Brawl Stars tips and tricks: How to fight your way to the top!

Brawl Stars has finally launched globally on Android and iOS, and it looks like the developer of Clash of Clans and Clash Royale might have another smash hit game on its hands.

Supercell’s new mobile MOBA/arena fighter has already amassed over five million downloads on the Google Play Store. That means there are plenty of players competing in Brawl Stars 3v3 online match ups and its unique take on a Fortnite/PUBG Mobile-style battle royale mode.

Should you join the fight? Read our Brawl Stars review

In this guide, you’ll find some essential tips and tricks that will help you choose the best Brawlers for any game mode, unlock new rare and legendary characters, farm tokens and gems, and much more!

Brawl Stars: How to unlock new Brawlers

No MOBA-style game is complete without a roster of colorful characters with different abilities and classes. Thankfully, Brawl Stars delivers with 22 total Brawlers that cater to various play-styles.

There are currently three ways to get new Brawlers, not counting the promotion that unlocks Barley by linking/setting up your Supercell ID. The first is by earning Trophies (I’ll explain how to get these and all of Brawl Stars’ other currencies later) and passing pre-set milestones on Trophy Road.

This starts at 10 Trophies when you’ll unlock Nita and ends at 3,000 Trophies which gets you Bo. The other Trophy Road Brawlers are Colt (60 Trophies), Bull (250 Trophies), Jessie (500 Trophies), Brock (1,000 Trophies), and Dynamike (2,000 Trophies).

You can also occasionally buy new Brawlers in the Shop using Gems, Brawl Stars’ premium currency. Be sure to save your Gems and be on the lookout for timed special offers.

The final way to get new Brawlers is the one you’ll rely on the most: Brawl Boxes.

Brawl Boxes serve up random drops of Coins, Power Points, and sometimes new Brawlers.

Related: 10 best battle royale games like PUBG Mobile or Fortnite on Android!

You’ll get a bunch of Brawl Boxes organically as you play the game over time, but the best way of unlocking new Brawlers is Big Boxes and Mega Boxes. Big Boxes will give you three times more drops than regular Brawl Boxes, while Mega Boxes go up to ten times more. Big Boxes and Mega Boxes can be obtained through Trophy Road, collecting Star Tokens, and by spending real money in the Shop.

It’s worth noting that the longer it takes for you to unlock a new character, the higher the chance the next Brawl Box (of any size) will contain a fresh fighter to play with.

Brawl Stars: Best Brawlers and tier list

Brawlers in Brawl Stars are categorized by their rarity tiers: Common, Rare, Super Rare, Epic, Mythic, and Legendary.

While you might think the Legendary Brawlers are automatically the best, that’s not quite how the game works.

Every Brawler in Brawl Stars has their individual strengths and weaknesses. Some, like the tanky Nita who unlocks very early on, are incredibly strong in specific game modes like Gem Grab.

Meanwhile, damage-focused Brawlers like Colt are better at clocking up those kills in Bounty.

For a good idea of which Brawlers to pick for each mode, check out YouTuber KairosTime’s most recent Brawl Stars tier list.

As for the roster, here’s every Brawler in the game so far ranked by rarity:

Common Brawlers

Bo
Brock
Bull
Colt
Dynamike
Jessie
Nita
Shelly

Rare Brawlers

Barley
El Primo
Poco

Super Rare Brawlers

Darryl
Penny
Ricochet

Epic Brawlers

Frank
Pam
Piper

Mythic Brawlers

Mortis
Tara

Legendary Brawlers

Crow
Leon
Spike

Brawl Stars: How to upgrade Brawlers and unlock Star Powers

Another reason why there isn’t exactly a best Brawler in Brawl Stars is that you can power up each hero to boost their stats, giving them more health, attack damage, and Super damage.

First off, ignore each Brawler’s rank completely as this only relates to your overall Trophy haul — not their stats. Instead, keep an eye on each Brawler’s Power Points meter. Once this is full you can spend Coins to upgrade a Brawler’s overall Power Level. Just note that Power Points are specific to each character, so you can’t use El Primo’s Points to level up POCO, for example.

Once you hit Power Level 9, you’ll be able to unlock that Brawler’s Star Power, which is a permanent passive buff that’s unique to that character. You’ll have to get lucky to get the Star Power though, as these are random drops from Brawl Boxes.

Brawl Stars: How to get Gems, Coins, Tokens, Star Tokens, Trophies, and Power Points

As you might have noticed, there are loads of different currency types in Brawl Stars and keeping track of them all can get a little confusing. To help you know your Tokens from your Star Tokens, here are all the currencies in the game to date and what you’ll be using them for:

Coins: Used to upgrade Brawlers

• Coins are available in Brawl Boxes and Coin packs in the Shop (in-app purchase).

Gems: Used to buy exclusive skins, other shop items, or Brawl Boxes

• Gems are available in Brawl Boxes and Gem packs in the Shop (in-app purchase).

Tokens: Used to obtain a Brawl Box for every 100 Tokens

• Tokens are gained by raising your Experience level and increased Brawlers ranks. You’ll also get 20 Tokens for every game you play up to five times. This resets in increments of 20 every three hours. Token Doublers are also available from the Shop and in Brawl Boxes.

Star Tokens: Used to get a Big Box for every 10 Star Tokens

• Found in Brawl Boxes and by completing Events. The latter will reset for each game mode about once per day.

Trophies: Used to rank up Brawlers and unlock rewards on Trophy Road

• You’ll get Trophies by winning games. You’ll also lose a nominal number of trophies (usually just one) if you’re defeated.

Experience: Used to obtain Tokens with each Experience level

• Gain Experience by playing games and getting star player awards.

Power Points: Used to upgrade Brawler stats

• Power Points drop in Brawl Boxes and are often available to buy with Coins in the Shop once per day.

Event Tickets: Used to play Ticket Events. The more Tickets you bet, the higher the rewards (if you win).

• Event Tickets can be obtained on Trophy Road or in Brawl Boxes.

Brawl Stars: Gameplay tips and game modes

So far we’ve looked at how Brawl Stars’ general set-up, but that’s not going to help you in the thick of a fight. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you win and master each game mode.

Know your game modes!

There are a few different modes in Brawl Stars, each with their own set of rules and win conditions. The main two are Gem Grab (3v3 mode, collect and hold on to your Gems!) and Showdown (single or duos battle royale mode), but you’ll also see Bounty (3v3 mode, collect Stars by eliminating opponents), Heist (3v3 mode, protect your safe and break open your opponents’), and Brawl Ball (3v3 mode, basically soccer with guns) on rotation.

This is the most obvious and crucial tip: learn the rules!

I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve lost a round of Gem Grab in Brawl Stars because my teammates run off trying to get kills rather than holding onto those precious Gems. Likewise, I’ve won my fair share of Showdown matches because often everyone ignores the Power Cubes which increase your attack damage giving you a huge advantage.

The long and short is don’t lose sight of the overall objective. You can chalk up all those glory kills but it will mean nothing if you’re on the losing team when the round is up.

There are also two other modes can be unlocked via Trophy Road — Ticket Events and Special Events. The latter is just regular modes with a modifier of some kind, like shakes that give one brawler a huge power up.

Special Events are slightly different, however. In Special Events you can bet Event Tickets for higher rewards — the more tickets you wager, the more you’ll get back. There are three different events — Robo Rumble, Boss Fight, and Big Game.

Robo Rumble is a horde mode which sees you trying to survive against waves of robots in a team of three. Boss Fight is another three player mode, only this time you’ll be fighting against a massive robot with an enormous health bar (tip for this mode: don’t go fight the boss if your teammates are dead, wait for them to respawn!). Finally, Big Game is a 5v1 mode where the player on the one-sided team is permanently buffed in size and damage.

Know your Brawlers!

It’s all well and good understanding the game modes, but if you don’t know how to make the most out of your chosen Brawler’s abilities and Super attacks you might as well start waving the white flag of surrender before the round even begins.

Practice is the key here. Learn which Brawlers suit each game mode and what their toolkit is for. Don’t rush in as POCO when you could be healing, but also don’t hold back as El Primo when you could be soaking up damage directed at your teammates.

You’ll also need to learn the range and spread of each Brawler’s attacks, as some are best in face-to-face throwdowns while others are better standing back and taking pot shots from behind cover.

Auto aim and tracking

Brawl Stars is quite forgiving compared to other MOBAs, especially when it comes to aiming. Instead of having to manually aim your shots with the virtual stick, you can just tap it to shoot at the nearest enemy.

Don’t do this.

While it’s fine to spam the attack button at very close range, if there’s any kind of distance between you and your target it’ll most likely miss when auto aiming. This also takes the choice of who you want to attack out of your hands and sometimes you’ll shoot a full health enemy rather than the one on 1HP that’s holding all the Gems.

Try to aim ahead of foes and track their movements with your shots, especially your Supers so you don’t end up wasting them. You can also tap on the screen if you’d prefer, but not if you want to take advantage of the next tip…

Tap to move

Brawl Stars is controlled using two virtual sticks as standard, but you can switch this in the settings to a tap to move scheme. Give both a try and see which one suits you better.

Attack as a team

Solo Showdown aside, Brawl Stars is a team game and running in alone will almost always end in disaster. Attacking in numbers and picking off those out of cover is the name of the game. If you can, team up with friends or use the game’s Club system to join forces with other players online. Set up voice chat on Discord or a similar app so you can communicate and share strategies in the heat of battle.

Run away!

It may sound cowardly, but knowing when to retreat can sometimes be the difference between winning or losing.

If you can get out of danger and stop shooting for a few seconds your Brawler will gradually regain health so you can get back into the fight fully revitalized. Hiding in the grass or using cover can help you escape fatal damage.

Similarly, if you’ve managed to snag a massive wad of Gems in Gem Grab or Stars in Bounty then you absolutely don’t want to die! When the countdown begins for the end of the game, it’s a perfectly legitimate strategy to run away and let the timer tick down to victory.

Watch those circles

Each Brawler will have a circle around them during each game with the friendly team in blue and the enemy team in red. When another circle appears around a Brawler this means they have a Super ready to go.

Keep an eye on which of your foes (and allies) have Supers to burn to avoid an untimely death.

That’s it for our Brawl Stars guide! Do you have any tips and tricks to share with your fellow Brawlers? Punch that comment button below!