Grindzone Party Lobbies: Invites, Chat and Tactics

To play Grindzone with friends, press PLAY WITH FRIENDS to open a party lobby, send your friends the code or the invite link, pick sides, ready up, and let the host start the match. This guide covers everything in the lobby: invites, ready-up, team picks, host settings, chat and callouts, the tactics whiteboard, friends, and the free Mutiny account that saves your stats, look and keybinds.

How do you make a party lobby in Grindzone?

Leave the code box empty and press PLAY WITH FRIENDS. The game makes a new four-character lobby and puts you in it as host. To join someone else, type their code (letters and numbers, up to 8) before you press the button.

1. Open Grindzone and type your name (up to 14 characters).
2. Leave Lobby code blank to make a lobby, or type a friend's code to join theirs.
3. Press PLAY WITH FRIENDS. The lobby opens over a slow flyover of the field.
4. Send the code, use Copy invite link, or press INVITE FRIENDS to invite people from your friends list.

Want to play right now on your own? PRACTICE VS BOTS skips the lobby and starts a match against bots with the mode and bot count on the menu. More on the basics is in How to play Grindzone.

How do invites work?

There are three ways to get friends into your lobby: the code, an invite link, or a direct invite from your friends list.

• The code. The lobby code is shown large at the top of the lobby. Friends type it into the Lobby code box and press PLAY WITH FRIENDS.
• The invite link. Copy invite link copies the Grindzone address with your code on the end. When a friend opens it, the code is already filled in and the game tells them to press PLAY WITH FRIENDS.
• Direct invites. If you are signed in, INVITE FRIENDS opens your friends list. Friends who are online have an INVITE button. They get a card that says you invited them to a Grindzone lobby, with the mode, plus JOIN and Later buttons. The card disappears after 30 seconds.
• Joining from the list. When a friend is in a Grindzone lobby or match, their entry in your friends list shows a JOIN button that takes you straight to their lobby code.

Direct invites only come from people on your friends list, so strangers cannot send you invite cards.

What do you see in the lobby?

• Squad: everyone in the lobby with their name, their friend tag if they have one, a HOST label on the host, and READY or NOT READY.
• Your side: buttons for Auto, Red and Blue.
• Match: the mode, time of day, weather and bot count. The host can change them, and everyone else sees the host's choices.
• Lobby chat: a message box at the bottom. Type and press Enter.
• Buttons: Leave, Tactics board, and READY UP for players or START MATCH for the host.

How does ready-up work?

Press READY UP when you are set. The button changes to READY with a check mark, and your row in the squad list turns to READY. Press it again to take it back. The host is always counted as ready.

The host's start button counts the players who are not ready yet. It reads START (2 not ready) until everyone is in, then START MATCH. The host can still start with players not ready, so ready-up is a signal to the host, not a lock.

How do you pick your team?

Choose Red, Blue or Auto under Your side. Players who pick a color go to that team. Auto players are then placed one at a time on whichever side has fewer humans, with red first on a tie.

• To play with a friend, both of you pick the same color.
• To play against a friend, pick opposite colors.
• After the humans are placed, bots fill each team up to the bots-per-side number. With 4 per side and three humans on red, red gets one bot.
• In Free For All there are no sides, so your pick does not matter.

What can the host change?

The host sets the match for everyone. Other players see the same settings greyed out.

The host is the player who has been in the lobby longest. If the host leaves, the next longest takes over and sees YOU ARE HOST. After a match, the host can press NEXT MATCH to play again with the same settings, or BACK TO LOBBY to bring everyone back to change them. Players who are not host see WAITING FOR HOST on the end screen.

How do chat and callouts work in a match?

Press T for team chat or Y for all chat, type up to 140 characters, and press Enter. Esc closes the box without sending. Team chat only reaches your own team. In Free For All, there are no teams, so T opens all chat.

Callouts are one-key team messages, so you never have to stop and type mid-point. They play a short tick so your team notices them.

• Chat shows at the bottom left, above your paint count. Each line fades after about 10 seconds, and the last 7 stay on screen.
• You can send a callout about once a second, so a held key cannot flood the chat.
• Press H to hide the HUD for a clean view. Chat, the countdown and the HIT screen still show.

How does the tactics whiteboard work?

The tactics board lets you draw your team's breakout on a top-down whiteboard of the field and call it as a play. Bots on your team run the play, and your teammates see it on their minimap. Open it with B during a match or with Tactics board in the lobby. It works in the three team modes.

Drawing a play

• Your start is always on the left of the board, whichever color you are. The snake side and dorito side are labeled.
• Five numbered tokens mark where players go at the breakout. Use Move players to drag them onto bunkers.
• Use Push arrows to drag from a token to where that player pushes next. Click an arrowhead to delete it.
• Use Marker to sketch notes in yellow, white, red or blue, and Eraser to rub them out. Clear marker wipes all of it.
• Push after is a slider from 4 to 40 seconds. It sets how long after the breakout the arrows kick in.
• Name the play (up to 20 characters) and press Save play to keep it in this browser. Saved plays appear with a star in the Load a play list.
• Press CALL THIS PLAY to send it. Your team sees the play name on screen and in chat.

The five preset plays

How bots run a play

• Human players take the first numbers on the board and bots take the rest, so a team with two humans has its bots running spots 3, 4 and 5.
• Each bot hides behind the bunker nearest its spot. Along a long bunker like the snake, it lines up beside it.
• Once the push timer runs out, bots with an arrow move to the end of it. The timer restarts at every breakout.
• Without a called play, bots pick their own bunkers as usual. See Grindzone tips for how they peek and shoot.

What is a Mutiny account, and what does it save?

A Mutiny account is a free sign-in shared by every Mutiny game, including Last Ember. If you already have one from Last Ember, use the same email and password in Grindzone. You do not need an account to play.

• Sign in with the button at the top of the menu, using an email and a password of at least 6 characters. If the game asks, confirm your email from the link it sends, then sign in. There is a Forgot password link.
• Stats: eliminations, hits taken, shots, wins and matches played.
• Look: helmet color, marker color, jersey color and number.
• Keybinds: your custom controls.
• The first time you sign in, the stats from this browser go into your new account. After that, signing in on a device keeps whichever number is higher for each stat.
• Graphics, sensitivity, volume and banner text stay in the browser.

How do friends work in Grindzone?

Friends use a name plus a four-digit number, like Scott#1234. After you sign in for the first time, you pick a name of 2 to 16 characters and get your number. It is the same name and friends list you have in Last Ember.

• Open the Friends button on the menu. It shows how many friends are online and how many requests are waiting.
• Type a friend's full tag, like Name#1234, and press ADD. They see your request and can accept or decline it.
• Use Copy next to your own tag to paste it to friends.
• Each friend shows Offline or what they are doing, such as Grindzone lobby or Playing Grindzone. You see friends who are online in Last Ember too.
• Remove a friend with the X on their row, or sign out from the bottom of the list.

How do you change the controls?

Press Controls at the top of the menu. Every keyboard action is listed with its key. Click a key, then press the new one. Esc cancels.

• You can remap movement, sprint, jump, crouch, lay down, both leans, reload, scoreboard, team chat, all chat, hide HUD, the tactics board and all six callouts.
• If you pick a key another action already uses, the two actions swap keys.
• Mouse buttons stay fixed: left click shoots and right click aims down the marker.
• Reset to defaults puts every key back.
• Your keybinds save in your browser, and to your Mutiny account if you are signed in.

Frequently asked questions