Into the Fire Quests and the LAB

Older playtest VODs — Splattercat’s first hour, Survival Bob’s camp tour — keep saying the same thing: there is barely a tutorial, and the story does not live in a quest log. That was true of those builds. Open Playtest no.2 reworked the tutorial and expanded quest structure. Starward’s launch post for the August 31–September 7 wave lists a proper Main Quest, unique Area and Gate Quests per district, and a LAB quest that unlocks a Jetpack and a Flamethrower. This page is the field manual for that structure. It is not a spoiler dump of every objective text.

If you still think Into the Fire has “no quest log,” you are quoting a May VOD. Update your mental patch. Then go run the extract the board actually printed. Pair this with Getting Started, maps, and camp hub.

What “quest” means here

This is still a single-player cataclysm extract, not an MMO journal. A quest is a reason to enter a district with an abort line. Public language breaks into four buckets:

1. Onboarding / tutorial. Completely reworked for Playtest no.2 after testers said first-hour systems were hard to read. June already added contextual hints for extraction points, building mode, skill points, morale, extinguishers, and rescuing NPCs. The new wave goes further so you understand tools and how decisions affect a run without turning the game into a slideshow.
2. Main Quest. Starward’s words: a proper Main Quest now exists. Treat it as the spine William and the camp are hanging the week on. Named people (Zoe is the first-hour example in older VODs) still sit on that spine.
3. Area and Gate Quests. Individual districts get their own objectives, obstacles, and alternative routes. This is the big map change. You are no longer only vacuuming New Sindra for crates. The district is asking for something, and the side path is part of the design. See maps.
4. LAB quest. Unlocks new equipment, including the Jetpack and Flamethrower. That is a traversal and tool unlock, not a cosmetic. Rank them on gadgets and weapons only after you have actually earned them in your save.

June notes also said Will’s first quest is displayed immediately when you start, with logbook entries for selected quests and better Accept / Finish highlighting. If your pause menu has a log, use it. The “no quest log” line on older wiki drafts was describing a different build.

William, Zoe, and named jobs

Playtests put an island guide named William (Will / Willie) in camp. He hands tasks. Survival Bob’s run had him send Frank after Zoe in the city — granddaughter, bandages as a reward — which is still the cleanest public example of a named rescue gating a first-hour bench. Named jobs win survivor priority because they unlock story and workshops, not because the UI shouted.

When the Main Quest and a random civilian scream at the same time, the named job wins unless the RV is already leaving. Area quests are how the district argues with that rule: a Gate objective might be the only way the alternative route opens. Read the board in camp before you pack. The expedition planner should name the quest in the “why are you going out?” line.

Gate quests are layout, not errands

Starward bundled Area and Gate Quests with “obstacles and alternative routes.” Translate that into extract language:

• A locked gate is a reason to bring the axe, the kick, or a demolition trick like the knock-down electricity pole added in this wave.
• An alternative route is a reason to abort the main street when fire owns it.
• Completing the district’s own objective can be more valuable than a third unnamed civilian if it opens a safer extract for the rest of the week.

Do not treat Gate quests as optional collectables. They are how PT2 teaches traversal. If you skip them to “just rescue,” you are playing the May loop inside an August build.

The LAB: Jetpack and Flamethrower

Public post: new equipment to unlock, including Jetpack and Flamethrower, through the LAB quest. Until you have them, do not copy a trailer still into your loadout.

How to think about them without a damage table:

• Jetpack is traversal. Ruins and any vertical city block will try to eat your stamina on ladders. A jetpack is a different answer to the same problem as ropes and ziplines. It will still cost something — fuel, durability, or greed. Pack tanks anyway.
• Flamethrower is the odd one in a game about putting fire out. Into the Fire already has a fire-bomb launcher used to control chaos, not to farm kills. Treat a flamethrower as a specialist tool you earned, not as permission to play a shooter. If a later note says it clears debris or fights spirits, this page will follow that note. Until then, do not replace the back-mounted extinguisher with it.

Full key remapping shipped in the same wave. Rebind before you test a jetpack over a lava tongue. See controls.

How to run a quested expedition

1. Morning report. Food, water, morale, threat.
2. Accept one Main or named job, plus at most one Area/Gate job in the same district. Two districts is how you miss the RV.
3. Pack for the obstacle the Gate implies (breach, rope, tanks), not for a museum of launchers. What to bring is still axe, extinguisher, backpack.
4. In the street, do the Gate if it opens a safer exit. Then the named rescue. Then extras only if camp can feed them.
5. Extract. Turn in. Do not start the LAB while threat is screaming unless the unlock is the only way tomorrow’s Ruins job is possible.

Quests are how Starward made the first hour readable without deleting the disaster. Use them. When playtest notes retune a reward or an unlock, the verbs on this page stay: one job, one district, RV on time.