Checkpoints (Entry Points)
In New Gambell, Savoonga and Weather Station, a green strip at the edge of the town map leads to a separate detention yard. The nearby return point is not offered as a separate arrival option in the ordinary entrance menu. A visited detention block has its own main entrance, with access checked against faction standing.
The submarine base has an entrance preview. The main arrival point is available immediately; additional entry points become available after you discover them on the map.
Your first visit to the Radar System unlocks the main entrance. Additional entrances are spread across the station’s approaches and unlock as you explore: arriving from one side does not unlock all the others. Previously discovered entrances remain in your character’s personal list.
A checkpoint is an entry point onto a specific location map that your character has personally unlocked. Thanks to them, you don’t have to come in through the main entrance every time and trudge across the whole location on foot: unlock the entry point you need once, and from then on you can enter right there from the global map.
What a checkpoint is
Every static location’s maps have entrances. One of them is the basic main entrance, which is always there. The rest of the entry points are unlocked as you explore the map. The list of unlocked points is stored right on your character and persists between sessions — it’s your personal collection of entrances, and every player has their own.
Important: checkpoints are entrances for the player, not spawn points for mobs, traders, or quest NPCs. Service spawn points never become checkpoints, no matter how close you get to them.
How entry points get unlocked
Unlocking happens on its own while you play:
- When you enter a map, the main entrance is recorded right away, along with the entrance closest to where you appear — that is, the point you actually came in through.
- While you move around the map, the list updates automatically: any other entry point that ends up within a radius of about 30 hexes — that’s about "one screen" around your character — gets unlocked. Get close enough to another exit, and it’s unlocked.
When a new point is unlocked (not the main entrance), the game lets you know: a message with the map’s name comes into the chat, and if the game window is minimized, it flashes so you notice. Unlocking an already-known point again doesn’t duplicate anything.
Entering through a checkpoint
When you click on a known location on the global map, one of two things happens:
- There are unlocked entrances and a ready map preview — the entry selection screen opens. It shows an image of the map and icons for personally unlocked points and the main entrance of the first public map. Click the icon you want, and your group goes exactly there.
- There are no unlocked points yet — a public location with a preview offers the main entrance of its first map. A location without a preview shows the usual entry confirmation.
A personal checkpoint must be unlocked before you can enter through it. The main entrance of a public location’s first map is available before your first visit. The server checks that the character is alive, the point exists on that map, and its entry conditions are met. After the check, the group is moved into the location with a normal transition. You can close the entry selection screen with the Escape key or by clicking the dimmed area — you’ll stay on the global map.
Look before entering
An eye button beside an eligible entrance opens a live view within 30 hexes of that checkpoint. Your character stays with the group on the world map. Observation does not unlock checkpoints or grant rewards, and you cannot move your character, attack or take items on the observed map. You can pan the camera with the arrow keys and at the screen edges when that option is enabled; the mouse wheel changes the zoom. The observation area remains centered on the entrance: its edge fades smoothly into fog, and the map outside stays hidden. The camera respects map boundaries, so the entrance can be off-center.
The main entrance of the first map of a public location is available even before your first visit. Additional observation is available at selected outdoor approaches, such as the northeast approach to the New Gambell checkpoint, around the Antenna and at the edges of the Runway. You must discover these points yourself first. An eye button beside the entrance indicates that observation is available; discovering a point alone does not grant that option. The location and entrance requirements are checked against your own character, including faction relations. Interior floors and service transfers do not provide additional observation points.
Press Return to the world map or Esc to leave. Members of another player’s group can observe independently. When the leader starts travelling, observation closes automatically and you return to the group.
For your arrival, a random unoccupied, walkable spot is selected within 4 hexes of the
selected point, with a clear line of sight from it and no mines, including hidden ones. Each
group member and companion gets a separately selected spot. If every suitable spot is occupied,
you may appear on the same hex as another character, provided there is no mine underneath.
If there are no suitable spots at all, you always appear exactly at the entry point,
even if it is blocked, occupied or mined. This rule also applies to a normal arrival through
the main entrance.
The landing point and the entrances inside a settlement
The main town map has a landing point — at the edge, beside the exit to the world map. First visits, strangers and enemies of the faction arrive there: nobody comes from the world map straight into the middle of someone else’s town.
The other entrances lead inside — to the traders, the houses, the headquarters — and they carry conditions. Some are open to anyone the faction is not at odds with; others only to its members. The faction counts as an enemy anyone whose standing is below the acquaintance threshold, who is wanted for an unpaid offence, or who has been declared an outlaw. You can unlock such a point by walking past it, but you can use it only while the condition holds: the entry selection screen shows only the points you would be let through right now, and the right is re-checked at the moment of transfer. Make peace with the faction and the entrances are yours again; fall out with it and the landing point is what remains.
The conditions are checked for the group leader who picks the entrance; the group follows.
Entrances are labelled for people: instead of internal names like «NE» or «Inner» the preview shows «Northeast», «Inside», «Main entrance» in your own language. A visited detention block has its own main entrance, available when faction standing allows it. The return point from the yard to the town is not offered as a separate arrival option.
Why this is convenient
Checkpoints turn repeat visits to a large location from "come in and walk for a long time" into "come in right where you need to be." The more of the map you’ve explored, the more entrances you have at your disposal — which means the faster you reach the zone you need next time. This is part of the same logic as the personal world map: the road gradually turns into a convenient route you know well.