You can have heaps of fun playing Ubisoft’s Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians on your own, but that’s far from being all the game has to offer. You can also play against other humans in the PvP Arena, or join forces with them in a Guild.
Let’s start at the Arena, a classic PvP multiplayer environment with a variety of different ways to fight and a compelling league structure to keep things even more interesting.
How to conquer the Arena
The Arena is found on the left of the screen, along from the main island. It sits on a smaller island with a colosseum on it, topped with a blue torch.
Tap here and you’ll find yourself in the asynchronous PvP Arena. You are far too worldly not to know what asynchronous means, but just in case: an asynchronous battle is one in which you don’t actually need be present. A human somewhere else in the world picks a fight with you, and the AI does the rest. Likewise, when you’re in control your opponent is on autopilot.
Defense is a good place to start. On the left of the screen in the Arena is a Defense tab. Tap on Set and you’ll be able to choose which four of your creatures you want to form your defense force — the squad that opponents will meet when they challenge you.
You may be tempted to populate your four-creature home guard with tank-like brutes that can take a lot of damage, but you should apply the same logic to creating an asynchronous team as you apply to forming your attacking team. That means ensuring that as wide a range of skills as possible is represented, including defenders, attackers, healers, and saboteurs. Make sure you have every element in the team too.
There are two other things you should be aware of: the Leagues tab and the Log tab.
Tapping on Leagues gives you the leaderboard for the league you’re currently playing in. Each league contains up to 100 players, and they last a week.
Winning matches nets you Ranking Points, while losing sees your total going down. The aim is to get to the end of a league as high up the leaderboard as possible, in order to get promoted into a higher tier in that league, or even the next league up, where the rewards are better. You can play as many ranking matches as you like during a league, which gives you plenty of opportunities to gain Ranking Points, but also to lose them.
The Log tab just lets you know the results of the ten most recent Arena battles in which you’ve been the defender. In other words, it’s a record of how well the AI has done with the team you created.
Because every losing battle there’s a Challenge button, enabling you to immediately take revenge on your opponent (or get thrashed by them a second time.)
Extra tip: Arena battles each cost you a unit of Arena Energy, which is distinct from your standard energy and in much more limited supply since you can only hold so much. You can find Arena Energy in chests, so make sure you open absolutely every one to stock up.
Before going into battle in the Arena mode you’ll get the opportunity to pick your opponent. A screen appears showing their stats. If you don’t feel like you can win, or wouldn’t get much out of the bout, you can tap the View Next button to move onto the next. But beware: you can only do this five times before a 30-minute cooldown kicks in. It’s best not to be too fussy, since you can find yourself going up against a much harder enemy than the four you turned down.
Combat in the Arena works exactly as it does in every other solo gameplay mode. After each match is over you’ll get a quick rundown of everything you’ve won or lost, including Ranking Points.
Extra tip: The AI isn’t only for matches where you’re defending. If you don’t feel like getting involved first hand for whatever reason — typically because the outcome is obvious — you can tap the Auto button to let the AI take over. You can also speed up the match by tapping the button beside the Auto button twice.
It’s best to keep your eyes on the action, though, as you may want to reassert your control if things aren’t going the way you expected.
By the way, while playing matches in the Arena you can use the AR mode to view the action on your kitchen table (or any other well-lit flat surface you can find.) Just tap the cube icon in the top-right corner of the screen and follow the prompts.
How to join (and create) a Guild
Solo play is all very well, and taking on human opponents in matches is a blast, but nothing beats the sheer social joy of playing in a Guild. Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians allows you to get together with others to win rewards you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to win — including the reward of friendship.
All you need to do to join is tap on the Search button to view a list of Guilds that are accepting new members. On this screen you’ll be able to see what a Guild’s level is, the conditions you need to satisfy in order to join, and what will be expected of you in terms of activity.
Of course, Guilds are created by players, and you can be one of these players if you prefer. To create a Guild, just tap on the Create button. You’ll be asked to give your Guild a name and supply a little blurb explaining what you’re all about. Then you’ll need to set up your conditions. These are…
- Public or Private. A public Guild allows anybody to join, while a private one requires the approval of the Guild boss — you. A private Guild will likely be higher quality, but more time intensive as you need to review every application.
- Minimum Wizard Level. This is a simple way of keeping the quality bar up. You can deny entry to players below a certain level — 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50.
- Minimum Arena League. Another simple means of keeping the dregs away, this setting allows you to reject players who haven’t yet reached a certain Arena League.
The final step in creating a Guild is to pay the price: your soul.
Only joking. The fee is 30 Seals.
The advantages of Guild membership — and indeed ownership — are many. Not only do you get to socialize while playing Elemental Guardians, but being in a Guild enables you to take on Quests and earn rewards that aren’t available to unaffiliated players.
Plus, there’s a compelling rumor that Elemental Guardians will eventually be updated with raids. If this happens, you’ll want to be powered up to the max and fully au fait with cooperative gameplay. Being in a Guild will get you ready.
And that’s all you need to know about multiplayer gaming in Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians. Check out our beginners’ guide for more tips and tricks.
Might & Magic: Elemental Guardians is out right now on the App Store and Google Play.