This Beginner's guide aims to help new players with the basics of Injustice: Gods Among Us mobile.
Tutorial[]
Start the tutorial by tapping the "Play" button at bottom left. The tutorial is fairly straightforward. Don't worry if you aren't dealing any damage - it's supposed to be that way in the tutorial. Just follow the simple instructions, it's mainly to get familiar with the controls.
WBID[]
Logging in to an WBID is strongly recommended, as it allows you to have a cloud save of the game to recover if something happens to the save on your phone. It is also required to access Online Battles.
Logging in every day grants a reward. The first being 2000 Power Credits and one random bronze or silver character is awarded every 10 days. Every 80th day will grant you a free gold The Joker/Insurgency card, giving you a headstart in higher tiers of the game. Alliance Credits can be also collected there.
Console Game[]
Additionally, it grants access to the console rewards. Note that even if you don't have the console version, signing up for WBID would always award you with Green Lantern/New 52, who has the second highest damage out of all bronze cards and a passive that gives his team +5% maximum health.
The mobile game's gameplay has almost nothing in common with the console game (except for some familiar looking animations and similar Super Moves). However, console unlocks may prove useful if you have it as they have absolutely no requirement to be used in the mobile game itself and provides a great head-start. There are four potential gold cards to be earned from the console game:
- Superman/Prison, while weak, is still much stronger than the bronze cards you normally have to start with, and can be obtained in single player by completing the story mode.
- Batman/Beyond (who is also weak) and Harley Quinn/Arkham (quite strong, albeit team dependent) are both unlocked through online play of the console game, and may not be available.
- A Gold Booster Pack, awarded upon reaching level 100 in the console game, which takes an extremely long time.
Most of this guide would assume you don't have access to these, but it's the same general idea, even though it would be significantly easier for the early stage of the game if you have one or more of them.
Currency[]
Power Credits[]
Power Credits is the main currency of the game. They can be obtained from completing any battle. The tutorial gives 730 credits for the first time you complete it, and zero for further completions. They could also be purchased with real life money. The best place to grind for most of the game is Bonus Battle 6, which despite rewarding fewer credits than later stages, is far easier, thus you're able to grind with much faster speed.
Nth Metal[]
Nth Metal, introduced in 3.0, is a premium currency that is difficult to obtain and only in small amounts. They can be obtained from the Phantom Zone event, the roulette wheel in Survivor Mode and from weekly Online Battle Seasons. They are used to purchase Nth Metal Packs and to evolve Metal characters. Like with Power Credits, they can also be purchased with real life money.
Alliance Credits[]
It is a currency that is collected from daily log-in rewards. Killing Joke Joker, the only character that cost alliance credits, is another possible shortcut as a gold card. Alliance credits can be spent for support cards that give bonus to ALL characters. Therefore, it's better to purchase all alliance credit support cards before buying Joker.
Valorium Alloy[]
Valorium Alloy is special currency used to upgrade Nth Metal characters' Special Attacks and Passives. It can be only founded in Phantom Zone event.
Characters[]
(Main article: Characters)
Each team consists of 3 three characters. Only one character of each team can take part in the fight at the same time. You can switch between your 3 characters during the fight (called Tag). Characters have damage and health stats, which determine how strong their attacks and how durable they are, respectively. Characters take damage when they get hit, and will be knocked out when their health reach 0.
There are 4 tiers of characters: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Nth Metal, with increasing stats and rarity. Nth Metal characters have some special mechanics that are exclusive to them. You will start with 3 bronze characters. By playing, your collection will be expanded and you will collect more powerful characters.
Characters can be only unlocked for direct promotion in store by: already available in store from the beginning, completing their Challenges, or through WBID unlocks.
(See also: Knockout)
Stats[]
(Main articles: Damage, Health)
Characters also have Support Cards to increase their stats, energy refill rate and XP bonus.
(See also: Augment)
Passive[]
Passive is ability that has a myriad of effects, like increasing all damage dealt by the team, triggering a bonus effect upon falling below a certain amount of health, modifying a special attack or super move, immunity to certain status effects, gaining special effects when teamed with certain other characters, as well as many else or a combination thereof. Each character always has their own passive, without needing to be unlocked. Nth Metal characters can upgrade their passives after evolved.
Passive has the most impact in battle along with gears, and such, should be the core criteria when building a team.
Level & Rank[]
(Main articles: Level, Promotion)
The level of a character is used to determine their stats, Damage and Health, along with promotions. Characters level up by gaining experience, which is awarded by completing matches (in either Standard Battle, Online Battle or Survivor Mode) or by applying Character XP augments. A character's level starts at 1 and caps at 50 normally. The maximum level a character can obtain is 60, which is only achievable after unlocking it in Breakthrough Mode.
There will be Double Bonus XP events happen occasionally, which double all XP rewards from battle.
Promoting or Eliting is one of the four ways to permanently increase a character's Damage and Health. The elite rank of a card can be seen as a roman numeral in the top left corner. "III" means it's at the third elite rank; this goes up to X. Fully promoted cards are often referred to as "EX" or "E10", and this applies to other ranks as well. Cards that have never been promoted don't show anything in that corner, but are referred to as "normal" on the card's interface and are sometimes referred to as "E0", or "base".
You can promote a character with an extra copy of the card. This destroys the extra copy and causes it to go up an elite rank, but does not alter the character otherwise, including the level. It does not matter whether you level or promote a character first, they'll still arrive at the same maximum stats as dictated by their base stats.
Boss[]
(Main article: Boss, Mini-Boss)
Boss and its inferior version, Mini-Boss are powerful types of enemies that you will encounter sometimes. They have boosted stats, along with other unique mechanics.
(See also: Teams, Character Tier List)
Combat[]
Block & Power[]
Block helps reduce damage taken. No other actions can be taken while blocking.
Power is generated by fighting; hitting your opponent grants a moderate amount of power, but taking hits will grant more (except in Online Battle and Survivor Mode, in which characters receive very little power when being hit). Power also generates gradually while the character is tagged out. Power is used to perform Special Attacks.
While it may seem to violate common sense, it is sometimes better to not block basic attacks as you gain faster power that way (but not in Online Battles or Survivor). However, Special Attacks should (almost) always be blocked.
Nth Metal characters have Dark Power mechanic that is exclusive to them.
Basic Attack[]
(Main article: Basic attack)
There are 2 types of Basic attack: light combo and heavy combo. They are the main way to gain power to perform the more powerful Special Attack.
(See also: Combo Ender, Juggling)
Special Attack[]
Special Attacks are powerful attack that consume power.
A very important thing to note is that in Injustice Mobile, most specials will miss entirely if your opponent is knocked down. You must hit them when they are targetable (mostly while standing). Most specials are also melee and would miss if you knock them back.
At the beginning of the game, you only have access to the first power bar, and can only use special 1 (the Super Move in the tutorial is just a demonstration). Upon reaching level 5, you can choose to unlock the special 2, which normally does three times as much damage as the special 1 and only costs twice as much power (50% more efficient). However, this is not always the case. Solomon Grundy/Regime for example, has a special 2 that deals reduced damage because it applies a poison effect that lowers enemy damage dealt, and deals damage over time, but is removed when the enemy tags out.
Note that even if you intend to use the special 1, unlocking special 2 will unlock the second power bar, allowing you to use special 1s with more flexibility and less power waste. Always rotate your team by watching the power bars on the side to maximize damage and minimize power waste, especially if the second bar is not unlocked.
Lex Luthor is a prominent case: while his special 2 is normal, his special 1 is a power drain, which hinders enemies from using specials.
Specials can be upgraded to increase their damage, but it should not be needed in earlier stats. However, completing battles may award free unlocks/upgrades that must be manually applied. Regime Catwoman and her special 2, Cat Dash, are both freely awarded; combined with Lex Luthor's damage increase passive, Cat Dash can deal very heavy damage for very early stages of the game. At merely level 10 and without upgrades, this combo can hit over 900, allowing her to potentially one-shot any character at a similar level.
Mainly fighting with Lex Luthor with his easy to use basic attacks and quick power drains to prevent enemy team from using specials, then tag in Regime Catwoman (due to her low health and fragility) for a powerful hit with Cat Dash is a decent tactic.
Harley Quinn/Prime is unique among all bronze cards to have a healing mechanism. For more information, see her page.
Some multi-hit specials can knock-out several enemies with just one use (e.g. Deadshot/Arkham Origins's SP2), while some specials will have the rest hits missed if an enemy were knocked out by the previous hit (e.g. Batman/Arkham Origins's SP2). Some other multi-hit specials can only knock out enemy at the last hit, such as Lord Joker/Batman Ninja's SP2. However, when the target is inflicted by bleed, every special hit can knock him/her out. For advanced information, see Special Attack.
(See also: Basic-Special combos, Disable Special)
Super Move[]
(Main article: Super Move)
At level 20, a character can unlock and upgrade Super Moves. Super Moves are powerful one-hit, unblockable attacks that consume 3 bars of power to use. In Online Battle, Super Moves can be defended, reducing its damage up to 50%.
Status Effect[]
(Main article: Status Effect)
Status effects are special effects that are applied on characters. Some common status effects are:
Power Drain[]
Power Drain is a common type of Status effect that drain enemy's power.
As mentioned before, you get less power for hitting basic attacks than getting hit. It's a good idea to balance the hits your opponent takes and the hits you take; if they take too many hits, they will generate power too fast for you to drain; if you take too many hits, you will take too much damage and you would have more than enough power to drain theirs.
When fighting an opponent with power drain, try taking it with a character with little to no power if you can't drain them first.
Damage-Over-Time[]
Damage-Over-Time (DOT) continuously deal damage to opponents suffering from them. There are 3 common types of DOT: Bleeding, Burn and Poison.
Stun & Freeze[]
When inflicted by stun or freeze, characters are unable to act temporary.
Other Mechanics[]
(Main articles: Crit, Damage reduction, Invulnerability, Reflect, Area Effect, Modifier, Heal, Armor)
Gear[]
(Main article: Gear)
Gear are items you equip on characters to increase their stats and give them various effects on their attacks and are critical to reaching end game and in Online Battle, but they are expensive, randomly obtained and impractical for new players. For now, focus on improving your roster. Gear is the most impactful factor in battle along with Passives, and should be utilized as each character only has 3 gear slots at max.
All gears are rewarded in their unevolved forms. Gear can be upgraded by using Shards and Power Credits.
(See also: Shard, Fuse, Shatter, Disable Gear)
Game Modes[]
There are total 6 Game Modes in the game.
Standard Battle[]
Also called Campaign, Standard Battle is the original and default mode of the game. It consists of 72 battles with increasing difficulty, and each battle consists of a few fights. It is the main source of Power Credits and is the game mode that beginners should focus on early.
(See also: Standard Battle/Strategy, Standard Battle/Match List)
Challenge Mode[]
Challenge Mode is a weekly event that offer a set of different battles for additional rewards, including powerful challenge characters. For more general information on challenges, see that page. After completing the first difficulty, the Challenge character will be unlocked in store for direct promotion, using Power Credits. Each Challenge has their own requirements (see Past Challenge Characters and Requirements for specific details).
By the time you finish area 1, you should be able to beat challenge battle 1 and most of battle 2 and 3, but challenge battle 4 and 5 would likely be impractical to attempt until you have at least obtained a gold character.
As challenges are almost always recently generated, they may contain rare cards that are not found in most of the rest of the game. Look them up on this wiki to help dealing with them if you are uncertain.
If you can't beat the whole Challenge at normal difficulty, especially Battle 5, considering to skip it with power credits. Unlocking a character for direct promotion is worth spending, especially Challenge characters that aren't available in the Challenge Booster Pack.
(See also: Past Challenge Characters and Requirements)
Online Battle[]
Online Battle is unlocked after you have at least one level 5 or above character. Online Battle, also called Multiplayer, is a battle mode in which players fight against AI-controlled teams created by other players. Online Battles have a few different rules from Standard Battle: taking hits without blocking only grants a very small amount of Power and Super Moves can be resisted for up to 50% of the Damage dealt.
Every week on Online Battles is referred to as a "season"; achieving a certain percentage rank of battle rating would award players with gear, Power Credits, Nth Metal, and occasionally unique and powerful characters. You should play this mode every week to get the season rewards, even you only play fight per season. The extra credits and nth metal are very helpful, and later you should aim for top 5% in every gear season as MP legendary gears are very powerful, some of them are game-changers. Completing Bonus Missions for easy bonus Battle Rating.
(See also: Online Battle/Strategy, Online Season Rewards, Bonus Missions, Battle Rating)
Survivor Mode[]
Survivor Mode is a game mode that allows players to create a team of three members (with three reserves) to fight more difficult enemies as they progress with different mechanics, and for rewards that culminate in a jackpot, and tickets for the Last Laugh minigame. Notable rewards include Augments and gear sets, which give set bonuses when 2 or 3 pieces are equipped. Survivor can be played for free once per day, and you can spend credits to play more, up to total 5 playthroughs per day.
This mode is a good mode to play early on, as it gives over 1,000 credits per match, much more than Standard Battle at this stage. You can also have chances to collect powerful Gear Set.
(See also: Last Laugh, Heal Suppression)
Breakthrough[]
Breakthrough is the game mode that unlocks characters for a Promotion up to Elite X and level up to 60. Internet connection is required. In order to enter, ALL characters on the team must be at least Elite 7 and Level 50 or higher, and all of them must be a specific rarity (Bronze, Silver, Gold) required at the time. Additionally, if the rarity is gold, at least one of them must be one of the required characters (e.g. Superman or Wonder Woman), similar to battle 2, 4 or 5 for Challenge Mode or a character that has passed the Breakthrough at least once.
The cost of entry is 10 Energy, which pays for all 3 matches. For now, you can't enter it because of your limited collection.
Phantom Zone[]
Phantom Zone is the most recent game mode introduced in the 3.0 Update. It grants Nth Metal used to purchase the Nth Metal Pack, Nth Metal Pro Pack, or Nth Metal Ultimate Pack; it is one of the ways to obtain Metal characters. Internet connection is required. Complete trials to unlock a boss fight once enough are earned. Completing the boss fight powers Phantom Zone Projector Crystal(s) and rewards you with Nth Metal and Valorium Alloy, which is used to upgrade metal characters' specials and is exclusive to this mode.
Phantom Zone stays for two weeks, then leaves for two weeks. Phantom Zone can be reset twice per event at the cost of 50 Nth Metal each. Phantom Zone is a great opportunity to get free Nth Metal and characters, and even a weak collection can still complete it.
(See also: Phantom Zone/Strategy, Phantom Zone/Objectives)
Energy[]
Energy is required to enter fights. Each character has 10 energy that will charge over time. Rotating your roster would be useful to avoid running out of energy.
Store[]
In Injustice there are a lot of ways to get different characters. You can buy them directly from the store, you can obtain them by completing a challenge or you can buy booster packs. If you exclusively like one character, you will actually prefer to buy it directly from the store. For bronze and silver, this is a good method, but the gold characters are even twice as expensive as the booster pack, so buying packs is easier and it offers a bigger variety of characters, that can help if you want to achieve a challenge character from its active challenge, where you need 3 different characters to accomplish the battles.
There are more types of packs, but for the beginning the Gold and the Challenge Booster pack are the most affordable ones. In a gold booster pack exist 17 characters, including Shazam, so after buying some packs, you will be able to promote them. In the challenge pack, you can find some very powerful characters that appeared in previous Challenges, but the chances to receive them again are very low and you will not be able to elite them directly.
Pack[]
Gold Booster Pack: Contains 1 of these: store characters (not all), 3 Red Son characters, or the rare Harley Quinn/Arkham or Shazam/Prime. A bad pack and should be bought for an early gold team only, or collecting the Red Son, Arkham Harley Quinn and especially Shazam.
Challenge Booster Pack: Contains 1 Challenge character. This is where you should spent you credits for a long period of the game. 50% more expensive than the Gold Booster Pack, but worth it. Some great drops are: Jessica Cruz/Rebirth, Wonder Woman/New 52, Raven/Rebirth, Raven/Teen Titans and a few more.
Gear Locker: Get 3 random piece of unevolved 1-3 star gear, with a small chance for the powerful Ra's al Ghul's Dagger. Only buy it mid-game for the Ra's al Ghul's Scimitar, as it is too costly for your starter budget for now.
Nth Metal Pack: Contains 1 gold or small chance for Nth Metal character. A good pack for beginners, but you really should spend those valuable nth elsewhere.
Nth Metal Pro Pack: One of the best 2 packs to spend nth metal for. Contains one Challenge or Nth Metal character. Also 2% chance for unevolved epic gear.
Nth Metal Ultimate Pack: The other great place to spend nth metal. Contain one Online Battle or high chance for Nth Metal character. Small chance for DOUBLE Nth Metal characters, and unevolved epic gear. For end game, this is the pack you want to purchase, but for now, just buy the Pro Pack instead.
Character[]
When you get a character from a challenge or through Console unlock, you unlock direct promotions. This means, for a certain number of credits (up to 500,000) you can promote the character. However, this is very costly.
Some decent characters unlocked in store in the beginning to buy early on (This assumes that you haven't unlocked any Challenge characters. Since the Challenge changes every week, we can't give the exact advices.):
Bronze
- Deathstroke/Insurgency: his high stats and powerful SP2 can help you easily clear the enemy teams early.
- Lex Luthor/Prime: proving unrivaled damage boost for both bronze and silver characters!
- Nightwing/Prime: a good tank with power drain on SP1.
- The Flash/Prime: best basic attacker who can juggle enemy with his fast heavy combo, especially after boosted by his passive.
Silver
- Cyborg/Regime: His passive is bugged and will increase his power generation by the massive 50% even when he's the active character!
- Nightwing/Regime: an upgrade of his bronze variation.
- Green Lantern/Regime: arguably the best silver character, his power generation increase can empower any team, even for gold characters.
- The Flash/Regime: best silver basic attacker.
- Wonder Woman/Prime: the best silver damage dealer thanks to her passive. She can also chain her SP1 from heavy combo.
Gold
- Doomsday/Prime: a cheap, powerful character overall.
- Harley Quinn/Animated: the best and most economical support character in store who can provide heal, damage and power generation boosts for the entire team!
- Lex Luthor/Krypto: good supportive passive with power drain on SP1.
- The Joker/Insurgency: boss-killer and can be further enchanted by Harley Quinn/Animated. He is available as a daily reward (day 80) if you don't want to spend.
Batman/Arkham Origins is the strongest store character, but he is too overpriced. With those 375,000 credits, you can buy 2 Challenge Pack with 75,000 left-over credits. He should be bought only when you have some Arkham characters to team with him.
Support Card[]
Focus on buying support cards that affect all characters first. Damage is often better than health one, and should be purchase first.
Glitch[]
(Main article: Glitch)
Glitch is a fault in the code of the game that causes it to function improperly. This article is used to prevent panic/confusion that may lead to unwanted uninstallation of the game, not to gain unfair advantages against other players.