Smite: A Free to Play MoBA by Hi-Rez Studios

Smite is a game where gods wage war against each other. It is currently free to play on PC and on the Xbox One. The game features many different game modes, with the most popular being Conquest. Players are formed into two teams, with three to five players to each team. All players begin at opposite sides of a map at their team's 'fountain'. Before the players enter the map, they are granted an amount of gold to buy starting items. These items grant special bonuses or abilities that enhance the player's god. There are one to three continuous 'lanes' running from one side of the map to the other. Each lane is defended by a 'Phoenix' which is accompanied by a pair of extra defensive towers. Phoenixes and towers deal a large amount of damage to any enemies that come too close.

The goal of each game is to destroy the opposing team's Phoenixes and the Titan, a giant warrior who must be defeated to win the game. The players are accompanied by 'minions', small soldiers with a weak attack; these minions spawn at the Phoenixes every thirty seconds and run along their lane until they meet opposition and attack immediately. Minions will attack not only players and other minions but also towers, Phoenixes and the Titan; in fact, their presence is required for players to deal full damage to these objectives. Defensive positions will prioritize enemy minions over players, allowing players to attack a tower without receiving damage; however, towers will fire upon players if there are no minions nearby or the player attacks an enemy player under their tower. If a game is going badly for a certain team it can decide to surrender, though this requires a majority of the team (4 players to 1) to agree.

With every game, players have to choose a god to play. Currently, players can choose between 70 gods from seven different pantheons: Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Mayan, Norse and Roman mythology. Two players on the same team cannot choose the same god (with the exception of Match of the Day, which rotates daily), although they are free to choose gods from the same or different pantheons.

The player controls the god in a third person perspective, which is a unique characteristic of this multiplayer online battle arena game, as other games of this genre are typically played from a top-down perspective. Each god has a basic attack and four spells with varying effects, such as area of effect damage, crowd control, buffs and many more. These spells are acquired and upgraded when a player's god levels up by gaining experience from being in range of creeps when they are killed, taking down towers or phoenixes and killing enemy players. The maximum level is 20 and each successive level is harder to reach. Gold, which is used to buy equipment that increase power, defense, and passive effects, potions, wards and abilities, is accumulated through standard periodic income, by slaying enemies (player and NPC alike), or by selling owned items.

The large areas between the lanes make up what is called the 'jungle', where computer-controlled monsters such as packs of cyclopes or harpies which periodically spawn at specific locations and are distributed symmetrically across the map. Killing certain monsters in said jungle causes a 'buff' to drop on the ground, where it can be picked up by a player. This buff grants the player one of the following buffs for a limited time, depending on which monster was killed: mana (mana regen & cooldown reduction bonus), damage (basic damage & power bonus), speed (movement speed bonus), or attack speed (in-hand attack speed & power bonus).

There are two special neutral monsters who spawn less frequently, the Fire Giant and the Gold Fury. When killed, they grant the entire team who killed it a powerful damage buff for a medium length of time or a set amount of Gold, respectively. There also exist monsters which do not offer a buff, only experience and gold.

There are several game types separated in five main groups: Practice which contains the main tutorial, solo/co-op versions of Joust, Arena, Conquest Map Roam, Assault, and Siege, along with a practice exclusive, Jungle Practice, that allows players to test characters and builds. Co-Op contains cooperative versions of Joust (3v3), Arena, and Assault. Normal contains Arena, Conquest, Assault, Joust (3v3), Siege and Match of the Day. League is the ranked versions of Conquest and Joust (1v1). Custom contains the Challenge versions of Arena, Conquest, Assault, Joust, and Siege.

• Conquest is the main mode of the game, featuring a regular 3 lane MOBA style map with a Greek visual theme ("The Siege of Olympus".). The match manager will try to give the opposing team better solo players if there are teamed players together on a side. There is also a League (ranked) Conquest mode, and it only allows up to 2 teamed players, who must be in similar divisions in order to play. It is considered to be the toughest and most competitive of the modes, and is advised only for those well experienced at the game.

• Arena is played 5 versus 5 with minions and side-objectives including buff camps with a Roman visual theme ("The Grand Colosseum".). However, rather than having lanes, the map mainly consists of an open area. Minions of both sides spawn and attempt to enter the portal located on the front of the enemy base. Rather than a single end objective, in Arena each team begins with 500 points, with the goal being to reduce your enemy's score to 0 by killing their players and minions, or escorting your own side's minions and periodically spawning siege towers to the enemy portal. If a team total deaths count reaches 10 then the oppossing team is rewarded with a seige-type of minion which has a huge health pool.

• In the Joust mode, a game mode with a Medieval theme, there is only one lane with one tower and a phoenix on each side and you are grouped up with 2 allies against 3 other players, but beyond this it plays in a very similar way to the conquest game mode, complete with a rudimentary jungle. There is also a League Joust mode, and it only allows solo players, who must fight one on one.

• Assault is a game mode that is based on the ARAM (All Random All Mid) custom match mode from other MOBA titles. Each player is assigned a random god (however, the user may choose to "re-roll" their god for a small price of in-game currency or premium currency) and they are all taking charge in one lane with the inability to recall back to base, so the only way to buy items from the shop, is to die. The objective is similar to that of Conquest: Destroy the enemy team's 2 towers, Phoenix and their Titan. This game mode features a Norse theme ("Ragnarök".)

• Siege is a Mayan-themed ("The end of the great cycle".) game mode somewhat similar to Conquest with two lanes, two towers and a Phoenix per lane and a Titan plus a jungle in between the lanes. But unlike Conquest, there is less emphasis in gathering gold/experience to become stronger and more in taking down enemy objectives as soon as possible. To do this there is a special super minion called Siege Juggernaut, which is more resistant, twice as fast as regular minions, deals bonus damage to structures and allows allied gods to quickly teleport to its position. To spawn one, a team needs to fill a counter of 100 points by either killing enemy players (+5 points each), killing enemy minions (+1 each) or clearing neutral camps (+9 each). Once spawned, the Siege Juggernaut will constantly move forward, attacking any enemy units in its path while prioritizing structures. In this mode there is also a special neutral monster, the Wild Juggernaut, which if slain will instantly spawn a friendly Siege Juggernaut, separate from the counter, allowing for two to coexist. Siege used to be a five person team versus another five person team until it was changed after the player base showed a four man team versus another four man team to be more valuable.

• There are also specialty matches which are on a daily rotation. These matches are called the "Mode of the Day" and are abbreviated as MotD. These matches are played on a variety of maps with various rules changes in regards to God selection or the in-match item shop. For example, "Battle of the Beards" allows players to only select from Gods with beards. "The Perfect Storm" allows players to choose from the storm gods, Zeus, Thor and Kukulkan; this is an example of a match type in which there can be multiple of the same God on one team.

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