Mechanics

Player mechanics

• Health – The player Health is tracked by body part, being recovered over time.
• Death – The player character dies for a variety of reasons causing them to drop some items, losing equipment Durability, and resetting some Statuses in this process.
• Inventory – Players can store and organize items in their own inventory or in container objects.
• Jobs - During Character Creation, the selected job applies initial Skills and gives base Trait points.
• Traits – During Character Creation, the player can spend and gain points by choosing positive or negative Traits for their character.
• Skills – Player characters can improve their survival abilities by gaining Experience in Skills when doing certain actions.
• Buffs and Debuffs – Effects that are applied under certain conditions which provide either benefits or penalties while active.
• Stamina – Player's ability to sprint, jump, block attacks, and perform heavy attacks, Regenerates over time.

Survival mechanics

• Hunger – The player has a Hunger meter, which can be filled by consuming food items.
• Thirst – The player has a Thirst meter, which can be filled by drinking water or other drinks.
• Continence – The player has a Continence (toilet) meter, which can be filled by using any of the toilet variations.
• Fatigue – The player has a Fatigue meter which can be filled by Sleeping on beds or certain couches.

Item mechanics

• Charging – Certain items like the Flashlight or the Vacuum will consume Energy on use, eventually becoming unusable if they run out of Energy. Charging Stations can be used to recharge items that require Energy by placing the item on the station while being held in hand. Colored lights on the station will show the item's current charge (blue lights) and how much is left to be charged (red lights). Once fully charged the Charging Station will play a short series of tones until the item is removed.
• Cooking – Stoves can be used to cook food. This can be done either by placing a Frying Pan or Frying Pan (Makeshift) on the stove to cook meat or by placing a Cooking Pot or Cooking Pot (Makeshift), filled with 1000ml of water, to cook soup. Soup will require ingredients to be added to the pot and different combinations of ingredients will result in different soups.
• Crafting – Many items will need to be crafted throughout the game. Some items can be crafted from the player's Inventory as long as they have the necessary resources, but most items will require a Crafting Bench. Crafting an item will consume the resources required. Items crafted will generate Crafting Experience.
• Decay – Some items, like meat and vegetables, will decay over time. Upon decaying completely, the item will then spoil and turn into something different, like Rotten Food.
• Durability – Some items, like weapons and tools, will lose Durability as they are used. Each item has its own Durability loss chance, which is the chance an item will lose Durability on use. Items can lose at most a single point of Durability per use. Upon reaching zero Durability, an item becomes broken. Some broken items can still be used, but they may be less effective than normal. Items can be repaired so they will be in working condition again.
• Liquids – Liquids, like Water and Tainted Water, can be found throughout the game. They can be consumed or collected inside containers like Water Bottle and Plastic Bucket. Consuming certain liquids, like Tainted Water, might also cause certain status effects. A pot of Tainted Water can be boiled to create clean Water, though at a ratio of 4:1 (one pot of Tainted Water (1000ml) produces 250ml of Water). Liquids might also be electrified if they're close to electricity.
• Planting – Seeds can be used to grow plants, which can then be harvested. Seeds can be planted on any Garden Plot (Round) or Garden Plot (Square). A container with Water, like a Water Bottle, can be used to water plots. Watered crops will then grow until fully maturing after 5 in-game days. Some crops may be harvested once an in-game day while others must be replanted with seeds. Seeds can be found throughout the game, but they can also be obtained by salvaging certain items or by crafting.
• Recipe Learning – Recipes are learned via a variety of interactions in game.
• Recipe Researching – Some recipes require the player to complete a minigame on top of learning them.
• Recipe Sharing – The player can share learned recipes with other players.
• Repairing – Items that have lost Durability can be repaired by using a Repair and Salvage Station with each item requiring a different resource to be repaired. Most items can also be repaired if the player has Duct Tape in their inventory, by right-clicking the item that needs to be repaired and choosing "Repair with Duct Tape", although this is far less effective and only repairs 5 points of Durability.
• Salvaging – Some items can be salvaged by using a Repair and Salvage Station. Salvaging an item destroys it and generates resources depending on the item that was salvaged.
• Weight – Each item has its own weight. Items that the player character has equipped or is carrying in their Inventory or Hotbar will add to the player's total weight. Upon reaching certain weight thresholds, the character will then suffer penalties to movement speed, stamina regeneration and jump cooldown - no penalties if the bar is blue, small movement speed penalty if the bar is yellow, higher movement speed and reduced stamina regeneration if the bar is light red, and a higher movement speed, disabled stamina regeneration and cooldown between jumps if the bar is bright red. Moving while the weight bar is yellow or light red will generate Strength Experience, but not if the bar is bright red. Items in the Hotbar have their weight reduced by around 25%.

Blue bar - no weight penalty

Yellow bar - light weight penalty

Light weight penalty status effect

Light red bar - heavy weight penalty

Medium weight penalty status effect

Bright red bar - overencumbered, heavy weight penalty

Heavy weight penalty status effect

Object mechanics

• Aim - The aim icon indicates various possible actions to take on the target when aimed at by the player.
• Area Effects – Some objects create an effect around their placed position. Examples include a powered Crafting Bench suppressing enemy respawns, a Healing Briefcase healing players around it, and a Snag Vines cone that slows enemies when they walk through it.
• Building – Some deployable objects require building after being placed. A Screwdriver, Makeshift Screwdriver, Hand Drill, Power Drill, or Construction Gauntlet is needed to build. Building generates Construction Experience.
• Dismantling - Non-player placed furniture can be dismantled with the use of a Hammer. Dismantling furniture will destroy it and cause some items to drop, depending on the furniture that was dismantled.
• Energy - Some objects, such as crafting benches and other workstations, must be powered to be used. Batteries can be used to store power when the facility powers down for the night.
• Inventory – Some objects can hold items and packaged objects inside them for later use.
• Packing – Furniture and other deployable objects can be packaged by holding down the F key. Packaging furniture or a deployable object turns it into an item that can be carried in the player's inventory. Packaging non-player placed furniture found throughout the game has a chance of failure - failing to package an item earns the same result as dismantling it, causing items to drop depending on the furniture that was attempted to be packaged. Each level of the player's Construction Skill increases the chances of packaging the object successfully.
• Repairing – Furniture and other deployable objects may suffer damage if they're attacked, eventually being destroyed and dropping some items (similarly to dismantling) if their Durability reaches zero. Damaged furniture and deployable objects can be fixed by striking them with a Hammer. Repairing furniture and deployable objects generates Construction Experience.
• Salvaging – Furniture and other objects can often be destroyed by repeatedly attacking it, or dismantled with a Hammer, which drops their constituent parts on the ground. They can also sometimes be salvaged for parts at a Repair and Salvage Station.
• Vending – Vending Machines can be found throughout the game and can be used to purchase sodas, food items, Mug of Coffee, or a Slushie. Purchasing an item in a Vending Machine costs $1, or they can be shaken after reaching level 5 Strength for a chance to receive a random item.

Building a Barricade (Makeshift)

Dismantling a Barricade (Makeshift)

Food vending machine

Soda vending machine

Slushie vending machine

Coffee vending machine

Combat mechanics

• Armor – Armor pieces reduce damage taken, but only protect the body part on which they are worn. Armor degrades upon taking damage. It will lose its effectiveness if its Durability reaches 0, requiring repairs in order to be effective again. Armor weight affects the player's movement speed. Armor weight class is indicated as a dial in the Inventory.

Weight Class	Speed Penalty
1	0%
2	5%
3	11%
4	18%

• Chopping Remains – After an enemy is killed, their remains can be chopped up by any sharp weapon (such as a Kitchen Knife, Shiv, or Makeshift Spear) to collect their remains. The quality of the remains obtained depends on the weapon used and the items obtained depends on the enemy killed.
• Assault Events – On occasional nights, enemies will spawn around a Crafting Bench if it is within a certain range of a player.
• Weapons – Weapons are used for attacking enemies or breaking containers like wooden boxes. They deal damage according to the weapons value and the respective skill. Weapons degrade upon hitting anything. Upon reaching 0 Durability, a weapon can still be used, but dealing far less damage and has to be repaired in order to deal full damage again. Different weapons have different attack speeds and patterns. Blunt weapons can perform a power attack if no shield is equipped and the player has Blunt Melee level 3 and bladed weapons can be thrown if no shield is equipped and the player has Sharp Melee level 3.

Movement mechanics

• Teleports – Some areas of the facility contain portals that can bring you to certain places in the facility, and even other worlds.
• Vehicles – Forklifts, security carts and SUV's can be used to navigate quickly around the GATE facility.
• Tram - A large personnel vehicle on a set path that can be found in almost every sector.

Environment mechanics

• Day-night cycle – The in-game time is displayed on the Watch, in 10 minute increments. Wall Clocks show time more precisely. The Watch beeps once at the start of every in-game hour. During the day, each in-game hour lasts 2 minutes of real time (30 in-game seconds pass every second of real time); during the night, each in-game hour lasts 30 seconds of real time (2 in-game minutes passes every second of real time). The power in the facility goes out at 9 PM and comes back at 6 AM of the following day. When the power is out, some changes will occur: all lights will go out (except for some independent light sources, see the "Light" section below), the temperature in the facility will drop to Chilly, all power outlets will stop providing energy to any deployable object connected to them (but batteries can be used to maintain power during the night) and Security Robots will start to patrol the facility, engaging in combat with alien creatures and player characters upon spotting them, then returning to their pods when the power returns.
• Light – Some areas of the game are less illuminated and therefore harder to see. The power also goes out every night (see "Day-night cycle" above). In order to light darker areas, some independent light sources (for instance, Wall Torch, Desk Lamp, or Standing Lamp) can be used. A Flashlight, Makeshift Flashlight, Scrapshot FL, Security Pistol FL, or Makeshift Headlamp can also be used to light up darker areas.
• Radiation – Carrying items that emit radiation or being close to any sources of radiation will cause the player character's radiation level to increase. Radiation levels from the environment or the character can be measured by using a Geiger Counter. Reaching 6 points of radiation will cause the character to acquire the Radiation Tingle debuff. Reaching 35 points of radiation will cause the character to acquire the Radiation Sickness debuff, which will cause the character to throw up once and reduce the character's radiation level by 5. Using a toilet also reduces radiation depending on Continence. Incoming radiation can be reduced by items or buffs such as the Rad Resistant buff and the Lead Vest.
• Temperature – Higher or lower temperatures can affect the player's character and cause certain debuffs if they are too hot or too cold. The player character's temperature will increase or decrease based on certain factors like their surroundings or equipped items - for instance, when the temperature drops at night (see "Day-night cycle" above) or being close to a Heater or a Crafting Bench with the Bench Warmer upgrade.
  • Ambient temperature levels have no effect on the decay rate of decayable items.
  • Temperature Resistance can be changed by wearing gear that has a Heat Resistance or Cold Resistance stat. The Weathered Trait provides +1 to both Heat & Cold resistance. The Sun Disk Trait provides a +1 Cold Resistance.
  • Total temperature resistance is indicated by the temperature bar on the HUD and status screen; the colored squares representing the resisted temperature levels will disappear. For example, having 3 cold resistance will result in all three blue squares becoming invisible.

Heat

Stage	Resistance Value	Debuff
Warm	0	Warm
	1+	Comfy (Warm Resisted)
Hot	0	Hot
	1	Mild Heat
	2+	Toasty (Hot Resisted)
Heatstroke	0	Heatstroke
	1	Heat Exhaustion
	2	Borderline Heatstroke
	3+	Sweaty (Heatstroke Resisted)

Cold

Stage	Resistance Value	Debuff
Chilly	0	Chilly
	1+	Brisk (Chilly Resisted)
Cold	0	Cold
	1	Mildly Cold
	2+	Cool (Cold Resisted)
Hypothermia	0	Severe Hypothermia
	1	Moderate Hypothermia
	2	Borderline Hypothermia
	3+	Frosty (Hypothermia Resisted)

Power Mechanics

Outlets

Outlets provide unlimited power throughput, when active. A single output can be attached to as many Plug Strips and Plug Boards, in any configuration desired, and to as many powered devices from those, with no reduction in power provided.

For the purposes of the below section, devices that pass power through themselves (batteries, Plug Strips, Plug Boards, and Cable Reroutes) have an "upstream" network and a "downstream" network. Upstream is in the direction of the outlet, and the upstream side of a device is where a cable is plugged in to. Downstream is in the direction of the output of the device, and the downstream side of a device is the power socket(s) on the device (and anything they are connected to).

The below also relies on familiarity with the concept of wiring something "in series" or "in parallel". Devices wired "in series" means the output of one device is used as the input for the second device, and so on. Device A plugs into Device B plugs into Device C. Any branching of the wire network, but Plug Strips or Plug Boards, occurs strictly before or after the series of devices (in this context, batteries). Devices wired in parallel means where there is a Plug Strip or Plug Board that splits into the two devices. This isolates the two devices from each other, and while they still combine when impacting upstream networks, the devices themselves and their downstream networks are completely separate.

Batteries

When powered by live outlet upstream, either directly or through a cable network, batteries also provide unlimited power to devices downstream of them, just as when plugged into an outlet directly. In addition, they charge their internal power storage, if it is below maximum. Battery charge rate is completely independent of how many devices are connected either upstream or downstream of them in the power network, and is dependent on the type of battery. When not connected to an outlet, or when the outlet has been shut off for the night, batteries discharge their internal power storage to keep devices they are connected to powered.

When not powered by a live outlet upstream, a batteries drain rate is proportionate to the total number of devices in the downstream network of the battery. Notably, this does include any further batteries connected in series, and anything those batteries are connected to. This does not include Plug Strips or Plug Boards, but does include any devices connected to them. For example, if Battery A is connected to Battery B, which is connected to a Crafting Bench, then Battery B has one device downstream, the Crafting Bench. Battery A has two devices downstream, the Crafting Bench and Battery B.

When discharging power, batteries lose 1 charge every 5 seconds per devices downstream of the battery. This means that the total time it can provide power is equal to 5 * TotalCharge / NumDownstreamDevices. So in the above example, if both batteries are Makeshift (50 charge), then Battery B will be able to provide 250 seconds of power to the Crafting Bench, as it has only a single device downstream. Battery A, on the other hand, is providing power to both the Crafting Bench and to Battery B (yes, despite Battery B not logically consuming power in this situation), and so only provides power for 125 seconds before depletion. Battery B will not lose any charge until Battery A is depleted, however, so the total power time provided is 375 seconds.

The practical effect of this is that wiring batteries in series is substantially less efficient than it is in the real world. In the above example, adding Battery A, since it is powering two devices downstream, added only half as much power time as Battery B did. If a third battery was added ahead of Battery A, it would only add another 83.3 seconds of power, as it would be powering three devices. Each additional battery added in series increases the total battery power time by BasePowerTime / TotalBatteriesInSeries.

For another practical comparison, if two Makeshift Batteries are wired in parallel (ie. Outlet -> Plug Strip -> each battery separately), and each battery is powering a single device, the power to both devices will last 250 seconds. If the batteries are instead wired in series and connected to the same two devices (Outlet -> Battery A -> Battery B -> Plug Strip -> two devices), the power will only last 208.3 seconds (Battery B has 2 devices downstream, so 125 seconds of power, and Battery A has 3, so 83.3 additional seconds of power). If the batteries are wired in series and only connected to a single device, the power will last 375 seconds (not 500).

All types of batteries have two vertical indicators on the top of them. The one at the rear, colored white, indicates the current charge of the battery out of its maximum charge. The front indicator, colored light blue, indicates how many devices are downstream of it in the electrical network.

Batteries and Night Length

On standard game settings, nights last 270 seconds. A Battery (Makeshift) (50 charge) can provide power to a single device for only 250 seconds, resulting in 20 seconds of power loss at the end of the night. In order to avoid this power loss on critical devices, such as a Crafting Bench or Refrigerator, they must be powered by either two Battery (Makeshift) (50 charge) wired in series (and thus subject to the above inefficiency, but still providing 375s of power), or a single Battery (Industrial) (100 charge) or better. Note that the Industrial Battery, if used to power 2 devices, has the same issue: 20 seconds of power outage at the end of the night.

NOTE: The battery discharge rate is independent of the Day/Night Cycle Speed setting. Adjusting the cycle speed to 1.1 (or more precisely, 1.08, though the in-game slider only allows precision to the tenths decimal place) completely removes the 20 second gap in battery coverage without dramatically affecting day length or balance. Adjusting the world settings in this way permits an even integer ratio between batteries and devices for lasting through the night: Makeshift powers 1 device, Industrial powers 2, Carbon powers 7, and Quantum powers 14.

Rather than using 2 Makeshift Batteries per device, however, better ratios are achievable. 3 Makeshift Batteries wired in series can power 2 devices for 270.83 seconds, which is just long enough to sustained through the night and a more efficient use of batteries than two pairs of batteries in parallel, each powering a single device. More than 3 in series, however, is continuously less efficient (ex. it would require 7 batteries in series to power 4 devices), and thus no more than 3 Makeshift Batteries should be wired in series. Additional efficient ratios:

• 2 Battery (Industrial) (100 charge) in series can power 3 devices for 291.67 seconds, using one less Industrial Battery than one-per-device. This ratio also holds true for 4 Industrial Batteries power 6 devices (for 272.82 seconds), but loses efficiency beyond that.
• 1 Battery (Carbon) (350 charge) can power up to 6 devices for 270 or more seconds. Regardless of whether they are wired in series or in parallel, this ratio holds true, 6 devices per Carbon Battery, up through at least 20 batteries (120 powered devices).
• 1 Battery (Quantum) (700 charge) can power 12 devices for 291.67 seconds, but two Quantum Batteries in series can power 25 devices for 274.62 seconds. This ratio, 25 devices per 2 Quantum Batteries, holds true up through 18 total Quantum Batteries wired in series (or parallel), for 225 total devices powered, and falls just short at 20 total batteries in series.

Since the fundamental goal is just lasting the extra 20 seconds of night time, another option is to use one "root" battery near the socket, which feeds a large branched network, each with its own dedicated battery, with the only purpose of the "root" battery being to cover those additional 20 seconds each night.

Since a Makeshift Battery lasts 250 seconds normally, a single Makeshift "root" battery can output to a series of Plug Strips or Plug Boards that are then connected to up to 6 additional Makeshift Batteries, each of which is powering a single device. This results in the "root" battery having a total of 12 downstream devices, and thus lasting a total of 25 seconds before it runs out of power, with the other 6 batteries, each only powering a single device, able to cover an additional 250 seconds, for 275 seconds of power total. This drops the total ratio of batteries to powered devices to 7:6, which is a significant improvement over the 3:2 ratio above.

Industrial Batteries support a similar structuring, but use a different ratio because of the downstream count effect. An Industrial Battery can support 25 devices downstream and still last for 20 seconds, and a single Industrial Battery can support 2 devices for all except those 20 seconds. As a result, the optimal configuration for this is a single "root" battery connected to 8 additional Industrial Batteries (in parallel), each of which are powering 2 devices, with the "root" battery subsequently having 24 devices downstream and thus lasting for 20.83 seconds. The overall ratio of batteries to powered devices is 9:16, versus 2:3 if using clusters of batteries in series, though this is less dramatic of a savings than it is with Makeshift Batteries.

Advanced Power Options

Laser Emitters provide a wireless way to transmit unlimited power over long distances. When connected to a power output, Laser Emitters emit long-range, continuous laser beams which can be harnessed directly by certain deployable objects, or converted back into electrical power using a Laser Power Converter.

Lasers must maintain a clear, unobstructed line of sight to their destination for power delivery. Entities and players standing in the path of a laser will take continuous damage and interrupt the laser.

The beam from a Laser Emitter can be redirected or split up to three times, using Laser Reflectors or Laser Prisms. Lasers will appear dimmer and deal less damage after each pass, but there is no loss in power throughput.

Laser Emitters always count as a single powered device, regardless of any additional devices powered by the Laser Emitter. As such, batteries can power an unlimited number of downstream devices while only being drained by a single Laser Emitter.

The game is coded to prevent direct feedback loops (e.g. you could not do Battery -> Emitter -> Convertor -> Plug Strip -> original Battery) for direct infinite power, but this does mean that a pair of Makeshift Batteries in series, fed into a Laser Emitter -> Laser Power Convertor pair, can keep the entire base powered regardless of how many devices are involved.