Joust is the 1v1 duel mode of Shootmania, it's a small-mapped, fast paced and intense game mode where the two players battle it out for map control in the hope to attain better position over their opponents.

This mode is played out as a best of 5 rounds on each map, where in each round the winner is determined by who gets to 7 hits first, however you must win by 2 hits.

At the start of the round both players will spawn at the same point with no ammo. To acquire ammo you must run over to either one of the two poles where you will generate 5 rockets to use against your opponent, along with your rockets you get to use 1 rail shot if there is a rail pad on the map and 2 nucleus shots if there is a tunnel/cave on the map.

If and when you run out of rocket ammo you need to get yourself to the OTHER pole on the map to regenerate them, this is done in an alternating fashion throughout the entire round so you cant keep regenerating your rocket ammo at the same pole each time you run out. Also keep in mind that a 1 minute timer begins each time you touch an ammo pole so you need to either get to the other side or kill your opponent before time runs out.

This mode is considered to be highly competitive and in my opinion has a higher skill cap than the other modes. This is due to how precise you must be with your aim as your ammo doesn't regenerate itself like it does in other modes, how quickly and efficiently you move through the map to get position over your opponent, generally how well your able to out-think your opponent in different situations and the ability to change your game style throughout the match to surprise your opponent.

As simplified as Shootmania is as a game, there is quite alot of brain-play involved in Joust. A good jouster would count each rocket their opponent fires to know exactly how much ammo they have left, as well as keeping in mind which pole their opponent needs to get to so you can cut them off and also estimating how much time they have left on their timer.

As a quake dueler and someone who prefers solo gametypes, this is definitely a mode which attracts me even more so than Elite. From what i've played of it so far i've really enjoyed the competitiveness of it and the good thing is that there is so much more that the developers can add to increase that even higher.