How PvP works in Once Human

While Once Human shares many similarities with most open-world survival games, it has a unique PvP system designed to prioritize player needs.

In Once Human, you’re thrown into a strange world where anomalous creatures are everywhere, and paranormal events could completely ruin your day. The game’s engrossing because it has so much hidden depth in dungeons to explore and mysteries to uncover, but it also has base building and crafting. An aside to all this is the PvE and PvP systems, each of which works very differently from the other to allow for the best player experience.

How does PvP work in Once Human?

PvP in Once Human is simple once you understand the base mechanics. You can’t just jump into the game and start shooting other players or their bases and get into fights. First, you have to enter Chaos and become a Chaos Player. Starry Studios has explained that there are passive ways for players to enter this state, but the main way players enter it is by holding the ‘P’ key on their keyboard.

Once players are in the Chaos state, they can attack other players and their buildings. Chaos Players can team up together, and they’ll be removed from non-Chaos player teams if they enter this state. If you’re under level 10, you can’t enter the Chaos state or be attacked by Chaos Players because you’ve got an active Novice Protection Period.

PvP servers offer the fullest experience in Once Human. They’re not explicitly designed for gunfights, though. Instead, they allow groups of players to attack each other for resources, adding a new layer of danger to the game in addition to the paranormal events and enemies. This is where you’ll get the best survival experience because you can loot pretty rare resources from others instead of dungeon-delving yourself.

PvE servers are designed specifically for players who want the solo or non-PvP experience. You can’t attack others, and they won’t attack you here. However, you always have the option of moving to a new server once you’ve had enough of exploring the world in safety and fancy getting involved with Chaos Players.

At the time of writing, Once Human hasn’t been officially released and is holding its third Closed Beta, so these details are subject to change. For example, in the future, Starry Studio has explained that it would like to add PvP and PvE labels to servers to make it crystal clear what each one is. I’ll update this article when this change is made to ensure it’s as accurate as possible.