Casualties: Unknown beginner guide: injuries, layers, characters
Casualties: Unknown beginner guide: how injuries, the 11 layers, three characters, crafting and run settings work, with price and PC requirements.
Checked against 1.0 on 9 Nov 2026. We re-test every guide after major updates; if something changed, tell us.
This Casualties: Unknown beginner guide explains how the game works on day one: what you are actually trying to do, how the injury systems punish sloppy play, which settings to touch before your first run, and how the three characters and eleven layers fit together. Casualties: Unknown released in full on Steam on November 9, 2026, and it is a tough 2D cave-exploration survival sim, so a little preparation goes a long way. For the price, platforms and launch details see our launch news piece.
Short version: treat every run as a medical emergency in slow motion. Learn the first aid tutorial, pick a forgiving run preset, keep your bandages and light sources in reach, and do not rush down a layer while you are bleeding, starving or cold.
What Casualties: Unknown actually asks of you
The developer, Orsoniks, describes the game on its Steam store page as an unforgiving cave-exploration survival simulator. Your captors send you to a foreign planet to retrieve lost cargo, you descend through its layers, and you are "just one of the thousands of test subjects sent to die". It is single-player only, published by Oro Interactive, and it is a 2D side-on game, so reading the screen carefully matters more than quick reflexes.
Three pillars hold everything up. First, a simulated limb and cardiovascular system: injuries are unavoidable, you bandage yourself, fight infected wounds and stabilise blood loss before you pass out, and your mood can make survival harder. Second, crafting: tools let you travel the caverns more efficiently, and local flora can supply resources to patch yourself up. Third, risky exploration: earlier expeditions left useful loot behind, but the store page warns that even helpful things can prove deadly.
Before your first run: tutorials and settings
Do the tutorials. The game ships with a first aid tutorial and a crafting tutorial, and the patch notes show the developer keeps polishing both, so they are the fastest way to learn which menu does what. After that, spend a minute in the run settings. Since the 7.0 update the settings menu offers several presets and many more options, and the full release adds more run settings, including an endless mode. The 1.0 notes also describe a setting that changes the infection chance, plus a loot quantity setting, which are exactly the knobs a beginner should use to soften the first few attempts.
- Finish the tutorialsFirst aid first, then crafting. You will use both in every run.
- Pick a gentler presetUse the run settings presets and the sliders (they now have two points of precision) before you try the harshest setup.
- Learn item labelsHold Left Control to show labels for all items nearby so you can find and grab loot quickly.
- Jump deliberatelyYou jump once per key press rather than auto-jumping while the key is held, though you can buffer a jump input to get a first-frame jump. Wall jumps have coyote time.
Injuries, bleeding and first aid
The health panel is your most important screen. According to the developer's patch notes, it displays opiate and venom levels, and containers can be opened from it. Typical problems you will learn to manage are bleeding, infected wounds, dislocations and fractures, withdrawal, radiation sickness, brain damage effects and low oxygen. The notes mention that splints and tourniquets are removed correctly from dismembered limbs, that low abdomen muscle health causes internal bleeding, and that severe blood loss was fixed so it no longer cancels the need to breathe, which tells you how deep the simulation goes.
- Stop blood loss first. Bleeding out is the quickest way to end a run; stabilise it before you worry about anything else.
- Watch infection. Infected wounds need treatment, and an infected limb can be amputated. The amputation minigame was made less punishing in 1.0 and can now be done on non-infected limbs too.
- Manage adrenaline and energy. Stamina regenerates slightly faster with adrenaline, and high adrenaline prevents energy from reaching 0, but it also affects blood pressure.
- Keep mood up. The store page says too much doom and gloom makes life harder, so avoid pushing on while exhausted and miserable.
- Use the campfire. The campfire warms you up more than before, which helps when cold is draining your health.
Losing limbs is no longer the end of the road. The developer's September progress update introduced a simple prosthesis system with three tiers; the last tier is a direct upgrade over your normal limb, and you can now have both legs amputated. Prosthetics are repaired and maintained differently from flesh, so do not treat them like a normal wound.
The three characters
The full game has three playable characters: the experiment and two other species. The developer says you unlock them by finishing a run with the previous character, and each has its own stats and unique gimmicks. In practice that means your first goal is simply to finish a run, not to optimise one. The September update also states that the game was made "a little bit easier as a whole" than the demo: some traps are more clearly telegraphed, certain injuries are less debilitating, combat is less finicky and brain damage is not as punishing. There are three separate endings, and the update notes that you can beat the game "in a couple of ways".
Tip: because characters unlock in sequence, a slow, safe first run that reaches the end is worth more than a daring run that dies on layer three.
Layers and how to descend
The Steam page says you explore 11 layers. The developer explained that there are 10 main layers, a shorter 11th layer and an optional bonus ending sequence, and the full release has twice as many layers as the demo (layers 6 to 11 are new). Each layer brings its own challenges, so the store page's advice is to adapt and descend. Drill pods are scattered more generously and are easier to use because runs can get very long, and in 1.0 the pods decrease player stats less than before. A liquid safety area now surrounds you when you enter a new layer, and the player should no longer spawn inside liquids, which removes one early frustration.
A sensible routine is to loot a layer thoroughly, restock bandages and food, use a pod or fire to recover, and only then take the next step down. Dying on an earlier layer no longer resets your deepest achieved layer, so progress is tracked even when a run fails.
| Topic | What the developer says | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Layers | 10 main layers plus a shorter 11th | Plan long sessions; use drill pods to recover |
| Characters | 3, unlocked by finishing a run with the previous one | Finish a run early to open new playstyles |
| Endings | 3 separate endings, optional bonus ending sequence | Replayability beyond the first win |
| Modes | Endless mode, run settings, dune mode | Tune difficulty to your skill |
| Achievements | 40 on Steam | Console commands outside the sandbox disable them |
Crafting, tools and useful items
Crafting is how you turn scrap into survival. The 1.0 notes simplified the drill repair kit recipe, changed the wood scraps recipe, and made the lockpicking kit usable from anywhere in your inventory. The torch now has a firestarting quality, the machete has no hammering quality, and wood blocks only drop wood scraps. You can boil lumalgae down into bio-chem, and the material pouch now holds only specific material items but no longer has a small maximum weight limit. You can also customise items with colours and labels, which is handy once your inventory fills up (the crafting tutorial explains the labelling).
The notes list several consumables that were rebalanced and are worth knowing about: the soothing crystal shard and antivenom were buffed, digestion crystal shards also reduce toxicosis, and the fungus chunk affects temperature less. Guns are more controllable and solid buildings stop bullets, so a defensive base can be a real tool. Traders appear in the cave, and the notes say killing traders while mindwiped gives less sickness, so trading normally is the lower-risk way to restock.
Hazards, traps and enemies
New traps were added in 1.0 and some can now dismember, so look before you step. Tentacle plants drop items when destroyed, grabber plants no longer get stuck in the ground, and the Elder no longer instantly retargets you if you hit it while it is on cooldown. Sound cannons now have an indicator and cannot activate right after you spawn into a layer. Cave ticks gave 75% less venom per bite from the 7.0 update onward, and turret lights go through blocks. Small chances of instant earthquakes exist, so avoid building directly under unstable ceilings.
Price, bundles and requirements
On Steam the full game costs $22.99, with a 15% launch discount that brings it to $19.54. The developer also released an original soundtrack of over three hours and more than 50 tracks, and announced bundles with Rain World, Palworld, Barotrauma and Abiotic Factor. The demo stays up but will no longer be updated. Minimum PC requirements are modest: Windows 10 (64-bit), an Intel Core i3-8130U at 2.20 GHz and 500 MB of storage, with 16:9, 16:10 and ultrawide screens supported. Bug reports go to the developer's Discord server, and the Steam news hub carries the release announcement and the full 1.0 patch notes.
If you enjoy survival games with systems this deep, our Subnautica 2 beginner guide and the DREADMOOR beginner guide cover two other November survival releases, and more are collected in our Casualties: Unknown game hub and the guides section.
FAQ
When did Casualties: Unknown release?
The full game released on Steam on November 9, 2026, after a long demo period.
Is Casualties: Unknown multiplayer?
No. Steam lists it as a single-player game with Family Sharing support.
How many layers and characters are there?
The store page lists 11 layers. There are three playable characters, and you unlock them by finishing a run with the previous one.
Does the demo get updates?
No. The developer says the demo stays up but will not be updated beyond a small text fix.
Can I turn the difficulty down?
Yes, to a degree: run settings include presets and sliders such as infection chance and loot quantity, and the game is easier overall than the demo.
Has finished every FromSoftware game at level 1. Writes the boss guides and checks them on every patch.