How to play the Loadout Annihilation game mode

Last night we played the Annihilation game mode of Loadout. At first, I had no clue as to what the hell was going on, but caught on quite quickly. It is basically a combination of 3 of the other game modes, with a few twists of course - and it's a huge amount of fun!

Firstly, to understand the other game modes:

Death Snatch

This is Loadout's version of classic death match. You run around and kill people. The twist here, however, is whenever you die, you drop a Blutonium vial. You must collect this item in order to score the actual points. This also means that if someone snipes you from far away (which I personally hate a great deal), they don't get the points unless he/she or a teammate picks up the vial. And, your team mates can get your vial, and prevent the opposing team from scoring. A very nice take on regular old boring death match indeed!

Jackhammer

Everyone knows Capture the Flag - you each have a base with a flag, and your job is to go over to the enemies' base, grab their flag and return it to your own, while stopping the enemies from taking your flag. You can also only score if your own flag is safe. So, how Jackhammer works is basically the same, except the "flag" in Loadout is a massive hammer. And the nice thing here is that the hammer doubles as an all powerful melee weapon! And each hammer kill charges it, making it more valuable (you only have 5 hits though, so use them wisely!). Take this back to your hammer, and you score. Also, prevent the enemy from grabbing your hammer.

Blitz

Blitz is quite similar to Battlefield where there are points to capture on the map. In Loadout, however, only one point is active on the map at any given time, so everyone is gunning for the same point. Chaos ensues. Every time.

Annihilation

So, Annihilation is a combination of all three the above game modes, but adds even a few more things. The match is still 4 vs 4, and it's just as chaotic and frantic as the other modes.

Each team has a drop ship, which also serves as your spawn point for when you die. Inside the drop ship, there are three booster stations, and as you score points, you can buff your character. The options are Damage, Armor and Healing:

Next, you need to score points by doing the 3 objectives - that is killing the enemies and taking their dropped vials:

Capturing control points (you also get a 30 second damage boost after capturing a point!):

And stealing their hammer and bringing it back to yours:

Doing these activities not only score yourself points, but also your team. The points you score personally can be used at the charging stations at your drop ship to boost yourself. The points for your team, well that's basically your main goal. The first team to hit 10000 points gets access to the enemy drop ship (there's usually a shield preventing you from entering).

This opens up the last objective, and that is to deliver the ultimate smack down inside your opponent's base. You do this with a charged hammer - so, steal their hammer (which is at their side of the map remember), bring it back to your base to charge it:

Once it's charged, you now have to head back to their drop ship. Nice thing though is that you have unlimited hits (not the usual 5), so you can go mad and hit the baddies all you want. So, rush to their base, and smash this thing:

If you manage to do this, you win the match. And respect. And more Blutes to spend on additional goodies and upgrades for your arsenal.

This is by far my favourite game mode, and I can't wait for the devs to create some additional maps! Go ahead and give it a shot, with the above knowledge, you wont just run around like a headless chicken as I did in my first game! :)