A complete guide to cooperative survival: the squad's goal, moving through the city, searching buildings, fighting the infected, the horde and noise, controls on muta.pro and tactics for the win.
“After Dusk” is a cooperative survival game: you are not rivals but a single squad against the game itself. The action unfolds on a map of a night city made of square cells — streets, shops and buildings. The squad's main task is to reach the evacuation point 🚁 in the far corner of the map before the infected wipe out every survivor. Victory and defeat are shared by all: bring at least one fighter to the helicopter and everyone wins; if every survivor falls, the raid is over.
A squad of several survivors starts in the city corner farthest from the evacuation. Each hero has their own health (5 points by default). Ammo and inventory (medkits and weapons) are shared across the squad, and the danger level is set by the “Horde / Noise” gauge. A few infected already wander the streets. On the left is the list of fighters and their health bars, in the centre is the map, on the right are resources, the die, the action buttons and the raid log.
Players take turns, one fighter at a time. On their turn a hero may move once and perform one action — search or attack — and then ends the turn.
Press “Move” and click a highlighted adjacent cell. Each turn allows one move to a neighbouring street or to a building. You cannot step onto another cell that holds an infected.
While standing on a shop or building, press “Search” and roll the die. The higher the roll, the more valuable the find — a weapon, ammo or a medkit. Any search raises the noise by one.
If an infected stands next to you, press “Attack”, pick a target and roll the die. A high roll deals more damage. A shot spends ammo; with a weapon found you can strike even without ammo.
The “Horde / Noise” gauge rises from searching and shooting. The higher it is, the more infected pour out of the alleys in the next night phase — try not to make noise without need.
When the squad has finished its turns, night falls: new infected appear and all of them step toward the squad. Once right beside a fighter, an infected bites and removes one point of health.
The squad wins as soon as any survivor reaches the evacuation cell 🚁 — the helicopter picks the team up before the horde closes in. The squad loses if the health of all fighters drops to zero and no one is left standing: a fighter with zero health is out (marked with a 💀 icon). The wounded can be helped with a medkit from the shared inventory. All of this is a shared result: it matters not to save yourself but to get the team out, so decide together who dashes for the helicopter and who covers.
Every search and shot raises the horde gauge. Search only when needed and don't fire in vain, or crowds will flood in at night.
Ammo, weapons and medkits are shared. A couple of early finds greatly ease the breakthrough to the evacuation.
The infected head for the squad every night. Stay compact, cover the wounded and never leave a fighter alone.
The main thing is the helicopter. Don't clear the whole city: sometimes it's better to slip past the infected straight to the evacuation point.
“After Dusk” is won not by clearing the city but by the route. The infected step toward the squad every night, so the longer you stand still, the tighter the ring closes. The main strategic thought is simple: every turn should shorten the distance to the helicopter 🚁 or provide a resource that secures that breakthrough. Everything else is lost tempo, and tempo here is dearer than ammo.
The squad (◉) holds the top line and goes straight to the evacuation instead of descending toward the infected (●).
Estimate how many moves a fighter needs to reach the 🚁. If your reserve of nights is short, forget searching and run — getting there matters more than gearing up.
Enter only the buildings that lie right on the way. A detour aside for a medkit almost always costs more than the medkit itself.
The “Horde / Noise” gauge is the regulator of the night's tempo. While it stays low, few infected come out of the alleys and the corridor to the helicopter remains open.
You don't have to save the whole squad — the win is shared. Appoint a “runner” for the evacuation, and let the others make noise and draw the infected onto themselves.
Tactics is what you decide here and now, looking at the neighbouring cells. The infected move toward the nearest fighter, so geometry can be managed: where to stand, whom to expose, where to retreat. Remember the phases: first the whole squad moves, and only then the infected take their step — you always have the right to move first.
A fighter in the gap (yellow cell) holds the throat of the street: the infected come one by one, not the whole crowd.
Attack an infected while it is not yet right beside you — the squad plays its phase earlier, and a lucky roll removes the threat before it can bite.
Stand in the passages between buildings. Then one infected reaches the fighter at a time, not a half-circle at once.
A wounded fighter off to the side draws the horde onto himself. While the infected head for him, the healthy one calmly slips through to the evacuation.
Ammo, weapons and medkits are shared across the squad, and that changes the whole economy. The die decides the outcome of a search and an attack, so you must think in probabilities, not “lucky or not”. A low roll in combat is a miss and a wasted round, so risky shooting is best backed by a reserve.
A shot strikes at once but spends a round. A found weapon lets you fight in melee when the ammo runs out — save it for the breakthrough.
Heal whoever is closer to the 🚁 and must get there. A medkit on the “runner” is worth more than on a fighter who will stay behind to cover anyway.
Every shot raises the noise. If the infected would leave your route in a turn anyway, it's cheaper just to part ways than to fire.
A couple of finds in the first turns, while the horde is small, means ammo and medkits for the final dash. Searching later is more dangerous.
High damage doesn't always come up. Plan so that a miss on an infected doesn't leave a fighter open to a bite.
Squads lose “After Dusk” almost always for the same reasons: they make too much noise, they hoard too long and they run too late. Sort out these traps and half the losses vanish.
The squad got noisy, the horde grew and cut off the path to the helicopter — the typical end of clearing instead of dashing.