Dumpster Gang

Overview

Dumpster Gang is a chaotic co-op sandbox where you play a gang of mischievous raccoons. The fantasy is simple and excellent: knock over trash cans, steal shiny junk, raid snacks, commit tiny crimes, and outsmart a relentless Exterminator who wants to throw your gang behind bars. Up to four players team up for heists, or one raccoon runs the whole operation solo.

Developer Coyote House Games, the two-person team of Sam and Jake, calls it a chaotic co-op sandbox, and the tone is unapologetically silly. Curve Games publishes it, and the Steam release lands December 2026. The full feature set is visible now: climbable walls and vents, a persistent Exterminator threat, mission-based heists, hats with unique abilities, and a hideout you decorate with your stolen haul.

The core loop is heist-flavored: pick a mission, run the job, steal everything you can carry, and get home before the Exterminator catches you. Loot is the score, the streets are the map, and the greatest hoard the forest has ever known is the endgame fantasy. The movement system matters more here than in most sandboxes because walls, vents, and rooftops are both escape routes and loot locations, and the Exterminator owns the ground level.

One thing the trailers undersell: rescue is a real mechanic. Teammates get captured, and a captured raccoon stays behind bars until the gang comes back for them. Heists can fail into rescue missions, and the game treats that failure as content, not as a game over. Betrayals, disasters, and hilarious accidents are part of the job description.

Target audience: groups who loved Untitled Goose Game, Moving Out, or Overcooked's cooperative chaos, plus anyone who has watched a raccoon open a trash can and thought "that is a protagonist." It is family-friendly mischief rather than stealth tension, and the Exterminator is a comedic pressure element, not a horror villain.

Difficulty: easy to play, chaotic to master. The movement is arcade-friendly, the missions are comedically petty, and the challenge comes from coordinating a gang under time pressure and a trap-happy pursuer.

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Getting Started: The First Heist

Dumpster Gang hands you the loop in the first mission: look at the objective, find the loot, haul it out, and do not get caught. The opening sessions are about learning the rhythm of planning and execution.

1. Treat the first mission as a movement tutorial. The game wants you climbing, vent-crawling, and rooftop-hopping before it tests you with the Exterminator. Spend the first job testing what raccoon physics allows.
2. Learn the vent routes early. Vents are the game's hidden highway. They get you across a level without touching the street, and the Exterminator does not check them. A gang that knows its vents barely needs the rooftops.
3. Grab your first hat as soon as one unlocks. Hats carry abilities, not just looks. The right hat changes how you move, how much you carry, or how the Exterminator reacts to you. Read the ability before you equip the style.
4. Carry heavy loot with a partner. Some objects are two-person jobs. Grabbing one solo just slows the whole gang; two raccoons carrying together move faster than one dragging alone.
5. Watch the Exterminator's route before you commit. He is relentless but predictable when you study him. Time your dash between his patrol loops instead of sprinting blind.
6. Do not stack the haul on one raccoon. If the carrier gets caught, the whole score goes behind bars. Spread the loot so one capture does not end the run.
7. Decorate the hideout after every mission. The hideout is your progression screen. Every ridiculous item you steal becomes a decoration, and customizing your raccoon is the game's way of making the hoard feel yours.

Controls Reference

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Core Mechanics Explained

The Mission Structure

The game is not a pure free-for-all sandbox. It is mission-based: a list of ridiculous objectives that follow proper heist structure. Steal the prized bird statue. Raid the snack truck. Break into the garden, but leave the sprinkler running. The objectives are comedically petty, and the execution demands real coordination, which is the trick that makes the game work. The joke is that raccoons treat trash-stealing with the gravity of an Ocean's Eleven job.

Missions gate the progression. Completing jobs earns loot, loot decorates the hideout, and the hideout grows into a monument to the gang's career. The mission list is also where the replay value lives, because the same objective plays differently with two players, four players, or a solo raccoon.

Movement: Walls, Vents, and Rooftops

The environments are built for raccoon movement. Sprint, climb walls, crawl through vents, and reach places only a raccoon could. Pick up, throw, steal, or smash nearly everything, and turn every level into a chaotic playground.

The vertical dimension is your home turf. The Exterminator patrols the street, so the height is where the gang operates. Vents matter even more than rooftops because they are invisible lanes: they cross the map under the enemy's nose and let the gang reposition without being seen. A raccoon who knows the vent layout scores; a raccoon who only plays street level gets caught.

Loot spawns at multiple elevations too, so climbing is not just survival, it is the economy. The best scores come from routes that chain rooftops to vents to alleyways without ever touching the patrol line.

The Exterminator and His Traps

Your public enemy number one. The Exterminator patrols the streets, sets traps, and is determined to throw your gang behind bars. He is the pressure element that keeps heists from being pure looting. Every mission is a timing problem as much as a theft problem.

The relationship is layered. Cause enough chaos and he hunts you down. Outsmart his traps, escape capture, and rescue your friends before the gang ends up behind bars. That sentence on the Steam page is the whole game in miniature: he reacts to your chaos level, he deploys traps, capture is a real state, and rescue is a real objective.

Trap-spotting is a core survival skill. Traps are visible if you look, and the Exterminator's patrol pattern is a puzzle you solve per mission. A gang that reads his route and his trap placement turns the scariest part of the game into the most predictable part.

Carry, Toss, and Team-Lift

Nearly everything can be picked up, thrown, stolen, or smashed. Small loot is one-raccoon work: grab and go, or toss it to a teammate on a rooftop for a faster route. Heavy loot is two-person work: team-lifting together moves faster and keeps the object out of the street.

Tossing is the underrated mechanic. A well-thrown item crosses ground the carrier would have to walk, and a rooftop chain of tosses moves loot faster than any single carrier. The catch is that tossed loot is airborne loot, visible to the Exterminator, so toss routes need to be quick.

Capture and Rescue

When a raccoon gets caught, they end up behind bars. That is not a fail state. It is a rescue mission. The remaining gang can come back, bust the cage, and pull the captured teammate out, ideally while the Exterminator is on the other side of the map.

The rescue mechanic changes how you play a failed heist. Walking away from a captured teammate means losing the loot they carried and leaving the gang short-staffed for the next job. Going back in means a second encounter with the Exterminator, but it also means the outfit keeps its numbers and its haul. Good gangs treat capture as an objective, not a punishment.

The Hideout and Hats

Here is the progression layer the trailers barely show. After every mission you return home to customize your raccoon, unlock hats with unique abilities, and decorate your hideout with every ridiculous item you have stolen.

The hats are the power system. Abilities, not just cosmetics, live on the hats, which means build variety exists even in a comedy sandbox. A movement hat changes your routes. A carry hat changes what the gang can score. A trickster hat changes how the Exterminator reacts. The hat you equip is the closest thing the game has to a class, and swapping hats is the closest thing to respeccing.

The hideout is the collection layer. Decorating with stolen loot turns every mission's score into a visible monument, and the hoard fantasy needs that. Without the hideout, loot would be a score number. With it, loot is a shrine to the gang's career.

What the Game Is Not

It is not a serious stealth sim. The tone is comedy chaos, and loud is fine if you are fast. It is not a competitive game, despite the betrayals the marketing teases; the betrayals are part of the cooperative comedy, not a competitive mode. It is not a solo-stealth experience either, though solo play works with a different, cleaner cadence.

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Progression Strategy

The Hideout Economy

The hideout is the meta-progression. Missions give loot, loot decorates the hideout, and your raccoon's customization grows. The order you spend in matters more than the marketing suggests.

Priority Order

The Hat Rotation

Hats have abilities, so your hat should match your assignment. The scout on the rooftops wants a movement hat. The carrier on the street wants a carry hat. The bait wants a trickster hat. In solo play, the rotation still applies, just on a smaller scale: check the mission type, then pick the hat that answers it. A gang that treats hats as loadouts plays noticeably cleaner than one that treats hats as fashion.

The Hoard Mindset

Score every mission twice: once in loot, once in hideout value. The best missions are not the biggest hauls but the ones that bring back items you actually want displayed. Track the mission list for the items that would look great in the hideout, and run those objectives on repeat. The hoard is the endgame, and the endgame is about curation, not accumulation.

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Gang Roles and Team Comps

Four raccoons can specialize, and the sandbox supports it. Roles are informal, decided in a minute around the mission list, and the hat system reinforces them.

Team Comps

The Balanced Crew. Scout, carrier, distractor, wildcard. The classic four-stack. The scout pre-positions, the distractor holds the Exterminator, the carrier moves the score, and the wildcard covers whatever goes wrong, which is always something.

The Two-Raccoon Duo. Carrier plus distractor. Two players work with one distraction rotation and one haul lane. Slower scoring, cleaner execution, ideal for friends learning the game.

The Solo Operator. One raccoon carrying every role. The solo build leans movement and route discipline, because without partners every capture is total. Play vertical, move only when the patrol window is open, and treat each objective as its own micro-heist.

The Rescue Squad. Two carriers and two rescuers. This comp exists for missions where the gang expects to get caught. It trades scoring speed for durability and turns the capture-rescue loop into an engine.

Role Rules Experienced Gangs Use

1. The scout marks three exits before the crew enters. A heist fails on the way out, not the way in. Knowing the exit route before touching the loot is the difference between a clean escape and a capture.
2. The distractor never loots. A raccoon carrying loot cannot bait properly. The distractor's job is moving the Exterminator, and the moment they grab something shiny, the rotation breaks.
3. The carrier calls the route. Everyone else protects the lane the carrier chooses. Split decisions scatter the gang and feed the Exterminator easy captures.
4. Swap hats when the mission changes. A capture mission wants rescuers with movement hats. A big-score mission wants carriers with carry hats. The mission list is the loadout screen.

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Step-by-Step Strategies

Strategy 1: The Standard Heist (Co-op)

1. Gather at the campfire or hideout and read the mission objective.
2. Assign roles: scout, carrier, distractor, wildcard.
3. Scout pre-positions on the rooftop and pings three exits.
4. Distractor baits the Exterminator to the far patrol point.
5. Carriers hit the loot, toss small items up to the scout's perch.
6. Team-lift the heavy prize out through the highest exit.
7. Reunite at the hideout, bank the loot, decorate, rerun.

Strategy 2: The Heavy-Loot Two-Carrier Route

1. Identify the two-person object before touching it.
2. Clear the street lane between the object and the exit.
3. Both carriers grab the object at the same countdown.
4. Move in short bursts, syncing steps so the object does not drag.
5. The scout watches the Exterminator and calls the pauses.
6. Toss small loot along the same route ahead of the heavy object.
7. Drop the object inside the hideout threshold, then go back for stragglers.

Strategy 3: The Rescue Mission

1. Read the capture report and find the cage location.
2. Do not rush in. The cage is bait if the Exterminator is leaning on it.
3. Scout the patrol route around the cage and wait for the empty window.
4. One rescuer busts the cage while the other covers the exit lane.
5. The freed raccoon grabs their dropped loot on the way out.
6. If the Exterminator turns, the cover raccoon baits him away.
7. Reunite, then rerun the failed objective with the full gang.

Strategy 4: The Vent-Way Speedrun (Solo)

1. Equip a movement hat before the mission.
2. Map the vent entrances in the first minute; they are your highway.
3. Never touch street level outside the patrol windows.
4. Move through vents in a loop: vent, loot, vent, drop-off.
5. Plan the exit before the second loot grab.
6. If the Exterminator enters the vent zone, wait him out, he cannot follow.
7. Finish the mission with a clean extract and zero street time.

Strategy 5: The Distraction Rotation (Full Gang)

1. Distractor bait number one takes the Exterminator to the east corner.
2. Carriers clear the west side while he is away.
3. When the Exterminator turns, bait number two takes him north.
4. The first distractor repositions to the south corner for the next rotation.
5. The rotation continues until the score is out.
6. The fourth raccoon covers rescues if any capture happens mid-rotation.
7. Debrief at the hideout: who got caught, what to change next run.

Strategy 6: The Hideout-Building Farming Route

1. Check the mission list for items you actually want displayed.
2. Run that objective with a carry-heavy comp for maximum loot per trip.
3. Spread the haul across carriers, never stack it on one.
4. Prioritize toss routes so small items multiply the score.
5. Return home, place the best items, and check what clips into the next mission.
6. Rerun the same objective on higher difficulty if the mode offers it.

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Advanced Tips

The Exterminator is a puzzle, not a threat. His patrol route and trap placement are readable. A gang that solves the puzzle turns the scariest mechanic into the most predictable one. Watch one full patrol loop before touching anything shiny.

Chaos is a meter, so is timing. The more chaos you cause, the more he hunts you. Small, quiet missions draw small patrols. Big scores draw the deep hunt. Match your chaos appetite to your gang's skill level.

Toss routes beat carry routes. A rooftop chain of tossed items moves faster than any single carrier and keeps loot off the street. The risk is visibility, so toss during the window when the Exterminator faces away.

The capture-rescue loop is a resource. A captured teammate is not a loss if the gang goes back for them. Treat rescue as part of the mission plan, and the failed heist becomes a two-act job.

Hats are loadouts. Abilities, not cosmetics. Check the mission, swap the hat, play the role. The gang that treats hats as gear plays a different game from the gang that treats them as fashion.

Vents are the hidden highway of the map. They cross under the patrol line and the Exterminator cannot follow. A gang that learns vent layouts barely needs the rooftops, and rooftop-only gangs miss half the safe lanes.

Betrayals are comedy, not strategy. The marketing teases betrayals, but the game is cooperative. A cheeky shove that dumps a teammate's loot is a joke moment. A habit of it will end your gang's score and your friendships equally fast.

Customization is progression in disguise. Hats and hideout decor are not just rewards for playing, they alter how you play. Spend on mechanics before cosmetics, and the collection takes care of itself.

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FAQ

When does Dumpster Gang release? December 2026 on Steam. The date is announced on Steam and the official announcement.

Is there a demo? Not announced yet. The wishlist is open, and the dev blog and Discord share updates.

How much will it cost? Price TBA. The Steam page lists no price yet.

What platforms are supported? Windows on Steam, 64-bit. No console or Mac announcements yet.

Is it co-op? Yes. Online co-op for up to 4 players, plus full solo play.

Can I play alone? Yes. Solo is supported and plays with a stealthier, route-based pacing.

Does it have controller support? Yes, full controller support is listed on the Steam page.

What kind of game is it? A chaotic co-op sandbox mixing mission heists, stealing, vertical traversal, and a persistent Exterminator threat.

Are the hats cosmetic? No. Hats have unique abilities, so they function as the game's loadout system.

What happens when a teammate gets caught? They end up behind bars. The gang can rescue them, recover their dropped loot, and rerun the mission.

Who is the developer? Coyote House Games, the two-person team of Sam and Jake, published by Curve Games.

What is the goal of the game? Amass the greatest hoard the forest has ever known by outsmarting the Exterminator, one ridiculous mission at a time.

Does it have a trailer? Yes. An announcement trailer and a reveal trailer debuted alongside the December 2026 release date announcement.

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Final Tips

The final tip: learn the vents before you learn the loot routes. The vent system is your safety, your scouting network, and your escape route all at once, and the Exterminator has no answer for a raccoon that lives inside the walls.

The second tip: treat the mission list as a loadout screen. Pick the hat for the job, assign the roles, and check the exits before anyone touches the score. The planning takes ninety seconds and it buys the whole gang a clean night.

And the third: never leave a teammate behind bars. The rescue run is the game's best content, and a gang that goes back for its own is the gang that ends the night with the hoard intact. December 2026 cannot come soon enough, but the planning starts now.

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Last reviewed by Game How To Editorial. We play each game, verify controls against official sources, and update guides when game mechanics change.