Jan 31, 2026

Highguard – 10 Beginner Tips to Help You Get Started

Ali Amir

Discover everything you need to know about the best beginner tips in Highguard, including how to overcome every challenge.

Highguard is a free‑to‑play PvP raid shooter video game, where two small squads compete to loot, fight, and destroy each other’s base. Matches are won by strategy, positioning, and coordinated team play. Choose from a roster of characters called Wardens and use the best weapons to secure objectives. Learn how to effectively win the matches in Highguard and dominate enemies in raid phases.

For more information on the game, you can visit its official Steam page here.

Best Beginner Tips
1) Understand the Core Game Loop
2) Use Mounts Smartly
3) Loot the Chests and Resources
4) Prefer Survival Over Aggression
5) Practice Defending the Base
6) Choose the Best Warden
7) Learn Warden Abilities
8) Control the Shieldbreaker Spawn
9) Communicate With Teammates
10) Don’t Ignore Soul Orbs

Best Beginner Tips

Unlike many shooters, kill counts aren’t the main win condition in Highguard. Prioritize objectives like Shieldbreaker control, base defense, capturing points, and disrupting the enemy to win matches. Diving into the action without knowing the beginner tips can lead you into big trouble. From farming the Casper and chests to completing the objective and choosing the best warden, we’ve got you covered.

Below are the beginner tips in Highguard to help you get started.

1) Understand the Core Game Loop

At the start of a match, both teams choose their Wardens and pick the base to defend. You get a short window to fortify your base with walls and barriers to increase the defense. Once the time ends, both teams mount up and ride out into the open world to complete the objective to win the match.

Players gather Vesper, loot weapons, armor, and upgrades from chests and vendors. Shieldbreaker is a powerful objective that spawns on the map. Both teams fight against each other to carry this objective.

Capturing the Shieldbreaker gives you the ability to initiate a raid on the enemy base. Once the Shieldbreaker is carried back to the enemy base, it breaks the outer shield. This allows you to summon a Siege Tower. The attackers now must breach defenses and plant bombs on generators. They can also choose to destroy the Anchor Stone to complete the match quickly.

The outer shields are repaired, and the loop starts again if the raid doesn’t fully destroy the base. The cycle repeats until one base is fully destroyed and win a match. Make sure to gear up instead of fighting early and engage with the enemies in combat. Killing the enemies doesn’t allow you to win the match, but completing the objective does.

2) Use Mounts Smartly

Mounts in Highguard are rideable creatures like horses, panthers, and bears. You can summon them during the match by pressing the ‘X’ key on the keyboard and ‘A’ on Xbox. Mounting on them allows you to travel quickly and cover the distance fast. You can use them to reposition quickly in a match. Mounts allow you quickly rotate to loot spots, Shieldbreaker spawns, and objectives.

If a fight turns bad, you can mount up to retreat, reset, and flank from another angle. You can fire your weapon while mounted, but aiming and recoil control can be challenging. If your mount dies, you’re dismounted and vulnerable. Make sure you dismount at the right moment before diving into the tough combat.

Mounts are loud and make you visible from far away. If you’re approaching a tight corridor or chokepoint, make sure to dismount before entering to avoid giving away your position. Some loot items, like Saddles, can increase your mount’s speed and health.

3) Loot the Chests and Resources

You can loot chests and resources while exploring the map during the match. Use your Axe to mine a Vesper node, which is used to buy new weapons and items from the vendor. Chests are scattered across the map and can be opened simply by walking up to them. Chests contain weapons, armor pieces, items, and Vesper, so make sure to check them.

Opening multiple chests is even an achievement called Plunderer in the game. Vesper appears as glowing blue crystals on the ground. To collect Vesper, simply strike these crystals with your axe until they break. Approach the vendor to buy stronger weapons and armor upgrades. Don’t spend too long looting if the Shieldbreaker is about to spawn. Split up as a team to cover more ground and collect more resources.

4) Prefer Survival Over Aggression

The primary objective in Highguard Raid Mode is to complete the objective, not just to secure kills. Dying not only removes you temporarily from the fight but also wastes your limited respawns. Matches reward strategic resource gathering and objective control, so focus on them from the beginning. Your health slowly regenerates when you’re alive and safe, but getting killed due to aggression can have a negative impact on the match.

Staying alive longer increases your impact in the match phases. Don’t be afraid to back off when you find an enemy and don’t have any angle to deal damage. If you’re low, find a safe corner or behind cover, and heal up before getting into the fight again. Spend early match time mining Vesper crystals and opening chests rather than getting kills.

5) Practice Defending the Base

Once the Shieldbreaker is successfully carried to your base and planted, the game enters the Raid Phase. Your team must defend your base against enemy attacks, as they will try to sabotage the generator. Stop attackers from damaging generators and defuse the bomb before the timer runs out if they already planted it.

Your base typically has two or more generators, so I recommend holding choke points near generators to eliminate attackers. If a bomb is planted, rush to defuse it immediately. Take advantage of the high ground to eliminate the attackers in the first place.

Make sure to rotate quickly between generators or defense points. Use abilities and ultimates to burst down the attackers moving near the objectives. Choosing Wardens with defensive utility or crowd control helps a lot in this case. Get together in a team to kill the attackers before they reach Anchor Stone.

6) Choose the Best Warden

Using the best Warden in Highguard is crucial to complete the objectives, dominate enemies, and win the match. Atticus, Scarlet, and Kai are the best characters to choose, so make sure your team has them. Atticus is an all-around fighter with zoning spears and a powerful ultimate that deals massive damage. This Warden can contribute to both damage and objective control. His abilities are useful both in open fights and during raids, making him the best choice.

Scarlet is also the best Warden to choose for a match because she’s great for flanking, sneaking into objectives, and quickly disrupting enemies. Her ultimate resets on kills, allowing her snowball fights. Overall, she’s a strong assassin-type with stealth and wall-bypassing abilities.

Kai, on the other hand, is excellent for securing objectives and holding defense with ice walls. This character excels at holding positions and delaying enemy progress. You can also choose Mara for the overshield and providing buff to the teammates, helping your team to survive longer.

7) Learn Warden Abilities

Learning all the Warden abilities is crucial in every aspect, helping you to choose the best Warden. Each Warden comes with unique abilities, and using them correctly allows you to dominate the enemies and secure the objective. They have passive, tactical, and ultimate abilities that you can use during the fight to overwhelm the enemies.

Warden	Passive Ability	Tactical Ability	Ultimate
Slade	Firebomb: Creates magma after explosions to control the area.	Heatwave: Sends out a wave of molten fire to deal damage to enemies.	Firestorm: Rains fire down on a targeted area for area denial.
Una	Helping Hand: Summons the spirits to gain extra useful loot.	Forest Wisps: Summons spirits that throw grenades at the enemies.	Tree Walker: Summons a large forest spirit to attack enemies with explosive spirits.
Atticus	Shockspear: Releases electrical explosions that deal damage when the axe is charged.	Shockspear: Throws a charged spear that shocks and damages nearby enemies.	Powerstorm: Rises into the air and rains down lightning spears.
Condor	Hunter’s Instinct: Her bird alerts her when enemies are in range.	Eyes in the Sky: Sends out her bird to scan and reveal moving enemies.	Soaring Guardian: She sends a smoke cloud to reveal the enemy position.
Kai	Frozen Repair: Restore broken walls with ice, reinforcing defenses.	Ice Wall: Creates an ice wall to resist the movement of enemies.	Frost Giant: Transforms into an ice demon to deal massive damage.
Mara	Sacrifice: Use the defeated enemies to change the tactical ability quickly.	Soul Armor: Your teammates get an overshield that can absorb the incoming damage from the enemy attacks.	Immortal Coil: Creates a spawn point for the team to get into action fast.
Redmane	Pounce: Move forward to smash into the walls to destroy them.	Enraged: You gain movement and reload speed after killing the enemies.	Beast’s Fear: Destroy the walls and structures with a roar.
Scarlet	Shifting Sands: Changes the wall into the sand to open a path temporarily.	Sandstorm: Enter stealth mode to hide from the enemies in range.	Whirling Blades: Throws up to 6 daggers to kill the enemies.

8) Control the Shieldbreaker Spawn

Controlling the Shieldbreaker means positioning your team and preparing before it. Securing and carrying it to the enemy base lets your team start a raid. Head toward the expected spawn zone together rather than splitting up to gather loot. The spawn area often has loot and Vesper crystals nearby, so you can gather resources.

Set up crossfire and defensive positions around the spawn site. Hold high ground, chokepoints, or cover spots to tackle the enemies. Focus on gunfights near the spawn and rotate to intercept enemy rotations. Instead of camping the carrier, spread out to create pressure from different angles. Good spacing can also allow a teammate to pick up the Shieldbreaker.

9) Communicate With Teammates

Good communication in Highguard allows you to call out enemy positions and movement. You can coordinate when to go for the objective or how to push effectively. Highguard has built‑in voice chat options you can enable in Settings.

Even if you don’t use voice, the ping system lets you mark locations. Decide when to rotate for Shieldbreaker and who goes for Vesper and chests. Being in communication with each other allows you to push safely and complete the objectives successfully.

10) Don’t Ignore Soul Orbs

When you eliminate an enemy during the match, they drop a Soul Orb. If you destroy that orb before their teammate picks it up to revive them, it delays their respawn. This is very crucial while completing the objective or pushing towards the enemy base. This delay can create openings for objectives like capturing the Shieldbreaker or defending the area.

Destroy their Soul Orb right after defeating an enemy. Make sure to have one team focusing on orb destruction. If the orb belongs to your fallen teammate, you can interact with it to revive them instantly. Make sure to destroy multiple orbs at once before pushing an objective.