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Numbers from the game's rules

01Field guide · Start here

Your first run

Start hereCountrysideCalmSolo6 min read

Go out, grab something worth keeping, and come back alive. This is the whole loop once, the safe way: open country, the calm tier, on your own.

01Before you go

Three checks in the camp. None of them take long, and each one saves a run.

  • The free starter kit is ticked. A machete, a bandage and water: a melee weapon, not a gun. Guns and their ammo are something you find out there. It's never banked, so losing it costs nothing.Gate
  • Hunger and thirst are above half. Below 20 you're weak: slower, and your aim wanders.Kitchen
  • Nothing you'd hate to lose is in your pack. What you carry out is at risk. Your stash at home is not.Locker

02Board the convoy

Walk to the convoy gate and press E. Pick Countryside: open farmland with long sightlines and few walls, so you see what's coming. Pick Calm: no screamers or special infected, and the waves come later and smaller.

Wherever you go, the map is made fresh when the convoy leaves. Nobody has seen it before, you included, and the way out is somewhere on its far side for you to find.

The destinations at the convoy gate
DestinationMapExitsFinal timer
DowntownNew every runHidden30:00
CountrysideNew every runHidden30:00
Fig 1The destinations at the gate. Each is a new map every run, with exits you have to find.

03Read the screen

Everything you need is in a corner, so the middle of the screen stays the street. Learn these six and you can read any moment at a glance.

Fig 2Where each part of the run screen sits, marked over a Downtown street.
  1. Time left. Top middle. When it runs out the block is overrun, and hunters who know where you are keep coming.
  2. Exits. Under the clock. Lit is open, with the time it closes. Grey opens later.
  3. Way out. The nearest open exit you know of, pinned to the edge of the screen while it's off it.
  4. Prompt. By the thing it's about. Hold E to search; the bar fills as you hold.
  5. You. Bottom left: health, stamina, hunger, thirst and infection. Status tags appear only when they apply.
  6. Your weapon. Bottom right: what's in your hands and its class, a gun's rounds and spare rounds with a LOW warning in time to reload, the other weapons on 1 2 3, and the shove filling back up.

04Controls

Keyboard and mouse. In a run, H shows or hides these, and the full list is in the menu (Esc). Every key is in Controls.

Out there

WASD
Move
Shift
Run (uses stamina)
C
Crouch: quieter, slower
Right mouse
Raise your weapon and aim
Click
Attack (a lowered gun comes up first)
R
Reload
123
Primary / secondary / fists
Space
Shove
Ehold
Search
Q
Take all
ITab
Your pack
F
Call the extraction
Vhold
Talk to your crew
H
Show or hide the controls
Wheel
Zoom

In the camp, and anywhere

E
Use a station
F
Invite the survivor beside you
I
Inventory
J
Journal
Enter
Chat
Clicka name
Mute or block their voice
M
Mute the sound
Esc
Menu

05Stay alive

Your blade is quiet. A machete swing is heard 2.5 tiles away; you can clear a straggler without waking the street. When they get close, Space shoves them back.
Gunfire carries. When you find a gun, remember a pistol shot is heard 13 tiles away, and every one brings the next wave sooner. Shoot when you have to, and walk away when you can.
Bleeding doesn't stop on its own. Open your pack with I and use the bandage straight away.
A bite keeps spreading while you're out. Antibiotics cure it. Mags only stocks them on some runs (95 scrip), so bring home any you find.
You only see inside a building by going in. Stop at the door and listen before you do.

06Get out

Nobody tells you where the way out is. Head for the far side of the map: come within 8 tiles of an exit with a clear view and it joins the run panel for your whole crew. If you still know none 13:00 in, the radio tells you of one. The final timer is 30:00. More in Journeys and exits.

  1. 01
    Walk into an open exit.It's open while its line in the run panel is lit, with the time it closes.
    Open
  2. 02
    Call the pickup with F.The call is heard 14 tiles away, and so is the wait: every infected nearby is coming.
    Loud
  3. 03
    Hold the zone for 20 seconds.Stay inside the circle until the ride comes. Step out, or let the exit close, and it's called off.
    0:20

Make it, and everything you carried is banked to your stash. Your skills keep the XP you earned. That's a run.

07Keep reading

The rest of the field guide, in the order most people need it.