Mayhem & Loadout

Both duels and rumbles come in two item formats. They share one catalogue of items but hand them to you in opposite ways: Mayhem gives you items you did not choose at moments you did not pick, and Loadout gives you exactly the items you chose with nothing else coming. Everything else (the board, the scoring, the Sludge) is unchanged.

Mayhem: earn them as you clear

In Mayhem, an item capsule embeds itself into your stack every 6 cleared lines. It is placed near the surface of a column rather than at a random depth, so it sits where play is actually happening. Clear the row it is sitting in and you bank one random item from the catalogue.

You can hold 2 items at a time in Mayhem, and that cap has teeth: a capsule cleared while your hands are already full is simply lost. If you are carrying a full set and a capsule is one row away, fire something first.

Online Mayhem always runs at 6 lines per capsule with every item available, so both sides earn at the same rate. Offline games against bots let you change the rate and ban items you would rather not see:

Loadout: choose them before the match

In Loadout, you pick 3 different items before the match and start holding all of them. No capsules ever spawn, and nothing is replaced: each item is one use, and when it is gone it is gone for the rest of the game. Bots bring a random arsenal of the same size.

Quake, Dissolve, Shield are free forever. Every other item is a Store consumable in online Loadout games: 50 Droplets buys one use, and you have to own a use before you can field it: pick an item you have none of and the slot is simply dropped when the match starts. Firing spends the use; carry it to the end unused and you still have it next time. Mayhem pickups are always free, and offline Loadout ignores ownership entirely, so you can practise with any combination for nothing.

Firing an item

Items sit in numbered slots, each with its own key, by default D, F and G, and the third slot only exists in Loadout, where you carry 3. Like every other core binding, they can be remapped in Settings.

• Offensive items land on your target: the other player in a duel, or whoever your targeting strategy currently points at in a rumble. They also mark you as that player's attacker, so a rival on Counter will aim back at you.
• Self items apply to your own Well and send nothing. They fix your board or buy you time.
• A Shield on the receiving end absorbs one offensive item outright, the same way it absorbs a Sludge volley.

Which format suits you

Mayhem is a clearing race with a second reward attached. Every line you clear moves you toward a capsule as well as toward an attack, so the player controlling the pace also controls the item supply, and since what you get is random, the skill is in using a mediocre item well rather than saving for a good one that may never come. Holding an item you are not going to use is worse than firing it, because it blocks the next pickup.

Loadout is a planning format. You know your 3 items, your opponent knows theirs, and nobody gets more, so the whole game is about timing: a Shield spent on a volley you would have survived is a Shield you do not have at sudden death. In a rumble it is harder still, because a fixed handful of shots has to be spent on the right rival as well as at the right moment.

The item reference covers what every item does and how to play against it.