| W ↑ | Walk toward your mouse (where your flashlight points) |
| S ↓ | Back away from the mouse |
| A D ← → | Sidestep |
| Mouse | Aim your body and flashlight |
| Shift | Sprint (uses stamina, and drones hear it) |
| C | Crouch on / off: slow and silent |
| F | Flashlight on / off |
| E | Use: hack a terminal, talk, listen to an echo, hide under a car. Hold it behind a drone to rewire it |
| Left click | Throw a bottle (a noise that lures drones) |
| Right click / G | Ping a spot for your squad |
| Space / Q | Your class ability |
| M | City map |
| I | Intel: terminals found, clues, echoes |
| Tab (hold) | Rankings |
| Enter / T · Y | Team chat · chat to everyone |
| Wheel + − | Zoom |
| Esc | Close any window |
| H | This manual |
- Crack terminals. There are 12. Each gives your squad one letter of the passphrase, scrambled.
- Reach the Nexus Core in the centre with at least 8 letters and enter the phrase. A wrong guess locks your squad out of the Core for 45 s.
- Hold the ring. The right phrase starts an upload: 90 s with all 12 letters, +15 s for every letter you're missing (150 s with 8). Cracking more terminals during the upload speeds it up.
- It only runs while more of your squad stands inside the 14 m ring than any single rival squad. Tied or outnumbered: it pauses. Nobody inside: it pauses. Progress is never lost.
- NEXUS fights back: a purge on the Core, drone waves every 6 s, more at 25 / 50 / 75 %, and the Hush at 50 %.
- The first finished upload wins and ends the game. Everyone else is ranked by points. If time runs out, the highest score wins.
Points
| Crack a terminal | +100 (first squad to crack it: +50 more) |
| Finish the upload | +1000 |
| Supply drop | +75 |
| New echo | +5 |
| Supply cache | +2 (max 40 per squad) |
| Hint | −60 (free for Hackers) |
| Caught by a drone | −40 |
Walk up to a terminal and press E. The screen rarely holds the answer. The city does.
- Read every wall, listen to every echo, talk to whoever is still awake.
- Keep your eyes open when the city glitches.
- Some terminals need more than one of you. A squad of one gets a solo version (and more time).
- Everything you find is kept under I.
Rules
| Finding one | Terminals within 12 m appear on your squad's map |
| Wrong answer | You're locked out of that terminal for 3 s, then 6, 12, 24, up to 48 s (half for Hackers) |
| Hint | −60 points for your squad (free for Hackers) |
| Cracking one | Loud: drones within 50 m come to look |
| Answers | Capitals, spaces and punctuation don't matter |
Drones
| Patrol / chase speed | 3.2 m/s / 6.6 m/s (faster than jogging, slower than sprinting) |
| Sight | 22 m in their searchlight cone, 3 m all around. Walls block it |
| Seen from less far | Standing still: half · crouched: −40 % · flashlight off: −20 % · in a blackout: −45 % |
| Seen from further | Flashlight on: +25 % · caught in the Hush: +30 % |
| Hearing | Sprinting 20 m · jogging 6 m (Runners: silent) · crouching silent · bottle 22 m · car alarm 40 m · cracked terminal 50 m |
| Chase | A drone that sees you calls every idle drone within 60 m. It gives up 3.5 s after losing sight of you |
| Safe from drones | Inside any base · hidden under a car · 6 s after a respawn · near your squad's rewired drone |
| Caught (1.5 m) | Back to your base, stunned 3.5 s, −40 % battery, −40 points |
Cameras
Wall cameras sweep a cone. If one sees you, drones within 60 m come running. Crouched and still, they can't see you. E on a camera switches it off for 60 s.
You
| Stamina | Drains only while sprinting. Refilling starts 1.5 s after you stop, 1.5× faster standing still (times per class). Run it completely dry and you're winded: no sprinting until it's back to 40 % |
| Flashlight | Drains while on, outside your base. Your own base refills it in 8 s. Supply caches +25 % |
| The Hush | 12 s warning, lasts 18 s. Get indoors, into your base or under a car, or move at 55 % speed and be seen 30 % further |
| Purge | NEXUS sweeps a 30 m zone for 45 s with 10 drones. Leave it |
| Bottles (left click) | Throw up to 18 m. Drones within 22 m go to check the noise. Start with 3, carry up to 5 |
| Rewire a drone (hold E) | From behind (Engineers: any side), on a drone that isn't chasing. It escorts your squad for 25 s (Engineers 40 s). Kit recharges in 60 s (Engineers 30 s) |
| Power relays (E) | Yellow wall boxes. Black out the district for 75 s: drones see 45 % less, cameras go blind. Noisy (30 m). 4 min before it can be cut again |
| Hide (E) | Under tarp-covered cars. Invisible until you move. Counts as shelter from the Hush |
| Car alarms | Sprinting next to an alarmed car sets it off for 12 s (40 m of noise) |
| Supply caches | Yellow cases: +25 % battery, sometimes a bottle. Respawn after 75 s |
| Supply drop | Announced by Juno, lands 20 s later, stays 100 s. First to grab it: +75 points, full battery and stamina, a terminal revealed |
| Survivors (E) | Each one reveals a terminal to your squad once. Won't talk with a drone within 12 m |
| Pings (right click / G) | Mark a spot for your squad, also by clicking the big map |
Classes