I recently gave my first impressions on GTFO, calling it one of my favourite co-operative experiences in recent memory. GTFO is a deep and complex game that requires top tier communication. Here are a few tips that will help you survive the rundown.

These GTFO tips are mostly tailored towards the first few missions (A1, B1 and B2) as to spoil as little of the game as possible, but the same basic strategies will still be useful in later levels.

1. Your and your squad’s loadout

The weapons and gadgets that your squad brings are essential to the success of the mission. What weapon should you bring? Well, that’s mostly personal preference, but your choices should compliment each other. Here’s a rundown of every weapon at the time of writing.

Primary:

• Pistol -My personal pick. Two-taps most enemies with good ammo efficiency, though its iron sights are weak.
• SMG – What it lacks in damage, it makes up in utility, just don’t try to use it at a distance.
• Assault Rifle – Better at range than the SMG, but I found myself lower on ammo more regularly.
• DMR – One-shots most weaker enemies with a single headshot, but poor ammo capacity.

Secondary:

• Fully-Automatic Shotgun – Great for crowd control thanks to its high damage output and spread. Though that spread can often lead to more shots. My go-to.
• Semi-Automatic Shotgun – Similar to the automatic shotgun but its closer spread leads to much higher single enemy damage with a much slower reload speed.
• Sniper Rifle – Able to kill Scouts with a single headshot though its inefficiency at close quarters and low ammo capacity make it very focused tool.
• Machine Gun – High damage but also high recoil, I’d recommend using this in burst mode rather than automatic fire.
• Revolver – Very high damage potential, able to take out most regular enemies with a single head-shot.

Tools:

• Biotracker – Able to detect enemies of up to 25 meters away and through walls. Almost essential for first time going through a map stealthly.
• Mine Deployer – If you know where enemies are spawning from on an alarmed door, this will destroy most of them before they even reach you. The obvious downside is that a single enemy can trigger mines, wasting precious ammo.
• Shotgun Sentry – Exactly what you would expect, a shotgun sentry that automatically shoots targets and is surprisingly ammo efficient.
• Burst Sentry – Pretty much the same as the Shotgun Sentry, powerful but slightly less ammo efficient.
• C-Foam Launcher – Able to reinforce doors and slow enemies down.

Most squads should be running at least two turrets, with the rest being pick and choose.

 

2. Don’t wake the sleepers

Sleepers are the main enemies in GTFO, and you should be spending the vast majority of your time avoiding them at all costs. As the name implies, they are sleeping around the map but are sensitive to light and sound; as you begin to move they will start to light up. Once they start pulsating and making noises, STOP! Any more movement will alert them to you. To take them down simply charge up your melee to the max and let loose on their heads, but being too close to others may wake them up as well. In that case, synchronise your attacks. Also, keep your flashlight off whilst you are in a room with them, they are sensetive to light and this will quickly alert them. A quick flash won’t do much and the glow sticks don’t alert them at all, so if you need light, those are your solutions.

Unfortunately, Sleepers aren’t the only enemy types to worry about, and very soon you might run into enemies that are much bigger and already active. Don’t worry too much as you can also take these out without alerting the rest. The scouts send out Tendrils (or Feelers) in all directions: if a player touches one of these everything will be alerted and more enemies will spawn. You can only attack it with its tendrils retracted, so wait for the right moment to strike. The brutes are similar to regular sleepers and can be taken out with all four players attacking at the same time.

If you do wake them up, make a quick judgement whether or not you can take them all on or if you need to retreat and set-up.

 

3. Understanding the terminals

I briefly mentioned in my first impressions about the importance of the terminals. They are a tool that you will want to be using on almost every level when you get the chance. Not only will they basically tell you where your objective is, but can also tell you about resources in each zone. On top of this you can apply filters to each command for more effective results.

• LIST – Lists all the items on the floor
  • List “Item type” – List all of a specific item
  • List “Item type” “zone” – List all of a specific item in a zone
  • Example: List Ammo Zone_23
• QUERY – Gets more specific details about items
  • If you query a Ammo Refill it will show you how many uses it has left
  • Performing a query on a door will reveal where it leads
  • Example: QUERY AMMOPACK_455
• PING – This is what you use when you are in the correct zone.
  • Ping “Full item name” – Gives you a more accurate location and even emits a noise to make it a little easier to locate.
  • Example: Ping HSU_704

In the Rundown level “B1” you will need to find 12 ID tags out of a possible 17. Without knowing where you are going, this can be a brutal mission. By using the terminals to find the ID tags, you can avoid entire sections of the map and make things much easier.

 

4. Understanding items and resources

Throughout the Complex you will find a small variety of different gadgets and resources around the place. Make sure you bring what you need with you and remember where other items are in case of emergencies.

• Glow-sticks are really common and really useful. They provide a temporary light source that makes stealth a lot easier and best of all, doesn’t wake sleepers.
• Long-Range Flashlight projects a brighter beam of light that illuminates much more of the area. Use sparingly as this can quickly alert enemies.
• Ammo/Tool/Health packs – Self explanatory.
• C-Foam Grenade – A smaller version of the C-Foam launcher. Throw this on the floor to slow down enemies or use it to reinforce a door. 
• Fog Repellent – Some areas of the maps are engulfed in a thick fog that makes it hard to see through and light has minimal effect. This is where the Fog Repellent comes into play giving you a couple of minutes of clear air.

A good rule I like to follow for the refill packs is that everyone that is less than 20% on anything gets top priority. This ensures everyone has enough ammo or health to get by.

 

5. To explore, or not to explore? That is the question

The complex is a large place and a lot of areas can actually be optional, primarily filled with enemies and resources. You’ll want a good idea of what rooms you should be entering and what you should be avoiding. If you need specific resources, use the terminal to track them down, otherwise try to avoid these optional rooms.

You want to make sure that your team has enough resources to get through the level and not waste time trying to gather resources you won’t need. There’s a risk that you will spend more resource than you will gain.

 

6. Security Doors

Now onto the giant security doors that you will see often. Some of them are secured through keycards, some have alarms and some aren’t secured at all. Whenever possible, always go through alarmed doors first. Why? Simple, you have more control over the action. Usually when you go through an alarmed security door first, you will know where the enemies will start coming from and this will make defending it much easier. On mission B2 you will need to go through two alarmed doors at some point. Make this easier on yourself by saving the regular doors opened until the second alarm.

If you are running C-Foam, set up a turret outside the room, close the door and foam it up from the inside. This will let your turret(s) make a huge dent on the horde population before they even have a chance to get into the room, although this will completely destroy the door and you might need it for a later defensive section. Make sure you can afford to lose that entry point. 

Activate the security door and you will have the security check: simply stand in the positions that is shown to you and eventually the alarm will be disarmed and the door unlocked. Typically I have two or three players focused on getting rid of the alarm as soon as possible while the other sits near the entry points to pick off any enemies that get through. In the case there is more than one entry point a simple rule to follow is that the closest entry point takes priority. 

 

7. Save your ammo

When in stealth, you don’t want to be using your firearms, as they are loud and will alert everyone in the area. This is where your melee weapon comes into play. A fully charged melee strike to the head will take down any of the smaller enemies.

Once stealth is broken your melee weapon doesn’t just become useless. If there are only a few enemies remaining it might be wise to bait them near your group and smash them to pieces instead of wasting some shots.

 

8. Communicate with your team

This should be a given, but communication is key to getting through the level. Inform the squad of where enemies are and which targets everyone should be taking out. Make sure everyone is on the same page. Some squads have slightly different calls to each other so make sure you all know what you are doing.

I was in a squad that just didn’t communicate properly and people were going off to do their own thing. Don’t do this. The run didn’t last too long and we died not even a quarter of the way through.

 

9. Join the GTFO Discord

This is almost critical to actually enjoying GTFO if you don’t have at least three friends readily available when you want to play. The lack of matchmaking in GTFO right now means you need to find people to play with the hard way.

Thankfully, the game’s official Discord has a LFG (Looking for Group) rooms for each region, just slap a message in one of the rooms and someone will usually join pretty quickly. On top of that, there are a ton of voice channels so you don’t need to fill up your friends list with a bunch of randomers.

 

Hopefully this helps you survive the rundown and make GTFO much easier. If we missed anything let us know in the comments below.