Package Drop

Package Drop was one of the game's earliest modes as a part of Classic. Predating patch notes and devlogs, the mode released pre-v115 (November 30, 2017).

The mode was later removed, being replaced by Gun Game in v488 (May 15, 2023).

## Rules

The game's canonical explanation of the game is as such:

> A diplomats airplane is shot out of the sky, and his important papers are parachuting down. Grab the suitcase by pressing F, and deliver it to your drop off point. The drop off point is a flashing green circle in your spawn area. Just be aware your opponent is trying to get those top secret files first so you need to be quick!
>
>

* 10 minute round
* Team Death Match setting
* A suitcase with intel is dropped down by parachute to the ground below
* Teams fight to take possession of the intel and take it back to a marked circle
* After a team succeeds in delivering, a new package is dropped
* Delivered package grants 50xp to that player
* Location of the drop favors the losing side
* Team with most points at the end wins

During the given period of 10 minutes, all players must rush to collect as many packages as they can. Players do this by approaching the package once grounded and pressing F to pick it up. They will proceed to pick up a briefcase that then acts as a weapon for the player that takes up their held slot until they either deliver the package or drop it by pressing F (or by dying). Once held, a flashing green circle will appear on the minimap for the player to run towards. The package is delivered once it enters the circle's circumference, no matter the height. The team that delivered the package gets a point and a new package is dropped somewhere in the map—new delivery zones are also drawn. The package will always show as a briefcase in the hand, but starts in and is returned to a crate when air dropped and dropped by a player.

Briefcase heldDefault cel shaded packageGreen cel shading for "pickup" promptPackage from front sideIf a package enters water at any time, red smoke will billow from it to help mark its location to players. Each package is marked on the map at all times via a star icon. This icon will flash red while an enemy is in possession of it, and flash green when an ally is. Delivery zones are only visible on the minimap to players carrying the package, however the drawn zones are visible on the ground at all times—allowing for players to try cutting off their enemies or defend the area they are trying to reach. A new one will spawn after the previous one is no longer present. The location it spawns in is random, however will always be central or favor being closer to the losing side.

Red smoke plume from waterlogged packageAlly delivery zone seen on groundDelivery zone seen flashing while carrying packagePackage icon—carried by allyFollowing an update in v135 (March 28, 2018) packages were set to self-destruct after a time. While players can imagine from a story perspective for this to be set as a protection for the information inside, its addition truthfully acted as a way to prevent a player hogging a package. There are two timers the package operates off of: an overall 2 minute timer and a separate 1 minute unattended timer. Once a package has spawned, it will immediately begin a 2 minute timer that cannot be circumvented—this includes the parachuting time. A separate timer for 1.5 minutes is also immediately set. Once a player picks up the package, the 1.5 minute timer is cancelled. Should that player at any point decide to drop the package for any reason, a new 1 minute timer will immediately begin to count down.

Once a timer has finished counting down, a third and final countdown of 20 seconds will immediately begin. If this is the 1.5 minute countdown for an untouched package, the package will begin to flash until either being picked up or the 20 second timer passes; upon which it will respawn. This is a safeguard in case the package lands in a very difficult to reach position, or if fighting in the area of the package is making it too difficult to collect. By resetting the position, players are able to move to the new drop to try again. If however the timers for either the package being unattended (not picked up) for 1 minute, or the overall 2 minute timer counts over, the 20 second timer that begins is set for the explosives inside and cannot be cancelled. Beeping will occur once per second for the first 10 seconds, and then increase to two beeps per second in the final 10. If a player is holding it or is close to the dropped package after the 20th second, they will take high damage (typically killing them) and a new package is spawned. Players still can deliver the package in this countdown, leading to potential stressful last second saves.

Package blowing up—note the instant spawn of package via icon on minimapPackage respawning after being ignored
The benefit of the self-destruct timers is seen on trolls who decide to hold the package and actively avoid delivering it, or on winning teams attempting to hide the package somewhere difficult to retrieve and letting the timer run to get a guaranteed victory. This latter method is especially true for cases like the hidden room in Temple.

While the team with the most points will win once the match has ended, having 10 collected packages will immediately end the round and grant victory to that team. Additionally, if the 10 minute timer has run out but the losing team currently possesses the package then the game will not end until the player holding it either drops or delivers the package.

## Availability

This game mode was available on:

* Northwest
* Flooded
* Temple
* Escape
* Southwest
* Remagen

## Trivia

* Players can deliver a package to the enemy's delivery zone; this will not reward anyone points and will immediately respawn the package (useful for a last second defensive tactic instead of carrying it back through enemy territory)
* Issues of people holding the package and never delivering it prompted the self-destruction mechanic
	+ Developer JoJa15 would go on to joke that perhaps the reason players were delivering live explosives to their home base was because they are delivering to a bomb defusal team
* Missions 88, 184, 214, and 238 are all based on Package Drop: deliver 1, 3, 6, and 10 packages respectively
* Package Drop used to be available on Office, however was removed in v115 (January 18, 2018)
* The code for packages was later recycled for air drops in Battle Royale and ZDC events, with the red smoke mechanic applied outside of water too