If you are stuck wondering where to go mission 1 killer bean, the answer is the two-story building marked with a PC icon on the eastern edge of the neighborhood. The Early Access release of Jeff Lew's roguelike shooter drops you into a procedurally generated city with minimal objective markers, leaving many players driving in circles after the opening cutscene. To progress the campaign, you must hack the second-floor terminal, locate the correct network node on the bottom right of your map, and assassinate the Smuggler boss to retrieve his phone.
The lack of hand-holding is an intentional design choice to encourage exploration, but the procedural generation means no two city layouts are exactly the same. However, the logic governing the mission objectives remains static across every run. Memorizing the sequence of events is the only way to consistently clear the first zone and unlock the broader island map.
The Prologue Checklist: Surviving the Crash
Before the city map opens up, you must survive the initial cinematic set-piece. After your aircraft is struck by a missile, the protagonist and his car plunge into the ocean. You are pulled from the wreckage by a retired mercenary known as the Boatman Bean (referred to by the community as Grant).
He establishes the stakes of the campaign: the Shadow Agency operates from a heavily guarded mechanized fortress called the Super Mech. You cannot assault the fortress directly. To find its coordinates, you need to follow the supply chain, starting with a local smuggler operating out of the city.
Jump into your recovered car and drive east toward the objective marker. The driving physics in the Early Access build are intentionally loose and arcade-like. Avoid hitting explosive barrels or civilian vehicles on your way to the eastern marker, as vehicle damage is permanent for the duration of the run. The moment you cross the bridge into the city limits, the tutorial ends and the game stops giving you direct waypoints.
Step-by-Step: Locating the Smuggler’s Network
The core loop of the first zone involves terminal hacking. The city is occupied by Bad Beans—local street gangs who will instantly aggro if you run over their members, crash into their barricades, or fire an unsuppressed weapon.
Killer Bean in-game screenshot
The First Hack (The PC Icon)
Park your recovered car outside the eastern neighborhood zone. Do not drive directly into the gang encampments, or your vehicle will be destroyed in seconds. Open your map and look for a distinct PC icon.
Navigate to this structure; while procedural generation shifts its exact coordinates every time you die, it is always a two-story building. Fight or sneak up the central staircase to avoid the Bad Beans patrolling the ground floor. If you trigger an alarm, the stairs create a natural chokepoint to funnel enemies into your line of fire. Hold the interact prompt at the second-floor terminal to download the local network map.
The Second Hack (Bottom Right Node)
Hacking the first terminal reveals a web of connected devices scattered across the neighborhood blocks. You do not need to hack all of them to advance the mission.
The optional devices reveal ammo caches, health pickups, and weapon drops. The exact node you need to advance the story is located on the bottom right of your map display. Head to this specific terminal and hack it to spawn the red objective zone marking the Smuggler's location. If you spend too much time hunting down the optional nodes, the game will spawn increasingly difficult gang patrols to hunt you down, so prioritize the bottom right node if your health is low.
Island Faction Threat Levels
Understanding the enemy ecosystem prevents wasted ammo and unnecessary deaths. The procedural island features three distinct factions that operate independently and will occasionally fight each other if their patrol routes intersect.
Killer Bean in-game screenshot
Bad Beans populate the city streets in high numbers but carry weak sidearms and baseball bats. They rely entirely on swarming tactics. Mercenaries are heavily armored soldiers operating out of fortified outposts, utilizing military-grade rifles, deployable cover, and sniper support.
The Shadow Agency fields elite operatives with advanced evasion mechanics, but they rarely spawn in the first mission outside of specific boss encounters. Avoid crossfire between factions to conserve ammunition; if you see Mercenaries engaging gang patrols, stay hidden and let them thin out the numbers for you before moving in to clean up the survivors.
Movement and Parkour Mechanics for City Traversal
Navigating the procedurally generated city requires mastering the parkour system. The streets are heavily patrolled, making ground-level travel dangerous if you lose your car early in the run.
Wall jumps allow you to scale the sides of the two-story buildings quickly. Stringing together a double jump into a wall run keeps you out of the line of sight of Bad Beans. When approaching the PC icon building, taking the rooftop route lets you drop in through second-floor balconies, bypassing the heavily guarded ground floor entirely. Fall damage is mitigated by executing a roll right before hitting the ground, allowing you to drop from high elevations to ambush enemies.
Managing the Bullet-Time Gauge
Combat in this game revolves around the bullet-time gauge. Activating slow-motion is not just for cinematic flair; it is a required survival mechanic when outnumbered.
The gauge depletes rapidly when you are in the air. To maximize its efficiency, trigger bullet-time only at the apex of your dive. This gives you roughly three seconds of slowed time to line up headshots on the guards. The gauge refills by landing consecutive hits without taking damage, rewarding aggressive but highly precise playstyles. Wasting your meter on a single enemy leaves you vulnerable to the gang reinforcements that inevitably arrive when shots are fired.
The Smuggler Boss Fight and Hideout Intel
The red zone on your map indicates the boss arena. The Smuggler is entrenched within a fortified courtyard, surrounded by a heavy guard detail of Bad Beans.
Killer Bean in-game screenshot
Execute a bullet-time dive to clear out the Bad Beans guards before focusing your fire on the boss. The Smuggler wields a pump shotgun that deals massive burst damage at close range and can easily one-shot you on higher difficulties.
Keep your distance and utilize the gas can toss mechanic to flush him out from behind concrete barricades. Shoot the gas can mid-air to trigger an explosion that bypasses his cover. Once his health pool is depleted, his character model will ragdoll and he will drop a phone. You must physically walk over and pick up the phone to download the hideout coordinates. This action completes the primary objective and unlocks the path to the next sector.
Warning: The Terminal Soft Lock Bug
If you are playing on Early Access build v0.100.053, a severe soft lock can ruin your run immediately after killing the Smuggler.
If you move too far away from the Smuggler's computer before the next objective marker populates, the script breaks and enemies cease spawning entirely, leaving you trapped in an empty city. Developer Jeff Lew temporarily reverted the Steam branch to v055 to address this and a separate mouse glitch. If you are playing offline or on the bugged patch, stay inside the red zone until the "Mission Complete" UI fully renders on screen to ensure the next trigger fires correctly.
Best Early-Game Weapon Loadout
Because the loot pool is randomized, you must adapt to what the optional network nodes provide. However, certain weapons dominate the early game and should be prioritized if they drop.
Killer Bean in-game screenshot
Your starting Dual Pistols offer high accuracy during slow-motion dives and feature infinite reserve ammo, making them your most reliable tool for the entire first zone. If you uncover an SMG at an optional node, equip it immediately for crowd control when gang members swarm your vehicle. The Pump Shotgun dropped by the Smuggler boss is essential for the close-quarters indoor fights waiting in Mission 2. If you find a Sniper Rifle, save its limited ammunition strictly for taking out Mercenary snipers stationed on rooftops.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find the PC icon if my map is blank? Drive your car through the eastern neighborhood to clear the fog of war. The PC icon only populates on your UI once you cross within two city blocks of the target building.
Do I need to fight the Mercenaries in Mission 1? No. Mercenary outposts are strictly optional encounters in the early game. Unless an outpost physically blocks your path to the bottom right node, bypass them to save your health pool for the boss.
What happens if my car gets destroyed? You can complete the entire mission on foot using the parkour system, but traversing the procedural city takes significantly longer. Do not use your car as cover during the boss fight, as enemy fire will quickly detonate it and instantly kill you.
How do I heal after the boss fight? Health does not regenerate automatically. You must hack the optional network nodes to reveal health pickups, or purchase them from the Norex Trader if you have collected enough currency from defeated enemies.