Brawl Stars Guide

Made by the same folks who brought you Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, Brawl Stars is Supercell’s latest online multiplayer battle arena designed for iOS and Android. The game offers a number of different game modes for players to choose from, each coming with a unique set of objectives to achieve. But to sum it up, players will pick and control one Brawler from an ever-growing roster of characters to lead into battle. Each Brawler has a unique set of skills that makes them ideal for certain situations, and every seasoned player knows how to pick the right Brawler for the job. There are also customization options for your Brawlers if you enjoy dabbling in cosmetics.

In short, if you enjoy playing games on your mobile device and are looking for a light and easy way to kill some downtime, Brawl Stars could be just the solution you’re looking for. And to help you dominate the competition from day one, our guide will show you the A to Z of Brawl Stars and which key aspects you should focus on as you progress through the game.

Where to Start Brawling

To start off, let’s talk about the different game modes you can join. In your Brawl menu, you should be able to find the following:

Showdown: A free-for-all, anything-goes mode in which players aim to be the last one standing. Here, players will go up against 9 others inside an arena surrounded by poison gas. Over time, the poison gas will close in toward the center of the arena, and the only way to achieve victory is to stay alive until the end, either by depleting your opponents’ HP or by steering them into the poison gas, which deals damage over time as the match progresses. You’ll also earn bigger rewards the longer you survive, so persistence is key here.
Duo Showdown: Similar to solo Showdown, except players will be paired up and fight against four other teams. One notable feature here is that resources such as Power Cubes will be shared, and fallen players will be able to respawn as long as their teammates are still on the battlefield.
Gem Grab: In Gem Grab, 2 teams of 3 players compete against each other to collect 10 gems as quickly as possible. These gems spawn at set intervals in the center of the arena, and the first team to collect 10 gems will start a countdown. If they manage to hold on to their gems until the end, victory goes to them. Defeating a player forces them to drop all the gems they’re carrying, and if the team’s total falls below 10, the countdown stops and resets.
Brawl Ball: If you thought Brawl Ball sounds like a soccer match, that’s because it is. Like Gem Grab, players will be grouped into threes and fight against each other. To win, you need to grab the ball and score a goal by getting it through the enemy team’s goal. The first team with 2 points wins, and in the event of a tie, the match goes into overtime with the obstacles removed. A player will drop the ball if they are defeated, knocked back or stunned, and shooting the ball can be done with your regular attack bars or your Supers.
Bounty: Bounty pits two teams of three Brawlers against each other, and the goal here is to be the team with the most stars by the end of 2 minutes. Each Brawler starts with 2 stars, and for every Brawler they defeat, their bounty (number of stars) increases by 1. Defeating a player adds their bounty to your team’s score and resets their bounty to 2 stars. There will also be a blue star in the middle of the map that acts as a tiebreaker in the event of a draw. The player who picks up the blue star won’t have their bounty increased, and their team will have the advantage if the score is tied. Defeating the player holding the blue star allows you to take it from them.
Heist: Another team battle on this list, the goal of Heist is to destroy the opposing team’s safe while protecting your own. If both safes are still standing by the end of the match, victory is decided by which team’s safe has more HP.
Siege: Siege is somewhat similar to Heist, but instead of guarding a safe, you’ll be guarding a turret. Bolts will spawn around the center of the map, and you can use them to upgrade your turret into a Siege Robot at set intervals. The higher your robot’s level, the more DPS it has and the faster you can destroy the opposing team’s robot. As with Heist, in the event of a tie, victory goes to whichever team’s robot has more HP by the end of the match.
Hot Zone: Taking on the king-of-the-hill battle format, Hot Zone requires players to capture specific zones on the map by staying inside them. A zone’s capture percentage gradually fills up while Brawlers are present, and there can be multiple zones spread across a single map. Only Brawlers can contribute to capturing a point, and the team with the higher capture percentage by the end wins the match.

These events contribute to your ranking, and outside of them you’ll see Special Events running on weekends as well. Unlike regular events, Special Events introduce new game modes that are more similar to a PvE format and do not affect your ranking whether you win or lose.

Brawlers: Movement and Attack

When it comes to the Brawlers themselves, there are two aspects you can control: movement and attack. For movement, you can tap a location on the map and your Brawler will automatically move toward it. Alternatively, you can manually control their every step by holding and dragging the left joystick. Attacking is done with the right joystick, which you can also drag to aim and release to fire. If you tap it, your Brawler will fire at the nearest viable target it can find. Each Brawler also has a unique Super ability, which is charged by damaging other Brawlers. You can control this in a similar way to your regular attacks. Besides Supers, each Brawler also has a set of unique, limited-use active skills called Gadgets, as well as passive abilities known as Star Powers.

In battle, your Brawler will have 2 status bars above their head: one shows how much health they have, and the other shows how many actions/attacks they can perform. Your Brawler’s health will slowly regenerate after not taking any damage for a while, and the attack bar refills automatically without the need for any direct intervention.

Progression Elements

To step away from combat for a bit, let’s talk about an equally important aspect of the game, and that is progression. In your Brawl Stars app, you’ll find Brawl Boxes, which serve as your primary method of obtaining new Brawlers as well as other goodies. Every time you open a Brawl Box, you have a chance to win rare Brawlers, Power Points, Star Powers and Gadgets for your existing Brawlers, and Coins. There’s also a chance to win a Token Doubler item, which boosts the next 200 Tokens you earn from matches. Tokens are used to unlock tiers in the Brawl Pass, which comes with its own generous set of rewards.

Coins are the main currency in Brawl Stars and can be used in several different ways, the most notable being upgrading your Brawlers. Each Brawler can reach level 9 with enough Power Points and Coins, and the final level 10 requires you to acquire at least one of the Brawler’s Star Powers. Coins can also be used to buy Gadgets, Star Powers and, if you’re into it, skins. You can earn Coins through Brawl Boxes, the Trophy Road, as Brawl Pass rewards and, of course, in the Shop. Occasionally, you’ll see them given away for free in the Daily Deals section.

Outside of your Brawler level, you’ll also see progression in the form of the Trophy Road and the Brawl Pass. Trophies measure an individual Brawler’s progress in terms of matches: the more matches you win with a particular Brawler, the more trophies they’ll be awarded. Similarly, losing matches will cost you trophies. By reaching certain trophy milestones, you’ll be able to earn various rewards, such as new Brawlers, events, Brawl Boxes and Power Points. The Trophy Road runs in seasons, and each season generally lasts 4 weeks. Toward the end, the total number of trophies you have across all your Brawlers will be tallied, and you’ll receive Star Points based on that, so it pays to work on mastering your brawling skills.

Moving on, the Brawl Pass is a separate progression system in the game. As mentioned earlier, you’ll need Tokens to progress through the Brawl Pass, which will in turn reward you with Gems, Power Points, Pin Packs and even Brawl Boxes. The Brawl Pass comes with various quests that will help you earn some extra Tokens, and you can also get the paid version of the Brawl Pass for increased rewards and sometimes exclusive skins.

Although it doesn’t directly affect progression, in the Brawl Stars app you’ll also find the Club menu for when you want to chat and form groups with other people. Having someone to consistently team up and play with can be good, especially if you have a lot of team strategies you’d like to try out and need some coordination to pull them off. It also makes things a little less monotonous.

Know Your Roles

While it’s true that every Brawler is unique in their own way, some of them share certain traits that we can use to classify the areas in which a team composition excels. Generally, a Brawler will fill one to two roles, usually consisting of a primary and a secondary role. The primary role represents the Brawler’s core attributes: it’s the role they play best and where their greatest strength lies. The secondary role, on the other hand, is defined by the player and can vary depending on the situation, such as different team comps, strategies and maps. First, get familiar with a Brawler’s primary role, then take on the secondary role at your own discretion. Over time it will get easier, and your strategic thinking should become more refined.

Without further ado, let’s start looking at some Brawler roles:

Tanks: Tanks are fairly simple to use and beginner-friendly. They have a massive amount of HP, and their attacks can deal huge damage in exchange for a short firing range. Tanks do their best work by taking the brunt of enemy fire and leaving space for their teammates to do their job. It’s less about blindly soaking up damage and more about keeping pressure on the enemy team while protecting your supports and damage dealers. Tanks thrive on maps where they have cover to fall back on and get some breathing room, but will struggle in open spaces where they can be easily targeted. Examples of Tanks include Frank and El Primo.
DPS: Your primary damage dealers in a team fight. DPS Brawlers may not be as sturdy as Tank Brawlers, but they have great kill potential and are mostly focused on that. Their difficulty varies between Brawlers, and some provide utility that helps them thrive in certain scenarios. They don’t always have to play with the team and don’t always have to prioritize the match objective over getting kills. If you like a relatively aggressive playstyle, DPS Brawlers are a good starting point for learning offensive plays and honing your game sense. Examples include Colt and Spike.
Support: Support Brawlers do what their name says: they don’t take part in the heat of battle, but they play a vital role in helping their DPS and Tank teammates sustain their damage potential. This can come in the form of healing, as is the case with Poco, or it can take the form of deployable turrets to increase damage. As with DPS Brawlers, Support Brawlers have varying degrees of difficulty and utility, so they will require extensive practice from players and, in some cases, devising strategies to make full use of them.

The Brawl Mindset

This probably goes without saying, but practice makes perfect. Every Brawler is unique in their own way, and you’ll need to put in some “break-in” time to become more skilled with your Brawler. You can’t just pick one and expect to become a master in just a few plays. That’s why we highly recommend thoroughly checking out Bot Brawl and Co-Op Brawl whenever you get a new Brawler.

Bot Brawl puts you on a team with 2 bots, up against another team also made up of bots. This is a practice mode for you to test out a Brawler’s abilities, as well as run any solo tactics you have in mind. No matter how you perform, there will be no consequences for anyone else, so feel free to go wild here. In Co-Op Brawl, you’ll still be fighting against bots, but your teammates will be human players this time. This is a good option for practicing certain plays or combos that require working with other people. Learning to communicate effectively with other players is also a great skill to have, no matter what game you play. And who knows? You might pick up a thing or two about a particular Brawler from other players as well!

You might be thinking, sure, practice sounds good and all, but which specific aspects should you actually focus on? Well, first things first: your Brawler’s attack range and speed. Each Brawler has a certain range they’re more comfortable with than others. For example, Shelly fires in a short but wide arc in front of her, while Colt’s attacks travel farther but narrower. It’ll also be good to get a feel for the length of their attack animations. Additionally, you want to calculate the time it takes between pulling the trigger and your shots landing on your target. More often than not, if you aim directly at another player, your bullets will only land near them. That’s because by the time your attacks reach the other person, they would have already moved out of the way. That’s why you need to get used to leading your shots.

On top of that, it helps if you read up on and try to understand Brawlers’ strengths and weaknesses. Getting familiar with the mechanics of Brawlers, even ones you don’t own, will help you avoid being blindsided in case you face them. Not to mention, this will help you make better decisions when choosing the best Brawler for the job across different game modes, as well as understand which Brawlers synergize well together as a team.

Tips and Tricks

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

As important as it is to land hits on your opponents, learning how to dodge their hits will help you turn the battle in your favor. To that end, we highly recommend practicing how to juke and how to predict the trajectory of different Brawlers’ attacks. With close-range attacks, this obviously becomes much harder to pull off. Instead, try to zone your opponents and move away as soon as you see the start of their attack animations. Players will likely aim ahead of your predicted path, so breaking away from it should let you dodge their hits relatively easily. With enough practice, you can turn this into a reflex. But to start off, just try to be more aware of how you move and try to adjust your movements to theirs.

Understand the Importance of Strategic Retreats

This won’t always come to you right away, but there’s a lot more going on in battle than just spamming attacks until one person goes down. Understanding the amount of resources you have and how much of them you can commit to a fight will help you make quick decisions when things aren’t going your way. Backing out at the right time will allow you to regroup with your teammates, restore your health and ammo, and formulate a new plan of attack. Aggression is best tempered with proper discretion, and it’s up to you to decide whether or not you should retreat to give yourself a breather. But be careful, as not attacking will take the pressure off your opponents, allowing them to recover as well.

Learn to Love Other Brawlers

It may be tempting to only use one Brawler if you’ve grown really attached to them, but we highly recommend trying out other Brawlers as well. As we mentioned, you want to have broad knowledge of different Brawler traits so you can use them to your advantage. This will help you greatly whenever you fight with them or against them. Not to mention, you never know if you’ll be good with a character if you never use them.