Greetings everyone, and welcome to the expansion to Broken Lines, aptly named 'The Dead and the Drunk'.

Before you jump into the expansion campaign, there are two points that you should be aware of.

• In terms of difficulty, the expansion campaign is much harder than the main campaign.
  
• Though you can start the expansion campaign anytime (even without playing the main campaign), there are references that would only make sense if you have played at least half of the main campaign.

With that out of the way, let's go into the expansion and talk about the changes.

One of the biggest changes to 'The Dead and the Drunk' is the way that you start up the game.

When you start the expansion you are first given a choice of load outs that you can use. Initially you have access to the Default Squad, the Shotgun Squad, and the Rifle Squad.

When you complete the game with the initial squads, you get access to:

• Advance Squad
  
• Assault Squad
  
• Sniper Squad

As the names indicate, each squad comes with a specific load out assigned to the characters. Default is the initial weapons that each character uses when you unlock them in the main campaign.

You can see what the loadouts are by select the squad, that will open a preview of who uses what on the right.

Our recommendations for the difficulties are:

• If you have never played Broken Lines before, go with Cautious.
  
• If you have played Broken Lines before and this is your first time playing the expansion, daring is a good place to start.
  
• Reckless is only recommended for those that understand the mechanics of both the main game and the expansion. However, it is really fun once you know what you're getting yourself into!
  
• Custom allows you to choose what you want!

A note on custom settings.
When you select custom difficulties, you can pick a preset and then you will see the various modifiers that are applied to that difficulty. The modifiers are:

• Enemy Variety and Numbers - Increasing the variety makes for a harder tactical challenge.
  
• Player damage multiplier - The default value is 1, higher means your troops inflict more damage, lower means less.
  
• Enemy damage multiplier - The same as above, but for the enemies
  
• Revivals allowed - How many times you can revive your squad members before permadeath kicks in.
  
• Retry composure loss multiplied - Every time you retry a mission, you loose composure, once composure drops to 0 squad members can abandon your team. This setting controls how much composure is lost every time you are forced to retry a mission.
  
• Enemies can use weapon abilities - Allows the enemy units to use the abilities granted by their weapon type.
  
• Enemies can use explosives - Allows enemies to use grenades and other explosives.
  
• Enemies can move freely - Allows the enemies to move away from their starting position (even before you notice them)
  
• Enemies can use teamwork - Whether or not the enemy units will co-ordinate their strategies or act independently.

If you use the custom settings, hit apply first, then hit return to start things up!

Broken Lines The Dead and the Drunk introduces some new mechanics to the game that you will need to get used to if you want to win.

Bloodlust is something that you need to maintain at a higher level and is done so by giving them booze to drink. If the bloodlust hits zero, they will have enough and leave (essentially you loose that squad member).

This is similar to the composure mechanic found in the main campaign, however, when you give the squad member booze (in order to build some bloodlust) it will also have another effect. See the Booze section for more.

Booze is vital to keeping the squad member's bloodlust up, without it they will leave the fight and you wont be able to use them anymore. What's more, when you give the character booze, it will unlock a special trait.

If you need more booze, you can buy some from Izkor using any left over Salvage.

As usual, Izkor can also sell you new weapons, but he also has bait and abilities for sale.

Bait is a new item that that you can using when in a mission to lure Zombies to specific locations.
This becomes vital the more you play as Zombies attack in swarms, and if you are not careful they will quickly overwhelm you.

To help you control the zombie hordes, you can tell your squad members to throw bait. As you may guess, zombies will run the the bait, giving you some vital time to organize yourself.
A good tactic would be to lure the zombies to a location, and have another squad member throw an explosive once they have grouped together. Just remember, timing is vital!

Sometimes watching others play is better than just reading about it. If that describes you, then please check out the recording of the Broken Lines developer's launch day stream.

In the video, you'll get an explanation of the various mechanics, have some vital tips and tricks, and learn about some strategies for how to deal with the zombies.