Howdy Brawlers! Brawl Stars is live in all the countries now! Here is a Brawl Stars beginner’s guide to help you become a GREAT Brawler!
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Brawling Tips
- Brawl Mechanics
- Super
- Star Power
- Attacking and Defending fundamentals
- Long, Medium and Short Range
- Ways of dodging
- Brawl Mechanics
- Upgrading Brawlers
- Currencies and Brawl Boxes
- Miscellaneous
Introduction
Round up your friends and get ready for an epic multiplayer slugfest! Unlock a variety of rowdy game modes and dozens of rough and tumble characters with punishing super abilities. Shoot ’em up, blow ’em up, punch ’em out and win the BRAWL.
Brawl Stars is a moba (short for multiplayer online battle arena). Players compete with others in real-time for glory in eight different game modes. The first thing you will be doing when starting the game is completing the tutorial, which will teach you how to move and attack using your Brawler in the battlefield. Unfortunately, it does not get more into detail of how to advantageously move your Brawler, attack, and dodge in strategic ways. So that’s what I’ll be doing in this guide by introducing you to a lot of strategies and explaining all the mechanisms of Brawl Stars in detail to help you win.
Brawling Tips
Brawl Mechanism
In Brawl Stars, you assume control of a Brawler, a tiny, very powerful creature. The default Brawler every player gets is Shelly, a badass shotgun shooter. Using your Brawler, you have to fight and defeat other Brawlers. But this is not the only thing you have to do. Each one of the 7 different game modes has its own main objective, which you’ve got to fulfill in order to win.
Each Brawler has different mechanisms, stats, and appearance. The health of your Brawler regenerates every time you stop attacking (provided that an enemy isn’t attacking you). Once your Brawler dies, it respawns in a few seconds at one of your team’s spawn point. There are various obstacles and bushes throughout the battlefield, called map. Enemy Brawlers can’t attack you when you’re behind obstacles (except throwers and Supers of some Brawlers). When you stand inside a bush, you are invisible to the enemies but they can see you if you attack from inside a bush or if they get close. Your teammates can always see you in the bushes.
Each Brawler has two unique special abilities: Super and Star Power.
Super
You charge up your Super by hitting enemies. Once charged, you’ll be able to activate the Super. Upon activating it, you will need to drag the Super button in a direction to use it.
Different Brawlers have different Super abilities. Supers are mostly used for the following purposes:
- 1. Securing Kills
Supers are mostly used for securing a kill. Supers of many Brawlers offer increased damage and range to allow them to kill even the strongest of Brawlers.
- 2. Quick Movement
Supers of some Brawlers allow them to move to another location on the map. These are very useful as they allow you to escape when you’re low on health or help you to get close to an opponent.
- 3. Area Control
Some Supers can be used to discourage the enemy team from walking into a certain area for a set amount of time. This can help to protect the objective in modes like Smash and Grab or Brawl Ball or can protect them from advancing on your teammates.
Note: Darryl is the only Brawler whose Super recharges automatically over time.
Star Power
By upgrading your Brawlers to level 9, you can unlock their Star Powers. They are passive abilities that can be extremely useful in a Brawl. Star Powers may appear in Brawl Boxes and Shop once you upgrade your Brawler to level 9. Star Powers have a very low drop rate so you have to save your coins.
Attacking and Defending fundamentals
By now, you must’ve acquainted yourself with different types of attacks and are now ready to smash enemy Brawlers and to protect yourself from their shots.
You have to make sure you understand each Brawler’s attack mechanism before brawling with it. A good way to learn how to use a Brawler is by playing Friendly Brawls. You will learn how to use your Brawler and counter others without losing any trophies for defeats. Once you know your Brawler’s mechanisms, you’ll be able to follow this guide better.
Broadly, Brawlers can be classified into 3 types on the basis of their range: Long range, medium range, and short range.
Long Range
If you’re using a long range Brawler, you should focus on aiming at enemies far away from you. You will need to predict your opponent’s movements to hit them with great accuracy. This is very easy against players that move their Brawlers in a fixed pattern, but it gets difficult against good players, who move their Brawlers randomly.
It is easy to defend against enemies when you’re using a long range Brawler. You will be able to hit enemies from a distance and it’ll make you almost invincible. But defending against long range enemy Brawlers is difficult as they’ll be able to attack you from distances too. You have to hide behind obstacles most of the times and come out only to shoot. Make sure to retreat again.
Medium Range
If you are using a medium range Brawler, then you’ll have to reach somewhat close to your enemies to attack. But it is easier to target opponents as the medium range Brawlers’ attacks are wider than those of long range Brawlers. You should make your way to the enemy slowly using bushes and obstacles to hide.
Defending using medium range Brawler is slightly difficult as you’ll have to be closer to the enemies. Long range Brawlers will be able to attack you easily. So using obstacles and bushes is very important to defend.
Never move in a fixed pattern and always change your movement direction. This will confuse the enemies and they won’t be able to hit you easily.
Short Range
You have to get very close to the enemies to attack them with short range Brawlers. You have to make your way to the enemy very slowly, hiding in bushes and behind obstacles. You have higher health and damage output than most of the other Brawlers though.
Defending when using short range Brawlers is very difficult too. But to make the game fair, short range Brawlers have high health that allows them to stay longer on the battlefield. You should move in a very random manner and be on the lookout for snipers as they can kill you before you get near them, or even see them.
Most of the Brawlers attack normally (like Shelly in the tutorial). But a few Brawlers have a different way of attacking. Dynamike and Barley can throw their attacks over walls and so they are called lobbers. Mortis’ attack includes movement. He dashes forward and damages all enemies he hits.
Ways of dodging
Zigzagging
It is the art of walking in a zigzag pattern. Works better against long rangers and some medium rangers, specifically those that shoot one bullet (Like Jessie, Spike, and Nita). While it can work against lobbers, it’s not as effective due to their AoE attack. Start zigzagging when you’re either pursuing a long ranger to get in range or when you’re being targeted by one and want to get out of their range. Remember, don’t do this if you’re too close to your enemy.
This one works well against: Colt, Jessie, Brock, Ricochet, Piper, Spike
This one can work against: Nita, Barley, Bo, Penny
This one won’t work as well against: Dynamike, Pam, Tara, Crow, Leon
This one is most likely to fail against: Shelly, El Primo, Bull, Poco, Darryl, Mortis, Frank
Feinting
This one works well on lobbers and some long rangers. Fool your enemy by tempting them to attack you by going in a single direction. As soon as you hear and see your enemy attacking, go back in the opposite direction, or make a hard turn in any other direction to evade getting hit. If you just go in a direction without your enemy attacking then turning the opposite direction your opponent might understand what you’re trying to do and predict you. Especially if you try to do this multiple times. However if pulled out correctly this works well against most Brawlers. Have in mind that if you pull this out once or twice will work, while doing it multiple times in a row will make your movements predictable.
This one works well against: Colt, Jessie, Brock, Ricochet, Piper, Spike, Barley, Dynamike
This one can work against: Nita, Bo, Tara, Crow, Leon, Penny
This one won’t work as well against: Pam, Poco
This one is most likely to fail against: El Primo, Bull, Darryl, Shelly, Frank
Ellipsing
This one is by far the riskiest one, but if pulled out correctly you can dodge almost anything. You basically have to be exactly at the same spot as your enemy and start circling around in ellipse patterns, like electrons around atoms or whatever. If you pull this out correctly, you can avoid almost anything. This one is by far the hardest one, and unless you practice it a lot, it is not recommended to do it. However, if you’re going against a tank and you think you have no chance of survival, you can try and do this one.
(This method will not work if your enemy uses Quick Fire)
This one can work against: Colt, Nita, Jessie, Ricochet, Poco, Pam, Spike, Shelly, El Primo, Bull, Brock, Bo, Darryl, Piper, Tara, Crow.
This one is most likely to fail against: Dynamike
This one WILL fail against: Barley, Mortis
Upgrading Brawlers
Brawl Stars has various in-game currencies. We will talk about Power Points (PPs) and Coins in this section.
PPs are items that can be gained through Brawl Boxes and by buying them in the shop. Each Brawler has their own pool of Power Points. Once you get enough Power Points, you are able to upgrade them to the next Level. Better Brawl Boxes tend to give more Power Points to each Brawler. Once enough Power Points to get a Brawler to level 9 are collected, no more Power Points will be found for that Brawler. When all of the player’s unlocked Brawlers have the maximum amount of Power Points, Brawl Boxes will no longer contain Power Points, and more Coins will be awarded instead.
Coins are obtained from Brawl Boxes, trophy milestones, and from the Shop. They are used to either buy Daily Deals from the Shop or to upgrade Brawlers.
Upgrade priority depends on your preference. Spend your coins wisely. If you like to use long range Brawlers, then you should upgrade Piper or Brock first. If you like Brawlers with healing ability, then go for Poco or Pam. Ideally, you should get all your Brawlers to level 7 before upgrading them further.
Currencies and Brawl Box
Currencies
Tokens can be earned by participating in any game mode. They are also awarded whenever a new event opens. Brawl Boxes are opened by using Tokens. Token Doublers can be bought in the Shop with Gems to double the amount of Tokens earned from playing matches.
You get 10 Tokens when a new Events starts. Tokens are also awarded upon completion of a Brawl from your token bar. A token bar can hold 100 Tokens at a time and Tokens are re-added to the back over time. Whenever a Brawler ranks up, 10 Tokens are awarded. 20 Tokens are awarded when you gain an experience level.
A Star Token is awarded for winning an Event for the first time during a rotation. Star Tokens can be used to get a Big Brawl Box after 10 of them are collected.
Tickets are used to enter unranked special Events, which are open every weekend. The unranked events are Boss Fight and Robo Rumble. To enter an event, you can spend tickets — the Tokens reward you receive at the end of the match is multiplied by the number of tickets you used to enter. You receive 2 free Tickets when a new special event starts, similar to how you are awarded free Tokens when a normal event starts. Tickets can be found in Brawl Boxes or bought from the shop.
Gems are the rarest of all the currencies. They can be used for buying Brawlers skins, Tickets, Brawl Boxes, Token Doublers, and Coins. Gems can be bought by making in-app purchases or from Brawl Boxes.
Brawl Boxes
Brawl Boxes are the main way of obtaining Brawlers and other items. One regular Brawl Box can be bought for 10 Gems or 100 Tokens. Brawl Boxes can contain Coins, Power Points, new Brawlers, Token Doublers, Gems, and Tickets. Duplicate Brawlers are not received, and once enough Power Points to get a Brawler to level 9 are collected, no more Power Points will be found for that Brawler. When all of the player’s unlocked Brawlers have the maximum amount of Power Points, Brawl Boxes will no longer contain Power Points, and more Coins will be awarded instead.
Big and Mega Boxes can also be bought from the Shop for 30 and 80 Gems respectively. A Big Box has 3 times more goodies than the regular Brawl Box and a Mega Box has 10 times more goodies, so it is a much better value to buy these with Gems rather than individual boxes. 10 Star Keys allow you to unlock a Big Box.
In the shop, the odds of every drop chance is shown in detail. You can access them by clicking on a box as if you were to buy it (you don’t have to buy it in order to access the list) and then tap on the box icon on the top left.
Miscellaneous
Trophies and Leaderboards
The trophy system in Brawl Stars is somewhat different than other Supercell games. Like other games, you gain trophies by winning Brawls and lose trophies if you lose the match. The difference is that each Brawler has its own trophies. You’ll win or lose trophies only for the Brawler you’re playing with. Individual trophies of your Brawlers add up to your total trophies.
If your Brawler is below 20 trophies, then you won’t lose any trophies for losing. Also, playing Friendly Brawls doesn’t affect your trophies.
There are multiple leaderboards in Brawl Stars. Each Brawler has its own individual leaderboards where players are ranked by continent and nationally based on how many Trophies that they hold with that Brawler. There is one main leaderboard that is based on total trophies and one Band leaderboard.
Ranks
A Brawler’s individual Trophy count determines its Rank. You get 10 Tokens whenever one of your Brawler reaches the next Rank. A Brawler can be demoted to a lower rank if you lose trophies using that Brawler. However, you can collect the rank up reward only once.
As you reach higher Ranks, the ratio of Trophies won from victory to Trophies lost from defeat decreases. At lower trophies, this ratio is greater than one and at higher trophies, it’s less than one.
Clubs
Clubs are social groups within the game that players can join to chat and join rooms to Brawl together. One can create or join Clubs from the game’s Social tab. Clubs also have their own leaderboards based on Club’s Trophy scores. The individual trophy counts of each member add up to calculate Club’s trophies. Each Club can have up to 100 members.
Tokens Doublers
Tokens Doublers can be the shop to increase the number of Tokens earned while playing. This booster costs 50 Gems and doubles the next 1,000 Tokens received at the end of any match. You can also get Token Doublers from Brawl Boxes.
League Rewards
You get Rewards for reaching certrain Trophy milstones for the first time. These rewards include Brawlers, new Events, Brawl Boxes, Power Points, and Coins.
Event Rotation
There are four main Event slots on the Brawl tab so you can have up to four Events available at once when you unlock all the four slots from Trophy League rewards. Events rotate every so often. The time before the next rotation for an Event Slot is displayed in that slot. When that time is reached, a new Event begins and a free 10 Tokens can be claimed by simply tapping the Event slot. Winning an Event for the first time during a rotation also awards a Star Token which can be used to get a Big Brawl Box after 10 Star Tokens are collected.
In addition to the normal Events, a Special Event opens every weekend in their separate event slot. Tickets are needed to participate in these game modes. The Tickets are available to buy in the shop. They also appear in Brawl Boxes. These events award a lot of Tokens, even when the token bar is empty.
Season Reset
Brawl Stars has seasons 14 days long. At the end of every season, you get coins as a reward based on your trophies and the trophies of your Brawler with most trophies. In addition, each Brawler that holds more than 500 Trophies will lose 50% of their trophies above 500.
So, that’s it for this guide! I hope it helps you get started with Brawl Stars. If you want me to add anything up here, please let me know via comments.
