So I'm sort of regretting Into The Breach. Maybe I just need to play it on easy mode. Obviously 'git gud' but there's just too many turns where 2/3 mechs are captured by stupid spider webs and can't move, then I destroy one and oops it exploded and destroyed 2 power supplies, oh and then I'm right in the middle of a good run and oops accidentally pressed X so now my mech is just healing and they used the next turn to wipe out 4 power supplies.
What are some tips?
Hi,
I'm a huge fan of Advance Wars, so Into the Breach was pretty natural for me. I would say that you should always make all your movement actions before combat actions. It'll help you get used to predicting where mechs/enemies will end up after pushes and if you could make enemies target each other. Second tip, prioritize saving the grid, as mechs can take a few hits and will always heal after each mission. Don't worry about keeping your pilots alive for now.
Echoing this most of all.
The most important thing is to take your time and check out all information available to you while trying to find the best possible turn. A thing I learned the hard way is to really play through your turns by moving the mechs where you think you want them and then
simulating the attack with each of them (as in, don't attack for real, just press the button and check the screen for what it says while happen i.e. to health bars or how units will get pushed etc). That way you can get the best idea of whether your idea will work out as intended or if you've overseen some stuff. You can ALWAYS reset the movements of your mechs if you haven't made an attack since these movements.
Also, yes, the "reset turn once" feature should be used in every battle (if needed), there's no drawback. It's obviously no help once you've finished your turn and realize you've misjudged the Vek's actions and things go bad, but you can always use it if you realize you misjudged the outcome of an attack of yours or if you misclick like the accidentally pressing X. Like with "normal" attacks, you can always opt not to repair even when you pressed X btw, by pressing B if I remember correctly. By the way, if you press the right stick, you can see the exact order of enemy turns, which can be extremely important especially for checking whether enemies will kill other Vek, thus cancelling their attacks, or if it wouldn't work out because the other Vek attacks first. This wasn't mentioned in the tutorial I don't think, so it can easily be missed (I missed it until quite some time into my very first run). On the top right side of the screen you can also see the general order of events, i.e. that environmental effects are incoming and are the very first thing to happen, and that Vek spawns are always the last thing to happen in every turn.
As for the snare / spider webs, yes, they are probably the most devastating enemy ability. There is one hero which can't be snared (nor blinded by smoke) which I can really recommend. She can bait those web-slingers into trying to web them and thus effectively waste their turn. That's obviously no help for you if you haven't found her yet in the game though. Depending on how many islands you have already unlocked, you can check the types of enemies occuring on an island before choosing to go there. Scorpions or Leapers are sadly present there most of the time, but not always (I think), so you can try to opt to go to a webber-free island first and meet them on the other islands after your mechs have grown stronger through updates.
As for dealing with webbers generally, the best tip can probably be given for your inital mech placement, as you can check the movement of starting Scorpions (3 tiles) or Leapers (4 tiles) by clicking on them once you've placed your mechs (you can still rearrange them). Try to start your mechs so that the webbers can't reach a tile adjacent to your mechs. They will then have to attack a building. This is obviously harder to achieve when up against Leapers because of their high movement, but at least you can get rid of them easier because they only have 1 HP, while scorpions tend to stick around for a few rounds. Anyway, you should usually try to kill these 2 kinds of Veks as soon as possible because of their strong ability, as getting snared limites your options to go after the more important Veks, which are the ones
attacking your buildings, especially when it's an objective (and especially, when it's an objective giving you a reactor core, the most valuable item).
The Vek attacking your mechs are usually like freebies for you, they can be ignored until there are no targets available which are more important (again, = attacking your objectives / buildings). This obviously doen't mean you should let your mechs get hit if it can also be avoided, but if it can't, always rather take a hit on a mech before taking a hit on an objective/building (like the others have said). Now, when it comes to letting your mech die and thus be unavailable for the rest of the battle and have your pilot get killed, you have to evaluate the situation. Losing one or two power grid usally isn't worth losing a pilot, especially a hero. Except of course, you would be Game Over otherwise.
So basically, yeah, use your mechs as a shield if needed (it's one of the options in your repertoire, where every option is important!), as they will regain their health after each battle. Also, actually killing a Vek isn't your prime objective (except sometimes "kill x Vek" is your actual objective, heh), making them "useless" for the turn is. Of course, to not get overwhelmed in the next turns, you also have to kill as many Veks as possible. But what I mean is, that if you have to choose between killing a Vek which is is no threat for your structures in this turn and cancelling the attack of a Vek who is, you usually should opt for the latter.
Another kind of special Vek are the Psions (I call them Overlords because Starcraft <:)), like i.e. the ones which make every dieing Vek explode after death, which can really be immensly annoying. You should try to take them out as soon as possible... if possible without neglecting the more important targets. Sometimes you need to just play around the Psions abilites to make a perfect turn, but at the cost of having to deal with them longer, thus limiting your options in the future turns, which can bring you in bad situations eventually. So i'd probably say that for people struggling with
Into the Breach, Psions should probably be taken care of as soon as possible, as long as it doesn't come at too big a cost in this turn. Like most things in ItB, it's a trade-off. Always try to remember their abilities though to not get caught off guard after your turn. You can always see the small symbol of a Psion-infused ability when hovering over / selecting other Vek.
Try different teams? Make a custom team, pick an achievement you can get and work towards that, don't sweat some of the objectives, work to build your energy reserves up as much as possible and try to rescue as many pilots as possible, also don't hesitate to reset a turn, it is there for a reason, and definitely don't be afraid to bail on a run and save your best pilot.
There are some pilot combos that are just OP and with the right Mech you can wreck stuff. I rarely bought weapons after islands, I always banked as much power as possible. I may need to double dip on Switch now, I played it so much on PC.
Now, this approach might work if you struggle with getting through even the first one or two islands, but otherwise,
I'd recommend to always invest in as many reactor cores as possible, and also in weapons, if a useful one for your team is offered. Getting the "on sale" weapon especially is basically risk-free, as you can always sell it for the same price again later. While investing in power grid only might help you survive short-term, you will soon be overwhelmed by the intensifiying Vek threat if you don't invest in pimping your squad.
Weapons usually need more reactor cores to get powered (up) though, so that's one more reason to always try to aquire more cores and probably don't concentrate too much on weapons until maybe your second island. Until then, use your cores to upgrade your mech's movement speed (usually the first choice for at least 2 of your mechs, as more movement always extends your options in each turn, it cannot be valued enough) or your standard weapons, going by out of which upgrade you would get the most value for your team comp right now. Using the core for the mech health upgrade is usually not a first choice, especially as your pilots often get those 2 extra HPs as a level up bonus. But it's always a question of what you think you need most at the time to get your team working as good as possible.
IThe only part of the game I actively hate are the dumb flame mechs. So useless.
I beg your pardon? :P
They really needed some getting used to (all teams do though, as they are so different), but grew really strong with enough upgrades. Teleportation is just OP with the range upgrades (just teleport those Veks into water, i.e.). Had I found another fire-inducing weapon, I probably would have taken on the fourth island. Without, however, there was no scaling left for my team. Final mission was a breeze.
