It's Friday night, you just ordered a pizza, and the download for Concord is about to finish. While the prospect of playing the first-person hero shooter for a few hours is exciting, there's quite a bit of information to parse through up-front. With 16 characters to pick from, each with their own unique abilities and role to fulfill, you'd be wise to take a moment to learn the basics—and then some.

Developed by Firewalk Studios and published by PlayStation Studios, Concord is an intriguing take on other hero shooters like Overwatch. Characters, known as Freegunners, all have unique learning curves—each has different weapons and distinct abilities, and potential synergies depend on who your teammates choose.

It can be a lot to figure out on your own, so we've put together a Concord guide to save you some time, as well as share some insights based on our time with the game.

See what jobs are available before each session

Nothing is stopping you from diving into matchmaking and playing a few rounds (aside from signing up for a PSN account), but you'll quickly notice that there is a bit of progression baked into Concord. Some features—such as Rivalry mode and Crew Builder—are locked until you reach Level 6. Moreover, all Freegunners have a long list of cosmetic options which (you guessed it) are also locked until you've reached the requisite level of experience.

The best way to get XP, aside from performing different actions during matches, is to complete jobs. The Job Board has daily, weekly, and seasonal jobs for you to tackle. You're likely to tackle many of these without much effort, such as eliminating a certain number of opponents, dealing damage while aiming down sights, and so on. Others are trickier and might force you to play characters with different abilities, such as Freegunners with healing skills.

If you're looking for an XP boost, make sure to double-check if a job might reward you for trying something different for a few matches.

 

Best Freegunners for Concord beginners

As mentioned, 16 characters is no small number. While experimenting with different choices is part of the charm, there are a few picks that can best help you learn the ropes and flow of battle during Concord's opening hours.

If you want the most "standard" or familiar shooter character, Teo is the one. He uses an assault rifle and his abilities are related to grenades. He's also able to see through smoke grenades, which can give you an advantage over the enemy team.

It-Z is a great character for those who love Tracer in Overwatch. She's speedy, and can be very annoying for the enemy team if played right. Her abilities revolve around throwing orbs. The first makes It-Z extremely mobile—after firing an orb, you're able to immediately teleport to its location. When you do so (or when you dodge), you'll leave a decoy behind. It-Z's second ability sends an orb at your nearest opponent to disrupt their weapon. Then the orb returns like a boomerang, supercharging your own weapon for a few seconds.

Lastly, Haymar is a personal favorite. She uses a crossbow that deals extra damage by aiming down sights and charging the projectile for a few seconds. She's also able to jump up and levitate for a bit before slowly descending back to the ground. Haymar's abilities allow you to create a Wall of Fire (great for breaking down enemy formations) and throw a flashbang that reduces visibility for the affected enemy.

 

Destroy all enemy deployables

In the heat of battle, it's easy to ignore your surroundings in favor of surviving an enemy encounter. That said, your opponents' deployable items will continue to give them an advantage until destroyed. If you see pads, explosives, or any other objects in the environment with a red highlight around them, make sure to take them out—these are always related to another Freegunner's abilities, and can be quite annoying (or even deadly) if the opposing team uses them effectively.

Related: Some character abilities can inflict damage to deployable items as well. If you're using a character with a long reload time, such as Haymar, quickly using one of her abilities to clear an obstacle could be a good strategy.

 

Stick together

When playing modes in the Overrun playlist (which require you to capture and defend objectives from your opposing team) it's best not to rush in. Concord is, first and foremost, a team-based hero shooter. If you're exposed to a group of foes on your own, you'll immediately be targeted by multiple, wildly different abilities at once—and likely find yourself back at the respawn point shortly after.

It's best to stick with your team as much as possible. The scoreboard at the top of the screen indicates who's alive and who's not at any given time. If you see that most of your team is currently waiting to respawn, there's usually no point in rushing into a capture zone on your own only to be killed a few seconds later and leave the rest of your team with one less person for their attack.

And remember to make use of synergies between characters and their abilities whenever possible as opposed to relying on your two skills alone.

 

Know your role and its bonuses

There are six roles in Concord, and each Freegunner slots into one of them. Each role adds a Crew Bonus to your crew, a.k.a. the group of characters you join games with, and which you can customize after Level 6. Play as a character with the Ranger role, for example, and you'll gain improved weapon recoil. This bonus will be available for all characters in your crew until the match is over, and these bonuses stack, as well.

For reference, here are the roles and the bonuses that each offers:

• Warden: Longer weapon range.
• Ranger: Improved weapon recoil.
• Haunt: Improved mobility.
• Breacher: Faster dodge cooldown.
• Anchor: Increased healing received.
• Tactician: Faster reload speed.

Memorize your Skill Loops

Having only two abilities with cooldowns and charges involved can leave you exposed to foes if you don't plan attacks carefully. Skill Loops, or "Sloops," are meant to reduce the time it takes for you to use abilities again if you perform certain actions.

In order to see each Freegunner's Sloops, head over to How To Play and scroll down the list to read each character's entry. For Haymar's Wall of Fire ability, for example, any enemies eliminated by the skill spawn an object that restores a charge on collection. For Lennox's Claxton Healing, eliminations automatically restore a charge.

These boosts are powerful and can help turn the tide of battle, so you should memorize the ones for the characters you tend to use most and maximize your time with them.

 

Pay attention to Freegunner Variants

If you're wondering what the Roman numerals next to each Freegunner mean, that number is there to indicate their Variant. In short, each character has at least two variations with different combat traits (meaning distinct perks). Concord plans to add new Freegunner Variants over time.

Once you've reached Level 6 and can customize your crew using Crew Builder, you're free to include different variants of the same Freegunner and switch during matches. Combat traits might simply adjust ability charges, damage, or how much ammo you carry, or might add additional ways to reload your weapons, new passive abilities, and more. Variant I of Lennox, for example, reloads his equipped weapon during a dodge, while Variant II adds extra ammo for both weapons.

You can unlock new Variants by completing the Variant-related tasks on the Job Board. If you're jumping in during launch week, the current one is for Teo II, with a combat trait that gives him extended magazines and additional grenades. The timer at the top of the Variants tab of the Job Board lets you know when a new Variant will become available to unlock, in case you want to wait for one of your faves to appear.

Concord is now available to purchase on the Epic Games Store.