Welcome To Ingress
For starters… Let Me Be The First To Welcome You to your new addiction. In this page I will try to touch base on a few key points to help you get started… I will try to break this down into a Ingress Level based timeline.
One of the most important things to do is to get involved is you local Google+ Faction Community. Ingress is a social game committed to teamwork. Just for example, To make a Level 8 Portal it takes 8 players to deploy 1 level 8 Resonator each. So communication is important. Your local Google+ community will put you in touch with the chat system they have in place. Some use Google Hangouts, our local faction uses GroupMe, It’s all personal preference. GroupMe has more options with nicknames, custom notification sounds, group collections for events and many more. Whatever you choose is fine, just get involved. Being involved means you know what is happening and can take full advantage of farming events, AP opportunities and help when you need it. As a level 8 player, we feel it is our duty to help train any of our players to climb the ranks as quickly as possible.
Lets first get you acquainted with a few pieces of gear that will benefit you in with Ingress. The first is an external battery, with the GPS, screentime, wifi, data transfer and other apps Ingress is a battery hog. An external battery is just about a must. with all the recharging the next thing I would mention is a GOOD recharging cable. A 2.1 amp car charger is a great purchase. I myself use a power inverter with USB outputs. It allows me to recharge my external with a house charger while I run my phone.
Remember, Submitting portals is ALWAYS an option when playing. They give 1000 AP per approved Portal with a Key.
For Portal Submission Guidelines “CLICK HERE“
There are two terms that will become are important to you, Action Points (AP) and Exotic Matter (XM).
XM is collected as you travel. While looking at your scanner you will see little blue particle looking orbs. As you travel towards them and they enter within your action range, you will collect them to your reserves. XM is important, because it XM is the energy it takes to perform any action in Ingress, which means you use up a certain amount of XM to hack a portal, deploy a resonator or Mod, attack a Portal…ect.
AP is earned through performing actions within the game. AP is cumulative and when you earn AP, it should flash at the top of your Ingress Scanner. As you earn AP, you will pass milestones which will designate you with a higher level. A higher level is needed to use higher level items, e.g. you need to have a Access Level of 2 in order to use a L2 Resonator.
As a Level One player, your actions are somewhat limited to Hacking, Capturing, Recharging and some Linking.
Hacking:
Hacking a portal is how you acquire items in the game, simply…hack everything you see! To Hack a Portal Just click on the Hack button in the Portal detail screen in the scanner app. Hacking an enemy Portal gets you 100 AP so just hacking can level you up.
Capturing:
Any grey portal in the scanner is a unclaimed portal ready for your resonators. BTW, proper placement on resonators is a must for better portal defense. Place the Action Range Circle just touching the Portal to maximize the resonator distance for deployment. You get 500 AP for capturing a portal, 125 AP for each resonator you deploy and 250 AP for the last resonator deployed. You can also deploy 2 Mods on the portal each one gets you another 125 AP. So, fully deploying one portal will yield you 2000 AP.
Recharging:
There are two ways to recharge a portal, locally and remotely. Locally means you are at the portal and have the portal within the “Action Range” which is 40m. Click on the portal in the scanner and hit the recharge button. You can evenly recharge all the resonators at the same time or you can select a specific one to recharge. It all balances out. However, for strategic reasons you might want to let a resonator die and need to NOT recharge it. We will get into that later. The second method is remote recharging. You can only remotely recharge a portal when you acquire a Portal Key for that portal. That can be done from any location. The farther away from the Portal the more the efficiency drops, which simply means you loose a little XM in the process. Any type of recharging gets you 10 AP per recharge.
Linking:
Linking Portals together is how the global scoring system works. When three Portals are linked together in triangle the create a Control Field. Those fields capture MU (Mind Units). The combined MU from around the world is the Global Score. The distance a Portal will reach is based on the level of the portal you are located at. To link to a Portal click on a portal and make sure all 8 resonators have been deployed. A Portal can hold its links with no less that 3 resonators, but cannot accept or send new links without all 8. clink on the link button in the center on the resonator charge indicator display. The rest is automatic, choose from the available keys in you inventory. Remember, if you have to have a Portal Keys to the portal you want to link to. Also links cannot cross, so make sure there are no links blocking your path. For links you get 313 AP, close in a field and receive 1250 AP.
So, Your best coarse of action to get to Level 2 is as follows:
- Hack EVERYTHIG you see…(as always) and gather inventory.
- Capture Every neutral (grey) Portal. Remember to deploy Mods, that’s an extra 125 AP per slot (you can deploy two)
- Create links between portals to make MU Fields. Remember to keep them small, it is better to have many small fields than a few large ones.
- Recharge… Recharge… Recharge. Lvl 1 XMP’s are fairly useless, best bet is to recycle them and use the XM to recharge.
As a level 2, sorry not much changes. But now you can upgrade level one resonators. Doesn’t sound like much but a Level 1 Portal has a link range of 160m where as a Level 2 Portal will link up to 810m. That opens up a lot more linking options for you and greatly increases you chances to create fields. Keep in mind you only get 65 AP for upgrading someone else’s resonator, not your own. You still can, just no AP. Also, you XM reserve has increased from 3,000 to 4,000. comes in nice while deploying portals. Your XMP strength just doubled too, it will take quite a few but you now can take out a level 1 portal without spending all day. Review the XMP Damage chart for reference. But I can tell you that as a Level 2, you should stand directly on top of the resonator you are targeting and move to the next till all have been destroyed. You get 75 AP for destroying a resonator. If the portal has links on it, you will need to destroy all but 2 to get the links and fields to drop. When that happens you get 187 AP for each link and 750 AP for each field. You also have a chance of getting a Portal Key dropped from the portal given to it when the link was made originally. At the worst case, it’s something to recycle and recharge with later.
Keep up the good work! Each level you get a bit more dangerous. Find a local enemy farm (a group of Portals close together, usually a cemetery) and just make laps until it tells you it is burned out. That’s easy AP, also called dirty hacking by the opposite faction. I say call it what you want! Your growing stronger.
Alright, now you moving… As a level 3 you can now carry 5,000 XM and can build a Level 2 Portal alone with a range of 810m. All the same basics still apply so just keep on doing what works. Don’t be discouraged by the 30,000 AP required to the next level, breaking it up it only a few links and 16 fields. You and do that in your sleep! Also, it’s only fully deploying 15 unclaimed Portals.
Great Job! See this is a piece of cake!.. Let’s see what you can do as a level 4, Your XM storage has increased to 6000. You’ll need that to start firing XMP’s. Don’t forget you can upgrade any resonator below 4 and build a level 3 Portal alone. That increases your solo link range to 6km. Ok, You are not feeling like you can take on a portal so let’s give you some information on damage. A level 4 XMP has a range of 125m with a max damage of 900. Some players attack staying just out of the portals attack range but, I find myself walking in there and taking it like a man!, If you’ve been farming like I told ya you got lots of power cubes for recharging you XM mid attack. As a level 4 keep attacking as I told you before following the resonators around till they are all gone.
As you can see, each level doubles. The good part is your strength doubles as well! and at level 5… Your’re over 1/2 way there. As you can see your XM storage is now 7000. You can now build a Level 4 Portal solo with a link range of 40km. Your XMPs deal out a 1,200 damage hit with a range of 150m. I was just starting to feel dangerous at this point. But the higher level Portals still require a truck load of weapons to destroy.
NOW YOU’RE DANGEROUS!, Packing 8,000 XM on reserve, 1,500 damage at a 200m range. You can apply an upgraded resonator to most Portals at 65 AP per. At this point I would recycle every XMP below 5 and hack till burnout on every portal in town, Link and field. If you’ve been submitting Portals while playing, you might have a few approved by now. Niantic has been a little slow lately but hopefully you have a nice little farm growing in you local area ready for linking. Remember that the other team is after the same thing as you so if there is not enough players in your area to destroy your stuff so you can rebuild, you got to go out or bring them to you. One way to bring them in is to got to a nearby town with a lot of activity and farm keys. Now, on your way home destroy any blocking links and link from your town back to the other one. They will look to see where the links are going too and notice your handy work. Might even come down and help you out as only they can.
NOW YOU”RE DEADLY!, With 9,000 XM on tap, a lvl 7 XPM pounds a resonator with a 1,800 damage and has a range of 300m. You can now build a Level 5 Portal solo, with a range of 110km. Good News… So far you’ve been done great!, Bad News… You’re only 1/2 way there! Fear Not, You now have the fire power to do it in all again in a fraction of the time. You have the knowledge and the experience… Now Just go do it!
Great Work… See I told you it wouldn’t be that hard. Now you’re packing a whopping 10,000 XM, Beating down resonators with a 2,700 damage reaching 400m. Solo, You can build a Level 5 Portal capiable of linking to other Portals 40km away. The only Portal you can’t provide an upgrade to will already be an 8. Your fellow players will welcome you as a visitor in their town to upgrade. You will bring fear into the hearts of your enemies as you unleash the mighty Lvl8 XMP! Ya, I Know… Go Have Fun… The next Mission is all about the MU…
Congratulations You Have Now Achieved Level 8!… Now go Help Someone Else!
