Please note: planned mechanics are subject to change.

Howdy, folks!

People have been asking lately how PvP will work in the upcoming DF update. I've talked about it a bit on Discord and now I'll share it here, too.

Inviting someone to PvP:

To invite someone to PvP, there is a "PvP List" you can access by pressing [P]. It shows a list of all players in the same room who are ready to PvP, and their player IDs will be listed next to their names. By default everyone is listed as "ready to PvP" and on the list, but you can remove yourself from the list by using the command "/pvp off" in chat.

In the PvP List, you can type in the ID number of another player to send them an invite, and if they invite you back the battle automatically begins. When the fight starts, you are given the option to select a different vessel, or you can keep the one you're already using.

PvP Real-time Gameplay:

As I've said before, PvP battles are in "real-time" rather than being turn-based. The easiest way to think about how this works is that it's kind of like fighting a regular enemy encounter, except that the damage you inflict is sent to your opponent, and any damage they inflict is sent to you. When you use FIGHT, your opponent receives that damage and then you are given a random bullet attack to dodge based on what vessel they're using and what their type is. You can see what type a vessel is by looking in the bottom right corner of the Vessel Menu.

Vessel Types:

Yes, vessels have "types" now. There are 7 types in the game: Normal, Fire, Water, Grass, Fighting, Electric and Ghost. These types work similarly to Pokemon, except when a vessel has a type advantage it will get a defense buff, not an attack buff. So if you're using a fire-type vessel and your opponent is using a water-type vessel, your opponent will have a defense buff because fire is weak to water.

PvP "stock" mechanic:

The basic idea of PvP is that you want to fight as quickly as possible because you don't have to wait for your turn, both of you just keep trying to FIGHT as much as you can. Items are useable in PvP, so be sure to stock up. Because of the fact that you don't have to take turns, PvP battles can go pretty quickly. As such, I have decided to add "lives" to PvP. However, I will be calling them "stock" instead because that's what they're called in smash and it sounds epic. You have 3 stock in each PvP battle. If you die, you lose 1 stock, and then your HP is restored back to 99. First player to lose all 3 stock is the loser. But there's a catch to these lives: you can't use the same vessel for the rest of the battle after you've already used it once. So you'll need to choose a different vessel to use when you lose a stock.

This mechanic should help to make PvP battles pretty interesting, since you can't guess which vessel your opponent is going to choose next. It also encourages you to hang on to your items for as long as you can, because you have 3 stock so you want to save them for when you really need some healing later on in the fight.

Partner Vessels:

There are also "partner vessels". These are unlockable helpers that can be used once per battle. They kind of act like spells from DF Classic, as each grants a different effect to hinder your opponent or help you out in some way. The catch, however, is that after you use them once they can't be used again for the rest of the battle, and you can only use 5 partners per battle.

One partner vessel, for example, is a Froggit. When used, he will cause the next bullet attack your opponent receives to have extra fly bullets in it, which they'll need to dodge along with the regular attack, making it a lot harder to avoid damage.

What you get for winning:

Winning a PvP battle will reward you with 75G, points to your rank, and also allow your vessel to level up. Each vessel has an individual PVP LEVEL, which maxes out at 9. Having a high PvP Level gives that vessel an attack buff.

Conclusion:

There is a lot of strategy when it comes to what vessels you choose, what items you take with you, and what partner vessels you use in-battle. This should really spice things up! And yes, I can confirm that all 46 vessels are playable in PvP, and have their own custom music and sprites where applicable. However, a lot of vessels will still use placeholders for a while though, which will get replaced in future updates.

So yeah, that's all the news for now. Thanks for reading, and stay determined!