Botball controls

During a Botball game, you control your bots by clicking targets on the screen. For example, if you want your bots to move towards a specific area or target, you must click the field on the target’s general vicinity; if you want your bots to attack a target, you must click that target or near it. You don’t need to click a target’s exact area; just send your bots near where you want them to be, and they’ll automatically pick the nearest valid target to interact with it in the most appropriate way.

Ball possession

What actually happens when you click on a target depends on which team has ball possession (see the Rules section for more details on this). If your team has ball possession, they’ll try to reach the enemy goal and protect the bot holding the ball by blocking and attacking enemy bots attacking it; if the enemy has ball possession, your team will try to attack the bot holding the ball and block it from reaching your goal. The following sections use “on ball possession” to describe what your bots do if your team owns the ball,  “out of ball possession” when the enemy team has the ball, and “ball owner” to define the bot holding the ball on either case.

Clicking on an enemy bot

When you click near an enemy bot, your team will move towards that enemy; if that enemy is the ball owner, or is in attack mode, your bots will try to attack it as they move. See the Rules section to see which bots may be attacked and when.

Clicking on a friendly bot

When you click near a bot in your team, the rest of the team will gather around it. On ball possession, your team will gather around the ball owner, but they will all move to the vicinity of the bot you clicked on.

Clicking on the ball owner

When you click near the ball owner, on ball possession your team will try to protect and escort the owner to the enemy goal, striking back at any enemy bots trying to attack it. Out of ball possession, your bots will attack the ball owner to the best of their ability.

Clicking on the field

When you click on the field, away from any bots, your bots will try to move there; on the way there, they will attack any bots that are already attacking your team (check the Rules section to see who can attack who). Out of ball possession, your bots will move to the indicated area, but on the way they’ll try to attack the ball owner.

Clicking on the ball

When nobody has ball possession, clicking near the ball makes your team move towards it; as soon as one of your bots comes near, it picks the ball up (unless an enemy picks the ball first).

Clicking on the enemy goal

Clicking near either goal is the same as clicking on any open field area, except when you have ball possession and click the enemy goal. In this case, your ball owner will try to move towards the goal and, when it comes close enough (just how close depends on the bot’s throw range stat), it will throw the ball and try to score.

Special abilities

Your special abilities menu appears on the screen’s lower corner; there, you’ll see all the special abilities you have available. You may use any special ability you have by clicking on it; the bot that has that special ability will use it, spending the corresponding amount of battery.