Gun Game Online

Every player climbs the same weapon ladder alone. Each enemy you kill hands you the next gun on the spot, with a full magazine and a quick draw, so you never stop to reload into a new fight. Two teams share the map and respawn four seconds after they fall, as in team deathmatch, but the number that matters most is your own level.

The idea goes back to the gungame mods that filled CS 1.6 servers, and players who know Arms Race from CS:GO or CS2 will recognise it straight away. Here it runs in a browser tab: no server list, no client to install, and a match ready whenever you press Play now.

Quick match looks at every public room running gun game and picks the one with the most players that still has a free seat, so you land where the action is. If every room is full, it opens a new one and lets bots hold the other seats until more people arrive. Join a match in progress and you take over a bot's seat at its level, or at the room's average level when that is higher. That start stops short of the grenade and the knife. You do not begin from zero against players who are already halfway up.

Playing with friends works the same way. Once you are in, open the pause menu and copy the invite link, or make a room from the list on this page and send its link. Anyone who opens it lands in your match. Your name and settings stay in this browser, so the next visit takes one press.

• The ladder has 24 rungs: pistols first, then SMGs, shotguns and rifles, then the Scout, the AWM and the M249, then an HE grenade and finally the knife.
• Every enemy kill moves you up one rung and hands you that gun at once. While you are still at least three rungs behind the room's average, that kill moves you up two instead. You always carry a knife as well.
• A knife kill also steals a level from the player you stabbed.
• On the HE rung a fresh grenade arrives a moment after each throw. There is no buying, no money, no armour and no picking up dropped guns.
• A kill with the knife on the last rung wins the match for you and your team. If the ten-minute clock runs out first, the player on the highest level wins it for their team.

Gun game runs on every map that runs team deathmatch. Cargo Ship keeps fights short and close around its containers, which suits the shotgun and SMG rungs; Dust 2 gives the Scout and AWM rungs the long lanes they need. Quick match on this page picks the map for you, and the room list lets you choose one yourself.

• Cargo Ship map guide
• Dust 2 map guide

• Play the gun you have, not the one you want. A shotgun rung wants corners and close range; a sniper rung wants a long lane and patience.
• Keep your knife in mind near the end. Players on the knife rung will charge you, and stabbing them first steals their level.
• On the HE rung, throw at groups and around corners. A new grenade arrives quickly, so never hold on to one.
• Watch the leader on the HUD. When someone reaches the knife, every fight near them decides the match.