COMPLETE IN-GAME TUTORIAL FIRST BEFORE READING.

This guide is aimed at players who might be new to arena FPS in general.

Duel is a 1 vs 1 game mode to get more frags (kills) than the opponent. Often played on deathmatch maps (‘wfdm’ prefix)

For the uninitiated, Duel might look like a game mode where its just two players trying to gun down the other side and thus doesn't really understand why Duel is fun. Thing is, Duel can get more complicated when you factored in the items and strategies surrounding them.

Let's start with how to join a Duel match first.

When you get into duel server you have to queue up by pressing ‘join challenger queue’ in ESC menu. When its your queue to play, you’ll enter warm-up period. When you’re ready, bring up your ESC menu again and press ‘Ready!’

Your priority in Duel should be ‘to stack on health, armor and weapons before starting fights – and deny them from the opponent’


While its tempting to try and frag your opponent right off the bat, you should not do so. You start off with only 100 health and a measly Gunblade in a game where one good Rocket Launcher hit does 75 damage... Your aim/ positioning might not always be favorable to win initial clash, not to mention your opponent’s action.

So what should you go for are:

Health is well… health. It can go over 100 to the maximum of 200 (“Overhealing”) In this state health starts decaying back to 100 at the rate of 1 HP/ sec.

Armor reduces your damage to your health by 2/3rd (ex: if a player takes 1 damage, the armor takes 0.6 damage and health takes 0.3 damage) Comes in colored ‘jackets’ and Shards forms.

Weapons you should grab first depends on map availability, your position, your proficiency of specific weapon(s) or your tactics against current opponent.

Duel is driven by items. Especially the core items – Red Armor and Megahealth.

• Red Armor gives 100 AP and pushes the maximum AP cap of the player who collects it to 150. You can pushes the cap further with Armor Shards to 200.
  
  
• Megahealth (purple health) is the biggest healing item that gives 100 HP. Fastest way to go into Overheal state.

The advantage you get from these items is clear: you’re hard to kill when fully stacked. Also you’re likely to rob opponent of resources to fight you with in the process. Time to go on offensive.

When you’re stacked and enters Overheal you’ll have limited time to push your health/armor advantage (trying to frag the other guy) before your HP decays back to normal.

The need of these ‘big items’ and Overheal cycle form the core of strategies in traditional arena FPS games. Camp over the item spawns to deny them your opponent, or ambush opponent on their way to the items. Etc.

Speed is life in Warfork and if you are slow you might as well hand over items or frags to the opponent.

Movement in Warfork can get pretty varied and complicated. But 3 basic movement techniques that you should work into your habits while playing Duel are:

• Strafejumping forward – performed while jumping forward, strafe in the air to one side while pulling your mouse slowly in the same direction, then do the same but to opposite side as you land. Repeat. This is the basic movement to gain momentum faster than just running or bunnyhop. From standstill you can start this with a dash. Practice this until you can consistently get to 500+ speed without stopping for 4-5 seconds should be a good start for beginner.
  
  
• Dashing to change direction at the end of strafejump – dashing retains your speed no matter which direction you take, and instantly brings you back to speed if you are slower than the game’s threshold. Make this a habit instead of simply stopping to turn around corners or doing a 180.
  
  
• Walljump – performed by dashing on the wall while airborne. Mandatory for some item placements in a lot of maps (Red Armor is pretty iffy about this)

When you are confident enough then you can try other techniques (airstrafe, weaponjump etc.) But these 3 are important for all players.

Not only you net your opponent a point. You’ll also:

• Lose all collected weapons and armor (you go back to 100 HP and a Gunblade again)
  
  
• Drop the current weapon you’re holding as a pickup for your opponent.

At which point the opponent probably will try to hunt you down and kick you back to spawn repeatedly until you lose. This is the reason why some high level matches go like see-saw battle (one player get frags several times in a row, other player returns the flavor later)

Lesser Armor (Green, Yellow) and Health are there as alternative. Collect these instead if you know your opponent is stacked and you’re in no position to fight back. Do not start prolonged fight when you’re at disadvantage. Especially when you're fresh after respawning. Running away is an option, and so does chipping away with hit-and-run tactics.

• Rebind your weapons so your hand doesn’t have to leave the movement keys for the default number keys to select them. That’s too slow. Keep them close to your keyboard hand, preferably somewhere intuitive and stick with it. Test your keybind in games and adjust until you’re comfortable.
  
  
• Practice your fundamental skills. (Movement and shooting)
  
  
• Learn the weapons. Familiarize yourself with their properties (projectile/hitscan, rate of fire, speed, firing arc) Practice using just one weapon of choice in matches against similarly skilled players or bots. Do not focus on winning-losing as you practice.
  
  
• Learn each maps. Remember the spawn points of players, items and weapons. Learn the movement routes to reach each items quickly from different locations. Learn the alternative routes in case opponent intercepts you.
  
  
• Learn the item spawn timing. Remember how long Armor/ Health take to spawn. Develop & practice a system to mentally remember spawn cycle during the match, so you arrive to items just as they spawn and not over-exposing yourself to opponent.

Warfork: Smilecythe vs Dodger - wfdm2 - by GroinMischief - An example of average Duel in Warfork. Note how items influence the decision-making of both players, and how difference in tactics and gunnery affect the match as a whole.

As of this time of writing Warfork itself doesn't have many resources for you to look up and study further (Warfork wiki is still in the works as of Mar 2020) But since Warfork shares the same root with most Arena FPS games (Quake, Unreal or Warsow that Warfork originates form) many concepts that works in those games also apply to Warfork.

• How does timing work in FPS duel[arenafps.com] by Joel @ ArenaFPS – long article but teaches the importance for controlling item spawns and how to do it.
  
  
• ESL Classics: Rapha vs Cooler YouTube vid – a commentary of Quake match, goes into details of what goes on in a duel.
  
  
• Warsow Movement Tutorial 1 - The Basics YouTube vid by kalhartt

Good luck and have fun in Warfork!