In some ways, Injustice 2 feels like the game NetherRealm Studios was always destined to make. Especially after the Midway Games team were brought under the Warner Bros umbrella in 2010. Injustice 2 feels like a step forward for the studio. Director Ed Boon, and the Injustice franchise.

Injustice 2 contains a wonderful cast of core characters and continues to blend the studio’s over-the-top gonzo fighting style with a superhero setting that seems almost too perfect a fit. The game specializes in creating personal and intimate battles with stakes that feel significant. As well as combat that feels weighty and powerful. Whether you love superheroes, fighting games, or just the adrenaline of competition. If you’re planning to check out Injustice 2 (which you should) you should read through this.

You Should Beat The Story Campaign At Least Twice

The Injustice 2 story campaign is good, but that’s not why you should beat it twice. Rather, there are moments when you can pick between two characters to fight particular battles. Black Canary vs. Green Arrow, Blue Beetle vs. Firestorm, etc. But whichever character you end the segment on will unlock a level 20 epic item and a skin for that character, the other will get nothing. The entire final segment will have you choosing between two characters that will get you two very different story endings as well if that’s further motivation.

The AI Battle Simulator Is Easy Mother Box Farming

The idea of gearing up AI to fight enemy AI may not be appealing to you. But you can earn up to 10 Mother Boxes a day based on wins/losses in the mode. If you win, you get a gold box. So for your five “attacking” fights, you want to pick the lowest level enemies you can and stomp on them. In theory, you want a strong defending team. If they’re too strong, people might not fight you at all. So if you don’t care about your win-loss record, you might consider putting up level 1s. Because if you lose, you get a bronze box, which is better than nothing. Repeat all this for at least five gold boxes a day, and maybe as many as ten total.

There Is Literally No Reason To Save Your Mother Boxes

I’m really glad that Injustice 2 implemented this system, or else I’d probably be saving all my boxes to open. Since I’m a video game hoarder. Turns out there’s no point because the level of the boxes are created when you get them, so there’s reason to save them. Remember, even if you’re getting level 1-3 epic items. You can always upgrade them to max level, later on. So they’re far from useless, and will also make the early stages of those characters easier. The one thing you can save is your gold currency, but even then, you might as well just buy gold boxes once you can afford them.

You Can Have Friendly AI Battle Enemies In The Multiverse

You can have the AI fight your characters against Multiverse opponents. You have to hit triangle during characters select and select your AI loadout. Then the computer will fight for you. Not to say the computer will do well, but you might get lucky and get past a tough boss or character with the computer’s help. I try to only save this for rare occasions. Doing this in the endless battle simulator is a good way to rack up easy XP (but I find it a bit dull).

You Can Auto-Level Characters To 20, But It’s Expensive As Hell

Theoretically, your goal should be to take one character to level 20 as soon as you can. Because once you do, you can start auto-leveling other characters to 20. The problem is that it costs 10,000 Source Crystals, which are few and far between in the game. You can buy Source Crystals in the store for real-life money. So technically you can buy these XP levels, but that will add up quick. I recommend just doing it the old fashioned way because levels only take about 6-9 wins per level. It goes pretty quickly if you focus on one character.

Take The Time To Actually Understand Your Character’s Power

Some character powers seem pretty straightforward. Press a button as Kara, shoot some lasers. But others are more in-depth and you should take the time to actually read about their function to understand how and when you can use them. Robin’s batarang, for instance, works as a teleport device. But if you combo it, it can also be an explosive. Wonder Woman’s power looks like a buff, but it’s actually one of five random buffs that will aid different aspects of your character. To get good with her, you should memorize which one is which. There’s a lot to learn about each character, especially with some of their individualized powers.

Darkseid Is Probably Worth A Purchase

I debated with myself whether or not I wanted to play $6 for Darkseid as DLC, but I did and I’m glad I did. His character is a lot of fun and unlike anyone else in the game with his godlike, “I don’t give a crap” stance during fights, and his ricocheting lasers that are one of the coolest effects in the game. I don’t know how good he is competitively (he’s a bit slow) but I really think he’s worth picking up if you end up liking the game.

Sell Your Garbage Items, Unless You Love The Way They Look

Play enough and you will start racking up tons of items for your characters. Don’t forget that you can actually sell these for credits, which will earn your more loot boxes in time. The only exception to this rule is that you should save gear if you’re in love with the cosmetic look. While Epic items usually look damn cool, if you get to level 20 and feel like sort of a mish-mash of gear, you can spend source crystals to transmorg your great gear to look like anything, even low level commons that may suck, but are stylish. This isn’t cheap, but for your favorite characters, it might be worth it.

Save Your Regen Tokens For Max Level

While the game tells you tha Regen tokens will bring up your old gear to your current level. They don’t give you the advice that it’s probably best to wait until level 20 to do this. You can get 3-5 regen tokens for some activities in the Multiverse. Sometimes selling rare gear gets you tokens as well. So just keep that in mind.  If you want to upgrade an ultra-low-level item to 10 or 15 go for it. But I probably wouldn’t do it too often.

There Are Personalized Story Endings For Beating Braniac In the Battle Simulator

I didn’t realize this was the case at all when I played this mode. But if you beat any of the battle simulators, the non-rotating planet in the Multiverse. You will get a short, quasi-animated alternate ending based on the character you beat Braniac with. I’ve only done this for a few so far, but it’s a nice little story addendum, even if these endings don’t get “true” cutscenes. Beat it with everyone to see the end result. Or just watch them all on YouTube I guess.

Injustice 2 is available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, iOS.