AMMO LINE
How to play
Keep the guns fed
Enemies march on your Core in waves. Your turrets shoot by themselves, but only while they have rounds. Everyone else’s job is making those rounds and getting them there: by hand at first, then with a factory you build together.
You don’t need to read any of this first. The first time you reach each stage, the game shows its steps on a card and draws the line to build, and a SHOW ME pad beside the Core plays each step for you.
Controls
Tap moves things. Hold does work.
Tap Interact to put something in, take something out, pick up or put down. Hold Interact to mine (holding the Pick), crank a Workbench, repair (holding the Welder), or sound the Core’s siren to start the wave early.
| Gamepad | Keyboard | Second keyboard player | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Move | Left stick / D-pad | W A S D | Arrow keys |
| Interact (tap: move items · hold: work) | A | Space | Enter |
| Swing the wrench (tap) · Throw (hold) | RT / RB | E | Right Shift |
| Build (tap: copy what you face · hold: wheel) | X | Q | . |
| Rotate (tap) · Lift (hold) | Y | R | , |
| Dash | B / LB / LT | Left Shift | / |
| Pause | Start | Esc | Esc |
Press any button to join; up to six players. Every button can be rebound in Settings, where you can also split the keyboard between two players. On a computer the mouse works in the menus and rooms: click a door, a pad or an item on the truck and your player walks there. During a wave the mouse stays out of the way.
The ammo line
Ore in, rounds out, rounds to the guns
Mine ore from the rocks with the Pick, put it in a machine, carry the rounds to a turret. Each machine takes a fixed number of ores, and the most unusual ore in the mix decides the ammo: copper makes armour-piercing, sludge explosive, crystal energy.
1 ore per craft. Hold Interact to crank. Stage 1.
1 ore per craft. Runs by itself. Stage 2.
2 different ores per craft. Iron and copper make armour-piercing. Stage 5.
3 different ores per craft. Needs power. Stage 7.
Nothing to select: a machine makes the best round it can from whatever it is holding. Belts, splitters and Auto Miners take the carrying and digging off your hands once you have them.
Reading the floor
Every machine tells you what it needs
No numbers to read from the couch. What a machine holds is drawn as the things themselves, and the few things that need you glow.
Green glow: ready
A turret whose magazine is full. Leave it and go where you are needed.
The heap is the count
What a turret holds sits on its base as the rounds themselves: one, two or three pieces as it fills. The shape and colour say which ammo.
Red glow: load me
An empty turret shows a ghost round in a pulsing red glow, and shouts EMPTY! once as it runs dry. Striped in every colour, the ghost means any round will do.
What is in a machine
Ore heaps on a machine’s left, finished rounds on its right; the arrow shows which side it pushes them out of. A health bar appears only once a machine is below three quarters: carry the Welder over and hold Interact to repair it.
A ghost means “bring this”
A faint ghost beside what a machine holds is what it is waiting for. One ore’s own shape means that ore exactly; a grey nugget flecked with every colour means any ore will do. This Furnace has iron and takes any second ore.
Build-phase chips
Between waves each crafting machine wears a chip: the round it will make from what it holds, or “+” and the ore it is short of (the flecked nugget: any ore).
Red glow at the mouth: spilling
Its output is full with nowhere to go, so it throws rounds on the floor. Take them, or give it a turret or a belt to push into.
Jammed
A spill can jam a machine, more often on harder settings. It stops until someone holds Interact at it.
No power
Powered machines need a burning Generator in reach. Feed the Generator coal.
Wrecked
Rubble with a skull and wrench, shown when someone is near. Carry the Welder over and hold Interact to rebuild it.
Between waves
The Supply Truck
After every wave the crew walks round the truck. Scrap, dropped by enemies and paid for each wave you clear, buys upgrades and machines. Tech picks open the crates of tech cards: earn them by beating the wave’s challenge, shown on the board, which you can decline.
Tap Interact at an item to buy it: the whole crew shares the money. When everyone stands on the pad, the truck leaves.
Eight stages
Each stage takes a chore off your hands
- 1Hands
Turrets, Workbenches, the Pick and the Welder. Everything by hand.
- 2The Press
The Ammo Press crafts on its own. Runners arrive.
- 3The Belt
Belts and splitters from the Core’s hatches. Saboteurs go for your machines.
- 4The Drill
Auto Miners dig for you. Enemies from a fourth side.
- 5Alloy
Copper, and the Furnace. Brutes shrug off plain rounds.
- 6Power
Coal and the Generator: Heavy Turrets, Auto-Loaders, Repair Stations. Tanks.
- 7Sludge
Explosive rounds and the Assembler. Swarms.
- 8Crystal
Energy rounds break the Wardens’ shields. Hold to wave 20.
The map grows with every stage and is laid out fresh each run. Hold out to wave 20 to win, then carry on in Endless if you like. One dial sets the pressure, from Relaxed to Meltdown; a first run starts on Relaxed. How many of you play never changes the waves.
Ways to play
Supply, Sandbox and the Training Yard
The main game. New machines come from the truck and you carry them into place; scrap buys parts and repairs. A stage’s new machine arrives already set up and running, so you can see how it is used.
Build anything straight from scrap. Opens once your crew has reached stage 3.
Eight short lessons, one per stage, through the TRAINING door. Each ends with a small wave your build holds on its own.