I’m back! There’s a video below for those of you that don’t want to read this wall of text.

I suck. You suck. We all suck at gambit. Here’s how to get better.

Getting better at gambit isn’t hard to do. There are key elements that can make or break a team and skill of the individual player is definitely one of them. If you can improve your own game, you can improve your team game as well

1. Listen to the Drifter. Seriously. LISTEN TO THE DRIFTER. Tokyo drift over here is going to tel you things such as “you’re being invaded”, “bank your motes to summon a primeval”, and more. Always take his advice. If he tells you to bank your motes, it is rarely beneficial to still kill and pick up more motes. Listen to the Drifter and your team will move as fast as possible given their current situation.

BONUS FACT: If you have 15 motes but it only takes 9 motes to summon a primeval, you’ll only drop a 5 mote blocker on the enemy. Any amount of motes that are deposited past the cutoff point don’t influence the blocker you drop. This is why it’s important to bank your motes when he says bank them

1. Be “map-aware”. Map awareness isn’t something that’s horribly difficult. In gambit there are only a handful of maps as well so it’s easy to learn. There are two big elements to map awareness. First, know the location of things such as portals and launchers. These will help you maneuver around the map as quickly as possible. Second, know the invader spawns. If your spawn is to your back and your looking out into the map, the invader can only spawn in three possible locations. There’s a left lane, right lane, and center lane. Once he’s invaded, start looking. If he’s not in the left or center, guess where he is? The right.

2. Holy hell, kill the wizards first when you’re fighting the primeval. I’ve been grinding out gambit more than I like to admit and one of the biggest things that blows my mind is the fact that people don’t understand the primeval slayer buff. Killing the wizards grants your team a buff that allows you to do more damage to the primeval, it’s how you see the other teams get melted so quickly. They understand this and you don’t. The more wizards you kill, the more damage you’ll do to the primeval. This is important for gauging when to use your super against the primeval as well.

3. Leading in from number 3, we have super usage. I personally believe there are only two good times to use your super. The first is obvious, primeval damaging. If you’re going to super the primeval, pleaseeeee make sure you have a solid stack of primeval slayer built up. I recommend a 5 stack at least but it varies by situation. Second, clearing a large group of adds. This is my preferred method because it generates a ton of motes, orbs, and safe passage to your team. If you see your teammate pop a super and go for adds, let them. They’re only helping your team. Try to make sure you have a decent number of enemies/high level enemies so that you can create the most motes/orbs.

4. Don’t get stuck in your bad habits. We all have them. Johnny likes to invade every second he gets and waits for the portal to spawn. Don’t be Johnny. If you catch yourself hoarding the power ammo spawn or portal, stop. You’re not helping the team. If you’ve invaded twice and came out with little to no kills, let someone else try. Maybe you keep dying to adds, stay back and clear blockers/shoot adds from a distance and allow your teammates to scoop the motes. The game is about winning.

5. BANK YOUR MOTES. A dead guardian is useless. Don’t be useless. Sometimes it isn’t worth it to go for 15 motes. Bank 5 here and there instead of taking the risk. In my personal opinion, it’s way more annoying to kill a ton of taken phalanxs instead of 1 or 2 ogres. Not only are they more annoying to kill, but it stops the other team from banking. Consecutively dropping blockers will have the other team scrambling to catch up.

6. Loadouts are important. Let me preface this by saying that this is my personal opinion. This is a touchy topic so I’ll just focus on weapons as each character class is different. Primary weapons should cover a solid medium range. Scout rifles are lacking currently so I prefer a hand cannon that hits heavy or an auto rifle. In my secondary slot, I believe a hard hitter like a shotgun is important for boss/blocker clearing. I don’t have Ikeios so I run a badlander and it does more than enough damage. Now the touchy subject, Sleeper Simulant. This weapon is not the do or die weapon to have. It is a good weapon. It’s built to be a high damage weapon. I personally run a QueenBreakers Bow and I’ll never change. It can one shot enemies and invaders. It’s hit box for headshots is unfair. It’s a perfect counter as it’s fast firing as well. If you don’t have either, any linear fusion is a good choice. If you’re looking for boss damage however, cluster rockets or a sniper aren’t bad choices (looking at you Whisper). Spec your character right and you’ll be running train on adds as well as invaders/your prey.

7. Invading. Everyone wants to do it, not everyone is good at it. There’s a time to invade and a time to not. First, do you have power ammo? You don’t need it, but man does it help. You’re only one person after all and hey...you glow so you’re not hard to find. If you don’t have the tools to invade, let someone else. Next, look up to the top of your screen. Do you see the enemies points bar? See that gray bar? No? Don’t invade. If the enemy doesn’t have any bankable motes, don’t invade. It won’t cause any loss to the team. Lastly, don’t invade right when the enemy summons their primeval. Please. When you kill an enemy, it’ll heal their primeval. THIS DOESNT MATTER IF HE ISNT DAMAGED. Far too often I see someone jump into the portal at the worst times and not only does it not hurt the enemy team, but it removes our portal until our next milestone. It’s frustrating. I would like to state, invading immediately upon the enemy’s primeval spawn can be beneficial. If you slow the enemies down enough, your team gains room to catch up, especially with the catch up mechanic. Pick your invasion time wisely. The enemy team is usually waiting for an invader as soon as they spawn primeval so consider waiting a few seconds before diving in.

We all suck, it happens. But we can all get better. Following these tips, even just one, can help your game. I still make these mistakes sometimes but it’s a game and I’m working at progressing. I hope this helps at least one person! If you’re a visual learner, I’ve created a video which you can find linked below. If you have any feedback, leave a comment! Good luck out there guardians!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umipQpY8qcU&t=8s