When you think of competitive shooters, what are the first games that come to mind? Most gamers will say games such as Call of Duty, Halo, Fortnite, Counter-Strike, Valorant, and maybe even Apex Legends; some may even include Overwatch 2, Marvel Rivals, and Rainbow Six Siege. When it comes to competitive shoes, though, standing out from the crowd is what truly makes a game unique. When you think of deck-building shooters, there are not many that come to mind outside of Friends versus Friends. Now a new cyberpunk deck-based shooter is set to take the world by storm; introducing FragPunk.
Fragpunk
Developer: Bad Guitar Studio
Publisher: Bad Guitar Studio, NetEase
Platforms: PC (Steam)(Epic Game Store), PS5 & Xbox Series X|S TBA
Release Date: March 6th, 2025
Players: 1 to 20
Price: Base: Free
Gameplay
Over the last year, NetEase has had its hands busy with the release of Marvel Rivals. This month, it now looks to help with the release of another competitive shooter that looks to take on Valorant and CounterStrike in 5v5 team-based combat. Fragpunk is a competitive shooter where killing your enemy is not all that is going on. Yes, it can win you the round, but there is more to it than meets the eye; players might miss the varying levels of complexity if they are just running and gunning.
Lancers & Cosmetics
Fragpunk features 13 different characters known as Lancers for the player to experience. Like other hero shooters, each lancer has their own unique abilities that can lock down zones, warp to other areas, and even blow somebody up. Unlike Marvel Rivals, not all characters are available to play. Players must unlock different Lancers by either using in-game gold to unlock a character or using Fragcoins to buy the characters; players can also choose to buy the Fragpunk membership unlocking the different lancers and granting other benefits. Each lancer costs 18888 gold or 488 Fragpunk coins (about 5$). You can earn unlock passes by completing different challenges and/or steps in the battle pass; additionally, there are a variety of rewards to earn in the Fragpunk events.
Skins within the game are fairly hit or miss with some characters having no true alternate skin and just having a cell-shaded color differential instead. Skins can be earned in a variety of ways either through events, the battle pass, Pop Cans, or random drops. The Pop Cans works as a Gacha Mechanic where players can unlock stickers, weapon and character skins, or weapon charms. Duplicate stickers can be fused using a little gold to create a new sticker. At the moment, the game features a ton of events to earn different charms, weapons, and character skins. Unlike other shooters, players can put multiple weapon charms on the gun in various locations.
Fragpunk does feature an invite system that rewards players with various items for each person that is referred.
Shard Cards
Unlike other hero shooters, Character (Lancers) abilities do not recharge over time and only return once the round is over or if a Shard card is activated to recharge the abilities. Fragpunk‘s various game modes revolve around Shard Cards with there being over 150 just in Standard Clash alone (169). If you add the Shard Cards for Outbreak and Battle Rotation, there are about 200 Shard Cards.
Shards Cards are power-ups that a player or team can select at the beginning of each round; these cards help teams come up with unique ways to potentially swing the tide of battle in their favor. In order to activate a Shard Card, players must contribute Shards equal to the numeric value shown on the card. If players do not activate a Shard Card, it is discarded once the round starts; there is a relic that allows players to lock a Shard Card for a future round. Shard Cards have a wide array of abilities including but not limited to extending/decreasing the round timer, adding AI support, getting a protective shell for your back, and even removing an offensive zone.
Don’t worry if a card you donated a Shard to isn’t chosen, you will get your Shard back for the next round. Players can earn Shards in a variety of ways. The easiest way to get a Shard is by hitting the slot machine at the beginning of the round; there is a chance that you will get a Shard as a reward. Shards can be earned by getting kills, assists, or capturing the point. In addition, to kill/objective presence, players can find Shards randomly in gold cubes spread throughout the map; these cubes can also contain health orbs and Shard Cards.
At the end of each round, players can get additional Shards based on their performance. Relics can be used to increase the amount of Shards earned enhancing the amount based on either kills, assists, or even bomb interaction. Relics grant you buffs ranging from additional Shards, healing, locking a Shard Card, increasing your damage, the ability to redraw a Shard Card, and/or even drawing a high Shard Card. Once you select a Relic in the match you can not change it, so choose carefully and maybe consult with your team.
Game Modes & Weapon Types
Fragpunk has a variety of game modes for the player to enjoy. The primary two game categories are either Standard Shard Clash or Arcade. Shard Clash consists of Standard, Advanced Standard, and Ranked; ranked is locked behind level 30 which can be unlocked within a week of playing. Arcade features a variety of game modes including Team Deathmatch-Random, Melee Death Match, Outbreak, Duel Master, Scrimmage, Rocketeers, Free for All, and Glunite Grab. Outbreak is equivalent to Halo’s Infection game mode but on steroids; Outbreak has its own set of cards with some overlap with Standard Shard Cards.
For those who are feeling uncertain about their skills, aim, or Lancer’s abilities, the training area lets players practice in the Training Base or Practice Vs AI. Players can set up custom game lobbies with the ability to sub bots for human players; the bots’ difficulty can be set from rookie to extreme. The host of the lobby can adjust the game’s rules. Some examples of the rule changes are limited weapon usage, selection of Shard Cards, rounds played, and how many Shards a player earns per round.
Fragpunk comes with seven maps for Shard Clash at launch. The seven maps are Naos, Dongtain, Yggdrasil, Outpost, Tundra, Akhet, and Black Market; these maps have alternate variations based on different Shard Card rules. At the time of launch, Fragpunk has 21 weapons; this consists of Twelve (12) primary weapons (2 shotguns, 2 submachine guns, 2 assault rifles, 2 light machine guns, 2 marksman rifles, and 2 sniper rifles), seven (7) secondary weapons (3 pistols and 4 utility guns that can shoot mini grenades, flash bangs, smoke, or incendiary bombs), and two (2) Melee weapons (a dagger and an axe).
In the Standard Shard Clash, teams battle in a best-of-seven with a team starting on either offense or defense. After three rounds, teams swap objective goals going from attack to defense or vice versa. The game does feature a Shard Card that can reverse which team is on offense vs defense. An offensive team wins the round by either killing all defensive players or having the converter explode at a designated area. A defensive team wins by either wiping the enemy team or defusing the converter.
If the score is tied after six rounds, a Duel will start. When a Duel is initiated, players will vote on which order they want to face the opponent; players then face off in 1v1 combat. If a player is killed, they are eliminated and the winner stays on. This continues until all players on an enemy team have been slain.
Positives
While playing shooters can be a lot of fun and relaxing, they can get stale fast due to a lack of variety. Fragpunk looks to change the boring mundane formula of shooters such as Battlefield and Call of Duty with its use of Shard Cards. The game features a wide variety of powers that players can choose from and there are a ton of cards, skins, charms, and stickers to unlock by playing. Each Lancer feels like they have their own unique personality and abilities that can change the game’s momentum. Yes, some Lancers are better on offense vs defense, but that adds to the complexity of the game.
Fragpunk‘s ability to be played either on a controller or with a mouse and keyboard is yet another positive aspect. Yes, a mouse and keyboard are more precise, but this addition welcomes console gamers who want to make the jump. If playing on a controller, you will need to fine-tune the controller’s settings.
Referring the game to a friend can unlock new skins and other accessories in the game.
Negatives
Although Fragpunk has a ton of Shard Cards, the RNG draw aspect can be more favorable to one side over another. In fact, it is possible that a team gets more favorable Shard Cards than their opponent. Additionally, the game does have some balancing issues with the weapons that need to be addressed. Out of the twenty-one (21) weapons in the game, only twelve feel viable from a competitive standpoint. Some of the weapons feel like they would take hours of practice to be good with and don’t seem worthwhile.
In addition to not all weapons being viable, you can only use the same weapon for two rounds in a row before it becomes locked. After playing a round, you can reselect the gun. Equipping guns while playing on a controller feels extremely tedious and cumbersome.
Some Shard Cards can be fun or helpful to use but some feel like they are not worth using; instead, it would be great to build a deck of cards and have players vote on those cards.
Fragpunk does have an issue where it will not always launch properly. The game will say it is launched but not show up in the Task Manager or active programs bar.
Final Thoughts
With a wide variety of game modes available, Fragpunk can keep players entertained for quite a while. At the moment, it isn’t the most popular shooter out there but it has the potential to take over a key part of the market if the developers can continue to release interesting content and keep the game fresh. The weapons and the Shard Cards could be fine-tuned but that comes with time and experience. The game does take a bit to get used to but it does follow the traditional shooter’s mechanics.
Since Fragpunk is free to play it is definitely something that is worth checking out. In order to get the best possible experience, it is worth picking up the Fragpunk membership even for a month; this gives you the best opportunity to try out the different Lancers, unlock Shard Cards, and level up. Playing the game with limited lancers makes the game feel like you are playing a beta vs a complete game.
If you are looking for a new shooter to play, then you should try out Fragpunk and see if you like it.
Fragpunk was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Bad Guitar Studio. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Fragpunk is now available for PC (Steam) & Epic Game Store; Xbox and PS5 to be announced.
