Your first hour in COP BASTARD
Finish the tutorial, turn off head bobbing if it bothers you, keep the Beretta out in corridors, and only spit on bodies after the room is clear. Never reload in the open.
The first hour of COP BASTARD kills people who play it like a modern shooter. There is no sprint-slide, no regenerating health, no cover system and no weapon upgrade to chase. What there is: three guns, a charge meter, and corridors that punish hesitation.
The first thirty minutes, in order
| Step | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finish the tutorial, including the shot it asks for | Two achievements, and it teaches the reload rhythm |
| 2 | Set your mouse sensitivity before the first real fight | There is no aim assist worth relying on |
| 3 | Turn head bobbing off if you feel queasy | It is in the options menu |
| 4 | Walk into rooms with the Beretta, not the shotgun | The pistol is accurate and always loaded |
| 5 | Kill everything before you spit | The heal needs a body on the floor |
| 6 | Reload behind cover, or swap weapons to cancel it | Reloading in the open is how runs end |
The four habits that matter
Shoot first, ask nothing. The game's own line is that the yakuza shoot on sight and the detective shoots on suspicion. Standing in a doorway deciding what to do gets you shot. Pick the target farthest away and start.
Treat health as a resource you earn. You cannot regenerate. You heal by spitting on a downed enemy, which means your health bar is really a count of bodies you have made. If you are hurt and the room is empty, the answer is the next room.
Never reload in the open. Magazines are small. The moment you hear the click you should already be behind something, or switching guns. Reload cancelling — swapping weapons mid-animation — is faster and safer than finishing the animation.
Clear the room, then style. Extra rounds into dead bodies raise your score, but only once nothing is shooting at you. The game rewards violence, not stupidity.
What the first level is actually testing
The opening stretch is a corridor tutorial disguised as a level: narrow sightlines, enemies that walk into your crosshair, and pickups placed to teach you that health is scarce. The first time you die, it will almost certainly be because you backed into a room you had not cleared.
The patch notes mention a level called Parking, where enemies used to detect players through walls — worth knowing because that behaviour was fixed in the demo build. If you play the demo after the full game, the demo is the older version.
Things that are not in the game
- No upgrades, perks or skill trees in the campaign. The developers say it plainly, and it is the best thing about the design: your skill is the progression.
- No puzzles. Doors are not locked behind riddles.
- No multiplayer. Single-player only, with leaderboards and Steam Cloud.
- No weapon list beyond three guns. If a guide tells you about a fourth, it is making it up.
When to move on
Once you can clear a corridor without taking damage, you are ready for the systems pages: the charge meter explains the heal, weapons explains which gun belongs in which room, and scoring explains why the game wants you to keep shooting after the fight is over.
Checked 2026-10-31 against the launch build and the official demo patch notes.
