Brawl Stars is a third-person, top-down shooter game in which you play as your chosen Brawler and compete in a variety of Events. In these Events, you face off against other Brawlers as you attempt to complete a special objective unique to each type of Event.
Controls
To move your Brawler, drag your finger on the left side of the screen to manipulate the virtual joystick, and your Brawler will move the direction that the joystick is pulled. Dragging your finger on the right side of the screen will manipulate the Attack joystick. Drag it to aim, and release it to fire. Alternately, the joystick can be tapped to perform a "quick-fire" (or auto-aimed) attack. This causes the Brawler to automatically fire once at the nearest target, or if none are in range, the Brawler fires toward the nearest damageable object (Players, Power Cube Boxes, etc.). To cancel an aimed shot, drag the Attack joystick back to its center.
Each Brawler has its own powerful Super ability. The Super is mainly charged by hitting enemy Brawlers. Once fully charged, it can be utilized with the yellow joystick located on the right side of the screen, below the Attack joystick. The Super will then be fired in the direction that the joystick is aimed in. Similar to the regular Attack joystick, the Super joystick can also be simply tapped to automatically fire the Super at the nearest target. The Super's charge is not lost if your Brawler is defeated. Like your Attack joystick, you can cancel your aimed Super by dragging the joystick back to its center.
The positions of the controls on the screen can be adjusted in the game settings.
Two or three status bars are displayed over your Brawler's head. The top one indicates how much health the Brawler has remaining. Health is lost as the Brawler takes damage, and if the Brawler's health reaches zero, the Brawler is defeated. If the Brawler does not attack or take damage for 3 seconds, its health will start to regenerate over time by 13% of their maximum health. The second bar has segments that indicate how many attacks the Brawler has ready. Most Brawlers can have a maximum of three attacks ready at once, and each attack empties one full segment. Attacks regenerate automatically over time. A third bottom bar may be present, which may indicate a countdown of the time duration of a Gadget or a certain charge a Star Power needs to be in effect. This bar is yellow when partially filled and is maroon when fully charged.
Brawlers have one or two selectable Gadgets, two Star Powers, and a Hypercharge. Gadgets are limited-use active abilities that can be unlocked after a Brawler is at least Power Level 7. All Gadgets are activated by a button, have 3 uses, and have a 5-second cooldown between uses. Unless otherwise stated, Gadgets do not charge up a Brawler's Super, or reveal Brawlers in bushes.
Gears are passive abilities that can be unlocked after a Brawler is at Power Level 8. Gears are locked for a specific Brawler. After upgrading a Brawler to Power Level 10, they can be equipped with two Gears at a time.
Star Powers are passive abilities that can be unlocked after a Brawler is at Power Level 9. Unlike Gadgets, they do not require a button to activate, have no cooldown, and can be used indefinitely. Only Star Powers that actively deals damage, raise a Brawler's max health, or heal Brawlers will reveal Brawlers inside bushes.
Hypercharges are active abilities that can be unlocked after a Brawler is at Power Level 11. The Hypercharge is mainly charged by hitting enemy Brawlers. Once fully charged, it can be utilized with the purple button located on the right side of the screen, below the Super joystick. All Hypercharges are activated by a button, last for 5 seconds, have no cooldown, and can be used indefinitely. While activated, Brawlers will have a purple flame, additional Supers abilities, while also gaining speed, damage, and shield boosts. Using a Hypercharge will not reveal Brawlers in bushes.
Some Brawlers have a Trait, a passive ability active on all Brawlers with that Trait regardless of their Power Level.
Brawl
Battles are started in the Brawl tab. There are 8 main Event types: Showdown, Duo Showdown, Brawl Ball, Gem Grab, Knockout, Duels, Heist, and Hot Zone in which you battle against other players. Each Event has a different main objective. See their individual pages for more information.
Up to 7 different events can be active at any one time. The time before the next rotation for an Event Slot is displayed in that slot. When that time is reached, a new Event begins and 5 free XP can be claimed by simply tapping the Event slot.
Playing matches earns you XP from your XP bank, which are used to progress on the Brawl Pass. The XP bank can hold up to 200 XP at a time, and 20 XP are re-added to the bank every 2 hours and 24 minutes, capped at 200. If you earn all of the XP in the bank, you can come back later to earn more.
In addition to the normal Events, a Special Event opens every weekend in the fourth event slot. With the exception of Heist and Hot Zone, they are not ranked, meaning that winning or losing in these events does not affect one's Trophy count. These Events award great amounts of XP in the form of quests. The Special Event can be either Heist, Hot Zone, Big Game, Boss Fight, or Robo Rumble.
Clubs
Clubs are social groups within the game that players can join to chat and join rooms to play matches together. Clubs can be created, which cost 1000 Coins, or joined from the game's Social tab. Clubs also have their own leaderboards based on their Clubs' Trophy scores. A Club's Trophy score is calculated by adding the individual Trophy counts of the Club's members. Each Club can have up to 30 members.
Players in Clubs can either be a Member, Senior, Vice President, or President:
- Members have no premium rights
- Seniors can share Club invite, and accept join requests
- Vice Presidents have Senior rights, plus the right to change Club settings, send Club mail, and promote and kick Seniors
- President have Vice President rights, plus the right to promote and kick Vice Presidents
There is only one President per Club, and if a President promotes a Vice President to President, then the initial president is automatically demoted to Vice President. The Presidency over a Club is now automatically rotated after the Club President is inactive for at least 14 days.
Mega Pig is a mode based around clubs.
Inbox
The Inbox is where you receive items such as Bling, skins or Gems (if Supercell donates). Through the Inbox, you can check how much Bling you've received from previous seasons. You also receive Club announcements or mail sent by the President or Vice Presidents from the Inbox through the Club Mail.
Tips
- Know your role. Different Brawlers are best for different roles. For instance, El Primo can take a lot of damage and protect other Brawlers on his team, but Brawlers like Brock are best for long-range support.
- Know how quickly your Brawler's attacks travel. If your Brawler's attack takes a while to reach its destination, you have to aim ahead of your target if it is moving, or you will miss.
- Know when to retreat. Brawlers heal when they are not firing or being hit. If you are getting low on health, it may be best to take cover for a while to regain your health, but keep in mind that this could also give your opponent the opportunity to do the same thing.
- Try to dodge enemy attacks. While close-ranged attacks are not easy to dodge, long-range projectiles, like Brock's rocket, can be dodged with the correct strafing techniques. One common technique is to walk sideways and turn as soon as you see a ranged attack coming your way. Because the enemy will likely time their attacks by aiming ahead, their attack will miss.
- A Brawler's hitbox (the area where attacks can connect with them and deal damage) is shown by the ring around their feet, not the Brawler themselves. This ring is relatively the same size for every Brawler. There are a few exceptions of Brawlers with a slightly larger hitbox, including Pam, 8-Bit, Sandy, Meg's Mecha, and all of the tanks.
- A Brawler's hitbox is slightly larger than a single tile of cover. If you want to be completely protected, hide behind two blocks.