I understand that some players may be hesitant to engage with Chinese gaming communities due to the reputation of their aggressive PvP gameplay and streamlined rules. However, I want to assure you that our approach to gaming has evolved over time to prioritize fairness and freedom. Now we dominate the thralls and make them our prey.

Although PvP can still be intense, I believe it is important for players to understand the reasoning and logic behind our play style. In this guide, I will walk you through the history of our community and the reasoning behind our previous tactics, as well as our current strategies and the logic behind them, and lastly, answer the question most English communities players are curious about

"Why play a social deduction game with so much hardcore PvP?"

Spoilers first, most Chinese are masters of deceiving and masters of social deduction games. We have professional players and competitions of social deduction games in our country, we might probably be the best of the best social deduction players, so there is a good reason why we don't play social deduction here and go all in PvP.

As a logical thinker myself, I will focus on explaining the reasoning and wisdom behind each move so that you can better understand and enjoy our community.

Captain: Work with ENGI to sail the ship to the middle island location by day 1 sunset
Engineer: Work with CAPT to sail the ship to the middle island location by day 1 sunset
Chaplin: Provide any support with the things you dig out to the crew.
Hunter: Kill the middle island bear by yourself before sunset.
Marine: The marine boss around and do as he pleases, act like a boss, and question anyone he feels SUS, you question the marine?*gun sound*
Navigator: wandering hooligan. takes up the hunter's role if hunter nitro rush.
Docter: make bow and arrow, axe on the middle island Hulk, then patrol around. takes up the hunter's role if hunter nitro rush and the navigator insist to be a wandering hooligan.
Cook: cooks.

The rules for good crews used to be harsh and toxic, but please bear in mind that no matter how annoying those rules were, the ultimate objective was to protect oneself. The rules used to be so specific to the point where you had to be in a designated area during a certain time of day and doing specific tasks. It could lead to death if you were not in your supposed domain or entered someone else's territory. The reasons for these harsh rules were to protect oneself from being backstabbed. If you didn't follow the fixed gameplay and someone felt you were a threat, they could kill you to avoid being backstabbed by you. This is a reason acceptable to the rest of the crew.



Despite their surface-level dislike of such rules, people begrudgingly continue to utilize them for their own benefit. Although there is a widespread aversion to these regulations, the practical advantages of following them cannot be ignored. Thus, many individuals find themselves reluctantly adhering to these rules despite their initial misgivings.

Ironically, while outside of the game, people do strongly express disapproval of these rules in social media platforms, group chats, discussions, and videos, but inside the game, they still adhere to them without fail and here's why it ended up this way with a few examples:

A: hello can I share this place with you?/Can I have this?
B: ok sure

a few moments later...

A is thrall and backstabbed B.

Next time

C: Hello can I share this place with you?
B: NO.
C: I'll give you xxx(gives something valuable) in trade for me to be here/trade your item
B: Ok fine.

a few moments later...

C is thrall and backstabbed B.

Next time

D: Hello can I come here, I'll give you xxx
B: Not unless you let me slash away 1/2 of your hp
D: that is fine.

a few moments later...

D is thrall, cannibal spell cast x2, and backstabbed B.

Next time
E: Hello ---
B: GTFO
E: Hey that's unreasonable

next moment.
*sound of announcing someone's death*
E: Let me out B is thrall and killed me for no reason!
B: neh his the thrall he came to my territory
E: What do you mean by your territory? I play as I like!
rest of the crew: Ok B sounds more like a good guy, and E is SUS.

Ends up that both E and B are crews
Then, while E continues to flame B for being too aggressive, B continues to flame E for not doing what he is supposed to do and wandering around. Both of them hold their ground, and the argument never resolves, leaving neither of them as the winner. However, E may eventually learn to adopt B's tactics in future games, and B will continue to stick with his current approach.

Thralls have a huge win rate at this meta, in most of the games we have 1 hidden thrall to try to make everyone quarrel and misunderstand each other, do poisoning, food stealing, and sabotaging, while the other thrall does all the killing, totem building, and resources control.

Currently, this set of game-play has finally been abandoned for good since the new play system was invented.

The old rules have caused much controversy from the day they existed, and the whole community was quarreling everywhere every day about how toxic this set of rules was. But nobody wanted or liked to be backstabbed. Since a better way couldn't be figured out, it remained the main meta although everyone was flaming against each other for playing this meta. The logic was that if you were a good crew, why would you refuse to follow this regulation that brings stable profit? If you're a thrall, then do whatever you like which exposes yourself. But also because of this, we have never given up on inventing better ways to play the game and bypass these rules. Many attempts have been made and new play styles have emerged.

For example, the nitro rush playstyle was trending because people were so sick of this toxic meta that they just left the whole crew to be by themselves and not get disturbed. Everyone was snatching to be the nitro rusher(doctor, hunter, navigator, maybe even the cook/captain sometimes)to stay far away from the never-ending disputes on the ship



The nitro rusher rather challenges himself to face a 2 x 3 cannibal spell alone than stay on the ship listening to all the shoutings and rage.

Until this fine day, some genius invented what I call the 'Navigator security guard' system.

The Navigator security guard system has revolutionized the way we play Dread Hunger(without the community even realizing it). By staying in sight of each other,(especially in sight of the navigator)and rushing to help, instead of being lone wolves, we discovered the true power of teamwork. Our ecosystem is now built on the principle of protection, without the fear of backstabbing. You can play as a good crewmate with much freedom and lesser restrictions, and help always arrives faster than you can die. Insisting on your way only endangers yourself, as no one else is harmed. If you do something strange, other players can question you. it is acceptable if your actions have enough reasoning, or they will take away 1/3 of your HP, but killing is strictly forbidden. Even if someone tries to kill you, another crew will most likely come to your rescue and put the attacker to sleep to chill down. The days of fearing thralls are over, and now they are our prey, we are the hunter, the tides have turned. The friendliness of our community has increased ever since,

Captain: Work with ENGI to sail the ship to the middle island location by day 1 sunset
Engineer: Work with CAPT to sail the ship to the middle island location by day 1 sunset
Chaplin: Provide any support with the things you dig out to the crew.
Hunter: Do what you want given that you provide enough fuel for the ship to reach the 2nd camp with the Hulk on the right side
Marine: Navigator's minion
Navigator: King of the ship, make 1 axe 1 syringe, and some teas at the middle island Hulk, then use your magnifying glass to observe everyone, protects everyone, rush to help to any conflicts, chase down and kill thralls. give out commands on what to do.
Docter: wandering hooligan, Navigator's minion.
Cook: cooks.

The Chinese crew has two commonly used sets of gameplay. The first is the play style seen in 95% of the games, and the second is an upgraded version based on the first set, which is so overpowered that it breaks the game.

Initially, Thrall and crewmates are well-balanced until one day a genius invented a playstyle for Navigator to go straight to the middle island, make an axe, and patrol around the entire map. This resulted in Thrall being unable to use any skills to kill someone, and the only option was to kill without spells and rely on mechanics and teamwork. If Thrall killed with cannibals, Navi would arrive so quickly that there wouldn't be enough charge for Spirit Walk. To prevent pointless deaths, all good crews, except the Engi who goes into wolf caves for coal, would position themselves within sight of Navi, so that the thrall either die or use Spirit Walk after killing one crew. If no cannibals were called, and someone died out of Navi's sight, it is most likely the engineer. Thus, Thrall either used cannibal, killed one, and died, or killed one and was forced to use Spirit Walk.

However, there was a problem with the doctor always being at the left 1.5 cave. If Thrall used Spirit Walk, Navi would notify the doctor, and both of them would be after Thrall for the rest of the game, leading to a high chance of death. If nothing happened on day 1, Navi would also find the doctor since the doctor would most likely be the Thrall if nothing happened on day 1. Additionally, it was challenging to make totems on day 1 because Navi could hear the sound of totems with a scope. If Navi heard the sound of the totems, they would call the crew, and everyone would come after Thrall. Therefore, Navi is also the strongest Thrall role, he can go near anyone pretending to patrol and do checkings. and normally the doctor or marine would take up the role if Navi was the Thrall. If both Marine and Navi were Thrall, then it is time for Armory.

The effect of this play style was that, as a Thrall (other than Navi), either kill a good crew and die, or kill one and Spirit Walk then get chased to death, or do zero aggro on the first day, which would most likely result in the ship reaching the right second camp in the morning. Poisoning didn't work because touching the doctor's bag is something very sensitive. If someone was spotted touching a doctor's bag, then the observer would tell everybody and anyone capable would start preparing antidotes. This playstyle usually resulted in a day 2-night iceberg, and the rest of the game would be all PVP. However, the cannibals have serious glitches on the summit, so Thralls will highly likely lose the fight, and the game would end on day 3 morning, or at most day 3 night.

Here are some examples to help you visualize:

A: *stalks up on B to backstab him, but remain a safe distance in case of B overreact, then hide out of B's sight and use cannibal*

B:*Hears cannibal sound looks around, and checks if it is on him, yes it is, starts screaming and running towards the middle island for the navigator's help, sees A chasing after him, tries to lower A's hp as much as he can, dies in the process*

Navi:*Hears cannibal sound, checks location, proceeds, saw B die and A chasing, kills A*

Next time

A: Hello can I share this place with you?
B: NO.
A: *Continues to find excuses while getting closer and close to B*
B: hey hey stop there.
A:*starts hacking and slashing B*
B：*Screams and runs towards the middle island hoping Navi can see him*
Navi:*sees A attacking B rush to help*
Navi reaches, A is left with 2/3 HP, B is down but not dead, Navi fights with A, A can't find a chance to kill B and spirit walks away. Navi starts to analyze where A could be and starts chasing, calling Doctor or Marine alone along the way. In the end, A dies or did absolutely nothing for the whole game cause too busy running for his life.

Next time

C: Hello can I stay here, I'll give you xxx
B: K
C: K

Nothing happens

Next time
E: Hello I want to use the workbench with you
B: fine but I'll attack you 1 time first
E: OK

Nothing happens

Time passes...The community gets more friendly

Ever since, the thralls' win rate has drastically decreased to the point we start to be lenient and set out rules to help thralls win the game, I will elaborate on this part in another section

There is a way to make this gameplay of good crews so overpowered that Thralls are completely unplayable. The engineer would not go into wolf caves but instead, take the two crates by the shore. The engineer would go back to the ship in the middle of this process to put coal and then take up as many wood planks as possible. This was enough for the ship to proceed to a position in front of the ship Hulk in the middle of bear island. The hunter's job would not be killing the bear, but bringing all metal scraps and wood planks from the left back to the ship (other crews would control left 1.5 cave resources) and collecting all the wooden planks she could and with all these wooden planks, the ship will arrive at the second ship hulk on the right side of the map, the right second camp at night time on day 1. So the middle island and bear are completely ignored in favor of trading speed. Then everyone eats stew for warmth and goes down to control resources. By day 2 at noon, the ship will already be at the iceberg, which means a 100% win for the crew.

The upgraded gameplay style has a significant advantage over the thralls. The thralls are left with almost no resources at all, while the good crew controls the end-of-the-map resources by day 1 night. The thralls are so poor that they can hardly do anything, and the crew is so rich that they might even dump tons of resources to prevent extras from getting stolen.

This gameplay style makes it almost impossible for the thralls to win unless the crew is lenient on them. Even then, it's an uphill battle for the thralls, and they have to rely on the crew's mistakes to have a chance at winning.

In conclusion, the Chinese crew's upgraded gameplay style is a highly effective way to win, It may not be the most fun way to play, but it's certainly effective, however, it leaves the thralls with almost no chance of winning, thus few rooms use this playstyle as it destroyed the game. I'm not saying we have perfected ourselves, as the new playstyle brought another round of controversy and arguments outside of the game, in the community, but at least we don't quarrel in the game anymore

Many English room players have this question" Why did you guys make a social deduction game into hardcore PvP, that's so lame of you guys". well, I would say that we do play social deduction at first, we have both thralls hidden at first. Then it becomes 1 hidden and 1 exposed, and in the end, it becomes 2 pvp thrall that doesn't do undercover anymore, and here are the reasons why.

Conclusions first:

MOST CHINESE PLAYERS ARE MASTERS OF DECEIVING. WE DON'T PLAY AS A HIDDEN THRALL NOT BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW HOW, BUT BECAUSE EVEN THE BEST OF THE BEST HIDDEN THRALL PLAYERS CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITH OUR COUNTERMEASURE SKILLS. PLAYING AS A HIDDEN THRALL IS TOO WEAK AND USELESS, YOU CAN BARELY DO ANYTHING

Here is a list of things thralls can do while undercover.
Sabotage boiler
Poison food
Inject Poison
Turn the ship
Bomb the ship
Get hold of the nitro by acting as a good guy

And here are our countermeasures for each of the above things.

A bag search on ENGi if he comes back too late, captain to check if ENGI touched the gunpowder box, don't co-operate? die
Engi and only Engi is allowed into the boiler room, everyone gives their coal for him to add, locks the door, and guards the boiler room once lit.
Two people locked and stay in the captain's room, stay far away from the pipe, and guard each other against touching the pipe to the boiler room.

The cook and only the cook is allowed into the kitchen, the cook is to use and only use self-skinned meat, no use of meat from anyone's hands, or meat pre-skinned. locks the door for the entire process of cooking, then the doctor tastes the stew first, makes sure no poison, and then everyone eats. if the cook can't make a stew by night falls, the Marine kills the cook.

When fog rises at a turn-able location, the marine stays with the captain to drive the ship.

Trust me, you don't get to bomb the ship with such rules on top. If you do, then by logic you are either a Marine or a Chaplin, and no one else can do it. Cause we have high KPIs for Engi and the captain, no way they have a chance or time to make barrels.

The doctor is to throw out everything he has when he boards the ship for a bag search and is not allowed to touch any workbench on board or eat marines' bullets.

Only the 1000% good crew is allowed to touch the nitro, all others must remain a safe distance from the nitro holder, and no one goes near or die.

With all these countermeasures that completely deny any play space for a hidden thrall, anyone smart enough with a normal brain will not choose to play hidden thrall. Don't rant like 'Oh you guys shouldn't use these preventive measures, it makes the game no fun' or ' You folks are so streamlined and boring'. let me ask you some questions， do you mean you love to be at risk of being poisoned? Do you want to be in a state where you start vomiting? Or do you like your hard-earned coals all go boom and make the past 9 mins of your game completely pointless? or do you like to do nothing but keep on fixing the ship? Don't be ridiculous.

It is the game's design flaws that there is a possibility for the supposed playstyle of thralls to be counter-measured completely to such an extent that it is unplayable, and not our fault to take counter-measures to protect ourselves ok? The game should design some completely uncounterable tactics thralls can use if they really want this play-style to be mainstream.

I do respect and understand the English communities rules, I do zero PvP on day 1 when I'm thrall, and I try not to do aggro before day 3. By the way, I would say most Chinese players are masters of hidden thrall playstyle due to how harsh our onboard rules are, we don't play as a hidden thrall not because we can't, but because even the best of the best-hidden thrall players can't do anything with our above countermeasures.

Well if your stand is the logic of(the following words are exactly what a player from the English room told me when we argue due to me killing all the good crews. (I normally don't do killing in English rooms cause you guys don't like early aggro and PvP, but I did it this game because my teammate was complete AFK and disconnected the whole game. So it was me and me alone 1v6 the whole game)
Why must you win? Why can't you just lose? You are a moron for doing PvP. Why must you even win the game? So you do PvP just because your teammate is disconnected for the whole game and you want to Win? You suck.

If you have the same logic as this guy, then I think it is pointless for us to have any conversation.

Here are the donts in our rooms

Good Crews:

1. The lifeboat is a key resource, it decides whether the hunter/marine can survive in the first 3 mins of the game, or how efficiently the Navigator can start patrolling, thus the ownership of lifeboats is very strict. Do not touch the lifeboats as you like without proper communication with the hunter and marine. Distribution of lifeboat ownership: Both the lifeboats on the left belong to hunter or anyone in charge of killing the middle island bear. The 1st lifeboat on the right belongs to Navigator/nitro rusher, and the second lifeboat on the right belongs to the marine.
2. Do not touch the first ammunition bag on the right unless you are marine
3. Do not stay on the ship and search for keys at the start of the game as Chaplin, which is deemed as thrall trying to steal all the keys and run.
4. Do not go to the wolf cave on top of the ice cliff located at the far east side of the right 2nd camp, only thralls can go there because there is a cannibal glitch at that location, cannibals do not spawn at that location, so it is very unfair for crews to go there looking for thralls.
5. Avoid entering the kitchen before both thralls' identities are revealed, or not it is a very very very SUS thing to do in our logic.
Thralls:
1. You must at least drive the ship to the location where the stairs are in parallel with the ice surface(a little bit less than 1 coal is needed to do this) by nightfall before it is a level 2 freeze if you are in total control of the ship alone.

2. Do not use anger, vulgarity, or throwing a tantrum as tools for deceiving. It is very bad gaming etiquette to do that in our community. you can flame someone for being unreasonable, but you must not conceal your real identity.

These rules exist to help thralls play the game as thralls are too weak in our current context.

100% of the rooms have the following rules:

No opening of the armory unless both navigator and marine are thrall and only 2 musketeers are allowed, burn the rest.

some 800+hour rooms may have the following rules：
1. The person located opposite the winner of the pokers shall be in charge of adding the starting coals and sailing the ship alone
2.No guarding of the ship is allowed if a thrall exposes himself and starts to snatch the ship before the ship even sails, all good crews must jump down the ship except for the one supposedly in charge, he can choose to run with the coals he has safeguarded or 1v1 the thrall.

Thanks for reading this guide, questions are welcomed in the comments and I will answer every question. suggestions are also acceptable, I am not 100% correct and will constantly update this guide according to the current context. Hope this game can get better soon.