Jurassic World Alive, the mobile dinosaur catching game for Android and iOS, has been out since the end of May. Since then, we have managed to learn some strategies for maximizing your dinosaur collecting and battling techniques. These tips are aimed mostly towards free to play users, but pay to play users can also implement them. If you keep these in mind, you will be well on your way to becoming an elite member of the Dinosaur Protection Group!
COLLECTING
The most important aspect of the game involves collecting and leveling up the dinosaurs within your collection. Dinosaurs are found in the “wild” around your location and you send out a drone to collect their DNA. To collect the DNA, you fire darts at targets on the dinosaur as it moves around your screen.
Tip #1: Hold, but do not fire your first shot until the target grows to maximum size.
The longer you wait between shots, the larger the target on the dinosaur grows. The timer on your battery will not begin to run until you fire that first shot, but the target will still grow if you hold the screen and prepare to fire your first shot. Once it is at maximum size, let it rip and get your best possible chance at a direct hit!
The targets will grow the longer they remain, but make sure not to wait too long on the rest of them or your battery will run out! Once you fire your first dart, the dino will start to move around the environment, getting faster and faster with almost every hit. That leads us to…
Tip #2: Use the outer circle to gauge where to release the dart.
As the dinosaur moves faster and faster around the map, it makes it harder and harder to hit the center of the circle for a direct hit. Except for the first shot, you should always be aiming ahead of the center circle. This is where the outside circle comes in handy. If you keep an eye on where you release and where the dart actually hits, you can use the outer circle as an aiming system for future darts. For example, if you released a dart while your crosshairs were right on top of the outer circle and the dart misses the direct hit mark, move your crosshairs that much farter outside the outer circle for your next attempt. It may sound a little hard at first, but the quicker you get used to using it as an aiming system, the faster you’re likely to start racking up direct hits.
Like mentioned before, the dinosaurs will speed up as you hit them more often. Exactly how much it speeds up depends on the type of dinosaur. The faster it goes, the higher it’s overall speed characteristic is going to be. Faster dinosaurs are helpful in battles, so keep that in mind as you go out collecting!
Tip #3: Learn where the targets are going show up on the common dinosaurs.
Keep in mind, you are likely to encounter the same dinosaurs over and over again. As the dinosaurs go up in rarity, the more places a target could show on the dinosaur to hit. Common dinosaurs will only have the target show up in two places across their body. It’s pretty easy to learn the pattern of the common dinosaurs because the target switches places after every hit. For example, on the Einiosaurus, one of the most common dinosaurs I see, the target will either be located in the middle of its back or in the middle of its head, as seen below. You can learn to anticipate where to position your next dart. The more you collect, the faster you will learn where the targets are likely to appear.
Tip #4: Don’t miss the special event incubators.
These incubators really pack a punch. When the AMC theater special was active, it could easily level your T-Rex up twice! If you are looking to have the most effective team and stay competitive at your level, do not skip out on any of the special event incubators.
BATTLING
Battling is the second aspect of the game that really amps up player interactions. Players select eight dinosaurs from their total collected bunch and place them on their “bench” of sorts. Once a battle is engaged, four of those eight are randomly selected and pitted against your opponent’s four dinosaurs. Here’s some strategies for your dinosaurs to win the day.
Tip #1: Dinosaur Battles are just Rock, Paper, Scissors
When you look at your dinosaur collection, you can basically categorize each type of dino into one of three categories (with some exceptions which we’ll cover later). These three categories are: Strength, Speed, and Armored. Strength dinosaurs are the attack powerhouses. These are your Tyrannosauruses, your Allosauruses, your Tarbosauruses, etc. Their attack, even on the low-end, pack a whallop. The second type of dinosaurs, Speed, include your Velociraptors, Utahraptors, Stygimolochs, etc. These are the ones that are usually going to end up attacking first because their speed characteristic is so high. Finally, there’s your Armored dinos like Stegosaurus, Einiosaurus, Triceratops, etc.
Now, how does Rock, Paper, Scissors play into this you may be asking. In my experience, here’s how the match-ups end up playing out:
While the dinosaur levels and special attacks may throw some wrinkles into that formula, it will usually pans out in this general way. Keeping this “equation” in mind as you pick your dinosaurs, battles might start going your way more often. If your Velociraptor just got beaten by a Triceratops, you might want to throw your T-Rex or Allosaurus out next.
Tip #2: Prioritize Leveling Your Bench
If you have got a stellar bench of dinosaurs, make sure you’re spending some coin on them when possible. Yeah, that Gen 2 Ankylosaurus upgrade only costs 50 coins, but you’re probably not going to put it on your bench anyway. On the other hand, saving the coin for the next level Velociraptor could very well put your team near invincible status at your tier.
That being said, if you are not close to any bench upgrade, go ahead and go for some other dinosaurs. Each upgrade gives you experience points towards your player level. Higher player levels get to collect more DNA with each shot, so it is still important to stay on top of your other upgrades.
Tip #3: Battle Your Friends
With its most recent update, Jurassic World Alive made the game even more social. Players can add other users and challenge them to battles when they are available. By battling your friends, you get to find out what dinosaurs on your team are working, and which of them aren’t. Each player is placed on equal footing for dinosaur levels, so it really boils down to your strategies, and maybe just a little bit of luck!
Tip #4: Battle For Coins
There are only four battle incubator spots available. Once your win four battles and fill those up, you are out of luck until one finishes opening. However, you can still battle for extra coins. Now it is entirely up to you whether or not you want to risk your trophies with extra battles, but if you are in need of some extra coins for a dino upgrade, battles can help with that. On the topic of battle incubators, they come in five different sizes: 15 minute, 3 hour, 8 hour, 12 hour, and 24 hour. The 15 minute incubator is available to open immediately if you watch a short ad. It usually does not contain much. On the other hand, the 24 hour incubator can really help your team. It’s guaranteed to include a few rare dinos to ramp up your team.
Since the launch a few months back, Jurassic World Alive has seen 10 million game downloads around the world, over 4 million supply drop spins per day, and over 3 million dinosaur battles per day! Check out this infographic below which details some of these stats:
There you have it folks, Jurassic World Alive tips & tricks. By keeping these in mind, you can take your own team of dinos from zero to hero. Do you have any other tricks that weren’t listed here? What eight dinos make up your bench? Sounds off in the comments below!
