New Side Wars

This article is on the new version of Side Wars, which is only present on HoboWars, Facebook HoboWars, and HoboArena. If you are looking for information on the old version of Side Wars, which is still present on HoboWars2, please visit this article instead.

When you first create your hobo on HoboWars, you are randomly placed on a side. The available sides are North, South, East, West. There is a fifth side for Game Staff, which is Hobo Island. Sides only have two purposes in the game and these purposes are very closely intertwined.

Introduction

When you go to attack a hobo, you may notice that their side is listed along with their other information. This is an important thing to consider when attacking. If you attack someone who is from one of the other sides beside your own, then you will receive normal experience when you beat them. If you attack a hobo from your own side, then you will only receive half of the normal experience. This encourages people to attack hobos from other sides, which leads into the next purpose of sides.

Side Wars

Duncan tracks statistics related to the side-warring and keeps track of those who participate in it. If you want to participate in Side Wars, you need to head over to Duncan's House and officially sign up for it there. Side Wars is not a mandatory game activity. If you choose to sign up, you may do so any time up to 24 hours before the week ends, essentially 12:00PM on Saturday.

Duration of Events

A Side War lasts for one week. Every Sunday, at 12:00 PM (the minor reset), the previous week's Side War ends. At that time, scores are tallied and a winning side is decided.

Once you are signed up, Duncan will allow you access to each side's list of players who are participating in Side Wars and currently alive. Whenever you attack a player who is listed on an opposing side's list and win, you and your side gain one War Point. If you lose, you and your side will lose one War Point. You can only gain up to 2 War Points from a single player per reset, and you can only lose up to 2 War Points from a single player per reset. Note that the "Attackable hobos" lists at Duncan's now hides anybody that you have already attacked today.

Benefits

Two immediate benefits of signing up for Side Wars are a 25% bonus to your respect gains and not "losing" any respect from fights.

War Points

War Points are your "score" in Side Wars, which are added to the total score of your side along with the amount of City territory you claim.

If you lose enough War Points to rank in the top 10 participants on your side with the least War Points, you will not receive any kind of reward at the end of the week. Additionally, you could potentially be banned from that week's Side War by the votes of other players on your side. It only takes 25 votes to ban a player, and once that player is banned, they cannot participate in Side Wars for that week nor in the Territory Control minigame while exploring in the City.

Winning Side Wars

At the end of each week, on Sunday 12:00:00 pm (HoboTime), the Side War for the week ends and starts over again. At that time, every participant on the winning side with positive war points will receive a cash prize. The top ten Sidewars Points Gainers, the top five City Fighters, and the top five Territory Claimers of any side will also get a bonus of a temporary +100 intelligence boost. This temporary boost does stack, and you are able to obtain all three bonuses for a total of +300 intelligence. Participants with positive war points on the winning side and intel winners will also receive access to the War Room for the following week.

Tags

War Points not only give you the potential of winning cash prizes and [Intelligence]] bonuses, but they also give your name a tag on the message boards.

• +100 War Points will result in the Cpt. (Captain) tag.
• +300 War Points will result in the Gen. (General) tag.
• -25 War Points will result in the Loser tag.

Side Boards

Each side has its own message board, and, as long as you are on that side, you have access to that side's message board. Everyone on your side also has access to it.

This board, while meant to be a way to privately communicate between players on your side, discussing who to ban and who to attack, are not often used for that purpose.

Side Switch

Every four weeks the sides are balanced. This is known as the Side Switch. This allows people to be moved around, meet new people, and adds a balance to Side Wars so that it is not always the same side winning. Side Switch occurs at main reset on a monthly basis at.

Territory Control

Another thing you can do while signed up for Side Wars is explore the City, claiming territory for your side and capturing the flags of opposing sides.

At every major and minor reset, you get 100 turns to explore the City. You can also exchange up to 10 points per day to get up to an additional 250 turns (25 turns per point). There are also other ways to get turns, but, they aren't as reliable as the point-to-turns exchange on the Explore City page.

In order to explore an opposing side's territory, you must be alive.

Claiming Territory

In order to claim a square owned by an opposing side, there must be at least two squares owned by your side within a one-square radius of the square you want to claim.

It costs 2 turns to claim a square for your side. There is an option to "auto-claim", which, when enabled, will cause you to automatically try to attempt to claim a claimable square for your side upon moving to it. Each auto-claim movement costs 3 turns (1 turn to move to the square + 2 turns to try to claim it).

More often than not, whenever you try to claim a square for your side, you will get into a fight with a player who is trying to defend that territory. If you win, you claim that square for your side and gain some experience, respect stat (when applicable), levelable gear experience, and a few cans. If you lose, you'll either have to attempt to claim another square, readjust your equipment and reattempt to claim the square again, or simply move on and continue exploring. Fights are equalized based on the attacker's total battle stats and life. Skills and the can cannon also do not work.

The more territory your side owns, the better your can and cash finds will be when you are exploring on your side's territory; the less territory your side owns, the worse your can and cash finds will be when you are exploring on your side's territory.

Home Base

If things ever get too hairy for you, you can retreat to your home base at the cost of 10 turns.

Each side has its own base, which contains that side's precious flag.

• The North Side's base is 13x6 squares long; its four points are located at (44, 100), (44, 95), (56, 95), and (56, 100).
• The West Side's base is 6x13 squares long; its four points are located at (1, 56), (6, 56), (6, 44), and (1, 44).
• The South Side's base is 13x6 squares long; its four points are located at (44, 1), (44, 6), (56, 6), and (56, 1).
• The East Side's base is 6x13 squares long; its four points are located at (95, 56), (100, 56), (100, 44), and (95, 44).

When a flag is inside of its base, its exact location cannot be seen until you enter its base. Once a flag is outside of its base, its exact location can be seen by all.

In order to pick up a flag, simply move to the square it is on and click the Pick Up link.

Once you pick up a flag, you will hold on to it until you either decide to drop it, are defeated in battle (either through an exploring PvP battle or a normal PvP battle), or return the flag back to your own base. You must be alive in order to pick up and carry a flag.

Once you step foot into your side's base with an opposing side's flag, the flag will dematerialize and you will receive 15 War Points and 100 cans. If you happen to be on the same side as the previous weeks sidewars winner there will be a penalty of 3 war points per previous win to the winning side when you capture another side's flag. The captured side will also lose 15 War Points. It will take 10 minutes for the flag you captured to respawn in the base it came from.

Examples: Previous Winner: South Side (1 win)
North Side captures South Side -> North Side (hobo capturing) +15 War points. South Side -15 War Points.
North Side captures West Side -> North Side (hobo capturing) +15 War points. West Side -15 War Points.
South Side captures North Side -> South Side (hobo capturing) +12 War Points. North Side -12 War Points.

You can also rescue your own side's flag if it is out of base by picking it up and holding onto it. After 60 seconds, if nobody has taken the flag from you, it will warp back to base.

Special Items

If you have at least 1 War Point while exploring the side-warring City, you will sometimes come across a special item. Once a special item is found and collected, it will respawn in a spot different from the one you found it at.

The following is a list of known special items that can be found while exploring the side-warring City:

• Food Stamps
• Water Cannon (+2500 attack, +10% power)¹
• Mithril Garbage Bin (+2500 defense, +10% strength)¹
• Suicide Ring (You don't heal at reset, can suicide at will, +750 base stats)¹
• Walking Taco (+20 Awake, +50 turns)²
• Freedom Fries (+15 Awake, Patriotic status effect)²
• Jugger-Nut (+15 Awake, Juggernutalicious status effect)²
• Special Brownie (+4 Awake, Laid Back effect, and ability to consume on a full stomach)²

¹If the special item found is a piece of equipment, it will disappear at the next side switch.

²If the special item found is a food item, it will break your Trolly limit, allowing it to be collected without you having to worry about how full your Trolly is.