Game Modes

Salvo has six multiplayer modes and a Hardcore version of Team Deathmatch, plus the co-op Zombies mode and the open-world Outbreak mode. You pick them on the Play tab. See Getting Started for how joining works.

At a glance

Mode	Type	How you win	Time limit
Team Deathmatch	Two teams	First team to 75 kills	10 minutes
Hardcore TDM	Two teams	First team to 75 kills	10 minutes
Free For All	Everyone for themselves	First player to 30 kills	10 minutes
Kill Confirmed	Two teams	First team to 65 confirmed kills	10 minutes
Gun Game	Everyone for themselves	First player through all 18 guns	10 minutes
Infection	Survivors against the Infected	Survivors: anyone alive at the end. Infected: catch everyone.	5 minutes
Last Life	Everyone for themselves	Last player standing	10 minutes
Zombies	Co-op squad of up to 4	Survive the rounds, or kill the final boss	None
Outbreak	Open world, up to 32 players	Loot and extract	None

When the time runs out in a mode with a score, the side or player in front wins. A tied team match has no winner.

Rules in every multiplayer mode

Rule	Value
Health	100 (75 in Hardcore)
Health regeneration	Starts 5 seconds after your last hit, at 30 health per second
Respawn	3 seconds after you die
Spawn protection	1.5 seconds. It ends early if you shoot, swing a blade or throw a grenade.
Assist	Deal at least 25 damage to someone a teammate kills within 10 seconds
Ammo packs	One in five kills drops an ammo pack. Walk over it to refill your ammo.
Grenades	You spawn with two. Every kill gives you one more, up to two.
Players per room	Up to 12, with bots filling empty slots

A headshot always deals 100 damage, so it kills outright with any single-bullet weapon. See Weapons.

Score

Action	Score
Kill	100, plus any medals
Assist	50
Confirm or deny a tag (Kill Confirmed)	50
Kill yourself (for example, a fall)	−50

Switching teams

In Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed you can switch teams from the in-match menu.

• You can only switch to the team with fewer players, unless you're joining your party's team.
• Once a match is under way, you have to wait 30 seconds between switches.
• Switching is locked for the last minute of a match.
• Switching while alive in a live match counts as a death. The enemy who hurt you most in the last 10 seconds gets the kill.

The game puts party members on the same team.

Feign death

In every mode except Zombies you can drop to the ground as if you'd been killed and lie still. Press a movement key or jump to get up again. Getting up takes 0.5 seconds, and you can't move or shoot in that time. See Controls.

Team Deathmatch

Two teams, Vanguard (blue) and Raiders (orange). Every kill scores a point for your team. The first team to 75 wins.

You count as a winner if you spent at least half of your time in the match on the winning team.

Hardcore

Hardcore rooms play Team Deathmatch with tougher rules. To pick one, choose Show all lobbies on the Play tab and look for the HC badge. Team Deathmatch and Quick Play can also put you in a Hardcore room.

• You have 75 health instead of 100.
• Friendly fire is on. Your shots and grenades hurt teammates. Bots never hurt their teammates.
• There's almost no HUD: no health, ammo, crosshair, score, kill feed, rewards, damage numbers or radar. Hit markers, the damage direction indicator, the red hurt effect, chat and the scoreboard stay.
• Teammates' names only show when they're under your crosshair.

Killing a teammate in Hardcore isn't counted as their death. You lose 100 score and earn nothing for it. After 3 team kills you're kicked from the room and can't rejoin it for 5 minutes. The game warns you after each one: "You killed a teammate. 2 more and you’re kicked from this room."

Free For All

Everyone fights everyone. The first player to 30 kills wins. If time runs out, the player with the most kills wins, with score breaking ties.

Kill Confirmed

Team Deathmatch with dog tags. A kill doesn't score on its own. Every player who dies drops a tag where they fell.

• Pick up an enemy's tag to confirm the kill. It scores a point for your team, plus 50 score and 25 XP for you.
• Pick up a teammate's tag to deny the kill. Nobody scores the point, and you get 50 score and 25 XP.
• Tags disappear after 30 seconds.

The first team to 65 confirmed kills wins.

Gun Game

Everyone starts with the same gun and a knife. Every kill moves you up to the next gun on a fixed ladder of 18, with a full magazine. The first player to get a kill with the last gun wins.

#	Gun	#	Gun	#	Gun
1	Hornet	7	Talon	13	Warden
2	Ferret	8	Harrier	14	Needle
3	Jackal	9	Anvil	15	Longshot
4	Swarm	10	Cyclone	16	Wasp
5	Breaker-12	11	Sentinel	17	P-9
6	Hatchet-10	12	Badger	18	Judge .44

• Getting killed with a knife or axe drops you back one gun.
• Falling out of the map drops you back one gun.
• Nobody carries grenades or attachments.
• Everyone is told when a player reaches the last gun.

If time runs out, the player furthest up the ladder wins.

Infection

Everyone starts as a Survivor with their own class. Six seconds into the match, one player is picked at random and turns into the first of the Infected.

• The Infected have 250 health, carry only blades and no grenades, and kill with one hit.
• Anyone the Infected kill comes back as one of them. So does a Survivor who dies any other way, such as a fall.
• Players who join after the first infection join the Infected.
• The Infected never see or pick up ammo packs.

The Survivors win if any of them are still alive when the five minutes run out. The Infected win if they catch everyone. An infected player counts as a winner if they spent at least half of their match infected.

Last Life

Free For All with one spare life: you have two lives in all. When you're out of lives, you watch until the match ends. The match ends when only one player is left standing, or when time runs out.

The winner is the player still standing. If time runs out with several players left, the one with the most lives left wins, then the one with the most kills.

If you join a Last Life match that's already under way, you watch it and play the next one.

Zombies

Zombies is a co-op mode for a squad of up to four. The server sends rounds of zombies that get tougher and more numerous. Bots fill any empty places in the squad. You can play Zombies on any map. Choose Play > Zombies > Zombies.

Starting a game

• There's no lobby timer. The game starts when every player in the squad is ready.
• Once someone is ready, anyone who isn't gets 60 seconds before they're removed for idling. A warning goes out 20 seconds before.
• The first round starts 6 seconds after the game goes live.
• You start with 500 points, the P-9 Sidearm, your class's blade and two of your class's grenades. Your second gun slot starts empty.

If you disconnect and come back, you keep your points, guns, upgrades and perks.

Rounds

A round ends when every zombie in it has spawned and been killed. Then there's a 25-second break before the next round.

When a round is cleared:

• Downed players get back up.
• Players who bled out come back next to a teammate, with the plain pistol.
• At the start of the next round, everyone's grenades are topped back up to two.

Round	Zombies (squad of 4)	Zombie health
1	12	80
5	39	260
10	70	480
15	109	738
16 and later	More every round	800

• Health rises by 45 a round up to round 9 (440), then by 9% a round, up to 800.
• Fewer players means fewer zombies. In round 1, a squad of 1, 2, 3 or 4 faces 7, 9, 11 or 12 zombies. Bots count toward the squad.
• At most 24 zombies are on the map at once. They spawn 10 to 40 m from the squad, out of sight where possible.
• Zombies are slower than you. Some shamble at 45% of your running speed, and some walk at 68%. More of them walk as the rounds go on, up to 80%.
• A normal zombie's swipe does 36 damage, about once a second.

The game ends when nobody in the squad is left standing, even if a downed player could still have been revived. You win if the squad kills the final boss in round 56.

Points

You earn points for hurting and killing zombies, and spend them on guns, ammo, perks and upgrades.

Action	Points
Starting points	500
Hit that doesn't kill	20
Kill	80
Headshot kill	150
Blade kill	200
Revive a teammate	100
Going down	You lose 5% of your points

Special zombies and bosses are worth more: their kill points are multiplied by 1.5 to 10, depending on the kind.

Wall guns

Six guns hang on the walls around the map, each from a different weapon class where possible. The cheapest is near the start. Hold Use (F) to buy one.

Weapon class	Price
Revolver, machine pistol	750
Submachine gun	1,000
Shotgun	1,200
Assault rifle	1,400
Marksman rifle	1,500
Sniper rifle	1,600
Light machine gun	1,800

• A wall sells the gun only. You can't buy a gun you already carry. Ammo comes from the ammo crates.
• A new gun goes into your empty slot, or replaces the gun in your hand.
• Every game rolls fresh attachments for every gun, so the same rifle might come with a suppressor one game and a scope the next.

Annihilator: a seventh wall, as far from the start as possible, sells the Annihilator for 8,000. It's a plasma cannon that only exists in Zombies. Each bolt bursts on impact for 6,000 damage within 3 m, fading out to 6.5 m. It never hurts the squad. It holds 5 shots, fires one every 0.85 seconds and reloads in 3.4 seconds.

Mystery box

The mystery box costs 950 a roll. It spins for 4 seconds, then offers a random gun for 10 seconds. Only the player who paid can take it. Every gun you don't already carry has an equal chance, except the Annihilator.

After 4 to 10 rolls, the box can run off: each roll then has a 60% chance of coming up empty. You get your points back, and the box disappears for 8 seconds and turns up somewhere else.

Ammo crates

Three ammo crates stand around the map. A refill costs 500 and fills every gun you carry and brings your grenades back to two. You can only buy one when something needs ammo.

Perks

Six perk machines stand at random spots. Hold Use to drink a perk. Perks last the whole game, even if you go down or bleed out.

Perk	Price	Effect
Iron Gut	2,500	Zombie hexes, slime, webs and grabs don't affect you. Their damage still does.
Shadow Brew	2,000	The horde loses track of you for 15 seconds every minute
Lucky Draw	1,500	Better guns from the mystery box (pricier guns come up more often, and 5% of rolls are the Annihilator). The box never runs off on your roll.
Tough Tonic	2,500	Zombie hits do 40% less damage
Medic Mix	1,500	Revive twice as fast (1.5 seconds), and bleed out after 67.5 seconds instead of 45
Fast Hands	3,000	Reloads take 35% less time

Power Center

The Power Center upgrades the gun in your hand through five levels: Green, Blue, Purple, Red and Gold.

Level	Cost	Total
Green	3,000	3,000
Blue	6,000	9,000
Purple	9,000	18,000
Red	12,000	30,000
Gold	15,000	45,000

Each level doubles the gun's damage, adds 10% fire rate, adds 60% to the magazine (30% for pump shotguns) and adds 50% spare ammo. Magazines are capped at 400 rounds and spare ammo at 1,000. An upgrade refills the gun, and the gun glows and fires tracers in its level's color. You lose an upgrade if you replace the gun or bleed out.

Going down and reviving

When your health runs out, you go down instead of dying:

• You crawl slowly, and you can still shoot. Zombies can't hurt you while you're down.
• You bleed out after 45 seconds.
• A teammate revives you by holding Use next to you for 3 seconds. The bleed-out timer pauses while they do.
• You get back up with full health.

If you bleed out, you're out until the round is cleared. You then come back with the pistol, keeping your perks but losing your other guns and upgrades.

The squad panel shows who's up, down or out, with everyone's health.

Power-ups

Each kill has a 10% chance of dropping a power-up, up to 10 a round. A power-up works for the whole squad. Walk over it to pick it up. It shrinks away after 25 seconds.

Power-up	Effect
Max Ammo	Refills every player's guns and tops grenades up to two
Insta-Kill	For 30 seconds, any hit kills a zombie. Bosses are immune.
Double Tap	For 30 seconds, every shot fires twice for one round of ammo
Nuke	Kills every zombie on the map except bosses, and pays every player 500 points
Extra Life	Gets every downed player up at full health and brings back anyone who bled out. Only drops while someone is down or out.

Gear rules in Zombies

• There's no stamina, and weapon weight doesn't slow you.
• Every gun carries three times the multiplayer spare ammo, up to 1,000 rounds.
• Kills don't give grenades back. Grenades are topped up at the start of each round, by Max Ammo, by ammo crates and when a boss dies.
• You can't feign death.
• Crates, perk machines and the Power Center are solid.

Special zombies

Special zombies join the horde as the rounds go on. Together they never make up more than 28% of it.

Zombie	Rounds	What it does
Jumper	2–26	Leaps high and climbs
Kazimazi	3–40	Rushes you, glows, then explodes. It explodes however it dies, and its blast hurts other zombies too.
Slimer	4 on	Lobs slime from range that slows you to half speed for 3 seconds
Berzerker	5 on	Big, slow and tough
Crawler	9–26	Low to the ground and lunges at you
Lasher	9–32	Grabs you with a tentacle and drags you. Jump or melee to break free.
Spewer	9–40	Vomits on you, blurring your view for 4 seconds
Landshark	17–32	Moves under the floor where you can't hit it, then surfaces next to you
Totem	17 on	Three stacked heads. Each kill knocks one off: the top throws slime, the middle lashes, the last goes berserk and explodes.
Swooper	17 on	Flies, and swoops at anyone within 12 m
Warlock	33 on	Hexes you into a chicken for 8 seconds. You can run but not fire, aim, melee, throw or reload.
Homunculus	33 on	Only pistols, revolvers, machine pistols and blades can hurt it. Each hit stops it for a moment.
Rolypoly	33 on	Curls up and rolls at you, knocking you back
Artillery	41 on	Fires homing skulls that burst near you. Shoot them down.
Reckoner	41 on	Has three lives. Each death is a blast, and it comes back faster each time.
Parasite	41 on	Can only be hurt on its swaying tentacle
Mimic	49 on	Disguised as a small tree, a tyre or a gravestone. It only creeps closer while nobody is looking at it, and leaps out when you get close or shoot it.
Smoker	49 on	Leaves clouds that sting and cloud your view
Twisty	49 on	Weaves toward you and whips you with chains from further than a normal swipe

Bosses

Every eighth round brings a boss, with half the usual horde. A health bar with its name shows at the top of the screen. Killing a boss gives every standing player full health, full ammo and two grenades. Nukes and Insta-Kill don't work on bosses.

Round	Boss	What it does
8, 48	Behemoth	Huge and slow. Lobs slime that slows you.
16	Bloathead	Spits out zombie pods and leaves burning puddles
24	Colossus	Grabs you and throws you toward other zombies. At half health it splits into two halves.
32	Succubus	Drains your health into hers, and drained players heal at half speed. Slams the ground to send a stunning beam along the floor (jump it). Calls up pink Thralls that grab and hold you until you shoot them.
40	Spider Golem	Climbs anything, drops webs that stick you for 3 seconds, and pulls zombies out of its own body
56	Sepulchral Lord	The final boss: a giant floating skull. Meet its stare for long enough and you become afraid: your shots do half damage, you move slower and your view shakes, until you look away.

Kill the Sepulchral Lord and the squad wins. On ranked servers, every player in the squad earns the Lord's Eye. See Progression.

Zombies ranking

Zombies has its own 100 levels and its own leaderboards, separate from multiplayer. Nothing in Zombies counts toward your multiplayer rank, stats, weapon camos or medals. See Progression.

Outbreak

Outbreak is an open-world zombie extraction mode. Up to 32 players share a persistent world, 4 km across, overrun by zombies. You deploy with gear from your stash, loot buildings, and extract by helicopter to keep what you carry. If you die, you lose everything you had on you.

Outbreak runs only on official servers. Your survivor, stash and progress are saved to your account.

Get started

1. Choose Play > Zombies > Outbreak.
2. On the Outbreak page, put together Your kit from your stash.
3. Decide whether to tick PvP (see Other players).
4. Choose Deploy.

New players start with $1,500, a small backpack, 2 medkits and 2 ammo boxes. If you deploy with no gun, you get the P-9 Sidearm.

Scav run sends in a free survivor with random basic gear instead, while your own kit stays safe at home. Anything a scav brings out goes to your stash. You can do a scav run every 20 minutes (less with Intel Centre upgrades). Scav runs don't count toward quests.

The world

Place	Names
Cities	Port Kessler, Calder
Airport	Kessler Field
Military bases	Fort Crane, Camp Halberd
Towns	Ashford, Millbrook, Harlow, Greywater, Fenwick, Marsh End, Cold Harbor, Dunmore, Redcliff, Thornbury, Stillwater, Rookwood, Wexley, Oakhurst, Kirkby Fell, Saltby
Safe outposts	Haven, Bastion, Last Light, Hearth, Lantern, Rampart, Sanctum
Extraction zones	Runway End, North Ridge, East Docks, South Gate, West Pass, Quarry, Fort Crane Pad, Calder Pier, Halberd Pad, Widow's Ridge

There are also 23 farms, woods, 8 boss lairs and 7 vaults.

Safe outposts: nobody can be hurt inside an outpost, and zombies never come in. Each outpost has 4 wall guns, an ammo crate, a Power Center and every perk machine. Cities, the airport and the bases have perk machines, a Power Center and an ammo crate too, and towns have a couple of perk machines.

Day and night: a full day lasts 60 real minutes: 45 minutes of daylight and 15 of night. The clock follows real time, so everyone sees the same hour. At night the horde is 1.6 times bigger and 1.2 times tougher, there are more runners and specials, hunting packs come twice as often, and zombies can only see 8 m (30 m by day).

Looting

• Search buildings for guns, attachments, armor, backpacks, ammo, medkits, grenades and more. A looted spot refills 10 to 15 minutes later.
• Hold Use (F) to pick things up and to open and shut doors. Zombies only go through open doors, and bosses never go indoors.
• Vaults need a Vault key card, which is used up. A vault stays open while someone is within 14 m and shuts 12 seconds after the last person leaves. Anything left inside is lost.
• Airdrops are announced every 12 to 18 minutes. The crate floats down for 40 seconds and always holds a military-grade gun. Zombies within 120 m hear it land.

Items have a rarity, shown as a colored ring on the ground and a border in your inventory: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Vault-grade.

Your inventory

Press B to open your inventory. The world keeps running while it's open.

• You wear 2 guns, a helmet, a vest, a backpack and night vision goggles, and you have 4 pocket spaces.
• Backpacks hold 4×3 (small), 5×4 (medium) or 6×5 (large) spaces. Items take up different amounts of space. Press R while dragging to turn one.
• Move attachments between guns in the inventory, or right-click a gun and choose Gunsmith….
• Helmets block 25%, 40% or 55% of headshot damage. Vests block 20%, 35% or 50% of body hits.
• Press E to use a medkit, which restores full health. On its own, your health only regenerates to 60.
• Ammo boxes refill the spare ammo of the gun in your hand.
• Night vision goggles (N) hold up to 20 minutes of charge. A battery adds 10 minutes. Your headlamp (L) is on by default.

Extracting

1. Go to an extraction zone. Press M to see them on the map.
2. Stand by the beacon and press Use to call the helicopter. The noise draws the horde, and everyone in the world is told.
3. Hold out for 60 seconds while it flies in. Extra zombies head for the zone.
4. When it lands, press Use within the zone to board. The helicopter waits 20 seconds.

When you board, everything you wear and carry becomes your kit, and the points you earned become cash. A zone can't be used again for 3 minutes.

Dying and signing out

• If you die, everything you carried drops where you fell and stays for 10 minutes. Your next life's map marks the spot. Points you hadn't extracted are lost. Your stash is safe, and you can deploy again straight away.
• To sign out, press Esc and choose Sign out. Your survivor stays standing for 15 seconds, still able to be hurt, then is saved where they stood. Rejoin from the Outbreak page with Rejoin world. A dropped connection works the same way.

Points and cash

In the world you earn points (shown as $) for kills: $60, $100 for a headshot and $130 with a blade, more for special zombies. Spend them at machines:

• Wall guns: from $600 for a pistol to $6,000 for a sniper rifle or LMG.
• Ammo crate: $500.
• Power Center: $3,000 times the level, as in Zombies. Upgrades stay on the gun, even after you extract.
• Perks: the Zombies perks, plus Night Owl ($2,000), which makes the night 2.2 times brighter for you. Perks last one life. Lucky Draw and Medic Mix are sold but have no effect in Outbreak, which has no mystery box and no downed state.

Points you still carry become cash when you extract.

Bounties: you always have 3 bounties, such as killing zombies in a named town, headshots, melee kills, special zombies, a lair boss, other survivors, picking things up or staying alive. Each pays cash on you, which you keep only if you extract.

Zombies in the world

• Zombies notice you by sight and sound. Crouching makes you much harder to see and hear.
• Zombies hear you walking within 10 m, sprinting within 20 m, crouch-walking within 3 m and standing still within 1.5 m. Gunshots carry 70 m, or 18 m with a suppressor. Sniper rifles and LMGs are louder, and pistols quieter.
• A zombie loses you if you get far enough away out of sight and quiet, and searches for 10 seconds.
• Every 4 to 7 minutes (twice as often at night), a hunting pack of 6 zombies led by a special heads for your area. Your party is warned which way it's coming from.
• Towns, the cities and the bases have more and tougher zombies than the open country.
• Boss lairs: a boss wakes when someone comes within 140 m, and comes back 20 minutes after it's killed. Bosses always drop a military-grade gun, often heavy armor, and sometimes a vault key card.

Lair	Boss
City Center, Halberd Yard	Colossus
Hangar Row	Spider Golem
Fort Crane, Calder Square	Succubus
Miller Farm	Behemoth
Deep Woods, Witchwood	Bloathead

Other players

• PvP is a choice you make for each life with the PvP box before you deploy. Two players can only hurt each other if both went in with PvP on.
• Party members spawn together, never hurt each other, and always see each other on the map and radar. Press the middle mouse button to ping a spot for your party.
• You only see players outside your party within 220 m.
• Six survivor bots roam the world. Anyone can shoot them, and they fight back against whoever shoots them.

Quad bikes

Quad bikes are parked by outposts, towns, farms and country roads. Press Use to drive, or to ride on the back. Use W to accelerate, A and D to steer, S or Space to brake and R to reverse. The driver can't shoot, but the passenger can. A quad has 350 health, can run people over, and blows up when it's wrecked. Engines draw zombies from 45 m.

Between runs

The Outbreak page has these tabs:

• Stash: everything you own. Drag items between your kit and stash. Sell items for cash or throw them away.
• Trader: three traders sell gear for cash. Doc Marlowe (medic) sells medkits and backpacks. Briggs (quartermaster) sells guns, armor, ammo, batteries and goggles. Lark (fixer) sells attachments, grenades and key cards. Each has 4 levels, unlocked with standing and cash spent. Traders buy items for 40% to 50% of their worth.
• Quests: 24 quests, 8 from each trader, accepted between runs. They pay cash, standing and gear, and some unlock trader items.
• Hideout: six stations with 3 levels each, paid for with cash and items. The Generator powers the rest. The Stash Room adds space, the Workbench and Med Station craft gear, the Intel Centre opens the market, gives discounts and shortens scav cooldowns, and the Salvage Rig earns cash every hour.
• Market: a market between players, opened by the Intel Centre. List up to 10 items for 24 hours each, at 50% to 300% of their worth. Listing costs a 5% fee.
• Survivor: your survivor's status while one is out in the world.

Outbreak doesn't earn account XP and doesn't count toward your rank.

Bots

Bots fill empty slots so matches can start with only a few people. A room fills with bots up to 8 players while at least one person is playing. As more people join, bots leave to make room.

Bots come in five skill tiers: Novice, Easy, Medium, Hard and Elite. Higher tiers react faster, aim better, see further and deal more damage. Novice bots deal 55% of a player's damage with the same gun, Easy 70%, Medium 85%, and Hard and Elite the full amount. In a room with several people, bots are Medium.

When you're the only person in a room with bots, Solo challenge matches the bots to you:

• New players start against bots between Easy and Medium. Higher-ranked players start against tougher bots.
• Each bot you kill makes the bots a little tougher. Each time a bot kills you, they get a little easier.
• The bots settle where you get about 1.5 kills for every death.
• Bots in a lobby spread a little either side of your level, so they aren't all the same tier.

Your Solo challenge level is kept from match to match on the same game server.

Bot kills count toward XP, weapon camos, attachments and achievements, but earn less XP than kills on people. See Progression.

Firing Range

The Firing Range is a private practice mode that only you can join. Nothing you do there counts. See Weapons.