Active MatterSurvive the first extraction by treating the shelter, the queue type, and the safe container as three separate decisions. Active Matter Getting Started is the Agency loop in miniature: activate the base outside ordinary reality, pick Isolated or PvE if you want fewer rival operatives, stash something that actually survives a death, and leave before the quantum-unstable fragment collapses. The Steam trophy A 20-minute adventure is the public receipt that you extracted once. Welcome to the Agency is the receipt that the shelter is on. Neither trophy replaces the death rule printed in the FAQ: guns that are not personal and not in a safe container vanish when you die.
Welcome to the Agency unlocks when the base outside ordinary reality is on. Replicator and refiner live there.
The official FAQ describes Isolated and dedicated PvE options for first raids. Some locations are PvE-only.
Death strips unsecured guns. The safe container and personal items are the two exceptions.
A 20-minute adventure unlocks on a successful first extract. Collapse still wipes anything left on the ground.
The shelter is the only safe place outside ordinary reality. You return to it after death, you spend Credits and Prime from it, and you replicate recovered items there. The public Steam description for Welcome to the Agency is simply “Activate your shelter.” That is the first mechanical gate, not flavor text. If the base is dark, you have nowhere to park a replicator queue or a refiner job.
Standard Edition already ships Credits and Prime so you can buy a first kit without waiting on raid payouts. Advanced and Deluxe raise those piles and add storage, replicator queue, and recipes such as Harpy. None of those extras help a first extract if you never switch the lights on. Treat the shelter toggle as a checklist item, then ignore the rest of the edition screen until you have extracted once.
Self-wipe later returns edition content except crystallised Active Matter (Prime). That rule is for veterans who want a fresh loop, not for the first raid. Do not self-wipe to “practice.” Practice is Isolated or PvE with a cheap kit and a safe container.
The FAQ is blunt about mode split: some locations are PvE-only, some PvPvE-only, some PvP-only. A dedicated PvE mode exists. Isolated raids exist for players who want the map with fewer rival operatives. For a first extract, Isolated or PvE is the correct default unless you already enjoy losing kits to other Agencies.
Squad size in Early Version copy was solo or up to three. The FAQ still talks in those terms. A three-stack does not change the death rule. It only adds revive options — Press F… to Revive is a later trophy for raising a squadmate, and Second Chance is for returning after a revive beacon. Neither trophy is required to finish the first loop.
Nexus and Hired Ops are the wrong first queue. Nexus issues Agency gear you keep, which is the opposite lesson from extraction. Hired Ops is a beacon-capture match with its own trophies. Bookmark those pages and stay on Isolated until A 20-minute adventure pops.
Steam edition copy and the FAQ agree: if a character dies in a raid, weapons and equipment not in a safe container and not personal are lost. That sentence is the whole first-raid economy. A backpack full of guns is a suggestion. The container is the bank.
Dead Man’s Chest later asks you to extract items five times using a safe container after death. You do not need that trophy on day one. You need the habit it describes. Put one valuable in the container as soon as you find it, then play the remaining minutes as if you were already dead. If you extract alive, you get both the container and whatever is still on your body. If you do not, you still get the container.
Prime can buy respawn beacons. That is a paid second chance, not a reason to skip the container. Credits from contracts and processed Active Matter fund the next kit. Spend them after you are out, not while the zone is collapsing.
The zone dies. That is the product promise, not a difficulty modifier. Harvest Active Matter from creatures, other players, or clusters, finish the contract you can actually complete, and walk to extraction while you still have a timer. A 20-minute adventure only cares that you extracted once. It does not care that you emptied the map.
Gravitational anomalies can let you run along walls and ceilings. That is a movement tool, not a loot plan. Flowermen group near orange-flower nests and speed up close to them. Mimic Car is a rusty Soviet car that can be the deadliest enemy in a Fire Walk briefing. On a first Isolated run, you do not need to catalogue every named threat. You need to not die next to a nest with an empty container.
After the first extract, open raids to pick the next named zone, extraction for contracts and beacons, arsenal for edition guns, and Harmonization for Prime and Monolith. Official pages do not publish a weapon tier list.
Isolated or dedicated PvE is the safer first queue. The official FAQ says some locations are PvE-only and that a dedicated PvE mode exists. Full PvPvE adds rival operatives who can take your Active Matter and your unsecured guns. Learn the extract route first, then opt into PvPvE on purpose.
Personal items and whatever sits in a safe container. Steam edition copy and the FAQ both say weapons and equipment that are not in a safe container and not personal are lost on raid death. The time loop returns the operative, not the backpack. Prime beacons buy a respawn; they do not rewrite that rule.