REPO beginner's guide and how to play

Our REPO beginner's guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to play REPO, from the basics of looting and extracting to avoiding monsters and the various limitations that might get you killed. The premise of this horror-survival game is simple: REPO sends you and your teammates in a seemingly abandoned building to collect as many valuables as you can before you... well, perish. However, there's a lot more to it than that, so this REPO guide will teach you how to play.

How to start a REPO game

REPO is a horror extraction game, which essentially means you must gather loot from creepy buildings and try not to die before you take it home. You can play REPO in a team of up to six players, but you can also try single-player mode - just beware that the game will be more difficult and arguably a little less fun when you’re on your own. If you need more help, we’ve got a guide on REPO team size that also explains how to play with friends.

A new game of REPO starts in an empty truck. When you leave the truck, you’ll find yourself in a starting room with a cart, an ‘extraction point’, and a single door. Your task is to enter the haunted building through that door, grab valuable loot, and return it to the extraction point. Currently, the extraction point displays a crying emoji along with the number $0. As you add more loot, this number will go up. You can take the cart with you (grab it with your left mouse button) so you don’t have to run back and forth with every single item you’re looting.

How to loot in REPO

Once you’ve gathered the courage to enter the haunted building, you will likely find some loot in the first room. If you see an item, grab it by clicking and holding your left mouse button, then place it in the loot cart. Not every item you see can be taken; wooden boxes, desks, desk chairs, and computers aren’t part of the loot, but diamonds, wine bottles, goblets, laptops, plushies, and mirrors are. You’ll start recognizing the loot soon enough, but for now, you may notice that the cursor turns yellow if it hovers over a nearby lootable item. You can use this to ‘scan’ the room for valuables.

So, how much loot do you need? If you look at the upper right corner of your screen, you’ll see a monetary value. It varies a bit per level, but let’s say it’s $8,000: this means you must loot items with a total value of at least $8,000. Luckily, the loot cart has a screen that shows the current value it holds. For example, if you place a $2,000 wine bottle in there, followed by a $500 goblet, the screen will tally $2,500.

By far the most important thing to remember about looting in REPO, however, is that items can easily break. Some valuables are tougher than others, but even if they don’t get destroyed, they will lose some of their value if they hit a wall, the ground, or another item. You must grab and drag them very carefully.

Now that we’ve discussed the basics of looting, here are a few more things to keep in mind as you extract valuables:

• If you find some good loot in the first room, you can drop it off at the extraction point before taking the cart deeper into the building, to lessen the risk of losing it.
• While holding an item, use the mouse wheel to move it closer or further away from you. Holding it further away may help you turn corners without slamming the item into a wall. You can also rotate an item by holding the right mouse button.
• It’s not just your own clumsiness to watch out for; monsters can also destroy items. Don’t leave anything valuable in the middle of a hallway!
• The only things that can’t damage items are the extraction platform and the cart; you can drop anything onto them and it won’t break.
• Be sure to open every cabinet and chest as there may be loot behind them.
• If you can’t lift a particularly heavy item, ask your teammates for help; two or three players can surely manage it.

How to survive the monsters

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find enough loot in the first room to hit the threshold, so further exploration is required. While you may have avoided them so far, it’s almost impossible not to run into some REPO monsters as you move deeper into the haunted building.

Many REPO monsters are deadly, and since you won’t have a weapon in your first game, or much strength, the best advice is to crouch and hide whenever you see or hear anything suspicious - crawl under a table, move behind a desk, or turn a corner. If the monster has already noticed you, you can try to run away, but it might be game over if it catches you - remember that the more you learn about each monster type, the better your chance of survival!

Furthermore, your stamina is extremely limited. Once you run out, you won’t be able to sprint anymore (it’ll recover, but very slowly), so try to save it for emergencies. You can check your current stamina and HP in the top left of the screen.

How to extract in REPO

To complete a REPO extraction, you need to bring enough loot to the extraction point, and simply place it on the extraction platform (the one with the emoji). It’ll be collected automatically, completing the extraction. Be careful; don’t stay on the platform while the loot is being extracted, as you will get crushed and die.

Now, return to the truck; once the team is inside, press the envelope button on the screen to leave (see picture). There’s no need to keep exploring at this stage since the extraction point has vanished - you can always add extra loot on top of the loot threshold, but it must be extracted in one go. There’ll be more extraction points and thus more opportunities to gather extra loot in later rounds, but for your first REPO game, it’s best not to drag things out; savor your victory and retreat as soon as possible.

After a successful extraction, you will return to the Service Station, the in-game shop. Now that you’ve got some money (the same as the amount you looted), you can spend it on upgrades.

Get the best upgrades in REPO

Upon completing a REPO game, the Service Station will offer a random selection of upgrades, ranging from stat upgrades to land mines. It’s best to spend as much money as possible to increase your chances of survival for the next round.

For your first REPO upgrades, we recommend the following:

• Stamina upgrade: allows you to run longer. Prioritise this over a sprint speed upgrade - it’s better to run a bit slower than not to run at all.
• Health upgrade: boosts your HP.
• REPO Strength upgrade: this allows you to carry heavier items more easily. It’s especially useful to solo players as they can’t ask a teammate for help.

It’s best to focus on stat upgrades for now, but if you really want a weapon, go for grenades. Melee weapons can be tricky to use and ranged weapons are above budget for new players, but grenades are a reliable means to ward off monsters - you don’t even need perfect aim, but try to avoid friendly fire.

At the start of the next run, you’ll find your purchased items inside the truck. Don’t forget to pick them up before you head inside the building!

REPO survival tips

Lastly, let’s improve your REPO survival skills with some tips:

• You can revive allies by picking up their severed head (at the location of their demise) and returning it to an extraction point. Take a look at our guide on how to revive teammates in REPO for a more detailed explanation.
• If a teammate is low on HP, stand behind them, aim at the back of their head, and hold the left mouse button for a few seconds to transfer 10 HP points to them. You can repeat this as necessary, but beware of your own HP meter.
• Most monsters react to sound, but not just your footsteps; they can hear your voice on the in-game voice channel. If your teammates are being loud, perhaps it’s a good idea to remind them of this fact.
• Related to that, sprinting, jumping, and breaking things make far more noise than walking. Some monsters don’t react to walking sounds at all, which is yet another reason to walk rather than run.
• Use the mini-map (press tab) to see a top-down layout of the building. It’ll show you which rooms you’ve explored and how to reach the extraction point.
• As you won’t be able to examine the map during emergencies, try to memorize the general layout of the building. Make a mental note of good hiding places - you may need them soon! It’s also good to be aware of dead ends as well as the shortest route back to the extraction point.
• Don’t overstate the usefulness of killing monsters. It’s a dangerous business, and even if you succeed, they’ll respawn before you know it.

And that’s how to play REPO. Have fun, and don’t forget; when in doubt, just cower in a corner and wait for the monsters to pass.

If you want to mix up your extractions a bit more, you could try some of the best REPO mods out there. And if you're wondering about a REPO console release, we've got a guide covering what we know so far.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.