Search and Destroy
Search and Destroy is a team minigame played in its own world on The Storm.
It is a port of the 2013–2014 Red Warfare game. Type /rwf join to queue
for the next round and /rwf leave to go back to survival.
The lobby
Section titled “The lobby”Joining takes you to the lobby, a war room in a world of its own where everyone waits for the round to start. Nothing can hurt you there, and if you fall out of it you are put back on the plaza.
- The rules and the match board show how to play, the map, how many players and bots have joined, and how long until the round starts.
- The armory has an alcove for every kit, grouped into basic, mid and advanced spines. Each alcove shows a kit’s icon, name and what it carries, with the command to pick it.
- The armory’s rotation wall shows the four kits that are free to play this week.
- Three vote podiums show the maps you can vote for, and the leaderboards show the top players for kills, wins and win streak.
- The balcony looks out over the lobby.
Your hotbar holds two lobby items. Right-click the nether star to open the kit menu and click a kit to pick it; your current kit glints. Right-click the red dye to leave and go back to survival. Both disappear when the round starts.
A bar at the top of your screen says how many more players the round is waiting for, then counts down to the start. The last five seconds and the start appear in the middle of your screen.
Your survival inventory, XP, health and effects are saved when you enter and restored when you leave. If the server crashes mid-round, they are restored the next time you log in.
The new match flow
Section titled “The new match flow”These parts of Search and Destroy are rolling out and may not be switched on yet:
- Map vote. Three maps go on the vote as the lobby opens. Vote with
/rwf vote <map>or by right-clicking a podium’s lodestone. The vote closes 20 seconds before the start, and the map with the most votes wins. - Preview and freeze. Before the round, everyone looks around the chosen map for 10 seconds (you can still change kit), then teams are dealt and everyone is frozen at their start for 5 seconds.
- Straight into the next round. When a round ends, you go back to the
lobby with your kit and play the next round without typing
/rwf joinagain./rwf leavestill takes you back to survival. - Death messages and assists. Every death is announced in team colours, the tab list shows kills, and if you did more than a tenth of the damage to someone a teammate killed, you are told your assist.
- Team chat. During a round your chat goes to your team; start a line
with
@(or use/g) to talk to everyone, and/rwf teamchatflips the default. The dead and watchers talk among themselves. - Spectating. When you die you watch your killer for a moment, then get a compass to pick who to follow.
- Bombs. Armed bombs hiss and smoke, each team’s arming progress shows above the bomb, and the explosion is heard across the map.
- Statistics.
/rwf statsshows your lifetime kills, assists, wins and more,/rwf stats top <stat>the leaders and/rwf stats historyyour last matches.
How a round works
Section titled “How a round works”- You get one life per round. Dying puts you in spectator until the round ends.
- The last team with a living player wins. If the last teams are eliminated at the same moment, the round is a draw.
- Each team owns one or more TNT bombs. Arming an enemy bomb and letting it explode kills that whole team.
Every kit puts a Blaze Powder called Bomb Fuse in hotbar slot 1. Hold it and right-click a bomb:
- Right-click an enemy bomb to arm it.
- Right-click your own armed bomb to defuse it.
Arming or defusing takes 10 seconds. Each distinct teammate also clicking the same bomb takes one second off, and some kits carry a fuse bonus. Stop clicking for more than three quarters of a second and the progress resets. The last living player on a team arms instantly.
An armed bomb explodes after 60 seconds and kills everyone on the team that owns it. The crater turns nearby blocks to coal.
Some maps also have unowned nukes. Anyone can arm a nuke, and when it goes off it kills everyone except the team that armed it.
Poison
Section titled “Poison”Rounds do not last forever. About ten minutes in, or sooner if nobody has died for 90 seconds, the server gives a one-minute warning. Then your food is stripped and everyone takes rising damage that cannot be blocked. Standing within 15 blocks of your own bomb hurts more, so camping your bomb is not a way to wait it out.
Pick a kit from the kit menu (right-click the nether star in the lobby, or type
/rwf kits) or with /rwf kit <name> before the round starts. If you pick
nothing you play Trooper, and next time you join you start with the kit you
last played.
Every kit carries the Bomb Fuse in the first hotbar slot. Six kits are free for everyone: Trooper, Longbow, Shortbow, Rewind, Medic and Teleporter. The others are bought once with Red Warfare Credits and are yours for good.
| Kit | Price | What it carries | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trooper | Free | Iron sword (Sharpness I), 3 golden apples, iron armor | The standard every other kit is measured against |
| Berserker | 400 | Iron axe (Sharpness II), 2 steaks, no leggings | Each kill adds 0.7 damage to your hits, up to 7 |
| Demolitions | 300 | Fire Aspect II sword, 2 landmines | Mines arm after 2 seconds and blow up enemies who step on them; your fuse arms and defuses 5 seconds faster |
| Dwarf | 500 | Iron sword, iron armor | Sneak to level up Sharpness and Protection; high levels slow you, and you lose levels when you stop sneaking |
| Explosive | 150 | Stone sword, 5 RPGs, 10 grenades | RPGs explode where they hit (30 second recharge, and they can hurt you); grenades explode 3 seconds after a throw |
| Ghost | 150 | Golden sword, 4 ender pearls, no armor | Invisible, but held items, sprinting and getting hurt give you away; arrows stay stuck in you for 10 seconds |
| Juggernaut | 350 | Stone sword, iron and diamond armor | 15 hearts, takes 60% of hits and less knockback, but cannot sprint |
| Longbow | Free | Bow (Punch III), stone sword | A long-range archer |
| Medic | Free | Healing Wand, 20 golden apples, gold armor | The wand heals allies within 5 blocks; you see everyone’s health. No healing in rounds of 20 players or fewer |
| Pyro | 200 | Fire Aspect II sword, Flame II bow | Sets enemies alight; armor resists fire and explosions |
| Rewind | Free | Iron sword, Time Machine clock | Right-click to go back to where you were 30 seconds ago (30 second recharge) |
| Shortbow | Free | Bow (Power II), wooden sword (Knockback I) | A hard-hitting archer |
| Spy | 250 | Iron sword, iron armor | Every enemy sees you as one of their own team, wearing a Trooper kit |
| Teleporter | Free | Teleport Creator, Remote Teleporter | Place two linked teleporters; teammates sneak on one to reach the other. The remote places one under a teammate |
| Vampire | 300 | Vampiric Sword (Sharpness I) | Starts with 8 hearts; each kill adds a heart and Regeneration, up to 20 hearts |
| Venom | 400 | Poisoned Sword | Hits poison and slow enemies for 6 seconds |
| Warper | 250 | Warper’s Wand | Use it on an enemy to send them and enemies near them to where you stood 10 seconds ago (30 second recharge) |
| Ninja | 200 | Iron sword, 6 ender pearls | Speed II and Night Vision |
| Frost | 150 | Iron sword, ice-blue leather | Hits freeze enemy hands for 10 seconds (16 second recharge); your armor softens blows |
| Skinner | 300 | Iron sword (Silk Touch) | Takes the name of an enemy slain near you after 3 seconds of dressing, during which your armor does nothing |
| Wraith | 200 | Bow (Power II), no armor | Invisible like a Ghost; your arrow comes back 2 seconds after each shot |
| Bleeder | 400 | The Bleeder (wooden sword) | Hits deal 2–3 damage and take that much from the enemy’s max health for good |
| Equality | 350 | Iron sword, black and white leather | Every hit you deal or take is 3 damage |
| Inertia | 350 | Wooden sword, shield | Running builds up melee damage; sharp turns lose it, and running into a wall hurts |
| Sacrificial | 500 | Sacrificial Magic, shears, 10 steaks | Bond allies to take their damage for them; direct hits on you hurt four times as much |
| Sapper | 150 | Iron sword, chainmail | Your fuse defuses 3 seconds faster, and explosions do you half damage |
| Saboteur | 200 | Stone sword, dark leather | Your fuse arms 3 seconds faster, and enemies cannot see your team’s arming progress until 10 seconds are left |
| Spotter | 250 | Iron sword, spyglass | Enemies you see through the spyglass within 60 blocks glow for your team for 6 seconds (30 second recharge) |
| Grappler | 300 | Stone sword, grappling hook | Reel in to be pulled to where the hook landed, with no fall damage for 3 seconds (5 second recharge) |
| Bannerman | 300 | Iron sword, team banner | Plant the banner to give allies within 6 blocks Regeneration; enemies break it in 3 hits (45 second recharge) |
| Engineer | 400 | Stone sword, bricks | Right-click a block to raise a 3×2 wall for 8 seconds, not near a bomb (25 second recharge) |
| Tracker | 400 | Iron sword, crossbow | See enemy footprints from the last 8 seconds; your first hit marks an enemy on your team’s compasses |
| Decoy | 450 | Iron sword, decoy | Send a running copy of yourself and turn invisible to enemies for 3 seconds (35 second recharge) |
Buying kits
Section titled “Buying kits”Buy a kit by clicking it in the kit menu and confirming, or with
/rwf buy <kit>. Kits cost Red Warfare Credits, earned by playing (see
Rewards); /rwf credits shows how many you have. A kit you have bought is
yours for good.
Each week four bought kits are free for everyone: one or two cheaper kits and
the rest mid or advanced, never the same as the week before. The free kits are
marked in the kit menu and shown on the lobby’s board, and /rwf rotation
lists them and says when they change. The week turns on Monday at 00:00 UTC.
The full kit list and the shop are being rolled out gradually. Until they reach you, the menu offers the first four kits.
Kit layouts
Section titled “Kit layouts”Right-click a kit you can use in the kit menu to arrange its items. Move them where you like in your inventory and hotbar, then close the menu: the layout is saved and every later round gives you the kit that way. The Bomb Fuse stays in the first slot.
Killstreaks
Section titled “Killstreaks”Kills earn rewards, and an assist counts as your share of the damage. At 2 kills you get a tracking compass that points at the nearest enemy. Every 4 kills you get attack dogs and a supply crate, every 8 an iron golem, and every 11 napalm. Click a block of open ground with the reward: it drops from the sky and lands there. Dogs and golems fight for your team, and dogs leave when you die; both leave when the round ends. Killstreaks are being rolled out gradually too.
Combat
Section titled “Combat”This world uses old-style combat: there is no attack cooldown, knockback is the classic kind, and shields and sweep attacks do nothing. Survival keeps the normal rules.
Rounds are filled with AI players, so a round can start with a single human.
Bots have persistent names, skins and play styles, so you will come to
recognise them. They are marked with a dim ✦ after their name in the tab
list and on their nametag, and /rwf who lists which players in the round
are bots and the kit everyone has picked. They are tuned to be beatable, not
perfect.
Bots play the same kits you can, and only those: while the full kit list has not reached anyone in the round, they stick to the first four kits. They use their kit’s items too. A Medic heals hurt teammates, an Explosive fires RPGs and grenades, Demolitions and Teleporter bots set down mines and teleporters where they wait, a Spotter marks you, an Engineer or a Decoy reaches for its item when hurt, and a Grappler hooks its way across the map.
Bots arrive in the lobby a few at a time during the countdown, like players do. While they wait they wander about, come over to say hello (often by crouching at you a few times), look at the kit alcoves, hop around and try a kit or two before settling on the one they play.
Bots also talk. Each one has its own voice and might greet the round, brag
about a kill, complain about a death, cheer a bomb it armed or say gg at the
end. In the lobby they say hi as they walk in, chat a little while they wait
and comment on the countdown; say hi in the lobby and one of them may say hi
back. Their lines appear in chat with the same ✦ after the name, for example
[G][● Gravel_Fox ✦]: nice try, Alice, so you can always tell a bot from a
person. A bot calls its own team’s moments (a bomb it armed or defused,
being the last one left) in team chat, so only its teammates hear them, and
/ignore works on bots as it does on players. Bot chat stays in the Search and Destroy world: only players in the
round and people watching it see it, never survival chat or Discord. Bots
only answer a greeting or a remark in the lobby; they do not read your
messages during the round, and each bot waits a while between lines so chat
never floods.
On Discord
Section titled “On Discord”The server’s Discord channel announces when someone opens an empty Search and Destroy lobby, so others know to join. It also posts each result: the map, the winning team, the players on it and how long the match lasted, or everyone still in the match after a draw. Rounds with only bots and rounds an admin stops are not posted.
In that channel, /rwf-stats <player> shows a player’s matches, wins, losses,
kills and deaths, and /status shows who is online and which games are
running.
Rewards
Section titled “Rewards”Search and Destroy pays in its own currency, Red Warfare Credits (RC), not Crystals. A win pays 3 Credits and a loss pays 1, as in the original Red Warfare. The payout shrinks as the share of bots in the round rises, and a round shorter than a minute pays nobody. There is no daily cap.
You forfeit the round’s reward if you kill yourself or leave the round while it is being played, even after you have died. If you never turn your head during the round you count as away (AFK): you earn nothing and lose 2 Credits, though never more than you hold.
/balance shows your Credits next to your Crystals, and /baltop rwf_credits
lists the players with the most Credits.
Recordings
Section titled “Recordings”Matches are recorded to train the bots. A recording holds positions, actions and pseudonymous ids. It does not include what you say in chat (only that a line was sent and how long it was), player names or IP addresses. You are told this when you join.
Watching
Section titled “Watching”Type /rwf spectate to watch a round without playing. Your inventory, XP,
health and effects are saved the same way as when you join, and you watch in
spectator mode from above the arena with the round’s scoreboard. Use
/rwf spectate next to follow each living player in turn. You keep watching
from one round to the next until you type /rwf leave, which returns you to
where you were with everything you had. You cannot watch while you are in the
round, but you can join the next round’s lobby straight from watching with
/rwf join.
Staff sometimes run a round of bots only. You can watch it, but you cannot join it.
Commands
Section titled “Commands”| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/rwf join |
Queue for the next round |
/rwf leave |
Leave the game or stop watching, back to survival |
/rwf kit <name> |
Choose your kit for the next round |
/rwf kits |
Open the kit menu |
/rwf buy <kit> |
Buy a kit with Red Warfare Credits |
/rwf rotation |
This week’s free kits and when they change |
/rwf credits |
Your Red Warfare Credits |
/rwf who |
List the players in the round and mark bots |
/rwf vote <map> |
Vote for the next map |
/rwf time |
How long until the round starts or how long in |
/rwf teamchat |
Switch whether your chat goes to your team |
/rwf stats [player] |
Lifetime statistics |
/suicide |
Die, during a round |
/rwf spectate |
Watch the round in spectator mode without playing |
/rwf spectate next/previous |
While watching, follow the next or previous player |
/rwf goto <player> |
While watching, follow that player |
Transparency
Section titled “Transparency”Like the rest of the server, the Search and Destroy code lives in the public repository. See Transparency for what else the server shares.