Stealth and security
Total avoidance is as valid as a trap or a fight; hack terminals and turrets before an encounter and let the station kill for you instead.
RetroSpace sells itself on not forcing a playstyle. Total avoidance is as legitimate as a diversion, a trap, a hidden route, or a full-on fight — and the station's own security can be turned against whoever is hunting you.
This page is about the quiet half of the game.
Your stealth toolkit
| Tool | How it works | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Light and shadow | Dark areas are where you become hard to read | Crossing a patrolled industrial room |
| Sound and diversions | Noise moves enemies; throwing something is cheaper than shooting something | Splitting a group, or pulling a guard off a door |
| Traps and environmental hazards | The station kills on your behalf | Any room with machinery, fire, or a drop |
| Hacking | Terminals and security stations are interactive systems | Before a fight, never during one |
| Hidden routes | The station is deliberately over-connected | When the direct path is watched |
| Enemy behaviour | Every enemy has its own abilities and weaknesses to learn | Every single time, instead of memorising damage numbers |
Hacking is the strongest verb in the game
The official material is blunt about security: it is extremely deadly unless you find a way to turn it into an ally. That makes hacking a force multiplier rather than a flavour option.
- Scout the terminal before you trigger anything. Terminals are part of the room's logic, not decoration.
- Point turrets at the patrol route, not at the door you came through.
- Turrets show damage — the demo's second major update made them emit smoke and sparks when hurt — so a partially broken turret is information, not just scenery.
- If a room cannot be hacked, that is the game telling you this room is meant to be avoided.
How to decide: sneak or fight
- Count the exits. Two or more ways out, and you can afford to experiment. One, and you should not start anything.
- Check what the enemy reacts to. Some enemies track sound; others track light or line of sight. The reaction, not the health pool, decides whether stealth is even possible.
- Value the recovery trip. A lost fight in a distant sector costs you the walk back to your body — see Death, cloning and rebirth.
- Remember the indicator. The enemy state indicator can be toggled from the menu; keep it on while you are still learning a new enemy type.
Fight only when the room is on your side
If you do fight, do it in a room you have already prepared: a hazard you can bait an enemy into, a turret you control, or a corridor you can retreat down. The official feature list frames combat as one of several answers, and the demo's second major update (better guns, faster shotgun, an improved wrench with a charged attack) exists to make those deliberate fights feel good — not to make random fights survivable.
Check Medical collisions before rerouting
The 21 October hotfix corrects wall colliders in the Medical Section in both normal and dark timelines. Update before interpreting a stuck edge as an intended stealth barrier. Keep the room's timeline and current objective in your notes when comparing the route with another player's example.
For a quest that remains blocked after reaching its destination, use the named progression fixes rather than assuming that every locked state has a hacking solution.
