LAKE EFFECT INVASIONCIVILIAN FIELD MANUAL · 1989
Cleveland, 1989. Fight. Eat. Fight again.

How to play

You're an ordinary Clevelander with $8, 50 health, and a long walk to the lakefront. Fight a little. Eat something. Learn a move. Go back stronger.

FIGHTCOLLECT CASHSHOP & TRAINADVANCE

Lost after exploring?

The Street Directory is your way back.

  1. After a street encounter, choose Back to Directory in the action choices. Once you meet the cabby, HAIL CAB on the scene artwork opens the city dispatch menu.
  2. If buttons are disabled, let the story finish typing. Click the story text, or press Space or Enter, to finish the current line. For faster play, turn on Settings (top bar) → Instant text.
  3. If Explore Street started a fight, defeat the alien to receive the bounty automatically and return to the directory, or choose Flee and then Return to Street Directory. You cannot visit shops during a fight.
  4. Inside a shop, choose Leave to return. The directory lists the stops on this street. Until you walk past one, it stays an Unknown stop and cannot be entered.

Use Settings in the top bar for this guide, text speed, and the Paper / Neon theme switch. Close the window to return to play.

01 / Get your bearings

Your first few fights

  1. Choose Start Surviving and follow the single-action opening in Public Square. A survivor explains close-range attacks, an alien nearly kills you, and a hot-dog vendor gets you back on your feet before an easy first fight.
  2. That revenge fight counts as your first Public Square victory and pays a bounty. Clear the rest of Level 0 to meet the cab driver and connect to city dispatch. After that, you choose which occupied street needs you next.
  3. Choose Explore Street. Each block follows its own sequence of shops, locals, caches, news, and alien fights. After a win, choose Take Bounty to collect the cash and advance street progress. Hidden cash, keys, rations, and armor also wait for a single Take or Eat action. Clearing the boss marks that street SAFE and brings back the cab.
  4. Visit the Coffee Shop when hurt. Read the effects under each item before buying.
  5. Save for a training tape at the Record Store. Purchased moves appear in your next fight.

Explore Street is how you search a block: aliens, hidden caches, locals, news, and shops. Each street hides two caches you only find once. After both are found, the block pays nothing more. Explore Safely on a cleared street keeps any cache still left and drops the aliens. Keep Exploring continues wandering. Look Around on a quiet block can still turn up a cache.

02 / Spend to survive

Build your street fighter

  • Food and drinks: restore health. Eligible items also grant a first-taste bonus once per shop/item: maximum health, punch, kick, or accuracy.
  • Training tapes: buy Grappling ($18) and Counterattack ($20) at the Ontario Record Store. Find Spinning Kick ($32) at the Ontario Pawn Shop, Lake Effect Kick ($24) at the Euclid Arcade, and Ironworks Punch ($28) at Old River Army Surplus.
  • Conditioning: permanent defense, bought in three stages at the Superior Drugstore, Superior Thrift Store, and Broadway St. Stanislaus. Each stage requires the previous one.
  • Gear: weapons last three swings, including misses. Armor wears out after a set number of hits.

Permanent means for this run: upgrades survive defeat and Continue. Starting a new run resets them. Use city dispatch to revisit any street marked SAFE.

03 / Read your opponent

Make every turn count

Tackle is reliable but weaker; Punch balances accuracy and damage; Kick hits harder but misses more often. Special moves may be limited to once per fight. Guard halves incoming damage; the Counterattack tape lets you strike back after blocking a hit.

Blue / QuickAccurate strikes. Watch your health.

Green / HeavyBig hits, lower accuracy. Guard softens the blow.

Grey / PsychicIgnores worn armor. Guard and conditioning still help.

Red / RageGets stronger as rounds pass. Finish the fight quickly.

04 / Reach Lake Erie

Ten districts. Thirty-six wins.

Difficulty grows with the number of streets you have cleared, so you can choose the next occupied district from the cab's dispatch report. Early assignments take two regular victories and one boss victory; the middle and late assignments take three regular victories and one boss victory.

Clearing a boss grants +10 maximum health and a full heal. Safe streets remain open for shops and missed discoveries. Erieside stays blockaded until Public Square and all eight downtown assignments are safe. Then defeat the two harbor guards and the Mothership Commander.

City Hall is urgent. Choose Lakeside for the first cab assignment to save the mayor and keep police broadcasts human. Go elsewhere first and the mayor is placed under alien control; television, newspapers, and police encounters become darker until you later liberate Lakeside.

Three promises change that ending. On East 9th, ask the cop for a raid and they spoil the commander's first shot. Ask a local about the kitchen door and you skip one pier guard, but the pier outside stays occupied after you win. Sell Captain Frank's Key at the Pawn Shop or the bar for $80 and the commander lifts off. That run is over.

The cab handles travel. Dispatch marks streets OCCUPIED, URGENT, SAFE, or BLOCKADED. Choosing an occupied street commits the next assignment. Choosing a safe street is a supply trip and never starts a battle.

Fleeing does not count as a victory and returns you to the directory instead of immediately finding another fight. If you flee below 30% health with no affordable discovered healing, the cabby has one emergency hot dog per street that restores you to 40% health. Bounties depend on the district and whether the enemy is a boss; taking extra turns does not earn more money.

05 / Live to fight again

Save, quit, come back

PROGRESS SAVED confirms a local checkpoint. Use Continue on the title screen to resume. During combat, reloading returns to the last completed turn; outside combat, Continue returns to the directory of the street you were visiting. Existing saves and purchased moves carry over.

After defeat, Recover at shelter restores full health and keeps your upgrades and district wins. You lose 25% of your cash, rounded up. Recovery is free at $0.

Use the same browser and site address. Saves do not sync between devices or between the live site and a local copy. Clearing browser data removes them. Starting a new run asks before replacing your save.