Department of Collections

Message from DOC

You are an employee of the Department of Collections. You are required to complete tasks in order to progress. Along the way you will find scraps and unique items to help you craft items, very little will be provided to you by DOC. Everything must be earned and we expect compliance. You'll find puzzles along the way you must solve. Diving further will result in new and more difficult challenges, but you must meet the assigned tasks or risk termination. You enter with your team and not all of you are guaranteed to leave. And remember, you are not alone.

DOC appreciates your efforts and expects success.

Summary Feature List

Up to four player coop
Proximity voice chat and intercom system
Advanced procedural content generation
Smart AI Director to ease frustrations and tune engagement
Fight back and outplay the AI
Control your power usage to determine your mission length
Items are multipurpose
Difficulty selection

Build your team

Form a team of up to four total people or play solo. The team shares an increasing and evolving task list as the missions progress.

Complete your task list

The DOC will not hold your hand. You must track your tasks individually and communicate with your team to determine what tasks have been completed. DOC will notify you when all tasks have been completed. Return to base promptly as not all team memebers are required to advanced to the next mission.

Success is rewarded with more challenges

Subsequent dives will result in more tasks being assigned to you. The tasks will also become more complex and involved. So make sure, before you sever your connection with the current mission, that you have the loot to handle the next mission.

Communication is key

Utilize the advanced proximity voice chat and a wide range of emotes. Upgrade to an intercom system to keep everyone in the mission in sync no matter where they are.

Explore new environments

The missions you explore are unique and vast. Room layouts, connections, contents, and scrap are all procedurally generated using an advanced algorithm to make the space believable. These can be built reliably using Seeds.

Mind your power

Your time is limited only by how much power you consume. Light switches gain you visibility and potentially speed, but it costs you power to keep them on. If you find the resources, you can craft additional batteries. The missions you explore may also contain ways of restoring power. Keep your eyes open. If you run out of power, your connection will be severed.

Risk Reward Design

Do you consume power for more visibility, or do you turn off the lights to conserve time? Do you use your weapon to open a door or to hinder the AI?
Do you stay longer in a mission to gain more loot? Do you use your items now or save them for tougher tasks? It's up to you. Item and task design revolve around risk and reward.

You are not alone

An advanced AI Director will navigate the threat-level AI around your location, while also offering a break to those frequented by the AI. Fear is the goal, not frustration. Find hiding spots around your environment and avoid making too much noise.

You are not the only one with good ears

If you hear something make noise, the AI can most likely hear it too. Be careful about making too much noise. Crouch or walk, but run at your own risk. You are NOT the fastest entity present.

Loot and craft utilities

As a general rule, one scrap item type is required to make another utility item at a crafting bench. However, some scrap items can be used to craft several different items. Weigh your options wisely depending on the scenario. Items can also be used in different ways.

Fight back

The items you craft can be used to combat the AI threat. Traps, stun guns, sleep guns, and even more lethal weapons exist to help you combat the threat in your mission. Be careful, there could be a price to pay for engaging the AI.

Upgrade your base and experience

An upgrade system exists in the main base that allows you to dynamically change how any level is played. These upgrades come at the cost of monster fragments found in the level that have to be brought back to the base. Use these tokens wisely depending on your current needs.

Scale your difficulty

Every play through can be controlled via a difficulty selector. Casual play and hardcore play is supported. Loot generation, level generation, and crafting utility availability is the same regardless of the difficulty. The AI will modulate its behavior to suite your desired difficulty. Additionally, certain 'between mission perks' are exclusive to certain difficulties. For example, your teammates may not revive or heal between missions on higher difficulties.