Gigantic: Rampage Edition – Beginners Guide (Mechanics, Abilities and Roles)

This guide is made for new players to get a quick introduction to the game.

Guide for New Players

Health and Stamina

Two main resources. Being out of either is bad because you’re either dead or very vulnerable.

At full HP, you can play normally. At half HP, you should start leaving, but you probably don’t need to use abilities yet. At quarter HP or less, you need to leave ASAP – burn CDs to get out. The lower max HP you have, the earlier you need to leave – squishy characters should start using CDs to leave at half.

Stamina is used to sprint and dodge. In battle, stam is treated as damage mitigation. The more damage you avoid per unit stam used, the better you are playing. Use dodges to avoid either high burst damage (Beckett grenade, HK Railgun) or hard CC (Margrave slams, Tripp kicks). If you spam dodge, you will get punished.

Do not engage while below three quarters of your max HP. You will be at an inherent disadvantage.

Combat System

When dealing or receiving damage, you are put into combat for 5 seconds. When in combat, HP doesn’t regen, and stamina regens slower after not taking any actions for a few moments. In addition, sprinting and jumping take stamina in combat, but don’t out of combat.

Charging attacks will also put you in combat, so holding charge abilities will prevent you from healing and regenerating stamina. This is especially important on characters like Voden and Charnok who have charging LMBs.

DoT ticks will keep you and your target in combat, which can be a double edged sword. Important for characters with long DoTs on LMB, such as Sven and Charnok.

Staying out of combat is important for rotates so you can sprint without draining key resources. Try to be out of combat once power gets to 80 or above.

Power System

Each rampage is triggered by one team getting to 100 power first. The two main ways of getting power are from collecting Power Orbs that spawn around the map (20 power) and getting kills on creatures and players (10 power).

Because kills are one of the few ways to gain power outside of natural orb spawns, dying is INCREDIBLY bad. Especially when learning the game, err on the side of playing cautious instead of diving in. As you become more experienced, you will learn when you can and cannot initiate plays.

If you are going to lose a push to a collecting creature, you need to go there to fight it. While fighting it, someone needs to be continuously interrupting it (typically your frontline, although ranged characters aren’t exempt if no one else is around). Typically you will start this push when power is at 80-80.

In addition, players can collect power on unattended points. Someone should be watching points with power available at all times, especially at situations where one team is at 80.

If teams are even in power or one team has a ten point advantage, typically both teams will try to kill creatures with either a 5-0 or 4-1 split. If one team is ahead by twenty or more power (one “rotation”) then that team can opt to try to defend their point, often 5 stacking it.

In 80-80 situations, interrupting collecting creatures is a priority for ALL players. Be cognizant of what points you need to be ready to attack towards the end of a rampage cycle.

Creatures

All 4 creatures we commonly play with (bloomer [heals], cerb [vision], cyclops [wall], and drake [fire/electric]) need to be summoned on the correct spots. If you don’t know what creature should be summoned on a given point on a given map, please ask someone before holding summons.

Upgrading creatures is incredibly situational. Unless explicitly instructed otherwise, you should not try to upgrade points on most maps. In situations where upgrading is a strong play, someone will tell you.

Maps

The main difference between the three maps is how the neutral points are laid out.

Reef has one collectable but not summonable point in the middle (D point). Typically rampages are won by either rotating to C/E on 80-80 or by sneaking a D collect. Sometimes rotates will go to B/F instead. In both cases, watch for people back capping D.

An all-rounder map: most characters are good. Wu is particularly strong on this map.

Sirens has one summonable point at mid (D). If you have D point, the goal becomes to defend that point while watching for enemy movements, as the natural spawn gives you a 20 power advantage. If you don’t have D point, the most common option is to force fights via rotates on the far side (rotating to C/E pre-clash and B/F post-clash) or opening D point with a tank and killing it with ranged DPS.

Map strongly favors characters with jump-pads and long ranged DPS (HK/Imani). Reflectors are also useful on the defense. Tripp and Knossos are strong on rotations for this map.

Sanctums has two summonable points (C/D), with C point having a better post-clash position that gives a sightline onto D. The open nature of pre-clash C means that it’s hard to push without a ranged advantage, so you’ll see rotations at 20-20 and 60-60 to B/F pre-clash. Post-clash tends to be a siege of C point from the losing team, with rare rotations to A/F in order to break a tough hold. Holding C in post-clash is almost always necessary to win.

Wide open map favors long ranged characters strongly (HK/Imani). Reflectors help hold C during sieges. Tyto’s best map pre-clash, Wu very strong post-clash. Jumps up to C can be very important post-clash.

Abilities and Upgrades

Use minion_test to familiarize yourself with the abilities before a match. Use mistforge.net to get an idea of which upgrades are good and which aren’t. Don’t forget that you select a Clash Talent at level 5.

Identify which of your abilities is your mobility/escape option and be cognizant of that CD in particular during fights. Examples include Beckett E, Mozu E, and Margrave Q.

Focuses

Your focus has three levels of strength. Typically, it’s better to use 3 level one focuses instead of one level 3 focus, but don’t rush a focus either. If you can use a focus to secure a free kill, do so.

Roles

Frontlines 

Frontlines are in charge of opening and interrupting creatures, peeling for the backline and engaging on the enemy team. They are more tanky than the average character, but that doesn’t mean you’re invincible.

• Knossos: Heaviest on engage. Does the most damage. Typical combo is Q -> RMB -> Sprinting LMB to open up a target. Don’t forget that you have to peel for your team. 

Most important upgrades: Crippling Torus (RMB), Launch on Q, Bleeding on Sprint LMB, Mighty Yawp (E). E is better as an escape tool than an engagement tool.

• Margrave: Tankiest, best for teamfights. Note that E -> F is dodgeable, so mix up your timing. Q is a great escape. Counter (Back LMB) is also very strong. You need to be getting interrupts. 

Most important upgrades: Counter (LMB), Short CD on E, Longer Q.

• Ramsay: Dodge forever, DoT is very strong, needs to be interrupting. 

Key upgrades: Interrupt on RMB. Everything else can be personal preference, more or less. Look at a guide since builds matter a lot.

Assassins

Assassins are in charge of finishing kills and pressuring the backline. You don’t need to be engaging, wait for a good opportunity first. Save CDs to get out, it’s better to guarantee an escape than maybe get a trade 70% of the time.

• Tripp: Burst heavy, learn how to do dagger combos, delay second kick a little bit to make it more consistent. Save EITHER Q or E to get out, using both is pretty much a death sentence unless your team is ready to get you out. 

Most important upgrades: Crits on Q, Marked for Death -> Crack Armor (RMB), 15% MS boost on E. Separate builds for both paths of LMB, make sure you know the differences and pick the one that makes sense.

• Wu: CC supreme, relies on you hitting your skillshot so maybe don’t whiff that. There’s a lot of great guides that do a better job of explaining how to use this character, so look at Mistforge for those – they’re the ones with a lot of text. Complicated character, but probably strongest melee.
• Tyto: Most mobility, but no CC and mid damage. Relies on using RMB’s execute to get kills, so make sure you feel good landing it. Practice doing the tech (just ask someone they know what you’re talking about) a couple times first. 

Key upgrades: True Damage on E, Execute on RMB, Hidden Talon (LMB).

Ranged DPS

Ranged DPS do damage at range (duh). They all depend on having decent aim, so start there.

• Beckett: Most raw DPS, but lacks long long range. Spam ults on CD to kill wounds and creatures. Use E to get out, not to get in (at least when you’re starting). 

Most important upgrades: Smart Nade (RMB), Refocus (F).

• Mozu: Good DPS, lots of util, good survivability. You have to hold RMB a little bit in order to get the cripple, which is very strong. Learn how/when to ability cycle. Don’t TP in. 

Most important upgrades: Faster Fire Rate upgrades on LMB, CD reduction on E, Cripple on RMB.

• Charnok: Lots of burst and AoE, but bad escape and easy to kill. Q sends in a fixed arc, so be very careful about using that. Hit your shots. 

Most important upgrades: all of them. L3 charge is a meme.

• Voden: Most survivable character in the game. Mix between support and DPS. Does a lot of damage but you need to aim really well. Jumppad is a must pick. Clone does a lot of damage, so keep that in mind. 

Most important upgrades: jump pad on E, more damage on Q, throwing spores on RMB, faster bow draw on LMB, Hit and Run on F (makes him unkillable lol).

• HK: Lots of damage, but no mobility. Don’t sit turreted unless your team can cover for you. Spam abilities off CD to get poke unless someone needs your burst to get kills.  Upgrades can be mixed and matched depending on what your team needs, so know what all of them do.
• Imani: Lots of damage and range and survivability, but you will be focused. Don’t play this character unless you feel confident about dealing with assassins solo. 

Most important upgrades: Quickscope on RMB.

• Ezren: Kind of bad, but E and RMB do a lot of damage. Lacks real range. 

Most important upgrades: 3x RMB, CD reduction on E.

Supports

Supports keep the team alive via heals and debuff immunity, or peel for the team with strong CCs and debuffs.

• Aisling: Most passive value, but kinda boring. Be ready to interrupt, can pop E before using focus to get shield without being fatherless. Pop E to cleanse strong debuffs like Tyto focus. 

Most important upgrades: Regen and Armor on RMB, Shield and Debuff Immune on E. 

• Sven: Best support. Q-E for heals and peel, LMB to keep people in combat, RMB to open up fights. Use F to peel or to engage, it doesn’t really matter. 

Most important upgrades: Armor and Abs Matrix on Q, Debuff Immune on E.

• Vadasi: Most raw heals. Go look at the Syco guide on Mistforge.
• Xenobia: Can peel and set up kills with Q, spread debuffs with RMB and E. Focus is situationally useful, but can save enemies if used wrong. 

Most important upgrades: Launch on Q.

• Pakko: Brings most raw CC to the game, best peel character if played well. Look at the guide called  Pakkyursten on Mistforge. Solo focusing is fine. 

Most important upgrades: Sticky RMB, Daze on Q.

• Zandora: Buffs allies, but not very strong. Focus is good, takes very long to charge. Learn how to anim cancel with abilities, and use jump attacks to set up kills with cripples. 

Most important upgrades: Lancing Blow on RMB, Burst Heal on E.

• Oru: Opens up kills at close and mid range with daze/stun on E. Doesn’t really play like a DPS, so if you want to play a caster, you have better options like Charnok and Mozu. 

Most important upgrades: more damage on Q (ace in the hole), your E upgrades. Focus can be dodged quite easily, but fast generation means you can use it a lot as an escape tool.