| WASD / ARROWS | Walk or drive |
| MOUSE + CLICK | Aim and fire. Cars fire their forward gun; turrets track the mouse. |
| SPACE | Handbrake: slide around corners |
| E | Get in or out · plant / harvest · man a turret · salvage a wreck |
| HOLD R | Work whatever you face: gather wood, stone and metal · fish · repair your builds · restore wrecks |
| B | Build mode: walls, gates, turrets, lamps, crop beds, crates, garage bays, signposts, docks (out from any shore) and work camps (craft + stash anywhere) |
| IN TOWN | Walk up to the trader, bartender (a drink heals you), mechanic, courier boss, seed seller, caravan master or town clerk (reputation, shares, mayor) and press [E] |
| WATER | Build a dock, then [T] at it for the boatyard. Stop a boat and hold [R] to fish. Roads cross the water on bridges. Watch for river pirates. |
| I · C · T | Pack and crafting · your compound (found it, upgrade it, storage, caravan home) · quick town menu |
| G · V | Your crew: follow, wait, guard the compound, work the farm · [V] mount up: crew drive the empty cars around you in convoy |
| K | Crawlers: give your mobile base a looping schedule (harvest, unload, buy, sell, wait) |
| J | Skills: speed, repairs, building cars, guns, gathering, haggling, crew bunks, healing |
| Q · 1 · 2 | Drop mines or switch seeds · eat grilled fish · use a repair kit |
| P | Your look: shirt, pants, skin, hat, and the paint on every car you own |
| O | Route planner + GPS: sort your deliveries, escorts and bounties (nearest, best pay, $/tile or your own order) and follow the line along the roads. |
| L | Your history: everything you've killed, mined, earned, spent, built and repaired, plus your story so far. Purple beacons show where other players are. |
| M · ENTER · N · H | Map of the known world · chat · sound on/off · this help |
The world is vast, and nobody has seen most of it. Every chunk you reach is added to everyone's map, and the first person into a region gets to name it. Towns are safe, and you can farm their fields without ever leaving. The farther you drive from town, and the darker the night, the worse the cycle gangs get.
Every town has a saloon: hire crew, buy a round to hear rumors (they mark your map), and take bounties on the gangs. Gangs hold the wastes in territories, from camps near home to pirate citadels far out; raze their forts for the loot. Caravans fast-travel you between towns you've visited.
Found a compound anywhere with [C]. Its vault earns while you're offline, and you can grow it from Outpost to Citadel. Gather, craft and build anything you like; inside your territory it all heals itself. Legends speak of dirigibles, mechs and starships waiting out in the wastes…