Unrailed! – Basic Rules Guide

A brief guide how to not suck at Unrailed!

Guide to Basic Rules

Use the Tools

Many times I see it happen, that the path infront of us is not getting cleared. Instead of doing so, people are just running around somewhere, doing something of lesser importance and therefore waste valuable time.

Sometimes the tools just lay on the ground, behind the train already, and nobody cares, while infront of us still many rocks and trees need to be destroyed.

You see this especially becoming a trend when TNT got into play, because some folks only focus on the TNT and completely forget about the tools.

The 2 tools (Axe + Pickaxe) always have highest priority along with the Rails.

Even if you have 2 TNT wagons – you should never disregard the tools. They can save your booty. Do not rely solely on TNT. If you mess up with the cooldown or the placement, it´s quickly game over. Be a hero. Go chop wood. Go mine rocks.

Also, clearing a path infront of you has a higher priority than going for 1 extra screw somewhere. Only go for those extra parts if the path infront is relatively good cleared. That 1 extra screw won´t help you much if the train is rolling into a dead end, you know.

Always clear enough path before doing anything else.

Place the Rails

This is just a logical consequence from what we talked about in Rule 1.

I can not count how many times I see the train crashing right after it starts moving at the train station or right before it reaches the next train station, because nobody placed the first or the last rails down. It is very frustrating because it´s literally the easiest to avoid crash.

When the round starts and you see your Comrades grabbing tools and doing the cleaning job, then go ahead and be the one to take a pack of rails and place them down. Those 3 rails can buy you a lot of time already.

If you see another player working with the rails already, don´t get in their way. One person at a time is perfectly fine for the most part. It can quickly become a technical mess, if 2-3 players try to operate the rails at the same time on the same position. The game is not handling that well.

So remember: Never forget to place some rails, and don´t get in each others way while doing so.

Don´t Dash

Believe it or not, but dashing serves no significant benefit. On the contrary it can cause a lot of trouble. If you dash into another player, that player will automatically drop whatever they currently hold – tools, ressources, TNT.

When you play with 3 other people, it is not advisable to use the dash at all, because most of the time the area is just too crowded and therefore the risk to dash into somebody is high.

The only exceptions where you want to use coordinated dashes is either if you have a challenge to “dash XXX times”, or if you can clearly see that no other player is in your proximity.

If you got a trigger happy pinky finger, I would even advise you to go to your controller options and unbind the dash command in order to practice and get used to a “dash-free” gameplay.

Don´t Disrespect the Host

So, this one feels a little bit awkward to explain, because it´s literally just basic manners any grown up human being should know. The Host of a Lobby is the one with a little yellow crown besides their name. Always make sure that you know who the Host is.

• The Host has the last word on anything.
• This derivates from a simple rule of life: Your house, your rules.
• Imagine I came to your house as a guest, and I would behave like a jerk. You would kick me out, right? So, the same is true in Unrailed! If you behave like a narcissistic douchebag or a whiny little child, it will probably result in a kick-ban for you.

• So, the Host has the last word on anything. This is especially important for the shop.
• Do not buy things in the shop without permission from the Host. Maybe they got a specific build in mind, so do not ruin it. The Host alone decides when to upgrade the Train engine. Do not overgo the Host`s decisions. If the Host wants to save and quit, abide to that and don´t goof around like an idiot, please. You never know how late it is for them, or if they got something urgent to do.
• Voting is very simply done via the thumbs-up and thumbs-down emojis.

One last hint: I said you should always know who the Host is. This is because sometimes 2 players will vote YES on an upgrade, but the Host might vote NO on it. This means it is a NO.

It doesn´t matter what the other players wish. Their votes are suggestions, and they are valued, yes, but: It does only matter what the Host decides in the end. Very simple rules of respect.

Play in Your League

Everybody starts out as a bloody noob. No shame in that. I remember doing my first games on the KIDS difficulty, and later I tried the EASY difficulty, and boy I failed so hard!

Unrailed has a steep learning curve, so you should really pick the difficulty that suits you.

It is problematic when I see obvious beginners joining my open lobby, which is set to either HARD or EXTREME difficulty.

Don´t get me wrong – I give everybody a chance and I am willing to carry random people, who are trying their best to improve. But some folks are just messing the game up terribly, because they clearly lack experience. They clearly play avove their personal league.

So, the advice here is simple: Stick in your league until you feel confident. Don´t join the hard games if you´re not ready yet. It won´t feel good for anyone.

My personal strategy was the following:

• I practiced on Kids and Easy until I got the basics, then worked on reaching 2000m on Easy.
• Only then I started playing on medium, again working towards 2000m there.
• Only then I started playing on Hard, working towards 2000m there.
• Only then I started Extreme.

If I remember correctly, there are also achievements related to 2000m on each difficulty, so you got a juicy goal as well.