MENACE is not a campaign you solve by memorizing one perfect route. Operations, mission branches, rewards, and battlefields are assembled differently from run to run. The reliable skill is learning how to read the choices in front of you: which operation your roster can survive, which mission changes the rest of that operation, and which enemy must lose its turn before it can punish an exposed squad.
This guide covers that decision-making loop from the first visit to the Bridge through late-campaign MENACE incursions. It includes squad building, mission preparation, turn order, suppression, vehicles, enemy priorities, recovery, and all 15 Steam achievements. MENACE remains in Early Access, so named perks, exact item values, balance, and campaign thresholds may change. The system-level advice below is deliberately less patch-sensitive.
The first campaign plan
If the opening hours feel like a wall of menus, use this order. It turns the strategic layer into a short series of questions instead of one enormous optimization problem.
- Read the whole operation card. Check the enemy, biome, associated faction, trust change, and timeout. An attractive reward is not useful if your current force has no answer to the opposition.
- Inspect every branch before launching the first mission. A green Strategic Asset can strengthen later missions; a red one can represent an enemy advantage you should remove early. Follow the connecting lines so you know which choices lock out the others.
- Build a toolkit, not four copies of the same gun. Bring vision, suppression, direct damage, armor penetration, and a way to break line of sight. A squad may cover two roles, but the force should cover all five.
- Spend the available Supply deliberately. If you are under the limit, add a Squaddie, useful accessory, better armor, or a specialist weapon. Do not weaken a squad merely to make the number look tidy.
- Deploy for the first objective, not for a theoretical full-map sweep. Put scouts and durable units where they can reveal the approach; keep slow weapon teams close enough to contribute without spending their first activation catching up.
- Reveal, control, then kill. Scout before making a long move, suppress or disable the unit that can punish you, and only then expose the damage dealer.
- Protect the campaign resource. A secondary objective is optional. A veteran leader, a functioning vehicle, and a deep Squaddie reserve are worth more than a perfect mission rating won at catastrophic cost.
- Return to the Black Market after every operation. Its stock refreshes at the operation boundary, not after each mission. Barter close to the listed value because overpaying gives no bonus.
- Rotate tired leaders. Consecutive deployments can cause Exhausted penalties. A bench is part of the army, not dead weight.
- Keep a pre-operation checkpoint when your chosen mode allows reloads. Operations commit you to a multi-mission chain and can contain mutually exclusive branches. Iron Man players should replace reload insurance with more reconnaissance, smoke, and conservative movement.
Understand what the Bridge resources actually buy
The four counters near the Impetus describe four different kinds of campaign health. Treating them as interchangeable is an early mistake.
| Resource | What it does | Practical rule |
|---|---|---|
| Promotion Points | Unlock perks in Squad Leader promotion trees. | Promote for a defined role. Each promotion also raises that squad’s Supply cost, so more perks can mean fewer bodies or tools in a mission. |
| Authority | Supports order and Discipline, pays for hiring leaders, and appears in events. | Do not automatically spend it to the floor. A new leader is valuable, but low Authority can make the rest of the force less resilient to suppression. |
| OCI Components | Rebuild Operational Capability Improvements on the Impetus. | Buy the capability that fixes your current failure: Electronics for information, Hull for recovery, or Armament for battlefield support. |
| Squaddies | Fill the ranks under infantry Squad Leaders. | They are finite manpower. Each casualty immediately reduces a squad’s volume of fire and leaves fewer replacements for later missions. |
OCI priorities without a rigid build order
The three OCI categories solve different problems. Electronics increases Intelligence, revealing more about enemy types and starting positions during mission preparation. It is a strong first investment when surprise contacts are causing losses. Hull includes medical, repair, and manpower support; it becomes more valuable when damage is carrying from one mission to the next. Armament unlocks off-map fire such as rockets, strafing runs, or heavier orbital effects. It can rescue a difficult fight, but it works best when your scouts can identify a worthwhile target and your squads can keep that target in place.
Faction trust can unlock distinctive OCI options. Compare the benefit, slot category, and Component price instead of buying the first upgrade available. A more expensive local component can outperform the standard TCRN version, but waiting is only sensible if the current ship can safely complete the operations needed to pay for it.
How to choose an operation and route
Once you accept an operation, you must finish its mission chain or abort before taking another. Aborting costs standing with the faction that issued it. Operation timers advance when you complete other operations, not when you move between missions inside the current chain, so read expiring choices before committing elsewhere.
Use this priority order when several operations are available:
- Can the roster counter the enemy? Check anti-armor, vision, smoke, and replacement manpower before prestige or loot.
- Will the operation expire? A useful faction reward that disappears after one more operation may outrank a permanent option.
- What does the faction unlock? Trust is a long-term equipment and OCI path, not just a number on the result screen.
- What does the roster need now? Choose equipment, OCI Components, Authority, or breathing room for exhausted leaders according to the current bottleneck.
- After the MENACE appears, what happens if this planet is ignored? Containment can outrank short-term profit because complete system loss ends the campaign.
Read mission branches as an operation-wide puzzle
A mission reward may be permanent loot, but it can also change every later battle in the same operation. Effects labeled as Strategic Assets deserve more attention than a small difference in mission difficulty:
| Branch information | What it means | How to decide |
|---|---|---|
| Red enemy effect | An enemy advantage may persist through the operation unless you remove it. | Take this route early if the effect attacks your weakness, such as poor vision or limited vehicle protection. |
| Green friendly effect | Completing the mission grants a one-time reward or a persistent operation buff. | Persistent Supply, reinforcements, or support is most valuable before several remaining missions. |
| Rare equipment reward | A permanent inventory addition that survives the operation. | Worth a detour when it fills a missing role; less important than preventing a campaign-breaking loss. |
| Secondary objectives | Increase Promotion Point rewards and improve the final operation rating. | Attempt them while they overlap the safe main route. Drop them when the timer or casualty risk becomes unreasonable. |
| Permanent MENACE reduction | Pushes back the alien presence on that planet. | Prioritize regularly after the invasion begins; winning battles without containing the starmap is not enough. |
Do not confuse an operation timer with a mission round limit. The former determines how long an operation remains available on the system map. The latter is a battle objective that may award extra credit. Rushing an entire campaign choice because a mission has a ten-round bonus is how squads die for optional points.
Build squads by battlefield job
Leaders have different stats, unique starting perks, growth potential, and promotion trees. The correct question is not “Who is the best leader?” but “What can this leader do at a Supply cost the operation can support?” Character availability also varies between campaigns, which makes a universal named-leader tier list brittle.
| Job | What it needs | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| Recon | Vision, Detection, Concealment, a drone or scanner, and enough mobility to stop before contact. | Your damage squads discover enemies by walking into their optimal range. |
| Suppression | High rate of fire, adequate ammunition, and a safe firing position. | Several enemies remain active and focus one exposed squad. |
| Assault | Reliable close- or mid-range damage, smoke, armor, and a route to cover. | The squad reaches the target but cannot survive the enemy response. |
| Anti-armor | High penetration or heavy damage: RPGs, cannons, autocannons, thermite, EMP, or comparable tools. | Walkers, tanks, and Gun Crawlers dictate the fight while small arms bounce. |
| Support | Smoke, healing, rally tools, target designation, or indirect fire. | A bad contact has no reset button and a wavering unit cannot recover safely. |
| Vehicle anchor | A suitable pilot, directional armor management, infantry support, and repair planning. | The vehicle becomes an isolated expensive target for mines, ATGM teams, or rear shots. |
Infantry brings flexible numbers and objective control, but every lost element reduces damage and suppression. Vehicles keep full firepower until components are damaged, can transport or screen infantry, and carry heavy systems, but they cost more Supply and attract specialized counters. A balanced force uses the vehicle to create a safer infantry problem, not to play a separate solo game.
Stats translated into decisions
| Attribute | Resulting combat stat | Verified relationship |
|---|---|---|
| Agility | Action Points | At 100 Agility, the unit has 120 AP. |
| Weapon Skill | Accuracy | Converts one-to-one: 70 Weapon Skill means 70 Accuracy before other modifiers. |
| Valor | Discipline | Converts one-to-one and helps resist or recover from suppression. |
| Toughness | Damage reduction | 50 is the neutral baseline; 100 gives 50% damage reduction. Values below 50 can increase damage taken. |
| Vitality | HP per squad element | 50 gives 10 HP per element; 100 gives 20. |
| Precision | Critical chance | 100 Precision gives 25% critical chance; a critical hit adds 50% damage. Enemy units do not score critical hits. |
| Positioning | Defense | 50 is neutral; 100 applies a 50% defense bonus that reduces enemy accuracy. |
Do not promote merely because the points are available. Promotion Tax increases deployment cost every time a squad is promoted. A powerful veteran who forces two useful units out of the Supply budget may be worse for a particular mission than a modest leader plus another full squad. Promote toward a job, then check the next mission’s actual roster before spending again.
Mission preparation: solve the map before turn one
The prep screen exposes time of day, weather, Supply, objectives, deployment zones, and whatever enemy Intelligence your Electronics OCI has revealed. Night, snow, and sand can reduce the distance at which Detection and Vision matter. A long-range rifle is not automatically a long-range solution if no one can see the target.
Drag squads inside the orange deployment areas with a first-round sequence in mind. Recon should reveal without blocking the heavy weapon’s lane. Assault units should have cover-to-cover paths. Vehicles need space to turn or reverse while keeping stronger armor toward likely fire. Do not put every unit in one convenient cluster; indirect fire, rockets, and morale splash punish that formation.
Main objectives change the correct way to fight
| Objective | Win condition | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Exterminate | Destroy the required percentage or a named target, sometimes followed by evacuation. | Chasing a harmless fleeing unit while the real target or exit remains unsecured. |
| Investigate / Secure | Reach and hold the blue zone long enough to advance its progress. | Clearing distant enemies instead of putting a safe unit on the objective. |
| Defend / Interdict | Keep enemies away from a point or stop them reaching an escape area. | Sitting directly on the point and allowing the whole enemy force to arrive together. |
| Evacuate | Move the required friendly units to the extraction area. | Treating extraction as an extermination mission and spending rounds on remote contacts. |
| Rescue | Keep enough civilians or VIPs alive and escort them to safety. | Advancing behind the civilians instead of screening the direction of incoming fire. |
| Sabotage | Destroy a structure or spend the displayed AP to interact with the target. | Arriving with no AP left, or using indiscriminate explosives when a secondary objective limits structural damage. |
A downed squad or disabled vehicle does not always fail the mission immediately; the objective can adjust. Read the updated panel before restarting or throwing more units into a doomed rescue. Likewise, a progress zone normally advances at the turn boundary. Secure the area, end in the zone, and prevent an enemy from contesting it rather than assuming one brief step across the line is enough.
Combat: win the activation economy
One squad activation is a commitment
MENACE has no conventional initiative list. On your faction’s turn, you choose which squad acts, then play passes among factions. Once a squad starts acting, finish everything you need from it: after you end that unit’s turn, you cannot return to its unused AP until the next round. This makes activation order as important as aim percentage.
A dependable activation sequence is:
- Reveal: move a concealed scout a short distance, scan, or use existing Intelligence.
- Remove the immediate answer: suppress an AT team, overload a MENACE squad, smoke a sniper lane, or damage a vehicle component.
- Move the exposed piece: advance the assault squad or vehicle only after the counter is controlled.
- Finish a unit: concentrate enough damage to remove enemy actions rather than lightly injuring five targets.
- Prepare the handoff: end in cover, preserve a smoke option, and keep the next friendly activation able to help.
Round boundaries create tempo. A tank can act late in one round and then be selected first in the next, effectively making two friendly activations close together. Use this to finish a disabled target or retreat from a dangerous lane, but do not rely on it when unseen factions still have units waiting to act.
AP, cover, and sight
Every move, stance, item, and attack spends AP. The official examples put crouching at 20 AP and a rifle shot at 40 AP, but equipment can alter what your actual sequence allows. Preview the movement cost and remaining bar before clicking. The classic error is spending just enough AP to reach a position and discovering that the squad cannot crouch, deploy a special weapon, fire, or retreat.
Cover is directional. A wall on the left does not protect the open right flank, and urban geometry can block your own line of fire as effectively as the enemy’s. Crouching improves protection in weak cover and enables relevant special weapons, but standing again also costs AP. Move in short bounds through unrevealed buildings. Long movement is not faster if it triggers an ambush that consumes three later turns.
Smoke is a reset tool. Use it to break a dangerous line of sight, cross an exposed gap, recover a downed leader, or isolate one part of the enemy formation while you fight another. It is less useful when thrown on the target you still need to see. Place the screen between the threat and the unit being protected, then keep a scout or flanker ready to restore information.
Suppression is damage to the enemy’s next turn
Suppression is applied by attacks, especially high-rate-of-fire weapons, casualties, and shots landing around a squad. Discipline, cover, and heavy armor resist it. A Suppressed unit loses effectiveness and AP; a Pinned Down unit can lose its useful turn. This creates a choice that the raw damage preview does not show: a low-damage burst that prevents a rocket team from acting may be more valuable than a strong shot into a target that was already harmless.
Do not spread suppression without a reason. Control the enemy that can act next, the unit covering your objective route, or the one carrying the weapon that counters your exposed squad. Then convert control into a kill or a safe objective move. Suppression that expires before you exploit it is only spent ammunition.
Vehicles use different survival rules
Vehicles do not suffer infantry suppression in the same way. Damage can disable components, weapons, or movement. Their armor is directional, so reversing is often safer than turning a damaged rear toward the enemy. Use the facing command to keep the strongest plate toward high-penetration fire. Infantry should reveal mines and AT teams, while the vehicle supplies mobile cover, transport, and the heavy shot that infantry cannot provide.
Against enemy armor, inspect penetration before firing. Small arms may still contribute suppression against the accompanying infantry, but they should not consume the activation meant to stop a tank. Flank for weaker armor, use an AT drone to obtain a rear angle, apply EMP where valid, or stack heavy damage until a critical component fails.
Off-map fire needs a control plan
Armament OCI abilities do not cost squad AP and have limited uses per battle, but heavier effects normally take a full round to arrive. Marking a tile is only half the action. Suppress the target, block its escape lane, or use the strike against a static structure. Do not call expensive orbital fire on a mobile squad and then give it an uncontested activation to leave.
Enemy guide: change the plan, not just the weapon
| Enemy | What it tests | Reliable response |
|---|---|---|
| Pirates | Ranged fire, cover, improvised vehicles, and suppression. | Break sight with smoke, pin firing lines, flank cover, and use explosives or flame when the mission permits structural damage. |
| Native alien wildlife | Fast approaches, melee pressure, and unfamiliar bodies rather than conventional cover play. | Maintain overlapping fire, kill the closest mover, and favor direct damage or area denial over a suppression-only plan. |
| Rogue Army | Combined arms: officers, ATGM teams, mortars, snipers, infantry, walkers, and heavy tanks. | Scout beyond normal sight, remove indirect and anti-vehicle teams first, use smoke to split the formation, and reserve real penetration for armor. |
| MENACE | Armor, morale damage, regeneration, overload rules, suicide units, snipers, and vehicle-like constructs. | Retool for penetration and high damage, overload eligible constructs, finish regenerating elements, and use EMP or component damage on Gun Crawlers. |
Rogue Army priority list
The Rogue Army is dangerous because its parts multiply one another. An officer can mark a vehicle, an ATGM team can exploit the mark, and a mortar can force the infantry screen out of cover. Identify the combination before trading shots with the closest conscript.
- ATGM teams and officers when vehicles are exposed. Break their sight, suppress them, or remove one half of the combination immediately.
- Mortars. Indirect area damage and suppression can collapse several nearby squads. Recon, a stealth route, counter-battery fire, or an off-map strike is worth the cost.
- Snipers and elite long-range infantry. Use scanners or drones rather than walking a valuable squad into their vision.
- Heavy tanks and walkers. Smoke their lane while anti-armor moves into position; face your own vehicle correctly and avoid feeding them infantry activations.
- Line infantry. Once the support network is gone, control them with suppression and defeat them in detail.
Late-campaign spoiler: fighting the MENACE
Spoiler warning: this section describes the title faction and the starmap pressure introduced after the campaign progresses.
MENACE squads do not respond exactly like ordinary human infantry. Sustained fire can cause eligible constructs to overload, making them lose an activation in a way similar to pinning. That control window is for repositioning or killing a unit, not for applying more low-penetration fire. Their morale damage can also push your leaders toward wavering or fleeing, so Discipline, rally options, and spacing matter.
| MENACE unit | Why it matters | Counter |
|---|---|---|
| Construct Drone | A larger group with comparatively lighter armor; its mining laser becomes dangerous to light vehicles at short range. | Area damage and ordinary penetrating fire work better here than spending the heaviest anti-armor shot. |
| Construct Shambler | A living bomb that closes to detonate around infantry. | Kill it at range or screen it with a vehicle; do not cluster squads along its approach. |
| Construct Floater | A floating explosive that can detonate across nearby tiles. | Destroy it away from friendlies and, when possible, near other enemies so its blast helps you. |
| Construct Soldier | Armored, heavily armed, and able to regenerate surviving elements. | Suppress or overload it, then concentrate high-damage, high-penetration attacks until an element is actually removed. |
| Construct Skirmisher | A long-range killer that can fire from beyond your current vision and seriously damage infantry or vehicles. | Reveal it with a drone or scanner, then use a stealth approach, sniper, autocannon, rocket, or off-map strike. Do not wait for a second shot. |
| Gun Crawler | A vehicle-like construct with heavy armor, multiple weapon types, and component rules. | It cannot be overloaded like infantry. Use EMP, cannons, Laser Lance-class firepower, flank armor, or enough component damage to disable it. |
Once the invasion begins, red MENACE presence can spread across the planets. Operations time out, successful containment missions reduce pressure, and some mission branches explicitly offer a permanent reduction. If every planet is overrun, the campaign ends. The exact introduction threshold and balance have changed during Early Access, so plan around the warning and starmap state shown in your current build rather than a fixed operation number from an older guide.
Recovery between missions and operations
Mission results show casualties, effectiveness, Promotion Points, Strategic Asset changes, and recovered items. Read the squad summary before clicking onward. A leader may be alive but carrying a temporary emotional or exhaustion penalty that changes the next deployment.
- Refill infantry selectively. A full squad hits harder but costs more Supply. Put scarce Squaddies into units that will actually deploy.
- Repair for the chain, not only the final operation screen. Vehicles recover fully at the operation boundary, but damage inside a multi-mission operation still matters. Repair OCI or a fresh spare vehicle can preserve the route.
- Rotate exhausted leaders. A slightly weaker fresh squad may outperform a veteran with an AP penalty.
- Keep role coverage after casualties. If the anti-armor squad is down, the next loadout must replace that function even if another favorite weapon has better paper damage.
- Check the Black Market at the correct time. It refreshes after the operation. Compare ordinary and rare sections by actual stats and value; the label alone does not guarantee a better deal.
- Purchase dossiers before planning a hire. Recruiting a Squad Leader requires both the dossier and enough Authority.
All 15 Steam achievements and a clean route
There are no fixed collectible sets or puzzle codes in the current Steam achievement list. Most achievements reward normal campaign milestones, management actions, or enemies that appear as the campaign expands.
| Achievement | Requirement | Cleanup note |
|---|---|---|
| Hoorah! | Complete a mission with all secondary objectives. | Choose a low-risk mission whose bonuses overlap the main route; do not force this on a rescue or tight round limit. |
| Casualties, Major! | Lose a squad or vehicle. | This normally unlocks during play. Do not sacrifice a developed leader just to trigger it. |
| What’re ya trading? | Trade an item on the Black Market. | Barter an unwanted loot item for any useful purchase. |
| Welcome to the Wayback | Complete one operation. | Automatic campaign progress. |
| Combat Efficiency Improved | Install an OCI on the Impetus. | Use Components from an early operation. |
| Nice Whip! | Destroy an enemy vehicle. | Pirate trucks provide early opportunities; confirm you have penetration. |
| TCR Reunification H&M Protocol | Hire a non-Marine. | Buy a suitable dossier, then pay its Authority cost. |
| Can Opener | Destroy a heavy tank. | Prepare rockets, a cannon, EMP support, or flanking instead of relying on small arms. |
| Mantlepiece | Kill a Hive Queen. | Complete alien-wildlife operations until the target appears; save heavy damage for the priority unit. |
| Earn Your Place | Complete five operations in one campaign. | Must be done in a single campaign. |
| Friendly Neighborhood | Reach Trust Level 1 with three factions. | Spread successful work among all three local factions instead of maximizing only one. |
| Service is ALWAYS an Act of Valor! | Promote a Squad Leader five times. | One developed leader can earn it, but check the growing Supply cost before every promotion. |
| Mass Assault | Enter a mission with at least six units. | Use a high-Supply mission and include efficient low-promotion squads if necessary. |
| From Around the Way | Complete ten operations in one campaign. | Must be done in a single campaign; protect the roster rather than rushing. |
| MENACE | Meet the MENACE. | Continue the campaign and respond to the story encounter when it appears. |
Achievement-safe campaign checklist
- During the first operation, trade once, install an OCI when available, and look for a safe all-secondary-objective mission.
- Buy a non-Marine dossier when Authority and Discipline can absorb the hire.
- Work for three different factions before over-specializing trust.
- Keep an anti-vehicle option in the roster for Nice Whip! and Can Opener.
- Build enough efficient leaders to field six units without stripping every squad of equipment.
- Complete five and ten operations in the same campaign. Starting over resets progress toward those two milestones.
- Do not worry about deliberately earning Casualties, Major! early. The achievement records a loss, not a strategic success.
Common mistakes that create a death spiral
- Activating the damage squad before scouting. It discovers a threat, ends exposed, and cannot act again while the rest of the factions take turns.
- Promoting every leader immediately. Promotion Tax quietly removes units and equipment from future rosters.
- Using one weapon family everywhere. Suppression wins human firefights; penetration and high damage are mandatory against heavy armor and MENACE constructs.
- Spending all Authority on hiring. The new unit arrives while the entire force becomes less disciplined.
- Ignoring operation-wide assets. A small loot reward looks good, but the unremoved enemy buff makes every remaining mission harder.
- Trying to perfect every secondary objective. Optional points are not worth losing a leader, a vehicle, or the Squaddies needed to finish the operation.
- Parking vehicles in the open. Armor is directional, and the Rogue Army and MENACE both carry weapons designed to punish it.
- Clustering around one piece of cover. Mortars, rockets, explosions, and morale splash can disable the entire plan at once.
- Fighting after the main objective is ready. Extract, secure, or defend according to the panel. The campaign rewards forces that return alive.
- Ignoring red planets after the MENACE appears. Tactical victories cannot rescue a campaign that loses the starmap.
Quick answers
Is there a fixed MENACE walkthrough?
No single mission order fits every campaign. Operations use branching, procedurally generated missions and maps. A useful walkthrough is a decision framework: inspect the operation, take the route that removes the dangerous asset or grants the needed buff, and preserve the roster for the final mission.
Should every mission use the strongest leaders?
No. Promotions raise Supply cost, repeated use can cause Exhausted penalties, and different enemies require different tools. Keep a bench and deploy the cheapest force that safely covers the mission’s jobs.
Should I kill every enemy?
Only when the objective requires it or the remaining enemies block the safe route. Rescue, secure, sabotage, and evacuation missions are often won by controlling space and leaving, not by searching the map for one last unit.
What is the safest universal combat rule?
Do not spend a squad’s activation until you know what enemy action it enables. Reveal first, suppress or disable the counter, then move the valuable unit.
Sources & credits
Game facts and official media: MENACE on Steam, developed by Overhype Studios and published by Hooded Horse. System and enemy details were cross-checked against official guidance, Steam achievement data, and verified community walkthrough references. Screenshots are official Steam media. This independent guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the developer or publisher.