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How to Play

DeadRoute — How to Play

A quick guide for playing DeadRoute in the browser.

How to Play DeadRoute

DeadRoute is a pre-alpha horror dispatch game. You are managing a night delivery shift, assigning jobs, choosing routes, responding to driver reports, and trying to keep the company alive long enough to finish the shift.

Goal

Survive the shift while completing as many deliveries as possible.

You are trying to balance:

  • Money earned
  • Deliveries completed
  • Driver stress
  • Company reputation
  • Road risk
  • Strange incidents

At the end of the shift, you receive a report and grade based on how well you did.

Basic Flow

  1. Pick a delivery job from the job board.
  2. Choose a route from the route popup.
  3. Watch the truck travel across the map.
  4. Respond to incidents and driver decision prompts.
  5. Complete the delivery.
  6. Repeat until the shift ends or the company reputation collapses.

Job Board

The job board shows available delivery jobs.

Each job includes:

Cargo | Pickup → Destination | Pay | Status

Click a job to start planning the delivery.

Jobs are generated based on the truck’s current location. As the truck moves around the map, new jobs appear from nearby or reachable locations.

Route Choice

After selecting a job, a route choice popup appears.

Routes show:

Route name | Risk level | Number of stops

Lower-risk routes are usually safer. Higher-risk routes may pay better or be faster, but they can cause more incidents, stress, and road problems.

Choose a route to begin the delivery.

The Map

The map shows locations, roads, and the truck’s current movement.

Roads can have different conditions:

  • Clear
  • Slow
  • Unstable
  • Closed

Riskier or damaged roads can cause more strange events and delays.

Driver Incidents

During a route, the driver may send messages to dispatch.

Some are normal:

Traffic delays
Road debris
Customer ETA requests
Engine issues

Some are not normal:

Radio static
Wrong road signs
Headlights following the truck
Strange figures near the road

Incidents can increase driver stress, damage road conditions, slow the truck, or reduce company reputation.

Driver Decisions

Sometimes the driver will ask for instructions.

When a decision popup appears, the truck pauses until you respond.

Common choices include:

  • Keep moving
  • Slow down and report updates
  • Stop and wait
  • Prepare to reroute

Each choice has tradeoffs.

Keep Moving

Fastest option, but risky.

Can increase driver stress and may worsen the road. If driver stress is extremely high, the driver may refuse.

Slow Down

Safer option.

Reduces stress a little, but may hurt reputation and slow the truck.

Stop and Wait

Safest option for the driver.

Reduces more stress, especially at high stress, but hurts company reputation more.

Prepare to Reroute

Reduces weirdness slightly, but does not currently perform a full reroute yet.

Driver Stress

Driver stress ranges from 0% to 100%.

Stress increases from:

  • Strange incidents
  • Risky routes
  • Road problems
  • Being told to push through danger
  • Critical events

Stress decreases from:

  • Completing deliveries
  • Stopping or slowing down
  • Quiet periods without incidents

High stress makes things worse. At critical stress, the driver may stop unexpectedly or refuse commands.

Company Reputation

Company reputation ranges from 0% to 100%.

Reputation decreases from:

  • Delays
  • Stopping too often
  • Poor outcomes
  • Critical stress events

Reputation increases from:

  • Completed deliveries
  • Successful risky work

Low reputation affects the company:

  • Fewer jobs appear
  • Job pay gets worse
  • If reputation reaches 0%, the shift fails early

Shift Report

At the end of the shift, you receive a report showing:

  • Money earned
  • Deliveries completed
  • Final driver stress
  • Final company reputation
  • Final weirdness level
  • Shift grade

A failed shift will receive a bad grade.

Tips

Do not always pick the safest route. You need money and completed deliveries.

Do not always pick the riskiest route either. Driver stress can spiral quickly.

If stress gets high, slowing down or stopping may save the run.

If reputation gets low, you may need to take better-paying risky jobs to recover.

Watch the incident monitor. Road conditions and risk matter.

Pre-Alpha Note

This is an early test build. Some systems are rough, balance is not final, and bugs are expected.

Please try to break it.