What you actually control
March of Giants looks like a MOBA, but you are managing two things at once: your Giant and the Soldiers standing at its feet. Most new players lose their first games by ignoring the second half of that sentence.
Soldiers are not decoration. They scout for you, gather resources, shred enemy Giants, break defensive shields and hold ground while you rotate. A Giant with a soldier wave behind it wins fights a Giant alone cannot.
The 4v4 format
Each side fields four Giants. There is no jungle role in the traditional sense — lanes are held, pushed and rotated, and the map is built around outposts that your army can capture.
| Concept | What it means | | --- | --- | | Lane | A push corridor. Losing one gives the enemy free rotations. | | Outpost | A capture point. Holding it is how you convert a won fight into map control. | | Merits | The in-match currency you spend at the Arsenal. | | Warshell | Your Giant's upgrade shell. It decides your power spike timing. | | Battleworks | Deployables — trenches, bunkers, Ironclad tanks, cavalry, soldier drops. |
Merits and the Arsenal
Every fight you win and every objective you take pays out Merits. You spend them at the Arsenal to upgrade your Warshell and your abilities, and that spending plan decides what your Giant becomes in the second half of a match.
The four build families are Kinetic, Alchemic, Survival and Soldiers. Pick one primary direction rather than spreading across all four — a half-built Kinetic Giant loses to a finished Survival Giant almost every time.
Five habits that win lanes
- Push the soldier wave before you trade. Soldiers are damage, and damage is the argument.
- Never fight with your wave dead. Back off, rebuild, then re-engage.
- Watch the enemy's wave-clear cooldown. If they have used it, that is your window.
- Rotate after an outpost, not before. Chasing kills across the map loses more than it gains.
- Play your Giant's archetype. A carry that builds tank items helps nobody.
Common beginner mistakes
Treating Soldiers as scenery. They are your vision, your resource income and a large chunk of your damage. Send a squad wide and it holds vision while you fight somewhere else.
Over-investing in the Warshell too early. If your lane is being cleared instantly, cooldown reduction is worth more than a second damage item.
Fighting without a reason. In a four-player team, one lost solo lane snowballs into lost outposts and free enemy rotations. If the fight does not lead to an objective, it is not a fight worth taking.
Where to go next
Read the Soldiers & Battleworks guide for the army layer in detail, then check the tier list so you know which Giants are worth your first practice games.