'The Walking Dead: Our World' Beginner's Guide & Tips: On Walkers, Weapons, Missions, Buildings, Groups and More

Need tips and tricks for playing The Walking Dead: Our World? Check out our comprehensive beginner's strategy guide, here.

Last week AMC and Next Games released The Walking Dead: Our World, a new geo-based zombie apocalypse game similar to Pokemon Go, but with its own unique twist Walking Dead fans are sure to love. If you've just started playing, the tutorial does a nice job of introducing players to the basic mechanics, but some of the finer nuances take a bit more exploration to figure out. Below, we've put together a beginners guide to everything we've learned in levels 1-5 of TWD: Our World. We've organized it as a walkthrough interspersed with tips to help you make the most of the game. As we continue to play, we'll provide additional tips and strategy guides for more advanced gameplay as well. Happy Hunting!

The Walking Dead Beginner's Guide and Walkthrough

Map and Resources

Gameplay in TWD: Our World is fairly simple. You'll look around a map of your area and find missions to complete. Once completed you'll gain rewards such as coins, cards or experience. Here's how each of those items is used:

• Cards - Use cards to unlock new weapons or companions or to upgrade weapons and companions you've already obtained. Card varieties include common, rare and legendary.
• Exp (Gold Stars) - Experience levels up your account. Each time you reach a new level, you unlock new features such as cards, mission types and perks.
• Coins - This precious currency is necessary to upgrade your weapon, companion and perks cards.

Mission Types

The further you go in the game, the more mission types you'll unlock. For for players at Levels 1-5, here are the three main mission types, along with tips for performing well.

• Encounters - These are generally the easiest missions to complete and usually feature a small number of zombies to take down. At the end of an encounter, you'll be awarded a card. The card will generally be a common card, but if you see a mission on your board with blue light surrounding it, this will let you know a rare card can be obtained there.
• Infestations - These missions are more involved, as they require three separate battles, each costing three energy points. The last tends to be the hardest. After each infestation battle, you'll be rewarded with coins, a difficult resource to come by the further you progress. If you manage to complete all three infestation battles successfully, you'll be awarded with four or more cards, one of which is always a rare one. Infestations definitely yield the largest payout if you have enough energy to complete them.
• Rescue Missions - Rescue Mission are exactly what they sound like: missions to rescue survivors. Your goal is to take down the zombies before they kill the survivor. You'll want to focus on taking down the zombies nearest to the survivor first. Rescuing survivors and taking them to warehouses or shelters can help you earn extra resources and other perks, which we'll discuss in more detail later in this guide. Rescue missions don't yield any resource rewards beyond survivors.

General Tips for Map Missions

• Mission Colors - Missions are coded either yellow, orange or red. The color of the mission indicates how easy or difficult the mission is to complete. While it's not impossible to beat a red mission, it will be much more difficult than a yellow one, so starting with the easier missions first may be best to preserve your energy.
• Choosing Best Companions and Weapons - When you tap on a mission, you'll be taken to a screen that gives you information about it. There you'll see the enemy type, threat level and also have the opportunity to choose the weapon and companion you want to take. You can change your weapon or companion by simply tapping on the card. You'll be taken to your inventory, where you can tap on the item you want to equip. If you want to take a look at the weapon or companion's stats first, tap on the "i" in the upper right-hand corner of the card. Cards also have symbols to help you figure out which are best for each mission. For example, regular walkers are weakest against Melee fighters like Michonne. If a particular weapon or companion has yellow arrows pointing upward on the card, this means it will be strong against the zombies in that mission. Additionally, if you have a group weapon or companion that is useful for completing a group objective (more on group objectives later), then you will see a yellow icon with a star on it appear on the card. Checking for these symbols before you go into a mission is a good way to ensure your success. You can also check out a complete list of walkers and weapons they are weakest to, here.
• Focus on Accuracy - Sometimes things get a little hairy and when zombies are headed for your companion, you may panic and shoot erratically. Panicked shots are less accurate and will cause you to have to reload much more frequently. In general, it's best to take your time, and focus on headshotting one zombie at a time until you've taken them out. If you make too many erratic shots, walkers will charge you or your companion. It's usually best to focus on the zombies nearest to you first. If you shoot at zombies towards the back of the group, you'll alert them all at once.
• Focus on companion or survivor - It's great to have a companion fighting with you, but they aren't invisible. Unless you find yourself in real and present danger, it's best to work the same part of the zombie crowd as your companion so you can save him or her from being mauled. If you companion goes down, you'll either have to use a medkit or select someone else until the cooldown period ends. In the same way, if you are on a survivor mission, your goal is getting the survivor out alive for focus on taking down zombies nearest the survivor first.
  • How To Heal Companions - To heal a companion, simply tap on a mission. If you have first aid kits available, a green "heal" button will appear under the picture of the companion. Tap it to heal.

Collection: General Tips

The collection tab on the main screen is where you can find all the cards you've unlocked so far. There are three basic card types: Heroes, Weapons and Perks. Heroes are the companions who fight alongside you, weapons are what you use to defeat zombies and perks are items that give you certain benefits -- some being more essential than others.

• How To Upgrade Cards - To upgrade a card, you have to collect a certain number of copies of it. If a card is eligible for an upgrade, you'll see a green "upgrade" button appear under it.
• Which Cards To Upgrade - Coins are a scarce resource, so you should mostly avoid upgrading common cards. Early in the game, we were fortunate enough to unlock three rare melee and sniper characters. I've focused largely on upgrading my rare companions and weapons. However, if you already have a rare pistol, don't waste your energy on upgrading a second rare pistol. Focus on upgrading a different weapon instead, like a Shotgun or SMG. In terms of perks, the only one we'd recommend upgrading initially is the Sheriff's Duffel Bag, as it increases your max energy amount. For the most part, upgrading Morgan's Go Bag is pretty useless as you're not likely to have a large stockpile of coins any time soon. Upgrading the Building materials isn't super helpful either, as you rarely have an overage of those.

Joining a Group and Completing Challenges

In TWD: Our World, groups are like guilds. Players are allowed to join one almost from the very beginning. If you tap on the Social Tab at the bottom of the screen, you'll be prompted to join a group. Joining a group early is a good way to earn more resources as groups have Challenges you can complete together.

• Challenges - Go to the challenges tab to see a list of 25 objectives to complete. If the challenge has already been completed, you'll see the word "Claim" written across it. Tapping on it will allow you to claim the reward. Once the entire board has been cleared, you'll move to the next tier of challenges. The tasks get progressively harder, but the rewards improve too. Challenges reset each week. A good idea before you start playing is to check your group challenges and see which ones you can help complete. If you have an active group, the chat can be a great way to discuss strategies and tips with others.
• Flairs - Flairs are like lures, drawing zombies to an area and potentially allowing you to complete a lot of missions at once. Flairs can be used by anyone, and the great thing about being in a group is if a group member sets a flair, you can go to their location and complete missions without having to physically travel there. If a group member has set a flair, you'll see an icon for it in the lower left-hand corner of the screen with an option to travel there. To set a flair yourself, tap on your backpack on the main game screen and tap the flair button. Each player gets one free, but additional flairs must be purchased in the store.

Buildings: Rewards, Upgrades and More

There are four building types in the game. Each allows players to drop off survivors and yields various types of rewards.

• Armory - yields Weapon Cards for dropping off survivors
• Shelter - yields Hero Cards for dropping off survivors
• Trading Post - yields Coins for dropping off survivors
• Warehouse - yields Perk cards for dropping off survivors

How To Get Building Tokens and Build - To build something, you need to 10 tokens of that particular building type. You gain tokens by completing Infestation Missions. In order to build, simply tap on your backpack at the bottom of the main game screen and choose the "Build" option. From there you'll see the different options.

Where to Build - Be sure to place your buildings somewhere you frequent. Buildings can't be too close together, but you can put them in the same general area if you'd like. If you live very near a park or busy street corner or other point of interest, it may be a good idea to place your building there, so other players can drop off survivors as well.

How Often To Drop Off Survivors - You want to make a habit of dropping off survivors regularly at any buildings you've created. Each time you drop off a set of survivors, your structure earns a 10-day shield that protects it from zombies. If the shield wears off because you haven't left survivors there, zombies can tear it down and you have to rebuild.

Upgrading a Structure - To level a building up, just keep dropping off survivors. The first level up requires dropping off 20 survivors. Each time you level up, you increase the amount of rewards you receive per survivor dropped.

Other General Tips and Tricks

• How To Gain Experience and Level Up - There are two main ways to gain experience: 1) Complete Infestation Missions 2) Upgrade Cards
• Play While Traveling - Our World allows you to play while in a moving car. Assuming you're not the driver, this can be a great way to rack up tons of missions while traveling from place to place.
• Check Personal Daily Goals - In addition to the group goals, you also have a personal goal, which can be found in the upper right-hand corner of your game screen. Completing these goals often yields really good rewards, so keep them in mind every time you play.

Have more great beginner tips we missed? Share yours in the comments below!