Marsaction: Infinite Ambition Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Build an Elite Squad and Annihilate the Swarms

Humankind establishing its own civilization on Mars has been the stuff of sci-fi for decades. Without a doubt, there have been numerous stories about humans living on Mars, or Martians coming to earth, imagined and portrayed through a variety of media. Among these myriad stories, you will always find one that talks about how earth has died and humans have found a new home on Mars, only to be met by hostile insect species out to eliminate them.

Such is the story of Marsaction: Infinite Ambition, an MMO strategy game by Joystix Limited, that’s available on both iOS and Android platforms.

Surprisingly enough for a relatively new game, Marsaction already has numerous features and even a storyline that suggests there’s more than meets the eye regarding the Human Union’s stay on the planet. Marsaction also has different battle modes, at least two kinds of exploration modes, 4 Mecha unit types, and a variety of Heroes that can lead your squad, alongside your Captain, to victory.

Moreover, Marsaction also has different enemies that you’ll encounter as you fight for survival in what has now become the inhospitable red planet. Fans of Starship Troopers or StarCraft will surely find the game’s visuals reminiscent of these titles.

Similarly to many other mobile games, you dive into Marsaction with an introductory tutorial. Not only does this give you a general idea of how the game plays, but it also provides a bit of context about the Human Union, the Swarms, and what happened between them. In the tutorial stage, you’ll be exploring a desert terrain with three loyal Heroes.

You also have a Captain, who plays a more passive role by providing your troops and Heroes with boosts (more on this later) but doesn’t really engage in active battle. As you explore the terrain, you will occasionally find Signal Stations that will allow you to dispel the sandy fog blocking your path.

Forging your path, you will also encounter survivor camps where you can rescue soldiers and Mecha warriors to bolster the number of your troops.

Of course, Marsaction would hardly be an action game, it’s in the title, after all, if you don’t encounter bug Swarms along your path. Your objective is to eliminate these Swarms so you can capture the area.

Depending on how they’re situated on the map, your troops may enter into a simple skirmish with Swarms that are crawling around in groups. In this type of combat scenario, your troops will just automatically attack the Swarm in your path until, poof!, they’re eliminated. On the other hand, if you discover Swarms located in buildings or clickable parts of the terrain, you will have to enter a more active battle scenario against them.

In this type of battle mode, your Hero Force is taken into account and pitted against the enemy’s Rival Force.

If you decide to enter into battle, you will have the chance to witness your Heroes kicking some massive bug behinds.

Successfully defeating the Swarm and its leader will naturally get you rewards. With these spoils of war in your hands, the tutorial level is now concluded, allowing you to finally set up your command post.

Of course, this is just one part of how Marsaction is actually played. There are many more features of the game left for you to discover while you progress through the storyline and complete quests and tasks. You’ll also come across other information and enemies on the planet. Sure, this can sound like a lot of work, but don’t worry! This is where our beginner’s guide for Marsaction: Infinite Ambition can help.

A lot of things in the game can feel related to each other so to be more organized, we have divided the guide into 4 sections for convenient reading. Occasionally, you will find some information that has been referenced in a previous section to appear in another section since there are tips and instances that will require this kind of approach to make them more effective for the player.

That said, here are the 4 major sections contained within this guide:

• Base and Upgrades: This section focuses on the more important buildings you will need to pay attention to or can upgrade in advance. As you progress, you will be asked to bring buildings up to a certain level before you can proceed with specific actions, such as recapturing an area or expanding your main base. In this section, we’ll also discuss the benefits of joining an Alliance, as well as the importance of unlocking research trees for different aspects of the game.
  
• Battle and Exploration: This section discusses the different battle and exploration modes you will encounter as a beginner. Here’s where you will also find tips and recommendations regarding battle strategies. Some of the items here may overlap with the items outlined in the Squad section.
  
• Squad: This section talks about what you need to know about the basic components of your squad, which include your Captain, Heroes, and Mecha warriors.
  
• Resources and Rewards: Lastly, this section discusses resources and rewards! Here, we list down some of the ways you can get them after a job well done or as free gifts.

With that out of the way, let’s get right into our beginner’s guide for Marsaction: Infinite Ambition so you can annihilate the Swarms, build the strongest army, and claim the planet for the benefit of humankind!

Base and Upgrades

Setting Up Camp

After undergoing the tutorial stage, you’ll be able to establish your main base of operations upon recapturing the area you’ve just explored and rid of bugs. Similar to many games with a city or base builder aspect, you will soon discover that your camp’s area can be expanded. In expanding your territory, you’ll come across a variety of buildings with their own individual functions.

Additionally, some of these buildings will need to be at a certain level so you can complete quests or tasks outlined in each chapter of the main storyline. Sometimes, you may need to build one specific building before you can proceed to build another.

By following Marsaction’s main storyline, you’ll be able to know which buildings will be crucial to your overall progress. Most of these are actually buildings you can repair after recapturing an area and expanding your perimeter. Otherwise, buildings can be accessed in the Build tab.

Often, the challenge with city builder titles is the long waiting times and the limited number of builders that can accommodate building tasks. The same mechanic applies for Marsaction: you only have one free builder by default and upgrades take longer the higher the building’s level. To minimize long waiting times, you may attempt to upgrade buildings in advance.

However, keep in mind that you don’t need to upgrade all buildings, just those whose levels will be taken into account as you progress. Here are 5 buildings that you should consider upgrading in advance as they will be listed as prerequisites one time or another:

• Command Center: This is the very first building that will be established in your main base. As such, you will be constantly asked to upgrade it to a certain level so you can accomplish many of your vital objectives, such as completing chapters, expanding your base, or even upgrading other buildings.

• Space Capsule: This is where you can randomly recruit Heroes by accessing either Basic Warp or Quantum Warp. Basic Warp will most likely give you Hero pieces, which you can use to Star Up your Heroes (more on this later).
  
  On the other hand, Quantum Warp is more likely to give you the individual Heroes themselves, but this is the “premium” version of this gacha mechanic. On the flipside, you will have a chance to try out Basic Warp at least once every day, when the free recruit timer resets.

• Mecha Factory: This building is crucial to your success as an army because this is where you will be producing Mecha warriors. Mecha units make up the bulk of your force in battle. Manufacturing capacity will increase as the building’s level goes up. You may compliment your Mecha Factory with the Mecha Camp, but this is optional.

• Cyborg Tech Inc.: This building is responsible for conducting research. In a later section, we will further expand on the research paths you can pursue. Suffice to say, however, that the Cyborg Tech Inc. building is an important structure in your base that will be worth the upgrade.

• Storehouse: As suggested by its name, this building provides protection for your resources. It also lets you search for higher-level Resource Depots when you explore the map outside your base through the Interstellar Cloud (more on this later).

We recommend advancing these buildings as much as you can while you’re out battling, exploring, and finishing quests. That way, when the time comes that you actually need these buildings to be at a specific level to move forward with the main quests, you’re already way ahead.

Of course, these are just five buildings and you will definitely encounter new ones as you continue to recapture areas and expand the territory for your command post. But we’ll leave you to discover those for yourself.

Enriching Your Knowledge

As they say, knowledge is power. In your battle for survival on Mars, knowing how you can strengthen your position on all fronts is half the battle won. For this, you will need to invest in research and diligently upgrade the different skill trees available to you.

Conducting research in this game doesn’t only focus on your offensive capabilities. It also provides you with other perks and boosts for your economic capabilities, combat prowess, and your Captain’s proficiency.

• Economics: Research in this aspect focuses on resource-gathering and production. As you can see, you have a variety of options and may prioritize one aspect or the other. Generally speaking, perks in this area may lead to more resources like Quartz, Rare Earth, Corn, etc.
  
  We recommend maxing out the Efficiency aspect first upon reaching the 3rd tree. This perk speeds up the refresh time of resource sites on your base, giving you a more well-rounded selection of resources instead of focusing production on just one or two resource types.

• Combat: As you might have guessed, research on combat is geared toward strengthening your troops, specifically your Mecha warriors. It’s a little bit tricky to figure out which aspect to prioritize, though you might want to consider maxing out Automation I before turning your attention to Detector I.
  
  Automation I lets you speed up manufacturing times for Mecha warriors, which is necessary when you want to increase the number of your Hero Force to be at par with or exceed the enemy’s Rival Force. When it comes down to it, the size of your Hero Force is a vital factor that can tip the scale towards victory or defeat.

When you’ve managed to unlock the 2nd tree, you will have to choose among 4 aspects directly related to your Mecha types (more on this later). You may choose to upgrade them all in equal measure to make sure you have a well-rounded team.

On the other hand, you may also consider upgrading aspects focusing on the Mecha type that makes up the majority of your squad, or the one you’re planning to prioritize in terms of manufacturing.

• Captain: As mentioned, the Captain can provide boosts for your troops even if they don’t actively participate in battle. Conducting research on your Captain’s perks can come in handy when your troops engage enemies.
  
  After completing Biochemical Set I and accessing the 2nd tree, consider focusing on Increment Loop first to access the 3rd tree so you can choose and weigh more options.

Continuously conduct research as this will also let you increase the number of your forces, which is crucial in building your army.

Two Heads Are Better Than One

On a bug-infested planet like this, it’s hard to fight alone. Even you, the player, begin the game with four distinct characters. For our run, we had Weiser, Kayla, Alloy Al, and Captain Ryan. Each one of them has their own backstories and their own reasons for fighting.

As you battle against Swarms and defend your command post, you’ll soon discover that it’s better to have more allies by your side. Along with your Heroes, consider joining an Alliance so you can work together with a community.

There are several benefits to joining an Alliance aside from having other players with whom you can interact. If you join an Alliance, you can:

• Get tons of free Alliance gifts.
  
• Ask for assistance in speeding up building upgrades or construction, manufacturing, and research. A maximum of five allies can help you decrease waiting times for the aforementioned processes.
  
• Get more speed bonuses for construction, research, and manufacturing when you teleport your base within your Alliance’s territory.
  
• Participate in Alliance-related events or battles for more rewards.

Make an effort to be active by extending help to your Alliance in the way of resources, by speeding up the manufacturing, research, and construction processes of other members, and many more. Work hand in hand with the community to gain more rewards and elevate your playing experience.

Battle and Exploration

Explore and Conquer

As you will notice, the vicinity around your established command post will be surrounded by a sandy fog. A Defensive Barrier will appear within your base’s perimeter, which you can click to enter Exploration Mode. As we’ve mentioned in the beginning of this guide, you will encounter battles when you go through the hostile desert areas. Battles may be instant, wherein your troops will come across crawling Swarms.

On the other hand, more active battle scenarios will occur when you encounter enemy Swarms that are typically situated in damaged buildings or elevated terrain.

Instant battles are quicker and easier compared to more active battles since the latter will require you as the player to participate by commandeering your Heroes. Unless it’s an instant battle, here are a handful of tips you can keep in mind:

Rescue Survivors Before Engaging in Battle

When exploring, you will occasionally encounter places where survivors are holed up in. Before engaging in a fight, rescue these survivors first! As they say, there’s strength in numbers, so rescued survivors will help even out the odds.

Fortunately, the game will warn you if the combat difficulty is too much for your troops to handle. In this case, heed the warning and scout for more survivors in the area. When you’ve managed to increase the number of your troops, only then would it be wise to engage in battle.

Weigh Your Odds of Succeeding

As mentioned, the game will warn you about the combat difficulty of a skirmish. Even if you do face overwhelming odds, the game won’t stop you from entering into battle so fight at your own risk. Still, we do recommend battling when the situation is in your favor. Here’s a quick rundown of the 3 difficulty levels you will come across before going into battle:

• Green: Extremely good odds. Your force greatly outnumbers the enemy’s. Success rate is likely 80% above.

• Yellow: Close fight. Your force and the enemy’s forces are about the same size. Success rate is about 50%.

• Red: There’s a big gap between your force and the enemy’s numbers. If rescuing survivors isn’t enough, consider getting reinforcements by leaving Exploration Mode first and returning to your base.
  
  You may increase your troop numbers either by manufacturing more Mecha warriors or upgrading the experience levels of your Heroes and Captain so they can have a bigger marching force (more on this later). If the battle’s difficulty level is in the red, you likely have less than a 50% chance of winning.

Release Hero Skills

In an active combat scenario, you will get to see your chosen Heroes in action. You can choose a maximum of 3 heroes. As the player, your participation here may be limited to releasing the heroes’ skills when the yellow bar under their HP (green) bar becomes full.

That said, don’t forget to immediately release a hero’s skill whenever you can. Fights can be extremely quick and there doesn’t seem to be a need to time skills, unless you’re releasing a healing skill (this is often from your Support Hero).

You can check out Hero skills in the Hero tab. What’s stated in the Scenario Combat Type is the skill they will use during active battles.

After completing all the battles in this Exploration Mode, a prompt will appear to signal that you’ve managed to explore 100% of the area.

After that, you will have to recapture the area you’ve just explored. Often, the requirements for recapturing an area may include upgrading your Command Center and another building to a certain level. Once you’ve accomplished all the requirements, you may proceed to recapture the area.

Recaptured areas will be included as part of your main base. Here, you will find more buildings that can be repaired, as well as resource sites you can mine. Another Defensive Barrier will be erected, indicating that you have more areas to explore once your troops are ready.

Using the Interstellar Cloud

Once you’ve accessed the Interstellar Cloud building after doing some exploration, you will have the chance to go on missions outside of your main base. The Interstellar Cloud building will let you access the world map wherein you can find more tasks near your main base’s location.

Perhaps the most significant feature of the Interstellar Cloud are the clue missions. By accessing this mode, you don’t just get to explore what’s outside of your base, but you also get the chance to go on missions that will let you gain clues, which will reveal stories related to the game’s lore. Completing clue missions will also earn you Powerstones, which are a premium currency in the game.

Clue missions, seen on the Interstellar Cloud’s radar, are indicated by tasks marked as a person’s symbol inside a box. Investigate these tasks to gain clues that will help you decipher the story of the past. Clues will refresh after a couple of hours, which you can find on the timer labeled “Clue Refreshing Time.”

Aside from investigating clues, you can also fight Swarms, discover resource depots, recycle buildings, and many more when you check out other missions from the Interstellar Cloud. Fighting against Swarms often take on the form of instant battles, wherein your troops march into the field to clash with Swarms of varying levels.

Taking on these missions will let you gain more rewards that can help you level up your Heroes and Captain, gain additional resources, collect speedups, gather Hero pieces, etc.

If you want to get better rewards, you may upgrade your Interstellar Cloud’s strength level. You can find this option by clicking the small green arrow button on the radar.

Complete the requirements indicated so you can gain better rewards and come across more missions or tasks.

As you can see, one of the requirements for upgrading the Interstellar Cloud’s strength level is to defeat Swarms of a certain level. Thus, keep fighting Swarms in the map, starting from Level 1. Fight enough of them and you may even be strong enough to skip lower level Swarms and move on to higher ones.

Braving Zone 31

Zone 31 is another battle and exploration mode you can access. Think of Zone 31 as sort of a mini survival mode wherein each stage has different Incidents you can choose from. However, not all Incidents will lead to a battle. Some will give your troops the opportunity to heal, get supplies, or even avoid a clash depending on the path you choose.

Battles in Zone 31 are similar to active battle scenarios in the normal Exploration Mode. Each stage in Zone 31 will have about 4 Incidents offering 3 different Incident paths. Clicking on the path symbol will reveal what you may potentially encounter.

In the image below, you will see that the last path will lead you to discover advanced supplies. The two other paths are labeled “Information” (left) and “Basic Supply” (middle). Unless the path explicitly states that you will be facing a Swarm or will do battle, consider everything else non-confrontational.

On the 4th stage, you will only have 1 Incident path available, which is facing a Great Threat. As you may have guessed, this will lead to a boss fight.

When you’ve chosen Incident paths labeled as “Information” or “Unknown,” you will encounter a sleeping boss. You’ll be given 2 choices on how to deal with the creature. Pick one that sounds like the most sensible.

Since Incident path selections are chosen by the game at random (except for the last one), we recommend choosing paths that are non-confrontational so you can maximize obtaining supplies and other rewards. If you choose paths that lead to battle, keep in mind that your troops will not be able to recover their health upon entering succeeding Incident paths, unless you come across a path that allows you to heal or get medical supplies.

Entering Zone 31 is a great way to gain useful rewards, particularly experience points for your Heroes. These are crucial when you want to increase your Heroes’ marching force (more on this later).

Squad

Captain

Your Captain won’t seem like a very prominent character but they remain a vital member of your squad. Captains provide boosts and help increase the number of your overall offensive force.

Their contribution to your squad, as well as your base, is determined by which Captain Skills you allocate points to. Captain Skills can range from strengthening your Mecha warriors to enhancing research and construction speeds in your base, increasing resource production, and many more.

Your priorities will play a key role in choosing which Captain Skills you will allocate points to. Do you want to secure your economic position, or do you want to improve your battle prowess? For beginners, we recommend allocating points to Skills that will strengthen your offensive capabilities. Thus, we suggest you focus allocating points on the following early Skills:

• Mecha Power: Increases Mecha attack
  
• Boundless Knowledge I: Increases research speed
  
• Pipeline I: Increases Mecha manufacturing speed

These Skills in particular will provide great help in letting you advance through and complete the main tasks, particularly in Exploration Mode. Of course, you may choose to allocate a few points for resource production if you feel that this route is more to your liking.

Overall, though, how well your troops fight and how many you’ll be able to bring to battle is a huge determining factor in your ability to advance in the game. If you aren’t happy with the Skill trees you’ve allocated points to, you can use the Skill Reset item, but this is a premium purchase. Therefore, think long and hard about which Captain Skills you want to spend points on.

Further to Skill points, you can earn them when you’ve managed to level up your Captain.

You can increase your Captain’s level by:

• Completing main tasks (e.g. Exploration Mode).
• Completing side tasks (e.g. Zone 31, clue missions, etc).
• Using Captain Exp items.

Heroes

Unlike your Captain, your Heroes are more prominent characters whom you will see actively interacting with each other or explaining how the game works. You will begin the game with 3 Heroes, with each one filling in the slot for DPS, Tank, and Support. In our game, our default starter Heroes were Weiser (DPS), Alloy Al (Tank), and Kayla (Support).

Building your Heroes can significantly impact not only your offensive strength but also your base development. Similar to your Captain, it’s important to upgrade your Heroes’ Skills, which have 2 types:

• Scenario Combat Type: These are the skills that Heroes use when they’re engaged in active battles.
  
• Strategy Type: These skills are more passive in nature and can help with base development, instant battles with Swarms, etc.

You may gain experience points for your Heroes by using Hero Exp Chips. You’ll know that your Heroes can be upgraded if you see green arrows on their pictures.

Adding experience points will happen when you use Hero Exp Chips. Level up your Heroes enough and you’ll be able to break through the limit. An example is when you want to get them up to Level 10. Doing this will increase points for their attack, defense, life, skill coefficient, and Mecha capacity.

Additionally, leveling up your Heroes will also increase their Hero Force and Mecha March Size. Each individual Hero will have varying Hero Force and Mecha March Size numbers.

This is an extremely important aspect since their quantity will indicate how many troops they will be able to bring to battle. Thus, when you find yourself outnumbered by enemy forces, it’s a good idea to level up your Heroes so you can increase troop limit for battles.

When you’ve increased your Heroes’ experience points, you will have the chance to Star Up those specific Heroes.

You can Star Up Heroes by collecting Hero pieces as rewards for completing tasks, events, or by availing of the Basic or Quantum Warp in your Space Capsule building. By using the Quantum Warp, you have the chance to obtain not just Hero pieces, but also individual Heroes themselves. Heroes that have been Starred Up will unlock more Skills.

Furthermore, Hero Skills may give your Mecha warriors boosts as some Heroes specialize in handling specific Mecha types, which we will discuss in the next section.

Mecha

Mecha warriors make up the bulk of your troops. These units can be used for both skirmishes and resource-gathering. There are 4 types of Mecha warriors that you can manufacture in your Mecha Factory, with each type having 4 different variants:

Mobile

Variants:

• Gunner M21
• Ares DS1
• Bomber Blaster
• Bullet Ghost

For: Combat

Strong Against: Aircraft and Vehicles

Weak Against: Infantry

Examples of Aligned Heroes: Weiser and Kayla

Infantry

Variants:

• Heavy Assaulter
• Crazy Crusher
• Master Roboto
• Titan Ultra

For: Combat

Strong Against: Mobiles and Vehicles

Weak Against: Aircraft

Example of Aligned Hero: Alloy Al

Aircraft

Variants:

• ASR-2 Snaker
• BT-99 Scorpion
• Blue Thunder
• Fate Angel 001

For: Combat

Strong Against: Infantry and Vehicles

Weak Against: Mobiles

Example of Aligned Hero: Martina

Vehicles

Variants:

• Lightning Brown
• Rover Berserker
• Panzer Prime
• Laser Tank

For: Resource transportation

Weak Against: Infantry, Aircraft, and Mobiles

For every battle or exploration, you may configure which Heroes you want to take the lead alongside your Captain so they can provide boosts to your selected Mecha.

You may also configure which Mecha warriors you want to make up the majority of your party. Consider what kind of sortie your squad will be deployed in. For instance, if you’re going resource-gathering, it may be a good idea to have more Vehicles on your squad and a number of combat-type Mecha warriors for defense.

Our general recommendation is to keep making Mecha warriors in your Mecha Factory to continuously increase your troop number. This will help you during battles so you can outnumber enemy forces.

Resources and Rewards

Now that we’ve discussed base development, combat, and exploration, it’s time to talk about how to get tons and tons of rewards and resources in the game! Marsaction can be pretty generous when it comes to stuff you can earn. In fact, with the numerous rewards you can get, you might spend a good chunk of playing just claiming them.

Aside from rewards obtained from joining an Alliance or entering Zone 31, here are a few other ways you can get more rewards and resources:

Gather Resources in Your Base

One of the first resource sites that you will find is inside your own base. If you click deposits of Quartz, Rare Earth, Corn, etc., you can collect them after waiting for a few seconds. Normally, these deposits will yield 2 resource items but you may increase the number by conducting research or upgrading Captain or Hero Skills that are aligned towards improving resource production.

Complete Tasks

Completing tasks like Growth Tasks and Daily Tasks (among many other tasks, like Main Tasks) are a sure way to get rewards and resources. Most tasks are related to the main story anyway, as well as side quests, so make an effort to complete as many tasks as you can to maximize earning rewards.

Get Supplies from the Human Union

At the beginning of the game, you will encounter mentions of the Human Union, which is basically the organization spearheading the human colonization of Mars. In the game, the Human Union will occasionally give you supplies, which you can claim after a particular time period. Always check in with your base to see if the refresh time for supplies from the Human Union has reset.

More often than not, you will get speedups from the Human Union supply.

Since you’ll be collecting a lot of speedups, use them as much as you can when you’re manufacturing Mech warriors, upgrading buildings, conducting research, etc. Joining an Alliance can make speedups more effective since members can help you lessen the waiting time for ongoing processes.

For buildings, in particular, you may get a free 5-minute speedup every time you upgrade. Click on this too and don’t waste the opportunity! 

Rewards from VIP Points

Like other games of its kind, Marsaction will also let you obtain VIP rewards when you earn points by completing tasks and logging in consecutively. VIP rewards can refresh each day. You may find your VIP rewards next to your Captain’s profile picture.

Swarms Clearance Rewards

Remember how we mentioned that fighting Swarms on the map can help you increase your Interstellar Cloud’s strength level? Besides getting to do that, you will also receive rewards for clearing out as many Swarms as you can.

As you can see, you may get resources like Quartz and Rare Earth, which are essential items if you want to upgrade buildings, manufacture Mecha warriors, accomplish research, etc. Clear Swarms like there’s no tomorrow! This way, you can augment resources, especially if you find yourself running low. 

System Rewards

Performing certain tasks in the game, such as upgrading your Command Center, will let you earn system rewards aside from the rewards you can get from other avenues mentioned previously. Regularly check your inbox for system rewards so you can claim them on time.

Now that you can enjoy your spoils of war, this wraps up our beginner’s guide for Marsaction: Infinite Ambition! Mars is a huge place to explore so if you have more tips and tricks, let us know in the comment section below! Hopefully, our guide has helped you build a strong army, fortify your base, explore the desert, and annihilate the hostile Swarms without breaking a sweat!