mahesh Muralidhar, Blair Cameron, Matthew Paul, Lloyd Budd, and Jess Rowe.
Luxon and his team will have to work out how to redeploy ministerial portfolios once ousted MPs have their warrants expire in 28 days.
With special votes due back in 20 days, it's near impossible a new coalition and ministers will be sorted in time.
While some of the behind-the-scenes talks might get underway with Act and New Zealand First, it's not a given at this point the three parties would get across the line without Opportunity.
Act and New Zealand First had a good night on Saturday with both parties increasing their party vote by roughly three percent.
But it was Opportunity, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori who defied the odds.
As noted after the first wave of results rolled in on Saturday by New Zealand First's deputy Shane Jones, it's no easy feat breaking through the five percent threshold.
Opportunity has done what many said it couldn't and may still decide the next government depending on how the special votes fall.
The Greens have had an historic victory collecting the party's most successful result ever despite a parliamentary term defined by mayhem and loss.
Tagata Pasifika takes a look back at how last night unfolded. (Source: Tagata Pasifika)
And while Te Pāti Māori came as close as it could to self-imploding and wiping itself out of Parliament, its strategy to focus only on electorates saw it win five of the seven seats on the night.
Labour MPs will be scratching their head as to how those three parties, who all campaigned on a change of government in one form or another, capitalised and it didn't.
The party collected just two extra seats on its 2023 result, which is looked back on by the party as an election to forget.
There's a small window still for Labour to stitch together a government if they pick up enough seats on the centre-left through special votes.
On current numbers, however, the maths doesn't add up in Chris Hipkins' favour.
If MPs and candidates thought the election campaign had dragged on, the next 20 days will feel like an eternity.
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