Reveal: Do you upgrade your Champs: Battlegrounds Tinker to be an Alchemist or an Engineer?

The first of the Multiplayer Online Squad Strategy (MOSS) games, Champs: Battlegrounds is coming to your iOS, Android, and tablet devices August 1st. What exactly is a MOSS? Well imagine a tactics game that is real-time instead of being turn-based. Not only do you have to think of strategic moves, but you have to do them on the fly while micro-managing your units’ energy and attacks. This type of live tactics game adds a whole new layer of competiveness and cleverness to the greater tactics genre.

Tinker (Tier 1):

Last week, the Human’s Apprentice unit was revealed, and now it’s time for the Human’s Tinker to enter the spotlight. The Tinker is a control character that forces his enemies to take certain paths around the battleground or pay the price for not playing the Tinker’s game. Through planting mines on the battlefield, the Tinker creates chokepoints and areas of safety for the rest of his squad. Sure, your enemy can choose to not play along, BUT AT WHAT COST!?

The Tinker will gain the ability to evolve into either the Alchemist or Engineer for specializations. Think of the Tinker being the broad "jack of all trades" and the other two as focusing in one of the two tasks he performs. The Tinker is just one of many of the human units in Champs: Battlegrounds. Here are the Tinker’s abilities:

Makeshift Mine: This is the bread and butter of the Tinker. You place this mine on the battlefield and suddenly your opponent known you mean business. Make your foes suffer for defying your madness. When these bad boys go off, all adjacent tiles feel the burn as well.

Remote Detonate: As the name suggests, this ability will blow up your Makeshift Mines. You know, in case your opponents need a reminder that the Tinker is no slacker.

Alchemist (Tier 2):

If you’d like to blow up more things and support less, you'll want to upgrade to the Alchemist. Mines are so last year; it’s time to switch to various grenades. Do you debuff the enemy team or simple do massive damage to all of them? With the Alchemist, you can do both! If your foes bunch up, you can make them pay. Here are the Alchemist's abilities:

Oil Burst: Being in covered in oil is fun and all until the FIRE comes. Think of Oil Burst as the setup to a funny joke where the punch line is fire. Have your Acolyte finish the combo or simply use the Alchemists second ability.

Ubernade: If you’re thinking ‘Ubernade’ stands for giant grenade, you’re right. This fire grenade will burn those in the area effect it lands in. Did you use Oil Burst before lobbing this burning explosion of doom? You should have.

Engineer (Tier 2):

So maybe tossing grenades isn’t exactly your cup of tea. Perhaps you’re more into the techy side of things. Would you rather have some support power than all-out destruction? Well then, the Engineer should be your Tinker upgrade. The Engy can give energy to other units to allow them to take more action more often. You know, when you need that clutch heal or nuke to end the fight. How about a mine that watches your foes energy to know when to detonate and push them back? There's so much control wrapped into this class. Here are his abilities:

Energize: Your teammates can always use extra energy, and the Engineer is just the man for the job. Pair him up with a healer and heal all day. Too slow and safe? Team him up with an AoE nuker and burn all the things!

Energy Mine: These deadly explosives will only blow up once an enemy near it builds up too much energy. Once detonated it will do damage and push back. Now the guy who just got all that energy that exploded will have to move to close the gap again. Where this horrible cycle can be aggravating for your foes, it is hilarious to the engineer.

Keep an eye out for Champs: Battlegrounds coming out Thursday for smartphones and tablets. To learn more, check out the official site, the Facebook page, Quark Games’ Twitter page, and, of course, GameZone for updates.

Historian, teacher, writer, gamer, cheat master, and tech guru: follow on Twitter @AndrewC_GZ