Command & Conquer: Rivals Tips, Cheats & Guide to Dominate Your Enemy

EA’s highly anticipated Command & Conquer: Rivals is finally here and despite the early criticism, I consider it a really good game that does bring up some nostalgia. But today we’re here to help you become a better player by sharing some Command & Conquer: Rivals tips and cheats in our complete strategy guide.

With a different approach to a genre that has been done over and over again since Clash Royale took the mobile market by storm, C&C Rivals is unique and innovative, with great mechanics and solid balance. It’s also extremely difficult since other players you’re pitted against want to win as well and might have a few tricks up their sleeves… so we’ll try to take care of that too.

In today’s article, we’re going to learn how to play Command & Conquer: Rivals, as well as go through a general guide for the game to help you become better and progress faster. So let’s just get straight into the Command & Conquer Rivals tips and tricks below!

Complete the daily missions
If there’s one thing that you have to do on a daily basis, that is completing the daily missions, known as Bounties. Each mission that you complete will give you a really nice reward, and completing all five will reward you with a crate that has a lot of goodies inside.

Collecting resources is extremely difficult in the game and this simple habit of completing the daily missions each day will take you very far in the long run.

Don’t forget to level up your commander!
One of the things you’re not told about in the tutorial and it might take some time to find out about it is that you can level up your Commander as well. Simply go to the Upgrade menu and scroll all the way to the right to find your commander there, waiting to be leveled up.

Focus on the basic troops first
Early on in the game (and even later on in the game), your cheap, low level troops will be extremely important. These are easy to spam build and convenient due to their low cost. Therefore, investing some resources in leveling them up and making them better is never a bad idea.

I recommend getting your basic barracks units (the Riflemen and Missile Squad) to level 3 as fast as possible to remain competitive early on, then focus on the Rhino and Pitbull. These four units will most likely stay with you for a long time as you will always need some lower cost troops early on, otherwise you’re toast!

However, after these troops, don’t focus too much on upgrading all your cards. You will unlock more as you go up the ranks and unlock crates, and your priorities will most likely change very fast. And with resources really difficult to get in massive numbers, it would be a waste of them to focus on units you will never use.

Selecting the best units for your deck
But what units to use? No matter what happens, you only have 6 total units that you can bring into battle, even though you have 4 different types of buildings that can train even more troops each. So selecting the best to bring into battle is essential.

Normally, the rarer units have the better stats, so always look at that when deciding who to focus on. But also look at the costs, because these are essential in early game. You can’t bring nothing but Epics into battle, each costing over 100 credits, since you will probably never even have time to build them.

Check out the stats of all the troops – even those you haven’t unlocked and try to create a strategy based on their stats and costs. For example, in the case of GDI troops, the War Dogs is an essential unit that will eventually replace your Riflemen (the cost the same but have tons more hit points and are faster), while most of the Air Units are overpowered since they can fly over any kind of terrain and have very low prices.

And finally, you have all those amazing troops in the Tech Lab: expensive but extremely good.

But how to mix them all up in just 6 slots? Well, you should consider that the game follows a rock, paper, scissors mechanic meaning that some troops are strong against others and weak against the third type (while a very select few have bonuses against structures Commanders can build).

In other words, have a unit ready to counter a different type of unit, otherwise the enemy will be at an advantage and spawn that OP unit until you’re done. My recommendation is to bring two basic and very cheap units into battle (like the first two Barracks Units), then 2-3 air units as they are extremely powerful at this moment and round things up with 1-2 Tech Lab units that will simply destroy your opponent. I personally love the Wolverine / Zone Trooper combo in the Tech Lab and everybody unlocks them early on.

If things don’t work well with your current setup, try making small changes and test new layouts. Usually, simply switching from a unit to a different one can make a really big difference!

How to unlock new unit producing buildings?
If you’re just starting to play Command & Conquer Rivals and all this talk about the Helipad and Tech Lab makes no sense because you simply can’t build these structures in the game, worry not – it’s actually really easy to enable these!

All you have to do is to tap either GDI or NOD and in the new screen, tap the button that allows you to edit your deck. From there, simply start adding units to your deck that are from either the Helipad or the Tech Lab and you will automatically have the buildings unlocked in the next battle as well!

In battle, take things slow and steady
Although there are players who are successful with all sort of rush strategies, I don’t really think that the game is fit for such right now because there’s a cooldown timer in place and spamming units is not really possible.

Instead, be strategic and take things slowly: build your cheapest troops first and take over one of the three areas in the game, then keep building and reinforce that base. Usually, the best approach here is to build 2 cheapest units first (usually the Riflemen) and then one anti-vehicle unit.

During this time, you will most likely have access to see what the other player is doing and building. Next, start building units that will counter theirs and head towards the second base – or be bold and attack them with your units that have the advantage. Then take the time to reinforce and hold onto that second base.

There is absolutely no need and you should never try to hold all three as it’s impossible to properly defend them all. You might be forced over the course of the battle to change the two areas that you own, but always aim to have those two and never three. And most important, be patient and plan ahead!

Possible strategy: Rush for the harverster
The only strategy that I have tried with moderate success and it is pretty fun, truth be told, is the one where you build one-two units that are strong against vehicles first and send them hunting for the enemy’s harvester. Taking it out is a big loss for them and does set them back a little, so you can try this approach as well.

I found out that in most cases it fails and results in me losing the game, but it’s really nice to win when it works and it’s the most adrenaline-filled approach I have tried so far.

Don’t rush to fill up the missile’s meter
Getting back to the being patient part, I would also underline the importance of being ready for the missile launch. It doesn’t really matter who has the upper hand during most of the battle, but who owns the most bases when the missile is about to launch.

So even if your enemy seems to have the upper hand and fills the meter fast, you can still turn things around and make all his or her work become your advantage if you get the 2 bases before the meter fills up to the bar where no change is allowed afterwards.

And the same goes the other way: if you rush to fill the rocket’s meter but you spread your defenses too thin, you risk having the enemy steal it from you and launch it your way. So be patient and take things slow and steady!

This is all that we have for you in terms of Command & Conquer: Rivals tips and tricks. If you have additional advice for fellow players or more specific questions, don’t hesitate to let us know.