Gears POP! is Microsoft’s latest offering in the mobile gaming space and the game is available for both Android and iOS platforms. Globally launched just last August 22, Gears POP! is the first mobile game based on the Gears of War franchise. Better yet, the popular line-up of characters in Gears of War are featured in the game brandishing their Funko POP! renditions recently released on the market. While the game is an absolute treat for fans of either Gears of War or Funko POP!, gamers who enjoy tower defense and competitive strategy titles will also find the simple yet addictive mechanics of the game wildly amusing.
Gears POP! sets you up as a commander of your very own army as you continuously strive to become the supreme competitor in a real-time PvP arena. With more than 30 Gears of War characters to collect, upgrade, and consider to form part of your team, there are practically limitless possible team combinations to encounter in battle guaranteeing that no two matches will be the same. You can freely test your mettle against A.I. opponents with a newly-assembled team and you can quickly jump into battle and face random opponents. Although characters in the game, upgradable through pins, have varying rarity levels and influenced by luck in terms of obtainability, much of the skirmish outcome will still depends on your team’s balance as far as components go and how you strategize around the skills and powers within your disposal.
While Gears POP! is an entirely unique game in its own right, experienced mobile gamers as well as total beginners to this genre will find the controls and mechanics of the game easy to grasp. Although the tutorial practically spans across only a few matches, the existence of practice mode makes it easy to immerse yourself into the mechanics further and be better prepared for real matches.
In truth, anyone can easily learn the ropes of the game although mastering it will be quite a challenge. So if you find yourself suffering at the bitter end of matches and just a little dumbfounded when it comes to forming a strong team, then be sure to check out our Gears POP! beginner’s guide, as we compiled a list of useful tips, cheats and strategies to help you set your team and dominate each battle you engage in.
1. Maintain The Balance In Your Team Composition
While the core of Gears POP! may seem to revolve around upgrading characters and packing as many rare ones into your team, it hardly really works that way in the arena. Regardless of how strong your army is, without synergy and cohesion, you will more likely suffer defeat at the hands of even a weaker but balance team on the opposing side. Although it may seem a bit confusing for total beginners, the initial pins you will obtain at the start of your game actually make up a pretty decent team that sufficiently respects the balance considering composition and functionality. As you will soon obtain more and more components for your squad and will be inclined to switch some pins in and out, be sure to take note the ratio of roles that you should maintain in the team.
For starters, you can tap on each pin in your collection and click on the info button to have a better idea of each character’s role. This will help you decide how to switch characters while continuing to maintain a good balance and synergy within your squad. Likewise, consider costs associated with each character as well as you would neither want a squad that is too fast but too brittle nor too tough but too slow.
What you would want is to be able to spread your squad across all three lanes to have a very versatile working strategy fit for any given situation. As such, having a good mix of roles in the team should come with the basic function of being able to launch an offense on any lane as well as provide a decent defensive stance when push comes to shove.
Tanks like the Butcher are important to have for both offensive and defensive plays on the mid lane. Like the basic strategy exhibited during the tutorial, scouts that come in groups work well following the tank on offense as well as serve as quick cannon fodders for defensive plays. Up next are bruisers that take the side lanes and take cover from time to time. Keep in mind that capturing covers lead to the extension of your deployment zone so you would want to invest in bruisers as much as you can to try and take advantage in deployment zone. As you would want to make sure that you can play a wide strategy utilizing either lane, having 4 characters who can take the side lanes are a good starting set up for your squad.
Aside from Bruisers, Threats also proceed through battle utilizing the side lanes but unlike Bruisers, they are more aggressive and quick and should best be deployed behind Bruisers. Last, but not the least, be sure to maintain at least two grenades for crowd control in either offensive or defensive strategies. Both the Frag Grenade and Ink Grenade which you will have at the start of the game are decent ones so you may want to keep them in your squad until you find ones that better suit your taste and play style.
2. Time Your Deployments Strategically
As you start each battle, you will notice the meter at the bottom of the screen fill up slowly until it reaches the maximum value of 10. While you can already deploy any of your troops on hand, consider waiting a little more to be able to deploy more troops consecutively. Remember that the initial objective on each match is not to race for who gets to deploy first but rather, who will stand triumphant in the first clash to take advantage of the match. There will still be factors to consider that may influence how you will deploy your troops especially on the initial stage of battle. Be sure to note what each pin on your deck can do and take not of the next draw as well which you can see at the bottom left side of your screen.
Waiting a little longer to deploy troops consecutively will more likely leave you to play reactively against your opponent’s first salvo. If you are lucky enough to nab a grenade on your starting hand, feel free to lob it right on your enemy’s turrets as he deploys his first troop. In general, what you would want is to spend as little as possible to counter whatever your opponent throws at you and take the advantage by deploying as many troops as you can on all sides or any lane, depending on the circumstances. For one, concentrating on one land to take out one turret may leave you vulnerable to a counterattack. But then, a disadvantaged opponent may very well try to deploy as many troops to defend the lane that you are assaulting. Be sure to keep a flexible plan of action during the battle and identify quickly whether you should push for an offensive or save some of your energy for defensive plays.
3. Mind The Changing Deployment Zone
As each battle starts, the deployment area will be very limited and you will only be able to summon troops close to your avatar and turrets with the exception of the grenades and your ultimate ability. As more and more rows of cover are captured by your troops, your deployment area begins to expand forward, giving you the opportunity to deploy troops closer to your enemy’s territory. As you may initially be too focused on the heat of the skirmish, you may not be conscious of this feature which presents plenty of opportunity to turn the tide of battle closer to your side. As you can deploy farther ahead of the line, you will now be able to combo your deployments with your grenades as well as your ultimate skill more effectively.
On the other hand, if your opponent does manage to get a jump on you on initial phase of combat and successfully expands his deployment zone closer to you, you should avoid panicking and instead keep your wits about to retake your territory. For the most part, having an advantage in deployment area does present more opportunities for pushing with the offensive and if you are on the receiving end as such, be ready to focus on defense and pin elimination by saving your grenades and ultimate skill to destroy as many of the opposing troops in the fray. If you are on the offensive side, you know that you will most likely deploy as many troops to hasten victory. As such, you can expect opponents to do the same so take it as an opportunity instead to clear as many enemy troops with a combination of grenades and troops banking close to your avatar and turrets.
4. Be Selective When Upgrading
Each victory you seize as well as rewards from achievements typically earn you more pins, coins, and crystals. Pins represent the troops you collect and extra copies are necessary to upgrade each one. On top of extra copies of the pins, you also need coins to upgrade them and the higher the rarity and level of each pin, the more it will cost. While crystals are primarily used to speed up the unlocking of treasure chests you obtain from each win, this premium currency can also be used to purchase chests from the shop and can be exchanged for coins as well. Coins can also be used to purchase specific pins from the shop.
For the most part, chances are that you will have more pins ready to be upgraded as the more common ones will have more copies from each treasure chest you unlock and you will more likely not have enough coins to upgrade each one of them. Although upgrading just about any pin you can will benefit you as it earns you experience points to level up your account, you should consider being highly selective when it comes to upgrading pins.
For starters, do not upgrade a pin you have not tried using first. What you need to keep in mind is that higher rarity pins that form part of your squad can be very expensive to upgrade so it is best to always keep a good stock of coins ready for when you have the necessary duplicates for your rare pins. Be sure to regularly practice with your squad and determine early on which ones you like more than the others and prioritize upgrading them.
5. Play Through Each Game Mode Regularly
While Versus Mode stands as the main game mode in Gears POP!, you should always consider cycling through all other game modes as each one offers benefits for you to earn that goes well beyond resources and pins. You should naturally play Versus Mode and rack up 4 treasure chests to maximize the gear pack slots that take time to unlock. Beyond that, securing consecutive wins reward you with extra chests that immediately unlock so aiming towards the top reward is also viable if you feel that you can secure a consecutive 5-win streak.
While experience in battle, particularly the versus mode, serves as a good way to learn new strategies and deck composition, the Boot Camp offers basic strategies that will help you better understand the game’s mechanics and chips in additional rewards for completion of objectives as well. BE sure to exert effort into completing these objectives as you may have missed some points on the tutorial and some tactics you will learn here can be a little more advanced than your initial training.
As we mentioned earlier, you should visit the Practice Mode whenever you switch components in and out of your squad to have a better grip of how they perform in combat, not just as individual components, but more importantly, as part of a supposedly synergized team. In addition, you should also bring new pins you have unlocked to training and test them out not just for consideration on using them in your deck but also to be familiar with the full scope of their abilities if you face them on the arena. If you can afford to do so, spend time in training to hone your team as you mix and match troops to discover the best team you can come up with.
Once you have joined a crew, you can engage in in the Horde which is a co-op battle mode that pairs you and a fellow crewmate to fight together and eliminate waves of enemies as well as a boss. Although there are plenty of crews available in the game right now, it really helps to be part of an active one where members are in constant communication with one another.
6. Aim To Complete Daily Bounties
On top of the rewards you obtain from playing through each game mode, except training, there are additional rewards you can obtain through the accomplishment of daily bounties. Although the amount of coins and crystals you can obtain from completing objectives may not seem much, every bit of either resource is valuable so any opportunity to earn more of them should not be missed. Likewise, the objectives laid out under the daily bounties typically form part of the activities you engage in as you play the game. You have 3 random bounties each day and you can replace one of them that you find most challenging to accomplish to try your luck on the next bounty.
And that’s all we have for you with regards to our Gears POP! beginner’s guide. As a parting tip, make sure to spend the first matches you engage in with a mindset that you are playing to learn instead to win. It may take a while to get used to the game but once you have a firm grasp of the mechanics and have spent time strategizing around the pins you have collected, you will be on your way to securing more victories. Be sure to play for fun as well. We hope you learned a lot from the tips, tricks and strategies we shared and if you discover more that you would like to add to what we have listed, then do not hesitate to share them with us!