Underdogs is the latest 3-vs-3 competitive action multiplayer game from MOONBEAR, creator of the popular open-world building simulation game, Pocket Build. Underdogs comes packed with simple graphics and gameplay and utilizes a top-down, third person perspective, making it relatively easier to see your immediate surroundings and ultimately ensuring a much faster pace of gameplay than most competitive team shooters.
What sets Underdogs apart from other loosely similar competitive games is that the main objective of the team battle involves pushing a cart into the enemy’s base. Players can use a wide variety of weapons, each with its own unique traits and advantages. You can also customize their avatars in a variety of ways from helmets and masks, down to clothes and backpacks.
With its straightforward concept coupled with simple controls and user interface, Underdogs is definitely a game where even beginners in the genre can equally compete, especially considering that no unlockable or purchasable item gives any player any kind of advantage.
Although still in its neonatal stage, Underdogs already has what it takes get you hooked in on its action-packed matches. The short tutorial covers the main objectives and all the basic controls and you can quickly dive into a team-based PVP match soon after. While learning as you go forms part of the natural experience, it is best to come prepared with plans and strategies before you join the fray.
If you have just started playing Underdogs and want to come fully prepared before your first real match or if you are looking to rank up and score more wins, then be sure to read our Underdogs beginner’s guide below!
1. Customize The Controls And Layout To Your Liking
The control configurations and button layout is a critical factor in every game’s playability. Most especially in shooter games where players are required to employ button combinations most of the time, developers naturally put a lot of effort in designing the most efficient setup considering both that will appeal to the users in general as well. While Underdog’s default configuration settings are excellent, however, the same will naturally appeal differently to everyone.
Fortunately enough, Underdogs comes with a means for you to customize the controls and the button layout through the setting menu. Before jumping into anything else, therefore, be sure to tinker with the different setting options you can customize to ensure that the controls and button layout is optimized in accordance to your preferences as much as possible.
You will not be able to make changes to the settings from the home screen so to start off, go to practice mode by tapping on the target icon at the lower right side of your screen. You will be made to choose a starting weapon and any choice is fine. Once inside the practice area, click on the gear icon at the upper left side of the screen to enter settings. There are numerous items you can make adjustments to but the most important one is the control settings so click on the “edit controls” option.
For both the move and aim/shoot buttons, you can choose to make them static or dynamic. You can also switch the two across the left and right sides of the screen. The mic and tactical weapon icons can also be moved freely as well as adjusted in size. Just not the there is a change weapon icon that will appear at the bottom of your screen if you are close to the cart, an ammo and kills counter at the upper right side of the screen, and the alpha mode percentage at the bottom center as well whenever you are away from the cart. The last, by the way can be adjusted in size as well.
Once you are done with the control layout, make sure you check and accordingly adjust volume and graphics (Max FPS) options. Most importantly, you may want to experiment on the aim sensitivity adjustments while in practice as well.
2. Engage In Practice Sessions
After making adjustments to the control settings and button layouts, you will most likely be inclined to test out your new configurations in an actual match. Depending on your experience in loosely similar games as well as how much you remember about each of the weapons you tried during the tutorial, we recommend instead to spend a bit more time in the practice arena to gain even more familiarity with the controls and weapons at your disposal. It is a good opportunity as well to go over some pointers discussed during the tutorial or even develop strategies that you can use in actual matches.
Although you have tested a few of the weapons during the tutorial, you have unlimited time in practice mode to more extensively practice using each one. You actually do not need to be an expert across all available weapons and you will naturally even have a weapon of choice based on your personal preferences and play style.
Given that each weapon has its own damage output, ammo count, and range, knowing as much about as many weapons make you ready to face any given scenario. The shotgun, for example is an excellent pick for close combat while the grenade launcher can damage enemies hiding behind blockades.
As everything else in Underdogs’ world is indestructible, knowing how to approach or engage enemies across the map can be part of your stratagem while on practice mode. Each weapon has slightly different controls as well that you need to familiarize yourself with, not just for your personal use but when engaging enemies with those weapons as well. How well you know your currently equipped weapon and the weapon of your enemies will help you strategize around how to deal with them more efficiently.
Note that you can always shift to another weapon and replenish your ammo when you are close enough to the cart. Relatively, the max ammo of each weapon will determine how often you may have to stay close to the cart to replenish it.
3. Focus On The Main Objective
As a 3-vs-3 competitive multiplayer game, it almost comes as naturally for most players to squeeze in some kills every now and then. While each enemy slaughtered drops a skull that replenishes health, ammo, and a 5% boost on your alpha mode bar, and earns you extra XP as well, the main objective is to push the cart as close to the enemy base camp as possible.
Although such a feat can be very difficult to pull off in some matches, what is important is that the cart stays on the enemy’s side of the map at the end of the round. Naturally making an effort to move the cart will involve defending yourself and your allies as well as killing enemies that prevent you from progressing further.
The recommended mindset should be to kill as a means to an end which is, of course, moving the cart further from your camp. Do not get too excited to the point of chasing down enemies or even engaging in needless firefights if it will not contribute at all to your main goal.
4. Guns Are Not The Only Tools At Your Disposal
Underdogs is designed in such a way that matches can go tremendously fast-paced and a little too action-packed in that it can become rather easy to get lost in the skirmish that you can only remember to move and shoot. Guns are the main weapons in your arsenal but you also have the ability to dodge as well as tactical tools that can aid you in a variety of ways.
You can dodge by double tapping anywhere on your screen. This means that you can move and dodge at the same time or shoot and dodge quickly as well. Dodging will make your character roll forward to whichever direction he is facing and provides temporary immunity against damage. Beyond that, this move can also be used to roll under some barricades.
By default, the only tactical tool for you to use in battle is the shield. You can hold the shield button at the right hand side of your screen, or wherever you choose to place it in the settings. While holding the shield button, you can drag it to any direction as it will only protect you from damage coming from that direction. Note that the shield naturally has limited durability and will not be able to sustain a lot of damage.
Once you reach account rank 4, you will gain access to a melee weapon. When near the cart, you now be able to change not just your primary weapon, but your tactical tool as well. While swords do not seem like an advisable weapon in a gun fight, the melee weapon actually does tremendous damage in close range and can be a great help to eliminating opponents who are invading your personal space.
Making it to account level 10 unlocks the tactical sentry, which is a deployable sentry gun that can provide extra defense for your team and also initiate some cover fire. At this stage, you will be able to shift across 3 different tactical tools whenever you stand close enough to your cart. Different situations and strategies call for different approaches, so be sure to not shy away from utilizing all these items under your arsenal.
5. Use Alpha Mode Wisely
A somewhat surprising element in Underdogs is the alpha mode feature. Killed enemies drop blue skulls on the ground and picking them up raises your alpha mode bar by 5%. Once activated, alpha mode will drastically increase your damage, making it a lot easier to off enemies in your way.
The alpha mode percentage will continue to drop until it is fully depleted. Keep in mind that alpha mode does not activate automatically, giving rise to opportunities to use the power strategically.
What is important to take note of is that alpha mode only boosts your offensive strength and still leaves you as vulnerable to damage. Having a full meter, therefore, should not be considered as a license to go full offense as dying while it is active is a waste of effort and opportunity. Alpha mode only lasts for a few seconds so be sure to utilize every instance of using it wisely.
6. Accomplish Achievements For More Credits
The general objective in Underdogs is expectedly as simple as the gameplay. You basically just need to engage in matches to earn XP, rank up, and unlock new weapons as well as earn credits to purchase more items to customize your avatar with. The game holds only 1 game mode for now as well. Regardless of whether you win or lose, make a kill or not, you will always get something out of every match you engage in.
While the simplistic, linear approach towards progressing through Underdogs make it relatively easy enough for you to unlock something new every once in a while, an even faster way of progressing can be accomplished. This is through taking note of and pushing to earn achievements as you play. You can check on the list of available achievement objectives by tapping on the crown icon at the top of the main screen.
Each achievement objectives falls directly in line with the usual activities you engage in within each match. In essence, though, the pursuit of completing some objectives will push you to use every available weapon, registering a certain number of skills with each one.
There is a huge chance that you will accomplish a lot of these feats without even knowing the specific achievement objectives. Just the same, however, it is best to peek into the achievement list and let it serve as your guide towards earning more credits.
7. Take Advantage Of The XP Multiplier
Although Underdogs, as we mentioned earlier, is comparatively easier to pick up and play compared to other competitive arena shooters, there is still a matter of experience that can make it a little more challenging for beginners.
Naturally, there will already be very experienced players by the time you jump in on a match and while the gap in experience alone will not be enough to give you much disadvantage, having fewer weapons and tactical tools available for you early on can widen that gap a bit further.
The tutorial session and practice rounds make it all too easy as you shoot immobile dummies but in a real match facing real players, the initial sets of experience can be very intimidating. Frankly, chances are that you will experience a lot of deaths and losses along the way before you earn your first real win. Do not let it dishearten you, though, as every bit of experience should be considered as a learning point to help you improve on the succeeding matches.
Underdogs provides a 3x XP multiplier available to all new players and this incentive is not at all time-bound. Rather, your XP will be multiplied by 3x until you earn 20 wins across all matches you engage in. In a sense, this will not make any loss that bad as you will get 3x XP out of it, reaching higher account ranks and unlocking rewards along the way.
If you click on the tier icon at the upper left side of the main screen to take you to the page where you can see where you are at as far as current tier and upcoming rewards are concerned, there is a huge green button at the upper right side where you can activate a 2x XP boost. This XP boost is limited to 24 hours once activated, so be sure to save it for a day where you can dedicate a lot of hours into playing Underdogs.
8. Stay Within The Battle Grounds
The battle grounds in Underdogs may appear to be boundless but it is rather small in size, promoting a more aggressive than usual approach towards each match. Well, technically, you can physically step out of the invisible borders surrounding the battle grounds. Once you do, however, a 4-second countdown timer will appear and if you fail to hop back within the safe zone, you will instantly perish.
This actually does not work like in conventional battle royale games where you can afford to spend a little bit of time outside the safe zone on extraordinary instances that make the hazardous are better than the safe one.
Stepping outside of the battle grounds in Underdogs leave little to no room for any strategic purpose or advantage of any sort. If you can, try to accurately determine the borders of the battle grounds as the warning message alone for going out of bounds can serve a an unwanted distraction that may steer your focus away from the match.
9. Utilize Obstacles And Physics
We already mentioned the importance of the obstacles within the battlegrounds given that each one is indestructible. As a beginner, it is best to utilize the obstacles as hiding spots as it is always safer to assume that the opposition has more experience combatants than yourself. Hiding behind obstacles is almost always a safe bet and will be prone to damage only against a select type of weapons.
The grenade launcher is one of our favorite weapons as you can lob grenades over any obstacle and can even bounce from the ground to reach its target. Once the grenade explodes, it deals damage to the immediate area around it, which means that it can deal damage to multiple enemies at once and the damage it deals varies depending on how far or close the explosion impact is to your target. Likewise, hitting an enemy directly with a grenade from the grenade launcher will trigger it to explode automatically.
Another impressive and useful feature that comes with the grenade launcher is how it is designed to have its grenades ricochet from the obstacles scattered around. Underdogs’ physics provide a lot of creative ways for you to utilize the grenade launcher. On the downside, though, improper use of a grenade launcher can also make grenades bounce back to you or your allies. Always ensure that you have the right trajectory before releasing your hold on the grenade launcher as the heavy damage it deals is best left only for opponents.
There are also other weapons that loosely work almost the same as the grenade launcher like the sticky bomb launcher and the sentry launcher. Both of these weapons can be shot at an angle and can deal damage to enemies behind obstacles. The sticky bomb launcher’s ammo will attach to any surface and you can manually trigger the explosion by clicking on the skull icon on your screen. The sticky bomb will also automatically explode and cause AoE damage when it makes contact with an enemy.
The sentry launcher, on the other hand, which is currently the last weapon you can unlock if you reach tier 40, deploys a sentry gun to the targeted area and start shooting at anyone within its range. What is great about this weapon is that you can launch 3 sentry guns at a time from it, ensuring a tight defense a tremendous boost to your offense as well.
Underdogs promises to provide more levels and more items to unlock in the succeeding major updates to come. For now, this is where we end our Underdogs beginner’s guide. We certainly hope that you picked up a lot of useful tips and strategies from our guide and that you enjoyed reading through it as well.
Again, while Underdogs exhibits a fast-paced environment, patience is still an important virtue to have especially for beginners. If you have spent some hours into matches and have unraveled some more tricks and strategies in addition to the ones we discussed, be sure to tell us about them in the comments below!