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Combat in D.O.R.F. Real-Time Strategic Conflict is designed around positioning. The developers have said they want to avoid battles where the bigger mass of units simply wins, and several systems, from weapon blocking to formations, are meant to reward careful placement instead.

The game had not been released as of September 2026, and there was no public demo. This page collects what the developers have said about combat and unit control in development updates and replies to players. Unit stats shown in trailers are placeholders, and the developers said in 2025 that most units will be sturdier than they look in those videos, which were tuned to be fast and exciting.

Stances

Units have stances that decide how they react to enemies. The developers listed four in April 2024.

Extra behavior modes that combine with these stances were also planned at that time: avoiding enemies where possible, scouting the map automatically, and a kamikaze or collision mode for vehicles. In February 2026 the developers said they were considering a ramming stance, where each vehicle has a weight value and both vehicles take damage based on the ratio of their weights. In 2024 they also said a stance that sends units back for repairs below a certain health level would be welcome.

Command Wheel

Special orders go through the Command Wheel. Holding right-click on a unit, or selecting units and holding right-click on an enemy or another object, opens a set of contextual options that depend on what is selected and what is targeted. Examples the developers gave include infiltrating enemy structures, harvesting resources, searching for resources to harvest, and a direct attack order, which is useful for firing on a neutral target or on the ground. Some of these orders also have hotkeys, and those hotkeys can be rebound.

Tactical Pause and Game Speed

Against AI opponents, players can use a tactical pause, bound by default to the Pause/Break key. In April 2026 the developers said game speed could be chosen before a multiplayer match or campaign mission but could not be changed during play, and that this might change later.

Weapon Blocking and Formations

The April 2026 development update described a new approach to friendly units in the line of fire. Rather than letting shots pass through allies, a unit whose gunnery is blocked by a friendly unit simply does not fire. The developers acknowledged this could be irritating if handled badly but said it suits the game's focus on positioning, and that it should work against deathball tactics because a disorganized mass of units becomes easy prey for enemies in good positions.

To keep this from turning into tedious micromanagement, the blocking system is to be paired with a basic formation and positioning system, so units can quickly be ordered into a firing line to attack from a chosen position and angle. The same update said work on a physics-based projectile system had been finished, replacing the older, simpler one. In January 2026 the developers listed better unit combat intelligence, so units stop firing into each other, among the major systems still to finish.

Indirect Fire and Field Guns

As of April 2026, guns can be set to use indirect fire, and their barrels elevate to fire in a parabolic arc. The developers demonstrated this with the hull howitzer on the Heavy Tank. The July 2026 update said deploy logic was mostly working, which matters for deployable field artillery and for mobile bases that must deploy to operate.

In September 2025 the developers described field guns that can be towed by vehicles such as halftracks. Some can fire on the move, and some can convert another unit, for example turning a halftrack into a mortar platform or an anti-air platform. They said at that time that these had not been implemented yet. More on individual units is on the Units page.

Garrisoning and Storming Buildings

Infantry can garrison civilian buildings and use them as pillboxes. Enemy-held buildings, including base structures, can be stormed and captured by infantry. The store page describes brutal close-quarters combat inside. According to the developers, the fight inside is shown in the interface, with units inside firing at random enemy targets in the building, and some units are better suited than others to interior combat and storming.

The developers said in December 2024 that they plan for a sufficiently damaged building to have its occupants evacuated rather than killed. Certain weapons can hit infantry garrisoned inside buildings, flamethrowers among them. In April 2026 the developers said infantry are meant to stay useful throughout a match by doing things vehicles cannot, such as storming structures, garrisoning buildings and occupying trenches.

Capturing Factories and Hybrid Units

The store page says capturing enemy factories gives access to their technologies. The developers clarified in January 2025 that capturing an enemy factory or barracks does not simply unlock that faction's units. Instead, it grants special hybrid units that combine both factions' technologies and tactics. The developers had not named any hybrid units in the updates and replies available as of September 2026. For how normal unit unlocks work, see the Annex System.

Death Types

The weapon that kills a soldier decides how the death looks. Bullets give a typical death animation, flame and electrical weapons set infantry on fire, and explosions vary with distance: a direct hit gibs the soldier, while one on the edge of the blast is thrown through the air. Corpses stay for a while but have no gameplay effect. They technically have hit points that drain over time, fading as they do, and nearby weapon impacts make them disappear faster. The store page notes that the game contains violent death animations and some gore.

Fire

Fire can spread and can injure or kill units. Patches of fire hurt units that get too close, though units generally try not to cross them. Standing in water gives infantry some protection from flames. Trenches protect infantry better, but flamethrowers are meant to be good at clearing them out. Trees and other vegetation can burn. In 2025 the developers said there were no plans to give flame weapons an accuracy penalty against vehicles, without ruling it out. Terrain effects are covered on the Terrain and Environment page.

Crushing and Collisions

Light vehicles cannot crush infantry; that is reserved for tanks and other large vehicles. Ranked-up infantry are more likely to step out of the way of a vehicle trying to crush them, as described on the Veterancy page. Aircraft that are shot down damage whatever they land on.

Movement

The developers moved to physics-based movement around the turn of 2026: a December 2025 update said grid-free movement with acceleration had just been implemented, and in January 2026 they called the movement rework still in progress. Units are no longer tied to the map grid, they accelerate and decelerate, and faster units can do things like jump off slopes. An official video titled Physics-Based Movement was released on January 31, 2026.

The developers have also described an automated transport route system: the player marks a route across a body of water, assigns an amphibious transport to it, and any units ordered to cross that water find the route and use it on their own. Naval combat is covered on the Naval Warfare page.

Repair and Healing

Repair and healing mostly happen at fixed structures that units enter, rather than through mobile repair or medic units. Vehicles return to a service depot for repairs, and there is already an order that marks units as needing repair so they drive to the nearest repair structure. In September 2025 the developers said infantry are healed at the barracks. In January 2026 they said the infantry approach was not fully settled and floated deployable supply zones or a medevac system as possibilities.

Crews affect how well a vehicle performs, but the developers said in December 2025 that few weapons can kill the crew inside a vehicle.

Crates

Skirmish and multiplayer are planned to have an option for powerup crates that spawn randomly on the map. The developers said in 2023 that crates can raise unit speed or firepower, or have stranger effects such as granting stealth or duplicating the unit that picks them up. Match options are listed on the Game Modes page.

Planned but Not Yet Implemented

The developers have named several combat features that were still planned, under consideration or unfinished as of their most recent statements. None of them should be assumed for the final game.