Bots!!

Did You Know?

• Events occurred every weekend and around holidays, offering double experience, double gigas, extra coins per purchase, or reward items for consecutive daily logins.
• During events, a special boss could randomly appear in Sector mode with a higher rate of dropping item crates.
• All players who had purchased coins within the last 30 days of the game's lifespan received a full refund.

Game modes

In Sector Battle mode, up to eight players team up to clear sections of levels numbered irregularly from 1 to 95, with the party host choosing a level they or the preceding level have completed. Each level ends with a boss virus named after real-world malware such as Melissa or Code Red. Destroying a boss may drop item crates with random armor pieces; the first player to reach the crate claims it, regardless of contribution. The player with the most virus kills earns the MVP title and a small experience bonus equal to the group size. The player dealing the most boss damage while being hit the least becomes Boss Killer No. 1 and also receives bonus experience. Coin items bought with real money grant an extra 2 experience points each. Elite levels, occurring on level numbers ending in eight, offer roughly double experience and gigas but are significantly harder, with bosses having a higher chance of dropping boxes. Player versus Player mode pits up to eight players in a free-for-all arena with a ten-minute time limit; the last survivor wins, and a time-out results in a tie. Killed players drop colored fuel-canister items called Botstract, which serve no purpose.

Transformations

A transformation bar fills over thirty seconds, after which a player can transform into a larger, stronger robot. The transformation type depends on the body armor worn, unless a transformation pack purchased with gigas or coins grants access to more powerful forms with special attacks. There is a small chance of transforming into a boss virus from Sector battles.

Skills

Skills, found on the Gear page of the shop menu, are divided into passive and active abilities. An active ability like Ion Wave lets the player punch the ground to send a shockwave of projectiles at enemies. Passive abilities, such as faster transformation bar recharge or Counter Guard for countering attacks, apply continuously. Skills must be equipped before a match and have a limited number of uses before being destroyed.

Anti-Cheat

Bots!! used nProtect GameGuard, which was criticized for operating like a rootkit by installing a difficult-to-remove device driver that left residual files even after uninstalling the game. From revision 1007, GameGuard continued running after the game ended, consuming resources and injecting code into processes until a system restart, while masking its CPU usage by hooking Windows querying APIs. Antivirus programs often flagged GameGuard as malware. Despite this protection, cheating became rampant in the latter half of the game's lifespan, with programs generating items, granting invincibility, teleporting, or interfering with other players' sessions to trigger their GameGuard. Widespread modding contributed to player attrition.