How to play

Get into a match

1. Press Play. The game runs in the page; the first load takes a few seconds while physics and graphics start.

2. On the main menu, choose Play. The mode list is on the left: Team Deathmatch or Free for All.

3. Press Enter on the mode to open it. Then ↑ ↓ move between the arena, the bots and Practice or Classic, ← → change the one you’re on, and Enter on Practice starts the match, on Classic starts a search (Esc goes back to the modes):

   • Classic: Find Match, and the game server finds you other players of that mode. It offers you a free seat in a match already on, if one is less than half over, or starts a new match for the searchers, on an arena it picks: eight at once, four or more after 10 seconds, any two after 30. When a match is found you have 10 seconds to accept (Enter or Y) or decline (N); if too few accept, those who did go back to searching with their place kept. People take over bots’ seats; bots on Normal fill the rest. While you wait, Practice is open: the match found shows over it. Enter on Classic again cancels the search.
   • Practice: you against bots. Pick their difficulty on the bots row (Easy, Normal or Hard).

   Every bot drives a Razor, a Brute, a Scout, a Buggy or a Rammer and carries a Minigun, a Rocket Pod, a Cannon, a Shotgun, a Laser, Homing Missiles or Mines.

4. Or pick Custom, under the modes: lobbies that people make and run themselves (Custom lobbies).

You start in the Razor with the Minigun. To take another machine or gun instead, open Garage from the main menu: ← → change the machine on Vehicle and the gun on Loadout, and each choice is kept as you make it. Back returns to the main menu, and Play takes your machine into the next match.

Custom lobbies

Custom, under the modes on the arena screen, lists the public lobbies: mode, arena, players and time (a running match’s time left), with a lock on those that ask for a password. Search by lobby or host name (/), filter by mode, arena or open slots, and Join (↑ ↓, Enter). An invite code, eight characters shown as ABCD-EFGH, goes in Join by code; an invite link (/play/?join= and the code) opens the game straight into the lobby, as a guest if you aren’t signed in. A code or a link never asks for the password.

Create lobby (C) makes you its owner. You choose:

• its name, and who can join: Public (listed, with an optional password for joins from the list) or Invite only (not listed: the code or the link only);
• the mode and the arena;
• the players: 2 to 12 in Free for All, 1 v 1 to 6 v 6 in Team Deathmatch. That’s the most the match takes, bots included; it can start with fewer;
• the match length: 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes;
• Join in progress: whether someone joining mid-match goes straight in or waits for the next one;
• under Advanced: respawn speed (Fast halves the waits, Slow adds half), friendly fire in Team Deathmatch (teammates’ rounds and rockets hurt, and a team kill costs the team a point), the pickups (Health and repair, Ammo, Power-ups: speed, armour and damage; in Team Deathmatch too), one gun for everyone, bots included, and a kill limit (10, 25 or 50 kills: the first machine, or team, to get there wins at once).

The waiting room shows the slots, the match settings and the lobby chat (T, which goes on into the match). Enter readies you. In Team Deathmatch you change side by clicking an open slot. The + on an open slot copies the invite link, and lets the owner add a bot at Easy, Normal or Hard: there are no bots unless the owner adds them, and an empty slot stays empty. The owner can also edit the settings (everyone is unready again), reset the code (the old link stops working), make someone else the owner, or kick someone, who can’t come back to that lobby.

The owner starts the match (Enter) once there is someone to play against, a person or a bot, and everyone else is Ready; in Team Deathmatch each side needs someone, a person or a bot. Mid-match, Esc and Back to lobby take you out of the match and back to the waiting room (so does a minute without touching the controls); Join match puts you back in if the lobby lets people join mid-match. 15 seconds after the results everyone is back in the waiting room, unready, and the tally counts the lobby’s wins: by side in Team Deathmatch, by player in Free for All.

If the connection drops or you reload the page, you’re back in the lobby, and in your seat if the match is still on, as long as you’re back within 20 seconds. When the owner leaves, whoever has been there longest takes over; an owner alone deletes the lobby. A lobby closes after 30 minutes waiting with nothing done in it.

Drive

W accelerates, S brakes and then reverses, A and D steer. Space is the handbrake: pull it to swing the tail round a corner. The car weighs 1,400 kg and collisions shove machines about, but they don’t damage anyone: only bullets and rocket blasts do.

Beached on a wreck pile or tipped over? Once you’ve been stuck a second, R puts you back upright on the nearest clear road; after four seconds stuck it happens by itself. It works again six seconds later.

Aim and fire

Click the game to hand it the mouse. The mouse turns the camera, and the turret follows wherever the crosshair points. Hold the left button to fire. The Minigun empties its 60-round belt in five seconds and takes 2.2 seconds to reload, the Cannon fires one heavy round a second, four to a clip, the Shotgun throws eight pellets a shot that only tell up close, and the Laser burns for as long as you hold it on a target, until it overheats. Rockets fly slower than bullets, so lead a moving target. Homing Missiles lock on a rival you keep under the crosshair; fired once LOCKED shows, they turn after it. Mines drop behind you: lay them when someone is on your tail.

Take damage, get wrecked, come back

Your hull has 100 points in the Razor (70 to 135 in the other machines: the garage), shown on the HUD with speed, ammo, a compass and a minimap. At zero the machine is wrecked. You come back on your own after a wait that grows as the match goes on:

A custom lobby keeps these steps at the same shares of its own match length (30, 50 and 80%), and its respawn speed scales every wait: Fast halves them, Slow adds half.

After a respawn you have two seconds of protection that cuts incoming damage by 80%. In Team Deathmatch it ends the moment you fire. The game picks the start for you, away from enemy sight lines and the latest wrecks, so a camped start stops being a trap.

Read the match

Hold Tab for the scoreboard; it is also what you see while you wait to respawn. Online, the scoreboard marks bots Bot, the minimap rings the other players, the corner under the clock counts the players in the room, and the feed says when someone joins or leaves. The kill feed in the corner reports every wreck, and callouts announce streaks and multi-kills. Esc pauses Practice: from there you can change settings or leave, and the game asks before you abandon a match in progress. Online, Esc opens the match menu while the match goes on; if you leave a Classic match, a bot takes your machine over (in a custom lobby your seat stays empty and you stay in the lobby).

When the clock runs out you get the results: your placing, your record and the final standings. In Practice, Play again or go back to the garage. In Classic, the next match starts by itself 15 seconds later; in a custom lobby, everyone goes back to the waiting room.