New Player Guide

Remnants: Post-Collapse Idle Survival — Beginner Walkthrough

1. The First Minutes

You start with a crumbling shelter and nothing automated. Click the shelter to collect Scrap — your first resource. Every click feeds the early economy.

2. Understanding Resources

REMNANTS has 8 core resources. Each one unlocks over time — you won't see them all at the start.

• Scrap — the primary building material. Drives construction and upgrades.
• Food — required for population growth. Negative food = population decline.
• Water — required for population survival. Running dry halts growth and eventually causes losses.
• Power — unlocked mid-game. Brownouts reduce production across all systems if supply runs short.
• Population — your workforce. More people = more production from most buildings.
• Tech Points — spent in the Research panel to unlock buildings and bonuses.
• Influence — used for Faction Treaties and Expedition boosts.
• Archive Points — unlocked via expeditions. Funds Blueprint and Archive research.

3. Building Priority

Buildings unlock in tiers. Early game focuses on Scrap, Food, and Water generation. Don't rush into Power buildings until you have sufficient production to support the drain.

Early Game (Base Tier)

• Shelter upgrades — increase population cap. Upgrade whenever possible.
• Rain Collectors — first priority. Build multiple.
• Foragers — second priority. Match water output.
• Scrap Pickers — scale passive scrap income for building costs ahead. Build several early.

Mid Game (Survival Tier)

• Power Generators — unlock once research trees demand Power. Balance power supply against drain.
• Tech Points — generated passively by population; spend in the Research panel (no separate building required) to open up the tech tree.
• Watchtowers — each one adds 60 seconds to raid intervals and reduces scavenge cooldown. Worth building before raids start.
• Walls — build before your first raid. More walls = more HP buffer when raiders hit.

4. Research Order

Spend Tech Points in the Research panel. Unlock new buildings, bonuses, and systems. Wrong order wastes early Tech — here's a sensible path:

1. Efficient Smelting — Scrap ×1.5 and unlocks Blast Smelter. Cheapest early node and also opens the Diplomacy panel.
2. Solar Technology — unlocks Solar Array (90 power/s). Research before you commit to power-hungry buildings.
3. Field Medicine — unlocks Field Hospital and raises population growth ×1.3.
4. Hydraulics Engineering — unlocks Aqueduct Network; water production ×1.35.
5. Bio Cultivation — unlocks Protein Plant; food production ×1.3.
6. Industrial Automation — all production ×1.2, +0.8 tech/s, unlocks Arcology. Note: Expeditions unlock automatically at Shelter Level 3, no research needed.

5. Expeditions

Once you unlock the Expeditions panel, you can deploy squads on missions across the wasteland. Expeditions are one of the best sources of Influence, Archive Points, Blueprints, and rare survivors called Specialists.

• 3 mission tiers — Tier 1 missions are safe. Tier 3 missions risk real population casualties on failure.
• Squad size matters — send enough population to meet the mission's risk threshold. Underpowered squads lose people.
• Specialists — 6 unique survivors each with a passive bonus. Prioritise rescuing them early. Their bonuses stack across runs after prestige.
• Blueprints — fund a separate research tree with Tier 2 buildings and bonuses not available elsewhere.
• Influence Boost (⚡) — spend Influence on active missions to accelerate completion or improve outcomes.

For a full breakdown, see the Expeditions Guide →

6. Surviving Raids

Raids start once your population exceeds 10. Raiders attack on a timer (default 10 minutes, reduced by lack of Watchtowers). Raids last 25–30 seconds depending on strength — fast enough that you need to respond immediately.

• Build Watchtowers first — each watchtower adds 60 seconds to the raid interval. More breathing room.
• Build Walls — Perimeter Walls add HP to each lane. More walls = longer buffer before breach.
• Armory — increases defender strength, reducing how many fighters you need per lane.
• During a raid — assign fighters to the walls being hit. Raiders target multiple walls at once at higher strengths. Split your defenders accordingly.
• Surge warning — first surge triggers at 8–12 seconds into the assault (each Floodlight delays it further). Keep defenders in reserve for the surge.
• Breach penalty — if a wall falls, you lose resources. If all walls fall, the penalty is severe.

7. Scavenging Runs

Send scouts to one of 7 wasteland zones. Each zone reveals 6 face-down cards — flip them for resources. Card values scale with your current production rate, so scavenging gets more rewarding over time.

• Every run has at least one hazard card. Hazards deal 60–100 seconds of production as damage. Flipping all 6 is not always worth it.
• Stop when the risk exceeds the reward — if you've already found good loot, leave the last 1–2 cards face-down.
• Watchtowers reduce cooldown — more watchtowers = faster scavenge cycling.
• Automate scavenging — the Salvage Automator upgrades eventually let scavenge runs happen on a timer.

8. Managing Power

Power unlocks mid-game. Buildings that consume Power will trigger brownouts if your supply runs short. Brownouts have four escalating tiers:

• Minor — small production penalty across the board.
• Brownout — significant penalty. Tech and Influence generation hit.
• Severe — population growth halts. Most production heavily penalised.
• Blackout — population begins to decline. Emergency — build more generators immediately.

9. When to Echo Reset

Echo Reset is the prestige mechanic. You reset your colony in exchange for Echo Fragments — a permanent currency you spend in the Echo Forge for upgrades that carry into every future run.

When to reset for the first time

• You've hit the Shelter level 4+ and research costs are slowing to a crawl.
• You've completed at least a few Tier 2 expeditions.
• Production growth has plateaued — you're waiting minutes between purchases.

What persists after Echo Reset

• Echo Fragments earned
• Echo Forge upgrades purchased
• Specialists recruited
• Run Traits earned this run
• Faction Bond progress
• World Archive chapters unlocked
• Achievements

For full details on the prestige system, see the Echo Reset Guide →

10. General Tips

• Check the hints panel — amber glow means an upgrade is ready for a specific building.
• Offline progress accumulates — leave the game running. Come back to a pile of resources.
• Speed multiplier (2×/4×) — genuinely multiplies resource production. Use during active sessions.
• Save often — the game auto-saves, but export a manual save before any big decision.
• Cross-device play — use the Share Link in Save & Load to import your save on another device.
• Morale & Cohesion — completing achievements boosts Morale, a passive production multiplier. Achievement hunting is mechanically rewarding, not just cosmetic.
• World Archive — one chapter unlocks per run. The story matters for understanding your Echo bonuses and what you're building toward.