Overview
How to communicate with your team using the limited voice command system of awesomenauts: “Attack”, “Defend”, “Help”
Intro
There are 3 voice commands you can send to your team by pressing the respective buttons:
- Help – 2
- Defend – 3
- Attack – 4
In the middle of a match there is no time to type, and the game does not support voice chat. Over time the meanings of these 3 commands have developed to the point where they have multiple contextual meanings quite unlike their original meanings.
There is also the “Taunt” voice command, but that is only sent to the enemy team, and is not relevant to team communication.
With a bit of context and this guide the meaning of each command should become clear.
Advising versus Informing
One piece of context is the relative difference between the speaker and you.
If you are a new player, experienced players may use voice commands to advise you what to do in the current moment.
Players of a similar skill level still use voice commands. If I am about to do an action, I may use a voice command to inform my team of such. While making split-second decisions of whether to dive or not, it’s useful to know what your teammates will do in the next moment. Still, most of the time this stuff is just assumed, rather than communicated.
Help
Help generally means to come to the speaker.
The definitions of a “Help” command:
Context: Speaker seems to be alive and not in trouble, enemy is not pursuing them, or teammate is dead.
Nauts that pull or hold an enemy may often use the help command to inform you they have stunned/pulled/etc an enemy and need damage. If you are a dive assassin, they may have lowered an enemy’s hp.
Context: Speaker has Low HP or is surrounded by enemies.
Note: Some teammates may just be complaining passive-aggressively, especially if they are already dead when calling for help.
Context: Speaker is safe behind a turret.
Sometimes single target nauts have trouble versus a group. You should see on the minimap when they need help.
Context: Speaker is attacking a turret.
Sometimes single target nauts have trouble versus a group. You should see on the minimap when they need help.
Defend
Defend, in general, means to move towards your team’s base
Context: Teammate is teleporting back to base (standing still on minimap), going to health areas, or just low HP.
This is the most common usage.
Especially used in response to a teammate calling for help, this informs teammates that you won’t be joining any fight in the next few moments. This is the most often used reason for voice commands.
There is an automatic voice line that plays when a teammate teleports to base, but it happens after the fact and is not always clear, so teammates often use the Defend voice command.
Teammates may also use this command to inform you key abilities are on cooldown. Wait a few seconds before initiating teamfights.
Context: Your team is pushing an enemy turret
Especially after killing enemies, especially at the last turret, there is a given amount of time you can safely push before the respawned enemies have their first chance to kill you.
This is often used to inform equally knowledgeable players.
Context: You should be able to tell by the minimap when to defend your turret, but new players may need reminders.
Context: None
This can easily be confused with “I will not join fights” when a teammate is teleporting.
Attack
Attack generally means to move towards the enemy base
Context: Enemies died, or the push opportunity is otherwise open.
This is the most common usage
Context: Enemies wasted their abilities, are low, or speaker is dead.
Initiate teamfights.
Teammates may be advising you that this is the moment to initiate a teamfight, which may be your naut’s responsibility.
Taunting
This isn’t relevant to team communication but I’m throwing it in just for fun