Squads and comms

Open Squad in the field kit (M). Playing solo is fine: every mission can be done alone.

• A squad is permanent, up to twelve: a name, a tag, an emblem and a color, ranks (Recruit, Member, Sergeant, Leader), a bank, a locker in Haven's hangar, ground you hold with a flag, and a history that remembers what you did together. Founding one costs 2,500 scrip at level 8.
• Everyone in your squad who is online is out with you, automatically: you see each other's state, share the squad's encrypted radio net, mark things for each other, and cover each other when someone goes down. The Squad tab shows who's online; the Roster tab has everyone on the books, the bank, recruiting and the history.
• The highest rank online is the field lead. The field lead, any sergeant and the leader give the orders below.

Knowing where your people are

Your squadmates know where you are when they can see you (about 150 meters) or when you both carry a working radio and the sets reach each other: about four kilometers over open ground, further from a hilltop, much less from inside, underground or in a storm. Out of contact, the roster and map show where they were last known and how long ago.

With a radio, you're on your squad's private, encrypted net: talk with CAPS. No radio, no net.

Pings and the comms wheel

Tap F3 to mark what you're looking at. It says what it is: a Runner, three infected, an armed survivor, a damaged Bison, a gun locker. Double-tap for danger, and ping your own mark again to take it down.

Hold F3 for the comms wheel, flick the mouse toward a call and let go: Enemy, Infected, Loot here, Move out, Need medic, Regroup, Hold or Danger. It's marked for everyone in contact and said on the net.

Roles

The field lead or a sergeant can give each of you a role. Each has a small perk once you know the trade (the skill at 20): a medic reads everyone's blood and infection and hears "Need medic" first, a scout's marks last longer and count what they marked, a marksman's marks give the range and follow the target, and a quartermaster sees everyone's ammo, dressings, water and food.

Orders and rules

• Waypoint: the field lead or a sergeant shares their map waypoint; everyone sees it on the compass and can follow it.
• Rally point: set where they stand, for 30 minutes. If you choose to, you wake there after a death, as long as a squadmate is up near it, you fell well away from it, and it isn't a Blackzone.
• Loot: free for all, turns (each container goes to the next of you for 30 seconds), or the field lead hands it out.
• Contract pay: split between everyone who was there, or kept by whoever took it. A squad can take a tithe for its bank.
• Friendly fire is live: your rounds hit your squadmates. A teamkill costs honor, your standing and your squad's cohesion, and after three in half an hour your squad cuts you off its net for 30 minutes. The field lead or a sergeant can switch to training rules.

When someone goes down

Everyone in contact is told who, how far and which way. Look at them to Carry them over your shoulder or Drag them to cover, and X puts them down. Adrenaline brings them back to their feet.

Cohesion

A squad gets tighter the more its members are out together, within 300 meters of each other. Cohesion opens Hand signals (callouts reach further without a radio), Net discipline (positions relay through the squad's radios), Drilled (faster carrying, a shorter wait at the rally point) and One mind (everyone knows when one of you goes down).

Alliances

Up to three squads can swear a pact (24 members across their rosters). Sergeants and leaders offer one face to face and answer on the Alliance tab. Allies count as friendly, see each other when they are in contact and can share pings, and the pact lasts until a squad walks out. Walking out is allowed, but kill a former ally within 10 minutes of leaving and you and your squadmates who were out with you become Oathbreakers for half an hour: the people you betrayed can hunt you without penalty, and your squad cannot swear a new pact for an hour.

Finding a squad, and taking people in

Open Browse on the Squad page to see every squad that isn't private: its emblem, how many it holds, who leads it, what people say about it, how tight it is, what ground it holds, how many are about, and its pitch. Search it, sort it, and filter by how it recruits.

• Open squads take walk-ins: choose Join and you're in as a Recruit.
• Applications: choose Apply and say a few words. A sergeant or the leader answers. An application lapses after three days, and you can have three open at once.
• Invite only squads take people face to face (a sergeant invites you from the Roster tab), and private ones don't show in the browser at all.
• The leader sets the mode and writes the pitch; sergeants answer applications on the Squad page.

Leaving a squad, or being removed from one, means a day before you can found, join or apply to any squad again. The Squad page shows how long is left.

When the leader goes

If the leader is gone for good, leaves, or hasn't been seen for two weeks, the squad votes for the next one on the Squad page. The sergeants stand (or the members, if there are no sergeants). The vote runs two days, or until everyone has voted. Most votes wins, a tie goes to whoever has been in the squad longest, and if nobody votes, the longest-serving of the highest rank takes it. Until then the longest-serving member looks after the squad, but can't touch the bank or disband it. A leader who comes back in time calls the vote off.

Name tags over your squadmates are off by default. Turn them on in Settings, Interface, Squad name tags: they show each squadmate's name and squad rank.