A DUMMIES GUIDE
FOR NEWBIES
TO
NARCOS: CARTEL WARS

Welcome to one of the most addictive yet frustrating games on the market. What makes this game so addictive is that you can either play in a silo (by yourself), or as part of a group (cartel) with others. Playing the game with like-minded individuals really does make this game more enjoyable though.

We have put together a simple ‘For Dummies” guide to help newbies come to grips with the basics of the game however it is not meant to be used as the bible. It is solely a starting point to get you going, and to learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before you.

Make sure you use common sense, and ask questions of your fellow cartel members who can help guide you further.

NB: It is NOT designed for those on levels 40 and above, but you can takeaway a few pointers… This guide is to help those starting off and going up to level 40.

Above all else, have fun!!

GENERAL GUIDE
BASE GUIDE
GLOBAL MAP GUIDE
SICARIOS GUIDE
DEFENSIVE SICARIOS GUIDE
VETERAN SICARIOS GUIDE
COMPOUND SICARIOS GUIDE
CARTEL WARS GUIDE
RAIDS & CHEST EVENTS GUIDE

 

GENERAL GUIDE

GOAL OF THE GAME

The ultimate goal of Narcos: Cartel Wars is to build your base, then upgrade it to defend against incoming attacks, and then to attack enemy bases. How you do that, and in what order is an interesting dilemma. As you juggle the previous goals, the developers, FTX have then added an interesting aspect to the game which is Cartel wars, the creating of a cartel to take on other cartels in one to one wars, so your cartel can reign supreme. Good luck!!

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL IN THE GAME?
 
Answering this question will determine how you play this game. Most people want to upgrade everything to have the biggest and best base, but in order to do that, you need to play the game for at least 2 years, and have semi deep pockets to pay for sicarios and gold. Another strategy is to play for fun and then give up when things get too hard, costs too much to continue, or you got bored. This is typically the most common approach.
Another strategy which is gaining more and more traction is to build a mid-level base, somewhere between level 40-55 and concentrate on having a much stronger attacking side. This tactic tends to give more satisfaction to a player as they are able to make a more meaningful contribution to a cartel without investing too much time or funds to the game.
Whatever tactic you choose, try and stick to it. It’ll cost you too much to change.

 

BEST ADVICE WHEN STARTING OUT …

Join an active cartel and ask lots of questions in cartel chat, watch lots of attacks especially from those with levels close to yours, and save your dice and gold!!

GOLD

One of the most sought after resources. You can buy or win gold by completing challenges in the game, or you can obtain gold by watching adverts in the game. However you obtain gold, treat it as the most important resource. It is hard to obtain, but very easily spent.

DICE

Almost as important as gold, you can either purchase dice in a skills chests, or win them in chests or roulette events.

Dice can be used to purchase a veteran sicario, or to change a slot type in the skills set of a sicario, or to convert skills and upgrade skills in the workshop.

When you get gold, make sure you use it wisely as gold is difficult to come by in large amounts.

INVENTORY

Your inventory shows what consumables, materials and gear you have stockpiled. In order to level up, you will need different amounts of different consumables, resources, materials and gear. If you are unsure about anything, please ask your fellow cartel members.

SHOULD I COMPLETE MISSIONS

Successfully completing missions brings special rewards:

  • Chests
  • Sicarios
  • Medals
  • Power Points
  • Loyalty Points

Daily Missions are available every day at the same time. They have a 24-hour duration. Story Missions are quest chains. A new Story Mission can only appear once the previous one is completed. A Sicario Mission is a special Story Mission with a rare Sicario as a reward. This Sicario cannot be obtained in the Shop.

BASE GUIDE

SO MANY THINGS TO DO, WHAT SHOULD I CONCENTRATE ON?

The game is designed to confuse people so don’t get caught up with the fact that you need to keep building or upgrading everything. A lot of these buildings are a waste of time, but some are definitely required.

IMPORTANT BUILDINGS TO BUILD (BUT CANNOT BE UPGRADED)

  • Black Market
  • Sicario Hangout
  • Builder Cabin

BUILDINGS TO ALWAYS UPGRADE

  • The higher the level, the more you can do in the game
  • Training Camp – Where you upgrade your troops
  • Helipad – Upgrade this building to give you more starting energy when attacking enemy bases
  • Bunker – Protects your resources
  • Squad Camps – Defines the number of troops you can have per squad
  • Cartel Port
  • Workshop – Where you can craft different items that are used to level up sicarios or create extra attacks in different events

BUILDINGS TO UPGRADE AS NEEDED

  • Finca (Your main building on your base)
  • Bank – generates more $$
  • Sawmill – increases your wood production
  • Quarry – increases your stone production
  • Iron Mine – increases your iron production
  • Cash storage – only increase as you need it. Try not to build more if you can upgrade current buildings
  • Wood storage – only increase as you need it. Try not to build more if you can upgrade current buildings
  • Stone storage – only increase as you need it. Try not to build more if you can upgrade current buildings
  • Iron storage – only increase as you need it. Try not to build more if you can upgrade current buildings
  • Product storage – only increase as you need it. Try not to build more if you can upgrade current buildings
  • Lab – Try to build the bare minimum, One!!

DEFENSIVE BUILDINGS NOT TO BUILD

  • Flamethrower
  • Mortar

INITIAL DEFENSIVE BUILDINGS TO BUILD

  • Machine Guns
  • Cannons
  • Guard Towers

DEFENSIVE BUILDINGS TO UPGRADE AS REQUIRED

  • Piercing Cannon
  • Nerve Gas Cannon
  • Rocket Launcher
  • Elite Brute Cannon

DO I HAVE ANY COMBAT ABILITIES OTHER THAN TROOPS?

Yes, besides troops and Sicarios, you can use special combat abilities.

The Helipad allows players to use combat abilities and provides the initial amount of Energy needed to use them. Upgrade your Helipad to get more Energy and access to more combat abilities!

TRAINING CAMP

The function of the Training Camp is to upgrade your troops and weapons, so they are more powerful as you level up. Do not fall into the trap of upgrading everything though. Every time you upgrade or build something on your base, your experience goes up, which means you get closer to levelling up. Sometimes this is a good thing, something it is not.

So what do you upgrade in the Training Camp?

Well, this all depends on what you want to do. The following is what we think you should only upgrade, but once again it is subjective.

WHAT COMBAT ABILITIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR PLAYERS?

  • Missile: This causes targeted damage in the selected area on an enemy Base. Missiles are available even if you’ve just started your business from scratch.
  • Focus: Select a Squad and give it a command by pointing to a location you would like them to move to, or a building you would like them to focus their attack on. You can also select all of your attacking Squads by sliding over their icons. This ability is also available by default.
  • Medpack: This first aid kit will restore the health of all your allied troops within its range.
  • Flashbang: This will prevent enemies within the selected area from seeing and attacking your troops. Use it during attacks to help your troops advance!
  • Paratroopers: These are guerrillas who can parachute to any location within your enemy’s Base and sneak to the most protected areas.
  • Propaganda: These leaflets will allow you to temporarily increase the damage potential of your troops and their movement speed.
  • Fire Bomb: Napalm turns everything into ashes.
  • Smokescreen: This will let you troops pass into strategic positions without being detected. However, they cannot attack while they are hidden.

 

TROOP OPTIONS

  • Flaco – This is a good starting point, but stop upgrading once you can start using Fuegos
  • Gordos – Available at Finca level 4. Same as Flaco, stop upgrading once you can use Fuegos
  • RPG Soldiers – Available at Finca level 5. Same as Flaco, stop upgrading once you can use Fuegos
  • Fuegos – Available at Finca level 8. This should be your troop of choice. Keep upgrading until you can use Armed Trucks
  • Camarero – Do not use
  • Armed Truck – Available at Finca level 11. This should be your troop choice when available.
  • Medico – Available at Finca level 15. Do not use
  • Torcher – Great option to Armed Trucks. Very powerful at the lower levels, however as you get higher, you will need to make the change to Armed Trucks
  • Toxico – Interesting option this … but ultimately another wasted option
  • Rhino – Do not use

WEAPONS AND COMBAT ABILITIES

  • Mines – Equal case to upgrade or don’t use at all. You choose

  • C4 – Same as mines

  • Missile – Critical for lower levels. Upgrade as you can

  • Focus – Another critical option, especially at lower levels

  • Medpack – Not really required

  • Flashbang – Very important to upgrade this as high as you can at your current levels

  • Paratroopers – Not required

  • Propaganda – Very important to upgrade this as high as you can at your current levels

  • Firebomb – Very important to upgrade this as high as you can at your current levels

  • Smokescreen – Not required

HOW DO I MOVE BUILDINGS AND MAKE LAYOUTS?

The layout of your Base is of great importance in order to save Resources when you are attacked by other players. In order to move a building, tap on it. A menu window and green arrows will pop up. Just tap and hold on top of the building and move it to where you think it is best located. Eliminate Obstacles to make your Base more spacious and build new defences.

To save or switch your Base Layout, just tap the Builder Cabin and then the arrow cross button.

Once you obtain a level 13 Finca, you can create and save Base Layouts!

You can save both building and Sicario placements into a Layout. To do this, simply click on your Builder’s Cabin and select the arrow cross button. From here you can save your Layouts in various save slots. Switch between your Layouts to find an optimal defence strategy.

Objects built after saving your Base Layout can be placed in areas that are free.

Be sure to save your current Base Layout before switching to another, or it will be lost!

HOW DO I PROTECT MY RESOURCES FROM BEING STOLEN? CAN I USE A SHIELD?

Sure, you can protect your Resources by using a Shield. You may purchase Shields for different periods of time: 1, 2 or 7 days. But be careful with your attacks then! To stay protected by your Shield, don’t make any attacks on other players’ Bases or Resource Centres! In this case your Shield will be cancelled.

WHY DO I NEED TO GAIN EXPERIENCE?

Gaining Experience allows you to level up your Base and receive more opportunities to upgrade buildings and empower your business.

To gain more Experience, build and upgrade your defence buildings or upgrade troops and skills in the Training Camp!

NB: Only increase your experience by building or upgrading essential buildings/troops/weapons. Building non-essential things will level you up faster, and therefore match you with harder opponents

WHERE DO I GET DIRECTIVES FROM?

Take part in the Special Events. Destroy enemy Bases with no casualties in order to obtain all the directives!

CAN OTHER PLAYERS STEAL YOUR RESOURCES?

All the Resources you have on your Base are calculated as one amount so can be stolen. This includes resources not collected from production buildings and resource centres. Resources stored in the bunker, up to the % you have saved to, will be protected and not stolen. This is shown in your Bunker statistics.

GLOBAL MAP GUIDE

WHAT IS THE GLOBAL MAP?

The Global Map shows areas that belong to you and your rivals. In these areas there are Enemy Outposts, Bases and Resource Centres. There will be explored areas and unexplored ones. Within the explored areas you can attack any Enemy Bases.

To advance and get more opponents on your Global map, you have to open unexplored areas. You’ll have to spend some cash as cartographers won’t draw your maps for free!

OPPONENTS ON THE GLOBAL MAP

The current matchmaking system considers your Level and Rating. You’ll get opponents (other players) in the range of plus or minus 0-4 levels of your own.

The possibility to see a player with a higher Level than you on your Map depends on your rating, but is highly likely!

Something that is also very likely, is that you will see the same opponent multiple times. Make sure you give them the same treatment when you destroy their base!!

If however an opponent is too strong, after 24 hours you can refresh the target to get a new opponent. They may be weaker than the previous… or harder!

WHAT ARE THE RESOURCE CENTRES FOR?

Resource Centres (which can be found on the Global Map) produce wood, stone or iron. Each Centre has an Outpost. If that Outpost is destroyed, the Centre is considered occupied. Every time a player conquers a Centre its defence power rises.

Once you’ve conquered a Resource Centre, assign defensive Sicarios to protect it. Any Resources gained from these Centres will be transported by trucks to your Base. The Resource Centres may be raided and occupied by other players after you have captured them! (Only real players compete for control of Centres.)

Some Resource Centres are better than others, and they all vary in:

  • Speed of raw material extraction
  • Total capacity (the amount of Resources you may store in your trucks before they drive to your Base)
  • Maximum number of Sicarios that can defend it

OPENING TERRITORIES ON THE GLOBAL MAP

Double check that you have the required amount of Cash needed and you are at the required level to open the territory you wish to expand into. Different sections of the Global Map cost different amounts of Cash to unlock!

As you open new territories, more adjacent ones will become available for exploring. Open lots of areas to increase your opportunities!

Sicarios Guide

OVERVIEW

There are three types of sicario: Attack (red), Defence (blue), and Cartel base (orange).

What primarily defines the sicarios within those types is their main skill which gets more powerful as they are levelled up. Sicarios can be given 2 additional skills, but any sicario can receive any colour-appropriate additional skills so it is only that main skill that defines the sicario.

Secondly, the sicarios do have minor differences in their health / damage / weapon range etc but these are almost completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

The first sicarios the game gifts you with aren’t great (Lady & Antonia), but still ask questions to the other members of the cartel who will guide you again. They have a wealth of knowledge, so utilise this in the first instance. Don’t try and do things by yourself, or it could be a costly adventure.

For levels under 30 (i.e. beginners) look at this as a guide

HOW TO LEVEL UP A SICARIO

The sicario interface is most easily accessed by pressing on the sicario and then on the green person with the up arrow. (You can also click the Sicario Hangout that says “upgrade” above it and select the green person with the up arrow; or click the gun in the bottom left corner and scroll to the right through your sicarios and then press on the blue “i” and then the green up arrow in bottom-left)

You will then be in the sicario level-up display which has 4 tabs: Level up, rank up, talents, and traits.

The first tab allows you to spend Plata + money to “level up” your sicario. This increases its stats. Every 10 levels you will need to use the 2nd tab to “rank up” the sicario. This requires “gear” that must be manufactured at your workshop. Ranking up the sicario increases its primary talent by 5% as well as its stats. An additional star is added to the sicario’s display to indicate it has been ranked up. After 5 stars they turn blue, then purple, on further ranking up (purple = lvl 60 = maximum). Higher ranked sicarios cost much more plata and money to level up each level.

HOW TO ADD TALENTS TO A SICARIO

All sicarios come with a primary talent that is written on them. Once at rank 3 (3 stars), and again at rank 5 (5 stars) you can add an additional talent. This is done through the third tab on the sicario lvl-up pane. You will need to permanently sacrifice 5 stars worth of other sicarios to add a talent. (If the sicario being sacrificed is a duplicate of the sicario you are adding the talent to, its stars count for double, so collect duplicates!)

When you do this a talent is randomly generated. It will be accompanied by a strength multiplier out of 5. e.g. a 1/5 talent is only one-fifth as strong as it could be. 5/5 is the best a particular talent can be. The talent does not level up as the sicario does.

The game then allows you to spend gold over and over and over and over in order to re-generate the talent and strength randomly. If you are looking for a specific talent and want maximum strength (e.g. a 5/5 missile damage talent for your Diego) it can thus take dozens of re-rolls and thus burn up thousands of gold trying to reroll for the best talent. If you want the best talents you basically have to pay to buy gold and then reroll these talents over and over. About once a month there is a few days where the gold costs of rerolling talents is reduced so take advantage of that.

If after all that the talent offered is still awful or irrelevant, you can discard it rather than assign it. If you assign it and aren’t happy with it you CAN replace it later, by later generating another talent and assigning it over the top.

If you are not willing to fork out real $$, you won’t have much gold to re-roll the talent generator with, but don’t despair. You can kill off another 5 stars worth of sicarios to get another talent generated at a later time. The best gold/sicario compromise is probably to reroll the talents about twice if you don’t get decent ones, and either assign whatever you get at that point or discard it. Then come back later and try again and replace the previous bad talent.

WHAT ARE SKILLS AND SKILL SETS?

To find a Sicario’s Skills you’ll want to open their information window and scroll past Talents and Expertise Level. Here you can view their already active Skills and set new ones.

Skills provide additional benefits for your Sicarios. They can be obtained from Skill Chests (which can be bought in the Shop) or as a reward for completing Special Events (when available).

When you increase a Sicario’s Expertise Level using Expertise Cards (these are obtained through levelling up your Sicarios), you’ll be able to open more Skill Slots to make them even stronger!

To convert/upgrade Skills or activate bonuses, you’ll need to open up your Workshop and choose the Skills tab (the second one on the left).

HOW DO YOU IMPROVE A SICARIO

  • Experience
    A Sicario’s Experience influences the growth of his level. The higher the Sicario’s level is, the higher his statistics are. Use Plata and other Sicarios to level up your most valuable warriors. If you fuse sicarios to get experience for other ones, THE FIRST WILL BE LOST!
    Lock your valuable Sicarios in order to save them! Go to a Sicario’s information window and tap on a lock you see in the top left corner of the Sicario’s image.
  • Rank
    The higher your Sicario’s Rank (marked with stars), the better its abilities, damage, and health. Use Gear to increase a Sicario’s Rank.
    Spend your Power and Loyalty points in the Black Market to buy Gear or produce Gear in the Workshop.
  • Expertise
    When upgrading your Sicarios, you receive Expertise Cards. Use Expertise Cards to upgrade the expertise level of your most powerful Sicarios. This will open more skill slots and make them even better!
  • Skills
    Each Skill will belong to one of three groups and give your Sicarios a corresponding ability:
    1.  Attack (increases damage dealt by a sicario)
    2. Defence (increases survivability of a sicario)
    3. Disarmament (prevents other units from attacking a sicario)
    You can also add universal skills to any type of slot that grant basic bonuses to a Sicario.
    When adding a Skill, the strength of the ability your Sicario receives depends on this Skill’s level. You can view the Skill’s level at the bottom of the Skill icon.

WHAT IS THE DEFENCE BONUS

As soon as you put Sicarios out to defend your Base or your Cartel Compound, they will automatically get a defence health bonus.

HOW TO ASSIGN SICARIOS TO YOUR BASE

In order to send one of your Sicarios to defend your Base, open the list of your Sicarios by tapping on the special gun mark on your main Base screen (in the lower left). Then just tap on the card with the strongest defensive Sicario and there you go!

Depending on their level, players may have up to 6 Sicarios defending their Bases.

However, this is not all! You may join a Cartel with the Bolster Defence research completed and put up to 8 Sicarios on your Base!

A SICARIO HAS DISAPPEARED… WHY?

Less valuable Sicarios can be fused with others to gain a new Talent. However, once you’ve used a Sicario to get a Talent for another one, you will not see it in your Inventory.

Don’t panic if you accidentally close the game while searching Talents. You will be able to continue searching from the point where you stopped.

The maximum number of additional Talents you can assign to a Sicario is two (so, your Sicarios can not have more than three Talents in total).

TIP: To stop sicarios from being lost, you can lock them. Bring up the sicario screen and on the top left of the sicario screen, you will see an open padlock. Click on this to close the padlock and thus locking it from deletion (or fusing).

TIPS

  • Wherever possible, try not to use health related talents or skills on your attack sicarios
  • We have not included the use of Veteran Sicarios (Rosa or Cuervo), but once you hit level 40, you should be aiming to create one or both of these veteran sicarios and use them in your attack squads. You can read more about Veteran Sicarios in a later section.
  • There are other newer sicarios available that also have the same ability as those listed below. What is important is the ability type, not the name of the sic.
  • Whilst we appreciate you may not have any or all of these sicarios, the goal is to work towards these. You should use the best of what you have until you can obtain the following sicarios.

SQUADS GUIDE

FIREBOMB SQUAD

  • Brone & Scorpion
    • Ability – Fire Bomb Damage (up to 21%)
    • Talents to add – Firebomb Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect
  • Diego
    • Ability – Missile Damage (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Firebomb Damage or Missile Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect
  • La Quica and Kitara
    • Ability – Additional Energy for each building destroyed (up to 40%)
    • Talents to add – Extra Energy or Firebomb Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect

FUEGO SQUAD

  • Bernardo and Jengi
    • Ability – Fuego Damage (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Fuego Damage or Propaganda or Squad Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect or Improved Propaganda
  • David and Parca
    • Ability – Boosts Squad Damage (up to 80%) and Armour (up to 22%) for first 15 seconds
    • Talents to add – Propaganda or Squad Damage or Extra Energy or Fuego Damage
    • Skill set to add – Improved Propaganda or Big Bang Effect
  • Freya and Poison
    • Ability – Squad Damage (up to 21%)
    • Talents to add – Energy or Propaganda or Squad Damage or Fuego Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect or Improved Propaganda
  • La Quica and Kitara are your golden tickets… Get as many of those as possible
    • They can be used in a range of different squads, Firebomb to give more energy to firebomb targets, flashbang to freeze enemy for longer, etc. They are the most versatile Sicario
    • Ability – Additional Energy for each building destroyed (up to 40%)
    • Talents to add – Extra Energy or Propaganda or Squad Damage or the Fuego damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect or Improved Propaganda
  • Alan, Widow & Flare
    • Ability – Flashbang Duration (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Flashbang or Squad Damage or extra energy
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect or Improved Propaganda

FLASHBANG SQUAD

  • Alan, Widow & Flare
    • Ability – Flashbang Duration (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Flashbang or Squad Damage or extra energy
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect
  • La Quica and Kitara
    • Ability – Additional Energy for each building destroyed (up to 40%)
    • Talents to add – Extra Energy or Flashbang
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect

TORCHER SQUAD

  • Montana
    • Ability – Torcher Damage (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Propaganda or Squad Damage or Energy or Torcher Damage
    • Skill set to add – Improved Propaganda or Big Bang Effect
  • La Quica and Kitara
    • Ability – Additional Energy for each building destroyed (up to 40%)
    • Talents to add – Extra Energy or Propaganda or Squad Damage or Torcher damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect or Improved Propaganda
  • Alan, Widow & Flare
    • Ability – Flashbang Duration (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Flashbang or Squad Damage or extra energy or Torcher Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect

ARMED TRUCK SQUAD

  • David and Parca
    • Ability – Boosts Squad Damage (up to 80%) and Armour (up to 22%) for first 15 seconds
    • Talents to add – Propaganda or Squad Damage or Energy or Armed Truck Damage
    • Skill set to add – Improved Propaganda or Big Bang Effect
  • La Quica and Kitara
    • Ability – Additional Energy for each building destroyed (up to 40%)
    • Talents to add – Extra Energy or Propaganda or Squad Damage or Armed Truck damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect or Improved Propaganda
  • Alan, Widow & Flare
    • Ability – Flashbang Duration (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Flashbang or Squad Damage or extra energy
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect
  • Diesel
    • Ability – Armed Truck damage (up to 35%)
    • Talents to add – Flashbang or Squad Damage or extra energy or Armed Truck Damage
    • Skill set to add – Big Bang Effect

TIPS

Ultimately you want to build up 3x truck squads, so that’s 12 sics to support Armed Trucks

But in the meantime, build up 2x flashbang squads, 2x firebomb squads, 2x fuego squads

You do need to get good talents and skill sets on each sicario (different talents required for each type of Sicario), as they make a huge difference, so make sure you ask those in the cartel as they can guide you further.

DEFENSIVE SICARIOS GUIDE

OVERVIEW

FTX has created so many different sicarios, it is very easy to spend time upgrading sicarios that are actually not very good, so having said that, the following sicarios are the best to use, based on our own experience.

NB: Whilst we appreciate you may not have any or all of these sicarios , the goal is to work towards these. You should use the best of what you have until you can obtain the following.

DON NETO

  • Ability – Building Health inc Guerilla buildings (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage or Building Health
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

JOAQUIN & ESPINA

  • Ability – Machine guns reduce targets attack speed for 5 sec (up to 80%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

PACHO

  • Ability – Health to nearby defences (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

SAPPER

  • Ability – Building Damage, landmine and C4 (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

HECTOR PALMA

  • Ability – Building Health inc Guerilla buildings (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage or Building Health
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

MAEVE

  • Ability – Enemies gain less energy for destroying your buildings (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

BUTCHER

  • Ability – Building Damage (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

ISABELLA

  • Ability – Building Damage inc Guerilla buildings (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

SEBASTIAN

  • Ability – Building Damage, landmine and C4 (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Building Damage
  • Skill set to add – Ground Defence

VETERAN SICARIOS GUIDE

OVERVIEW

There are two Veteran Sicarios. They are called Rosa and Cuervo. In order to create a veteran sicario, you need to collect 300 dice, and a range of other sicarios at different levels that will be used (and subsequently removed) to create your veteran sicario. However, these Veteran Sicarios provide a great deal of use for different squads going forward.

The main difference between a normal sicario and a veteran sicario is that they have two sets of abilities.

ROSA

  • Ability – Extra energy (up to 40%) PLUS one other ability
  • Talents to add – Depends what troops or type of squad you will be using with ROSA. Usually use either Propaganda or Squad Damage or Extra Energy or specific troop Damage
  • Skill set to add – Improved Propaganda or Big Bang Effect depending on what level you are at. Lower levels can use Big Bang Effect, but higher levels should use Improved Propaganda

CUERVO

  • Ability – Fuego Damage (up to 35%) PLUS one other ability
  • Talents to add – Depends what troops or type of squad you will be using with Cuervo. You should be using Fuegos but you can use any troop type. Usually use either Propaganda or Squad Damage or Extra Energy or Fuego Damage
  • Skill set to add – Improved Propaganda or Big Bang Effect depending on what level you are at. Lower levels can use Big Bang Effect, but higher levels should use Improved Propaganda

COMPOUND SICARIOS GUIDE

OVERVIEW

Whilst there are many different types of sicarios, there are only two main sicarios that should be used:

VALESCO

  • Ability – Damage of nearby cartel defences (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Damage of nearby cartel defences
  • Skill set to add – Second Chance

EDGE

  • Ability – Health of nearby cartel defences (up to 35%)
  • Talents to add – Damage of nearby cartel defences
  • Skill set to add – Protective Fury

CARTEL WARS GUIDE

OVERVIEW

Only Cartels with a Compound can participate in Cartel Wars. Participating in Cartel Wars will net Cartel members valuable rewards, such as Ammo and Influence necessary for the Cartel development.

Ammo is needed to build and upgrade buildings on the Compound.

Influence is needed to conduct Research at the Capos Club.

WAR PHASES

Each War lasts two days:

  • Day One: Conduct exploration work and assault NPC Bases in order to receive enough materials to craft Strike Orders. Having more of these will allow you to conduct more attacks on Day Two. (Don’t worry if you don’t receive enough materials. You can always purchase more Attacks for you and your Cartel members using Gold.)
  • Day Two: This is when the real War begins. On this day, you and your Cartel members must attack your opponent Cartel members’ Compounds.

You can spend your Attacks to help destroy the enemy Cartel Compound. It doesn’t matter when you attack the enemy Compound, your Cartel members will receive more rewards for its destruction depending on the percent of damage they altogether inflicted.

Be wise in choosing your opponents, as the maximum number of points are received when you raid someone’s Compound for the first time! Your base can be raided a maximum of 3 times during a War.

HOW IS THE REWARD DETERMINED?

The amount of Ammo and Influence your cartel can receive after you finish a War depends on the overall number of Attacks performed by your Cartel members.

If your Cartel wins a War, it also receives an additional amount of Ammo and Influence dependent on the defeated enemy’s Compound level.

8 MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF THE WAR

There is a certain period of time set by the game for an attack. This is typically 8 minutes. To give players the chance to use the full amount of allotted time. The game therefore does not allow attacks to start within the last 8 minutes of the war finishing.

HOW TO START A WAR?

In order to participate in Cartel Wars, your Cartel should have at least 10 members who have the “Participate in Cartel Wars” checkbox marked in the Cartel Options menu. After that, the Capo or one of the Right Hands will be able to start a War search. When another cartel accepts your challenge, based on how the game matches up your opponents, or when you accept another cartels challenge, the war starts.

WHAT ARE STRIKE ORDERS?

You’ll want to attack Compounds on Day One to obtain materials used to craft Strike Orders. Strike Orders are crafted in the Workshop and these allow up to two additional attacks on Day Two. The game will give you one attack on Day Two, to go with your two crafted attacks, which gives you a total of three attacks for the war.

DESERTERS

If you left your Cartel during a War or War Search, you are deemed to be a deserter. As a punishment, you will not be able to enter another Cartel for at least 48 hours after abandoning your post.

NB: If a member of the leadership group kicks you, then you are free to join another cartel, without the 48 hour stand-down period.

WHY CAN’T I PARTICIPATE IN THE CURRENT WAR?

In order to participate in a Cartel War, the following requirements must be met:

1. Go to the Cartel Options menu and check if your participation status is ON
2. Check your member numbers: If your chosen opponent’s Cartel has fewer members than are in your Cartel, they will be excluded from the War.

NB: If you change your participation status during a War Search, the change will not be applied to the current War, but rather the next one.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT CARTELS?

  • Cartels:
    To join a Cartel, your Finca must be level 5 or higher and the Cartel Port must be restored. Then you can join a Cartel or create your own.
  • Cartel Members:
    A Cartel can have up to 50 members.

    All members have access to Cartel chat, can donate raw materials to the Cartel bank, speed up building construction or speed up Research at Capos Club and attack opponents. Cartel members can also assign Sicarios to protect the Compound.

    The Capo of your Cartel establishes conditions for admission to the Cartel, manages the Cartel account (and the team members), builds and extends objects at the Compound, assigns and removes Sicarios protecting the Cartel Compound, declares Wars and starts Research in the Capos Club. Right Hands are his closest allies and can do the same. A Cartel can only have one Capos Club.

    Lieutenants have less power, but still can manage the Cartel account and the team members (with the exception of other lieutenants), build and expand objects at the Compound, start research at the Capos Club, and assign a Sicario to protect the Compound. A Cartel can have up to 5 Lieutenants or Right Hands, or a mix of both.

    Falcons can assign 1 Sicario to protect the Cartel base. A Cartel can have up to 10 Falcons.

    Recruits have the usual rights of all Cartel members.

  • Compound:
    The Compound is the area where the Cartel headquarters is located. It is necessary to build a Compound to begin a War.

    The following buildings are located on Cartel Compounds:
    – The Cartel Finca: This determines the energy points of the Cartel and allows the construction of new buildings. If the Cartel Finca is destroyed, the Compound as a whole is destroyed.
    – Weapons: These are used to defend the Compound.
    – The Ammo Factory: This produces a certain amount of ammunition every 4 hours and is required to build and upgrade buildings on the Compound. Upgrade the Factory to increase its efficiency.
    – The Capos Club: Here you can conduct Research to unlock upgrades and benefits for all Cartel members. Upgrade the Capos Club to gain access to top Research.
    – Storages: These keep resources needed to upgrade buildings on the Compound.
    – Cartel Bank: All Cartel members can donate resources to help develop the Compound. Those who donate regularly will be rewarded. (When a member leaves a Cartel, they take all of their unused resources that have been donated.)

TIP

As a low level player, do not get caught up wanting to do Cartel Wars for two reasons.
1. You probably don’t have the squads and sicarios to war.
2. It’ll cost you more in resources to participate than what you get back in a successful campaign.

Just keep donating to the cartel and that’ll help you in the long run.

RAIDS AND CHEST EVENTS GUIDE

OVERVIEW

Raids and Chest events are your best opportunity to get awesome rewards for your base, whether it is in resources, sicarios, chests, dice … whenever you see a raid make sure you participate (if you can). Below is a list of different events, and we will give you a strategy for getting the best result (as a lower level player). The strategy changes as you become a higher level player, but by then, you should be able to work out your own strategies.

The following are the majority of events, however FTX will also have seasonal events, that will be similar to one of those listed below. Watch out for those.

SMUGGLER CHALLENGE

This is all about moving product. When you click on the hangar, it’ll present you a list of available flights. Each flight has different points depending on the length of the flight. You can see the associated points on the left side of the flight.
You need to get a minimum of 30 points before you qualify for a reward, so either get producing in the lab to generate more product, or attack more bases on your global map to get product.
NB: HINTS

  • You will eventually see yellow flights. These are always 12 hours long but come with 15 points, so wherever possible, use these to get to 30 points and beyond.
  • If you have a number of flights of short time frames or a small number of points, you can swap them out for other flights. You can only do these when you have no active flights though. It’ll also take 4 hours to generate a new flight, so choose carefully.
  • If you don’t have any 15 point flights, swap out all 1, 2 and 8 point flights. The optimum points per hour flights are the 4 hour flights, so keep those.
  • You can actually start your first flight for the smuggler challenge before the challenge actually starts. So if you have a yellow 12 hour flight available, you can start this flight 11 hours 59min before the challenge starts, so when it does start, you only have to wait 1 min before getting 15 points. So time your flights wisely.
  • You can’t finish your flights after the challenge has finished though. So if you have a flight that is in the air and the challenge is about to finish, the only way of counting it is to bring it home early, which means using gold to finish the flight.
  • Keep generating new flights so that you have a higher chance of getting the yellow 15 point flights.
  • When the challenge ends, and you still have the yellow 15 point flights, save them for the next smuggler challenge. That way you will get heads start on the next smuggler challenge.

ELITE RAID

Your first choice here is to choose between a Normal or Hard raid. We have found that the difference between normal and hard (especially at the lower levels) are very miniscule, so go on, give hard a go … you know you can do it!! The bases you attack are usually quite easy, so your first choice option for attacking should be a strong firebomb squad. If you cannot destroy the finca using a combination of 2 firebombs and 2-3 flashbangs, you should be able to finish off the attack by deploying your troops. If you do not have a firebomb squad, you can use a missile squad. The object is to be able to destroy as much of the finca as possible before deploying. Some people take exception to non deploy attacks, but you need to do whatever you can to succeed. Remember, this is about you, not them.

DIRECTIVES OR GUERILLA MATERIALS RAID

Similar to an Elite Raid, but you need to choose which raid type you want to complete in. Directives or Guerilla materials, and then whether you want to choose a normal or hard level. We have found that the difference between normal and hard (especially at the lower levels) are very miniscule, so go on, give hard a go … you know you can do it!! The bases you attack are usually quite easy, so your first choice option for attacking is a strong firebomb squad. If you cannot destroy the finca using a combination of 2 firebombs and 2-3 flashbangs, you should be able to finish off the attack by deploying your troops. If you do not have a firebomb squad, you can use a missile squad. The object is to be able to destroy as much of the finca as possible before deploying. Some people take exception to non deploy attacks, but you need to do whatever you can to succeed. Remember, this is about you, not them.

BOUNTY HUNT

This event is a cartel-based event, so you need to work as a team to generate points. The Bounty is held over 3 days. Each day you have a minimum of 3 attacks to complete.

Additional attacks can be crafted from material earned in chests and then crafted in the workshop. Each attack earns points if you win. If you lose, you don’t earn any points and you lose one of your attacks. Points are awarded depending on the level of opponent. The lower levels are 20 and 40, and the higher levels are 60 or 100.

The goal is to get the most points as a cartel against the other cartels you are competing against. As the cartel passes different points tallies, chests are awarded with rewards getting larger and better as the cartel gains more points. Make sure you open and claim the rewards as you they become available. At the end of the 3 day event, a statue will be awarded for the top 6 teams. Each statue comes with different levels of bonuses. The Gold Bounty Statue usually provides the best rewards from any of the events, therefore the Cartel Leadership group will guide you around what is best strategy for the Cartel to win the Gold Statue.

Once the statue has been awarded, you have 3 days to place the statue on your base. After this time, you will forfeit the statue.

If the leadership team has created a Bounty Hunt Cartel that you have moved to, solely for this event, make sure you place the statue before you leave the cartel to return you’re your main cartel. If you haven’t placed it when you leave, you will forfeit the statue.

SICARIO CHALLENGE

This challenge is a simple challenge. You got points to upgrading your sicarios. The more you upgrade, the more points you get. Rewards are quite good, so definitely an event to do.

NB: HINT
If you upgrade your sicarios up to level 30, then you get more points for the $ value that you are spending.

CHALLENGERS CLUB

This challenge takes place over two days. On the first day, you need to choose one of three different base layouts to use and upgrade. The goal is to make it as hard as possible for the 8 people in your challenge to beat your base.

Once you have chosen your base, you can choose up to 8 different ways to protect your base, however you can only choose up to 4 at a time. The key is to change the options provided to you by the game until you have a strong defence. However… two things to remember, 1. Each time you change a defence option, it’ll cost you some of your time points. The maximum time points you can have is 100 points, and it takes 10 hours to regenerate these points so use them wisely. 2. You need to attack your base with these defence options against you. If you can beat your own base, then these defensive options get locked in. i.e You might have an option that says you cannot use firebombs, so if you have a firebomb team, you need to think of a different way to attack your base. Or maybe, it’ll have an option of no attacking with Fuegos, so how can you attack your base if you use Fuegos? That’s where it gets interesting.

When day two starts, you need to attack the other 8 people in your challenge to get points. Points are obtained by how quickly you can attack the bases, or how much destruction you can do to a base etc. The more points you score the better the end result will be for you.

CARTEL CHEST

The event is a cartel event. The goal of cartel chest is to collectively gain as many cartel medals as possible. The more you collect the higher the overall cartel chest count will be. There are 11 chests in total.

Each subsequent chest has greater rewards than the previous and also requires more medals to complete them. The Level 11 chest is the final one and has the greatest rewards. To track the cartel chest progress, go into the cartel menu (Blue C) and select the chest icon.

Typically, the cartel chest tournament starts on a Friday afternoon and runs for 2 days 6 hours. The main point to take away here is that individually we will have our own chest counts but it is all about the cartel collective number that matters in the end.

  • Chest 0 – 40 attacks
  • Chest 1 – 50 attacks
  • Chest 2 – 70 attacks
  • Chest 3 – 90 attacks
  • Chest 4 – 150 attacks
  • Chest 5 – 200 attacks
  • Chest 6 – 250 attacks
  • Chest 7 – 250 attacks
  • Chest 8 – 300 attacks
  • Chest 9 – 300 attacks
  • Chest 10 – 300 attacks

Total of 2000 attacks to reach Chest 11

Cartel chest has great rewards like dice, sicario contracts and resources so it is worth collectively working together to succeed together especially for lower level players in a cartel who need resources to help grow.

Now the big question, how do I get cartel chest medals and what are some tips and tricks?

There are many ways to gain chest medals and there are also some tips and tricks into being able to get more than usual.

  1. The first traditional way to gain medals is to successfully attack the main outposts on your map. The small outposts will not give you a chest medal. Only the larger outposts.
  2. The second way, even though it is similar to the first point with a subtle difference is the free sicario outposts on your map. Main difference with these outposts and the normal large one is that they refresh. Giving you a chance at more medals over the weekend!
  3. Each successful war attack is rewarded with a chest medal when the attack is made during the weekend tournament.
  4. Revenge attacks each have a chest medal as a reward. These can be found on the LHS (Left Hand Side) menu named – ‘Events’. Where you see your home base has been raided, there will be a revenge option unless the enemy attack was taking revenge on you!

NB: TIPS

  1. How to improve resource centre turnover. Once you takeover a resource centre, put the main outpost out front so that it makes it easier for another player to steal your resource centre.
    Why would you do this you may ask? So you can take it back and get resources again as well as the cartel chest medal! again, and again and again
  2. Increase your revenge attacks by putting your main finca on your base out front. This will cause your revenge attacks to start piling up. Dont use them during the week. Save them for the weekend for cartel chest!
  3. Even though smaller outposts do not reward you with a cartel chest medal. After 24 hours each base gives you an option to ‘find another’. Using this option on a smaller outpost sometimes changes it into a larger one.

    This gives you an option of having another chest medal as well as greater resources (larger outposts reward more)

ROULETTE (still to be completed)

NIGHTMARE RAID (still to be completed)

TIPS FOR ATTACKING

The best combination of attacking a base for a non deployed attack is

  • 2 firebombs and
  • 2-3 flashbangs (depending on how much energy you have)

This will give you the best opportunity to destroy the finca of the base you are attacking.

TIPS FOR FASTER TIMES

As you destroy more than half the finca, you will see a speedup popup on the right side of the screen. As long as you have delivered your attacks of 2 firebombs and 2-3 flashbangs, or whatever your attack consists of, you can speed-up the attack by clicking on the speedup popup to show 4x. This will allow you to complete an attack faster. Do this across the entire raid event and you will save more than a few minutes.

Well peeps, that’s about all we have for you, so get out there and make the most of the knowledge shared within this guide. If you have any ongoing questions, chat with your cartel members, as they carry a wealth of information. But still use common sense, as some people may point you in the wrong direction. You will notice this as people move between cartels especially at the higher end. Another point is to be careful of Global Chat. People can get very personal and nasty, which we don’t understand as this is just a game.

Enjoy