RECLAIM
Field Manual · Beta

How to Hold
the Church

RECLAIM is a co-op Ozark zombie holdout: one church, one endless storm-lit night, and waves that never stop. Stay inside and hold — step outside and the toxin drops you. This tutorial covers the whole run: from menu to loadout to how deep you can push the night.

Solo or up to 8 co-op Endless wave siege Hold the church Outside = death

1. Getting started

Always boot from the main menu. It sets up your survivor, role and loadout before it drops you into the church. Launching the world scene directly skips that setup and you get a quiet church with no horde.

1

Launch RECLAIM

Use the installed client (run ReclaimUpdater.exe first if a patch is waiting). Wait for the menu — not the editor play button unless you know what you’re doing.

2

Single Player or Multiplayer

Single Player is fully offline. Multiplayer connects to the RECLAIM server and drops you into a shared lobby (up to 8).

3

Pick a survivor + class role

Each survivor has a passive; each role changes your starting kit and perk (Medic heals harder, Engineer boards cheaper, Heavy tanks more, Scavenger starts loaded). See Survivors & roles.

4

Kit up at the Armory

Before the match you set your loadout in the Armory — pick the guns you’ll spawn holding. You always carry the knife; everything else you bring is what you chose here. In co-op, everyone readies up, then a countdown drops the squad into the church.

Graphics tip: Settings → Quality for the full storm/fog/lighting look, or Performance on weaker machines. F11 / Alt+Enter toggles fullscreen. Rebind anything in Settings → Keybinds.

2. The holdout loop

This is the whole game — a relentless wave siege. No day/night scavenge, no crafting, no hunger bars. Just you, the church, and a night that keeps getting worse.

The wave rhythm

Escalating rounds

  • You spawn inside the church at the start of the night
  • Clear a wave → short breather → a bigger, faster, tankier wave
  • Every 5th wave is a Blood Round — red fog, meaner and more numerous horde
  • Special zombies join as the night deepens; a boss brute can open later nights
  • There is no finish line — the score is how many nights the squad survives
The one hard rule

Stay inside

  • The clearing outside the church is toxic
  • Step out and the screen flashes purple and your health drains fast
  • It’s meant to herd you back in, not instantly kill — but linger and it will finish you
  • Hold the interior; make the horde come to you through the doors and windows
What you manage: health, stamina, points, and boards. That’s it — RECLAIM’s church mode is pure siege. There’s no thirst, warmth, hunger, or infection to babysit. Keep your boards up, your gun loaded, and your feet inside.

3. Your first minutes — walkthrough

A practical opening. You won’t get everything perfect — you need the church holdable and your feet inside.

  1. Orient. You spawn inside, facing the nave. Note the doors and windows — those are the openings the horde will break in through.
  2. Board what you can. Aim at an opening with planks and press E to nail it shut. Prioritize the ground-level doors zombies can walk straight through.
  3. Pick your lane. Stand where you can cover the most-used opening without getting flanked. A back corner with one sightline beats the middle of the room.
  4. Fight the first wave. Aim for heads, tap RMB to steady your shots, and don’t empty a mag into a single walker.
  5. Loot the drops. Dead zombies sometimes drop ammo bundles and medkits — walk over them. Power-up gems help the whole squad; grab them.
  6. Reboard in the breather. Between waves, reload, re-nail any smashed boards, and reposition. Then brace for the next one.
  7. Never step out. If you get knocked toward a doorway, get back in. The toxin does not care that a brute pushed you.

4. Controls

Default bindings — rebind anything in Settings → Keybinds. Almost every world verb (boarding, loot, drops) is E.

ActionKeys
MoveWASD
LookMouse
JumpSpace
SprintShift (drains stamina)
CrouchCtrl (lower profile, steadier aim)
FireLMB (hold for full-auto weapons)
Aim down sightsRMB (tighter accuracy, less hip spread)
ReloadR
Swap weaponQ
Quick-select weapon1…9 (owned slots; press the held one to lower it)
Scope zoom (scoped guns)Mouse wheel while sighted
Interact / boardE boards, loot, drops
Use medkit / healH
Give item (co-op)Y while aiming at a teammate
Third-person toggleV (experimental)
Free / capture mouse · PauseEsc
Quicksave / loadF5 / F9 (solo)
FullscreenF11 or Alt+Enter
Scoreboard (co-op)Tab
Chat (co-op)Enter

5. Reading the HUD

Two bars and one panel tell you everything: can you take a hit, and how bad is the next thirty seconds.

Health / staminaTop-left. Health regenerates slowly if you avoid hits for a few seconds; empty stamina kills your sprint. Heal with H when you’re carrying a medkit.
Night · wave · zombies leftTop-right. The NIGHT number is your score; WAVE and the remaining count tell you how close the breather is.
Threat meterHow much pressure is inbound (hostiles nearby). When it spikes, expect a breach — hold your lane.
Points (PTS)Earned from hits and kills — your run score, boosted while a DOUBLE TAKE power-up is active.
Ammo / weaponMagazine + reserve for the gun in hand. A dry click means reload (R) or find an ammo drop.
Purple washThe screen tinting and pulsing purple means you’re outside and taking toxic damage. Get back inside now.

6. Weapons & loadout

Your arsenal is decided at the Armory before the match — there are no wall-buys inside the church. Bring what you can hold a doorway with.

Your loadout

You always spawn with the knife for emergencies, plus the guns you equipped in the Armory. Cycle owned weapons with Q, or jump straight to a slot with the 1–9 number keys. Pressing the number of the gun already in hand lowers it (weapon-free).

The arsenal

Sidearm and shotgun for close holds, the MP5 to spray a horde, the M4 as a controlled workhorse, a bolt-action for one-shot heads down the nave. Scoped guns zoom with the mouse wheel while sighted.

Handling matters

Every gun has real weight, spread and recoil. Aim (RMB) tightens the cone and steadies the climb; crouch (Ctrl) steadies further; firing on the move or mid-air throws your shots wide. Tap, don’t hose, at range.

Relics

The Armory’s rarest weapons — THE RECLAIMER (arc-lightning that chains through packed groups) and THE REVIVAL. Unlocked with a redeem code, then equipped in your loadout. Fire the Reclaimer into the crowd, not at one target, for its full value.

No in-church shops. You can’t buy guns, ammo, or perks mid-night — this map runs on the loadout you brought and what the horde drops. Choose an Armory kit you can sustain, not just one that hits hard for one wave.

7. Enemies

Walkers are the bulk. Specials change how you hold the room — learn to hear and prioritize them.

Walker

Baseline pressure — a steady tide toward your doorway. Bread and butter for headshots and point income.

Crawler

Low to the ground and fast — drags itself in under your line of fire. Easy to miss in the dark; sweep low near breached openings.

Brute boss

Huge, slow, and smashes your boards. Don’t trust a door it just hit — reposition and put heavy rounds into it.

Screamer boss

Priority kill. Its scream summons extra pressure. Drop it before the room floods — don’t tunnel it while a brute walks your boards.

Spitter / toxic

Ranged glob-thrower — damages you from across the nave and pools hazard on the floor. Break its line of sight and close the gap.

Blood Round horde

Every 5th wave: red fog, more bodies, faster and tankier. Save your best power-ups (DEADWEIGHT, PURGE) for these.

Boss nights: later nights can open with a boss brute. Keep something with punch in your loadout and don’t let it pin you in a dead-end corner.

8. Drops & power-ups

With no shops, the horde is your resupply. Kills occasionally drop personal ammo and medkits — and rarer team-wide power-up gems.

Personal drops

  • Ammo bundle — tops up your reserves. Walk over it.
  • Medkit — banked for a H heal when you’re hurt.

Power-up gems

Rare drops (~3% on kill). Walk into the floating gem — the effect helps the whole squad, and a banner announces it.

DOUBLE TAKE

Point gains ×2 for a short window. Spray the crowd while it lasts.

DEADWEIGHT

Any hit drops a zombie. Perfect for Blood Rounds and brutes.

FULL MAG

Refills everyone’s reserves. Grab it even if you’re full — teammates may not be.

PURGE

Wipes the live horde. A breath of air — keep shooting the next wave in.

9. Boards & the toxic line

Two things keep you alive: the boards that slow the breach, and the discipline to never cross the doorway.

Boarding openings

  • Aim at a window/door opening and press E with planks to nail it shut.
  • Boards buy time — they don’t hold forever. Brutes tear them down fast.
  • Reboard in the breather between waves, not while three walkers are already climbing in.
  • Freeform base-building is off — the fantasy is round-for-round waves, not a fort.

The toxic clearing

  • Everything outside the church walls is out of bounds and toxic.
  • Cross the line and health drains while the screen pulses purple.
  • Doorways are safe to hold from the inside — just don’t step through them.
  • Knocked out by a brute? Walk back in immediately; the drain doesn’t pause for excuses.

10. Survivors & class roles

Body + role stack. Pick the survivor you like, then the job the squad needs.

The Protagonist

Cole Harlan

Survivor’s Instinct — balanced baseline. No crutch, no penalty. Pairs cleanly with any role.

The Ranger

Rae Sutton

Field-Hardened — recovers stamina faster; built for repositioning and long holds.

The Hillbilly

Skinny Randy

Moonshine & Buckshot — regenerates faster and tanks more punishment than he should.

The Pilot

Roxie “Fuse” Mercer

Fuse — sprints faster; first to a breach and first to reposition.

Class roles

Medic

Extra medkits and heals ~60% stronger. Play mid and keep the doorway holders standing.

Engineer

Extra planks; boarding costs 1 plank instead of 2. Owns the fortification and keeps breaches sealed.

Heavy

+40 max HP and extra ammo, a touch slower. The front-line doorway anchor.

Scavenger

Starts with extra ammo and a medkit. Deepest reserves to open the night with.

11. Co-op play

Up to 8 survivors in one church. Roles matter more than ego.

Down / revive / wipe

Going down starts a bleedout — a teammate can revive you, or you respawn on the next round. If the whole squad is down, the run ends. Restart together.

Share gear

Aim at a teammate and press Y to hand over half of your most-abundant item. Feed the Engineer planks; feed the Heavy ammo.

Comms

Enter to chat, Tab for the scoreboard. Call Screamers and breached openings early — the whole squad shares the same church.

Version lock

Everyone should be on the same build. Use the in-game checker / auto-update so you don’t desync mid-session.

Suggested squad jobs: Engineer keeps every opening boarded · Medic sits mid with heals · Heavy anchors the busiest doorway · everyone else covers the flanking windows and calls bosses.

12. Pro tips

  • Hold one lane you can actually cover — not the whole nave.
  • Reload during wave breathers, not while walkers are in melee.
  • Sound is information — dry clicks, screamer shrieks, brute footfalls.
  • Sweep low near breaches — crawlers slip under your aim.
  • Blood Rounds are when you spend DEADWEIGHT / PURGE.
  • Aim (RMB) + crouch for anything past the front pews.
  • Bring a loadout you can feed from drops, not one that runs dry after a wave.
  • Getting shoved toward a door isn’t a reason to walk out of one.

13. Start-of-night checklist

  • Loadout picked in the Armory (a gun you can sustain)
  • Ground-level doors boarded first, then windows
  • A lane chosen with one clean sightline and no easy flank
  • Medkit banked (or a Medic on the team)
  • Screamer / brute call-outs agreed in co-op
  • Everyone on the same build
  • Feet inside the walls — and staying there

14. Known limits (beta)

  • Camera Third-person (V) is experimental — not a full body self-view yet.
  • Boards Opening/breach alignment on the church is still being tuned — expect the odd board to sit slightly off.
  • Economy No in-church wall-buys/perk machines in this mode — your kit comes from the pre-match Armory and horde drops.
  • Modes The older day/night Rustwater town loop is separate/legacy — the church holdout is the core beta experience.
  • Updates Keep the client current with the in-game checker or ReclaimUpdater.exe so co-op stays compatible.
Remember: Boot via menu → survivor + role → Armory → Single Player or Multiplayer. Hold the church. Board the breach. And whatever happens — don’t step outside.