Welcome to Unfortunate Spacemen!
You're probably here because you played your first shiftshaper game and didn't have foggiest what was going on, either that or you just fancied a nice easy guide to help get you started!

This guide will cover basics on how to play as both a spaceman and the monster, tactics, as well as running through perks and tips and tricks of the game. Leave a rating, even if you thought it was a terrible guide!

So this is your main menu screen as you log into the game (pictured below), I'm sure you're all aware of it. First things first you should navigate to the learn button and do the in game tutorials if you haven't already.


Once you've done the basic tutorials you should have a basic understanding of the game anyway, but not a full grasp once you've actually got into a shapeshifter game. I would recommend playing out the story mode before you play a game of shapeshifter so you can gain a few precious levels and get some juicy exp. This is because the perks in this game are incredibly helpful and can save your life.

I've just spawned into a shapeshifter game help me!!! I hear you cry out. It's simple enough really, just a take a look at the image below and I'll run you through a few things you're seeing.


As you can see the above image is numbered and tagged, I'll run you through what each number is pointing at and why it's important etc.

1 - Health Bar and Oxygen Bar: Pretty self explanatory and most gamers should be used to this one. As you take damage your health bar (HP) will deplete and once it hits zero, game over. As for the oxygen (OXY), when you enter an atmosphere without any oxygen it will start to go down at a steady rate. Once your oxygen bar is empty you do not instantly die, you simply start losing health and regular intervals until you suffocate and die.

2 - This is your particular alias. You should also take a quick look at this so you know who you are, also be on the look out for other people with your own name. These people are imposters and definitely the monster! REMEMBER you cannot have two people with the same name in the game, it's the monster disguised as you!

3 - The objectives. Holding down tab gives you a nice view of what it is you have to actually do in the game! As the spaceman there is a handful, clearing debris from landing pads, activating terminals, collecting samples and rocketting the samples off away into space! Holding the shift button will show you the map and where the various things around the map are. The map won't show you where the specimens/samples are unless you have the equipment for it.

4 - Employee Points. This is your ingame score, if you have the highest amount of points at the end of the game after the monster is killed then hooray! You're the MVP! You earn employee points by damaging the monster and completing the objectives.

5 - Perks. These are the perks you have chosen for this particular game, they will be covered in greater detail later on.

6 - Keycards - When you first start the game you will generally only have one keycard. Keycards are used to lock doors which can be helpful for escaping the monster. Certain perks can give you an extra keycard and some can make you spawn with no keycards. The monster never spawns with a keycard and has to steal keycards from other people to lock doors.

Highlighted slightly earlier in the basics section, as the spaceman your goal is to complete all the objectives in the game and get on board the rescue shuttle. This does not mean you're out of the woods yet though! The monster can sneak on board the rescue shuttle and you'll have to kill it there before you are victorious. You can also instantly win by killing the monster at any time.



(Image above) This is a terminal, one of the objectives. You activate these by pressing E on them and they begin to transmit. This does not instantly compelte the objective as it takes time for it to establish an uplink. During this time the monster can switch off the terminal either manually or with a robot arm.



(Image above) This is a research sample, another objective. You also activate these by pressing E on them to seal them. Once sealed you can pick them up and put them inside certain chambers around the map to launch them. When launching a sample be sure to check your surroundings so you are not pushed inside the chamber as you will be launched into space and die. You place the sample in the chamber simpoly by stepping close enough to the chamber and it is automatically placed in.



(Image above) This is debris. You have to remove all debris from landing pads in order to complete the objective, you do this by pressing E on it and the debris is cleared.



Once you have completed all the objectives a rescue shuttle will land for you to get into it! This doesn't mean it's game over and you win though as the monster can come in there with you. The game isn't over until the monster is dead! (or all the spacemen are dead)

The monster can be a slightly trickier role to get a hang of and there are certain tactics you can use to kill the spacemen or interrupt objectives easily, which will be covered later. This is just the basic objectives part.



As you can in the image above, the monster screen is very similar to the spaceman screen, the only difference being that instead of helping with the objectives you have to interrupt them. (and also murder a few people)



(Image Above) This is your monster form which you can transform into by pressing C, you are also forced into this after your shapeshifter timer has ran out so it is important to watch how much time you have left on your disguise.



This is a monster egg! You can lay these by pressing R and when opened they can release a facehugger which will kill spacemen! Facehuggers can be shot off so try to lay them somewhere someone might go solo so they have a higher chance of dying.



As the monster you can also burrow into the ground with the B button where you can lie in wait for someone to walk over you. After they do a simple left click and you activate your trap and damage them! You can only be damaged while burrowed with flamethrowers and grenades.

Perks! One of the greatest gifts to both monster and spaceman kind. As you level up you will gain more and more available perks which you can use to defeat your foe. As a level one you will only have 3 starting perks on the spaceman side and 3 perks for the monster side.



Choosing the right combination of perks can be crucial to your victory! This is only a basic guide of the game and I may create a different guide for the various combinations that are effective! Other than that, explore and try out your own combinations to see what works for you!