This is the third in a series of posts designed specifically to help DC Comics fans who are completely new to MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas) get started on Infinite Crisis, DC Entertainment’s brand new, free-to-play online game. Click here for part one and part two of the series.

If you read our last MOBA 101 post, you hopefully have an understanding of the various types of champions and how they affect the gameplay in Infinite Crisis. However, you’ll also have to choose a game map, and that choice will also have an effect.

A MOBA map is the setting in which your game takes place. It’s your gameboard, so to speak, and each one has a different layout and set of win conditions. Now, they don’t alter the basic point of the game. It’s still one team of five players versus an opposing team of five. However, how the base is destroyed, as well as the most effective strategy for doing so, is considerably altered depending on the map you select.

There Are Three Maps…So Far

There are currently three different maps available in Infinite Crisis, and each one is inspired by a different part of the DC Multiverse and offers a unique playstyle.

Gotham Heights

Gotham Heights was the first map introduced in Infinite Crisis and is the quickest to play. As the name would indicate, this map is set within the world of the Dark Knight on Earth Prime. However, we’re in a Gotham that’s post-cataclysm, so it’s not a good place for a safe evening stroll. (But it’s a GREAT place for a MOBA battle!)

This is what’s called a “capture and hold” map. Your team must capture and hold on to five different control points on the map. When your team holds a majority of the five points on the map, the opposing team’s health begins to drain. When one team’s health gets down to zero, that team loses and the game ends. The way you capture a control point is to stand on it, which means that good teamwork is especially important with this map.

Gotham Heights is a circular map that features one “lane.” On a map, a lane is a clearly visible pathway that’s essentially the pathway to your objective. Lanes are lined with turrets and patrolled by NPC drones. In Gotham Heights, the lane encircles the entire map. Within the map is the more shrouded “urban jungle,” which is an obscured area of the map filled with environmental objects that help your team (and occasionally with neutral creatures that can be defeated for experience and credits).

In the center of the Gotham Heights map, hidden within the urban jungle, is the Orbital Cannon. The Orbital Cannon is a huge weapon that can be the difference maker on this map. If you capture the Orbital Cannon, you can immediately summon assault drones to attack your opponents’ bases as well as rain down meteors on areas of the urban jungle near enemy bases, blocking their access to health packs and other valuable resources.

In general, games on this map take about 20-30 minutes to complete. Gotham Heights is actually a really good starter map, so don’t be afraid to choose it for your first attempt.

To learn more about the Gotham Heights map, click here.

Coast City

Hal Jordan’s hometown is a pentagon shaped map that offers a more traditional style of play. The point here is to outmaneuver your opponent, push your team into its base and destroy its power core. However, as with Gotham Heights, there are objects within the map that can seriously affect the battle.

Coast City features two different lanes, one along the top and one along the bottom. The bottom lane is the faster of the two and the easier to traverse. However, the top lane is closer to power relays that you can capture to help win the battle, as well as a powerful Doomsday Device.

About that Doomsday Device—it activates ten minutes into the game. Once active, if your team destroys the Device’s turret, it’ll drop its firing control beacon which you can pick up and use to control its extremely powerful firing mechanism to deal some heavy damage to enemies and enemy structures.

Coast City has a massive urban jungle area, in which the Doomsday Device is hidden. But it’s not the only thing. Look for neutral drone camps that can be defeated for experience, as well as a powerful  drone called “The Raider” which offers a particularly cool challenge.

On average, games played on this map run about 25-35 minutes. It’s also a great one to start off with since Infinite Crisis includes a practice version of the Coast City map which you can use to learn the game.

To learn more about the Coast City map, click here.

Gotham Divided

Infinite Crisis’ newest map, Gotham Divided is also its most strategically minded. The map reflects a mixed-universe city of Gotham, where the prime version has fused with the steampunk-influenced Gaslight Gotham. Like with Coast City, you win a Gotham Divided battle by exposing and destroying the enemy power core. However, the maps are considerably different beyond that.

Gotham Divided is hexagonal in shape and offers three different lanes. The top and bottom lanes are longer, with more space between turrets. The middle lane is more direct, but is flanked on both sides by urban jungle, allowing for the possibility of surprise attacks from either side. And speaking of that urban jungle, it’s huge and filled with neutral drone camps of various difficulty levels, each offering a different level or type of reward.

Gotham Divided also features two powerful drones. At one point during the match, look for two pods to come crashing down into the urban jungle. The first one to be opened unleashes a Raider, similar to the one in Coast City. After one team has defeated the Raider (collecting some serious experience and credits, as well as helpful surveillance tower in the process), the second pod can be opened to release “The Leviathan,” an even more powerful drone that offers an even larger reward for its defeat.

Expect games on this map to take about 35-45 minutes to complete. Since this map is arguably the  most complex and definitely requires a greater level of strategy, we don’t suggest you start with it. Rather, begin with Coast City, which offers a similar style of play. Once you’ve become familiar with the game mechanics and the strategy behind pushing into your opponent’s base and destroying its core, you’ll be ready to tackle Gotham Divided.

That said, if you do decide to dive right into this map, you should definitely click here to learn more about it. (We didn’t cover everything!)

And Surely More to Come…

One of the coolest things about online gaming is the frequency of updates, and Infinite Crisis is no different. While the three available maps offer no shortage of fun and competition, with a Multiverse consisting of 52 worlds, it’s a fair bet that we’re going to be seeing many more maps released over the next few years. In fact, this is only the beginning.

After all, we haven’t seen Metropolis yet…

We’ll be back tomorrow with another MOBA 101 post. However, if you’d like to learn more, we suggest checking out the “Getting Started” section on the Infinite Crisis website: http://game.infinitecrisis.com/en

To sign up and start playing now: https://www.infinitecrisis.com/en