Starters Guide

## How to get higher stats

### Unlocking items and characters

By opening bags, you can obtain cards. These cards can contain items as well as characters. The cards are item-specific. This means you can not upgrade another item or character with a specific card.

Items and characters are tour-bound. This means that they can only be found in a bag, obtained by playing in a certain tour.

E.g. The Machete grip grip can only be found in a Tour 5 bag.

### Upgrading skills

Each item or character needs a number of cards to be upgraded.

The quantities can be viewed on the pages of the items or characters on the Wiki. Each upgrade results in higher stats.

E.g. The Machete grip level-up from Level 10 to Level 11 costs 75.000 coins and 1000 'The Machete Cards'.

## Focus on developing and exploiting one particular stat, while not ignoring the others.

The key here is to not become a “Jack of all trades”, but good in all traits and excellent in one. For example, if all your stats are in the range of 20 points, make sure that at least one of your stats, like Backhand or Volley, or whatever your choice, hovering around 30 points. The game’s meta works in a way that rewards you more if you exploit your strongest stat.

Say all your stats are around 20, and you’ve matched up with a player who’s stats are around 15 but the forehand is 25. This player has a massive edge against you, even though you are averaging higher in stats, because he can exploit his forehand and you won’t be able to counter that. Neither do you have any strong stat to exploit. Now say if you change your gear, and have your stats at 15 but your backhand at 25. Now you are better placed to counter that player and have higher odds of beating that player.

Having said that, don’t ignore any one particular stat. Make sure all your stats are going up together. Many players I have seen have ignored Stamina, and most games they lose because even though their other stats are higher, they tire out too soon. The same is with players who have their Serve too low. Their serve gets countered easily and eventually opponents exploit that weakness.

## How to compete

### Analyse your opponent’s stats and act accordingly

We really can’t stress how important it is to analyse your opponent’s stats before the match begins.

This is the key to beating Tennis Clash. Yes, the window to analyse your opponent’s stats is short, but make the most of it. If you opponent has weak Backhand, exploit that by dishing shots on their backhand. If the stamina is low, keep sending your opponent to opposite sides so they tire out. If their Serve is low, move up when they’re about to serve, and the opposite holds true too i.e. if their Serve is high, move back so you can pick it up comfortably. Watch out for the low serve though!

If your opponent has high shot stats and low Volley stats, play low shots to invite them forward and induce volleys. Similarly, if they have high Volley stats and weak Forehand/Backhand, play power shots so that they face difficulty in picking the shots up.

## Chose either Volley or Backhand/Forehand to slide past Tour 2 and Tour 3

Considering the previous mentioned point, an argument to make is if your Forehand and Backhand are high, should you really have any Volley stats? No. You don’t need to, if you’re exploiting your baseline shots well enough. You can do really well by limiting your Volley to a maximum of 5 points and placing your points in other attributes. In Tour 2 and Tour 3, we have seen a lot of players do well with below 5 points in Volley and 30-40 points in Forehand and Backhand. This same goes for the vice-versa case, that is, extremely high Serve/Volley and low Forehand/Backhand.

Now the Backhand is the highest among all the attributes. This makes is easy to exploit Backhand. This strategy works really well in Tour 2 and Tour 3 and will make it tough for players in these tours to beat you even if their overall stats are higher than yours. The same goes with Agility/Stamina combination too. Having high Agility and Stamina will ensure that you will reach all balls and won’t tire.

## Don’t ignore Stamina

You read it right. This is a common mistake newbies make. They have explosive stats all around but really low Stamina. A decent player will figure out a counter easily and tire you out within seconds. So make sure you’re steadily putting in points in your Stamina attribute.

Also, having a high Stamina is highly underrated. Your shots will be much more accurate and you’ll be running around like a fox throughout the match. Players really underestimate the power Stamina has. Tennis Clash is designed (rightly so) in a way that even if your stamina is 20% depleted, your shots won’t be the same like they would be when you have full stamina.

Since managing decent stats is a tough job, a trick to solve the Stamina problem is using Maestro Multi strings. If you have enough Maestro Multi strings, then keep your stamina low and invest those points in other attributes. Then use the Maestro Multi strings because they give you extra Tier 2 stamina. These strings are cheap and are given out lavishly in Free Bags, Points Bag and other Bags. If you have high stamina, then there’s really no benefit in using Maestro Multi strings.

## Use Strings to make up for your weaknesses (and you’re opponent’s strengths) at a time when you can promote in Tour

Strings give you really good stat boosts, use them wisely.
If you have weak Stamina, use Maestro Multi when you’re playing for 1500 coins and have 4500 coins in your baggage. This is will ensure that you’ll win the match and can now play in Tour 4 by investing 6000 coins. If you’re slow, use Swallow Poly. If your opponent has really high Forehand and Backhand, use Siberian Wire or Joker Cords. There is a string for almost every situation, and use them wisely, The timing of using your strings is key to progression in Tennis Clash.

## Use Gems only to buy Strings

It can get pretty tempting to dish out Gems to upgrade your gear instead of paying in Coins, but just hang in there and wait till you make the required coins. Gems are very valuable and spending them to upgrade character significantly reduces the value of your Gems. Use your Gems to buy high-end strings like Frostcord and Siberian Wire because they give you that extra edge to win games.

## Don’t upgrade your gear immediately after you make the required money

Again, this can get tempting as hell, and is risky too, but the meta in Tennis Clash awards high risk play. Say you are playing in Tour 2 where you need 350 coins to play a single match, and you need to upgrade to shoes which cost 10,800 coins. Now if you’ve made those coins, don’t upgrade just immediately, because you’ll be stuck grinding in Tour 2 and Tour 3 after you’ve upgraded your gear. That’s some 2 hours in gameplay and will cost you your strings. Instead, equip a high-end string and try winning a game or two in Tour 4. Only when you win and have enough coins to upgrade your gear and keep playing in Tour 4, then you should go for the upgrade.

## Choose a character that suits your style of play, even if their stats are a few points lower

This aspect is underrated. If you like staying back and playing big shots, stick to Jonah. If you consider yourself an all-rounder, choose Hope. Hope as an all-rounder will play much better than Jonah as an all-rounder with the same gear, even if Jonah’s stats are 3-4 points higher overall. That is because Hope is an all-rounded player. Jonah was designed as a base-liner, so he is more efficient as that. Players’ height, stance and other aspects make a difference in how the player plays. For example, Leo is the best player if you want to go for the Serve and Volley strategy. In such a case, focus on building stats in Serve and Volley.

Open your Bags only when you’re sure you can replace its slot with a high-level Bag.
It’s absolutely alright if your bags are ready to open. Don’t just open them yet. If you open the bag immediately, and you’re playing in Tour 1 or Tour 2, then your empty slot will get a Tour 1 or Tour 2 bag. That won’t be a good situation because now you’re stuck with a low level bag for three hours without any slots for high level bags. So don’t open the ready bags and grind your way up the Tours. When you are at a levelled tour, then open then bag and free up the slot, so that when you win a game, you’ll get a high level bag. Your aim in Tennis Clash should be securing high-level bags, because they contain cards and upgrades that will ensure that you’re ahead of the meta. It’s alright if your bags are ready to be opened to 1-2 hours. A high level bag gives much more rewards than a low level bag, helps you make more coins, gems, and upgrade your gear quicker.

## Take note of your rank in your League

Make sure you’re in the Top 25 of your league, which will allow you to promote to the next higher league. Each higher league will give you 10% more cards. Ideally, you should be spending two weeks maximum in a particular league. If you spend more than two weeks in a league, then you know that you aren’t growing your player at an optimum pace. So, use the league also to judge how you’re doing. Being Top 25 in a league isn’t that difficult if you follow the tips mentioned about. Just, don’t get demoted to an inferior league, that will seriously hamper your progress.

BY SAHIL ARORA · JANUARY 7, 2020