Cart introduced me to Ingress some weeks back.
Ingress is a multiplayer game for android devices. In this game, you are supposed choose to fight for the enlightened (green team) or the resistance (blue team) and basically the aim of the game is to establish different portals.
Portals are usually public landmarks, like sculptures or murals. We get points by hacking, deploying or recharging resonators and linking portals. These actions takes an amount of energy, but you can refill them easily by passing by areas with the tiny floaty lights as seen below.
So many enemy portals to hack!
When Cart told me about the game, I thought that it was a great way for us to spend time being more active together and perhaps indirectly, start to be fitter like how a friend did after playing this game for several months.
We chose to be part of the resistance team but the first time when we started the game, it was quite confusing for me though. The learning curve is high as the interface is overwhelming with information and it takes a while for my GPS to stabilize and be in range for the portals.
Eventually it got easier to understand, the more I played it. And it got quite exciting as Cart and I work together and try to claim and fight enemy portals. We’d go exploring different places in our neighbourhood just to search for these portals. It’s real time, so whatever we do gets updated and seen immediately on each other’s devices.
Some of the weapons I got by hacking
What I liked about the game is that it makes you more aware of your surroundings as you try to spot the portals. For example, despite living in my neighbourhood for a while, there is a statue near my house that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for Ingress.
And there are a lot more portals to be found the more popular the place is. So tourist destinations like Piazza del Popolo, or the Colosseo or Piazza Navona would be filled with them so it’s easier to level up there.
The only thing I don’t like about the game is that it’s a huge battery sucker. I’d play the game for a few minutes and my battery would go down to almost half. On top of that, my phone lags a lot and it takes time for it to see me as being in range even though I’m right there! It’s extremely off-putting so I’m not so active in this game.
Cart on the other hand absolutely adores this game and plays whenever he gets the chance. He’s now almost at level 5 and I’m still stuck at level 2. I doubt I’d ever catch up to him.
Unfortunately, whatever motivation I got about Cart being more active is diminished when I found out that he’s been hacking in portals while driving his car! I don’t know about you, but I feel like that’s cheating.
Use a bicycle at the very least -_-”
Here is a video for a more in depth information about the game :
I guess I’m guilty for having introduced ingress to Cart.. Anyway I strongly suggest him to have you both a nice stroll downtown on a sunny spring morning. It’s a great place to level up and – more important – after a couple of hours hacking & deploying, when the batteries of cell. phones will be almost empty, you can simply enjoy the walk…. (Also tell him that he shall have to walk, and a lot, to effectively play at a certain point.. )
I’ve been asking him to walk more, but he’s taking advantage of the car which makes me quite mad. 😛
Nevertheless we had a lovely time last weekend. We went up to Gianicolo by foot and took over a lot of portals there 🙂
I play it too! The best way to level up is create fields! do that and you’ll be level 8 in no time!
I managed to level up to level 3 last weekend! You’re right, making links and fields is probably the fastest way to level up. I don’t play a lot of ingress though because the lag makes me quite turned off. I’m using a Nexus.
Oh and yes, there is a very active community here in Rome. We should try to meet up sometimes. In fact, just last week there was a Singaporean who travelled all the way here to hack a portal!
I’m super happy that both you guys play! like Ridzuan said, make fields and split fields for more AP! also deploy portals fully and don’t forget the shields! They give you AP too!
Thank you for the tips! What’s a split field by the way?
Oh one more thing to add. The part I enjoy most is the interaction with the community so do meet up with the local resistance community. If they’re anything like the Singapore one, they should be a fun bunch 🙂