The Rails mission is one of the most unique levels in Rayadillo. Instead of holding a position, you're constantly moving, scavenging for fuel, and managing your soldiers while the aswang keep coming. This guide covers everything you need to know to make it to Bulacan alive. This level is unlocked after finishing the mission "Train Station", where you play as General Alejandrino.
The Story
With chaos erupting and people having no clue what is happening, General Antonio Luna, with a background in science, particularly pharmacy, tries to make sense of it all. His first plan is to do it the military way. He and some of his loyal soldiers go to the nearest army camp in Pampanga to mobilize and contain the situation, only to find the camp infected with little to no survivors.
They then proceed to the nearby train station, attempting to go where the infection presumably started, in Bulacan. Knowing that his Tiradores dela Muerte squad are stationed in one of the camps there, he is convinced that the soldiers he handpicked are capable of surviving the infection. This is the mission in this level called "Rails", where the General and two surviving soldiers board a train from Pampanga to Bulacan.
The Gameplay Loop
The train in the Rails mission is a slow-moving car designed for wood-gathering. With no time to maneuver the other trains, they are forced to use this one, with little to no fuel. They have to travel while scavenging for fuel along the way.
Start by getting the wood logs in the wood hut, along with a piece of coal. Your goal is to reach the Train Station in Bulacan at the far right end of the map while scavenging for fuel along the way. Every 1500m features a village, or not, which you can raid for supplies. Be careful when going up the buildings as the people living there might already be infected.
Your two soldiers are a huge help as you can command them with Fuego, Hold, or Rally.
The mission ends when you make it out alive and climb to the second floor of the Train Station building. You'll know it's the right place when you see this:
Fuel Sources
Trees
Can be chopped down, giving a random amount of wood logs. Worth stopping for if you see a cluster. More on that below.
Coal Pan
Luckily the villages know what coal is by this time period and use it for household cooking. You can find the coal pan on the right side of the third house in every village. The pan may have 0 to 3 coal depending on RNG.
Wood Hut
It is very common for Filipinos to prepare firewood for household cooking, some even building a dedicated small hut to keep the wood dry from rain and ready to use, which is very convenient in our situation right now.
Aswang Heads
Some aswang heads can be chopped off and used as fuel. We originally intended to use the whole body corpse, but picking up ragdolls is not yet implemented. So we made it so you can cut their head, keep it in your inventory as an item, and use it as fuel. This feature also made its way to Endless Mode, where you can sell the heads for gold.
Points of Interest
Watch Tower
These towers are made from wood and kogon and have a guaranteed ammo box with 36 Heavy Ammo and a Colonial Rifle. Position yourself directly beneath it, then press E or tap the interact button to climb. Once you're up top, you can just jump back to your train.
American Camp
Appears as two tents with a campfire in the middle and some makeshift string with drying clothes. Some of these camps may have a Krag rifle.
Huts
Huts are a common settlement for Filipinos during the time, and you can find them along the way. Some are alone in the middle of nowhere, some appear in clusters. There is a chance for them to have an item box with random loot.
Tree Clusters
This is actually an unintentional feature. Upon testing, we figured out that stopping the train to cut one tree is not worth it. It wastes fuel when decelerating, and then takes time to gain speed back up while fuel still consumes. But because the level is procedurally generated, there are instances where a cluster of trees appear at one point, making it a very worth-it stop for a fuel harvest. You can literally stand in the middle and spam the interact button to harvest three trees fast. Just call your men near you while you harvest so you're not caught off guard by the aswang.
Villages
You'll know you're approaching a village when you see a banana tree and a bushy area. Villages appear every 1500m, though sometimes they won't. Each village can have 0 to 6 buildings, mostly around 3 on average. Some houses have second floors you can loot, but be careful as going up may expose you to hungry aswang waiting for you. The village also has a coal pan, a wood hut at the far right end, and some pre-placed trees you can harvest if you have time to survive the ambush bushes scattered around.
Train Station
The most important Point of Interest. This is how you officially end the level. Climbing to the second floor immediately transfers you to the next mission. It is inspired by the real-life Malolos Station. Upon reaching the first part of it, your train is forced to stop and can no longer be fueled. The ground floor of the building is infested with zombies, so prepare before going down. And no, you can't run them over because your train is essentially useless at this point.
Trivia
You can see the Arayat mountains in the background of the level.
This mission has no indicator or progress bar showing how far you are from the objective. But you can tell when you're leaving Pampanga and entering Bulacan because Mount Arayat is constantly moving in parallax. If it's at the far left, you're already out of Pampanga. The on-screen text will also confirm this.
There are two parts to this mission. In the next one your train will be reinforced and ready to enter Manila. Details are being kept secret until that level is released, but just know that's the plan.
Known Bugs
Here are the bugs we are aware of and things to improve that are apparent in this level.
Running Left Slows You Down
We are aware of this and are actively tweaking the physics of the game. Unfortunately these things happen because certain aspects need to exist, like movement and velocity controls, which result in bugs like this. There are also instances where running left while the train is decelerating, and going down the train while running, still slow you down even when you're no longer on the train.
Train Collision Becoming Unusable in Later Parts
This is the worse one in my opinion. At around 6000m, the train's collision stops letting soldiers and aswang walk onto it, which makes the level easier eventually as aswang can no longer board, but also almost guarantees the soldiers' death. The workaround is simple: either don't let the soldiers go down, or while the soldiers are stuck boarding, accelerate the train a bit and the collision will start working again. We apologize for this and we know it needs to be fixed.
What's Coming
We are working to add more points of interest like actual landmarks from Pampanga and Bulacan. The background for the Bulacan section will also be changed soon, similar to how Pampanga has the Arayat mountains as a backdrop.
Horses and human hostiles will be added too. It will be fun to have a shootout with human hostiles riding a horse and actively pursuing your train.
