Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Cheats & Strategies for Faster Base Growth and Territorial Expansion

FTX Games may have just been active in the mobile gaming industry since 2016, but the company has been around a decade earlier with numerous successful games on different gaming platforms. Currently, the company is known for bringing several popular movie and TV show franchises to the mobile gaming market with Narcos: Cartel Wars, Criminal Minds: The Mobile Game, and The Walking Dead: Free Casino Slots being its latest offerings. Following the huge success of Narcos: Cartel Wars amassing over 10 million downloads and largely positive reviews on both Android and iOS platforms, FTX Games recently released a similar MMO strategy game based on an even more popular franchise, Breaking Bad.

If you are a fan of the hit TV show, Breaking Bad, then Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements will surely be a great treat for you. Get a taste of how to be the bad guy and engage in a variety of criminal activities all revolving around the “white glass” that you ceaselessly produce in the game. There’s naturally cooking, base-building, and territorial battles that will surely test your strategic prowess and management skills. Beyond the various in-game features, the story campaign gives you a different perspective of the activities involved in the white glass business, which is a little different but relevant to what you may remember from the show.

There are decision points as well where each path is very different from the other. Even without much influence from the show, players who enjoy base-building and strategy games in general will find something to enjoy in Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements. If you are a fan of the show or enjoy strategy games or both, then this game should leave you little to no reason to check it out!

Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements sets you into the world as a start-up fledgling under the watch of the series’ protagonists, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. As your aim is to grow your empire across surrounding territories, you must ceaselessly produce your merchandise, gather materials to make your base camp stronger, and expand your territory one area at a time.

Resource management is critical relative to base operations and upgrades as well as the contracts you need to take on for more resources. In-game battles are more about wits and strategy rather than brute strength. As the full host of activities you need to engage in cover aa lot of ground, working alone to fulfill every need requires exceptional multi-tasking skills. You won’t be alone on your journey towards being the kingpin as you can hire specialists to help you fulfill the many deeds that lie ahead of you as you progress through the game.

The game certainly holds a lot of unique elements and mechanics hardly seen in similar games within the genre. Although it may seem overwhelming at first glance, there is a quick and easy tutorial to follow at the initial stages of the game and a guide of sorts is your permanent tracker to ensure that you are in line with progressing further. There is a limitation in how much time you can spend on the game but as you grow stronger, it becomes easier to do quick intermittent activities as you log in and out of the game.

It’s all about progressing fast and efficiently at the start although you will practically grow your base and territory however you play the game and regardless of how much time you dedicate on it. If you want your base to grow as fast and your territories to expand quickly as well, then follow our Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements beginner’s guide for tips, cheats and strategies so you can jumpstart your criminal career.

1. Always Multi-Task

As a base-building strategy game, Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements offers plenty of activities for you to engage in. Although you are generally free to take on activities however you choose, efficiency dictates ensuring that nothing lies idle within your chempound. Primarily, you need to construct and upgrade several structures in your camp to become stronger with some prioritization on your headquarters as the availability of other structures and features will depend on its level. You can use a time-limited second builder to make constructions and upgrades two at a time and as bricks are the only resource you need to purchase structures and do upgrades, the only other essential aspect to keep an eye on is the time it takes for it to finish.

As a general rule, you should prioritize what you need the most before you begin any construction or upgrade. If all is the same with you, then bank on construction activities that can be completed while you are online so you can move on to the next project or take on a construction activity that takes the most time to complete if you are about to take a long rest from the game. Be sure to regularly check the status of your builders at the top right corner of your screen. You can also click on it to see how much more time it will take for a construction activity to complete.

Beyond construction, you should always ensure that something’s “cooking” on your RV Lab. There is a limit on how much you can cook within a game run as what you can cook depends on how much resources you have in your white glass tank. It regenerates over time, though, so be sure to get back to cooking before it becomes full. Relative to construction, upgrades, and builders, be sure to also dedicate some resources and builders to enhance your lab as it will boost your production. A careful observation of which resources you have an abundance of and which ones deplete the fastest should give you a good idea of when to make upgrades on your lab.

Let your presence be known and earn reputation points through contracts. Contracts involve getting your product out in the market for cash or bricks, bust most importantly, for reputation. You can access contracts through the dollar icon at the top right side of the screen, just below the builders icon. As you earn more reputation points, you can unlock more contracts you can take on and if you have enough white glass to engage in multiple contracts, you can do so even across different areas.

Once your headquarters reach level 5, be sure to check the body shop and research items to help make either your base or troops more formidable. Research items are very expensive, especially for starters so be sure that you will leave yourself with some extra cash for other uses before spending a lot of it on a research item. Research likewise takes a lot of time to complete, so be sure to read through the description of each available choice before deciding on which item to research first.

2. Expand Your Territory

Beyond managing assets and resources within the confines of your own chempound, you regularly need to expand your turf and attack enemy chempounds to earn resources to help you progress further faster. As bricks are the resources for building structures and upgrading them, cash is an essential requirement to unlock additional turfs as well as engage in taking down enemy chempounds.

Before choosing on which enemy to take on, be sure to take note of the number indicators under each enemy icon as it determines the difficulty level of each chempound. Likewise, be sure to take extra precaution and choose to scout first to see what the enemy has in store for you before actually charging in.

3. Progress The Story Campaign

Following the story campaign is your best source of basic resources as well as upgrade materials for your specialists. A key feature of Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements is that there will be decision points in the story where you have to choose one path which is very different from the other. In general, this will mostly be a choice between spending time in the lab to cook white glass or taking the more aggressive approach towards territorial expansion and engaging in gun fights with enemy camps. Either way, you will still get plenty of rewards but as the latter choice is typically more challenging, the chance to earn better rewards rests there as well.

Similar to extinguishing rival manufacturers and dealers within your turf, you can very much impose the same pre-battle strategy on story battles. Take advantage of the scout feature and don’t hesitate to hit the back button if you know you will have more than you can handle in the gun fight ahead. While some troops that offer stronger offensive power will be unlocked later as you level up your headquarters, feel free to bank on some minions who actually get some buffs from your assault specialists.

4. Follow The Activity Guide

The cellphone icon at the upper left side of your screen holds activities which should serve as your guide on what to do next as well as give you an updated status of lab productions and contracts. Be sure to try and accomplish tasks listed at the upper side of the activities page as these objectives reward you with a lot of important resources as well as lead you to which activity you need to spend time on next to progress in the game.

It may happen that you have successfully completed some objectives ahead of them popping up on the activity guide so completing one objective here may readily give you rewards for both activities you accomplished consecutively. As the objectives grow to become more challenging at times when it is also difficult for you to progress in the story campaign, then that should be your cue to do some upgrades on your specialists and troops.

5. There Is No Need To Wipe All Enemies Out

As this idea may prove to be new even to experienced base-building and strategy game players, battles in Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements require you to take out only the enemy’s mobile chem lab. As such you should not be intimidated by sheer numbers on an enemy’s yard before you even see the available areas for troop deployment which often provides ample opportunities for you to accomplish your mission with minimal effort.

Some enemy forts even have 2 sides open and choosing to deploy at the extreme end of either side makes some of the enemy defenders unaware of your presence (even after the start of the gun fight). In general, no assault option in the game works best by charging through the dead center of the area where every enemy troop can see and shoot at your gang. Always go for the easiest path towards the target RV lab as there are no extra rewards for defeating every enemy on sight before blasting away at the target.

6. You Can Adjust Your Camp’s Layout

Although rearranging structures within your base area has been an almost standard feature among base-building and similar strategy games, it plays a more vital role in Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements as you need to protect your headquarters more than any other structure or item in your base camp. With mines and various defending troops at your disposal, having an effective layout can stand even against more powerful enemies.

For starters, make sure that the headquarters is the hardest to reach place in the area and send it all the way back. You can opt to cover it with other structures and leave just the smallest gaps where you can plant those mines. As you may become an expert in assaulting other chempounds considering our earlier tip on troop deployment, you should begin to think on the other side of the fence now and try to visualize where potential attackers are most likely to deploy from when they choose to attack your camp. With that, you can more strategically allocate your defenders as well as place mines on potential areas that enemies may cross.

7. Be Very Selective When Upgrading Your Specialists

It may not be as easy to secure specialist to help you out in the game, but the initial ones you get for free can certainly take you a long way. Despite that, though, as you reach higher levels and battle more challenging turfs, you need to also invest some money and resources on specialists to make them stronger.

Upgrading specialists is a very costly endeavor in the game which is why you need to be very selective as to which ones you want to prioritize ahead of the others. If you have more in your roster to choose from, be sure to take not of their stats and special skills before you invest in them.

Specialists may be best at attacking, defending, or providing support as indicated by the red, blue, and green bars on the left side of their character icon on the specialist page. For starters, you should choose to bank on those with high attack stats as you need specialists more for assaults and completing campaign stages over the rest. As you will only be able to use one for such objectives for some time, invest on a defensive specialist to guard your base next.

Take note that some of the specialists’ abilities only take effect under certain conditions or only apply to a certain type of troop. Before you invest on specialists that have these abilities, therefore, ensure first that you can fully utilize the buffs or effects they can provide to you.

The most basic method of strengthening your specialists in the game is through levelling them up. Although your specialists won’t gain experience points in combat, you will easily amass snacks that you will consume to feed them experience points. Each item you use on your specialists also has an equivalent amount of cash you need to spend. Given this game mechanic, you should carefully consider who you upgrade and consider long-term usefulness as a determinant.

Beyond character levels, each specialists’ ability can be further enhance through brochures and pamphlets that work very much the same like snacks. Similarly as well, these costs cash as well. Between levels that increase overall stats and small boosts on skill efficiency, you should prioritize spending cash on levelling specialists up.

One of the more challenging ways to strengthen your specialists is rank them up for a huge boost on stats. Ranking up increases a specialist’s star level but it requires unique items to initiate on top of level requirements you need to meet beforehand. You can check to see where you can obtain the needed item by clicking on each and if not through battles, the only other choice is to secure it randomly from phone calls.

8. Keep A Close Watch On Resource Caps

There will always be a maximum amount of resource you can hold as indicated by the bars on basic resources like bricks and cash. Although you can increase this capacity through storage upgrades, there will be plenty of times when you may hit close to reaching the cap or actually maxing it out. In such cases, any further acquisition of similar resources can still be done but the value of the resources you have will not go over its limit. With that, you will lose otherwise important resources that you will constantly be needing with numerous constructions, upgrades, and territorial expansions.

In line with this, make it a habit to always pay attention to the green bar that indicates how much of a resource you have relative to how much you can store. Reactively, adjust your activities to ensure a good and steady balance of these resources to avoid gaining extra amounts that will just spill over. As an example, if you have tons of extra cash but still have room for plenty of brick, you can remove obstacles around your camp which basically converts cash to bricks.

As you progress further in the game, more and more resources will be available for you to manage. Be sure to get used to keeping them at safe levels while you still have relatively fewer to keep an eye on.

9. Watch Ads For Speed Boosts And Rewards

On certain occasions, you will be presented with an opportunity to watch a 30-second video ad to take 10-20 minutes of building or upgrade time off of your construction. As this is a pretty decent deal, be sure to always grab the opportunity to do so as any speed boost you can get for free in the game is a needed one for you to be able to progress the game much faster.

You can also visit the video store at the map and earn gold, sim cards, or other resources for watching a short video ad. Be sure to always check its availability whenever you venture into the map for your territorial expansion activities.

10. Spend Your Gold Wisely

Gold is Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements all-around premium currency which is very difficult to earn in the game outside of purchasing some amounts on it with real money at the store. There are plenty of opportunities to earn gold from playing the game, though, and with some patience and dedication, you can save up enough for the things you really need (or want).

From speeding construction up down to instantly getting the lacking resources for any activity, small amounts of gold stand as an all-in-one substitute. Beyond these potential uses for it though, what you should save up for is the elite phone where you can obtain rank 2 to 5 specialists at the cost of 500 gold per call. The thing is, making 10 calls only cost 4,500 gold which makes it a more viable option and while it may be challenging to resist the urge to spend 500 gold as you earn it, you have to try your best to do so.

Keep in mind that phone calls only has a chance to recruit specialists. For the most part, you will receive resources most of the time instead of specialists whenever you use any phone. As such the most viable way is to always go for a 10x call as this raises your chances of securing more specialists than spending gold or sims for single purchases.

And that is all we have for our Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements beginner’s guide. The game was certainly different in many respects to conventional strategy games we have played and we hope that our guide has enlightened you on some concepts and ideas you may have missed as you played the game. Likewise, we hope you found this helpful and enjoyable and if there are tips, tricks or strategies you want to share with us relative to this game, you are very much welcome to do so very much so don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below!