Dirty Bomb: Complete Guide

This guide covers Dirty Bomb in its end-of-development state: how objective play works, merc roles and squad-building, loadout cards and crafting, movement, and how to find and host games in 2026.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the final 1.0-era build (live development ended October 2018), with community server rentals via xREALM (April 2026). Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Status notice: Splash Damage ended live development of Dirty Bomb on 18 October 2018. The game is still free on Steam and playable, but there have been no content or balance patches since. Mercs are bought with Credits earned by playing, so every merc can be unlocked without spending money. On 15 April 2026 community server rentals came back through xREALM, with regions covering US West/Mid/East, South America, Central Europe, and Asia. Expect small populations and a veteran-heavy playerbase.

Quick Start

1. You take a squad of three mercs into every match. You pick a new one each time you respawn, so choose a mix of roles.
2. The objective is what wins. In Objective mode, attackers plant, escort, repair, and deliver, and defenders stop them. Kills only matter when they help the objective.
3. Engineers carry the objectives. They plant and defuse charges and repair the EV (the vehicle attackers escort) faster. Have at least one Engineer in your squad.
4. Medics win fights after the fight. Downed players can be revived. Gib downed enemies (finish them) so their Medic can't bring them back.
5. Respawns come in waves. Check the spawn timer. Dying right after a wave leaves means a long wait, so play safe when the wave timer is high.
6. Wall-jump and sprint everywhere. Movement is fast and skill-based. Jumping off walls opens shortcuts on every map.
7. There's no aim assist and no controller support. It's mouse and keyboard only. Tune your sensitivity before anything else.
8. Credits buy mercs. You earn Credits by finishing matches; playing objectives and support actions raises your score and your rewards. Spend them on mercs before anything cosmetic.

Game Modes

Maps for Objective and Stopwatch are Chapel, Underground, Bridge, Terminal, Dome, Dockyard, Castle, and Trainyard, all set in a post-dirty-bomb London where the Central Disaster Authority (CDA) fights the Jackal syndicate.

Each map is split into stages, and a stage is either an EV escort, a plant, or a delivery. When you load a new map, check three things during the first stage: where each team's spawns move as the attack progresses, where the side objectives are (they open shortcuts or block them), and which rooms the defenders can reach before the attackers. That is most of what "map knowledge" means in Dirty Bomb.

Merc Classes

Every merc belongs to one of five classes, and the class decides their team utility:

That's the full 23-merc roster from the official site. Check each merc's page in-game for health, speed, and loadouts before buying.

Class quick reference

• Assault: highest health pools and the most damage. Take them when the team needs to win straight gunfights.
• Medic: revives downed teammates and heals. A single good Medic keeps a push alive; two let the team trade aggressively. Guardian and Sparks can revive from awkward positions (Bionic Pulse revives several at once, REVIVR revives from range).
• Engineer: fastest at planting, defusing, and repairing, plus deployables that hold ground. The objective class.
• Fire Support: keeps the team supplied with ammo and has the big area-damage abilities (airstrikes, artillery, Orbital Laser, rockets, Molotovs). Use them to clear defended plant sites.
• Recon: information and picks. Hunter's bolts spot targets, Red Eye's IR Goggles see through his own smoke, and Phantom and Hunter's EMPs disable enemy deployables such as turrets and mines.

Building a squad of three

• Standard squad: Engineer + Medic + one flex (Assault or Fire Support). This covers objectives, survival, and damage.
• Defense squad: An Engineer with deployables (Bushwhacker, Proxy, Turtle) + Fire Support for area denial + Medic.
• Pick squad: A Recon sniper + Medic + Engineer. Snipers are only good when the team still has objective coverage.
• Swap on death: If the objective is a plant, switch to your Engineer. If your team keeps losing fights, switch to a Medic.

Loadout Cards and Crafting

• Each merc comes as Loadout Cards. A card is a fixed weapon setup plus Augments (small perks, such as faster reload or ability cooldown).
• Cards come in rarity tiers (up to Cobalt, with Obsidian as a special cosmetic tier). Higher tiers are cosmetic. The same loadout's gameplay is the same across tiers, but augment choice matters.
• Crafting and Trade-Ups: Recycle unwanted cards into Fragments, craft specific cards, or trade several cards up into a higher tier. The August 2018 update more than doubled Loadout Case drops and moved Fragment income to recycling.
• What to spend Credits on: Buy mercs for roles you're missing first, especially an Engineer and a Medic you like. Buy cosmetics last.

Objectives in Detail

• C4 plants and defuses: Engineers plant and defuse much faster. Defenders need an Engineer alive near the objective.
• EV escort: The Escort Vehicle only moves with attackers next to it. Engineers repair it when it's disabled.
• Deliveries: Carry the item to the drop point. If you die, it drops, and defenders can return it.
• Secondary objectives: Repairing side paths or opening doors creates shortcuts. There's an achievement set ("Job On The Side") for completing them.

Movement and Gunplay

• Wall jumps: Jump toward a wall, then jump again off it. You can chain multiple wall jumps to reach high ledges.
• Sprint and slide momentum: Keep moving. Standing still is how you die.
• Weapon classes: Automatic, semi-automatic, burst, shotgun, sniper rifle, and melee. Burst and semi-auto reward headshots, and headshots do significantly more damage.
• Recoil: Pull down lightly on automatic weapons. Tap-fire at range.
• Crosshair placement: Keep your crosshair at head height around corners. The time-to-kill is fast enough that pre-aiming wins most duels.
• The Assault Course is the built-in practice mode with timed runs, ranked Bronze, Silver, Gold and Cobalt (each rank has its own achievement). Run it to learn movement and wall-jump routes.

Your First Ten Matches

1. Play the tutorial and the Assault Course first. The time-to-kill is short and veterans move fast, so learn wall jumps before you meet them.
2. Take an Engineer, a Medic, and one merc you enjoy. Swap to whichever the objective needs each life.
3. Follow the objective marker, not the kill feed. On attack, stay near the EV or the plant; on defense, stay between the enemy spawn and the objective.
4. Revive and heal constantly as Medic. Scoreboards reward support actions, and so do your teammates.
5. After each death, check the killcam and the spawn timer. Decide whether to swap merc before the next wave.
6. Buy your first merc for a missing role. Don't save up for a flashy pick while your squad has no Engineer.

Defending vs. Attacking

Finding and Hosting Games in 2026

• Server browser: Sort by players. Community servers run Objective and Stopwatch.
• Rent a server: Since April 2026, xREALM hosts Dirty Bomb servers in US West/Mid/East, South America, Central Europe, and Asia. Create one with your own settings on their Dirty Bomb hosting page.
• Communities and Discords organize scrims and pickup games, and are the best way to find full servers.
• Competitive play: the 1.0 update (28 August 2018) added FACEIT support and a Drafting system with merc bans and no duplicate mercs on a team. On FACEIT, any merc could be picked whether or not you owned it. Check community channels for what's organized now.

Achievements Worth Knowing

The Steam list has 77 achievements. Many of them teach good habits, so they double as a checklist for new players:

Cobalt-card achievements (for example crafting or trading up to a Turtle, Javelin, Guardian, Hunter, or Phantom Cobalt card) are the rarest, all at around 1% of players, because they need many Fragments or trade-ups.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Playing a squad with no Engineer. You can't finish or stop objectives quickly.
• Not gibbing downed enemies. Their Medic just revives them.
• Sniping while the objective is being lost. Recon is a luxury pick.
• Dying just after a spawn wave. Watch the timer and hold back.
• Standing on the objective without clearing first. Clear the area, then plant.
• Spending Credits on cosmetics before core mercs.

Advanced Tips

• Spawn-wave timing: Push right after the enemy wave dies and right before yours spawns, so they have the longest wait.
• Deployable placement: Put turrets and mines where attackers have to walk, such as doorways and plant sites, not in open fields.
• Ability chaining: Airstrikes and artillery clear defended plant sites. Coordinate them with the Engineer's plant.
• Medic positioning: Stay one step behind the frontline. A dead Medic revives nobody.
• Stopwatch strategy: On attack, rush with full squads and trade efficiently. On defense, set your fastest-to-kill mercs on the objective and gib everything.

FAQ

Is Dirty Bomb still playable in 2026? Yes. It's free on Steam, with community servers and xREALM server rentals added in April 2026. There have been no new updates since 2018.

Is Dirty Bomb pay-to-win? No. Every merc can be bought with Credits earned in play, and loadout tiers only change cosmetics.

Which mercs should I buy first? Fill the roles you're missing. A comfortable Engineer (Proxy or Fletcher for defense, Bushwhacker for turrets) and a Medic (Sawbonez or Aura for simple, strong healing) matter more than a third Assault merc.

How do I get more mercs? Buy them with Credits, which you earn by playing.

What happened to Execution mode? It was removed around the 1.0 update in 2018.

Can I host my own server? Yes, through xREALM's rental service since April 2026.

Does it support controllers? No. It's mouse and keyboard only, with no aim assist.

Sources

• Steam news: Dirty Bomb (xREALM server hosting April 2026, 1.0 update, August 2018 updates)
• Steam store page: Dirty Bomb
• Steam: Dirty Bomb global achievements list
• Wikipedia: Dirty Bomb