Caretakers Beginner Guide: Your First Round, Step by Step

Wondering how to play Caretakers? Your first session comes down to a short loop: pick a map in the lobby, click play, do the personal tasks listed in the top-left corner of your screen, survive the countdown that follows, and leave when the exit opens. Survival Mode is the only released mode right now, so that is where every beginner starts. This guide covers what the first round asks of you, which parts of the HUD actually matter, and the mistakes that keep getting new players caught.

Getting into your first round

1. Launch the game. Caretakers is by FunByte Studios and carries an official warning that the game is in beta, so expect bugs and rough edges.
2. Look around the lobby. You start in a lobby with a shop and an arcade. The shop needs money you won't have yet — one new player immediately noted he was broke — so ignore it for now. Nothing in it is required for your first round.
3. Choose a map and click play. Survival Mode is the currently released mode; Story Mode Chapter 1 is only announced as "coming soon". First-session footage shows a new player picking the bunker map and clicking play.
4. Know the loop. Per the official description, you complete objectives to escape, survive different entities, and earn money from objectives and escapes.

The whole first-session loop — lobby, task list, meters, countdown, escape — is exactly what a first-time player's recording shows:

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Reading the screen: tasks and meters

The round tells you exactly what to do — you just have to read it.

• Task panel (top left). Your tasks for the round are listed here, and they are personal: players in group sessions worked out that "everyone has to do their tasks before you escape". Expect a handful drawn from repair the broadcast, find the tapes, repair a generator, restore comms, stabilize pressure, turn valves, hack terminals, shut off gas, and unlock safes to collect documents.
• The game guides you. One player observed that "it's going to lead me to the next task", and collectibles like tapes highlight when you are near them. Completing a task pays instantly — "Got some money from that", as one first-timer put it.
• Safes are the fiddly ones. A veteran's summary: find a safe, put in the passcode quickly, grab the document, go. Where safes spawn feels randomized every round, so hunt by habit, not memory.

Everything else on screen is about staying alive while you work:

The exact rules behind the noise and voice meters aren't published, but players treat them as live detection feedback — in one session, a hidden player was found and killed through his voice meter. Play as if the meters are always accurate and you won't be wrong in a way that matters.

Two movement notes beginners trip over: low vents want a slide, not a crawl (one first-timer kept trying to crawl before working out the slide), and lockers hide you but hold only limited oxygen — treat them as a short pause, not a base. The game labels actions on screen rather than handing you a control sheet; new players in first-session footage found run, crouch and the flashlight by watching the prompts, so do the same rather than memorizing key lists.

Playing safely, solo or with a team

Caretakers is built around groups — the official pitch is working with your team while being hunted — and the footage backs it up:

• Downed is not dead. Teammates can revive you, and revives happened again and again in the group sessions. Call for help when you're down; pick teammates up when it's safe.
• Finish early, then help. Once your own list is done, you're free to escort — one player finished his tasks and immediately said he'd "dedicate my time to helping you guys". Escape needs everyone's list done.
• Stay together. Groups that coordinated and stuck together fared far better than scattered players.

Solo is a different game. A first-timer who ended up alone put it bluntly — "I'm the only one alive... it's only a matter of seconds before this guy finds me" — and another solo player watched his entire lobby die. If you queue alone, play slow: keep the noise meter low, move task to task, and lean on lockers and distance instead of sprints.

Two honest warnings about the entity, because players disagree:

• Doors are a speed bump, not safety. The entity opens doors — reportedly with no delay — so a closed door buys moments at best. Some groups still shout to shut doors as it approaches; treat that as optional delay, not a plan.
• Don't count on outrunning it. One group insisted you can outrun it; other sessions found it extremely fast. Build your survival on quiet movement and hiding, not footraces.

A simple plan for round one

1. Read the top-left list and take the nearest task. Repairing the broadcast was a first task one newcomer completed alone, and it paid immediately.
2. Leave the area after a loud task. A noisy repair pulled the entity straight to one player, who moved out because "that made noise".
3. Keep quiet. Low noise meter, muted or careful voice chat.
4. If the entity closes in, break line of sight, slide through a vent, or take a locker briefly and watch your oxygen.
5. When your tasks are done, help teammates finish theirs.
6. Don't save tasks for later. One player died still owing "so much task to do" — unfinished personal tasks mean no escape.

Expect to die anyway. Most first-timers in the footage did, often more than once, and each death taught them the map. That is the normal first-session experience, not a failure.

First-round mistakes to avoid

These aren't guesses — each one was demonstrated, with the consequence on screen:

• Hanging around a loud task. Noise pulls the entity in.
• Talking in voice chat. Two hidden players were tracked down and killed through the voice meter in a single session.
• Trusting a closed door. The entity opens them, immediately.
• Camping a locker. The entity waits outside lockers, and your oxygen runs out.
• Owning gear but never activating it. One player carried an entity mask through a chase and died because, in his words, "I DIDN'T KNOW I had to put it actually on". Gear in your loadout does nothing until it is on.
• Wandering without reading the task list. "Did I just walk in circles?" — that player died with most tasks still open.

Where to go from round one

Task sets and item locations shuffle between rounds, and with the game in beta, exact prompts and meters can change after updates — recheck them if a round looks different than described. Once the loop clicks, the objectives guide breaks down every task step by step, the multiplayer guide covers group play in depth, and the entities guide explains what's hunting you. For broader habits once you survive reliably, see the survival tips page, and check the Codes page for any current freebies before spending money in the shop.