Send or answer a pact request
In Free for All, right-click another player’s territory and select the handshake option to request an alliance. If that player accepts, you become allies for five minutes.
The player radial menu includes alliance request, betray, player information, donate gold, and—inside team lobbies—donate troops. The K/L alliance shortcuts let you accept or refuse a request without covering the map with the menu.
Make the temporary pact useful
- How long does an alliance last, and can it be renewed?
- The default alliance lasts about 3000 ticks, or roughly five minutes, and mutual consent can renew it. Clean expiry allows fighting without a traitor mark; breaking it early applies the traitor state instead.
- When is sending a pact worthwhile?
- Send or accept one when a neighbor can reach your core and you cannot staff that border. Use the protected time to annex Bots elsewhere, finish a City, or place a Defense Post on the chokepoint you will need after expiry; do not empty your army into a third war while relying on the pact to protect you later.
- Do emotes communicate or change the agreement?
- Alt plus left-click emotes can signal a handshake, warning, or joke, but they do not bind or alter the alliance timer. The pact remains a five-minute contract, with a traitor cost if you end it early.
- What happens if I betray the alliance?
- Betrayal gives you a public broken-shield traitor mark, halves defense for about 300 ticks or 30 seconds, applies a community-reported speed multiplier of about 0.8, and pauses trade through an embargo. Hard and Impossible Nations also become much less willing to make a pact with a traitor.
- Can I rely on a pact with an NPC Nation?
- Treat an NPC pact as temporary cover rather than a solid wall. Nations usually reject traitors, may betray a weak ally on Hard or Impossible, and may abandon a partner they heavily outnumber.
- Is a team ally the same as an FFA pact?
- No. Duos, Trios, Quads, and Ranked 2v2 teammates already share a win, so spawning together and sending troops come first. Some lobbies still allow donations or pacts with humans on the other team, while an FFA pact with a random neighbor is a temporary survival arrangement.