With these Guardians of the Galaxy tips and tricks, you'll be a dream team blasting through your foes and getting paid in Marvel's cosmic crusade. Because it's an action-packed game full of choices, upgrades, cosmetics, and abilities, there are a lot of key mechanics and little features to be aware of in Guardians of the Galaxy. Knowing these systems in and out will help you maximize your combat advantages, and enhance your band of misfits as you complete jobs across the galaxy. Whether you want to know how best to use Huddles or just want to get some new shorts for Drax, I've come up with 10 essential tips you need to know when playing the Guardians of the Galaxy game.
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1. Stay agile to stay safe in combat
It's not clear from the start, but a huge part of staying alive in Guardians of the Galaxy is agility and distance. There's a reason Star-Lord has a pair of jet-boots - they allow you to dash, jump up out of reach, and stay clear of opponents. Melee can be useful, but as a general rule Star-Lord does his best work moving fast and taking a middling-distance approach. Blasting opponents and directing the other Guardians is easiest done with some space, surveying the battlefield and getting to where you're needed ASAP. In many fights you'll spend more time in the air on the ground, and that's usually the smartest way to play overall.
2. The icons on the left of enemy health bars reveal their weaknesses
This isn't as relevant early on when you have less kinds of attacks, but the little markers next to enemy health bars actually shows what kind of damage you should be doing to them, both for increased stagger and to really punch through their health. Not only that, but these markers update mid-battle to reflect changes in the enemy condition. For example, if an enemy has a shield protecting them, the icon will tell you what you need to break through the shield. Once it's down, it automatically switches to what will damage their bodies most. Convenient! And of course you can always use the special visor upgrade to scan them and get even more data on their vulnerabilities, such as which Guardians can really impact and compromise them.
3. Use Huddles often and think about conversation themes
Huddles are the moment where Star-Lord - and the soundtrack - both get to shine. A Huddle boosts your own damage and, if you're clever about it, the damage of the whole team, blasting out tunes and reviving any downed team members for good measure.
Use this whenever you can. Huddles recharge quicker than you think, especially in the later fights, tied to the amount of team actions you order. Once you've triggered one, the right answer is usually a matter of theming, not dissimilar to the sword fights in Monkey Island (let's see how many younger players get that reference). Look for answers that carry on ideas that match the words above, even if they don't look particularly inspiring or even seem like reprimands. Repeated words, natural opposites, synonyms - these usually indicate the right option to choose. Not to mention that there's not many Huddle dialogues overall - by the end of our first playthrough, we were starting to see repeats and learn them by memory.
4. Use the environment to devastate enemies
Not only do your Guardians have up to four kinds of standard attacks, but they also have environmental attacks tied to specific objects that appear in different areas. We'll say this clearly: environmental attacks are ridiculously powerful. They do huge damage, tend to have a decent AOE, and have no real cooldown. When Drax throws a boulder or Rocket detonates an explosive, all the enemies nearby will feel it. For that reason, there's often a real advantage to luring, dragging or waiting for enemies to end up in the danger zone, even if it takes a little while.
5. For boss fights, stagger and strike big enemies
While the specifics of how to beat bosses and mini-bosses vary from fight-to-fight, we found one big strategic consistency - save up your best attacks, then hit them with all your high-damage Guardians when they're staggered, which you usually do by hitting their weaknesses as mentioned above. For heavy damage that usually means Gamora and Rocket, though as you progress and get new abilities you'll unlock new powers for your team that mean they can all contribute to these giant pile-ons.
6. Buy the Components Localizer to find a lot of collectibles
One of the perks you can have Rocket craft at a Workbench is the Components Localizer, which uses both the Visor scan and UI markers to reveal nearby crafting components. And while this is good on its own, what it doesn't tell you is that the game often pairs crafting components with secret items, like outfits and Guardian Collectibles. While it's not a guarantee, there are many times where the Localizer highlighted a nearby secret area and it turned out to have something even more for us to find.
7. Buy abilities gradually and soon, not all at once later
It's easy to forget about your ability points as you progress through Guardians of the Galaxy's plot, especially with the way that different abilities cost different amounts and that your starting powers remain sufficient throughout the entirety of the campaign. However, we recommend spending them the moment you can afford them. Having a backlog of points means you'll eventually stop and acquire several new powers at once, then feel intimidated by the sudden rush of new information and fall back on the powers you know, never making use of these new abilities. At that point you might as well have never bought them at all, and it's all been a big waste.
Instead, buy an ability - any ability - the moment you can afford it. After that, spend the next couple of fights getting used to it and cementing it in your brain. Once it's hardwired in, you'll be all the more effective a player for it.
8. Groot is a secret powerhouse
While all Guardians are valued members of the team and should, in theory, be equally powerful, Groot ended up being the one who saved us more often than any other, especially if you use him right. His starting ability to ensnare a cluster of enemies can allow you to recover, plan a strategy or do huge damage to trapped opponents, which gives you far more freedom than any other Guardians' power. You should also buy, and learn, his Mammoth Grab, which can trap and compromise all the bigger enemies and will be hugely effective against mini-bosses and boss fights in the mid-to-late game.
9. Don't be afraid to make wild choices
Guardians of the Galaxy has all manner of choices and options hard-coded in, and while we have a Guardians of the Galaxy choices guide for those who want it, for those who just want guidance: don't be scared to think outside the box. For one thing, these warriors, pirates, maniacs and walking cases of arrested development never got anywhere by being reserved, not to mention that the vast majority of choices and dialogue options don't actually have lasting consequences, only affecting brief dialogue and the short-term (if even that). It's more about roleplaying and learning about the characters in most cases, but you'll know when you've made a more meaningful choice when a Telltale-style pink text box appears in the corner and says something like "Gamora will remember that".
If you want more of a hint for the best choices? Well, none of them will really punish you if you get them wrong, but we suggest leaning into Peter's and the Guardians' strengths, whatever they may be, and putting caution aside if there's something more on the line.
10. Use the Visor often to understand the area better
The Visor is a powerful tool in Guardians of the Galaxy. Most major games these days feature some kind of "detective mode", and the Visor serves that function. However, it works both in and out of combat, highlighting puzzle elements, environmental hazards, secrets and more. While the wall of purple is a bit hard on the eyes, it's worth just checking it every minute or so, or when you enter a new area, even if you're not being prompted. It'll often highlight something valuable.
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