The thing that decides how hard E-Day feels is rhythm, not reflexes: cover, and the Active Reload. The reload bar now sits under your reticle, and the shotguns reload one shell at a time, so a perfect reload is a beat you keep rather than a button you hit. Get that timing into your hands and Insane is a different game. The rest is the long walk through Kalona: 140 collectibles, Hard Cases that unlock weapon mods, side missions in four open districts, and Supply Caches where all of it gets fitted. Most of what is easy to miss sits in those open districts, so sweep before the last objective; chapter select brings you back for anything you pass. The city has a bad day, and the guide will not tell you how bad. Every tick saves on this device as you go. Every row here was field checked against the community guides published since launch.
Cover first, then rhythm. Learn where the Active Reload bar lives now (under the reticle, or move it top right), and let the Gnasher and Breechshot finish their shell-by-shell reloads instead of firing early. Use the new sprint slide to change cover rather than running upright. In the open districts, sweep before the final objective. Fit new mods at the next Supply Cache.
Nothing gates you except your own reload timing. A perfect Active Reload is faster and hits harder, and on the shotguns you can now earn it shell by shell. If a fight feels unfair, the fix is almost always the same: get into cover, reload on the beat, and stop shooting from the open.
Light. Systems and the opening only. The route is on The Campaign; every collectible, Hard Case and side mission on Kalona Sweep; weapons and mods on Loadout & Mods.
- The Active Reload bar moved. By default it sits in the centre, just under the reticle, so your eyes never leave the fight. You can move it back to the top right in the settings.
- Shotguns reload round by round. The Gnasher and the Breechshot load one shell at a time with an Active Reload on each. You can interrupt to fire, but you lose the bonus. The Gnasher now holds 6 shells, not 8.
- Movement is new. Slide out of a sprint (and shoot while sliding, or slide straight into cover), jump and climb, mantle without entering cover first, duck under gaps and jump across them to open flanking routes.
- Cover can be destroyed. When the top of your cover is shot away you drop to low cover. The environment breaks; plan for the cover you will have in ten seconds, not the cover you have now.
- Hard Cases unlock mods and mod slots, and the upgrades are worth having. They are yellow briefcases, and they start at Hold the Line (Act 2 Ch 2): there are none before it. Like collectibles, they only appear on your map once you are close. Some open only after an objective, and if you die before the next checkpoint you have to open the case again.
- Supply Caches are where you use it all. All 36 of them: refill ammo, change loadout and fit mods. A mod does nothing until you fit it at one.
- Co-op: up to 4 players online, 2 on split screen. Every player chooses their own difficulty. Split screen and 3-4 player hosting run at 30fps.
On the Gnasher and Breechshot, pulling the trigger mid-reload is allowed, and it is exactly how you throw away the perfect-reload bonus. Let the sequence finish behind cover, then swing out.
A Hard Case gives you a mod or a slot, but it does nothing until you fit it at a Supply Cache. Opening every case and then running the whole act on the stock loadout is the most common way to waste a sweep. Check the cache every time you pass one.
The four open districts (Act 2 Ch 2, Act 3 Ch 3, Act 4 Ch 1 and Ch 3) hold most of the collectibles, cases and side missions, and progression closes them behind you. Chapter select opens after the campaign, so nothing is lost for good, but a sweep now saves a second trip.
In co-op each player picks their own difficulty. If you are going for the Insane achievement, check your own setting before the first chapter, not after the last.
| Threat | Answer |
|---|---|
| Drones 🔗 | The rank and file. Cover, headshots and a perfect reload between peeks. Do not trade shots from the open. |
| Wretches 🔗 | Fast and close. Keep a shotgun up and slide out of the pack rather than backpedalling. |
| Boomers 🔗 | Heavy hitters. Change cover between their shots, and when one is low the Lancer's chainsaw finishes it. |
| Snipers and Torque Bows | Break line of sight, then close the distance cover to cover. Never peek the same spot twice. |
| Brumak 🔗 | Keep moving. Use the space, not one piece of cover. |
| Corpser 🔗 | The arena is the weapon. Bait it, and hold fire while it is underground. |
Four settings, all open from the start: Casual, Normal, Hardcore and Insane. Normal is the default; Hardcore is the one the developers recommend. Insane carries its own achievement, and the 100% achievement asks for Insane plus every side mission and every hidden item, so plan that run separately from your blind one.
Customize Difficulty lets you tune each setting on its own, but the game counts your run at the lowest setting you picked. Soften one slider on an Insane run and the Insane achievements quietly stop counting it.
After the campaign you can replay any chapter. Collectibles you already found stay recorded and count on any difficulty, missed side missions can be cleaned up the same way, and the War Journal shows what is left in each act and chapter.
Every collectible, Hard Case, Supply Cache and side mission, by act and chapter, with a filter for each kind. These are the same ticks as on The Campaign.
All 125 Hard Cases and all 36 Supply Caches are listed chapter by chapter, with a location cue for each. Hard Cases start at Hold the Line and only show on your map once you are close. Two placements are flagged where the published guides disagree. Rewards are named where the guides agree on them.
Four chapters open up into districts you can roam, and each one shuts once you take its last objective. Sweep collectibles, Hard Cases and side missions first. Chapter select opens after the campaign, so nothing here is lost for good; a sweep now just saves the second trip.
- Act 2 Ch 2, Hold the Line: 27 collectibles, 27 Hard Cases and seven side missions, before you head for the hotel.
- Act 3 Ch 3, Last Foothold: 14 collectibles, and the final side mission drops one of them.
- Act 4 Ch 1, Hope and Ruin: 13 collectibles around the market, the university and the Opera House.
- Act 4 Ch 3, Tough As Nails: 14 collectibles across the train yard and the factories.
These are the ones players walk past on a first run. They are the same ticks as on the route and in Act by Act below.
| Optional | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hard Cases | Must do | They are the mods and the mod slots. Insane is harder without them. |
| Side missions | Must do | All 17 reward a named mod, two collectibles sit on their routes, and the 100% run needs every one. |
| Supply Caches | Must do | Your mods do nothing until you fit them here, and Quartermaster wants every eligible item picked up or stowed once. |
| Collectibles | Worth it | No combat reward, but they are an achievement, they are the story of the city, and the missable ones cannot wait. |
| Co-op clear | Skip unless hunting it | Its own achievement; play it when you have a squad, not as a chore. |
The Campaign walks each district area by area. This is the clean-up view: pick one kind of thing, or show only what is left, then use chapter select to go back for it.
A shotgun you can reload on the beat, a rifle for range, and a heavy weapon held back for the big things. Fit every mod you open at the next Supply Cache.
| Weapon | Why |
|---|---|
| Gnasher 🔗 | ★ The close-range answer. Six shells, reloaded one at a time with an Active Reload on each. A bayonet can go on it. |
| Breechshot 🔗 | ★ Round-by-round reload like the Gnasher, plus its own axe executions. |
| Lancer (Prototype and MK1) 🔗 | The all-rounder. The chainsaw finishes a weakened Boomer. |
| Hammerburst 🔗 | Burst rifle for Drones at range. |
| Boomshot, Torque Bow | Heavy answers. Keep them for Boomers, bosses and the moments you know are coming. |
| Snub | The sidearm. It is there when everything else is empty. |
- Hard Cases unlock mods and mod slots: 125 of them, from Hold the Line on. Rewards are named on the Hard Case rows where the published guides agree.
- Some mods change what a perfect Active Reload does, which is one more reason the rhythm matters.
- Supply Caches refill, swap your loadout and fit mods. They signal when you are close and mark themselves on the map.
- Side missions each reward a named mod, listed on the side mission rows.
Every side mission rewards named mods. This is all of them, by the weapon they fit, with the side mission that hands them over. Hard Case rewards are not listed: the published guides do not agree on them yet.
| Weapon | Mod (side mission that rewards it) |
|---|---|
| Breechshot | Cover Brace (Apartment SOS, Act 2 Ch 2); General Mod Slot (Clocktower Defense, Act 4 Ch 1); Precision Long Barrel (Trapped Family, Act 2 Ch 2); Slick Breech (Clocktower Defense, Act 4 Ch 1) |
| Gnasher | Bayonet (Trapped Family, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| Gut-Puncher | Incendiary Rounds (Fire in the Hole, Act 4 Ch 3); Overcharged Ammo (Black Raven Down, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| Hammerburst | Bayonet (The Vanguard, Act 2 Ch 2); Combat Scope (Death from Above, Act 4 Ch 3); Full Metal Jacket (Lone Wolf, Act 2 Ch 2); Overpacked Mag (R.I.G. Experiment, Act 4 Ch 1) |
| Incinerator | General Mod Slot (Trapped Locust, Act 4 Ch 3); Springloaded Mag (Trapped Locust, Act 4 Ch 3) |
| Injector | Adrenal Cascade (Family Reunion, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| Lancer Mk1 | Cover Brace (The Vanguard, Act 2 Ch 2); Incendiary Ammo (Weak Signal, Act 3 Ch 3); Laser (Lost in Translation, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| Longshot | Expanded Magazine (Special Cargo, Act 4 Ch 3); General Mod Slot (Special Cargo, Act 4 Ch 3) |
| Prototype Lancer | Overpacked Mag (Family Reunion, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| Ripper | Incendiary Rounds (Fire in the Hole, Act 4 Ch 3) |
| Snub | Holo Sight (Clocktower Defense, Act 4 Ch 1); Holo Sight (Lost in the Park, Act 3 Ch 3) |
| Sonic Disruptor | Grounded Capacitor (Apartment SOS, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| Stim | Braced Capacitor (Missing Convoy, Act 4 Ch 1) |
| Striga | Laser (Lost in the Park, Act 3 Ch 3); Stabilized Ammo (Rooftop Mayday, Act 3 Ch 3) |
| Torque Bow | Mobile Targeting Laser (Missing Convoy, Act 4 Ch 1); Torque Regulator (Death from Above, Act 4 Ch 3) |
| Armour | Blood Mag (R.I.G. Experiment, Act 4 Ch 1); Deep Pockets (Lone Wolf, Act 2 Ch 2); Melee Stunner (Lost in Translation, Act 2 Ch 2); Proximity Reload (Black Raven Down, Act 2 Ch 2) |
| General | Adrenaline Injector mod slot (Family Reunion, Act 2 Ch 2); One Shot (Rooftop Mayday, Act 3 Ch 3); Salt Dog (Weak Signal, Act 3 Ch 3) |
A mod-by-mod table with what each armour and weapon mod is worth on Insane, once the community has published their effects.
A first run takes most people about 14 to 16 hours. Finishing closes the campaign and awards the last two collectibles. After that it is the clean-up: Insane, the side missions you passed, and every Hard Case for the 100% run. What happens to Kalona, you can find out for yourself.