Detonation (Search & Destroy) in UEFN: Plant, Defend, Defuse

Detonation — better known by its Call of Duty / CS name, Search & Destroy — is the high-stakes, no-respawn classic. One team carries a bomb and tries to plant it on a site; the other defends, and if it's planted, races to defuse. One life per round. Every decision matters. This is part of the Game Modes series, and it's where we wire up the plant-and-defuse objective in Verse.

1. What it is

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Bomb Site Standoff

Two teams, two roles, one bomb. Attackers must plant the bomb at one of two sites (A or B) and protect it until it explodes. Defenders must stop the plant — or, once it's down, defuse it before the timer hits zero. Round ends when the bomb detonates, gets defused, or one team is wiped. No respawns within a round.

It's the most tactical of the staple modes: because dying ends your round, players move deliberately, hold angles, and communicate.

2. Type of game

3. The loop

Detonation is a series of tense, self-contained rounds. The pressure comes from the timers and the single life.

Two clocks govern everything: the round timer (can the attackers even get a plant off?) and the detonation timer (once planted, can defenders cross the map and defuse in time?). The plant flips which clock matters.

4. Why it's fun

• Stakes per bullet. One life means every peek is a gamble — the tension is unmatched by respawn modes.
• The plant flips the game. A successful plant turns hunters into defenders instantly; the map's pressure reverses in a heartbeat.
• Clutch moments. 1-vs-3 defuse attempts are the most replayed clips in tactical shooters for a reason.
• Economy of information. Sound, timing, and reads matter more than raw aim — it rewards smart players, not just fast ones.
• Readable drama for spectators. A planted bomb with a ticking timer is the clearest "will they make it?" hook in esports.

5. Who made the great ones

Search & Destroy is a huge Creative category. Standouts and their creators:

• lavandou — Tilted Search and Destroy (code 1336-0970-8722): clean Red vs Blue, plant/defuse, last team standing. A great template to study.
• ECHO — FROSTY FIGHT - SEARCH & DESTROY (code 9795-0479-3197): explicit Planters vs Defusers with two sites to attack and defend.
• munkz — Search & Destroy | Classes | 3v3 (code 4402-3800-8618): adds class kits on top of the plant/defuse core.
• multi-tasked — Search and Destroy at the Power Plant (code 7296-2853-6328): a themed, layout-driven SND with strong site design.

The common thread: two well-designed sites, tight rotation timings, and a clean plant/defuse interaction.

6. Examples / variants

• Classic 5v5 SND — two sites, side swap at halftime, first to 7.
• One-site / single-bomb — faster rounds for smaller lobbies.
• Class-based SND — give attackers/defenders distinct kits (munkz-style).
• Gun-game-defuse hybrids — your loadout upgrades each round while the objective stays plant/defuse.

7. How to make it in UEFN / Verse

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Plant or Defuse

The devices you'll place

• Conditional Button (conditional_button_device) ×2 — these are your plant and defuse interactions. The conditional button supports a hold-to-interact time and can require an item (the "bomb"), which models the plant perfectly.
• Item Granter — gives the attacking team the bomb item at round start.
• Capture Area or Mutator Zone — defines each bomb site so the plant is only allowed there.
• Round Settings — round timer, no respawns, victory conditions.
• Timer Device — the visible detonation countdown after a plant.
• Explosive Device / VFX — the boom.

The Verse mechanic that ties it together

The heart of SND is a state machine: WaitingForPlant → Planted → (Defused | Detonated). Devices alone can fake it, but Verse makes the states explicit and lets you start/stop the detonation timer cleanly.

The two interactions both speak through events:

# A conditional_button_device fires ActivatedEvent(agent) when an agent
# completes its hold-to-interact. We use one for the PLANT and one for the
# DEFUSE, and a logic flag to enforce "you can only defuse after a plant".
PlantButton.ActivatedEvent.Subscribe(OnPlanted)
DefuseButton.ActivatedEvent.Subscribe(OnDefused)

The full, compile-verified objective device

This detonation_device runs the round's bomb state. Wire a Conditional Button to PlantButton and another to DefuseButton, and a Timer to DetonationTimer. It's a standalone creative_device and compiles on its own.

How it works, line by line

1. Three @editable device refs — plant button, defuse button, detonation timer — are dragged in via the Details panel.
2. OnBegin sets the start state: defuse and timer disabled, then subscribes the plant button, defuse button, and the timer's SuccessEvent (fires when the countdown completes).
3. IsArmed : logic is the state flag. Verse logic is queried with IsArmed? (true) and not IsArmed? (false), which is how you branch on it.
4. OnPlanted flips the state: disable the plant, enable the defuse, start the timer — the moment the round reverses.
5. OnDefused vs OnDetonated are a race: whichever fires first while IsArmed is true wins the round and clears the flag so the loser's handler no-ops.
6. ResolveTeam resolves the actor to a team with the same GetTeam[] guard you saw in CTF — the team lookup is universal.

Gotchas

• Disable defuse at start. If the defuse button is live before a plant, defenders can "defuse" nothing. Always Disable() it in OnBegin.
• logic is not a bool literal. You can't write if (IsArmed) — query it as IsArmed? and negate with not IsArmed?.
• The timer's completion event is SuccessEvent. Subscribe to that for detonation; don't poll the clock yourself.
• One-life rounds need Round Settings, not Verse. Set respawns off and victory conditions in the device; Verse drives the objective, not the lobby rules.
• Two sites = two plant buttons (or one button moved per round). Keep them both pointing at this device's PlantButton logic by sharing the handler.

Recap

• Detonation / Search & Destroy is the no-respawn, plant-and-defuse tactical classic — two sites, two clocks, one life.
• Its tension comes from per-bullet stakes and the way a plant instantly reverses the map's pressure.
• In UEFN, Conditional Buttons model the hold-to-plant and hold-to-defuse interactions; a Timer is the detonation clock.
• The Verse core is an explicit state machine (WaitingForPlant → Planted → Defused/Detonated) driven by ActivatedEvent and the timer's SuccessEvent.
• Use a logic flag (IsArmed? / not IsArmed?) to make the plant/defuse race safe.