In this Warcraft Rumble beginner guide, we will go over the basics of the game, how it’s played, what to look for in the early stages of the gameplay, and some tips and tricks for an easier start. There are a lot of things that need to be explored in order to understand all the mechanics in the game and how to optimally play it, because if you skip over some key concepts like Army composition or Mini types, you will probably be punished on the battlefield. When it comes to auto-battler games like Warcraft Rumble, Blizzard has had some experience with Hearthstone Battlegrounds, which is kind of a similar concept, but in terms of cards. It’s no secret that they like to make games more complicated than they look, and Warcraft Rumble is no exception to this.
The game heavily revolves around countering your opponent’s Minis, and the game always incentivizes this by purposely forcing you to change your Army and add new minions that could adapt better to the situation or mission at hand. This is not a bad thing, because the game is made in which the player needs to explore all kinds of builds, which is what makes it fun and complicated. In this Warcraft Rumble beginner guide, we will focus on explaining everything you need to know when starting to play the game.
Minis
Minis are an essential part of the game. You will need to collect them by purchasing them from the G.R.I.D. for Gold or by doing Missions. Generally, it is advisable to have a mixture of tank, range, flying, utility, AOE, etc. This really depends on the type of opponent you are facing. For example, sometimes a Banshee (Mini with the ability to take control of an opponent’s Mini) is really good for possessing a large enemy Mini, other times she is useless because your opponent is just spamming small Minis. Essentially, you will sometimes need to adapt and improvise, depending on the opponent you are facing.
Talents
Talents are additional special abilities that Minis can unlock by upgrading their Stars. In order to get the first Talent on a Mini, you need to upgrade it from Uncommon to Common, which you can do by getting the x3 stars. Upon completion, a random Talent from the upgraded Mini will be shown in the G.R.I.D. and it can be purchased for 250 Gold. Getting a second talent requires x10 Stars, so it gets exponentially more difficult. This is where the pay-to-win comes in, sadly.
Traits
Knowing Mini’s Traits is essential to understanding your Army. Traits (Tank, Ranged, AOE, Squad, etc.) have a certain effect built in, and a lot of Mini’s share the same Traits, unlike Talents or Abilities. Some Traits are obvious, like Melee or Ranged, but some other ones that have an important effect, like Cycle and Elemental, are not so obvious without actually looking into them. This is why it’s important to look over every Trait of every Mini in your Army.
Stats
Stats are the core attributes of your Minis. While it’s a hassle to know all the Stats and compare them, it is very important to be aware of your Armies strengths and weaknesses. For example, two Ranged units may seem the same, but one has 7 Range and 100 DPS, and the other has 9 Range and 75 DPS. Things like this make a difference, and each example is effective in a certain scenario.
Description
This area is for Mini’s abilities that are unique to them; unlike Stats or Traits, Abilities are usually very unique and define the purpose of a Mini.
Leaders
Leaders are an essential and core part of the Army. They also determine what “Family” (Horde, Alliance, Undead, etc.) you are playing. This is important since the game is always trying to promote variety and playing with different Families. Each Leader has a special ability and additional locked talents, like all Minis. It’s important to note that you will get one free upgrade (they are a hassle to get) in the early stages of the game. If you are a newbie and want an efficient and simple Leader, Baron and Tirion are the way to go.
Army Example: Tirion
Let’s look at this example above as a standard of what an Army “should” look like. Granted, there are a lot of builds and playstyles, and this is just one of them, but it really works well. We see that we have a Tauren Tank, a fast-paced AOE Huntress, a Ranged Troll that deals with Flying Minis, Harpies that shred big melee Tanks, a “kamikaze” Mini (top left) that you can control the map with, a Blackrock Driller that can be used to snatch Gold Mines, and finally, Tirion, which is a Tank and provides AOE heals.
As you can see, there are a lot of things going on here. There isn’t a clear-cut “game plan”; rather, you will have to counter opponents Mini’s by outmaneuvering them in order to gain Gold supremacy. Once this is done, stacking x2 Tirions or going for a Tank+Ranged combo is always a nightmare for your opponent to deal with, especially when they don’t have enough resources. All in all, this is considered a flexible build where you have a counter to almost everything in the game, and that is the most important thing. We won’t get into too much detail about Army compositions in this Warcraft Rumble beginner guide, since that in itself is a very extensive subject.
PvE
The World
The world map is where you do all the classic PvE progression in the game. This part is really the essence of the game because everything revolves around getting higher account levels and conquering new territories. Moreover, you will get a lot of Gold by simply doing these challenges. We have to warn you that around level 10, the progress will be much slower than before, and you will have to combine doing Quests, and then returning to the world map in order to progress further.
Quests
Quests are very important to the game. They are usually done when your army is too low-level to take on the next chapter on the world map. To be more precise, once you reach a certain level, you will need to do something in order to further level up your minions because you won’t reach the sufficient level that you need to progress further in the game.
Quests are usually very easy and don’t require any special things in order to play them. You can play them indefinitely and level up your troops a lot by simply spamming Quests. But, of course, this requires a ton of grinding, and a good balance between sometimes doing quests in combination with other things is the way to go.
Dungeons
The main thing you need to know about dungeons is that you can only play one certain Family per week. For example, in the above picture, we have the Dire Maul Dungeon that can be done with Horde Leaders. This is important since once the rotation passes, you won’t be able to play with the given leader for more than a month. The rewards of playing Dungeons are pretty good. Essentially, you will get leader upgrades that can be seen in the slot where the army is. Look at the example below.
We can see that if you put a Mini with a “Ranged” Trait, they will get +1 level while they are in this slot. This is very important because you can level up your leaders in the dungeon a few times, put the adequate Mini’s in the slots, and then you will have minions that are a few levels higher, which is crucial since the grind for higher levels is really difficult later on. This is kind of a way to circumvent it.
PvP
PvP will naturally be challenging, but don’t be intimidated, and remember the fact that there are a lot of people who are also just learning the game. The first thing you need to do is compose an Army that makes sense. Have a game plan on who the key Minis are, what you can do to support them, and which utilities you will use in order to gain the upper hand.
Note that PvP games are much faster than PvE, and momentum is the key. The first few seconds will be a Gold rush for Mines and Chests, after that, it’s all about outmaneuvering and countering your opponent’s Minis. As we mentioned earlier, we suggest Baron or Tirion for starters, but Rend Blackhand is also powerful after you figure out how to use him optimally.
G.R.I.D. And The Store
The G.R.I.D. is a bit of a weird part of the store where you can buy new Minis and upgrades for Gold. It is essentially the key component of buying and upgrading Minis. What’s special about it is that once you buy something, everything shuffles, and you get a new screen of random Minis. This is basically Blizzard’s way of putting gambling in a game, not being straightforward, giving variety, and making the overall progression convoluted and harder.
If you want to buy an Upgrade for a Ghoul, well, it may never appear here, so tough luck. Nevertheless, what you should be focusing on is buying as many different Minis because of the Collection level you get from them. More on this later.
While Warcraft Rumble is free, the other parts of the game are, you already guessed it, microtransaction-driven. The best thing to buy from the store is the Arclight Booster (20$), which is a lifetime account boost for experience and Gold. This basically eases the grind and makes the game much more “fluid”. If you’re going to buy something from the store, this is the first thing to look into, and it’s by far the best value.
You will also get 2000 Gold which is important for getting initial Minis into your collection. It’s a game that revolves around playing a variety of builds and factions. The second best thing to buy is the “Best Value” things that include a certain minion and some Gold. Lastly, the worst and most expensive offer is the direct buying of Gold, which is very expensive considering how easily you spend it.
Collection Level
Collection Levels are very important, and they determine how quickly you will level your minions. To put things in a more simple perspective, it’s highly advisable to collect as many Mini’s as you can before you start upgrading all of them. We say this because you have a choice between upgrades and getting new Minis in the G.R.I.D., and while it’s tempting to maximize the power of one Army, the game really incentivizes you to collect everything and play with everything.
The more you collect, the higher your collection level, and thus the more experience you’re going to gain from things like Tomes, Quests, XP Boosts, etc. You will hit a wall with gaining XP when your Minis reach level 10, and having the extra XP from your Collection Level will ease the grind and transition into higher levels. Of course, the other thing that will also really help you is the Arclight Booster, which is, as we already mentioned, a lifetime account boost for $20.
Conclusion
We discussed a lot in this Warcraft Rumble beginner guide, and there is a lot more to be said given the game’s overall complexity. But these are some of the basics that beginners should incorporate into their game. In every aspect of the game, Warcraft Rumble is full of small complexities and hidden information. That is why it’s important to learn a bit about the game before fully giving it a go. Things like upgrades, game economics, leveling, Army compositions, and Minis are all things that new players will face, and we highly suggest doing some googling before committing to upgrades and builds. Nevertheless, we hope you found this Warcraft Rumble beginner guide useful, and we wish you happy Rumbling!