Mission Zero Interview – Diving into 2v4 PvP with Kai Yu of NetEase Games

NetEase Games recently announced Mission Zero, a new competitive stealth game—we met with the game’s producer, Kai Yu for an interview to learn more about it.

The game pits 4 Invaders (Sirius) against 2 Chasers (Mobius) in a mixture of Dead By Daylight and Hitman. It will be available on PC and mobile devices in the future, with a technical test for players in Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and Australia on 8 July 2022.

NetEase Games describe Mission Zero as such:

Mission Zero is a 2v4 competitive stealth game featuring blend-in and distinguished gameplay experience. It supports cross-platform play on iOS, android and PC. Players will assume the role of either invader or chaser as a game unfolds between the Sirius and the Mobius. Daring hide & seek, dazzling abilities and equipment combats, nerve-wracking escapes, all of this and more makes Mission Zero an intense experience in cloak-and-dagger operations!

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With that brief introduction out of the way, let’s dive into the interview with Kai Yu, the Producer of Mission Zero!

GamerBraves: Each match in Mission Zero is between 2 factions—Sirius, which is represented by 4 Invaders, and Mobius, consisting of 2 Chasers. Can you tell us more about the conflict between these 2 factions?

Kai Yu: The strategic depth to the confrontation between the factions is the key to long-term playability. We hope the game will provide players with three levels to this confrontation.

The first level is the simplest, obscuring the opponent’s vision and causing confusion. For example, if an Invader puts a smoke bomb and pretends to be an NPC running around, the Chasers will find it very hard to detect him or her. 

The second level involves guesswork and deduction. For example, if the Invader drops a smoke bomb as he tries to evade capture, the Chaser will need to guess the direction of the invader’s escape. A smart Invader could also do the opposite of what his opponent expects, and choose to move in a more circuitous route or even in the opposite direction.

The third level is information warfare. Invaders and chasers both have teammates. For example, when Chasers find the location of an Invader, they can try to flank the Invader coming at them from 2 sides. Meanwhile, the Invaders who have not been exposed, can remain close to the Chasers, whilst still in disguise, and help provide valuable information to their team.

GB: Most asymmetrical games in the market these days feature 1v4 PvP gameplay. What is the reason behind a 2v4 formula for Mission Zero?

KY: This is because besides confrontation, stealth is also the core experience of Mission Zero. If there is only one Chaser, then a highly-skilled Invader can use various ways to escape, which would not make for a good stealth experience. Therefore the number of Chasers needs to be more than one. After many tests, we found that 2v4 is relatively balanced.

Invaders have to disguise themselves and blend into the crowd, using the environment or changing into different disguises to cover their tracks, so that the chasers completely lose them. Even if an Invader walks directly in front of a Chaser, he may not realize it. When there are two Chasers, suddenly the whole experience becomes very different.

On the other hand, we also hope that Chasers can cooperate with their teammates. Different chasing characters have different skills. For example, information gathering or chasing ability. We want to give players more tactical options, but not 1 or 2 optimal solutions.

GB: How long does it take to finish a match in Mission Zero?

KY: A single game is around 10-15 minutes.

GB: Could you tell us more about the roster of characters for both factions? 

KY: The Invaders use high-tech equipment. Much of the special equipment in Mission Zero is inspired by spy movies. There are many different types of equipment that help with hiding, moving, confusing the enemy, etc. There are currently over 10 different types of equipment available, and more equipment is still under development.

The Chaser is a character with unique active and passive abilities. There will be different modes, such as strong attack, information gathering, disguising, searching, assistance, etc. There are currently 8 Mobius characters available. More characters are also under development.

GB: Will Mission Zero feature cross-progression, considering that it’s a cross-platform game on PC and mobile?

KY: We want to reduce the transfer cost of players as much as possible. In the OBT, we plan to make players’ accounts linkable on iOS, Android and PC, so that players on different platforms can use the same account to log in. Of course, we are still in the technical test phase and we have a long way to go.

GB: Do you have any plans to release it on consoles?

KY: We hope to be able to do this in future, but at the moment our work is still focused on PC and mobile adaptation. We will first test the game on PC & mobile, and then explore the possibility of consoles.

That’s pretty much it for this Mission Zero interview. Our heartfelt thanks to NetEase Games and Kai Yu for this opportunity. Stay tuned to more details for the game’s technical test on 8 July!

To stay updated, follow NetEase Games on Twitter. You can also check out our interview on Naraka: Bladepoint, another title that appeared in NetEase Connect 2022.

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