Red Rum(ble)

"Red Rum(ble) will send a shiver down your spine. Battle other ghoulish Guardians and strive to summon the dreaded Headless Ones! Summon Headless Ones by defeating other Guardians. Earn higher scores by eliminating Headless Ones and defeating targets with Gourd Grenades."

— Gamemode description

Red Rum(ble) is a limited time Crucible gamemode during Festival of the Lost.

Overview

Red Rum(ble) is a ghoulish twist on the Rumble match type. While initially indifferentiable from the non-festive Rumble, this is subverted as after ten seconds the text "An eerie presence fills the air..." appears and a Headless One spawns in the middle of the map or a large enough clearing for one to fit. Damaging the Headless One causes it to drop candy, ability-recharging motes, pumpkin charges, and ammo of both types. The Headless One is extremely durable and often teleports across the map. The Headless Ones in Red Rum(ble) have an armory-worth of weapons at their disposal. These include the standard high damaging Splinter, an arching Solar Mortar, a defensive blockade of three Wall of Darkness casts, and is a Pumpkin Bane, meaning they also rapidly fire off high damaging explosive bouncing pumpkins at their targets.

If the Headless One is killed, it awards all participants with three points and drops a Scythe for anyone to pick up, then the countdown begins again. The first player to 20 points or has the highest score if the ten minute timer runs out wins.

Points work as follows:

• 1 point: Killing an enemy Guardian
• 2 points: Killing an enemy Guardian with a Scythe or pumpkin charge
• 3 points: Participating in killing a Headless One

Strategy

The best strategy for your average Guardian without going into optimizations and builds would be to play akin to a rat. Stay low, don't attract attention, keep to enclosed spaces, and pick off weakened targets after a firefight with another Guardian or from battling the Headless One. Never take on multiple Guardians at once as that'll rarely end in your victory. Shooting the Headless One to bait enemies close to surprise them, or playing along and collectively shoot the Headless One before suddenly turning on them can work as well. Once the Headless One drops pumpkin charges, these should become your focus immediately as they are extremely deadly and easy to get kills with, not to mention the double points awarded on kills with them. Due to the increased mobility upon picking one up, it can be easy to run in, pick one up, then use the Headless One's shockwave to propel yourself away and make securing a charge easy and if any attempt to follow up on any damage that might've been sustained, tossing the charge their way usually ends in two points for you. Though it's important to note the recoil damage as charges can and will kill you as well if you're too close when throwing.

The Scythe should usually be avoided due to its comparatively low damage output and sluggish mobility compared to the pumpkin charges. It occasionally can get a kill on a distracted or weakened target and the double points makes the risk alluring, but the slow swings leave users far too vulnerable to make it worth it and if there are no charges, just your usual arsenal is still much more reliable.

Regularly shooting the Headless One should be made a habit as if one goes long enough without damaging the Headless One, upon its death you will not be awarded the three points, which are invaluable to all participants and perhaps can even be the x-factor in a victory or defeat.

When a Headless One isn't in play and all of one's drops have been used, playing akin to a regular Rumble match is recommended.

Trivia

• In Red Rum(ble)'s description, the explosive pumpkins that the Headless Ones drop are referred to as Gourd Grenades, but in-game they're called pumpkin charges.