Ingress: the game for which people fly to Chukotka. Useful for beginners to play Ingress Itz ingress

There are two reasons for writing this review:

Firstly, spring has come- the warm season, when you can walk more often, breathe fresh air and generally enjoy life outside your apartment;

Secondly, I myself, as an Ingress player, achieved the long-awaited and desired Level 8, which, although not a ceiling, already allows you to use the game’s capabilities to their full potential.

Ingress has become more than just a game for me - it has changed several aspects of my life, and for the better, so I want to involve as many players as possible in it. So let's start attracting the audience.

☣ What is Ingress? ☣

Ingress is an embedded reality game. Everyone knows Pokemon go? Ingress is similar to it in that it also requires active movement of the legs, but in terms of plot and complexity it is much more interesting.

The plot of the game is that parallel to our Universe there is a Universe of Shapers - representatives of an unknown intelligence. It so happened that exotic matter - XM (XM) - began to penetrate into our world from this alien universe. In the XM stream, Shapers can transmit signals to the human brain, influencing and changing it. CM is present in our world unevenly - it can be anywhere, but it is mainly concentrated around cultural objects - monuments, sculptures and other human artifacts, where it forms portals - small holes that enhance the release of CM. After the discovery of the existence of HM and Shapers, people were divided into two factions - Education (Enlightened, green faction), whose representatives consider Shapers to be friendly and capable of exerting a positive influence on humanity (intelligence, creativity), and Resistance (Resistance, blue faction), whose representatives consider the Shapers and their influence dangerous and fraught with the capture of humanity.

Guess which faction I chose?))

☣ How to play? ☣

Once you have installed Ingress on your smartphone, it ceases to be a simple device for communication and entertainment - it turns into a scanner, on the screen of which the familiar world is transformed - on the streets and in courtyards you begin to see XM and portals.

The arrow on the screen is you. Your location is determined by GPS. The circle on the screen is your possible range of action for collecting XM, capturing and hacking portals, etc. Actually, the white dots in the screenshot are XM, the flaming green fire is a portal, and the multi-colored paws around it are installed resonators.

After the first launch of the game, you will be asked to choose the faction for which you will play, or rather, fight and fight - Resistance or Education. Many people make this choice unconsciously, guided by their favorite color. Some listen to themselves (like me) - with such a plot of the game, would I trust the Shapers or choose to resist their influence? Well, probably, almost no one scouts out the situation on what field they will have to play in this or that city (more on this a little later).

The essence of the game is to capture portals and connect them to each other, creating fields. Inside each captured field there are MUs - “minds”, thinking units. The more of them captured by your faction and you, the better.

To capture a portal, you need to install resonators on it. Portals captured by Enlightenment players are green, portals captured by Resistance players are blue. Neutral, uncaptured portals are white. Even one installed resonator makes the portal belong to your faction. But in order to connect the portal with others, it is necessary that the maximum number of resonators be installed on it - 8. You also need a key to the portal, which usually falls out when it is hacked.

While you are a beginning player, only low-level game items are available to you: a first-level player has first-level items, a second-level player has second-level items, etc. As the player develops, the “most advanced” level 8 items become available for use.

Game items- This:

- resonators(needed to capture the portal);

- weapon(needed to shoot the enemy portal and capture it);

- energy cubes(needed to replenish reserves of HP, which is spent on game actions);

- fashion(installed on the portal to give it certain properties: shields protect, amplifiers help the portal to fire back on its own when attempting to capture, etc.);

- keys to portals(needed to connect portals to each other and remotely charge portals);

- capsules(needed for storage game items and exchanging them with other players).

Possible game actions:

- portal hacking(by hacking the portal of your faction, you receive game items depending on the level of the portal; by hacking the portal of the enemy faction, you receive game items + 100 experience points - ar);

- portal capture(by installing resonators on it; the level of the portal depends on the level of the resonators installed on it (the level is added up and divided by 8, rounded down), for example, 8 level 8 resonators are a level 8 portal, but 7 eighths and 1 seventh is already a portal level 7, etc.; the higher the level of the portal, the more game items and the higher level you can milk from it; for capturing the portal you get 625 experience points + 125 for each installed resonator + 325 points for installing all resonators - the so-called full deploy);

- connection of portals - link(313 ap is given for a link) and the creation of fields (about 1500 ap is given for a field, sometimes more depending on the size of the created field);

- shooting the enemy portal(when shot, the resonators are destroyed (+75 ap for each) and the mods placed on the portal are knocked out; after the shooting, the portal can be captured);

- hack with glyphs(to do this, press the “Hack” button and repeat the graphic keys on the diagram; if repeated correctly, it gives experience points (a little - +50 for each correct key) and bonus inventory).

To level up faster and gain level:

Capture portals

Connect portals and create fields, and remember that many small fields will give more points than one large one

Bomb enemy portals (destroying a resonator gives you little points, but if the portal has links and fields attached, you can get a lot of experience points for a completely destroyed one)

For all this, accumulate staff - game equipment, hacking portals.

Well, and most importantly: to play Ingress, you need to get your body off the couch and go outside . To hack/capture a portal, you need to approach the portal so that it is within the active range. To shoot a portal, you also need to be closer to it (the further you are from the portal, the weaker the force of destruction).

☣ Pros of the game ☣

Ingress really captivating . Precisely because real people play it on real territory. Realizing what you have homework- a portal to which the scanner reaches directly from the apartment - you begin to groom and cherish it, placing best mods and inviting other players to open your portal - put higher level resonators on it. Capturing your homework causes a storm of resentment and indignation and encourages you to take revenge - to run outside and destroy enemy portals and fields). When you go outside to play in your free time, you will find in your blood uporin- a substance that forces you to run around the entire area in a state of persistence, capturing all neutral portals, shooting and capturing all enemy ones, and also linking them all in your own way. As a rule, the weather does not particularly affect the level of uporin - only severe frosts and storm warnings are ways to leave the real ingresser at home.

Ingress is when, upon arriving at your mother-in-law’s, you run to the portal, try to link from it, and your wife makes an excuse that you are taking things from the car.

Once you start playing, you will gain a lot of new acquaintances - the regional faction curator notices new players and invites them to the general chat. There they will teach you the intricacies of the game, answer questions, help you with staff if you need anything, and they can even meet and improve a beginner by helping you create poles. Factional and inter-factional meetings are frequent. Particularly noteworthy are joint operations with the transfer of keys and covering the city with huge fields of one’s faction to spite the enemies)))

Ingress is when you go to some hole with resist, and return with a friend.

Ingress is played by people of all ages and professions, both boys and girls, students, bank employees, promoters and forensic experts.

Ingress is when in real life you see how a landscape designer, a co-founder of a system integrator, a low-current installer and an auditor enter a bar.

However, you can play alone. With Ingress you will walk a lot, breathe fresh air , which means strengthen your immune system, improve your complexion, lose a few (or maybe a lot) extra pounds and make your legs and butt more beautiful and graceful.

Since portals are cultural artifacts, you will learn a lot of new information about the sights your city. For example, before Ingress I didn’t notice a bunch of mosaics, bas-reliefs and memorial plaques. Well, a yard sculpture can really amuse you)))

Ingress is when you visited most beautiful places St. Petersburg, Milan, Vienna, Rome... and saw nothing

And finally, a little about factions. Green and blue are always fighting among themselves, but, as a rule, there are few places where the forces are evenly distributed. For example, Kemerovo is a green city (hey, resisters, did you fall asleep there, or what?):

In Novosibirsk, the distribution of forces is approximately the same:

Well, I live in the unique blue city of Barnaul:

My faction is Resistance. In the blue city, this is, on the one hand, good - you are in the majority, and many players will support and help you if something happens. On the other hand, there are fewer opportunities for development in terms of destroying enemy portals, which gives good experience points. Almost the only development option is to capture neutral portals and connect the portals. An entry-level green player on the central street of Barnaul can rise well by simply hacking all the portals along the bus route (you can also play from a vehicle). Some even arrange delegations to cities of a different color to have a good game and level up.

I hope my review of this game has captivated you, and you are already running to install the game. Google Play))) Believe me, it's worth it. Ingress is not just a game, but an entire subculture with its own slang, attributes and goals. Have you seen pie poems in many games?

inlight Oleg with a baseball bat

drove inlights around the yards

paradoxical but logical

there are no resists but there is a bit

If you have any questions, write to me and comments, I will try to answer. I can also send an invitation to the game for my faction - after all, being a rebel and fighting for the Resistance is in the blood of each of us!

I collect all the documents and send a request to the FSB to visit the border zone in Chukotka. Two weeks later, confirmation is in hand, and now I’m already on the plane from Yekaterinburg to Anadyr. We're landing. There is a terrible frost outside, passengers are asked to transfer to a helicopter, which transports those arriving to the city, located on the other side of the icy Anadyr estuary. Finally I am there - at the very edge of the world. I begin to capture portals and hack keys, so that I can then transfer them to Kyiv, and then to agents in Alaska. The operation to link Anadyr and the United States is going well.

This is not a piece of dystopian or cyberpunk action. This is an absolutely real story, which Anton Khudozhnik, one of the most famous Russian players in the game, told about in his report after the gaming operation. Ingress. “The world is not what it seems to you,” say the developers. And this is the honest truth: even in the smallest Russian city, the car chase may not be driven by a couple of street racers, but by the disruption of the “green” operation to take over the Earth. Blondes with smartphones in a cafe are most likely not scrolling through their Instagram feed, but rather hacking into all the portals in the area.

All you need to do is install Ingress on your smartphone, and your view of the world around you can change dramatically. What is Ingress?

Game Basics: Faction System and Story

Ingress is an augmented reality game. It was released in 2012 and is based on capturing virtual analogues of city attractions - portals. Monuments, monuments, squares and other iconic objects of the city act as portals. Some of them were introduced into the game by the developers, but the bulk were added and continue to be added by the players themselves. To capture portals you need to be physically close to them.

There are two factions in the game: the so-called “blue” and “green” factions, which are fighting for control of the territory. Having captured two portals, players can establish a connection between them (or “throw a link”). If you manage to capture and combine three portals with links, then the space between them is also considered captured and is painted in the color of the faction. Actually, this is the whole essence of the game: to capture and paint as much territory as possible in your color, without allowing the enemy to do the same.

It is possible to cheat and replace your own GPS coordinates, but cheating is strictly suppressed: the players themselves immediately “knock” and will not be long in coming with a lifelong ban from the developers

The best people can tell about the game are its most devoted fans. Therefore, we contacted two luminaries of the gaming community, organizers of the largest unofficial Ingress events in Russia: Oksana Timofeeva and Viktor Kabernik.

Oksana: According to legend, two factions are fighting for influence on Earth: “Enlightened” (“enlightened”, indicated in green) and “Resistance” (“resistance”, indicated in blue). Their struggle is for control of exotic matter - some higher power that makes people talented. But at the same time, people can become talented from it in both a good and a bad sense: that is, great composers and, for example, great dictators are equally “infected” with it. The Green faction believes that despite the potential threats, exotic matter must still exist to impart talents to humans. The Blue faction argues that the influence of such a force is too unpredictable, which means it should not exist.

Victor: The storyline of Ingress was strong at the start, but the further it goes, the more it becomes dotted. At first, the developers tried to make the plot interactive, so that the actions of the players directly affected it. But the further it went, the more the priorities changed. After Ingress came out of beta, there was a massive influx of newbies who didn’t understand what was going on here. They simply ran and captured portals. As a result story line began to be traced less and less, and the actions of the players ceased to influence it at all.

How do regular players play?

« One of our agents was once farming in an industrial area outside the city, where several thefts had previously occurred (which the agent did not know about). There he walked around with a smartphone, hacking portals. Through surveillance cameras, the security saw that some guy was moving around the territory, then standing in one place for a long time and looking at the floor - in general, they immediately called the police. The police interrogated him for more than half an hour. The guy tried to explain that this is an augmented reality game, and they eventually let him go, but it was clear that they didn’t buy his version

Oksana: Among the players there is a very large group of people whom we call “district buns”. They simply walk from work to home and capture all the portals along the way at the same time.

Oksana: Despite this, both in Moscow and in the regions there is constantly an active war for territory. For example, if it turns out that there is a portal next to your house, then it is quite possible that it will be repainted ( move from one faction to another - approx. edit.) seven times a day.

Everyone is having fun as best they can. Someone constantly puts farms ( massive clusters of portals at a short distance, which you can quickly bypass - in about 10 minutes - and get from them many items at once to increase your level - editor's note.). Some people are interested in “keeping” their area in their own color. Some people are interested in doing field art - creating images on a map from blue and green fields. By the way, the first field art was made in Moscow.

Victor: Basically, this is what all players do: farm and repaint as much territory as possible in their color. But if ordinary players do this from time to time and can only paint over their own yard, then organized players are planning such actions that can repaint the whole of Europe.

How "serious" players play

« I knew one player who rode in a huge pickup truck, and he had fun: he drove up to the portals of his faction, waited for the burglar, figured him out (this is not difficult to do, because the burglar should be nearby and he would have a smartphone in his hands), and then started to chase. He simply rode a few tens of meters behind, repainting all the portals of the person he was pursuing. Once he drove a player on a motorcycle into a dead end, into a narrow alley, and the motorcyclist had to urgently brake and turn around to avoid hitting the wall. They say the motorcyclist no longer played Ingress"(story by one of the players on Reddit).

Victor: In the Ingress community, you can find a job for everyone: someone likes judging complex events, someone likes traveling or running around the city, someone prefers to coordinate a team.

Oksana: Every major “repainting” campaign requires a lot of people, including drivers. The managers give them instructions: for example, to travel from Tverskaya to Voikovskaya in advance certain time along the agreed route, capturing all the portals along the way. It happened that Moscow was completely repainted in one night.

There are approximately 600 active players in Moscow who regularly participate in our events. There are many players in the regions: from St. Petersburg to Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Murmansk.

Victor: Ingress is not a game in the usual sense, but rather a space for play: the rules here are set by the players themselves. And that's exactly what we do - figure out what to do.

The biggest operation I coordinated somehow took over a sixth of the world by painting it green. The story began with the fact that I came to Tenerife, met with one of the local players there, and we had the idea of ​​​​trying to capture a really large territory. A working group was found, about 12 people, who - each in their own country - assembled other groups also involved in the operation.

It was enough to capture only 19 portals around the world (the maximum range for establishing a link between the portals of high level- about 655 km. But they should not intersect with links of the opposite faction of a similar level), and to guarantee success, we also provided a “plan B”. As a result, 150 portals were prepared simultaneously, at each of which we had our own person - in Canada, Magadan, Hawaii. A total of 460 people took part in the event, and the vast majority of them had no idea what they were doing ( such secrecy is necessary so that the opposite faction cannot disrupt the operation by creating its own connections within the vast field - approx. ed.)

The preparation of this operation took five months, and so far it is the largest operation in the world. For each such operation, a plot is written, complex riddles are created in it. One operation even launched an internal Internet radio for participants.

About inter-factional events

« So, late yesterday evening we set up the 8th “farm” on the Borodino panorama. Suddenly two “greenies” show up. There was one I really didn’t like: he was a terrible swearer. But they say he is a good man. Then I remembered that I had to give the girl several items. The “green” ears perked up, they heard, let’s hang around us. You cannot throw a capsule with things in their presence - they will pick it up first. We reached the girl's car. The Greens are with us. They are not going to leave under any pretext: they look at the car and pester you with questions. OK, I say, let's go, let's drive away, I'll drop the capsule for you further away. OK, he says. We look - the “greens” suddenly rushed somewhere with terrible speed, wagging their asses. Well, we didn’t understand, we laughed... Then we looked - about 50 meters away, the car door was opened. It turns out they also had a car. We are heading towards Kutuzovsky, along it towards the region. The girl was having fun: either she would pass through the gas station with the breeze, then a piece in the oncoming traffic... These two are not far behind. We rush through the night Kuntsevo (around midnight), through the Setun platform, trying to throw off the “tail”. Finally we stopped at one gas station - we really needed to refuel. The “greens” make a couple of circles around us, seemingly without looking in our direction and generally here by accident - and such persecution in real world This is strictly prohibited by the rules of the game; such a thing will immediately result in a ban. I take pictures of them, they cover their faces. Finally they pretend to drive away, I jump on the scooter and rush towards the opposite side, estimating how long it would take to drive away for the girl to reach the abandoned capsule, but the “greens” would not. It worked. The “greens” take pictures of us, shout something about using a second account, that they took everything down and will write a report on us. I answer that I also filmed everything and, in turn, I will give both of them such a report for harassment that it doesn’t seem like much, we risked our lives, seeing that an unknown car was persistently pursuing us. And with that we parted ways"(story from one of the players on Facebook).

Although the “blues” and “greens” are irreconcilable enemies, and showdowns between them sometimes lead to massacres, truly passionate players consider such behavior unsportsmanlike. The leaders of both factions are constantly in contact with each other and even try to carry out joint events, designed for hundreds of participants.

Victor: The rules are discussed, each faction nominates several representatives, and then the competition begins according to these rules. The mechanics of such an event are arbitrary. For example, both factions must bring the pedestrian to a certain point.

Oksana: This pedestrian is a real man, which follows the route created for it from links. The teams’ task is to guide a person along their links without allowing the other team to “hijack” him. The team that leads the pedestrian to its finish line wins. If the allotted time - for example, four hours - is over and the person still doesn’t get anywhere, it’s declared a draw.

Victor: Such an event requires the efforts of several hundred people.

Why do people play Ingress?

This was the most important question we asked Victor and Oksana. There are enough worries and problems in our world - why do they add new ones?

Oksana: When I started playing Ingress, I began to communicate with people from other cities and countries. Each faction has familiar agents in almost every city. They won’t necessarily react to your arrival, but when you get to, for example, Ufa, with Ingress you can find someone and ask them to help you figure out the city.

Victor: Ingress is a story about global mobility that requires a lot of travel. There is, for example, the city of Alexandria, but there are no local players there at all. By story task, the shard got there ( a 13-piece artifact that each faction had to deliver to their city. The artifact could only be moved along links between portals - editor's note.). It’s unclear how this fragment got there, but we have to get it out. We, as a whole faction, quickly collected money for a landing party of several people to travel to Alexandria. They arrived, captured the portals, moved the shard and quickly left.

« We dive into the already familiar darkness of the park. Branches crunch underfoot, someone is eating someone in the bushes. We calmly continue to move towards the portal. The police are approaching. Questions follow about who we are and what we are doing here. We explain that this is a game related to the study and visiting of ancient monuments. During conversations, we capture the portal and drop the link. Just in time, because Resistance agents are already very close and are attacking our portals in the park. All this time, the policeman is studying our passports, visas, tickets, and transmitting data over the radio for verification. We are being searched. Finally the shard moves towards our goal, Turkey. I feel a real thrill from the successful completion of a key phase of the operation. So it was not in vain that we flew here"(report on the operation in Alexandria from a player on LiveJournal).

Ingress is Google's first try in the world of games with augmented reality, the first pancake, which in many ways turned out to be lumpy: it is not in the tops, it is not gossiped about on every corner, and it does not have beautiful graphics, but it has a nightmare interface, but communicating with other agents have to use the wildly inconvenient Google+. But if you somehow manage to get used to all this, it will be difficult to get you out of Ingress - in fact, you will have a second, parallel life, in which there are sudden night chases, difficult tasks, cunning intrigues and new friends (as well as new enemies ). Is it worth it or not? Decide for yourself.

Does it exist a virtual reality, which forces people to leave the house? Will you say no? - you just haven't played Ingress. More and more people are leaving the comfort of their beds and going outside, even though winter is coming! You should know this!

After staying at home all summer, there seemed to be no prospects of going outside. And as soon as it started to get colder and the nasty autumn rain drenched passers-by running home, we came across the game Ingress on Google Play, which forced us to wander around the city with an umbrella in search of portals.

Where to begin?

To get started to go out to play Ingress you need:

• Phone with Android version 2.3 (or later) or iPhone with iOS 7.0 (or higher)
• Working GPS navigation in the device
• Mobile Internet
• Umbrella

What's the point?

The plot of the game is that a mysterious energy penetrates into our world, which can change people's thinking. You need to choose one of the sides:

Resistance(blue) - for those who want to fight it.

Enlightened(green) - for those who want to master this energy.

As a result, both factions fight for intelligence units (the area of ​​the controlled territory). And all this exists in the real world. Perhaps your home or a nearby store has already become a portal.

I would like to clarify that people who play Ingress are usually adequate and only fight in the game. And sometimes they even get together and make joint drawings on the map (field art). The picture above is just an example of field art.

Your goal is portals

Portals are places where energy leaks into our world.

The portal can be of three colors:

• Blue if controlled by the Resistance
• Green if controlled by the Enlightened
• Gray if no one controls it

To gain control of a no-man's portal, you need to install a resonator on it. This process is called deployment. If the portal belongs to another faction, then you will have to first destroy the enemy resonators.

This is what our portal looks like, which we captured the other day:

On one portal you can install from one to eight resonators of different levels (1-8). You can also improve resonators (not even your own) installed in the portal. They determine the level of the portal. It is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the resonator levels, rounded down.

For any actions in the game you will need items that can be obtained from the hacking portal. To do this, you need to approach the portal at a distance of 35 meters, select the portal on the map and press the hack button. After a second of waiting, various goodies will rain down on you, which we will tell you about below.

You can’t get buns indefinitely, and to hack again you will have to wait 5 minutes. It should be taken into account that in 4 hours one person can hack one portal only 4 times.

For advanced hackers, there are glyphs - special figures that need to be remembered and repeated (seen in the photo above). If you do everything right, even more goodies will fall. To try yourself as an advanced hacker, you just need to hold down the hack button longer.

In addition to more goodies, glyphs give you experience points - this is important, especially for novice players.

Mana - walk and get

All actions in Ingress cost Exotic Matter (XM), which we simply call “mana”.

Mana seeps into our world from portals, settling around them in the form of blue balls. All you have to do is approach and it will come together on its own. Mana can be found even far from the portal, but in very small quantities. The screenshot shows the distribution of mana depending on the distance to the portal.

The largest amount of mana is spent on attacking enemy portals, as well as on recharging your own. Portals need to be recharged because they lose their energy: due to enemy attacks, or simply over time (the portal completely loses its charge in 4 days and turns gray).

Mana can also be replenished by discharging the PowerCube, an item that sometimes drops when hacking.

Links and fields - earn mind points

Points in the game are counted based on the area (field) the factions control in the game. More area - more points. To capture the area, you need to connect 3 portals into a triangle (no other figures capture the area). Not any 3 portals can be used for these purposes.

The following conditions must be met:

• Each portal must have 8 resonators installed.
• You must have the key to the portal with which you connect this one (the key drops out of the portal when hacked with a 50% probability). It is not necessary to have the key to the portal near which you are standing. When connecting two portals (link), the key to the portal you are connecting to disappears.
• A link from portal to portal can only be established if it does not cross other links.
• Depending on the level of the portal, you can extend the link over a certain distance (from 160m to 655 km).

Experience is awarded for creating links and fields: 313 per link and 1563 per field.

Mods - help the portal become better

You can install 4 mods in your portal. There are such mods:

• Protective (portal shield) - reduces damage to the portal.
• Attackers (force amp, turret) - increase the damage of the portal to the enemy.
• Extension link (link amp)
• Improving hacking (heat sink, multi-hack) - allow you to hack the portal more often.

Here's how nice the mods look in the game:

Weapons - expand your control area

The most effective thing in the game is to destroy the enemy portal, especially if it was part of the field, and create your own in its place. For these purposes, you will need a weapon, which, like everything else, falls out of the portal during hacking.

There are 3 types of weapons:

• XMP Burster - drops most often, hits a large area.
• Ultra strike - drops rarely, the strike is concentrated and strong.
• Virus - drops very rarely (1 time in 1000). Allows you to repaint the portal in a different color (depending on the type of virus).

And I got the blue virus at level 2 :) I'm waiting for a reason to use it. It looks like this (right):

In general, when using XMP, you should stand so that the blast wave covers several resonators at once.

Levels and achievements - level up and show off to your friends

The player's strength depends on his level, which can be upgraded by receiving action points (AP). The higher the level, the more powerful weapons and powerful resonators the player can use. In addition, as the level increases, the amount of mana the player can collect increases.

There are several common leveling strategies in Ingress:

• Creation of links and fields. These actions earn the most action points in the game. We are leveling up exactly according to this scheme, since there are many portals in our city.
• Destroying enemy portals. For destroying the enemy's portal and network of links, the points are half as many as in the first option. But this strategy is suitable for a losing team when there are few of its own portals.
• Capturing the gray portal. You can pull a no-one's portal to your side. Points are awarded for installing each resonator, so it makes sense to initially install the lowest level resonators and then upgrade them.

As a bonus for actions in the game, you can get achievements, for example, for hacking a large amount different portals, for holding a portal for n days, for the number of links made, for recharging portals, for installing and destroying resonators.

All this has no meaning and exists rather to compete with friends. But to level up above level 8 you need to collect some medals.

Our achievements - swing and brag :)

We started playing Ingress 2 weeks ago. We are not playing very actively, but we have already managed to get carried away and achieve something. So far we have leveled up to level 4, earned several achievements and walked 47 km around the city (which can be considered an achievement for our lifestyle).

From our limited experience, we can tell you how to play Ingress more efficiently - namely, while riding a bicycle. This way you can quickly travel around many portals, collect keys and create links.

Ingress, to our surprise, is played by completely different people. One day a man of about 50 came up to us and complained that we were destroying his farm. He has been in the game for a long time and has walked more than 1000 km. And one day a guy rode up to us on a bike; it looked like he wanted to deploy the portal that we had just deployed. It turned out that he was from another faction. Therefore, after talking to us, the guy rushed to another portal to protect it from us.

An interesting incident happened to us yesterday. We were just finishing our dinner when we received a notification about an attack on a portal near our house. Having grabbed our things, we managed to run to him when he only had one half-discharged resonator left, and managed to install new resonators and protective mods. This time we couldn’t see who attacked our portal, but we sympathize with him.

We didn't expect so many people to play in our city. Now, when we see a person walking with a phone, we immediately suspect that he may be playing Ingress. This makes the game even more interesting, the only pity is that we have much more blue than green. Because of this, there is an imbalance of power, and the map in our city is usually almost completely blue.

*Over the year the situation has changed dramatically and the map is now greener than green. Anyone from Chernivtsi, join the resistance so that the game is more balanced!

Ingress is a really interesting game that deserves attention. It even captivated me, even though I’m not a big fan of games in general. This is not just a game, but a reason to go out, make new acquaintances and have an unusual time. Be sure to try it and write your impressions in the comments! We can even play together if you're blue!

You can watch the struggle between factions in the game Ingress at official map. And if you want more information about the game, then read the Ingress Wiki.

You can download the toy (for Android) or if you are a happy owner of an Apple product.

April 4, 2013 at 11:19 am

Useful for beginners to play Ingress

• AR and VR

Ingress is a game from Google that introduces us to a world with augmented reality. Works only on android platform. At running game you see real map the world around us (Ingress uses geopositioning), but besides this you see additional objects - portals, resonators, etc. Usually portals are located on monuments of our world.
There was already a review of this game on Habré, but now I want to tell you a few useful tips for those who are starting to play.

How can I get an invite?

Yes, the game is still in beta, you need an invite to start playing. But just the other day, all players of the second level and above were given an invite. So right now, getting an invite can be quite simple. At least write here in the topic, in case someone shares. You can also get an invite in the VKontakte group, or simply request it on the ingress website. I acted in the last way, the invite came in 2 weeks.

How can I level up the fastest?

Experience in the game is given for different things, but some of them are almost impossible to do at the first levels. You most likely will not be able to free any enemy portal. Therefore, you have options (we start with the most ineffective)

• Recharging resonators. Requires a lot of energy, gives 10 points per reload
• Hack enemy portals. 100 points per action
• Installation of resonators. Very effective. If you find a portal of your faction that has less than 8 resonators, immediately run there and place resonators. For each installed one you get 125 points, plus a bonus of 250 for the last one.
• Creating fields. Periodically, keys fall from portals. Take care of them and use them wisely! If you have a portal key, you can link another portal with it (as long as the line does not intersect with anything). This will give you 313 points. But it is much more effective to close the triangle - then in addition to 313 they will give another 1250. Keep an eye on the portals and keys and create fields in time!

So can I destroy the enemy portal?

Firstly, the portal cannot be destroyed at all; you can destroy enemy resonators, freeing the portal from them. But, most likely, you won’t be able to do this at the first levels. A simple example. The first level resonator has 1000 xm. Level 1 booster deals 150 damage. But 150 is if you are standing exactly on the resonator. Its range of action is small, at most it will hit two neighboring ones, and then weakly. If the portal is accessible, then it is not a fact that you will be able to physically approach each of the 8 points with resonators. The gps is dancing, and you are periodically “blown away” from the point. As a result, it turns out that if the resonators are not quite close to the portal, then you will be tortured to demolish them with your first level boosters. You will need 50-100 of them, even if the portal only has level 1 resonators. Yes, during this time your phone battery will run out!

On high levels everything will be simpler, boosters there have a decent range of action. In the meantime, you only have a chance to finish off almost destroyed portals.

How can I install a resonator of the selected level?

If you have reached the second level, you begin to choose whether to install a first-level or a second-level resonator on the portal. In terms of protecting the portal and its properties, the difference is small; the top enemy will still endure all this only this way. But there is a difference for you. The portal can have no more than 4 level 2 resonators placed by you (the number of level 1 resonators is limited to only 8 - the number of slots on the portal). And it may happen that you run out of level 1 resonators, and you will not be able to fully develop. What to do?

The solution is very simple, you don’t just need to click “deploy resonator” - then the system itself chooses which resonator to install (from the comments - it always installs the minimum level resonator). Instead, select the "upgrade portal", scroll to an empty octant, and you have a choice of which resonator to install.

How do I fire a booster of the selected level?

Simply hold on the screen and select “fire xmp” to shoot automatically with a booster of the highest available level. If you want to decide this yourself, find the desired booster in your inventory, select it and shoot.

What determines the distance from the portal to the resonators?

Depending on how far you were from the portal when this resonator was installed. They stood close, they will be close (and it will be easier for the enemy to demolish them), they stood at 35 meters, it will be at 35 meters. It is impossible further.

Can I add a new portal? Change existing one?

Yes, you can, but, if I'm not mistaken, starting from level 2.

Holding on the map brings up a menu through which you can add a portal. If you are looking at the properties of an existing portal, click on the “more info” sign under the image, and on the portal description there will be links to replace the photo or correct the information. Google promises to process such requests within 2 weeks.

Why does Google need all this?

It's not clear yet. So far they are clearly not making money from this. But I think they will.

Why do we need all this?

What do you mean why? It's a game! Pump up and all that. And while playing you don’t sit at the computer, but move around the city. Very helpful! And at high levels, I think, you can’t do without real communication with real players.

Is there anything else that can be done here?

As far as I understand, there's not much else you can do. But the game will develop. And so, you can join the communities of Ingress players and level up together. Yes, I almost forgot. There is another very interesting feature, remote recharge. If you have a portal key, you can find it in your inventory, open the portal's properties and charge the resonators on it, even if you are not nearby. This also gives you a little experience.

Update: in the comments they suggested inserting a picture:

Each of us knows what a mobile game is. You download it to your smartphone, install it, and then enjoy the process while sitting in a comfortable chair, on the couch, or even at work or school. But it is worth noting that all these games are monotonous in general terms, although they have different genres, plots, graphics, and so on. If you want something unusual and special, then you should pay attention to Ingress. How to play this extraordinary project? What is required from the player? How does it differ from standard ones? mobile games? All these questions may begin to torment you as soon as you see the description of this game.

Ingress - what is it?

The first thought that may come to your mind when you see Ingress is: “How to play such a project?” After all, he looks really extraordinary and unusual. It’s worth starting with the fact that this game contains elements - this means that you will not just sit at home and enjoy the gameplay, you will have to move. In fact, the Ingress application is not the game itself, it is just a platform for it. All game process takes place in the real world, as people move around the area and visit checkpoints to move their faction forward. To make the game more exciting, control points are located not in random places, but in the locations of various interesting objects and attractions. Thus, you can take yourself on a walking tour around the city, while at the same time taking part in a global game that involves hundreds of thousands of people around the world. But so far there hasn't been an answer to a very important question regarding Ingress: "How to play this game?"

Application for the game

It's no longer a secret that almost all of the gameplay in Ingress takes place in the real world. But at the same time, you need to somehow connect all the events that take place with each other, so you need to download the application that bears the name of the game. It has enormous functionality and will allow you to join the process at any time, choose a faction and start working for its benefit. It is in the application that the map will be displayed, on which all the key points will be marked - portals that were captured by your allies or opponents. Also through the application you can track all events that are generated by Ingress developers. How to play using the application? You can get the answer to this question directly in it, since it contains a rather voluminous manual. Moreover, you can always turn to your familiar players or neighbors whom you find in the game so that they can help you at first. After all, you are working for the common good of one faction or another. Ingress is a game in Russian, Ukrainian, English and other languages, that is, there will be no problems with understanding your comrades. And you will have to communicate, since you will need to generate plans for the capture and defense of your territories.

Enlightened Faction

As soon as you download the Ingress app, the game in Russian (or another chosen language) will ask you to immediately decide which faction you want to join. Don't think that this doesn't matter, the game has a full-fledged plot, according to which events in the game world are determined. So, you have to choose from two factions - the Enlightened and the Resistance. First, it is worth considering the first one, which advocates contact with the Shapers - an alien race. The Enlightened are seeking peace with the aliens, they want them to help people develop with the help of the latest technologies. Therefore, if you think that the Shapers will be able to raise humanity to a new level of development, you should join this faction. At the very beginning of the game, when you start Ingress, the description of both factions will be before your eyes, so choose wisely - you won’t be able to change anything later.

Resistance Faction

If you are not attracted by the alternative of cooperation with aliens, then you should join the Resistance faction. Its participants believe that the Shapers just want to enslave people, make them into a collective intelligence similar to themselves, and deprive them of everything human. It is difficult, of course, to imagine what such small game, like Ingress on Android, is capable of creating such a full-fledged game world, projected onto the real one. But that's exactly how it is. Right now you can join this game to start the battle for a particular faction.

Main object - portal

So, you have chosen your faction, and now you see in front of you a map of the area where you are. Keep in mind that you will definitely need a GPS to play Ingress - the instructions state this quite clearly, as does the description of the game itself. It is through GPS that your location is tracked, as well as your gaming actions, so if you do not have this receiver on your phone, and even more so if there is no Internet connection at all, then you will not be able to join the players. If your device is ready for use, then the main goal is portals. As mentioned above, they are located at various attractions. When you get to a neutral portal or to a portal designated by the enemy’s color, you can change it to yours. This is the essence of the game, and it doesn’t matter which platform you use for Ingress - iPhone, Android or something else.

Links

If you haven't figured it out yet, Ingress is like an advanced version of the dot game, where opponents place dots on a board and then try to connect them together to form "their" squares. In Ingress, too, the fight is all about dominance, so you need to mark portals and then connect them together. And the connection that appears between two portals is called a link. Unfortunately, it is not durable, and the enemy can destroy it. So you need not only to capture new portals, but also to defend the old ones, as well as the links between them.

Zones

The best thing you can find in the game is the zones. When you have been able to collect enough portals of your color and connect them together with links into a single whole, your zone appears. It is much more reliable than a link or portal. This is what you and your comrades need to strive for. Therefore, it is necessary to organize mass attacks in the game chat in order to simultaneously capture portals, link and turn the territory into your zone. The larger the territory, the more portals and links are needed; accordingly, this task becomes very difficult to implement. But possible.

What does Ingress give you?

So, you have already understood the principle of the game Ingress, learned that there is a full-fledged application for it, and also understood the fact that the whole world is already involved in this incredible gameplay. Therefore, a logical question arises: “Do I need to register for this game?” If you just want to sit for an hour or two a day playing on your phone, then you’d better give up on Ingress right away, since such an approach will be unacceptable there. In Ingress you play constantly - day and night, at any given time. One day you may not be able to capture at least one portal, while on another you will have to run from one place to another for several hours. You may have a great chance to help a faction, and then you suddenly change your route. In general, Ingress is an active game that does not stop for a second. If there are a lot of people in your area who play Ingress, then it will be easier for you, since someone will always be able to replace you. And, naturally, you will have new acquaintances with whom you can meet to talk gaming themes. And not only.

Naturally, everyone decides for himself whether he is worth spending time on this venture. But one thing is clear - Ingress is a masterpiece game, a real breakthrough, a project that the world has never seen before. Therefore, it’s worth trying your hand in any case. And if you like it, then you will certainly see that you can reach unprecedented heights together with your faction, and this is precisely what is of great importance. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to play Ingress - Windows does not support this game, like a number of other platforms. It is best to play on Android, or at least on iOS.