Things You Should Know Before Starting Metal Slug Tactics

If you were expecting Metal Slug Tactics to be like the classic games, you’d be surprised. The “Tactics” in the title refers to a new twist in the series DNA, with a strong focus on strategy and a turn-base system with a roguelite formula. Long gone are the times of running to the sides, shooting everyone.

Your first runs can be tough until you change your mindset and learn how to use the systems upon systems that are offered here. That’s why we have gathered eight useful tips that should help you with your first hours in Metal Slug Tactics.

Keep Moving All The Time

During the tutorial mission, the game is pretty clear about this: you should always move as much as you can because it will give you more Dodge and Adrenaline — important attributes for your defense and the chance to use special skills. However, it isn’t until you play for a few hours that you really get why this is so important.

Remember that you can always undo any move you make. You can even move your three units in a row, and then undo the three displacements. However, don’t forget that this doesn’t apply to attacks or special moves, and if you perform one, you won’t be able to undo any previous move with any unit.

Besides some specific scenarios, such as playing a survival mission or having weapons/attributes that deal more damage if you don’t move, there’s really no point in not displacing a unit. You won’t gain any Dodge or Adrenaline, and even if you have an advantageous point, being able to store Adrenaline or have some defense will always be the better scenario.

More importantly, Metal Slug Tactics might seem like a strategy game where you need to be cautious in every move you make (and it kind of is!), but you need to be cautious and active. When you learn how to move and focus on your objective, you’ll start completing the missions and boss fights in only a matter of turns.

Always Use The Vehicles Available

From time to time, you’ll enter a mission with a vehicle located at some section of the level. This can either be the series’ classic tank or the exoskeleton. To use them, you only have to move one of your units close to it, to the orange tiles around the vehicle, and then left-click on it. Your character will jump inside and they will be able to move it and attack with it for the rest of the turn.

Unfortunately, you don’t have a way of knowing which missions will have vehicles and which ones won’t.

Vehicles, especially the tank, are overpowered in the game — at least in the lowest difficulty modes. Yes, you have limited fuel and if the enemies destroy the vehicle, your character will also die. However, the benefits outmatch the downsides: you can move pretty far away with the exoskeleton and attack twice in straight lines, while the tank has reduced mobility but can attack three times in a row, with one attack having an AoE attribute.

There’s an Asset that lets you summon a vehicle in any mission in any available space. There’s one for the tank and one for the other.

Personally, our units never died while driving a vehicle, and the advantages we got by being able to dispatch enemies quickly were decisive for the mission.

Forget About Normal Enemies In Boss Fights

The bosses in Metal Slug Tactics have a good chunk of HP, and if you worry about the soldiers around you, you’ll never take care of the big baddies. The thing is, you’ll do much better when you primarily focus on these big vehicles rather than the regular enemies.

All the bosses have attacks that will also deal damage to enemy units, so keep that in mind and use it to your advantage. Don’t waste ammo on soldiers that will die the next turn when the boss destroys that part of the arena. Also, use abilities, like Fio’s strategy skills, to move units to those dangerous spots.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore the enemy forces around you. A couple of soldiers can take out any of your units if you’re not careful enough, or even worse: block your possible paths, leaving your unit useless for that turn.

But you shouldn’t be using Synchronization, your secondary weapon, or expensive skills on them. Save all of your big gubs and moves for the boss — that HP might look big, but it can take only a few turns to delete it if you have your three units cooperating.

At the end of the enemy’s turn, the boss will always be the first to attack and move.

How To Create Your Best Party

There isn’t really a single best team you can create — at least not that we are aware of at the time of writing these lines, but maybe someone will discover the most overpowered party of them all. However, a good general team should have the following:

• Someone who can deal melee damage (close range) because it’s the strongest one in primary weapons.
• Someone who has support or strategic abilities and is able to heal, protect, or change the position of allies and/or enemies.
• Someone with a weapon, either primary or secondary, with a very long range.

Should I Buy Loadouts, Weapon Upgrades, Or Abilities First?

Whenever you finish a run, your remaining coins will be turned into Credits. Credits can be used to either unlock loadouts from your available characters or unlock Special Actions (abilities) or weapon upgrades for them.

However, please note that what you’re exactly getting in the second and third cases is the random chance to get those when leveling up your character or earning a weapon upgrade. They are not permanent unlocks that you can select before starting a run.

Every character has one loadout that can only be unlocked by finishing a run with that character.

Keeping this in mind, we suggest you save and spend Credits on loadouts first. These can be selected from the get-go, and they also open your possibilities of new strategies and types of parties in wild ways. Last but no less important, loadouts will offer variety in gameplay and help you keep things fresh.

Completing A Run With Two Or More Locations

One thing that you’ll have to think about while making progress in your runs is how many locations you want to visit. Once you have each one unlocked, you can start each run in any of the three starting points and then move directly to the city to face the final boss.

Whether you go through the three starting places, two or only one, it’s completely up to you, but you should keep in mind (mostly) two things: how many upgrades you have, whether in weapons or abilities, and if you have any Assets to use.

If you’re lacking in any of these departments, it would be a good choice to do as many locations as possible before going to the final city. Arriving unprepared against Morden isn’t the wisest decision.

The last city counts as a location completed when you finish the run.

Apart from this, we recommend completing one run with only two locations, one with three, and another one with four. The reason is simple: you’ll unlock three characters by doing each of these runs.

For The Love Of God, Use Your Assets

More than a tip, take this like a friendly reminder: use your Assets! If you’re the typical RPG player who saves every type of rare potion they find, waiting for the right moment, and then never using them, this is the exact same scenario. Assets aren’t saved when you finish a run, and it’s pretty easy to fill your three slots and never use one if you don’t think about it.

Assets don’t count as any of your units’ turns.

So please, use them. Once you get the hang of the game, it’s simple enough to stock your assets slots by completing specific missions or buying them from the store. They are super useful tools that can help you in almost every scenario, from dealing ten damage at once or healing your units. If you want to save them from bosses, that’s fine, but if you’re going through multiple locations with your slots full, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Friendly Fire Can Be Useful (And Cool)

Some characters, like Tarma and Ralf, can start with weapons or Special Actions (keyword ‘Kamikaze’) that attack themselves, but don’t deal damage to them.

For example, Tarma’s Extravagance has the Charisma grenade. However, explosive weapons usually do friendly fire, like regular grenades and rocket launchers. If you’re just having your first runs, you might not feel comfortable with this, but always remember to weigh the risks and the rewards.

Sometimes it’s more useful to deal one or two damage to one of your own units if that means eliminating a rival. Your characters heal themselves after each successful mission, so it isn’t that big of a deal if you don’t leave them exposed to more attacks. Also, characters like Fio can apply Protection, which will nullify all the damage that a unit receives in the first hit they take. Keep this and your Dodge and Cover stats in mind.