The smallest gunfight that you’ll ever be in is finally here. Mini Royale—a shooter that drops you into the middle of a pint-size warzone in a child’s sprawling bedroom—brings all the action of other battle royales and shooters to a setting that most players are more than familiar with. This room will look different from their childhood room, though. They’ll be seeing this one from the perspective of a toy soldier. 

Thankfully, this toy soldier comes trained. They can slide, dash, grapple, climb, and shoot their way through any and every combat situation. This royale may be small, but it’s just as intense as those life-sized battles we’ve grown accustomed to. 

Here are five essential strategies that will make Sarge and the Bucket o’Soldiers look at you as one of their own. 

One fight at a time

No matter what mode you choose—Team Deathmatch, Free For All, or Battle Royale—the action remains constant. In most multiplayer shooters, a single fight rarely ends without more soldiers making their way to the sound of gunfire. This is especially true for Mini Royale. The easiest way to get taken down is to fall to a third party right after winning a different fight. 

The mobility options in Mini Royale make it possible to flee from the scene of a fight as soon as one soldier hits the dirt. Leave immediately if you aren’t in a location with cover in your immediate vicinity. A single clip from a nearby soldier looking to crash the party will take out whatever health you have remaining after the last fight. 

You can use that third party’s aggression against enemies if you are confident enough, but it’s often a risky move that can backfire. You should still flee if you see another player coming to join the fray, and they’ll usually give chase. Instead of continuing to run, turn and hit them as hard as you can as they try to catch up to you. This can give you enough of an edge to come out on top, but don’t rely on it consistently. Find the right mix of fight and flight. 
 

Fight like a spider

You may not be Spider-Man in Mini Royale, but the shooter gives you several of the wall crawler’s abilities to help you navigate your surroundings.

The Grapple Gun—a piece of built-in equipment used by pressing the 3 key while aiming at a nearby surface—will send your green plastic figure flying through the air. You’ll be difficult to hit but also completely exposed with no cover to protect you from incoming bullets. It’s vital gear used to find an advantageous position ahead of a fight. It’s also good in a pinch to help you flee a combat situation when you’re about to go down. 

Toy soldiers in Mini Royale can also scale almost any surface with their tiny little plastic hands, letting you climb up to unsuspecting enemy combatants who are camping on higher parts of the level. Make sure to pick which walls you climb carefully. You can’t use your weapon while climbing, and you’re completely exposed to players below you. Still, the ability is essential for repositioning while gunfire erupts around you. 

Both these abilities can be used in tandem. You can zip across a gap, grab onto a wall, and climb up to the nearest platform. If you aren’t making use of this combination before, during, and after fights, then you are setting yourself up for failure.
 

Late and laudable loadouts

You’ll have next to nothing when you first drop from the toy blimp into the battlefield below. Weapons, shields, and ammo will need to be collected off the ground just as in other battle royales. 

The majority of fights you’ll be taking on will be from medium and long range, which means you’ll want to prioritize finding an assault rifle and sniper rifle as soon as possible. Shotguns and pistols are still effective—especially in early match fights right after you hit the ground—but you’ll only want to rely on them as secondary weapons once you have range at your disposal.  

Unlike most other battle royales, movement abilities are built into your base equipment. There are no vehicles or other methods to move around the map at launch. This means that you can close the gap between yourself and enemy soldiers in mere seconds by using your Grapple Gun with a parachute. If you’re bold enough, you can use submachine guns, shotguns, and pistols in this manner to surprise the enemy. 
 

Falling with style

Minimal fall damage is one of the perks of being made of plastic. That doesn’t mean you won’t take any damage when falling from the highest shelf without deploying your parachute, but it does mean that jumping off a high chair without one is an optimal move. 

Assault rifles and sniper rifles have a good bit of range in Mini Royale. Getting hit from across the room will happen often, and you’ll need to get to cover quickly and without a lot of thought. If you’re up high, often the best course of action is to just jump. 

You’re able to redeploy your chute every time your feet leave the ground, although floating through the air makes you one of the most obvious targets in the room. Sometimes falling as quickly as possible is the only way to get out of sight of a nearby soldier.
 

Ear to the ground

Situational awareness is almost as important when you’re not in a fight as it is when you’re in one. As it turns out, toy soldiers make a ton of noise when moving around. It’s almost hard to believe that plastic makes this much of an impact on carpet and wood. 

You’ll be able to hear if someone is nearby you if they aren’t crouching, which makes it incredibly important to be listening while you loot and rotate. You never know where enemy teams and players can land in any given battle royale match, so you could be running into them at any point. 

This strategy has become commonplace in other games, with some adding accessibility features that give visual cues when footsteps can be heard around you. Mini Royale doesn’t have that, making it even more vital to use audio cues to get the drop on enemy players. 
 

Hug the circle

Mini Royale’s map slowly shrinks as battle royale matches inch toward an ending. Players will naturally get pushed closer together as the storm deals a small amount of damage every second it surrounds you if it envelops you completely. 

It’s impossible to know the locations of all 50 other players in any given match, so unfriendly green plastic could be hiding around every corner. The key is to hug the edge of the storm as it closes so that you won’t have to watch for enemies coming at you from that direction. 

Be prepared. The edge of the circle is where you’ll find the most experienced players practicing the same strategy. You’ll get caught in fights as you strafe in and out of the storm. These situations can be tough to get out of, but you’ll have to run into these players eventually. It’s best to deal with them earlier in the match rather than wait til the hectic moments of the final circle where there is nowhere left to run. 
 

A conquest of color

Battle royales can be draining; 15 minutes of strategic movement and looting can end in an instant if someone gets the drop on you. That’s why it’s important to take breaks and play other modes to keep your combat senses sharp. Mini Royale has an interesting twist on the deathmatch mode called Color Conquest. 

Color Conquest sees four teams go up against each other, each with an assigned color. Kill an enemy player, and they change colors and join your team. There is no circle, no gigantic map, and no last man standing. The only thing that matters is combat.

Jump into a match of Color Conquest if you ever feel like you got the short end of the stick in a Battle Royale match. It’ll help you shake off the tilt and get your mind right. 

Mini Royale is out on Epic Games Store.