Tennis Go: World Tour 3D is a new iOS sports game from developer MAFT Wireless, a company that’s also responsible for other mobile titles such as Sweet House: Design and Manor Diary. If you’re looking to play a casual, but not too casual sports game that pits you against “real players” — and by that, we don’t mean real-life tennis professionals, as you should know — this should be one game you should check out. You can collect multiple characters, dozens of different pieces of equipment, and upgrade them in any which way you like as you rise from the bottom of the rankings and strive to reach the top of the world leaderboard — or close to it.
Given that Tennis Go is a rather deep game despite the clear attempts to make it as casual and as PvP-friendly as possible, there may be a lot to unpack when it comes to learning the ins and outs of the game and learning how to improve your winning percentage, especially against tougher human opponents. We’re going to delve into that as much as possible in this Tennis Go guide, where we’ve come up with 14 tips and tricks that are mainly designed for both beginner and intermediate players. Keep reading and don’t forget to thank us if you end up dominating the rankings!
1. The Basics Of Tennis Go: World Tour 3D
If Tennis Go seems a bit familiar to you, it happens to be very similar in gameplay, mechanics, and graphics to Tennis Clash. That means you should not have a hard time learning how to play the game if you already played the latter title, though for the benefit of those who haven’t, keep on reading as we’ll show you how to get started.
During the tutorial stages, you’ll be taught some bare-bones basics of returning the ball and will get to play a couple of test matches, first against the game’s designated “sparring partner” then against another AI player, albeit another particularly weak one as you play to be the first to reach 5 points. That’s the number of points you’ll need to score in order to win a match during the first season, though as you’ll see, there are a total of eight “seasons” in the game, and the number of points required to win the match will increase after Season 1.
For those who are unfamiliar with the rules, we’re going to simplify things as much as possible — your objective is to hit the ball by swiping your finger across your screen in such a way that your opponent cannot return it in one bounce. Once that happens, you score a point. However, you should avoid returning the ball out of bounds or hitting the net, as that’s going to award your opponent with one point.
Likewise, accumulating two straight faults during the serve or the first time you’re hitting the ball for the point will result in the opponent scoring — when serving, you need to make sure the ball bounces on the highlighted service box, otherwise that’s a fault.
Each season in Tennis Go has a specific entry fee — win the match and you win back your entry fee times two, and get the number of medals specified for a victory. For example, wins in Season 1 are worth five medals. Losing, on the other hand, would likewise result in you losing your entry fee, and getting deducted a specific number of medals — using the above example, players are docked two medals for a loss.
Although it’s good to keep progressing from season to season as your characters’ stats improve, be careful when doing so, as the entry fees get progressively larger and your opponents tend to have better stats for their characters. The matchmaking system, as usual, will always do what it could to pair you up against opponents with a similar number of medals and characters with similar stats to yours.
In addition to winning coins as a prize for winning a match, you will also earn card packs, which take some time to open — the basic blue Grand Packs for Season 1 take three hours to unlock, while the rarer Ace Packs, to cite another example, take eight hours to unlock.
As a pack’s rarity increases, so does the chance of getting rarer equipment and other goodies. Typically, a prize pack may come with coins, bank notes (the premium currency — cash, by any other term), and a variety of cards for different types of equipment (rackets, grips, etc.), coaches, and characters. You can spend some bank notes in order to immediately open a pack, though this isn’t often recommended — most of the time, it’s best to be patient and wait it out instead. Also take note that you have a maximum of four slots for packs, and only one of them can be opened at a time!
2. Know Your Characters
All in all, there are nine characters that you can collect in Tennis Go, including your stock player, Noel, who is available from the very start, and Kesia, who you can unlock after your first day of play. These can all be viewed by going to the Lineup menu, then tapping on the character avatar on the lower left side of the screen.
Each character has their own specific biography as well as their own unique details, starting with the basics (gender, age, height in meters, dominant hand) and six attributes. They also have their own style of play — All-Around, Baseliner, Counter Puncher, or Serve and Volley. Baseliners tend to play near the boundaries and tend to hit more aggressively, Counter Punchers attempt to return all balls in hopes that the opponent will make a mistake, Serve and Volley players play close to the net, and All-Around players are sort of the jacks of all trades at first, but eventually become good in practically every facet of the game.
As for the attributes, Mobility defines how well you move around the court and, as the game explains, how quickly you make decisions and recover your stamina. Stamina shows as the maximum energy you have during a match, Serve determines how well you hit the first ball to start a point, Volley refers to how well you can return the ball before it hits the ground for the first time, Forehand determines your ability to return the ground stroke in the same direction as your hand, and Backhand is the opposite, showing how well you can return the ground stroke in the reverse direction.
All of the game’s characters can be upgraded up to level 11 or level 13 at the very most, and the ones you unlock in the later seasons will start out at level 13 and correspondingly be upgradable up to level 13. Upgrading characters improves their attributes, but that’s also going to cost you progressively more coins each time you level them up — as such, it’s best to focus on your favorite players when upgrading and be familiar with their stats and style of play. It helps to tap on View Full-Level Attributes to see their maxed-out stats once you’ve leveled them up fully. However, as a first-time player, you may want to focus initially on the characters you currently have.
3. Avoid Swiping Too Zealously To Avoid Getting Called Out
When it comes to winning more matches in Tennis Go, the most basic, fundamental tip we can suggest is to make sure your swipes are as controlled as possible. Your objective is to hit the ball in such a way that your opponent cannot return it, but as discussed above, you also want to avoid going out of bounds on the first bounce. The best way to avoid this is to avoid being too overzealous or wild when swiping on the screen.
This can be a bit challenging if you’re just starting out, given that you have to react as quickly as possible, but controlling your swipe and not making it too strong or too far left/too far right is the key to avoiding getting called out. If you’re out, then that’s all on you — it’s not uncommon to be matched against players who have super-powered characters, and their stats may be too high for you to handle. But getting called out is akin to committing an unforced turnover in basketball or throwing an interception when the coverage isn’t that tight at all.
4. Counter-Punching Is The Best Strategy For Beginners
Although every character in the game has their own playing style and their own statistical strengths and weaknesses, you may not be able to make the most out of these styles if you’re in just your first few days of playing Tennis Go. As such, your best strategy as a newbie player is to work on your counter-punching game.
Again, this means waiting for opponents to make a mistake while playing it safe on your end and not hitting the ball in such a way that you might get called out when the ball bounces out of bounds. This will probably result in longer matches, and you still may be dominated by characters with much higher total stats than yours, but in most occasions, a counter-punching attack could greatly increase your chances of winning against an opponent.
5. Keep Playing The Game To Improve Your League Ranking
On one end, it’s a good idea to take it easy on the number of matches you play in order to avoid wasting those free card packs. But you should balance that out with trying to place as highly as possible while playing in your current league. Everyone starts out at the Newbie league, though as you progress, you will be promoted to higher leagues that come with better rewards for those who are in it.
League seasons (not to be confused with the “seasons” or chapters in the game) last one week each, and if you rank in the top three, you can win yourself a few intriguing prizes, including well over 100,000 coins (for the Newbie league in this example) and a Master Pack, which is the second-rarest pack in the game. Second-placers get a shade over 100,000 coins and an Ace Pack, while third-placers get close to 50,000 coins and a Grand Pack. Otherwise, you get a Grand Pack and anywhere from a few hundreds to several thousand coins, depending on where you rank by week’s end.
6. Upgrade Your Equipment To Further Improve Your Stats
Also in the Lineup menu, you will be able to view the different pieces of equipment you have unlocked from the card packs, as well as those which you can unlock as you keep on opening new packs in the game. Every piece of equipment improves your attributes in different ways — for example, the Tiger Racket (a Common racket that’s usually available in the early stages of the game) improves your Mobility and Forehand attributes.
Items also come in different levels of rarity, from Common to Rare to Legend, and you can usually upgrade them once you accumulate enough cards of the same item to do so. Bear in mind that rarer items cost more to upgrade, so you may want to be selective and only focus on upgrading the items that improve your characters’ stats to suit your play style! (It’s also worth mentioning that your choice of equipment is universal, regardless of which character you select as active.)
There are, technically, seven types of equipment for your characters — their Suit (or in other words, their playing outfit), Grip, Racket, Vibrator, Shoes, Elbow (Pad), and Water (Bottle). The eighth tab next to the character select sub-menu is for Coaches, which also provide statistical increases to certain attributes if you employ them. For instance, the Stamina Coach improves Stamina by 8 and Serve by 8 at level 4, while the Junior Coach simply improves Serve by 2 points.
Most of the aforementioned types of equipment can be leveled up once you have enough cards of a certain item, as mentioned, but the notable exception here is Grip, which is why we’re going to discuss that in a separate tip below. You can feel free to mix and match different items if you’re still trying to figure out your play style, but once you’ve found a combination that works, we strongly advise sticking to it and spending the coins that you earn on leveling up the different items you’ve determined are the most helpful.
7. Grips Are Consumable, So Use The Special Ones Wisely
Grips are a special type of equipment in Tennis Go, in the sense that you can get new Grips from the prize packs but cannot upgrade them in the traditional way we detailed above. That’s because they are consumable, almost like a unit of energy that’s consumed for each match you play. Typically, you will receive Ordinary Grips, which are described as a “good choice for novices” and do not provide any special benefits or statistical upgrade.
However, you’ve also got the Tiger, Unicorn, Cobra, Fighter, Flame, and Sakura Grip, which all have specific skills that can serve as buffs once you use them in a match. For example, the Tiger Grip has Flying Strike, which increases the chance of a successful volley, as well as Strong Shot, which gives you the chance of using a “power strike.” Unicorn Grip, meanwhile, comes with Slice, which improves your ability to return the ball close to the net, and Stamina Shield, which provides additional stamina to help you remain accurate throughout the match.
The special grips we mentioned above can be collected via prize packs, but you also have the option to pay some bank notes to purchase them. Tiger and Unicorn Grips cost 110 bank notes for 10 units, 520 for 50, and 1,000 for 100, Cobra and Fighter Grips cost 330 bank notes for 10 units and 1,560 and 3,000 bank notes respectively for 50 and 100 units, and Flame and Sakura Grips cost a whopping 1,100 bank notes for 10 units and 5,200 and 10,000 bank notes respectively for 50 and 100.
For an idea of what these super-premium grips provide, Flame Grip has the Backhand skill that increases your hit rate whenever your opponent uses a backhand, Strong Shot, and Flying Strike, which increases the chances of a volley.
8. Collect Your Free Packs Every Four Hours
Although it is advisable to play as often as possible so you can open as many packs as possible, we have already established that you can only have so packs queued up to open. If you win a match at a point where you have one pack in each of the four slots, the pack will be forfeited and you’ll only get double your entry fee, as well as the designated number of medals as your prize for defeating your opponent. However, you don’t need to keep playing to keep opening packs — in fact, you can open them even if all the slots are full, and that’s through free packs.
The game allows you to open one free pack every four hours, so assuming you sleep around eight hours a day, that means you can open up to four packs in a day, or maybe five if you’re especially restless or a light sleeper. If you miss opening a free pack, that’s okay — we’ve noticed that Tennis Go allows you to open a maximum of two free packs if a four-hour period lapses. Anything more than that is essentially forfeited.
Just to keep your expectations reasonable, the free packs are what are known as “Ordinary Packs,” which means you’re going to get a handful of coins, perhaps some bank notes, and mostly common pieces of equipment. And that includes ordinary grips — as we mentioned in the last tip, grips are consumable each time you play a match, and even if you end up with ordinary ones, that means more chances to keep on playing against more opponents!
9. Complete Daily Tasks For More Card Packs And Other Goodies
If you’re wondering at this point whether Tennis Go allows you to complete tasks for prizes, you’re in luck, because it does. You may also notice those notifications appearing on top of your screen each time you open a pack or play a game as a certain character. However, we will admit that it’s rather difficult to find the menu where you can view the tasks and the corresponding rewards.
It does exist, though — tap on the Events icon (the gift box) on the bottom left of the main screen, go to the Login Pass tab, then go to the bottom and tap on Daily Task. Yes, it’s a bit unwieldy, but this is where you need to go if you want to view the requirements for task completion and the rewards you can collect.
As the term suggests, Daily Tasks expire in 24 hours and typically, you could complete them organically, simply by playing more matches and upgrading your characters and items. However, you would actually need to go to the Daily Task screen in order to redeem your rewards. Some examples of tasks include winning a certain number of matches, playing so many times as a given character, competing in a given number of matches regardless whether you win or lose, or opening anywhere from six to nine card packs in a day.
Your rewards may include Grand Packs and Legendary Points, and the latter can be doubled by watching a video — accumulate enough Legendary Points and you can get even more packs, bank notes, and other goodies.
In addition, you can get even more — and better rewards — such as hundreds of bank notes and multiple special grips if you unlock the Login Pass for $2 or its local equivalent. For example, these rewards may include 200 bank notes, 15 Tiger Grips, multiple Ace or Master Packs, or thousands of coins!
10. Earn Rewards Through The Magic Vault
In the Events menu, you will also see a section called Magic Vault — the one with a white cat posing in a purple jersey with a tennis ball next to it. The rewards contained here are separate from the ones you can get via Daily Tasks, and we would say they are definitely worth it. However, you will need to open a certain number of packs in order to level up the vault, get better rewards, and open it once you level it up.
What type of rewards can you find inside the Magic Vault? Let’s take a look at the level 2 Magic Vault, which does not include any Rare cards but has one Legend and 19 Common cards inside. You’ll also get three Tiger Grips, three Unicorn Grip, and 1,307 bank notes. Sounds good, right? Well, the catch here is that you will have to pay a progressively higher amount of Bank Notes as you level up the Magic Vault, but fortunately, it will never be as many Bank Notes as the amount you can receive — in this instance, it would cost about 1,200 to open.
That means you’ll still get about a hundred bank notes profit for opening the Magic Vault, which is not bad at all, if you ask us! (You can also pay cash to open the Magic Vault before you’ve opened enough packs to level it up, but that isn’t too advisable, as that’ll cost substantially more premium currency and invariably leave you at a loss.)
11. Check Your Mail For Regular Updates And Rewards
As it is a comparatively new game, Tennis Go comes with its share of bugs. In specific, there are times when the game could get laggy, which could really affect your gameplay and prevent you from returning the ball like you should.
Fortunately, the game’s developer acknowledges this, and that’s how we were able to get 900 bank notes — that’s three installments of 300 bank notes each — as a form of compensation for the server issues the game had been experiencing in its early stages. That could, in theory, give you enough to immediately open a couple packs, but we would still suggest holding on to your bank notes for premium purchases such as special grips.
However, we would still advise tapping on that News icon on the bottom right of the main screen whenever there’s a notification — you’ll never know when the game will inform you of special offers and other goodies! Indeed, it’s not just server issues and compensation for these issues that the game will notify you about.
12. Take An Occasional Break, Move To A Lower Season, Or Play Training Mode If You Have To
As is the case with any other “real players” games that involve PvP games against other human players, the stakes could get high and the pressure could get to you. And that could affect your play and leave you demoralized following a tough loss, especially if it’s the nth consecutive defeat, one against a particularly weak and underpowered character, or one where your opponent made an incredible comeback from behind.
Your first instinct may be to play again to get your loss back — as well as the coins you spent to enter the match and the medals you lost — but take it from us. The additional pressure can get to the best of us and lead to frustration, which, in turn, lead to careless mistakes.
That’s why we are suggesting taking a break from time to time — perhaps at least 30 minutes or so, or even longer, especially if you’re waiting for a pack to open — so that you can regain your bearings and regroup before getting back into the thick of things. Alternately, you can play in the lower “seasons,” as chances are you’re going to be paired against weaker players/characters, thus increasing your odds of winning.
Aside from those options, you’ve also got Training Mode, which you can access by swiping right until you see the mode right before Season 1. This is the epitome of no-stakes play, as your only “opponent” is the tennis ball machine and your objective is to return the ball for as many Beautiful, Excellent, Awesome, or Perfect hits as possible.
13. The In-Game Store – What Should You Purchase With Premium Currency Or Real Money?
The fourth option on the bottom menu in the main screen of Tennis Go leads you to the in-game Store, and you’ll notice that it is subdivided into six categories — special offers (the gift icon), cards, grips, suits, bank notes, and coins. Depending on the items on sale, you can buy them with premium currency (your bank notes) or with real money, and in most cases, we would advise against making real-money purchases.
However, there are a few you might want to check out, including the Login Pass, which is a one-time only, limited-time offer that rewards you with 800 bank notes, 1,000 coins, two Ace Packs, one Master Pack, 15 Tiger Grips, and 10 Flame Grips — and more, as the game promises. That’ll cost you just $1.99, so if you downloaded the game less than a week ago from the time you’re reading this, you just might want to take advantage of this offer, given its low price.
There’s also a Legend Pass, which lasts for two weeks from the time of download, and that’ll set you back by $7.99 — you will, however, get many more resources and currencies, including, but not limited to 1,200 bank notes, 7,000 coins, four Ace Packs, three Master Packs, one Peak Pack, and 25 Tiger Grips. Card Packs can also be purchased, with the highest-end Peak Pack setting you back by a whopping 3,600 bank notes.
You can also use your bank notes to buy cards for equipment, on top of the real-money specials on various equipment packages. You can pay real money for bank notes and bank notes for coin packages, and right at the bottom of the store, and there are various places where you can watch ad videos to earn free bank notes or coins, with a maximum of five videos per day.
14. The New Suits Are Purely Aesthetic
You may have seen them while browsing the Store or you may have seen them while trying to find the right combination of equipment for your characters.. We’re talking about the Suits, and these are the outfits that your characters wear while playing — by default, your characters will wear conventional tennis outfits while on the court, but if you pay bank notes, you can buy special outfits that may include casual “street” attires, Halloween costumes (in commemoration of the recent holiday), or in default character Noel’s case, a “tooling” outfit where he’s decked out as a handyman. Do these Suits do anything as far as gameplay is concerned, much like the other types of equipment do?
The answer to that would be a resounding no, and with that in mind, we would only suggest purchasing Suits if you’re really invested in the game and have a surplus of bank notes to spend. They won’t increase your characters’ stats one bit or give them special skills or buffs — they’re just there to break the monotony of you having to see them in every match wearing the same tennis outfits. Your premium currency would be better spent on things that could actually improve your characters’ performance.
Just to give you an idea of how much Suits cost, Tooling Noel and Street Kesia cost 2,500 bank notes each, while the limited-time Sir Pumpkin Noel and Miss Witch Kesia are $9.99 in real money each, though for those Halloween offers, you get one Peak Pack and 1,050 bank notes as part of the package.
And this ends our comprehensive guide for Tennis Go. If you happen to know more tips or tricks to improve the overall success in the game, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comment area below!
Steven Forster
Wednesday 22nd of February 2023
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