Aliens: Dark Descent tips for beginners

Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 3:10 PM‒ 7 days ago

When it landed in 2023, this game filled a void roughly the size of deep space. Fans of the Aliens universe aren't exactly drowning in video games to begin with. And most of the titles that did come out are FPS or TPS action games. Strategy fans had to wait a solid 20 years after Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction (opens in new tab) to test their skills in a tactical strategy game again.

But Dark Descent is a tough opponent: even veteran strategists will find it a serious challenge. Go in with the wrong mindset and it'll chew you up and spit you out.

To help you find your rhythm, I've put together a few tips (edit: in hindsight, this turned out to be a bit more than "a few"...). I'll try to avoid spoilers, but some gameplay and story elements will inevitably mentioned, so if you want to experience every surprise, you'd better skip this article.

Getting started

Go no higher than 'Medium' on your first run

This game is REALLY hard. Better to start on Story or Medium difficulty and restart on a harder setting after 1-2 missions than to struggle your way into a softlock halfway through the game. Even better, choose Custom mode, which lets you fully customize the rules. Set everything to Medium, then do the following:

Turn off the "Death Clock"

The game gives you zero warning, but halfway through the campaign a countdown appears, and if you don't complete the objectives before it runs out, it's instant game over. Luckily, the devs (after player feedback) added an option to fine-tune or completely disable this torture device. In Custom mode, set the "Death clock campaign days" option to "DISABLE".

Choose the "Permissive" save mode

This way the game autosaves much more often and you can have more autosaves at the same time. The other option is "No One Can Hear Them Scream", which only allows two saves: one on the Otago before missions and one on site, during the mission.

Pause in the Skill menu

By default, opening the Skill menu doesn't stop the game completely, it just slows time down. It's a great way to crank up the pressure, but it can be too much at first. Open the Options menu, go to the GAMEPLAY tab and set "Pause Game" to On. That way you can make decisions with a cool head. Keep in mind that this only pauses the game in the Skill menu. While you're browsing the map, everything keeps running in real time. Unlike the difficulty settings, "Pause Game" can be toggled on and off any time during the game.

Use the Codex

The Codex, the game's built-in detailed manual, is a huge help. Everything you saw in the tutorial is in there, plus lot of entries about the main characters, aliens, equipment, locations, skills... You can access it from the map menu using the tabs at the top. Browse all you want, the time pauses while you're in there.

Resources and gear

What the resources are for

The resources in the game and what they're used for:

Ammo
- Munition for your marines' guns and the Sentry Gun. One point equals one magazine. Keep in mind that there are no partial mags. If a marine is only one round short and you reload anyway, that mag is gone for good.
- Blowing up a barricade costs 1 Ammo point.
- It's consumed during a mission, but starting a new mission doesn't cost you any. The squad brings as much ammo as its upgrades allow (one per marine by default, but other upgrades can raise this number).
Command Point (CP)
- Most actions in the Skill menu cost 1 CP each.
- Regenerates automatically.
Tools
- Welding doors shut (opening welded doors doesn't cost a point).
- Repairing a broken Sentry Gun.
- Opening encrypted doors (the ones with a USB icon next to them). These can be opened by a Tecker, or any other marine with the Smart-Ass skill.
- The Tactical Analysis skill converts one Tool into 3 CP during combat.
- You can collect them during missions.
Medkit
- Healing injuries.
- Lowering stress with meds.
- You can collect them during missions.
Materials
- On the Otago, you can buy upgrades for your marines with these. One upgrade typically costs 30 Materials.
- You also need Materials to unlock new weapons.
- Replacing missing gear, e.g. a Sentry Gun, Tools or Medkits, also costs Materials.
- You can collect them at mission sites, and the engineers on the Otago also "produce" them.
Xenosamples
- Developing new technologies (like pheromones, pheromone mines, acid-resistant armor, ...).
- Each of these technologies costs 2 Alien Samples every time you want to take it on a deployment.

Not everyone has to reload at once

By pressing the reload key, the whole squad reloads at the same time. That can be a problem when you're low on ammo and don't have enough for everyone. Select one of your marines and you can reload them individually from their menu. That way the last mag goes to your buffed-up Gunner instead of your Medic, who's a weaker shot anyway.

Your sidearm has infinite ammo

Only your marines' primary weapons, the Sentry Gun and the Battle Drone use ammo. Secondary weapons and the weapons that consumes CP don't.

Get ammo by resting

Resourceful is one of the handiest skills. Every squad member who has it produces an extra Ammo point while resting. Ammo is probably the most important resource, and you never have enough of it.

Don't waste Command Points

The number of Command Points (CP) your squad can generate is capped. They regenerate gradually, but once you hit the cap, every CP you're not generating is basically lost. So as soon as you're maxed out, find a good spot for a Motion Tracker or a mine.

Don't overstuff your pockets

Before a new deployment, don't top off your squad's Tools, Medkits and Sentry Guns, since you'll find plenty of each at most locations. When you continue a mission you've already started, only bring as much as you still need, and leave room to pick up as much as possible from the resources on the map.

Recon and stealth

This is actually a stealth horror game

At first it's tempting to wipe out as many xenos as you can, but reality slaps you in the face pretty fast. Every single fight comes at a steep price. Your already scarce ammo runs low. Your people's mental state deteriorates. It's very easy to get injured, and your marines can even get dragged away or killed for good. So whenever you possibly can, avoid the fight.

Keep one eye on the map

The map isn't only handy for getting an overview of the level, it also shows every lootable resource that have gotten into your field of view. Check it regularly to make sure you didn't leave anything important behind in a room.

Put motion trackers everywhere

By default, you only get info on alien activity around your squad. Luckily, you can place static motion trackers right from the start of the campaign. And they only cost Command Points, which regenerate fairly quickly. Cover the whole map, and you'll always know what the enemy is up to. Placed motion trackers also stay put, so if you have to come back to the location later, you get the full picture right away.

Motion trackers as bait

You can't just place a motion tracker, you can also overload it remotely. Why is that useful? Because while the self-destruct timer is ticking, it makes a loud noise and lures enemies in from far away. It doesn't hurt them, but if it happens to be sitting next to an APC or a Sentry Gun, results are guaranteed!

Scout with the drone

The drone is an upgrade available to the Tecker class. It normally follows its operator, but you can also take control of it. Send it ahead to recon the level, spot alien spawn points and plan your route without putting your people's life at risk.

Shortcuts make long delays

At first it might seem like a good idea to always take the shortest route, open every locked or hackable door and blow up every barricade. But besides costing you Tool or Ammo points, there's another problem: it's not just you who gets around faster, the enemy can reach you faster too. On top of that, the enemy has no way to open locked or encrypted doors, so you can be sure no attack will come from that direction. And if it's a room you can rest in, that's one less door to weld. Before you open one of these, take a good look around and make sure there isn't a free path to your planned destination.

Stealthy slaughter

If a single gun goes off, the aliens go on high alert instantly. But in certain situations you can slaughter without raising the aggression level:

They couldn't care less about friends blown up by mines.
Comrades turned into Swiss cheese by the APC/ARC minigun don't interest them much either.
Take out every nearby alien egg with a grenade and the most you'll get is a slow clap.

Recon: one shot, one kill

The Recon's hardest-hitting skill is "Precision shot", which - after a short aim - can drop an average drone with a single shot and takes a serious chunk out of bosses' HP too. You can multiply its effectiveness by adding the Silencer to the marine's gear, which makes the shot absolutely silent, so it won't alert other enemies. (Not exactly realistic, but the Silencer somehow suppresses not just the sound but the sight too: if you take out one enemy from a group, the rest just keep strolling along as if nothing happened. There's a reason the planet is called Lethe, after the river of forgetfulness in Greek myth. They forget it in seconds.)

Right place, right time

Precision Shot is really powerful, but in practice it's a bit tricky to use for one reason: it can only be fired if the shooter has line of sight to the target at that exact moment. Of course, nine times out of ten Recons be in exactly the wrong spot in the formation, and everyone can see the enemy except them. You can shuffle the squad back and forth until the stars align, or you can use this sneaky little trick: The squad is just coming through a door, the Recon is last, naturally, and there's an alien at the end of the corridor. Walk back, open Skill menu and choose to place a motion tracker, mine or Sentry Gun. Before you mark the spot on the other side of the door, select your Recon (with L1 and R1 on a controller). They'll go through the door alone and come face to face with their future victim. Before they start deploying, cancel that action and pick Precision Shot. Now you're guaranteed a clear line of sight.

Hold your horses

Suppressive Fire is the most effective tool for fending off enemy rushes. Spend a CP on it and the marine aims at a given point and sprays it with lead. Anything that steps into that narrow cone not only takes damage but also slows down significantly. It comes at a cost, though: in this mode, ammo consumption goes up and accuracy goes down.

Combat and fire support

Choose who does the job

When you order a task or tell the squad to loot a crate, by default the game sends the nearest marine. That's the fastest option, but not necessarily the best one. For example, if something needs to be delivered to the ship, the marine carrying it can only use their secondary weapon until they've hauled it to the ARC. If that's your sniper, there's no Precision Shot until they've put their load down. If they were carrying the shotgun or the flamethrower, key close-quarters weapons are temporarily off the table. Luckily there's a fix: select the right marine before you give the order.

Slow and steady wins the race

Your marines walk by default. It's relatively slow, but they can fire on the move. By running they move much faster, but they can't shoot back.

The armored vehicle as a support weapon

In this game, the ARC/APC armored vehicle is indestructible, brings in brutal firepower and has infinite ammo. As early as the first mission, you unlock the ability to reposition the vehicle and redeploy with it. Use it. Open the map and click one of the fixed vehicle icons to send it there, so it can easily cover an area. When aliens are pouring in during an active Onslaught, it can't fully protect the marines standing next to it, but at any lower alert level it takes out pretty much every attacker on its own.

Adjust your Sentry Gun

Placed a Sentry Gun, but the enemy had the nerve to attack from another direction? No problem. Move the cursor over the gun until the blue firing zone shows up. Hold the select button (PlayStation: X, Xbox: A) and rotate the barrel to face the right way.

Leave no Sentry Gun behind

If you deploy a Sentry Gun and leave the level (by elevator or by returning to the Otago), it'll still be there when you come back, but it'll be broken and cost one Tool point to repair. You can't even pick up a broken gun until you've fixed it.

Always have at least one grenade launcher in the squad

The Pulse Rifle is the only weapon with a grenade launcher. (That's only true for the regular Pulse Rifle, not the Heavy Pulse Rifle!) And that makes it incredibly useful. Grenades don't just deal damage: once you've developed the "Stasis Grenade", they also slow down the enemies they hit. And if you find alien eggs, you can scramble every one of them in the blast radius in one go.

Herding cats, xeno edition

The flamethrower isn't indispensable because of its damage, but because enemies try to avoid burning areas. Set a corridor or doorway on fire, and nobody's coming through there while it burns. That makes it easy to funnel them right in front of your guns. One thing to watch out for, though: their bloodlust is so strong that if there's no other way to reach you, they'll charge right through the fire. So always leave them a path that works in your favor. For example, if a room has three doors, point the Sentry Gun or Suppressive Fire at one of them and set the other two on fire.

RPG vs. Queen

Once a marine reaches level 6, they can carry an RPG as an extra weapon. On a regular deployment it's a bit of overkill, the shotgun, flamethrower or mines are usually more practical. But it drops Queens in 2 hits (on Medium difficulty). If you know you're going to run into one, the rocket launcher is worth considering.

No surprises

The game is very considerate: before boss fights, a "Danger Incoming" popup warns you that opening that door means trouble. Take it seriously. If your squad is down to plinking away with secondary weapons at max stress, head back to the Otago for a big mug of hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, and come back the next day with a rested, restocked team.

Stayin' alive: resting, saving and retreating

Live to fight another day

In a lot of games you can joke that "we're not retreating, we're just attacking in a different direction". Well, here it's a core part of the gameplay. Mission success depends on recognizing when to fall back or even abort the mission. You can still finish what you started the next day, with a fresh, rested, fully equipped team. And the cherry on top: the enemy aggression level resets too.

Budget lodging

Your squad can rest in any room marked with a green house icon. To do that, they need to set up a Shelter, which means welding every working door shut. But if you can, pick rooms with only one door. Every weld costs one Tool point (TP). 3 doors cost 3 TP, and in the second half of the game you won't exactly be swimming in wrenches.

Do not disturb

We may know the aliens as cold-blooded killers, but you have to give them credit for one thing: they respect your privacy. Even if they're actively hunting you, the moment you weld every door shut in a room fit for resting, the hunt stops.

When does the game save in Permissive mode?

In ADD you can't save whenever you want, there's only autosave. But that doesn't mean you're completely at the game's mercy. You can trigger a save yourself with certain actions:

resting (when the squad recovers in a shelter)
using an elevator
Redeploying with the ARC
certain major story events
right before starting a new mission, still on the Otago
right after starting a new mission, already on site

When should you save?

In the heat of battle you might not always notice the save notification. Open the "Load Game" menu and you can always see the date and time of your last save. There's no plain "manual" save during missions, since every save trigger means changing location or spending resources. But after a big fight or an important objective, it's still worth forcing one (if the game hasn't already done it for you).

Squad management

Don't rush the dream team

Since you can return to (almost) any location at any time, it can be tempting to keep sending your squad back to a completed location to farm XP. But since you can only launch one deployment per day and the planet's infestation level rises every day (along with the number of aliens coming at you), this strategy can backfire. Try to push through the story as fast as you can, at least until you get a chance to knock the infestation down a notch. Good to know: plain kills don't give you any XP. Only completing primary and secondary objectives and finishing Bossfights, Hunts and Onslaughts raise your squad's experience level. Also keep in mind that you always start a new deployment with only as much ammo as your squad can carry. If you scoop up all the ammo at a location when you don't need it, you could be in trouble when you come back. For a 4-marine squad, 4 Ammo (+1 in case you need to blow a barricade somewhere) is a good rule of thumb.

Don't waste your doctors

In the Medbay, you can assign available doctors to your marines to speed up their recovery. After returning from a mission you have to wait a day anyway, so it's enough to bring the recovery time down to 1 day. They'll be fit as a fiddle by the next day.

It pays to have deep pockets

The amount of gear your marines can carry is pretty limited, so the two most useful skills are "Pouches" and "Ammo bag", which increase the number of Tools and Medkits a marine can carry and the Ammo they bring into a mission.

Even more Command Points

The Sergeant class has two CP-boosting skills: Radio Backpack, which raises the CP cap, and Advanced Radio Backpack, which speeds up CP generation. The Sergeant's CP-boosting skills stack. Every additional Sergeant in the squad adds even more available CP.