Holy cow this game is confusing!

[FroBodine]

I played the tutorial, and the first mission where you had to destroy the truck convoy before it left the map. I got absolutely destroyed and barely got the convoy down to half health.

I have no idea what I'm doing. This game appears easy, but I must be dense because I don't really understand the mechanics of all the skills and such.

I guess I'll have to watch some videos on Youtube to learn how to play better, which I'm not a fan of because I'd rather be playing than watching others play.

They really didn't do a very good job of explaining this game.

[FOXPLZKTHXLOL]

Once you understand what you need to do the game gets really easy, even if it looks hopeless. I had my first World Tour despite it being my first try and only had 1 KO. I only had like 10+ hours in the demo.

You need to be sure to always be on the move to gain dodge and use cover when it's needed. The synch attacks are a must. Place all your units in a way that you can maximize the synch attacks for maximum dmg.

[BlackjackGT]

That mission was in the demo, and it was definitely the most tactically complicated one I can remember playing in it. :)

And yeah this is not a "turtle in a corner and Overwatch" TBS a la XCOM, it's designed to force you to move every turn and if you don't, it tends to punish you. :)

[Sinner]

Originally posted by FOXPLZKTHXLOL:

Once you understand what you need to do the game gets really easy, even if it looks hopeless. I had my first World Tour despite it being my first try and only had 1 KO. I only had like 10+ hours in the demo.

You need to be sure to always be on the move to gain dodge and use cover when it's needed. The synch attacks are a must. Place all your units in a way that you can maximize the synch attacks for maximum dmg.

Yes, but if you can only move so far that, for example, you only have 2 dodge and can't reach cover and all opponents do 4 to 5 damage, it becomes pretty impossible to get little to no damage and the cover is with the opponents also pretty OP.

[FOXPLZKTHXLOL]

Originally posted by Sinner:

Originally posted by FOXPLZKTHXLOL:

Once you understand what you need to do the game gets really easy, even if it looks hopeless. I had my first World Tour despite it being my first try and only had 1 KO. I only had like 10+ hours in the demo.

You need to be sure to always be on the move to gain dodge and use cover when it's needed. The synch attacks are a must. Place all your units in a way that you can maximize the synch attacks for maximum dmg.

Yes, but if you can only move so far that, for example, you only have 2 dodge and can't reach cover and all opponents do 4 to 5 damage, it becomes pretty impossible to get little to no damage and the cover is with the opponents also pretty OP.

Getting 3 is pretty easy. Just kill the enemies that are the most dangerous and place yourself better and if that doesn't cut it go to a good place that has cover too. Sometimes it's ok to get some hits too.

[frogger]

I have beaten the game a couple times without losing any missions. perhaps you didn't realize what they were doing, but there's actually a pretty set way to play the game that is introduced in the tutorial.

-the mainline metal slug games are about
a.) keeping momentum, and
b.) learning boss patterns.
metal slug tactics tries to mirror this by rewarding you for moving as far as you can every turn. you take less damage and can use abilities more when you move far. plan around moving as much as you can. you will also need to understand when to move around boss attacks and waiting for the correct time to attack, just like in the mainline games. this is really mostly necessary for the final boss, the others are pushovers.
-the characters are supposed to have synergy. you can see this in all the multi-character achievements and backstories and such. this is so important to the game's image that they give you free extra attacks for attacking an enemy that is a valid target for another ally. you are supposed to spam these as much as possible. it's so powerful that bosses can only be group-attacked once per turn.
with these first two points combined, it should now be clear to you that metal slug tactics is a turn-based positioning puzzle game where the goal is to maximize distance traveled and extra ally attacks. it is essentially "into the breach" wearing a "final fantasy tactics but metal slug style" veneer. they even copied into the breach's choose-your-own-length island system where the final boss difficulty scales with how many regions you clear.

one more point:
-you are supposed to take fire often, but receive 0-1 damage due to cover and movement bonuses. the developers have spammed those blue protected areas everywhere and given you ample bonus-move abilities to make you tuck in to those blue spots after attacking.

now get out there and enjoy your grenade-hopping multi-kills and getting to do 3 actions in 1 turn with fio.

[BlackjackGT]

Oh, I actually for demo started a thread about 2 missions, including the CONVOY one :) Back in mid-June (check it out for more tips):

[seeking tips] Destroy the Convoy; Reach the Exit missions

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1590760/discussions/0/6853996208332343549/

[xEqualWhy]

Very much feel this sentiment but the more I play, got like 3 hours in now, the more it all clicks. Went from getting demolished during my first run to sprinting through missions without difficulty. Like others have said it's about momentum and staying on the move, once you understand that it gets a lot easier to manage. If anything massive amount of info dumped on you is probably the biggest hurdle and nothing fixes that but playing more.

[BlackjackGT]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3361085923
OK I learned what NOT to do. Also, one thing I forgot - if you use a 1UP Reinforcement to revive a character, you get to revive him/her many tiles forward of their death tile location.

This can be helpful on this mission as far as "keeping up" with the convoy, but of course you'd rather not blow all your Reinforcements tokens on one mission. :)

Also, using the sewer tunnels to move rapidly to the next area can be useful (or you can get quickly surrounded) though I found it confusing - you need to click on the FAR sewer manhole cover opening to get there, NOT the manhole opening closest to you.

Could maybe be better explained that this is a "multi-screen" mission, and I think it's on the 3rd screen that the truck "exits," though there's really nothing labeled as such. It just reaches the end of the screen on one side.

So i guess all that and for the most part ignoring the grunt soldiers. You want pretty much every shot/grenade/ability to damage the convoy.

[FroBodine]

Thank you for all the great tips, folks. It doesn't help that the game is missing a LOT of tool tips on icons that I have no idea what they mean.

Also - the guy/gal that throws the grenades is confusing me. When I click on their ability to throw two grenades, I don't understand why it doesn't let me throw them wherever I want. I feel like I have to move the mouse around just to find spots to throw the grenades, and they are almost never in places where I want to throw them. I don't understand this.

[Daremo]

Don't beat yourself up for that mission.

I had it in the demo and I managed to win while destroying the convoy at the very last possible turn, with last character playing and everyone's HP pretty low.

I don't think I played this one too badly, it was just quite hard.

I think some missions have a side task that's so much harder than others.

Tonight I just almost lost the game to a simple "survive x turns" and was supposed to destroy a tower that had tons of hp that I barely scratched. I would have survived better if I accepted I was in a bad position to go for the side task.

I think that adrenaline skills are the biggest key to success alongside movement/placement.

[FroBodine]

Well, it was the very first mission in the very first game I ever played, and it's one of the most difficult? Not a very well thought out difficulty ramp up in this game, apparently.

[BlackjackGT]

Originally posted by FroBodine:

Thank you for all the great tips, folks. It doesn't help that the game is missing a LOT of tool tips on icons that I have no idea what they mean.

Also - the guy/gal that throws the grenades is confusing me. When I click on their ability to throw two grenades, I don't understand why it doesn't let me throw them wherever I want. I feel like I have to move the mouse around just to find spots to throw the grenades, and they are almost never in places where I want to throw them. I don't understand this.

The "cluster" grenade is basically a "chain reaction" grenade where the 2nd toss is "auto linked" to the first one's detonation point.

This CAN be great in terms of the 2nd impact point I think being a much larger explosion radius that can impact several enemies.

I realize that's confusing. If it's not your cup of tea, I'd make a note to not use it. I think eventually you can afford to replace the ability with something more straightforward. :)

As far as the map missions go, DO note that when you click on mission on the main map to enter it, you don't "commit" to the mission until you click again to start it. You can always Back out to the main map and choose something less challenging. I tend to avoid the Convoy and Tower maps early on unless I have no choice on the region's campaign map.

For better or worse they went for non-linear, sort of open world campaign maps and randomized (I think) locations. So unless you read the mission objectives in detail and understand what's involved you can easily stumble into something your early level squad might not be best equipped to handle.

[Drauwst]

They did totally fine with explaining the game, did you not pay attention?
The dodge/adrenaline mechanic is extremely important, movement and synchronization in this game is mandatory; it's what makes everything work
I came in off of doing the beta whenever that was and finished my first run without a single KO; the base difficulty is fairly easy - in fact it felt pretty unbalanced after about halfway into the run

[BlackjackGT]

Oh, hmm, here's my attempt to explain the Grenade Juggler ability....

-Directionally, it's more like a grenade launcher. That's why you can only toss the first of the "2 tosses in one turn" in the 4 "cardinal" directions from the character.

-Best I can explain how the 2nd of the "2 tosses in one turn" for Grenade Juggler is that when you toss it to the FIRST spot, you are essentially doing the 2nd toss from that FIRST tile. So it's if as you were then standing at that first spot, and tossing it a 2nd time to a 2nd spot.

-So the 2nd toss is again in cardinal directions only, and needs to I think be at least a few tiles from the 2nd spot.

I find this can work great for clusters of enemies, but the irregular blast pattern means it can sometimes be a bit tricky to hit everyone you want to.

I agree it's peculiar a tossed grenade would have a cardinal directions limitation, but that's what they went with. :)

[BlackjackGT]

Oh, I finally pulled off Defend the Convoy in 4 turns. The character who's good with his knife (4 damage) is really helpful in Synch attacking. Here's a Steam video clip of it (just under 6 minutes)
https://youtu.be/Ia0wl9z3WF0?si=ZLDjkNfhBj8jJ--h