Table of Contents

Are you ALWAYS helping your team?

Since December 2017, over 153,000 "students" have visited the War Robots University blog.  Thank you!

If you enjoy(ed) this blog, please visit our YouTube channel!  While this blog is dormant, the work of the U continues with periodic video uploads.

All posts are listed here, under their general topic area and in roughly chronological order.  The U's blog is searchable - use the box at the top right of any page!

Until the introduction of the Greek bots, Pixonic provided component items to War Robots University's professors/pilots for review.  The content of War Robots U is created and edited by its author exclusively.  For an explanation of the relationship between Pixonic and the U, read this post.

The U is not just a blog ... we are also iOS clans #48669 and #139479.  We are always looking for commanders, and welcome skilled communicators from around the world.

Tactical Guides

• Dead City tactics (includes video), "Flanking On Dead City"
• Flanking tactics, winning without center beacon (includes video), "Flanking Maneuvers", "Dr. Zoso Says Center Is For Suckers" (includes two videos)
• Moon tactics, flanking (includes video), "My Videos Don't Work Out Like Adriannnnn's"
• Fire and Movement, Ember and Tempest, "Heavy Metal: Ember And Tempest on the move"
• Dreadnought tactics (includes video), "Dreadnought Is Like Dodgeball", "Beatdowns On Dreadnought" (includes two videos), "Welcome Back, Stew Pendous," includes two videos
• Optimal use of fast robots, "Send your Beacon Runners Last!", "Photo Essay Wednesday"
• Using Carnage as protection for robots with offensive capabilities (includes two videos), "The New 'Way Of The Carnage' and a Contest For You!"
• Power plant tactics (includes two videos), "Tactical (Taco) Tuesday: Power Plant", "Teach Me How To Power Plant" (includes video)
• Robot preservation (includes two videos), "Staying Alive"
• Beacon Rush mode (includes video), "Beacon Rush Party Weekend"
• King Of The Hill mode (includes video), "University Recommended King Of The Hill Tactics", "Update," (includes video), "KOTH Update: We Are Doing It Wrong" (includes non-game video)
• Springfield tactics (includes video), "Springfield Strategy: Make It Stalingrad", "Springfield Control: Get Up To Get Down", "Wrong Robot!"
• Carrier tactics (includes video), "Carrier Tactics", "It's Time To Say Goodbye"
• Team Death Match Mode, "Team Death Match Guide: Camp For The Win!"
• Rome tactics (includes videos in Rome and Skirmish mode), "Do As The Romans Do"
• Canyon tactics (includes video), "Crossfire On Canyon"
• Exploiting opportunities for territory control (includes video): "Negative Space: Go Where Your Enemy Is Not"

Practices for Better Game Play

• Duration of battles, "How Long Is A Battle?", "The Clock Is Your Friend, Unless It Is Your Enemy" (includes video)
• Guest, Reverend of Death, on how to be a better player, "The Best Player In The Game?"
• Winning at high rates with a fast hangar OR a brawling group, "Free Your Mind"
• Good teamwork, "Kitty Genovese and the Bystander Effect"
• How to win in four minutes (includes two videos), "Wednesday is for What Beacons?"
• Creativity and unorthodox styles (includes two videos), "Our Long History of Doing What We Are Told"
• Better communication for building squads quickly, "Squad Play and the Secret of the Discordians"
• Completing event tasks without tanking or time drops, "How To Complete An Event: Dr. Dope's Definitive Dissertation"
• Conservative/patient game play (includes video), "The U in the Lab: Domination on the Moon", "The Clock Is Your Friend, Unless It Is Your Enemy" (includes video)
• Using flanks to avoid destruction, whale clans (includes video): "NOOB vs. Iron. It. Gets. Ugly."
• Full game example play (includes video), "New Look Tuesday"
• How to "Super Dash" (includes two videos), "Get Your Super Dash On", "Let's Review" (includes video)
• Individual achievements in battle: "The Legend of The Answer", "The U On A Wrampage?!" (includes video), "On the Utility and Ethics of Running Five Spectres" (documented four vs. six win), battle without being damaged, "Do As The Romans Do"
• Winning with free, level 6 gear (includes video), "Crushing the Enemy - with a Free, Level 6 Hangar"
• Effective sniping/support (includes two videos), "Shotguns and Tulumbas!"
• Effective play against "stealth" robots (includes video), "Countering Stealth Mode"
• Territory control and order of robot deployment (includes video), "Ima Get That Beacon - No Need To Shoot Me", "Order of Operations"
• Avoiding elimination (includes video), "Rule Number One"
• Effective use of cover, "Good Gunnery: Defilade and Enfilade"
• Having fun in less competitive leagues (includes video), "The Sweet Spot is Diamond League"
• Robot deployment order (includes video), "Order of Operations"
• Advice for players with sub-optimal equipment (includes video), "Survival Outside the META", "Take Down That Ao Ming!"

Irregular/Unethical Practices

• Lower rankings without tanking, "Tanker Alert: Black Mamba Out"
• Solutions to mismatches and inequality between players, "Wanted: Fair Game"
• Irregular play, time drops, and tanking during events, "Events: love 'em or hate 'em", "Super Tanker Alert"
• Long-term observation of tanker accounts, "In Bad Company with the Tankers and the Clubbers"
• Relationship (or absence thereof) between spending and skill, "The White Whale"
• Recognizing and reporting cheating (Pixonic has closed the reporting form), "How To Report Tanking"
• Tanker prevalence, "Cheaters, Cheaters Everywhere"
• Exploiting stealth, "After The Great Rebalance, Spectre Pilots Cheat. I'm Shocked."
• Quitting matches against superior opponents, "Making The Whole Team Better"

Pixonic

• Content creators' round table with Pixonic developers, results of black market rewards without spinning chests, "Pixonic's New Year's Resolutions"
• Proposals for new game modes (includes video), "Thursday is the Day Before Friday: New Game Modes Pixonic Should Make. Obviously."; "Your New Game Modes!"
• How the U's blog began, editorial control, and the authors' relationship with Pixonic, "The Relationship between Pixonic and the U"
• New player experience, seal clubbing, "Under Cover In Bronze League - And Some Questions For Pixonic"
• Game design and unchanging player behavior in equilibrium, "A Beautiful Mind - What John Nash Would Say About War Robots"
• Proposed solutions to unfair matchmaking (includes two non-game videos), "Pixonic, Fix The Matchmaking (Or I May Write A Song About You)
• Request to fix Descend bug, "Go Slow To Go Fast"
• Organizing efforts at the introduction of "modules," "Solidarity! Or not!"
• Titans and platinum economy, "The New Trick Is An Old Trick."

Under the hood: research into game mechanics

• Probability of each game mode occurring in random queue, "Are the 'Random' Queues Really Random?"
• Black market key rewards without spinning, "Should You Spin Black Market Chests?", "Results of NOT Spinning Chests All Season"
• Skirmish mode, Shocktrain vs Scourge test (includes video), "Want to Know How Good You REALLY Are At War Robots?"
• Probabilities of landing in each map and mode, "Map and Mode Distribution In the Current Random Queue", "Goodbye Carrier, Back To The Normal Madness" 
• Effective use of advertisements (includes video), "Double Supply Drops, Triple Upgrade Speed"

Gear

• Hover, stock configuration robots, "Flying Is The New Flanking", "Let's Review" (includes video)
• Win rates using stock robots (includes video), "Can You Win With Stock Robots?"
• Inquisitor, "Flying and F#$%ing Stuff Up: Inquisitor On The Move", "Murder Machines"
• Hangar decks, "Got Leftover Parts?  Try A Second Hangar!"
• Carnage with Ember, Dragoon, or Redeemer (includes one of my favorite videos), "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight"
• Mercury, Pursuer, Hellburner, "First Impressions of ...", "Sniper Strider" (includes video)
• Strider, "Trolling the Reds," "Sniper Strider" (includes video)
• Destrier, "Viability Report: Destrier"
• Spectre, "On the Utility and Ethics of Running Five Spectres" (includes video), Fighting Spectres with Spectre" (includes video), "Professor Dutch In The House" (Tulumbas Spectre; includes video)
• "Quad Power Big Guns Skirmish" (includes video)
• Boosters (first impressions), "Where YOU at?"
• Mender (video only), "Bonus Friday Mender Video"
• Raven (includes two videos), "Shotguns and Tulumbas!", "Workshop 2.0 and the Not Great Recession" (includes two videos)
• Pursuer (includes two videos), "Murder Machines", "Murder Machine Part II," includes video
• Lancelot (includes video), "The Return Of Sir Shocks-A-Lot"
• Locking weapons (includes video), "Why Do Lockdown Weapons Always Work?"
• Tridents and Greek (Pantheon) robots, "Tridents Are The New Tulus"
• Falcon (includes video), "Falcon Power!"
• Trident Bulwark (includes video), "Missile Command: Trident Bulwark is a Fortress"
• Ares (includes two videos), "The Ares Train"
• Loki (includes two videos), "He Hate Me: Loki", "The New Trick Is An Old Trick"
• Ao Jun (includes two videos), "The Dragoon Dragon," "The Airwolf: Ao Jun"

Hangar Building

• Strategies for building a successful hangar, especially for brawling, "Winning At War Robots"
• Actual costs of premium items, "Whales And Whaling: The True Cost of War Robots"
• Strategies for hangar building/advancement, "War Economics: Leveling Robots or Weapons First"
• Using gold to speed upgrades, "War Economics: When Should You Speed Upgrades With Gold?"
• Using single component weapons, combining with non-premium weapons (includes two videos), "Shocktrain, One Piece At A Time"
• Upgrade times in the new economy, "The Good Old Days Are Gone", "Workshop 2.0 and the Not Great Recession" (includes two videos), "Go Really Slow To Go Fast: How Long Does Leveling Up Take?"

Clans and Social

• Recruitment (includes video), "War Robots University Wants You!"
• Playing in different clans, "War Robots University On The Road"
• Whale clans, potential win rates, "Which Clan Do You Hate Most?"
• Art of the Assist contest announcement, "Contest: the Art of the Assist"
• Week one contest parameters, "The Art of The Assist begins today!", winners announcement (includes video)
• Week two contest parameters, "Late Game Heroics", winners announcement (includes two videos)
• Week three contest parameters, "Final Week of Contest: Twins!", winners announcement
• Also: "Mondays Are For Last Minute Contest Entries!"
• Human decency and protocol for online interactions, "I Do Not Love Forums"
• Increasing clan size, ""Map and Mode Distribution In the Current Random Queue" 
• New player experience, Bronze league (includes video), "Fun In Bronze League"
• Building a successful clan; how to spot cheating players, "A Little Help From Your Friends"