The battle royale market is just a little crowded, but it means that a game has to be truly great for it to stand out. Right now, Ring of Elysium is doing just that. Developed and published by Tencent - who also publish PUBG and have a 40% stake in Epic Games, developer of Fortnite - Ring of Elysium started off as a mobile game but has grown to be a polished PC battle royale title that can go toe-to-toe with the genre’s greatest.
While the core concept of Ring of Elysium is the same as the other battle royale titles on the market, the games play out a little differently. Rather than having a circular zone that closes in, the map is divided into segments and each one becomes filled with ash. When you eventually make it to the end of the game in the final section of the map, you don’t have to be the last person alive to win. Victory comes from plonking your bum in one of the four seats open on the rescue helicopter. This means that in theory, four separate solo players can win a single match… but as you’ll quickly discover, it rarely plays out that way. Here are our top Ring of Elysium tips for one of the best up and coming battle royale games.
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1. Spawn away from opponents to give yourself some breathing room
Ring of Elysium differs from most other games at the start, because there is no plane or other airborne vehicle that carries everyone across the map. You simply pick the grid square you wish to spawn in, and voila. When you spawn in, you need to simply run to the nearest building and scavenge for loot. None of the skydiving nonsense; it’s straight into the action.
One of our top Ring of Elysium tips is to wait a little before spawning, as you can also see exactly where all the other players in the game have spawned, so be on the lookout if there’s a blue square near your circle. If you’re playing duos or squads, you and a teammate can both spawn inside the same grid square too.
2. Your equipment is the best way to travel
If you’re jumping in to Ring of Elysium for the first time with the new Europa map, then you’ll need to learn all about the equipment. The previous map - Dione - was filled with snow and players could use snowboards and ice picks, but now we’re on the sunny Europa, and the arsenal includes a hang glider, BMX, or grappling hook.
Each one offers different benefits. The hang glider is the most mobile, allowing you to soar through the air as long as you leap from a high enough point. Don’t press up or down and simply use the directional keys to steer, and you can fly for miles. You can whip the BMX out at any point and cycle across the map, but it’s slower than the hang glider unless you can pick up some serious downhill momentum. Finally, the grappling hook allows you to zip from one point to another and hang off a wall or ceiling, but it’s not great for escaping the ash.
3. Vehicles are very loud and super weak
Another useful Ring of Elysium tip is that if you need to use a vehicle to escape from the ash, don’t stay in it for long. Everyone and their dog will be able to hear you, pinpointing your exact location. They’re great when you’re in dire need, but if you drive through a town you will be shot to pieces.
When you start getting shot at, the best action is to slow down then bail. Vehicles explode from hardly any bullets at all in Ring of Elysium, and there is no surviving a flaming wreck.
4. Airdrops will always be contested
Airdrops in Ring of Elysium hold some of the best weapons in the game, like the M24 sniper rifle or AUG assault rifle. Their location is visible to essentially anyone in the vicinity due to the bright orange smoke though, so you’ll often find numerous players contesting them. Some will try to loot it but others will sit back and pick off the players foolish enough to approach. Only go for an airdrop if you are absolutely certain you can loot it without being seen.
5. Press B to toggle between firing modes, V for different scopes
Much like PUBG, you can adjust the firing mode for almost all submachine guns and assault rifles. Press B to toggle between them, and you’ll be able to choose the best firing mode depending on the situation you’re in.
Along the same lines, you can equip two scopes to every gun. Press V to toggle between them; we tend to throw a Holographic/Red Dot and a magnified 2x/4x scope on all of our assault rifles, so they can be effective at close quarters and at range.
6. Account for bullet drop and travel time at long distances
If you’re coming from a Fortnite background, you’ll be used to the snipers having travel time and bullet drop, but in Ring of Elysium, this applies to every weapon. It won’t really matter much at close range, but if you’re shooting someone from distance who is running along and hasn’t seen you yet, you’ll need to aim slightly in front of and above them to make sure your bullets connect.
7. Adventure pass challenges are just like Fortnite
One thing Ring of Elysium has blatantly ripped straight from Fortnite is the format of the adventure pass challenges. There are three challenges for free-to-play players and four more in the paid version, and the challenges themselves are very reminiscent of Epic’s hugely successful battle royale. “Deal 100 damage to enemies with the PKM”, reads one challenge, while another requires players to travel 6000 metres with the glider. Last season, we even saw challenges that required players to visit three different locations in the same game, which should be very familiar to Fortnite players.
8. You can move while healing
There are three different types of healing item in Ring of Elysium; bandages, first aid kit, and med kit. You can use all of them while moving, albeit very slowly. It means that if you’ve been caught by the ash but you have time to escape, you can heal while moving. It’s a very small quality of life improvement in the form of a Ring of Elysium tip, but a very welcome one nonetheless.
9. Attachments are automatically equipped
Whenever you pick up any attachments, they will automatically be equipped to your weapons. If the gun you’re wielding has no room for it, then it will go on to the next weapon in your inventory. If there isn’t any more guns, then it will go into your inventory as normal.
This works vice versa too. If you pick up a few attachments at the start of a game before you find a weapon, then all eligible attachments will instantly be applied to the next weapon you pick up. It saves a lot of faffing about in the inventory.
10. Press Q to drop a marker where you’re aiming
There’s a lot of locations on the Ring of Elysium map that all look quite similar, especially when you’re in a firefight. Playing duos or squads can be a pain to call out enemy locations, but rather than having to vaguely say “by that rock!” or “behind the tree!”, you can now just hit Q to place a marker visible for all of your teammates, exactly where you’re looking. It even tells you the exat distance they are away!
11. Smoke grenades are useless
In some games, smoke grenades are a great tactical choice to help cover you from enemy fire and confuse them to boot. Not Ring of Elysium. Smoke grenades are a poor excuse of a throwable, and you’re much better off dropping them for frag grenades or more ammo/healing items. They take far too long for the smoke to deploy and when it does, there’s basically nothing there. Just don’t bother with them.
12. All player positions are revealed when the final zone is covered in ash
At the end of the game, when the helicopter has been hovering around for a while and the very final segment of the map becomes covered in ash, all player positions are revealed on the minimap. Visibility will be tough due to all the ash, but you’ll know exactly where all of your adversaries are in relation to you. Be prepared for this to happen, because it becomes more intense than it already was.
13. Your first few games will be full of bots
When you jump into a solo match for the very first time, you may be surprised at how easy it is. You’ll be able to make it to the final helicopter stage without many problems at all. You’ll feel like a champion because you’ve won your very first game, but that’s actually because your first match is a private game with only bots. It acts as a tutorial, to get you suited to the events that will happen in future games.
Don’t get too disheartened though! As you play more solo games, the amount of bots in your lobbies will decrease, until there’s only a few in each game and you’re mainly facing off against other players. They’re simply included to ensure the waiting times between games isn’t too long, and so new players don’t get destroyed by veterans every time.
14. The M4A1 with all attachments has zero recoil
It wouldn’t be fair to say any of the guns in Ring of Elysium are bad (except the Mosin-Nagant because you’d do more damage with a potato gun), but the M4A1 is easily one of the very best. If you get all attachments on it; Red Dot/Holographic sight, Vertical Foregrip, Extended Mag, Compensator and M4A1 Tactical Stock, the gun is an absolute laser beam. Simply hold your mouse in place and it will not recoil whatsoever.
15. There’s a mini-submarine that will take you from Ocean Park to Baywater Construction
If you can’t find a boat and you fancy a scenic underwater journey, you can go from Ocean Park to Baywater Construction via a mini-submarine. You don’t get to drive it - it’s an on-rails experience, but if you need more loot then it’s a quick way to a new area. Be careful that you don’t go into the ash though!
Also, it can be risky, as there may be an underwater monster lurking… proceed at your own risk!
16. Drop your pistol to carry a third primary weapon
Unlike PUBG, you actually start with a basic pistol in Ring of Elysium. It’s absolutely rubbish though so as soon as you start to find a few guns on the floor, make sure you drop your pistol and pick up a third primary weapon. Many players don’t realise this, because in other games you’re limited to two primaries and a secondary, but that isn’t a restriction here. Our favourite loadout is a submachine gun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle.
