Steam Community :: Guide :: A Few Gameplay Tips

Store Page

Receiver

All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

Receiver > Guides > Qwazzy's Guides

165 ratings

A Few Gameplay Tips

By Qwazzy

PLEASE NOTE

I am no longer maintaining this guide. It's been ages since I played this and while I assume there have been few updates, I don't have the time or knowhow to make sure new tips work. So if you want more recent tips, be sure to check the comment section, a few users have posted some good ones there.

Award

Created by

Qwazzy
Offline

Category: Gameplay Basics

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

2 May, 2013 @ 1:48pm

30 Jul, 2017 @ 5:06pm

14,275	Unique Visitors
98	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

General Gameplay

Guns and Ammo

Sentries

Drones

Comments

General Gameplay

If you don't like a particular starting loadout (for example, getting the Revolver five times in a row) hold down the "L" key to start a new playthrough.
Don't kill everything you see; this is a good way to run out of ammo. Avoid enemies if possible, and return later if they could potentially be guarding a tape. (On the other hand, leaving a drone alive is not advisable either, as they could spot you later and dash in for the kill. So, it's partly situational and up to judgement.)
Windows are your friend. They're all bullet-proof (you can't shoot through them), block the sight of enemies, and allow you to collect valuable intelligence e.g. tape locations, bullet locations, and enemy locations. (Contributed by TerminalHunter.)
Near furniture (couches, sinks, baths, and that wierd crystal-looking thing) it is a wise idea to press and hold G near it, because sometimes ammo and even tapes can be hiding just out of sight. (Contributed by Draconic God of WTF.)
If you see a flashlight in a pile of ammo, want the ammo but not the flashlight because you already have one, then hold your flashlight when pressing G; the other flashlight will remain on the ground since the game sees you're already holding one.
Use your flashlight when scavenging for ammo, as it can be very hard to spot at times.
Be wary of crossing room borders - sometimes the next room will load when doing so and cause a spike of lag. This *could* potentially get you killed.
If the base game lags you a lot and you're willing to do a bit of work, it's possible to get the free version of Unity and compile the source code into a copy with no dynamic lights and much less lag. This takes time and disk space though, and the copy you make should not be distributed in any way as per their disclaimer.

Guns and Ammo

For the 1911 and the Glock, chambering a round takes it from the magazine; if you're OCD or want to ensure maximum readiness, chamber a round then insert another round into the magazine. This makes the max readied rounds 18 for the Glock and 8 for the 1911.
If you want to check that a round is chambered with the 1911 or Glock, hold "T", then hold "R" while still holding "T." This will let you look inside and ensure.
If you accidentally pull the slide and eject a chambered round, be sure to pick it back up if you can. Sometimes ammo can be scarce.
Practice the gun mechanics as much as you can. Your ability to survive will increase greatly when you can reload/manipulate the gun from pure muscle memory.
Press an empty hotkey (1-9) and unload a magazine (E) to instantly put the magazine into the hotkey. Double tap a magazine hotkey to instantly load it into the gun. (Contributed by Elaxter.)

Sentries

Sentries can be effectively executed from up close if they're alone. Wait until it's turning away from you and approach it quickly; as it's turning back towards you, aim at the camera mounted on the left side of the gun and shoot it. This will either disable it completely or break its camera in one go. I've personally done this nearly ten times and it's never failed me.
The tape basically says that the 'swivel base' [of the sentry] houses the motor and battery for the turret. The motor is at the front and the batteries at the back (the smaller end). Either way, putting a bullet into the thick area of the swivel base usually shuts the turret down. I've found that more bullets are needed as the playthrough goes on, maybe an indication of increased difficulty or me panicking and being unable to aim properly. (Contributed by Focusknock.)
Turrets have limited ammo. I had a strange bout of luck when I spawned next to one and watched it fire about a dozen times without hitting me. After that it functioned normally, but wasn't able to fire. (Contributed by TerminalHunter.)
Turrets can kill eachother. If you're unfortunate (or fortunate, after this tip) enough to find a narrow hallway with 3-4 turrets in it, try to get the one furthest away to notice you and have it shoot down the others. Make sure you're crouching for better cover and maximum damage to other turrets. Great way to conserve ammo and destroy turrets. (Contributed by TerminalHunter.)

Drones

If chased by a flying drone, make sharp 90 degree turns when you see its camera light. Basically: serpentine. Flying drones have a hard time turning. If you have to use this tip, it's probably already too late for you - but there are instances where I've been able to get away from a drone by running fast and making sharp turns at the last second. (Contributed by TerminalHunter.)
Another thing to keep in mind is that the drones can still stun you even if their flying apparatus is broken - and from farther than you think. I shot one once and disabled its flying, although it could still see me and use its weapon. I approached the thing to finish it off - and about two feet away it fired the shock weapon and took me out. I guess the game treats the shock as an invisible projectile with a very short range.
If you're paying close attention, you can see a drone in the distance that isn't moving because the area isn't loaded yet (this may or may not be patched at a later date). It is possible to shoot these down from a long range, though not always advisable, due to ammo constraints. (Contributed by Draconic God of WTF.)

61 Comments

< >

Senator Jim Death 1 Jan, 2023 @ 9:40pm

Pretty late to the game, but my best tip for this game was always "bind pickup to the same key as move forward." You want everything you can get (maybe not extra lights) and this way you almost never miss stuff buried in furniture or that you don't see, and you grab out of the air unfired ammo from early revolver reloads.

Greggory Tame 31 Dec, 2021 @ 6:00pm

Here's something very important to note about item spawning.

As you go away from spawn, Enemy and Tape spawns go up, while ammo spawns stay roughly the same. Your best strat is to try and stay as close to spawn as possible, grabbing ammo from all three floors of the tile before trying to move on to further ones.

as4er 7 Sep, 2020 @ 7:20am

nice

Fatmeatball 4 Jan, 2018 @ 12:26pm

Not exactly useful, but you can shoot out lights.

Rostovne 5 Nov, 2017 @ 3:54pm

In specific areas you can sorta glitch out the game. In the room with the crystal looking thing (what the fuck even is it) you can jump onto it and it is possible to see and fire through the roof.

In one of the rooftop areas it is possible to sprint jump from the raised portion onto the side roof, this is a great way to check for drones in the next room over.

Also sometimes a bullet wont penetrate the battery/motor box. (trust me this screwed me over as i shot the battery box of the turret 5 times point blank with the glock and it just casually shot me in the face)

Prioritize hitting portions of the turrets that will take out their camera (camera, battery) so that you won't confuse the beeps of a destroyed turret with that of a functioning one or worse confuse a detroyed turret with a functioning drone.

JCGemX 17 Aug, 2017 @ 4:00pm

also the music in this game is like a fulton radar from MGS. Because the closer you are to an area that has drones/turrets, the more the music gets up beat, and the further you are away from an area that has drones/turrets, the more the music gets calm down.

JCGemX 17 Aug, 2017 @ 3:53pm

or Fatmeatbell you can do what do whitch is to hold g before you press r so that the bullet that fly out of the chamber doesn't get lost

Fatmeatball 30 Jul, 2017 @ 7:36am

When reloading a revolver with a few good shots left, after extracting the shells, look down and press G on the bullets. It will automatically add them back.

Heartnire 14 Apr, 2017 @ 8:21pm

Thank you for the tidy and helpful guide! I have played this neat game a lot and thought I knew everything, but you've shown me otherwise. I have a few miscellaneous tips of my own to contribute, if I may:

Some flashlights are dimmer or brighter than others.

Shooting the ammo box of a stationary sentry (large, yellow block behind the gun), will disable the sentry's ammo feed, but it will still have one chambered. Dodge that last round and the gun will effectively be neutralized.

The point on your character's body that enemies must see to target you seems to be lower than the camera. When ascending stairs, you can see and safely fire upon bots with careful positioning. Inversely, descending stairs can be perilous. Don't say I didn't warn you about stairs!

If you move while aiming, your gun will shake and bob. Crouching reduces the shakiness.

If you're experiencing framerate issues, consider quiting and restarting the game. I've found that it increases my performance a bit.

Clan Wolf 17 Dec, 2016 @ 11:40pm

film 'They Live 1987', a lost master piece.

< >