General strategy

A strategy guide to help newer players get farther into the game.

Intro

Compound was made to be a hard game. It will force you to get better and through its difficulty and your failure it will extend your playtime beyond a short one to two hour experience. You will die. You will struggle, and probably fail on the last floor. That’s okay. That’s the point.
To truly beat Compound, you have to master it. This guide will help you get better but it’s up to you to put in the work and become a better player.

Good luck, you’ll need it.

Mechanics and general play

Don’t be fooled - not everything here is the same as the steam forum post! There’s some good advice here for experienced players too.

Play on easy. There’s no shame. This is probably one of your first VR games. When you first started to play video games, did you play them on hard? Probably not. This should be no different. Feel free to crank up the difficulty if you really a challenge, though. Difficulty effects ammo drops, enemy counts, enemy health, your health, enemy bullet speeds, the amount of big enemies allowed on a map, and more.

Aim for headshots. Crits will one hit a guard on all difficulties other than hard.

Don’t spam bullets. Take careful shots and try your hardest to actually hit most of them. The plasma pistol becomes less accurate when overheating and will straight up not work if you shoot it too much. It only takes one headshot to kill a guard. You do not need to spam your gun. Spamming guns with ammo will cause you to run out of ammo. Because most enemies don’t drop a mag every time they die, you’re going to want to get more than one kill for each magazine. Otherwise, you’ll risk running out of ammo, which may end your run.

For the love of god, do not run out into an area with a lot of enemies. Be methodical. Getting angry/aggressive or panicking will kill you. If you need a break, please, take one. There is no shame in getting a little annoyed. Believe me, I have like 80 hours.

Use cover, but don’t wait for enemies to come to you. I’ve noticed a lot of new players wait for enemies to turn the corner so they can pop a headshot before the guards can react. This strategy backfires if you get rushed by multiple enemies. Instead, wait for guards to stop shooting and start walking towards you, then pop out and kill one or two before hiding again. Thin them out as they come towards you to ensure that you don’t get overwhelmed by multiple enemies.

Try and always have somewhere to retreat to. Even by using the “thinning” strategy detailed above, you will still sometimes be overwhelmed by enemies (Especially on higher floors.) In this case, you need to put some distance between you and the enemies, and force them to come at you one at a time by funneling them through a choke point (doorway.)

Don’t run out into the open for any reason - including items. Obviously recklessly hurling yourself out into an open area filled with enemies is a bad idea, but with the promise of ammo or burgers can make it feel like it’s worth it. It’s not. Be patient, kill any and all enemies before you rush for ammo. If you’re playing on easy, ammo and burgers never despawn, so there’s no reason to run out into the open.

Don’t dual wield. There’s a reason why military personnel don’t dual wield in real life: it’s because it doesn’t work. I don’t care how awesome it feels, you can’t aim for nothing with your left hand and you will run out of ammo if you try! Sure, you get more dps, but dual wielding makes you move clunkier, reload clunkier, aim clunkier, run out of ammo quicker, and just overall be worse at everything. You’re not John Wick, so don’t try to be.

Long term strategy

Making progress in COMPOUND can be heartbreaking. Say you've been struggling for so long to get to profit and then you get bodied by a shotgun guard, or say you get super far and make it to chemical processing and then die to your first stalker. How can you be prepared for everything that's going to come at you?!
Well by being prepared and strategic, of course! These next steps will lay out a general attack plan for the following floors so you don't have to worry about getting caught off guard.

Sewers
Head towards the first weapon on this floor, marked on your mapman by the black dot. Pick it up, but then don't use any ammo for it at all. Why? Because you don't need to! On sewers 1 and 2 the only enemies you can encounter are blue guards, smg guards, and drones, all of which can be taken out in one shot from the plasma pistol. If you can manage to kill every guard on the first two levels with the plasma pistol, you'll have a sizeable amount of ammo for the actual threats you will encounter on the following floors.

Lobby
Same strategy as before, head for the black dot (weapon) on your mapman and then try and use your plasma pistol as much as possible until you get there. Once you get to this second weapon, throw your plasma pistol away and pick it up. Now use your weapon with plentiful ammo for to clear the next floor until your new weapon has some ammo to it as well, and you'll have a decent amount of ammo for both!
Watch for robots, and if you've got a heavy gun (rpg, grenade launcher, railgun, etc.) don't be afraid to use it.

Warehouse
Alright, here's where you've got to get smart.
At this point, tank robots are going to become more common. They're tankier (pun intended) and more dangerous than everything you've seen thus far.
At this point, you're going to have to choose your two weapons you carry wisely. You're going to want one weapon with high damage and low crowd control capabilities to take out tanky enemies, and a good crowd control but low damage weapon to take out all the trash.
This is extremely important (hence why it's underlined!) as taking the wrong weapons will almost guarantee a game over. Take two high damage weapons, and you'll find yourself out of ammo real quick. Take two crowd control weapons, and you'll struggle to even put a dent into a stalker.
Here's a rundown of each of the weapons based on type and how good they are:
(note this list is extremely subjective and subject to change as weapons get buffed/nerfed)

HIGH DAMAGE
God tier: charging railgun (stun lock, incredible ammo/kill ratio, perfect accuracy, can be pre-charged to negate all the chargeup time)
Good: grenade launcher, RPG, sticky launcher (god tier if you know how to use it properly), revolver (can also be used as a great backup crowd control gun)
Meh: normal railgun (not terrible, there's just better options. requires a lot of accuracy to use while other guns don't)

CROWD CONTROL
God tier: SMG (deals with every trash mob in under a second. Even works good as a makeshift high damage gun if you let loose the whole mag.)
Good: double barrel, assault rifle, sound cannon (can be hard asf to use though)
Meh: bouncer (it's just too inaccurate!), dart gun (horrible dps, horrible ammo)

Note that some weapons (double barrel, normal railgun) sort of fall into both categories and also if you only ever pick god tier weapons you doing yourself a disservice (they're all so fun!)

Post warehouse
By this point you're all geared up to take on the compound. The only thing left you can do to prepare is read the other sections and get better at general play. Good luck!

Strategically clearing floors

You should never rush into a floor blindly or unprepared. Instead, you have to be methodical. Clear rooms, check corners, be safe. But what’s the optimal way to approach a floor? Here’s how.

Since the first two floors aren’t that dangerous, you should pretty much always head to the weapons that spawn first. These are indicated by the black dot on your mapman. Try to not use your ammo on these floors unless you encounter a tank robot, as you’ll gradually accumulate a good stack of mags before going into the warehouse, which is going to be your first real challenge.

Floors in compound usually spawn so that you are in the middle and there is a large circle of rooms around you (with the exception of profit, where you spawn on the outside of the circle.) To start, you’re going to need to get into the outside circle. This is going to be one of the most dangerous parts of the floor.


Because you are in the middle going out into the circle, when you reach the end of whatever hallway you take into the circle, you will be able to go left or right. A common mistake is to walk out into the open and just choose a direction. Don’t do this. Check carefully to see that both sides are clear before stepping out and picking a direction. Make sure you kill any and all enemies in the area so that you will have a safe path to retreat to the starting area. By stepping back a little, you can use the hallway into the circle as a good choke point to make sure that enemies are only coming at you from one direction. This decreases your chances of being overwhelmed dramatically.


Once you get into the circle, go around on the edge until you kill everyone on the map. If you stay on the edges you will always only be attacked from one direction at a time. If there's an inner area, make sure you go to it last.


Sometimes, there will be small enclosed areas that are connect to a middle room but are not to the main circle. In this case, head to the smallest half circle first and clear it out. These areas usually have less enemies which means they are easier to clear out, and once cleared they will give you an even larger area to retreat to. Go to them first.



As you can see here I now have better cover to face this stalker than I would have if I had just ran out into the larger area.

Once you’ve started to work around a circle, stay on the outermost area and keep going until you work your way all the way around.

Enemy guide

Blue guard - always aim for headshots and use lower damage, high ammo weapon like the assault rifle to take these guys out. Don’t use grenades on them. Their shots can be easily dodged from farther distances but might pose a threat when they get up close. Listen for their footsteps, since they have no idle sounds it’s easier for them to sneak up on you or flank you.

Blue drone - these guys are bad if they get really close to you, since they like to fly around and confuse you. Try and take them out as soon as possible so that they can’t get close.

SMG guard - don’t try and dodge with these guys. Stay in cover until they stop shooting, then pop out and try to kill them before they start shooting again.

Tank robots - these are the first “big enemies” you’ll encounter. Don’t bother saving your precious ammo on these guys, blast them to hell with your heavy weapons like the grenade launcher, rpg, railgun, etc.

Shotgun guards - these guys are basically undodgeable at shorter distances. Treat them like drones, try and get rid of them as soon as possible. It’s still a good idea to use the “pop out of cover when they stop shooting” strategy, but be warned that they have the potential to fire 2 OR 3 shotguns blasts before coming after you. Don’t let their double barrel fool you!

Kamikaze drones - once you know how to deal with these enemies, they become some of the easiest in the game. Upon shooting them for 2 damage, they will instantly explode with no warning! This is extremely dangerous due to their range of splash damage being large enough that as soon as they become easy to hit, they become viable to damage you. The solution? Just don’t shoot them! If a kamikaze drone gets right up next to you, it will begin to spin in place and then after about 2 seconds it will explode. During this time - they cannot move. If you run away while they are spinning, you will always be out of their range that damages you before they explode. So, instead of shooting them, run right up to them, make them spin, then run away! You can tell they’ve started spinning when they start beeping.

Stalkers - well, if you’ve made it far enough to see a stalker - congrats. You probably don’t need my help. Stalkers are the tankiest enemies in the game, with more than double the health of a tank robot. That being said, on easy they die to one grenade. Though they are slow, their high rate of fire and decent accuracy makes them extremely formidable at close range. Their high health doesn’t help with this either, as it can be hard to dispatch them at close ranges with weaker weapons like the bouncer shotgun or assault rifle. Try and keep your distance, and make sure you’ve got somewhere to retreat to if they get close.

Smg drones - basically just drones except for that they’re now dangerous even at medium ranges instead of just when they’re right next to you. Get rid of them ASAP.

Railgun stalkers - these guys take a while to aim and you can have them start the aiming process over by breaking your line of sight. Use the same strategies as the normal stalker. If you get caught out in the open and one of them is going to shoot at you before you can get to cover, move perpendicular to their aim to dodge. Note that their shots are undodgeable on hard.

Elite guards - faster and tankier versions of the normal guards, these guys replace normal guards near the end of the game. Make sure you aim for headshots and be careful with bullet weapons like the smg/assault rifle since on higher difficulties it can take multiple headshots to kill one. These guys shouldn't give too much trouble as long as you don't get caught out of cover or are still stuck with the plasma pistol.

Final piece of advice

Disobey any of my rules if it’s more fun. This is your experience, you can do whatever you want and I won’t stop you. If you are having trouble but really want to challenge yourself to get the most playtime possible: feel free to play on normal. If you think that dual wielding is the most fun thing in the entire game, don’t let my advice take that from you.

This guide was made to help you win, not have the best experience possible. If winning isn't everything to you, then do what you want.

Thanks for taking the time to read my guide. Good luck.
-Diency


all hail bebun!

The final boss (EXTREME SPOILERS!!!)

Anything NOT within spoiler text (aka this: Spoiler example ) is safe to read with no spoilers!

Okay, so the final boss of this game is really really hard and will probably kill you the first time you get to it. Luckily, there are some things you can do to make the fight easier.

Just to get it out of the way, the boss is the CEO of the compound flying around in a helicopter. He's hard to hit, has a gatling gun, and drops gas on you.

Weapons that help
because the boss is hard to hit, rail weapons like the railgun and charging railgun are extremely useful in sniping the boss from afar. However, he does have some damage resistence to rail weapons, so you might actually deal more consistent damage with an rpg/grenade launcher. If your aim is very good, take a grenade weapon. If you have a lot of trouble with aiming, take a railgun.

Additionally, the assault rifle, double barrel, and revolver are all good bullet weapons to use against him as well. Not as good as a heavier gun, but still very worth taking.

The smg has a lot of trouble with accuracy, and the bouncer/dart gun have trouble with damage. They still work, just not as well as the other guns.

How the fight works
First, the boss will usually begin by firing a hail of bullets at you from his gatling gun. During this time, he is immobile, so it's a good idea to try and fire some of your harder to aim weapons at him while he's doing this like a grenade/bullet weapon.

After a while he'll drop bombs with noxious gas on top of you, forcing you to move cover. Cover is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT during this fight, as he constantly moves around the map and shoots with his gatling gun, forcing you to take cover from all sides. If you're missing even one side of cover to the boss and he begins to fire, your run is likely over.

After damaging him enough, he'll send out some guards to fight you. Stay in cover and wait for them to come to you, but be wary they can usually attack you from more than one side. This is pretty much your only chance to get burgers throughout the fight, so pray to rngsus he gives you some.

The fight flows like this: Fight heli -> kill guards -> fight heli -> kill guards -> fight heli -> you win!
That means you'll need to defeat the ceo in his helicopter 3 times total.
Once you do that, congratulations! You've finished the game!

Also, you can find my dog in the arena of this fight. He's behind a fence that you have to clip through by abusing "comfort mode" in the options on the ground level behind a shipping crate.

He is a very good boy please do not shoot him

[Karathkasun]

If you have unlocked the other plasma pistol variants and want to go Akimbo, you can use two blast pistols, a blast pistol and laser pistol, or a blast piston and plasma pistol.

Dual blast pistols can be extremely OP in close quarters, but you must ALWAYS remember that you cant shoot beyond point blank. Corner abuse and six total shots when Akimbo is what makes it OP.

Train with the laser pistol to get your "from the hip" accuracy up and it can serve as your primary weapon through to the last level. Just remember to never mag-dump with it. It recharges fastest when you are at 2/3 charges, so try not to go below that.

[DWIG]

amazing guide thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MonkeyMan0306]

I have been playing on normal and never played on easy and I've gotten to the second to last level and died and I never could pass it and I would always think I was bad at the game but apparently not

[Troublesome guys]

I will pat the dog

[EmmyTG]

Thanks for the guide! This has been extremely helpful for me

[Thrixu]

Great job on doing this fellow tester

[Diency]

Nah that's pretty much how I play gun magnet too lol

As for reloading, best way to get better at it is just to practice doing so in game and in the gun range. If you never practice, you'll never get any better! I would encourage you to try playing on easy difficulty w/o gun magnet for a bit just to try it out :)

[jadesded]

Useful guide. I'm still relatively new to this game, and never completed the gun range tutorial, and as such get confused at reloading lol. So on easy or medium I usually play with the gun magnet mutation, and try to dual wield the entire time. The only caveat to how I play is that I only let myself use the plasma pistol until I find guns, then I have to bounce between guns. I'm sure it's near impossible to do on harder levels as I've only made it as far as The Warehouse, but it definitely makes you feel like a badass.

[Winner]

Part 7
Remember, though, this is all just my advice on how to play optimally, from experience on Hard. If you're on Easy, you can completely ignore all of this; the game will let you get away with enough that none of these tips are necessary to beat the game there, all you need is basic competency in aiming and reloading, and a couple of runs to figure out how the game works. On Medium, a bit of experience with the general concepts I've listed might be necessary, but you shouldn't have too many problems. On Hard, well, I still haven't beaten it. Sticking with my own advice does get me a few floors farther, though, so I can't be too much of an idiot.

[Winner]

Part 6
TL:DR Plasma Pistol stands as one of the best light weapons on Easy and Medium difficulties, and is the absolute worst weapon in the game on Hard, and should be dropped as soon as you have two other guns on Hard, provided the game hasn't decided to give you a Rocket Launcher and a Grenade Launcher as your first two weapons. If your loadout is LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, drop the pistol.