How to play Remain
Remain is a battle royale: up to 100 players drop onto an island, scavenge for weapons and kit, and fight while a storm closes in. The last one standing wins. Here's everything you need to know, from your first drop to your first win.
Quick start
- Open remain.games, type a callsign (the name others see), pick a mode and press Play. There's nothing to install and no account to make.
- You wait a few seconds in the lobby while the match fills. If there aren't enough people, bots fill the rest, so a match always has company.
- A drop ship flies across the island. Jump when you like, fall, then open your glider. It never opens by itself: forget it and the landing will hurt, or worse.
- Land, find a weapon, and keep inside the safe zone as the storm shrinks it. Be the last one left.
Game modes
Solo
Everyone for themselves. Last one standing wins. Teaming up with strangers in solo isn't fair play (see the community rules).
Squads
You're shuffled into a squad of four. When your health runs out you go down instead of dying, crawling and bleeding out for 40 seconds while a squadmate gets to you. Holding the use key beside you revives you; they can also drag you to cover and patch you up with their own bandages and med kits. A squad is out when all four are down or dead. The last squad standing wins.
Capture the flag
Two sides, a line drawn across the island, and one life each. Take the other side's flag from their base and bring it home to yours to win, or wipe the other side out. Whoever's carrying a flag can ride in a vehicle but can't drive one.
How a match goes
The island
Every match is played on a new island, grown fresh from a random seed: 2.5 to 4 km across, with one to three climates (temperate plains and forest, desert and mesas, cold taiga and snow, or swamp), beaches, rivers, lakes and mountains. Cities, towns and villages are joined by highways and dirt tracks. Matches are played at different times of day, and haze, dust, mist or snow can shorten how far you see.
The drop
Jump from the drop ship whenever you like. Diving steeply gets you down faster; your glider lets you cover ground. You can cut the glider away if you want to land sooner, but a fall from any height without it is likely to kill you.
The storm
The safe zone shrinks in phases. The next zone is shown on your map and painted on the ground, and the storm outside it hurts more the longer the match goes on. Keep an eye on the timer at the top right.
Supply drops
Now and then a crate parachutes into the zone, marked on the map. They carry the best loot, and everyone else can see them coming too.
Loot
Weapons, ammo, armor and healing items lie in buildings and in the open. Ammo, heals, and armor for an empty slot are picked up as you walk over them; weapons and better armor show how they compare with what you have, and you pick them up on purpose. Weapons come in five rarities, each a little stronger than the last: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic and Legendary.
Weapons
| Weapon | Ammo | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| Pistol | Light | Common and quick to draw; fine up close until you find better. |
| SMG | Light | Fast fire, quick to handle, best at short range. |
| Assault rifle | Heavy | The all-rounder: steady out to a few hundred metres. |
| Shotgun | Shells | Devastating inside a room, useless across a field. |
| DMR | Heavy | A scoped marksman rifle. Its bullets take time to arrive and drop over distance. |
| Sniper rifle | Sniper | Slow and deadly at long range. The scope has range marks for the drop; hold your breath to steady it. |
| Knife | None | Silent slashes at arm's length, each across the other way from the last. |
| Rocket launcher | Rockets, homing missiles | One round at a time. A rocket wrecks most vehicles; a rare homing missile locks onto a vehicle and comes down on it from above. |
Grenades
- Frag grenades bounce, go off after a couple of seconds, and their blast hurts, shoves and staggers anyone close. Walls block them.
- Smoke grenades pour out a thick cloud that hides anyone in or behind it for about half a minute.
- Flashbangs hurt no one, but white out the view of anyone looking at them and leave anyone near deafened for a while.
Hold the grenade button to see the arc and where it lands, and let go to throw. You can roll a grenade along the ground instead, and switch which kind you throw.
Healing and armor
- Bandages heal 15 health at a time, up to 75. Med kits take longer but bring you back to full.
- Helmets and vests come in three levels and take part of every hit until they wear out.
- A ghillie suit turns you into a bush. Keep still and it's very hard to see you; run or shoot and you give yourself away.
Moving
- Sprinting runs on stamina. Run it dry and you're winded for a moment.
- Crouch for quiet footsteps and steadier aim; hold the same key to go prone and crawl. Crouch while sprinting to slide.
- Jump into a ledge to climb onto it, or at a fence, low wall or broken window to vault it.
- Open and close doors with the use key. Wooden walls, doors and furniture can be broken, and window glass shatters.
- Ziplines run from tower decks and ridge tops: press use to ride one.
Vehicles
Jeeps, a little hatchback, SUVs, an armored truck, motorbikes, a motorbike and sidecar, and boats on the rivers and coast. Get in with the use key: you take the wheel if it's free, else a seat. Passengers can shoot out of most seats.
- Crashes hurt everyone aboard, and a hard one throws you out. Running people down hurts them.
- Shoot a tyre to flatten it, or a hub cap to take the wheel off. Windows can be shot out without hurting the vehicle, and the shot carries on into whoever's behind them.
- A vehicle shot or crashed to pieces blows up. Vehicles can roll over, and land vehicles drown their engines in deep water.
- Every vehicle has a horn. In squads and capture the flag your side's bots get in with you, and a honk calls them from further away.
- Jump out on the move and you roll or dive clear; out of a fast boat you cannonball over the side.
Controls
Remain plays with a keyboard and mouse, any standard controller, or touch on a phone or tablet held sideways. You can change sensitivity, field of view, graphics and other settings, and rebind the keyboard, from the pause menu.
Keyboard and mouse
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| W A S D, mouse | Move, look |
| Left / right mouse | Fire / aim down the sights |
| Shift | Sprint · through a scope: hold your breath |
| C | Tap: crouch or stand · hold: prone · while sprinting: slide |
| Space | Jump, climb, vault · leave the plane · open the glider · handbrake |
| E | Pick up · door · get in or out · ride a zipline |
| F | Next seat in a vehicle |
| H | Horn, in a vehicle |
| R | Reload |
| 1 2 3, wheel | Weapons |
| 4 5 | Bandage · med kit |
| G · B | Grenade: hold to aim, let go to throw · next grenade |
| V · Q | First or third person · swap shoulder |
| M · T | Map · drop a waypoint where you're looking |
| Esc | Pause and settings |
Controller
Any standard gamepad works with no setup. Move and look with the sticks, fire and aim with the triggers, jump with A, crouch with B, pick up with X and throw grenades with RB. Aim assist and rumble can be turned on or off in the pause menu.
Touch
Hold your phone or tablet sideways. The stick appears wherever your left thumb lands, drag on the right to look, and the buttons are labelled. Phones start on lighter graphics; you can change that in the pause menu.
Tips
- Land a little way from where the drop ship's crowd lands, loot up, then move toward the zone early rather than late.
- Sound gives people away: gunfire shows on the compass and minimap of anyone near. Crouch-walk when you're close.
- Heal behind cover, not in the open: a med kit takes six seconds.
- Long shots with the DMR and sniper need leading and holding over: bullets take time to arrive.
- Vehicles are fast and loud. They're good for beating the storm and bad for sneaking.
- In squads, stay close enough that a downed squadmate can be reached in 40 seconds.
Questions
Is Remain free?
Yes. There's nothing to buy, and no account. The site may show ads, which pay for the servers.
What do I need to play?
A recent version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, with WebGL (any computer, phone or tablet from the last several years). On a slower machine, lower the view distance, render scale and shadows in the pause menu.
Are the other players real?
Some are. Every match fills to 100 players, with bots making up the numbers when there aren't enough people. Bots see, hear, take cover, drive, revive and use every weapon, and they're beatable.
How do I play with friends?
Pick the same mode and press Play at the same time: players who join together land in the same match. In squads you're shuffled into squads of four.
How are my stats kept?
Your browser keeps a random code that ties your matches together, with no account or password. The menu shows your record, and the best players appear on the leaderboard under their callsigns. You can delete your stats from the menu at any time. See the privacy policy.
Someone's cheating or has an offensive name. What do I do?
Tell me: see contact. Include their callsign, the mode and roughly when. The community rules say what's not allowed.