XDefiant's preseason is now live and free to play on Ubisoft Connect filled with several game modes. However, given that it is still only the preseason, several features are yet to launch. Game modes such as Ranked and Practice Zone are likely to come out when Season 1 commences. With that said, one might wonder which game modes are available at the moment.

XDefiant Preseason Game Modes

Players will have access to five unraked game modes for the next month and a half. These are namely Domination, Escort, Hot Shot, Occupy, and Zone Control. All modes take place in one of the 14 available maps in each match. Depending on how long it takes for teams to complete their objectives, each game mode will last approximately 15 – 20 minutes per match. The question now is, what mode is best suitable for one's playstyle?

Domination

While all game modes in XDefiant are exhilarating, Domination is arguably the most chaotic mode of all. Each team's goal is to gain control of three zones in a cramped area. Upon taking the zones, it's important to maintain control to accumulate more points. Each controlled zone gives a team one point per second. With that said, conquering all three zones will reward teams with three points per second. The first team to reach the targeted points wins the game.

How exactly is Domination the most chaotic mode, one might ask. For starters, given that the battle takes place on a small map, players are likely to face their adversaries head-on for the most part. While campers can technically find their spot and hit sniper shots, flankers can easily spot these long-distance gunners and take them out from behind.

Maintaining control of one zone is a taller order than one might think. When the team forgets to defend a zone, enemies can easily gain control of it and vice versa. Domination is fast-paced and requires map awareness. Players need to be on their toes at all times in this game mode.

Escort

Out of all the game modes in XDefiant, Escort is pretty much the standard for hero shooters. Games like Overwatch and Paladins have elevated the Escort scene and now even Ubisoft's free-to-play shooter has it. It's also the game's main mode given that the Welcome Playlist sends players into Escort matches most of the time.

Like many games before XDefiant, each attacking team's goal is to escort their payload until the delivery point. Defenders simply need to stop the attackers from doing so and try to push the payload back.

Teams then switch sides when the initial attacking squad either completed their goal or if their time expired. If the initial attacking team successfully delivered the payload, the next set of attackers needs to beat their adversaries' time. On the other hand, if the initial attackers failed to deliver the payload, the new attacking team should get their payload past the point where the initial team stopped.

Hot Shot

Next on the list of chaotic game modes is Hot Shot. It's basically Team Deathmatch with a twist. The difference is players collect bounties for every kill they secure. Bounties are coins that drop on the ground for players to pick up. This mode aims to accumulate a targeted amount of bounties to win the game.

Another twist Hot Shot brings that Team Deathmatch doesn't have is the ability for players to become the Hot Shot. When players become the Hot Shot, they gain temporary buffs to their weapons and overall physical stats. In other words, Hot Shots become faster, have slightly more health, and deal more damage. To become that Hot Shot, one must consistently collect a certain amount of bounties without dying. Death will instantly bring a player's Hot Shot points back to zero.

While becoming the Hot Shot sounds like fun and games, Hot Shots can be seen around the map. That means, their enemies can easily track them down and take them out. Teams need to protect their Hot Shot if they want to maintain the advantage of having a strong ally by their side.

Occupy

Similar to Domination, players need to gain control of a certain zone in Occupy. There'll be multiple zones to take over, however, players need to have extreme map awareness as these zones constantly move around the map after a certain amount of time.

Like Domination, having control of one zone for a longer period will grant teams more points. The first team to reach a certain number of points wins the game.

Zone Control

Zone Control is an attackers versus defenders-based game mode that has defending teams guard five zones and prevent attacking teams from gaining control of all of them. At the beginning of the game, attackers need to secure two zones before proceeding to the next couple of points. After capturing the first four zones will the final point unlock. The goal of the attackers is to take over all five zones before the time expires.

Similarly to Escort, the second attacking team will have to beat what the initial attackers achieved. It's either they beat their time to complete the objectives or gain control of more zones.

Ranked Trial Run

Technically speaking, Ranked mode isn't available in XDefiant yet. However, Ubisoft decided to add a trial version of Ranked to set players' expectations when the game mode officially commences in Season 1.

In the trial version, players are limited to a 4v4 setting compared to the usual 6v6 mode. As of this writing, trial Ranked only features Escort. The developers are yet to announce if other game modes are coming to Ranked when it launches.

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