The game is uses asynchronous PvP battle system.
This means that players are not fighting the opponent players live.
Players' backpack are saved to the server, and it is recalled to face another player for certain time frame.
The time frame how long a build is saved and used in the battles is not specified.

Since the game is not a live PvP, you are able to play the game at your own pace, without any countdown timer.
If you wish to continue the game at later time/date, you can press ESC(or setting) to exit the game and continue later.


Note, however that conceding a ranked game will result in penalty.

Backpack Battle has two game modes: ranked and unranked.

Ranked Game
Your objective is to win games to climb the ladder.
The higher the rank you become, more challenging it is to win the rounds.
As already said, if you concede a game, you will take rank penalty.


The rank tier order is as follows:

Bronze -> Silver -> Gold -> Platinum -> Diamond -> Master -> Grandmaster -> Grandma

Numbers in the badge is your progress in the rank tier.
Reaching 100 will move you to the next tier in the rank.



Unranked Game
You have no ladder, no penalty for conceding.
You may play at ease to test builds and quit the run whenever you'd like.

When you start a game mode, you will be taken to Furcifer's shop.



Using the Gold you have, you can buy items in Furcier's shop.
To buy an item, left click an item, and drag an item to your inventory or the storage.
To refresh the shop items to another set of random items, click and pull down the Reroll rope.




Item Reserving
You are able to right click on item's price tag or left click on the item in the shop to reserve it.
Reserved item(s) will not be refreshed when you pull down the reroll rope.
Reserved item(s) are retained to next time you visit the shop.



Item Combining
Whenever an item is able to combine with another item, it will show blue line when you hover over it.



Whenever items are next to another that are part of the recipe, it will show thin gold line.



Once all the recipes are next to each other, you'll see a thick gold line.



When you return to the shop next round, item will combine to an item.


Item Locking
If you wish to prevent item to combine, you can lock it by right clicking on the item.




Backpack item user interaction:
- Multiple selection : left click hold, drag to select multiple items
- To rotate an item : hold left click on item, and
Either right click (or key 'r') or key 'E'

Other interactions and options can be viewed in game Settings.


Furcifer will give you game tips time to time, or you can click him to get more tips.



When you are ready for battle, you can click on 'Start Backpack Battle' banner.
If you accidentally clicked start or wishes to make changes, you can click anywhere on the screen to stop the battle from starting.

Battle will be held without any user intervention. Battle is automatic.
Player may change speed of the game using the battle speed bar.

Player may click on 'Open Log', to view the battle log.
You may view battle stats in it, and view each battle actions step by step.

If you've forgotten or wishes to change item lock for recipe combination, you may do it in this phase as well.

Each round consists of item shop and battle.

Each game run gives you 5 Hearts.
When your heart runs out, the game run is lost/completed.

You will have 10 rounds to fight against the opponent builds.
Whenever you win a round in a game run, you gain a trophy.
If you survive up 'til 10 rounds, you will be given option to continue as Survival Mode.


You are able to play up to 18 rounds in Survival Mode.

After the run has completed, your trophies will be summed up, and be rewarded to you.
Using the trophies, you are able to purchase your character(s)' cosmetics at Wardrobe

Item recipes are by default grayed out inside the game.
Whenever you combine items to discover the recipe, the recipe item in recipe page gets updated, and will no longer grayed out.

You may play blindly to figure out recipe yourself.
Or, you could view at any of the following:

- the item recipe at game title screen -> Items -> click 'Item Info' -> hover mouse over item

- online search, item recipe list uploaded by other users

- my recipe list thread (single-page text based), maintained since demo.
This thread is constantly updated as soon as I could, when new recipe is introduced in the game.
I won't be making any fancy graphical recipe image, as other players have already made it. You may find them in other guides or searched on browser.

- You can view them in wiki page, that game itself linked in its title page.
https://backpackbattles.wiki.gg/wiki/Recipe
https://backpackbattles.wiki.gg/wiki/Transformation