Spider-Man Unlimited is the latest endless runner from mobile gaming giant Gameloft. The game's premise involves Spider-Men and villains from various universes converging into a single universe. With slick production values and dozens of different Spider-Men to collect, Unlimited is a real treat for fans of the web-slinger.
Want to get ahead on the Spider-Man Unlimited leaderboards and fill out your roster with Spidey's coolest costumes? Our latest tips and tricks guide will teach you the best ways to spend your time and energy while thwarting the plans of the Sinister Six.
1. Prioritize combos during Event and Unlimited runs
When you're playing Issues – the story mode – you don't have to worry about combos or score. Just focus on staying alive and completing the level goal.
But during Events and Unlimited Mode, scoring is the number one priority. You'll want to achieve as many combos as possible in order to get a high score. The best way to start or continue a combo is by punching or kicking an enemy. Each one adds to your combo and keeps the combo going for a little longer.
Going through rings also adds to your combo. These mostly show up during web-slinging, climbing, and free-falling sequences. Combos are more important than vials, so aim for rings first during those sequences.
2. Only use ISO-8 to continue on high-scoring Event and Unlimited runs
The temptation to spend ISO-8 (premium currency) to continue when you die is great. But you really need that ISO-8 for other things. Still, there are times when it makes sense to burn a few chunks of the element on a continue. The first continue costs one ISO-8, the second costs two, and the third and final continue costs four.
Events and Unlimited Mode both offer rewards for top leaderboard slots. Continuing in order to achieve a higher leaderboard bracket makes sense, as the rewards can sometimes be greater than the cost of the continues. Try to get a feel for your average maximum score, and only continue if you have reached or exceeded that maximum. Even then, you might not want to continue if you're likely to die right away after continuing.
3. Make lots of friends to boost your energy supply
Spider-Man Unlimited's energy system is a drag. It costs one unit of energy to play any mode, and it takes ten minutes to regenerate that one energy. Players can store a maximum of five energy units. Energy refills cost three ISO-8s.
Luckily, you can bolster your energy supply by making friends. Every day, players can send and receive one free unit of energy to each individual friend. The more friends you have, the more energy you'll receive as a result. You don't need to know the people you're friending. Just look at the leaderboard spaces above you and send requests to your fellow active players.
Remember that five is your maximum quantity of energy. If your energy is full and someone sends you an energy gift, just leave that gift in your inbox until you've spend your current supply.
4. Buy the right Power-up upgrades from the shop
It's tempting to spend vials on new Spider-Men, but don't do that very often. You're likely to get doubles, which offer very little benefit for the cost.
Instead, head to the Shop and invest in Power-up upgrades. The higher you level up a power-up, the longer that item will last when you pick one up during a run. The first upgrade costs 5,000 vials, with subsequent upgrades rising in price.
Focus on the power-ups that increase Spider-man's lifespan, not his scoring potential. That means Web Hammer and Web Shield upgrades come first. Web Hammer is more effective because it knocks out enemies automatically, works on obstacles, and won't go away until its timer expires. Web Shield will only protect you from a single hit, but its timer lasts much longer.
5. Purchase extra character slots when you can
Players start out with six character slots, which seems like a lot early on. But over time you'll acquire far more than six characters. If you don't have a lot to hold a new character, that Spider-Man will go to waste. So make sure to buy more slots in-between power-up upgrades.
The initial batch of slots cost vials, with each additional one going up in price. Eventually they will start costing ISO-8. The do get costly, but they're important.
6. Spend time with the Events and Unlimited mode to get more characters and currency
As mentioned earlier, Events and Unlimited Mode provide rewards based on leaderboard position. Unlimited Mode doles out either ISO-8 or premium characters every day, in fact.
Events pay out not only for leaderboards, but also reaching specific milestones like distance travelled or vials collected. Focus on reaching these milestones after you've achieved a good Unlimited score for the day.
7. Use Spidey Ops to boost your team's experience
Initially you can only play with one Spider-man at a time, which means the rest of your team will go to waste as you play. But you can still make use of your remaining crew by sending them out on Spidey Ops missions from the My Team menu.
Up to six teammates can go on a Spidey Ops mission at one time. The more you send, the likelier the mission is to succeed. Each member will receive experience and vials after the mission ends.
Beat Issue 1 to unlock the second tier of Spidey Ops missions. These pay better than the first tier, but they often take longer as well.
8. Save your ISO-8 for ranking up your top Spider-Men
ISO-8 serves many important purposes. Naturally you'll want to use it to buy a premium character or two, and eventually extra character slots. But you should probably save the rest for rank-ups after that.
Each Spider-Man has a level cap based on his current number of stars (rank). The higher the Spidey's level, the higher his score multiplier. Even a premium Spider-man won't do you much good on the leaderboards if he only has one star.
Hence, you'll want to choose one or two Spideys and increase their ranks as much as possible. Standard Spider-Man can be ranked up to three stars somewhat affordably, but it costs a whole lot of ISO-8 to take a rare or super-rare Spider-Man up through the ranks. Save up your ISO-8 and get those ranks up if you want your Spider-men to be able to reap high scores and play level-locked story levels.
Alternately, you can rank a character up for free by collecting a double of that exact Spider-Man (identical maximum star rating). Then you can sacrifice the double and two Spideys with a star rating one lower than the double, which will rank the main Spidey up for free. This presents some inventory management challenges and takes time due to the random nature of character collection, but at least it's free.
9. Only use Spider-Men to level up other Spider-Men when your team gets full
What do you do when you need room for another character and you can't afford more slots? Get rid of doubles and dead weight by using them to level up other Spider-Men.
Leveling up a character through the My Team menu requires at least one character to sacrifice, as well as a small sum of vials. Sacrificing multiple characters won't increase the vial cost, so it's best to burn multiple characters at once if you have them to spare.
Leveling up characters in this way is not a better source of experience than simply playing with them. Just use it to get rid of excess characters.
10. Keep at least one of every Spider-Man when possible
Even one you have a really strong rare Spider-Man, it's still a good idea to hold on to low-tier characters. Some story missions require a specific character to play. You don't have to play these missions in order to complete an issue, but they offer good rewards.
More importantly, Events will often pay a score bonus for using specific characters. Even if they don't, you might reach milestones more easily with certain characters' abilities. So keep one of everybody on-hand if you have room.
Bonus tip: Complete Issues to boost your scoring potential
Issues are Spider-Man Unlimited's story maps. Completing levels in an issue will get you experience and ISO-8. But playing issues uses energy that you could be spending towards reaching Event milestones, making it tough to choose Story over the promise of those time-limited rewards.
Still, you'll want to clear the first issue as soon as you can. Not only does beating an issue unlock new Spidey Ops missions, it also unlocks the ability to take an extra Spidey along on missions. Equipping two Spideys will combine their score multipliers and abilities. You'll have a much easier time climbing the leaderboards with those bonuses.
Your top tips for Spider-Man Unlimited?
We hope you've enjoyed our Spider-man Unlimited tips and tricks! Be sure to leave us a comment with your own strategies and impressions.
