Battle Arena

**Battle Arena** is a 5v5 team-based game mode. Teams fight to capture "Mining Points" in order to charge up "The Annihilator". When The Annihilator reaches 100% charge, it fires an orbital strike beam, destroying the enemy team's Protonium Reactor and ending the match.

### Mining Points

There are three total mining points on each map. Any team's primary objective in the game mode is to capture these points. While your team holds a point, it will slowly charge up your Annihilator, while also providing your Protonium Reactor with a protective shield. The more points a team holds, the faster their Annihilator charges.

The shield (referred to in-game as a 'fusion shield') will heal allies extremely quickly, even if it is disabled. While it is active, enemies inside of it cannot shoot (modules, however, are still usable) and will continuously take damage until they flee. Unless the sheild is shut down, it will behave like a solid wall (litterally just like every other surface in the game) and enemies cannot shoot or pass through it.

If a team holds all three points, the shield around the other team's Protonium Reactor will fall, allowing enemies to steal protonium crystals off of it. These crystals represent the Annihilator's charge. If a team holds 3 points for a while, they will also become "Dominant", meaning they receive Annihilator charge much faster. The shield can be re-instated by simply capturing a mining point.

In order to capture a mining point simply stand on top of it for around half a minute (more teammates on the point will increase charge rate). Getting shot will not slow the capture process, but if an enemy is also standing on the mining point the process will be halted until they either leave or die. At the beginning of the game all mining points are neutral, meaning both teams can capture them.

The capture process has three segments. If you have captured a segment and were then killed, your team will not lose that segment until the point is captured, at which the enemy team can attempt to recapture it again. The capture status of all mining points can be seen either above the mining point as a billboard (a sprite always facing the camera) which can be seen from anywhere, or at the top of the screen, which shows the status of all mining points, your annihilator and your enemy's annihilator.

### Protonite Core

The Protonite Core (aka The Equalizer) is a game mechanic designed to give the losing team a chance to catch up to the other team. It appears as a large crystal stationed at the center of the map. At five minute intervals, the Equaliser will appear for one minute. The losing team's objective is to destroy it, whereas the winning teams objective is to defend it. If the losing team manages to destroy it within this time period, their Annihilator charge will be "equalized" to that of the winning team. This means that the losing team will instantly gain as much power as the enemy team. If it is not destroyed, the crystal will retreat back into the ground, nothing will change, and the game will continue.

In most cases, it is better to ignore the core, unless you are extremely behind and if your team is just beginning to make a comeback (since the enemy will stay ahead if you do not have at least 2 out of three points captured). Furthermore, wasting your time on the Protonite Core, or having everyone after it at once, serves as a distraction from the mining points, therefore sometimes giving the enemy an opportunity to attack.

### Tips & Tricks

* At the start of the match, have only 1 or 2 players go to the near capture point, while the rest of the team goes to the middle point. There will most likely not be combat at near point this early in the game, so sending more people to the middle point will give you a higher chance of capturing it.
* Sometimes instead of defending the Protonite Core, the winning team could focus on capturing points while the opposing team is gathering around the crystal and become distracted. This is particularly useful if you know that your team has no chance at defending the crystal.
* When an opponent is capturing a mining point, try to surprise them and do as much damage to them before they realize. That way, you can finish them off easily, and hold the control point. A tip in doing so is to aim for their weapons first, so that they cannot fight back, then aim for their movement parts. That way you can secure the point while getting a kill along with it.
* Unless your robot has incredibly weak health, a good way to hold a point, sometimes even when outnumbered, is to stall the enemy by standing on the capture point with them **as much as possible.** Doing so will pause the capturing process and it forces them to try and kill you in order to continue. If done in the correct scenarios, this is an incredibly useful trick that can be used to distract enemies while your team captures, or to hold a point just long enough for your team to arrive and clean up.
* Capturing mining points is far more useful than killing your opponents. Killing enemy players but not capturing a mining point yields no benefit.
* In cases where a player needs to save a point ASAP as opposed to stalling it, high damage numbers are still a priority when bringing unsuspecting enemies down for the sake of defense. Plasma is a great way to deal lots of damage on the first hit.
* Always attack the person who is either most threatening to your survival, or who is most threatening to the objective (except for the protonice core. There are other ways of staying ahead.) Also, when raiding the enemy's base or attacking the Protonite Core, ALWAYS make sure to focus only on crystals. Don't bother wasting your ammo on swatting flies when you can use it to help your team score faster.
* When attacking the Protonite Core or the enemy base, try to use aeroflak, as it does very high damage to crystals.
* This mode forces people out from sniping points. It is inadvisable to bring a robot that is ill-suited for close-range combat.