Step forward brave soul, into the world of Rad, available now on Xbox One. You have been chosen to save the future of humanity, but to do so you must venture into The Fallow, an ever-changing, radioactive wasteland filled with unknown and unspeakable creatures. Surviving this nightmarish landscape will be tough, especially as you’ll be exposed to gnarly toxins which will wreak havoc on your fragile human form, twisting and mutating you into something far less than human, but far more powerful.
But don’t worry about all that, we’ve got your back! Just follow some of these helpful tips and tricks and you’ll almost certainly be totally fine. Probably.
Tip 1: Use all your Melee moves!
- Mutations are the real power in the game, but you will always have your bat. It is critical at the start of a new run, but also gives you another option to pair with your mutations. You’ll unlock new bats with different bonuses as you play too!
- You have lots of moves available, try different moves on different enemies, some are more susceptible to a good kicking than others.
- You have a 3 hit combo. The third hit does more damage, but make sure that you can land it as it takes longer to execute and can leave you vulnerable against quicker enemies.
- Lunge Attack. Jump attack at a fixed distance, doing double damage!
- Ground pound. Affects all enemies within a radius. Do it from higher elevation to have a bigger area of effect!
- Jump kick. Can hit multiple enemies at once. Be careful not to jump off a cliff though!
- Charge attack. Charge your bat by holding the melee button, then unleash it on multiple enemies.
Tip 2: Covet thy floppy
- Floppy disk are keys in the game and are useful for different things.
- You can use them to open Chests containing power-ups and other items, some chests take more floppies than others, so use them wisely.
- Floppies open bomb shelters and caves where all sorts of treasures and secrets lie within. You might be able to even find some alternate paths through the level.
- Floppies open Special chests in boss arenas –Save keys for boss arenas if you’re low on health or if you think you have a difficult foe coming up. Boss chests almost always contain healing items!
Tip 3: Fast Loot Vehicles
- Ground pound a vehicle to slam all its doors open at once and spilling its valuable contents on the floor. This is faster than opening them one by one and is far cooler.
- Getting up on cars can protect you from mutie attacks and give you a good launch point for ground pounding them into oblivion.
Tip 4: Upgrade Your Town
- Town upgrades persist across runs and can really help your chances out in the Fallow!
- MAC runs the bank. MAC is the bank. Deposit your cassette tapes (currency) into the bowels of MAC and withdraw them on later runs, whenever you are in town. Your membership level will increase the more tapes your deposit with MAC and you will be granted additional privileges, such as being able to use a charge card to buy items from vendors if you’re low on tapes (for a nominal fee, of course).
- Shermie runs the town shop. You can buy items from her on your way out to the wasteland. The more items you buy, the more her inventory will expand over time. She’ll also invest some of your hard-fought cassettes in signage. Neon!
- There are even more areas of town that you can upgrade over time, be sure to explore a bit and talk to the townsfolk, but don’t be surprised if they are a bit put off by your bulging mutations.
Tip 5: Read up!
Rad is a big game with a lot of mutations, items, muties, and characters. How do you keep track of it all!?
- Access your Notebook from the Pause Menu to see what Exo-Mutations, Endo-Mutations and Items (Consumables and Artifacts) your character currently has. You can read up on some of the details about exactly what they do!
- You also have access to the Tome of the Ancients, a more expansive volume that lists everything you’ve ever found, across all your runs. You can read up on the origin of some of the mutants, replay any lore or endings you’ve found, or just see what is left to find!
Tip 6: Happy Trails
- As you move through the world, your body absorbs Rads and leaves behind a trail of verdant growth; you are healing the wasteland just by walking through it.
- This trail isn’t just a pretty face, it’s also useful for finding your way around Rad’s open environments.
- Running on top of your trail speeds you up, making for quicker re-traversal, longer jumps, and more maneuverability in combat
- Fruit can grow in your trail! It can be hard to spot, but each biome has different fruits that can be picked up and used for different things, like healing, which is handy, but also bombs, which are more fun. There’s also a certain someone in town who’s interested in starting a farm.
Rad is out on August 20. That’s real soon, like now, and everyone is counting on you, so go grab that sweet bat and help save the world…or what’s remaining of it anyway!
