Escape from Duckov Core Mechanics Guide

Escape from Duckov - Core Game Mechanics Guide

I. Base Management and Crafting System

1. Base Functions and Difficulty Settings

• Difficulty Settings: Game difficulty (e.g., Survival difficulty) can be changed at any time at the desk in your base (press F key).
• Blueprint Research: After finding the blueprint research station in the base, you must register scavenged blueprints (e.g., Cube Gun Recipe) to unlock crafting recipes and clear inventory space.
• Upgrade Buildings: Buildings such as the workbench, tech center, and gym can all be upgraded to unlock more advanced crafting and functions. For example, upgrading the workbench to Advanced Processing can unlock weapon repair functions.

2. Stash and Item Locking

• Stash and Storage: The base stash is the safe area for your items. Press "Store All" to move all items into storage.
• Lock Slots (L key): Press the L key to lock item slots. Locked items will not be moved by "Store All" or sold, protecting equipment you don't want to accidentally transfer.
• Stash Upgrades: Stash space can be expanded by spending money and materials.

3. Crafting and Marking (N key)

• Item Marking: In the crafting and upgrade interface, press the N key on the materials you need to add a heart icon next to them. This is a key mechanism in the game for tracking materials needed for quests or crafting.
• Dismantle: Many items in the game (e.g., Rusty Bullets, plastic items) can be dismantled into basic materials (e.g., Gunpowder) for crafting or quests.

II. Character Status and Growth Mechanics

1. Character Attributes and Perks

• Perk Palace: The core upgrade system. Unlock permanent buffs by consuming Cash and Core Fragments.
  • Highly Recommended: Backpack Expert, which provides additional weight capacity and backpack space, is the most worthwhile Perk to invest in early on.
• Physical Training: Talk to Mud in the gym and perform physical training to permanently increase attributes such as maximum health.

2. Survival and Healing

• Healing Items:
  • Bandages/First Aid Kits: Restore health.
  • Aspirin: Relieves pain, but causes dehydration, so pay attention to drinking water after use.
  • Herat: Hemostatic medicine, used to deal with bleeding status.

3. Movement Mechanics

• Holster Weapon for Speed (C key): Press the C key to holster your weapon, which slightly increases character movement speed, especially when using rifles.
• Dodge Roll (Space Bar): When fighting melee enemies, you can use dodge roll. This is key to evading the fatal blows of Rampaging Scavengers.

III. Combat and Equipment Rules

1. Firearms and Damage

• Ammunition Types: Firearms have different ammunition types (e.g., S, L, AR rounds). Early firearms (e.g., Glick) use S rounds, and AK-74U uses AR rounds.
• Rusty Bullets: Common early ammunition, low damage, requires more bullets to kill enemies.
• Aiming Distance Indicator (UI): There is a new distance indicator in the lower right corner of the screen, which shows whether you are within the optimal range of your weapon.
  • Green/White: Indicates within effective range, maximum damage.
  • Red: Indicates out of effective range or inaccurate aiming, damage will be reduced. This indicator is affected by weapon attachments (e.g., suppressors, muzzle brakes).

2. Enemy Mechanics

• Rampaging Scavengers: Melee enemies, high damage. There will be a clear red flash before they swing their weapon, which is a signal to the player to dodge roll.
• Utilize Terrain: Sandbags are good cover. When standing behind sandbags, enemies (especially ranged) have difficulty hitting you.

3. Equipment Weight and Protection

• Armor and Helmets: Armor and helmets provide direct damage reduction. Purchasing or crafting advanced armor (e.g., SWAT Helmet) can greatly improve early survival rate.
• Durability: Weapons and armor have durability. Damaged equipment can be repaired through the repair workbench (requires money).

IV. Exploration and Economic System

1. Extraction Mechanism

• Specificity of Ground Zero: In the Ground Zero map, you do not need to go to a designated extraction point. You only need to return to the base entrance to extract safely.
• Other Maps: Most maps require finding extraction points marked with green smoke or special exits.

2. Scavenging and Pet Slot

• Pet Slot: Located above the backpack, specifically used for heavy items or valuable items that you absolutely do not want to lose (e.g., Car Batteries, large amounts of cash, key quest items). Items placed in the pet slot do not count towards weight.

3. Special NPC Trading

• Mysterious Merchant: He is stationed at a fixed location in Ground Zero and can directly purchase many rare quest items (e.g., Honey, Pen, IV Medicine) with Cash.
• Tip: To trade with the Mysterious Merchant, you must bring cash into the map before entering the instance.

4. Map Unlocks and Shortcuts

• Sewer Entrance: Unlocked by removing obstacles on a specific road after unlocking the bridge, providing a second access point to and from Ground Zero.
• Teleport Bubble:
  • Unlock Method: Use Dynamite to detonate a cracked wall outside the base entrance.
  • Function: Once detonated, it creates a two-way teleport shortcut, allowing players to instantly travel between two ends of the map, which is the most important and essential map unlock early on.

V. Death and Risk Management

• Death Penalty: Upon death, you will lose all items carried on your person.
• Corpse Recovery: After death, your items will remain in your corpse bag, and you need to re-enter the map and find your corpse to recover them.
• Second Death Risk: If you die again before recovering your corpse bag, you will permanently lose all items in the previous corpse bag. Therefore, when recovering your corpse, you should travel light and take the fastest and shortest path.
• Tip: The Teleport Bubble (Dynamite shortcut) is the best tool to ensure quick corpse recovery and reduce risk.