Upon first starting up Warhammer 40k: Tacticus the UI feels immediately overwhelming with so much going on and that’s before we even get onto all the different game mechanics, events, and currencies that make this game so much fun to get involved in. Here we outline some key Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Tips for Beginners that will ensure you get started in the right way and can start ascending the ranks ASAP!
Table of Contents
Read our Beginners Guide
First up is a small self-plug and that is to read our Beginners Guide as well as all our other Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Guides. These will get you up to speed on a lot of the more complex aspects of the game and ensure you are not completely overwhelmed by the cluttered menus. We’re not dunking on the UI, we actually really like it for its loyalty to the 40k themes, however, it cannot be escaped that for a new player, it can be pretty confusing.
Avoid Working on Every Character
When you first start the game you will quickly put a team together consisting of Varro Tigurius, Certus, Bellator, Incisus, and Vindicta. In the early days, you will feel invincible with this crew, cutting through the campaign with ease and accumulating a tonne of equipment. However, you will eventually hit a roadblock and realize one, these guys aren’t going to cut it in PvP, and 2, you’ve just wasted all your upgrade materials on them.
As such, it is highly inadvisable to plow all your resources into these characters. Instead, save some materials for when you unlock higher quality units with Incisus in particular proving to be very poor in the meta. By saving up your resources you can use them on a replacement for Incisus once you have unlocked one and bring them up to speed with the rest of your primary roster. Check out our full List of all Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Characters with details on how to get each one and links to specific character guides.
Accumulate Shards Early
As touched on above, the early game characters can only get you so far in this game. Indeed, one of the most important Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Tips for Beginners is to ensure you are taking advantage of all opportunities to accumulate Character Shards. This includes repeating campaign stages that have Shard rewards, competing in the Arena to unlock crates, finishing missions to upgrade and open mission crates, being active in the Battle Pass, and much more. Check out our Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Character Guide for all the details on how to get Shards.
Save up your Requisition Drops
Whenever you decide to do Requisition Drops, always ensure you are doing at least 10 at once, especially when buying them for Blackstone. In this way, you are guaranteed to get at least one character with each 10 pull. If you already have the guaranteed character from the 10 pull then you will instead get the equivalent Shards that it would cost to unlock them, ideal for getting their rarity up!
Don’t Waste Blackstone
This brings us to our next point in these Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Tips for Beginners, don’t waste your Blackstone! Blackstone is the premium currency of the game and, as you’d expect, is difficult to accumulate unless you are spending money. Now there are ways to get Free Blackstone, but nevertheless, it is a precious resource that should be spent with care. Indeed, it is actually recommended not to spend it on Requisition Drops and instead save it for extra Stamina and Epic/Legendary items found in the shop. Requisition Drops are easy enough to come by on their own if you are patient whilst Epic/Legendary equipment can be extremely rare!
Redeem Gift Codes
The developers of Warhammer 40k: Tacticus are extremely generous when it comes to giving out gift codes to the player base. These often include rare equipment, Requisition Drops, and Blackstone, therefore showing that as an important element to take advantage of. The r/Tacticus_Codes subreddit posts an update every day of all active codes and is probably your best resource to make sure you have them all. To input them, select the settings icon next to your profile badge and input them into the box that says, “Enter code here”.
Get in an Active Guild
All games are played better with friends, right? Well then, make sure you get in an active Guild as soon as you can. Not only can you have a lot of fun just chatting away, but a Guild also gives you access to more events and special Guild rewards. And, the more active the guild is, the better you will do in events and the better the rewards you earn will be.
Play Everything
As we went over in our Beginners Guide, there is a load of different game modes in Warhammer 40k: Tacticus to get to grips with. Each of these offers slightly different rewards and allow you to experiment more with your full roster. If you only do the campaign, then you will be missing out on a lot. Indeed, this is the only game mode that relies on Energy, with the others having their own ticket systems. This increases the amount you can play, keeps things fresh with different game modes and teams, and allows you to maximize the rewards you are accumulating for upgrading your characters.
Understand the Basics of PvP
PvP will quickly form a large focus of your game with Arena Battle Tokens refreshing faster than the stamina for any other game mode. For more details on doing well in this game mode check out our Warhammer 40k: Tacticus Guide to Winning in the Arena, however, for the purposes of these Tips for Beginners, below are some quick tactics you can implement to improve your win rate right away.
- Position, Position, Position – take a look at how the enemy is positioned and move your squad around accordingly. You’ll want them set up so that your characters have the advantage on each flank.
- Take the High Ground – note the terrain of the map and where you can move to take advantage of it. On the high ground, you will do more damage whilst Tall Grass will reduce the hits you take. This makes all the difference in a battle and can see you win against much stronger teams.
- You Don’t Always Need to Move – once you have the terrain keep it and rain hell down on the enemy as they advance.
- Understand Your Abilities Passives – the abilities that your characters have make a huge difference to the flow of a battle and the tactics you can employ. Understanding how these complement each other and how they interact with the enemy is crucial to winning. For example, setting Certus up on the high ground and allowing them to pick off the enemy with his Overwatch passive will be a crucial tactic you use when taking him into battle.
Focus on Missions
Completing missions, as well as the Battle Pass Missions, will be a crucial component of your progression. These are a great source of rare items that are difficult to find in the early campaign and also dish out character shards pretty liberally. Focusing on these every day will quickly see you unlocking more characters and improving them at the same time.
Watch the Ads
There are a couple of different areas in Warhammer 40k: Tacticus where you can watch ads for different benefits. The most important of these is for additional energy – each day you can watch one add for an additional 50 energy. In addition to this, both the Daily Deal Shop and Guild Shop can be refreshed by watching an ad to see new offers.
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