What are you actually supposed to do as a civilian?

If you are lost, that is the game, not you

Plenty of players finish their first few matches unsure what they were meant to be doing. There is no tutorial for the civilian side, and nothing in the menus spells out the loop. Once you know what scores, it clicks quickly.

For what to actually do at each stage of a match, from hiding special targets to coming back as a cop, follow the civilian tips.

What the match is about

Multiplayer is Michael against four civilians in one of Haddonfield's neighbourhoods. The town is full of NPCs: ordinary Residents and a handful of Special Targets. Michael scores by killing them, and civilians score by getting them out alive. Your job is to protect the townsfolk, not just to survive yourself.

Since Patch 1.0.3, a Special Target is worth less to Michael than before, and saving or killing an ordinary Resident is worth more. Every Resident counts, so do not write off the crowd to chase one VIP.

Getting out matters as much as getting others out. The escapes page covers the four exits (storm cellar, fuse gate, car and police wagon), what each one takes to open, and where they spawn on every map.

Fighting back after Patch 1.0.3

You can still hurt and down Michael, but the easy one-shot downs are gone. Melee damage from high stat values was cut, the Heavyweight trait hits softer, and the damage boost you get while Drunk is smaller. Bob and Laurie squads felt this most. Michael also takes less damage at every Bloodthirst level, so fights last longer.

When Michael gets up from Downed he now gets a short buff: he cannot be staggered, and he deals more melee damage, attacks faster and takes less damage, followed by boosted health regeneration and daze resistance. Do not crowd him as he stands up expecting a second down. Scatter, heal, and set up the next fight.

Heavy melee weapons, rifles and shotguns spawn less often, so grab one when you see it. The shotgun now hits harder up close. Speeds were evened out too: high-Athleticism civilians run a little slower than they did at launch, and low-Athleticism ones a little faster.

A practical starting point

Play a civilian whose stats do not punish mistakes while you learn. Laurie Strode is the only civilian with no stat below six, so no single situation catches her out badly.

Split roles instead of crowding the same job. In a 1v4, what counts is the squad's best value in each stat, not its average: four people good at the same thing have covered one job four times and left three uncovered. The Loadout Lab shows which of the four columns your squad is leaving weak.

Do not build a plan around a rare item. The Ancient Amulet absorbs Michael's first hit or grab, but it is rare enough that finding one is a bonus, not a strategy.