It’s World War 2 all over again, and you’ve been chosen to lead one of the Allied Forces’ secret operations. Your job is to infiltrate enemy lines and rescue POWs. But with how quickly the enemy forces operate, your mission is of dire importance, requiring swift and precise actions at a time.
Apart from liberating POWs, you are to whittle down the enemy forces by destroying any threats they might have in their bases. These may include personnel, turrets, watchtowers, or even tanks. The Allies have entrusted you with this mission as their victory depends on it. Welcome to Jackal Squad.
OneSoft Global, the publisher of 1945: Air Force and Space Shooter: Galaxy Attack, is back. This time, they bring with them a game similar to Archero. Jackal Squad situates the player in a sophisticated vehicle that can be armed with various types of weaponry. As stated above, the game involves lots of shooting and rescuing prisoners. The real challenge here is to drive around whilst causing enough havoc and destruction to the enemy forces, and we also mean dodging a lot of bullets and bombs.
A rather difficult shooter, Jackal Squad requires the player to strategize on the spot since getting caught off-guard can seem disastrous for your vehicle. A typical mission setup requires you to find and liberate all POWs in the level and obliterate roughly 90% of the enemy’s base. At the very end, destroying the generator of an electrical fence should make you clear the level. Intensity abounds in this chaotic, frantic, hardcore war game, and it will only get more hectic as the levels go by.
Have you just begun your mission to save allied POWs and cripple the enemy forces? Read our Jackal Squad guide, your mission briefing, below and maybe you’ll make it through the war to call yourself a veteran!
1. Watch Ads For Rewards And More
Since the dawn of entertainment, people would often get upset when commercials pop up. They’d ruin your favorite shows when they’d come up and today, they’re here to interrupt our games, too!
While it may be too much of a bitter pill to swallow, advertisements are everywhere. Especially in the mobile gaming market, ads are virtually inescapable since they often trigger when you lose a life, tap on something that looks shiny, or in some cases, watch them to gain more rewards.
The last case is the least venomous snake in the pit. Seeing as it’s beneficial, you should take advantage of this instead of skipping out on it entirely. Watching ads while you play Jackal Squad could be considered a break from all the intense fighting you do in every mission. In fact, such ads could even help you as you fight.
For instance, one such ad prompt you may have while you play is when you’ve crashed your vehicle. At the first time you crash, you should be asked if you’d like to revive for free with 50% HP and a cash (premium currency) revive bringing you back to full health. Certainly, if you don’t have cash in your in-game wallet and you’re quite close to completing the level, you might want to choose the former.
Another way you can take advantage of these ads is through clearing a level. After doing so, you should be given a prompt that doubles your earnings from the level. Coins are your main currency which you will use on mostly upgrades, a topic we will tackle soon.
This prompt doesn’t just appear after clearing a level, however, it also appears in the rewards section in the main menu. You will also be rewarded in Titanium.
Additionally, there is the Lucky Wheel which bears an assortment of prizes. Spinning it for free comes every now and then, but that extra spin can be done after watching an ad.
Have you run out of gas and you want to finish a certain level in particular? You may watch an ad to do that, too. After watching an ad or so, you will be given free gas instead of having to wait for it to refill.
There is also what’s called a time reward. Depending on how far you are in the campaign, this feature cumulates rewards that increase over time. The longer you leave it, the more rewards it collects. If you’d like 3 more hours worth of rewards, you may get this by watching an ad.
There are still many other ways to earn resources through ad watching. If you don’t give this a shot, you won’t be swimming in coins. Try this from time to time and trust us, it won’t disappoint!
Ads aside, let’s tackle the core aspect of the game: the fighting.
2. Mobilize To Suit The Situation
This is a shooter. There will be bullets everywhere, and there will be lots of dodging involved. You may perform a few maneuvers here and there, but we could show you how to make these maneuvers work.
Firstly, granted that this game was inspired by Archero, Jackal Squad offers you an attack radius where your vehicle will fire at its closest target. Getting just within range to open fire is your best option since it’s safer. You may also stop your vehicle from moving as you fire so your shots are more accurate.
Secondly, this game beats Archero where you can attack automatically as you move around. Driving in a figure-eight or around your enemy could make for some interesting outcomes, especially since you might be dodging those pesky bullets.
Regardless of your vehicle, you might want to practice this first since it takes a while to get used to. Just be sure that you don’t hit landmines (or seamines) as you drive about. If you do get hit, don’t feel too bad. This is the reason why your vehicle has an HP bar.
Thirdly, beware certain hazards like oil drums. Blowing those up will ignite a portion of the map for a few seconds, somewhat restricting your movement. Unless you’ve got some health to spare, then driving through the flames will do you no good. While these are great for causing damage to the enemy camp, they’re detrimental to your mobility.
We’ve mentioned mobility a few times and you can see why it’s so valuable, but in places where mobility is scarce, beware!
3. Avoid Cramped Places
As they say in some workplace safety training videos: “A tight space is a dangerous place.” Same goes for teeny tiny sections in some maps in Jackal Squad.
With what we discussed earlier with mobility, being caught in a small space with nothing but enemies pelting bullets at you should be a death sentence. If you do survive, you will most likely come out with a sliver of HP left.
If you find yourself in a tight space, try to navigate to a wider place that allows you to dodge better. Your enemies should follow you so you’ll be able to whittle them down slowly as they give chase. Be warned that some enemies may not move from that tight space (e.g. watchtowers), so it’d be best to do some hit and run tactics to take them out.
What we meant by that last bit is to repeatedly move into firing range, retreat when they fire, and then repeat. Imagine your vehicle in a narrow passageway that has watchtowers on opposing sides. Move in, shoot at them, fall back when they fire, and then move in again. This maneuver takes practice but it can definitely come in handy when done properly.
Speaking of watchtowers…
4. Prioritize Buildings And Tents
You have all sorts of enemies in Jackal Squad. These range from footsoldiers (which have their own classifications, too), vehicles like helicopters and tanks (boats, if you’re on the water), and then there are buildings.
Buildings such as tents, prison cells, watchtowers, and even the electric fence generator should be your priority. The reason behind this is that buildings are the most difficult to take down. Unlike enemies that tend to follow you around the map, buildings are stationary and some will often just fire at you when you get in range. Most of them have a limited bullet range, so driving out of their attack radius should solve the problem.
However, what we’re trying to say is that buildings aren’t just formidable foes that take a while to get beaten, some of them drop skills that improve the performance of your vehicle. As we’ve mentioned that this game is a nod to Archero, it has the skill feature as well, albeit you don’t get to choose which skills you receive. These skills are all completely at random but may help turn the tide while you’re in a tight spot.
As much as possible, you should make sure that every single building on the map is razed. You might miss a holding cell or two, and these buildings may give you a skill that will help you against the upcoming boss battle.
With regards to bosses, beating them is simply a matter of memorization.
5. Observe A Boss’ Attack Patterns
Every 5 levels, you should encounter a boss — a massive, intimidating beast of an enemy that may take several hits to vanquish.
Like in every other shooter, Jackal Squad has its own slew of bosses. These bosses range from gargantuan tanks to heavily-armored battleships. They exist to test the player as a rite of passage to the next level. The boss usually comes with an absurd loadout of guns, cannons, bombs, missiles, and many other weapons it might try to use on your vehicle.
But don’t fret, for bosses always have a weakness. If at first you seem to get bombarded by the same attack over and over again, try to learn from your mistakes. Some attacks may have different angles to them where you can be safe. Get into your attack radius and start shooting them from that spot. If the boss somehow gets their sights on you, quickly move to another spot.
There should be a pattern for all their attacks. Your best weapon here is observation as many times, you’ll also be working with the skills you’ve been granted before entering the boss arena.
For example, if you gained the skill Berserker, having the boss drastically lower your life should allow you to score more damage to them. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dodge every oncoming bullet, however, but in that situation, the boss should fall quickly the lower your health is.
If you still cannot stop the boss, there’s always the option of upgrading your loadout and then trying again.
6. Upgrade Your Loadout And Vehicle
Jackal Squad is a mix of game genres. At the very least, it’s a shooter RPG.
As it is with most RPGs on mobile, upgrading your character (your vehicle, in this case) is a task that is tantamount to your progress. If you don’t upgrade your character at all, you won’t be able to tackle the next boss, let alone the next enemies. Skill alone won’t be good enough. Upgrades can be done to both your weapons and your vehicle. Let’s take a look at your vehicle first.
Your vehicle is the star of the show, the main character of the anime, the action hero, the dude who collects the quarters from an arcade machine — you get the idea. You start with the jeep, a mundane vehicle to suit your beginner needs. Eventually, you’ll be able to unlock bigger, better vehicles such as the Tank 575. Better vehicles tend to come with innate skills, so if you’re wanting to spend some real money on this game, try looking or waiting for vehicle deals.
Unlike weapons and other pieces of equipment that use blueprints, your vehicles can only be upgraded if you have sufficient amounts of titanium. The cost of the titanium rises as you increase the vehicle’s level. Overall, your vehicles are what will most likely carry you through the game. But that isn’t to say that anything you put on your vehicle is completely useless. The idea is far from that.
Your vehicle’s main gun changes the way your vehicle shoots. Take the machine gun, for instance: it fires rapid, constant bursts of live ammunition onto anything within targeting range. There is also the flamethrower, which attempts to torch anything your vehicle comes in contact with. Choose whichever gun suits your playstyle and master it.
If you have at least three of the same item, you may fuse them together to create the same item but of a higher rarity. This new item will have much higher stats than its mundane counterpart and even have some additional perks like being able to fire more bullets.
Armor naturally boosts your vehicle’s survivability. Do understand that some pieces of armor work better against certain types of enemies. Depending on which enemy type you have the hardest time tackling, equip your armor accordingly. Alongside armor are chips which may also increase your vehicle’s survivability as well as its overall damage output. Upgrade all of these with your weapons and your next sortie should be a breeze.
There’s one last bit of equipment that we haven’t talked about yet and those are drones. Why? Because they need a whole item dedicated to them.
7. Drones Are The Best
When you hear the word drone, you will most likely think “unmanned machine” or something of the equivalent.
Especially today, drones are collected by enthusiasts all over the world and are used for a variety of things. In the military, drones can be used to be sent on missions that don’t require people. The very same idea goes for the drones in Jackal Squad.
Upon earning or finding a drone, these tiny troopers can be equipped on your vehicle. In any mission, they will fly or hover around your vehicle and pelt nearby targets with their own guns. While the damage isn’t at all significant, it does help in the heat of things. Arguably, the best part about having a pair of drones is their versatility.
Drones are able to attack enemies from over walls, places that your vehicle cannot see, or tight spaces. Just waiting behind a wall while your enemy takes fire should be a breath of fresh air in an intense firefight.
Keeping your drones leveled to the same strength as your weapons should prove advantageous for you since you’ll never know when you’ll be taking cover while your drones dish out damage.
With the campaign and vehicle mechanics out of the way, why not test your mettle in the other modes the game has to offer?
8. Try The Other Modes For Practice
While Jackal Squad’s campaign mode has plenty of challenges in it, there are still other modes that you can try that may help improve your skill.
For this item, we’ll talk about Survival Mode. This mode will try to sharpen your quick thinking and resourcefulness. Some enemies will drop skills and that will require you to shoot them down en masse.
Dodging bullets in a sea of enemies is one thing, but staying away or even staving off suicide bombers or demolitionists armed with grenades and RPGs is a whole ‘nother animal. There will also be enemy tanks that will try to gun you down, so be alert.
What Survival mode can also do for you is test the overall performance and integrity of your vehicle. If you feel like you’re missing something and you want to find out what you can improve on, this is the mode you should play.
Eventually, as you play the game, you’ll unlock other modes like Boss Mode and as of the publishing of this article, they appear to have a Guardian Mode planned. Challenge yourself once in a while and you’ll be a better driver in no time!
If this isn’t a challenge enough for you, you may try repeating stages you’ve already completed but on an increased difficulty.
9. Repeat Levels On Increased Difficulty
Do you wish to retry old levels but want better rewards out of them? Jackal Squad offers you this option simply by revisiting a level.
Be warned as the enemies will be slightly stronger and your mission objectives might be a bit more stringent than last time. The level as a whole will become a bit more demanding, even more so on hard mode.
The best part about this is that you are given better rewards than the first time you tried it. If you’d like to upgrade your equipment and vehicle at a quicker rate, fortune favors the bold in repeating levels at higher difficulties.
Regardless, there’s one last way you can earn materials and equipment, and that’s by spending your cash.
10. Spend Your Cash Wisely
With how most mobile games work these days, they’re bound to possess a premium currency.
It’s these currencies that allow the developers to earn from their free game whilst also keeping the players engaged as most of these currencies can be earned for free. Usually they come in the forms of gems, diamonds, or other precious stones, but in Jackal Squad, they’re merely wads of paper bills. This currency is simply called cash.
You earn this cash by completing daily quests, achievements, or just by playing the game. As it stacks up little by little, you might be wondering: “Where do I spend this cash?” Here are a few recommendations:
- Raw Material Box
- Gold Chest
- A new vehicle such as the Combat Agrimotor or the Basher
We advise against spending cash on revives. A full bar of health is good, but if you lost all that health because of an inescapable barrage of bullets, that barrage is bound to happen again and you’ll end up wasting your cash. A level repeat is preferred.
But don’t let us tell you how to spend your cash! As soon as you get your cash, spend it how you like. Do consider our suggestions as they may help improve your gaming experience as a whole.
As a rather unique shooter, Jackal Squad is out to challenge various players. Its fast-paced gameplay might faze you, but getting strong won’t take too much time. Ads are your friends, move about as much as you could, and keep your vehicle and equipment upgraded, especially your drones.
Practice is important, so learn what you can from beating each boss, and try out the other modes from time to time. Lastly, repeat old levels at higher difficulties and consider spending your in-game cash on what might help you finish your missions. Get out there and win the war!
Are there any targets we’ve missed in this mission briefing? Do you have any ideas of your own that you’d like to share that may help your comrades? Send them over in the comment section below this article!
Ayberk GİRGİN
Saturday 24th of June 2023
Thank you, im now the top 10 player.