Refunds
90% of equipment spending returns to the balance at end of round. Buying heavy for a round you survive costs far less than the sticker price suggests.
Systems / economy
Cash carries between rounds
The balance carries between rounds rather than resetting each match. Everything you buy for a match is spent from one running balance.
Starting capital$10,000Per account
Purchase refund90%Returned at end of round
Hot Zone weight2xYou count as two players
Income
How you get paid
| Source | Amount | Cadence | Sourcing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Zone entry bonus | $250 | One-time | Reported |
| Hot Zone presence | $160 | Periodic tick | Reported |
| Placement bonus Observed for third place; scaling by position is unconfirmed. | $200 | End of round | Unconfirmed |
| Match contribution Performance-scaled. A low-contribution round was observed paying $0. | — | End of round | Reported |
Notes
Other cash mechanics
Revive bribes Unconfirmed
Cash can be offered in $50 increments while downed; payout behaviour unconfirmed.
One observed session ran from $10,000 to $24,987 across roughly 64 minutes of play.
How to read these numbers
The single most important line on this page is that the balance is persistent. Money does not reset between rounds, which means every purchase is drawn from one running total and every loss is permanent rather than per-match. That changes the arithmetic of the whole game and it is the thing new players most often do not realise.
The 90% refund is what makes spending safe. Nine tenths of equipment spending returns to your balance at the end of a round. A loadout is therefore closer to a rental than a purchase, and the expensive outcome is not buying well — it is dying, because a death costs you the gear and the refund together. Two players who spend identically can end a session thousands apart purely on how often they made it out.
Income rewards occupancy, not attendance. The entry bonus is small and one-off. The periodic tick for being present in a Hot Zone is the number that accumulates, and inside a Hot Zone you count as two players — which is both a payout multiplier and an explanation of why those areas are dangerous. Match contribution scales with what you actually did, and a low-contribution round has been observed paying nothing.
Treat the observed session as one data point. It records a real balance moving from one figure to another over about an hour of play, net of everything spent and lost. It is useful for scale — it tells you roughly what an expensive vehicle costs in hours — and it is not a target. A more cautious hour will look nothing like it.
Every row here carries its evidence tier, because much of the economy is observed rather than officially published. The economy guide works through what all of this means for what to buy.