This game is about survival and rebuilding after a series of apocalyptic events. There are no mutants, zombies, or aliens and there is no magic. This is Earth, slightly in the future.

You start the game with a small group of survivors and a Guide (the game webpage itself) for directing those survivors. You are responsible for setting orders for each day. After a few hundred days, your camp will have grown and suddenly relations with other camps and advancement overtakes survival as your primary focus.

Due to the growth and advancement of research in the game, gameplay takes on three major phases: Survival, Growth, then Nation-Level Conflict.

As you play, you will learn more about the world and its current state, but right now as a Survivor, you know the following …

Humanity's struggle to confront the looming threat of catastrophic destruction by way of meteor impact stretched the burgeoning fabric of Global Unity.

In many areas, life was relatively normal. "They say the impact won't be that bad." "That rock is going to hit in the ocean on the other side of the world. Who cares?" "They need our help! Donate today. Even a few dollars will help!" "Oh, no thanks, I um, don't have any change."

The rips and tears began with talks of evacuation and taking in refugees. Everyone may have even wanted to help deep down. Running a country though … is complicated.

The fabric shredded once the point of impact was certain.

Then it was burned to ash when the blaming began.

Faced with destruction, certain of the righteousness of their anger, betrayed by the planet's other side, they fired every missile. They would assure mutual destruction.

So many watched the news, true fear muted by the sensational normal that they'd all grown numb to. They wondered as life stayed normal for just a few minutes more if talk of conspiracies, threats of missiles, and flashing of giant bold letters could possibly be true this time.

Today, the Dust Settled.

Today, you chose to rise up from the ashes and become a Leader.

You need to create an account here on DustSettles.com. Then simply click any of the links to create a new Camp.

You do not need to download a separate game, you play right in your browser. There is nothing to install.

The main game client (the webpage) will talk you through a number of steps. You can also take a look at the Newbie Guide.

The game is free to play. We do welcome and appreciate contributions during Beta.

There will be purchasable cosmetic additions, save slots, and a nifty in-game data vizualization tool, however we are completely opposed to pay-to-win.

Purchasing in the future and contributing during Beta will NOT provide an advantage in the game in any way.

Provided you are using a device with a recently updated web-browser, the game should work on any size of screen (within reason). Minimum width is 315 pixels, which encompasses most mobile devices released since 2010.

The game screen will scale and adjust based on size, but no functionality is lost for smaller devices.

Like a board game, this game is played in rounds. A round will have a start time, after which account-holders may create a new Camp. That Camp will be playable until the round's ending time, when ranks will be finalized and all other data is cleared for the next round's start.

There will always be a 28 day long round, each month starting on the 1st day of the month at 12pm Noon US Eastern Time and ending on the 28th at Noon.

There will also be open test rounds with no specific end date, shorter 48 hour rounds, and potentially others. Check the news, Scoreboards, and the Camp Creation screen for options.

The game is played by setting up orders for your Camp's population to complete that day (turn) and then chosing to end your turn and progress to the next in-game day.

Over the course of a single round of play, there are roughly 4,000 turns to play. You will start with 100 turns (plus any additional for the time since Round Start). You will acquire a new turn every 10 minutes in 28 day rounds (or faster for shorter rounds). You can store up to 400 turns, allowing you to take plenty of breaks while playing.

You do not need to wait for other players to end turns before you can play again, the total number of turns and the timer which awards them are synchronized between players. When you end your turns and how many you keep in storage are part of the strategy behind playing this game.

GuideOS is a ficticious Operating System running on the ficticious device through which orders are issued to your fellow Survivors.

In reality, GuideOS is the rather complex website you use to play the game.

The first Edition of this game was built 10 years ago. Hundreds of players have been using that original 2005 website for many years.

Times have changed and this Edition isn't just an upgrade, it is a complete rebuild for the modern web era.

The Neutral Exchange Camp is a mysterious, but powerful city of Survivors. Their organization is resposible for creating the Survival Guide to the Apocalypse with which you have been provided.

They facilitate trade, enforce fair rules of war, support a new unified currency called the Common Exchange Piece (CEP), and ensure a level of structure to the new world as it rebuilds.

As a side note: Game Administrators and Creators will always be presented as members of the NEC.

CEP stands for Common Exchange Piece. It serves as the game's primary currency, having replaced the country-specific monies of the pre-apocalyptic world.

It was created and backed by the NEC. Any old world currency your explorers find will be traded in to the NEC for CEP.

CEP is NOT premium currency as many Free-to-Play games have. There is no premium currency in this game.

SR-90 (Sr90 or Strontium 90) is a radioactive isotope of the element Strontium, a byproduct of nuclear fission, and a major component of fallout from nuclear weapon detonation. It is radioactive enough to be harmful to humans over time, even quickly lethal at high enough atmospheric concentrations.

As fallout drifts from regions around the globe, the concentration in this game's setting constantly rises.

A global cooperative challenge exists each Round to outpace the rising levels and eventually rid the air of harmful radiation completely.