In Metal Slug Awakening it’s not all about selecting your strongest characters, weapons and cores, they also have to work together as a team and also serve the purpose of your mode. What does that mean? Well, you can theoretically put the 3 strongest damage dealers together and push but at one point you realize that you miss healing. I can go on with these examples but the important takeaway here is that you need a team that supports each other and also works for the game mode.
So in this guide I have several setups for you that should help you assemble a team in Metal Slug Awakening that really work. Actually multiple teams as there is not one single-fits-them-all teams right now.
Meta Teams (Snapshot)
Disclaimer: The game has been in beta for quite a while, which means that we kind-of know what characters are coming as well as what the next season will look like. Nonetheless, there is no guarantee that this will now after global launch all go down exactly the same way and everything will be exactly as it happened in the beta! I keep the current character tier list here as updated as possible to make sure that you keep up with new heroes and how they will affect the meta in terms of team-building.
Best Starter Team
Don’t get me wrong, this is a solid team for starting out and you will get the heroes directly in the first hour of playing or so. But also please understand that this is working so well as they are perfectly created to work with each other in a team so don’t hang on too long with this team but it will carry you quite a while so make reasonable investments in their weapons (you can use them on other characters later).
Marco will be your main damage dealer and you swap in Eri and Fio to increase the damage he deals. Typically your rotation will look roughly like this:
Eri: apply Ignite and use both skills → Fio: apply debuff and use skills to make the Fridge leave the RoF buffs for Marco → Marco: use ultimate and throw grenades and then repeat.
For the best way to build the heroes, please refer here:
Progress Team
You get Violet early on and she is a great support hero for basically all teams out there so don’t be shy investing in her, it is worth it. Unless you have a legendary hero at this point, build a epic team with her gradually:
In this team Nadia and Gru basically ramp up Eva to then jump in and deal massive damage. Your rotation normally looks like this:
Nadia: apply debuffs with her weapon (and optionally heal) → Gru: apply debuffs with his weapon and place the ring to deal more damage → Eva: fire her ultimates that now deal incredible amount of damage
For the best way to build the heroes, please refer here:
Endgame Teams
These teams are now more for progressed players since you need the right core setup and fine-tuning their builds is essential so they can really deal their full damage potential
Scarlett
This team should be for most players the reasonable step when you unlock Scarlett since you should have Nadia and Gru built already.
In this team Nadia and Gru basically ramp up Scarlett to then jump in and deal massive damage. Your rotation normally looks like this:
Nadia: apply debuffs with her weapon (and optionally heal) → Gru: apply debuffs with his weapon and place the ring to deal more damage → Scarlet: use skill and hit returns
For the best way to build the heroes, please refer here:
Layla
For me the most fun team right now with Layla just summoning puffers all over the place and splash like crazy and melt enemies away
Tarma and Nadia support Layla by providing buffs and debuffs and then Layla jumps in with her high fire-rate weapon and places her puffers everywhere that simply deal damage until there is no tomorrow.
Nadia: apply debuffs with her weapon (and optionally heal) → Tarma: apply wound use his skill + ultimate → Layla: use skills and shoot at enemies with her weapon to summon more puffer fishes
For the best way to build the heroes, please refer here:
Trevor
The big splash team where Trevor simply slashes through enemies after building his turn up.
Haran and Nadia support Layla by providing buffs and debuffs and then Trevor jumps in with his crazy skills that will hit like a truck:
Nadia: apply debuffs with her weapon (and optionally heal) → Haran: apply freeze and drop his ice core for more damage → Trevor: use skills and slash enemies
For the best way to build the heroes, please refer here:
Conlcusion
The meta changes, for sure, so don’t start pulling certain cookies now and spending money. There is a lot to happen in the future and what we know from the beta is that characters that come out soon – also, don’t believe the many AI generated videos or blogs that claim Marco is a S-Tier hero, he is only working so well as your blue rarity starter team is designed to perfectly synergize and look what other carry you get early and start investing in your team in that direction.
