12 Essential Highguard Tips for New Players to Dominate Raids

With these essential tips for Highguard, you’ll quickly become a skilled Warden, ready to take on both offensive and defensive roles in raids. The gameplay, which combines hero shooter mechanics, capture-the-flag elements, and asymmetrical base defense, can be overwhelming at first. While the tutorial covers the basics, these extra insights will help you secure victories. Here are 12 tips to elevate your Highguard experience!

Resist the urge to use all five of your wall reinforcements right at the start of a match. You have a minute to strategize, so coordinate with your teammates to fortify key entrances and walls on all sides, as well as ceilings and floors that can be destroyed for flanking opportunities. The enemy can breach your base’s shield dome from multiple angles, and they might even use a Domesplitter to create an additional entrance, so cover as many angles as possible.

Once your defenses are set, it’s time to loot. Given the expansive maps in Highguard, encounters with enemies during the looting phase are rare. There are plenty of solid looting spots between your base and central landmarks. Spread out with your teammates to gather as much loot as possible, then regroup when the Shieldbreaker starts to form. This way, you can either launch an attack or take a defensive position nearby, and you can continue looting if the enemy takes their time to arrive.

Mounts are incredibly useful for traversing Highguard’s large maps quickly, but they also negate fall damage. When you’re searching for loot, avoid dismounting too early when going over cliffs, as this can lead to significant damage or even death. At full speed, mounts can leap great distances, allowing you to clear gaps that are otherwise impassable on foot—use this to your advantage for repositioning or escaping.

While it’s crucial to grab better guns and armor from red and blue chests, don’t overlook mining Vesper. Accumulating enough early on will enable you to quickly purchase essential items like saddles, helmets, or upgraded Raid Weapons. If you have time, keep mining Vesper to ensure you have enough for supplies during raids. If the game extends over multiple rounds, your Vesper reserves will allow you to buy superior gear instantly instead of relying on looting.

The mining minigame in Highguard is straightforward: press the melee button when the closing ring meets the static ring to hit the Vesper deposit, repeating until it breaks. Larger deposits require more hits, but if you time it perfectly, you’ll fully charge your axe, allowing you to instantly break the next deposit. The most efficient strategy is to alternate between perfectly mining small crystals and using your charged axe on larger ones. This method will quickly build your Vesper reserves.

While it’s important to spend your Vesper on core gear you haven’t looted yet, armor is an exception. In my experience, armor is relatively easy to find in blue chests, and teammates can drop some from their inventory if needed. Remember, you only lose one armor pack upon death, and it can regenerate an infinite number of times while you’re alive. Therefore, only buy armor if you’re running low to avoid wasting Vesper, especially in longer games where you’ll want to save for better gear.

You can often find unassuming containers near loot chests that can be smashed with a single axe swing to yield extra wall reinforcements, Raid Weapon ammo, and small amounts of Vesper. Collecting these items will prepare you for raids, providing resources to reinforce your base if the Shieldbreaker is used against you and ensuring you have enough ammo for a strong attack. Just keep an eye on the loot feed on the right side of your screen, as items from these boxes are added directly to your inventory.

Some maps, like Kingdom and Vesper City, feature hidden rooms sealed off by reinforced walls. Use your Raid Weapon or Warden powers to break them down, or enlist your teammates’ help, and you’ll discover treasure rooms filled with loot chests containing better guns, more armor, and powerful amulets.

Among the items you can find in these boxes is the Ultimate Charger, one of the best items in the game. Consuming an Ultimate Charger increases your Ultimate’s charge percentage, and they stack, allowing you to gain a significant amount of ult charge at once. You can check how many Ultimate Chargers you have by looking at the small white icon with a number next to your Ultimate Power icon at the bottom of your screen.

When you defeat an enemy, they leave behind a red soul orb that you can interact with using your axe to purge the soul. This not only prevents the enemy team from reviving their fallen ally but also repairs two bars of armor, which can be crucial in chaotic team fights. If you’re playing as Mara, her Sacrifice passive allows purging to partially regenerate Soul Armor, making it especially beneficial for her.

During raids, every player matters, so try to revive your teammates whenever possible. For attackers, reviving teammates reduces long respawn times and prevents the loss of Siege Tower lives. Revives are quick—especially with the revive amulet—taking only a few seconds, and you can drag your ally’s soul into cover as you bring them back.

I’ve noticed that many players tend to overlook Atticus’ Shockspears, even when they’re causing significant disruption. A few shots will destroy them, so keep an eye out for any orange spears if you’re getting zapped. The same goes for Una’s Wisps, which throw concussion grenades. They may be more visible, but don’t underestimate their potential to cause chaos.

If you’re looking to team up with friends across different platforms, there are resources available to help you connect.