Tips & Strategies for Boom Beach

The upgrade strategy mainly depends on the playing style of a player. There are two schools of thought when it comes to the playing style. One works on the “slow and steady” ideology. These are the people with firm, beautiful bases, adequately upgraded troops but a relatively low skills of the game. The other work on the “attack attack attack” ideology. These are the people who are struggling with every battle since they are mostly matched with people who have been way longer in the game then they have. They have very less resources of their own and mainly rely on generating the resources at the spot; that is, looting other other bases. They have immensely powerful offense, spend a lot of time playing the game, know a lot more about the game than average player and often take down much higher level enemies with their impressive offense and skills.

Which one you should choose depends totally on your personal preference. Both strategies have their own pros and cons. Lets us take a look at them. Perhaps it will make it easier for you to decide which one you want to be a part of.

The “Attack Attack Attack” Strategy

Pros:

• Very strong offense that can take down most of the enemies.
• Quickly accumulate resources whenever you want.
• Move towards the higher levels swiftly.
• More challenging thus more interesting.

Cons:

• Causes you to accumulate too many victory points by winning battles which puts you in the league of players at much higher levels than yours. It’s downhill from that point. They will raid you like crazy… and succeed every damn time.
• You will most likely have a very weak defense. Your resources will always be unprotected. Almost everyone attacking you will take the loot with them. This will make big upgrades very hard as they require a lot of resources. More often than not, you will be looted in the middle of accumulation process.
• Since you will seldom be able to defend your base against an intruder, you will not be able to earn the gems by defeated intruders.
• Offensive strategy requires more time and has a steeper learning curve. Since you are making resources only when you are online, you will need to spend more time gaming.
• With limited resources and all, you need to be more skilled to get the higher level enemies that are in your league. While most of the times it is fun, sometimes it may really get on your nerves.

The “Slow and Steady” Strategy

Pros:

• You will earn a lot of gems from unsuccessful intruders. These include Power Stones and diamonds.
• In a balanced strategy, the player is more “self dependent”. He does not need to invade other bases to get resources. He invades bases just for fun.
• In a slow and steady building environment, the player can concentrate more on building on the base as he has a little to worry about resources. Some people like making beautiful, unbeatable bases. This strategy is more suitable for people who like building more than they like destroying.
• Most of the big upgrades run smoothly. All you have to do is to wait for the resources to accumulate.
• You can take your time in learning the game. Since you will be mostly facing people of your level, the battles will mostly be easy.

Cons:

• It is slowwwww.
• For a person acquainted to offensive playing style, defensive strategy can be boring.
• Sometimes life is too short to wait for another week till you will be able to attack that dude who is ranked higher than you are in the points table.

Whether you choose offensive or defensive playing style, you will have to be acquainted with both the defensive and offensive strategies. So let’s get started with the offensive strategy.

Commonly Used Offensive Strategies in Boom Beach

Before we get to the strategies, here are some things you should always follow irrespective of the strategy you are going to execute. These are words of the wise (not mine, of course). Let them sink into you.

The foremost thing in a profitable attack is to find a proper enemy. Calculate how much you are spending on each battle and then realistically set the minimum amount of resources that must be available in order for you to attack that base. Although there are many bonuses that make calculation of the final loot somewhat ambiguous, you will learn to make close estimates as you play the game. Do not settle for a minimum loot just because higher isn’t available. Also, it is not necessary to attack at least one base every time you turn on the game. Never directly attack an enemy unless you are taking revenge. Always scout first. If you have almost all of the bases scouted and still cannot find a perfect base, well then attack the one that is close to being perfect.

Before attacking the enemy, fight an imaginary battle in your head. Which buildings you are going to destroy before deploying your troops? Which buildings are going to give tough time to your men? What would be the best route for your soldiers. Remember! your goal is not to raise the biggest chaos possible. The quieter the operation, the better it will be for you. Though it is good for your eyes to burn the hell out of all defense buildings every once in a while.

Intelligent use of Gunboat can truly turn the tables. Eliminating buildings to which your troops are prone to prior to the battle turns the battle heavily in your favor. Artillery, Barrage and Medkits are the most useful weapons of Gunboat.

Once you are done with the Gunboat operation, deploy the troops and guide them according to your planned strategy. Be their commander and and take over the enemy! Don’t just sit there and watch.

Meatshielding

Meat Shielding is probably the most ancient strategy to be ever used by gamer. Yet its effectiveness has not been reduced over the years. The troops with high health are often slow in moving and attacking. They are used as a meatshield of other troop which are better at move speed and attack damage but worst at health. At initial levels, the best meatshield are Heavy. Unless Zookas are unlocked, Heavies pair with Riflemen. Then after HQ-5, they pair with Zookas. At higher levels Tanks and Scorchers provide a better meatshield at the cost of energy and space.

While meatshielding, always bear in mind the moving speed difference of meat shield units and attacking units. Meatshield units must stay ahead of the attacking units as most of the weapons only attack the front line. Unfortunately these units are mostly slower than attackers so you will have to maintain a balance by deploying meat shielding units earlier and by using flares whenever attackers are about to cross the front line.

While meatshielding, always eliminate the defense units that can attack the rear lines of troops such as Cannons, Boom Cannons and Rocket Launchers prior to the battle using Gunboat.

Sniping

At initial levels, sniping is another useful strategy. On the bases where HQ is exposed or there is a way to approach it through the trees, use Riflemen and Heavies and flare them directly to the HQ. Riflemen will take down HQ in some time and Heavies will protect them from defense buildings. If you are not travelling through the trees, use Smoke Screen to save your troops from defense buildings. Alternatively, Shock Bomb can also be used.

Always eliminate Cannons, Boom Cannons and Rocket Launchers before executing Sniping technique or they will destroy your Riflemen in no time.

Riflemen Rush

Another stupid technique that works. But since it works, it ain’t stupid. Riflemen are cheapest and lightest soldiers available. Make a ton of them, load them onto the boats and deploy them on enemy base like crazy. Soon the base will be flooded with noodly soldiers. They will take over every building by bruteforce. Point and shoot weapons are useless against Riflemen. For every Rifleman they kill, there will be 3 more. Before executing Riflemen Rush strategy, destroy Flamethrower and Machine Gun because they can kill multiple Riflemen at the same time.

Hooka with/without smoke

Hooka is the mashup of Heavy and Zooka. This combination can be way more powerful than any other described above. While Heavy save Zooka from getting flushed, Zookas take down buildings in a jiffy. Eliminate Cannons, Boom Cannons and Rocket Launchers with Gunboat and then go straight to destroy HQ.

If you have Smoke available, use it to bypass any low range defenses. Otherwise, use shock bombs. If any of the above is not available due to some reason, you should add some Medics to your army. Without Smoke, Shockbombs or Medics, Heavies will not stand for long time and once Heavies are down it only takes seconds for Zookas to go down too.

For Smokey Hooka strategy, eliminate as much multiple damage buildings as you can with the Gunboat prior to the battle.

HQ Rushing With Warriors

Warriors are one of the finest troops I have came across in Boom Beach. There are two ways to carry out HQ Rushing. One is to go around through the zone where you will have to deal with least damage. If the HQ is unprotected from one side due to trees, you can use flare to direct your troops from within the trees. This way you can reach HQ with almost no damage inflicted.

The second way is to rush straight to the HQ taking the shortest path possible. Of course there will be a lot of fatal defense buildings in the way. It is advised to use Smoke Screen to save Warriors from any firing. When Warriors reach HQ, you cannot use smoke anymore because there is no attacking in the smoke. Warriors will not take long to take HQ down. Meanwhile, use Shock Bombs to stun high damage buildings.

If you have not unlocked the Smokescreen yet, use Gunboat to take out some of the key defense buildings and then Shock Bombs to keep the rest stunned.

Making Your Base Attack Proof

The heading is a lie. No base is attack proof. But a decent setup can make your base hard to be destroyed. Keeping in mind the techniques we have just discussed above to destroy any base, we will now see how to protect our base.

• Place your HQ at a hard to reach position. Put buildings in front, back and on both sides. A common mistake people make is to leave the side of HQ adjacent to trees wide open. The attacker directs his troops from within the trees and boom! he is at HQ without any damage.
• Place some non-defensive buildings to protect your defensive structures to protect them from direct attack. In the meantime, also protect those non-defensive buildings because the opponent gets Gunboat energy every time a building is destroyed. Do not give them free energy.
• NEVER place your buildings without leaving a small gap between them. Weapons that deal with Splash damage can inflict full damage to any number (maximum 4) of buildings whose roofs are touching.
• Place your key defense buildings at a great distance from each other. This way, they would not be Barraged at once. Also, try and place single point damage buildings at the edge of your base. If the opponent fires a Barrage at that building, most of the missiles will fall out of the base inflicting a lot less total damage than if the building were at the center of the base.
• To make your base more effective against Shock Bombs, never place same type of buildings at the same place. Often the opponent needs to disable one type of building to save their troops. Mixing types with each other will make it harder for them.
• You will learn most from the bases you invade. If you find a base with great defense, take a screenshot of it. After the battle, open that screenshot and make some useful changes in your base defense accordingly.