How to play

GTFO is a 4-player cooperative first-person shooter, with elements of stealth, resource management and position defence. This guide will act as a very basic introduction to the game and its mechanics. If you would like more information to look at the individual pages or learn yourself in-game.

If you do not own GTFO you can purchase it on Steam here:

## Complete Training

The first thing you should do when launching GTFO for the first time is to complete the Training expedition. This will cover the basics of how to play, in a controlled environment.

## Before you play

### How to find a group to play with

The first option is to play with friends who already have the game, either by using the Lobby Id system or by joining through Steam.

If you do not have friends who already have the game, the in-game matchmaking system is also an option. The matchmaking has a few options, such as Primary language, secondary language and a mic option, which lets you decide if you want to have people using the in-game voice chat or not. The matchmaking is currently in Alpha so there are some bugs to be expected, which is why many people use the third option:

The official GTFO Discord contains several channels dedicated to players looking for groups to play with. There is more information on the Discord server itself. Once you have enough people ready to play you can use the lobby ID system: the host is able to copy a lobby ID to their clipboard, which can then be shared with the other people playing, they copy it to their clipboard, and when in-game you will have an option on the Rundown screen to join the lobby.

Finally, if you don't want to add other players, you can fill your lobby slots with bots.

While the game can be played with less than 4 players/bots, it is an unwise choice as there is no difficulty scaling, meaning you will face the same number of enemies with a lower amount of firepower. This does make for a good challenge if you find yourself bored with the current rundown. Playing solo will prove to be extremely difficult, much of the time even impossible depending on the mission. However, it can make for extremely good practice with certain skills necessary to play the game well, i.e room clearing.

### Selecting your load-out

When in the lobby within GTFO you will be able to select a primary weapon, special weapon, tool and melee weapon.

Primary weapons are generalized weapons which are meant to be usable in most situations, they have larger ammo reserves and are effective against most enemy types.

Special weapons are meant for more specific situations, they have lower ammo reserves but excel in their own ways.

Tools are used to give tactical advantages, for both inside and outside of combat, they are meant to make situations more manageable, but have limited ammo like weapons.

Melee weapons are your choice to conserve ammo. They do inflict different amounts of damage and each one has its own effective range.

### Prisoners

Prisoners are the player characters within GTFO, there are four different prisoners to play as, determined by your position in the lobby. You can change the apparel of your character (Helmet/Torso/Legs/Backpack/Palette).

## Basic mechanics

The flashlight can be turned on and off (F by default), the flashlight will change depending on which weapon you are using, flashlights will make enemies stir and alert if they are shined onto them for too long, so be careful with it.

Pinging (Middle Mouse by default) can be used on item boxes, items in boxes and doors, these pings will appear to all players and be visible from anywhere, they also are shown in the color of your name in-game.

There is also a map accessible (Tab by default), which can be used to navigate the expeditions and to temporarily draw on.

Prisoners can also crouch, which will reduce speed but make less sound allowing you to get closer to enemies within stealth; sprint, which is faster but much louder; and jump, which can be used to get to vantage points, though fall damage is very punishing so care should be taken when around heights.

Friendly fire is always on in GTFO, the only weapons which do not have friendly fire are melee weapons, turrets and mines will not target players however they can be damaged in the crossfire.

Prisoners can be afflicted with infection while in the complex, the infection will cause your max health to be limited and slowly drain when above the limit. Infection can be gained from multiple sources and can be removed by multiple means. It is represented by a green bar above your health.

## Expeditions

### The Rundown

Levels in GTFO (or expeditions) are grouped into Rundowns. Each Rundown contains a group of levels that range in difficulty, with the tier of the level acting as an indication of how hard it is. The easiest expeditions are in tier A, while the hardest (so far) are in tier E. In the past, when a new Rundown was released the previous Rundown became inaccessible, though that is no longer the case and from now on all newly released Rundowns will be permanently accessible.

Expeditions are the levels within GTFO, taking place within the complex, an underground facility. The objective of an expedition is a task given by the warden; this is in the top left of the screen for most of the level, unless otherwise specified, there is no time limit for any of these objectives or expeditions, so, in general, take your time.

### Warden objectives

The objectives within GTFO are the only thing you should care about. If something isn't going to help you achieve your objective don't do it, and once you've completed your objective don't stick around, just GTFO. The objective for an expedition will never change however some parts of it may change, such as the locations of items you are collecting. The number of items you must collect and the number of items in the level will always be the same.

### Lockers and boxes

Within expeditions there are items the players can find which can be helpful or necessary for the completion of a level, they are found within lockers and boxes (distinct orange colour). There are 3 types of items which can be found within containers: Consumables, Keys and Objective items.

All these consumables and their containers are procedurally generated with each level so they will not be the same each run.

### Doors

Doors within an expedition will always be the same. They are useful tools if utilised correctly, but can be dangerous if alarmed. There are two types of doors:

Normal doors which can be opened and closed at will. They can also be reinforced with C-Foam to withstand more punishment. If closed, enemies will destroy them if they are in the direct path towards the player.

Security doors which can be opened, but cannot be closed. To open a security door you will often have to complete a bioscan, which requires players to stand in a designated area for a short time. Some security doors will be protected with an alarm. Alarms will cause waves of enemies to spawn until deactivated by additional scans. The number and type of extra scans can vary, but is generally indicated by the alarm's class.

### Locks

Locks are obstacles which will block a player from being able to open a door or resource locker/box. There are two types, physical and electrical. Physical locks can be removed by melee or bullets and makes a noise in a small range around it when broken alerting sleepers. Electrical locks require a hacking minigame, which when failed will make a noise in a small range, alerting sleepers.

### Zones and subzones

Within expeditions, there are areas which are categorised into different zones and subzones. These are shown with both numbers and letters. Zones are separated with security doors, subzones are separated by normal doors. There are exceptions to this rule in the form of holes within walls you can enter.

### Terminals

Terminals within GTFO are the main source of information within each expedition, they can be used to see which items are in which rooms, find specific items and at some objective specific points do special commands.

On a terminal typing "help" and "commands" will be helpful to learn how to use them to their full potential.

### Bulkheads

Bulkheads, more specifically Bulkhead Doors and Bulkhead Door Controllers, are a mechanic related to Sectors, the bulkhead doors act as a way to enter the areas of the map which feature the layered difficulty, or as a way of preventing players from completing some parts of an expedition before a certain sector.

## Enemies

Sleepers are the main enemy within GTFO, and as their name suggests you will find most of them within a dormant state, though there are some which prefer to stay awake.

### Stealth

To succeed within GTFO a large part is being able to keep within stealth, this is not mandatory, but it saves ammo and health. Sleepers can be killed stealthily with the melee weapon, if you kill them in one hit, if you do not kill them with the first hit they wake up and if not killed quickly, alert the rest of the dormant enemies close to it. If you make too much noise and do not pay attention to the warnings of lighting up and they begin to thrash around or continue to shine a light on them when the same warning signs happen. Killing a sleeper too close to another sleeper will cause that sleeper to wake up (~5 meters). Sleepers glowing are more vigilant and will detect a sleeper being killed from longer distances. Sleepers are affected by line of sight, killing a sleeper in an area where other sleepers would not be able to see it will not alert them even if they are glowing.

### Biology

Sleepers are resilient, being able to live without their heads and all their top halves in some special cases, however, they do have weak points which can be exploited to reliably kill them quickly and instantly in some cases. The different variations of enemies have different health, damage, movement speed and weak-points.

## Tips

* Aim for the weak spots.
* Don’t waste ammo when not needed.
* Running away is a tactic
* Utilize your environment.
* Communicate

And remember: They react to sound and lights.