Hi-Rez Announces New Battle Royale Gamemode For Paladins

A new Battle Royale gamemode is coming to the hit free-to-play team-based shooter Paladins. Hi-Rez Studios announced Thursday during a keynote address opening its annual Hi-Rez Expo.

Paladins: Battlegrounds is the first-ever hero-shooter battle royale. This genre mashup combines ability-driven combat with survival gameplay and a fantasy setting to create something brand new.

“Riding on a mount through this massive fantasy-themed map, looking for gear and cooperating with your team, Paladins: Battlegrounds delivers some of the feel of open-world MMO PvP but all within a 20-minute match,” said Todd Harris, Executive Producer of Paladins.

Designed from the ground-up to be played in teams, players must work together to survive in Paladins: Battlegrounds. Supports struggle to keep their Front Liners alive, while Damage Champions let the bullets fly and Flanks look for any possible assassination.

Players spawn into a massive map — over 300 times the square footage of a typical Paladins’ Siege map. Then they hop onto their mounts and begin exploring, looting their way through more than four dozen outposts and tracking zeppelins that drop legendary gear.

As the fog contracts, the stakes are raised. The last team standing wins. And that’s not easy with 100 players all fighting to win.

Paladins is free-to-play, and the Battlegrounds mode will be free for all Paladins players upon release. An early alpha version is playable at Hi-Rez Expo, and a full release of the Battlegrounds gamemode will be added to Paladins in 2018.

More Announcements:

• After a 2017 packed full of new Paladins content (14 Champions, 7 Maps, and 2 Game Modes), Hi-Rez Studios announced plans to keep the content rolling in 2018. The first wave of new content releases Jan. 10 on PC, and Jan. 17 on console.
• Paladins’ 35th Champion, Moji. This magical Flank introduces a new species to the Realm, the Leipori. She rides a summoned two-headed dragon into battle, feeding it snacks to reload its magical energy.
  
• New game mode: Team Deathmatch. The only objective is slaying in this new game mode, which comes with a new map: Trade District.
  
• New mount type: Battle Cats. The first battle cat mount, the Primal Prowler, is exclusively available free to Twitch Prime members. Twitch Prime members will also get a Twitch Prime King Bomb King skin, and other bonus content.
• New mobile game: Paladins Strike. Still in development, Paladins Strike is a hero shooter, but with controls of a MOBA and an top-down view and interface refined for mobile. Players can sign up for testing at HRXStrike.com.

The first-ever Paladins World Championship and the Paladins Console Wars run through Sunday. Teams participating include: Virtus Pro, G2, Kanga esports and many others. Watch the action live on Twitch, Facebook, Mixer, and YouTube.