The lauded PUBG might not even be in full release yet, but it’s already spawned an entire genre of games in less than a year. From the Battle Royale Mode in Fortnite hitting 20 million players to a horde of imitators now in development or quickly landing on mobile devices, 100 players battling to the death is the new wave of multiplayer gaming.
Besides NetEase’s other mobile entries, Rules Of Survival and Knives Out, now there’s also Survivor Royale, which is intensely similar to the developer’s other two titles. They’ve got some major market saturation going on — maybe we’ll have anti-trust hearings to break up Battle Royale monopolies one day in this brave new world of technology?
If you’ve played PUBG, Fortnite, or Rules Of Survival, you should already know what to do for the most part. There are some elements in this particular iteration of the Battle Royale formula you want to know about ahead of time, however, if you plan to be the #1 hero survivor at the end of the match!
Hmm . . . something about this feels familiar . . .
Jump Point/Learning The Map
Since this is basically PUBG mobile edition, of course your first decision is where to deploy from the helicopter over the island. Usually the best course of action is to launch away from other players and not clump up on the same loot area.
Dropping in the same spot as 20 other players is a good way to get killed immediately, with only a small chance of coming out the survivor with all the loot. Even if that happens, someone who launched later on and hoofed it back to the beginning will probably just snipe you anyway. Why work harder when you can work smarter?
While on the map, there are a few gameplay elements you need to know about in the change to a mobile rendition. For instance, you can vault over broken stone walls with the jump button at the middle-right end of the screen, but typically you have to be right up on the wall and can’t jump from a distance while still clearing the full height.
Likewise, you’ve got to get right next to a building’s door before the “Open” button appears on the right side of the screen. If you are off even slightly, it won’t show up, leaving a bottleneck where you can get gunned down while trying to escape. Heading inside buildings is where you’ll find the bulk of your loot, whether that’s a helmet or an AK-47 and some energy drinks. Always be on the lookout for ammo on floors! It’s scarce, and you don’t want to get caught bringing your fists to a gun fight.
As would be expected from a Battle Royale game, poison gas reduces the map size significantly every few minutes to force surviving players together. The gas is less punishing than you’d think, though, so it’s not out of the question to stay in the gas for a bit and snipe those players fleeing the shrinking map while taking small amounts of damage.
As with any Battle Royale game, always plan your healing and inventory management ahead of time. Opening up the backpack leaves you open to attack, and it takes 2.5 seconds of terrible vulnerability to use an energy drink or bandage. Be in cover and away from the firefights before using any items!
The #1 cause of death is sitting still!
Weapon Knowledge
Before jumping into a match, take some time to familiarize yourself with the roster of potential guns to pick up in the weapon screen. Recoil is particularly nasty in this game, especially on automatic weapons like the various SMGs, so with most guns you want to fire short, focused bursts.
Since the goal is to kill everyone else, taking out enemies from afar is usually the best way to go unless you get caught out in the open by another scavenger. Even non-sniper rifle weapons can be used to snipe from afar with the zoom feature on the right side of your tablet.
Sitting in a second-story room looking out a window with an SMG can actually be one of the best ways to rack up kills. Be sure to equip better scopes you find in any scavenge area for even deadlier capabilities!
In terms of area effect weapons, every player starts with a single grenade, but it’s unwieldy and inaccurate. There’s no particular aiming the angle of a grenade, and it just goes off a short distance in whatever direction you are facing.
The grenade can be incredibly useful if you see people getting into a car, however, and downright deadly if you follow someone and throw it in a building just as they are entering the door. Likewise, the grenade is useful for flushing a sniper out of a room in a house.
Combat Mad Max Style
Guns are all well and good, but don’t discount vehicles if you find some fuel! There are plenty of different vehicles scattered around the map, especially in areas with several houses in a dead end.
Yes, you can run over other players, so it’s worthwhile to drive between populated areas instead of running on foot unless you are specifically trying to stay stealthy.
If you are in Squad mode and working with other players, cars are your best friend. Choose to ride instead of drive, then tap the button on the right side to lean out the car and pull out your primary gun. A caravan of vehicles working together and spraying bullets is hard to take down by lone wolves running across open terrain. Just keep in mind that the vehicle handling is atrocious — give yourself plenty of room for turns!
Battle Royale: Fury Road!
Those are all the basics you need to know to live through a round of Survivor Royale and be the last hero remaining alive. What’s your best kill count, and do you have any other Battle Royale survival tips and tricks we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments below!
Published: Dec 4, 2017 02:47 pm