Running With Friends: Guide, Tips, Cheats and Strategies

In the midst of all of Zynga’s troubles, they just went and pulled out one of their best games in years. Running With Friends is their new endless runner game, and it blends the gameplay of a Temple Run type of game with the social element from Words With Friends, allowing you to send runs back and forth with your friends. The goal is to get as far as you can, collect as many stars as you can, and to become the top ranked out of all of your friends (or just be able to taunt them whenever you want to). Read on for some tips and tricks for Running With Friends!

Gems are important in this game because they allow you to run farther and continue after you lose. To get more gems, start a ton of random games using the “Smart Match” feature, and play against random people. Every round you play earns you gems, 50 for the first round, 100 for the second round and 150 for the third round. You earn hundreds of gems every time that you gain a level, or every time that you collect all of the letters to spell a word.

Running With Friends tells you that you can slide into boxes and hay bales to earn stars, but there’s a LOT more that you can slide into. For example, sliding into another runner will earn you ten stars, and sliding into a bunch of traffic cones earns you 6 stars. Don’t slide into cars or bulls or any other large objects, though, or you’re done. EXCEPTION: If you get the bull ride tile, you can bash through literally anything on the stage to earn stars.

You can’t slide into the bulls in Running With Friends, but you CAN jump and then bounce off of a bull in order to avoid them and earn coins. If you bounce off of one bull, you earn ten stars. If you bounce off of a second bull, you earn 20 more stars. With each consecutive bull that you bounce off of, you earn another 10 stars extra per bull, and it gets you around them much more easily than just swiping left and right.

Look for shortcuts in the sides of the stage as you run. If you see an open space in an alley, run into it, because it will have two giant stars inside, and each giant star contains 1,000 stars. Do this every single time that you see a shortcut, and you’ll end up with insanely high scores, and beating your friends will be easy.

Click here to continue on to part 2 of the Running With Friends tips and tricks guide!