The minute before you leave the saferoom: run this list before the door
Stepping out locks the tier. Health, ammo, throwables, who leads and who covers rear: settle it inside.
Why settle it inside
Inside the saferoom the tier is an estimate and recomputes when the roster changes. The step out locks the round. Waiting for people, swapping people, dealing with AFKs: all of it happens inside.
Someone joining mid-round will not change this round's pressure. So do not rush the door. Thirty extra seconds inside costs nothing.
Split supplies before the door opens
- Kits：Black-and-white and low HP first. At 80 HP, do not hog a slot.
- Molotovs and gas：Save for a Tank at a choke and Boomer piles.
- Bile：Save for picking people up and breaking a surround.
- Pipe bombs：For clearing common hordes. Do not spend one on a few strays.
Call out who carries what while still inside. Yelling "who has gas" mid-fight is usually too late.
One easily missed principle when sharing out supplies: do not concentrate one kind on a single person. If both gas cans are with the point man, they end up on the ground the first time he gets pinned.
The one-minute checklist
Once you are used to it this takes under a minute. Go in order and do not skip.
| Check | Standard |
|---|---|
| Is everyone here | All four inside the door, nobody still on the way or idle |
| Health | Anyone on black-and-white, anyone under half |
| Kits | Black-and-white players hold the medkits; nobody else should be sitting on one |
| Throwables | Gas, molotovs and bile spread across at least two people |
| Ammo | Everyone topped up; nobody leaves with half a magazine |
| Boss progress | Run !tank once to confirm you will not run into one at the chokepoint |
| Roles | Say out loud who takes point and who takes rear this chapter |
If any item fails, do not open the door. The extra minute in the saferoom is far cheaper than fixing it out there.
Walk through the next chapter inside the door
This is not about memorising the route but knowing the chapter's shape. If just one of the four has played it, twenty seconds and three sentences is enough:
- Are there events：If there is a rescue, an alarm or a gate — any long event — save supplies for it instead of spending evenly along the way.
- Which stretch is most open：Open stretches are where the spread most easily goes over. Knowing in advance lets you tighten the formation deliberately.
- Which stretch forces single file：On boardwalks, bridge decks and pipes, one person going down stops everyone. Top up before you cross.
If none of you has played it, that is fine — just say "none of us knows this one, let's go slow". That sentence alone helps: it aligns four people's expectations about pace.
For more detail, the segment-by-segment pacing of every official chapter is written up in the map articles, and opening the page in the saferoom costs you nothing.
Agree who leads and who covers rear
The lead should not walk out of the second player's sight. Rear watches behind. On a down, the whole team stops to pick up. Do not let half the team push on and drag the wave.
The four-player formation is covered in the standing article. Ten seconds at the door to confirm is enough.
Check !tank before you go
If the chapter has a rescue event, a gadget, or narrow stairs, type !tank for Boss progress first. Finding a Tank behind the choke door at the last moment hurts no matter how stocked you are.
When not to rush the door
The saferoom is the only zero-pressure place in the whole run. Staying a little longer costs far less than walking out with a problem. In these cases, wait.
- Someone is still on the way
- The tier locks when you leave. Go out short-handed and you spend the whole round fighting four players' worth of pressure with three.
- Someone is black-and-white and the medkits are not sorted
- Leave on black-and-white and the first knockdown is your second — that is a death.
- Someone is idle
- An idle player still counts toward the team and drags the grouping and progress checks. Call out in chat first; if that does not work, have them !away.
- You just voted in a new config
- Run !xx once to confirm the new config actually took effect before you leave — do not find out past the door that it is still the old one.
- You just wiped on the previous chapter
- Say a couple of words about how to play it rather than repeating the same approach.
Conversely, there is a time not to wait: once all four are present and everything is shared out, stop loitering. Healthy and grouped, standing too long triggers the stall check; the countdown expires into an unbounded hold, and the wave releases exactly as you open the door.
After the door
Walk the formation into shape first, then speed up. The 16-second countdown restarts after kill observation. The first wave will not wait for you to settle. Scattering to loot right out the door hands your rear player to a Hunter.