Your first ten games are going to be chaos. Everyone was bad at this game once, so here is how to get through them and maybe have fun.

Step one: pick an easy hero

Abrams, Infernus, Haze, McGinnis, Paige and Vyper are all rated easy in the game's own data. Start there. Avoid Sinclair for now. Pick one or two heroes and stick with them for a while: you learn far faster than by bouncing between twenty.

Step two: laning

  • The first few minutes are about farming troopers, not kills. Melee the last hit for all the souls.
  • Don't chase someone into their own Guardian.
  • Shoot the trooper vessels on the zipline to drop them early, right where you want the fight.
  • Shop the moment you can afford something. Souls in your pocket don't do damage.
  • Stay near a teammate in your lane. Two of you on one enemy is a great trade.
  • If your lane is going badly, stay near your Guardian and collect what you can. A boring lane beats a dead one.

Step three: practice where it doesn't hurt

  • Hero Sandbox: try any hero and practice combos with nobody yelling at you.
  • Street Brawl: a fast four versus four mode, best of five rounds, where you pick items each round. It doesn't affect your rank.
  • Replays: after a close loss, watch the replay. You'll spot your own mistakes in about thirty seconds.

Work on one thing at a time. One game, only last hits. Next game, only parrying. And watch good players on your hero: you'll steal more tricks in ten minutes of watching than in ten hours of guessing.

Step four: don't panic about rank

The lowest rank is Obscurus and the top is Eternus. There are normal and ranked modes: play normal games until you know the basics, then try ranked.

The five big beginner mistakes

  1. Fighting instead of farming. Souls win games, not montages.
  2. Never parrying. It's F.
  3. Wandering alone.
  4. Sitting on souls instead of spending them.
  5. Arguing in chat. Mute, farm, win.

And have fun with it. It's a weird, chaotic game with a jazz-loving robot and a chess wizard.