Warhounds Distant Smoke Walkthrough and First Base Setup

In Distant Smoke, secure the landing zone, find President Sefu Kanindo and escort him to the garden pickup. This guide follows that opening rescue, then explains what to check when base management opens: injuries, equipment, crew capacity and funds.

For general save-mode and squad-planning advice throughout the campaign, use the beginner guide. The walkthrough below uses release-version footage; the later Workshop and Swift purchase advice includes our October gameplay captures.

If you want a drone, building the Workshop opens the purchase options. You still need to buy Swift and check that it appears as Ready in the Workshop’s LIST. The Swift drone guide walks through the purchase and deployment steps.

Distant Smoke walkthrough

Secure the landing zone, find President Sefu Kanindo, then protect him and the squad while reaching the garden pickup.

Before you start

This is the opening mission, before base construction or recruitment.

The route below follows release-version 1.0 footage. If your objective panel differs, follow the instructions in your game. Enemy positions, shots and turn counts can vary.

Checkpoint	What happens	Watch
Briefing	The palace comes under attack	4:12 briefing
Landing	Secure the landing zone	5:25 objective
Locate Kanindo	Find the president and prepare to extract him	11:07 objective update
Extraction	Head for the garden pickup after finding Kanindo	27:34 identification and 27:57 garden pickup
Survival requirements	Keep every squad soldier and the president alive	20:49 OBJECTIVES panel
Landing clearance	Clear the sector so the helicopter can land	44:58 sector clear
Completion	Distant Smoke is marked complete	45:05 completion

Objective

The objective changes as you advance: secure the landing zone, find Sefu Kanindo, then reach the garden pickup. Keep the president and every squad member alive. Reaching the garden is only part of the job: the sector must be clear enough for the helicopter to land.

Step-by-step sequence

1. Secure the landing zone. Follow the tutorial movement and attack prompts and deal with the immediate threats.
2. Advance toward the palace objective. Use cover and keep actions available for new contacts as you look for President Kanindo.
3. Reach and identify Kanindo. Once the dialogue confirms him, focus on getting the group to safety.
4. Move toward the garden pickup. Follow the objective marker and protect both Kanindo and the full squad along the way.
5. Clear the pickup sector. Continue until the game announces that the sector is clear and the helicopter can land.
6. Follow the final on-screen prompt. In the walkthrough, the helicopter call leads straight into mission completion.

Risks, failure, and evacuation conditions

The Veteran 1.0 objective panel lists All squad soldiers must survive and The president must survive. Avoid chasing optional kills if it leaves someone exposed or separates the group from the pickup route. The footage does not establish whether a downed soldier counts as dead for these objectives, when a death would fail the mission, or whether the game automatically retries or reloads. Do not plan around an assumed retry.

The helicopter pickup is a scripted story objective. Major Update 1.0.2 says manual extraction on story missions is now disabled; follow the mission prompts for this pickup.

Confirm completion

Look for Distant Smoke to be marked complete after the extraction fight. Its Steam achievement is Welcome to Africa. You can compare the ending in RonEmpire’s run at 45:05 or the Veteran run at 20:53.

Warhounds opening checklist

When	What to do	What to check before continuing
Before starting a campaign	Choose difficulty, controls and save behavior	You understand when you can save and whether you want Ironman
At a mission briefing	Read the primary objective and any protection or extraction conditions	You can state what ends the mission successfully
Before deployment	Inspect each selected operative and their equipped gear	The squad has usable equipment and can cover the objective
During combat	Check the shot preview, cover and remaining actions	Another operative or a fallback route can cover a failed attack
When base management is available	Review personnel, hiring options, recovery and funds	Your next team can operate without depending on one unavailable veteran
Before building the Workshop	Check construction requirements and leave funds for a drone purchase	Buy Swift through PURCHASE, then confirm Ready in LIST

1. Choose your save behavior before the tutorial

Open the settings and choose a comfortable camera, text size, audio level, difficulty and save mode. Steam lists Full Controller Support and rates Steam Deck compatibility Playable, not Verified. Keyboard remapping was absent at launch and has not been confirmed by the controller updates; check the controls and keybind guide before relying on a custom layout.

A post-launch developer answer describes three save choices:

Save behavior	What the developer confirms	Who it suits
Save at will	Saving is allowed except during the first tutorial missions	Learning systems with the option to revisit decisions
Mission boundaries	Saving at mission start and finish	Playing each operation as a committed attempt
Ironman	One save, updated every turn	Accepting the consequences of each turn

These are descriptions of the save options, rather than exact menu labels. Read the options in your game before confirming; whether you can switch later and how achievements are affected remain unconfirmed.

Then read the mission objective before choosing equipment. The official material emphasizes missions with different tactical demands, so a loadout that looks strong in a generic fight may not cover escort, capture, or rescue work.

2. Recognize the named mission milestones

Steam’s public achievement descriptions identify two named missions and a first random combat milestone:

Mission or milestone	Completion achievement
Distant Smoke	Welcome to Africa
Steel Sails	Snatch
Complete the first random combat mission	Good Start

Use these names to find the right guide for your campaign. At each briefing, identify the required objective and reread it when the situation changes. See mission types and objectives for the wider campaign tasks.

3. Check the action preview before committing

Treat the first encounters as a chance to answer four questions:

1. What does the current interface show for line of fire and hit probability?
2. How does the map communicate full, partial, damaged, or destroyed cover?
3. Which actions end an operative’s opportunity to reposition?
4. Where is the safest fallback if the intended attack fails?

Read the remaining actions and the attack preview before moving or firing. Avoid planning a whole turn around an action cost remembered from a pre-release video. The ballistics and line-of-sight guide explains why a high-probability attack can still fail.

4. Prepare the next team at base

Pause at base before accepting another mission. Check:

• who needs treatment or downtime;
• whether another operative can cover the same battlefield role;
• which equipment is reusable and which gap needs attention;
• how much money remains after essential preparation;
• whether reconnaissance or a different contract changes the risk.

For recruitment, compare the available candidates’ class, abilities, equipment and price with the role you need. Check that each item is equipped on the intended soldier before deployment. The recruitment and recovery guide covers hiring and preparing replacements.

Build around the problem you have now: injuries, an empty squad role, missing equipment or a need for reconnaissance. Workshop construction unlocks drone purchases; it does not give you a free Swift. Open WORKSHOP / DRONE MAINTENANCE → PURCHASE, buy Swift, then return to LIST and confirm Ready. Patch 1.0.1 removed the separate Recon Drone contract. Check the Swift guide for the construction, purchase and deployment screens.

Build a flexible early roster

Warhounds has five classes and ten unique veterans. Look for overlapping roles in your available squad: more than one operative who can hold a lane, create a flank, support an ally or carry reconnaissance tools.

The goal is to avoid a campaign state where one injury removes an entire capability. See classes overview and recruitment, medical care, and downtime for a role-based approach.

5. Finish the session with a usable next squad

Before ending the first session:

• confirm which of the three save behaviors the campaign uses and save at a permitted decision point;
• confirm the next team’s equipment and review injuries or availability;
• keep a reserve instead of spending every resource immediately;
• identify one system to learn next, such as cover, equipment, or contracts.

If story progression appears stuck, check the installed game version before replaying an operation. Hotfix #6 lists a fix for story missions occasionally failing to appear; Major Update 1.0.2 separately lists fixes for city recon, Joint Operation spawning, and mission scripts. These are developer-listed fixes, not proof that every affected save recovers automatically. See map progression and optional missions for a safe reporting checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a fixed two-hour walkthrough?

No. Reading time, difficulty and campaign decisions vary. Follow the preparation stages at your own pace.

Can I follow an old demo video exactly?

Use it only to recognize concepts. Controls, values, objectives, and balance may differ in version 1.0.

What should I spend first?

Address an immediate problem first: an untreated injury, a missing squad role or equipment needed for the next objective. Check the prices in your campaign and leave a reserve for the next deployment.

Should I build the Workshop first?

Consider it when you want a drone and can afford both construction and the purchase. Build the Workshop, buy Swift through PURCHASE, then check Ready in LIST. If injuries or missing equipment are stopping your next mission, address those first.

Version and source notes

The Distant Smoke route follows RonEmpire’s release-version 1.0 walkthrough, compared with Neyreyan’s Veteran 1.0 run. It has not been replayed here on Major Update 1.0.2. The first recording’s difficulty is unconfirmed; neither video establishes a fixed enemy route, turn count or complete campaign order.

The game’s subtitle names Sefu Kanindo at 27:37 in RonEmpire’s run. Neyreyan’s Veteran run shows the same extraction update at 13:17 and the sector-clear helicopter call at 20:46, with different pacing and tactical choices.

The Workshop purchase steps come from our October 29 campaign session, documented in the Swift guide and source list below. Store labels, save-mode descriptions and patch fixes come from the linked official sources; they do not imply that every controller or existing save was tested.