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Last updated: 2024-05-03

Page change log:

  • Updated: 2024-05-28
  • Updated: 2024-05-03
  • Created: 2024-04-21

Information in this page may be outdated if the game changed after the last page update.


Beginner

Keep the Chest Queue Going

You can get a free chest every 3 hours, but that process stops once you have 3 chests in the queue. Try to play regularly to keep the countdown active.

It's important to also know that if you fill the queue, your ongoing timer will be paused. So for example, if you are going to get another chest in 10 minutes but you buy 3 chests, that timer will be kept on pause until you free a slot.

Buying Chests

Spending gold to buy 3 chests will be the main way to speed up your progression. Before you buy them, check if you have a win streak active. Find more details about how win streaks affect chest sizes here.

Book Achievements

Always collect all your Book Achievement rewards, you can't keep progressing until you do.

Fusions Are Stronger!

Troop Fusions have around 3x HP and 2x Damage. You can find more about Fusion stats here.

Chest Keys

Defeating other squads and some boss monsters will give you chest keys. These keys allow you to open your next chest for free. Remember to collect that key, or you won't get a free chest!

Shining Grass

Tall grass can hide some small rewards that can be very relevant to kick off your progression. You can find them by stepping over tall grass that has a golden shine.

Breaking Bridges

For a bridge to break, it cannot have any troops on top. This means that after you use it, it won't break until no players or NPCs are stepping on it.

Not all bridges in the maps break, it's mostly the ones in the outside of each map. You can get a better sense of their location by looking at these simplified maps.

A simple rule of thumb: if the bridge has paths of low grass coming in and out of it, it's permanent.

Boost Boots

Boots can make you move and attack faster. Brief taps when you are full can give you small boosts while allowing you to save most for later. Don't be afraid to spend this boost, as it recharges automatically after some time.

You can find details about the boost mechanic here.

Blue Boxes

In some game modes it can be harder to find Boost Boots. Blue Boxes are a reliable source to get them, but you'll have to open them before other players do.

Aim Your Spells

Drag your spell icon to choose where to drop it. This is very important to place cannons and drop bombs on top of your enemies.

Intermediate

Keep Track Of Your Room

Knowing how many players are left in the battle is essential to adjust your play-style.

Room Size

Custom Shop Offers

If you are considering spending some money in the game, some custom offers may be even more appealing than the Super Pass.

To make sure you see them, enable them in Settings > More Settings. You'll also have to restart the Squad Busters app for this change to be applied.

Settings Your Offers

For example:

Special Offer

Deselect Your Spells

If you are aiming to throw a spell but you want to cancel, you can simply drag away from your throw range. You'll see that the aim aid disappears, and then it's safe to let go.

Training Mode

On the Squad tab, after selecting a troop, you can enter the training mode, where you can peacefully practice and test troop mechanics.

Training Mode

Explosive Harvester

Greg and Mavis are the traditional way of looting trees and carrots, but you can also use bombs! Aim for several trees and carrots if you can.

Enemy Indicators

Close-by squads and busted squads are indicated in the border of your screen. You can pay attention if you want to stay away before it's too late. You can also see when a squad has been busted; sometimes this can lead you to a weakened enemy, and others to a very strong squad.

Fusion Indicators

When squads are big, it can be a bit challenging to distinguish fusions from normal troops.

Fusion Indicators

Advanced

Mobile or Tablet?

The amount of map you can see at a given time will be determined by how wide your device is. The vertical axis is the same for everyone, so having a wider device will give you more peripheral vision.

Tablets are usually less wide than phones, so they'll show you less area around you. At the same time, they can allow you to see everything in more detail, which can be useful in very crowded battles.

Ultimately it's about preference, but be aware that the opponents on your sides might be seeing you, even if you don't see them!

Device Size

Party Up!

Playing with friends can be advantageous. You won't be able to earn trophies in Party, but you can earn other rewards and grow your Top 5 Streak.

Parties of more than 5 players aren't a good option for this, as someone would always be left out of the top. Having 3-4 players is probably the best option, as it leaves room for a very strong opponent to be left alive while keeping everyone's streak.

Let Bad Troops Die

Dragging through a battle with a bad troop can increase all your chest costs without improving the strength of your squad. If that troop doesn't have too much HP, you can let it be killed intentionally quite easily.

Moving against a wall or obstacle is a great way to achieve that with NPCs; it allows you to stand still for the NPCs to aim their attacks, but doesn't trigger the attack mode of your squad.

Squad Formation

Troops in a squad don't position themselves randomly. Troops can have front, back or defender positions, and will have different behaviours based on that. This position designation is mainly used when you choose a moving direction and when you stop.

Using it properly is important to protect your weakest troops, but you can also take advantage of it to target the glass cannons of enemy squads.

Chest Before Key

If you bust a squad and have a chest nearby, opening the chest first will save you some gold. You can then pick the key and use it for what would have been a more expensive chest.

Streak Optimisation

Top 5 Streaks are key to get big chests, so understanding them will allow you to progress efficiently. Learn all about them here.

Human or Bot?

Ever wondered if you were playing against bots? There's an easy way to find out!

If you visit your battle log, you'll only be able to open the profile of human players. If you tap their name and nothing happens, you found a bot.

The amount of bots in a battle seems dependent on the amount of active players available to fill a room at a given time. This could change once the game goes global and there are less inactive timezones, but at the moment, battles often have between 6 and 8 human players.

It's also possible to recognise them with some certainty during battles; but there isn't a silver bullet method. Some things you can watch out for are:

  • Unusual moving behaviour: they rarely stop to attack other squads, they get trapped in spikes, they run around without a clear purpose...

  • Unusual squad picks: picking Trader or multiple units that don't match into fusions is very common for bots.

  • Bot names: if you identify bots regularly and play for long enough, you'll notice that bot names repeat themselves. Funny names like Kanye East, Marc Lenders and Lejon Brames can be easy to spot, but other names seem much more ordinary, like Kirk, Zeus and Kratos; there are many of them, at least a few hundred.

Noticing these patterns is also useful to be more careful with human players, so it's not just about getting easy chest keys from bots. For example, if you notice a player name isn't family-friendly, has emojis, or has non-roman characters, it's most likely a human.

Human or Bot

Modifier Specific

Dopplegangers

Troops that trigger abilities on spawn are very powerful here. Try to switch between them so that your whole squad is converted.

For example, getting another Goblin will give you a few coins, but converting your whole squad into Goblins will be much better!

Some troops that are interesting for their spawn ability:

  • Goblin: gives coins
  • Chicken: gives boost boots
  • Nita: spawns bears that stay even if Nita is switched

The ultimate combo? First pick Goblin and don't collect the coins, then pick Trader, and when you collect your coins you'll also get many gems for free.

Double Trouble

When you get troops in pairs, the progression is:

  1. 2 Normal troops
  2. 1 Normal and 1 Fusion troop
  3. 2 Fusion troops

Notice that your squad size doesn't change; it's always 2 for each of the 3 stages.


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