Your first Active Matter raid: prepare before you deploy.
Choose the encounter format, check your loadout and identify the objectives that control your exit. The steps below use the launch FAQ and updates through 0.4.0.115; they do not require a particular weapon or map route.
1. Choose the mode and the purpose of this run
| Your purpose | Preparation decision | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Learn without hostile players | Choose PvE; use co-op if you want teammates. | The FAQ supports PvE and solo play, but calls solo harder than co-op. |
| Advance an Investigation | Use your own equipment rather than Provided Equipment. | Update 0.4.0.93 says Investigation progress does not count in Provided Equipment raids. |
| Try a run with Provided Equipment | Check whether the five-minute reuse restriction has expired. | The restriction starts when the previous Provided Equipment raid begins, not when it ends. |
Source: Official FAQ: solo and PvE.
Source: 0.4.0.93: Provided Equipment rules.
2. Check ammunition, protection and medical supplies
In Inventory, use the equipment check panel above the Body Sleeve image. It covers ammo resupply, armor repair and medical refills. The medkit icon also has a recharge button.
During raid preparation, check warnings for empty armor, helmet or flashlight slots. These warnings appear when suitable equipment exists in your storage; the absence of a warning is not proof that every slot is equipped.
The “+” control beside backpack, pouch and safe-container headings suggests items from storage while you are in the Shelter. Use it to find items that fit rather than guessing which container can hold them.
Source: 0.4.0.93: Inventory equipment check panel.
Source: 0.4.0.84: slot warnings and inventory suggestions.
Keep storage transfers separate from refining
Update 0.4.0.84 notes that one-click return sends items to Quick Refine instead when that tab is open. Close that tab if your intention is simply to return gear to storage.
3. Read the objective list before choosing an exit
- Open the raid map and find your objective in its list.
- Match its icon and color to the map marker.
- Look for corner marks on mandatory or extraction-required objectives.
- Read the early-extraction and extraction-requirement tips below the list. A nearby marker alone does not establish that you can leave.
These interface cues were documented in 0.4.0.76; 0.4.0.93 restored matching objective colors on the map and compass. Follow the requirements displayed for your particular raid.
4. Check protection before risking valuable gear
Steam’s equipment notice identifies safe containers and personal equipment as exceptions to ordinary death losses. Do not treat every item outside a container as automatically lost, or every carried item as protected. Container activation and squad recovery are separate decisions.
Before departure, identify which items are personal, which are inside a safe container, and which are ordinary carried equipment. Do not assume a respawn beacon secures the contents of a backpack.
Source: Steam: equipment notice.
If the interface differs
These are instructions based on official notes dated September 10–17, 2026, not an independently recorded playthrough. Use the labels and requirements in your installed build. A fixed exit location, universal key binding or extraction countdown is not supplied here.
For the value of active matter and what happens after a raid, continue to Extraction Raids Explained.
Update 0.4.0.115: preparation and Investigation changes
If you were following the Extended Choice Investigation’s “Extract with Provided Equipment” task, the September 17 update replaces it with collecting a marked item. Read the revised task in your current build; completing the old instruction is no longer the documented requirement.
The same update fixes the quick ammo replenishment button being inactive and the “Add X from Storage” ammo-transfer bug. Medical loading or unloading can now be interrupted with the item’s X button. An “Unassigned” interaction prompt now means no control is bound.
Source: 0.4.0.115: Investigations, inventory and interaction prompts.