Lethal Company Beginner's Guide - Tips & Tricks

5-Minute Primer

Lethal Company is a cooperative horror extraction game that drops you and up to three friends into abandoned industrial moons. Your job is simple on paper: land on a moon, break into decaying facilities, steal as much scrap as you can carry, and make it back to your ship before time runs out. In practice, it is a chaotic, panic-inducing symphony of screaming, sprinting, and dodging horrifying monsters.

There are no loadouts to unlock, no skill trees to pour points into, and no guns to save you. Your greatest weapons are your flashlight, your walkie-talkie, your ability to run, and the vocal cords of your teammates. The game operates on a strict quota system enforced by "The Company." If you fail to meet your daily scrap quota, you are unceremoniously fired—thrown into space. Every run is a high-stakes balance of risk versus reward. You must weigh the value of a heavy piece of scrap against the likelihood of a monster turning the corner and ending your run instantly. Communication is not just encouraged; it is the singular mechanic that determines whether your crew lives to see another quota or becomes permanent residents of the moon.

First Hour Checklist

When you first boot up the game, the sheer lack of hand-holding can be overwhelming. Before you even think about stepping foot on a high-tier moon, run through this checklist to ensure you and your crew are ready for your first expedition.

• Form a full squad: While solo play is technically possible, Lethal Company is designed for four players. Play with friends or use the official Discord to find a group. A solo player can only carry a fraction of the scrap a coordinated team can.
• Check the terminal: The computer terminal on your ship is your lifeline. Use it to type "moons" to see your destination options, "orbit [moon name]" to travel, and "land" to touch down. For your first run, select Experimentation. It is the designated beginner moon with predictable, indoor-only monsters.
• Buy a flashlight: At the terminal, type "store." Buy at least one Pro-flashlight. The ship comes with a weak flashlight, but having a second strong light is crucial for seeing hazards before they see you.
• Assign roles: Before opening the outer facility door, decide who is staying on the ship to man the terminals and monitors (the Ship Operator) and who is going inside (the Entrants). A two-and-two split is highly recommended for beginners.
• Understand the door controls: The main entrance door takes several seconds to open and makes a loud siren noise. Do not open it until your entire interior team is standing directly in front of it.
• Establish a pull-out word: Things will go wrong. Decide on a phrase like "Abort!" or "Bail!" that means drop everything and run to the ship immediately, no questions asked.

Key Systems Explained

Navigation and the Radar

Once you land, interior players need to locate the facility entrance. Look for the giant, imposing metal doors on the surface. Once inside, your ship operator can use the radar monitor to guide you. The monitor displays green dots for your crew and red dots for monsters. The ship operator can also open and close interior doors remotely by clicking on them in the terminal, which is an invaluable tool for trapping monsters or cutting off a chase.

Scrap and Weight Mechanics

Your goal is to find scrap—randomized industrial objects like gears, engines, bottles, or toys. Every piece of scrap has a monetary value and a physical weight. You have a maximum carry weight (displayed at the bottom of your screen). If you exceed this weight, you will be unable to sprint. Never exceed your carry weight inside the facility. Walking makes you an easy target. If you pick up a heavy two-handed item (like a heavy engine), you will be forced to walk and cannot hold a flashlight or a melee weapon. Communicate with your team so a teammate can act as your "eyes" while you carry the heavy loot.

The Economy and Quotas

At the end of a successful run, any scrap left on the ship's loading ramp is automatically sold to The Company when you orbit. You have three days to meet a monetary quota set by The Company. If you fail, the game is over. As you progress, quotas rise exponentially, forcing you to leave the safety of beginner moons and tackle harder, more lucrative environments.

The Bestiary

You will not survive long without learning the monsters. Here are the three most critical beginner monsters to memorize:

• Hoarding Bugs: Small, four-legged insects that swarm when you get too close or steal their loot. They are easily killed with a shovel or stop sign but can overwhelm you if ignored.
• Snare Fleas: They cling to the ceiling and drop onto your head. If not removed quickly by a teammate hitting it with a weapon, it will suffocate you. If you hear a rattling sound, look up.
• Eyeless Dogs: Massive, blind canine monsters found exclusively outside the facility. They hunt entirely by sound. If you see one near the ship, you must crouch-walk or throw objects to distract them. Sprinting near an Eyeless Dog is a guaranteed death sentence.

Build / Character Choices

Lethal Company does not feature a traditional RPG build system. Every employee is physically identical, starting with the same stamina, inventory slots, and baseline stats. However, the "build" of your crew emerges from the gear you purchase from the Store and the roles you assume. Managing your limited starting funds (you begin with 30 credits) is your first major strategic decision.

The Essential Starter Loadout

Do not blow all your money on day one. Quotas are low initially, and you need to build a financial cushion. For your first few runs, purchase the following:

• Pro-flashlight (15 Credits): Absolutely mandatory. The default flashlight is a dim yellow beam that barely cuts through the dark. The Pro-flashlight illuminates entire hallways, letting you spot monsters and scrap from a safe distance.
• Flashlight (5 Credits): Buy this as a backup for your second interior player. If the Pro-flashlight player dies or drops it, you do not want to be trapped in the dark.
• Walkie-Talkie (12 Credits): While the interior team can shout to each other, the person on the ship cannot hear you without a walkie-talkie. Buy one for the ship operator. Without ship-to-interior comms, your operator is flying blind and cannot warn you about approaching external monsters.

Role Specialization

While anyone can do anything, a smart team divides responsibilities based on the gear they hold:

• The Scout: Holds the Pro-flashlight and a Walkie-Talkie. They stay at the front of the group, lighting the way and calling out loot and monsters to the ship.
• The Muscle: Carries the Shovel or Stop Sign. They walk slightly behind the Scout, ready to bash away Snare Fleas or kill Hoarding Bugs. They should also carry the two-handed heavy scrap when found.
• The Hauler: Stays near the exit or in safe rooms, grabbing lightweight scrap and ferrying it outside to build a "loot pile" near the ship.
• The Ship Operator: Sits at the terminal, monitors the radar, opens doors, and watches the cameras for external threats like Eyeless Dogs.

Pitfalls to Dodge

New employees have a notoriously high turnover rate. Avoiding these common rookie errors will drastically improve your chances of surviving your first week.

• Overloading your inventory inside: This is the number one killer of beginners. You find a room full of scrap, stuff your pockets, and realize you cannot run when a monster appears. If you are heavy, drop the low-value items immediately. Your life is worth more than a 5-credit bottle.
• Ignoring the weather: Before landing, the terminal will tell you the current weather of the moon. If you see "Eclipsed" (pitch black outside), "Foggy" (severely reduced visibility), or "Stormy" (lightning strikes that kill you if you are outside), do not land if you are a beginner. These weather conditions make navigating outside the facility incredibly dangerous. Wait a day or pick a different moon.
• Being loud outside the ship: The exterior of the facility is not a safe zone. Eyeless Dogs roam the landscape, and they are attracted to your footsteps, your voice, and the ship's horn. If you hear heavy thudding or breathing outside, stop moving, crouch, and communicate via walkie-talkie (which dogs cannot hear).
• Leaving the ship door open: The loading ramp on your ship stays down when you get out. While convenient for throwing scrap onto, an open ship is an invitation for exterior monsters to walk inside and kill your ship operator. The operator should keep the door closed and only lower it when the crew is actively throwing scrap aboard or needs to enter.
• Triggering the fire exit early: Facilities have a main entrance (where you came in) and usually one or two fire exits (metal bolted doors with a red wheel). Turning the wheel on a fire exit triggers a loud alarm that awakens monsters and locks the main door. Only use a fire exit if the main entrance is completely blocked by a monster or you are in extreme danger and need an immediate escape route.
• Abandoning a loot pile too late: A great strategy is to throw scrap out of the facility and pile it up near the main entrance. You can then make multiple safe trips to the ship. However, if you wait until 11:50 PM (the ship leaves at midnight) to start moving the pile, you will panic and die. Move your outside pile to the ship by 10:30 PM at the latest to account for external monster distractions.

Next Steps

Once you have successfully completed a few runs on Experimentation, met your first couple of quotas, and learned the basic behaviors of the starter monsters, the galaxy truly opens up. Here is how you should pivot your strategy to transition from a terrified new hire to a reliable, veteran employee.

Upgrading Your Ship

Once you have a comfortable credit buffer (around 200-300 credits), start purchasing permanent ship upgrades. The Teleporter is your first major purchase. It allows the ship operator to instantly teleport an interior player back to the ship. It is a one-way trip, so it should only be used as an emergency "get out of jail free" card when a teammate is cornered by an unkillable monster. After the Teleporter, save up for the Inverse Teleporter, which lets you send a player from the ship directly into the facility—perfect for retrieving dropped high-value scrap after a disastrous run.

Expanding Your Horizons

When you feel confident, leave the safety of Experimentation and try Assurance or Vow. These moons introduce outdoor entities more frequently and feature more complex facility layouts. Eventually, you will need to tackle March or Rend to meet the steep late-game quotas. Always check the moon's "Risk Level" on the terminal. Never jump from a Tier 1 moon straight to a Tier 3 moon.

Learning Advanced Monster Behaviors

As you progress, you will encounter monsters that cannot be killed or avoided simply by crouching. You will need to learn the specific counterplay for entities like the Coil-Head (which only moves when you aren't looking at it), the Bracken (which stalks you and snaps your neck if you look at it too long), and the Jester (a terrifying jack-in-the-box that you must hide from once it starts winding up). Embrace the deaths—every terrifying demise is a learning opportunity that will make your next run slightly safer.

Remember that in Lethal Company, surviving is a secondary objective to making quota. The Company does not care if three of your four crew members were eaten by a giant worm, as long as the one survivor brought back enough scrap to pay the bills. Stay calm, stick to your roles, communicate constantly, and you will eventually conquer the galaxy's most hostile moons.