If you are one of the more than 10 million people who downloaded and enjoyed Paper.io, or among the 100 million who likewise reveled in its highly addictive sequel, Paper.io 2, then you will surely get a blast from Paper.io 3D. This is one of Voodoo’s latest mobile title on iOS and Android platforms and is the masterful follow-up to the hit Paper.io series.
For those unfamiliar with io games, it is a genre of casual games with a multiplayer element that offer simple game mechanics newbie-friendly controls and interface, and minimalist graphics making it attractive for a wide range of players, and addictive once you try it out. Paper.io 3D has evolved from its previous incarnations, yet still exhibits all these elements to make it an easy game to pick up and play by just about anyone.
In addition to just immersing yourself with the challenge at hand and surviving through the puzzle you literally aim to cover, Paper.io comes with a wide range of avatars to unlock, which makes for a more interesting battle royale. If you are up for a casual game that is simply addictive and can be played even with the slimmest availability of free time, then you should definitely check Paper.io 3D out.
Paper.io lets players move in a rectangular shape, which was a little more challenging in terms of maneuvering into or away from an opponent. Paper.io 2 was a little more liberal in that you could cut curves instead of lines, giving you more freedom on how to traverse each flat, 2-dimensional map.
In Paper.io 3D, you have as much liberty to choose whichever path you want to take but the puzzle or arena itself is a 3-dimensional, object without edges that you can smoothly run across. In effect, you are given a different challenge each level as the shape of the stage is unique and travelling through the curves can be a little tricky.
All it takes for you to master the controls in Paper.io 3D is to swipe to any direction where you want your avatar to run to. There are no tutorials involved but it is guaranteed that you will easily pick up what needs to be done in no time. Be sure to check out our Paper.io 3D guide below, as it has everything you need to know to dominate your opponents and beat every puzzle.
1. Learn All The Basics
Paper.io 3D starts you off by spawning you on a small spot within the map. That small area serves as your territory and opponents have their own one. As you continuously travel the 3D map, you leave a trail behind and when your trail from your territory leads back to any of its edges, the distance you travelled adds up to your territory. You basically need to run away from and back to your territory and close a shape to make it your own.
The aim is to make the entire map your territory and in addition to neutral or uncolored areas within the map to make your own, there are numerous other players wandering about and doing the same. One secret you should know about most mobile io games is that you are not actually competing with other players. All other enemies you see and scuffle with on each map in the game are actually A.I. opponents.
Clashing head to head with another player on neutral ground will kill you both and end your run. If the head on collision happens on someone’s territory, the area owner has an advantage. The most common way of cutting down enemies is by slicing through their trail while they are off their territory. As simple as that sounds it can get confusing when 2 or more players randomly move about in a small area.
2. Master Each Swipe And Turn
Now that you know you are only competing against A.I. opponents, you should gain a lot more confidence in facing them. After all, playing against real, thinking players have proven to be always a bigger challenge, regardless of the game’s genre and mechanics. To some extent, A.I. enemies will be more predictable than their human counterparts.
Despite the relative ease of dealing with enemies you encounter in Paper.io 3D, exercising patience is still important. Although the controls of the game are easy and the mechanics as simple as they come, you should spend the at least the first few minutes to get to master your movements and be well in line with your device’s sensitivity. What you would want is to always have your avatar move exactly the way you want it to and not make accidental turns or swipes that would end your run prematurely.
Sometimes, you may notice other players are eliminated without ever touching another player. It can be due to them bumping into their own trail outside of their territory. If you venture out of your based and manage to touch any part of your trail, then the same will happen to you. On your own, knowing this will keep you from eliminating yourself purposely but there will always be scenarios when something may surprise you to the point that you swipe on your device so hard that you cycle back at your own trail.
This may result from the sudden appearance of an enemy that may prompt you to head back to your territory as soon as possible or perhaps excite you to eliminate them because they are vulnerable. In any case, learn to manage your movements and master each turn as early as you can.
3. Go For Smaller Invasions First
With the ultimate goal of occupying each level 100%, it is only natural for you to always want a bigger chunk with each run all the time. There is a vast open space waiting to be conquered, and there is a constant notion that you are in a race of sorts to get a bigger bite out of the territorial pie. This will trigger even further when you see the other players start to get close to or even surpass the percentage of the level that they conquered.
If you noticed, one of the reason we would want you to master the movements of your avatar first is because we always recommend a more defensive strategy. In addition to a more careful navigation of your character, staying more on the safe side by only going for smaller invasions goes in line with this strategy. Sure, the A.I. enemies will hardly outsmart you even if you are a beginner and there is some randomness in their movements after all. Some are a bit more aggressive than others and will freely venture into your territory without warning.
Another reason why you need to be on the defensive is the sheer number of enemies on each level. Tackling any of them one on one would be a cinch but then there is strength in numbers. There will be instances when you can consider each run as a battle royale of sorts with each player to his or her own. For the sake of completing each level, however, and given that each one of them can take you out, you have to consider the playing field as a match between you and all of them.
What you would want is an exploration outside of your territory where you can always rush back in if trouble is on its way. Although you can, in theory, run a path across the entire puzzle and claim half of it as your territory, the long distance to travel puts you at risk of being eliminated by the other players moving about. For best results, only go as far as where you can still see the edges of your territory and that you will always be able to head into it before anyone gets close enough to your trail.
4. Wait For Easy Opportunities To Eliminate Your Enemies
While “coloring” an entire level and claiming it as your entire territory sounds fun, the bigger fun factor that Paper.io 3D offers come from the other players lurking about. The competitive aura of each run, along with the addictive sense of accomplishment that comes with each kill, can prompt you to want to do it again and again. Sometimes, it can even influence you to prioritize purging other players than expanding your very own territory and while that is an okay thing to do, efficiency dictates prioritizing the latter.
One aspect of Paper.io 3D you need to understand is that when you get eliminated, continuing on with the game will start you off where you left. This means that if you occupied 60% of the level and perished, then you will start with that 60%. For all other players in the area, killing them off will eliminate their territories completely. As such, there is no need to worry too much about anyone with regard to territorial size as you can banish them as easily as everyone else.
Entering into a duel with any opponent with the goal of eliminating them is fairly easy but when there are other players close to your location it can get very tricky. For starters you should try to engage only when there is one enemy within the immediate vicinity and simply move on to other areas when there are more than one opponent.
An easy trick to easily rid yourself of enemies is to stay within the borders of your territory whenever you are close enough to an enemy or an enemy’s territory. Despite their random movements, enemies will tend to move in towards you at some point most especially if they see you stepping out of boundaries even for just fractions of a second.
As you navigate back and forth within your territory where you can see them, simply wait for them to step out of their territory and into neutral ground or within your territory. If on neutral area, simply cut their path off and if you are lucky enough to have them step into your territory, feel free to bump them head on or crash into their path.
Sometimes, you have to make risks and step a bit out of your zone just to lure enemies close to you but at the very least, you can make it a calculated risk in that you will always position yourself closer to home than your enemies would be if they choose to chase you. You can apply these simple tactics across enemies but before you decide to take on more than one opponent at a time, then be sure you have mastered the art of the one on one duel.
5. Choose A Skin With A Stamp That Suits You
As an added fun factor in Paper.io 3D, you can unlock a wide variety of skins to use in battle. The avatars themselves are neat but what is great about each new skin is the unique territorial stamps that go with them. While the initial cube model will only color your territory with your character’s color, all other variants come with unique stamp designs that make it seem like you are terraforming every part of land you claim as your own.
No other player will use the same avatar you would unless you choose the default one. While each unique territorial stamp looks cool and distinguishable, some can be very confusing especially when it comes to determining borders. As trailing within the borders as you wait for an opportunity to eliminate a player is part of our strategy, it is important to choose a skin that comes packed with a territorial stamp that does not confuse you.
Relative to this, you should know that all models can be unlocked without spending a dime. Simply tap on the skin you have yet to unlock and you will see the conditions or achievements you need to meet to unlock it.
6. Always Be Ready For New Enemy Spawns
One of the reasons why we recommend that you prioritize territorial expansion over eliminating enemies is that there will hardly be a noticeable difference killing off enemies early in the round. New ones will spawn at random locations and can appear as fast as you take someone out. At the start of the match, it is a good idea to clear away everyone that gets too close or to your personal space, especially those who are overstepping their boundaries.
Later on, however, a more selective approach is required as you should continue to expand on less crowded neutral spaces.
One of the strategies we mentioned earlier is to go for smaller invasions first and from a time-oriented perspective, those moves should be about a second or 2 off your territory, meaning you only have to spend a couple of seconds from laying your trails outside of your territory. If you notice on the model selection menu, the pirate ship requires 15 seconds away from your land for you to unlock it. This is a difficult feat to pull especially for beginners and for good reason.
Spending 15 seconds off your land means you are going for a massive territorial gain and putting yourself at risk for its entire duration. What makes this extra challenging is that for every enemy eliminated, a new one readily spawns almost immediately, depending on the size of the neutral area left to conquer. It would seem that enemies spawn within a certain range of area and that the only way to prevent them from doing so is to make that area a part of your territory.
If there is still a fairly large size of neutral area that you are traversing, you run the risk of being eliminated by a newly spawned enemy that runs through your trail without you even knowing and sometimes, even straying for a few seconds outside of your territory can have the same impact.
It can happen that you will immediately be able to eliminate a newly spawned enemy close to your territory. If ever you do, make it a point to hurry back to your area as your trail may just be lodged on the same spot where another enemy will pop up.
7. Utilize The Power Boost Strategically
Killing your enemies in Paper.io 3D is not all about for the sake of fun, or a means to protect yourself from over-assertive opponents who set foot on your land. Each kill also contributes to the stars you earn at the end of each run. Beyond all that, kill streaks can give you a power boost that tremendously increases your speed, makes you invulnerable, and even renders your trail deadly. You can notice it as your trail will exhibit a fiery glow once it is activated.
You will instantly receive a power boost for every 3 consecutive kills you make. Note that the kill streak fully resets at the end of each run. As it would be an added challenge to keep a mental count of your kills, you can simply glance at the upper left side of your screen to see your kill count beside the skull icon. First things first, though, do not let it distract you enough to lose sight of what is happening within your immediate vicinity.
There are a number of ways to utilize the power boost the further your advantage against your opponents. For one, you can go for trail that is longer than usual to cover more ground and take a bigger chunk of the level and make it your own. After all, your priority is to earn a 100% completion of the level.
A more offensive way of utilizing the power boost is situating yourself in a more crowded area, preferably where there are enemies loosely close to one another and you need to only kill one to activate the power boost. Time it just right so that you can kill one opponent and spend the duration of the power boost to eliminate as many of the other enemies as you can.
As fun and exciting the power boost is, note that it will only be active for roughly 3 seconds. If you are just starting out to strategize around this special ability, be a bit more conservative and always take note of how long it lasts. What you would want to avoid is to make an over estimation, leading you to lose the power boost earlier than expected and consequently kill yourself as an end result.
8. How To Unlock All The Skins Faster
One important feature of Paper.io 3D that you might easily miss is that it does not need an internet connection for you to be able to enjoy it once it is installed on your device. Given that the opposing players you battle with are A.I. opponents, there really is no reason for the game to connect to any servers whatsoever just so it can run other than the video ads that you can watch voluntarily and the ones that randomly pop up after some runs.
As it is a free game, Paper.io 3D comes with video ads that occasionally pop up in-between some sessions. Although at this point in time it should be well understood that video ads are important to ensure that free games stay available for everyone to enjoy, some players may want to opt for an ad-free gameplay as playing ads maybe disorienting for them.
We consider it as rest periods for our weary hands and eyes, though, but If you want uninterrupted gameplay, you can simply turn your Wi-Fi or mobile data off before launching the game or even while playing it.
The video ads you play or view inside of Paper.io 3D are not all without compensation. On each run, you can actually revive your character once at the cost of simply playing a 15 to 30-second video ad. It can actually be very helpful for you to make quicker progress and achieve goals faster to unlock all the skins, and reviving, on its own, actually unlocks at least a couple of new skins. More stars can be earned from each run as well as you can triple the amount you receive by watching a video ad.
9. Save Conquering Satellites For Last
Unlocking new levels are actually based on the stars you earn and does not require you to complete each level at a hundred percent. Early on, you might wonder how you are moving on to the next level without even fully completing the previous one. In some cases, you might have even fully skipped some levels because one of your earlier runs earned you stars to unlock 2 levels at one time.
Before you actually start playing, you can swipe up or down on the screen to choose which level to play at. Certain percentages of completion will earn you stars that will help you unlock the next level. Fully occupying a level and making it your territory, however, unlocks something extra. If you look closer at the screen, you will notice a smaller but similarly shaped level orbiting around the level that you fully completed. That is a satellite stage and it is much more challenging than the regular levels.
Unlike regular levels where your progress stays at the same percentage completion on succeeding playthroughs, your progression on satellite levels reset back to 0% on reruns. On top of that, satellite levels are much smaller in size and has the same number of other players within them, meaning there is much less space to run around in without having to clash with your enemies for territorial disputes.
For one, this is where the free extra life you can earn from watching video ads come in handy. If you have yet to master all the tips and strategies we mentioned above for regular levels, then you might have a difficult time banking a 100% completion rate for any satellite level. As such, it is best to focus first on completing each of the regular levels and unlocking all the models first to hone your skills to the fullest. Likewise, take your defensive stance up a notch whenever you play within the satellite levels.
If you typically spend an average of 3 seconds laying your trails outside of your territory, then you may have to drop it down further to a second or two in satellite levels, at least at the first few runs. In contrast, earning 3 kills and activating the power boost opens up better opportunities especially in relation to eliminating multiple enemies or going for a trail run around the level.
That wraps up all the tips and strategies we have for Voodoo’s mobile game Paper.io 3D. We hope that you learned a lot from our guide. If you happen to play the game as much as we do and have uncovered something we haven’t, do not hesitate to tell us about it and share away through the comment section!