From the moment you spawn in, the game teaches you some basic controls and features. Movement, shooting, interacting, and adding things to your inventory. Needless to say, remember these things. If you need to, get familiar with the controls of the game, as it may take a while for some of you. If you find the controls not to your standards, you can change some in options. Just note -- that if you're used to modern shooters -- that there is only toggle ADS in the game at the time of me making this guide, so that's something you will have to adapt to. If you already use toggle ADS, you'll feel right at home.

Here are some helpful tips to get you started on getting started:

1: Know your bunker.

While the bunker you are given the duty to defend is fairly small, it is important to explore it and note its points of interest. When you first enter the bunker, you'll be greeted by the barracks, with a room to the right, a room in the far left corner, and a hallway across from where you entered. The room to the right is MG Station 2. Inside will be an MG that you can use against enemies during attacks. The far left corner room is the armory. This is where some weapons will be stored, where you can clean weapons, craft stuff, and where you should store ammunition that you aren't using.

Next is the hallway. When you enter the hallway, there will be 3 rooms. First, on the left side will be your bedroom. In this room, you will have the option to sleep, along with use the radio to receive and send out messages. We'll get to that later. On the right side of the hallway, the closest room will be the kitchen, where you can cook food, get water, and store food in the storage room on the left side of the room. Finally, at the end of the hallway, on the right side, will be the enemy's radio station, which you can use to decipher messages from the enemy for a specific objective. Which, we will also get to later.

On the left side of the hallway, past the bedroom and kitchen, there will be another hallway. The first two rooms on the left and right side of the hallway currently serve no purpose, so we're skipping those. The far left side of the hallway will be MG Station 1, and on the right side there will be a room full of debris, which we'll get to later in this guide.

2: Scavenge your bunker and organize.

There are always things I like to get to immediately, once I start. First, there are 2 boxes in the barracks, under the beds that you can scavenge some extra supplies, or you could use them to store extra supplies. Where you store stuff and organize things is up to you, but it's important to at least know where everything is. You'll always want to keep ammunition in the armory, so you'll know where it all is. A high priority you should get immediately is a canteen in the kitchen's storage room, which you can keep in your inventory or hotbar. You can use this canteen to store water, and drink it to restore a large majority of your thirst -- if not all of it. You won't need the second canteen, so do with it as you will. You can either throw it away in the trashcan next to the ovens, or you can place it elsewhere.

A useful tip that I've been using constantly, is keeping medical supplies in the MG stations. These stations are important to defending your bunker, and you will take hits sometimes, so keeping med supplies close to where you're defending can help you a lot. You can also do this with grenades, guns, and ammo, but it's up to you. There's no written rules for this game that say you need to play exactly one way. If you did choose to store weapons in the MG stations, there are weapon racks you can use to have quick access to them.

3: Stuff you should have at all times.

While you do have to worry about how much weight you're holding, you can slim it down, and only worry about the important stuff to hold on your person. First, you want a primary and secondary weapon. I recommend starting out with the rifle you pick up off the table at the start of the game. It has decent range, good damage, and ammo is easy to come by, and easy to conserve. For a secondary, ditch the pistol you get from your fallen American soldier, and pick up a Mauser pistol. You'll get much more 9mm than you will .45 ammo. If you want a better secondary down the line, keep a lookout for the Mausen (not to be confused with the Mausen Pistol.) It is a fully-automatic pistol, with surprising performance, and the ammo is more plentiful than 9mm. If you want a fully-automatic primary later down the line, you can use the AR within the armory if you have a decent enough ammo pool for it. I'd recommend waiting until you've gathered 300 ammo at least for it, before you use that weapon -- but again, it's up to you.

Always keep that canteen on you. Drink when you're thirsty, and refill it when you get the chance. I recommend keeping 2 full sets of painkillers (5 is a full set) and 2 bandages. You can get hurt pretty fast, and bleeding can happen a lot, too, so your meds can go pretty fast sometimes. You always want a replacement for the meds you have on you, in case things go bad. If you think you can manage with one stack of painkillers, then at least keep two bandages on you, because you can only carry one bandage per slot, and they're the only thing that can stop bleeding.

Now, with all of that out of the way, let's move on to the next category.

This is an important skill to learn for the game. Luckily, it is simple to learn, but here's a basic rundown of what you should know.

Basic Morse Code Mechanics:

The radio in your bedroom is what you'll be using to receive and send messages, so it's important to learn how to use it. In order to use it, you will have to pick up the headphones next to the radio, then interact with the radio. You will have 2 options you'll generally be using throughout the game, and the game does teach you how to use them: receive message, or send message. When you pull up one of these menus, a paper will pop up, showing you which codes mean what. When you are receiving messages, you will get a 4 digit code from command, which you will need to decode with your translation paper. Translate the code on the left, with the translations on the right.

When you are sending codes, you will be sending codes to command. You'll get a predetermined code on the left, in which, you'll have to type in with your number keys. 1 is dots, and 2 are dashes. Once again, decode that predetermined message with your translation paper, and once you finish one digit, hit enter and move on to the next one. Once you finish your fourth digit, hitting enter again will either pass you to the next menu, or will tell you that the code is wrong. If you get your codes wrong, either receiving or sending, it will give you a new 4 digit code, so examine your translation paper closely to see exactly what you should be entering.

What to use the radio for:

Every morning, at 6AM, you must use the radio to receive orders from command to receive your daily missions for the day, in which, you will have until 12AM (midnight) to finish them. Once you've finished all of your objectives, you must again use the radio to send a message this time to tell command that you've finished them. Once you send the message, you'll be asked to claim a reward for finishing your daily missions. You can claim one reward, and this reward will be included in your next supply drop from command.

On days you are warned about an incoming armor attack, or plane attack, you will be able to send a message to command to request AT ammo, or AA ammo. You likely won't often use this feature, but if you find yourself lacking on necessary ammo for these things, consider using these supply drops if the attack doesn't begin immediately.

Once you've figured out how to use the radio, it's time to move on to the next section.

This will be a bit shorter, since there isn't too much to say about the combat in this game. While it is mostly just aiming and shooting, there are some tips I can give.

Abusing crouch and cover:

In the current state of the game, crouching is meta. If you crouch behind cover, odds are, the enemy AI won't see you, and you can pick them off without a challenge. This will probably change with the future AI rework, but for right now, use crouch and cover as much as you can. Crouching also reduces weapon recoil, so use it for stability.

Accuracy:

Accuracy for weapons seems inconsistent at best, so if it doesn't seem like you're hitting the target you're aiming at, just try again. It's hard to tell if you miss sometimes, but it just happens.

Enemies hurt:

This may sound like a dumb tip, but in the current state of the game, enemies will instantly laser you if you're in the open, and those with rifles will hurt you real bad. Keep med supplies on you, because until the enemy AI rework, they will always be hitting you if they see you.

A short section, but if you needed any of these tips, they're here.

Scavenging is essential to your survival. When you kill enemies, you'll want to scavenge their bodies when it is safe. Off bodies of the enemies, you can find food, ammo, and meds. Scavenging is probably the most IMPORTANT part of the game, and you should never pass up the chance to scavenge for supplies. A nice tip to use is hiding bodies when you're done scavenging them. If you search an enemy body, and have scavenged what items they had on them -- or if they didn't have anything on them -- you can hit F to hide the body, so you don't get confused and search a body you've already searched. There is also an option to hide bodies after you search them automatically. I recommend using this, because there's no point in keeping bodies around. (Don't worry, it will not get rid of the bodies until all of the items they were holding has been taken.)

There is also 2 crates on the map that you can find for some extra supplies. There is a broken down truck near the river, and a crate near a tree to the right of the trenches out front of the bunker. I'm not good with exact directions, so if that tip isn't clear enough, just try exploring a bit, or comment below to help others with finding them.

Cooking food is fairly simple. Above the ovens, there is a cookbook you can reference to when making a meal. While you aren't forced to use a recipe to make a meal, these recipes can improving serving size, and impact how much hunger you get back. Currently, serving size isn't too important, but once they add the feature back in when you have to worry about teammate hunger, as well, serving size is important to feed everyone.

In order to cook, you will first have to add water to the pan or pot. Next, you will need to add wood to the ovens, and then light them to start cooking the food. Once the fire is lit, hit your interact key (E by default) on the pan or pot you are cooking in to pop up a bar above them. This bar will start filling up as the meal begins to cook. There will be a blue skillcheck on the right side of the bar that you will have to hit your interact key on, once the bar reaches that point, in order to stir the meal. Only one key press is necessary, and once you've stirred the meal, you need only wait until the bar reaches 100%, and your meal will be ready to eat.

You will also be able to make tea and coffee, which won't improve your thirst greatly -- like water will -- however, they also improve your character's energy, which will help you stay active, if you don't want to sleep just yet, and are low on energy. In order to make a tea or coffee, first, get yourself a cup, and fill it with tea or coffee from their boxes. Next, fill the teapot with water, then set it on top one of the ovens, before lighting the fire. If done right, the number on the teapot will start going up, as your water will begin heating up. Once 100%, fill the cups with the hot water, and your drinks will be ready.

In order to cook anything, you will need chopped wood for the ovens. You can gather logs from around the map, and bring them to the outside of the bunker, beside the AA gun. Between them will be a tree stump. Place a log on the stump, then hold your interact key on it with an axe in your hands, and you'll get the chopped wood. You can then carry these pieces in your inventory, and bring them to the kitchen, where you can place them beside the left oven, so you can easily replace wood in the ovens when you need to.

When you have burned wood, sometimes, you will need to clean out the oven, in order to cook again. Simply pick up a brush from in front of the ovens and hold the interact key on the ovens, and then you'll be able to cook again.

When you pick up/equip a new type of medical supply, the game will teach you what that supply is used for. Their positives and negatives are important to take note of. Honestly, I don't have much to say in this category, as I don't use every type of medical supply. Just take note of what the game teaches you, but if I had to give any tips, remember to always keep painkillers and bandages on you, because in the current state of the game, they are the strongest medical supplies in the game. Take my word for it: they are the only supplies that are really worth using. You'll want to save your inventory space for scavenging. Never skip those tips!

Around your bunker, there will be a total of 6 weapon emplacements that you will need to manage. You have 2 MG stations in the bunker, 1 in the trenches, an AT gun in front of the bunker to the left side, and an AA gun next to the bunker. F9 will pull up the weapon conditions, which will tell you whether they need to be fixed, cleaned, or reloaded. In order to clean weapons, you need only approach it and hold interact on it, from the side of it. To fix them, you will need a toolbox, and need only hold interact on them. To reload them, you'll need their dedicated ammunition, which should be easy for you to figure out.

There will also be 2 doors to your bunker. One at the barracks entrance, and one at the MG Station 1 entrance. These doors can be open and closed at will, and can only be opened by allies, and by being destroyed by the enemy. They both have healthbars, and can be repaired by using toolboxes, similarly to gun emplacements. It's important to keep your stuff repaired and in good condition, but here are some useful tips to know, as of this version of the game:

Keeping weapons clean:

While keeping weapons clean is simple, there is actually a useful tip in this category. Weapons only get dirty when you use them. In the current state of the game, your allies will not get weapons dirty when in use. Let your allies use the weapons.

Keeping weapons loaded:

For MG's, you'll need drum mags, the AA, you'll need the AA mags, and for the AT gun, you'll need AT shells. In the current state of the game, allies use these emplacements the best, as their movement and turning speed is not restricted like yours. So, let your AI teammates use these emplacements, and cover them if need be.

These tips most likely will be outdated in the future, but for now, these tips stand, and you can use them well.

Cleaning your guns is important. There will be a bar below your primary and secondary gun when equipped in your hands, and this will indicate to you how dirty the gun is. If the gun gets too dirty, you will no longer be able to use it. Keep them clean! You can clean them on the crafting table in the armory, in the closest right corner.

In the current version of the game, there is only one crafting recipe that I know of. I don't craft very often, but being honest, I'm not really sure if there is anything other than an anti-personnel mine. Since you can get plenty of mines throughout the game, I don't often make mines myself, so if you want to make them, go ahead, but I'm not sure exactly what the recipe is. I think the game teaches you with a hint at the crafting table, but I can never remember what it is, because I never use it.

Now, this guide will be outdated on this category at some point, but currently, the allies are incredible for defense, and offense, but that's about it. Use them for emplacements, because they will use them much more effectively, as their turn sensitivity is not restricted, and their accuracy is good enough. This shows the best against planes -- which I am sure will be changed for balance in the future. While also manning emplacements very well, their combat effectiveness has drastically improved as well, making them reliable on the field. Use these allies, if you think a patrol is going to be too much for you to handle alone.

More updates have come out lately, and now, you must take care of your AI teammates in other ways. However, they will also be able to help with more, too! Learn your AI commands! While you must keep them fed, hydrated, rested and healthy, you can also tell them to finish defense projects for you, and even take out rubble in the bunker for you. Bottom line: Go through your AI command menu and learn everything they can do. Their stats will be on their dedicated menu, so you'll know what your companions need, and when. This knowledge comes easily with experience, so don't be afraid to utilize your teammates!

Currently, there's two types of mines. Anti-personnel, and anti-tank. In order to plant a mine, you will have to equip your shovel, (L by default) hit P (by default) to make a blueprint for a mine placement, then hit your interact key to confirm the blueprint. Once the blueprint is set, put the shovel away, then re-equip it, (because the game works weird like that currently) then dig up the blueprint placement. Once dug up, put the mine in the spot and arm it by holding interact. Once armed, bury the mine with the shovel, and then you're done. Quick tip: don't depend too much on mines. They're inconsistent at best, but if it helps, try to place them where they'll be directly stepped on, and have tank wheels drive over.

I don't think mines have any sort of AoE (area of effect) so expect their sensitivity to be low. They won't often trigger, even with enemies right on top of them, so don't depend on them.

Over the course of the game, your character's skills will be improving and leveling up. You can hit J (by default) to pull up your journal to see what skills there are, what level they are, and what improving them does. Most skills only really improve the speed in which you get those tasks done, with the only exceptions being cooking and deciphering. Cooking will also increase the size of the skillcheck for stirring, and decoding will increase the time given to you to decipher messages from command.

You should absolutely focus on strength, and at least get cooking to level up once. Strength improves your movement speed, and by default, cooking will require two logs to cook one meal, but once you level cooking up once, it'll only require one fire. These should be your priority, with a third -- if ANY -- should probably be medical.

There are a few mission types in the game currently, so let's go over the ones currently in the game.

Cook a meal:

To complete this objective, you need only successfully cook a meal, not needing to use any recipes.

Cook in the pot:

This objective is the same as the first, but you should focus on cooking a meal in the bigger pot, instead of the smaller pan.

Light a fire:

Simple and to the point. Light a fire in one of the ovens, and you're done. (No, you don't need to cook a meal with it.)

Make a tea/coffee:

Self-explanatory. You need only make a tea or coffee, sometimes requiring more than one serving, so keep an eye on the number you need to make in order to completely the objective.

Chop wood:

Simply enough, you need only chop the determined number of logs.

Do exercises:

To complete this, you need only exercise and complete it. (In order to exercise, you hit T by default, and this will also improve your strength stat.)

Weapon Maintenance:

When you get this objective, it's normally because one of your emplacement weapons are not in perfect condition. Either they are dirty, not loaded, or broken. If you can't tell which one it is, hit F9 to pull up the menu.

Supply Drop:

The game alternates between airdrop and jeep supply drops. When they arrive, an arrow will appear on your HUD, leading you to where it is, so you can take the supplies back home. Simply reach the objective and you'll complete it. Watch out for enemies during this objective (more often than not, the airdrop version.)

Patrols:

During this objective, you will need to look for an objective marker, and follow them, until they lead you back to the bunker. During this objective, you WILL be attacked by enemies, and you'll be caught out in the open, so utilize cover, bring meds, and bring at least 1 ally if you have one.

Defend:

This is it. The enemy is coming for your bunker. Prepare for an all-out assault by the enemy. This objective can vary every time. Sometimes, it'll only be infantry, sometimes, there will be plans, sometimes, there will be tanks. It's ungodly, but all 3 can be present at once, and trust me, in the current state of the game, it's just as annoying as it sounds. Use those allies of yours, since they can manage emplacements better than you.

Heal Yourself:

This is simple enough. If you're below 100% health, heal yourself, and you'll complete this objective.

When you complete your very first daily list, and are given the option to claim a reward for your next supply drop, the game teaches you that it alternates between airdrops and jeeps. Either way, you'll have to head over to the drop in order to complete your objective. The difference between the two, is that jeeps drops off a single ally, if you don't have the maximum of 3 allies.

Tanks are your worst enemy. Destroy those tanks. While the tanks will aim for your weapon emplacements first, once your defenses are destroyed, the tanks will target the bunker directly, and once the bunker healthbar reaches 0, you lose and have to start the day over again. Tanks should be your priority if you can help it.

They can be a big problem if gone ignored, as they will destroy your defenses to counter them with, as well. Be prepared with plenty of rockets, and have a weapon to back yourself up with, because the moment tanks are disabled, their crew will hop out and immediately start attacking you. Try not to put yourself in a bad position while taking on tanks. They won't target you directly, but stick to cover if you can!

Clear out that room full of rubble! There are some pretty useful stuff in there, and it's worth doing not only for those supplies, but increasing your strength level, as well. Let this be known, that you do not need to move the rubble outside of the bunker in order to get rid of the rubble. You can simple pick up the rubble, drop it, then load the save after the day has passed to make the rubble you've moved despawn. Another tip: try dealing with rubble until 12AM, after you have dealt with your daily objectives. 6 hours is more than enough sleep to restore your energy, and if not, you could always drink a tea or coffee to increase your energy more.

At the end of the day, most of the game is pretty easy to learn, and you will learn a lot on your own. Maybe even more than what I could convey in this guide. Especially since this guide will eventually be outdated, and obsolete. Makes me wonder why I even made it, but if this helps anyone, then I guess I can feel good about it, right? If you take anything from this guide, MAKE SURE YOU READ THOSE TUTORIAL HINTS. They will teach you more than what I could teach you, most likely.

I will admit, this guide is far from perfect. Maybe even far from good. This is the first time I've ever made a guide, over my years of playing games, and honestly, I am terribly anxious about making this guide, but hopefully, it'll be good to some of you, and help some of you along, defending your bunker. Hopefully, my guide wasn't bad for any of you.

o7