10 Atomfall tips to thrive in post-apocalyptic Cumbria

If you're taking the plunge into the idyllic countryside of Cumbria and the post-apocalyptic Lake District, you might be on the hunt for some Atomfall tips. While the game was somewhat slated to be a kind of British Fallout, it's got a lot of differences that might leave players of that famed series scratching their heads.

Though undoubtedly nowhere near the same scale as a Fallout game, Atomfall does still feature an open world with explorable areas and valuable items to find, as well as a combat system with both melee and ranged weaponry. Here I'll give a rundown of ten tips that'll help you understand the game and find your feet in the Windscale quarantine zone.

Learn to read the map

This might sound simple, but since Atomfall loves to give quest directions in the form of map coordinates, you need to know how to read them if you want to find pretty much anything. All map coordinates are delivered in the form of two numbers marked E and N. E indicates the number at the bottom or top of the map, while N indicates the number at either side. If in doubt, place a waypoint on the map or hover over a named location to see its coordinates. Getting used to this system will help no end with tracking down leads and progressing quest steps.

Atomfall's quests are called "leads" and they aren't linear

Unlike your typical RPG quests, Atomfall has a system called leads which is much more freeform—something that is kind of fun but also causes confusion. Since leads are generally based around notes you find, if you're the kind of player who likes exploring, you're liable to end up jumping into a quest chain at some random point, or even right at its end.

For example, I'm out wandering the hills and I discover a cache with my metal detector. I dig it up and inside there's a note for which I have no context, but appears to be the final stage in a lead I hadn't even discovered yet. See the problem? It doesn't mean you've broken anything, but Atomfall's sidequests can get a bit choppy because of this. If you suddenly find yourself confused as to why a quest doesn't seem to go anywhere, that's probably why.

Grab a metal detector for free stuff

When I first found out there was a metal detector in Atomfall I was hyped—maybe meticulously scouring the hills of Cumbria waiting for the beep of a hidden cache stirred my inner guides writer. You can get a metal detector from Reg Stansfield in the Slate Mine Caves just to the east of bunker L8 where you emerge at the start of the game, at coordinates 29.0E, 71.1N. There's also a free one on a corpse in a pond filled with mutated leeches in Slatten Dale, coordinates 29.2E, 73.9N.

Your metal detector will beep and show a prompt in the bottom left if there are any nearby caches—you don't even need to have it equipped. Use the red dot on the interface to track your buried treasure's location and then unearth it for some free items, crafting mats, or even a recipe. Hidden caches sometimes even contain leads, so be on the lookout.

You don't level up by doing stuff

Hey, you know how in most games you level up by simply playing them? That's not the case in Atomfall. XP means jack here and instead you level up by acquiring skill stimulants—an actual item hidden out in the world. You'll generally find these in bunkers, but more specifically in any B.A.R.D chests you come across (British Atomic Research Division in case you're curious). These provide skill points you can use.

But wait, there's more! Beyond the basic skills available, you'll also have to unlock further skills if you want to spend your points. You do this by finding skill manuals, either through exploration, quest rewards, or bargaining for them with traders, and then reading them to unlock three new skills each—that means you're looking for around seven manuals altogether. A few skills are locked behind specific characters and quests, such as the third column in Conditioning, and like crafting recipes, there are duplicates of manuals, so it's not quite searching for a needle in a haystack.

Don't sweat your bullets and throwables

If you expected Atomfall to be a game where ammo was scarce and guns hard to come by, you'd be dead wrong. Even in the starting area of Slatten Dale, outlaws pack plenty of heat, with shotguns, rifles, and revolvers. You'll also find molotovs, grenades, and nail bombs, not to mention knives, police truncheons, and cricket bats that you can both smack down enemies with, or hurl at unsuspecting foes.

Obviously, I'm not suggesting you start taking potshots at crows—unless it's those ones that try to murder you—but with this much firepower available to you, there's no point holding back, especially when it comes to items. Once you acquire some recipes for makeshift grenades and other murderous throwables, you'll be able to craft them as well, amplifying your deadliness even further.

Head to the Interchange early

One of your primary goals in Atomfall is the Interchange; a mysterious underground facility that the scientist at the start asks you to find. When playing, I avoided the entrance to the Interchange because I wanted to be ready for what I assumed would be something climactic. Don't do this. The Interchange is a big area in itself which is kind of linked to all the other areas in the game, and so it's best to head there early.

It acts as a supplementary layer of exploration and it's also the coolest area in the game if you like creepy bunkers and sci-fi research facilities—if you're playing this post-apocalyptic game inspired by British sci-fi, I assume you do.

Use the pneumatic tube system to store spare junk

You don't have a stash as such in Atomfall, but there is the pneumatic tube system where you can store weapons and items and access them from any tube. These are placed somewhat randomly, but you'll most often find them in bunkers. In fact, the most consistent place to access them is at the Interchange entrances, so make a mental note of where they are and tuck away some goodies.

Once you unlock the Gunsmith skill to upgrade weapons, you'll need spare copies of each gun to craft their best version. Since you only have four long-arm slots in your inventory, make sure to cram some guns into the pneumatic tubes so you can use them later for upgrades.

Kick enemies away to get time to reload

While using early game weapons like the Mark.VI Revolver, .22 rifle, or the single slug shotgun, you'll frequently find yourself having to reload, and that can be a death sentence when a horde of cricket bat-wielding hooligans are closing into melee. At times like these, remember your trusty kick. A well-placed walking boot will knock back enemies and give you a moment to slot a fresh round in the chamber so you can blast them. Kick is activated with the left bumper on controller or F on keyboard. You can also kick while sprinting at full speed, which is very funny and makes it look like your character has a third leg on a stick.

Destroy nests to stop swarms

While there are Ferals, which are a little similar to ghoul enemies in Fallout, most of Atomfall's ruins and bunkers are often inhabited by swarms instead. There are rats, bats, crows, wasps, leeches, and even mutated insects that crawl up to you and explode. While your best bet for some of these swarms is just fending them off with a fast melee weapon like a shiv—or in the case of leeches, throwing an explosive lure into their pond when they're swarming—some of these do have nests.

Rats and wasps in particular will stop spawning if you destroy their homes, so grab a rifle and blast them at range before you get close to make navigating their territory easier. Swarms also have an aggro range, so they'll stop chasing you if you get out of the immediate area.

Craft items to barter with traders

For all those good old-fashioned RPG players—like me—who love scouring every nook and cranny for every speck of loot, you'll find both your crafting materials and regular inventory packed to the brim before long. While you can store regular items in pneumatic tubes, the best way to deal with excess crafting materials is to craft items while at a Trader Camp, and use them to bargain for any important items you want, such as skill manuals.

The first Trader Camp is run by Molly and is located in north Slatten Dale at coordinates 26.4E, 79.1N. Traders also have an interest in specific items, like how Molly loves molotovs—maybe Molly is short for Molotov? Offer these to a trader in a bargain and you'll get a better rate.