The Warcraft series will always hold a special place in my heart. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, in particular, was the game that cemented my journey as a gamer – though it’s far from the only one. Many years have passed since I’ve delved back into the game’s universe, but now, I don’t have to look far – Warcraft Rumble will satisfy that itch.
Warcraft Rumble is, in essence, a boiled-down version of the fast-paced, strategic, and micro-intensive RTS gameplay that defines both the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises. In Warcraft Rumble, you’ll collect and assemble an army of miniatures and take to the battlefields against a wide assortment of foes both fiendish and friendly. To that end, you’ll need skill, strategy, and maybe just a little luck to succeed in this battle of joyful chaos. Warcraft Rumble is available on both the Google Play Store and the App Store.
Veterans of auto-battlers/mini-RTS games like Battle Cats or even Knightcore: Sword of Kingdom should find it very easy to pick up and learn Warcraft Rumble. If, however, you’re unsure of whether you’ll enjoy the game and want a sneak peek or just want to go over the basics in-depth, this guide’s just for you.
In this Warcraft Rumble beginner’s guide, we’ll be going over:
- Minis: who they are, what they can do, and all sorts of knowledge to help you make better use of your collection.
- Strengthening your minis: how to push their numbers higher and how to get the most bang for your buck.
- Where to source the various materials you’ll need to bulk up your roster.
- The game’s combat system: easy to learn, difficult to master, to quote an old cliché.
Mini Anatomy
Every game demands that its players learn the basic mechanics in and out, and in Warcraft Rumble, that comes in the form of your minis. Your army is comprised of several minis, and to get the most out of them (as well as form and refine your personal playstyle), you’ll need to understand the basics of these minis.
Quick Tips:
- Minis have stats – Damage, HP, DPS, Attack Speed, and Speed. In the case of Ranged units, they also have a Range, and units that have over-time effects also have a Duration stat.
- Minis are assembled into armies, which are essentially decks of minis headed by a leader. Each leader you unlock has their own army. You can freely mix and match minis from any faction under a leader’s army.
- Minis have several traits that determine how they work. Always give a mini’s traits a quick read to determine its role, its strengths, and its weaknesses.
- Minis come in three types: Melee, Ranged, and Flying. Melee is strong against Ranged, Ranged is strong against Flying, and Flying is strong against Melee.
- Minis also have a troop type which determines its unit composition. These are One-Target (just one unit) and Squad (this unit is comprised of several, weaker units).
- Some minis have ability traits. These are arguably the most important traits to consider as they open up new avenues of play and can make or break an army.
- Minis have a rarity system. This is mostly used to denote a mini’s progress and is tied closely to strengthening systems.
Mini Stats
Each mini’s combat abilities can be measured precisely by viewing its stats. To view a mini’s stats, open your army tab in the main menu (the helmet in the bottom panel), then tap on the mini, and then scroll through the panel in the info window.
Mini stats in Warcraft Rumble are as follows:
- Damage: how much damage each attack from this mini does. Note that in the case of AOE minis, this stat is referred to as “AOE Damage”.
- Health: how much damage this mini can sustain before it’s destroyed and removed from the board.
- DPS: how much damage this mini does per second. You can derive this by dividing damage by attack speed.
- Attack Speed: how often this mini attacks in terms of seconds. In the image above, Grom Hellscream has an attack speed of 1.3, meaning he only attacks once every 1.3 seconds. A lower number here means a mini attacks faster!
- Speed: determines how quickly this mini moves. This ranged from Slow to Fast, with some in-between speeds like Med-Fast.
- Range: determines this mini’s attack range. You’ll only see this stat on Ranged minis. The higher this is, the further away that mini can attack from.
- Duration: determines how long the effects of this mini’s attacks/abilities last. You’ll only see this on minis that have such effects to begin with. No duration pretty much means a permanent ability so long as the conditions are met, such as with aura traits like Bloodlust.
Leaders and Armies
Minis must be assembled into armies. An army is essentially a deck of minis; each army has 6 mini slots where you can assign minis of any faction, as well as the leader.
Leader minis are very powerful units that offer unique abilities. Grommash Hellscream, for example, is a powerful tank and bruiser that grants Bloodlust to friendly units around himself. Because of this, it’s often beneficial to build an army around your leader rather than just randomly throwing in minis.
Note that you can assign the same units to multiple armies – you don’t need duplicates.
Mini Traits
Mini stats may be easy, but traits are where the real meat is at. Each mini in Warcraft Rumble possesses several traits that define its characteristics and help you find better choices for your team.
It is very important for you to go through each mini’s traits – both yours and your opponent’s – as that will allow you to make better, more informed decisions on how to maximize your army’s performance as well as find weak points in your rival’s forces.
As with stats, you can scroll through the middle panel to view a unit’s traits.
Mini Types
One of the more prominent traits that minis have is their type. There are three types of minis in Warcraft Rumble: Melee, Ranged, and Flying. These types lend themselves to an elemental rock-paper-scissors system where:
- Melee units are strong against Ranged units.
- Ranged units are strong against Flying units.
- Flying units are strong against Melee units.
A good army has a mix of these different mini types – this will allow it to come up with quick counters to any play your opponent makes!
Mini Troop Types
In addition to this type, minis have a quality that determines how their unit operates:
- One-Target minis are comprised of a single, powerful unit. This makes them more effective against AOE units as they’ll only take one instance of damage from splashing attacks.
- Squad minis are comprised of several, weaker units. While each unit in this mini is weak, Squads can quickly overwhelm unprepared opponents who don’t have AOEs.
Mini Abilities
Some traits also denote abilities. Minis with abilities can be very powerful and often open up new ways to play.
Ability traits are incredibly important to take note of, more than any other trait. A good blend of abilities will allow your minis to seize the battlefield quickly and efficiently, while a foe with a well-organized and thought-out army can easily crush an unprepared player!
Mini Rarity
Finally, each mini also has a rarity.
The rarities, in ascending order, are Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. As far as I’ve seen, all minis start as Common; rarity is more tied to a mini’s progress than its actual performance – so no, you can’t pull or buy a Legendary mini off the bat.
Rarities are intimately tied to the talent system, which we’ll discuss in a little bit.
Polishing Up Your Minis
Collecting minis is great and all, but you’ll need to make sure that they’re ready to fight. A well-trained, well-equipped army is an effective army, after all. Here’s all you need to know about how to make your minis the best they can be.
Quick Tips:
- The easiest way to strengthen your minis is by leveling them up. Experience is earned by a random mini in your deck after a battle. You can also get mini experience through other methods, such as free packs and the item shop.
- By collecting duplicates of a mini, you can gain stars for it. Collect enough stars and you’ll increase that mini’s rarity, unlocking the talent system and getting a bonus level in the process.
- Note that duplicates will not start dropping until you’ve exhausted a collection. Keep buying minis and earning Tomes to push for dupes!
- Talents are powerful traits that can be added to specific minis. Each mini has its own unique talent tree, and these talents can vastly change how they work, allowing you to make a specialized army.
Leveling Up
As Warcraft Rumble is technically a hero RPG, the most basic way of strengthening your army is by leveling up your units.
When a unit gains enough experience points, it’ll level up, which will grant it a minor boost to its stats. New levels are nothing exciting, but higher numbers are important at any point in the game.
The easiest way to earn experience points is by doing battle. When you clear a battle, a random mini in your deck will earn some combat experience. Do note that you get experience whether you win or lose – though winning does grant more experience points. This system also ensures that you’ll almost always be able to make your units stronger just by playing the game.
Raising Rarity
As mentioned earlier, a mini’s rarity is more tied to how strong it is rather than how rare it is. By pulling duplicates of a mini, you can gain stars for said mini. Accumulate enough stars and you’ll be given the chance to upgrade that mini permanently.
Raising a mini’s rarity not only gives it a bonus level but also gives it access to the talent system. More on that in a little bit.
To raise rarity, you’ll need a couple of things:
- Duplicates. Dupes of a mini become available in both the G.R.I.D and from Tomes if you’ve exhausted all other possibilities. You’ll be buying from the G.R.I.D anyway to add to your collection, so it’s just a matter of when, not if, you can buy duplicates. Note that duplicates are automatically converted to stars for their mini.
- Arclight Energy. Arclight Energy (the blue lightning bolt) is a special resource that you can earn from specific game modes that you’ll unlock further down the road.
- Cores. Occasionally, you’ll need Cores in addition to these other materials. These can sometimes be acquired from victory rewards but are generally harder to get than either duplicates or Arclight Energy. Try to save them for minis that you know you’ll definitely be using.
Talents
Raising a mini’s rarity not only gives it more stats to work with but also starts it on the talent system. Talents are best thought of as traits that can be equipped. Each talent offers unique upgrades to its mini, allowing players to fine-tune and specialize their armies!
Once a mini has had its rarity raised to Uncommon, its talents will start appearing in the G.R.I.D., where you can buy them at your leisure. Note that each rarity boost only unlocks one talent slot; to equip all 3 of a mini’s talents, you’ll need to keep boosting its rarity!
To modify a mini’s talents, tap on the blank space to the right of its info panel:
You can also tap on the info button on that screen to preview what that mini’s talents are!
Mastering The Battlefield
Now that you’re well-versed in studying your minis and how to make them stronger, it’s time to take them to the battlefront. While Warcraft Rumble’s combat system is quite intuitive and comes with a detailed tutorial, it’s easy to lose focus in the middle of a pitched battle. You’ll need to thoroughly master Warcraft Rumble’s basic mechanics and functions to become a force to be reckoned with.
Quick Tips:
- The objective of Warcraft Rumble is to destroy your opponent’s Barracks within the time limit. If neither Barracks has fallen, overtime begins. If no winner is decided by the end of overtime, the game ends in a draw.
- This means that ideally, you should push for Barracks damage whenever feasible.
- You have a hand of 4 minis, and a new one is drawn whenever you play a mini. You can see the next mini you’ll draw on the left side of your UI.
- It’s a good idea to hold onto some minis and wait for the right time to play them – an easy example of this is an AOE spell to stop enemy Squad minis from overwhelming you.
- You cannot run out of minis to play.
- Minis have two restrictions on where they can be placed: gold and deployment zones.
- All minis have a gold cost, indicated in the middle of their stands. Gold regenerates slowly over time but can be accelerated by methods such as mining it. A good economy means a strong army.
- Gold can be mined by Kobolds, special units that are available to every player and do not take up a slot in your army.
- Learn to manage your gold. Seriously. Save gold, study your opponent’s plays, counter their match-ups, and don’t just place minis without a reason.
- Minis can only be deployed in deployment zones. These include the left and right sides of your Barracks as well as any forward bases that you capture.
- Forward bases are captured by keeping minis on them. The more units you have near a forward base, the more pressure they exert – once that pressure is full, you’ll take the base. Taking forward bases is very important as it not only allows you to deploy units closer to your enemy’s main base but also gives you more tactical options.
- Minis placed on the battlefield have a simple attack-move AI towards the enemy Barracks. They tend to stick to their “lanes” as determined by their initial placement.
- Be sure to read up on new mechanics, such as structures and enemies when presented to you. The single-player campaign all but expects you to maximize these gameplay mechanics when they’re introduced.
Game Flow and Objectives
As Warcraft Rumble is based on the RTS games of its franchise, its objective is simple – destroy your enemy’s Barracks before they do the same to you!
Battles in Warcraft Rumble last for a little over 3 minutes. In that time, you and your opponent will need to damage or ideally destroy each other’s Barracks. However, if neither Barracks has fallen at the end of the timer, the game goes into Overtime for a minute, during which all gold income is doubled. If neither Barracks has fallen by the end of that, the game draws.
This means that, as a general rule, it’s a good idea to chip in Barracks damage whenever and wherever you can so long as it doesn’t compromise your general strategy. And yes, you can play spell-type minis to directly damage the enemy Barracks.
Your Hand
Minis are played from your hand.
At the start of a battle, each player draws four random minis from their army. These armies are then kept in their hand until they’re ready to be deployed. When a mini is played, it’ll vanish from your hand and you’ll draw a new one from your army. Note that you can see which mini is next – it’s the one in grayscale located to the left of your hand.
Because you can hold onto minis, it’s prudent to keep a few “emergency” minis on hand and only play them as necessary. One scenario you’ll run into quite often in the early game is the AI playing multiple Squad minis, which necessitates a quick response from an AOE spell. Good thing you kept that Chain Lightning in your hand, eh? Play prudently and wisely, and don’t just unga bunga me smash. Think about your moves before committing as that’s gold you potentially won’t get back.
Finally, you never run out of minis. Any mini you play gets shuffled back into your army.
Gold and Economy
However, minis have two limitations on how they can be placed. The first of these limitations is their gold cost. Each mini costs gold to deploy, with more powerful minis having a higher price tag. You can see each mini’s gold cost in the middle of their stand, both in battle and in your hand, and you can have up to 10 gold at once.
Now, gold is earned via two methods. The first method is simple – just wait it out. Players passively and slowly accumulate gold over time, ensuring that you’ll always have a method to play. However, it’s far better to be proactive in your gold collection. This is done by harvesting gold veins with your Kobolds.
Kobolds are a special unit available to every player and do not take up a slot in your army. These feisty rodents will wade into the thick of battle, mining gold from the various gold veins that they encounter. Do note that since Kobolds are dedicated miner units, they have no defense whatsoever and will quickly fall to any kind of assault, so take care of your supply lines – it’s up to you to manage the delicate balance between keeping your own Kobolds safe, keeping your enemy’s Kobolds from the gold, AND maintaining a decent army and field presence.
Veins regenerate gold over time, with each vein containing a maximum of 3 gold. Kobolds have a unique AI that causes them to ignore everything except gold veins. Do note that since Kobolds cost 1 gold, you’ll need to mine at least once with them to at least get your money back. It’s a good idea to keep a Kobold on standby until a nearby gold vein has fully replenished. As you progress through the game, you might find more minis with the Miner trait that will allow them to harvest gold like Kobolds do!
Make no mistake: gold management is very important in Warcraft Rumble, if not the most important skill you need to learn. Many RTS games can be summarized as a battle of economic efficiency, where the player who’s made the wisest investments with their limited funds often wins the day. As with my advice in the hand section, stay cool, watch what your opponent is doing, make effective counterplays, and don’t just turbo minis out the gate without rhyme or reason.
Deployment Zones
The second restriction on placing minis is their deployment zone. Minis (with some exceptions thanks to traits) can only be summoned near your Barracks or another forward base structure.
At the beginning of a battle, your only two deployment zones will be to the left and right of your Barracks. Note that where you place your units here will determine which path they’ll take – study the map before you hit the Start button.
As the battle continues, you’ll eventually run into enemy fortifications or Meeting Stones. These are forward deployment zones that can be captured. In the case of enemy towers, you’ll first need to destroy the tower (ideally with Siege units) before the deployment zone becomes available for capture. Meeting Stones, on the other hand, have no defense whatsoever, meaning that both players can exert a huge amount of pressure on them and quickly seize that zone.
When you destroy an enemy fortification, ownership of that deployment zone will be transferred to you. Once the meter fills up, a new tower under your control will spring up in that node, and you’ll be freely able to deploy minis on that site.
Taking forward bases is very important, as closer deployment zones to your opponent not only ups your offensive pressure (in that your units have less ground to cover before reaching the enemy Barracks) but also forces your opponent to answer your threat and take back that deployment zone. However, note that not all deployment zones are worth gunning for. Seize and hold the deployment zones that you feel will best push your strategy forward!
Mini AI and Lanes
There’s little you can do with your minis once they’re deployed. Minis follow a simple AI – they’ll attack-move towards the enemy Barracks, engaging foes within an AOE around themselves and sticking to their lane.
A mini’s lane is determined by where it’s deployed. In general, stages have a left and a right lane, and units will march down that path, turning corners and engaging foes in their way. These paths can be altered with switches – a stage mechanic that you’re undoubtedly familiar with by this time – but in general, they’ll walk straight down.
Since a unit’s deployment zone affects which lane it walks on, pay close attention to forward bases, most especially on your and your opponent’s lane with the weakest presence. An unattended lane invites a powerful push!
Special Mechanics and Reading Information
Warcraft Rumble’s single-player campaign is rich and varied, and you’ll quickly find yourself running into new mechanics and foes. However, a bit of advanced reading helps a lot when it comes to these.
Before a battle starts (or by pausing during a battle), you can tap on any enemy mini or unfamiliar structure to get a short description of what it does. Reading up on these is very important as stages that introduce mechanics often expect you to make full use of them, and failure to do so can very easily lead to defeat!
Funding The War Chest
Finally, let’s talk about earning the resources you’ll need to get ahead in Warcraft Rumble. While I’d normally add this section just after strengthening your units, Warcraft Rumble is a special case in that you’ll need to study and get used to the combat system quite a bit before you can comfortably win – and that’s not to mention that the early game is lacking in resources if you can’t compete well!
Quick Tips:
- Remember that you can always grind out battles in any mode for small amounts of combat experience. It’s not much, but every edge helps.
- The amount of experience you gain from battle is tied to your collection level. Make it a point to buy new minis from the G.R.I.D whenever you can as these are the best way to boost your level in the early game.
- If you’re already grinding for experience, be sure to do your quests to get a little extra boost. Quests involve challenging a random stage you’ve already cleared and will award one of your minis (the quest giver) with extra experience points on top of the experience you get for clearing the level.
- You can only do 20 quests per day, so grind them out.
- Play PvP. Seriously. PvP matches not only give out more experience for winning or losing a match but also give out Tomes (booster packs) at certain thresholds.
- You get victory rewards up to thrice per day. These include Tomes, so go for those 9 victories per day. Ideally, you can do these alongside your quests to maximize your time.
Grinding Out Experience Points
Unfortunately, there’s no quick and easy way to earn experience points in Warcraft Rumble. On the plus side, there’s no limit to the amount of experience you can get in a day…except your patience, that is.
Since the amount of experience earned doesn’t really vary which stage you do, I suggest finding a stage you can reliably clear quickly thanks to the layout (as enemy armies seem to vary) and stick to that level.
Collection Level and the G.R.I.D
Experience gain in Warcraft Rumble is tied to your collection level, that blue bar beside your portrait. Collection experience is earned by getting new minis and increasing the rarity of the ones you already own.
This means that you’ll want to raise your collection level as quickly as possible to get the most benefits for your time. The easiest way to do that in the early game is by snapping up minis in the G.R.I.D., which serves as Warcraft Rumble’s mini and talent store.
The G.R.I.D gives you a timed stock of both minis and talents (if you’ve unlocked those). G.R.I.D. items are displayed in 3 rows of three, and occasionally, you’ll get some nice freebies in a row, such as bonus experience for minis in that row. To help you make the most out of your G.R.I.D., you can spend 5 coins to move a G.R.I.D. item into another row. However, you’ll need to act fast as the G.R.I.D.’s stock – and your saved configuration – will refresh every so often. You can see the timer of when it’ll refresh at the bottom of the screen.
There are two caveats with the G.R.I.D. First, the G.R.I.D. will not start offering duplicates until you’ve exhausted all available minis in a collection. Second, the G.R.I.D. can offer talents, but will only sell talents for minis that you’ve already unlocked a talent slot for.
Quests
Once you hit 14 sigils, you’ll gain access to quests. Quests challenge you by throwing you against a stage you’ve already completed. If you’re going to grind for experience points anyway, you may as well throw in some quests.
Each time you visit the quest tab, the game picks 3 minis for you to choose from to get bonus experience. These minis are selected as follows:
- One of them will always be the lowest-level mini in your currently equipped army.
- Another will be a random mini in your equipped army.
- The last will be a random mini in your collection.
Each quest is essentially a junction in that you have to pick a specific mini to gain the bonus experience. Sometimes you’ll also get experience multipliers – check the top panel in the quests menu – that award a ton more experience points.
Also, note that you can only do quests 20 times per day, though there’s no limit to the amount of experience you can get for actually clearing battles (and if there is, I haven’t seen it). Quests also don’t carry over to the next day, so be sure to complete them!
PvP
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the game by beating up the AI, fire up that PvP button.
Even if you’re not fond of PvP (like me), I cannot underscore how important it is to play PvP in Warcraft Rumble. PvP matches offer a ton of stuff: for starters, mini experience from winning or losing a PvP match is much, much greater than fighting in the campaign. Second at most importantly, reaching certain ladder point thresholds (you get ladder points from winning matches) nets you some sweet early game loot, such as Tomes (booster packs) that allow you to rapidly bolster your core team!
Note that PvP battles have unique modifiers. In the image above, the map is Alterac Valley, and the modifiers are Dragon Towers (Each player’s Barracks fires a cone of fire instead of ballista bolts) and Clean Fight (no change to units). These modifiers change every so often, so be sure to study them and adapt your army to maximize your benefits.
Winning PvP matches also gives you some Honor, which determines your placement in Warcraft Rumble’s PvP ladder as well as your end-of-season rewards. To be more specific, your final placement is determined by the Honor of your 3 leaders with the highest Honor.
PvP unlocks at 8 sigils – which means you need to clear 8 unique stages in single-player mode.
Victory Rewards
Victory rewards are a fantastic way to supplement your income from grinding for experience.
Each time you win a battle, you’ll get one victory mark. Light them all up and you get the prizes on the right side, from left to right. Victory words are very much worth the effort as you get Tomes out of these, which rapidly boost the experience of your minis.
Daily Deals
Finally, you can always just buy more resources with gold (and real money if you really want to). Do note there are also some daily freebies you can claim from the shop, but they’re very meager gains. The more sigils you’ve earned, the more daily deals become available.
Since you’ll want every bit of experience you can get, be sure to avail of these offers when you need to, and don’t forget to nab your freebies!
To The Frontlines!
The world of Warcraft is ripe with treasures to claim, soldiers and heroes to rally, and titans to be felled. Every fight is a fast-paced, dangerous dance. How will you win? What is your opponent planning? How do you plan to counter that? These are the things that make every match in Warcraft Rumble an absolute joy to play, and you’ll never run out of things to do or people to pick fights with.
That ends my beginner’s guide to Warcraft Rumble, and with this knowledge under your belt, you’re ready to take off in your quest for glory. If you have any suggestions on how to improve this guide or would like to share some of your own tips and tricks, make your voice heard in the comment section below!