Into the Fire Survivor Priority Card

Use this card only when two living targets exist and you cannot honestly extract both. It is the field version of rescue and camp. Starward has said you will not save everyone. This page makes sure the person you save is a decision, not a panic grab.

Keep the planner abort lines in your head. This card never overrules the RV.

The order

1. Named quest target. Zoe-style jobs gate story and unique benches. If the quest log printed a name, that name wins.
2. Specialist you can identify. Interviews say survivors bring skills, gear access, extraction upgrades. A medic, craftsperson, or guide is worth more than a second extra if the camp already eats.
3. Animal when morale is the leaking meter. Official interviews count dogs and birds as lives. Playtests then use camp pets as morale infrastructure. If morale is fine and water is not, the animal is not free.
4. Civilian extra only if the morning report showed spare food, water, and a bed.
5. Relic or crate never beats a living target that fits rules 1–4. Relics beat extras only when beds are no.

If the bomb tell is already on screen, the order collapses to: whoever is already in your arms, then the RV. Do not start a new pickup animation. Hazards do not pause for ethics.

Camp vetoes

Check these before you leave, not in the alley:

• No spare water: extras are a no, named targets are still a yes if you can feed one mouth.
• No spare food: same.
• Morale collapsing: animals and named reunions jump up; random extras do not.
• Threat already ugly: fewer mouths, faster RV. You are not recruiting for a city.
• Workshop already unlocked: a second specialist of the same type is an extra in disguise.

Write the veto on the planner. The street will try to make you kind in a way the larder cannot afford.

Two-target drills

• Named vs extra: named. Always.
• Specialist vs animal, morale high: specialist.
• Specialist vs animal, morale crashing: animal if the specialist is a duplicate bench.
• Two extras, one bed: the closer one, then leave. Distance is a clock tax.
• Extra vs relic, beds no: relic, and live with it. The story will.

What this card is not

It is not a permission slip to ignore a screaming person because you want a cleaner speedrun. Speed is for after the named target is on the RV. It is not a morality quiz with a hidden S-rank. Starward wants the discomfort. Your job is to be consistent so the hub’s reaction is readable, not random.

After you choose

Talk to whoever you brought. Playtests use them as quest givers. Log who you left if the build allows rumours. Then do not immediately queue a three-skull map as penance. Penance that wipes the specialist you just saved is just a worse decision. Extraction still wants a live vehicle.

Distance is a hidden rank. A specialist two streets over during a quake is not a specialist — they are a wish. The closer extra who is already on your plank might be the only honest save. This card is not a spreadsheet that ignores lava. Hazards can veto a name the quest log printed if the tell is already screaming.

If two named targets exist, that is a quest-design problem, not a player-failure. Pick the one your current log shows as active, extract, then come back tomorrow if camp can take the second mouth. Hero runs that try both in one RV window are how specialists arrive as corpses.

Animals in the field are still carries. Do not “quick pet” a dog on a bomb timer; that is camp language leaking into the street. Petting is a camp morale action. Carrying is this card.

Pin this tab. When EA adds clearer specialist tags, the order stays; the identification step gets easier. Until then, look, decide, carry, leave.