Co-developed by Konami and Tencent’s Timi Studio Group, Garena recently released Contra: Return, the latest sequel to one of the longest-running side-scrolling shoot-‘em-ups that captivated the hearts of millions of gamers across generations since 1987. As one of the few multiplayer co-op games during its inception in the 80s, the series has continued to evolve with each incarnation. Contra: Return, which is available for both Android and iOS platforms, provides tons of content never before seen in the franchise and hours of fresh yet familiar gameplay for both veterans and new players alike. With its several new game modes, characters, and artillery to further liven up the action, Contra: Return is a definite must-try for every gamer.
Contra: Return puts you in control, once again, of members of the unique special guerilla task force codenamed, “Contra” as they are called on to fight back against hordes of invading aliens. Though originally a duo of Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, Contra: Return starts you off with Bill Rizer as the main protagonist and as you progress through various missions you will unlock more characters to join your team. Each unique hero has his own strengths and advantages, and with each weapon and equipment having tons of enhancement options, choosing which ones to use and upgrade is a challenge in itself.
With Story Missions and extra game modes becoming progressively more difficult, you constantly need to strengthen your heroes as well as your armaments to make it through each of the many challenges. Like most mobile action adventure games, you consume stamina with each battle you go through and it replenishes over time so you need to spend it wisely as well.
The tutorial in Contra: Return is simple and very easy to follow. Controls may take some time to get used to but you can always customize it to some extent to suit your preferences. With every new feature or game mode you unlock comes a walkthrough guide to help you on your first time. Whether you’re a fan of the coin-operated arcade and home console versions of the game and want to test out your skills on the next generation Contra game, or totally new to run and gun-style games and needs guidance in improving your runs, our Contra: Return tips, cheats and strategy guide can help you become stronger faster to ace those Story Missions and dominate the Arena.
1. Progress The Story As Far As You Can
In Contra: Return, unlocking new features and additional game modes can come from either finishing a certain stage in Story Mode or reaching a certain level. With the Story Mode being your primary source of experience on top of it being constantly a key to unlocking new features and new heroes, it becomes top priority when choosing on where to spend stamina even if new game modes have been unlocked.
A lot of the items you need to enhance your weapons can be found and obtained on different chapters and the higher the weapon’s upgrade level the farther you have to progress through the story to acquire them. These items can be farmed later on when you have accomplished a stage with a three-star rating.
Take note of each level’s suggested firepower requirement as it will give you an idea of that level’s relative difficulty. Though a gap between your current firepower level and the level requirement may be a problem if the latter is higher, the level can still be overcome (probably not a three-star rating though). One thing you have to consider here as well is that firepower really isn’t everything, with auto-aim working wonders for you, you mostly only need to focus on ducking, jumping, and dodging enemies and projectiles as they come. It may take a while to get used to how auto-aiming works if you are used to manual aiming like in previous Contra games but once you get the hang of it you will realize just how much easier this game is.
Lastly, you should take note of the requirements to obtain each star before diving into each story stage. As rewards are given for obtaining a perfect 3-star per stage, it’s best to try and get it on your first go. Also, for you to be able to raid a stage later on, when farming for materials, you need to obtain a 3-star rating for it as well.
2. Focus Mainly On Two Guns
In Contra: Return you will carry a primary and a secondary weapon to battle. These weapons are interchangeably usable through each stage and reminiscent of weapon varieties in previous Contra games. You will acquire a few guns easily on the initial stages of the story and probably a few more as you complete and farm parts from some game modes. As each weapon you obtain has its own strengths and advantages, it is very tempting to level each one up and perform the necessary upgrades whenever possible. While in the long run this may be beneficial to you, the best approach is to initially focus your resources on two guns.
As items needed for upgrading weapons are limited you should always have the mindset that you can only afford to upgrade two weapons, even if you feel that you have an overwhelming abundance of one or a few resources at the start of the game. Given as well that the higher the weapon’s level grows, the more resources are needed, there will soon come a point when you will hardly have enough resources to even support just two weapons.
Additionally, more upgrade options become available later on in the game and these added methods of enhancing your weapons will require even more difficult to obtain materials.
For starters, therefore, it would be advisable to test each weapon you acquire before deciding which ones you prefer to use for the most part of the game, probably at least a rank B weapon. Be sure that the weapons you choose to stick with, as far as upgrading is concerned, are suitable for very different situations and that you see good reasons in switching from one weapon to another in the heat of battle. To site a specific example, you can choose to work with the assault rifle and the flamethrower. The assault rifle as your main weapon has range and will be used normally in battle. When you’re crunched in a corner or when range isn’t as important you can switch to your flamethrower.
3. Join A Legion As Soon As You Can
Every game that has a guild system or an alliance system in place means that you need to be a part of one to speed up your progress in your adventure. Likewise, in Contra: Return, you should also apply to be part of a Legion as soon as you hit level 22. There are only advantages and no disadvantages when becoming part of a Legion. Again, like in most games, choosing a good enough legion means finding one with a lot of members and a high enough power. Potentially these characteristics will determine how active the members are.
There are game modes that you can only participate in when you are a member of a Legion. Participating in these modes do not consume stamina but can earn you great rewards. You have to pay attention though to some of these modes that are only available following certain schedules. It’s also important to make donations to your Legion to hasten its growth and development.
4. Learn To Use Each Hero
One great feature of Contra: Return is that leveling up of skills and upgrading weapons cuts across through all heroes you have. As such, there won’t be worries about only focusing on certain heroes because of not having enough items to boost and develop everyone in your roster. With this set-up, you will more free to choose which hero to use at any time knowing that, as far as power levels are concerned, they are all at practically the same level.
As you progress through the story missions and accomplish certain milestones in the game you will acquire new heroes which have unique characteristics and abilities. Though considering that your first character, Bill Rizer, is perhaps as close to generic as it comes considering previous Contra games as well as similar games in the genre, getting accustomed to using him in battle can almost convince you that you can engage in any battle or game mode without having to use any of the other characters that you have unlocked. While this presumption may be true, the variety of skills offered by the rest of your crew can still make them perform better on some levels in the game.
5. Find Safe Spots And Discover Patterns In Each Battle
While actual skills and fast reflexes are needed to do better in any run and gun-style game, Contra: Return, like any of its predecessors is a game that can also be beaten with good memory. In fact, the best players of the classic Contra games are the ones who potentially put in the most hours into the game, memorizing every bit of perceptible detail on each stage and precisely moving and shooting knowing exactly when each enemy and bonus will appear.
Every stage, every boss, and practically every battle, except PvP, follows a basic pattern that you need to observe and analyze. For one, enemies in the battlefield are not randomly generated, meaning, they will always spawn at the same spot and practically shoot at the exact same time when you repeat a stage. As far as randomness goes, it only applies to enemies who can aim at you and will of course shoot at a different angle when you are moving constantly.
Another important set of details you need to be observant about are safe spots in boss battles. While it may appear confusing and tense for the first or first few battles, there will always be small spots in the area that are safe from harm’s way. Again, checking for patterns and predicting the boss’ next move is also an important task here. So typically, you’ll dodge and shoot while analyzing every boss’ movement to ensure that you’ll have an even better performance next time you encounter that same boss.
6. Don’t Spam On The Shoot Button
If you are used to playing Contra or other shoot-‘em-up games before, especially outside of mobile gaming platforms, you are probably used to, by force of habit, holding the fire button down and shooting away at thin air even when there are no enemies around. Funny as it seems, that was fairly inconsequential in earlier games. With the tactical depth and variety of game modes that Contra: Return has to offer, properly managing shots fired in the game plays a vital role in surviving as well as efficiently accomplishing missions.
Though you have infinite ammo, weapons have a cool down period in the game and this is triggered when you stop shooting. These means that you should manage cool downs by actually not shooting when there are no enemies in sight or focusing on evasion at some points in the battle. This also applies to special skills that each hero has so each skill must be used efficiently and with proper timing.
7. Battle In The Arena And PvP
Perhaps in other mobile games, an arena is where PvP happens as well. As these modes are often used interchangeably, you might have a bit of confusion when it comes to differentiating between these two game modes in Contra: Return. While both game modes involve having a duel against other players in the server, both are completely different from one another and each of these game modes have different strategies for you to succeed in. To distinguish one from the other, the arena is entirely on auto-battle while pvp is real-time.
The arena has much simpler mechanics as it only depends on firepower. Depending therefore on how much you’ve progressed as far as level and upgrades are concerned, you will find players here who have higher or firepower than you and fighting against anyone with a lower firepower results to an automatic win. This is one of the game modes that benefits greatly from focusing on finishing story quests and gaining level early on, especially if you are among the first players on the server and reaching the highest firepower the soonest practically earns you a top spot.
On the other hand, PvP in Contra: Return is more strategic in nature, and requires not just mastery of your chosen weapons and character skills but of enhancements and buffs available exclusively in this mode. While firepower plays an important role in here as well, battle outcomes are not decided entirely by it. Having a fairly good idea of what each hero can do will be highly beneficial for you here, especially when fighting against them. This is more like a MOBA game in that there are enemy mobs you can kill for experience, buffs you can acquire, and a play style that suits your strategies and preferences. Keep in mind that it’s not a shoot fest, so knowing when to engage and when to flee is an important key to achieving victory.
8. Add As Many Friends As You Can
On top of getting as much as 60 stamina per day, having in-game friends in Contra: Return means having people you can get to know and play with in several co-op game modes that the game has. If you don’t have actual friends who are playing or whom you can invite to play the game with you, then the next best thing is to go and make online friends. There is also an event where you can trade puzzle pieces with friends and earn better rewards.
9. Purchase Stamina When You Need To
It’s understandable to hold on to your diamonds as there is an awful lot of great stuff to save them for in the game. However, it’s important to progress in the game as fast as you can to open up more venues for enhancements and upgrades, as well as more game modes to get more rewards from. At times, you may be unable to progress through a mission due to not having enough firepower and that is perhaps a sign to take a rest from the game and wait for the next set of opportunities and rewards to upgrade your hero and equipment. If the case is that you can still progress further but lack stamina, don’t hesitate to use your diamonds to replenish it. With first time stage completions and daily arena rank rewards that give diamonds, you can earn back the diamonds you spent faster if you focus more on spending stamina to become stronger.
10. Claim Rewards As They Become Available
On top of the instant rewards that you receive from every battle in the game, there are also rewards to be claimed from missions, events, and milestones. It’s important therefore to consume attempts at each game mode available in the game as every bit of reward you receive contributes to strengthening your heroes and armaments in the game. Claiming these rewards at the soonest could mean being able to further strengthen your heroes and equipment faster so, it’s best to grab them as soon as you are able to.
And that’s all we have for our Contra: Return tips, cheats and strategies. We hope you had a great time reading this guide and that you learned much from it as well. Do you have additional Contra: Return tips, tricks, and strategies that we forgot to mention? Be sure to let us know and send us a message in the comment area!
Safal
Sunday 23rd of August 2020
How many level does the main story mode have ?
Kent
Sunday 2nd of December 2018
Buying gold to your max limit is also beneficial since you will be needing them most during late game
Chillax
Sunday 2nd of December 2018
Good article. I just installed the game and it’s very addictive. Was looking at forums to see how can I add friends in Contra Return but can’t find much. If you love the game too, then add me as a friend in the game. We can fight for stuff together. I can also donate stamina to you if you really need. My id is 459415540504535523
Let’s Mak ether game even more popular.