OpenFront Alliances
Five-minute timers, the traitor window, and when a pact should expire.
An OpenFront alliance is a timer, not a friendship. Default duration is about 3000 ticks (~5 minutes). Mutual consent can renew it. When it expires cleanly, you can fight without the traitor mark. When you break it, you become a traitor: defense × 0.5 for about 300 ticks (~30 seconds), with a speed cut (community figure ×0.8), a broken-shield icon, and an embargo that pauses trade. Other players see the mark. Nations on Hard and Impossible become much less willing to pact with a traitor.
If you are still learning to spawn, Getting Started matters more than this page. If you need the win condition, use How to Play. Diplomacy is how you buy time inside that loop.
How to use a five-minute pact
Send or accept a pact when a neighbor can reach your core and you cannot staff that border. Use the minutes to annex Bots on the other side, finish a City, or place a Defense Post on the neck you will need when the timer ends. Do not use the minutes to empty your army into a third war; the pact does not defend you after it dies.
Watch the clock. At four minutes you should already know whether you will renew, let it expire, or break. Renew if the neighbor is still the second-strongest player and you both have a better target. Let it expire if you want the land without the traitor debuff. Break only when the 30-second window is a plan, not a mood.
Radial actions on a player include alliance request, betray, info, donate gold, and donate troops (team lobbies). Emotes (Alt + left-click) are the cheap signal: a handshake, a warning, a joke. They do not bind the timer. K / L alliance shortcuts (v31) exist so you can accept or refuse without burying the map. Controls lists the rest of the keys.
When to break, and when to wait
Break when the ally is about to win the land share, when they just dropped a Silo on your only City cluster, or when a teammate in a team mode is feeding the wrong front (team color is not this FFA pact). Wait when you cannot survive the 30-second defense cut. A traitor with a thin army is a gift to every spectator. Stack a reserve before the click, drop the attack slider on other borders, and hit the former ally on plains if you can. Mountains plus their Defense Posts will eat the window.
Betrayal is public. The player you cut will have friends, and Nations may pile on. If two humans are both looking at you, do not take the mark. Let the pact expire and attack on the next tick after the icon is gone.
Silo-on-border trick
A Missile Silo on a shared border is diplomacy with a fuse. The neighbor must answer: pact, SAM, raid, or eat an Atom. Building the Silo still costs 1,000,000 and still does not include ammo; Nukes is the 1.75 million Atom package. The trick works when you can afford the Silo and the shot, or when the threat makes them spend 1,500,000 on a SAM they did not want. It fails when they simply walk the Silo (Silos transfer on capture) during your traitor window.
Do not plant the Silo as your only building on the line. A Defense Post on the neck plus a Silo behind it is a message. A naked Silo on the border is a donation. Buildings covers post placement; diplomacy does not replace the 50,000 tower.
Trade, embargo, and Nations
Breaking a pact pauses trade between you (community note: on the order of five minutes, or until you ally again) and can scare other routes. If your gold plan was Port income, a betrayal is also an economy hit. Naval is the trade/piracy half. In team lobbies you can stop trading with all and reopen only teammates; that is a team tool, not an FFA default.
Nations evaluate allies: they reject traitors most of the time, they betray a weak ally on Hard/Impossible, and they will dump a partner they outnumber heavily. Do not assume an NPC pact is a wall. Treat it as fog you bought.
Team color is not this page
Duos, Trios, Quads, and Ranked 2v2 already share a win. You still use donations and pacts with the other team’s humans in some lobbies, but your first job is spawn-together and troop sends. That is Team Games. FFA pacts with a random neighbor are how you survive until you can eat them. Do not confuse the two.
The Guides Hub holds every tutorial. The Tier List Hub is a short meta note on whether early pacts are paying off. The Updates Hub records duration or debuff changes. Official Discord and GitHub sit on the Links Hub.
Write the expiry on your mental HUD the moment the handshake appears. Five minutes is long enough to finish a City and a Bot, and short enough that a player who “trusted you” will have a reserve waiting. Play the timer in public; play the 30-second cut only when the land you take in that window is worth the mark every other player can see.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common OpenFront questions.
How long does an OpenFront alliance last?
About 3000 ticks, roughly five minutes, unless both sides renew. Letting it expire avoids the traitor penalty. Breaking it does not.
What is the traitor debuff?
After you break a pact, defense is multiplied by 0.5 for about 300 ticks (~30 seconds), with a speed penalty and a public traitor icon. Trade is embargoed.
When should I break an alliance?
When the 30-second window is a planned strike on a former ally who is about to win or about to nuke you, and you already have a troop reserve. Otherwise let the timer expire.
What is the silo-on-border trick?
Place a Missile Silo the neighbor must answer with a pact, a SAM, or a raid. Budget the Silo and the Atom (1.75 million) or the threat is a bluff they can walk over.
Do emotes change the alliance timer?
No. Alt + left-click emotes are signals only. The pact is still a five-minute contract with a traitor cost if you cut it early.
Are team games the same as FFA alliances?
No. Teammates already share a win. FFA pacts are temporary borders. Use Team Games for donations and spawn-together rules.