Ultrakill is an early-access single-player FPS game consisting of currently 8 chapters called "layers". The game itself is based loosely on Inferno by Dante and similarly is played through the perspective of a war machine descending through the layers of hell. Each layer of hell includes 1-4 regular levels followed by a boss fight and a secret level hidden somewhere in the layer (we'll get to those later). There is also some post-game content that will be talked about later in this guide.

The first choice to make in the game is in difficulty. Currently there are five difficulties available: Harmless, Lenient, Standard, Violent, and Brutal. Standard is considered to be the intended Ultrakill experience, it's the difficulty that the lead developer plays on and everything is balanced around Standard difficulty, for most gamers this is the best choice for their first play through. Lenient and Violent are also good choices, moving the difficulty up or down based on how much challenge you enjoy. It's worth noting that difficulty has no effect on the damage anything inflicts, but rather the speed and behaviors of the enemies. If you're a more casual or less experienced gamer then Lenient may be right for you, while someone that thought Dark Souls was reasonable may prefer Violent. I encourage most players to avoid Harmless and Brutal modes for now. The last thing I'll mention here is that you can always move down in difficulty if you find yourself frustrated, but to move up you have to start from the beginning on the higher difficulty.

Ultrakill has very little story in most peoples first runs, the game is almost entirely gameplay-focused unless you go out of your way to find the rest, so don[t cheat yourself out of the fun of the game. Playing on Harmless to focus on the story will probably leave you underwhelmed.

There are five weapons in Ultrakill, each with three variants, and three of these weapons also have alternate versions. I won't talk about what those weapons are right now, but this section will be about when each weapon is unlocked, how the weapons terminal works, and what alternate weapons are.

For the non-alternate weapons, you're in luck, the're VERY hard to miss, in most cases being mandatory for moving on. To talk about where each weapon is, I first need to cover the level index scheme. Every level has a name, but I'll be referring to them by their indexes, which is the layer number followed by a dash followed by the level number. The first layer in the game is called Prelude and has the layer index 0, so the third level in Prelude would have the index 0-3 (called "zero dash three" in plain English).

Prelude
Prelude includes three weapons: an arm you start with and two you pick up. The first weapon picked up is in 0-1, the first level of Prelude before fighting enemies, since you need guns to shoot things. The second picked up weapon can technically be found in 0-2, but it's intended to be found in 0-3.

Limbo
Limbo, the second layer, includes two weapons and one alternate version of a weapon. The first weapon is found in 1-1, but is somewhat skippable. If skipped, it will appear at the start of 1-2 directly in front of you, so you won't end up without it. The next two weapons appear in 1-4, one arm and one alternate. You can only use one arm and one version of a weapon at a time, so you'll use the weapons terminal to pick which combinations you want to use. For the alternate weapon version, you'll need to find something hidden in each of the Limbo levels, look around in 1-4 for hints on what you're looking for.

Lust
Your next weapon is in the Lust layer, specifically 2-2, and is mandatory to continue through the level. The weapon is lit up, big, and immediately in front of you, it's impossible to miss.

Greed
From there, a layers is skipped, your next weapons are in the Greed layer, one arm and one alternate weapon version. Both weapons are in 4-4, however one is not accessible on the first run through the level. The other, the arm, is mandatory for completing the level. After completing the level the first time, you can replay it to find the alternate weapon as well as a faster route to the boss fight. For hints on how to find the alternate weapon, explore 4-3 a bit more.

Wrath
The last regular weapon is found in 5-3 a little past halfway through the level. There's a secret way to skip it, but otherwise it's a mandatory pickup to progress the level. I have a feeling you'll like this one.

Violence
The last weapon alternate is in the current last layer of the game, Violence. The weapon is well-hidden and requires interacting with hidden things in 7-2. I can't think of a way to keep this one vague, what you have to do is go fast through all the whiplash sections to get into a secret compartment at the end, do that a few times and you'll open the door to the alternate weapon. Find the door and you'll have your full arsenal.

The Shop
The last thing to talk about is the shop. If you've been playing the game while reading this you probably understand it by now, but here's the rundown anyway. In the Weapons section of the terminal at the start of each level (or before a boss fight) you'll have the option to customize a specific weapon slot. Each different color of the same weapon is called a "variant" and requires P, the in-game currency, to purchase. P is obtained by completing levels stylishly with bonuses for no restarts and no damage taken. The numbers before each variant tell you what order the variants are in, so your favorite variant should usually be 1 and your least favorite should usually be 3. It may help early on to unequip some variants to simplify combat, but once you're comfortable with the game you should have everything equipped. Equipping and unequipping is done with the buttons on the right of each variant, you can click the word (either Equipped, Alternate, or Unequipped) to cycle through the options or use the arrows to cycle through in a specific direction. Yes, it's two buttons that do the same thing and one that's slightly different, but for modded weapons with more than one alternate the arrows can be helpful. For all weapons, the blue variant is the base variant that you unlock when the weapon is picked up. I recommend buying variants in order of cheapest to most expensive, but feel free to buy whatever catches you eye the most.

Each layer has a secret level (kind of) that can be unlocked by taking the secret exit hidden somewhere in the level. With the exception of Gluttony and Heresy, all secret exits require only stuff done in the same level, meaning you wouldn't need to do something in one level to open a secret exit in another. This section is about what level each secret exit appears in with the occasional hint to make sure you're not too off-track.

Prelude
The secret exit is found in 0-2. With a bit of careful observation you should be able to find this one without too much trouble.

Limbo
This secret exit is very easy to access but most people struggle to figure out what to do. The exit can be found in 1-1 in the very first room. Your hint is that you don't need to leave the first room to open the exit, good luck.

Lust
This one is a bit trickier to find, but it's in 2-3. The hint for this one is that if you're observant you can actually see it in one of the rooms, but something is preventing you from accessing it. Look around for a way to get rid of that barrier. The level challenge might be a good place to start.

Gluttony
Not technically a secret level, but there's an alternate exit in 3-1, I'll talk more about this in the Post-game Content section, so make a mental note but skip it for now.

Greed
This can be found in 4-2 after completing a hidden puzzle. The first step is near the blue skull, but not in plain sight. Look around, think out of the box, and you'll find this one without too much trouble.

Wrath
This is another one where the level challenge might be a good place to start. Look around in 5-1 and you'll find what you need for the challenge, from there it's a bit random but you'll be able to find it.

Heresy
Similarly to Gluttony, this one should be skipped for now, but you'll find the door in 6-2.

Violence
The final secret level is found in 7-3, but I won't give you a hint for this one. Instead I'll direct you toward the in-game hint located in 7-1, check out the level challenge there and see what you can find.

So you beat the game, now what?You could start farming secret orbs to get all your gun cosmetics, but I have a feeling you're more interested in killing demons than a paint job.

First there's the Cybergrind, the wave-style endless mode with a dynamic stage layout and customizable everything. You shoot stuff and rack up a ton of P in a short time, what's not to love?

Secondly there are the Encore levels. Admittedly these are quite difficult, they're meant to be revisiting the layers in new ways with new mechanics. These are hard, but with enough patience you should be able to get through them, maybe watch your footing in 1-E though.

Lastly there are the "secret levels" for Gluttony and Heresy. These are very different from regular secret levels and the game actually classifies them as something else entirely (up to you to find out what) and they're unlocked in a much different way. For the one in Gluttony, you need to P-rank all of Act 1 (not Prelude for some reason) and find the door in 3-1. For the one in Heresy, you need to P-rank all of Act 2 AND complete the "secret level" from Gluttony. For clarity, a P-rank is achieved by completing a level with S ranks in time, kills, and style, all without any restarts or checkpoint loads. This sounds hard to do but it's fully worth it, these levels are the ultimate Ultrakill challenge, are great ways to test your skills, and are some of the coolest levels in FPS gaming, you do not want to miss out.

This section is slightly spoilery, but I feel it's something I feel it's worth including to push people in the right direction toward using their weapons in more fun ways. This is the part where I'll use actual weapon names and give some ideas for cool stuff you can do with weapons, both combined or separately. Ultrakill is all about using weapons in cool and creative ways, so this section is meant to give you ideas to try out, not to tell you what the meta picks are.

• You can shoot your own rockets and core ejects with hitscan weapons (pistols or rail cannons)
  
• You can parry your own shotgun pellets
  
• You can parry coins
  
• Shooting coins when they flash causes them to split and hit two enemies
  
• Coins can be chained
  
• You can shoot coins with anything hitscan
  
• Shotguns have separate reload animations and near-instant swap speed
  
• Pumping the pump shotgun three times causes an explosion when firing
  
• The knuckleblaster's explosion can kill filth in one hit
  
• Dashing gives you invincibility frames, even through explosions
  
• You can parry your chainsaw
  
• Nails and saws behave different around magnets
  
• Nails stick to enemies and cause electricity to chain to grounded enemies around them
  
• Using any nailgun charges the overheat nailgun if you swap to it fast enough
  
• You can ride on rockets
  
• You can parry cannonballs
  
• Gasoline sticks to enemies
  
• The jackhammer can parry
  
• The jackhammer can launch timestopped rockets
  
• You can slide across the surface of water without sinking
  
• Alt firing the sharpshooter revolver can explode projectiles
  
• Water conducts electricity
  
• The knuckleblaster's explosion repels projectiles
  
• Whiplashing enemies picks them up
  
• Sliding for a brief moment and jumping preserves most of your speed

Let me know if I missed something obvious. I wanted to leave out more specific tech like deadcoining or ultraboosts since those are more specific use cases for weapon interactions. The goal of this guide is to give people the tools to play the game to its fullest without telling them how to do it or what they'll find.

Many people enjoy playing games blind, this guide is to allow people to do that while still helping them see everything they want to see. Hopefully you found this to be helpful without being too obvious, it's a bit of a sweet spot so let me know if I missed the mark and I can improve things over time. I plan to expand the guide once the last two layers are added, but for now we're all waiting for Fraud.