Tag: Beginner Tips »

By now you’ve no doubt heard of Riverman Media’s The Executive - at least certainly I hope you have. If not, or if you still haven’t decided on buying it yet, you can check out our review right here. With that out of the way, it’s time to talk business. Specifically the mining business. Well, that and the business of kicking werewolves in the throat.

Despite having a formidable set of moves you won’t actually be much of a fighter at first. Thankfully it’s nothing some practice (and a few prudent investments) can’t fix.

[Can't decide if you can bear all that spelling? Check out our Alphabear review.]

Alphabear is a cool little spelling game that’s almost as habit-forming as its older sibling, Tripletown. That said, it can be a bit tricky at times. That’s why we’ve put together a little something that should help with wrangling those bears.

[Not sure if you're ready for Batman in space? Take a look at ourLEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham review.]

Have you just picked up LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham and never played a LEGO game before? it plays a lot like previous LEGO games, so if you follow along and try different characters for different puzzles you'll eventually get the hang of it.The in-game guide is pretty good, but here are a few more tips to get you started.

[Still deciding whether or not Chaos Rings III is the mobile JRPG for you? Take a look at our review]

Are you feeling a bit out of sorts when jumping back and forth between Chaos Rings III’s Story and Colosseum modes? Are some fights giving you trouble? Then have a seat (or more likely just keep sitting) and take a gander at our tips and tricks guide.

[Still trying to decide if it's worth revisiting the park? Check out our Jurassic World review]

You’ve probably already got a huge and incredibly popular theme park in Jurassic Park Builder. That’s great, but Jurassic World: The Game is a slightly different beast. This time around you’ll be spending a lot more time in the Arena, and will have to keep your dinos fighting fit because of it. And that’s exactly why we’ve gone and put this little guide together.

So if you find yourself in need of some tips for raising or want some pointers in the Arena, we’re here for you.

One thing that all three games in the Five Nights at Freddy’s series have in common, aside from murderous animatronics, is that they each do things a little differently. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 changes things up by paring it down to a single animatronic - only this one is a lot smarter, faster, and more dangerous.

Before we launch into the survival tips, please be aware that this guide will contain a few spoilers. The story elements and the mini-games won’t be discussed, but there are a few “events” that will be mentioned. So if you don’t want to ruin the surprise for yourself, don’t read past Night Guarding 101.

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Night Guarding 101

Welcome to the night shift! You’re gonna have a blast once this place opens. You get to keep an eye on the cameras to make sure nobody tries to walk out with a piece of Fazbear history, play creepy noises to spook the guests, and you’ll even be a part of the attraction! Here’s what you need to know for your first night.

• The blue tab all the way to your right controls your CCTV monitor - Use this to keep an eye on the attraction. You can also Play Audio (more on that later), and use the Map Toggle button to watch the vents.
• The orange tab to your left controls the attraction’s three main electrical systems - Audio Devices will prevent you from using the Play Audio button if they shut down, the Camera System will prevent you from being able to see if it breaks, and if the ventilation gets screwy you’ll start to have trouble breathing and might just start to hallucinate.
• If more than one system crashes, use Reboot All - No matter how dicy things might get, it’s always faster to Reboot All rather than restart each system one after the other.
• Playing audio clips is very important - Not only will the spooky child laughter creep out potential guests, it could also be used to guide them into different areas of the attraction.
• Don’t sweat the first night - Your first night is an absolute breeze. Nothing could possibly go wrong, so take the time to familiarize yourself with the layout of Fazbear’s Fright and maybe try to get used to the time it takes to reboot the different computer systems.

Sid Meier's Starships is a pretty great game in its own right, but it doesn't do a very good job of helping new players get acclimated to its systems - or its star systems (bah-dum-TSHHH). That's why we've taken it upon ourselves to cover some of the basics, a few of the things you won't learn about in-game unless you dig through the menus, and some strategies that will hopefully keep your fleet mobile and allow you to dominate the galaxy.

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Getting Started

• Keep it simple - For your first time out, don’t bother messing around with things like map size, difficulty, or victory conditions. There’s no shame in reducing the number of opponents, either.
• The Purity Faction is the most beginner friendly - None are necessarily the best, of course, but Purity’s ability to earn double rewards will really come in handy for newbies.
• Choose Bolivar or Fielding as your leader - There might be six other leaders to choose from, but these two are the most straightforward and will make the most sense to beginners.
• Make liberal use of the Advice button - The little “info” button to the far left of the row of icons at the bottom of the screen will be your only friend in learning how to play Starships - aside from this guide, that is. Try to tap it every time you’re ready to take a new action as its suggestions should point you in the right direction.
• Go out and explore - You won’t have much of a chance at any sort of victory if you don’t leave your home planet. So find those navigation lines that point to new planets, and get to visiting!

The Basics

• Use Your Captain's Powers: As part of the game, each player's captain gets a special power. This can heal units, damage others, or cast other status effects. These powers refresh after a certain amount of turns. Players that use and time their powers according to a timeframe that aids their overall strategy will go far.

• Use All The Lanes: When starting out, you may be tempted to plop units into a lane and then forget about them. However, changing lanes is key to Heavenstrike Rivals's strategy. As long as your units are taunted or blocked by another unit, feel free to switch around units willy nilly to keep opponents guessing. Also, when playing on maps with power up tiles, units can lane change onto the tile to receive the power up, and then can be moved back to their original spot. How cool is that?

• Keep Your Units Alive: Even the strongest units in the game can't do much to help you if they don't stay on the battlefield long enough to fulfill their intended purpose. Additionally, some units and unit types get stronger the longer they are in play, so it's worth putting in the effort.

Squad Building

• Don't Underestimate Basic Units: When players start out in the game, they may want to start getting as many high powered units as possible in their squads, but this would be a mistake. The beginner units in Heavenstrike Rivals have low mana costs so they can get on the battlefield quickly. Considering the ultimate goal of the game demands players get within striking distance of their opponent, speed can be useful.

• Build Squads With Balance and Purpose: As much as it might seem like a good idea to build a squad full of brawlers, defenders, or other units to max out bonuses afforded by special units, doing this is a lot like putting all of your eggs in one basket. For any one viable strategy in Heavenstrike Rivals, there is a super-effective counter strategy. Players that do not take this into account may stomp all over some opponents that are equally unbalanced, but struggle against thoughtful foes.

• Build a Deck that Feels Comfortable: I know, this sounds almost overly basic, but it's important. As much as Heavenstrike Rivals doesn't look like a card game, it still operates like one. Putting in crazy new units that you aren't familiar with can cause a lack of synergy or introduce elements of randomness into your strategy, both of which are things you want to avoid.

Field Tactics

• Mana Is A Limited Resource. Use It Wisely: All units cost a certain amount of mana, but all players can only have ten mana's worth of units out on the field at any given time. With this being the case, players should be careful about what they summon early on and what foes they decide to defeat. After all, there's no reason to kill a unit if it's handily tied up and you have the upper hand.

• Time Summons Carefully: At first blush, it may look like a good idea to send out all of your units at once. However, if you are too careless and lose a lot of quickly summoned units early though, you may find themselves with a hand so empty they can't properly defend themselves.

• Shut Down Gimmicks Early: As game that encourages players to incorporate unit synergy, players should be on the lookout for the key units their opponents are using in an attempt to tie their strategy together. For example, there are some units in the game that grant bonuses to every unit in play of a certain type, so taking out that unit as quickly as possible will minimize the impact of your opponent's strategy.

Have you just downloaded Top Eleven 2015 - Be a Soccer Manager and you're not quite sure where to begin? Don’t worry, we’ll guide you through the basics so that you’ve got some idea when it comes to what to do next.

The Basics

• It should be obvious, but sign in via Facebook. Besides being able to play alongside friends, you’re also safe in the knowledge that none of your progress is going to be lost. And Top Eleven 2015 is a lot more fun when competing with friends.

• Learn what everything in the menu does. Top Eleven 2015 doesn’t have the easiest of tutorials to follow.

• Squad is there for setting up formations and tactics, as well as moving players around. Examine each player’s abilities as it highlights where they’re strongest and weakest. Contemplate whether you want to be a more defensive or offensive team, and plan accordingly.

• Training is where you’ll spend a lot of time. You can pick different training regimes for each of your players and even focus on one in particular (for a price). There’s a choice of three different training methods: match practice is best for honing tactics and boosting team play, cardio is great for general fitness boosts, and stretching reduces the chance of your players picking up injuries.

• The game’s pretty dependent on time, with Fixtures telling you when your next match is. You get bonuses for being around to watch a match so try to do that whenever possible.

• Transfers can be reliant on time too, with live auctions running out all the time. This is more something to focus on when you’ve got money spare, though. Early on, just focus on the players you have.

• You can upgrade your Stadium through the option of the same name. That can lead to more fans, which also means more money. Plus you can upgrade the pitch to reduce the chance of injuries, as well as boost team morale.

Radiation Island is a survival game, and as such will have two main categories that its players will naturally fall into: those who think it’s too difficult, and those who think it’s too easy. If you belong to the former, we’ve got some handy tips that should make your first few nights a fair bit easier to handle.

The Basics

• Grab whatever you can - You’re going to need supplies in order to craft tools and weapons, so make sure you grab everything you see laying on the ground when you’re starting out. This will come in handy very quickly.

• Punch trees - It’s a silly tradition, really, but it’s just as useful here. If you find yourself low on resources and in need of twigs, you can gather them easily by just attacking a tree with nothing equipped.

• Gather from bushes when you can - Large bushes can also be harvested for useful materials. Later on you’ll probably want to use a machete to make things easier but when you’re just starting out bare hands will work just fine. The materials you gather from these bushes will be necessary to craft medicine, bandages, and so on, so don’t ignore them!

• Keep a stack of food on you at all times - You’ll start to get hungry pretty fast, and if you don’t have any food handy you’ll begin to starve in short order. You can find coconuts and pineapples scattered around the beach most of the time, so definitely keep as many on hand as you can.

• Respect the item stacks - Items like food and resources can stack pretty high, so don’t worry about collecting a lot of them. Tools and weapons, on the other hand, do not stack. Keep this in mind when you go out scavenging because inventory space is extremely limited.

• Craft tools as soon as you can - You’ll want at least one axe and one pick so that you can harvest more wood and stone more reliably than hoping you find some laying around. As a bonus, the axe can help you fend off wolves and other hostiles - it’s better than using your bare hands, at least.

• Also make sure to craft a boomerang - It’s a silly little weapon, but it’s simple to craft and is also an important item for the beginning of your game. One hit from the boomerang should kill a rabbit (meat!), and it can be used to weaken a wolf at a distance before it closes in and you’ll have to fight it up close.

• Explore, explore, explore - Keep venturing out to try and find structures to ransack. More often then not you’ll stumble upon items that will aid in crafting more advanced items, or even find better equipment.

• Establish a home base - Find someplace, preferably a building of some kind as it’s less exposed, and use it as your base of operations. It might take some time to craft things like storage boxes and a bed (assuming one or both aren’t already present), but having a place to come back to when it gets dark and being able to dump all your stuff in a central location is incredibly handy.

So, the current stock of established superheroes from Marvel and DC don't do it for you? You have an idea for a custom superhero? Then PlayWorld Superheroes is for you. Here's how to get your game going quickly.

Crafting

• Take time to be creative - Let your imagination do the walking. From the beginning the game underscores an appreciation for self-expression, and it helps to revel in this. From the template of characters, take the time to scroll through all the options because there are quite a few.

• Make sure to explore - One element the game encourages is exploration. It makes this easy by using dialogue boxes and highlighting to help you along. When an item is found, it can generally be crafted. Again, creativity is the name of the game. There are scissors, crayons, and more, and the best advice is also the most fun advice: just go to town. Use the cut marks to guide the scissors, and be inventive with the crayons. Going all out is especially true of the symbol, because this design gets emblazoned within the game. Do yourself proud.

• Feel free to rewind - It's also good to know that crafted materials can be redesigned, so there's no need to weep because of an errant crayon swoop.

Building planes in real life is complicated, so it only makes sense that constructing your own flying machines in SimplePlanes is complicated, too. The game does a lot to explain its depth to would-be engineers, but it can still get a little overwhelming. So are here are some simple tips for building better simple planes.

Plane English

Easily the most daunting aspect of creating your first airplane is just figuring out all the vocabulary words. So here’s a little cheat sheet to help you keep them all straight.

Just bought Earn to Die 2 and could do with some advice on what to focus on and just what to do? Never fear for we’ve got you covered! While Earn to Die 2 doesn’t require a conventional walkthrough, there are plenty of tips and tricks that can make your path to salvation a bit simpler.

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General Tips

Earn to Die 2 offers quite a few buttons, but you don’t actually have to manipulate your vehicle as much as you’d expect.

• Little taps of the left or right rotation button on the side of the screen will help the most here.

• Don’t overdo it as you’ll just flip your vehicle and potentially damage it.

• Do, however, keep your finger on the acceleration button. If you slow to a stop, it’s game over, whether you’ve got fuel left or not.

• Use the boost button sparingly as you’ve only got a limited supply. An ideal moment to activate it is when you’re just about to go up a ramp. You can go flying up it, giving you some much needed air and covering plenty of distance.
  Continue reading Earn to Die 2: Tips, Tricks, and Strategies for Outracing Those Zombies »

Easily one of the better tower defense games in recent times, Kingdom Rush Origins HD is a very enjoyable experience. While you might feel like an old hand at it, this might also be your first foray into the series. Either way, we’ve got some helpful tips and tricks to hopefully ensure that your success.

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Duking it Out

A lot of the strategy behind winning at Kingdom Rush Origins HD is knowing how to use choke points.

• Every level has one or more choke point - an area where the enemy is funneled through and is more open to attack, usually because of the environment around them. Figure each of them out and focus on using it to your advantage.

• One good way of using a choke point to your advantage is to create a blockade of an archer tower along with a melee tower.

• Archers are good at dishing out the damage but they’re too easy to get away from on their own. Combine them with a melee tower, however, and the ground troops slow the enemy down, enabling your archers to pick them off.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is the sequel to a unique horror game. One that leaves players virtually helpless as several animatronic characters close in on them, and their only defense being a trusty flashlight, the mask of a decommissioned teddy, and a combination of some serious multi-tasking skills and grainy CCTV footage. We've played the game countless times in order to bring you this selection of hints and tips, to save you from the night terrors and nervous jitters in advance.

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Tools of the Trade

• Stay in the light - You'll soon come to treasure your flashlight as one of the most valuable possessions in your very limited arsenal. While not all of the characters react to it in the same way, the beam is effective at keeping several of them at bay - specifically those that appear down the corridor on the way to your desk.

• There's no shame in hiding - The bear mask is your second "weapon" and is particularly useful against the smaller characters (New Bonnie, "Balloon Boy," The Mangle, etc) who worm their way through the vents. These are the critters that will mistake you for another animatronic, and thus leave you alone, when you're wearing the mask. You should keep on for at least 5-10 seconds to be sure, though.

• Know your territory - The map of the premises and the cameras are useful for keeping track of their movements, with the remodeled main characters situated on the Stage on Camera 9. When one of them goes missing you know they're on their way towards your office.

• Don't stop the music - Never let the music box complete its cycle. A warning signal will flash when it is getting dangerously close to popping out another not-so-cuddly character, and that's the one you definitely won't see coming until it's too late.