Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Crush Your Opponents

Arise from your slumber, warrior. The Emperor has need of your services once more. And the other factions could use your help too, I guess.

Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is a turn-based strategy game from Snowprint Studios, where you’ll take command of a small group of heroes. As their commander, you’ll be tasked with snatching victory from the jaws of defeat over several battlefields in turn-based, hex-based combat. Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is available on both the App Store and Google Play Store.

Those familiar with hex-based or even tile-based tactical games will no doubt quickly make themselves at home in this game. However, for players new to the genre, or for those who want to decipher Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus‘ systems, be sure to stay with us and read our beginner’s guide!

Combat Mechanics

As a strategy game, combat in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is simple yet deeply nuanced. You’ll fight on hostile worlds and enemy ships for the glory of the Emperor, but to emerge victorious, you’ll need to understand how combat works.

Unit Stats

All units have stats, which you can view at any time by tapping on that unit in battle, then checking the top of the screen.

On the leftmost side, you’ll see the unit’s portrait as well as its traits. Traits indicate what a unit is – what faction it belongs to, what kind of armor its wearing, what division it’s a part of, and so on. Traits are unique to each unit. Be sure to read up on the traits of your characters to maximize their potential.

To the right of the unit’s name are its attacks. Units can have one or two attacks, each of which can be classified as either melee or ranged, with a fist symbolizing a melee attack and a crosshair for a ranged attack. Ranged attacks also have a number in the middle of the crosshair, representing its range.

The icon to the right of a unit’s attacks indicates the damage type of those attacks, with a gauge to the left of this icon representing the damage type’s pierce ratio at a glance. The icon to the right (the one that looks like chicken feet) represents the number of hits each of those attacks do.

The shield to the right of this represents a unit’s armor, while the red crystals (or are they drops of blood) below armor represent this unit’s health. To the right of armor is the unit’s movement (expressed as the number of hexes it can move during its turn) and finally, below movement is a unit’s damage.

If you need a refresher on what any of these icons stand for, you can always tap them while in game to bring up some reminder text.

Damage Calculation

Damage calculation in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is relatively straightforward, but for those new to tactics, here it is.

Always start with a unit’s damage stat multiplied by the number of hits an attack does, to get the final base damage. Let’s take Bellator, as an example: he has a melee attack that hits 6 times, and his damage stat is 10. This means that by default, Bellator’s attacks will do 60 damage.

However, this damage is mitigated by the enemy’s armor value. Armor provides a flat damage reduction against each incoming hit. An enemy with 8 armor, for example, would effectively take only 2 damage from each of Bellator’s attacks, vastly reducing his 60 damage to 12!

If every single unit had full damage reduction from its armor, the game would quickly become a slugfest. Hence the importance of pierce ratios. Attacks can be shunted by armor, but they’ll always deal damage equal to at least their pierce ratio.

This is where the importance of damage types come in. Bellator’s attacks use the Bolter damage type, meaning he has 20% pierce ratio. Even if Bellator fires at an enemy with 20 armor (for 6* (10 – 20) damage), each attack is guaranteed to do 20% of his damage anyway, so he’ll still end up doing 12 damage.

Of course, a better option would be to use a damage type with better pierce ratio. This is why Tigurius is a very potent unit: his ranged attacks deal Psychic damage, which has a 100% pierce ratio. Remember: each attack has a damage type, and Tigurius suffers from having an impotent melee attack. While his ranged psychic attacks are guaranteed to devastate even the toughest of foes, Tigurius uses physical damage for his melee attack, which has a pathetic 1% pierce ratio!

Note that damage in the game is affected by damage variance. This means that attacks are never dealt at 100% of their listed value, but randomly fluctuate between 80% – 120%.

Another thing to note (which surprised me) is that there are no counterattack mechanics in the game nor are there attacks of opportunity for moving while adjacent to an enemy unit.

One last thing: note that, for most of the early game, you’ll be doing overkill damage which means your killing hits are doing at least twice the amount of damage needed to kill that unit. While this isn’t relevant at the start, note that overkills negate any ability that triggers on death.

Unit Abilities

Each unit not only comes with unique traits, but unique abilities that can turn the tides of battle on their own. These can range from getting free attacks, to massive single-target nukes, and even AOE healing for your units.

This comes with the downside that skills can only be used once per battle. Units can be ordered to use their abilities on their turn, so long as the conditions have been met.

Movement and Terrain

Movement in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is relatively simple.

Moving units is as easy as selecting them, then choosing a hex to walk to. While a unit is selected, the hexes it can move to are colored in gray.

Do note that there are some nuances to the movement system. One: you only get one movement phase per unit. This is whether or not you moved to a unit’s full range.Two: there are no takebacks. If you move to a spot where a unit cannot take any action against enemy units, that unit’s turn is automatically over. Three: there are special traits that can affect how a unit moves, such as Flying. Last but not least, taking an action (using any of a unit’s skills) ends that unit’s turn immediately.

Luckily, you can preview a unit’s movement before the unit actually does the movement action. When selecting a tile to move to, any enemies that the unit can hit will be marked in red, and you have to tap the targeted hex twice to move to it.

The biggest impediment (and advantage) to movement is making use of hex effects. These are special terrain effects that apply to the hex they’re on, and strategic use of your terrain can help you overcome foes stronger than yourself.

The Indomitus campaign will introduce you to some relatively early hex effects, such as Razor Wire (units that touch Razor Wire take 50% more damage, and get their movement interrupted) or Tall Grass (conceals non-flying units, reducing the number of ranged hits they take by 2, and if set ablaze, can spread fire to adjacent Tall Grass hexes) which you’ll quickly grow familiar with.

As you continue through the campaign, you’ll find even more complex terrain features that you’ll need to leverage to emerge victorious.

High Ground

High ground is a very powerful and ever-present hex effect. Units that have a height advantage enjoy a damage bonus when attacking foes on lower ground.

While there’s no additional bonus for being on even higher ground, this bonus is not insignificant: a unit deals a whopping 50% bonus damage to enemies that are standing on lower ground than the attacking unit. Try to avoid or displace enemy units standing on high ground, or close the distance quickly.

Melee Versus Ranged

Ranged units are powerful, but they have an inherent weakness in that they need space to use their attacks. If they’re adjacent to an enemy, ranged units will have no choice but to use a weaker melee attack. As a general rule, this melee attack uses the very sad Physical damage type with a 1% pierce ratio.

In the image above, I can’t order Tigurius to use his more effective ranged attack, as he’s adjacent to an enemy unit. However, what I can do is move him to a safe spot, then launch his ranged attack from there. It’s important to keep your ranged units protected, or always give them a way to create distance between themselves and enemy units either through their abilities or by leaving some tiles free as a fallback position.

Note that as you proceed through the game, you’ll find terrain features, such as Cliffs, that subvert this rule.

The Danger Zone

The danger zone is a simple yet powerful tool in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus.

By tapping on the icon on the lower left of the screen – the one with the skull and hexes – the game will highlight which hexes enemy units can attack on their turn. This will allow you to more effectively position your units in anticipation of your opponent’s turn.

Hone Your Warriors

As you can only bring a few units with you in every mission, it’s important to train your warriors and give them equipment to help them survive.

Leveling Skills

Abilities can be improved by investing resources (namely coins and faction badges) into them. Upgrading abilities also requires heroes to hit certain levels, so be sure to rotate your roster so that everyone sees battle.

Units also have a second passive unique ability that must be unlocked by increasing their rarity. These secondary abilities usually complement a character’s first skill, but will also require you to invest more resources into them.

Equipment and Supplies

Each character also has equipment slots. If you’ve been paying attention to the character loadout screen, you’ll notice that there’s actually two sets of equipment: one for actual gear and another for supplies. By giving your warriors new gear, you can improve their base stats and allow them to perform in better in combat.

The blue slots on the upper part of the panel represent the actual equipment your heroes carry with you, while the six slots below are for supplies, which you’re more likely to get from clearing stages. Equipment can be forged and ascended to improve their stats. Supplies, on the other hand, come in a set of six, and every time you complete this set of six, those equipment items will be consumed and turned into a permanent stat upgrade.  

Equipment and supplies come from clearing stages; if you need more gear, clear more stages. If you’re looking for a specific piece of gear, you can tap the empty slot to see which stages in which campaign that item drops from. Alternately, if you have a guild, you can request for certain items and hope someone’s feeling generous.

Do note that while you can farm campaign stages for equipment, supplies, and other resources, you’ll also spend energy doing so. If you have no energy, you can’t play the campaign and you’ll have to wait for it to recover. You also have a limited amount of clears per stage per day, as documented by the “X wins left” on the victory screen that appears after finishing a stage.

You can also speed up farming by using Raid Tickets to instantly clear a stage that you’ve already gotten all 3 medals on. Note that using Raid Tickets does not exempt you from paying energy.

Another great way to nab equipment and supplies is the daily deals tab at the shop. You can occasionally find gear there for the low, low price of coins. You can also avail of better equipment by spending Blackstone, but as you need those for pulling characters, I’d advise against it.

Promotion and Ascension

Your warriors can grow, but they too have their limits. This is where promotion and ascension come in.

You can promote characters once you have enough of their shards while also having that character. Promotions give a character stars, and each star increases that character’s base stats by 10%. The number of shards needed to promote a character can be viewed in their profile in the characters screen.

Promoting characters also paves the way for ascension. Ascending characters increases their rarity, and by extension, their maximum level. Ascending common characters also unlocks their second unique ability, and boosts ability stats by 20% for each rarity above common.

Ascending characters is relatively easy: keep promoting them until you’re given the option to ascend, then get even more shards and that character’s faction orbs.

Enlist More Warriors

Warhammer 40,000 Tacticus has a large cast of characters from many factions in the Warhammer universe, who all bring something unique to the table.

Requisitioning

The easiest and simplest way of getting new characters is via the requisition system.

Requisitioning drop pods costs Blackstone, which you can get in small amounts by playing through the game – or you could just buy the stuff. Note that requisition drop pods are not guaranteed to have a character in them. They could just as well contain resources. However, pulling 10 drop pods guarantees that at least one pod will have a character.

Boss Rewards

A slow but reliable method of earning new characters is by farming them on their boss stages.

Once you’ve unlocked a chapter’s boss, you have the option to keep clearing the stage for a chance to get some of that boss’ shards. Get enough shards, and you can redeem that boss as a playable character for yourself!

While shards drop randomly, you can get a few guaranteed shards by completing the boss stage and fulfilling that level’s medal requirements. Farming boss shards is also subject to the same limitations as other stages: you can use Raid Tickets, you have to pay energy, and you only have a limited amount of clears per day. Good luck, and happy hunting!

Do Your Daily Quests

Daily quests are part of every mobile game (heck, every ONLINE game), and the ones in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus aren’t very different. These tasks are pretty easy to complete, and each of them gives you resources – and yes, they do give character shards.

By completing enough daily quests, you’ll also be able to open the mission crate at the top of the daily quests screen. It’s akin to the activity bar in other mobile games, and just like those games, it’s always worth it to fill the bar to the end: you’ll not only gain more resources like coins and badges, but also 10 shards of a rare hero.

Participate in Other Game Modes

The campaign is but one of the many game modes that Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus has to offer. By increasing your power level, you’ll be able to join more modes that coincidentally give out character shards.

New Campaigns!

Tigurius and crew are brave and loyal warriors of the Emperor, but theirs is not the only story to be told. By collecting more characters, you’ll not only improve your army’s strength, but also unlock new content!

These new campaigns not only allow you to see the war from another side, but also allow you to clear stages and therefore earn more rewards, and even get shards of characters you never fought as a boss!

Alternately, you can pay real-life money to instantly get the required characters and unlock a new campaign. If you decide to take this route, you’ll be pleased to know that the price of a campaign pack decreases based on the characters you already own, if they’re required to unlock that campaign.

Seek New Battlefields

As I mentioned earlier, campaigns aren’t the only battlefronts you can participate in. By diversifying your violence, you can earn many more rewards for your crew – equipment, badges, and even character shards are up for grabs in Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus’ other game modes. Note that these aren’t the only game modes available in the game: as your player power increases, you’ll unlock even more battlefields to fight on!

Onslaught

Onslaught pits your characters against waves of increasingly stronger monsters. The longer you survive, the better the prizes.

During Onslaught mode, enemies will spawn in waves which you can preview before beginning the round. After a certain amount of turns pass, the next wave begins, and that wave’s enemies will swarm in. Work quickly to eliminate troublesome foes and try not to be overwhelmed by the hordes.

One important thing to note about Onslaught is that it’s counted as a single battle, so you can only use a unit’s abilities once during the whole Onslaught round. This also means that abilities that affect the terrain or are dependent on the number of turns that have passed are much more effective.

Onslaught mode requires characters to be at a certain power level before they can be deployed. To deploy units in Onslaught mode, tap that character’s portrait, then tap one of the available deployment slots (the glowing blue hexes) on the map.

Your reward for clearing this grueling experience is some Onslaught experience, which lets you challenge even tougher enemy waves. Oh, and you get resources too, such as badges. The most important rewards, however, are the commendations.

Commendations allow you to honor one of your warriors who participated in the Onslaught. Aside from probably making them feel better about themselves, commendations give you both shards of that character AND the badges they need to promote. Thus, Onslaught provides a way for you to slowly yet reliably promote your heroes and ascend their rarities.

As you may expect, you can’t do Onslaughts forever. Each time you start an Onslaught round, you’ll consume one Battle Token, and you can only hold up to 3. Battle Tokens take over half a day to regenerate, so try not to sit on a full set of 3 tokens for too long.

Arena

The Arena is Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus‘ PVP mode, and it’s here that you can test your mettle against the heroes of other players in asynchronous PVP.

Arena fights are essentially the same as regular fights, with the same restrictions: once per battle abilities, terrain effects, high ground, and so on and so forth. The only real difference here is that you’ll be competing for points and ranking on the PVP leaderboards, which can net you a lot of prizes.

Fighting in the Arena nets you points, which are used to determine your position in the leaderboard. At the end of a PVP season, your placement in your current PVP league will determine what and how many arena crates you get. As you fight in the arena and secure more wins (I hope), you’ll eventually be moved up to more challenging leaderboards. All new players start in the Aspirant League, so you’ll need to prove your strength and tactical acumen if you want to fight in the big leagues.

When entering the Arena, you’ll be given a choice of 3 opponents to pick a fight with. If you don’t like your options, you can choose to reroll your opponents at the cost of some Blackstone. You can only do up to 15 PVP fights per day, and these don’t carry over.

Join A Guild

A lone hero may be strong, but when banded together with others, they become an unstoppable army. 

That’s why you should join a guild as soon as you can; not only will you be able to receive help from your allies, but you’ll also be able to offer it, creating fire-forged (well, resource-forged) bonds in the process. As of writing, there are two main benefits to joining a guild: assistance and raids.

Guild Assistance

When outfitting heroes with supplies (the six equipment slots), you can either farm it by fighting over and over again in specific stages. Or you may want to try your luck with your guildmates by requesting for an item. That’s about it.

Guild Raids

Guild raids are the more important benefit of joining a guild.

Raids will pit your company against a fearsome foe that one players alone can’t hope to defeat. The good news is you don’t have to do it all alone: any damage a guild member does to the raid boss is permanent, meaning that if your guild members keep at it, you’ll eventually be able to take the beastie down for some major rewards.

Note that there’s also a leaderboard for how well guilds perform against a guild boss!

With Bravery Comes Victory

Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is easy to pick up, yet difficult to master. Across desert dunes and empty worlds, your heroes will fight, clawing their way and inching ever closer to ultimate victory.

That ends my beginner’s guide to Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus, and I hope I was able to help you unravel the game’s many systems! If you have anything to add, or any tips of your own, let me know in the comment section below!