From the mind of film director Neil Blomkamp,Off The Gridis a free-to-play game where you’re able to experience matches that mix the well-known Battle Royale experience with mechanics from Extraction Shooters. The result is something that can confuse you with all the mechanics that you need to understand to have a better chance at earning your victory.

What’s more, Off The Grid presents cyberlimbs, powers that you can give to your character by collecting cybernetic arms and legs. If you’re giving your first steps in the game, go over our beginner’s guide, which will tell you everything you need to know to not get lost.

The player looking at a Rare Hex, with the inventory full, in Off The Grid.

How To Extract A Hex

One of the most important things you need to learn how to do right away is extracting Hexes. These items work aslootboxes that give you a random weapon, cyberlimb, or cosmeticthat you can use in your character and custom loadouts. The tutorial in the game will briefly go over it, but it’s shown in a controlled environment — very different from the real thing.

First of all, you need to find any type of Hex. They can be foundrandomly from opening boxes(the same ones that give you money, ammo, weapons, etc.) and from completing Hex Collector contracts. You can only carry one at a time.

The player reviving a fallen soldier in Off The Grid.

Always carry the one with the highest rarity!

Once you find a Hex,you need to look for a Hextractor. These are marked on your map with a small icon (open your map and check out the first reference that appears below Points of Interest).

You can only extract one Hex at a time in one terminal.

A close shot of a soldier flying toward the camera in a cutscene in Off The Grid.

When you reach the Hextractor,you need to insert the Hex(you can also insert Hexes from your teammates). Now, the screen of the device will begin to show a percentage, andyou need to wait for it to reach 100 percent.

Beware thatall players will receive a notificationthat someone started an extraction in the specific location, and they can hack your Hextractor by shooting at the engines and then interacting with the device. Then, they can begin the extraction of your Hex for themselves. You need to cover the Hextractor while doing an extraction.

The player running with special legs in Off The Grid.

The idea of the game is that you extract as many Hexes as you can per match, so you can earn a good amount after finishing the match. The good news is thatyou don’t need to win the match: as long as you extracted the Hexes, you can then die, and still receive them when you get back to the main menu.

How Currency Works

Contrary to many live-service games, Off The Grid uses onlyone currency outside of matches: Gun. You use Gun to ‘decode Hexes’ (open the lootboxes),purchase items on the Market, and also claim your free rewards from the battle pass if you aren’t an OTG Pro member (more on this in a minute).

You can earn Gun bycompleting challenges, which you can check on the main menu (left side of the screen),selling items on the market, andfinishing matches. Even if you lose, you’ll earn some amount of Gun, although you’ll earn four times more if you are OTG Pro.

The player looking at a red chest that will drop a cyberlimb in Off The Grid.

OTG Pro is the subscription modelin the game, which gives you the battle pass, unique cosmetic items, more customized loadouts slots, and bonuses for how much Gun you earn. It’s a monthly subscription andit costs $11.99.

Mute The Announcer

If you also find the announcer’s voice annoying and his constant desire to say the F-word and insult you irritating, good news:you can mute him. Go toSettings, Audio, and find the option that saysAnnouncer Voice Volume.Move it to zeroand you’re ears will thank you. You won’t be missing any relevant information about the match.

Don’t confuse it with the Personal Assistant Volume setting. This voice is useful and it tells you when relevant events take place, such as the overload zone moving or enemies' squads being eliminated.

The List For Sale menu for an arm item in Off The Grid.

Don’t Revive Your Teammates At The Beginning Of The Match

When you or your teammates are knocked down in Battle Extraction,you’ll have a few seconds to revive them. You need to be close to them and hold the Revive button when the prompt appears. However, your teammatescan be killed if enough time passesor if they receive more damage after being knocked down.

When this happens, you can go toa respawn terminal(green cabinets that look like ATM Cashiers),pay an amount of money, and instantly respawn your fallen teammate. However,you won’t want to do thisif your partner died in the first minutes of the match.

The player looking at a Hex Collector Contract on the floor in Off The Grid.

Off The Grid has a feature that gives youfree respawns during the initial moments. As long as this is on and someone in the squad is alive, your teammates can respawn automatically. You only need to wait for a few seconds. That way, if you or a teammate waits in a safe place, you can avoid spending money to use the manual respawn mechanic.

Also, please note that Friendly Fire is always enabled, and you can kill your teammates.

The player looking at a small box with cas in Off The Grid.

The Jetpack Is Your Best Tool

Instead of a parachute or a glider, when you deploy yourself in the city of Off The Grid, you use a jetpack. Thiscan also be used every time you are falling from a high altitude.

Always check your Heat indicators on the side, because when you reach 100 percent, your jetpack will stop working and you may suffer fall damage (and even die from it).

You need to practice the jetpack’s movement for two main reasons: it’s a bit counterintuitive to use it at first (it also has inverted controls by default), andit’s a great tool for battles. If you’re on the roof of a big building, you can jump, activate your jetpack, and reach long distances without much problem.

You can also use it tosurprise enemies when they least expect it, confuse them by quickly changing your terrain while in a fight,or simply escape.

I have died a couple of times from an enemy flying towards me out of nowhere in places I didn’t expect them to appear.

Shooting Range Practice

Within the modes you can find in Off The Grid,don’t miss Tutorial & Practice, especially theCyberlimbs Training. This is the second training arena that you can try (the first one focused on weapons), and it’s the most useful one.

First of all, becauseyou can test both cyberlimbs and weapons with moving targets, which is closer to what will happen in a real match. Secondly, because most weapons will work as you’ll expect them if you have played other shooters, butcyberlimbs will take some time to master.

By pressing pause, you can switch between any of the default loadouts every player gets when starting the game, and that wayyou can try all the cyberlimbs in a single practice sessionbefore going into the real thing.

Technically, you can also test your weapons and cyberlims in the other arena, but the enemies are static and you can’t get close to them.

Discovering The Best Cyberlimb

Following the previous tip, something that you’ll have to discover as soon as possible iswhat cyberlimb works best with your playstyle. While you can play Off The Grid without them and only using the firearms, you’d be missing one of the game’s key aspects and playing at a disadvantage.

Personally, I found thattraversal cyberlimbs worked best for me.The hookis always useful when I want to reach buildings or structures quickly, or just for escaping from enemies.There are running legsthat let you sprint long distances at high speed. While they will leave sparks showing your path, I can’t tell you how many timesthey have saved me from the overload zone.

you’re able to also run in circles around your enemies, which is pretty hilarious and a strategy to take them out.

If you don’t find these,the legs that let you perform a big jumpare also pretty decent for traversal. But perhaps the best cyberlimb for this isthe Ghost Arm, which will let you be invisiblein a short area for a decent amount of time.

Then you have more cyberlimbs focused on offense and defense, but I found out that the offensive arms and legs can be pretty difficult to use properly when starting to play the game. Check out the drones (arms), though, which will give you a hand in either detecting enemies or shooting them.

Finding A Free Loadout Must Be A Priority

From time to time, you will see notifications on your screen thatfree loadouts have spawned on the map. These are red devices that descend from the sky and reach the ground or buildings' surfaces. you’re able to interact with them andpick up the default loadouts or your customized ones. That way, you’ll receive useful weapons and equipment if you haven’t found anything good on your own.

Also, you canask for deliveries if you have the funds and the option is available(you’ll see a blue icon on your inventory, on the down left side of the screen, and you’ll also receive a notification). You need to select the loadout you want and where you want it deployed.

Keep in mind that every player can interact with the loadouts.

Keep An Eye On The Market

Off The Grid hasa market that lets you purchase every item(unless it’s exclusive to the OTG Pro membership) using Gun.You can also sell anythingin your inventory.

To do the former,visit the Marketplace tab, and explore the options that you need. Here you can perform a quick buy and acquire the item you want automatically, or check all the prices at which other players are selling the product.

To sell something you don’t want anymore,simply go to the Inventory tab, select the item, and list it for sale. You’ll have to select the sale price and then select for how long you want the item listed. There’s a helpful chart that shows you the changes in price of that same item, so you can have a reference for how much it costs.

The game also has microtransactions, so you can purchase bundles of Gun with real money if you want to have a good amount from the start.

Complete As Many Contracts As Soon As Possible

While playing a match and looting,you’ll find an in-game currency called Rip. This is also only as you’re in a game, andall the Rip you have will be discardedat the end of the match, no matter if you win or lose.

Rip isused to revive your partners(you can check the upper left side of the screen for how many funds you need)and purchase loadouts. While the prices of the loadouts vary depending on the time of the match and the equipment in the loadout you want, as a general rule, you’ll need at least 2,000 Rip to buy anything.

You can collect that and more just byopening small boxes while looting and stealing moneyfrom fallen soldiers, butthere is an option that can be good: Contracts.

Contracts are basicallysmall side missions that you may complete while surviving, and they always give you good amounts of Rip as a reward. There are Contracts for hacking servers, finding limbs, hunting players, and interacting with terminals. Contracts appear as the big icons on your map, so you can ping them to go to the location with your teammates.

When you’re there, you or a squad member will have to grab the contract, and the mission (with a timer!) will start. Completing a few of these will give you enough money for a loadout and a few revives.