Alien: Blackout Guide: Tips, Cheats and Strategies

Alien: Blackout is a terrifying new survival horror game that’s exclusive to mobile. It plays much like the Five Nights at Freddy’s games, except it’s more than just your own skin you’re saving.

You play as Amanda Ripley – Ellen Ripley’s daughter – who has to keep both herself and her crew alive onboard the Weyland-Yutani space station. You do so by monitoring a screen that controls the cameras, doors, motion sensors, and various other machinery onboard the station.

The bulk of the game basically involves you trying to keep track of where the monster is at all times while you simultaneously guide your crew as they perform various objectives. It’s incredibly difficult and tense, as you have to juggle multiple cameras, motion sensors, and a limited energy system.

But you can succeed and each failure ultimately paves the way for success, as you get a better idea of how to survive on each subsequent run through. We’ve learned an awful lot from dying repeatedly hours on end, so learn from us by reading our tips below.

Alien: Blackout: Tips and Tricks

• Familiarise yourself with your tools: First things first, you should familiarise yourself with your tools. These include cameras, which you can cycle through, motion sensors, accessible on the map, and doors, which you can open and close at any point. You can also order crew members to move faster, sneak, hide, and stop, and close the vent keeping you personally safe by glancing away from the screen.
• Learn the Xenomorph’s patterns: The Xenomorph will aggressively hunt you and your crew during the adventure. You can check the cameras to keep an eye on it directly or use motion sensors to try and directly locate it. If neither of these prove fruitful, it might be travelling through the vents. Using these, it can get around the station really quickly, and pop up randomly in any place at any moment.
• You have a limited power supply: You can basically only interact with five different objects on the map at once, before you run out of power. Learn and remember this because it’s intensely important. You only want to use equipment when you really need it.

• Keep all motion sensors on until you locate the Xenomorph: We recommend keeping all three motion sensors on by default – at least until you’ve located the Xenomorph.
• Cycle through the cameras if it’s not appearing on any motion sensors: If you can’t see it on any of the motion sensors, cycle through the cameras until you spot it. You should be actively doing both of these things at all times to try and keep a constant visual on the monster.
• Once you’ve spotted it, close any doors leading to your crew: To keep your crew safe, you’ll want to close any doors that will directly lead to them. So as soon as you’ve spotted the Xenomorph, close any adjacent doors. Don’t close doors leading to safe locations though, as this can lead it away from your crew.

• If you hear it scrambling around in the vents, drop the screen immediately and close the vent: This is when Alien: Blackout is at its most terrifying. If you hear a loud scrambling coming from the vents, the monster is currently moving at pace to come and kill you. Stop it by closing the vent in front of you.
• If all else fails, order your crew to hide: If you can’t contain the monster and fear for your crew’s health, order them to hide until the Xenomorph leaves the area.
• Remember that you only have around seven minutes to complete a level: We don’t want to pile the pressure on, but you only have around seven minutes to complete each level. So don’t waste them.

Glen Fox

Head of Editorial

Glen has over a decade's worth of experience in gaming journalism, writing for Pocket Gamer, Pocket Tactics, Nintendo Life, and Gfinity. When he's not badgering everyone about the dangers of passive text, you can probably find him playing Wild Rift.