Gravhounds Beginner Guide: 10 Tips to Survive Your First Shifts
By AS Gaming EditorialNovember 02, 20265 min readXboxPC
Source: Octopus Panic via Xbox Wire
This Gravhounds beginner guide is for players jumping into the Game Preview launch on Xbox and PC. Gravhounds is a 1-4 player co-op action builder from Octopus Panic: you are a pack of bio-engineered dogs doing industrial jobs on hostile planets, and the job description includes building a base, defending it, and getting out before the swarm eats you. The loop is simple to learn and easy to mess up, so here are 10 tips that will save your first few shifts.
Gravhounds Beginner Guide: Learn the Loop First
Every shift follows the same shape: take a job from your shipboard AI supervisor COSMO, drop onto a planet, build an operation, grab what you came for, and extract. The twist is escalation. The longer you stay and the harder you push, the more dangerous the planet becomes. That means every decision is a bet: one more resource node, or a clean extraction with everyone alive? New players almost always stay too long. Your first lesson is that leaving with something beats dying with everything.
1. Pick a Crew That Covers Jobs, Not Just Guns
Gravhounds lets you choose from a crew including Luna, Zane, Dozer, Selene, and Finn, each with different strengths. Do not just pick four damage dealers. A good pack has someone focused on building and defense, someone mobile enough to rescue a teammate in trouble, and someone who can hold a position while the rest haul resources. If you play solo, the same logic applies to your loadout: you need building tools and an escape plan, not just firepower.
2. Master the Grav Beam Early
The Grav Beam is your most important tool. It grabs resources, hauls equipment, places Build Kits, and throws objects across the battlefield. Practice throwing health pickups to teammates and flinging smaller creatures out of a fight before you need to do it under pressure. One warning from the developers is worth remembering: transporting volatile materials with the Grav Beam can go badly wrong, so do not juggle explosives near your own base.
3. Build Pipelines Like Your Life Depends on It
Your pipeline is the backbone of the operation. It carries power across the planet and gives you places to deploy structures and defenses. Push it toward valuable resources, but remember that every extension is more infrastructure to protect. A long, thin pipeline with no defenses is an invitation. Build turrets, generators, and fabricators along the route, and keep the path back to extraction clear.
4. Grind the Pipeline to Move Fast
Every Gravhound wears an industrial propulsion rig that lets you boost, jump, and hover. Get onto a pipeline and the rig lets you grind along it at high speed with unlimited boost. This is your fastest way to respond when a teammate is in trouble or a base section is collapsing. Learn the pipeline routes on each map so you can cross them without thinking.
5. Treat Reward Pods as Build Decisions
As you fight, build, and gather, you earn Reward Pods containing randomized weapons and upgrades. Do not just grab the biggest damage number. Think about what your current build lacks: mobility, defense, or raw firepower. Stacking bonuses around one idea makes a build that feels powerful by the end of a shift, while random picks leave you average at everything.
6. Defend in Layers, Not in One Spot
A single wall of turrets looks strong until the swarm flanks it. Spread defenses along your pipeline and around your extraction point, with overlapping fields of fire. Generators need protection too: if your power goes down, your defenses go with it. Repair during lulls, not during a wave.
7. Never Wander Alone
The game's own description of co-op says it best: somebody's enthusiasm for exploration turns into an emergency rescue operation. Solo scouting is how packs lose players and then lose shifts. If you go lone wolf to expand the operation, tell your crew, stay near a pipeline, and keep your boost ready. The rescue mission for one lost dog can cost the whole pack its extraction window.
8. Time Your Extraction Like a Professional
Extraction is the whole game. The swarm escalates as the shift goes on, so the last two minutes of a long shift are far more dangerous than the first ten. Call the extraction while you still have defenses standing and teammates alive. Greed is the number one killer in Gravhounds, and the game knows it.
9. Use the Game Preview Mindset
Gravhounds launched in Game Preview, which means systems, balance, and content will change as Octopus Panic develops it with players. If something feels off, it might genuinely be unfinished. Check the official Xbox Wire reveal post for the developers' stated plans, and give feedback through the game's official channels at gravhounds.com if you hit a rough edge.
10. Play With a Squad When You Can
Gravhounds supports solo play, but it is built for a crew. The best moments come from genuine cooperation: one player holding a defense while another hauls a generator into place, or a perfectly timed Grav Beam throw that saves a teammate. If you do not have a regular squad, use the in-game matchmaking and be the player who communicates. A pack that talks survives; a pack that does not, becomes alien chow.
