Robocraft was an online vehicular combat game developed and published by Freejam Games. The game is set on different planets, with players constructing robots to fight with and against others in battle. The game features contained garage bays in which players can build various functional vehicles with basic block-based parts, such as cubes and wheels, along with weapons that can be used for combat. The initial alpha build was released in March 2013, and gained over 300,000 players by the following year. It officially released out of beta on August 23, 2017.
A sequel, Robocraft 2, was released in early access on November 7, 2023. Months later, on February 2, 2024, Robocraft 2 was delisted from digital platforms due to receiving mostly negative reviews from players and as part of the studio's plan to rebuild the game from the ground up. On January 20, 2025, Freejam Games announced that they would be shutting down the servers for Robocraft and Robocraft 2 due to the studio's closure.
Gameplay Robocraft is a "build, drive, fight"robocraftgame.com game where players build their robots from building parts. Players have the option to play multiple game modes that offer different experiences, for example, Player Vs AI, Brawl and custom games.
Currency and experience Robocraft uses "Robits" and "Tech Points" as its currency. Robits are used to buy parts, community-made robots or new garage slots. Items are unlocked by spending Tech Points in the tech tree. Before June 19, 2018, players could also get items from crates. After that date, they were removed and instead players could only get Robits. The more experience a player can get in a match, the more Robits they earn. Currently, no player can achieve a level over 10,000.
Building a robot The tech tree was added on June 19, 2018, which allows players to get the different parts that they want instead of them being randomly given parts via crates. Players are given the freedom to build and customize their robots in any way they like, as long as it does not exceed their in-game CPU limit (2000). The player's CPU limit does not increase as they level up. Different chassis and hardware blocks consume different amounts of CPU. After a bot passes 2000 CPU it becomes a Megabot, which can only join Custom Games and Play vs AI gamemodes.
Battle Systems The game features a part-based damage system. To destroy a robot, 75% of the robot's total CPU must be destroyed. When a robot part is damaged, all adjacent parts connected to it are partially damaged as well. This damage system model permits complex engineering techniques in the areas of damage distribution and redirection. For example, players can use "tri-forcing" and "rod-forcing" to intentionally choose which parts are connected to one another, thereby moving incoming damage to less important parts and allowing the most vital components of a robot to stay alive longer. When a robot part is destroyed, such as a weapon or mech leg, that part is disabled until it can be regenerated. Players can strategically aim for certain weak points on a robot to disable their weapons or make the robot harder to control.
Robots have an automatic regeneration ability that repairs them after not being damaged for 10 seconds. If a robot is damaged while auto-repairing, the 10-second timer is reset and auto-repairing stops. Some gamemodes feature a respawn mechanic, where bots that have been destroyed will be returned to the field of battle. When a bot has just respawned, it will have a spherical shield surrounding it which negates any damage done to the bot until it wears off. This respawn shield was made to discourage spawn camping.
The game also has a weapon energy system, which defines how long someone can shoot with their weapons. Different weapons consume different amounts of energy per shot. If the player's robot does not have enough energy, they must wait for their energy to refill before being able to fire their weapon again.
Previous versions of Robocraft featured a "Boost" system, which multiplied a bot's stats depending on how it is built. Movement parts would increase the speed boost depending on how many of them were used. If the bot used most of the 2000 CPU given to the player, it would have its health increased but its weapon effectiveness would be less, and vice versa. This was removed in an update due to complaints from players of the game.
Gamemodes Robocraft features seven game modes: Test AI Bots Deathmatch Team Deathmatch Elimination Battle Arena Brawl Custom Game Players can earn experience and robits in all game modes except Test and Custom Game. All multiplayer game modes are ranked. Players earn ranking points from playing in multiplayer.
Test The Test game mode is a simulation map with rugged terrain and flat platforms. The purpose of this game mode is for players to test their robots in the absence of other robots and objectives. No experience is earned while in this game mode.
Play VS AI Play vs AI is the same as Team Deathmatch, except that all the other robots in the player's team and the robots in the other team are AI controlled.
Battle Arena / League Arena In Battle Arena, each team's base has a "Protonium Reactor", which must be fed energy in order to power "the Annihilator". A team's Protonium Reactor is charged gradually by capturing and defending three control points placed on the map. The speed at which energy is collected for the protonium reactor depends on how many control points that team is currently controlling. A match is won when the Annihilator reaches 100% and the enemy's base is destroyed. If the timer runs out, whichever team has the most energy will win. If both teams have the same amount of energy when the timer expires, it is considered a Draw and neither team will win.
Players can capture control points for their team by standing on them for a period of time. Each point is divided into three segments, and if an enemy interrupts a player trying to capture a point, but many segments are already captured will stay partially captured and make the point more vulnerable to future capture attempts.
Each team's reactor is protected by a "Fusion Shield". Players are healed by the Fusion Shield at their own base, which is impenetrable by enemy fire from the outside. Enemies entering your fusion shield cannot fire their weapons and will gradually take damage the longer they stay inside. The fusion shield requires a constant supply of energy to functionーif a team captures all three control points, their enemy's fusion shield will be disabled. Players can invade the enemy's protonium reactor while its shield is down and steal energy from it for use at their own reactor instead. If a team controls all three control points for an extended period of time, they will become "Dominating" and the speed at which they collect energy will be accelerated.
Occasionally, a "protonium crystal", also known as The Equalizer, will appear at the center of the map for the losing team to attack. The losing team will have 60 seconds to destroy the crystal and harvest its energy before it disappears. The winning team can fight to try to stop the losing team from destroying the crystal. If the losing team destroys the crystal, the scores between the two teams will be evened out, allowing the losing team to catch up.
Team Deathmatch In this mode, two teams of 5 players fight with 5 second respawn times and a frag limit of 15. The first team to reach 15 frags wins. If the timer runs out before the frag limit is reached, the team with more frags wins. If both teams have the same score when the time runs out, it goes into sudden death, where the team who destroys the next robot wins.
Elimination In Elimination, two teams of 10 players fight until the last robot standing. When a robot is destroyed, it will not respawn. Players are encouraged to bring highly durable robots that are able to heal their teammates. Whichever team gets wiped out first loses. Alternatively, a player can capture a point at the enemy's base to win the game, but this takes a very long time. If both teams are still alive when the timer runs out, it is considered a Draw and neither team wins or loses.
Brawl Brawl consists of several changes to rules and mechanics of other gamemodes, such as slower time, lowered damage, increased player counts and limitations as to what robots players can play with. These rules are changed every so often as to not be repetitive. Once a new Brawl has started, players get a double XP bonus for their first victory.
Custom Game Custom Games are customizable matches in which several mechanics can be changed or removed at will by the leader, as well as selecting maps and team sizes. This is the only multi-player gamemode in which Megabots are allowed.
Weapons There are several different weapons in the game: Laser (a machine-gun-like weapon, has two versions: front mounted and top mounted) Plasma (fires a plasma grenade with an arc that explodes on impact) Rail (a sniper-like weapon, fires a single high-damage shot with a very low rate of fire and high accuracy) Nano (a healing gun with a short range that is incapable of dealing damage but in turn can heal teammates) Tesla (a dangerous blade which heavily damages any bot it touches) Aeroflak (an anti air gun that fires projectiles that only explode near flying bots and on hit the projectiles will deal more damage up to 20 times) Proto-Seeker (fires many small, seeking projectiles that lock onto enemies at short range at a very high rate of fire) Lock on Missile Launcher (after spending 2–3 seconds locking on, it fires seeking missiles that explode on impact, if losing lock on a target, the already launched missiles will continue to seek their target) Ion (a shotgun-like cannon that deals massive damage in a short range) Chain (a gatling gun/minigun like weapon that spins up for a very high rate of fire) Mortar (a short-range Plasma like cannon that cannot aim straight horizontally or vertically, acts like an artillery)
Almost all weapons have multiple rarity variants, each having different stats, such as requiring more weapon energy, increased damage, increased ROF, etc.
There are also Modules (Disc Shield, Blink, Weapon Energy, Electromagnetic Pulse, Windowmaker, and Ghost Modules) which have certain abilities such as deploying a large temporary impenetrable Shield, traveling certain distances in less than a second, stunning all enemies in a radius, etc.
Social Players can friend other players or add up to 4 other players to their platoon (regardless if they have premium or not) in order to play on the same team in the same match together. Players can also join Clans, a group of players with a maximum of 50, wherein players can cooperatively earn SXP (Season Experience) awarded at the end of a match which will then be converted into Robits at the end of the Clan Season. The Robits accumulated from the clan's TXP (Total Experience) will be distributed equally to clan members, albeit those who do not contribute in it in any way wouldn't receive any amount of Robits.
Development Robocraft uses the Unity engine and Yahoo Games Network.
2014 A November update added EasyAntiCheat (EAC) software to the game's client, in order to counter various hacks such as zero reload time. Freejam has stated that the EAC team will focus on anti-cheating, allowing them to focus on new features. A major game update was released on December 9, adding Tank Tracks and Tesla Blades, a unique melee weapon, alongside several new features.
2015 On February 18, the "Dawn of the Megabots" update was released. This features a wide array of updates including new matching systems. "Megaboss" and "Challenge Mode", and rotor blades were introduced to let players construct "New helicopter style Copter Class Robots." These were all introduced alongside many new updates.