NOTE: This guide is heavily outdated, as it was based on a completely different build version. I will re-write this guide after this game exits early access

When you first boot up the game, you are given an option of four different playable characters to choose from. As of the writing of this guide, the only difference between these characters are their active abilities. However, if this changes as the game is developed, I will update this guide accordingly. I'll go over each one, and which are the best to use.

Boy Scout
Outburst A primal outburst of latent telekinetic ability. Damages and repels nearby foes.

This is probably the worst active ability of all the agents. It deals 50 damage to all nearby enemies and knocks them back. It can be nice to get out of being swarmed, but outside of that particular scenario it isn't all that useful. 35 second cool down.

Red

Overtime : A mysterious synesthetic connection to machines. Temporarily increases reload speed and rate of fire.

This is one of the better abilities, especially in the late game. It lasts for about 12 seconds and increases firerate by 33% and reload speed by 33%. It's very useful when you're getting chased, especially with slow firing weapons like the sniper or the crossbow. Probably the best ability late game. 35 second cool down.

Scalpel

Severence A merciless close range finisher. Lunges at a single enemy, dealing high psychic damage and regaining it as health.

This is my personal favorite ability. It deals 150 psychic damage to a single enemy, any leftover psychic damage is converted into physical damage. If it kills the enemy, the damage dealt is given back as health. It's very useful when an enemy is low to regain some health, but it has a major drawback, you aren't able to move for ~1 second after using it. This doesn't sound major, but when you're getting chased, it means the zombies will catch up to you and take away all that health you just regained. I'd recommend only using it on single enemies away from a group. 25 second cool down.

Beaker

Recovery Vial A miraculous chemical cocktail, courtesy of a triple-PhD in advanced bio-tech. Heals oneself and allies.

Another great ability, this one heals somewhere between 20-25 hp (can't be sure from testing) of your and anyone nearby's max health each use. It's great in a pinch, and it's definitely worth having at least one person of a trio having beaker equipped. It does really start to diminish in effectiveness in the late game as your max HP increases. 45 second cool down.

Verdict

Early game (most useful to least useful)

Beaker
Scalpel
Red
Boy Scout

Late game (most useful to least useful)

Red
Scalpel
Beaker
Boy Scout

Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses (except for Boy Scout, he's useless). I don't think there is a clear objective "best" character, it really comes down to when you want your ability to be useful. Red is by far the best at fighting the boss, but isn't really too useful in the early game, and Beaker's healing really falls off when you have more max HP. Scalpel remains pretty useful throughout, but her ability is also pretty situational. It's personal preference, but if you're playing in a trio, I'd recommend having at least one Beaker.

If you've just started playing, you only have access to the assault rifle when starting a run. As you collect blueprints, you'll get access to a wider selection of weapons to choose from. Two of them really come out on top.

The Pump-Action Shotgun

The shotgun is the best starting weapon to choose, by far. It does very high damage in a short amount of time, and it has a single shot reload. Single shot reloads are incredibly useful. Sure, you may only be reloading one bullet at a time, but you're doing it very quickly. This means you can reload one shell, and then dodge, and then reload another, instead of having to wait for a lengthy reload and getting surrounded by zombies. The shotgun also has a lot of total ammo, so you usually wont run out before finding an ammo pack. It's also a firearm department weapon, but I'll get into why that is so good later on.

The Revolver

Barring access to the shotgun, the revolver is the second best choice. It does high single shot damage, and also has a single shot reload. It has a much longer range than the shotgun, but is worse in all other aspects. There's not much to say here, everything that applies to the shotgun applies to the revolver, it's just the shotgun is slightly better damage wise.

Now that you've chosen your character and starting weapons, lets get into the meat and potatoes of this game, the actual runs.

Enhancement and Weapon selection

Assuming you've picked a shotgun or revolver, you can maximize your damage by following a simple strategy.

#1. Only buy / pick up other firearm department weapons (the red ones)

Firearm department weapons are the best by far. All the other weapons are much less powerful as of the writing of this guide. You can also take advantage of the one way enhancement if you get two firearm department guns, which I'll get into later. Some firearm department weapons are better than others. I'll rank them here.

Shotgun - Assuming you brought this in with you, it might not be worth grabbing unless it's a direct upgrade of your current shotgun.

Revolver - A great high-damage gun to grab, with a respectable rate of fire

Sniper - Extremely powerful late game, but pretty useless early game. If you see this toward the end of a run, you should grab it, toward the beginning though, it's your call.

SMG - This gun is very quiet, and won't alert nearby enemies. The damage is low but it boasts a very fast rate of fire. It's very easy to run out of ammo very quickly when using this gun.

Assault Rifle - The most basic firearm department weapon, not much to say here. It's not bad, but it doesn't stand out.


#2 Prioritize certain enhancements
You should always go for red enhancements whenever you can, to increase your proficiency. Proficiency is the number of enhancements you picked up for a certain department, it determines how many of the weapon perks you can use on a weapon.

Some enhancements are better than others, and in general there are a few you should look for.

The best firearm enhancements to choose are (from top to bottom, top being best):

Bloodshot

This one gives you +3% physical damage for every kill, up to 100%. The bonus resets if you get downed. Assuming you don't get downed, this is probably the best perk you can pick up, for obvious reasons.

Quickload

This enhancement reloads your weapon upon killing an enemy. This is really good for the Assault rifle, SMG, and sniper. However, for the revolver and shotgun, it will only reload 1 bullet for each kill, which makes it less useful. Definitely get this one if you see it though.

Synthetic Gunpowder

These enhancements are a base damage increase, +15%, +20%, and +40% for the silver, gold, and platinum levels respectively. Not really much else to say about this one.

Snowball

Increases your damage the less ammo you have in your clip, up to 100%. It's pretty good, especially for the shotgun or revolver where you're often sitting at 1 ammo when you're getting chased, but for other weapons it's less useful. Quickload also makes this pretty useless for most weapons.

Firearm specialist

Gives you +3 proficiency in firearms. If you haven't gotten the data nug upgrade that gives you +4 proficiency in firearms, it's worth picking up. Once you've gotten that upgrade though, this becomes pretty useless, since you should have ~8 proficiency in firearms if you've been prioritizing firearm enhancements.

The Best Non-Firearm Enhancements.

Hardbody

This is quite possibly the best perk in the entire game right now. Increases your max HP by +50% or +100%, which has saved me more times than I can count. I'd absolutely choose this over any other perk, except for maybe self starter.

One Way

It gives you +30% damage if both your weapons are from the same department, or a whopping +70% if you get the platinum version of it. This one's a no-brainer. Assuming you picked up another firearm department weapon at some point your run, this perk is really good.

Self Starter

It allows you to self-revive, with a 180s cooldown. As of the writing of this guide, this one is a little bugged. It works fine, but if you're the last one in your squad to go down, the game just ends and doesn't let you use this, which slightly diminishes its usefulness right now. Once that's patched though, this will be the best perk in the game.

Roll Back

This one's pretty good, it reloads your gun when you roll. If you already have quickload I wouldn't grab it, but it's pretty useful. Again, for the revolver and shotgun it will only reload 1 bullet per roll.

Lifeline

I personally don't like this one too much, it automatically revives any nearby players within 2m of you. It doesn't do it instantly, you need to sit near them, but it does allow you to shoot and protect yourself while you wait for them to be revived. It's worth getting, but there are better perks.

Resilience

If you haven't gotten the data nug upgrade that heals you passively, this one is definitely worth it. It gives you +5 health every 5 seconds, or +10 health every 5 seconds for silver or gold level. If you already have the data nug upgrade, I don't find this one too useful, but if you already have a lot of max hp it could be useful.

Coupon Clipper

This one's really good if you get it early on, but toward the end its kind of useless. It gives you 1 free reroll for each enhancement you find. It does save a lot of money, but if you find it in the office or the storage level, I'd skip it, since you've already gotten most of the enhancements.

There are many, many other enhancements, but these are the ones I'd prioritize going after.

#3 The Lategame

Assuming you've played your cards right and gotten a little luck with your enhancements, you should be doing some considerable damage with your weapons. Now is the time to start looking for high-damage weapons, if you haven't already. If you can manage to find a sniper rifle, that's what you want fighting the final boss. Barring that the revolver is a great choice, and the shotgun is great too. The sniper is the best choice for the boss though.

Hopefully luck is on your side and you've got a sniper, and some good enhancements. Hopefully you're dealing 300-400 damage per shot on the sniper, because you're going to need it.

The Boss

This is the hardest part of the game, not because it's hard to stay alive (although it is) but because the boss has a time limit. You've only got a few minutes to take down the boss, and it has a LOT of health. So you need pretty much be shooting at it 24/7 with your sniper rifle, revolver, or whatever highest damage gun you have. Around the walls of the boss are flame jets that will activate if you stand in one spot for too long, so always try to move around the circle to avoid them. Normal enemies will also spawn and drop ammo, so make sure to try to kill these first, so you don't run out of ammo. This bossfight really just comes down to a DPS check. If you got unlucky, it doesn't matter how much skill you have. If you don't deal enough damage when the time runs out, you lose. So you shouldn't try to hide from the boss or let yourself passively heal when you're low, you need to be on offense 24/7. If you manage to do it, congratulations! Enjoy your hard earned data nugs and tier 3-4 blueprints for your weapons. If not, don't sweat it, this game is really hard.

This guide is definitely still under construction, as this game is due to receive a lot of balance changes in the next patch. I'll also probably be adding pictures of the guns and of each enhancement later. I'd love to hear any strategies you have in the comments, or any errors in the guide. Again, it's worth remembering that this game is VERY hard. And you probably wont beat the boss on your first try, or your second, or your fifth. It takes a while to master the mechanics, as well as get enough data nug upgrades that it becomes easier. Anyway, thanks for reading my guide, and I hope it will help you beat the game!