As a team-based shooter, FragPunk has as much to offer to competitive players as casual ones. This comes in the form of Ranked Matches, where you’ll be progressing through ranks to prove your skill and knowledge of the game.
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FragPunk: Best Ranked Shard Cards
FragPunk is a 5v5 hero shooter with a competitive ranked mode featuring a specific set of ranked Shard Cards. Here are the best cards.
Proving your abilities in competitive play will reward you with many exclusive goods that you can’t find anywhere else. If you think you have what it takes to reach the title of PunkMaster, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about Ranked Matches to get you started on your journey there.
How Ranked Matches Work
The Ranked game mode is unlocked upon reaching account level 30.
You generally level up once or twice per completed match, so expect to be able to play ranked after about 20 standard or arcade matches.
Whilst standard matches have a best-of-seven battle, a ranked match works on a best-of-eleven system. Each team is trying to reach six wins instead of four, and if both teams reach five wins, duels commence as the usual tiebreaker.
The stakes are far higher, as the speed at which you win the game, your performance, and participation in team efforts are all taken into account when calculating how many Rank Points you gain.
The rules are very similar to standard matches, with some changes:
- At the beginning of each round, all players vote on Shard Cards, but some are excluded from ranked play due to the scale on which they change the game. The Shard Cards in the pool are not affected by player progression, so you may see cards here that you haven’t yet unlocked.
- You still have two weapons from each category, and once used up, you must wait for halftime to get all the weapons again; but due to the higher number of matches, losing weapons is a bigger drawback here than in regular matches, since halftime is further away.
Advanced Ranked Matches
Players of Diamond rank and above play Advanced Ranked Matches instead, which completely revamps the Shard Card voting system.
Instead of all players voting on which Cards they like best, players vote for a Card Captain on both teams. The Card Captain is a player that, once elected, gets to make Shard Card decisions for the entire team. All players still get to give suggestions, but the Card Captain ultimately picks everything.
You can also turn off votes for yourself so you can’t get elected by picking “Quit for the Card Captain“. This is especially useful as, if no one votes, the Card Captain is picked randomly from the available candidates.
Once the Card Captains are picked, both teams’ Card Captains get a pool of eight cards to choose from. One card can be banned from this pool by each Card Captain, and then they both take turns picking cards they’d like from the pool. Shards are accumulated from all the players of both teams, and each Shard Card still has its regular price.
The Card Captain stays in power until the end of the match, and Shard Cards get voted this way every round. While this may slow down the pace of the game, it ensures that randomness doesn’t affect your outcome as much.
Ranks And Rank Points
Once you unlock Ranked Matches, you will have five placement matches before you’re given a rank.
Your performance in these five matches is crucial, as it can land you a very high rank without you needing to grind for it with Rank Points.
At the end of each round, you will gain or lose Rank Points, or RP for short, depending on your performance. Collecting RP advances you through the ranks, and losing them can lower your rank after multiple losses in a row, as there is rank protection after losing enough points to lower your rank.
There are seven ranks: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and PunkMaster. Each rank has five tiers, except for Bronze, which has three, and PunkMaster, which has one. To advance ranks, you need to go through each tier first, starting at the fifth one and climbing to the first one. Each division requires 100 RP to pass.
An Example Of A Player’s Rank
A player has reached the rank Gold Five, and they have 39 RP. They need 61 RP more to reach Gold Four (100 RP in total), after which their next rank to aim for is Gold Three. This goes on until Gold One, after which their next rank would be Platinum Five.
If, instead, they lost the 39 RP they had, they’d have a few matches of rank protection where they can’t lose any more points. If they still do, they’ll be back in Silver One and will need to climb back up to Gold Five.
Rewards For Ranked Players
There are also two pages of free rewards for skilled competitive players: Rank Rewards and the Ranked Store.
Rank Rewards
The Rank Rewards shop gives players who reach high ranks some rewards to show off. To find this page, go to your profile page (on the top left of the lobby screen) and press the “Reward” button on the Rank panel.
After ten ranked match wins, you’ll be able to claim all the rewards corresponding to your rank and all ranks below yours. This always includes a sticker and name card, and each rank has some custom rewards, such as kill counters, sprays, charms, backgrounds, or sticker packs.
Besides these, each Chapter has a reward with some conditions that need to be met. The reward in Chapter One is a Bad Moon skin, the Elegant Moment, for players that reached Gold and won ten ranked matches.
Ranked Store
Each ranked match rewards you with Ranking Coins as well. Winning scores you 30 Ranking Coins, whilst losing gets you only ten.
These Ranked Coins can be spent on weapon skins, which can be viewed in the same menu as the Rank Rewards mentioned previously, or in the Store, under the Redeem tab, on the Ranked page.
Each weapon in the game has two skins here: a Gold Era and Silver Era skin. Utility weapon skins cost 300 Ranking Coins, and all other weapon skins cost 1,000 Ranking Coins.
Tips For Beginners
If you’re just starting, here are some beginner tips for ranked play. These tips are meant for players in Regular Ranked Matches, as that’s where you’ll be starting your career.
Pick Lancers You Play Well
In Regular Ranked Matches, we recommend you pick up the Lancer you’re most confident in before the match starts. Lancers aren’t all equal, but if you’re good at playing one, you will do better than someone who’s just following the meta.
That said, if you’re just starting and aren’t sure who you’d like, we suggest taking a look at our
Lancer Tier List
. It will give you an idea of good picks until you find your footing with one.
Shard Cards Can Make Or Break The Game
If you’re confident in your knowledge of Shard Cards, you can ask your team if they’re willing to donate their Shards to you, so you can act as a Card Captain. In the first match, select at least one card, even if it isn’t amazing. Having an advantage in the beginning is extremely beneficial in the long run. It will allow you to pick better ones in the future and swiftly flatten the enemy team.
Keep Track Of Weapons
Keep in mind that there are five matches you need to get through until halftime, which means you can lose four weapons until then. For this reason, we recommend you take one gun from a certain category at a time, so when a Shard Card that buffs a certain category becomes active, you don’t miss out.
Assault rifles and submachine guns are very strong in most situations, though this, of course, varies depending on the Shard Cards in play.
Don’t Go First In Duels
If the enemy team has one player that completely dominates the match, they’ll be the trump card in duels. Since you can’t see which order the enemies picked to play in, try not to be first.
Being second is the best choice if you’re eager to fight, as you’ll probably be facing off against an opponent weakened from the first duel, but your play style might fit a later position even better.
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