[CONTEST] A Guide to Most Things Awesomenauts

Overview

Saxonrau brings a guide to Awesomenauts; covering the basics; facts and figures; tips for any skill level; and character guides to Ix, Rocco and Raelynn.

Introduction

Hey, welcome to Awesomenauts! This a 2D MOBA, that’s also a shooter and a bit of a platformer too. Your goal is simple: break through the enemy team’s players and turrets to destroy the solar drill by their base, with the help of some droids and critters along the way.

I’m Saxonrau, your host for this [time of day], and in this guide I’ve got something for everyone. I’ll cover the basics for newcomers, the numbers for those who like that sort of thing, I’ll give you some top tips from 2300 hours of experience, and finally I have some brief guides for a few of my favourite characters (that being Rocco, Raelynn and Ix).

Note: if the text overlaps the images, refresh the page to fix the issue!

The Basics

Anyone here probably has the gist of the game, thanks to the Awesome new tutorial introduced this patch, but I’ve made a useful infographic covering the basics for you, here:

HP = Hit/health points
XP = experience
CC = Crowd Control, which are debuffs (Slow, Silence, Timeslow, Stun, Knockback, Snare, Weaken, Vulnerable)
Solar = in-game currency
DoT = Damage over time
AoE = Area of effect
DPS = damage per second
AA = Auto-attack (referred to in this guide as Basic Attack)
RC = Reconnect
RQ = Ragequit
DC = Disconnect

Easy means they have simple mechanics. As example, Raelynn is pretty straightforward, use the abilities and shoot.
Medium means mildly complicated mechanics and management. Chucho Krokk’s bike is a two-mode ability, it’s a turret or he rides it, and you have to watch its health. But that’s not that hard really.
Hard means a character has a lot to watch out for. Ted McPain, for example, has two weapons (swapped with an ability), two abilities that you can access only on one weapon, and one weapon has an ammo count. You’ll have to pay attention!

All okay? Let’s get some numbers in here!

Numbers and Figures

The absolute most important numbers you’ll need are about the XP system.

For every XP level you gain, you’ll gain +3% base damage, and +4% base health.
Each level requires more XP than the last. Numbers on that here[awesomenauts.gamepedia.com].

Kill things to get XP. I’ve made another infographic on the HP, XP gain, Solar gain and respawn time of various objects!

That’s about all for the numbers. Brief advice on that subject: you need to be killing as many things as possible, as often as you can. Every little bit counts – and you only gain XP when you see the death of the object on your screen.

All the little bits of solar you gain will add up too – don’t forget the coins on the ground. Droid kills add up a lot too (2 x 2 x 5 x 3 = 60 solar per minute if you kill every droid yourself).

Useful Advice for Any Skill Level

I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my time, and I’ve been guilty of some of it myself. Learning from your mistakes and all, right? Well, I’ve compiled some tips that I felt were especially important. The sooner you learn these the better.

• Area denial: this is controlling where your enemies can go. You can do this with your presence or by something else. By default, turrets aren’t somewhere your enemies want to fight. Gnaw can deny space with his Spit puddles or weedlings. Raelynn can deny with her Timerift, or Yuri with his Mines (especially on bouncepads). Effective area denial can win a game by cutting off enemies from their critters, giving you their health, money and XP, or slowing their ability to defend turrets.
• Cooldown awareness. I see this a lot. Somebody charging in to take that low health enemy, then getting hit with a combo and getting killed. If that low-health Froggy G hasn’t used Tornado in a while, there’s a good chance he’ll have it and if you’re not in good health he’ll kill you easily. When did that Ted last use airstrike? Is he about to knock you back into one with Shotgun?

  Don’t forget your own cooldowns either! Too many times have I seen somebody start a fight a few seconds too soon, when they aren’t ready, and they use abilities they don’t have yet and get killed. Be careful!

• What fights you can win/character matchups. If you’re a Scoop and you see Skølldir running over, retreat to your team and snare him with your Hammer as you flee. You will almost never take Skølldir in a fight and it’s important to know who you can beat as whoever you’re playing.

  No matchup is a given. You absolutely do have a chance, most of the time. Some upgrades can allow you take a fight, or maybe you’re a better player than your opponents so you can beat them no matter the character matchup. But a few specific examples of difficult matchups leap to mind:
  -Ksenia beats Derpl
  -Skølldir beats Scoop
  -Swiggins beats almost anyone 1v1
  -Ted (with Knockback Shotgun) beats Ayla
  -Frog beats Rocco
  -Pharah beats Reinhardt
  With a teammate, you stand a much better chance in any fight. If you see a tough fight headed your way, get help!

• Worm Denial. A classic tip, I think SlowWolf made a video on this . On Sorona, use the worm to destroy both teams’ droids, and take all of the solar. Nowadays, this denies the enemies XP too, as well as doubling your droid solar income for a lane. A few minutes of worm control can gain 100s of solar and put your opponents behind a level. Always try to do it, but make sure they don’t get you with the worm when you collect the coins!
• Be careful with your utility row. You only have 3 slots and the utility items are some of the game’s most powerful! Choose wisely, a poor choice can make a win or loss in a fight, or even the match. Not every character has all of these (up to 6). A description and evaluation of each:

  >Power Pills Turbo: 16% extra health. Crucial on a lot of characters, allowing you to stay in a fight short-term. Don’t buy too early!
  

  >Med-i’-can: keep yourself in the lane with 180% extra passive regeneration. If your character has no regenerative items (like Raelynn, Chucho or Ted McPain), this upgrade can be a game-winner.
  

  >Space Air Max/Boots: some characters have specialised variants. The specialised boots are almost always a good buy (Raelynn and Lonestar in particular), while regular Space Air Max is useful if you’re having trouble getting back to lane quickly, escaping or catching your opponents.
  

  >Piggy Bank: gain 100 solar at the cost of a slot. This upgrade is a one-time purchase, and can buy you about 2/3 of an average upgrade. Can be a useful boost but if you can’t use it properly you’ll suffer lategame without the utility.
  

  >Barrier Magazine: 10% shield. Cheaper than Pills, but with a lesser effect. Technically, this item multiplies your healing/regeneration by 10% too, since all of your health is more valuable.
  or Wraithstone: Gain over double HP from critters. On maps like Aiguillon, this upgrade is incredible. You can leave more HP for your allies, or double up and restore 1000s of HP very quickly.
  

  >Baby Kuri Mammoth (BKM): reduce CC by 30%. (40% slow –> 28% slow). This upgrade has a lot of potential. If you find yourself getting locked down a lot, or trapped, buy BKM to save yourself. If you underestimate it, you’ll wish you saw it at 50% reduce!
  

  >Solar Krab Burgers: Gain HP by picking up solar coins (from kills, or on the ground). Currently a little bit too expensive for not enough effect. Good on Aiguillon and Sorona due to high coin density, but otherwise Med-i’-can is a better choice in general.
  

  (Starstorm nauts have Starstorm Statue (SSS): a 10% damage boost. Pretty valuable, if you can spare the other utility (you usually can). At 250 solar for both stages, it’s a good value boost if you have lots of different damaging abilities, which all of the Starstorm nauts do.
  Overdrive nauts have Overdrive Gear: a 20% cooldown reduction to all abilities. This one is particularly useful with the right build. It’s not up to me to tell you how to build, but experiment and see where you can fit this in. You’d be surprised at the variety of uses it offers. It’s quite powerful on every Overdrive naut.)
  

• Be aware of which map you’re playing on.
  In a recent change, you can now see which map you’ll be playing on in the top left corner of your character select screen (but only before you select a character).
  
  This means you have the option to pick characters who are good on a certain map, or that you play best with for a given map. This can vary between players, but here I’ll use Derpl as an example.
  On Ribbit IV, Derpl can easily control the central bounce bad, giving his team much quicker lane swaps than his opponents and denying the opponents use in case they die to his Snare Traps. This can be useful for pushing turrets or denying health and area to your opponents.
  However, on AI Station 205, Derpl suffers tremendously. He is very weak to poke damage with his large size, and he can’t easily Trap people because of the large open spaces.

Useful Tips about Maps

Continues from the last section, really.

• You can see which map you’ll be on, right? So, you can adjust how you play the entire match based off of this information.
  >On Aiguillon, try to centre your strategy around getting that Stealth Orb and using it for better fight initiations. It respawns one minute from when it is picked up, and gives 30 seconds of stealth. You can have 50% stealth time if you deny your opponents.
  >On AI Station 205, the fire can be an asset. It can cut off escapes between lanes, so try to be roughly aware of its downtime (20 seconds). It’ll blare alarms when it goes off, and lasts for about 10 seconds, so be careful.
  >Ribbit IV is host to the Solar Boss. It gives your team 20 solar each, and 60XP. So be sure to focus it when it appears every two minutes after you kill one/the game starts. It can provide a large advantage in XP and solar if you’re better at killing it than your opponents.
  >Starstorm has wormholes behind each turret and in the centre pit. Use them to quickly switch lanes and surprise people. Conversely, be aware of them. The pit’s wormhole leads directly over the centre of the top lane, so pushing a top turret can lead to an easy drop in from your enemies. They work for either team, so as turrets go down they become more useful for both. Use your minimap and be wary!
  >Sorona is the Worm’s home. I’ve mentioned it in a tip in another section.

• The minimap is a gamewinner. This is easily the most important tip I have. Good use of the minimap can give you massive amounts of information, and help you attack your opponents, or help you avoid their attacks. You can get an idea for where droids are (so if your turrets will be at risk) by using your own on the map (it’s symmetrical, of course) and if you see enemies clearing the droids you may know how many enemies are going to attack your turret (how much risk it is under). It also tells you directly which turret is under attack, though your announcers will also specify top or bottom turret as well.

  
  Use it also to see where you’re going. Look ahead when you take a bouncepad to see if you’re about to leap into your imminent death. Not to forget helping a teammate in trouble!

  Other uses include spotting the Solar Boss when it appears, and Health Packs with their two minute respawns. Good use of the minimap can win you a match! Use it wisely.

Character Guide: Raelynn

I’ve played this character for a long time! Which is nice, because if you accept this nice recruitment code here you get her for free (and I get Awesomepoints if you play long enough. Pretty please?)!

Throw out a grenade over an increasing distance, which forms a time-slowing and damaging wall, which lasts for 4 seconds. 9 second cooldown. 65% base timeslow.

A quick explanation of timeslows: these aren’t like regular slows. These will slow everything in their area. Your cooldown, your health regeneration, your move speed, your projectiles, your attack speed; absolutely everything. This means that if you get caught in one you’re in trouble.

Timerift’s base 65% means your enemies will move at only 1/3 of their original speed. If you can catch an enemy, you can easily beat them in a fight.

Key uses:
Timerift is highly effective at clearing droid waves because it allows you to block yourself off from your opponents, and slows the enemy droids so yours will inherently have an advantage.
Use Timerift when predicting enemy movements. Place it at the bottom of a drop, when your enemy is charging at you.
Or just place it in a teamfight and hopefully split the enemies in half.
Be careful with how you use it. A reckless placement can cost you your life.

Spend a total 1.2 seconds charging an attack (0.65s arm time, 0.55 animation time), up to 1.8 seconds, to launch a hitscan attack that hits anything in its path. You are stationary while arming and firing, but you can use jumppads or get knocked back and still fire.

A risky ability – using this in a fight is sure death, it’s effectively a ~1.5 second self-stun. From a distance, however, this ability forces your enemies to get out of its way. It’s a high burst at all stages of the game.

Key uses: 
Snipe is best used at a distance (as you might expect). Stand behind a turret, or get an ally to protect you, and fire away. Quite often, your enemies will be able to hide behind cover if they see the laser coming, so aim down at the floor or a wall so they can’t see it coming. Get used to flick-sniping, where you spend only a fraction of a second moving your mouse to the target. May take practice. If not, use Snipe to scare enemies away, to create space.

Snipe combos well with Timerift because they will not be able to react to the Snipe (due to the timeslow). Be wary, because there’s a small knockback on Snipe, which can just push them out of the Timerift. Snipe is really just for bursting people, to be honest.

Cuddles is a really, really average gun. It does average damage at average range, at an average attack speed. But it’s really good anyway. Average is more than good enough.
Always buy Receding Ponytail, so play Raelynn to unlock it and then buy it. Only truly necessary upgrade on the row, but I wouldn’t bother with Alien Monkey Hand (25% range boost, generally not needed).

Raelynn has a pretty standard jump. Single jump of reasonable height, it’s fast.
Raelynn has a set of special boots on her utility, where if you don’t attack for a few seconds you receive a substantial speed boost, allowing you to outrun any enemy without use of abilities. Always buy Denny’s Boots on Raelynn.

Tips:

Timerift is rarely an aggressive tool, unless you’re trying to cut off an enemy’s escape. Be extremely careful when you do not have Timerift as most enemies will easily take you in a fight. When Timerift is on cooldown, be careful not to attack too much, so that Denny’s boots can activate quickly.
Keep people at range, you’re much more effective there.Even your basic attack outranges a lot of people.

You’re generally good against large, slow characters, especially who gain momentum slowly. You’ll do well against Skølldir (if he doesn’t land a very good Throw), Scoop (too slow), Clunk (too slow and easy to catch), Voltar (slow momentum gain), Derpl (he is stationary in Siege form, so he cannot normally fight you at all), Swiggins (in fringe cases, if he lands both abilities you are in trouble). Also, Ayla (because she requires being very close, even though she cannot be bodyblocked in Rage form).

You’ll really struggle against faster characters like Froggy G and Penny, if LUX has Charge you won’t be able to trap them, Deadlift hard counters your Snipe with his Protective Pose (he can shield his whole team easily from your Snipe). Ted can also be dangerous if he gets too close up to you.

You combo well with similar characters to Ix: those who can trap or block enemies or use your timeslow effectively (Derpl, LUX, Skølldir, Clunk, Ted, Nibbs). Really, anybody who does lots of damage, the moment you make a catch they can be easily finished. Raelynn is a very rounded character, so goes well with most characters.

Character Guide: Rocco

Technically, the game details him as easy, but I think he should be intermediate so that’s how I’ve labelled him. His abilities are tough to use.

I’ve played a lot of this guy as well. Currently, I don’t believe he’s that strong, but he has real potential in certain situations. His high mobility with his high, ranged damage makes him a large threat to most enemies, but he’ll struggle against droid waves.

Let’s detail!




Precision Shot is an attack that passes through everything (droids, walls, etc.) except Awesomenauts. It has effectively infinite range, a moderate speed and moderate damage (350 at base). Cooldown 7.5s.

This ability has only one real use, which is harassing the enemy team. With the Badge and Gun upgrade you can hit droids as well, if they’re in the AoE when you hit a naut, and allows you to hit multiple targets. This use can modified slightly with Rocco’s Vengeance Ability. It has a 1 second charging period, in which the arrow will have limited range but be faster and curve down. Surprise your enemies with this, especially if they’re hiding somewhere in ambush.

The best advice for this ability is learn how to predict your opponents. That’s not something I could cover here if I wanted to (this guide is probably long enough as it is). However, there are certain spots where people are more likely to teleport to base, and you’ll eventually get used to the speed of the arrow relative to the speed of a naut when they run (most people will just run in one direction).

Badge and Gun is, in my opinion, mandatory. It’s incredibly useful and gives Rocco a lot of versatility in his Precision Shot. I buy it at the start of the game.

Effectively a form change. You are no longer slowed when you fire your basic attack, your arrows slow by 15% (left click and Precision Shot). It lasts 5 seconds, but you gain 0.1s time whenever you land a hit (2 arrows per shot, 2.5 times per second. This allows a maximum extra 2.5 seconds to your Vengeance. 20 second cooldown.

Key uses:
Chase your opponents. With Vengeance active, your ability to juke opponents is unrivalled, and you slow your opponents to. They won’t be able to properly fight you, it almost always forces a retreat from your opponents.
Initiate fights with it. With certain upgrades, like Badge and Gun or SWCA Coin, Rocco can slow the entire enemy team. Can easily swing a teamfight.

Little Johnny (1s stun on Precision Shot after a short distance during Vengeance) can be an excellent initiation tool. Fire it in (use Magnetic Police Light on Precision Shot to make this easier)

Be wary, the cooldown is absolutely massive, longest in the game at 20 seconds. So be wary when you use it, you have to be careful or you may start a fight you can’t win.

A pair of arrows. The aiming on this can be quite tricky. The arrows have only a medium speed so you’ll need to aim slightly ahead of your enemies to hit both attacks. High DPS if you can land it all, most characters will have a hard time fighting you.

All of Rocco’s basic attack upgrades are viable. Generally you’ll want Cockfight Spurs and SWCA Coin, but any of the other upgrades are also valid.

Use Hawk Bomb in combination with Sticky Cop’s Moustache (Precision Shot) for maximum effect. Chicken Grill is generally not a very good upgrade, providing only a small benefit unless combined with Endless Quiver (Vengeance).

Very high jump, hold to jump higher. Allows flexibility. Be careful with jumping too high too often, you are easy to predict when falling, so mix up your jumps to make yourself unpredictable. Combined with your basic attack, some clever jumping can win almost any fight against one person.

Tips:
Don’t take on too many players at once. More than one will be tough for you.
Use Precision Shot to harass constantly. Use Badge and Gun to hit multiple people at once. Very useful against Voltar as it can instantly destroy his Healbot when he deploys it.
Don’t stop shooting, ever. There’s really no benefit to not shooting.

Rocco is good against: Nibbs (you normally outrange her), Skree (your basic attack is stronger than his), Sentry (he can never Teleburst you, you can chase well), Max Focus (you outrange and your basic attack is better), Yuri (outrange), Clunk (outrange, though he might not die often), Ayla (keep jumping out of her Rage, her vertical movement is very poor in Rage).

You’ll struggle against: Frog (he can kill you very quickly), Swiggins (he can kill you very quickly), Ksenia (she can kill you very quickly), Ted McPain (he out damages you), and Genji (his abilities are too strong for Rocco to deal with)

You work well with: Genji, Tank Characters. As long as you don’t have another DPS-focused character, Rocco is a reasonable choice.

Character Guide: Ix (the Interloper)

Ix is one of the game’s more complicated nauts. He requires a lot more strategical thinking than the majority of the cast, because of his design.

Ix is built, like most nauts, with two abilities, a jump, and a basic attack.
His two abilities are incredibly useful in a variety of situations, his jump is long and his left click is powerful.
Let’s detail!

Ix throws out a projectile that connects to a player, friendly or hostile.
It heals allies and damages enemies with a burst on contact and then steady damage.
Ix can press the ability again before the timer expires to swap positions with his ally or enemy. Swapping increases the cooldown by 4 seconds. (8 —> 12)

This ability is one of the game’s strongest. It has the ability to remove somebody from the fight, save allies, or put enemies into a bad situation.

Key uses:
Healing your allies regularly. The heal is average without upgrades, but consistent with only an 8 second cooldown without swapping. Useful for characters who cannot sustain themselves, but Ix can only really keep one person in good health.

Swap your allies out of a bad situation. There are two main situations here:
your ally is trapped, blocked off or in risk of death. If you can get the bond on them, you can swap them safely away. Be quick, you’ll have only a few seconds and the range before breaking the bond is large but not limitless. Be sure you can escape the situation you’ll put yourself in. Ix’ other ability will be useful for this.
Alternatively, swapping an ally provides both you and him with about half a second of invulnerability while you swap positions. Use this to avoid burst damage like Sentry’s Black Hole Sun (BHS) or Clunk’s explosion. This will give you a long cooldown, however, so use only in dire situations.

Swap your enemies into bad situations. Bond an enemy, and before they can break the range, swap them into a turret, Timerift, Snare Trap or some other such position. Even just into your team is effective. But be careful! You’ll move to where they were, and if they stand in their team you may not be able to safely swap. You must consider where both you and your opponents are at all times! If you get too focused on where you’ll put your enemy, you might unwittingly kill yourself.

Also use bond as DPS in fights, it’s surprisingly damaging and people often panic when they are bonded.

0.8 seconds of invulnerability (to damage and CC) with a small amount of movement.

Key uses:
Use this ability to react to whatever takes place, remove traps in your way, or just to bait out enemy attacks before a fight.
Clearly telegraphed attacks like Explode, BHS, Airstrike, Precision Shot, can all be easily blocked with this ability.

The amplify damage upgrade is amazing in a teamfight. Applying it to a team, combined with a high burst ability like Ted’s Airstrike or Clunk’s explode can end a fight in under a second.

An attack with a main projectile and several smaller shots.

Key uses: Get up in people’s faces with this. Those little scatters off of the main projectile will nearly double your damage, and with Ix’ mobility you can take a lot of characters in a fight. You’d be surprised.

Get the heal upgrade (Crystal Crunch) It’s really really good because Ix pierces on his attacks. The other upgrades are up to you (I like the one that gives extra small crystals (Shrubbery Gems). It’s more damage than the regular damage boost so is more useful in a close-range fight, which Ix is best in.

You can hop like 12 times with this, it’s insane. Keep yourself airborne by tapping that jump key and confuse your opponents with erratic movement, or reach insane heights to easily switch between lanes.

Tips:
Ix’ matchups depend almost entirely on the player. However, you may have trouble against Sentry if he knows how to use his teleport for burst (though you can avoid BHS easily). Make sure to always be clicking towards Sentry to hit him before he can activate his teleport. Hitting him will cause a 2 second cooldown on his teleport, use this to your advantage, even with your limited range.
Be aware of everyone and where they are. Does your teammate need healing more than that enemy needs swapping? Where will you end up if you swap? Will you accidentally kill a teammate by swapping them, or swapping an enemy into them? Pay attention! You’ll only get better at it with time, but it’s not all about those enemy swaps.


Generally, you’re good against Skølldir (Displace him with team), Yuri (Refract through mines), Derpl (easy Nuke block/Trap save), Vinnie (easy to chase and displace), Chucho (easy blocking of Bombs for you or your team), LUX (without their charge)

You’ll struggle against Leon (he’s hard to hit and has easy escapes), Ayla (her consistent damage is rough, try a good Displace), Genji (he outranges you and Cocoon can get you easily), Penny (her fighting potential is higher), Ksenia (she can burst you down out of stealth with her silence easily, Refract and Displace won’t do much to help)

Teammates like Derpl, Lonestar, Raelynn, Ted, Swiggins, LUX and Froggy G are very powerful with you. Set up into their abilities.

Conclusion

There’s no real good way to summarise this sort of thing, so I’ll end with the best piece of advice I have.

Stick together, and play as a team. If all of you use the tips and tricks given in this guide, you’ll be much better off than doing it alone.

Now go and have fun!