One of the questions we receive most often is:
“How does co-op actually work?”
It’s a fair question, because Before Darkness Falls isn’t designed like a traditional RTT/RTS or co-op survival game. Rather than controlling one shared army, each player leads their own community while working together to keep a single base alive.
One Compound. Multiple Leaders.
The full game will support up to 4-player online co-op. The entire team shares one base known as the Compound.
Every player is responsible for their own operators and civilians, but everyone contributes to the survival of the same base.
Outside of mission and defense phase each player will:
Equip and develop their operators.
Organize their civilian workforce.
Resolve conflicts and events affecting their own people.
Prepare their squads for the next expedition/mission.
Although each Leader is responsible for their own people, the Compound belongs to everyone.
Players can assign their workers to the same junkyards, combining their workforce to improve resource gathering, defense structure repair, production, and other essential tasks.
Cooperation is encouraged, but never forced.
Growing Together
At the beginning of the game, each player usually commands only 2-3 operators (this number depends on the number of players) and a handful of civilians - so-called non-combat personnel.
As more survivors are rescued during expeditions, the Compound’s population grows, giving each player access to additional civilians.
Civilians can also be trained into fully-fledged operators. Experienced operators may serve as instructors, and players are free to assign their veterans to train another Leader’s civilians. Newly trained operators inherit a small portion of their instructor’s skills, making experienced veterans valuable not only on the battlefield, but also as mentors for the next generation. However training takes time and busy instructors cannot participate in mission and defense, so delegating the best skilled operator to train recruits will not always be the most prudent or possible solution.
Mission resources are shared fairly. Whenever resources are recovered during an expedition, they’re automatically distributed as evenly as possible between all players.
Looted items/gear works differently.
Each player receives their own loot from salvaged container (even if salvaged by ally), allowing everyone to progress without competing over containers.
Later, during the Compound Management phase, players are free to exchange equipment.
Whether your team shares everything or everyone looks after their own interests is entirely your decision.
One Mission Per Day
Each day, the Compound can launch one expedition.
Usually several mission locations are available on the World Map.
Players vote for the next destination.
If everyone agrees, the decision is simple.
If opinions differ, one of the selected missions is chosen at random. To keep things fair, players whose choice wasn’t selected receive a higher chance of having their preferred mission selected during future tied votes.
The game never forces players to agree.
However, teams that communicate and coordinate well will usually have a much easier time surviving.
Mission Squad vs Defense Squad
One of the most important strategic decisions is deciding who leaves... and who stays to defend home.
Personnel assigned to the Mission Squad participate in the expedition.
Meanwhile, the Defense Squad remains inside the Compound, protecting everyone from nightly attacks. Both phases are real-time combat experience.
Every operator sent into the field increases deployment cost (supplies cost) while simultaneously reducing the manpower available to defend the Compound.
Sometimes sending fewer people is actually the smarter decision.
Every Leader Plays Differently
Not everyone has to command the same number of operators on mission or defense phases.
One Leader might deploy a single experienced veteran while another sends a full six-operator squad, with each player commanding only their own team in real time.
More operators aren’t always the better choice. Since deployment has a supply cost based on equipped gear, sending a larger force means spending more resources while also leaving fewer defenders behind at the Compound.
Players can also transfer operators, civilians, equipment, and resources between one another. This allows teammates to naturally support each other. If one Leader suffers heavy casualties or simply prefers managing a smaller force, another can reinforce them by sharing personnel or equipment.
Sometimes a small, well-equipped squad may be a smarter option.
Our Design Philosophy
When designing co-op, we didn’t want to build everything around one big gimmick.
Instead, we focused on creating many simple systems that naturally reinforce one another:
One shared Compound.
Individual communities - more like factions with their customised colors and emblems.
Personal responsibility.
Civilian management.
Operator training and mentorship.
Fair resource distribution.
Individual loot.
Equipment trading.
Shared facilities and junkyards.
Mission voting.
Mission and Defense Squads.
None of these systems is particularly complicated on its own.
Together, however, they create a cooperative experience where communication, planning, and trust become just as important as combat itself.
In the end, our co-op isn’t built around one big feature. It’s a collection of simple, interconnected systems designed to reinforce one another as consistently as possible.