Mechs engaging in Deathmatch combat.
There are five game modes in Hawken: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Missile Assault, Siege and Cooperative Bot Destruction. Each one provides a unique playstyle and experience.
Deathmatch[]
Deathmatch games are timed free-for-all matches where the pilot with the most points wins. Points are awarded with a refined system that takes into account the amount of damage a pilot inflicts. This allows pilots who are victims of kill stealing to still win the match, rather than the pilot with the most kills. Strategies in deathmatch include ambushing players who are already occupied with other enemies to get an easy kill.
Team Deathmatch[]
Team Deathmatch games are timed matches where the team with the most kills wins. Successful teams in team deathmatch usually stick together and frequently make use of spotting other mechs. Unlike the other team-based modes where sacrificing mechs for an objective can be beneficial, pilots in Team Deathmatch reduce the enemy team's score by simply staying alive. Carelessly wasted lives can tip the scales in a balanced match.
Missile Assault[]
Missile Assault shares similarities with the conquest modes of other games. In this mode, pilots must defend their team's base using missile silos around the map. Bases serve as the spawn points for a team. Missile silos under a team's control automatically attack the enemy base. Each map with the game mode has three missile silos. A team loses when its base is destroyed. Having skilled pilots defending captured missile silos rather than constantly capturing can be more beneficial.
Siege[]
Siege is a game mode where teams must destroy the other's base with the use of an airborne battleship. Siege is split into two phases:
1. Pre-launch: Pilots must collect energy from Energy Stations around the map (or from destroyed mechs) prior to deploying the battleship. There are two Energy Stations on the map. Stations can only release a limited amount of energy per second, which causes collection to slow when multiple mechs use the same station. EU stations also cap off their total stored EU at 250. Once they've collected enough EU, pilots deposit their energy at their team's base, contributing towards the price to launch the battleship. EU slowly builds for each team while neither team's battleship has been launched.
2. Launch: When enough energy has been collected on a team, their battleship is launched and automatically moves towards the enemy base to bombard it whilst also attacking enemy players along its path. If a battleship is directly over the enemy base, the battleship bombards the base until destroyed. If the battleship is destroyed, Siege returns to the first phase. Battleships will attack each other, and can be shot down by mechs as well.
Bases have 3000 points of health before being destroyed. The enemy team can destroy a battleship by attacking it or securing the anti-air gun in the middle of the map. If two battleships are in the air, they halt each other's progress and attack each other until one is destroyed.
Timing the launch of the battleship is crucial to success. Battleships can be used as shields for the base in dire circumstances, or as diversions.
Cooperative Bot Destruction[]
Cooperative bot destruction, or CBD for short, is a PvE (Player vs Environment) gamemode in which 4 pilots fight (typically) 30 waves of bots, including bosses. The early waves consist of hovering drones that are based off of mech weapons, such as the Flak Cannon, Assault Rifle, and Grenade Launcher. Later on, enemy mechs will appear. These are mostly Brawlers, Beserkers, Bruisers, Rocketeers, Infiltrators, Repears, and Sharpshooters.
Upon spawning in, a cutscene shows various enemies emerging from portals dotted about the map. The wave begins, and the pilots must take down each bot before advancing to the next wave.The difficulty and bot count increases each wave.
Bots drop EU when destoryed, which is used for mech upgrades. Pilots have the choice to upgrade their damage output, shield capacity, or heating rate. Each time an upgrade is bought, it becomes more expensive to purchase again.
Every 5 waves, a boss spawns. Bosses have black paint with yellow trim, vast amounts of health, and better AI than the other bots. While fighting a boss wave, other bots will spawn as well. Bosses drop much more EU than regular bots do.
Death in CBD is unique. When a pilot's mech is destroyed, a revival beacon appears where they died. Another player must stand by the beacon for several seconds to bring their ally back into the fight..
Consumables are another feature of CBD. They have various uses, such as reviving yourself from death, instanly reviving a fallen teammate, or adding an extra 200 to your shield.