‘Battleborn Tap’ review: Tap to play, play to get the unlockable exclusive items
“Battleborn” is already available on the PS4, Xbox One and PC. However, fans can extend their game with the tie-in mobile title, “Battleborn Tap.” But is the game worth taking time off “Battleborn” the main game to play? Here are some things worth considering.
What is ‘Battleborn Tap’?
Perhaps one of the more unusual mechanics of “Battleborn Tap” is that it’s not a game that will require the player’s full attention. This is especially at the start of the game.
As the name suggests, the main mechanic of the game is to tap on the screen to gun down enemies. Ironically this means tapping anywhere near the enemy, with no aiming required. It’s just continuous tapping until the enemies per wave are killed—not unlike the furious tapping that “Flappy Bird” players were accustomed to.
Afterwards, the player is given the choice to hire a “Battleborn” hero. There are five unlocked at the start: Phoebe, Thorn, Orendi, Miko and Oscar Mike. The player can choose to hire any of these at the start of the game. The others can be unlocked as the player goes through the game. What happens now is that there are two ways to kill enemies: by tapping on the screen to produce shots or letting the “Battleborn” heroes do all the work.
The goal is to use the “Battleborn” heroes to aid the players in gunning down enemies. After all, when the developer said that it’s an infinite game, it really means that. One can easily slip into a new level without noticing so much because the smaller bosses can be killed easily, especially if the player taps fast and has enough damage to deal a finishing blow after four or five taps.
Play the game get gold shards, leave the game and still earn
While the game is an infinite shooter, it does have its own objectives, one of which is to collect gold shards. These come out from the exploded enemies, and these can be used for upgrades. Gold shards are necessary to upgrade the HP and the health of the heroes. These can also increase the ammo of the tapping action, for those who do not want to rely solely on the heroes.
If the fact that aiming is not even an issue for “Battleborn Tap,” which is technically a shooter mobile game, there is even the easy bonus of earning gold shards even when the player is not in the game. When a player closes the app, the game calculates how much gold shards the heroes have earned by themselves, and the player has the option to claim it or not. In a way, this makes grinding less of a grind and gives a new spin on the meaning of multitasking in gaming.
Don’t miss the flying spaceship and free farming stage
There are other loopholes in the game that players can actually take advantage of, if they want to farm as many gold shards as possible. So far, upon trial of the game, there are stages that bring unlimited amount of enemy waves in one wave tier. Normally, there are 10 waves per tier before the player moves on to the next level. But there are some stages where the waves are not numbered, so players can take a go at defeating as many as possible to collect as many gold shards as they want.
The beauty of this is that the players can time this when they would need to leave the game. Endless enemy waves will allow your “Battleborn” heroes to keep defeating the small fry enemies. When the player gets back, it’s then possible to choose to fight the Boss of the round or continue farming.
Another little aspect in the game to check out would be the flying spaceship. In the middle of an enemy wave, the spaceship will fly across the screen. Tapping on it can yield different bonuses—as if there’s a big lack in that department. It can be in the form of a promotional video to yield gold shards or the premium currency Credits, which look like glowing blue chips.
The flying spaceship can also bring bonus conditions such as double shards, double damage, refresh abilities and, perhaps the most amusing of all, the tap and hold. The last condition allows players to have “relief” from all the tapping and just press on any part of the screen to deliver continuous blasts against enemies.
Bonus for “Battleborn” players: exclusive content
So, is “Battleborn Tap” worth downloading? For players who don’t want too much thinking to feel like they’re progressing, this is a pretty neat game. The animation looks nice, even though the heroes do not move from the left side of the screen. It also removes the hurdle of putting too much time grinding into the game, as players can earn gold shards even without playing.
Those who are looking to see what “Battleborn” offers can at least see what kind of heroes are playable. But perhaps the biggest upside to getting this free-to-play title would be to get the console unlocks.
2K has announced that those who will play the mobile game will get some exclusive rewards that can be carried over to the main game. The publisher did not specify what these exclusive rewards are, but all three platforms, Xbox One, PS4 and PC will get the rewards.
What’s more, linking the SHiFT account will bring the gold Orendi skin into the main game, seen above. That’s a pretty neat deal, considering that there’s no additional cost involved.
“Battleborn Tap” is already available on the iOS and Android app stores.
