File 01 · Gameplay
Familiar geography. Changing problems. You learn where the rooms are — then you have to find out which doors, supplies and exits work this time.
The loop
Prey wake in the cells carrying walkie-talkies. Power is low and unreliable. Hunters begin elsewhere.
Search, learn the routes, share what you find. Hunters patrol, follow noise and take back power.
Push a route that works — or stage loud work on one that doesn’t, and draw them away.
The captured are detained in a cell. Teammates can still get them out.
Restored sectors give Hunters control. The Host’s preparations raise the stakes.
The majority decides the Broadcast. Every escape still counts for the one who made it.
Prey · Third person
Hunters · First person
Sound & stealth
Doors, searches, repairs, barricades, gunshots — everything you do is heard by someone. Quiet still works. Crouched movement is silent.
Dynamic objectives
Each Broadcast is configured before it starts: which exits are viable, where the items are, which doors are locked and which vents are open. Larger formats ask for more.
Fuses are physical resources that power doors, access and escape requirements. Once installed, a fuse cannot be removed. Breakers and power boxes decide which corridors are lit.
Drawers, bunks, lockers, drains, loose panels and contraband caches. Essential items always exist in reachable quantities — never in one memorized spot.
Open, locked, electronically locked, unpowered, jammed, barricaded or sealed. Prey block doors with furniture; Hunters break through — loudly.
Fighting back
One Prey against one Hunter is a losing fight. Several Prey, coordinated, can wound, stagger — even bring one down. For a while.
Pistols, shotguns, rifles. Ammunition is rare, and every shot tells every Hunter in earshot where you are.
Pipes, bats, batons, shivs, wrenches. Easier to find, dangerous to use.
Interrupt an attack or a carry. Save a teammate. Start a takedown. Limited charges — and the crack gives you away.
Hunters recover only in darkness, and move faster there. Restore the lights and you take both away. Follow a wounded Hunter into the dark, and you are entering their strongest territory.
Capture creates another chance
A Hunter win needs every Prey truly gone — escaped or permanently eliminated. Locking everyone in a cell is not enough. Rescue access is protected and changes between matches; reaching it takes risk and teamwork, and never a specific character.
Skill systems
A word-deduction puzzle on old green-screen terminals. Wrong guesses make noise; too many trigger a lockout.
Find the sweet spot, hold tension, set the pins — and don’t break the pick. Any Prey can pick a compatible lock with a found lockpick. Keys and terminal overrides are faster and quieter. Reinforced locks are harder.
Multiple escape routes
In a standard Broadcast, three of five candidate escape routes are viable — and neither side is told which. The largest format adds a rooftop helicopter extraction. Evidence is scattered through the prison: inspect, confirm, commit.
See every escape routeThe Host is watching
The Host is the live match director. When a Broadcast turns into a rout for either side, the facility shifts — security response, searchlights, supply caches — to keep it tense.
How The Host directs a matchAn even match is left alone.
Where each system stands
Hunters detain Prey in authored cells; teammates rescue them. Detention is never terminal on its own.
Car and boat exits complete a Prey’s escape and end the match when nobody is left to save.
Lockable facility doors and tension-and-pin lockpicking.
Word-deduction terminals with limited attempts and lockouts.
The facility’s own security, sweeping the yard, the dock and the parking lot.
Hunters recover and move faster only in darkness; light denies both.
Scarce firearms, melee and stun guns, with anti-chain-stun safeguards.
A helicopter escape and last stand, exclusive to 3v5.
The Keeper, The Tracker and The Groundsman are in production for the first playable build. Later Hunters are classified.
Ritual preparation and permanent elimination. Timings and rules are still being designed.
More locations after the prison. Classified for now.
Working prototype: running in internal development builds, not final. Approved design: confirmed for the game, not yet built. Declared Missing is currently in development. Gameplay systems, characters, abilities, environments, visual presentation, features, release plans, and other content shown on this website are subject to change before release.
Next step
Declared Missing is being built alongside its earliest community. Follow the Founders Program to hear first when testing and early access open.
