Chess Rush Beginner’s Guide: Cheats, Tips and Strategies

Chess Rush is Tencent’s brand new take on the Auto Chess sensation currently gripping mobile and PC. Much like in the games it draws inspiration from, you’ll build a team from over 50 heroes and place them in formation before sending them out into battle against seven other opponents. Battles take place on an 8×8 grid and pit eight players against each other for dominance.

Tencent’s effort includes a Turbo Mode, which drastically speeds up the typically slow game, condensing games down into a mere 10 minutes. It also includes co-op for those that want to play with their friends.

In this guide, we’re going to provide a few tips and tricks to help you get started with the latest Auto Chess-like by Tencent. Given how complex these games are, don’t expect it to get you competing with the best of them, but it should suffice in helping you not get absolutely destroyed during your first few games.

Chess Rush Tips and Tricks:

• How Chess Rush works: If you’ve played an Auto Chess game before, you’ll know exactly how Chess Rush works as it’s no different from the rest. If not, here’s a quick breakdown. You play against seven other players. Each round you’ll get the opportunity to spend some Mana on new hero units, which you can then place into a formation on the grid. You only have a limited amount of time to do this so try not to take forever. The basic premise is, you build an effective team, pop the heroes into a formation that makes sense – tanks in front, healers at the back, damage dealers somewhere in between – and then watch the battles play out. You’ll also need to pay attention to bonus perks you can pick up by fielding heroes of the same race and class, and try and increase the star rating of your favourite heroes by purchasing more of the same units. Three of the same units can be combined into a two star unit and three two star units can be combined into a three star unit.
• Play a few games to get a feel for it: Before you even think about strategy and all that jazz, just load up and play a few games. Chess Rush, much like all other Auto Chess games, is a complex experience and you’re simply not going to be a master after your first game – or, indeed, first few games. So we recommend just playing a few to get a feel for the mechanics. Mix it up a bit too. Try out different heroes, combinations, and races. Unlock a bunch of bonus perks. Collect and equip equipment. Get a feel for how you like to play and you’ll probably find yourself developing a play style.
• Have a glance through the heroes list for class and race bonuses: Once you feel more familiar with the game and its mechanics, we recommend hitting the ‘Heroes’ button on the bottom left of the main menu screen and glancing through them. Tap on their skills, racial bonuses, and class bonuses and read through everything. See what benefits your play style and start selecting the heroes and races that you prefer. It might be that you want to end up taking six warriors or six humans, or a mixture of the lot. The only way you’ll know is by learning what each hero, race, and skill does. Well, that and putting it into practice.
• Equip all gear you pick up: During certain rounds of Chess Rush, you’ll fight PvE opponents rather than PvP. Often, these enemies will drop gear that you can equip your heroes with to increase their statistics. Simply tap on the chest to the right of the grid, tap on a piece of equipment, and then tap on the hero that you want to equip it with. Make sure to equip heroes that you actually field though, rather than waste it on a hero that just sits on the bench.
• Use recommended formations and heroes: When you’re starting to learn the game, it’s a good idea to use the recommended heroes and formations. You can find these from within the menu that you purchase heroes from. Simply tap ‘Recommended Lineup’ then browse through the list of hero combinations and formations for something that suits you.

Glen Fox

Head of Editorial

Glen has over a decade's worth of experience in gaming journalism, writing for Pocket Gamer, Pocket Tactics, Nintendo Life, and Gfinity. When he's not badgering everyone about the dangers of passive text, you can probably find him playing Wild Rift.