If you are a fan of the cult-classic series of Command & Conquer RTS games I’m sure you will be eager to get your hands on this one as soon as possible. Command & Conquer Rivals is a new Android game which brings back the glorious days of the infinite struggles between GDI and NOD over the precious Tiberium.
If you did try the game already but feel a bit confused or need a hand in getting started with managing your units on the field of battle, we proudly present you our Command & Conquer Rivals beginner’s guide, which comes with 10 tips, cheats and strategies that you may find useful! So without further ado, let’s move on to our Command & Conquer Rivals beginner’s guide!
1. Train Units, Control Zones And Protect Your Harvester
Before we will get into a detailed section of advises, let’s get acquainted with the basics of how this game actually works in regards to the mechanics.
Command & Conquer: Rivals, just like every game from the series is a fast-paced RTS focused on building new structures and units, and managing them to gain victory over your opponents. This title, however, also has elements of the card game, since before every battle you have an opportunity to adjust your army out of cards that you choose for your deck.
Your main task is to destroy the enemy base while securing your own. In order to do so, you need to construct your unit-training buildings and then deploy your units that will lead you to victory. On the contrary to Command & Conquer PC games, in “Rivals” you will have to take over and secure three control points on the map which speed up the process of launching a devastating nuclear warhead from a central silo right on your opponents’ heads. Two nuclear warheads are just enough to destroy the headquarters and gain a plain victory.
But, as everything you do in strategy games, training your units comes with a cost. You will need to collect the said Tiberium, which a special crystalline material in Command & Conquer universe and a main resource needed to erect buildings, develop technologies and train units. In Command & Conquer Rivals you will use your Harvester vehicle to collect it from nearby sources. But be wary, since your enemies will probably target your gatherer as soon as they will have such possibility, so make sure to protect it no matter the cost. Otherwise, you may get cut off for a while from the Tiberium income.
Once you will train your troops and vehicles you want to focus on securing the control points on the map as soon as possible. You want to do this out of a simple reason: you want to drop the nuclear warhead before your enemy does that to you. In order to do so, you will need to capture and hold at least 2 out of 3 control zones on the map. Of course, the more of the control zones you have, the sooner the warhead from the silo will be launched. Analogically, if you control less than 2 zones you will lose the advantage and your enemy will start the nuclear counter.
2. Learn The Pros And Cons Of Your Units
Command & Conquer games have always based on pretty straightforward rules, where one unit was effective against the other, but the other was good against yet another. In Command & Conquer Rivals developers used the same approach in regards to the units, so it’s good to keep track of these counters in order to maximize your chances of success.
Before you will actually begin completing your deck and assessing all the pros and cons of it, you have to learn what each of your units does. For instance a Missile Squad of rocket launcher soldiers is super effective against any sort of vehicles and aircraft, but it does not do so well against other foot troops on the field. There are many units available in the game, so it probably would take you some time until you would memorise which soldier and vehicle is good against which one. Luckily, you can just mark your unit and hold to pop up an info window with all its details.
It’s also worth to get acquainted with the statistics of each of you units to know how long they can stand in battle and how fast they can take down your enemies. There are 2 main statistics that you want to take a note of: HP and DPS. HP stands for the unit’s maximum health and DPS constitutes the amount of damage per second. There are also secondary stats that matter, including Speed, Cost and Vision, but they are stable and will not be modified each time your unit gains experience.
Once you will learn what your units are good at, you will be able to send them on the field of battle in the right order to avoid unnecessary losses and to maximize your chances of defeating enemy units.
3. Build A Balanced Deck And Plan Your Strategy
Once you will learn the pros and cons of your units or at least get a slight overview in this matter, you may begin to adjust your deck.
Whereas it may seem tempting to stack your army with Predator Tanks and Shockwave Troopers, it’s an easy way to lose a game, since the key is to build a balanced deck. Now, what does that mean? Well, basically it’s about having an answer to anything that your opponent throws at you, including troops, vehicles and aircraft. Check your units and see their pros and cons and try to adjust your cards to create a diverse army with an equal amount of anti-soldier, anti-vehicle, and anti-aircraft type of units. If you won’t have an answer to one of these types, at some point you will stuck against an opponent that uses a particular type of units.
Now, it’s important to know that not all counters are born equal. You can, of course carefully study the stats of each of your units and try to memorise them as much as possible, but a lot of your knowledge and acquaintance in the game will eventually come from learning by doing. Don’t hesitate to try out different variants and see which setup makes the best results.
Once you will figure out the best card setup, it’s time to think about your strategy. Even though your approach is mostly dependant on the situation, you can still work out a universal management plan that may turn out to be successful. For instance, it’s good to secure your Tiberium income from the very beginning of the game by producing a Harvester right after the battle begins. Then, you want to prepare your unit production facilities, so you will be able to shoot a response at your enemy very quickly. Once you will have your funds flowing and all your basic facilities ready, and you’re not getting any signs from your enemy, you can start scouting the area and take over first control points. Obviously, it’s just an example of how you can start your game, since it’s all dependant on the situation. You want to react on your enemy’s actions in the first place.
4. Get Awareness Through Scouting
Scouting is an important tactic through which you can get an insight about the strategy of your opponent, the number and kind of units he operates with, as well as the number of Harvesters and buildings he has. By knowing your opponent’s strategy, you will be able to better prepare yourself and find the best solutions of how to counter him with your own units.
In Command & Conquer Rivals scouting is basically about sending your troops to observe your enemy movements and better understand his strategy. Needless to say, the battle map is covered with “fog of war” which can be revealed entirely (and temporarily) if you scatter your units around its every corner. It’s useful to know what’s happening around the map, but here you should be focused particularly on revealing the area surrounding your enemy’s headquarters.
Scout units should be cheap and fast. Better if they have camouflage capabilities, but these are usually high-end troops and it’s just fine to stick with the first two characteristics. Cheap, because you don’t want to waste your resources on units that have a high possibility of not surviving the endeavour, and fast because then you will be able to manoeuvre them quickly and change directions to escape your opponent if things go bad.
All in all, scouting tactic plays an important part of any early game stage when you are not fully aware of your enemy’s capabilities, units and strategies. It helps you to better understand what he’s up to, and by knowing his movements, and the number of units and buildings as well as their kind, you will know how to counter him more effectively.
5. Learn How To Micromanage To Be More Effective
In Command & Conquer Rivals, it’s important to gain an advantage over your opponent by choosing the right cards for your deck, however, very often it won’t guarantee you victory. Apart from having a balanced deck and a good working tactic, the only element you actually lack here is your real-time micromanagement skills on the field of battle. But… what the heck is that all about?
To put it in simple words: it’s about being a fast mouse clicker. By quickly manoeuvring your units, turning, withdrawing and rushing after your enemy, you have a chance to outskill him by bending the mechanics of the game to your favour. Most units cannot attack on the move and have a limited range. By knowing the range of every unit you will be able to assess the chances of hitting and running.
What is more, every hex on the battlefield can be taken only by 1 kind of unit. Use that to block your enemy’s advance by placing tanky vehicles and troops on their way while flanking the opponent’s units from the other side. It may sound a little confusing to you in theory, but truth be told, it’s all dependant on the particular situation on the field.
By knowing how to operate your units quickly on the field you will gain advantage, not through depending on their capabilities but here comes your very skill of how good you are manually. It can be a gamechanger if you are fighting with a player that is much less responsive.
6. Be Reactive To Counter Your Enemy Better
You have to accept the fact that your strategy is not universal and sometimes it will not be super effective, and things will not go the way you wanted them to go. Don’t underestimate your enemy because you’re fighting a real human being not an NPC, and he will do whatever it takes to win, just like you. It’s important to know how to find yourself in every situation and to find the right answer on the changing circumstances on the field.
If you happen to produce a high-end unit for lots of Tiberium and that units appears to be completely ineffective against enemy units, don’t hesitate to react quickly and sacrifice it in order to make some space and train a troop or vehicle that will change the course of the situation. I know, it may be painful to get rid of your Titan as soon as you created it, but there’s a risk that keeping him alive won’t give you enough of production space to train anti-aircraft units on time and get rid of these Orcas!
Reacting is an important element of every game. If you will have a response on everything your enemy throws at you, or if your current tactic doesn’t really work, it’s good to change it as soon as possible in order avoid a possible loss in the later game.
7. Upgrade Your Cards Regularly
The way to improve the efficiency of your units is upgrading them whenever you have such a possibility. You can increase the values of their base HP and DPS by purchasing new tiers with credits. Each unit has 3 tiers that you can upgrade regardless of the number of your cards in the deck. Once you get your unit to maximum possible tier, you can level it up, but this time you will need additional cards of that unit to do so.
I know it can be tempting to put your credits into the “big ones”, high-end units that look cool and are effective, but let’s get real. You won’t have a chance to spawn them so often during the battle. It’s wise to invest first in the core units that you have plenty and that are cheap and you can spawn them at the early game basically all the time.
Apart from upgrading your basic units in your deck, it’s important to invest your funds in cards that are relevant to your strategy and that proved to be super effective in a number of scenarios. You want to spend your credits and level up these units which are best responses against your enemy, so make sure to level up not only troops and vehicles but also aircraft that can be taken down by very few kinds of units.
After every battle, level up and completed achievements, you are rewarded with chests which drop several cards. It’s good to keep track of what you get so that you can upgrade your units regularly.
8. Get More Crates To Acquire More Cards
The more crates you get, the higher chances for drops that you may want the most, as well as a chance of increasing capabilities of your units. Remember of getting your crates from a number of available sources, such as leveling up, completing bounties and spending your diamonds on fuel. Also, don’t forget to claim your free crates whenever they are available.
If you are ready to invest some real money in the game you can purchase special crates with a lot of cards, as well the rare ones, but if you prefer to remain a free-to-play gamer, it’s perfectly fine to collect your crates from all the mentioned sources.
9. Join An Alliance
Joining an alliance, or if you like a more common word “a guild”, provides you with a number of profits to increase your effectiveness or to simply let you try your hand at the new deck that you have just prepared.
An alliance offers you a possibility of rewatching your friends’ battles and learning from them useful tips and tricks. Nobody said you are going to be a pro from the very start of your adventure with Command & Conquer Rivals, so don’t hesitate to get a few hints from more experienced players.
You can also spar with other alliance members on friendly rules as well as normal rules. It’s a good way to test your skills, approach, tactics and, of course, a freshly created deck without the risk of ruining your statistics. Before you will decide to try your hand at the serious game, and if you belong to an alliance, don’t hesitate to make use of its benefits.
10. Learn From Other Players
Last but not least, if you want to constantly improve yourself and learn something new from more experienced players, it’s worth to check other peoples’ tactics, decks and approach by rewatching their battles through the replay function, as well as watching live games on C&C TV.
A reply function is really well-developed in Command & Conquer Rivals. It allows you to speed up, slow down and pause the watched game, so that you can carefully track the number and kind of particular units in players’ decks, learn their micromanagement techniques and, most importantly, improve your own playstyle.
Command & Conquer Rivals also has a C&C TV option, which allows you to watch what’s currently happening in the particular league of players. If you want to keep track with the most popular decks, techniques and strategies used by other players on your level and possibilities, it’s worth to check it out.
And that would be all for Command & Conquer Rivals beginner’s guide! Hopefully, some of these hints will help you out in taking your first steps in this great RTS mobile game. If you have some useful Command & Conquer Rivals tips and tricks and want to share them with us, let us know in the comment section below!