UT2004 Single Player

The single-player part of the game is particular in that it's money-based, this is, in order to compete and advance, you must gain money through beating matches. Like in the past game, you must create your own team and defeat them in order to progress, but you won't enter directly to the Tournament. You must win the Team Qualification rounds as well, and won't be easy.

Synopsis

 * "The Liandri Corporation's Unreal Tournament enters its twelfth year as a legally sanctioned competition. This year's tournament is the most highly anticipated yet, with teams captained by highly regarded former champions Malcolm, Gorge, and the long absent Xan Kriegor, as well as a dangerous team from the Skaarj Empire."

It's the year 2303. The game takes place right after Unreal Tournament 2003. The team composed by Malcolm, Brock and Lauren was defeated by Gorge's team of Juggernauts in the past Tournament, and broke up. Malcolm returned to lead his old team, Thunder Crash, and Brock and Lauren reformed Iron Guard. Gorge also wants to demonstrate that it's team of Juggernauts isn't a one-hit-wonder team, and wants to win the Tournament as well by leading, once again, the Juggernaut team. Also, the Skaarj Empire sent a team to compete in the Tournament in order to make them to atone for the Seven Years War. And if that wasn't enough, the success of the Juggernauts prompted Axon to create and sponsor a new team of Juggernauts, Goliath, in hopes of creating an all-Juggernauts finals.

Currency
You start with an initial of 200 currency. You can win additional money as you win more matches. In addition, the killing sprees and kill combos will grant you small amounts of money, which are increased as you do longer (and several) kill combos and killing sprees. Said money will be spent in player hirings, teammate healings, arena changings, and matches. (See Challenges, below)

You can also get cosmetic awards by doing Hattricks, (capturing the flag while doing a dodging, doing an acrobatic stunt with a vehicle) finishing a match with a Flawless Victory, or getting a determinate amount of kills with Shock Rifle combos, Sniper Rifle or Lightning Gun headshots, or with the Flak Cannon, among other things.

Every match has an entry fee, and your money must be equal or above said quantity in order to enter. Furthermore, in the Team matches you must also have extra money in order to pay your teammates.

You can also get more money by winning matches against team leaders in head-to-head matches. See the "Head To Head" subsection of the Challenges section for more info.

Teams
You'll face a team in a match depending on it's tier. The teams you'll be facing in the Ladder are:

As you play, you'll get the chance to unlock more members for your team. Initially you can only hire bots from the Qualification Round. The teams of the Weak tier only appear in the Team Qualification round, and when you defeat it, you can hire their members for your team. Also, when you defeat a Tier (by winning all the matches against that tier's teams) the members of that tier's teams will be available for hire. This eventually means that you can potentially get every single bot for your team (except the members of the team you face in the Finals) when it's time for the Final Round.

Non-competing teams
Additionally, you won't face the teams mentioned below, but you can see random matches between them and the aforementioned teams in Details => Other Matches. Many of them come from the first UT's ladder:


 * Blood Reavers
 * Dark Phalanx
 * Epic Games Inc.
 * Necris Black Legion
 * Raw Steel
 * Red Claw
 * Venom

These teams were also supposed to appear in Other matches, but they are probably dummied out. Many of them were relegated from regular teams in UT2003 to this:


 * Apocalypse
 * Bone Crushers
 * Camping Whores
 * Children of the Sun
 * Cold Steel
 * Crusaders
 * Dark Province
 * Demolition
 * Dragon Breath
 * Drunken Masters
 * Dune Raiders
 * Gear Heads
 * Happy Dead
 * Happy Smooth
 * Hot Dog
 * Lords of Pain
 * Metal Guard
 * Nail Protectors
 * Nightstalkers
 * Pain Machine
 * PeePee
 * Penguin
 * Pill Poppers
 * PooPoo
 * Professor Death
 * Roswell
 * Skaarj
 * Smelly Cat
 * Spider
 * Strange Love
 * Turtle
 * War Machine
 * War Cry
 * Wrath of God

Team Qualification round
You'll fight against the Weak tier teams at least once. The last match will be played against the team which performed the best against your team.

Ladder
You must win the four ladders in order to reach the finals.

Double Domination ladder
Win the first two matches to unlock the Capture The Flag ladder.

Capture The Flag ladder
Win the first two matches to unlock the Bombing Run ladder.

Bombing Run ladder
Win the first two matches to unlock the Assault ladder.

Assault ladder
Every map has a timelimit of 10 minutes and 5 players per team. Also, due to the small amount of Assault maps, there're no fees for arena change.

Challenges
After a match, if the game didn't challenged you, you can choose to challenge an opponent team in a head-to-head match or a bloodrites match.

Bloodrites
This challenge becomes available from the Domination Ladder onwards.

In this challenge, your team must defeat the other team. If you were challenged, then you must fight in order to retain a member of your team. If you challenged the other team, you must fight in order to get the other team's member. Unfortunately, you can't see the stats of the other team's member, unless you've already defeated them in the Tournament. The matches takes place in the big arenas of the game, and are set to 4on4, 35 frags, 20 minutes, and (if you're the challenger) you can decide if it will be an all-weapon or Instagib match.


 * DM-Antalus
 * DM-Asbestos
 * DM-Corrugation
 * DM-Deck17
 * DM-DE-Osiris2
 * DM-DesertIsle
 * DM-Gestalt
 * DM-Goliath
 * DM-Icetomb
 * DM-Injector
 * DM-IronDeity
 * DM-Junkyard
 * DM-Metallurgy
 * DM-Morpheus3
 * DM-Phobos2
 * DM-Plunge
 * DM-Rankin
 * DM-Rrajigar
 * DM-TokaraForest

Head-to-head
This challenge becomes available from the Team Qualification onwards.

In it, you must defeat the other team's leader in a 1on1 match. You have to select a map, and an amount of money to bet. The game will select two maps from the following pool, and then, you must defeat the other team's leader in a 1on1 match set to 15 frags in 20 minutes, except when fighting in CTF-1on1-Joust, where the match is set, instead, to 3 captures. When you win, you get the double of the money you've bet:


 * CTF-1on1-Joust
 * DM-1on1-Albatross
 * DM-1on1-Crash
 * DM-1on1-Desolation
 * DM-1on1-Idoma
 * DM-1on1-Irondust
 * DM-1on1-Mixer
 * DM-1on1-Roughinery
 * DM-1on1-Serpentine
 * DM-1on1-Spirit
 * DM-1on1-Squader
 * DM-1on1-Trite

Finals

 * Main article: Unreal Tournament 2004 Finals

Your team has to face a team from the Godlike tier. Which one you'll face depends on their ranking, which you can see by clicking the Details button, and going to the Opponent Teams tab. You have to defeat first the whole team in a Team Deathmatch game, and then their leader, in a 1on1 game.

After that, congratulations! You're the Tournament champion!

Also, unless you've cheated, if it's also the first time you beat that team, you unlock their leader, (Malcolm, ClanLord or Xan Kriegor) so you can select him in the Options menu.