Arm your multiplayer clan with weapons, masks and helmets for your next supply raid – available now from PlayStation®Store.
Take the fight to your enemies and visit PlayStation®Store to see the latest gear available.
Choose your side in the brutal skirmishes between Fireflies and Hunters in this online multiplayer mode.
Most of the tactics you’ll pick up playing the single-player story will help you survive Factions, but here are a few tips that will give you an advantage.
Each skirmish you fight in Factions mode has an impact on your own personal Clan of survivors. Your aim is to keep your clan alive for 12 weeks, with each match counting for one day.
Supplies are essential to your clan’s survival. You can see the number of Supplies needed per day to keep your survivors healthy in the main Factions menu. If you fail to reach the required amount, the shortfall will result in some of your survivors becoming hungry. Fail to reach it again and a number of your people will become sick and eventually die. If your clan size reaches zero, you’ll have to start again from day one.
Parts are the in-game currency in Factions mode and are awarded for all sorts of actions that help your team. Parts can be spent on weapon upgrades, special weapons and armour in the in-game store. To access the in-game store, press the touch pad button to access your backpack then press the button and use , , and to navigate through the available upgrades.
Spending Parts in-game doesn’t affect the number of Supplies you earn for your clan at the end of a match.
Throughout your clan’s 12-week ordeal, you’ll have to endure random events like raids and other emergencies, but you’ll also encounter also opportunities improve your situation. You’ll be notified when this happens after any match, and you’ll have to choose a special mission, such as reaching a certain number of kills with a specific weapon, to complete within three matches.
Unlike the single-player story, when your health reaches zero in Factions you’ll become incapacitated, but you can crawl to help using the left stick. To revive a downed teammate, stand next to them and hold the button.
Health Kits are scattered around every multiplayer level. Pick these up rather than craft them and save your valuable crafting items for Molotov cocktails and shivs.
To finish off your enemies with a brutal killing blow, stand next to them when they’re downed and tap the button. You’ll earn extra parts for a Special Execution, but you’ll also be extremely vulnerable to attacks for a few seconds.
Some weapons, like Molotov cocktails and shivs, will instantly kill your enemies rather than downing them.
Use a smoke bomb to stun an enemy and you’ll then be able to shiv them from any direction while they’re stunned.
After 20 years in the Safe Zones, the word “safe” loses all meaning.
We don’t really live here. Living isn’t the same as staying alive. We just try to scrape by and make it as far as tomorrow. Anything we thought we knew about the world disappeared along with anything that was worth caring about.
There is no right or wrong any more. That line blurred a long time ago.
The only thing you have to ask yourself is:
How far will you go to survive?
| left stick | Move |
| right stick | Look around |
| / | Select consumable/throwable item |
| / | Select weapon |
| button | Jump/climb |
| button | Crouch |
| button | Melee attack |
| button | Interact/pick up objects/counter melee attack |
| button | Sprint |
| button | Aim weapon/throwing arc |
| button | View event/share mode |
| button | Listen |
| button | Fire weapon/throw item |
| button | Use flashlight |
| [OPTIONS] button | Pause |
| touch pad button | View backpack inventory |
To throw an item, press and hold the button to aim, use the right stick to adjust the flight of the projectile and press the button to let fly. Alternatively, you can quickly throw an item without aiming by tapping the button.
Press the button to vault over an obstacle blocking your path. Sprint towards an object and press the button to quickly jump over it or press the button while crouched to climb over quietly.
Moving quietly to get the drop on your enemies or even avoiding combat entirely can often be a better tactic than blindly charging in, guns blazing. Use Listen Mode to track nearby noises and crouch walk to reduce the amount of noise you make while moving. Keep an eye out for debris and other parts of the environment that could give away your position.
Press and hold the button to go into Listen Mode and you’ll see any sources of noise within earshot, such as footsteps, talking or gunfire.
Tap the button to grab an enemy from behind after sneaking up on them. With your quarry in a headlock, you can either use them as a human shield by aiming your small firearm at nearby enemies or tap the button to deal a killing blow. If you have a shiv in your inventory, you can perform a quick and quiet takedown by pressing the button once you grab hold. Alternatively, you can press the button to pull the trigger.
You’ll soon notice that Infected come in different stages of development depending on how long ago the cordyceps took over the host (see the “Enemies” section for more details). You can grab an early stage Infected from behind the same as a human enemy, but it’s a bad idea to try it with the more-developed Infected you may encounter.
Press the button to dive underwater and press the button to return to the surface. While submerged, a blue bar will appear next to your health meter that will continue depleting until you resurface. You’ll start taking damage when the meter’s empty and eventually drown.
Your journey will take you through ravaged city streets, reclaimed by nature over the past two decades and stripped of almost all resources by any remaining survivors left outside of the Safe Zones.
Here’s a quick look at some of the useful things you’ll need to keep your eye out for, if you want to stay alive.
Lob bricks and bottles to distract and lure enemies, or throw them directly at your foes to stun them. You can only carry one brick or bottle at a time. To pick up one up, stand close to it and press the button.
Use the right stick to adjust the flight of your projectile while holding the button to aim. If the arc of your throw goes past an enemy, it will lock on to them, press the button to let fly and if it hits home, you’ll have a few seconds while they recover to take them out.
Keep an eye on your health bar in the bottom left of your screen. When it reaches empty, you’re dead, so try to avoid this happening. You can craft a Health Kit or scavenge medical supplies to restore your health.
When an encounter is over, wait until you’ve scoured the area for supplies before crafting a Health Kit. You’ll often find food and other medical supplies that replenish your health, therefore saving valuable resources for other uses – like shivs and Molotov cocktails.
You can upgrade your firearms with pieces of machinery and old tools strewn around the world. Press the button when the on-screen prompt appears to pick up any Parts you find and use one of the many workbenches you’ll come across to access the Upgrade Menu.
Give yourself a permanent boost by collecting supplements from various sources like medicine cabinets and wildflowers. Press the touch pad button to bring up the inventory menu and use the or buttons to navigate to the pill icon and access the upgrade menu.
Learn new abilities and improve your survival skills by finding training manuals left behind by other survivors.
Scattered across the ravaged landscape are various collectable items, like Artefacts, Firefly Pendants and comic books that give you an insight into the world that existed before the cordyceps outbreak hit.
In the post-pandemic world, ammo is a scarce and precious resource, so you’ll need to learn to use other means to get past your enemies. Here’s a quick guide to some of the tools at your disposal.
Steel pipes, 2x4s and baseball bats are all popular improvised weapons for hand-to-hand combat. You can only carry one at a time and they each have a limited number of uses before they’ll break, which is indicated under the picture of the weapon in the bottom right of your screen. You’ll automatically use any melee weapon you have when you tap the button.
As effective as a blunt weapon swung with excessive force can be, strapping sharp objects onto the business end can prove even more deadly. If you have the necessary supplies, you can modify any weapon in the crafting menu. Modified melee weapons will take down most enemies in one hit.
Press the touch pad button to open your inventory and then press the button to view the Crafting Menu.
Press the , , or buttons to quickly equip a weapon or item. You can only carry one small and one large firearm at any time – the rest of your weapons are stored in your backpack. To access them, use the or buttons to navigate to the small or large firearm you have equipped, then hold the button and use the and buttons to cycle through the options. Release the button to select the weapon you want to use.
These small blades can make a big difference in your fight for survival. They can be used to silently take down enemies, pry open locked doors and counter the otherwise deadly attacks from certain types of Infected.
Homemade explosives like Molotov cocktails, nail bombs and smoke bombs can be extremely effective when you’re outnumbered. With an explosive equipped, press and hold the button to aim and press the button to throw it. Nail bombs can also be placed on the ground by tapping the button without aiming and they’ll explode if an enemy walks within range.
Some enemies, especially Infected, will swarm towards loud noises like the sound of a bottle breaking. This can make a tempting target for Molotov cocktails and bombs.
To switch on your flashlight, press the button.
They might resemble people, but the cordyceps brain infection (CBI) robs the host of their humanity within hours of contracting the fungus. The Infected are hyper-aggressive and usually found in groups that will attack survivors on sight. Later stages of infection can lead to the loss of sight and acutely tuned hearing. It isn’t currently known what further progression of the fungus can do to the host.
After the CBI hit and law and order collapsed, the remnants of the United States Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) and the military declared martial law. They established a series of quarantine zones in major cities to protect survivors and whatever resources and infrastructure remained. In the 20 years that followed, scores of quarantine zones fell and the few that remain under military control are heavily policed by soldiers.
When backed into a corner, some people will do anything to stay alive. Hunters are groups of scavengers who have taken to preying on other survivors, holding them up at gunpoint and leaving them for dead, or worse. They’re surprisingly organised, desperate, and armed to teeth with all manner of scavenged weapons.
The Fireflies are a heavily armed and well-organised resistance movement, locked in an ongoing struggle against the oppression of FEDRA and the military. Many flocked to their cause after the enforced quarantine zones were established.
Watch this behind-the-scenes look at how Academy Award®-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla created the moving score.
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