Highguard has been on a bit of a rollercoaster since its reveal at The Game Awards just last month, with plenty of pre-launch confusion about how the game actually works. Now that it’s out, it’s clear why Highguard is tough to explain. The competitive shooter combines elements of battle royales and base-defense to create a raid shooter. It can be overwhelming at first, but we’ve got plenty of tips to make you the best Warden you can be.
Sealed loot bunkers don’t replenish
If a raid phase ends without the attacking team winning the round, the loot around the map in Highguard respawns. Not all of it though, only chests that are easily accessible around the map. On each map there are small rooms with multiple chests in them, blocked behind a reinforced door, which can be spotted by the black material on the door. You can use a raid tool or an ability to break into these, but they don’t replenish between rounds. This means if there is one close to your base, it might be beneficial to wait a round or two, as the loot will be a higher rarity.
You can move a little when reviving teammates
Getting your squadmates back in the fight with revives is essential to turning the tide of a team fight that isn’t going your way. While it does take some time to revive a teammate, you can move a little while going through the animation of breaking open their little blue orb. This means you can grab a teammate and pull back behind cover, which also means it’s beneficial to be mindful of where you are taking cover. If there’s space between your team and your opponents, you can probably get away with peeking around cover, even if you do get taken out.
Prioritize harvesting Vesper early
During the looting phase, especially in the earlier rounds when loot is a lower rarity and therefore cheaper at the shop, it’s more beneficial to focus on mining Vesper. Vesper can easily be found at the circular buildings that contain the vendor around the map, but it’s fairly plentiful and can get you a stack of shields or a better gun faster than just scrambling for loot. Plus, if you get taken out by the enemy mid-looting, there isn’t much punishment since you keep the Vesper and can access the death vendor while waiting to respawn.
Guns aren’t important loot, everything else is
Since guns found in chests are often all the exact same loot rarity during a round, finding guns isn’t really a worthwhile mission while looting. Outside of special gear in the airdrops, if the current rarity tier is blue, the vast majority of guns are going to be blue, so unless you really want to find something specific it isn’t worth worrying about. Instead, smaller pieces of equipment–helmets, saddles, ziplines–anything that either improves your survivability or gives you an advantage during a raid is far more important.
Don’t get too attached to your starting loadout
our initial loadout in Highguard should be treated as completely disposable. All of your weapons start at white rarity (the lowest) and blue rarity weapons are available as both loot and vendor shop items. Even if you can’t find the exact weapon you want, opting to keep a white tier weapon is going to put you at a disadvantage against your opponents basically immediately. If you truly have a weapon, like a sniper rifle, that you feel like is a must have, at least pick up one blue gun, otherwise you’re going to have a tough time winning direct gun fights.
Revive teammates and finish off enemies quickly
Highguard has a fairly quick time to kill, making it imperative to get any advantage you can during a fight. A big one is taking enemies off the board, and keeping your teammates in the fight. Blocking an enemy’s revive takes only a few seconds, and offers ultimate charge and shields for doing it. Plus, it guarantees that your opponent will have to do a full respawn, guaranteeing they are fully out of the fight for a bit. Reviving teammates takes longer, but with the 3v3 match size, every teammate is important in a fight.
Reinforcements are for creating chokepoints, not impenetrable barriers
If you’ve never played Rainbow Six Siege, you might find the raid defense prep stage a bit overwhelming. You start with five wall reinforcements, with more found during the looting process. Your goal with reinforcing around each bomb site is not to completely block every single wall, but to instead create a chokepoint. While enemies can certainly approach from reinforced walls, creating a path of least resistance gets enemies coming from a predictable direction. If every wall is reinforced, you’ll be left guessing where enemies will approach from.
Go outside your base bubble during raids
While defending against a raid, you can leave your base’s shield wall bubble, but you will be marked for your enemies to see. However, that doesn’t mean you should never push outside. It can be worth chasing down an opponent, especially if you have a numbers advantage, since the enemy team has a limited number of lives. You may need to deal with smaller openings around the shield, since enemies can use the Dome Breaker Knife to open smaller parts of the barrier shield. You might be on defense, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait for your enemies to come to you.
Win as a team or lose by yourself
In a three-person squad battle royale, it’s tough to win without team cooperation. In Highguard, with only two teams of three, it’s basically impossible to win without team work. There are few advantages to pushing solo or spreading out as a team. Even if you want to approach from different angles, starting a team fight while one of your teammates is off looting most often results in a lost fight. Communication and teamwork aren’t just beneficial, but required if you want to win.
Don’t think too hard about Warden team composition
Team composition is not as important as it might seem in Highguard. Abilities and ultimates are important, but because the game doesn’t always follow the exact same pattern when it comes to offense and defense, it’s less about what works well together and what you can use best. Ultimately, the biggest difference maker in a fight is about who’s better at shooting, and it doesn’t make sense to force someone to pick a defensive-focused Warden when you could easily go the entire match without actually playing defense. Whichever Warden you play the best is the one you should be picking, every time.
