Key takeaways
- The core of Archrebel Tactics is a turn-based action-economy loop: scout to reveal, force the enemy to move into your overwatch, then spend two of your activations to remove one of theirs. Everything else — squad slots, upgrade order, mission…
The core of Archrebel Tactics is a turn-based action-economy loop: scout to reveal, force the enemy to move into your overwatch, then spend two of your activations to remove one of theirs. Everything else — squad slots, upgrade order, mission choice — exists to protect that trade. If you take one thing from this guide, take this: in your first ten missions, buy a second scout and two medkits before you buy a single weapon upgrade, because information and recovery win more fights than raw damage does.
The numbers below are standard-campaign baselines rather than patch-specific values. Balance patches adjust them, so treat the in-game codex as the final word for your build and use these figures to plan your spending and squad shape.
How the Combat Loop Actually Works
The combat loop is a five-step cycle that repeats every turn: reveal, position, bait, concentrate, and extract. Each step exists because of a specific rule, and skipping one is what causes most new-player losses.
- Reveal before you commit. Send your cheapest unit forward to scan. A scout costs 1 action point to move four tiles and 1 AP to scan, so a single scout can map most of a small map in two turns. Reason: you cannot plan overwatch lanes against enemies you cannot see, and walking a rifleman into an unseen firing line wastes 12 HP you cannot get back.
- Position on cover, not on objectives. Half cover reduces incoming hit chance by 25 percentage points; full cover reduces it by 50. Reason: at eight tiles, a baseline 65% shot becomes 40% against half cover and 15% against full cover — that is the difference between taking three hits and taking one.
- Bait the enemy into spending actions. Place one unit in overwatch on a lane the enemy must cross. Reason: overwatch converts your unused AP into damage during the enemy’s turn, so a unit that ends its turn in cover with a shot loaded is worth more than a unit that fired into half cover for chip damage.
- Concentrate fire on one target per turn. Spread damage across three enemies and you fight three units at full strength; kill one and you remove roughly a quarter of the enemy’s actions that turn. Reason: enemy HP pools are small enough that focus fire shortens fights, and shorter fights mean fewer enemy turns to absorb.
- Extract before the reinforcement counter hits zero. Most missions run a turn timer that spawns additional enemies once it expires. Reason: the loot you lose by leaving one crate behind is smaller than the cost of replacing a downed unit’s gear.
A Worked Damage Example
Take a baseline rifleman: 12 HP, 2 armor, carrying a rifle that rolls 6–8 damage per shot. Against an unarmored target, the average 7 damage means two hits to down a 12 HP enemy. Against a target with 2 armor, each shot loses 2 damage, so the average drops to 5 and you now need three hits. That single point of armor turns a two-shot kill into a three-shot kill — which is exactly why armor upgrades outperform weapon upgrades for the first several missions. To land those three hits reliably you need 65% or better hit chance, meaning either full cover negation through flanking or a range of six tiles or less.
Squad Building: Roles and How Many of Each
Squad slots are the hardest cap in the game. You start with four, gain a fifth at campaign rank 3 and a sixth at rank 6. Until you have six slots, every roster decision is a trade between damage and information.
| Role | Job in the loop | Baseline HP / AP / Armor | Effective range | Bring how many |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scout | Reveal, bait, grab crates | 8 / 2 / 0 | 10 tiles | 1 (2 from rank 4) |
| Rifleman | Reliable mid-range damage, overwatch anchor | 12 / 2 / 2 | 8 tiles | 2–3 |
| Breacher | Clear buildings, finish wounded targets | 14 / 2 / 3 | 3 tiles | 1 |
| Marksman | Remove enemy overwatch from range | 9 / 2 / 1 | 16 tiles | 1 (from mission 6) |
| Support | Heal, reload allies, smoke | 10 / 2 / 1 | 6 tiles | 1 (from rank 3) |
The trade-off is real: a two-rifleman, one-scout, one-breacher squad kills faster but has no answer to a distant marksman, while swapping a rifleman for a support unit drops your damage per turn by about 20% in exchange for roughly doubling how long your front line survives. For a first playthrough, the second option is the safer default.
Resource Priorities by Situation
You have three upgrade currencies — credits, salvage, and rank points — and they do not substitute for each other. Credits buy gear and consumables, salvage pays for repairs and tier upgrades, rank points unlock squad slots and class abilities. Spending the wrong one early is the most common way new players stall around mission 8.
| Your situation | Spend first on | Skip for now | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missions 1–4, losing units | Medkits and armor plates | Weapon tier upgrades | Survivability compounds; a unit that lives keeps its XP |
| Stuck on a defense mission | Overwatch abilities and ammo capacity | Mobility perks | Defense maps reward standing still and shooting, not repositioning |
| Stuck on an extraction mission | Mobility perks and a second scout | Heavy armor | Armor penalties slow units by 1 tile per AP, which costs you the turn timer |
| Winning comfortably, no deaths | Weapon tier upgrades | Extra consumables | Faster kills reduce the number of enemy turns you absorb |
| Low on salvage, gear damaged | Repairs only | New recruits | Repair cost scales with gear tier, so repairing early is cheaper per point |
What Wears Out First
Ownership realities in Archrebel Tactics look like this: armor plates degrade after roughly three hits and must be repaired with salvage or replaced; ammunition is consumed per mission and does not carry over; medkits are single-use; and injuries persist between missions unless you spend recovery time. Weapon condition matters too — a rifle below 50% condition suffers a hit-chance penalty, and repairing it costs less than a replacement at every tier. The mistake almost every new player makes is running a damaged squad into the next mission to save salvage, then losing the unit and its accumulated XP.
Early-Game Progression Steps
Follow these in order and you will clear the first act without a wipe.
- Missions 1–2: run the default four-unit squad, take no optional objectives, and finish with everyone alive. Reason: your first priority is learning the cover and overwatch timings, and optional objectives pull you out of cover.
- Mission 3: spend your first credits on two medkits and one armor plate, not a weapon. Reason: this is where the difficulty curve first sends armored enemies, and armor on your side changes the shot math in your favor.
- Missions 4–5: recruit a second scout. Reason: two scouts reveal a map in one turn each, which lets you set overwatch lanes before the enemy moves.
- Rank 3: unlock the fifth squad slot and add a support unit. Reason: healing between fights removes the between-mission recovery downtime that costs you campaign turns.
- Mission 6 onward: add a marksman and start weapon tier upgrades. Reason: enemy marksmen appear here, and the only efficient counter is out-ranging them.
- Before every mission: repair all gear above the 50% condition threshold and top up ammo. Reason: repair cost rises with tier, and entering a fight at reduced condition effectively removes a unit from your squad.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many units should I bring on a mission?
Bring every slot you have unless the mission brief specifies a stealth or solo objective. There is no upkeep cost for fielding a full squad, and extra units generate extra actions. The only exception is stealth missions, where an extra unit increases your chance of being detected before the objective is reached.
Is overwatch always better than taking a shot?
No. Overwatch is better when the enemy has to move through a lane you already cover, and worse when the enemy is already in cover and will simply stay there. A useful rule: if the target is in half cover or better and you cannot flank this turn, set overwatch and let them come to you.
Should I upgrade weapons or armor first?
Armor first, for roughly the first six missions. The math is straightforward — two points of armor raises the shots needed to kill a unit from two to three, which is a 50% increase in effective health. Weapon upgrades raise damage by a smaller margin early on and only pay off once you consistently hit flanking shots.
What happens if a unit dies during a mission?
Downed units can be stabilized by an adjacent ally with a medkit before the mission ends. If the mission ends without stabilization, the unit is lost permanently along with its gear and accumulated XP. That loss is the main reason armor and medkits beat weapon upgrades in the early campaign.
Do I need to grind side missions?
You do not need to, but running two or three optional side missions per act keeps your salvage balance ahead of repair costs. If you are clearing main missions without losing units, skip the grind and push forward instead — the campaign rewards tempo more than it rewards stockpiling.
Which difficulty should a new player pick?
Start one step below the default. The lower difficulty reduces enemy damage and relaxes the reinforcement timers rather than changing the rules, so the combat loop still teaches the same lessons. Move up once you can clear three consecutive missions without a downed unit.
