Use these Highguard tips and tricks to help you become an expert raider and base defender. Having put a fair few hours into Highguard, I know that its hero shooter, capture-the flag, and asymmetrical base defence gameplay combo can be quite bewildering when you start playing. Even though the tutorial covers most of the basics, these 12 Highguard tips for beginners will go a long way to helping you out.
However, if you're after some advice on which characters to pick and which guns to use, be sure to also check out the best Highguard characters to play as and the best Highguard weapons to keep an eye out for while looting.
1. Don't just reinforce the walls closest to you at the start of a round
While it's tempting to immediately burn all five of your wall reinforcements right at the start of a Highguard match, you've got 30 seconds to kill and it's worth being a bit more strategic. Make sure you and your teammates reinforce key entrances and walls on all sides, as well as ceilings and floors that can be destroyed to establish easy flanking routes. The enemy team can breach your base's shield dome from several positions and might use a Domesplitter to create a second entrance, so you need to have as many angles covered as possible.
2. Spread out during the loot phase, then stick together
Once you've placed your defenses, it's time to loot. With Highguard's maps being so big, I've found that bumping into enemies during the loot phase is quite rare, and there are usually plenty of solid looting spots between your own base and the central landmarks anyway. You and your teammates should spread out to gather as much loot as possible, then regroup ideally as soon as the Shieldbreaker starts to form. This way you can mount an attack or take a defensive position nearby and even continue to loot if the enemy takes a while to show up.
3. Wardens take fall damage, but mounts don't
Mounts are obviously very useful for getting around Highguard's large maps quickly, but one of their best tricks is negating all fall damage. When you're galloping around in search of loot, make sure you don’t dismount early when going over a cliff, otherwise you'll take massive damage and potentially die – this isn't Apex Legends! At full speed, mounts can also leap incredibly far, helping you clear huge gaps that are impassable on foot – use this reposition or escape.
4. Mine Vesper early in every loot phase
While grabbing better guns and armor from red and blue chests respectively is very important, don't neglect mining Vesper. Amassing enough of it early will let you quickly buy what you don't have, such as a saddle, helmet, or an improved Raid Weapon. As soon as you feel like you've got everything you need, continue mining Vesper if you've got time to ensure you have enough to spend for supplies during an offensive or defensive raid. And if the game carries on for multiple rounds, you'll be able to use your Vesper reserves to instantly buy superior and rarer gear rather than having to loot it.
5. Make sure you know how to mine Vesper perfectly
The mining minigame in Highguard is self-explanatory – press the melee button exactly when the closing ring meets the static ring to hit the Vesper deposit and repeat until it breaks, with larger deposits requiring more hits – and if you're neither too early or too late, you'll get a perfect break and will fully charge your axe. The next Vesper deposit you strike will then break instantly, regardless of its size, consuming your axe's charge in the process.
Bearing that in mind, the most efficient way to mine Vesper is to alternate between perfectly mining the smallest crystals you can find and then using your charged axe to instantly break the largest crystals in a single hit. Rinse and repeat as you loot and you'll build up your Vesper reserves in no time.
6. Don't buy loads of armor all at once as you only lose it when you die
While I've already mentioned that you should spend your Vesper early on core gear that you haven't yet looted, I'd say that armor is an exception to this. From my experience, armor isn't difficult to find if you're opening blue chests, and teammates can always drop some from their inventory for you.
Although the key thing to bear in mind is that you lose only one armor pack when you die and it can break and regenerate an infinite number of times while you're alive. That means you should only buy armor if you start running low to avoid wasting it. This becomes extra important if a game runs for multiple raids as you'll want to minimize wasted Vesper to spend on the best gear later.
7. Break white and blue boxes and barrels to get useful items
Usually found near loot chests, these unassuming containers can be easily mashed with one axe swing to get things like extra wall reinforcements and repairs, Raid Weapon ammo, and small amounts of Vesper. Getting these items will ensure you're prepared for any raid with items to help reinforce your base if the Shieldbreaker is used against you and plenty of ammo to mount a strong attack. Just be aware that loot from these boxes is snapped up into your inventory and doesn't necessarily drop as a physical item – check the loot feed on the right side of your screen!
Again, this is not only a good way to gear but also save some Vesper, as while most of these things are relatively cheap to by from Trader Flynn, any savings that help you afford gold armor or a gold saddle are welcome.
8. Don't forget to use Ultimate chargers as they’re easy to miss
One item that you can get from these boxes is an Ultimate Charger, and it's one of the best in the game, particularly if you find several of them - if a barrel contains an Ultimate Charger, it should have an obvious golden glow to it!
You can consume an Ultimate Charger in your inventory by pressing your Ultimate Power button, increasing your Ultimate's charge percentage a little. Crucially, these chargers stack and will all be used as once when consumed, potentially granting you massive amounts of ult charge in one go. You can tell how many Ultimate Chargers you have on you by looking at the small, white icon with a number next to under your Ultimate Power icon at the bottom of your screen.
9. Look for treasure rooms sealed with reinforced walls
Some maps, such as Kingdom and Vesper City feature somewhat hidden rooms that are sealed off with a reinforced wall. Use your Raid Weapon or Warden powers to break it down, or get your teammates to help, and you'll uncover a treasure room full of loot chests that can provide better guns, more armor, and a selection of powerful amulets and other items.
10. Purge enemy souls if you need shields
However you defeat an enemy, they'll leave behind a red soul orb that you can interact with using your axe to purge the soul. The most obvious benefit of doing so is that it denies the enemy team the chance to revive their fallen ally, but it also repairs two bars of armor, which can be immensely valuable in a chaotic team fight. Furthermore, if you're playing as Mara, her Sacrifice passive also causes purging to partly regenerate Soul Armor, so it's especially useful for her.
11. Revive your teammates!
During raids, every player counts, so it's important to try and revive your teammates whenever possible. For attackers, this gets around a long respawn time and running back to the action and it prevents Siege Tower lives being lost for the attackers. Revives are also pretty quick – even quicker if you have the revive amulet – taking only a few seconds, and you can drag your ally's soul as you bring them back, so make sure you pull them into cover.
12. Shoot Atticus' spears and Una's Wisps, please
From my time playing Highguard, I've noticed that players seem to ignore Atticus' Shockspears, even when they're causing a massive problem by zapping them constantly. You only have to shoot them a little to destroy them, so check your surroundings for an orange spear if you're getting shocked. The same goes for Una's little Wisps which lob concussion grenades. They're a lot more obvious than the spears but don't underestimate how much of a nuisance they can be and ignore them.
If you're trying to play with friends on different platforms, our Highguard crossplay guide will help you team up.
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