Escape from Duckov 🦆: The Ultimate Ducking Master Guide

Part 1: Welcome to the Pond – The Philosophy of a Survivor Duck 🦆

Chapter 1.1: Foreword: So You Think This is a Joke Game?

Alright, listen up, you trembling sack of feathers! 🦆 You’ve just woken up from a weird dream, your bill is dry, and you’re clutching a peashooter in a world full of heavily armed waterfowl. You saw the cute art 🎨, the goofy name, and you thought, “Hey, this looks like a laugh.” 😂 And you’re right. You will laugh. You’ll laugh right up until a duck in a scav vest charges you with a butcher knife 🔪, you panic-fire your entire magazine into a sandbag, and you get sent back to your bunker with nothing but lint in your pockets and a bruised ego. 😫 Let me be the first to welcome you to the tough, beautiful, and utterly baffling world of Escape From Duckov.

Let’s get one thing straight: this is not just a meme game. 🎮 Yes, it’s a parody. Yes, you are a duck. But beneath that charming, feathered exterior beats the cold, unforgiving heart of a hardcore extraction shooter. ❤️ Developed by Team Soda, a small five-person studio of certified Escape from Tarkov veterans, Escape From Duckov is a meticulously crafted “love letter” to its notoriously difficult inspiration. It takes the high-stakes, gear-losing, heart-pounding tension of the genre and bottles it into a “full-fledged, full-featured singleplayer” experience. 🌟 It’s designed to capture the essence of what makes these games so addictive—the meticulous planning, the thrilling risk, the triumphant extraction—while removing the one variable that makes the original so frustrating for newcomers: other players. 😠

This is the fundamental paradigm shift you must understand to survive. In a traditional PvP extraction shooter, your greatest threat is a 14-year-old with lightning reflexes. In Escape From Duckov, your greatest enemy is yourself. Your greed. Your impatience. Your ignorance. This is a PvE game, which means the world operates on a set of clear-cut rules. 💡 Every enemy, every hazard, every system can be learned, predicted, and exploited. Failure is never because you were “outplayed”; it’s because you were unprepared. You didn’t bring antidotes to a poison boss fight. 🧪 You raided at night without night vision. 🌙 You got greedy and stayed in a raid for one more container when you should have extracted.

Mastery in Duckov isn’t about having the fastest trigger finger; it’s about having the biggest brain. 🧠 It’s a game of knowledge, discipline, and smart risk management. Every raid is a test 📝, every death is a lesson 📚, and this guide… this guide is your textbook, your bible, your cheat sheet to graduating from a Frightened Duckling to a Quack-tical Operator. 📈 So, wipe the sleep from your eyes, check the safety on that Glick pistol, and let’s get to work. The pond is deep, dark, and full of valuable scrap. 💰 It’s time you learned how to swim. 🏊

Chapter 1.2: The Holy Trinity: Raid, Extract, Upgrade 🔄

At the core of Escape From Duckov is a simple, elegant, and powerfully addictive loop. 💥 It is the engine that drives every decision you make, the source of your greatest triumphs and your most spectacular failures. I call it the Holy Trinity: Raid, Extract, Upgrade. 🙏 Burn it into your brain.

The Raid 🗺️: You gear up in your bunker, your safe little hideout from the cruel world. 🏠 You select one of the five vast, randomized maps and venture out. Your objective is simple: get in, get loot, and get out. The maps are filled with ever-changing loot spawns, elusive enemies, and shifting weather patterns, ensuring that no two expeditions are ever the same. ⛈️ You’ll be scavenging for everything from meds 🩹 and gear 🎒 to rare collectibles and literal junk that can be turned into treasure back at your workbench. 💎
The Extract 🏃‍♂️: This is the part that separates the ducklings from the ducks. At any point during your raid, you can head to a designated extraction point, often marked by green smoke 💚, and leave the map. If you succeed, everything you’ve managed to stuff into your backpack is yours to keep. But here’s the catch: if you die before you extract, you lose everything you were carrying. ☠️ Your fancy new rifle, that rare circuit board for your base upgrade, that stack of cash you were going to use to buy better armor—gone. Poof. 💨 Vanished into the unforgiving ether of Duckov. This single mechanic creates a constant, delicious tension. It forces you to perpetually weigh risk versus reward. ⚖️ Is it worth checking one more building? Can I take on that heavily armed scavenger? Or should I cut my losses and run for the exit with the decent loot I already have? 🤔
The Upgrade 🛠️: Once you’ve successfully extracted, you bring your haul back to the bunker. Here, the real game begins. You sell valuables for profit 💸, stash crafting materials, and use your earnings to upgrade your base, building new facilities like a gym for stat boosts 💪 or an armor shop for better gear. 🛡️ You use scavenged blueprints to craft more powerful weapons and armor. You spend resources to upgrade your character’s skills, making you stronger, faster, and able to carry more loot. 📈 Every successful extraction directly fuels your progression, making your next raid a little easier, allowing you to take bigger risks for even bigger rewards. ✨

This loop is the entire game. A successful raid gives you the resources to upgrade, which allows you to attempt more difficult raids, which yield better resources for more upgrades. It’s a powerful cycle of progression that makes every single item you find feel meaningful. ❤️

Now, for your first and most important lesson, one that will save you countless hours of frustration. Heed the wisdom of the veterans who have gone before you: Don’t Get Greedy — Survive First, Loot Later. 🧘 The biggest mistake a rookie can make is to see a high-value item and get tunnel vision, pushing through enemies and ignoring their dwindling health just to grab it. 🛑 In the early game, your life is worth more than any single piece of loot. It is always better to extract with a half-full bag of mediocre junk than to die with a backpack full of treasures. The goal of every raid is to survive. Loot is a secondary objective. Master this discipline, and you have taken your first step toward mastering Duckov. Should you fail, however, all is not lost. You can return to the map on your next life and find your body to recover your lost gear, but if you die a second time on the way, that gear is gone forever. 🤯 It’s a tough, but fair, second chance.

Chapter 1.3: Your First Waddle: A Guided Tour of Ground Zero 🚶

Alright, you’ve absorbed the philosophy. Now it’s time for action. 🎬 This is your step-by-step guide to surviving your first hour in Duckov without ending up as another cautionary tale whispered among the reeds. 🌾

You awaken in your bunker. 🏠 It’s a bit sparse, but it’s home. The first friendly face you’ll see belongs to Jeff, a fellow duck and your primary quest giver. 🤝 Think of him as your slightly stressed-out but well-meaning guide. Your first order of business is to talk to him. He’ll give you your initial quests, which are designed to teach you the game’s core mechanics. 👨‍🏫 Ignore him at your peril; following his questline is the most efficient way to learn the ropes and unlock critical base upgrades.

Your first two quests are simple:

Build a Workbench: Requires finding 2 Wood. 🪵
Start-up Capital: Requires killing any enemy and successfully extracting from the first map, “Ground Zero”. 🎯

Before you rush out, let’s get familiar with your controls and the bunker’s amenities.

Difficulty ⚙️: Walk over to the table in your base. See that little prompt? Pressing F allows you to change the game’s difficulty at any time. Don’t be a hero. Start on an easier setting to learn the maps. 😊
Stash & Inventory 📦: You have a stash to store items you don’t want to risk on a raid. Get in the habit of offloading everything you don’t absolutely need. In your inventory, you can press L to lock important items like meds or keys, preventing you from accidentally selling or dropping them. 🔒 When you get a quest, you can press N on the required items in the crafting menu to tag them 🏷️, which is a lifesaver for remembering what that weird-looking gizmo is for.

Now, let’s gear up for your first expedition into Ground Zero. Don’t take much. Your starting Glick pistol 🔫, a spare magazine, and a couple of bandages 🤕 on your hotbar is plenty. Remember, you’re likely to die, so don’t risk anything you’re not prepared to lose.

Head out of the bunker. Welcome to Ground Zero. 🏞️ It’s a relatively small, wooded area, perfect for learning the basics. Your first enemies will likely be Rampaging Scavengers (we call them Red Ducks ❤️), who will charge you with melee weapons, and shotgun-toting Green Ducks 💚 who prefer to keep their distance.

Combat 101 💥: For the Red Ducks, bait their charge and use the Spacebar to dodge-roll 🤸 out of the way, then turn and fire. For the Green Ducks, use trees 🌲 and rocks 🪨 as cover. The golden rule of combat in Duckov is to always aim for the head. 🎯 It deals significantly more damage.
Movement 🏃‍♀️: When you’re not in immediate danger, press C to holster your weapon. You’ll run much faster 💨 and conserve stamina, which is crucial for getting around the map and escaping trouble.

Your goal is to find 2 Wood 🪵 for the workbench and kill one enemy. Scour the little shacks and campsites. Once you’ve got your items and have dispatched a hostile duck, it’s time to extract. Now, the map 🗺️ might show an extraction point in the northwest, but for your first few runs, ignore it. The easiest, safest, and most foolproof extraction point on Ground Zero is the one you started at. ↩️ Simply turn around, go back to the bunker entrance you came from, and leave. Congratulations, you’ve completed your first raid. 🥳

Head back to Jeff, turn in your quests, build that Workbench, and take a moment to breathe. You’ve completed the Holy Trinity. You have raided, you have extracted, and you have upgraded. 🤩 This is the rhythm of Duckov. Learn it, live it, love it. The game’s initial quests are not just a to-do list; they are the tutorial. “The Importance of Bleeding Control” isn’t just a quest name; it’s a life lesson. 🩸 Follow the breadcrumbs Jeff leaves for you, and you’ll find yourself naturally learning the systems of survival that will carry you through the entire 50+ hour journey. ✨

Part 2: The Anatomy of a Quack-tical Operator 💪

So, you’ve survived your first few raids. You’ve learned that not every cardboard box is just a box 📦 and that the local fauna is surprisingly well-armed. 🔫 Now it’s time to move beyond mere survival and start sculpting yourself into a true Duckov operator. This isn’t just about finding a bigger gun; it’s about defining your entire approach to the game. Your progression is defined by three key pillars: your innate Talent, your learned Skills, and the mystical Totems you equip. 💎 Mastering these systems is how you transform from a generic duck into a specialized instrument of loot acquisition. 📈

Chapter 2.1: Choosing Your Feathers: A Deep Dive into Talents 🎭

The first and most defining choice you’ll make is your Talent. Think of this as your character class. You pick one at the start, and it provides a powerful set of buffs and penalties that will shape your entire playthrough. There are four to choose from: Survivor, Porter, Berserker, and Marksman. 🎯 This decision is critical, especially on higher difficulties, and the community is fiercely divided on which is best. 🤔 Let’s break them down so you can make an informed decision instead of just picking the one with the coolest-sounding name.

The Survivor: The Unkillable Wall 💪

Bonuses: +1 Body Armor, +1 Head Armor
Penalties: -0.5 Movement Speed
Strategic Philosophy: The Survivor is for the duck who believes that not dying is the best form of offense. 🛡️ The flat armor bonuses are immensely powerful, representing a massive percentage increase in your effective health, especially in the early game. This talent allows you to absorb mistakes that would kill any other build. Wanderers with special ammo can delete other ducks in a split second; the Survivor can often tank that initial burst and live to fight back. 👊 The movement speed penalty is barely noticeable, especially if you get in the habit of holstering your weapon to run.
Verdict: This is, without a doubt, the best talent for beginners 👍 and anyone tackling the game on Extreme difficulty. A dead duck can’t carry loot or shoot back. The raw survivability offered by the Survivor provides the largest margin for error, making the tough learning curve of Duckov far more manageable.

The Porter: The Pack Mule 🎒

Bonuses: +10 kg Carry Weight
Penalties: -15\% Max HP
Strategic Philosophy: The Porter is for the loot goblin 💰, the player whose primary goal is to extract with a backpack groaning under the weight of ill-gotten gains. An extra 10kg of carrying capacity is a significant economic advantage over the course of the game, allowing for more profitable runs. However, the 15% HP penalty is a steep price to pay. 💔 This talent turns you into a glass cannon without the cannon—a glass wheelbarrow, perhaps. You can carry more, but you’re far more likely to get shattered by a stray shotgun blast.
Verdict: This is a high-risk, high-reward talent best suited for experienced players on dedicated farming runs. It has a niche synergy with the “Ninja” perks, as it can help you achieve a running sound of zero 🤫, turning you into a silent, wealthy ghost. For most players, especially those still learning enemy patterns, the trade-off is simply not worth it.

The Berserker: The Melee Maniac 🔪

Bonuses: +25\% Melee Damage, +10\% Mobility
Penalties: Varies (research suggests a defensive penalty)
Strategic Philosophy: The Berserker is for the bold, the brave, and the slightly daring. This talent encourages a high-risk, in-your-face playstyle. 🤸 The melee damage bonus is substantial, and when combined with stealth items like the cardboard box 📦 and a good axe, it can be devastatingly effective for silent takedowns. The mobility boost helps close the distance to your targets. However, trying to fight a boss with a melee weapon on high difficulty is… a real challenge. 😅 You are bringing a knife to a gunfight, and while it can work, it requires flawless execution and liberal use of painkillers.
Verdict: A highly specialized and difficult talent to master. It can be incredibly fun and powerful in the right hands, but it flies in the face of Duckov’s core combat tenet: maintain distance. 📏 Not recommended for a first playthrough, but an exciting option for veterans looking for a new challenge.

The Marksman: The Long-Range Ghost 🎯

Bonuses: +15\% Ranged Damage, +15\% Weapon Range
Penalties: -17.5\% Max HP
Strategic Philosophy: The Marksman is built on a simple, deadly premise: kill them before they can even see you. 🔭 The 15% damage bonus is nice, but the real prize is the +15\% Weapon Range. As we’ll discuss in the combat chapter, Range is arguably the most powerful stat in the game due to severe damage drop-off. An increase in your effective range is effectively a massive damage multiplier. 💥 With the right weapon, mods, and totems, a Marksman can one-shot most enemies from off-screen before they even have a chance to react. The downside is a crippling 17.5% HP reduction, making you incredibly fragile if an enemy manages to close the distance. 💔
Verdict: A powerful but demanding talent that requires a specific playstyle. You must commit to long-range engagements and have excellent map knowledge to control sightlines. The community is split, with some arguing the HP loss is too great, while others maintain that Range is the only stat that matters. 🤔 A strong choice for patient, methodical players who prefer to end fights before they begin.

Talent Name	Core Buffs 🌟	Core Penalties 📉	Strategic Philosophy 🧠	Recommended For 🎯	Community Consensus 👍👎
Survivor	+1 Body Armor, +1 Head Armor 🛡️	-0.5 Movement Speed	Prioritizes survivability, providing a buffer against mistakes.	Beginners, High-Difficulty Players	Widely considered the strongest & most reliable choice for a first playthrough. 👍
Porter	+10 kg Carry Weight 🎒	-15\% Max HP 💔	Maximizes loot-per-run, sacrificing health for profit. 💰	Experienced Farmers, Min-Maxers	Generally seen as a poor trade-off, but has niche uses. 🤷
Berserker	+25\% Melee Damage, +10\% Mobility 🔪	Defensive Penalties	Embraces high-risk, close-range melee combat.	Challenge Runners, Melee Enthusiasts	Considered a difficult and niche build that requires deep game knowledge. 😅
Marksman	+15\% Ranged Damage, +15\% Weapon Range 🎯	-17.5\% Max HP 💔	Focuses on long-range eliminations, leveraging the powerful Range stat.	Patient Snipers, Tactical Players	Highly debated. Some love the power of Range, others hate the HP loss. 🤔

Chapter 2.2: The Perk Palace: Mastering the Skill Trees 🧠

Your Talent is your nature, but your Skills are your nurture. These are permanent upgrades you purchase at the “Perk Palace” or “Skill Enhancement Machine,” a terminal located in the top-left corner of your hideout. 💻 You’ll spend cash 💸 and Core Fragments—special items looted from enemies and containers—to climb the expansive skill trees, gradually honing your duck into a finely-tuned survival machine. 🤖

The process is straightforward: complete quests and raids to gather resources, visit the machine, select a skill, and wait for the upgrade to complete. Lower-tier skills are instantaneous, while higher-tier ones can take several minutes. ⏳ The key to efficient progression is focus. Don’t spread your precious resources thin across multiple branches; pick a path and stick with it until you’ve unlocked its key abilities. 🧘

For a new player, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming. While there are over 25 tiers of skills available, a few early-game choices stand head and shoulders above the rest in terms of immediate impact. 🚀 Unlocking these should be your absolute top priority.

The Holy Trinity of Early Skills: 🏆

Backpack Expert I 🎒:
- Effect: +4 inventory capacity.
- Strategic Importance: This is, without exception, the mandatory first skill you should unlock. The entire economic engine of Escape From Duckov runs on how much loot you can haul out of a raid. Four extra slots might not sound like much, but it represents a massive increase in your potential profit per run. 📈 It could be four more stacks of valuable materials, an extra primary weapon, or the space you need to grab that bulky quest item. More loot means more money, which means faster access to better gear and more skills. Get this first. No excuses. 🥇
Survival Instinct I ❤️:
- Effect: +5 Max HP.
- Strategic Importance: This is your second priority. Five extra hit points is the buffer that lets you survive one more bullet, one more melee hit, or one more tick of bleed damage. 🩸 It’s the difference between limping to the extraction point with a sliver of health and ending up as vulture food. In a game where every single hit point matters, this skill is a cheap and effective life insurance policy. 🥈
Gun Mastery I 💥:
- Effect: +3\% weapon damage.
- Strategic Importance: Once your survivability and carrying capacity are addressed, it’s time to increase your lethality. A flat 3% damage boost applies to every bullet you fire, making you more ammo-efficient and reducing the time it takes to neutralize threats. 🎯 This means less time exposed to return fire and a better chance of winning engagements. It’s a simple, elegant, and universally effective upgrade. 🥉

Once you have this foundational trio, you can begin to specialize. The skill trees are broadly categorized into areas like combat, survival, and vision. 👀 Here are some other high-value skills to consider as you move into the mid-game:

Quick Reload I: $+5\%$ reload speed. A vital combat skill that reduces your downtime in a firefight. 🏃‍♂️💨
Steady Shot I: $-5\%$ recoil. Makes landing those crucial follow-up headshots easier, especially with automatic weapons. 🎯
Wide View I: $+15$ Field of View. Information is life in Duckov. Seeing an enemy on the edge of your screen before they see you is a massive tactical advantage. 👁️

Remember, your skills work in synergy with your base facilities. Upgrading your combat skills is great, but it’s even better when paired with a fully upgraded Workbench that can mod your weapons. 🛠️ Likewise, the permanent stat boosts from the Gym complement your health and stamina skills perfectly. 💪 Treat your character progression and base building as two halves of the same whole. 🤝

Chapter 2.3: Totems, Trinkets, and Tactical Voodoo 🔮

The final layer of your character build is the most esoteric and, in many ways, the most powerful: the Totem system. Scattered throughout the world of Duckov are feathers 🪶, which you should collect obsessively. These feathers are a currency you can offer at underground shrines ⛩️ or in your basement to “draw” for Totems—equippable items that grant potent passive buffs. ✨

These are not minor statistical nudges; they can fundamentally change your capabilities. While a complete list is a closely guarded secret among the elder ducks, veterans have identified several game-changing totem effects:

Mobility Totems 🏃‍♂️: Increase stamina and stamina regeneration, turning you into a long-distance marathon runner.
Defensive Totems 🛡️: Provide flat damage resistance or, most powerfully, complete immunity to bleeding—a common and deadly status effect. 🩸
Utility Totems 🎒: Increase your carrying capacity and backpack slots, stacking with the Backpack Expert skill for maximum hauling potential.
Sustain Totems ❤️‍🩹: A legendary totem exists that heals you for 1 HP per second after you haven’t taken damage for 10 seconds, allowing you to recover from fights without using precious medical supplies.
Elemental Totems 🔥⚡: Grant resistance to fire or electricity, preventing the deadly damage-over-time effects from these hazards.

The strategic depth of this system comes from creating “totem loadouts.” You wouldn’t wear a tuxedo to a swamp hunt 👔, and you shouldn’t use the same totems for every situation.

Farming Loadout 💰: For runs where your only goal is to loot as much as possible, equip totems that boost your weight limit, backpack capacity, and stamina. This maximizes your efficiency and profit.
Boss-Killing Loadout 🎯: When you’re heading out to hunt a specific high-value target, switch to a combat-focused set. A totem that grants bleed immunity paired with one that provides damage resistance can make you significantly tougher and more forgiving of errors during a difficult fight.

There are even advanced, and possibly unintended, ways to use this system. One of the most potent is the “strange shopping bag” 🛍️ exploit. This single-slot bag, when placed in your main backpack, seems to allow certain totems placed inside it to function without being in a dedicated totem slot. Reports indicate this works with the passive healing totem, effectively giving you a powerful free buff that doesn’t take up a valuable equipment slot. 🤔 Whether this is a bug or a feature, it’s a powerful tool in the arsenal of a knowledgeable operator. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Dismantle unwanted totems back into feathers and keep rolling the dice until you have an arsenal of these powerful artifacts for every occasion. 🔄

Part 3: The Art of the Pew-Pew: Combat & Weaponry 🔫

Welcome to the shooting gallery. 🎯 You’ve honed your mind, now it’s time to hone your trigger finger. Combat in Escape From Duckov is a deadly dance, a puzzle of positioning, timing, and resource management. Rushing in blind is a surefire way to get your feathers plucked. plucked. This section is your masterclass in the art of feathered warfare. 💥 We will dissect the fundamental mechanics of combat, provide a comprehensive analysis of the entire armory, and teach you how to turn a stock firearm into a bespoke instrument of destruction through the magic of modding. 🛠️

Chapter 3.1: Duck and Cover: The Unwritten Rules of Duckov Combat 🧑‍🏫

Before we even talk about what gun to use, we need to talk about how to fight. The most powerful weapon in Duckov isn’t a rifle; it’s the six inches of grey matter between your ears. 🧠 Understanding the core combat mechanics is what separates the survivors from the statistics.

The Headshot Imperative: Your Golden Rule 🎯

This is the single most important combat tip in this entire guide. Headshots ignore weapon spread. Read that again. It doesn’t matter if your shotgun’s accuracy cone covers half the screen; if your cursor is placed directly on an enemy’s head when you pull the trigger, the game registers it as a headshot. 💥 This mechanic is the great equalizer. It means that player skill—precise mouse control—can overcome poor weapon stats. Mastering the ability to snap your aim to an enemy’s head will reduce your time-to-kill dramatically, saving you ammo, health, and the indignity of being pecked to death by a duck with a rusty pipe. Practice this in the shooting range in your bunker. Learn the head-level of different enemy types. This is the path to becoming a truly lethal operator.

The Tyranny of Range: Why Distance is Damage 📏

Every weapon in Duckov has an effective Range stat, visible in the bottom right corner of your screen while aiming. This number is not a suggestion; it is the law. The color of the number indicates your damage effectiveness:

Green 🟢: You are within the optimal range. You deal 100% of your weapon’s potential damage.
Orange 🟠: You are beyond the optimal range. Your damage is halved (50%).
Red 🔴: You are at extreme range. Your damage is quartered (25%).

This damage drop-off is so severe that a weapon’s Range stat is often more important than its base Damage stat. A weaker rifle that can maintain 100% damage at 40 meters is far deadlier than a powerful SMG that’s only dealing 25% damage at the same distance. The strategic implication is clear: always try to engage enemies within your weapon’s green zone. This might mean closing the distance with an SMG or creating distance with a rifle. Understanding and controlling your engagement distance is a cornerstone of advanced combat.

The Kojima Connection: Stealth, Stones, and Cardboard Boxes 🤫

Escape From Duckov wears its Metal Gear Solid inspiration on its sleeve, and nowhere is this more apparent than in its powerful stealth tools.

Stones 🪨: These are arguably one of the most powerful items in the game. You can throw them like a grenade to create a sound distraction. Any enemy in the vicinity must go investigate the noise. 🧐 This is an incredibly powerful tool for intelligence gathering and enemy manipulation. Throw a stone into a room to see if anyone shouts, revealing their presence. Lure a single guard away from his patrol to dispatch him silently. Group several enemies together with a well-placed stone and then drop a grenade on them for a multi-kill. 💥 Stones are your key to controlling the battlefield.
The Cardboard Box 📦: Yes, really. Using a cardboard box from your inventory puts you into full stealth mode. As long as you don’t move directly in an enemy’s line of sight, you are effectively invisible. You can use this to sneak up behind enemies for a silent melee takedown (which, crucially, does not destroy the box) or to loot in dangerous areas undetected. 🕵️ Firing a gun will destroy the box, so use it for positioning, not for initiating a firefight.

The Basics of Not Getting Shot: Cover and Movement 🤸

Cover System 🧱: Any piece of cover that glows slightly white when you stand near it (like a sandbag) will block incoming fire until it is destroyed. Use this. Do not fight in the open. Move from cover to cover. Let the environment absorb damage so your face doesn’t have to.
Holster for Hustle 💨: As mentioned before, but it bears repeating: press C to put your weapon away. You run significantly faster and use less stamina. This is your primary tool for repositioning during a fight, escaping a bad situation, or simply traversing the map efficiently. The difference between running with your gun out and running with it holstered is the difference between an enemy catching you and you leaving them in the dust. 🏃‍♂️💨

Chapter 3.2: The Armory: A Connoisseur’s Guide to Over 50 Ways to Make a Mess 🔫

With over 50 weapons in the game, from a humble wooden stick to top-tier firearms, choosing the right tool for the job can be daunting. 🤯 This section will serve as your definitive guide to the Duckov armory. We’ve synthesized data from field reports and community analysis to create a master tier list and statistical breakdown.

The tier list is simple: S+ tier weapons are game-definingly powerful. ✨ S tier weapons are excellent and often best-in-class for a specific role. A tier weapons are strong and reliable workhorses. B tier weapons are solid early-to-mid-game options, and C tier weapons are starter gear you should look to replace as soon as possible. 👎

Below is the master table. Use it to compare weapons, identify upgrade goals, and understand the strategic role of each firearm. Following the table, we’ll break down the best options in each major weapon class. 👇

Weapon Name	Class	Tier	Base Damage 💥	Crit Modifier 🎯	Effective Range (m) 📏	Ammo Type 🔵	Acquisition Method 💰	Strategic Notes & Recommended Mods 🛠️
DT MDR-762	Battle Rifle	S+	High	High	Long	Large Caliber	Craft/Loot	An absolute monster. Hits like a truck at range. Mod for ADS Spread and Range.
AK-103	Assault Rifle	S+	High	Medium	Medium	Intermediate	Craft/Loot	The king of assault rifles. A perfect blend of damage, reliability, and customizability. 👑
M107	Sniper Rifle	S+	Extreme	Extreme	Extreme	.50 BMG	Loot/Purchase	The ultimate boss killer. Enormous single-shot damage. Not craftable. 🏆
VSS Vintorez	DMR	S+	Medium	High	Medium	9x39mm	Loot/Purchase	The master of stealth. Comes with a built-in suppressor. 🤫
MCX Spear	Battle Rifle	S+	High	High	Long	Large Caliber	Loot/Purchase	A top-tier battle rifle with excellent fire control.
SV-98	Sniper Rifle	S	High	Extreme	Extreme	7.62x54R	Craft/Loot	The gold standard for bolt-action snipers. Fast aiming and lightweight.
MP7 (Electric)	SMG	S	Medium	Low	Short	4.6x30mm	Loot/Boss Drop	The best overall SMG. High fire rate + stun effect. ⚡
Desert Eagle	Pistol	S	Very High	Medium	Medium	.50 AE (MAG)	Loot/Purchase	The best sidearm, period. Hits hard enough to be a primary. 💪
DT MDR-556	Assault Rifle	A	Medium	Medium	Medium	5.56x45mm	Craft/Loot	Incredibly balanced and modular. Minimal recoil makes it a laser beam. 🌟
MP-155 ULTIMA	Shotgun	A	Very High	Low	Very Short	12 Gauge	Craft (Upgrade)	The undisputed king of CQC. Clears entire rooms with ease. 💥
Mosin-Nagant	Sniper Rifle	A	Very High	Extreme	Extreme	7.62x54R	Loot/Purchase	The budget powerhouse. Incredible one-shot potential for a low cost.
Vector	SMG	B	Low	Low	Short	9x19mm	Loot/Purchase	A solid early-to-mid-game SMG with a high rate of fire.
ADAR 2-15	Assault Rifle	C	Low	Medium	Medium	5.56x45mm	Loot/Purchase	A common early-game AR. Serviceable, but replace it ASAP.
Glick Pistol	Pistol	C	Very Low	Low	Very Short	9x19mm	Starter/Loot	Your first gun. It’s better than throwing rocks, but not by much. 😅
Combat Machete	Melee	S	High	N/A	Melee	N/A	Loot/Purchase	The best melee weapon due to its fast swing speed and bleed chance. 🩸

Assault Rifles (ARs): The All-Rounders 🎯

Your bread and butter. ARs are versatile weapons effective at most ranges. The AK-103 is the top dog, offering fantastic damage and reliability. For a more controllable option, the DT MDR-556 is a laser beam with almost no recoil, making it incredibly easy to land repeated headshots.

Submachine Guns (SMGs): The Room Sweepers 💥

Built for speed and close-quarters combat. The Electric MP7 is the undisputed champion, as its ability to stun enemies is a lifesaver. ⚡ For a pure damage-dealer, the Vector offers a high rate of fire and manageable recoil. Build your SMGs for hip-fire accuracy to allow for maximum mobility while fighting.

Sniper Rifles: The Ghosts 🔭

For the patient player. The M107 is the ultimate anti-materiel rifle, capable of destroying bosses and heavily armored targets in a single shot. For a more versatile and accessible option, the SV-98 is a reliable and accurate bolt-action that will serve you well throughout the entire game.

Shotguns: The Breachers 🚪

When things get personal. Nothing beats the MP-155 ULTIMA for clearing tight corridors and buildings. Upgrade the base MP-155 as soon as you can; the difference is night and day. Load it with slugs or Dragon’s Breath rounds for maximum devastation. 🔥

Chapter 3.3: The Gunsmith’s Gospel: Modding for Maximum Mayhem 🛠️

Finding a good base weapon is only half the battle. The extensive modification system in Escape From Duckov allows you to take a standard firearm and tailor it to your exact specifications. 🔧 But to do this effectively, you need to understand what the weapon stats actually mean. Thanks to rigorous community testing, we’ve cracked the code. 🕵️

ADS Spread: This is your most important accuracy stat. It determines how closely your bullets land to your point of aim when firing continuously. A value of 6 or lower is considered 100% accurate for on-screen targets. 🎯 Unlike recoil, this cannot be compensated for with player skill. Prioritize lowering this stat above all else.
ADS Time: This is how quickly your aiming reticle shrinks to its minimum size. You cannot land a guaranteed headshot until it has fully narrowed. Lowering this stat increases your “snap-shot” potential. ⚡
Vertical & Horizontal Recoil: This is how much your cursor jumps after each shot. While lower is better, these stats are less critical than ADS Spread because a skilled player can manually pull their mouse to counteract the recoil and keep their aim on target. 🖱️
Weapon Range: As discussed, this is your most important damage stat. An attachment that adds $+4$m of range can be equivalent to a $+100\%$ damage boost within that 4-meter band. 📏

Attachment Priority Guide:

When modding your weapons, follow this general priority list to get the most bang for your buck: 💰

Stock/Grip: Look for attachments that give -ADS Spread. This is your primary goal. 🎯
Tactic/Magazine: Attachments that provide -ADS Time are your next priority. ⚡
Muzzle: For most rifles, a +Range muzzle is the best choice, as it provides a massive effective damage boost. A silencer 🤫 is a powerful alternative for stealth builds, allowing you to engage enemies without revealing your position.
Scope 🔭: Higher magnification scopes let you engage enemies from off-screen, but they can make tracking targets at closer ranges difficult. For general use, a simple red dot or the default iron sights are often superior.

Don’t fall into the trap of simply stacking +Damage attachments. A well-balanced weapon with low ADS Spread and high Range will always outperform a “powerful” but inaccurate bullet hose. 🧘

Chapter 3.4: Dressed to Bill: Armor, Durability, and Not Dying 🛡️

A good offense is important, but a good defense is what gets you home with your loot. 🏡 Armor in Duckov is your lifeline, a complex system of materials and classes that determines whether a bullet bounces off or turns your insides into pâté.

Armor Class and Penetration:

Both armor and ammunition have a class level, typically from 1 to 6+. The effectiveness of your armor depends entirely on the penetration value of the bullet hitting it. The damage you take is calculated by a formula that can be simplified as: Damage Multiplier = 2 / (max(Armor Level – Bullet Pen Level, 0) + 2). 🤓

What this means in practice is:

If a bullet’s penetration level is equal to or greater than your armor’s class, you take full damage (1.0x multiplier). 💀
If a bullet’s penetration level is one level lower than your armor, you take 67% damage (0.67x multiplier). 😊
If a bullet’s penetration level is two levels lower, you take 50% damage (0.5x multiplier), and so on with diminishing returns. 😎

This creates an economic meta-game. Firing cheap, low-penetration ammo at a heavily armored enemy is incredibly inefficient, wasting dozens of rounds to bring them down. 👎 Conversely, wearing high-tier armor can make you nearly invincible to low-level scavengers. This is why crafting AP (Armor-Piercing) rounds at your workbench, even from the simplest ammo types, is a vital early-game strategy. 💥

Notable Armor Sets:

Level 4 Body Armor: You’ll unlock the ability to purchase this crucial mid-game armor set by completing a quest from the armor vendor in Farm Town that involves clearing out the school building. 🏫
Storm Protective Gear ⛈️: This is your endgame armor, required to survive the lethal environment of the Storm Area. You’ll acquire the suit and helmet through a late-game questline.
High-End Armor (Level 5-6+): The blueprints for the best craftable armors are found in the final map, J-Lab. 🔬 You’ll need Level 5+ armor and a helmet to reliably survive the dangers of this area.

Durability and Repair:

Every piece of gear, from guns to armor, has two durability values (e.g., 90/100).

Current Durability (the left number): This decreases as you use the item or take damage. When it hits zero, the item is broken and unusable until repaired. 💔
Maximum Durability (the right number): This decreases slightly every time you repair the item. An item with 50/50 max durability will perform worse than one with 100/100, even if both are fully repaired. 📉

This system makes the Repair Bench 🛠️ in your bunker an essential upgrade. It’s far more economical to repair your mid-to-high-tier gear than to constantly replace it. However, be aware of an item’s maximum durability. A heavily-used gun might eventually reach a point where it’s more cost-effective to dismantle it for parts than to keep repairing its degraded maximum durability. ♻️ This entire combat system—from ammo choice to armor durability—is an economic engine. Every bullet you fire is an investment. Every hit you take is a liability. Your goal is to make every raid profitable. 📈

Part 4: The Duck-Billed Tycoon: Economy, Crafting, & Your Bunker Empire 💰

You’ve learned how to fight, but the war for Duckov is won not on the battlefield, but in the spreadsheets. 💹 A successful operator is also a shrewd businessduck, a master of logistics, and an industrial magnate. Your bunker is not just a home; it’s the headquarters of your rapidly expanding corporate empire. 🏢 Mastering the flow of goods, the efficiency of your production lines (the workbench), and the development of your infrastructure is the key to long-term, sustainable success.

Chapter 4.1: Loot Goblin 101: What to Grab, What to Ditch 🎒

Every raid is a business trip. 💼 Your goal is to maximize your return on investment. This means knowing the value of everything you see and making split-second decisions about what’s worth the precious space in your backpack. A rookie grabs everything that isn’t nailed down. A pro knows what to leave behind. 🧘

The value of loot in Duckov can be broken down into a hierarchy. Some items are valuable because they sell for a high price 💸, others because they are essential for quests 🎯 or high-level crafting 🛠️. Your first priority is always quest and upgrade items. Use the N key to tag items you need so you don’t accidentally sell them. 🏷️ After that, prioritize by raw value. Here’s a cheat sheet of some of the most valuable items to watch out for:

S-Tier (Jackpot! 💎): LedX ($16,250), Graphics Card ($10,500), Bitcoin ($8,000). These are the items you drop everything else for. Finding one of these can fund your operations for days.
A-Tier (High Value ✨): Expansion Box (L) ($4,275), Lipstick ($3,399), Intelligence Robot ($2,925). These are your big-ticket items that should always take priority.
B-Tier (Bread and Butter 🍞): Metallic Barrel ($1,490), Large Hammer ($1,187), Cola ($990). These are common but valuable items that will form the backbone of your income.
Specialty Items 🔧: High-End Weapon Parts, Computer Cores, and various injectors are extremely valuable for their utility in crafting and combat, often worth more to keep than to sell.

One of the most crucial survival tools for a budding tycoon is your dog’s inventory. 🐶 Any items placed on your canine companion are considered “safe” and will not be lost upon death. This is your secure container. When you find a truly high-value item like a LedX or a Graphics Card, immediately transfer it to your dog. 🐕 This simple act removes the risk from the rest of your raid.

Managing this flood of information in real-time can be a chore. This is where the community comes in. One of the most essential quality-of-life improvements you can make is to install a mod from the Steam Workshop 💻 that displays item values directly on their icons in your inventory. This transforms you from a fumbling appraiser into a high-speed stock trader, allowing you to instantly assess the value of your haul and make informed decisions about what to keep and what to drop. 💡

Chapter 4.2: From Scrap to Gold: The Workbench Bible 🛠️

The Workbench is the heart of your industrial empire. ❤️ It’s where you turn the worthless junk you haul out of raids into life-saving medicine 🩹, powerful weapons 🔫, and cold, hard cash 💸. You’ll unlock it via one of Jeff’s first quests, requiring just 2 Wood. 🪵 From there, you’ll be on a constant quest to upgrade it, unlocking new tiers of crafting that require increasingly rare materials like Circuit Boards, Bolts, and Steel.

The workbench has several key functions:

Crafting 🔧: Creating new items from blueprints you find in the world.
Repairing 🩹: Fixing damaged weapons and armor.
Dismantling ♻️: Breaking down unwanted items into basic crafting components. This is often more profitable than selling junk outright.
Researching 🔬: Unlocking new blueprints using specific materials.

Knowing what to craft is key. Early on, focus on essentials. Crafting AP rounds from basic ammo is a huge power spike. 💥 Keeping a stock of crafted repair kits and medical supplies will save you a fortune. You should also look for simple, profitable crafts. For example, crafting a “Potato GPU” 🥔 from a Potato and some Wire sells for a tidy profit.

Finding blueprints is a major part of exploration. 🗺️ They are hidden all over the five maps, and finding one for a high-tier weapon or armor set is a game-changing moment. ✨ The table below is a compendium of known high-value crafting recipes and blueprint locations, a treasure map to guide your industrial expansion.

Item Name	Category	Required Materials (Example)	Workbench Level	Blueprint Location 📍	Strategic Value ✨
AP Rounds (S)	Ammunition 🔵	1x Metal, 1x Simple Ammo	Level 1	Default	Essential early-game craft to overcome enemy armor. 💥
Potato GPU	Electronics 🥔	1x Potato, 1x Wire	Level 1	Default	A simple, reliable money-making craft in the early game. 💰
MP-155 ULTIMA	Weapon 🔫	1x MP-155, 3x Advanced Weapon Parts	Level 2	Default Upgrade	Transforms a common shotgun into the best CQC weapon. 🚪
AK-103	Weapon 🔫	1x AK-47, 1x WPN Parts, 1x INT WPN Parts…	Level 3	Quest Reward	The best all-around assault rifle. A major power spike. 👑
Level 5 Body Armor	Armor 🛡️	High-End Fabrics, Advanced Plates, etc.	Level 4	J-Lab / Chemical Plant SE Farm Town	The benchmark for endgame armor. Required for survival. 💪
Military Backpack	Gear 🎒	Advanced Fabrics, Straps, etc.	Level 4	Storm Area (Blueprint Crate)	The largest backpack in the game. Maximize your loot! 📈
Advanced AP Rounds (L)	Ammunition 🔵	Advanced Gunpowder, Large Casings	Level 4	J-Lab (Hidden)	The ultimate ammo for large caliber rifles. Boss-killer. 🎯

Chapter 4.3: Building a Better Bunker 🏠

Your bunker is a direct reflection of your progress. It starts as a damp, empty hole in the ground 🕳️ and slowly transforms into a bustling, high-tech military-industrial complex. 🏭 Each facility you build unlocks new vendors, new abilities, and new efficiencies. Following a logical upgrade path is crucial for a smooth progression curve. 📈

Here is the Quack-in-Chief’s recommended bunker construction order:

Workbench 🛠️: Non-negotiable. This is your first build. It’s required for quests and is the engine of your entire economy.
Medic Station 🩹: Unlocks after “The Importance of Bleeding Control” quest. Allows you to craft your own healing supplies, saving you a massive amount of money.
Key Registration Device 🔑: Requires a Circuit Board and a CD drive. This device lets you permanently register keys you find, freeing up vital inventory space and granting you permanent access to locked areas. A huge quality-of-life upgrade.
Gym 💪: Building this unlocks Mud the Gym Coach, an NPC who offers quests that lead to permanent stat upgrades. This is how you get passively stronger over time.
Armor Shop & Repair Bench 🛡️: These unlock through the “Basic Construction” questline. The Armor Shop gives you access to better defensive gear, and the Repair Bench is vital for maintaining your expensive equipment.
Tech Center 💻: Unlocks advanced NPC services and building options, serving as a gateway to the late-game bunker upgrades.
Teleport Bubble 🌀: This is a game-changer. By using Dynamite 🧨 or a Large Hammer 🔨 on a cracked wall outside your base entrance, you create a fast-travel shortcut. This allows you to deploy to different parts of the map and can drastically cut down on travel time, making your raids far more efficient. This should be a top priority as soon as you can acquire the necessary explosives.

Investing in your base is investing in yourself. Every upgrade makes you more efficient, more powerful, and more profitable. Neglect your bunker, and you’ll find yourself struggling to keep up with the escalating challenges of Duckov. 😬

Part 5: A Duck’s World Tour: Maps & Bosses 🗺️

The world of Duckov is a dangerous and sprawling place, comprised of five distinct regions, each with its own unique layout, threats, and secrets. 🤫 A true operator knows these maps like the back of their own wing. This section is your intelligence briefing, your cartographer’s report on every major zone of operation, complete with dossiers on the high-value targets—the bosses—that call them home. 😈 For detailed, interactive layouts, community resources are invaluable tools for planning your routes.

Chapter 5.1: Ground Zero & The Warehouse

Ground Zero: The Proving Ground 🏞️

This is where your journey begins. A relatively small map of forests, roads, and small encampments, Ground Zero is designed to teach you the fundamentals. Key points of interest include the central Small Hill where the Mysterious Merchant can be found 💰, the Road Camp in the east, and the Northwest Camp which serves as the map’s most obvious extraction point. The map is crisscrossed by a river, and repairing the bridges with Wood is key to unlocking new routes. 🌉 Don’t forget the two secret extraction points: the bunker entrance you start at 🏠, and a hidden manhole in the southeast 🤫.

Boss Dossier: Pato Chapo 🤠
- Location: The Road Camp in the eastern part of Ground Zero.
- Intel: Pato Chapo is the first real challenge you’ll face. He’s a heavily armed duck protected by several well-equipped guards. 🛡️ This fight is a test of your understanding of the cover system. His camp is filled with sandbags, and you must use them effectively, moving between them as they get destroyed.
- Strategy: Do not charge in. 🚫 Use a mid-range weapon and engage from the periphery. Lure one or two of his guards away from the main camp and deal with them individually. Once you’ve thinned the herd, focus on Pato himself. He is tough, but his patterns are predictable. Use the sandbags 🧱, aim for the head 🎯, and don’t be afraid to pull back and heal. 🩹
- Loot: Defeating Pato and his crew is an excellent source of early-game gear. His guards often carry superior armor and weapons. 👍

The Warehouse: The Labyrinth 🏭

The second map you’ll unlock, the Warehouse area is a significant step up in complexity and scale. It’s a maze of industrial buildings, shipping containers, and open lumber yards. 🌲 This map emphasizes close-quarters combat inside the warehouses and mid-range engagements in the open areas. Unlocking the various key-gated areas 🔑 is crucial for efficient looting and navigation.

Boss Dossier: Lordon 🎯
- Location: Highly unpredictable. Lordon is a roaming boss who can spawn in multiple locations across the Warehouse map, including the Lumbermill and near the zipline entrance. 🏃‍♂️
- Intel: Lordon is a sniper. The first sign of his presence is often not the boss himself, but his distinctively geared-up dog (wearing a helmet and armor). 🐶 If you see the dog, take cover immediately! 🧱 Lordon deals massive damage from a distance, but his firing rhythm is very consistent.
- Strategy: The key to beating Lordon is to break his line of sight and exploit his firing pattern. He fires roughly every 1.5 to 2 seconds. ⏳ Wait for him to fire, then pop out of cover to shoot him during his brief recovery period. Repeat. A better strategy is to find an open area with a single piece of cover you can circle around. By constantly strafing 💃, you can cause most of his shots to miss, allowing you to fire back freely. Time your dodges just before he shoots, and you can defeat him without taking a single hit. 😎

Chapter 5.2: Farm Town & J-Lab

Farm Town: The Urban Sprawl 🚜🏙️

Farm Town is a massive map, so large that it feels like two distinct zones—a rural area and a dense urban center. It features a wide variety of locations, from open fields and a chemical plant ☣️ to a multi-story school 🏫, a supermarket 🛒, and an arcade 👾. This map will test your ability to adapt your tactics to different engagement ranges on the fly. You’ll need to unlock the southern part of the map via a quest that grants you fireproof armor 🔥 to get past a mercenary camp.

Boss Dossier: Vida 🛒
- Location: A rare spawn inside the supermarket in Farm Town.
- Intel: Vida is a test of preparation and luck. 🍀 His appearance is not guaranteed, so you may need multiple runs to find him. The supermarket is a dense, close-quarters environment with narrow aisles, making shotguns and SMGs ideal. 💥 Listen for his heavy footsteps to pinpoint his location. 👂
- Strategy: This is a pure CQC fight. Use the shelves as cover to manage line of sight. Don’t get caught reloading in the open. 😬 If you’re on the “Vida’s Challenge” quest, remember you must use the Glick pistol to get credit for the kill. Because his spawn is rare, be efficient: do a quick sweep of the supermarket, and if he’s not there, move on.
Boss Dossier: Fly Captain ☠️
- Location: Spawns in various buildings, including the construction site dorms and farm village buildings.
- Intel: The Fly Captain’s signature weapon is poison. 🤢 He is always accompanied by a squad, and the greatest danger is not his direct damage, but the poison damage-over-time that will drain your health long after the fight is over.
- Strategy: Preparation is everything. You must bring poison antidotes 💉 and healing items. High burst-damage weapons like shotguns or grenades are perfect for dealing with him and his squad quickly. If you can, initiate the fight by throwing a grenade 💣 into the room he’s hiding in. Lure him into open ground where you can maneuver, and keep a constant eye on your poison status. Use antidotes as soon as you are afflicted.

J-Lab: The Endgame Gauntlet 🔬

The J-Lab is the penultimate location, a high-tech laboratory where the darkest secrets of Duckov are hidden. 🤫 This is a high-threat environment filled with powerful enemies and the best loot in the game. 💎 It’s a multi-level indoor map that requires keycards (Red, Blue, Black) 💳 to access its most secure areas. Be warned: J-Lab is home to invisible enemies 👻 that will ambush you with devastating melee attacks. You’ll need thermal vision or a very keen ear to detect them before they strike.

Chapter 5.3: The Storm Area ⛈️

The Storm Area: The Final Frontier

This is it. The endgame. 🏁 The Storm Area is a unique, hostile environment that you can only access and survive after progressing deep into the main story and acquiring special Storm Protective gear. 🧑‍🚀 The area is constantly ravaged by a dangerous storm, and powerful, mutated “storm creatures” 👾 roam the landscape. These creatures are fast, hit hard, and are best dealt with using elemental weapons or specialized storm injectors that grant temporary immunity to the storm’s effects.

This map is not just another loot run; it is the arena for the game’s final confrontations. It is here that you will hunt down the game’s ultimate bosses, a necessary step to achieving the true ending of Escape From Duckov.

Boss Dossier: The Four Horsemen & The Final Boss 👑
- Location: Hidden subterranean lairs within the Storm Area.
- Intel: To unlock the true ending, you must first find and defeat four powerful mini-bosses known as the Horsemen: Pulu Pulu, Gulu Gulu, Pala Pala, and Billy Billy. 🐴 Once they are defeated, you can access the lair of the main boss, Koko Koko.
- Strategy: These are the most challenging fights in the game. The Horsemen will test all of your combat skills. The final boss is particularly tricky, as he is immune to all physical damage. 🛡️ You will need to use environmental mechanics or specialized elemental weaponry to defeat him. This fight is a puzzle as much as it is a combat encounter. 💡 Successfully defeating him will yield a keycard that is the final piece needed to truly escape from Duckov. 🔑

Part 6: The Final Escape: Endgame & Beyond 🚀

You’ve fought your way through hordes of hostile ducks, unraveled corporate conspiracies, and built a bunker that would make a doomsday prepper blush. 🥰 You’ve reached the endgame. But your journey isn’t over yet. The final act of Escape From Duckov is about piecing together the truth and making your final choice. And even after the credits roll 🎬, a vibrant community and a world of mods await to keep your adventures fresh and exciting. ✨

Chapter 6.1: To Be or Not to Be a Duck: Unlocking All Four Endings 🎬

(Warning: Major spoilers for the main story of Escape From Duckov ahead.) ⚠️

The main questline, which spans over 50 hours of content, culminates in a final, grand objective: build a spaceship and escape the planet. 🚀 However, the story is not so simple. There are multiple endings to discover, each revealing a different facet of the truth behind Duckov. The endings are sequential, meaning you must typically achieve one before you can unlock the next. After viewing an ending, you can simply reload your save to continue playing and pursue the others. 🔄

Ending 0 – Survivor 🧑‍🚀

Requirements: This is the “standard” ending. You must complete the long quest chain from the techie NPC, Xiaoming, to construct all the necessary components for your spaceship: the Life Support System, Supercomputer, Navigation System, Accelerator, Energy System, and Protective Field.
How to Achieve: After building all the parts, a final quest will require you to find a special rubber suit. Completing this task will trigger the ending cutscene. You build your ship, you fly away, and you survive. A blessing in disguise. 🙏

Ending 1 – Moving Target 🎯

Requirements: You must have completed Ending 0, gained access to the endgame Storm Zone ⛈️, and found the blueprint for the Space Expander within that zone.
How to Achieve: To unlock the Storm Zone, you must fight your way through the J-Lab, defeat a boss in the Site-9 office, and use the keycard he drops to access the 3rd level of the lab. This will eventually lead you to the Storm Zone. Once you have the Space Expander blueprint, build it in your bunker. Then, initiate the escape sequence as you did for Ending 0. This time, the outcome will be… different. 💥 The flavor text for the achievement says it all: “I have a bad feeling about this”. 😰

Ending 2 – Escape Alive (The True Ending) ✨

Requirements: You must have completed Ending 1 and be prepared for the ultimate challenge in the Storm Zone.
How to Achieve: This ending requires you to become the apex predator of the Storm Zone. You must hunt down and defeat the four Horsemen mini-bosses 🐴, and then find and defeat the physically immune final boss at the center of the map. 👑 The final boss will drop a unique keycard. 💳 Take this keycard to the air defense system 📡 located in the northeast of the Storm Zone and use it to turn the system off. With the planet’s defenses down, return to your hideout and initiate the escape sequence one more time. This will trigger the true ending, and you will finally, truly, escape from Duckov. 🥳

The Fourth Ending 🤔

There is a fourth, variant ending. The state of the air defense system is the key. 📡 By interacting with the spaceship to trigger your escape, you will be presented with two options. Depending on whether the air defense system is active or disabled (which you control with the final boss’s keycard), these choices will lead to different outcomes, resulting in a total of four possible achievements related to the game’s conclusion. 🏆

Chapter 6.2: Go Quackers with the Community: A Guide to the Steam Workshop 💻

Your escape from Duckov doesn’t have to be the end. One of the game’s greatest strengths is its full integration with the Steam Workshop from day one. 🌟 The small development team at Team Soda has focused on creating a robust and compelling core game, while empowering the community to expand and enhance the experience with mods. This creates a symbiotic relationship where the game is kept “fresh, surprising, and full of life” long after the main story is complete. 🤝

For the player, this means access to a treasure trove of user-generated content, from new weapons 🔫 and custom maps 🗺️ to entirely new questlines 🎯. However, the most immediately impactful mods are those that provide crucial quality-of-life (QoL) improvements. These aren’t cheats; they are tools that provide you with the information a seasoned operator would naturally acquire, streamlining the experience and letting you focus on strategy rather than memorization. 🧠

Here is a curated list of essential QoL mod types to look for on the Steam Workshop:

Item Value Display 💰: This is the most important QoL mod. It displays the vendor sell price and color-codes items by rarity directly in your inventory. This completely removes the guesswork from looting and is a massive time-saver.
Live Boss Map Markers 🗺️: This mod places an icon on your map showing the current location of any spawned bosses. This is invaluable for hunting bosses like the roaming Lordon or checking for rare spawns like Vida without having to search the entire map.
Show Quests Area On Map 🎯: This mod highlights the relevant area for your active quests directly on your map, preventing you from wandering aimlessly looking for a specific, unmarked location.
Show Inventory Count 📦: A simple but brilliant mod that shows you how many of a given item you already have in your stash, preventing you from looting duplicates of quest or construction items you already own.
Better Key Indicator 🔑: Places a unique marker on keys you already have registered in your Key Registration Device, so you know immediately whether a key is a new discovery or a worthless duplicate.

These mods represent the community working in tandem with the developers to perfect the game. They smooth out the rough edges of the UI and information flow, allowing the brilliant core gameplay loop to shine even brighter. ✨ Embracing the workshop is the final step in becoming a true master of Duckov.

Appendix: The Duckov Databank 📈

For the operator on the go, here are quick-reference tables consolidating the most critical data from this guide.

Table A: Weapon Tier List (Abbreviated) 🔫

Tier	Assault Rifles	SMGs	Sniper Rifles	Shotguns
S+ ✨	AK-103, MCX Spear		M107, VSS
S 💥		MP7 (Electric) ⚡	SV-98, M14A
A 👍	DT MDR-556	UZI	Mosin-Nagant	MP-155 ULTIMA
B 😊	StG 77, Fire AK-47	Vector, MP5		SPAS-12
C 👎	ADAR 2-15	Bizon-2, PPSh		MP-155

Table B: Armor & Damage Calculation Reference 🛡️

Armor Class Advantage (Armor Level – Bullet Pen Level)	Damage Multiplier 💥
0 or less	1.0 (100% Damage) 💀
1	0.67 (67% Damage) 😟
2	0.5 (50% Damage) 😊
3	0.4 (40% Damage) 😎
4	0.33 (33% Damage) 💪
5	0.28 (28% Damage) 🥳

Table C: High-Priority Crafting & Blueprint Locations 🛠️

Item	Type	Blueprint Location 📍	Strategic Value ✨
AP Rounds	Ammo 🔵	Default	Overcomes early-game enemy armor. 💥
MP-155 ULTIMA	Weapon 🔫	Default Upgrade	Dominant CQC weapon for mid-game. 🚪
AK-103	Weapon 🔫	Quest Reward	Best all-around assault rifle. 👑
Level 5 Body Armor	Armor 🛡️	J-Lab / Farm Town	Essential for endgame survivability. 💪
Military Backpack	Gear 🎒	Storm Area ⛈️	Maximum loot capacity. 💰

Table D: Must-Have Early Skills Priority List 🧠

Priority	Skill Name	Effect	Rationale
1st 🥇	Backpack Expert I	+4 inventory capacity 🎒	The single biggest boost to your economic progression. More loot = faster upgrades. 💰
2nd 🥈	Survival Instinct I	+5 Max HP ❤️	A crucial survivability increase that provides a buffer against mistakes. 🩹
3rd 🥉	Gun Mastery I	+3\% weapon damage 💥	A universal damage increase that makes all combat encounters faster and more efficient. 🎯
4th	Quick Reload I	+5\% reload speed 💨	Reduces downtime in firefights, a critical combat advantage.
5th	Steady Shot I	-5\% recoil 🎯	Improves accuracy, making it easier to land vital headshots.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial fan work, all trademarks and copyrights for Escape from Duckov belong to the developer Team Soda & publisher bilibili.

Find the game here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3167020/Escape_From_Duckov/