Gamifying the war: 40 points to smash tank, 12 to take out soldier

The Ukrainian drone zeroed in on two Russian soldiers riding a motorcycle just after 9 am on July 19, closer and closer, until it swooped down to hit its mark, and the camera went dark.

It was a high-value target for the drone operator’s regiment: worth as many as 24 points, to be exact. In a real-world game run by the Ukrainian government, regiments are being rewarded with points for successful attacks.

Wound a Russian soldier? Eight points. Kill one? That is good for 12. A Russian drone pilot is worth more: 15 points for wounding one, and 25 points for a kill. Capturing a Russian soldier alive with the help of a drone is the jackpot: 120 points.

“It’s a brutal game — human lives turned into points,” said Stun, 33, a drone commander for the Ukrainian unmanned systems regiment known as Achilles.

The Ukrainian government set up the competition in August 2024, although that was more of a soft launch, a beta version. Teams compete for points to acquire Ukrainian-made gear, including basic surveillance drones and larger drones carrying powerful explosives, through an internal Amazon-style weapons store called Brave1 Market. The more points a unit gets, the better stuff it can buy.

Drone teams submit videos of their successful strikes to a central office in Kyiv, where experts review them to decide who gets points based on time stamps and verified destruction, said Mykhailo Fedorov, the minister of digital transformation, who helped devise the program.

Officials argue that the competition keeps troops energised. “If this gives additional motivation to our military, we are happy to support it,” Fedorov said.

The Russians have their own version of a battlefield competition, paying bonuses like $2,400 for destroying a helicopter or $12,000 for capturing a Leopard tank.

Ukraine’s online weapons marketplace is an extension of the do-it-yourself ethos that has defined the country’s drone procurement. More than 400 drone teams compete. Some infantry units that did not have full-fledged drone units have created them to be able to use the point system and earn equipment, soldiers said.

The contest awards points for hitting both Russian soldiers and their equipment. Demolishing a Russian multiple-launch rocket system can earn up to 70 points. Destroying a tank is worth 40 points; damaging one yields 20.

“These days, spotting enemy vehicles is extremely rare,” said a drone pilot working with Stun who goes by the call sign Red and claims 45 confirmed kills. “And if one does show up, like coming out of a forest, there’s basically a line of drones waiting to strike it.”

The Ukrainian government has adjusted the point values to respond to Russia’s changing tactics.

For instance, as attack drones with ever-growing ranges widen and blur the front lines, the Russian army often tries to gain ground by sending one, two or three infantrymen forward at a time. They move stealthily, trying to evade Ukrainian drone cameras by wearing anti-thermal coats or using greenery as cover. Those who succeed then regroup with any other Russian soldiers who make it forward.

So taking out Russian soldiers has become the priority.

A video posted in June by Robert Brovdi, the overall commander of the unmanned systems units of the Ukrainian armed forces — a new separate branch of the military supervising drones and robot warfare — shed light on the point system and the internal online marketplace where units acquire drones.

A basic kamikaze drone costs 1.3 points, Brovdi said in the video. A drone with a thermal camera runs 4.5 points. And a more advanced “vampire” drone, with up to 33 pounds of explosives and a range of up to 19 miles, takes 43 points.

Brovdi said that his former brigade, the Birds of the Magyar, had hit about 6,500 targets in May, including 2,221 Russian soldiers, earning more than 25,000 points that month. The brigade traded those points for 600 vampire drones.

So far, units across the Ukrainian military have ordered more than 80,000 drones and electronic-warfare systems using points through Brave1 Market, equipment worth over $96 million, Fedorov said.

Both commanders and soldiers say they are already motivated to destroy Russian equipment and kill Russian soldiers. “We’re focused on destroying the enemy, on real objectives, on the mission,” Stun said. “We go where we’re needed — not chasing after points.”

But they said the contest could be motivating, spurring competition among drone operators to be the first to hit a battlefield target.

The New York Times