Squad tactics · free · in your browser

StakeOut tutorial: how to play

StakeOut is a free squad tactics game played in the browser, in English and Spanish. You give orders to four soldiers, your rival does the same, blind, and the server fights out ninety seconds of combat that you both watch. Once it starts nobody can change anything: the best plan wins.

How it is played

  1. Give the orders at the Order Table: tap an objective and the soldier goes, then pick how (Assault, Caution or Stalk). Want more? In the Strategy Studio, fine-tune how they react when the fight turns, or dictate the order over the radio in your own words. No coding needed.
  2. Watch the battle: the server fights it out and you watch it on a diorama of the map, hands off.
  3. Read the after-action report: why you won or lost, which soldier to fix and how; the most common lessons apply in one tap. Correct the order and go again.

How a battle is won

Each objective (the Mill, the Crossroads and the Ford) scores 1 point every 5 seconds for the side that holds it: no enemy standing inside and at least one of its soldiers there neither pinned down nor under enemy fire. Points count ×3 in the last 30 seconds, and the most points at 1:30, or the first to 40, wins.

The squad

You pick four soldiers from five specialties, no more than two alike. Each carries one item of kit (smoke, grenade, mine, medkit or binoculars); the rifleman, two.

  • Rifleman: the deadliest at short and medium range; carries two items.
  • Machine gunner: suppressing fire at any range; cannot fire right after moving.
  • Scout: sees farther and marks targets for the squad.
  • Grenadier: hits neighboring positions without line of sight.
  • Medic: stabilizes the fallen and gets them back in the fight.

The order

In Operations you give each soldier their order: tap a soldier, then the map.

  • Destination: the place they have to take or defend.
  • Route: how they get there; a detour takes longer, but it can keep them out of enemy fire.
  • Reserve: how many seconds they wait before moving out; use it to arrive late, and fresh, for the final phase.
  • Conduct: Assault (runs, shoots at everything and goes for the zone), Caution (walks, stays less visible; survival comes first) or Stalk (moves in stealthily, waits hidden and opens fire up close).
  • Initiative: how many reactions their mind carries for when the fight changes: with little, they stick to the plan even when it’s wrong; with a lot, they answer more things on their own, always the way you set it.

Above it sits the squad’s doctrine. You can also dictate the order over the radio in your own words, write each soldier’s mind in the Strategy Studio, or ask your agent for it.

The battle

When you fight, your order and your rival’s are sealed and the server fights the battle. You watch, hands off.

Up top, the score and the clock; the gold band is the final phase. On the map, each of your soldiers says what they’re thinking and why, so you see where your order worked and where it didn’t. Key moments play in slow motion. You can pause, skip and change the speed.

The report

When it ends, the report says who won, why, which objectives scored and where each soldier fell. It closes with a lesson: the soldier to fix, and how.

Tap the lesson and you’re back at the Order Table with that soldier selected and the spot marked on the map. Fix it, save the order in Orders and fight again. Every battle is kept in Reports, with its replay.

Bots and contracts

Against the bots, you train. Pick a rival in Operations and fight as often as you like: it costs nothing and doesn’t count toward rank. Your first battle is already waiting there, against the lowest-threat bot.

Contracts are what count. You seal your order on the Contracts board with a stake in credits (Cr) from your funds, which start at 10,000, free. Another commander takes it on with theirs, even while you’re offline, and the server fights the battle; it’s waiting in Reports when you’re back. The winner collects from the loser by the points between them, up to the table’s cap.

While your contract waits for a rival, your funds set aside the worst that order can cost (the stake, the fallen and the items): you never lose more than you have. Nobody tops up what you lose.

Every contract win moves you up the Ladder and through the ranks, from lieutenant to general.

Play with your agent

You can play with your agent (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor…): it writes your soldiers’ minds, trains them against the bots and leaves them in your Order Library. Contracts and credits are yours alone: the agent never touches them. Pasting the agent link from the HQ into a chat is enough; it also connects over MCP at /mcp or over HTTP at /api/agent.

Ask it like this: “Write a mind for my rifleman: take the Mill and get into cover when fired on. Try it against the weakest bot and tell me what went wrong.”

Tips

  • Keep a reserve for the end: From H+01:00 every point counts ×3. A soldier who waits and goes in then, fresh, can turn the battle around.
  • Pinning down takes points: A pinned-down soldier does not hold the objective. The machine gunner pins the target even on a miss; a grenade pins everyone in a position.
  • Don’t walk in blind: Throw smoke before crossing watched ground, and bring a scout or binoculars: whoever sees first shoots first.
  • A fallen soldier is not lost: The medic stabilizes the fallen and gets them back in the fight. Keep the medic close to where you expect to bleed.
  • Fix one soldier at a time: The report tells you which one failed. Change only that one and fight again: that way you’ll know what worked.

No download: sign up with your email and your first battle is against a training bot.