Enlisted: Complete Guide

How Enlisted's squad system, Battle Ratings, research and economy work, plus practical tips for infantry, vehicles and objectives so your AI squad stops being a liability and starts winning fights.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Operation Neptune major update, with the "Off-road Patrol" update in testing and Battle Pass Season 8 of 2026 running. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Note on the name: "Enlisted: Reinforced" is the Steam listing (app 2051620) for Gaijin's free-to-play WWII squad shooter Enlisted, developed by Darkflow Software. It is the same game and account system as the version on enlisted.net and consoles.

Quick Start

You play a squad, not a soldier. Every spawn gives you a squad of AI soldiers (roughly 3 to 9 depending on squad type). When your current soldier dies you instantly take over another one, so a squad is effectively several lives.
Battle Rating (BR) decides who you fight. Nations run from BR I to BR V. You're matched with and against lineups within one BR of yours, and the top tier (BR V) can meet BR IV.
Pick one nation first. There are four: USA, USSR, Germany and Japan. Research is per nation, so spreading XP across all four makes progress crawl.
Play the objective. Points, tickets and objective actions are where both the win and most of your rewards come from. Kill-farming from the back rarely wins Invasion or Assault.
Engineers are the most important class for your team. They build rally points (forward respawns), ammo boxes and defenses. A good rally point near a contested objective is worth more than a dozen kills.
Keep your squad alive and together. Use the squad order to send AI to cover or to hold a position. AI running in a line across an open field is how whole squads get deleted by one machine gun.
Use the right squad for the job. Bring an anti-tank option, an engineer squad and at least one assault or machine gun squad in your lineup so you can react to what the enemy fields.
Silver is the main soft currency; Gold is premium. Silver replaced the old order system for buying soldiers, weapons and upgrades. Gold is bought with real money and speeds things up.
Premium squads earn bonus experience and come fully equipped. They're the most efficient paid purchase if you're committed to one nation, but they're not required.
Try the custom missions portal later. Players build missions with the included editor and host them on public servers; some are excellent practice or just fun.

How Enlisted Is Structured

Nations, fronts and Battle Rating

Since Enlisted merged its old separate campaigns into one progression, you choose a nation rather than a campaign. Each nation has a single research tree spanning early-war to late-war gear, grouped into Battle Ratings:

BR	What it roughly means
I	Early-war bolt-actions, light tanks, early aircraft. Good for learning.
II	More SMGs and semi-autos, better tanks and aircraft.
III	Mid-war standard; semi-auto rifles and medium tanks become common.
IV	Late-war heavies, assault rifles in some trees, strong aircraft.
V	Top tier; the best of each nation, matched against IV and V.

Your lineup's BR is set by the highest-rated gear you bring. Taking one top-tier weapon into an otherwise low-tier lineup drags your whole lineup up into tougher matches, so keep lineups consistent.

Battles take place across Normandy, Moscow, Berlin, Stalingrad, Tunisia and the Pacific islands, with maps and uniforms that match the fronts your nation fought on. As of the Operation Neptune update, the new Omaha location split into Omaha and Sword beach areas with their own missions, sitting alongside the older D-Day map.

Game modes

Mode	What you do
Conquest	Hold capture points to drain the enemy's tickets.
Invasion	Attackers take points in sequence; defenders hold them.
Assault	Attackers must take two points at once. The devs are tuning ticket drain here as of SITREP No.3.
Destruction	Plant explosives on objectives, or stop the enemy from doing so.
Confrontation	A sequential frontline where both sides push.

Which mode you get depends on the mission rotation for your nation and BR, so learn the basics of all of them.

Squads and Soldier Classes

The store page lists 18 soldier classes. Each class has its own weapons, perks and role. The ones you'll use most:

Class	Role	Why bring it
Rifleman	Line infantry	Cheap, flexible, large squads at higher tiers.
Assaulter	SMG/assault rifle close quarters	Clearing buildings and taking points.
Medic	Healing and revives	Keeps squads alive through long fights on a point.
Engineer	Builder	Rally points, ammo boxes, sandbags, gun emplacements, AT and AA guns.
Radio Operator	Fire support	Calls artillery strikes on enemy positions.
Machine Gunner	Suppression and area denial	Holds lanes and defends points.
Sniper	Long-range picks	Useful against crews and emplaced gunners; don't bring too many.
Anti-tank	Rockets and AT rifles	Your answer to armor.
Flamethrower	Room clearing	As of SITREP No.3 the devs plan to remove the forced-walk restriction.
Mortarman	Indirect fire	Punishes clustered defenders.
Paratrooper	Air-dropped infantry	Can land behind lines to flank or cap.
Tanker	Tank crew	Crews are real soldiers who fight on foot if they bail.
Pilot	Fighter or attacker aircraft	Air superiority and ground attack.
Rider	Motorcycle squads	Fast point pressure; motorcycles can carry supply boxes.
Driver	APC and off-road vehicles	The APC Driver class is being renamed Driver in the Off-road Patrol update.

Soldiers, perks and equipment

Every soldier levels individually. As soldiers gain experience they earn perk points; spend them on the class perks that match how you play (stamina, reload, carry capacity, health and so on).
Equip each soldier separately. You arm and upgrade soldiers one by one. Put your best weapon on the soldier you actually control most, then fill the rest.
Upgrade weapons you like. Weapon upgrades improve handling and damage; spend on the few guns you actually use, not on everything.
Replace, don't hoard. Weak soldiers can be dismissed or swapped for better ones. Squad slots are limited, so quality matters.

Research, Currencies and Progression

Research trees have multiple branches per nation. Experience from battles goes into the tree; unlock squads, weapons, vehicles and upgrades as you go.
Silver is earned from battles and is spent on soldiers, weapons and upgrades. It is the currency that most limits a free player, so don't waste it on every unlock.
Gold is the premium currency. It buys premium squads, bundles and accelerators.
Premium squads earn bonus XP in combat and arrive fully equipped. Buy them for the nation you're committed to.
Battle Pass: Enlisted runs regular Battle Pass seasons. The Eighth Season of 2026 started August 26 and includes a PPT-28 SMG for the USSR (BR I) as a main reward, with an Elite Battle Pass adding a unique N1K2-J for Japan and a Panther A camouflage.
Events: time-limited events such as "Trial by Combat" and "Reinforcements received" tasks give extra squads, weapons and currencies. Check the events tab whenever you log in.

Combat Fundamentals

Using your AI squad

Order your squad to a spot, don't just drag them behind you. AI following you in the open are easy targets. Send them into a building or behind a wall near the objective, then move yourself.
Swap soldiers deliberately. If your controlled soldier is pinned, switch to one with a better angle instead of waiting.
Use squad weapons. A single machine gunner or AT soldier in a mixed squad can often do what you need without a dedicated squad.
Bots die to grenades. Clumped squads are grenade magnets. Spread them across rooms and cover.

Infantry tips

Rally points win pushes. As an engineer, build a rally point close to, but out of sight of, the objective. Your whole team can spawn there.
Ammo boxes keep assaults going. Throwing grenades and explosive packs is how most defended rooms get cleared, and ammo boxes let you keep doing it.
Clear with explosives, not bullets. Explosive packs, grenades and flamethrowers are the fastest way to empty a defended building.
Suppress with machine guns. As of SITREP No.3, machine guns are getting a 30% reduction in movement dispersion penalties when aiming and hip-firing, making them better on the move.
Melee exists and is changing. The upcoming major update reworks charges, bayonets, buttstrokes and knife attacks, including new strikes from the prone position.

Tanks

Tank crews are soldiers. If you're immobilized or burning, bail out and keep fighting as infantry.
Stay with your infantry. Tanks alone near buildings get hit by AT rockets and explosive packs.
Angle and hide your hull. Use terrain and wrecks; in the upcoming update, bullets and shells can ricochet off destroyed vehicle wrecks.
Target priority: enemy tanks and AT guns first, then machine gun nests and emplacements, then infantry.

Aircraft

Fighters protect your team from enemy attackers and bombers; stay high and pick targets.
Attackers hit tanks, artillery and clustered infantry. Line up long runs; low, slow passes over AA guns end badly.
Your pilot bails out as infantry if shot down over the battlefield, so you're rarely completely out of the fight.

Vehicles on the ground

Motorcycles and (in the upcoming update) off-road vehicles give fast mobility. According to the Off-road Patrol dev blog, off-road vehicles will share a lineup limit with motorcycles, both types will be able to capture points, and off-road vehicles can carry boxes of extra grenades while motorcycles carry ammo or medic boxes. New vehicles announced include the GAZ-64 DS-39 (USSR, BR II), and the "Trail-Ready" pre-order squads include the Willys Bazooka (USA) and the Kubelwagen 82 Zwillingssockel (Germany). These weren't live as of late September 2026; the update was on the test server.

Lineup Building

A balanced lineup for most modes:

Slot	Suggested squad	Purpose
1	Engineer	Rally points, ammo, fortifications
2	Assaulter	Point capture and clearing
3	Rifleman or Machine Gunner	Holding and suppression
4	Anti-tank or a tank	Counter armor
5	Radio Operator, aircraft, or Rider	Fire support or mobility

Adjust to the mode: attackers in Invasion need more engineers and explosives; defenders benefit from machine gunners and engineers building nests and AT guns.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mixing BRs in a lineup. One high-tier item pulls you into higher-BR matches with the rest of your stock-level gear.
Spending Silver on everything you unlock. Prioritize the squads you'll actually use and weapon upgrades for your main loadout.
Letting your squad follow you in the open. Place them in cover first.
Never building a rally point. If your team keeps spawning at the main base and running two minutes to the point, someone needs to play engineer.
Tank-camping at the map edge. You'll get a few kills but your team loses the objectives you should be supporting.
Ignoring enemy aircraft. If attackers are wiping your team, spawn a fighter or build AA as engineer.
Spreading research across four nations early. Get one nation to a comfortable BR first.

Advanced Tips

Time your squad swaps to the objective phase. Early in an attack, spawn engineers to build forward; once rally points are up, switch to assaulters and flamethrowers for the push.
Stack explosives on a single push. A coordinated wave of grenades and explosive packs into a defended building beats trickling in one soldier at a time.
Flank with paratroopers or riders. Getting behind a defended point forces defenders to turn around, which opens the front for your team.
Use artillery on rally points and nests. Radio Operators can wipe out enemy forward spawns and emplaced machine guns.
Watch the tickets. In Invasion and Assault, trading your whole squad for nothing drains your team's tickets. Retreat and respawn at a better angle.
Use the test server. Gaijin runs public test sessions before major updates (the Off-road Patrol update had test sessions starting September 11 and September 18, 2026). Progress doesn't carry over, but it's a free look at new gear.
Check SITREPs and devblogs. The developers post roadmap-style SITREPs; No.3 noted that BR V select-fire rifles are under evaluation because nine-man rifleman squads dominate, and that Tunisia missions and a revamped Kahif Cave Village are in testing.

FAQ

Is Enlisted free to play? Yes. The game is free on Steam and consoles. Premium squads, Gold, and Battle Pass tiers cost money.

Is Enlisted pay-to-win? Paid premium squads are fully equipped and earn bonus XP, which speeds progress. They're not unbeatable, and free research trees reach the same BRs. The bigger advantage is time saved.

Which nation is best for beginners? Any nation works; pick the one whose weapons and maps you enjoy. USA and Germany have broad, well-rounded trees. Focus on one until you reach the BR you want.

How does matchmaking work? You're placed with and against lineups within one BR of yours. BR V can be matched with BR IV.

Can I play with friends? Yes, you can form a group and queue together. Custom matches and the mission portal also support playing with friends.

What's the Off-road Patrol update? The next major update, which was on the test server in September 2026. It adds armed off-road vehicle squads, renames APC Driver to Driver, and brings melee and effects improvements. Check the official news for its release date.

What happened to rewards on September 19–21, 2026? Some battles didn't count. Gaijin says the issue was fixed and missing rewards were restored and credited.