9 Machines and Extraction

How Machines Work

Machines are the core objective on every floor. You interact with them to extract ichor and charge the elevator so you can move to the next floor. Each machine has a progress bar that fills as players successfully extract from it. When enough total extraction has been done across all machines on the floor, the elevator unlocks.

To start using a machine, walk up to it and interact when you see the prompt. Your toon will become locked in place, and a skill check interface will appear. During this time you cannot move without cancelling your interaction. While you are on a machine, you generate noise and light that can attract Twisteds, especially on higher floors.

Every machine has a base extraction speed, which is then modified by your toon stats, trinkets, items, and sometimes events on the floor. Multiple players can use the same machine. Their extraction speeds stack, so the bar fills faster. However, this also increases local noise and risk, so there is a tradeoff.

Machines can regress when left alone after a failed skill check or certain Twisted abilities. This regression reduces the progress bar. You never lose ichor already collected, but you do lose time, which is usually more dangerous on high floors than the penalty itself.

Most floors require you to extract a fixed total amount from all machines combined, for example 100 percent total progress across all machines. It does not matter which specific machines you use. This means one machine can be fully completed while others are ignored, or you can spread progress across several, as long as you hit the total requirement for the elevator.

Skill Checks

Skill checks appear while you are extracting. They are small timing minigames that decide whether you keep extracting efficiently or suffer a penalty. Getting comfortable with them is one of the biggest boosts to your overall success.

Typically a skill check works like this. A circular or linear meter appears with a moving indicator and one or more colored success zones. You press the interact key when the indicator is inside a success zone. If you hit it correctly, your extraction continues and may grant a bonus. If you press too early or too late, you fail.

Most floors have two basic outcomes for a skill check.

A success gives normal extraction progress. Some toons, trinkets, or items add extra benefits for perfect or streaked successes, such as faster progress or reduced noise.

A failure can cause a loud noise, some progress loss, or a brief delay where your toon is stunned at the machine. On higher floors, even one loud failure can be enough to pull a nearby Twisted toward your area.

The difficulty of skill checks scales up as you reach higher floors. Success zones get smaller, the indicator moves faster, and skill checks can appear more frequently. Some floor events or specific Twisteds can also modify them, for example by making them appear unexpectedly or changing the timing.

If you are new, it is better to let a skill check time out than to mash the button and fail loudly. The game generally does not punish a missed input if you simply do not press anything, while a bad press can alert enemies. Practice watching the pattern for one second before you start actively pressing, especially on faster floors.

Extraction Progress

Extraction progress is the measure of how close you are to unlocking the elevator. You can think of it like a shared progress pool for the entire floor. Each machine you work on contributes to that pool. When the total hits the floor’s requirement, the elevator powers up.

There are three different layers of progress you need to understand.

First, individual machine progress. Each machine has its own bar that tracks how much you have extracted from that specific device. This bar is affected by your extraction speed, skill check success, and any regression effects.

Second, team contribution. All players who work on a machine add to its progress. If three toons extract on the same machine, the bar will fill faster. If they split across several machines, you spread risk but also spread protection, since Twisteds cannot be everywhere at once.

Third, floor completion. The game internally sums the extraction done across all machines. For example, if a floor requires 100 percent total extraction and you do 60 percent on one machine and 40 percent on another, you finish the floor even if several untouched machines remain.

Some toons and trinkets modify extraction progress directly. They can add flat progress for each successful skill check, increase the percentage gained per tick, or reduce regression. These effects multiply with team composition, so stacking extraction specialists can make low and mid floors very fast, but you must still manage aggro and survival.

You can estimate how much time a machine will need with a simple mental formula. Suppose your toon’s effective extraction rate is $r$ percent per second, and the machine needs $P$ percent more progress to finish. Then the approximate time to complete that machine is
$$
t \approx \frac{P}{r}
$$
If two players with similar extraction rates $r$ work together, your effective rate is roughly $2r$, so the time halves. In practice this changes slightly with skill checks and buffs, but it is a useful way to judge whether to stay or rotate to another machine.

Machine Locations

Machines spawn in semi-random locations on each floor. The exact spots change, but they tend to follow consistent patterns within each map type. Over time you will learn “common rooms” where machines often appear, which helps you plan routes even before you see every device.

Machines usually avoid extremely tight dead ends without escape options. They are more often placed in medium or large rooms, hall intersections, and side wings with at least two entries. This is to give both extractors and Twisteds a chance to interact and for distractors to use loops.

On many floors, machines are distributed so that no area holds all of them. You might see one near spawn, one deeper in the map, and one closer to the elevator. This spread forces your team to fan out, scout, and make decisions about which machines to prioritize first.

Learn to identify “anchor rooms” where machines often appear. These might be:

Rooms with obvious visual props that stand out.

Wide, central corridors that connect multiple branches.

Areas adjacent to common item spawn clusters.

Create a mental map of each floor over time. Even though generation is random, machines tend to respect the underlying layout. If you find two machines relatively close together, the others are often further out on side paths. Likewise, if you have scouted a whole wing and found nothing, it is usually safe to assume machines are clustered somewhere in the opposite direction.

The elevator and machines are usually not in the exact same room. Often, one machine will be close enough to the elevator that an extractor can finish it and then sprint directly out. The others will be deeper and riskier. When you locate machines, always note paths that lead back to the elevator so you can escape quickly when the floor completes or when Twisteds converge.

Efficient Machine Routes

An efficient machine route is a path through the floor that lets you reach, work, and rotate between machines while minimizing wasted time and unnecessary danger. Poor routing is one of the biggest reasons new players feel stuck on early floors, even if their skill checks and survival are decent.

For solo runs, efficient routing usually follows a simple pattern. Start by checking nearby rooms and corridors from spawn until you find your first machine. Work it until a Twisted approaches or until progress is no longer worth the risk, then break line of sight, rotate through a different section of the map, find another machine, and repeat. As you loop the floor you gradually fill all machines while staying mobile.

In teams, efficient routing becomes more structured. Players typically split into roles at the start and call out which direction they are taking. Extractors should move toward machine-prone areas, while distractors and scouts move ahead or to the sides to locate Twisteds and items. Once machines are found, the team can choose either a “cluster route” or a “spread route.”

A cluster route focuses on machines that are close to each other. The team rotates between them as pressure increases. This concentrates power and protection but can be dangerous if multiple Twisteds camp that region.

A spread route assigns each extractor to a separate machine or section. This reduces local danger and makes it harder for Twisteds to control all objectives at once, but individual players are more vulnerable to ambushes.

To make routes efficient, combine three ideas: information, timing, and escape. Information means constant knowledge of where machines, Twisteds, and teammates are. Timing is about entering machines when patrols are far and leaving before you are trapped. Escape is having at least one safe loop or corridor near each machine.

Think of your route like a loose triangle or loop that touches multiple machines but never forces you through a known death corridor twice in a row. When something goes wrong, such as a blackout or a new Twisted spawn, adjust your route instead of stubbornly repeating the same path.

Machine Roles in Teams

In coordinated play, machines naturally create roles inside the team, even if you do not explicitly assign them. Understanding how these roles interact makes extraction smoother and safer.

The primary role is the extractor. Extractors are toons built for fast and reliable machine work. They have high extraction speed, good skill check performance, and trinkets that boost progress or reduce regression. Extractors spend the most time locked into machines, so they rely on others to keep Twisteds away and warn of danger.

Next come distractors. While the Distracting chapter covers them in detail, in the context of machines their job is to pull Twisted attention away from active extractors. A good distractor will position themselves between the Twisted and key machines, making noise or using abilities at the right time so that the enemy follows them instead of stumbling into an extractor’s room.

Support toons enhance machine play through healing, buffs, or utility. They may rotate between machines to top off hearts, refresh stamina, clear debuffs from failed skill checks, or share items that increase extraction speed. Some supports also help by scouting the area around machines so extractors are not surprised.

Finally, there are scouts and hybrids. Scouts move quickly through the map to locate machines, mark safe paths, and find items that benefit extractors. Hybrids mix roles, such as a toon who can both extract and distract moderately well. On small teams or in public lobbies, most players will end up as hybrids, filling whatever role is missing.

In practice, machine roles overlap. An extractor may kite a Twisted away from a machine if no distractor is available. A support may sit on a machine for a while if they find one in a safe room. The important part is that everyone understands which machines are “priority objects” and plays around keeping them active.

Communication is what ties roles together. When an extractor starts a machine, they should call it out and mention the room’s general location. Distractors should announce when they have pulled a Twisted far from that area and when they lose aggro. Support players should warn if they see a Twisted pathing towards a machine that someone is likely using.

Protecting Extractors

Protecting extractors is about giving them uninterrupted time on machines. Every moment an extractor spends running instead of working is lost progress that could eventually cost the run. Good protection combines positioning, awareness, and planned responses.

First, create a safety bubble around active machines. If you are not extracting, treat the area around a working machine as territory you must defend. Stay within hearing distance so you can react quickly if a Twisted approaches. Use corners, nearby rooms, and loops so that you can intercept enemies before they walk straight into the extractor’s line of sight.

Second, manage aggro. The player who is best equipped to run and dodge should be the one who first makes contact with a Twisted that is getting close to a machine. If you see a patrol path that could bring a Twisted near an active extractor, deliberately step out where it can see or hear you and then pull it away before it turns toward the machine’s room.

Third, communicate early. Extractors should speak up when they hear footsteps, see flickering light, or notice any sign of danger. They may not be able to see everything while locked into the skill check view, so nearby teammates must watch entrances and report. A simple warning gives the extractor time to cancel the interaction and reposition safely.

During high pressure, it can be better to sacrifice your own safety to preserve a critical extractor. For example, if a Twisted suddenly appears near a nearly finished machine, a non-extractor might sprint to body block the doorway, making noise and drawing aggro so the extractor can either finish the last bit of progress or escape while the Twisted chases the blocker instead.

Protectors should also control noise. If you are defending a machine, avoid unnecessary loud actions, such as failing skill checks on another nearby machine or using noisy abilities in the same room, unless you are intentionally pulling aggro. Too many overlapping noises can make Twisted movement unpredictable, which is the opposite of protection.

Completing Floors Faster

Fast floor completion is not only about raw extraction speed. It is about reducing dead time, avoiding resets caused by deaths, and coordinating around machines so that every second contributes to progress. Small optimizations across a run make a big difference, especially on higher floors or time-limited modes.

First, reduce scouting time. On a new floor, spread out briefly to locate machines, elevator, and common item spots. As soon as one or two machines are found, at least one extractor should start working while others finish scouting. You do not want an entire team walking the map together with no one extracting.

Second, avoid overcommitting to a single dangerous machine. If a room is clearly being camped by a Twisted or is deep inside a dead end, it may be faster overall to work other machines and come back later when patrol patterns change. Getting wiped while stubbornly trying to finish one machine wastes far more time than you gain.

Third, keep machines active whenever possible. Ideally, there should always be at least one player on a machine from the moment they are discovered until the floor is complete, except during blackouts or emergency chases. If you are an extractor and you lose access to one machine, rotate instantly to another instead of hiding in the same area waiting for things to calm down.

Fourth, chain your actions. Combine trips so that you do not walk empty handed. If you have to leave a machine because of danger, grab items along the way, heal up, pass a trinket to a teammate, and then move directly to the next machine. Treat every movement across the map as a chance to set up the next extraction phase.

For teams, stagger risk. It is often faster to have one extractor in a high risk but high reward machine while another works a safer machine elsewhere than to stack both on the same device. This way, even if the risky player is forced off, the safer extractor keeps progress flowing.

Finally, learn when to leave. Once the elevator is powered, extra extraction does nothing. Do not keep working machines for no reason. Call out that the elevator is open and prioritize regrouping and leaving safely. Greed at the end of a floor can cost hearts, items, or even the run if a strong Twisted punishes you while you linger.

Over time, as your map knowledge and team coordination improve, machines will feel less like obstacles and more like tools you control. Mastering how they work, how to route between them, and how to protect the players who use them is one of the biggest steps from beginner runs to confident, deep floor attempts.