A beginners guide for new players to learn some things they may not learn from more advanced guides, and tips from a beginner on how to be a better beginner :D 1) Intro - Beginner tips from a beginner This guide is to show new players some really good tips from someone who is not an advanced player, but not new either... I think this guide will help people who struggle with the game early, because it will lay out alot of things that more advanced guides may assume you already know. Plus, there are alot of my own pieces of advice for how to improve your playing when you are brand new to Mechabellum. Please note than I am not an advanced or expert player, and this guide doesn't go too deep into strategy as much as it does basic concept and understanding, so you can realize that you really CAN win any round no matter how it starts off. The very first thing is to practice.. and I mean literally, the game mode PRACTICE. One guide I read said that you should be able to beat the insane difficulty level 3 times in a row before you start playing Multiplayer... and I think this was really good advice. I started off playing the easy mode until i won 3 times in a row, then i would move to next difficulty until i won 3 times in a row, then the next, etc. This will help you in two important ways. One, it will let you experience the units, see how they move, fights, counter other units or get countered by other units, without the stress of dealing with online players. You can see their movement speed, range, effectiveness against units, etc. and Two, it will give you some basic experience with unit placement and how they are affected by the environment and other units. By the time you can beat the insane level 3x in a row, you will be comfortable enough to play online. That being said, I cannot say enough about the guide site Mecha Monarch https://mechamonarch.com/unit/ This site is magnificent, and is a great goto source for looking up units on the fly, checking out their strengths, weaknesses, uses and counters. I refer to it on the fly during battles all of the time to figure out good counters. He does a great job of explaining advanced game techniques in simple, easy to understand sections. ONE LAST THING TO REMEMBER: One thing that is really great about this is game is that is it NEVER over until it's over. You can have 1 single point left and your opponent still has all of theirs, as long as you can turn the corner and win this next round, you can still come back. In fact, coming back from behind seems to be my thing, lol. I had a 10 round matche just today where I lost the first 8 rounds bad, but won the last 2 and won the match...I had 112 points left and my opponent had 4800, and i turned it around and won. Always look for a counter and stay ahead of your opponent, most situations can be flipped, don't give up! 2) Starting Player Cards and Units When picking your starting cards, here are a few simple tips: -Don't worry too much about what your starting HP is ... it may look like a big deal, bit it really isn't. -Money is always good, so cards like the cost control or supply specialist that give extra $ each round is never really a bad idea -Cards that give units after a certain time (like getting a Rhino on round etc.) have multiple uses. One, even you you won't get the free unit until a certain round, that unit starts off unlocked in your build menu, so i can be built if immediately. Another use for these cards is to just sell the item for the Cash bonus instead of using them. Getting a free $300 for a sabertooth you don't really need can be a big help. -Battles are mostly won based on certain units countering other units, and as such, there is usually alot of overkill on one side or another, so small stat buffs or debuffs aren't always a big deal. Taking a 11% hit to your attack and defense to have a cost control specialist may sound bad, bit it's really not that big of a deal, and you'll find that extra $100 a turn to be worth it. -Cards like Giant specialist can give you a chance to make a big end-game comeback by allowing you to buy Giant units for cheap late game when you have the money to drop 2 or 3 of them at once. One of the biggest mistakes very new players make, and I did this for awhile myself, was to think that you're tied to your starting units... you're not... you're really not. If your starting units are going to be easily countered by the opponents starting units, then don't start swapping out to something that counters those units, instead of trying to force your units to work. The first couple rounds of the game can be very forgiving, even if it looks like you're getting crushed, the actual drain on your score won't be too bad first round or two. Whenever I look at the starting cards, I think of two things: What is the chaff going to be, and what is the damage dealer going to be. Remember, you will have starting money before the first round even starts, so you can add additional units to your starting lineup, you DO NOT have to stick with these units only. If you see good damage dealers that you like, but don't see the chaff you want, you can buy it still before the round starts. REMEMBER: - Starting HP isn't that important - Starting Units DON'T define your match - Free Units will be unlocked from your build menu immediately - Free Units can be sold for a cash boost 3) Opening Placement and Concepts Slightly more important, but still not carved in stone, is your starting unit placement. This position will dictate your strategy for at least the first 1-3 turns, if not for the rest of the match. I would say there are basically 3 different positions (left right center), and 2 different stances (aggressive , defensive) and choose from. Again, for more advanced players, these ideas may not be perfect or ideal, so please feel free to refine them in comments, but they are meant to serve as basic ideas. FIRST THINGS FIRST: - LOOK AT YOUR OPPONENTS CARDS. Below their name it will show you what player card they chose. This will be VERY helpful in trying to figure out his intentions. If they have an air specialist card, and you don't have any anti-air units to start off with, you may want to keep that in mind and make sure you get some. If they have an elite specialist, they will likely try to overpower you with one or two overpower units, often marksmen, so think about how you may want to counter that in the near future. DEFEND YOUR TOWERS WITH GOOD PLACEMENT Your two towers are obviously important because destroying them, or having yours destroyed, greatly effects the battle. Destroying a tower will lower your Damage output to 10% and increase the damage you take by 50% for 9 seconds, which sucks. So defending them is obviously important. What you may not realize is that you don't necessarily NEED to defend both of them, or really any of them, as losing towers doesn't lose the match ... but it certainly won't help. You can choose either Position: - Spread your Defense evenly to defend both towers: This usually involves a very symmetrical formation as the battle goes on, with all units evenly placed and positioned across a single, large front. -Group your units on one side or the other: This will put all of your units around only one of your towers, leaving the other completely or almost completely undefended. The purpose of this is to try and overpower one side and take down the enemy tower in front of you quickly and with overwhelming force. It can be a bit of a cat and mouse game at first if the opponent does the same on the opposite side, so using the correct counters each round is very important. You can also choose your stance: - Aggressive: Aggressive stance usually means you're placing units as close to the enemy as possibly, right up on the front line. Your units should be able to counter enemy chaff very quickly. Being aggressive means constantly shifting your units and tactics each turn to stay ahead of the opponents counters. An effective aggressive stance will be able to tear towards the closest tower and move to counter the opponents units in force while using the towers debuffs as an advantage. - Defensive: This usually means placing your units further to the rear, allowing the enemy more free space to move but also drawing them into a killbox that you can control. Playing defensive can be risky because it is reactionary, meaning you are usually the one countering the opponents attempts to break your killbox, so you are a step behind each of his moves. If you play defensive, is it VITAL to have an end-game plan to break out and go on offensive eventually, otherwise the opponent will figure you out and break your stance. YOUR STARTING $200, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH IT -$200 may not sound that great to start off with, but it will actually give you alot of options to change around your starting lineup. Chaff units like Fangs or Crawlers are free to unlock, and $100 each, you will ALWAYS have the option to drop either 2 fangs or 2 crawlers as Chaff, if you want. If your opponent starts off with marksmen and you only have arclights and hounds ... you may want to add some crawlers to keep those snipers occupied. -Look at your units speed when considering placement. Fast units will move way ahead of your slower tanks and damage dealers, so keep that in mind when placing your units. Depending on your position and stance, you may want to have our fast untis in the rear so they catch up to and engage the opponent at the same time as your tanks and damage dealers, or you may want them ahead to occupy enemy fire while your damage dealers engage from distance. -Using Rapid Resupply (on the Towers section of this guide) will give you an extra $200 this round and can be used to purchase additional units, or buy upgrades for the ones you have. -Don't over commit early ... dumping all of your starting money into upgrades for your starting units, only for them to get eaten alive by the opponents placement will put you in a big hole early. Be selective about what you upgrade right away. -It's OK to save your money. It took a LONG time for me to really drill this into my head, but you DON'T have to spend your whole budget each turn, it will carry over. If you aren't 100% of what you want to spend that last $50 or $100 on, save it... you will be amazed at how much of a difference it can make on your next turn, give your more money to build counters. 4) Chaff - You're probably not using enough Another thing it took me forever to fully understand was using chaff correctly. Chaff is generally considered cheap, mobile units that come in large groups, like fangs and crawlers, and to some extent other units like wasps and hounds. Chaff can be incredibly effective as both an offensive and defensive tool especially if you decide to make them your primary weapon and get to the endgame with them. Fully upgraded squads of fangs or crawlers can me a nightmare. I have found that this game is really a battle of chaff and countering chaff .. with whoever winning that fight more often than not going on to win the round. Your chaff is also not just something you buy once or twice in the beginning rounds and then forget about, you should be adding chaff constantly throughout the fight to keep the battlefield fluid. I almost ALWAYS will buy either fangs or crawlers on my first round, even if I start with them... the more the better. Going back to making sure you look at your opponents player card and units, buy the chaff that counters theirs. If they have fangs, buy crawlers or vice versa. Fast units like crawlers will move very quickly, even is you place them all the way in the rear, they will outrun most of your units and hit the front lines quickly. If you place them up front, they will be way ahead of your other units and on their own. Neither one is particularly bad, as long as it is part of your plan. Slower units like fangs may make sense to put closer to the front, and sometimes it does, but keep in mind that since they are moving slower, placing them towards the rear means they will enter the battle later, likely after alot of the counter chaff has been destroyed, and will add a second layer of chaff for you. Your chaff serves a very important role that isn't 100% about dealing damage ... ALOT of your chaff will be used to distract enemy fire so that YOUR damage dealers can kill those units who are occupied trying to pick off 30-40 crawlers running around. A perfect example of this is crawlers VS marksman. Marksman can be lethal, especially in groups that have been upgraded, they can 1-2 shot many units with their powerful rifles.... BUT if you have 20 crawlers running at them, it doesn't matter how much they overkill each one, they can still only shoot one at a time. Your crawlers will quickly overrun the marksman and destroy it. Chaff units like crawlers and Fangs are GREAT for distracting the fire from power units that don't deal splash damage.... like Melting Points. Their single laser mode, while extremely powerful, can be distracted picking off dozens of little crawler while your power units are blasting away at it. KEEP ADDING CHAFF. And not only that, but stagger it... put some on different depths of your backfield, so that they enter the battle in a 'drip' ... you should always have a steady stream of chaff running into the battle if you can. USE CHAFF CARDS. Not always, but sometimes, these are pretty useful. Cards that give you a free crawler for wasp drop for 1 turn can be useful to sneak attack an opponent tower from behind, or simply provide additional free chaff for your front lines. CHAFF CAN BE OFFENSIVE. Anything that is in large numbers can really be used as chaff... even units like mustangs and wasps. Units like these usually serve the basic role of distracting high damage dealing enemies, but they also have more offensive damage potential and longer ranges, and can serve as their own form of chaff. Hounds are also unique in that they are very effective against both crawlers and fangs, so can dictate a 'no chaff' type of battle if used properly. YOUR NOT USING ENOUGH CHAFF. One other piece of advice I read from another guide somewhere said that you're probably not using enough chaff, and even if you think you're using enough chaff, you're probably not using enough chaff. Continue to add it, stagger it, and drip it into the fight. Don't just do it mindlessly, watch each turn as it unfolds and adjust. 5) You're probably not using your Tower Abilities Your towers are not just there to not get destroyed, each one provides you with invaluable upgrades. In fact, if you're not using something from a tower each turn, you're probably doing it wrong. Without going in depth about each thing, I'm just going to give you basics.. - UPGRADE YOUR TOWERS: Upgrading your tower level not only increases it hitpoints, but more importantly decreases the negative effects and length of time your are debuffed when it is destroyed. 9 seconds is a LONG time to go with only doing 10% damage and taking 50% more, but upgrading the tower level will shave important seconds off this time. If you are choosing to only defend a single tower, then upgrade the tower you are NOT defending so that when it gets destroyed, you won't be debuffed as long. - PURCHASE FIELD RECOVERY. Field recover costs $100 but it will MAKE you money. This will allow you sell one unit per turn, getting 100% of its base price (the higher the unit, the more money you get) but NOT reimbursing you for any tech you purchased for the unit. This an be useful for LOTS of reasons. One is selling units that you don't need or aren't performing so you an use those assets more effectively. This is especially good if you've moved away from your starting units and want to get some money for them. It is also helpful to recover units you played to counter, but are ineffective. If you bought a rhino for your front line, but it's getting shredded, sell it and try something else. Another important use for this is to sell units that are just feeding the enemy. Killing units gains experience, and experience gains upgrades, and 1 upgraded unit it better than 2 non-upgraded ones. If an enemy melting point is destroying your expensive sabertooth every round and you can't stop it ... sell the sabretooth... get yourself $300-$400 bucks and stop feeding the melting point. - USE THE RAPID RESUPPLY. It is basically an additional $200 per round at the cost of a net loss of $100 next round. It hits harder in the earlier rounds, but in the later ones it's pretty much something you do every time. Personally, I use this almost every round, every battle, unless I'm just destroying the opponent. It can be a HUGE bonus sometimes to drop a couple shields to cover your units during a critical turn, or buy an upgrade for your giant, or purchase a range buff. Always remember there is an extra $200 waiting for you if you want to use it. - DEPLOY ADDITIONAL UNIT. This $50 upgrade will allow you to drop 1 additional unit this turn, so you can place 3 units instead of 2. This can be very handy for quickly dropping groups of chaff to counter or distract an unsuspecting opponent, or drop 3 giants in one turn to try and turn the tide of the match. - RANGE UPGRADE. For $100 all of your units will get a range bonus for this turn. This is another tower upgrade i often use every turn.. in fact i often use the rapid resupply and get the extra $200, use $100 for the range upgrade, and save the other $100 to offset the loss. Range can be a huge game changer if you're trying to flip someones counter... it never hurts to be able to hit them from further away than they can hit you. Another bonus if this is that it is cheap for only $100, and will apply to ALL of your ranged units, including their special abilities like anti-air missiles, and giants like melting points. - DAMAGE AND DEFENSE UPGRADES. These can be purchase individually, and increase for each round. The first level is $100 each and will increase offense power or defense power by 12%, the next level is $250 and will increase it further, and so on... with each level being more expensive. These are usually my goto options instead of spending money on consumables like sentry missiles. While the actually % bonuses are not always huge because of how the counters work in this game, it doesn't hurt and is a PERMANENTupgrade, unlike the Range bonus. Plus towards the endgame, they can be more relevant if your opponent has level 2 offense and defense upgrades and you have none, regardless of that the counter system looks like. 6) Quick things about Flanks One thing you also don't want to take for granted are your flanks. It's easy because in practice mode, the AI doesn't use the flanks, or at least not very well, so it's not a big issue. In multiplayer your flanks an make or break your battle instantly. You can start placing units on flanks on round 2, so it's important to keep an eye on them. Make a habit of checking your flanks at the start of each turn, because many people, including me, will try to steal a round by placing a quick unit on an unguarded flank to rush a tower. If left unnoticed, this group can grow quickly and be a real problem. Placing units on the flanks can also help distract rear units while your frontline units close the distance faster. You can place sentry missiles on the extreme left edges of your playfield, they will act as proximity alarms in case someone tries to sneak units on your flanks, and in most case will destroy them completely while they are warping, although next round those units will still be there. Just remember to check to make sure your sentry missiles are still there each turn, and address any intruders with a counter unit. 7) Final Beginner Tips for Beginners -Try not to throw money away on consumables unless they are really necessary. Don't get into the habit of buying 4 sentry missiles each turn to counter someones chaff units... it isn't that hard to counter sentry's and you will find yourself wishing you had all of that lost $$ back when they stop working. Sentrys and missile defense guns are useful for certain places and times, but if you're using them as a crutch to prop up your defense, it won't last. - You MUST keep changing, and trying to anticipate how your opponent is going to counter your attacks, or your defensive kill box. If you are on round 5 and your two melting points are kicking butt, think about what he is going to do to stop them and plan to counter it... because in most cases if you just keep doubling down and making more melting points, his counter will overwhelm you. Try to avoid attrition fights, go for something with an advantage.... this game is about counters and counter-counters... any slug fest is going to break one way or another, so try to have a say in it. - ALL of your units have two goals, regardless of what unit it is. 1) Kill enemy units 2) Don't feed enemy units. Look at your units kill counter, beneath their icon on the bottom left... does it have 0 kills after 3-4 rounds? is it distracting fire or just getting slaughtered? Consider selling it if it is not performing. Having units that you build, got countered, and then forgot about is only going to feed his countering units all of that EXP, and the next thing you know you're surrounded by unstoppable, rank 4 units. - Quantity isn't always best. Units of a certain type share experience with all units of that type. So if you have 4 squads of stormcallers, then all experience from their kills gets split between the 4 of them, making it take longer for each one to level up. But if you have only 1, it will absorb all of that exp and level up MUCH faster. a rank 2 unit is going to be better than 2 rank 1 units, and the rank 3 and 4 can often take on multiple groups until they eventually become unstoppable. - Overwhelm powerful, non-splash damage units like marksmen and sabretooth with tons of cheap chaff like crawlers or wasps. - Play the Air / Land cat and mouse game. If you notice he has no air defense units, try and sneak a round win by placing a single air unit... sometimes it will be the last unit you have in a defeat, but they can't kill it so it steals you a round. Don't over commit though, see how it does and how they might counter before buying more or upgrading. Units like the Eyebots can be useful because they start as land units, but can be upgraded mid-match to be air and ground. - Keep an eye on your flanks. At the very beginning of each round, the first thing you should do it check your flanks, make a habit out of it. Use a space $50 here and there to place sentry missiles on your flank edges, they can serve as an early warning for opponents trying to sneak in a flank drop. - You can place special cards like shield drops on flanks. Plus remember you can place a unit on a flank to distract an enemy, and then sell it next turn to avoid his counter. Just remember you will need to give it time to warp in after you place it, so don't put it in immediate harm. - Build Chaff! - NEVER GIVE UP! Sure some fights look like lost causes, but all it takes it the perfectly timed card drop, the right upgrade, or purchasing the perfect counter units, if you can slow down the rate at which the enemy is winning, you can stop and reverse it.