Quick answers to easily missed mechanics
Short answers for the moments when the game gives you a choice but not much explanation.
Can I rotate items to make them fit?
Yes. Use the Rotate action shown by the inventory interface before giving up on a long or wide item. A quarter-turn can make room for supplies, weapons, or objective parts.
See the Tutorial Level walkthrough for a practical example of why rotating items matters.
How do I get the Keychain?
There are five keychains: the 电线钥匙串 is crafted at the General Workbench from 1 Broken Wire, the 铁环钥匙扣 is a mission reward, the 皮带钥匙扣 is found at 88 Whitegate Avenue, the 复古钥匙串 is found at 88 Whitegate Avenue, the 钥匙盘 is found at 88 Whitegate Avenue. Equip one in the Keys slot, then click it to open its grid. It holds keys only. The equipment guide lists where each comes from.
Why will a workbench not accept my Corrupted item?
An untreated Corrupted item cannot be used as a workbench input. Revert it with the Revertor first. Stabilizing Powder stops its deterioration, but does not make it usable in a workbench.
See how Corrupted items, Stabilizing Powder, and the Revertor work.
Does the Safe House toilet recycle items or refresh loot?
No. Pressing Flush permanently destroys everything in the Safe House toilet. It is not a recycler, storage box, or loot source.
See the Safe House object guide for the difference between the disposal toilet and the Tutorial Level’s portal toilet.
Can I choose what the Mirror Cabinet gives me?
No. The Mirror Cabinet consumes the whole offer and gives a random result (an item, a stack, or occasionally a short set of related items) from the reward pool chosen by its total sell value. It does not return change or let you pick a reward.
Why did an enemy or container not give me the listed item?
A listed item is possible loot, not a promise that every search or kill gives it. Check the specific enemy or loot page before farming for one component, and keep an alternative source in mind when the item is needed for a craft or mission.
How do skills level up?
Each skill levels up by doing its own activity during a run: hitting enemies with a weapon class, carrying a heavy load, running out of stamina, spending stamina, or searching items. Weapon skills earn experience per hit, multiplied by the enemy's and the weapon's own multipliers.
See what earns experience for each skill and how much each level costs.
Which weapons level their skill fastest?
Weapons with a higher experience multiplier. Melee weapons are ×0.34–×0.67, most automatic firearms are only ×0.08–×0.13, and a few bolt-action rifles and shotguns reach ×0.5 or more. The multiplier is listed on each weapon page.
Do I lose skill experience or levels when I die?
You lose the experience you had toward the next level of every skill, but only if you die and then leave the map. Levels you have already reached are kept, and extracting alive keeps everything.
See how skill experience is lost or what else a failed run costs.
Why does a skill perk not match its description?
A few perk descriptions do not match what the game applies. For example, Dexterity says +5% search speed per level but gives +40%, the two armor-penetration perks both give +5% despite listing +10 and +50, and the two movement-penalty perks (Handgun level 2 and Submachine Gun level 2) make the weapon's penalty 50% larger instead of smaller.
What are Dimensional Adaptability and Dimensional Resistance?
They appear only in the description of the Willpower skill's four level perks, and nothing in the game applies them. Willpower also cannot be trained yet, so those levels cannot be reached.
What does Phase Shift do?
Phase Shift is the protection stat that reduces Disintegration damage. Armour and enemies both list it, and the Phase Stability Corruption trait adds +2 to it.
What are Phase Stability and Spatial Stability?
Both are traits a Corrupted item can roll. Phase Stability is an armour trait that adds +2 Phase Shift. Spatial Stability is a stock trait that lowers Spread Limit by 20%, so shots scatter less at their widest.
See the armour traits, the stock traits, or every Corruption trait by part.
What is the difference between Recoil, Spread limit, and Kickback?
Recoil is the scatter each shot adds, in degrees, so shots spread wider as you keep firing. Spread limit is the most scatter that can build up. Kickback is a separate value that pushes you backward with every shot.
See how scatter is worked out, including aiming and movement.
Can I wear two helmets, or a helmet with a mask?
You can wear one helmet at a time. A mask is a separate slot, but masks and helmets that cover your eyes or face also fill the eye and face slots, so some combinations push each other off. Tops and trousers are the exception: they layer up to a point limit.
See every slot, limit and example, or try outfits in the Gear planner.
Why will the game not let me put a piece of gear on?
Usually the outfit has run out of room in the equipment grid. Every worn piece except the backpack, safe box and keychain takes space in a shared 40-cell grid, five cells wide, so a bulky outfit can run out of space even when every slot is free. Swap something for a smaller piece. A piece that needs a slot another piece is using simply replaces it.
How and when is insurance unlocked?
Insurance is not available at the start. A notification mission from the Insurance Officer unlocks it, and it arrives after either of these:
- your first failed run (leaving a map by dying), or
- your third successful extraction. Each extraction lowers your recent-evacuation level by 1 and the notification arrives when you leave a map with that level already at −2, which is your third extraction; a death in between raises the level by 1 and delays it.
Complete the mission and collect its reward to unlock insurance. The insurance screen then opens each time you leave the Safe House for a map, but it covers only maps in an area you have unlocked. This notification unlocks the Forest maps; 88 Whitegate Avenue and Grey Birch Mountain each have their own unlock mission.
How do I move or store furniture in the Safe House?
Press G in the Safe House to open the build menu, point at a piece of furniture and left-click to pick it up. Press R to rotate it, left-click to put it down or right-click to cancel. The Store button puts a piece away so you can place it again later, and the Upgrade button upgrades pieces that have a next tier, such as the storage boxes and the bed. Items inside a storage box stay in it when you upgrade.
How fast do hunger and thirst build up, and what happens when they run out?
Satiety, Blood Sugar and Hydration each start at 100 and fall on every map except the Safe House: Satiety loses 1 point every 8 seconds, Hydration every 14 seconds and Blood Sugar every 15 seconds, so they are empty after about 13 minutes 20 seconds, 23 minutes 20 seconds and 25 minutes. At 40 or lower, Blood Sugar slows your movement by 30% and Hydration raises stamina costs by 50%. At 0, Blood Sugar slows you by 50%, Hydration doubles stamina costs, and each empty stat (Satiety, Blood Sugar, Hydration) deals 1 damage every 5 seconds. Eating and drinking removes the effects at once, and the Cooking Station refills all three in the Safe House.
What do I need to finish a Research Table project?
Up to four things. Devices (tools such as Multi-Function Pliers, or research notes) are installed on the table once; installing uses up one copy and the device stays. Materials are used up when the project finishes. Any blueprints and the workbench blueprint the project lists only need to be unlocked. Some projects also need you to move a discovery item before they appear.
Why are some weapon and hotbar slots locked?
You start with one long-weapon slot, one short-weapon slot and one hotbar slot. The rest unlock while you wear the right gear: a backpack adds the second long-weapon slot, a belt or hip pack adds the second short-weapon slot, a top adds three hotbar slots and trousers add two more. A few pieces, such as full-body suits, unlock nothing.
What do I keep if I die?
What is in your safe box, and the keychain with the keys inside it. Everything else you carry is lost, apart from gear you insured before the run.
How do I get a higher character level and learn talents?
Kills give character experience, added when a run ends, and 70,000 experience takes you to level 7. Talents cost credits, need a minimum level, and must belong to the department you chose when you created the character. At character level 7 you can pay 490,000 credits once for a breakthrough, which gives you one extra talent from any department.
How do I get into the Bazaar?
Complete the mission Regional Short-Range Communication: Local Specialty to receive the mail "Invitation from Support Department", or complete Supplement Clue to receive "Troops Rally". Either mail gives the map's coordinates.
Why does my cursor shake and aim assist stop working?
You are Tipsy from a drink such as Lake Sucia Vodka or Moonshine. Tipsy switches off aim assist and makes your aiming cursor wobble. Each Tipsy stack lasts 60 seconds, and sleeping in a Safe House bed ends it.
How do I craft ammo?
Build the Crude Ammo Workbench in the Safe House, place gunpowder in its grid and craft. One bottle of gunpowder makes a large batch of crude ammunition, and better rounds also need a metal ingot and a blueprint from a mission.
How do I sell items?
Sell almost anything to a wilderness merchant for Biomass, or recycle antiques and data items for credits at the transmitter. The terminal shop only sells to you.
Why do tougher enemies show up after a few good runs?
Your danger level rises by 1 each time you leave a run alive and falls by 1 each time you leave dead, between 0 and 10, starting at 5. Some Forest Region spawns need a minimum danger level: the stronger Cookie Crumb tiers at 8 and 10, and the Fallen Leaf Agents at 8.
What are light and heavy attacks, and what do the status effects on melee weapons do?
Every melee weapon has a light attack and a heavy attack. Light attacks use the attack button and heavy attacks use the aim button (left and right mouse buttons by default). A heavy attack hits much harder and slows your movement more. Each hit can also leave a status on the enemy: Bleeding from knives, axes and spears, Fractured from blunt weapons, and a damaging Curse from the "Black Hand". The chance is rolled on every hit, and the heavy attack has an equal or higher chance.
The Two-Handed skill's level-2 perk, Heavy Strike, adds 50 percentage points to those chances on two-handed weapons. Guns cause no status effects.
Which enemies are the most dangerous?
By health, the Scary Highlander (15,000), Puppet (8,000), Arson Doctor (6,000) and Samurai (5,000). Smaller enemies still hurt through effects: Fungal Stalkers cause bleeding, smoky stalkers cause Toxic Gas, and Pyromads set you on fire.