Patrol Helicopter

The map helicopter is free-for-all to engage. Competition is normal; there is no "you stole my heli" rule on vanilla patrol.

After your side has dealt a large majority of the helicopter's health in damage, the fight locks to your team for loot. When the heli goes down, every supply crate it drops and the wreckage gibs are reserved for that team; only they can loot or harvest until the lock ends. Anyone can still shoot the aircraft while it is in the air; the lock is about who owns the payout on the ground, not who is allowed to damage the rotor.

Heli signals are special supply-style items you throw to call a tiered patrol fight. Higher tiers are tougher and pay out much more progression when you finish them properly.

Easy and Medium signals can be bought in the in-game store: open /s and browse the RP section (see screenshot; click to enlarge).

Hard tier and above are not sold in the store. You get them from Zombie Hordes, quests, raid bases, and dungeons (and you can trade them with other players).

Every signal shows its contents on the item icon: the heli colour is the tier (green Easy, yellow Medium, red Hard, blue Expert, purple Nightmare), stacked helis mean a multi fight, and a grid of helis is a wave. Click any icon to enlarge it.

• Throwing a signal does not put cooldowns on your team by itself.
• Cooldowns come from damaging a heli in that fight. If you never deal damage, you do not pick up a personal heli cooldown from that encounter.
• Solo signal: Surrendering, failing, or letting the heli time out and leave does not apply a cooldown on its own, even if you had damaged it. Cooldown logic is tied to how the event ends, not to "I tagged it once."
• Multi / wave signals: If you surrender or fail after any helicopter in that event was destroyed, cooldown rules can apply. If none were killed before you quit, you typically do not get a cooldown from that bail.

• Solo signal: Killing that heli completes the event, and your rewards are then issued.
• Multi / wave: XP and RP for the signal are granted when you finish the entire event, not after each individual helicopter. All tiers in that signal are tallied into one completion payout. Loot and gibs still drop from each heli as you bring them down along the way.
• If you are on a personal heli cooldown from a recent fight, you do not earn XP/RP for that kill, but you can still shoot the heli if you enjoy the content, and loot can still drop for the run. Players who help friends are not blocked from fighting; they are only blocked from stacking more rank XP/RP while on cooldown.