First Deployment Tutorial

The 1.0 Tutorial is guided CRC training. Torn Banner’s Armageddon notes list four blocks: melee, ranged combat, objectives, and inventory. That is the whole published syllabus. It is not a map walkthrough and it is not a hidden story mission. Finish it before you spend a named Responder, because a grab that starts NPV on a first live drop can end the character before you have seen Phalanx, gene therapy, or self-sacrifice.

Treat the Tutorial as a stamp, not a skippable cinematic. Melee teaches the difference between a quick swing and a charged headshot against the 100 / 70 / 130 HP table that Armageddon later published for Zombie, Shambler, and Prime. Guns teach that unsuppressed fire is a sound event, not just a damage event. Objectives teach that CRC tasks chain toward an extract window instead of a score screen. Inventory teaches that a Rescue Beacon, a bottle of Phalanx pills, and a melee weapon compete for the same limited slots you will use on Lewiston or Raven Rock.

Training Range is the CRC facility map in the outbreak set. Armageddon notes add props, swimming rules, and objective-training rewards. Use it after the Tutorial if you need a repeatable space to test a Machete charged swing, a DB12 loadout price, or how long you can stay in water before the new swim rules punish you. The Range Day achievement icon on this page is the official Steam stamp for that habit.

The Range is not Solo and it is not a Survival wave. You are not defending speakers and you are not cashing Supplies. You are confirming that the 1.0 melee retune actually changed the weapon in your hands. Hockey Stick dropped to 400 Credits in the 13 August hotfix. Tire Iron and Small Knife had their intended heavy attacks restored. If you skip the Range you will meet those numbers for the first time on a map where a miss costs a life.

Solo Mode has no traditional progression and no permadeath. That sentence is the entire official risk model. Use it to walk an Objective chain, to hear proximity voice with no one else there, or to fail an extract on purpose without deleting a Responder. Credits and account XP still exist in the wider 1.0 economy, but Solo is the sandbox Torn Banner named for practice.

Do not confuse Solo with Beginner. Beginner is a difficulty on live matches: timer respawns every minute, zombies at −30% HP, always-on hints. Solo is a mode that turns permadeath off. A player who only ever queues Beginner public matches is still spending a Responder at extract or total fail. A player who runs Solo first can learn Broadway’s subway mouth or Flooded’s hidden corpses without that cost.

Use Solo to learn the extract window and the sound cascade without deleting a campsite slot. When the run is over, leave Solo. A Responder you intend to keep still has to survive a live Objective or Survival drop under the published permadeath rules.

A first live drop should be Objective or Survival with a squad you can talk to. Proximity voice is how eight people find each other after a wipe or a split. Private matches for 2–8 players have existed since Infection 0.2.1 if you do not want a public lobby. Pick Beginner if you want the timer respawn and the −30% zombie HP. Pick Normal if you want the 125% character XP and the extra pre-extract respawns the launch hotfix added.

Decide before you load whether you are playing for a final extract or an early extract. Final extract pays character XP and the full Supplies cashout. Early extract pays no character XP and only a small Credit share. Survival opens early extract after two failed speaker waves. If the first drop is a learning run, early extract is the designed escape. If the first drop is a character you intend to keep, play for the final window and bring a Rescue Beacon if you already have Credits or Merits.

The official Early Access Launch Trailer is the first-party video bound to this route. It is historical context, not the current 1.0 onboarding. Watch it if you need the 22 October 2024 tone: eight-player co-op, permadeath, and a 1.0 that was still ahead. The poster is the official YouTube thumbnail for that upload.

Then return to the stamp list. The current product is Armageddon on 11 August 2026, with Tutorial, Range, Solo, Survival, Merits, and the Rescue Beacon that the Early Access film could not show. Do not treat that trailer as a substitute for the four official first-drop steps.

Keep the Early Access film in this historical slot. The 1.0 Tutorial, Training Range rewards, Survival speakers, Merits, and Rescue Beacon are Armageddon facts. They belong on the stamp list and on the later chapters, not in a 2024 trailer recap.

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