Skip to the page
Numbers from the game's rules

03Field guide · Out there

Journeys and exits

Out there2 destinationsExits hidden4 min read

Both destinations are long journeys on a map made fresh for every run, with ways out nobody has told you about. No run is ever on the same map twice.

01Two destinations

The crew's host picks one at the convoy gate. Both are journeys: a new map for every run, with the infected thinning out near where you arrive and thickening the further you go. No two runs are on the same map, so there is nothing to learn by heart: every run you explore.

The two destinations
DestinationWhat it isMapExitsFinal timer
DowntownA whole district: stores, clinics, warehouses, plazas and fenced compounds along wrecked avenues.New every runHidden30:00
CountrysideFarmland: farmsteads on county roads, fields, woods and ponds. Long sightlines and few walls.New every runHidden30:00

Nobody can scout a journey: its map is only made when the convoy leaves.

02Finding a way out

Nobody tells you where the way out is. Each map has a handful of places one could be, all in its far part and always outdoors, and only 2 of them (sometimes 3) are real this run.

You find one by coming within 8 tiles of it with a clear view, or by stepping into it. Then your whole crew knows it, and it joins the run panel with its times.

The radio has your back. From 13:00 into a journey, a crew that knows no way out it can still use is told of one over the radio, and again if every one it knows has closed.

03When exits open and close

Exits keep their own schedule, and it's different every run. The run panel shows each one you know: lit while it's open, with the time it closes; grey with the time it opens.

When exits open and close
ExitWhen
One open from the startCloses between 18:00 and 26:00 in
Each of the othersOpens between 5:00 and 14:00 in

Once one of the others is open it stays open, and each has a 35% chance of being open from the start. A map with a single exit keeps it open the whole run, and so does every open exit once the generator job is done.

04Calling the pickup

  1. 01
    Walk into an open exit.Its circle is on the ground. A closed one, or a place that isn't a real exit, won't take a call.
    Open
  2. 02
    Call the pickup with F.The call is heard 14 tiles away, and a wave the size of your crew heads for that exit (once a minute at most).
    Loud
  3. 03
    Hold the zone for 20 seconds.The engine is heard 10 tiles away every 5 s while you wait. Step out, or let the exit close, and it's called off.
    0:20

Everyone in a crew extracts on their own countdown, so one of you can hold the zone while another is still on the way. The flare job calls a pickup of its own: fired from the radio mast, it lands at a landing zone 60 s later and waits 60 s (see jobs).

05The final timer

Every run has one: 30:00. When it runs out the map is overrun. Hunters come in every 10 s, 2 at a time, and they always know where you are. The exits still work, so the answer is the same as ever: get out.

06The journey bonus

A journey pays for the journey. Get out of one alive and you get reward items on top of what you carry: more the longer you were out and the more of the map you covered, and it takes both. Standing about near where you arrived, or a quick dash across the map, earns little.

  • Nothing for a run of 9 minutes or less.
  • Ground is counted in 6 by 6 tile squares you've stood in.
  • The tier scales it: ×0.5 on Calm, ×1 on Restless, ×1.6 on Hot.
  • A crew of up to 4 each gets their own, from their own time and footsteps.
  • At most 50 reward items, however long and far.