LOCKDOWN Protocol: Complete Guide

A practical guide to LOCKDOWN Protocol, the first-person social deduction game where employees race to finish tasks on a space station while hidden dissidents sabotage them: how rounds work, how to play both roles, weapons and items, lobby settings, and the rules that can get you banned.

Researched September 2026 — current as of Update 1.6.1 (14 September 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

The Basics

• Genre: first-person social deduction with real-time action and proximity voice chat.
• Players: 1 to 16 per session (the fun starts around 6+).
• Sides: most players are employees who must complete tasks together in time. A small number are dissidents who try to stop them without getting caught.
• Release: Early Access from July 2024, full release on 18 November 2025. Developer and publisher: Mirage Creative Lab. It's a paid game on Steam; optional cosmetic DLC packs are Holidays, Characters and Contrast.

Quick Start

1. Talk. Proximity voice is the core of the game. Say where you're going and what you're carrying.
2. Learn the task loop first. As an employee, your job is to keep the station's tasks moving: gather the right items, bring them to the right machines, and finish before time runs out.
3. Watch hands. What someone is carrying (and where they're taking it) is the best evidence you'll get.
4. Don't shoot on a hunch. Guns are deadly and there's no undo for killing a teammate.
5. Stick with at least one other player you trust. Lone employees are easy targets.
6. Know the map areas: the restaurant, the medical area, the armory, the garden, the central area, the camera room, and the card-locked rooms (Machine Supply, Research Corridor, Emergency Room).
7. Healing is a team action. Cookies heal the player they hit from the front, and popsicles (Summer theme) are used on fellow employees. Cookie healing was doubled in Update 1.6.0. Stay near someone who can heal you.
8. Check the session rules before a match: hosts can change battery speeds, weapon availability, access cards and locked-room states.
9. Watch the task videos. The game has a basic tutorial and short video tutorials for each task; five minutes there saves a lot of confusion in your first lobby.

How a Match Plays Out

1. Players spawn on the station and learn their role.
2. Employees split up to handle tasks. Tasks are spread across rooms and involve fetching items, running machines, or delivering resources. Examples from the patch notes and community guides include preparing Pizzushi in the restaurant (rice from rice bags/containers plus plant toppings from the garden), charging and distributing batteries, running the sample machine, the pressure task, and power and PC tasks.
3. Dissidents blend in, pretend to work, and sabotage: hiding task items such as filters and boxes, wasting time, and eliminating employees when they can get away with it.
4. Employees win by finishing their objectives in time; dissidents win if the employees fail.

The game doesn't hand you a script for who is lying. Everything comes from what people say over proximity voice, what they carry, and where things end up, which is why the rest of this guide keeps coming back to callouts and item tracking.

The tasks you'll see

The exact task list varies by round, but these are the ones named in the official patch notes and community guides. Each one is a chain of "fetch the right thing, bring it to the right machine", which is exactly what a dissident can interrupt.

Snap throws: you can throw an item into a machine slot and it snaps in, which is faster than walking up to the machine. It's also a quick way to hand something off across a room, so watch where thrown items land.

Alarms, doors and access cards

• Access cards open the locked rooms. Games start with two by default (changed from one plus a 50% chance of a second in 1.2.0), and the host can change the number.
• Each locked room can start locked, opened with a card, or already open, depending on session settings.
• The station has an alarm system. Treat an alarm as a callout: someone should say what triggered it and who was nearby.

Death and revival

• Killed players become ghosts. A ghost's light pulses when they speak, so you can tell when a dead player is talking.
• The medical area has defibrillators that can revive players once fully charged with batteries. Reviving a key teammate can swing a round, and it's another reason battery tasks matter.

Playing as an Employee

• Call out your task. "Taking batteries to medical" makes it much harder for a dissident to lie about where things went.
• Travel in pairs or small groups, especially through quiet corridors.
• Use the camera room. Surveillance screens let one player watch key areas. (Low-end PCs can disable the camera room screens in render settings for performance, added in 1.4.0.)
• Track items. If a delivery goes missing between two people, one of them is lying.
• Arm up carefully. Weapon cases and gun crates hold weapons; the heavy weapon case holds stronger ones. An armed, trusted employee is a strong deterrent.
• Don't panic-fire. Hitting an innocent teammate costs you a worker and your credibility.
• Share evidence, then act together. A group decision is harder for a dissident to manipulate.

Playing as a Dissident

• Act busy. Carry items, stand at machines, and talk about tasks.
• Sabotage quietly. Misplacing or hiding a key item (the community has whole guides on where to hide filters and boxes) can cost employees more time than a kill.
• Pick your moments. Kill only when there are no witnesses and you have a story ready.
• Create doubt. Accuse carefully and with a reason; a wild accusation exposes you.
• Coordinate silently. Stay apart from your fellow dissidents so one getting caught doesn't expose the other.
• Use the environment. Locked rooms, dark corners and noisy areas are your friends.

Weapons and Items

• Heavy weapon cases sit in the armory. They are on by default (since 1.2.0), and the host can turn them off or choose which heavy weapons they contain.
• Reloading: guns don't refill themselves; the community guide "How to reload guns" explains the process. Plan where you'll reload before a fight.
• Gun skins: with the Summer theme, all guns are disguised as water guns — they still kill.
• Throwables and junk: mugs, cookies and candy canes break on impact, and breaking sounds carry about 50% farther since 1.3.0, so a smash is a callout in itself. You can also slap fish on people's backs, which is purely for laughs.
• Healing: cookies (on frontal hit) and popsicles (Summer theme), both used on another player.
• Access cards open locked doors, depending on the host's locked-room settings.
• Defibrillators in medical revive players when charged with batteries.
• C4 exists as an item — handle it like the dangerous tool it is.
• Item dropping: as of 1.6.1, raising your hands actually drops what you hold instead of throwing it a short distance.

Session Settings for Hosts

Tip for new groups: start with fewer dissidents, generous battery speed and easy access to rooms (Already open). Tighten settings as everyone learns the map, then save each stage as a preset so you can switch between "learning" and "serious" rules in one click.

Suggested presets

Recent Update History

What Can Get You Banned

Mirage Creative Lab published clear rules alongside 1.6.1:

• Cheating: any external tool that modifies the game — even if it gives no advantage — including save editing to change skins. Mods are only allowed in lobbies flagged as modded; there, the host decides what's allowed and it won't lead to game-wide bans.
• Unofficial versions: Steam is the only official way to get the game.
• Harassment: insults and harassment that cause repeated reports; the devs say edge cases are handled by humans.
• Not cheating: communicating outside the game (for example a separate voice chat). It's poor sportsmanship but not a bannable cheat.
• Unfair bans can be appealed through a ticket on the official Discord.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Running off alone as an employee.
• Shooting the first person who looks weird.
• Silent play. Without callouts, dissidents win easily.
• Ignoring healing items and dying to chip damage.
• Hosting a modded game without the modded lobby flag — that's bannable.
• Using third-party voice chat in public lobbies to share info with a friend; it's not a ban, but it ruins the game for others.

Advanced Tips

• Establish alibis early. Pair with someone for the first minutes; it builds a trust network for the rest of the round.
• Count deliveries. Knowing how many items should have arrived is the fastest way to prove sabotage.
• Hold the armory. Control of weapons shapes the whole round.
• Revive priority: get the most trusted or most informed dead player back first.
• Proximity voice tells a story: someone who "was in medical" but wasn't heard by anyone in medical is suspicious.
• Dissident timing: sabotage right before a deadline, when employees are rushed and less careful.

FAQ

Is LOCKDOWN Protocol free? No, it's a paid game on Steam with optional cosmetic DLC.

How many players do I need? It supports 1–16; social deduction really works from around 6 players up.

Does it have proximity voice chat? Yes. Voice is positional. A long-standing bug that made some players' microphones heard globally was largely fixed in 1.4.0; the devs say it can still rarely happen and want reports if it does.

Can dead players talk? Dead players become ghosts, and a ghost's light pulses when they speak.

How much are the DLC packs? All three are cosmetic: Holidays, Characters and Contrast (Contrast includes extra suit patterns and 5 of the 6 metal customization options). Prices vary by region; check the store page.

Where do I report a cheater or appeal a ban? Use the in-game report button for players; ban appeals go through a ticket on the official Discord.

Can I play with mods? Yes, but only in sessions with the "modded lobby" setting enabled (since 1.6.1).

How do I turn the Summer or Christmas theme on or off? Session rules, map rule, map theme.

Can I invite friends to public sessions? Yes, since 1.4.3; private sessions are host-invite only.

Sources

• LOCKDOWN Protocol — Steam store page
• LOCKDOWN Protocol Steam news feed (updates 1.4.0 to 1.6.1, ban rules)
• LOCKDOWN Protocol Steam events archive (older patch notes)
• LOCKDOWN Protocol Steam community guides
• Complete Weapon & Item Overview: Spawn Rates & Locations (Steam guide)
• Pressure Task Explanation (Steam guide)
• How to reload guns (Steam guide)
• Where to find weapon cases and how to open them (Steam guide)