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Dumpster Gang beginner guide
Written before any hands-on account of the game exists, and it says so. Here is what is genuinely known, what you can usefully sort out now, and which kind of advice to walk away from.
The part that is real
You control a raccoon in a physics sandbox. You can sprint, climb walls and crawl through vents, and you can pick up, throw, steal or smash most things. Some loot is heavy enough to need more than one player. Causing enough chaos brings out the Exterminator, who sets traps and can capture you, and captured raccoons are rescued by their teammates. Between missions you return to a hideout, decorate it with what you stole, and unlock hats that carry their own abilities.
That is the complete set of mechanics anyone has described. It is a premise, not a system, and no numbers, limits or rules attach to any of it yet.
Four things worth doing before December
Decide how you are getting it
Steam or PC Game Pass are both confirmed and they cost very different amounts. Game Pass includes it on day one at no extra cost. Steam has no price yet.
Pricing, such as it isCheck what your friends are on
Crossplay between the two PC storefronts has not been announced. If half your group is on Steam and half is on Game Pass, that is worth resolving before launch night rather than during it.
The crossplay questionDo not count on couch play
Neither storefront describes same-screen play. Nothing rules it out, but there is no basis for planning around it.
Local co-op detailFollow, do not just wishlist
Following the app on Steam surfaces developer posts and would surface a demo the day one appeared. Wishlisting mostly gets you a launch email.
Demo status
What to distrust
Search results for unreleased games fill up quickly with pages that read like guides and are not. The reliable tell is specificity without a source: a best-hats ranking, a tier list, a list of working codes, an exact release date, or Exterminator strategy. None of those can exist yet, because the information they would be built on does not.
The systems pages on this site each end with a list of what has not been answered about them, which is a decent measure of how much of this game is currently knowable: 15 open questions across four systems.
When this page becomes a real guide
At launch, or earlier if a demo appears. The moment there is footage of people playing rather than a trailer, the mechanics get rules, and rules are what a guide is made of. Until then this page stays what it is.
Common questions
+Is there a Dumpster Gang beginner guide?
Not a real one, and there cannot be until people have played it. This page collects what is actually known about how the game works and what is worth sorting out before launch, which is the honest version of the same thing.
+What should I do before launch?
Wishlist and follow on Steam so you get the release notification, work out whether you are buying it or getting it through PC Game Pass, and check whether your friends are on the same storefront, because crossplay has not been confirmed.
+Do I need friends to play?
No. Single-player is listed on the store record and the description says play solo or with friends. How the game adjusts for one raccoon has not been explained.
+Should I trust guides I find for it now?
Be careful. No hands-on account of playing this game has been published anywhere. Any page telling you the best hat, an optimal route or how to beat the Exterminator is describing a game it has not seen.