Umbrella Corps: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Learn How to Vault Over Obstacles

Unfortunately, the cover system in Umbrella Corps is a little wonky. If you wish to jump over obstacles, you’ll have to hit the X button to get into cover, and then hit the X button again while holding forward on your left analog stick to vault over. This means you’ll need to be really quick with your button presses, especially when zombies and dogs are chasing you.

During my time with Umbrella Corps, I didn’t really find a need to constantly vault over obstacles, as there was usually an alternate path for you to take to reach your destination. Oftentimes, it’ll be safer to find another path with more cover too. Vaulting over obstacles might be a shortcut, but the time and button presses required for you to actually get it done leaves you very vulnerable to enemy attacks. I advise doing so only when you’re in the clear.

Be Careful With Consuming Herbs

You can’t actually pick up herbs and store them in your inventory in Umbrella Corps. Instead, enemies will randomly drop them once you kill them, and you walk over the herbs to consume them. Unfortunately, the game is designed such that you can still ‘use’ these herbs even if you’re at full health. This means that if you miss a herb sitting right in front of you, and you walk over it while at full health, you’ll consume it, and the herb will essentially be wasted.

Keep a keen eye out for the green herbs that drop from enemy bodies, and make sure to keep away from them if you’re at full health. A good tactic is to make a mental note of where the herb drops are, and then if you’re ever in trouble in the middle of the level, you can run back to your herb locations and quickly use them to regain all of your health.

Watch Your Health

Speaking of health, your character in Umbrella Corps is actually really squishy. You can take about three or four consecutive hits from an enemy before you get downed, and have to restart the level completely. The more damage you take, the darker and redder the edges of your screen will become. Be sure to keep track of how much damage you’ve sustained, and run away from your enemies when you feel like your health is getting critically low. A good rule of thumb is to back off from the zombies after just a couple of hits.

Thankfully, your health will regenerate over time, even without the use of a herb. Once you’ve gotten away from your enemies, either look for a herb, or simply wait long enough for the red edges to disappear from your screen. Getting your health to refill back to full actually takes a little longer than you’d expect, so try not to engage any enemies while you’re trying to recover.

Check Your Maps

When you’re in-game, Umbrella Corps provides you with a small map at the bottom of the screen, indicating general enemy positions and the layout of the area. Use this to your advantage, and keep track of where all the paths and dead-ends are. Knowing general enemy positions is also extremely helpful, as it could give you a hint about an upcoming ambush and allow you to bypass it completely.

When you’re playing an online competitive mode, Umbrella Corps also provides you with an area map each time you die. The map will show you your allies’ position, the location of your corpse, as well as a rough estimation of where your enemies are. This will give you a really good idea of where everyone is on the map, and allow you to plan your movements as soon as you respawn and get back into the game.

Customize Your Weapon Loadouts

A lot of weapons and parts will be locked away until you reach a higher level in the multiplayer modes. However, even if you’re just at level one, you can still get access to a handful of nifty customization options. Before entering a competitive mode, make sure to look through all of the preset loadouts the game gives you. You can customize these loadouts, swap out your guns, change your dot sights, and even choose your own suppressors. There are lots of options available right from the start, so be sure to choose the weapons that are most suited to your play style.

You’ll unlock even more options as you level up, so be sure to change your loadout often. Do take note that you can only level up by playing the ranked multiplayer modes. Public matches will not give you any experience points or levels.

Use the Brainer

The Brainer is your melee weapon and it can come in handy in really tight situations. By hitting the L1 button, you’ll equip the Brainer, and you can hit R2 to kill a zombie with it. Unfortunately, you’ll require a bit of precision if you want to kill anything with the weapon. When you have it equipped, a yellowish target field will appear in front of your character. Make sure the zombie is within the field before you attack. If you have two zombies within the field, you’ll be able to hit them both. You can also charge the Brainer to execute an even more powerful attack.

The Brainer is best reserved for stealthy encounters, or when the zombies haven’t noticed you. Zombies will still be able to hit you in the middle of an attack, and this could cause you to lose the match if you’re already at critical health.