diff --git a/apps/game/src/hud.test.ts b/apps/game/src/hud.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cbc054a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/game/src/hud.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
+import { join } from "node:path";
+import { describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+
+/**
+ * Guards the HUD's one silent coupling: `#ui` sets `pointer-events: none`.
+ *
+ * That rule exists so the overlay never eats a click meant for the canvas, and
+ * it is re-enabled for exactly three selectors — `button`, `a` and
+ * `[data-interactive]`. Anything interactive built from another element is
+ * inert unless it opts in, and *nothing fails* when it does not: the control
+ * renders correctly, highlights nothing and swallows every click. The game-mode
+ * picker shipped to production in exactly that state, where it read as two
+ * disabled options.
+ *
+ * These read source text rather than a rendered DOM because the suite runs on
+ * `environment: "node"`. That is a weaker test than clicking the control, and
+ * it is the one that would actually have caught this.
+ */
+
+const SRC = __dirname;
+const hud = readFileSync(join(SRC, "hud.ts"), "utf8");
+const css = readFileSync(join(SRC, "style.css"), "utf8");
+
+describe("HUD interactivity", () => {
+  it("keeps the global pointer-events escape hatch it depends on", () => {
+    // If this selector list ever changes, every control below has to be
+    // re-checked — which is the point of asserting on it here.
+    expect(css).toMatch(/#ui button,\s*#ui a,\s*#ui \[data-interactive\]/);
+    expect(css).toMatch(/pointer-events: auto/);
+  });
+
+  it("marks the mode picker's labels interactive", () => {
+    // A <label> is neither a button nor an anchor, so it must opt in.
+    expect(hud).toMatch(/label\.dataset\.interactive/);
+  });
+
+  it("builds the picker from labels wrapping real radios", () => {
+    // Not divs with click handlers: the native control is what gives arrow-key
+    // navigation and a screen-reader announcement (accessibility is P0).
+    expect(hud).toMatch(/input\.type = "radio"/);
+    expect(hud).toMatch(/modes__option/);
+  });
+
+  it("re-enables pointer events on the mode option in CSS as well", () => {
+    const rule = css.slice(css.indexOf(".modes__option {"));
+    expect(rule.slice(0, rule.indexOf("}"))).toMatch(/pointer-events: auto/);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/apps/game/src/hud.ts b/apps/game/src/hud.ts
index bea1ef4..e8af3b7 100644
--- a/apps/game/src/hud.ts
+++ b/apps/game/src/hud.ts
@@ -141,6 +141,13 @@ export function createHud(root: HTMLElement, options: HudOptions): Hud {
 
   for (const mode of GAME_MODES) {
     const label = el("label", "modes__option");
+    // `#ui` sets `pointer-events: none` so the HUD never eats a click meant for
+    // the canvas, and re-enables it only for `button`, `a` and
+    // `[data-interactive]`. A label is none of those, so without this the whole
+    // picker is inert — it renders, highlights nothing and swallows every
+    // click, which reads exactly like two disabled options. It shipped that
+    // way; see the guard in hud.test.ts.
+    label.dataset.interactive = "";
     const input = document.createElement("input");
     input.type = "radio";
     input.name = "nc7-mode";
diff --git a/apps/game/src/opponents.ts b/apps/game/src/opponents.ts
index cce95e7..2e6978d 100644
--- a/apps/game/src/opponents.ts
+++ b/apps/game/src/opponents.ts
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import {
   spawnsForTeam,
 } from "@nightcell7/multiplayer-sim";
 import { placeAll, placeAnimated, type AssetSet } from "./assets";
+import { TEAM_PALETTE, brightenCharacter } from "./targets";
 
 /** Enemies on the Directorate side, and friendlies on the player's. */
 const ENEMY_COUNT = 4;
@@ -165,7 +166,7 @@ export class Opponents {
     // They fought empty-handed until now, which read as unfinished from any
     // distance. Two silhouettes rather than one: the Directorate carries the
     // rifle, Nightcell the SMG, so which side a figure is on is legible before
-    // the team tint on its marker resolves.
+    // the tint confirms it.
     const weaponFor = (team: number) =>
       assets.models.get(team === TEAM_IDS.DIRECTORATE ? "wep_rifle" : "wep_smg") ?? null;
 
@@ -228,6 +229,16 @@ export class Opponents {
       });
       if (!placed) return;
 
+      // Colour the figure by side.
+      //
+      // Without this both teams are the *same model with the same materials*,
+      // so the only difference between a friendly and an enemy is which weapon
+      // it holds — invisible from the front, and at any range that matters.
+      brightenCharacter(
+        placed.root,
+        entry.team === TEAM_IDS.NIGHTCELL ? TEAM_PALETTE.friendly : TEAM_PALETTE.enemy,
+      );
+
       attachWeapon(placed.root, weaponFor(entry.team), id);
 
       this.views.set(id, {
diff --git a/apps/game/src/style.css b/apps/game/src/style.css
index 7ce5047..7d99a1a 100644
--- a/apps/game/src/style.css
+++ b/apps/game/src/style.css
@@ -369,6 +369,10 @@ body {
 
 .modes__option {
   cursor: pointer;
+  /* Belt and braces with the `data-interactive` attribute the markup sets:
+     `#ui` disables pointer events wholesale, and a label is not one of the
+     elements the global rule re-enables. */
+  pointer-events: auto;
 }
 
 .modes__option input {
diff --git a/apps/game/src/targets.ts b/apps/game/src/targets.ts
index c8ceb05..f824777 100644
--- a/apps/game/src/targets.ts
+++ b/apps/game/src/targets.ts
@@ -75,7 +75,35 @@ export interface TargetHit {
  * band read at range. This is a readability decision, not a fidelity one — an
  * enemy you cannot resolve is a broken game, not a moody one.
  */
-export function brightenCharacter(root: TransformNode): void {
+/**
+ * Team colours.
+ *
+ * Two axes, not one, because a single hue on a small band is not readable at
+ * the ranges this yard plays at. The cloth carries a warm/cool split that reads
+ * as a silhouette at 40 m, and the band carries the saturated hue that confirms
+ * it up close. One or the other alone was not enough: the bots previously
+ * differed only by which weapon they held, which is invisible from the front.
+ */
+export interface TeamPalette {
+  /** Webbing and plate — the small, saturated identifier. */
+  readonly band: Color3;
+  /** Uniform cloth — the large, desaturated one. */
+  readonly cloth: Color3;
+}
+
+export const TEAM_PALETTE: { readonly friendly: TeamPalette; readonly enemy: TeamPalette } = {
+  // Nightcell: cool, grey-green, signal cyan. Matches the HUD's own cyan, which
+  // is already the colour of "yours" everywhere else in the interface.
+  friendly: { band: new Color3(0.16, 0.62, 0.74), cloth: new Color3(0.5, 0.58, 0.58) },
+  // Directorate: warm khaki and red, which is the palette the yard's own
+  // containers and hazard paint already use for "theirs".
+  enemy: { band: new Color3(0.86, 0.26, 0.2), cloth: new Color3(0.78, 0.68, 0.52) },
+};
+
+export function brightenCharacter(root: TransformNode, palette?: TeamPalette): void {
+  // Local to this call. The cache exists to share one clone across the meshes
+  // of a single figure; making it module-level would hand the second team the
+  // first team's colours, because the *source* material is shared by both.
   const localised = new Map<Material, Material>();
 
   for (const mesh of root.getChildMeshes() as Mesh[]) {
@@ -104,7 +132,8 @@ export function brightenCharacter(root: TransformNode): void {
         // exposure 2.05 and produced a featureless pale figure. The characters
         // stopped needing any lift the moment the scene got brighter; what
         // they need is colour.
-        clone.albedoColor = isTeam ? new Color3(0.86, 0.3, 0.26) : new Color3(0.78, 0.68, 0.52);
+        const team = palette ?? TEAM_PALETTE.enemy;
+        clone.albedoColor = isTeam ? team.band : team.cloth;
 
         // Metallic and roughness are left to the ORM texture. Overriding them
         // to flat values was the other half of the plastic look: it removed
@@ -117,7 +146,9 @@ export function brightenCharacter(root: TransformNode): void {
         // No self-illumination on cloth — it is lit plenty. Only the team band
         // gets a trace, and only enough to survive the bloom threshold rather
         // than glow through it.
-        clone.emissiveColor = isTeam ? new Color3(0.05, 0.008, 0.008) : new Color3(0, 0, 0);
+        // Scaled from the band colour rather than hard-coded red, so a cyan
+        // team gets a cyan trace instead of a red one on a blue-grey figure.
+        clone.emissiveColor = isTeam ? team.band.scale(0.06) : new Color3(0, 0, 0);
       }
       localised.set(source, clone);
     }