If for whatever reason you've managed to reach level 30 in Smite without playing a single game of Conquest, it can be a particularly threatening game mode to try and learn. There are a variety of mechanics and strategies which exist in Conquest that can present a very steep learning curve for those coming from Joust or Arena and the community can be quite harsh if you don't have a decent understanding of how to play the game. Hopefully throughout this guide you'll learn a few of the key components of the Conquest game mode that Arena and Joust players may find hard to adjust to.

Gold Spooling and Experience

Whether you come from Joust, Arena or even Assault one major difference in the Conquest game mode is the gold and experience spooling. In Arena, there is enough passive gold and experience gain that teams will often be level 20 and full build before 20 minutes into the game, and that's without proper optimization. Conquest on the other hand is a much different story. Since Conquest was made to be a lot slower paced than the other game modes, it has much lower gold spooling and zero experience spooling. This makes it a lot harder to compete with other players if you don't know how to correctly farm the jungle or your lane and is the main mechanic that seems to confuse newer players.

If you've watched any Conquest games or read any guides (which if you are trying to learn the game mode you should be doing) you've probably seen how in the early game, teammates split up and each member has a specific role. The duo lane is host to the ADC and support, so the support can protect the ADC as they farm. The middle lane starts off with a single god in it and then the jungler joins them after clearing some of the jungle camps. The solo lane usually has a single warrior in it for a good portion of the match. These "roles" are in place because maximizing experience and gold is very important in Conquest. Each lane has its own wave of minions and if there aren't gods near the enemy minions when they die the gold and experience they drop goes to waste. Not only that but having more than one player around when the minion dies causes the experience and gold to spread out amongst all the nearby players. This is why the support will often leave the ADC shortly into the match, because it's important for an ADC to get a lot of gold and experience and the best way to do that is by having the lane all to yourself.

So in playing Conquest you'll soon realize how important maximizing your gold and experience gain is and learn to follow these roles as they have generally been proven the best way to scale into the late game. You also need to realize that farming your lane and sometimes the jungle is the best way to get ahead of your opponents. A lot of players new to the game mode end up treating it like a team deathmatch and repeatedly go for kills, often dying to get those kills and falling behind because they aren't paying attention to minions.

Playing With Friends

It's sad that I have to suggest this, but unfortunately going into Conquest solo is not going to be an effective way to learn the game. Since you'll be getting matched with and against other level 30s, it's fair to say you won't be doing great in most of your matches and the community isn't filled with nice, accepting and understanding players. Often times you will get flamed and yelled at for not knowing rotations and other semi-advanced strategies that other players are going to have a good understanding of. Explaining to them that you are new can help defuse the situation at times, but solo queue definitely does not provide a healthy learning experience.

In order to learn the meta, roles and other important aspects of Conquest, it's highly recommended that you party up with one or more of your friends before finding a match. If for whatever reason you can't do that you should at least try to find party members through a clan or forum that are willing to help you learn the game. Having voice communication is another big bonus as it will allow you to ask questions and learn on the fly without having to stop halfway through the game and type them out.

On a final note, you shouldn't pay attention to anyone blindly insulting you over chat. There is a fine line between them trying to help you out with actual information and straight up harassment. I feel like I shouldn't have to explain that these players should just be muted but I've seen a lot of newcomers to Conquest get discouraged because of the negative members of the community.

Don't Create a Smurf

It may seem tempting to create a smurf account so you can "Restart" the game and learn with other players new to Conquest but what a lot of people forget when they create smurf accounts is that new players are learning every single aspect of the game from scratch. As a level 30 you at least have some innate knowledge of the game. You know how to build, how to correctly combo abilities and have just a better game sense than new players. This means even if you don't understand how to play Conquest correctly, you are still going to be offered no challenge when going up against level 1 players and if you don't challenge yourself you will end up developping bad habits rather than learning.

On top of all that, level 1s won't teach you a single thing about Conquest. They don't understand any strategies that apply to Conquest or any part of Smite for that matter. You're going to see a lot of gods picked that don't make any sense for the role and you generally won't be able to learn anything about Conquest until your account makes it to at least level 20. So while it may initially seem like a good idea to create a smurf, whether you don't want to ruin your stats or ELO by playing a game mode you don't know how to play, it will be a terrible idea in the long run.

You Don't Have to Play

Conquest isn't for everyone. Whether you suddenly had the desire to try the game mode for whatever reason or maybe a friend tried to talk you into it, you should never feel obliged to play the game mode if it turns out you don't like it. By all means try your best to learn it, but if you feel like it's too slow or the roles are too confusing you shouldn't feel pressured to play it at all. Conquest may be advertised as the main game mode of Smite and it may be the ones all the pros play but if you enjoy Arena or Joust more and would rather play them, that's completely fine. The important part is that you've tried Conquest out and legitimately given it a shot rather than to just brush the game mode off without playing it a single time.

Or maybe you liked Conquest a lot but playing it too much can get tiresome. The great thing about Smite and what seperates it from other such MOBAs is that it has such a diverse set of game types. If you feel yourself getting burnt out after 2 or 3 Conquest games, you can always take a quick break and play a different game mode. Some of the game modes are actually going to feel relaxing for you after trying to learn and process all the information about what Conquest has to offer.

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