Awesomenauts: Specific Nauts Tips and Tricks in 2019

I’m Rahm, I’ve been playing Nauts since January 2014 and did not take any major breaks in this game. I mostly solo queue or play with friends. I’m not the best player ever (I usually rank between 1000-2000 on the Leaderboards), but I did learn a lot about this game that I’d like to share with you.

So, this guide will contain:

• General tips
• The Utility Upgrades
• Some things you might not know yet
• Specific Awesomenaut information on Nauts I know how to play

Awesomenauts is won by staying in the field and helping to remove anything red or blue. The best way to help with this is to be in the field, as much as possible. There are two tips I want to share to maximize your uptime in the field:

• Increase your health regen. Get the Med’i’can item (its one of the best items in the game), get a lifesteal upgrade, hunt for creeps or hug your support (if you have one)
• Don’t return to base every time you can buy 1 upgrade. Wait until you have around 500 solar so you can buy a few items at once. Or wait until your HP has dropped to 0 and buy from the droppod.

If you follow both these tips, you will be more in the field helping out. As a passive bonus, it will help you earn Solar faster (more time in the field = more things killed = more Solar earned. Quick maths).

Solar is what wins this game. The level system adds a nice bonus, but nothing game-deciding. You need to get as much of it as you can. How to earn Solar fast:

• Get all the Solar you see lying around, just don’t go too far away from the fight (or safety) to get it. Take the bottom lane walk upon dropping down for example, you’ll arrive only a few seconds later and will easily pick up 20+ solar on the way.
• Kill as many droids and creeps as you can. They are easy kills (especially the creeps), they will not give you much solar each but if you count them up… it’s a lot.
• Farm the Solar Boss (that big slimey thing on Ribbit IV that has a picture here). A Voltar without upgrades can kill this thing, so pretty much anyone can. Killing it gives every teammember 20 solar. Just don’t let the enemy team killsteal it.
• Don’t think that the concept of killsteals on players is a thing. Yes, it is rude to let another Naut deal heavy damage to a droid wave for you to do the last hit. But not when killing Awesomenauts. Considering how fast the game is and how fast people can escape, always go for a kill shot. Securing it for your team is more important than who gets the 40 solar bonus for the kill.
• See an enemy turret with barely any HP left? Sneeze on it to make it go boom and give your team some solar. The superdroid you spawn then rarely has any use, so don’t try to spawn it at a good time. Just get the solar.
• Keep a watch on how much Solar everybody earned so far. You can check this by pressing the Tab key ingame (default). If you see that your team is falling behind the enemy team, go for farming droids and avoid fights as much as you can. This will give you a chance to close the Solar gap and not allow the enemy to win.
• Another thing you can do to close the Solar gap is buy the Piggy Bank. It is a strategic item. You can also get it if you are winning hard and want to maximize your solar advantage over the enemy team. More on the Piggy bank later.

The Minimap

The Minimap is the tactical tool so many people forget. It shows you the location of your teammates, visible enemy Nauts, the status of all the turrets and the base, how many droids are in the field, where health pack and creeps are located, the general layout of the map and so on.
Learn to look at it every few seconds, and make decisions based on its information:

• Not sure where you are needed? Look whee every other player is at.
• Need health? Scan the minimap for locations.
• Not sure if the droid balance is in order? Look at the map and see if your color of droids are at least halfway the map. If not, fix that.
• Want to earn solar fast? See if there is a turret at 3 hp left.

Next to that, the minimap also provides you the location of the Taunts (enemy team) and Help, Defend and Attack commands (friendly team). Especially the Help command can be useful to see on the minimap, so you actually know where you can make a difference.

Piggybank is a strategic item, giving you 100 solar for free. Some people get it at spawn to buy more items in the first go. BIG MISTAKE. I cannot emphasize that enough.

When to get Piggy Bank:

• If you are falling behind harshly solar-wise on the enemy team
• If you are winning and want that extra bit of oomph to win faster
• If getting you 100 solar instantly allows you to get the game-changing item you really need (which is hardly ever)

When not to get Piggy Bank

• At spawn
• To get an item a little faster because you are impatient

Why not get the Piggy Bank? Because it takes a valuable item slot in your bottom row. Every single item in there has use: more HP, more regen, more speed, more damage resistance, resistance to effects, more damage, less cooldown.

In short: only buy the Piggy Bank when it is a game-saving item, or if the match will not last long enough for you to get a useful item anyway.

Going to quickly cover the other Utilities and when to get them.

Power Pills Turbo give you +16% health. A powerful upgrade in the mid game. Early game this upgrade is virtually useless, so wait until around the 10 minute mark to get it. Since its a % increase, you need to have a good number for the 16% to do something.

Both Med’I’Can and Solar Krab Burgers are powerful items that help increase your passive health regen. They are both powerful from the first second, and buying these as your first upgrades is never a bad idea. Honestly, except if you are going for an Evil Eye Ayla build, I see no reason not to get these. Note: some Nauts can get both. Don’t ever do that. I prefer Solar Krab Burgers in those cases, since you will get some more Solar as a passive bonus.
Med’I’Can also counters Damage over Time pretty hard, so if you spawn and see a Gnaw, Skolldir or Qi’Tara on the enemy team, buy it.

The boots (Space Air Max and Naut-specific variations) are interesting. Many people get these items, I rarely buy them. I would advice to learn to play each naut without buying this item, with some exceptions (Vinnie, Skree and Clunk come to mind). It gives you some space for other powerful items. If you do want to get this, don’t buy it upon the start of the match, but wait a bit. This will fool your enemy into getting used to slow you, with your new speed coming as an unpleasant surprise

Wraith Stone is useless. I never found myself in a situation I needed it in, ever. You are much better off with the passive regen upgrades.

The Barrier Magazine is an interesting upgrade. Get it on tanky nauts (especially Derpl). If you have to choose between this and the Power Pills Turbo, only get this item if you need as much solar as possible for other upgrades and if your team has no healer in it. Otherwise the Power Pills are the better choice.

The Baby Kuri Mammoth is by far the most powerful upgrade in the bottom row that you don’t always need. This thing gives you a 30% effect reduction on all the nasty slows, snares, blinds, silences and so on the enemy team gives you. Get this item if you are fighting Nauts that rely on effects to win (which is a lot), or on slows to escape (looking at you Raelynn). You will be amazed by how much this item will do for your win chances, compared to its cheap prize.

The Star Storm Statue and Overdrive Gear are only available to some characters (from the old Expansion packs). They are powerful items, giving you a total of +10% damage on all your attacks (Statue) or -20% ability cooldown (Gear). However, don’t go out of your way to get these items. Often, you’ll find yourself needing the other Utility upgrades much more.

You can buy items when you are in the droppod before you fall down (except during your first spawn). This can help save time should you die.

Wonder why many people tell you to defend at random moments? They shout that to signal that they are teleporting to base, so temporary out of the fight. The default key for shouting defend is 3. Do this as well to give your teammates a headsup.

Is somebody being a pain in the (spot where the sun doesn’t shine) in the chat? You can mute them from the pause menu while in the match. Enjoy your happy, toxic-free chat!

Main menu has a minigame (and I don’t mean engaging in the global chat). When you are waiting for matchmaking, in the corner below the timer and to the left of your profile picture a very small square will appear. Slightly right above your Awesomepoint balance. Pressing it opens a minigame. Enjoy!

Below you’ll find the tips and tricks to some Awesomenauts. All of these characters I levelled to 12 and feel confident enough about to write a guide. I listed them alphabetically.

I will only describe them briefly and to the point, for extended guides you can always ask the older guides for updates.

Note: if you miss a Naut here and want to include him/her, post a comment and we’ll get in touch. And yes, I will give you due credit for your work.