FILE FILE CK-04FIELD MANUAL

Strategies: Level-by-Level Survival Plan

Thirty procedural levels plus an Endless Summer mode, organized into five bands: Levels 1–5, 6–15, 16–25, 26–30, and Endless. Each band has a known threat mix, a deployment plan and a clear fight-or-flee threshold.

▲ Steam — Level select "Two River's Edge" — save 5/10/20 campers before losing 10

“Night 3, three traps on the bridge. The axe guy stepped on the last one and I nearly jumped out of my chair. Bragged about it at work all day.”

—— survivor "BridgeGuy", second playthrough

Levels 1–5: Learn the Escort

Threats: Sparse monsters, learn the controls

Doctrine：Escort first, zero trading

Squad Assignment

1.Draft: Dave (Rally) is mandatory, with Wyatt (traps) + Ashley (field ops).
2.Open by clicking terrain for intel: confirm mountains, rivers and bridges, and lock down the one true chokepoint.
3.By day, two field counselors Gather while Dave rallies stray campers into a block.
4.Wyatt lays the first trap batch on the bridge — position beats quantity.

Fight-or-Flee Check：Monsters are sparse here; there is almost never a "must-fight". The check: bedtime progress on schedule → keep gathering; a camper isolated outside → drop everything and fetch them.

Supply Priority：Traps first, mobility items second; do not chase kills.

Levels 6–15: Trap Line Takes Shape

Threats: Axe Murderer / Killer Clown pressure begins

Doctrine：Chokepoint attrition, fixed escort chain

Squad Assignment

1.Fix the escort chain positions: outer pickup → Dave's Rally → inner-ring bedtime, three in a line.
2.Wyatt works as a dedicated trap sapper: restock 3 at a cabin → blanket bridges and gaps → return to restock.
3.Once the Clown appears: manage the campers' panic surface first each turn, the monster second.
4.Once the Murderer appears: clear his charge lane camp-wide and bait him across the trapped bridge.

Fight-or-Flee Check：This band introduces real fight-or-flee calls: trap line intact → stand fast and let them walk in; traps more than half spent → collapse the escort chain inward and abandon outer gathering.

Supply Priority：Traps ×6 minimum (two Wyatt restocks); scout cabin resupply points in advance.

Levels 16–25: Two-Front War

Threats: Random movers like the Toxic Horror join the pool

Doctrine：Fan-shaped defense, minimap discipline

Squad Assignment

1.With random movers in the pool, one chokepoint is no longer enough: lay traps in a "fan" across every camp opening.
2.First action every turn: sweep the minimap and confirm every monster's position.
3.Make the escort chain elastic: walk whichever side is safe; never marry a fixed route.
4.Keep one mobile counselor (Ashley) dedicated to rear-guard surprises.

Fight-or-Flee Check：Random movers cannot be predicted, so switch to "backstop" logic: a monster behind any camper → Rally them apart instantly; two straight turns with no monster in sight → gather hard and rebuild traps.

Supply Priority：Traps everywhere, item slots full; gather against the NEXT level's needs.

Levels 26–30: Medal Push

Threats: High-intensity mixed waves

Doctrine：Protect the medal: operate inside the quota

Squad Assignment

1.The goal shifts from "clear" to "20-camper gold": the escort chain runs at full strength and gathering becomes secondary.
2.Spend the loss quota deliberately: the 10-camper budget is reserved for "perimeter strays that must be written off".
3.End-game maps are huge; vacuum up strays near the beds first.
4.Push the trap line into midfield so contact happens away from the escort corridor.

Fight-or-Flee Check：The gold-medal question: can this rescue complete within the current wave? If not — drop it. Protecting the quota is worth more than one extra save.

Supply Priority：All resources into escort efficiency; traps only along the escort corridor.

Endless Summer: Endless Mode

Threats: Infinite waves, uncapped scaling

Doctrine：Record-driven, process-locked

Squad Assignment

1.Lock the optimal squad: Dave + Wyatt + two mobile slots.
2.Turn the opening into muscle memory: scout terrain → lock the bridge → lay traps → Rally → bedtime.
3.Debrief after every wave: where did the trap line gap, which escort link is slowest.
4.Mindset: endless mode is not about "how far" — it is about zero mistakes per wave.

Fight-or-Flee Check：There is no fight-or-flee in endless, only "was this wave clean". The moment you start writing off campers, your defense needs a rebuild — that is the signal.

Supply Priority：Full resupply between every wave; cabin control outranks everything.