Hello Blockhead!

This guide will teach you the basics of being a valued team player. The game is about working together to achieve a common goal, whether that's having fun, or winning a match. It's common for newer players to receive criticism from experienced players. That's not your fault. It's rather the fault of matchmaking and a low player base. The game isn't learned in one match and most players won't try to help you out. It's an undesirable situation that would be beneficial to resolve, even as a band-aid solution.

The first, and an important part of every game, is hero selection. Here you will need to cooperate with your team mates as you only have one chance to pick your hero. The goal is to find a team arrangement that will help you win the game. This will sometimes mean playing a hero you didn't want to, but that's being a team player! One action to avoid here is instant locking in. This is considered impolite as you're forcing everyone else to choose around you.

A good starting point is achieving a 3:2 ratio of attackers to defenders. Too many attackers and you leave your cube vulnerable, too many defenders and you create a long game while not doing any damage. This isn't a rule however, feel free to change it up depending on how you expect the game to go. You should select which role you intend to take via the hero selection menu. If you're undecided, or open to playing different roles, you can leave this blank until others have selected.

The next thing you can look at is categories (brawns, skills, brains). You almost certainly want at least one brawn, and one brain. This is because radars, spawn pads, health, and ammo, are considered essential. Pick them if you have them. A rough correlation is that is brawns attack, skills support, and brains defend. Again, this isn't a rule! Brains can be very effective when used correctly on the attack for example. Experimenting and taking risks is a valuable learning method.

Try to play and learn about various classes so you can always fill a gap in a team. This is especially useful when joining in the middle of games.

Summary

• Be cooperative, don't be selfish.
  
• Try for a 3:2 ratio of attackers to defenders.
  
• Always take health and ammo when you can.
  
• Always take spawn pads and radars when you can.
  
• Take some risks on occasion and learn from them.
  
• Learn to play as many classes as possible.

This phase normally consists of cutting, and then building. Cutting is the act of cutting down structures by separating them from the ground, which gives every player a large sum of bricks. This is less common in lower level games as it takes time to learn. If it does happen, it does take some time, but if your team works together, it can be done quite quickly. It's okay if you can't finish it as you need to do another thing, others can finish it off, or you can come back to it later.

The most important part is building the base, of course! Making a good base comes with experience and I can't teach you that here. What you must do is place health, ammo, and radars, these are very important. Spread a couple of health and boxes around the place, generally with the two next to each other. Radars should at a minimum be placed near the cube, but it's always helpful to place them where you expect enemies to run, so you can see them coming. Try to hide these as best as you can.

Do your best to work with your team mates. Beyond cutting, placing health, ammo, and radars, there is more you can do. If you see someone building a wall, help them. If you see a Nigel setting up a tower, go place health and ammo up there for him. If you need some help yourself, ask in the chat, but remember they can't always do so instantly. If someone has built stuff where you wanted to build, just do your best to work with it, don't start a fight which causes everyone on your team to lose.

As the build phase is about to end, make sure you have all your health, all your ammo, and you're ready to attack, or to defend your base. Not being prepared right at the start can be the difference between winning the game or not. Try to be as proactive as possible, even if you're unsure, learning takes time and doing.

Summary

• Cut, then build.
  
• Doing what you need to is more important than what you want to.
  
• Always place health, ammo, and radars.
  
• Cooperate with your team.
  
• Be prepared to play as the phase ends.
  
• Don't be afraid to make mistakes and learn.

This is the best part, and also the most difficult. You've got an awesome base built and you're ready to battle. There's a plethora of things I could talk about here, but I'll only be covering the major points.

Let's start with attack. Your job as an attacker is to destroy the enemy base, and their cubes. How exactly you do this is up to you and your team, you'll learn what works and what doesn't. Attacking doesn't necessarily mean getting cube damage, just helping your teammates to do so is great too. Of course the more you can do the better.

You'll generally have 3 attackers on your team. Again, this is a team game, so working together is paramount. Move together, fight together, and communicate with each other. If there's a health drop and a team mate is heavily hurt, let them have it. If you're a brain class then put down some forward health and ammo stations. If you're fighting multiple enemies, target the same one to kill them quicker. If your teammates are managing cube one, you could try preparing cube two, or you could be placing a spawn point to reduce time spent running across the map.

As a defender, you may have the hardest job. You need to deal with an onslaught of enemies, bombs, and hidden spawns, all while maintaining your base. This takes some time to learn, but that's fine, don't fret if you fail! People will blame you out of annoyance, but that's a problem with matchmaking, not your ability. Don't let them stop you from playing. As I will continue to repeat, working together with your team will give you the best chances of winning.

You usually have 2 defenders. You should always be building up the base, repairing it, or adjusting it in down time. If enemies attack, deal with together in whatever you can. Shoot at them, lure them in to traps, or just keep him away even if they survive. Often you should try to put down forward health and ammo for attackers, or you'll need to farm bricks. Take turns doing this if you can, but always leave at least one person at the base, and be prepared to run back immediately.

Summary

• Be cooperative, be greater then the sum of your parts.
  
• Proactively identify where your team mates need help and do so.
  
• Doing things alone often means free kills for the enemy.
  
• Try place forward health, ammo, and spawns.
  
• The list of ways to work as a team is endless.
  
• Let your team know if you need to do something.

Apart from a few necessary actions, such as placing health, ammo, and radars, the game doesn't strongly dictate how you have to play. While there are certain metas which I won't discuss, working together with your team is as good as it gets. 3 players working together could be the equivalent of 10 players acting independently. You won't always agree on something, particularly when players of different skill levels are in the same game, but make the best of it, don't fight.

You can go beyond gameplay, and help the players themselves out. If you see them making a mistake, or you think they could be doing something better, teach them! It will help them enjoy the game more and the community will be better off for it. Remember you have some individuality too, there's no time to make every small decision as a team. Try things and learn because losing a game isn't the end of anything.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, now go have some fun and win some games! Be sure to take the ingame tutorial if you haven't already. :)