The Lamplighters League, the latest tactics game from Harebrained Schemes, takes you on a globetrotting adventure. Along the way, you'll meet a delightful cast of characters—and do battle with nefarious villains, led by powerful Scions. Things can get tough, especially as you locate the all-important Keystones and try to infiltrate hostile territory to secure them. But don't worry—I’ve played The Lamplighters League and put together a beginner’s guide that will help you through the early hours.

Our guide talks you through combat concepts, world map missions, character abilities, and other related factors. Whether you’re new to the turn-based tactics genre or a long-time fan, you’re bound to come away better prepared for the adventure ahead.
 

Complete the tutorial

The Lamplighters League combines both real-time actions and turn-based combat. You can freely run and sprint around as you explore areas, but you’ll engage in a turn-based battle once detected by an enemy. You’ll need to be mindful of each enemy’s detection radius (and the noise that you make) as you stealth your way past guards.

I suggest playing and completing The Lamplighters League tutorial. The mission gives you a quick rundown of the controls, as well as basic mechanics. You’ll also partake in a few encounters, where you can learn about a couple of key ideas:

• Cover: Represented by a shield icon. The accuracy of shots is lowered if a unit is behind cover.
• Action Points (AP): By default, all squadmates have two AP, which can be used to move, make a normal attack, reload a weapon, or activate various abilities. There are certain passives and perks that allow you to increase AP in the middle of a fight.

Familiarize yourself with the Hideout

The Hideout acts as your main hub in The Lamplighters League. There, you’ll be able to chat with your agents and learn more about their backstories. This also shows you the following:

• World Map: Displays the available missions and Doomsday Clock.
• Agents: Allows you to unlock skills, equip gear pieces, and select Undrawn Hand cards.
• Allies: These are NPCs that you meet and rescue during the campaign, and they provide additional perks such as healing, accessories, and passive buffs.
• Supplier: You can purchase all sorts of consumable items, throwable grenades, and armor.
• Resources: The upper-right portion shows how much of each resource has been amassed.

Consider the strengths of each class

Your squad in The Lamplighters League consists of unique characters with their own Signature Abilities and passive boons. However, they all fall under three classes:

Bruiser

• Environmental action: Bashes down weak walls.
• Takedown: Slam - Targets multiple enemies in a straight line.

Sneak

• Environmental actions: Clambers over certain walls and netting, and decreases the detection radius of certain enemy types.
• Takedown: Sucker Punch - Approach an enemy from behind to eliminate them without making a lot of noise.

Saboteur

• Environmental action: Pick locked doors during infiltration.
• Takedown: Shock Mine - Lures enemies out of their position and then zaps one enemy.

Eliminate hostiles before combat

As mentioned, The Lamplighters League allows you to explore mission areas in real-time. This is known as the Infiltration phase, where you’ll be able to use each class’s Takedown skill, which has limited charges. This also means repositioning your units accordingly. Here’s a quick example:

• Let’s say that you’ve noticed several hostile troops near environmental hazards, but a couple are further away.
• You’ll want to ungroup your team by pressing the “G” key. This lets you control each character individually.
• You can use the Sneak class to approach targets that are standing by their lonesome, eliminating them via the Sucker Punch Takedown.
• Next, you might throw the Saboteur’s Shock Mine. This will cause opponents to investigate and crowd around—and at least one will get zapped and killed. The Shock Mine can also trigger hazards, such as explosives and electrified water.
• While enemies are clustered together, you can switch to your Bruiser. Then, cast Slam and try to hit three targets in one swift action.

Infiltration mode is akin to a puzzle of sorts. Being able to switch to various characters and activate their Takedowns in real-time helps you clear out an area well before you engage in turn-based combat.

Use Recon Mode to check your surroundings

In addition to the above, you should activate Recon Mode. This pauses the game, allowing you to pan the camera around to see units and objects within your line of sight.

Recon helps you plan your approach, especially if you’re unsure of the number of enemies in a given location. Moreover, you can take note of hazards that can be activated or triggered, as well as lootable items.
 

Be on the lookout for supplies and other resources

Missions in The Lamplighters League take place on small-to-medium-sized maps. In between combat encounters, you’ll want to explore to find various goodies—some opening up opportunities back at the Hideout and others useful in the mission itself.

• Supplies: Used to purchase consumables, grenades, and armors.
• Intel: A currency used to conduct search missions.
• Aether and Heal: Currencies used by your ally NPCs to unlock passives and other boons.
• Second Wind: This glowing orb restores one character’s Signature Ability and Takedown charges. Make sure you pick these up on a character that needs their skills recharged.
• Mote of Fate: This object surrounded by dark wisps of smoke yields an extra Undrawn Hand card (more on this later).

Skill points are shared among all teammates

If you’ve played other turn-based strategy games such as XCOM 2, then you know how tough it is to manage a full team while also thinking about which characters or classes should partake in missions to gain XP.

You won’t need to worry too much in The Lamplighters League, because skill points are shared among all teammates—even those that did not partake in a mission. This is akin to a catch-up mechanic, enabling characters that you recently recruited to unlock their own unique skills.
 

Make use of Undrawn Hand cards

The Undrawn Hand mechanic allows characters to equip upgradable cards that either provide another action/skill or a passive. For instance, the Sage passive reduces skill cooldowns by one turn if you land a critical hit. This is great for someone like Eddie, since he has actions that cause multiple shots with his pistol, raising the chance of a critical hit.

You’ve also got cards like Tyrant and Monument, which affect Stress buildup. Stress appears as a bar above an enemy’s HP. Once filled, you can do an instant kill action to bring down that target.
 

Take note of the Doomsday Clock

The Lamplighters League metagame consists of multiple missions and side objectives that can be selected on the world map. Most missions require a full squad, whereas side objectives only require you to send one agent (who succeeds automatically when you complete a mission). You should look at the potential rewards, such as resources and skill points.

The main goal in The Lamplighters League is to thwart the plans of the three houses: Nicastro, Marteau, and Strum. The respective progress of each Scion’s house is denoted by a circular glyph or insignia at the top of the world map. Any tasks that you complete will lower a faction’s progress, but whatever you ignore will increase another’s.

As a faction makes progress, certain hostile mobs will be replaced by that faction’s elite units. Once a particular house Scion reaches 40 points, that faction wins—and you fail. As such, it’s imperative that you check the House Overview panel by pressing the “R” key and keep an eye on this Doomsday Clock. There, you can track how many points each house has acquired as you advance further in the campaign.

Feeling adventurous? Hopefully these tips will help you get started in The Lamplighters League, which is available now on the Epic Games Store.