entranceIngress game rules in Russian. Ingress - Augmented Reality
0 Introduction
The first thing you need to know when leveling up your agent is how much and for what game experience (AP) is awarded. Creative actions (installation of resonators, connections, fields, etc.) give about twice as much AR as their corresponding destructive ones (destruction of resonators, connections, fields). Usually, creative actions require more time, while destructive ones require more requirements for the player's level and equipment. The following lists the main articles of accrual of AP that are relevant for a player in pumping.
Resonator installation - 125 AR, in addition:
bonus for placing the first resonator in a neutral portal (capture) - 500 AP
bonus for installing the final resonator (full capture) - 250 AP
Alien Resonator Level Up - 65 AP
Mod installation - 125 AR
Establishing a connection - 313 AR
Creating a field - 1250 AR
Charging resonators - 10 AR
Enemy Portal Hack - 100 AP
Resonator Destruction - 75 AP
Destruction of communication - 187 AP
Field Destruction - 750 AP
Knowing how much and for what you will receive AP, you need to decide where you will do it. Minimal planning is desirable, in which INTEL can provide invaluable assistance. This is a map of the area with the designation of portals and their current status. After reviewing it before going out, it turns out what changes can be made to a typical route in order to go through available AR sources.
Leveling up to level 6 alone
By controlling a still low-level agent, the main source of AP can be creative actions, that is, installing resonators and mods in portals, as well as creating links and fields. Of course, you can try to bring death and destruction by trying to destroy enemy portals, but in most cases it will take a lot of time and equipment with an unguaranteed result. Open INTEL and find the area where you live and where everyday routes lie. You are interested in nearby clusters of portals of your faction that are not interconnected by links or, what the hell is not joking, neutral. Upon arrival, install the missing resonators in them, if it is required that there are eight resonators in all portals and they are available for linking, and hack along the way. When you get the keys when hacking, connect the portals closest to each other. Your goal is to get the smallest possible triangular grid of links, that is, the maximum number of fields made up of links connecting three portals with a triangle. If somewhere there are not enough keys for this, do not change the linking plan, because in five minutes you can return to hack the portal again, get the key and complete the "network". And vice versa, if several keys are required from a portal and you already have some, remember that a portal can only give a key when hacked if it is not yet in your inventory. This means that before the next hacking of such a portal, it is required either to use the keys by establishing the appropriate connections, or to drop the key (s) to the ground before hacking, raising them from there after the commission. You can see if there is a key to the portal and how much, in the upper right corner open window of this portal, and by pressing the key icon located there - quickly go to the interface for resetting it. Without taking into account the installation of resonators, the creation of each even the smallest field gives you about 2000 AP, which means that the 300,000 AP required for level 6, when it becomes possible to break almost any portal, is not so far away.
It is quite possible that during the leveling process, you will meet players of the opposite faction, about whose actions against the portals with your participation notifications will be sent to the scanner, and the result of their actions will be displayed as quickly fading links of resonators and portals, and your portals themselves will become gray . Don't worry, in this case it's not so bad, and maybe vice versa, because you can manage to capture and install resonators in these portals again and again, which means you will receive AP again and again. Do not try to recharge your portals, it will be a waste of energy here, just as you should not try to break portal resonators that have already acquired the color of the opposite faction. If they are installed by a player not much higher than you in level, then it will be possible to do this later. And directly in the process of destroying your portals by the enemy, it is better to try to capture the portals that have become neutral before the enemy, and in the temporary absence of such portals, quickly install the missing ones in the slots that have become free. At the same time, it is desirable to stay and move as close as possible to the intended or established location of the enemy player himself. If the enemy destroys a single portal, near which you are, do not immediately install resonators into all available slots in it. After all, powerful boosters can destroy all installed low-level resonators with almost one blow, and there will be no opportunity to install a new resonator until the scanner updates the information, which can happen with a delay. Under continuous "fire" of the enemy, it is better to install one resonator every ~2 seconds, while observing whether the previous ones are destroyed. If they disappear quickly - keep the pace of installation, if the strength of your resonators decreases gradually - increase the pause between installing new ones. If at some stage the enemy paused, then leave a couple of free resonator slots, use it to replenish energy using a cube, you can install a shield or a pair to slightly delay the destruction of your resonators when the “fire” resumes and give a little more time to react to it. Pumping begins to deliver a special fun and generate adrenaline! It is possible that in the process of fighting for the portal you were able to visually identify your counterpart. Be as polite and friendly as possible while keeping at least one eye on your scanner. If the enemy managed to capture your portal, or he left such attempts, and nearby there are other portals of your color to which he presumably or established went, then unobtrusively follow him, or better - 10-15 meters ahead in order to have time to play again into this fun game that quickly adds the AP you need.
If you still think that Ingress is very difficult game for real nerds, then this text is for you. Do you like walking? sci-fi? City quests? Do you have an iOS or Android smartphone? Are you looking for an excuse to get out of the house and meet new friends? Did you answer yes to at least one question? So you have to read the text. Put the device on charge, make sure you have connected Mobile Internet and get ready for a real adventure!
INTRODUCTION
Exactly two years along with the real and game virtual worlds, there is one of the fine lines in which both of these worlds are quite harmoniously mixed. Such facets are called "augmented" or "augmented" reality (augmented reality), meaning that for 
visible things is something much more. So you installed the application - and the smartphone or tablet in your hand turned into a special device - a “scanner”. Looking through it at the graffiti on the wall or at the urban sculpture, you will see the energy oozing from them, called "exomatter". Perhaps next to you you will see (not through the device, but with your own eyes) a person looking at his smartphone, then at you. “Blue or green?” he thinks. Or maybe you will find yourself in a huge field of one of two colors that covered the whole city ... Yes, baby, this is Ingress.
To put it briefly and beautifully, Ingress is a semi-real MMORPG in the world of smartphones and tablets. It appeared as a fusion of urban quests, children's team competitions like "Cossack robbers", world conspiracy theory, fantastic dystopias and gambling. It took root, becoming a whole culture, dividing the inhabitants of the globe into two factions, but at the same time rallying them for one goal - endlessly playing and fighting. It is safe and not without exaggeration to say that Ingress is more than just a game. This is the real life style. 
PLOT
Imagine that when the CERN experiment was launched at the Large Hadron Collider, something happened that was not expected - some interdimensional energy was released, which was immediately dubbed Exotic Matter, in our opinion - exomatter or "ExM". This energy began to accumulate, as it turned out, in places of manifestation of art or science, i.e. evidence of human development: monuments, museums, libraries, even post offices. Such XM clusters came to be called “ portals“. And not just like that - it turned out that the portals allow representatives of an alien race - the Shapers - to pass into our world. They say that it was the Shapers who influenced the development of mankind: they controlled the minds of such prominent people as Mendeleev or Mozart (not in vain, many ideas came to them “in a dream”), they moved progress further and further, pursuing only one known goal. Now the Shapers have decided that the world is ready to stand on new level. But people have their own opinion on this matter, or rather even two. 
Enlightened ( Enlightened)
, the "Green" faction - believe that the Shapers should continue to move the progress of mankind, therefore they help them. There are many arguments that people are always afraid of the new, but it brings good. Didn't aliens help the most ancient people build the pyramids or the first observatories? Or maybe the Shapers created people at all? ..
Resistance ( Resistance)
, the “Blue” faction - are convinced that the Shapers will turn people into developed, but not having individual consciousness, creatures. They believe that the goal of the aliens is to create an army of people with a collective mind, like ants. The agents of the Resistance are sure that humanity will cope with its progress and art on its own.
GAMEPLAY
In fact, the gameplay of both factions is no different.
Everything looks like this:
1. You need to have time to certain time checkpoints to earn more points than the enemy faction.
2. To earn points, you need to create fields by connecting three portals of the same color (of your chosen faction).
3. To connect portals, you need to capture them correctly.
Main gameplay actions:
Portal hack ( hack, "hack")
- carried out in relation to the portal of any faction, and even neutral ones, i.e. - not captured. The only purpose of the "hack" is to "farm" items. To "hack" the portal, you need to be in the range of the scanner, marked with a yellow circle. When you hack someone else's portal, you also get +100 XP for it. The higher the level of the portal, the higher the level and the items that can be obtained from it, but they will not drop higher than your level + one more on top.
The portals have cooldown- this is usually 5 minutes if special items are not installed on it (you can read about such items, MODs, later). During this time, the portal “cools down” and it is impossible to hack it.
Important hack! If you do not just tap, but hold down the button hack, a mini-game for memorizing glyphs will open. Depending on the level of the portals, you will be asked to repeat from one to five glyphs, which may hide mysterious messages - probably from the Shapers themselves. Properly repeated glyphs get you bonus items!
Installation of resonators, deployment of the portal (deploy)
- for the portal to function at full capacity, 8 resonators must be installed on it. Resonators are just such gizmos, without the full amount of which the portal cannot be connected to other portals. Of course, you can only deploy a neutral portal (this is called capture portal), or add resonators to your own, in which there are less than 8. Resonators of the 1st level for one person can put all 8 on the portal, 2nd, 3rd and 4th - four each, 5th and 6 th by 2, but the coolest “cuts” are 7 and 8, one player can bet only one piece each. This is because Ingress is a team game. The first and last resonators give the most large quantity xp. If you went to swing with a friend, and you don't have many resonators in your inventory, then ask him to let you put the first and last ones (unless he himself needs to swing - be tolerant! :))
Important hack!- it is desirable to deploy the portal at the maximum distance. The farther you are from the portal, the further your resonators will be installed, and the more difficult it will be for the enemy to blow them up (more on that later). When deploying the portal, stand so that it is at the very edge of your yellow circle.
You can also replace weak resonators with stronger ones, i.e. higher level.
If you want more nerdiness, then.
Link, connection of portals (link) - the main goal of the game is not to capture portals, but to connect them into filled triangles ( control field ). To connect two portals to each other, you need to stand at an accessible distance from one portal and have key from the one you want to pair it with. Portal Keys drop when hacked with approximately 80% chance. You will see the link button in the portal profile, in the center of the resonator diagram. Naturally, it becomes active only when all 8 pieces are installed. The game may prompt you to link all reachable portals for which you have keys, but link wisely. The link must not cross other links, so it's not a good idea to connect two portals across the city unless you plan to complete the field. Otherwise, you will spoil the game for others (this is also called “shitlink”). Usually, if you have the key to the portal, say, “Fountain of the sun”, then hacking this fountain a second time, the key will not fall out. But if you want to link two portals near you to the “Fountain”, and thereby create a field, that is another life hack: standing near the fountain, drop the key (Drop button in the key window), hack the portal again, and when you get the second key, pick up the one you threw away. Voila! Now you can link 2 portals to the "Fountain of the Sun" without running back and forth! You are gorgeous!
Recharging resonators (rechaj, recharge)
- is needed to maintain the vital activity of the resonators, and hence the portals. Resonators consume exactly 25% of the charge per day, in addition, their charge is destroyed by enemy attacks. You can charge both a pack of resonators, and each one individually - naturally, you spend XM from your “health” scale for this. It even gives a bit of experience, so necessary for beginners. To recharge a portal, you need to stand within its radius, but you can recharge portals from a distance if you have the keys to them. True, the further away the target is from you, the more XM consumption will be.
And finally, the most fun.
Attacking enemy portals! I do not advise, of course, to beat portals at the first levels - except perhaps in the company of strong players, that is, to finish off enemy resonators to gain experience. Everything is simple here - the higher your level, the higher the level of bombs that you can use (Xmp Burster, in the common people “boosters”). Just go to inventory, select "booster" and press fire. And now very important life hack: on the screen where you see the portals, and at the bottom scrolling through the boosters in your inventory, hold down the Fire button. You will see the exomatter seething around you, narrowing and expanding the ring. So, when it narrowed as much as possible, release the button. This makes it possible to increase the booster's attack power by up to +20%.
You can see all the current world portals, links and fields here at this link. This feature is not available on mobile devices, therefore, on long-distance raids, it is good to take a compact ultrabook with you in your bag. the rest you will learn along the way - about achievements, about events, and so on. The main thing in Ingress is to play in a team, which you can find in COMM or by inviting friends. In a team, you can create real masterpieces from the fields, walk around the city at night and travel in a crowd to neighboring cities to exchange keys. There are also many romantic stories about players in Ingress - especially interesting are cases of love relationships between representatives of different factions :)
Some terminology and jargon of the Russian-speaking Ingress:
Farm- a large group of portals in one place. It is called so because people go there to hack and collect items. The most valuable, of course, are the "eighth farms" - there are the most powerful portals.
Rez- resonator.
Boost, booster - Xmp Burster . “Vadik, are you going to the raid? Not? Well, at least throw the boosts out the window.
Uporin- the mood to play Ingress, for example, until 3:00 am or break loose and go to another city to link.
Homemade- portals that can be reached from the house.
Upnut- raise the level of the portal by delivering high resonators to it. “Eights, give me homework if you pass by.”
flip- recolor the portal with a virus (read about this another time!)
Govnolink- ill-conceived linking, which spoils the subsequent tactical game. #I'm linking like a fool
Zelenka- a derogatory term for enlight resists.
Blue- a derogatory term for resists enlights.
Since Ingress was released on Apple devices a few months ago, there has been a lot of fresh blood in the game. Namely, today it is all the more good to start playing - until the 15th there is an event in honor of the two-year anniversary of the game, during which for each action you are given 2 times more experience.
In the next article I will tell you how the Kiev Enlight lives, how we met Lina Molotova in Moscow, and in general about how the girls lived to see such a life.
Whichever faction you choose, we'd love to have you as an agent for the Niantic Project! Let the game begin!
and long live the Enlightment!
Each of us knows what a mobile game is. You download it to your smartphone, install it, and then enjoy the process while sitting in a comfortable chair, on the couch, or even at work or school. But at the same time, it is worth noting that all these games are generally the same, although they have different genres, plots, graphics, and so on. If you want something unusual and special, then you should pay attention to Ingress. How to play this extraordinary project? What is required from the player? How does it differ from standard mobile games? All these questions can start to torment you as soon as you see the description of this game.
Ingress - what is it?
The first thought that may come to you when you see Ingress is: "How to play such a project?" After all, he looks really extraordinary and unusual. It’s worth starting with the fact that there are elements in this game - this means that you will not just sit at home and enjoy the gameplay, you will have to move. In fact, the Ingress application is not the game itself, it is just a platform for it. All gameplay takes place in the real world as people move around the area and visit checkpoints to move their faction forward. To make the game more fun, checkpoints are located not in random places, but in the locations of various interesting objects and attractions. Thus, you can arrange a walk around the city, while at the same time taking part in the global game, which involves hundreds of thousands of people around the world. But so far there has been no answer to a very important question regarding Ingress: "How to play this game?"
Application for the game
It's no secret to anyone that almost all of the gameplay in Ingress takes place in the real world. But at the same time, you need to somehow connect all the ongoing events with each other, so you need to download an application that bears the name of the game. It has a huge functionality and will allow you to join the process at any time, select a faction and start working for its benefit. It is in the application that a map will be displayed, on which all key points will be marked - portals that have been captured by your allies or opponents. Also, through the application, you can track all the events that are generated by the Ingress developers. How to play using the application? You can get the answer to this question right in it, since it contains a rather voluminous manual. Moreover, you can always turn to your familiar players or neighbors that you find in the game to help you at first. After all, you are working for the common good of a particular faction. Ingress is a game in Russian, Ukrainian, English and other languages, that is, there will be no problems with understanding your comrades. And you will have to communicate, as you will need to generate plans for the capture and defense of your territories.
Enlightened Faction
As soon as you download the Ingress app, the game in Russian (or other selected language) will ask you to immediately decide which faction you want to join. Do not think that it does not matter, the game has a full-fledged plot, according to which events in the game world are determined. So, you have to choose from two factions - Enlightened and Resistance. First, it is worth considering the first, which advocates contact with the Shapers - an alien race. Enlightened people seek peace with the aliens, they want them to help people develop with the help of the latest technologies. Therefore, if you think that the Shapers will be able to raise humanity to a new stage of development, you are in this faction. At the very beginning of the game, when you start Ingress, a description of both factions will be in front of your eyes, so choose wisely - you won’t be able to change anything later.
Resistance faction
If you are not attracted by the alternative of cooperation with aliens, then you should join the Resistance faction. Its participants believe that the Shapers just want to enslave people, make them like a collective mind, deprive them of everything human. It is difficult, of course, to imagine that such a small game as Ingress on Android is capable of creating such a full-fledged game world projected onto the real one. But that's the way it is. Right now you can join this game to start the battle for one or another faction.
Main object - portal
So, you have chosen your faction, and now you see in front of you a map of the area where you are. Keep in mind that you will definitely need a GPS to play Ingress - the instructions make this quite clear, as does the description of the game itself. It is through GPS that your location is tracked, as well as your gaming activities, so if you do not have this receiver in your phone, and even more so if there is no Internet connection at all, then you will not be able to join the players. If your device is ready to use, then the main goal is portals. As mentioned above, they are located at various attractions. When you get to a neutral portal or to a portal marked with the color of the enemy, you can change it to your own. This is the essence of the game, and it does not matter what platform you use for Ingress - iPhone, Android or something else.
Links
In case you haven't figured it out yet, Ingress is like an advanced version of the "dots" game, where opponents place dots on the field and then try to connect them together to form "their" fields. Ingress is also all about dominance, so you have to mark portals and then connect them together. And the connection that appears between two portals is called a link. Unfortunately, it is not durable, and the enemy can destroy it. So you need to not only capture new portals, but also defend the old ones, as well as the links between them.
Zones
The best thing that can be found in the game is the zones. When you have managed to collect enough portals of your color and link them together into a single whole, your zone appears. It is much more reliable than a link or a portal. That is what you and your comrades should strive for. Therefore, it is necessary to organize mass sorties in the game chat in order to simultaneously capture portals, link and turn the territory into your zone. The larger the territory, the more portals and links are needed, respectively, this task becomes very difficult to implement. But possible.
What gives you Ingress?
So, you have already understood the principle of the game Ingress, learned that there is a full-fledged application for it, and also understood the fact that the whole world is already involved in this incredible gameplay. Therefore, a logical question arises: "Do I need to register in this game?" If you just want to sit for an hour or two a day playing on your phone, then you better immediately abandon Ingress, since such an approach will not be acceptable there. In Ingress you play constantly - day and night, at any given time. You may not be able to capture at least one portal one day, while another day you will have to run from one place to another for several hours. You may have a great chance to help the faction, and then you abruptly change the route of your movement. All in all, Ingress is an action game that doesn't stop for a second. If there are a lot of people in your area who play Ingress, then it will be easier for you, since someone will always be able to replace you. And, of course, you will have new acquaintances with whom you can meet to talk about gaming topics. And not only.
Naturally, everyone decides for himself whether it is worth spending time on this undertaking. But one thing is for sure - Ingress is a masterpiece game, a real breakthrough, a project that the world has not yet seen. Therefore, it is worth trying your hand anyway. And if you like it, then you will certainly see that you can reach unprecedented heights with your faction, and this is precisely what matters a lot. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to play Ingress - Windows does not support this game, as well as a number of other platforms. It is best to play on Android, in a pinch on iOs.
Does it exist virtual reality that makes people leave the house? Will you say no? - you just haven't played Ingress. More and more people are leaving their cozy beds and going outside even though winter is coming! You must know!
After staying at home all summer, there seemed to be no prospect of going out. And as soon as it began to get colder and the nasty autumn rain wet the passers-by running away home, we Google Play got the game Ingress, which made us wander around the city with an umbrella in search of portals.
Where to begin?
To start to go outside to play Ingress you need:
- Phone with Android version 2.3 (or later) or iPhone with iOS 7.0 (or later)
- Working GPS navigation in the device
- Mobile Internet
- Umbrella
What is the point?
The plot of the game is that a mysterious energy penetrates into our world, which can change people's thinking. You need to choose one of the sides:
Resistance(blue) - for those who want to fight it.
Enlightened(green) - for those who want to master this energy.
As a result, both factions are fighting for intelligence units (area of controlled territory). And all this exists in the real world. Perhaps your house or a nearby store has already become a portal.
I would like to clarify that people who play Ingress are usually adequate and fight only in the game. And sometimes they even get together and make joint drawings on the map (field art). The picture above is just an example of field art.
Your goal is portals
Portals are the place where energy seeps into our world.
The portal can be of three colors:
- Blue if controlled by the Resistance
- Green if controlled by the Enlightened
- Gray if no one controls it
To gain control over a no one's portal, you need to install a resonator on it. This process is called deployment. If the portal belongs to a foreign faction, then you will first have to destroy the enemy resonators.
This is what our portal looks like, which we recently captured:
On one portal, you can install from one to eight resonators of different levels (1-8). You can also improve the resonators (not even your own) installed in the portal. They determine the level of the portal. It is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the resonator levels, rounded down.
For any action in the game you will need items that can be obtained by hacking (hacking) the portal. To do this, you need to approach the portal at a distance of 35 meters, select the portal on the map and press the hack button. After a second of waiting, various buns will fall on you, which we will tell you about below.
Bonuses can not be obtained endlessly, and in order to hack again, you will have to wait 5 minutes. Keep in mind that in 4 hours one person can hack one portal only 4 times.
For advanced hackers, there are glyphs - special shapes that need to be remembered and repeated (seen in the photo above). If you do everything right, then even more buns will fall. To try yourself as an advanced hacker, you just need to hold down the hack button longer.
In addition to more goodies, experience points are given for glyphs - this is important, especially for novice players.
Mana - walk and get
All actions in Ingress cost Exotic Materia (XM), which we simply refer to as "mana".
Mana seeps into our world from portals, settling around them in the form of blue balls. All you need to do is to approach and she will gather herself. Mana can be found even far from the portal, but in very small quantities. The screenshot shows the distribution of mana depending on the distance to the portal.
The largest amount of mana is spent on attacking enemy portals, as well as on recharging (recharge) their own. You need to recharge the portals because they lose their energy: due to the attack of enemies, or simply over time (the portal completely loses its charge in 4 days and turns gray).
Mana can also be replenished by depleting the PowerCube, an item that sometimes drops when hacking.
Links and fields - earn mind points
Points in the game are calculated according to what area (field) the factions control in the game. More area - more points. To capture the area, you need to connect 3 portals into a triangle (no other shapes capture the area). Not any 3 portals can be used for these purposes.
The following conditions must be met:
- Each of the portals should have 8 resonators installed.
- You must have a key to the portal you connect this one to (the key drops out of the portal when hacking with a 50% chance). It is not necessary to have the key to the portal near which you are standing. When you connect two portals (link), the key to the portal you are connecting to disappears.
- A portal-to-portal link can only be established if it does not cross other links.
- Depending on the level of the portal, you can stretch the link for a certain distance (from 160m to 655 km).
Experience is awarded for creating links and fields: 313 for a link and 1563 for a field.
Mods - help the portal to become better
You can install 4 mods in your portal. There are such mods:
- Protective (portal shield) - reduces damage to the portal.
- Attackers (force amp, turret) - increase portal damage to the enemy.
- Extension link (link amp)
- Improving hacking (heat sink, multi-hack) - allow you to hack the portal more often.
Here's how cute the mods look in the game:
Weapons - expand the zone of control
The most effective in the game is to destroy the enemy portal, especially if it was part of the field, and create your own in its place. For these purposes, you will need a weapon, which, like everything else, falls out of the portal when hacking.
There are 3 types of weapons:
- XMP Burster - drops out most often, hits a large area.
- Ultra strike - rarely drops out, the blow is concentrated and strong.
- Virus - drops out very rarely (1 time out of 1000). Allows you to repaint the portal in a different color (depending on the type of virus).
And I got the blue virus at level 2 :) I'm waiting for a reason to use it. It looks like this (on the right):
In general, when using XMP, you should stand so that the blast wave covers several resonators at once.
Levels and achievements - level up and brag to your friends
The strength of the player depends on his level, which can be pumped by getting action points (AP). The higher the level, the more powerful weapons and powerful resonators the player can use. In addition, as the level increases, the amount of mana that the player can collect increases.
There are several common leveling strategies in Ingress:
- Creating links and fields. For these actions in the game, there are the most action points. We are pumping just according to this scheme, since there are many portals in our city.
- Destruction of enemy portals. For the destruction of the portal and the network of links of the enemy, there are half as many points as in the first variant. But this strategy is suitable for a losing team when there are few of their portals.
- Capturing the gray portal. No one's portal can be dragged to your side. Points are given for the installation of each resonator, so it makes sense to initially install the lowest level resonators, and then upgrade them.
As a bonus for actions in the game, you can get achievements, for example, for hacking a large number of different portals, for holding a portal for n days, for the number of links made, for recharging portals, for installing and destroying resonators.
All this does not carry a semantic load and exists rather in order to measure with friends. But for pumping above level 8, you need to collect some medals.
Our achievements - swing and show off :)
We started playing Ingress 2 weeks ago. We do not play very actively, but we have already managed to get carried away and achieve something. So far, we have upgraded to level 4, earned several achievements and walked 47 km around the city (which for our lifestyle can be considered an achievement).
From our little experience, we can tell you how to play Ingress more effectively - namely, riding a bike. Thus, you can quickly go around many portals, collect keys and make links.
Ingress, to our surprise, is played by completely different people. One day a man in his 50s came up to us and told us that we were destroying his farm. He has been in the game for a long time and has covered more than 1000 km. And once a guy rode up to us on a bike, it looks like he wanted to deploy the portal that we had just deployed. It turned out that he was from another faction. Therefore, after talking to us, the guy rushed to another portal to protect him from us.
An interesting incident happened to us yesterday. We were just finishing our dinner when we got a notification about a portal attack near our house. Grabbing our things, we managed to run to him when he had only one half-discharged resonator left, and managed to install new resonators and protective mods. This time we could not see who attacked our portal, but we sympathize with him.
We did not expect so many people to play in our city. Now, when we see a person walking with a phone, we immediately suspect that he may be playing Ingress. This makes the game even more interesting, the only pity is that we have much more blue ones than green ones. Because of this, there is an imbalance of power, and the map in our city is usually almost completely blue.
*Over the year, the situation has changed dramatically and the map is now greener than green. Who from Chernivtsi, join the resistance so that the game is more balanced!
Ingress is a really interesting game that deserves attention. She fascinated even me, although I'm not a particular fan of games in principle. This is not just a game, but an occasion to go out, make new friends and have an unusual time. Be sure to try it and write your impressions in the comments! We can even play together if you are blue!
You can watch the fight of factions in the game Ingress on the official map. And if you want more information about the game, then read the Ingress Wiki.
And you can download the toy (for Android) or if you are a happy owner of Apple products.
Foreword
Now I will tell you about the beta version of the game, which has an English interface, access to which is provided only by invites. So with one sentence, I made you think "why do I need this?" and move the cursor to the "cross" of the active tab. Take your time, maybe it's not as scary as it seems!
First of all, you can't just walk past the only game that has Google (more specifically, a small division called Niantic Labs) as the developer and has over 500,000 installs. a whole world has been invented for the gameplay and even several books have been released.
The uniqueness of this game also lies in the fact that, unlike 99% of entertainment applications, Ingress will require you not to develop finger dexterity and reaction speed, but good physical fitness, orientation in the area, knowledge of sights and a desire to wander around the memorable places of your native city.
There are also no difficulties with obtaining an invite. Most easy way- just send a request on the Ingress site.
Only the English interface remains of the minuses. Therefore, in this review, I will try to dwell as much as possible on the very initial stage of the game, which often becomes a stumbling block and scares off Russian-speaking users with a lot of scary and incomprehensible terms.
Preamble
So let's start with the basics. Ingress- multiplayer online game with elements of augmented reality. To implement the gameplay, you need a device with installed application and the presence of a permanent connection to the Internet and GPS satellites (determining your location via Wi-Fi is supported, but the accuracy is very, very lame, so we will assume that this possibility is completely absent).
There are two factions in the game, belonging to which is visually shown by blue and green colors of objects on the map. Your primary tasks are to capture free and enemy portals and create links and fields between your portals. In the process of performing game actions, your level increases, which gives you additional opportunities and advantages. The most effective are organized team actions, for the coordination of which a chat is built in.
Legend
Oh those scientists! They never sit still! So this time they distinguished themselves: during the experiment in the next Collider, some exotic matter (Exotic Matter, abbreviated - XM) was obtained, which scattered around the world. But instead of being driven by the wind and spoiling the ozone layer, it quietly and peacefully was drawn to monuments, libraries, museums and other wells of knowledge, where it began to self-repair and multiply. Over time, Portals appeared in these places somewhere to another world. And some incomprehensible creatures climbed out of them - Shapers. Who they are, what they look like and what they want from us is unclear. But they really want to change our world.
You'll have to clear it all up again ordinary people. But not for everyone, but only for those who are generally aware of what is happening and have special scanners (since XM and portals are not visible to a simple human eye). But it just so happens historically that everyone cannot come to the same opinion, and as a result, two factions are formed - Enlightened ( Enlightened) and Resistance ( Resistance).
The former are firmly convinced that Shapers bring goodness, joy and happiness. They found out that Shapers from ancient times controlled creative people, helped humanity develop. And if there is an opportunity, then let them influence people directly, leading humanity to a brighter future.
Resistance, as you might guess, the rosy prospect of such close communication with an unknown mind is not encouraging. For them, these are invaders who manipulate human consciousness, bring nothing new, and now (thanks to experiments) they can also take possession of human bodies (they don’t have their own in our world).
To prove the correctness of their point of view, each faction seeks to gain control over a large number of Mind Units (Mind Units, abbreviated - MU), and speaking in Russian - ordinary people. To do this, portals are captured and connected by links. The zone inside the triangle created by some faction (where the portals are the corners, and the connections are the sides) forms a field, which contributes a certain amount of MU to the common treasury of the faction. And whoever has more MU is right!
Step one - install and launch the game
First you need to get an invite in one of the previously mentioned ways. An invite is a small code that must be entered when you first start the game. To receive it through the site http://ingress.com, simply click on the "request an invite" button and enter your email address.
After you have received an invite, you can go to Google Play and install the game. There are currently very few devices that are incompatible with Ingress, however, if you have not found this application, you can search by thematic groups on VKontakte, Google+ or forums, since many assemblies have already been created for weaker phones (the craftsmen even ported it to the iPhone, but that's a completely different story).
The installation process is standard and does not cause any difficulties. But at the first start, problems may appear. And the most common of them is the need to disable mock locations in your device settings.
Especially often this option is enabled in custom firmware (for example, in CyanogenMod). In Android 2.x, this option is disabled in Settings -> Applications -> Development.
To turn off mock locations on Android 3.x and later, go to the Developer options in the settings menu (on some Android versions to activate this mode, you need to go to the "about phone" section and click on the firmware build number 10 times in a row - such is the protection "from the fool").
Also, the game will not work in the absence of the Internet or satellites. If the Internet connection is not established initially, the game will not start at all. In other cases (if GPS satellites were not found or the Internet was lost) - will inform you about the problem.
One and a half step - learning the basics
For those who know well English language, you can immediately proceed to the next step - training. There ADA will tell everything much better than me. However, if you have a hard time with languages, then it is better to read this section very carefully.
During the game, the screen displays your location on a stylized map (without street names), as well as additional game elements (portals, XM, etc.). Map management - with two fingers, as, for example, in the usual navigation programs (you can change the scale and viewing angle). Game elements are rigidly tied to the map, that is, in order to interact with them, you need to come / arrive at the place where these elements are located.
Let's delve into the gameplay itself. In the beginning there was matter, and it was called XM. These are such white flickering dots on the map. In order to perform any actions, you need to have a sufficient amount of XM. To find out how much XM you currently have, you need to touch the bar at the top of the screen.
In most Russian-speaking communities, XM is also called energy, which, in principle, most accurately characterizes the essence of given element games.
Your device turns into a scanner ( Scanner) as it "scans" the area around you and shows game elements. As you might guess, your exact location is displayed on the map as an arrow indicating the direction of your movement. The scanner works on XM, so if there is an acute shortage of it, it will turn off (ripples appear on the screen and all game elements except XM become inaccessible for interaction). However, not everything is so bad - the scanner attracts XM if it enters a zone with a radius of 35 meters around the player (it is displayed on the map as a circle around the arrow).
Most XM can be collected from portals ( Portals). It is understandable - it is the portals that are the main "nodes" of the game, on which the entire gameplay rests. And it is for their maintenance that the entire XM will go.
The main actions that can be performed with portals are:
Almost all these actions can be mastered during the training, the main thing is to understand what, in fact, is expected of us.
Hacking portals is required in order to get items used in the game ( Items) (resonators, weapons, mods, keys and other goodies).
You can hack both your own portals and those of others (however, in the second case, more XM is spent on hacking, and the probability that you will not get anything is high). You can hack every 5 minutes, it is allowed to make 4 hacks within 4 hours (then the portal overheats).
Resonators indicate that the portal belongs to a faction. Portal without resonators - no one, displayed on the map in silver. In total, you can install on the portal ( Deploy) 8 resonators. If there is at least one resonator of a foreign faction on the portal, then without its destruction it is impossible to place your own.
The resonator has such a characteristic as a charge. As you might guess, this is an indicator of the amount of XM in a given resonator. If it drops to zero, the resonator is destroyed. To prevent this from happening, the resonators on the portals need to be recharged ( Recharge), that is, put the XM you assembled in them.
As I wrote above, in order to capture someone else's portal, it is necessary to destroy all the resonators on it. This is done with special bombs ( Xmp Bursters). The impact power directly depends on the distance from you to the attacked resonators.
Mods are additional elements for which 4 slots are provided in the portal. Until recently, only shields were mods ( Shields), but there will be others soon.
Shields enhance the protection of the portal, other mods affect both protection (allowing the portal to painfully "snarl" in response to attacks, taking away XM from the opponent), and other properties of the portal (for example, allowing the portal to be hacked more often than once every 5 minutes).
But we have moved away from the main goal of the game - to expose more people to the influence of our faction. For this, only capturing portals is not enough. They need to be linked. Keys are used to create links ( keys), dropped out most often when hacking portals.
A link is created from the portal you are on to the one you have the key to. To link two portals, several conditions must be met:
In addition to connections, keys can be used to remotely recharge the portal.
The field is formed when three portals are connected to each other. On the map, connections are shown as stripes between portals, and fields are shown as flickering zones in the color of the faction that created this field. Sometimes field makers get carried away and bring an element of creativity into their creations. ☺
There is a lot of information and it sounds scary, I agree. But in practice, already on the second day of the game you clearly understand what can be connected with what and what cannot. In general, all these seemingly intricate rules turn out to be very simple and logical, and any questions that have arisen already have answers on thematic resources.
Step two - training and choosing a faction
Now that we generally know the essence of the game, we need to get comfortable with the interface and learn how to perform all the actions described above ourselves. By completing all the training missions in turn, you will immediately understand what exactly needs to be done in a given situation. To start the mission, select "View Briefing", accept the message and, after listening to the task, click "Start".
The following tasks will be assigned to you:
1. Listen to ADA, make sure she has contacted you and conveyed the message that this is not just a game (no action required).
2. Collect XM around you (walk around, watching your movement on the map - XM falling into your area of effect will be attracted to you).
3. Install a test portal, go to it and hack (touch the screen next to you - a portal will appear, press the Choose button; then go to the portal so that it is in your area of \u200b\u200baction, touch it and press the Hack button in the right column).
4. Install a test enemy portal, approach it and blow up the resonator (touch the screen next to you - a portal will appear, press the Choose button; then go to the portal to get as close to the resonator as possible, hold your finger on the screen for a few seconds and when the menu opens , move your finger to Fire Xmp).
5. Install a test portal, go up to it and install a resonator (it is performed in the same way as hacking, but at the end, instead of Hack, press the Deploy button).
6. Install a test portal, approach it, hack it, install the missing resonators and recharge the existing ones (the first steps are already familiar to you, the Recharge button in the portal menu is used to recharge).
7. Create a link between the portals (it is necessary to hack an already installed portal, then hack the neighboring one, install all 8 resonators on it, press the Link button, select the portal highlighted by the spinning petals and confirm the connection).
8. Create a field (similar to the previous mission, only we capture not one, but two resonators and make not one, but three connections, connecting three portals into a triangle).
After the tutorial, you will be asked to choose which faction you want to play as. Since it is more interesting to play when the factions in the region are approximately equal in strength, it is preferable to choose the one that is currently in the minority. You can find out by going to the page http://ingress.com/intel and selecting your city on it. In Orel, for example, the Enlightened are ready for the arrival of the Shapers, so it's better to join the Resistance.
The last step is the game
Finally, you were allowed into the main gaming space. Now you have enough knowledge to start leveling up. An indicator of your level are action points (Action Points, AP). They are added every time you perform certain actions in the game. You get the most points for creating fields. You can view your AP count by touching the circle in the center of which your current level is indicated. There are 8 levels in the game in total. The higher your level - the more "cool" items you can use. Walk, hack portals, create connections and fields, communicate with more experienced players.
During the game, such a problem may arise that there are either very few or no portals in your city. To solve it, the game has a built-in function for sending an application for registration of a new portal. Read in advance what kind of objects can be portals and what should be the photo of the portal. Then take a picture of the desired object and send an application either from the game or from the gallery (previously indicating the name of the portal and its location on the map). Within 2-3 weeks the application will be considered and (in most cases) satisfied. Many players are mostly engaged not in the capture of territory, but in the creation of new portals.
If there are few or no players in your city, then don't worry! Creating initial conditions with a couple of dozen portals is quite easy, and from personal experience I can say that many friends begin to be interested in such an unusual hobby and are further drawn into the game.
In addition to the game itself, developers are constantly developing its legend. This is not just done. There are so-called pascodes in the game ( Passcodes) that grant rare (if not unique) items, experience, and XM. Deciphering is difficult, but interesting. And besides, there are many (including Russian-speaking) communities where new codes are posted almost daily. You can enter the code in the items section by clicking on the field at the bottom of the screen.
The more you immerse yourself in the game, the more interesting and unusual it will seem to you. Every day, players from all over the world coordinate to perform operations to create huge fields, sometimes uniting countries. In general, the scale of the project is simply amazing. Periodically drop-down reports will help you keep abreast of events ( Ingress Reports). They also inform about upcoming innovations, give lessons for players of different levels, and yes, secret codes are hidden.
Since recently, you can constantly be up to date on the state of the portals in your city. Pop-up messages will notify you that a portal is under attack, which in some cases helps to quickly respond and take action. However, these notifications can always be turned off in the game settings.
But despite this, the game does not look raw. On the contrary, plunging into her world, you wonder why she is not yet available to everyone?
Conclusion
For six months now, my husband and I have been suffering from Ingress. And we must admit that this is the most useful game, which I can even imagine on Android. Walking around the city and visiting sometimes completely unfamiliar places cannot but leave impressions. In addition, these are new acquaintances and, unlike other online games, real acquaintances, when you accidentally (or by prior arrangement) meet at a monument or in a park with one, two, or maybe ten other players and develop new plans for takeover of the world.
But there is no honey without a fly in the ointment. And this spoon is power consumption. The combination of Internet + GPS + screen kills any, even the longest-lived phones, and the specifics of the game do not allow you to recharge the batteries. Therefore, the presence of a spare battery (or a spare device) is a necessary necessity. However, it can still be improved - it's still a beta!
It is impossible not to mention some more unique disadvantages associated exclusively with the "real" component of the game. The surrounding people are extremely suspicious of single players or entire groups who, buried in phone screens, cut circles around monuments or museums, and sometimes it takes time to explain that you are not looking for a place to plant a bomb. In some cases (when driving a car and on deserted streets late at night), Ingress can even become dangerous. In the United States, there have been cases of real clashes between representatives of factions, but I have not heard of anything like this anywhere in our country. On the contrary, in most cities the war is purely virtual.
There is no point in even talking about analogues. Yes, they exist, but not on such a scale, not with such prospects and not of such quality. Ingress - is unique, if not in essence, then in implementation. And the pace of development hints that current view games are just the beginning.
As for the assessment... Once upon a time, at school, the teacher was so pleased with my answer in the subject that she gave not 5, but 6. Now I would like to give this game 11 points out of 10. Because this is the most tangible step over the past 10 years in an era of completely new entertainment, where game and reality are closely intertwined.