Modes
These are the rules as Classic and Practice play them; a custom lobby’s owner can change the size, the length, respawn speed, pickups (in Team Deathmatch too), weapons and a kill limit, and turn on friendly fire in Team Deathmatch.
Both modes run ten minutes after a three-second countdown on the grid, during which nobody can drive, fire or take damage. The clock announces the final minute, turns urgent for the last 30 seconds and counts down the last ten. Respawn waits and spawn protection are the same in both; see How to play.
Team Deathmatch
Blue against Red, four machines a side. In Practice it’s you and three bots against four bots; online, people take bots’ seats, on the side with fewer people. There is no kill limit. Every wreck scores one for the team that made it, and the team with more at the buzzer wins.
- Overtime. A tie at the buzzer goes to overtime, and the next kill wins it. Respawn waits drop to 5 seconds.
- Spawns. The game picks a safe start for your team: your base or the perimeter road, away from enemy sight lines, recent wrecks and nearby enemies, and close to teammates when it can.
- Protection ends the moment you fire, so it can’t be used to win a fight.
- MVP. The best combat score on either team is the match MVP, shown on the results with both rosters.
Your bots play as a crew: they come to help a teammate under fire, finish damaged enemies, pick off stragglers, flank groups and regroup when the team falls behind.
Free for All
Eight machines, no allies: you and seven bots in Practice; online, people take bots’ seats. The most wrecks at the buzzer takes the arena; standings rank kills first, then combat score, then fewer deaths.
- Overtime. A tie for first goes to 60 seconds of sudden death. The first kill wins; if nobody scores, it’s a draw.
- Spawns avoid rivals watching the start, crowds, the hot zone and starts used in the last 15 seconds. A start where machines keep dying right after spawning is benched for 30 seconds.
Pickups
From the two-minute mark a wave of six pickups drops every two minutes, up to sixteen on the map at once. Each lasts 45 to 60 seconds; drive over it to take it. The minimap shows pickups within 75 m. They come as common, rare or epic.
| Pickup | Effect |
|---|---|
| Health | 40 hull back at once |
| Repair | 10 hull a second for 6 seconds |
| Ammo | tops the magazine up |
| Speed boost | 30% more engine pull and top speed for 8 seconds |
| Armour | 35% less damage taken for 12 seconds |
| Damage boost | 50% more damage for 10 seconds |
Hot zones
At 1:30 a hot zone opens in one part of the arena; every two minutes the next one takes over. Waves drop more pickups inside the zone. Machines four or more kills behind the leader find more pickups near them, and the bots tend to go after whoever is leading.
Bots
Every seat nobody fills is a bot. Online they’re Normal; in Practice, pick how good they are on the arena screen:
- Easy: slow to aim, soft-hitting, never hides.
- Normal: leads moving cars, weaves when it fights, sometimes takes cover when hurt or reloading and lies in wait for a rival coming its way.
- Hard: aims almost as well as you, hits almost as hard, and hides and ambushes more often.
Each bot draws a Minigun, a Rocket Pod, a Cannon, a Shotgun, a Laser, Homing Missiles or Mines. Rocket bots hold off at range and lead their shots; missile bots hold off too, and fire only once their lock is on; mine-layers cut across your path and drop their mines in your way, or behind them when you give chase. Bots steer round the mines they know of, on their routes and in a fight, and bots in a Rammer charge you. A bot lying in wait opens fire the moment you come into view, and turns on you at once if you find it first.
Scoring
Both modes keep the same record for every machine. Wrecks decide the match; combat score decides the MVP and breaks ties in the standings.
| Event | Combat score |
|---|---|
| Kill | 100 |
| Assist: you hit the victim in the last 10 seconds, for 20 or more damage on its current life | 50 |
| Damage dealt | 0.5 per hull point |
| Multi-kill: each kill within 7 seconds of the last | 25 for each kill past the first in the chain |
| Streak milestone | 25 |
| Revenge: wrecking a machine that has wrecked you since you last wrecked it | 25 |
| Pickup taken (Free for All) | 10 |
- Multi-kills: Double kill, Triple kill, Quad kill, Overkill.
- Streaks without dying: Killing spree (3), Rampage (5), Unstoppable (7), Godlike (10). Wrecking a machine on a streak of three or more is a shutdown.
- Nemesis (Free for All): a rival with three wrecks on you that you haven’t answered.