Leap Tips For Beginners: How To Get Off The Ground In This Movement-Focused Multiplayer Shooter

Leap is a multiplayer shooter with a few wrinkles; it’s class-based, you can summon flying vehicles, you have several dashes that can be used in midair, and you have a grappling hook. This increase in mobility means Leap feels a bit different from many other shooters, but that isn’t the only place where Leap differentiates itself. Here are some tips and things you should know as you dive in, whether you are teaming up with or fighting against your fellow mercenaries.

Class matters. It determines abilities and restricts access to guns

Unlike many multiplayer shooters, Leap restricts weapons to specific classes, so if you prefer a particular weapon type, you may need to play a specific class to use it (although this isn’t always true, as both Pathfinder and Tech Ops begin with access to Assault Rifles, several classes can use Shotguns, etc.).

Pathfinder starts with an assault rifle and shotgun, a shield support ability, and an airstrike ultimate ability. Titan starts with an LMG and Rocket Launcher, a charging attack, and a tanky ultimate that slows you down but makes you hardier, taking less damage and dealing more weapon damage.

The Wraith is built for both long-range attacks and stealth, so it has a scout rifle and sword (which is very powerful) to start, alongside a cloaking ability and orbital laser ultimate, letting you take enemies out from range when you aren’t going in close for the kill.

The final class, Tech Ops, begins with a fire-elemental assault rifle and a gun that can be used to heal friendly soldiers and repair vehicles and structures. You can also throw down a turret as your primary ability, and your ultimate is a guided missile.

Each class also has a different type of throwable item, like grenades and more. You’ll gain more abilities and weapons as you level up, which is done simply by playing the game, but check the classes in the Armory screen first and see what speaks to you before you commit to playing as one for an extended period of time.

Pay attention to your Suit Modules

Suit Modules add modifiers to your abilities, letting you lean into what you like to do. Whether it’s increasing the speed of your vehicles by 20%, giving you 25% more distance on your Grapple ability, increasing your Radar range, speeding up your teammate revives, and a whole lot more.

Like Abilities and Ultimates, these are each bound to the class you are playing, so if you are a massive fan of some of them, it may be worth switching classes. Leaning into what you are best at or like most is a great way to improve your performance, regardless of the game.

You can set your default Class by favoriting it in the Armory

You can select your class when you are in the pre-match menu before each round, but you can also set your “default” class in the Armory. Click on the class you want to use (Pathfinder, Titan, Wraith, Tech Ops) then click Favorite, which is immediately to the right of the “Armory” label. Doing this will make this class your default option, so you’ll only need to click “Ready” to jump into a match with your favored exosuit.

Keep moving, embrace verticality, and look up

Mastering your movement is incredibly important in Leap. While shooting acumen is important in any first or third-person shooter, not many shooters lean into movement as significantly as Leap. It’s entirely possible to dash and grapple your way from one side of the map to the other, particularly on forest levels, or other levels with lots of large environmental structures.

Because of this, your attacks are probably not going to come from ground-level, and you’ll often find yourself sniped by an enemy in the trees, attacked by a sword-swinging maniac descending from the sky, and everything in between.

Use your vehicle to stay airborne when you aren’t around enemies, and use your air dash and grapple to move faster when you are in firefights and scrambles. You’ll need to land to get your dashes back, but you can chain grapples, dashes, and transitioning in and out of your vehicle to move as fast as you can. Keep your movement unpredictable and you’ll live a lot longer.

Claim your Daily Reward (It’s free and you don’t have to do anything to get it)

You can claim 100 currency and 1,000 XP just for visiting the Contracts tab and clicking on the “Claim Rewards” button in the lower right corner. You don’t have to do anything special to earn it, just log in and click the button to get some free stuff, even if you don’t have time to play a match. This is more than you get for leveling up your Player Rank, so it’s definitely worth your time.

Check your Daily Contracts (Or even dismiss them)

Daily contracts are a great way to earn currency and experience, but you won’t be able to finish them all on your favorite class. There’s a small X next to the name of each challenge, so click that if you don’t care for the challenge, and you’ll get a new one.

Unfortunately, you can only get one free swap each day, so be sure to dismiss the one you are least likely to be able to complete, if you are trying to maximize your rewards.

Customization is king, and the Black Market is your kingdom

The Black Market is the place to spend your currency. You can buy player skins, weapon, and vehicle skins, taunts, sprays, and lots more. None of it is pay-to-win, it’s all cosmetic, so feel free to ignore the currency if that stuff doesn’t speak to you or the stock look of your character is good enough.

Earn bonuses by engaging with the community

Much like some MMOs or other community-focused games (like Warframe), you can earn special rewards by referring friends or linking your Twitch account and then watching certain streamers.

Click on Refer A Friend and copy the link, then send it to whoever you want to invite and they can take care of the rest. If you are the type to take advantage of every possible source for rewards, keep your eyes on Twitter.com/PlayLeap and the Social tab in-game.

Walk over enemy drops or stand inside blue ammo crates to regen ammo

While you can certainly pick up ammo, health, and grenades from defeated enemies, that’s not the only place you can refill your ammo. Stand inside the light blue ammo crates scattered around the map. You’ll regenerate a small amount of ammo each second, after a larger initial tick, so you’ll need to stand there for a few moments if you want to refill your ammo completely.

You can heal people from VERY far away

If you are playing Tech Ops and you are on healing duty, you can heal turrets and fellow players from almost a ridiculous distance away, provided you can see them. That said, your healing beam will keep going around corners if you started before they rounded it, so use that to your advantage and win your rounds one incredibly healthy teammate at a time.

You can pick which PvP modes you queue for

Selecting “Play” brings up a menu with the different modes available in Leap, and clicking on each of those will prompt you to enter the matchmaking queue. If you want to be more selective, however, right-clicking on PvP will let you select which PvP modes you are interested in.

Check or uncheck Control, Assault, Capture The Core, Team Annihilation, Stomping Grounds, Asset Assassination, and even Custom games to keep your list tight, and you’ll only get matched with people in the modes you like.

Leap isn’t just a PvP game. Team up in Special Operations

If you don’t feel like diving head-first into the competitive maelstrom that is PvP, or you want to get your sea legs first, Special Operations is a great alternative. Special Operations is a wave-based co-op mode where you’ll join with fellow mercenaries to take out swarms of enemy troops, turrets, large mechs, and more.

Survive till the end, revive your teammates, and get the most kills to rack up tons of XP. You can select Bronze, Silver, or Gold difficulties, which can also automatically control your queues by right-clicking the Special Operations card on the Play screen.

Player Level and Class Level are two different things

Player level-ups give you currency and unlock new skins and more, but Class experience will determine your access to weapons, class abilities, ultimates, and more. While you’ll get Player experience for everything you do, you’ll need to complete matches while wearing your class-specific Exosuit to increase your Class level. If you have one Class you like, just keep using it to unlock everything!

Control supply drops can contain Tickets

Picking up supply drops in Control PvP can do more than just give you better weapons. They can also include Tickets, which are your team’s “life” for the match. Controlling more nodes will reduce more of the enemy ticket count, which begins at 200 for both sides. Picking up a ticket drop will give you 20, which may not buy you a ton of time, but it can be enough wiggle room to get out there and turn the tides with concerted team movements.