Mission complete. Load a checkpoint or start again.
Neutralize every hostile and keep the squad alive. Only observed contacts appear in the HUD; grey cards retain their last observed state, with red borders identifying them as hostile even out of sight. Sounds indicate approximate sectors, not hidden positions.
Move: select an operative by body, portrait, 1–6, Tab / Shift+Tab, or N / Shift+N outside forms. The route arrow [M] selects movement; terrain moves, a visible hostile fires the remembered mode. A kneeling operative stands (2 TU), walks upright, then kneels (2 TU). Hover prices and reachability include both stance changes; final kneeling TU and firing reservations are protected. An unaffordable destination moves only the affordable prefix. Routes stop on new contacts; Esc on the battlefield cancels after a step. Selecting another operative returns to walking mode. A conscious operative who began kneeling kneels again at the actual stop tile, including interrupted moves. Previous/Next operative arrows are free selection controls, not paid actions. Right click terrain in shooting mode first returns to walking for free without turning. Only a subsequent walking-mode right click turns at the previewed 1–2 TU. Drag / arrows pan, wheel / ± zoom, F focuses. Grid is always off. TU remaining / maximum appears immediately below each squad portrait.
Shoot: the bullet [Q] selects shooting; press again to cycle supported snap → aimed → auto modes. Right click a hostile in walking mode selects shooting for free without changing the remembered mode; further right clicks while shooting cycle supported modes without firing or spending TU. Snap has horizontal trails, aimed one horizontal bullet, auto three. Hover shows chance and TU. Under Reserve action, reserve buttons use the same icons; crossed circle clears reserve. Clicking the active reservation also clears it. Reactions are automatic for both factions. K kneels / stands (2 TU each); kneeling improves soldier accuracy by 15% relative, while high/low morale mildly adjusts accuracy (up to ±4% relative). A bullet enclosed by circular arrows [L] reloads (8 TU). Under Weapon type, assault rifle, compact pistol and long scoped sniper rifle have distinct silhouettes. Reed starts with the stronger 75-base-damage sniper: snap costs 10 TU, aimed 26 TU; no auto fire or auto reservation. Its aimed precision is higher than the assault rifle’s and falls off more slowly with distance, retaining a growing relative advantage at range rather than becoming more accurate indefinitely. Other weapons expose only supported modes. Weapon silhouettes equip already-carried weapons for 3 TU; unsupported modes and reserves clear automatically.
Doors: in movement mode hover an observed, cardinal-adjacent doorway for its open / closed cursor; click to toggle for 2 TU. Neighboring tiles and distant open doorways remain movement destinations. Occupied doors cannot close.
Grenades: under Grenade type, choose HE blast, smoke cloud, melting/leaking plasma, flame or skull-marked chemical. All five kinds remain visible; only kinds carried by the selected operative can be selected, and missing kinds are greyed out. Type selection is free; after an operative change or the last throw, selection switches to an available carried kind, if any. The arrow pulling away from the grenade pin ring primes (4 TU); the adjacent grenade and rightward arc selects throwing [T] (7 TU). A primed grenade is safe while consciously held, including across turns and Save/Load. Once thrown or deliberately dropped it normally detonates at the end of its owning side’s turn. Death or unconsciousness forces a held primer to drop and detonate as part of that casualty action; resulting chain reactions settle before the mission result. Any already released grenades also settle before a terminal result, but consciously held grenades stay safe. This also applies to aliens. High-rank aliens have limited plasma stocks and occasional tactical use; plasma has twice HE raw blast damage and a green detonation. Chemical deploys a lingering toxic cloud (radius 2.5 tiles, four subsequent faction boundaries): 10 armor-bypassing damage on deployment, entry and faction boundary; avoid entering or remaining in it. Dedicated smoke grenades create a larger, stronger sight-obscuring screen lasting two full turns (four subsequent faction boundaries). Shooting through any smoke also lowers actual accuracy and the displayed hit chance; more crossed cloud cells impose a larger penalty, and a dedicated screen is stronger than blast residue. HE, plasma and incendiary grenades leave weaker, compact blast smoke for one full turn: it is born at TTL 2, ages to 1 at the next faction boundary, and disappears at the second subsequent boundary; creation is not aged. Save/Load preserves remaining boundaries. Incendiary fire persists for four turn endings without regenerating smoke after its one-turn blast residue expires; HE and plasma can breach. Energy-hit durability depends on material: hay breaks in one blaster hit, fence in three, brick/stone in six. Friendly fire still damages but does not turn a victim toward a friendly shooter. Older saves using previous smoke rules are incompatible. Hover previews the legal landing and range.
Casualties: the fist beside Weapon type selects melee. Hover a visible hostile to preview the complete legal approach and walk + punch TU; click once to walk and punch only if the entire action fits unreserved TU and energy (strike 6 TU). Kneeling routes include standing and kneeling. New contacts, cancellation, target movement/death or reactions interrupt the composite action safely. The person with a crate in front and an upward arrow from the crate selects an adjacent casualty to carry (4 TU). While carrying, the same button shows a down arrow and drops immediately (2 TU). Carrying adds weight. Dead humans show a flatline. Observed creature death/knockout has a short fall transition (instant representative fallen pose with reduced motion). Hostile HP reflects only observed state; magazine, morale and TU are disabled unknown placeholders, never hidden live values. Hitting a target raises the shooter’s morale, killing raises it more and rewards the observing squad; friendly hits penalize the shooter, taking damage lowers morale, and squadmate death lowers survivors’ morale.
Environment: Encounter, Landscape, Season and Weather restart the mission with the selected environment. Farm and Town cover four times the original area; drag or arrow-pan to explore and F returns to your operative. Summer vegetation is green; winter offers patchy or full snow. Rain and light snowfall mildly reduce actual shooting precision; rain also reduces sound propagation. Red barrels explode when struck, including nearby barrel chains. Damage numbers show actual observed HP loss for two seconds; stun is not HP damage.
Mission: E ends your turn. S saves locally, O loads, R restarts. Loading/restarting cancels pending animation. The adjacent Debrief button opens the current mission report; it never overlays play automatically. Numeric button badges show actual paid TU costs or protected reservation values only. Free selections/utilities have no numeric badge; movement and turning pay the previewed route/direction cost.