PAPERHEAD Beginner Tips: 7 Things the Demo Taught Us

PAPERHEAD is a fast-movement boomer shooter set in a cardboard world, with adventure horror woven through an abandoned research facility. These seven tips come from the Next Fest demo coverage and official publisher details. Nothing here is invented.

1. Learn the dash-kick before anything else

You start the game armed with the dash-kick. GameGrin's demo preview confirms it is your initial weapon, not something you unlock later, and it works exactly as the name suggests: a dash and a kick in one move. It launches enemies, and it also launches objects, including the bombs you draw with the magic pencil, explosive barrels, and other loose objects lying around.

That makes the dash-kick movement, defense, and offense in a single input. Use it to escape a crowd, to close distance, and to punt a drawn bomb into a group of enemies. Practice kicking a drawn bomb across a room before you need to do it under pressure, because the timing matters more than the aiming.

One caveat from the demo build: GameGrin reported the dash-kick sometimes failed when moving in certain directions. That was a Next Fest demo quirk, and the three-week delay was explicitly for polish, so it may be fixed in the full game. If you still hit it, treat it as a bug worth reporting, not a mechanic to play around.

2. Slide into enemies to throw them airborne

The official store description lists it plainly: "Slide to throw enemies in the air." An airborne enemy cannot hit back, and as GameRant notes, a launched enemy becomes an easy target. The intended chain is slide through a group, watch enemies pop up, then finish them with the shotgun or a follow-up kick.

This is also the setup for the "toss them into the air" combos the official combat description advertises. Sliding is not just movement tech here. It is the opener for your damage.

3. Draw bombs, then kick them — that is the combo

The pencil draws the bomb, but the bomb alone is only half the weapon. The official store copy gives the intended loop: "Sketch bombs to kick them at your enemies!" Draw a bomb near a group, dash-kick it into the middle, and get clear. GameGrin confirms the dash-kick launches drawn bombs, so the two tools were designed as a pair.

Do not stand next to the bomb while drawing it. The kick is what gives you distance, so draw, kick, and move in one rhythm. Bombs are also the answer to obstacles that bullets cannot remove, per the publisher press release.

4. Treat the shotgun as a specialist, not a default

GameGrin's demo verdict on the shotgun: "felt incredibly strong, yet its limited ammo forced me to remain resourceful and pushed me towards more unique and creative solutions." You find the shotgun during the demo rather than starting with it, and the official copy sums it up as "blast them to smithereens with a shotgun!"

The discipline is simple. Fire only at close range, where every pellet lands. Never spray distant targets. When it runs dry, switch to boots, kicks, and pencil bombs instead of hunting for ammo in the middle of a fight. The shotgun wins fights fast; the rest of your kit wins them cheap.

5. When stuck, draw a door

Two official framings exist and both point the same way. The publisher press release says the pencil draws doors you can enter. The store page says "Draw doors to kick down!" Either way, a wall that looks like a dead end may not be one. Make it a habit: when a level seems to end, draw a door before you backtrack.

Related, from GameGrin's demo coverage: the pencil can also erase certain elements, which feeds the light puzzle-solving between combat sections. Exactly what can be erased in the full game is still UNVERIFIED, since that detail comes from the demo build. Expect the quiet sections to test whether you remember the pencil exists.

6. Your boots, the floor, and the barrels are all weapons

The press release describes kicking and stomping enemies, and the official copy tells you to "jump on their heads like an Italian plumber!" Stomping from above is confirmed by GameRant's combat breakdown. When the shotgun is dry and the pencil feels awkward mid-fight, the boots keep you lethal at close range.

Explosive barrels deserve their own habit. The official combat description says to "kick explosive barrels into them (or enemies themselves!)" Treat every barrel as free ammunition. Kick it; do not shoot it. A shotgun shell spent detonating a barrel you could have kicked for free is a shell wasted.

7. Slow down between fights, and do not blame your PC

GameGrin reports the early game has "definitely much less combat" than other boomer shooters, with light puzzle-solving and "genuinely fantastic platforming" filling the gaps. Rushing through quiet sections means walking past pencil puzzles, drawn-door routes, and platforming paths the game wants you to find. When the shooting stops, that is the game telling you to look around.

One practical note on performance. The official minimum specs are modest: Windows 7 64-bit, 2 GB of RAM, and a GeForce 9800GT, verified against the Steam page on October 4. The game is also Steam Deck Verified. If it stutters, the cause is almost certainly not your hardware, so check settings and background apps before assuming your PC is the problem.