COMBAT
Arena
The Arena is the rated ladder. You register a squad, it is placed in a pod, and it fights without you. There is nothing to drive.
A cycle
An event runs every 6 hours: a signup window, then 5 rounds against other entrants in a pod of up to 32. You watch the replays afterwards.
Your squad is frozen at lock. Changing it after that changes nothing for the event already running.
Divisions
| Division | Rating from | Entry |
|---|---|---|
| Drifter | 900 | 10,000 $ato |
| Scavenger | 1,000 | 20,000 $ato |
| Raider | 1,150 | 40,000 $ato |
| Warlord | 1,350 | 60,000 $ato |
| Signal-Bearer | 1,650 | 80,000 $ato |
| Ashen Sovereign | 2,000 | 100,000 $ato |
Rating starts at 1000 and the floor is 900, so a losing run drops you into a genuinely cheaper bracket rather than off the bottom of the ladder. The entry fee scales with the division, and so does the prize.
Filler opponents
A pod that cannot be filled with real entrants is filled with house teams. A house team mirrors a real entrant in the pod rather than being built at the pod average, so a weak player is not made to fight a pod-median army and a strong one is not left unopposed. Beating a house team is worth rating, at a discount.