Arena Modes

Arena modes are authorable match rulesets built on top of instancing. You mark a map as an arena, answer a short wizard in plain language, place what the mode needs by clicking the map, and players get a real match with a scoreboard and prizes.

Matches are fully instanced: nothing you earn inside carries back to the persistent world except the rewards you authored. No gear loss, no farmable world XP or loot.

The Seven Modes#

Authoring#

The arena wizard is written for people who have never built a game mode:

1. Pick the mode — plain-language descriptions, not jargon
2. Answer the questions the mode asks — team count, score target, time limit, wave count, ring timing
3. Place what the mode needs by clicking the map — team spawns, flag stands, capture zones, monster gates, lanes, towers, the core
4. Work the readiness checklist — it tells you exactly what's still missing before the arena can go live
5. Set the prizes — XP, items, silver or gold, for winners and for participation

Every reference is picked by name from your authored content — never typed as an id. "Ways to win" read as sentences you can combine with and / or, so "first to 30 kills or highest score after 10 minutes" is something you assemble, not script. Placed arena markers and lane polylines draw directly on the editor map.

What towers and cores look like#

Towers, barracks and cores are all the same thing under the hood — a structure — and a structure is spawned as a stationary monster. That's what makes it targetable and destructible, so its look comes from the monster you point it at:

Graphic and Tint are what let a single authored tower monster serve every team — tint it per team instead of cloning the monster definition. Combat is untouched either way: it's still the same monster, so targeting, damage, death and the "destroying it wins" condition all behave identically.

The editor's on-map markers stay schematic (team-tinted markers), so you'll see the real tower art in a playtest rather than in the editor.

Match flow#

• Queue or walk in — the arena browser panel, an authored portal, an NPC, or an event command
• Warmup lobby — teams spawn behind a barrier, rosters show on the scoreboard, and a countdown runs
• Gear — players bring their own, or an authored loadout kit equips everyone identically for fair play
• Practice bots — fill empty slots with player-like NPCs that wear real equipment, score on the board, and count toward win conditions, so a solo creator can still test a real match. A bot that falls comes back the way a player does: after the match's respawn delay, at its team's spawn. In a mode where the fallen stay down, it stays down too.
• Knocked out — in a mode where the fallen stay down (Battle Royale and other last-alive modes), an eliminated player watches the rest of the match. They can still chat, change settings and leave the match. Everything else (the match shop, abilities, items, interacting) waits until the match ends.

Starting a match short-handed#

A team arena normally wants two full teams before the matchmaker will form anything — with the default team size of 4 that's 8 players, which is why a solo creator used to wait forever with nothing happening.

Pick a Practice bots count in the Instances panel before you hit Enter or Join Queue and the match starts with just you: the bots you asked for count toward the roster, so one real player is enough. The stepper reads (per team) for team modes and (total) for free-for-all, Battle Royale and Horde.

You don't have to author anything for this — a bot count chosen here works even on an arena where you never enabled bots, and it overrides the authored per-team count when you did. The bots still take their look, level and gear from the arena's authored bot settings when those exist.

Leave it at 0 to queue normally and wait for real players.

Practice matches don't pay out#

A match that pays prizes has to be contested by real people, or an arena you can start alone against bots becomes an unlimited source of whatever you authored as rewards. So no prizes are granted when:

• any practice bots took part, or
• no other real player was there

The victory screen says which of the two applied, so a practice run reads as a practice run rather than as a bug. Scores, placements and the scoreboard all still work normally — it's only the payout that's withheld.

Horde is the exception. A bot-free Horde run pays out solo, because Horde is authored co-op content that's meant to be beatable alone. Add bots to a Horde run and it stops paying, like any other practice match.

One Map, Several Modes#

The same map can back more than one mode. Open ⚔ Arena on the map, choose + Add another mode, and answer the wizard again. Each mode keeps its own rules, prizes and win conditions.

What they share is the map and the markers on it. That helps in one direction: the four spawn points you placed for Free-for-All already count toward Team Deathmatch. And it stays clean in the other: each marker is only live in the mode it belongs to. A Siege Core placed on the map is scenery during a deathmatch, a flag stand does nothing in Battle Royale, and a capture zone earns no points outside Control. Modes never bleed into each other — only the geometry is shared.

Match Rules: what players may bring#

The simplest way to make a fair fight, and it touches nobody's character: cap the gear, and the match balances itself.

A match rule set says what a player may bring in — gear, potions, abilities, pets and mounts. It is authored once under Database → Match Rules and then pointed at from any number of arenas, so "Even Footing" can govern every ranked map you run.

Pick one in the arena wizard under Match rules. It applies whatever else the arena does — you do not have to use "Start with nothing" to get a fair match.

Start with the ceilings#

Ticking five hundred items by hand is nobody's idea of a good time, so each section leads with limits that do most of the work:

Gear and Consumables each get their own set. Capping consumables is usually the first thing worth doing — a deep bag of heals is a second health bar. Abilities take lists only, and pets and mounts are simple on/off.

What happens to something not allowed#

Players are always told by name what a rule set took and why — "Held at the door until the match ends: Steel Sword (above the tier 5 limit)". Nothing is ever taken silently.

The rules keep applying inside the match too: a banned sword cannot be pulled out of a bag and equipped, and the match shop will not sell you something the rules forbid.

Gotchas#

• A rule set with nothing set restricts nothing. The editor warns you when you save one that would have no effect.
• Rule sets are content — they only reach a live server on publish, like items and abilities.
• Deleting a rule set an arena uses does not break the arena; it falls back to no restrictions. The list shows how many arenas use each one before you delete.
• Start with nothing already takes everything, so the Match rules picker is hidden for those arenas — there is nothing left for it to hold.

Start With Nothing: the Match Economy#

Set Gear to Start with nothing in the wizard and the match becomes a closed world, the way a MOBA or a battle royale works:

• Players' real equipment and their bags are stashed at the door and restored — exactly as they were — when they leave. Bare means bare: no potion stash, and no re-arming from your own pack.
• Match gold is the only currency inside. Set the starting gold, the gold every second (passive income, so a quiet minute still pays), the gold per creep kill (the farm loop), and the gold per player kill (the bounty). Jungle camps and objective monsters pay the gold you set on them. It is never real silver, and it vanishes with the match.
• The shop rows sell items and spells for match gold. Players open it with N (or the gold button, top right). Everything bought — and everything looted — evaporates at the exit teleport. Nothing a match grants ever reaches the world outside; prizes remain the only thing a match pays out.

• Every source of match gold (starting gold, bounties, passive income, camps, objective monsters) only pays in Start with nothing matches, because those are the ones with a gold wallet. The setup warns you when you set an amount in a match that has none.

Siege: the Lane War#

Siege plays like the classic lane-pushing games. Towers, lanes and waves are all yours to author:

• Towers are structures with a monster body — they attack enemies in range and never their own side. Kill order comes from Protected by (an inner tower is invulnerable until its outer one falls).
• Lanes are drawn point by point: select a creep spawner, press Draw lane on its card, and click the route out on the map — each click adds the next waypoint, Esc finishes. The lane renders as a line while you draw, and the card lists the points for reordering or removal. Waves march the path, fight the enemy's creeps, players and towers on the way, and push the nearest structure they're allowed to hurt at the end. A spawner with no lane is a monster gate instead — its monsters hunt players like a horde wave, and the checklist warns you about it on a Siege map.
• Towers telegraph: their attack radius is drawn on the ground when you're near — red for enemy towers (hot when you're inside it), faint blue for your own — and a warning flashes the moment a tower switches its fire to you.
• Wave composition over time: give wave rows a from wave number and the lane switches to the stronger set when that wave arrives — "3 melee + 1 ranged, and from wave 20 the super versions."
• Killing the spawner's barracks structure stops that lane's waves, and destroying the enemy Core ends the match.

Jungle Camps and Objective Monsters#

The jungle is the space between the lanes. Two optional map markers fill it, and both are neutral: they fight everyone and belong to no team. They work in Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Control and Siege (jungle camps also work in Free-for-All). They are not used in Battle Royale or Horde.

Where you'll find it#

Jungle camps#

A camp is a group of monsters that waits on the map until someone clears it, pays match gold, and comes back after a timer. It is the farm loop between lane fights.

1. Open Arena setup and, on the Checklist tab, press Add on Jungle camps (optional).
2. Click the map where the camp should sit.
3. In the card that opens, press + Monster and pick each monster with the searchable picker, then set how many of each (1 to 12).
4. Set Comes back after (seconds after the camp is cleared; 0 means it never returns) and Gold per kill.
5. Under More options, set the Bonus for clearing it, when it First appears, and how far it is Spread over around the marker.

Practice bots farm camps when they have nothing better to do: no tower to push, no objective to take, or no opponent close enough to be worth the walk.

Objective monsters#

An objective monster is the Dragon or Baron of your map: one big neutral boss. The team that kills it earns a timed team buff, an announcement to every player, and a line in the kill feed.

1. On the Checklist tab, press Add on Objective monsters (optional) and click the map.
2. Pick the monster that is its body under Looks and fights like.
3. Pick the Team buff for slaying it. Buffs are the status effects you author under Database → Status Effects, so any status you can build (more attack, faster movement, damage resistance) can be a Dragon buff.
4. Set Buff lasts and Comes back after (0 means it appears once per match).
5. Under More options, give each teammate gold, give the team points (for Control and other point-based wins), and choose its hit points.

Players see "The Dragon has appeared!" when it spawns, and "Team 1 slew the Dragon and gained Dragon's Might for 120s!" when it falls.

Gotchas#

• Jungle monsters pay their own authored gold. They do not also pay the Gold per creep kill that lane creeps pay.
• Killing a camp or objective monster does not count as a player kill, and a monster killed by something other than a player (or a player's pet or summon) pays nothing and simply resets.
• A buff only goes to teammates who are alive and still in the match at the moment of the kill. Free-for-All has no teams, so the killer alone gets it.
• A camp or monster with nothing to pay out gives a warning in the setup so you do not ship a boss that rewards nothing.
• Markers for a mode that does not use them are ignored in that mode, so one map can host a Siege with a Dragon and a Capture the Flag without a Dragon.

Recall: the Way Home#

Recall completes the farm, buy, return loop. A player channels a recall and, if nothing interrupts it, is taken back to their team's spawn pad to shop, heal and regroup.

Where to set it up: the arena wizard, or Arena setup → Match rules → Recall to base?.

1. Set Recall to base? to Allow recall.
2. Set the Recall channel (how long the player must stand still, 1 to 30 seconds).
3. Set the Recall cooldown (how long before the same player can recall again, 0 to 600 seconds).

In the match, players press H or the RECALL (H) button at the bottom of the screen. A bar fills while the recall channels; pressing the button or H again cancels it.

Gotchas#

• A recall breaks if the player moves, takes damage, is stunned or otherwise crowd-controlled, or dies. A broken recall locks the button for two seconds but does not start the long cooldown.
• Only a completed recall starts the cooldown.
• Recall only works while the match is live, never during the warmup countdown or after it ends, and not for players who have been knocked out.
• Recall works with any Gear choice, not just Start with nothing. It always lands the player on one of their team's spawn pads.

Battle Royale: Loot Up or Die#

Set Gear to Start with nothing, place loot area markers, and the loop is complete: drop in bare, loot, survive the circle.

• Each loot area names a treasure rule (the same system as world treasure chests), a chest count, and a window — match start chests appear when the fight begins; ring phase areas drop fresh chests each time the circle starts closing.
• The safe circle is drawn on the ground — amber while it holds, hot orange while it closes. Outside it you take damage that pierces shields.
• Everything looted disappears when the match ends. Only authored prizes leave with the winner.

Building in a Match#

In Battle Royale and Horde you can let players throw up barricades anywhere on the map while the match runs — no land claim of their own needed.

Where to set it up: the arena wizard → Let players build? → Build freely.

1. In the wizard, answer Let players build? with Build freely.
2. Answer the two questions that appear under it (table below).
3. Give players building items to build with — placeable objects and build parts (fences, barricades, crates). In a Battle Royale, put them in your loot areas' treasure rules; in Horde, hand them out in the starting kit or let players bring their own.
4. In the match, players open build mode the same way as on their own land: the build bar shows the building items they carry, and each piece placed uses one up.

Gotchas:

• Pieces only. Objects and build parts can be placed; edge walls, floors and roofs are refused in a match. Pieces block movement — players' and monsters' alike.
• Only the builder takes a piece down, and gets the item back. Nobody can clear an enemy's wall with the remove tool.
• Nothing is kept. Everything built goes when the match ends, and items used in the match stay spent.
• Knocked-out players can't build, and nor can anyone who has left the match.
• Monsters break through. A monster that can't reach its target any other way walks up to the piece in its way and hits it until it breaks. One that can walk around a wall walks around it.
• Area attacks break pieces. A spell or ranged attack with an area hits every piece inside it for the ability's Base Damage — aimed at bare ground too. A melee sweep hits the pieces in its area while it strikes someone in reach. Single-target attacks don't touch pieces.
• Your side's builds are safe from you. Your own pieces, and in a team mode your team's, are never hit by your attacks. Monsters' area attacks hit anyone's.
• No chests or crafting stations in a match, and at most 600 pieces per match.

Building Arenas with the AI Copilot#

Everything above can be authored by the Studio Copilot (and any tool that talks to the Studio agent). It can list your arenas, read one in full, and save changes, with a dry run that checks everything before anything is written.

Gotchas:

• The Copilot always previews first (a dry run). Anything wrong with the rules, such as a gold rate that is negative or a camp with no monsters, is refused with the reason before anything is saved.
• Markers the mode still wants (a spawn point for a team, a Core) do not stop a save. They come back as a to-do list, like the checklist in the editor.
• An arena's game mode cannot be changed after it exists. To play a map as another mode, ask for a new arena on the same map.
• Saving arenas needs the Studio plan, exactly like the editor. Reading them is open to every plan.
• Each save returns what it replaced, so an undo is one more save of the earlier rules.

Publishing Your Arena#

An arena is not playable until it is published. Press Save arena, then publish the project as you would for any other content — the arena's rules travel with the map.

Until you do, players open Dungeons & Arenas and see "No dungeons or arenas are available yet", and queueing answers "That content is not available in the queue." Both mean the server has not been handed the arena yet.

Gotcha: "Destroy the enemy Core" needs a structure whose Role is Core, one per team — two Towers do not count, and the Siege checklist stays unticked until each team has a Core.

Gotcha: every monster gate and creep spawner needs a monster party, and every structure needs a monster to define how it looks and fights. Each mode only checks the markers it uses, so a half-finished Siege tower will not appear in your Capture the Flag list — but Siege itself stays red until that tower is finished.

Good to know: Save arena keeps your rules even while the checklist is unfinished, and tells you what is still left to place. The red lines on the right are your to-do list — the arena is ready once none are left. Amber lines are advice and never stop a match.

Good to know: raising How many teams? to three or four gives each new team a colour and its own checklist rows. A flag stand always belongs to a team — if one shows "Each flag stand belongs to a team", click its marker and pick the team on its card.

In Game#

Players get a live score bar, objective callouts, a kill feed, a Tab scoreboard, and a victory screen listing exactly what they earned. All of it follows your HUD theme.

Licensing: building arenas requires a Studio or Enterprise license. Viewing arena content stays open on every tier (so existing arenas remain visible after a downgrade), and playing in one never requires a license of your own.

Note: only structures currently have an in-game graphic — flag stands, capture zones, team spawns, monster gates and lane waypoints are gameplay markers that players don't see directly (you'd dress those spots with ordinary map objects for now).