DEFCON 1 is a realtime military game played out on a battlefield. The aim of the game is to destroy your enemy's base while protecting your own. For defence, you will build towers to guard your territory agaist invading enemy's forces. Your towers have to be deployed strategically in order to maximize their effectiveness at destroying enemy troops. To attack the enemy's base, an arsenal of specialized units are available at your disposal. Your leadership skills will be put to the test as to where, when and how fast you dispatch your enemy. With tactical planning, you will overwhelm your enemy's defences. Poor judgement will only send your troops to slaughter.

There are 3 modes of gameplay for DEFCON 1.

The Academy is where new players can learn how to play DEFCON 1. There will be step-by-step instructions during gameplay that will explain the various aspects on how to play the game. Experienced players can also use the Academy to hone their skills and refine their strategies as wins and losses are not recorded in the Academy.

The Battlefield is the familiar playing mode where you create matches to play against other players or friends.

The Arena is the ultimate test of your military skills. You need to be at least level 4 to play in the Arena. In the Arena, you will be randomly paired with another opponent. Awards can only be earned by playing in the Arena.

In the Lobby, you can create matches or join existing ones. Browse the shop for items to purchase. You can also check out the list of awards that can be earned.

A major feature of DEFCON 1 is your commander's Officer Points. Over the course of your career in DEFCON 1, you earn Officer Points by leveling up. You then allocate these Officer Points either to Strategy Points or Command Points. Command Points are defensive in nature, the higher it is, the better your defensive capabilities, which include base strength, tower strength, damge inflicted by towers, rate of fire etc. As you can guess, Strategy Points affect offensive capabilities, which include cooldown time, unit health, damage inflicted by units, movement speed, etc.

When you first start DEFCON 1, you will have a fixed number of Officer Points to allocate. Choose wisely as allocated points cannot be undone (easily).

In the prematch, you can determine the Time Limit and Preparation Time of the battle, if you are the match owner. You also decide what skills you want to arm yourself with for this match. In DEFCON 1, you do not have to decide what towers and units to bring into the match, all your towers and units will be available.

This is where the action begins. Before the battle commences, you will have a fixed amount of time to prepare your defence, as configured during prematch. Lay out your obstructions and towers before the battle! You do not have to build everything in this phase. You will still be able to build defensive structures during the battle.

When the battle commences, you will be able to dispatch your attacking units. The red arrow indicates the location of where the unit will be launched. Use the UP and DOWN arrow key to move the red arrow.

Select on a unit. Then click on it again to launch one unit. Every unit has a cooldown time which affects when you can launch the next one. Remember, in DEFCON 1, units don't attack other units, their sole purpose is to try and reach the enemy's base.

When the battle ends, the player who destroyed the enemy's base or inflicted the most damage wins. You can see your battle statistics here. Any award or item drop will also be shown here.