Jailbreak guide

Your first ten minutes

You wake up in a cell on Blockrock island with nothing in your pockets. The first time you play, a short tutorial walks you through the basics: a gold arrow and a ring on the ground show you where to go, and the key you need glows. It's worth finishing, because it takes you through the loop the whole game is built on.

1. Get a job. Walk to the Job Office in the Blue Hall and pick one. Delivery is the easiest start: carry trash bags to the dumpster truck in the yard.
2. Earn tokens. Every finished task pays tokens (🍫). Work Time, 08:00 to 10:00, pays a bonus token on every job.
3. Eat. Meals come from the Cafeteria counter at 07:00, 13:00 and 18:00, and the vending machines sell snacks any time. A full stomach lasts about 40 minutes of play.
4. Plan your escape. Press J to see every way out and what each one needs.

Then pick an escape, save up for it, and go.

The prison day

A full day lasts about 20 real minutes, and everyone on a server shares the same clock. The time and the current period are always at the top of the screen.

Night falls from 21:00, and it rains for a few hours most days. Guards can't see as far in the rain, which makes it a good time to move.

Jobs and tokens

Tokens buy everything: tools, food, gear and escape supplies. Pick up a job at the Job Office.

The mine

Take the Mining job and you get a pickaxe. During Work Time, climb down the mine shaft in the yard and hold E at the gold-flecked ore veins. Be back up the ladder for the 10:15 headcount: anyone still underground after that is fair game for the guards. Deep in a side tunnel, Dusty sells dynamite, firecrackers and bread.

Lefty's pickpocketing job

Lefty works out in the gym. Talk to him for a pair of pickpocket gloves, creep up behind a guard, and press E. Press again while the needle is in the green to lift the guard's wallet, and Lefty pays 8 tokens for each one. Sneaking gives you a much wider green. Miss, and the guards are after you.

Staying out of trouble

Guards take you down for:

• holding contraband in your hand where they can see it
• setting off a metal detector (one guards every hall entrance)
• fighting
• being in the vents or a restricted area
• being out of your cell at Lights Out or during a lockdown
• escaping in front of them

If you're caught with contraband, you glow red and every guard gets an arrow pointing at you for 90 seconds. Keep your head down until it wears off.

Tips

• Sneak. Press G (👣 on a phone) to move at half speed. Guards can't see or hear you from behind, even right up close. Noise still gives you away: fighting, digging and gunshots.
• Keep tools in your pack, not your hand. It's what's in your hand that guards can see.
• Sew a hidden pocket. A Needle & Thread from Slick in the vents (15 tokens) adds one secret slot. Frisks and metal detectors never find what's in it, and you keep it when you die.
• Use a stash. When you die, you drop everything you're carrying. Every stash (Cell 1, the loft at the end of the cell block, and the Fugitive Camp) opens the same storage, so keep your valuables there.
• Light a firecracker. While one crackles (12 seconds), nobody is kill-on-sight. It's a good moment to run.

Every way out

Press J in the game to see these at any time.

Follow someone out

When anyone escapes through the vent cover or a tunnel, it stays open for two minutes, and chat tells everyone. Any prisoner can follow them out with no tools: hold E at the cover or the hole. Watch chat for "The vent cover is off!" and run.

The vents

The vents connect every cell and hall, and two supply stashes are hidden inside. The grates are screwed shut, and the screws go back in every morning at 06:00. Open one with a screwdriver (sometimes in the guards' toolbox in the armory), or more slowly with a metal file (1 metal and 1 tape, or found by searching tables).

Life as a fugitive

Once you're out, your name turns red and the whole island opens up. You start with leather gear and a fishing rod.

• The Fugitive Camp, in the straw huts to the north-east, sells swords, iron armour and med kits, and buys fish. Three more camps (West, South and North) each have a stash, a workbench, a campfire, a stable and a Bounty Board. Type !cell to go to the nearest camp.
• Fishing pays. Fish in the rivers and ponds or off the docks, cook your catch on a campfire, and sell it at the Fish Market on the west dock. Look out for sharks.
• Horses and speedboats. Take a horse from any stable (Shift gallops, Space leaps), or a speedboat from the west dock or south pier.
• Craft and upgrade. Make a bow at a workbench (3 wood and 1 rope), and buy blueprints to upgrade swords, armour, bows and rods.
• The Bounty Board posts a new bounty every in-game hour, plus three odd jobs a day, the same for everyone.
• The cannon on the lookout tower at the North-West Camp can blow a hole in the prison wall, so your friends can walk out.

The Black Market in the burned camp to the south-west opens from 20:00 to 06:00. If you die as a fugitive, you're a prisoner again.

Playing as a guard

Prefer to keep everyone locked up? Join the guards from the pause menu. Guards get a baton, a cell key and armour, and earn a token every in-game hour on duty, plus duties that pay points: frisk prisoners, confiscate contraband, stamp out firecrackers.

• Only take down prisoners marked 🚨 (kill on sight) and fugitives, and never attack another guard. Break those rules three times and you're off the team for 30 minutes.
• Hold E next to a prisoner to frisk them. Contraband you find can be turned in at the Evidence Locker in the armory for points, and points buy pistols, rifles and bullets at the gun locker.
• After 30 minutes as a guard you can become a detective, who can go into the vents.

The guard team has room for about one player in three, so if it's full, try again a little later.

Friends, gangs and chat

Jailbreak is more fun with people you know. Open 👥 Friends in the pause menu to add someone by name. You'll see when your friends are online and which server they're on, and Join takes you straight to them.

Start a gang with !gang create and invite friends with !gang invite. Your gang's name shows in brackets before yours.

Press T to chat. Typing your own messages is for players 13 and over, and everyone can use Quick Chat, ready-made lines like "Follow me!" and "Guard coming!" that everyone sees in their own language. Chat is filtered: swearing means quick chat only for 7 days, and a slur means a permanent ban.

Controls

On a phone or tablet, use the joystick in the bottom-left corner, or just tap: tap the ground to walk there, or tap a door, shop, job or person to walk up and use it. Controllers work too, including Xbox, PlayStation and Switch Pro.

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