What is a Battle Beacon?
A Battle Beacon creates a mini-Anomaly over the Portal to which it’s deployed, allowing Agents in range to practice and test their battle skills against one another. Once a battle begins, a Scoreboard will appear over the target Portal indicating points scored by each Faction across a timed battle. At the end of the battle period, the Hack output of the target Portal will be boosted and the Battle beacon will transform into Enlightened, Resistance, or Neutral beacon to indicate the winning Faction.
How can I get a Battle Beacon?
Battle Beacons are a premium item available within the in-app Store. Agents who have a minimum of 1.2 Million AP can purchase the Rare Battle Beacon and those who have reached 40 Million AP can purchase the Very Rare Battle Beacon. Any Agent can participate in a battle once a Battle Beacon is deployed.
Rare Battle Beacons are available as a 8-pack bundle for 16,000 CMU. One (1) Very Rare Battle Beacon costs 5000 CMU. One (1) Very Rare Battle Beacon is included in the monthly C.O.R.E. subscription Loadout for Recursed Agents.
Learn more about purchasing premium items here.
How do I deploy a Battle Beacon?
To deploy a Battle Beacon, follows these steps:
- Select the Battle Beacon in your Inventory. You should find it under the Boosts category.
- Tap "Use"
- Tap the Portal where you want to deploy the Battle Beacon. You must be in the range of the Portal to deploy a Battle Beacon.
- When you deploy a Battle Beacon, a COMM message is sent out to nearby Agents, including the Agent who owns the Portal, as well as all Agents with Resonators or Mods on the Portal.
- Battle Beacons can be deployed on Resistance, Enlightened or Neutral Portals. However, they can’t be deployed on Portals where Beacons are active, with the exceptions of Fireworks Beacons and Frackers. XM is consumed when deploying a Battle Beacon.
What does the Battle started by a Battle Beacon involve?
During the battle, your objective is to control the Target Portal across a number of Checkpoints. Checkpoints occur at 3-minute intervals with the escalating point values. The Faction with the most points at the end of the battle successfully captures the Target Portal.
At each Checkpoint, scores will be awarded to the Faction owning the target Portal.
After the battle, the Beacon will change to an Enlightened Victory, Resistance Victory, or Neutral Ground emblem for a given timeframe to reflect the outcome of the battle, and a second COMM message will announce the final results.
Based on total Agent activity from deploying and destroying Resonators and Portal Mods during the battle, Hack Output will be boosted for both Factions from 1.25x up to 2.5x for 10 minutes after the battle’s resolution.
Note: If the Battle ends in a tie, the Battle Beacon will change to the Neutral Ground Beacon.
How many players can participate in a Battle Beacon Battle?
Any Agent within physical proximity of the Portal where a Battle Beacon is deployed can participate in the battle. As always, we encourage players to follow local health and safety guidelines (such as wearing masks and keeping at least six feet of distance from other people).
What happens if other Agents don’t participate in a Battle Beacon Battle?
If other Agents don’t participate in the battle, you can still battle on the Portal. The Battle will still proceed with the Checkpoint countdown even if there is no Agent activity; the Battle Beacon won’t pause due to inactivity. However, the final hack output will be based on overall activity. Agents who did not participate will also be able to benefit from the increased hack output after the battle has concluded. The hack output will be the same across all Agents and Faction, regardless of the amount of actions taken by an individual Agent during battle.
Why can’t I see the Battle Beacon in the in-app Store?
Agents who have a minimum of 1.2 Million AP are eligible to purchase the Rare Battle Beacon and those who have reached 40 Million AP are eligible to purchase the Very Rare Battle Beacon. Any Agent can participate in a battle once a Battle Beacon is deployed.
What counts as interacting with a Battle Beacon? What impacts the category (CAT) result of a Battle Beacon?
When a Battle Beacon is deployed on a Portal, the following actions on that Portal are tracked. If the action taken matches one that will generate points towards the result of the Battle, it is counted as an interaction. Currently, those Offensive and Defensive Portal actions are:
- Deploy or Upgrade Resonator (note: upgrading one's own Resonators does not count)
- Attack or Destroy Resonator
- Destroy Portal Mod
- Destroy Link
- Recharge Resonator or Remote Recharge
Interactions during the 10-minute initialization period of a Rare Battle Beacon, as well as during the battle itself for both Rare and Very Rare Battle Beacons, will be counted as interaction and will impact the CAT-level of the battle.