Not a fan of in-depth football management games where you have to process tons of stats and make myriad decisions that don’t just cover your team’s lineup and formation, but also your stadium, your field, and your sponsors? Well, we’re glad to let you know that Bluehole PNIX has the game for you in World Soccer King. This company is known for casual sports titles such as Mini Golf King, Just Hit, and Just Shoot, but unlike the latter two, this new iOS game is decidedly less casual than the others, and less human player skill-based. Still, that doesn’t mean that your timing and the crispness of your passing won’t play a part in the outcome of the PvP matches, because it certainly will! You’ll be traveling to various stadiums, competing against human opponents from all over the world, and moving up from league to league as you win more three-minute matches. How far can you go in this game’s multiplayer universe?
Although, we did mention that this is a game for more casual mobile gamers who find the bells and whistles of soccer management games a bit too much to handle, that doesn’t mean this game is lacking in depth and short on features, because it definitely isn’t. That’s why we’ve covered as much ground as possible in this World Soccer King strategy guide, and come up with a whopping 14 tips for both beginner and intermediate players alike, with an expert guide coming your way soon. Read on, and we’ll help you win more games and improve your team the right way!
1. Know The Basics Of The Game
World Soccer King is, as we mentioned in the description, much more about the action than the management aspect of association football, and if you’re looking for a game where you only have to worry about timing and other coordination-related matters, this game should be for you. You have a lineup of 11 players, and there are no substitutions, nor are there 45-minute halves — much like the recently covered Rumble Stars Soccer, albeit with human characters, the objective here is to outscore your opponent in a 3-minute timeframe, or better yet, be the first to score three goals. There’s no overtime period here, which means if you’re all knotted up after three minutes, that will count as a draw.
You’ll also find this game much to your liking if you don’t like minding the defensive aspect of sports-based games. The only thing you control here is offense, and that means passing the ball and trying to score goals. Swipe down or up to pass the ball or shoot it to the opposite direction — swiping down to the left, for instance, will generally mean you’re passing the ball upwards to the right. Swiping up to the right, meanwhile, usually means you’re passing the ball downwards to the left. You wouldn’t need to pass down too often, however, unless you’re trying to kill time and hang on to your lead by passing the ball around.
You also may be wondering how the game decides who’s going to shoot first — this takes place at the start, with a coin toss. If it ends up blue, that means you’re the “home team” and starting out on offense, and if it ends up red, you’re the “visiting team” and playing defense for the first few plays. Winning a game, regardless of the league, will earn you one point more than the amount of points deducted if you lose — for example, in the first league (Moscow), you earn two points for a win and get docked one point for a loss, in the second (Paris), you earn three for a win and get penalized two points for a loss, and so on.
2. Replace Your Nameless Generics With ‘Named’ Players
As you win more games in World Soccer King, you’ll win more capsules — soccer ball-shaped chests that contain coins and player cards. You’ll also notice that these players, aside from having specific rarities and their own unique stats, have names — for example, you can replace your “Basic Forward” with Daniel or Riccardo, and you can replace your “Basic Midfielder” with Adrien, and so on. While player cards can also be bought in the in-game shop, you will mainly be earning them by opening capsules, which generally come in four rarity tiers — Basic, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. More often than not, you’ll win Basic capsules after winning games, which contain coins and three player cards, but you may also win Bronze (four player cards) or Silver (six player cards, with two guaranteed Rares or better) if you get lucky. So far, we haven’t been lucky enough to open a Gold capsule, but based on how it’s listed in the in-game store, it sometimes comes with nine player cards, including five guaranteed Rares and two guaranteed Epics, but will usually include eight player cards, and one guaranteed Rare and Epic apiece.
3. Scout Your Opponent On The Fly
Unlike other mobile soccer games where you can easily view an opponent’s win-loss record, their players, and each player’s stats, you don’t have such an option in World Soccer King. Instead, the game’s makers appear to take the term “fog of war” quite seriously. The matchmaking system works like this — tap on the soccer ball icon on the bottom menu, tap on the stage, and you’ll be assigned an opponent at random. You won’t have a chance to view their lineup or anything else aside from their user name and country of origin — it’s almost total “fog of war,” which, in a way, is where the excitement comes from in these PvP matches. There is, however, a way to somehow scout your opponent, though the catch here is that you’ll have to do it on the fly.
While you may reach a point where you’re able to recognize players based on their physical appearance, the best way to determine how good your opponent’s players are is to look at the letters on the bottom of each player — N means Normal, R means Rare, and E means Epic. If your opponent has a lot of “N” players, for instance, you’re likely on easy street. But if you have an opponent with a lot of “R” and “E” players, especially the latter, you might be in trouble and might need to work extra hard to pick up the win!
4. It’s All About Smooth And Precise Passing
As we mentioned above, you only need to pay attention to offense when playing PvP matches. Defense is in the hands of the game’s AI, and passing and shooting are your only responsibilities on the pitch. That means it would behoove you to make sure your passes are as accurate as possible, and that you don’t take too long to attempt a pass or a shot. The latter is important, as waiting too long will allow your defender (regardless of actual position) to slide tackle you, and most likely dispossess you before you can make the pass or fire the ball toward the goal. It’s not exactly a combination of speed and precision when it comes to passing and shooting, but you still need to act fairly quickly, especially if there’s a defender near the player who currently has the ball.
When aiming your passes, you want to take note of two things — where will your player move to, and where will the opposing players nearby be? It’s best to go for easier passes, of course, where it’s almost a given that another one of your players will receive the ball, ensuring that you remain in possession. The last thing you want is to fire off a bad or sloppy pass that will swing the possession over to your opponent. They can easily take advantage of that and turn your mistake into a goal — some “points off turnovers,” to borrow a basketball term. Their players’ stats won’t necessarily get boosted (but they might — keep on reading to find out how!), but it’s basic psychology — if you commit an error, your opponent (meaning the human player controlling the characters on screen) just might be extra-motivated to score.
5. Scoring Goals – How Should You Aim Your Shots?
When aiming your shots in World Soccer King, usually your best option is to pass the ball first to your center forward. He would typically be the player that has the best look at the goal, making him your most reliable goal scorer. But you shouldn’t overlook your left and right forwards either; they won’t always have as good a look, but you’ll find out soon enough why you’ll want to have them attempt some goals from time to time, maybe at least once a game for the left and/or the right forward, depending on how many shots you attempt.
Your most obvious targets when aiming your shots would be the open spaces that aren’t blocked by the goalie or by defenders. Sometimes, you can directly at the goalie, with hopes of overpowering him, and if you’re controlling a left or right forward, you might need to angle your shots in such a way that the arrow points like a 150-degree angle. Sometimes you may need to fire from a distance; you can try chipping it forward, with the arrow pointing forward with a very short line, but this could be risky, as defenders (and the goalie) might have a chance of intercepting you.
6. Don’t Repeat Stuff
One tip you’ll frequently see before the start of the game is the one advising you against repeating the same type of pass. What does this mean? For example, your center defender passing the ball to your left midfielder, or your center midfielder crossing it to your left forward. Or it may be your left forward who has the ball, but you decide to pass it to your center forward. Repeating these moves and just about any other move in World Soccer King would make it less effective the next time you try it, so if you’re controlling your center defender and are thinking of making a long pass to your left midfielder for the third time in the game, you’ll likely get dispossessed. Instead, you might want to pass the ball to your right midfielder, or to the center midfielder.
The same applies to goals — passing the ball to the same guy each time, and having him act as your go-to-guy on offense for the entire match will only dull your offensive potential. It may be the angle he’s using for his shot, or the fact that he’s the one taking it; either way, repetition will make your scoring forward less effective!
7. Watch For That Little Boost Of Morale
In some occasions, you’ll notice a thought balloon pop up over a player, with a face that appears to be winking. Usually, this happens after the opposing player makes a brilliant tackle, appears to be on target to hit a good shot for his team, or is about to send the ball toward your end of the field. This is a good thing if it happens to you, because that means your player has that rush of adrenaline, and is enjoying a quick boost of morale, thus making him more effective than he usually is. Likewise, if it happens to your opponent, you may have to hope against hope that it won’t lead to an easy goal! It’s not sure how exactly this is triggered, but we’ve observed those winking smileys often appear right after, or before, a particularly brilliant play.
8. Bad Form
This is something that often tends to happen in games like this. You lose a match against another player, and when you try to get your win back, either against the same player (via the rematch option) or against someone else, you lose again. Then you keep losing more matches as your trophy count and win percentage decrease. Before you know it, you’ve lost at least 10 points, which could take multiple matches to get back. This is a classic case of bad form, where frustration could lead to mounting losses, and force you to make sloppy passes, lazy attempts at the goal, and whatnot. In this case, we feel that the game might have something to do with it, though the effect isn’t as much as the demoralizing factor of multiple losses could be.
What’s to do if you’re on a negative skein, losing more often than you’re winning, and noticing that your touch has lost its magic? The answer is simple — just take a break for a half-hour or so, perhaps let a capsule open while you’re away. Once you return to the game, you should be refreshed, with your mind hopefully clear enough to defeat more human opponents and add to your earnings. Of course, there is the chance that you may lose, in which case you may want to continue resting, but if you end up with a draw, we’ll explain in our very next tip why this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
9. Draws Are Okay Since You Don’t Lose Any Trophies
Draws are the worst possible outcome for fans, because after 90 minutes of action and extra time, nobody’s a winner, and nobody’s a loser either. In World Soccer King, draws count against your winning percentage, unlike in real life in some sports, where a draw may count as 50 percent (with wins = 100 percent and losses = 0 percent). But the good thing about being tied with your opponent after three minutes of action is the fact that you don’t lose any of your hard-earned trophies. You will even win some coins for your troubles, though you won’t earn as many coins as you would for a win. In other words, don’t sweat it if you and your opponent are still tied at 0-0, 1-1, or even 2-2 — you can still get something out of it, and no points are lost!
10. Open Your Free Capsules And Point Capsules
Apart from the capsules you earn each time you win a game, you will also have a chance to open free capsules (as seen on the upper left of your screen), as well as Point Capsules (on the upper right) every several hours or so. Free capsules are available once every four hours, and you can have a maximum of two such capsules ready to open at any given time — you won’t get too many coins and you’ll only receive a couple of common player cards in most cases, but you’ll likely need to upgrade your two common named players (Daniel and Christopher, who play forward and midfield respectively) during the early goings of the game.
Point Capsules, on the other hand, can be opened a maximum of twice a day, and are unlocked once your team accumulates eight points, or goals in total. The rewards here are slightly better, albeit still on the common side in most cases, but this capsule gives you a better chance of earning Rare or Epic player cards, or in some cases, gems, which are the game’s premium currency.
11. Don’t Play Games While All Your Capsule Slots Are Full
Now you may be trying to rack up enough goals to open a Point Capsule, or you may simply be so hooked on World Soccer King that you’re playing game after game and not caring whether you don’t get a new capsule due to your slots being all filled up. On the contrary — you SHOULD care when your capsule slots are all full, and you should stop playing until you’ve opened one of your capsules, preferably without paying any gems to speed up the process! Although the basic capsules are the most common ones to earn after winning a game, you’ll never know — you just might have a bronze, silver, or worse, a Gold Capsule won, but wouldn’t be able to collect it because you’ve got four preexisting capsules lined up!
12. Spend Your Coins On Player Upgrades
As you keep playing more games and winning those matches, you’ll amass more coins than any other form of currency or resource in the game, and you may be wondering what you can use those coins for. At first, you’ll likely notice that coins can be spent on buying new uniforms for your players — this could sound like a good idea at first, but there’s really no need for it. All the uniforms that are available for common currency (coins, of course) do not change your players’ or teams’ stats, and are merely there to spice things up in an aesthetic way.
Instead, your coins should be spent on making your players better and upgrading them. As we mentioned earlier, your first few upgrades in World Soccer King will likely be focused on Daniel and Christopher, as those are the two normal/common rarity players with names that you’ll usually find in the capsules. But eventually, you’ll want to focus mainly on the likes of Masud (Rare Forward), Adrien (Rare Midfielder), and Luca (Epic Defender), as these are the non-common player cards we often see available, with all of them representing helpful and talented players who could make a difference to your team.
13. Connect Your Game To Facebook
Connecting World Soccer King to Facebook is something that you should be doing early on in the game, so we do apologize if we’re only bringing it up now. But since we’ve referenced capsules multiple times in this guide so far, that’s actually one reason why you should connect your game — you’ll earn a Platinum Capsule, which could be very helpful in bolstering your lineup and adding some rare players or better early on! It’s just going to be a onetime reward, but having your game linked to Facebook also gives you the advantage of being able to save your progress across multiple devices. Sure, you can remain as a guest number and nothing else, but if you want to win more games early, connecting your game to Facebook could give you the manpower you need to succeed, especially in the first league of Moscow!
14. Your Central Players Should Be Your Best Per Position
Last, but not the least, let’s talk lineups for a moment. The team screen, which can be accessed by tapping on the jersey icon on the bottom menu, allows you to buy new formations (that’s something to discuss in our advanced guide) and edit players for the ones you currently have unlocked. At first, you’ll only have the 4-3-3A formation, which is one of the more balanced, so keeping that in mind, you’ll need four defenders, three midfielders, and three forwards. It’s in the middle of the field where most of the action takes place, which means you should go out and place your best players in the center position! For example, if you’ve unlocked Ekon, who has a base rating of 139 at forward, make him your Center Forward and primary goal scorer. Luca becomes available early on, and he should be one of your central Defenders. Lastly, for your midfield, you’ll want to have Adrien ready for center midfielder duties, or someone like Javier or Diego for efficient ball movement.