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Up at the top of the main screen, in the middle, is a little glowing briefcase labeled Assignments. What does it do for me? How can a multi-player shooter have assignments? Simple really, click on it and you're shown the assignments window, with two tabs down the left edge: Available Assignments and (My) Assignments. Start by clicking the Available Assignments tab (which is the default) and look at the list which starts with "Duties".

Any category that has available assignments will have a yellow "!" icon in its top left corner. Click one of the available categories and you'll see something like the Main Duty section shown to the left. Beneath the category you'll see a series of one or more buttons that you can click on to receive your new assignment. In this case it's a fairly easy assignment called "Save Video".

Select your new assignment and you'll get a detailed explanation of the assignment in the center of the window. The window shows you from the top down:

• How many of your daily assignments you've completed.
• The name of this assignment.
• The detailed instructions for completing the assignment.
• The prize available for successfully finishing.
• And the button for accepting the assignment.

In this instance, we just need to play a match, and then save the video after.

Once you've gone out and met the requirements for the quest you'll receive a message (in the lobby, never in the game) telling you you've finished a quest and that you can go and retrieve your reward.

Go back to the Assignments window and this time click the (My) Assignments tab on the left side of the window. Find the mission you've completed by looking for the blinking yellow "!" icon in the category list.

The blinking icons indicate that you've got one or more completed assignments in that category. Select the category, and click on the name of the assignment and you'll to the final step in the process. Payoff. Just click the reward button at the bottom of the dialog and collect your spoils. Now move on to another assignment.

Assignments are an easy and fast way to rack up a log of Gold and Experience. They also show you around the game and introduce you to different parts of Battleswarm. Remember that both Humans and bugs have their own assignments, so don't forget to do both sides.

Have fun and good luck!

Finding a game to play in works a bit different in Battleswarm than in many other games. Check the map on the main screen and look for battles that are starting and need more players. Those battles will look something like the image to the right.

Instead of just two green bars, it has five yellow and one green. The top bars (yellow in this case) are for human players. The bottom bars are for bugs. This map requires six humans and two bugs, and currently needs one more human, and two bug players before it can start.

But suppose you're dying to play Lost City, and there isn't a game starting right now, what do you do? Well obvously you start one yourself. Click on Lost city, choose your side - Human or Bugs - and then send out invitations to all your friends. The invitation system is really easy to use, and quite powerful.

At the top of the screen you'll see three invite buttons like those to the left. In order they are Guild mates, Friends, and Everybody. Clicking any of them drops down a list of players filtered by the button. Each player is listed by Name, Human Rank, Bug Rank, and Status. The status is one of Lobby, Room, or Game. The Lobby is the main screen. A room is when you've joined a map, but haven't started yet - you're waiting for the rest of the players to join and get ready to play. Game is in the game, spreading the havoc.

The third image here is the Everybody players list that you get when you click the third of the invite buttons. Right clicking on a name will give you a menu like the one shown  in the image. You can get information on a player, invite them to your room/game, add them as a friend, initiate a private chate with them, or invite them to your guild. If you're in the friends list, or the guild list, the menu will have fewer options. You can also click the search button at the bottom to find a specific player.

Once you're in your room and sending out invitations you can also chat with people in the lobby. Just click the loby chat button and you switch from your room to the lobby. If you want to do private chate with anybody, just click their name in the chate list and you'll automatically be set to send a PM to them.

So to summarize:

1. Look for games starting up on the main map
2. Start your own game and use the invite buttons to bring people in
3. let people know what you're doing using the chat system

Good luck, and have fun!

• OS: Windows® XP SP2 or newer
• Processor: 2.2 GHz processor or higher
• Memory: 1024 MB RAM (2 GB recommended)
• Graphics: 64 MB DirectX 7 level video card
• DirectX®: 9.0c or higher
• Hard Drive: 1.5 GB free
• Sound: DirectX compatible sound card
• Multiplayer: Internet connection

It's really quite easy. If you accidentally unlink your game account and your MetaTIX account, you can easily re-link them by going to My Dashboard and entering the email address of your MetaTIX account.