How do ranked wars work, including respect targets and rewards?

A ranked war is a 1v1 faction fight in which each side hits the other's members to earn score, and the first to cross a target net score wins^[1]. Winners and losers receive bonus respect, points and Caches of special weapons and armor^[2]. The sources supplied do not give the target formula or the reward amounts.

Enlisting

The leader, co-leader or anyone with the War Management permission enlists the faction through the Ranked tab. The faction needs at least 10 full members (recruits included) active in the last 24 hours. Members in Federal Jail or Fallen do not count. A faction may enlist or withdraw at any time while it meets that requirement^[3].

A faction cannot take part if its roster strength has substantially fallen since its last war and its rank is higher than expected. This applies to wars finished during or after the matchmaking cycle starting 27 September 2022^[4][5]. Patch #255 (06/09/22) also added enlistment restrictions for factions with too many members inactive while abroad^[5].

Matchmaking

• Matching uses faction rank (or the hidden rank, when the wiki's wording applies), faction size and recent opponents^[6].
• Size range: minimum round((members / 1.25) - 5), maximum round((members + 5) * 1.25)^[6].
• At least 6 wars must have passed since the two factions last fought^[6].
• All matching happens at 12:00 pm TCT on Tuesdays, with all enlisted factions in a single pool^[6].
• Factions choose weekday (Thursday or Friday) or weekend (Saturday). If both factions chose the same, it is used; otherwise it is random. The specific day is then random^[6].
• The start time is the most active period, on average, of both factions' members on that day. Participants get an event with the start time and opponent^[6].
• Members with extremely high stats have capped scores in matchmaking^[6].

During the war

Each team attacks the other's members to gain score, aiming to cross a target net score first. Any active chain is forced into cooldown 5 seconds before the war starts^[1].

Members of either faction get 60 seconds of protection from outside hitters after leaving hospital or jail. Early Discharge is available immediately for incoming outside hits^[1]. Recruits can still be hit so the opponent can build score^[3].

Roster locking (patch #227, 01/02/22) stops members joining, leaving or being kicked during a ranked war^[5].

Score and the respect target

The supplied sources do not give the current formula for the target net score or the per-hit score rules. The wiki describes the goal only as crossing a target net score first^[1].

Attack respect uses the general respect mechanics. The fair fight multiplier depends solely on both players' battle stats^[7]. Fair fight can give a bonus of up to x3^[8]. Retaliation adds x1.5^[9].

Rewards

Participants receive bonus respect, points and Caches containing special weapons and armor^[2]. Ranked warring was released on 7 December 2021 together with Advanced Weapons & Armor^[5]. Amounts by rank and division are not in the supplied sources.

Old system (outdated)

Under Chaining 1.0, a lower-ranked faction declared on a higher-ranked one to take its rank. A win needed respect equal to 1/3 of the lower faction's respect, capped at 2500 when both factions had 10,000 or more^[10]. Ranked wars gave 50% more respect per hit^[10]. A 2017 guide gave an example claim of 267 bonus respect^[11]. This is history, not the current net score system^[1].

The ranked war wiki pages were captured on 2025-03-29. Changes after that date could not be checked in the supplied sources.

Where sources disagree

• The old wiki and a 2017 guide describe a respect-based win threshold (1/3 of the lower faction's respect, cap 2500) and rank-taking; the current wiki describes a net score target.^[10][11][1]