HUSH: They Can Hear Beginner Guide: How to Complete Your First Run

A first run in HUSH: They can hear is one repeatable loop: sneak out of the sewer safe zone, quietly loot the monster-held town, call an EVAC truck at a marked exit, and sell the haul for credits. Monsters hunt with sound, so how quietly you move decides whether your loot ever reaches a shop — get caught and you lose everything you carried except your safe pocket.

Quick answer

One run, four moves: sneak into town from the sewers, fill your backpack quietly, call the EVAC truck at a green WAY OUT marker, then store and sell the haul at HUSH SUPPLY.

• Monsters hunt with sound — quiet movement is what gets your loot home.
• Getting caught costs everything you carry except your safe pocket.
• The recorded extraction ended with a +1 SKILL POINT toast and a YOU MADE IT OUT screen, and sold loot becomes credits for guns, gear, gold guns and diamonds.

What a first run actually is

The town has been taken over by monsters, and you emerge from the sewers after hiding for so long. Every raid follows the official pitch: sneak in, loot, and get out before they hear you. Houses, shops, the hospital and the army camp all hold loot, and the paper map marks the richest buildings with red BEST LOOT and yellow BETTER LOOT icons, while green WAY OUT icons show where the exits are. One more line from the official description worth remembering: some of the other people in town aren't as friendly.

Controls worth knowing before you queue up

That set covers a complete first run. The key you'll use most is C: crouching keeps the loudness meter down, and pressing C while running slides. Jumping, diving, first person, inspecting and the remaining car keys (drift, belt, wipers, horn) are all in the full controls list.

Getting into town without being heard

Leave the sewer safe zone and pick a quiet route toward the loot markers. The HUD's bottom-left loudness meter shows in dB how much noise you're making right now — for scale, one recorded run read 33 dB crouched indoors, 52 dB walking outside and 81 dB driving. The status line beside it lists weather and modifiers: in that same run, fog "drowns out 1 dB" and being indoors applied -8 dB.

The habits that keep the number low are simple: crouch instead of sprinting, close doors behind you as you move between rooms, and never sprint close to a monster. If you want to go deeper on sound discipline, the tips and tricks guide breaks the system down.

Where to loot and what to grab

Work outward from the red and yellow map icons — the best loot locations page explains the paper map and compares the town's buildings. Inside, loot comes from containers:

• Red toolboxes open with E. Some are empty — the game flatly says "Toolbox: Nothing is here" — so don't linger on a dud.
• Crash carts offer TAKE ALL [R] when you want the whole cart at once.

Everything you pick up moves to the backpack, which has 20 slots and shows a worth value per item, with x2 badges on stacks. Watch that counter: whatever you're carrying when you get caught is gone, so a full pack is your cue to head for an exit, not a reason to push deeper.

Cars can shorten the trip, but they're loud: that same recorded run's meter read 81 dB while driving — well above its 52 dB walking and 33 dB crouched readings. Some vehicles show a BREAK IN [F] prompt and may have keys waiting inside; others start a hotwire mini-game where you press SPACE when the rotating pointer reaches the green sector. Once it clicks, the vehicle drives. Don't jump out of a still-moving vehicle — it costs HP — and only board windows or hotwire a car once your escape path is already clear. The hotwire guide walks through both entry types.

Calling extraction and getting out

1. Press M to open the paper map and find the nearest green WAY OUT marker — THE FARM TRACK was one exit used in a recorded run.
2. Travel to that exit's roadside extraction post.
3. Press E to CALL EXTRACTION. The post lamp turns red and a countdown starts.
4. When the EVAC truck arrives, climb into the cargo terminal and press E — the prompt tells you to type EXTRACT — to leave.
5. The recorded run ended with a +1 SKILL POINT toast and a YOU MADE IT OUT screen naming the exit used.

Treat the countdown as your boarding window: the game's own description warns to get inside before the doors shut, so once the lamp is red, stay close to the post instead of squeezing in one more house. The escape guide covers the exit system in more detail.

Turning the haul into credits

Back at base, the INVENTORY screen shows your CREDITS, CARRYING value, BACKPACK slots and STASH capacity, with a STORE ALL button — one press moves everything you carried into the stash. The same screen spells out the loadout rules: guns in slots 1 and 2, throwables in G, and, again, getting caught costs all you carry but your safe pocket.

Selling happens at the HUSH SUPPLY shop's SELL tab. It pulls straight from the stash and gives you three buttons: SELL 1, SELL ALL and SELL ALL JUNK — the last one clears low-value filler in a single click. Prices from one recorded session:

HUSH is in beta, so treat those as a scale from one session rather than a fixed price list — patches can move the numbers. The shape is what matters: survival junk like rags and ammo sells for pocket change, while items such as a Bunker Code are the real moneymakers. Credits are the whole point of the loop, because the same shop trades your haul for guns, gear, gold guns and diamonds. The shop location page covers selling, and the shop guide covers the spending side.

After a wipe

A lost run isn't the end — your safe pocket survives — and the sensible reset after each wipe is to make your loadout and movement quieter before dropping back in. Once the loop feels comfortable, the tips and tricks page rounds up the finer habits.