Trench Decay: Beginner Guide
Prepare for your first squad campaign, make combat easier to follow, and choose a useful improvement before your next attempt.
Start Trench Decay with a simple goal: stay with your squad, learn the campaign rhythm, and finish an attempt you can build on. It is a cooperative PvE roguelite shooter, so chasing a perfect weapon before learning to survive makes the opening harder than it needs to be.
This related gameplay video provides context for the campaign and equipment decisions below.
Make the first campaign manageable
Stay close enough to your teammates to share the fight. You are learning how enemies arrive and how the squad moves, rather than trying to prove you can handle every encounter alone. Move with the group instead of sprinting toward the next fight while everyone else is still preparing.
Keep your first equipment choice familiar. A weapon you can aim and reload comfortably is a better learning tool than an unfamiliar gun selected only because another player calls it powerful. Use the first few encounters to get comfortable with the pace of combat.
| Situation | Useful priority |
|---|---|
| Squad is preparing | Move together instead of starting the next fight alone. |
| Aiming feels awkward | Make your controls comfortable before chasing harder encounters. |
| An attempt goes badly | Keep the successful opening and change the part that failed. |
Prepare your aim before pushing farther
If tracking enemies feels awkward, take a moment to adjust your controls before committing to another campaign. A readable screen and manageable aim are practical starting priorities. Avoid changing several preferences at once: you want a setting that makes the next fight easier to follow, not a collection of changes you cannot separate.
Your early goal is to participate consistently. Support the squad's push, keep enough room to move, and avoid turning one missed shot into a rush toward enemies you were already struggling to hit.
Build progress without buying a shortcut
The developer says progress saves. Think of a difficult attempt as part of learning your equipment and the campaign, rather than assuming the whole game restarts from nothing whenever a fight goes badly. Saved progression and the changing campaign are different parts of the experience.
For your next session, choose one useful improvement: a calmer opening, a weapon you understand, or better coordination with the squad. Keep the working parts of your approach. Replacing everything at once makes it harder to notice which change actually helped.
Questions before your second attempt
Do I need to play solo to learn?
No. Cooperative play is central to the game. Learning alongside a squad lets you focus on staying useful instead of taking every fight alone.
Is every campaign identical?
The game is a roguelite with changing campaigns. Learn the decisions behind your route instead of expecting one memorized run to cover everything.
What should I read next?
The how-to-play guide explains how the campaign and squad fit together. The tutorial walkthrough covers the opening sequence.