Battle
In this mode, you earn a point for every kill on another hunter you get, though you get docked a point if you die on your own terms. Terms for a self inflicted death are suicide, though they often aren't intentional, or an accidental death. The match will end when time has expired, or when the set kill quota has been met by a hunter.
Battle is the default gameplay mode for a random search. The default time is 7 minutes, and the point goal is 7 kills. However, when playing a custom game on friends and rivals, you can edit things such as Radar, Kill Limit, Time Limit, Teams, Damage Meter (Low, Medium, and High), Friendly Fire (If teams are on), and unlike voting for a map in random, the host is able to pick any map he/she has unlocked.
Battle mode is playable in all arenas.
Survival
In Survival Mode, you plat to survive the longest out of all other hunters on the field. Survival is much like Battle, but the score is based on how many Lives you have, so the person with most lives at the end of the time limit or is the last one standing is the winner. This is a choice mode for Tiers because it is so simple to tie in. What also makes it different from Battle is that there is less Health and Ammo scattered around the arena, and that if you stay in the same area to long, you'll get a warning that the other Hunters have spotted you (Making it so that there is a White Square on you that anyone can see, through walls and everything.)
Survival is playable in all areas.
Bounty
Bounty is an exciting race to the octolith. In this mode there is a bounty pick-up area and a drop-off area. The Hunter(s) who get the most bounties (or the goal) wins.
Bounty is playable at:
- Transfer Lock
- Compression Chamber
- Elder Passage
- Fault line
Defender
In this mode, one large circle stands in an easlily located place. If your the only hunter in the circle, you gain time towards the time goal. The first hunter to achieve the goal is the winner.
You can play Defender at:
- Combat hall
- Data Shrine
- Ice Hive
- Alinds Perch
- SIC Transit
- Transfer Lock
- Sanctorus
- Subterranean
- Outer Reach
- Harvester
- Weapons Complex
- Councial Chamber
- Stasis Banker
- Celestial Gateway
- Alindis Gateway
- VDO Gateway
- Arctera Gateway
- Obliette
Prime Hunter
In this mode, the first hunter to score a kill becomes the Prime Hunter. Once you become the prime hunter your health will be constantly sapped until you die. Also, the nice part of being the prime hunter is that you will gain all of the other hunter's abilities, as well as affinity for all weapons. The only way to get health is to kill another hunter. The one to kill the Prime Hunter then claims the title.
Prime Hunter is playable in all arenas.
Capture
A variation of capture the flage where you must steal the opposing teams octolith from it's base and carry it back to your base. Your octolith must be at your base to score a point.
Strategy
The main strategy in capture mode is to puppy guard your octolith. Before taking your post at the octolith, you should stock up on health and ammo.
Nodes
The Nodes mode, scatters rings throughout the arena. The number of node rings depends upon how many hunters ar in participation. Once you've occupied a ring for 10 seconds, it is yours. You do not have to stay within the confines of the node ring, to score points, you are free to roam around and capture other nodes. You get credit for your nodes as long as they stay in your possession and no one is attempting to steal them.