1. Quick Start
Your job has two connected parts. In Command View, select a Havenport district and decide whether to spend scarce resources on Quarantine, Evacuation, Medical Aid, Research, or a Field Operation. Every strategic action advances the campaign by one day. During a Field Operation, you directly fight infected, rescue specialists and use field structures. Mission results are applied back to the selected district and then the campaign advances one day.
- Select Central Transit, the initial high-pressure transmission hub, or another district whose stats you want to improve.
- Read Infection, Power, Medical Capacity, Stability, Local Trust, Supplies and Mutation Pressure.
- Choose a strategic action or press Deploy for that district's mission.
- In combat, use WASD, mouse aim/fire, Shift, R, G, Space, 1–4 and Q.
- Complete both kill and rescue requirements shown by the mission HUD.
- Return to Command and reassess the city after day-end spread is calculated.
2. Command Layer
Humanity represents the civilian-survival outcome of your campaign. It rises from humane/rescue-focused choices and drops when multiple districts become catastrophically infected. Stability is recalculated from average district stability at day end. Research directly helps suppress day-end infection growth and unlocks stronger strategic resilience. Trust is recalculated from local district trust and is also changed by your decisions.
Your shared stockpile contains Supplies, Medicine, Fuel, Scrap, Tech and Ammo. Supplies and Medicine are consumed automatically at day-end (3 Supplies and 1 Medicine per day), in addition to the costs of actions and field construction. Scrap, Tech and Medicine can also be consumed inside tactical missions when you build.
3. Districts, Threat and Infection Spread
Havenport has six connected districts. Infection state labels are: Stable below 15%, Unstable from 15–29%, Outbreak from 30–54%, and Critical from 55% upward. Threat is a separate score based on Infection + 60% of Mutation Pressure + 20% of lost Stability.
At each day-end, every district receives base infection growth, pressure from more-infected neighboring districts, and mutation pressure. Medical Capacity, Stability and global Research reduce that growth. Above 35% infection, Power, Medical Capacity and Stability begin to decay each day. Above 55%, Trust begins to decay and Mutation Pressure begins to rise. Every third day also triggers one random strategic event.
| District | Starting infection | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown | 23% | Commercial core / relay recovery |
| Mercy Medical | 16% | Medical district / researcher extraction |
| Ironworks | 31% | Industrial belt / power defense |
| Old Town | 11% | Residential / civilian evacuation |
| Central Transit | 42% | Main transmission corridor |
| Harbor Ward | 27% | Logistics / supply recovery |
4. Strategic Actions
| Action | Cost | Immediate effect before day-end |
|---|---|---|
| Quarantine | 8 Supplies, 3 Fuel | District Infection −12, Stability +5, Local Trust −8; global Trust −3; Authority +5, Civilians −7. |
| Evacuate | 10 Fuel, 7 Supplies | Evacuates 8% of local population, Infection −6, Local Trust +4, Humanity +4, Civilians +6, Authority −2; each neighboring district gets +2.2 infection pressure immediately. |
| Medical Aid | 12 Medicine, 5 Supplies | Medical Capacity +16, Local Trust +8, Infection −4, Humanity +2; Civilians +5, Research faction +2. |
| Research Team | 5 Tech, 4 Supplies | Global Research +10, local Mutation −6, Intel +1; Research faction +8, Civilians −1. |
Every one of these actions then advances the campaign one day, so an intervention's listed reduction is not the final displayed number after day-end spread. Plan for the rebound.
5. Field Missions
| District / mission | Requirement | Campaign reward on success |
|---|---|---|
| Mercy Medical — Hospital Extraction | 22 kills + rescue 1 | Research +14, Medicine +18, Infection −10, Trust +5. |
| Ironworks — Power Station Defense | 32 kills | Power +18, Scrap +20, Infection −7, Stability +6. |
| Central Transit — Containment Breach | 38 kills | Infection −16, Stability +8, Trust +4, Research +6. |
| Harbor Ward — Supply Run | 26 kills | Supplies +24, Ammo +40, Scrap +22, Infection −6. |
| Old Town — Civilian Evacuation | 20 kills + rescue 2 | Infection −7, Trust +10, Humanity +8, Supplies +8. |
| Downtown — Command Relay Recovery | 28 kills | Infection −8, Research +8, Trust +5, Intel +1. |
A successful mission applies the reward, possible rescued-specialist bonuses, faction changes and mutation feedback, then advances one day. A failed mission adds 5 local infection and removes 4 Stability before day-end. Aborting still advances the day.
6. Tactical Combat Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| WASD / Arrow keys | Move |
| Mouse | Aim |
| Left click | Fire |
| Shift | Sprint; drains Stamina |
| Space | Dodge; costs 18 Stamina, grants a short invulnerability window and has a 0.9s cooldown |
| 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 | Pistol / Rifle / Shotgun / Marksman |
| R | Reload current weapon from reserve ammo |
| G | Throw grenade in aim direction |
| Hold Q | Open build wheel; click a structure to deploy it ahead of you |
| ESC | Pause/resume tactical simulation |
| F1 | Open/close this manual |
You start a mission with 100 HP, 50 maximum Shield (starting at 0), 100 Stamina and 3 grenades. Sprint speed is faster than normal movement. Stamina regenerates when you stop sprinting. Damage is absorbed by Shield first; any overflow passes into HP.
7. Weapons and Shooting
| Weapon | Damage | Magazine / reserve | Reload | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pistol | 24 | 15 / 60 | 1.0s | Accurate, economical backup. |
| Rifle | 19 | 30 / 90 | 1.55s | Fast sustained fire; moderate spread. |
| Shotgun | 13 × 8 pellets | 8 / 32 | 1.9s | Close-range burst damage with wide spread. |
| Marksman | 100 | 5 / 20 | 2.1s | Precise high damage; one point of penetration. |
Headshots deal 2× damage. Armored infected reduce incoming bullet damage by their armor percentage. Accuracy is calculated from projectile/pellet hits divided by projectile/pellet shots fired, so a shotgun contributes eight shots per trigger pull. Running an empty magazine automatically attempts a reload.
8. Infected Types & Adaptive Director
| Type | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Normal | Baseline infected. Frequency falls as infection rises. |
| Runner | Fast and fragile; becomes more common with higher district infection. |
| Tank | High HP, slow, heavy damage. Mutation and frequent building increase its director weight. |
| Spitter | Can deal ranged damage within roughly 330 tactical units on a cooldown. |
| Armored | 35% bullet damage reduction. Mutation and explosive-kill history increase its director weight. |
| Crawler | Very fast, low HP; favored by higher infection. |
| Screamer | Periodically forces the next spawn sooner, effectively calling reinforcements. |
| Breacher | Appears once you have built multiple structures and preferentially attacks structures. |
| Boss | First spawn of every fifth tactical wave; high HP, 15% armor, heavy damage and guaranteed extra pickup drops. |
The director is intentionally reactive. Building many structures raises Tank/Breacher pressure; explosive kills raise Armored pressure; district Infection boosts Runner/Crawler/Screamer pressure; Mutation boosts Tanks, Spitters and Armored infected. Successful missions also slightly increase local Mutation based on explosive kills and slightly reduce it based on headshots.
9. Building, Pickups and Field Economy
| Structure | Cost | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Barricade | 15 Scrap | 220 base durability; delays attackers. |
| Turret | 30 Scrap + 10 Tech | 140 base durability; automatically attacks nearby infected. |
| Shock Trap | 12 Scrap | 4 charges, 65 damage per trigger. |
| Med Station | 20 Medicine | Heals 8 HP every 1.5s while you remain within range and are injured. |
Important: tactical construction spends the same persistent campaign stockpile shown in Command View. The Combat Engineer perk raises structure durability by 45%.
Field pickups are Health, Ammo, Shield and Scrap. Health normally restores 26 HP. Shield adds 28. Ammo adds half a magazine's worth of reserve ammo to every weapon. Scrap adds 4 to the campaign stockpile. Bosses drop three pickups.
10. XP, Levels and Perks
Kills award XP based on enemy score. On level-up, XP correctly carries over, maximum HP increases by 5 and HP is fully restored. Every even field level offers up to three perks.
- Trauma Recycling: heal 3 HP per infected kill.
- Rapid Cycling: fire 28% faster.
- Scavenger Network: pickup chance rises from 24% to 42%.
- Volatile Rounds: bullet impacts create small area damage.
- Reactive Shield: regenerate Shield at 5 points per second up to maximum.
- Combat Engineer: +45% structure durability.
- Field Medic: Health pickups restore 40 HP instead of 26 and also grant 10 Shield.
11. Survivor Network & Factions
Rescue missions can recover named specialists. A newly recovered specialist permanently joins Command and immediately applies their bonus: Dr. Maya Chen (+6 Research), Marcus Hale (+5 local Power), Elena Torres (+4 local Stability), Noah Bennett (+5 local Medical), Imani Brooks (+8 Supplies), or Eli Novak (+1 Intel).
Three faction scores track the consequences of your choices: Emergency Authority favors control/defense, Civilian Coalition favors evacuation, aid and rescues, and Research Network favors research/recon. In this vertical slice they are persistent reputation indicators and decision feedback; they do not yet gate a separate ending.
12. Audio, Accessibility & Performance
The game uses a procedural Web Audio sound engine, so no external audio download is required. Sound begins only after your first click/key interaction because browsers block autoplay. Separate Master, SFX and Ambience volume controls are available in Settings, along with a global mute switch and a Test Sound button.
Settings also include Graphics Preset, Screen Shake, Reduced Motion, High Contrast and Dynamic Resolution preference. Audio and accessibility settings are stored with the autosave.
13. Practical Strategy Tips
- Do not evaluate an action only by its immediate number. Every action advances the day and infection is recalculated afterward.
- Central Transit matters disproportionately. It begins highly infected and connects to every other district, so it can export pressure citywide.
- Protect Medicine and Tech. They are both strategic resources and tactical construction currencies.
- Quarantine is powerful but politically expensive. Use it when transmission reduction is more urgent than trust/faction relations.
- Evacuation shifts risk rather than deleting it. It saves Humanity but immediately adds infection to every neighboring district.
- High Medical Capacity + Stability + Research is your long-term defense. These directly reduce day-end infection growth.
- Headshots are strategically cleaner than explosives. They deal double damage and slightly reduce post-mission mutation pressure; explosive kills push mutation the other direction and can increase Armored pressure during the mission.
- Build deliberately. Structures are strong but cost persistent resources and cause the director to introduce counters such as Breachers and more Tanks.
- Use dodge for contact damage. Its short invulnerability window is often more valuable than using all Stamina on sprinting.