Game guide

Enlisted explained: how the free-to-play WWII squad shooter actually works

By Nancy Wilson, responsible editor Published 21 September 2026 Last reviewed 21 September 2026

Enlisted is a free-to-play World War II shooter in which you do not control a single soldier for the length of a life — you control a squad, one soldier at a time. That one design decision changes how spawning, dying and pushing an objective feel, and it is the thing most short descriptions of the game get wrong. This guide sets out how the game is structured, how progression works, and where real money enters the picture.

What Enlisted is

Enlisted is an online multiplayer first-person shooter set in the Second World War, developed by Darkflow Software and published by Gaijin Entertainment, the studio behind War Thunder. It is free to download and play, and it is funded by optional in-game purchases rather than by a box price.

The game entered open beta in 2021 and has been updated continuously since, later arriving on Steam and going through a substantial restructuring in 2024 (an update the developers called Reforged) that merged what had been separate, campaign-by-campaign progressions into a single line-up governed by a battle rating. If you read older articles about Enlisted, that restructuring is the reason their description of progression no longer matches what you will see in the client.

The squad mechanic, which is the whole point

In most team shooters you spawn, you die, you wait, you spawn again. Enlisted puts a squad between you and that respawn timer. You select a squad before you spawn; you then play as one soldier in it while the rest of the squad is controlled by the game's AI and follows you around the map, taking cover and returning fire.

When the soldier you are controlling is killed, you do not go back to a loading screen. Control passes immediately to the next surviving soldier in the same squad, wherever he happens to be standing. Only when every soldier in the squad has been lost does the squad leave the battle, and you pick a different squad from your line-up and spawn again.

Two practical consequences follow. First, a careless push does not cost you thirty seconds, it costs you bodies — and bodies are finite for the rest of the match. Second, your AI squadmates are a resource you can spend: leaving them in cover while you scout keeps them alive, ordering them forward into an open street usually does not.

Squad types and what they are for

Squads are not interchangeable. Each type brings different soldiers, different equipment and a different job, and part of learning the game is learning which squad answers the problem in front of you.

If you take only one thing from this section: the engineer squad is the one that changes matches. Engineers build rally points, which let your squad spawn near the fighting instead of walking to it, along with ammunition supplies and defensive structures. A team with engineers who build sensibly wins objectives that a team of snipers never reaches. We go through each role in more detail in squads and roles explained.

What a match looks like

The core modes are attack-and-defence contests over a sequence of capture points. Attackers must take the current objective before reinforcements run out; defenders hold it and then fall back to the next one when it falls. Because each player fields a squad, the number of combatants on the field is several times the number of human players — matches are typically built around roughly ten players a side, but the battlefield feels considerably busier than that number suggests.

Vehicles are part of the same economy. Tanker and pilot squads bring a tank or an aircraft into the battle rather than existing as a separate mode, so armour and air support arrive when a player chooses to spend a squad slot on them, and they can be destroyed by anti-tank squads and by other aircraft.

Fronts and settings

The game's battles are drawn from several theatres of the war — among them the fighting around Moscow, Stalingrad, Normandy, Berlin, North Africa and the Pacific. Maps are built to resemble the terrain and architecture of those campaigns: ruined urban blocks, farmland and hedgerows, desert approaches, island fortifications. Which fronts and maps are in rotation changes with updates, so treat any list — including this one — as a snapshot rather than a permanent feature list.

Progression and battle rating

Playing matches earns research and in-game currency, which unlock and upgrade squads, soldiers, weapons and vehicles. Since the 2024 restructuring, the equipment you field is scored, and that score — the battle rating of your line-up — is what matchmaking uses to decide who you fight.

This is worth internalising before you chase unlocks. Equipping the newest weapons you own raises your rating and puts you in front of opponents with equally modern equipment. Many experienced players deliberately keep a lower-rated line-up because the matches are more comfortable there. There is no leaderboard reward for having climbed fastest.

What is free, and what costs money

"Free to play" describes the download, not the whole economy, and it would be misleading to leave it there. Enlisted sells premium squads and vehicles, premium account time that increases the rate at which you earn research and currency, an in-game gold currency used for certain soldiers and items, paid battle pass tiers and cosmetic items.

Is that pay-to-win? Players disagree, and we are not going to pretend the question is settled. The defensible summary is this: you can research and field competitive equipment without spending anything, it takes noticeably longer, and some purchasable squads and items are strong enough that their availability for money is a live argument in the community. Decide for yourself after a few evenings in the game rather than on anyone's say-so, including ours.

Platforms and getting started

Enlisted runs on Windows PC — through the publisher's own launcher or through Steam — and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is a current-generation console release; it is not a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One title. Cross-platform play is supported, and console players are generally given options governing who they are matched against.

We deliberately do not reprint system requirements or download sizes here: both change with updates, and a figure copied from an article six months old is worse than no figure at all. Check the store listing for your platform, which is updated by the publisher.

How it differs from other WWII shooters

Rather than rank games against each other, it is more useful to say what each approach asks of you.

Enlisted's distinguishing feature is not graphics or historical detail — several competitors are stronger on both — but the fact that one player puts a whole squad on the field. If that idea appeals, nothing else in the genre does quite the same thing. If you want a lone-wolf shooter, it will feel odd. Our longer look at the genre is in the history of the WWII shooter.

Who it suits

• Worth trying if you like objective play, you are happy to think about spawn logistics, or you want a WWII shooter without paying up front.
• Probably not for you if you want a purely skill-versus-skill duel experience, you dislike AI teammates on principle, or you are unwilling to play an online-only, continuously updated live game.
• Be aware that progression slows down at higher battle ratings, and that the store exists and is marketed to you inside the client.

Sources and method

This article is written from hands-on play together with the publisher's own published material. Where we could not verify something — exact squad sizes across every type, current download size, precise player counts per mode — we have said so rather than inventing a number.

• Official Enlisted website and news archive, Darkflow Software / Gaijin Entertainment — enlisted.net
• Gaijin Entertainment corporate site — gaijin.net
• The store listings for Windows PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, for current pricing, download size and age rating
• The in-game client itself, as played by the editor

If this page and the publisher disagree, the publisher is right. Game content, prices, platform availability and store offers change without notice; information published by Darkflow Software and Gaijin Entertainment prevails over anything written here.

Trademark notice. Enlisted and all related names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners. boricen.online is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Darkflow Software, Gaijin Entertainment or any platform holder mentioned.
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Written by Nancy Wilson. Published and last reviewed 21 September 2026. All illustrations on this page are original SVG diagrams produced by boricen.online; no screenshots or promotional artwork are used.