One of Gray Zone Warfare‘s defining features is the faction system, a mechanic that divides the player base into three literal and figurative camps. The system is not super fleshed out in the current Early Access stage, but there are a few nuances you should know when getting started.
How Factions Work in Gray Zone Warfare
As of writing, factions in Gray Zone Warfare only have a few major functions. The first and most noticeable is where your main base is on the map. Whenever you die out in the open world of Lamang (and you’ll die a lot), you’ll be sent back to your base camp with nothing but your knife. Each faction has a different base location:
- Mitrhas Security Systems is in the south
- Crimson Shield International is in the northwest
- Lamang Recovery Initiative is in the northeast
To get from place to place, you’ll most likely need to take a helicopter from your base. The Gray Zone Warfare map is big.
Other faction-specific mechanics include:
- Being able to see where other members of your faction are on the map at any given time.
- Use voice chat specifically with your faction
- Coordinate with members of your faction to form squads and tackle objectives together.
Gray Zone Warefare Factions Come With Issues
Factions don’t offer much in terms of progression and major gameplay features. In fact, they tend to get in the way more than they help sometimes. The main issue right now is that if you join one faction and a friend of yours joins another, you can’t squad up at all. You’re forced to communicate either through world voice chat or via an outside program like Discord.
The disconnect between factions is liable to cause major griefing issues down the line because two players in opposing factions can feed information to one another, including enemy movement, objectives, and other critical intel. Coordinating an attack in real-time using the faction system would be difficult, as players not abusing the map in that way are liable to always be on the move. Additionally, PvP in Gray Zone Warfare is very unforgiving, and if a squad of griefers is much less skilled than the other players they’re hunting, things can go pear-shaped fast.
I am, however, reminded of another game where inter-faction warfare uses these underhanded tactics: EVE Online. As Gary Zone Warfare bills itself as an MMO-style extraction shooter, no doubt the developers had players manipulating the faction system in mind when they designed it. And in EVE, whole hostile takeovers, ambushes, and other betrayals happen regularly by sleeper agents sent from one player-owned corporation to another. One of the most famous essentially bankrupted one of the biggest EVE corps in the game, Ocean’s Eleven-style.
Now, I don’t know if Gray Zone Warfare needs to rein in the ability for players to exploit the map between factions, but I’m sure devs have heard plenty of feedback on the matter and will undoubtedly be addressing it somehow.
In the meantime, factions don’t really do too much in Gray Zone Warfare, so pick the one your friends joined and have fun. Just be sure your PC can run it by having the right system requirements. Visit our Gray Zone Warfare guide hub for more.
