This page is dedicated to all gamemodes in Phantom Forces.
Looking for a place to share tips and tricks? Check out the Community Gamemode Strategy page.
Team Deathmatch
Round display for TDM.
A traditional, if not classic game mode, Team Deathmatch (TDM) has one and only one objective: eliminate enemy players. A single point is awarded to the player's team when they score a kill. Points cannot be lost in any way.
As no points are awarded for special objectives in this mode, this mode could be considered the worst way to farm experience. At the same time, however, it is the simplest gamemode: Team Deathmatch encourages spreading out across the entire map, hunting down single enemies to quickly eliminate them before they can eliminate the player's teammates. This also makes Team Deathmatch one of the hardest gamemodes to recover from if a team is losing, as it relies on scoring kills and not dying, whereas other gamemodes feature ways to "catch up" with opponents who are winning.
A round of Team Deathmatch will last 15 minutes, or until a team reaches a total of 200 kills.
Flare Domination
Round display for Flare Domination.
Flare Domination (often shortened to flaredom, dom, domination, flare, or just FD) is an objective-based game mode. Three flares (A,B, and C), 15 studs in radius, are placed in the map at predetermined positions, and each one starts off neutral. All flares feature a hovering letter to denote their position and ownership.
Players must rush to a flare to capture it. Each flare takes five seconds to capture, and can be captured quicker if more players stand on the point. If three players are on a flare, this will cause it to capture at its maximum rate of 3 seconds. Adding more players will not increase the speed with which the point is captured.
A captured point will color itself the same color as its owning team(Blue for Phantoms, Orange for Ghosts), and will provide a point at regular intervals. Enemies can capture owned points, but captures can be denied as long as one player stands on the flare, or the last enemy on the point is killed before they can capture it.
Since update 8.0.4, capture progress is saved in case the capturing team's players leave the point for any reason, which can extend the capture time for the enemy team, in case the point happened to be neutral. This also adds a new capture draining mechanic, which allows the point's holder to drain the progress made by the enemy.
The old version of an unclaimed flare in Flare Domination.
Players can also score points by killing enemies, much like in Team Deathmatch. This will subtract 1 point from the enemy team. Even if a team has managed to obtain a shutout and is close to winning, if the other team is killing enemies fast enough without dying, they can prolong the round. A video demonstration posted to the Stylis Discord on June 6th, 2023 by Raspy_pi can be found here
A round of Flare Domination will last 15 minutes, or until a team reaches a total of 250 points.
King of the Hill
Round display for KotH.
King of the Hill (KotH for short) is an objective-based game mode. A single objective or "hill", 15 studs in radius, is placed at a central point of the map, and is marked with a large floating "H" visible in the world. A prop is placed directly in the center of this hill. Players must rush to the point to capture it. Much like in Flare Domination, the hill will color itself to mark its owner. The same capturing conventions work in Flare Domination as well, in that a capture takes 5 seconds, and can be sped up with up to 3 players standing on the capture point, and that captures can be denied as long as a player from the owning team stands on it.
Where King of the Hill differs is that it is an "attrition" style of gamemode (similar to the Conquest gamemode of older Battlefield games). Teams start off with 600 points or "tickets", cannot regain points, and will only lose them. The team that owns the hill will bleed one point from the enemy team every ten seconds, but up to 3 players can remain on the hill ("holding" the hill) to dramatically increase the rate at which the enemy team will bleed points. Each interval where the hill is "held" will give 10 EXP to the players currently standing on the hill. Kills will drain 1 point from the enemy team.
The old version of an unclaimed hill in King of the Hill on Highway Lot.
Points are drained at the following rates:
- No players: 5 points per 10 seconds
- One player: 10 points per 10 seconds
- Two players: 20 points per 10 seconds
- Three players: 30 points per 10 seconds
It takes exactly 10 minutes and 7.5 seconds for a single player to capture and hold the hill to drain an entire enemy team's stockpile of points from 600 to 0, from the point of capture up until the enemy team reaches 0 points. This does not include kills or deaths.
The ‘hill’ is represented by a barbecue set. This is likely a reference to the television show "King of the Hill." As the main character, Hank Hill loves to grill, with propane. Propane tanks are shown to be near the grill in the game, and a beer cooler. A similar cooler often appears in the show.
Capture the Flag
Capture the Flag (CTF) is an objective-based game mode. Two flag bases are placed, one in each team's spawn area. A flag, represented by a glowing suitcase, is attached to each base. Players must collect the enemy flag and return it to their base to score a point.
A flag carrier is highly vulnerable. There is a 15 second grace period where they will not be visible to everyone, but the indicator will still be visible above them, meaning that if someone has line-of-sight, they will be able to see the "Stolen!" indicator above the enemy's head. When the flag is stolen they leave a trail to let your allies know where they are. Once the timer expires, the carrier will be visible through all walls with the "Stolen!" indicator. Allies will get an indicator to defend their runner. If a runner dies, they will drop the flag directly on the spot that they die at. A team can reclaim their own flag instantaneously just by touching it, but it will automatically return to its base if nobody claims it after 60 seconds. If another runner claims the flag before the owner's team collects it again, they will have a 15 second grace period, just like if they had picked it up from the base.
Once a flag is returned to its base, it will be claimed and net the team a point, but only if the team still has their own flag. If both teams are holding onto their enemy's flag, a stalemate situation will result where neither team will be able to capture unless they reclaim their flag.
The player who captures the flag will get 500 EXP. By claiming the flag, all team players will receive 250 EXP.
A round of Capture the Flag will last 10 minutes, or until a team captures 5 flags.
Kill Confirmed
Kill Confirmed (KC) is TDM with a twist. The same rules of engagement apply - kill your enemies before they kill you. However, enemies no longer award points directly. Players must collect the glowing dogtags of the enemies they kill in order to score for their team.
Rewards for kills are reduced to 50 points. Claiming an enemy dogtag, regardless of who the kill was made by, awards the collecting player 100 points. If an enemy dogtag is claimed by an ally, the killer is awarded with 25 points for their time. Assists are not adjusted, meaning that it is possible to gain more experience from an assist-as-kill compared to a normal kill in other modes (a kill is 50 points, collecting a dogtag is 100 points. Since assist-as-kills only apply when dealing 51 points of damage or more, this means any assist-as-kill where the player collects the dogtag from the assist-as-kill will earn more than the 150 point base.)
The dogtags that drop from players.
To deny enemies from gaining progression, allies can claim the dogtags from fallen allies. They are awarded with 75 points for the effort. You can get 50 points for denying your own kill. Dogtags will also naturally despawn after a short period of time, meaning that it is imperative that dogtags are collected as quickly as possible to both deny the enemy from scoring and allowing the allied team to score.
A round of Kill Confirmed will last 15 minutes, or until a team collects a total of 150 dogtags.
Hard Point
Hard Point is a game mode released after the Crimbo Update (Christmas 2020 Update). It is essentially King of the Hill with a twist–every minute, the flare changes location. This can be beneficial since it can spawn close to the player's active spawns, or vice versa if it activates in enemy territory. The point has several possible locations, usually a mixture of the points seen in King of the Hill and Flare Domination. There is also a chance that the point doesn't move at all after each minute. Players must stand on the point in order to gain points–objectives are only "captured" when players are standing on it.
A team gains 1 point for every player standing on the point every second. If players on both sides stand on the point, the team with the most players on the point will get the points. There is no way to reduce the number of points the enemy team has already amassed. Kills will not add or remove points.
A round of Hard Point will last 15 minutes, or until a team earns 600 points.
Tag Run
Tag Run is a game mode released in the May 2022 Update. In Tag Run, players have to kill other players to collect tags like they would in Kill Confirmed. However, instead of instantly gaining score for their team, players have to carry their collected tags to a "Recollection Point", which can be found in any of the Flare Domination objective locations.
Players gain 25 XP for killing enemies and picking up a tag or a stack of tags. Redeeming the tag gives 50 base XP for redeeming a tag and it parabolically grows the more tags the player redeems at once. Each enemy tag redeemed adds onto the player's team score, while friendly tags redeemed are removed from gameplay and do not influence any team scores.
A round of Tag Run lasts 10 minutes or until either team reaches 150 points
Exfiltration
Exfiltration is a game mode currently in testing. In Exfiltration, players have to compete for the possession a neutral flag, which starts at the Hill Location of the map. Whichever team holds the flag will begin gaining team score as long as a member of the team is carrying the flag.
Recovery
Recovery is a game mode currently under development in the test place. In this gamemode, Ghosts have to carry and protect a briefcase, while Phantoms try to destroy it. The briefcase has 5000 HP and gives 1 point of team score to the Ghosts as long as someone is carrying it. The briefcase has certain damage modifiers that make certain weapons damage it less in order to keep the gamemode balanced.
Budget Cuts
Budget Cuts is a gamemode that functions identically to Team Deathmatch, but with a twist: every player is only given one full clip and zero reserve ammo. Players earn 2 ammo for every hit and recieve full clip for every melee kill. The player does not recieve any grenades in this mode.
Gun Game
Gun Game is a fast paced gamemode designed to test one's adaptability and mastery of various weaponry. Each and every weapon is a complete unknown until it is obtained, and it could be the perfect combination of attachments, a bone-stock weapon, or the worst possible combination of attachments.
At the start of a round of Gun Game, a random list of guns with random attachments will be generated. Players will start off with the first weapon, no secondary weapon, and the melee weapon from their currently equipped loadout. They will also have three frag grenades, as normal. They must then kill enemy players on the opposing team in order to rank up their weapon rank. Upon a successful kill, they will be awarded the next weapon in the list. Players that are killed do not drop their weapons. If a player is killed with a melee weapon, they will be "ranked down" and lose one kill.
The last five kills in the round will output a message in the chat stating how close the player is to victory. When the player is on their last kill, the primary weapon will be a special golden ZIP 22, called the LA RATA. It cannot aim down sights, has rat shot and the PRO MAG (50 round Drum) equipped. When they score a kill with the LA RATA, they will end the game.
A single "point" is gained for each kill or assist-as-kill, though it is not tracked. A single point is lost every time the player is killed by a melee weapon. This gamemode can have as many or as few points as the VIP server owner dictates, but defaults to 32. Each team starts with 1 point.
During Update 4.5.3 (Summer Update #3), Gun Game was available for all up-to-date public servers, but only for a limited amount of time.
Sometime during February of 2023, Gun Game was made available in the gamemode pool in all Test Place servers, along with April Fools gamemode Swap. At the time of writing, it is unknown if both will be added back into the gamemode pool in the main game.
Infection
Infection was a game mode exclusive to the Halloween 2019 update. It is a survival mode, pitting the Phantoms faction versus the Reapers. After the event, this game mode was removed from the game's main pool and was temporarily available only to VIP servers, but was later fully removed from the game's code.
At the beginning, everyone was a Phantom, but one player was chosen to be Patient Zero, an incredibly powerful Reaper. The Phantoms had to survive until extraction arrived in the form of teleporters. The Reapers had to eliminate every Phantom they can before they all teleport away. If even one of the Phantoms managed to teleport away by standing for 5 seconds inside of one of the teleporters, the Reapers were considered defeated and the Phantoms won.
A Reaper from back side view
In this game mode, the time was set to midnight, and a black fog limited visibility. This allowed the Reapers to move around undetected until visually sighted by a Phantom.
Phantoms spawned in with their loadout of choice. Both weapons got double the ammo reserves, so if a weapon has 120 rounds of reserve ammunition normally, this was doubled to 240. Phantoms do not drop their weapons on death, meaning that it was impossible to recover any more ammo for existing weapons, nor was it possible to swap to a different weapon that would normally be dropped by a dead player.
Reapers spawned in with no weapons besides for the Reaper (melee), which meant that Reapers were required to eliminate all the Phantoms with just the melee given to them, an arduous task on its own.
Additionally, Phantoms were not allowed to spot enemies. After a Phantom died, they would respawn as a Reaper, regardless of the method of death. Even resetting to the main menu will turn a Phantom into a Reaper.
A Teleporter where that Phantom needs to get in before they get killed by the Reaper.
In the final minute of a round or if enough Phantoms were killed, teleporters would spawn around the map. These teleporters spawned at the positions used in Flare Domination. Phantoms had to get to these teleporters to extract themselves from the map. It took five seconds for a player to extract themselves from the map. This delay means that it is possible for a Reaper to stop a Phantom from extracting. Once they extracted, they would remain on the Phantoms team, but would be unable to spawn, as the round would end shortly after if no more extractions happened.
During the Halloween 2019 event, if a player were to extract as a Phantom, they would be rewarded with the exclusive melee weapon, the Reaper (melee).
Swap
Swap is a public party gamemode. It was originally an April Fools gamemode, however it was added as a VIP server gamemode in the 5.7.0 update, a few days after April Fools. Then on February 28th (8.0.0), Swap was added back into the the main gamemode pool, but would later be removed in hotfix 8.0.0f. It would then be re-added in Update 8.0.1 for April Fools 2023.
In this mode, players that kill each other automatically equip their victims' current weapon. Players cannot pick up weapons from the floor, meaning that there is no way to replace your secondary with a bigger weapon. Kills performed with primary weapons swap primaries, kills with secondaries swap secondaries and kills with melee weapons swap melee weapons.
This gamemode's timer and scores last and function the same as they would do on Team Deathmatch: 15 minute time limit, 200 points to win.
Duel
Duel is a public party gamemode added in the April Fools 2023 update, Update (8.0.1). It is essentially Team Deathmatch but with players being restricted to only having secondary weapons available, along with their melees. While the HUD may show the grenade counter to have more than 0, the player doesn't have grenades available either
This gamemode's timer and scores last and function the same as they would do on Team Deathmatch: 15 minute time limit, 200 points to win.
Stab
Stab is a public party gamemode added in the April Fools 2023 update, Update (8.0.1). It is essentially Team Deathmatch but with players being restricted to only having melee weapons available, along with their melees. While the HUD may show the grenade counter to have more than 0, the player doesn't have grenades available either
This gamemode's timer and scores last and function the same as they would do on Team Deathmatch: 15 minute time limit, 200 points to win.
Brawl
Brawl was a public party mode that was only available between October 31st and November 4th in 2023 during the Halloween 2023 Update (Version 9.0.3 only). This mode was functionally identical to Stab, except now both teams have access to only 1 specific melee during the entire match, regardless of loadout choices. Phantoms often spawned with a Bridal Brandisher while Ghosts would spawn with either the Bare Fists, Frying Pan or Hunting Knife as their assigned melee.
This mode also featured unique character outfits for both teams. Ghosts were outfitted with jeans and hoodies similar to those utilized during the "Pacific Coldfront: Part 3" (Version 5.6.5) and a cartoony ghostface mask, while Phantoms were dressed up with tricorn hats, eyepatches, bandanas and pirate costumes.
Just like in Stab, it had a 15 minute time limit and a 200 point score limit.
The outfits used for both Phantoms and Ghosts in this gamemode