Guide

PVP

Hunting other players is possible, deliberate, and expensive. There is no way to do it by accident and no way to do it quietly.

Where

Only outside safe zones. Green locations are closed to it entirely.

If you spend your time in green territory, no other player can start a fight with you.

In red zones, a kill also takes part of the victim's inventory. See HELP > World > Red zones.

Ambush

Ambush and Protection are the only ways to attack another player. You take up position at a location and wait for someone to walk into it.

Your character rolls for a target regularly. Whether you spot one depends on your Stealth skill, on the ambush gear on your belt, and on how distracted they are: someone else lying in ambush is the easiest catch, someone traveling is easy, someone gathering or crafting is harder, and someone hunting an enemy is hardest of all. Targets are also easier to spot in red zones.

Ambush gear does not stack. Only the best piece you are carrying counts, so there is nothing to gain from filling your belt with them.

The Perception skill increases a target's chance to slip away from an ambush that has already spotted them.

People already in a fight, and people under Off the Grid, cannot be targeted.

A successful ambush drops you both straight into a fight.

Protection

Protection is an ambush that hunts the hunters. It only targets people lying in ambush on the tile, or anyone still marked as an Outlaw.

Unlike an ambush, Protection works in any zone except settlements, so you can hunt down Outlaws in safe zones too.

You cannot start Protection while you are marked as an Outlaw yourself.

Spotting works exactly like an ambush, with the same skills, gear and math.

It never marks you as an Outlaw, so killing an Outlaw this way is not a crime. It does break your Off the Grid.

Ambush math

The roll happens every 10 seconds against one random valid person on the tile:

P(spot per minute) = activity penalty × 1.75 × zone × (1 + stealth bonus×0.1 + gear %/100)

zone is 1.15 in red zones and 1 everywhere else.

P(spot this tick) = 1 − (1 − P_minute)^(10/60)

If that hits, they can still slip:

P(catch) = P(spot) × (1 − perception) × (1 − other skill bonuses)

Ambush calculator

Fill in your side and the target’s to see the chances, with the formula above. Protection spots the same way. Nobody can be targeted in green zones, in a fight or under Off the Grid.

YouStealth levelAmbush kit on your beltKits do not stack: only the best one counts.ZoneRed: safety up to 24. Yellow: 25 to 49. Ambushing in a yellow zone marks you as an Outlaw again every 2 min.

The targetActivity penaltyThe game does not show these numbers. From the easiest to the hardest to spot: lying in ambush, travelling, gathering or crafting, hunting an enemy.Perception levelGathering perkCautious Forager, Cautious Mining, Cautious Salvaging, Cautious Woodcutting: only while the target is doing that gathering.People who can be targeted on the tileEach roll picks one of them at random.

Your bonuses multiply the spotting chance by×1.1zone ×1 · Stealth +10% · kit +0%

Chance the target slips away once spotted5%Perception 5% · perk 0%

Fill in the target’s activity penalty to see the chances.

Outlaw

Lying in ambush in a yellow zone marks you as an Outlaw, and every further ambush resets the clock. Red zones never mark anyone, and neither does Protection.

An Outlaw cannot enter a settlement.

Everyone can see it. Killing an Outlaw is not a crime.

Off the Grid

If an Outlaw kills you unprovoked, you get Off the Grid: for some time no other player can start a fight with you.

It breaks the moment you take hostile action yourself.