5 tips for beginners when starting Ready or Not (2025)

Ready or Not, the spiritual Swat 4 successor (Image via VOID Interactive)

Ready or Not is a first-person tactical shooter centred around breaching and clearing. Armed with tools like flashbangs, night vision goggles, and C2 charges to blow open doors, you have plenty of options to pacify the criminal element in an alternate-reality version of Los Angeles, California.

The game also supports multiplayer, allowing up to five players in a lobby. With a heavy emphasis on creating complementary load-outs within your team, what you bring into the game directly affects your chances of survival.

So, here are some basic tips to make your journey through Los Sueños a lot easier.

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1) Use the shooting range to see which weapon you like

Try out a variety of weapons to your heart's content (Image via VOID Interactive)

This game features a dizzying variety of weapons across all categories, including assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and rifles. To find the weapon that suits you best, the Los Sueños Police Department has a dedicated shooting range in the basement. Head there by going right to the end of the main lobby—you’ll see a staircase leading down with "Shooting Range" marked on the wall.

Experiment with different load-outs (Image via VOID Interactive)

Talk to the armorer to change your loadout and test out all the weapons the SWAT arsenal has to offer.

2) Use less-lethal weapons to S-Rank missions

The Beanbag Shotgun is the go-to less-lethal for most players (Image via VOID Interactive)

To achieve an S-Rank in missions, you must use less-lethal weapons to restrain every suspect alive. These include pepper ball guns, the beanbag shotgun, and the taser. You can also use tear gas—provided you wear a gas mask—to force suspects to surrender without firing a single shot.

3) Restraining protocol for perpetrators

Press F to yell for compliance (Image via VOID Interactive)

To stay within the law, you must order suspects to surrender before taking any direct hostile action. After being injured or affected by less-lethal weapons, they may surrender voluntarily. However, they can still surprise you if you approach them without caution. There is a chance that a surrendering suspect facing you may suddenly pull out a knife at point-blank range.

Prevent unpleasant surprises with just one command (Image via VOID Interactive)

To prevent this, use the middle mouse button while aiming at the suspect to issue the turn-around order, ensuring you can restrain them safely.

However, while restraining a suspect, you are vulnerable to surprise ambushes. To minimize this risk, you can take an extra precaution—use the middle mouse button menu to order the suspect to move to your location on their knees before securing them.

4) Get high mission grades to customize your operator

S-Rank Missions for Tattoos (Image via Void Interactive)

To unlock different shirts, pants, boots, and more, you need to achieve the required rank in various Ready or Not missions. Most items are locked behind B or A ranks, but if you want to unlock tattoos, you must earn an S-Rank. Achieving an S-Rank requires restraining all suspects alive, securing every piece of evidence, and ensuring there are no casualties on your team.

5) Use Door Wedges to cover your rear

Wedges are your best friend (Image via Void Interactive)

One of the most lethal mistakes you can make is failing to cover your rear. Instead of assigning a teammate to this task, you can use door wedges instead. These wedges slide under doors, making them inaccessible to enemies and preventing unexpected ambushes from uncleared rooms. They are especially useful when a room has too many doors for your team to cover. If needed, you can also remove them later to reopen the door.

This has been our top five tips that will help you stay alive in the world of Ready or Not and remember to play with friends for the ultimate experience. The game is also on sale right now on Steam during the Spring Sale.