The world’s largest gaming company, Tencent Games, is back with yet another exciting release for iOS and Android devices in the form of Chess Russ. With PUBG MOBILE, Arena of Valor, and CrossFire: Legends leading the company’s pack of mobile games, it’s indisputable to say that avid mobile gamers are either very much into or at least be familiar with Tencent Games’ titles. Most of Tencent Games’ apps have earned highly positive reviews from players and as far as downloads are concerned, PUBG MOBILE tops the list with over a hundred million downloads accumulated from the Google Play Store alone. With the company’s reputation for quality and success, it’s no surprise to see new games from them to almost always be an instant hit.
Tencent Games’ latest mobile title Chess Rush is the company’s take on the highly popular auto battler genre. Released just a little over a week ago, Chess Rush has quickly proven itself to be a massive success as the current top trending game on the Google Play Store and very well within top ten lists in more than 20 countries. Although it offers everything all other auto chess games have, Chess Rush, from the title itself, prides itself as the fastest-paced game in the genre with the availability of turbo mode that cuts round times by half. On top of it, the anime-styled art and overall neat graphics gives you a good idea of how much time and effort has been invested into creating the game. If you have yet to dive into the auto battler genre or have played one or a couple before and still looking for one better suited to your taste, then don’t hesitate to download and try Chess Rush out.
Much like any auto battler game, Chess Rush sets you up on the role as a commander who must gather your troops to defeat 7 other players in a board arena. With over 50 heroes to choose from, having synergy in the team you use as well proper placement of troops on the grid will be crucial strategic aspects of each battle that you must learn to master. One full run consists of a series of matches as your growing army is pitted against armies of other player. The last man standing wins but, win or lose, each match presents various learning opportunities to improve your tactics and overall performance for succeeding matches.
Auto battle or auto chess games are generally easy to pick up and play and even if you are a total beginner to games and the genre itself, Chess Rush provides an in-depth tutorial that makes it easy for practically everyone to get a good grasp of the game’s mechanics in a short span of time. Even if you have played other auto battler games before, though, it still helps to go through the tutorials at the start of the game. In essence, anyone can get better in this game with some time and dedication invested into the game as well as some patience to learn and remember what each heroes and equipment can do for quicker decisions within the match. Beyond actually playing through matches time and again, our Chess Rush beginner’s guide offers plenty of tips, cheats and strategies to help you dominate the battle arena.
1. Play Through The Tutorial And A Couple Of Practice Matches
Chess Rush, like any other auto battler game, is truly easy to pick up and play but definitely hard to master. It is true that there is a bit of luck involved in draws as you choose the heroes who will form part of your team and likewise rely on luck for duplicates you need to level up your heroes and make them more formidable for the succeeding battles. Despite this, the outcome of matches will still heavily rely on the considerations you have when picking the best from the available heroes and your ability to blend them all together to have a team that can perform better than the opposing player’s team.
Regardless of how good you are in other strategy games, it will be especially challenging to achieve victory in Chess Rush, as well as other auto chess games, on your first few matches. Considering the vastness of possible strategies that stem from hero combinations and formations available, you will have to really spend a lot of time experimenting with some combinations of heroes, considering each hero’s class and race as well.
For starters, when the game asks you about whether you are a newbie or an expert in the auto battler genre, you should choose to pick that you are a newbie even if you have already played one or a couple of other auto chess games before. The tutorial will help you be familiar with the basic mechanics of the game and some changes in how things go as compared with other games within the genre. If you are a total beginner, then this is a must. Try and read through each explanation as you will definitely pick up a lot of ideas on how to stand well on your own on the initial matches that follow prior to being able to freely select the game mode you want to spend time on.
It would be a necessary experience to dive into a couple of matches first before you dig deeper into learning what each hero does in relation to each one’s class and race. So once you are able to choose game modes, simply tap on the game mode icon beside the play button and go for some practice rounds. Be sure to try as many of the heroes first-hand and have a mindset that you are playing to learn and not to win yet.
2. Know What Each Hero Can Do
Once you have gained some experience in actual matches, what you should do is to browse through the heroes available and read through what each one can do as well as their respective classes and races. You can access the list of heroes by tapping on the heroes icon at the lower left side of the screen.
While it is only natural to have your preferences as to which heroes you would want to have and work on, it simply doesn’t work that way in auto chess games. As each round begins with a random roster of 5 heroes to choose from, chances are that you won’t have a high chance of banking the heroes you want the most to be a part of your team. Considering the huge roster of over 50 heroes currently in the game as well, you will want to be able to have a good idea of how most, if not all, heroes work as you will often find yourself in situations where you will have to do with whoever is available.
Related: Chess Rush Advanced Guide: Tactics, Strategies, Super Combos & Best Teams
Beyond each hero’s unique stats and special abilities, their class and race equally impact the tide of battle. With numerous perks that unlock once you hit a certain number of heroes belonging to the same race or class, and with each buff increasing potency as the number grows, you should also consider reading through what each class and race buff can do prior to proceeding to casual and ranked matches. Keep in mind as well that the buffs only count unique heroes so placing 2 or more of the same hero in battle won’t activate these buffs.
3. Take Advantage Of Recommended Heroes And Formations
As the luck of the draw may not always be on your side on each game or even on each round, you may find yourself seeing different sets of heroes round after round and be left with no opportunity to rank any of the ones you have up. As you should know early on, 3 of the same heroes combined gives you a higher ranked one with twice as much power. While the idea is supposed to revolve around ranking as many of your heroes as possible, you have to be ready as well to fill in the hero spots from the available choices you have.
If you are in a situation where you can’t decide from among the heroes in your roster as to which ones to use, you can click on the recommended heroes button and be presented with some choices. On the other tab, you can also choose to go with the recommended formation. At some point in time, you will be able to formulate better battle rosters and formations than what the A.I. is recommending but if you are just starting out, these features can help you out a lot especially considering the limited preparation time in-between rounds.
4. Focus On Creating An Elite Team Formation
If you have played some strategy games before that works around formations, then you already have an idea how it generally works. If you are a total beginner to the concept itself, then you should know that formation is at least as important as your selection of heroes and in some cases can even be more important. As we mentioned earlier that luck pretty much impacts the heroes you will have on your team, no amount of bad luck can ever put you down if you have practical knowledge on how to place each of your available heroes on the grid. Team formation can work wonders on any battle and can even win you a round despite having lower ranked heroes than the opposing team, provided of course that the gap in power is not that tremendous.
Basically, heroes can attack at close range or long range and naturally what you would want is to have your melee heroes up front as they are typically tougher than ranged units. If you have spent some time reading through each hero’s profile, then you should know which of the melee units have higher hp than others and which ones have higher attack values. With this, the tanks or at least the tankier heroes ought to be strategically positioned at the front lines.
Ranged heroes, whether archers or mages are typically good damage dealers but lack the defense values to survive a lot of damage. As such they should typically be situated at the back but not that far behind the front liners so they can contribute to deal damage to the enemy’s front line heroes.
Related: Chess Rush Best Heroes Guide: Strengths and Weaknesses of Each Character
With numerous heroes that can cause AoE damage as well as massive status effects, you should also refrain from lumping every one so close together. With some heroes capable of instantly teleporting to the rear end of the opposing side, you should also consider designating a protector or bodyguard for the back end heroes of your team.
Remember that these are just general tips and formulating your very own formation ought to be as flexible and dynamic as the roster of heroes you will have on each game as well as in-between rounds. The idea is to formulate one that suits the best heroes you have on your team and doing so within the limited time provided in-between each round. Truthfully enough, it won’t be a simple task to master formations, but as you play, you can take bits and hints of what generally works from recommended formations as well as your opponent’s set up.
5. Remember To Equip Items
Most PvE rounds in Chess Rush offer you a chance to gain equipment for your heroes via the treasure chest sitting at the right side of the board. Although it noticeably glows whenever there are items in it, you may miss it as you closely watch the intense battle between you army and the opposing team.
Although gears that drop are random and there are no lists that provide an idea of what each one can do outside of an actual match, you can still see a brief description of the equipment you acquire by tapping on the chest once it glows, and then tapping on the equipment’s icon at the right side of the screen. Another tap is all it takes to equip it on a hero or to upgrade the one that is already equipped. As this can give you some advantage in battle, be sure to equip each one as quickly as you acquire it. Be sure to match it as well to your current needs in battle based on the classes in your battle roster.
6. Manage Mana Crystals And Rerolls
Part of the standard mechanics in auto battler games is the existence of currencies within the arena that you gain after each round that you, in turn, use to purchase heroes and upgrade your commander to unlock more hero slots. Basically, the choice is to either spend it on a hero or save it for later as better ones may become available on the next round. It may seem like the choice would depend on the initial sets of choices laid out for you, but then there are general rules to follow to raise your chances of doing better sooner or later within the match.
For starters, set your eyes on a limited variety of heroes that has combos as a result of their classes or races. Keep in mind that there Is a limit as to how many heroes you can deploy on the board and to keep benched on the waiting line and as much as possible, you would want to avoid spending mana crystals on heroes you won’t be able to use at all. Although selling heroes to get back a crystal can be done, you would want to avoid that and instead bank on saving your mana crystals.
For one, saving mana crystals for later is important as multiple copies of the hero you already have may appear on the next roster of heroes for hire on the next round. Additionally, you want to save some mana crystals as you will have to make rerolls later on for that one missing copy of a hero to rank up one of your troops. Another important consideration is that mana crystals can be used instead to rank up your character and be able to unlock additional slots to deploy more heroes for combat. Last, but not the least, you can gain additional crystals at the end of each round based on the number of crystals you have on you for that round. With this, the more crystals you save, the more you will earn and although saving up early on may put you at a disadvantage on earlier rounds, spending them carelessly will not guarantee a better performance and also risk winding you up for a losing streak.
It would really be a lot of fun to have friends in the game to practice and play co-op with so, hopefully, you will be able to grab some as you play Chess Rush. With a last reminder that practice makes perfect, this is where we will end our Chess Rush beginner’s guide. We hope you found the tips, cheats and strategies we shared to be helpful and that you enjoyed reading our article. If you have discovered other tips or tricks that you would like to share with us, then feel free to leave us a message in the comment area below!