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How to decide which Brawler to upgrade first

Upgrade resources are the scarcest thing in Brawl Stars and the easiest to waste. A decision procedure for spending them, whatever the current rankings say.

Ethan Brooks

By Ethan Brooks

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Brawl Stars key art showing a group of Brawlers
Artwork: Supercell. This material is unofficial and is not endorsed by Supercell. For more information see Supercell's Fan Content Policy. Policy (opens in a new tab)

The most common way to stall in Brawl Stars is not picking the wrong Brawler. It is spreading upgrades across too many of them, because a ranking said each one was worth investing in.

Upgrade resources are deliberately scarce. Every level you put into a Brawler you rarely play is a level not going into the one you take into most of your matches. That is the trade the game is really asking you to make, and the rankings do not answer it — they cannot, because they do not know what you play.

The one question that matters first

Which Brawler have you played the most matches with in the last month? Start there. Not because it is optimal in the abstract, but because two things are true of it that are not true of any alternative: you know its range by feel, and you will keep playing it.

A Brawler at a higher level that you misjudge the range of loses to a lower-level one in hands that know it. This is more true in Brawl Stars than in most games, because matches are short and positioning errors are punished immediately.

Then narrow by mode

The modes ask for genuinely different things. A Brawler that controls a lane well is not necessarily one that survives in an open map, and one that excels in a mode you never queue for is not worth a single upgrade to you.

What each broad role is actually being asked to do

Close-range
Survive the approach, then win the fight it forced. Rewards map knowledge and cover use more than raw statistics.
Mid-range
Hold space and trade favourably. The most forgiving category to learn on, and usually the safest first investment.
Long-range
Deny ground and punish mistakes. Punishing to play under-levelled, because it relies on winning trades outright.
Support and control
Change what the rest of the team can do. Hardest to evaluate solo, and the most dependent on playing with people who notice.

A rule for the resources themselves

  1. Take one Brawler you play constantly as far as you can before starting a second.
  2. Only then add a second in a different role, so you have an answer when the first is a bad fit for the map.
  3. Treat a third as a luxury. Most players do not need one to climb.
  4. Do not upgrade a Brawler you unlocked yesterday because it looks strong. Play twenty matches with it first — it is a free test, and it costs nothing but time.

Where to check the current picture

Once you have narrowed it to two or three candidates you actually play, current performance is a reasonable tiebreaker. Live Brawler rankings, map performance and build data are maintained on Brawlest (opens in a new tab), which tracks them as they change.

Check it at that point — after you have decided what you play, not before.

Sources

  1. Brawl Stars — official game site (opens in a new tab)Supercell (accessed )

In this article

Brawl Stars

Developer:
Supercell
Publisher:
Supercell
Genre:
Arena brawler, PvP, Shooter
  • iPhone
  • iPad
  • Android

Written by

Ethan Brooks

Writer — strategy and new releases

Ethan Brooks is a gaming writer with a passion for mobile games, competitive strategy, and discovering new releases. When he is not writing guides or breaking down the latest updates, he can usually be found climbing the ranks in Brawl Stars, testing new decks in Clash Royale, or downloading another mobile game he swears he will only play for a few minutes.

Disclosures

No disclosures have been collected for this writer yet. This should state any gifts, review access, publisher relationships, paid work or holdings relevant to what they cover, and it will be replaced with that once collected. Treat the absence as incomplete rather than as nothing to declare.

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