A Beginners Guide to Metal Slug Commander

Metal Slug: Commander is the latest iteration of the game on mobile, which is tilting towards a card-based Gacha RPG where you control and play with 5 Champions or characters from the Metal Slug combined universe. In Metal Slug: Commander, you need to defeat the enemy team of 5 characters to stand victorious.

 

 

 

Today we are providing you the basics of the game to get you started on the best terms in Metal Slug: Commander.

 

Story:

 

There are the Syrubis Islands in the game world, where various cultures have lived together in peace for nearly half a century. However, the flames of war are growing closer to this peaceful world.

 

General Morden leads his forces, which have been out of action for a long time, but they have returned to center stage. Because of the Lubis Ore discovery, a new resource, the competition for resources led to the outbreak of war.

 

The Regular Army also sent out a squad of legendary Heroes to stop the resources being monopolized by the Rebel Army. After a fierce battle, they fended off most of the Rebel Army. Just when they considered that the battle was going well and almost finished, the tables turned.

 

It wasn't just the Rebel Army and the Ptolemaic Army, who were set on world domination and their deadly Revolution Army. As well as the Space Army always has been thinking of invading Earth one day, and the Desert Army that has a tight hold over the ruins all joined the battle too.

 

New commanders to the Syrubis Island, it's up to you to put an end to this chaos!

 

Gameplay:

 

The game plays out like most other Hero collectors, where you play each mission with 5 of your champions or characters and battle it out against other of the same number. The game uses two lanes in most battlefields where two units fight in the upper lane, and the remaining three fight it out in the lower lane. Certain conditions can make the units change the lane, but otherwise, they remain in their starting lanes. The conditions that allow them to change lanes are as follows:

 

• Once a lane is defeated, the victorious units can shift to the lane under contention.
• In some maps, the two lanes converge at the middle, where most units fight it out to push back the opponent.
• Some units can bypass this mechanic and shift at their own will.
• Sometimes if a unit has defeated their opponent, they turn and fight any shifters instead of shifting their lane themselves.

 

Strategically, long-range units are placed towards the back while melee and tank units are placed closer towards the enemy group. Units or Champions in Metal Slug: Commander has different unique attacks, which are done automatically as the game progresses. Each unit deals damage and attacks, which helps them to fill their energy bar, which can be seen in their cards, which they can use to activate their ultimate ability. The unit's cards start flashing as soon as the bar gets filled up. Different units have different Ultimate abilities where some can even damage enemies on other lanes.

 

As your units' level up and progress in the story, your units get new skills that can help them change the tide of each mission's battle. Remember that you can only take one skill in each mission, so choose wisely. There are two categories of skills that a unit can have. First are the Regular skills obtained by the military intelligence function in the game. In contrast, your units can only obtain Story skills by beating specific missions while playing the story campaign. You can level these skills up by collecting and spending Tactic Skill Guides and using them at the Archives in the Logistics tab.

 

Similar to other Hero collector games, you can speed the game up and allow units to use the auto-skill function as per your needs. This game also has Legion and Allies function similar to Metal Slug Attack, where Legion is the guild system while Allies is the social feature.

 

Story Skills:

 

• Stun Ray (R-Rank): This skill can stun the enemy with the highest attack in the enemy team for a few seconds.
• Missile Support (SSR-Rank): All ally units restore HP for two seconds scaling with percentage. Passively, all team members have the HP increased by a certain amount.
• Missile Support (SR-Rank): You can deal attacks on all the enemy units, which is a % of the ATK of the strongest unit in your roster. Its passive increases the ATK rating of all the team members.

 

Units in Metal Slug: Commander:

 

This game includes units from the Metal Slug universe and some newer units from the Metal Slug: Attack game which makes the game's roster quite large. All the units in the game can be divided into six factions having ★3, ★4, and ★5 rarities. Each of these factions provides different bonuses and counters that you can effectively use on the battlefield. Following are the factions and their bonuses in the game:

 

 

• Regular Army (MS: A): Increases critical damage per team member. Effective against the Rebel Army.
• Rebel Army (MS: A): Increases defense per team member. Effective against the Desert Army.
• Desert Army: Increases critical chance per team member. Effective against the Space Army.
• Space Army: Reduces damage taken per team member. Effective against the Regular Army.
• Ptolemaic Army (MS: A): Stats dependent on the present battlefield. Effective against the Revolution Army.
• Revolution Army: Increases Crit and critical damage resistance. Effective against the Ptolemaic Army.

 

All of the units in the game can be upgraded to higher levels by using Gold and unit XP and can be done up to a certain level. to increase the level further, they need to be ascended like other games, and here they need Unit Merit to enhance further and their skills too.

 

Each unit can also equip gear to enhance their stats on the battlefield, while some gear provides Faction-specific bonuses.

 

Logistics:

 

The logistics are as follows:

 

Headquarter:

 

Headquarters is the place where you can manage your units. Here you can promote them to the higher rarity, retire them to get some currency for other stuff, and reset your Heroes so you can spend the reset currency to enhance your main units. You can also re-organize your main heroes into teams or groups to fight on the battlefield.

 

First of all, you can see the Rank table below of Rank rarities and what colors they correspond to:

 

Rarity Start	Rank	Color Stage
★3	Private	Green
★4	Private 2nd Class	Blue Stage 1
	Private 1st Class	Blue Stage 2
★5	Corporal	Purple Stage 1
	Staff Sergeant	Purple Stage 2
	2nd Lieutenant	Yellow Stage 1
	1st Lieutenant	Yellow Stage 2
	Captain	Yellow Stage 3
	Major	Red Stage 1
	Lieutenant Colonel	Red Stage 2
	Colonel	Red Stage 3
	General	White

 

Other than the ★3, which you always retire to get retirement currency, other rarities can improve their rank where ★5 has the most ranks promotion available to them and their corresponding promotion colors to identify them.

 

• You cannot promote 3★ units; however, they can be retired, and you can earn rewards and Honor Medals for retiring them.
• ★4 units' max promotion can be till First Lieutenant, while You can promote 5★ units to the General.
• A ★4 and ★5 unit can combine, or a 4★ unit from the same Faction can be similarly, provided having the same rank.
• A ★5 unit from the Revolution and Ptolemaic Army can only merge provided they're on the same rank.

 

Units under Lv. you can reset 100 for free; units at Lv. 100 and above are charged 20 Gems for a reset.

 

Command Center:

 

Command Center has a unique function to place lower-level units under your commanders to enhance their levels. It works that your five highest Level units become Commanders, and any unit that you place under them will have their levels increased according to the lowest Commander till the time they are kept under them in the Command Center.

 

 

 

These units will always have the same level as their commanders but cannot be leveled up individually. This method reduces the resources you need to spend on enhancing your roster; you invest in 5 favorite units to become your commanders and level all the other units under them in the command center. The Command Center starts with 10 slots out of 30, which you can slowly unlock as your progress further in the game.

 

Talent Center:

 

Talent Center is where you recruit new units to enhance your roster. In simpler words, this is where you pull or summon new units from the Gacha having three different summoning centers. The player earns a reward for the first two centers after drawing 30 units each, but they are limited to drawing 5,000 units per day.

 

Normal Recruitment Center – Here, you can recruit ★3, ★4, and ★5 units by using Draw Coupons and Gems, mostly like a regular summoning.

 

Faction Recruitment Center – Here, you can recruit ★3, ★4, and ★5 only from a specific faction under rotation at a particular time and changes every day by using Faction coupons. You can change the Faction if you want on any day by spending 300 Gems. The Faction also affects the aircraft that will drop the cards.

 

Friendship Recruitment Centers – This center uses friendship points to recruit new units, which it draws from a larger pool but of the same rarity as mentioned above in other centers.

 

If a ★5 unit is drawn repeatedly, you can earn a Faction Selection Card. These cards randomly give out a ★5 unit of the Faction selected.

 

Frontline:

 

Frontline contains all the modes other than the story mode, including PvP.

 

PM Arena:

 

PM Arena is the PvP mode in Metal Slug: Commander, where you fight other players-controlled fighting by the AI. Each challenge phase allows you to choose opponents +- 100 levels to your current level. Selecting higher-ranked competitors earns the Gems for every one rank increased at the current ranking. Gems and Arena Coins are gifted daily and once after every two-month season. All players' acquired rankings and ranking prizes are reset back per season.

 

Locksmith:

 

Locksmith is where you can unlock the chest rewards you get from campaign missions and other modes, and it is time-gated. You can speed up the process by spending Old Records, Fresh Beer, and Gold Watches. The higher-tiered chests take longer to unlock. When you unlock each chest, you start filling up a meter; upon filling, you have a dialogue with one of four mysterious visitors, and the reward depends on the visitor's reactions.

 

 

 

Game of Greed:

 

This game mode makes you fight enemies with enhanced strength which you need to fight quickly and without any of your units being defeated to bag more rewards. More types unlock as you progress further in the game.

 

Desert Gold Rush – Enemy units' HP and defense are greatly boosted. Rewards with Gold and Gold Crates.

Tough Trial – Enemy units' attack is greatly boosted. Rewards with EXP and EXP Crates.

Munitions Escort – Enemy units' attack is greatly boosted. Rewards specialized Loot for Assault Type units.

 

Base Invasion:

 

You battle up to 200 stages from four locations each. These locations are available on specific days, and the player is restricted to using units from factions related to that location. Once a stage is cleared, you cannot play it again. Awards Gems, Assembly Orders, Unit Merit, Gold, EXP, Bronze Gears, and Faction R Coupons.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

 

Commander is a good iteration of the Metal Slug franchise jumping in the Gacha Hero collector genre to appeal to this game mode's fans which is a long time coming. We hope it will launch well and provide fun to veterans and new fans to the Metal Slug Universe via this game.