Dead time is a PvPvE gamemode in which two teams of five face off against each other to get the most points. Winning is entirely connected to point count.

It is a team based mode that requires the capturing of energy cells, fighting off the enemy team, and proper strategies to be most successful. People are frequently forgetting the "team based" part which has compelled me to write this guide.

Within that map linked above, there's a few things to be mindful of:

Energy Cells: These are the, well, energy cell looking things marked in blue across the map. Capturing one brings a significant number of points for your team. The capture speed scales by number of people within the blue dashed lines that form a square around each energy cell.

The first cell is protected by rats, the next bloodsuckers, the next snorks, and the next wisps. At least, the basic cells that both sides have and tend at some point, there are a few other cells I'm leaving out for the moment. This is mostly just to serve as a reference for when I say "past Wisp energy cell" later in the guide.

The capturing of energy cells + the points gotten while fighting off mobs doing so will typically make up a significant percentage of the overall match points.

Remember, if you aren't in the blue square, you aren't helping to cap. Be in the square as often as you can, it's literally worth dying to reduce the amount of time your teammates have to sit on a cell.

Outpost: Approximately halfway through the map there is an outpost that can be captured to reward the capturing team with a spawnpoint at said outpost. These spawns are limited and the capture speed does not scale with amount of people inside.

Control Room & Server Room: Not that these rooms are that insane, they are just kind of out of the scope for the kind of guide I am creating. The types of strategies worth explaining for these rooms are best discovered organically in-game by your squad working together to utilize them.

Turret: At the top of the silo at the far end of the map is a fixed cannon called the Military Prototype. It fires extremely lethal rounds and is intermittently protected by its shield generators. Shoot the blue lights on both sides (goes from nearly floor to ceiling on each side) to disable this shield to allow damage to be done to the bot.

The potential for point gain is very large while damaging the turret but be mindful of the fact that once the turret is destroyed the game mode ends with the higher-scoring team coming home the winner. While appealing to rush the turret since it seems like the "final boss", it is typically more worth it to coordinate with your entire team to capture cells if you are not close/leading in points overall.

Keycard: Occasionally drops from NPCs and allows for a quick alternate entrance to the bot room via a staircase instead of having to use the silo. If you get a keycard be sure to make your way to the console at the top of the staircases past the Wisp energy cell.

There's more to be said, but I'll let another guidemaker do that. I concede to my own laziness.

In no particular order of importance, here's some basics when actually inside Dead Time:

- Capturing energy cells wins games. If you haven't been assisting your team much during the round capping you better be able to directly point to things like tying up several enemies for a long period of time or still helping the overall point economy.

-Rushing the turret without focusing on energy cells can sink a team. Very often it can happen that a team just ends up giving free points to the enemy squad on the turret when they could have spent that time instead getting the massive point boosts from energy cells. If the turret isn't near death it is nearly always better to still stick together.

- It's a team game mode, look out for your friends. When capturing points do your best to pool your damage together on the mobs most likely to damage your team mates next. If you can increase the number of enemies killed per reload for your team mates by maximizing your oveerall damage there's a much higher chance of avoiding a wipe at a cell.

- Part of the last point is that you should be sure to stick relatively closely to your team mates if you want to make a successful push or get some opportunistic kills. Filtering one by one or repeatedly dying in specific areas not only denies your own team the benefit of you aiding with a cell capture but it directly gives the enemy more points. It's fine to wait 5-10 seconds for backup if you see a buddy coming on your mini-map. DPS is higher with two people shooting, simple as.

- Manage globs of NPCs efficiently where collective damage can be maximized by their positioning as well as prioritizing NPCs most likely to get that one smack in that'll turn your team into dust. That means don't run off because you have enemies on you when your teammates could help and be that teammate who does help.

- Seriously, don't just sit at the outpost area all day with 3 people trying to get kills while your team is trying to cap cells and actually win the game. If you've been at the outpost for a long time and aren't killing people every 10-15 seconds, go be useful.

- A lot of what's in this guide isn't necessarily a hard and fast rule. Adjust your play to suit the conditions, what is appropriate when is largely up to how coordinated your team is. Improvisation is important.

Ultimately a lot of this comes down to playstyle and what you like to do. The generalist class with the AK-105 or the machinegunner with the RPK tend to never be truly "useless" while the other ones you should be sure you can make use out of their specializations.

If you go chemist do not be afraid to use your healing grenades. Shaving time off a capture point repeatedly by reducing deaths ends up winning games.

I don't have much else to say here really, just be mindful of your loadout and what you can accomplish. Don't pick the grenade launcher guy if you like headshotting specific enemies one by one for instance, it's an AoE weapon.

Here's all the different classes and their equipment:

I in no way suggest this guide is complete, entirely correct, or even really all that good. But I'll have to play with you guys in matchmaking, the sooner people figure out what's going on, the better.