Guns of Boom beginner's tips - How to get started with our favourite new mobile FPS

Guns of Boom has been the unexpected treat of the week for several of the PG team.

In case you missed Harry's rave review, this is a bright, intuitive, brilliantly playable online first person shooter for your iOS or Android device. Yes, despite the terrible name.

Word is clearly out about Guns of Boom, as the competition on its servers seems to be red hot. If you're a beginner, you'll probably need a few tips if you want to hold your own.

It's easy to miss down there, but the manual reload button (the little circular icon at the bottom of the screen) is essential to racking up the kills and staying alive in Guns of Boom.

Run out of bullets mid-firefight and the game will either automatically reload - which takes a couple of potentially deadly seconds - or switch to your puny pistol, which will often tip the odds in favour of your opponent.

To that end, you should take the first possible opportunity to reload once you've fired any number of shots at an opponent. Don't do this in the open or when you're being engaged though - pick a quiet corner, back off, or duck behind a wall.

Bonus tip: if you own an iPhone 6S or iPhone 7, you can bring the sights up simply by pressing firmly on the screen. This can be a little finicky if you've got a heavy touch, so you might want to turn the feature off in Settings. My advice, though, is to learn to master it, as it lets you zero in whilst aiming normally.

It's easy to see the benefit of bringing up the zoomed sights with a sniper rifle, but it might not seem immediately obvious why you'd want to do that with your standard assault rifle. Indeed, it makes things a little fiddly and sluggish on the movement front.

However, the proper use of sights can be crucial to high-end play. It's the best way to score multiple headshot hits, which will drop an opponent much quicker than body shots.

You'll need to pick your moments, though. Don't use your sights when you're running across an open section and need a clear view and maximum manoeuvrability, or when your opponent is very close.

Do use it when you're rounding a corner onto a restricted corridor, or when you see your opponent at mid or long range before they see you. Then aim for the head.

It's tempting to just blast at anything that enters your field of view. Indeed, given Guns of Boom's generous auto-fire, tight levels, and partial auto-aim, it can be hard not no.

There are some occasions where discretion is the better course, though. If you see an opponent running between cover across your path at some distance, shooting at them will often prove counter-productive.

Sure, you'll probably score a couple of hits. But you won't do serious damage, and you'll have lost your strategic advantage.

Instead, keep your sights off the opponent and quickly move around behind and close them - or across to where they're likely to appear. Most of the time it will result in an easy kill with minimal damage in return.

We've scarcely played another game in which it's easier to run and gun than Guns of Boom. This is part of its charm, but it can be easy to forget about grenades as a result.

Grenades are very powerful in this game. When thrown directly at an opponent at short to mid range, they're as good as a one-hit kill - and you don't need to be too accurate or too clever with your timings either.

They're also handy to toss early on when you have two or more opponents immediately in front of you - particularly if they're in a corridor or room - and can also be good to lob into rooms unsighted when you know there's an opponent in there.

And don't worry - your grenade allotment refills from a sizeable pool between levels.

Those who have spent a lot of time with (or money on) Guns of Boom undoubtedly have an advantage in that they'll have better guns than you (not to mention armour).

You'll still come out on top plenty of times if you follow the above advice, but there's another important way to even the playing field. You can do this by picking up an opponent's gun when they die.

Learn what the better guns look like through play, or head to the Arsenal and learn that way. Then when you spot one on the ground, quickly (and I mean quickly) run up and press the button to pick it up.

You'll only get a single clip of ammo for the gun, but this can be enough to score you a couple of empowered kills before you have to switch back.

Don't ignore guns that look like yours either - many players spend their cash upgrading their weapons.

Besides grenades, the other limited battlefield resource at your disposal is your health packs. Also like grenades, you shouldn't be too shy using them.

A well timed health pack application can give you a big advantage in battle, even when you're outgunned or outnumbered. It's a good idea to find a moment's respite (in other words, hide) when applying one, as it takes time for them to give their full effect.

Conversely, if you give an opponent a pounding and spot them running away, it's likely they're dropping back to heal. Be aggressive and hunt them down, or you might have to start from scratch when they return.

Pick your moments though - such as when you're alone in an advanced position with very low health.

Sorry to sound like your mother, but you shouldn't make a habit of going out out without a jacket.

In other words - buy some torso armour pretty sharpish. It's not all that expensive, and it will protect you against a few extra hits per spawn.

This shouldn't be a rigid rule, but it's generally a good idea to stay near a team mate - especially while you're getting to grips with the game.

It doesn't matter how good a lone opponent's weapons and armour are, two competent team mates will nearly always come out on top thanks to Guns of Boom's generously automated shooting.

Meanwhile, if an opponent engages your partner first, you'll likely have a free shot at them (at least initially).

You'll also pick up lots of points even if you don't get the kill by landing some hits on an opponent, while you'll also snag some cheap kills after your team mate softens them up.

Once you're more comfortable with the game and its maps, you can start picking your moments to stray away from the pack. It's time to play like a sneaky blighter.

Try taking a slightly longer route and approach active battles from the side to catch the opponent unaware. It's the best way to secure a kill without return damage, as well as those score-boosting multi-kills.

Also find those little corners that enemies frequently pass, but that offer you a look at their back. Don't stay there too long though - no one like a camper, and you'll soon be sussed out anyway.

Head-on fights in Guns of Boom frequently result in pyrrhic victories, with both sides taking a pummelling. Flanking is the best way to score clean kills.

Quests are set tasks that grant you rewards. They include things like scoring a certain amount of kills or winning a bunch of matches.

You will tick these off simply by playing Guns of Boom, so don't worry about aiming for specific quests too much. What you should do is claim your rewards as quickly as you can so that you can start working towards something else - there are only ever three active quests at a time.

For the same reason, you should hit the initial Facebook quest straight away - even if you don't want to join or aren't even on Facebook, you just need to hit the claim button and then quickly exit out of the resulting page to claim your reward and clear the space for a new quest.

Joining a clan is another quest that you can get out of the way quickly - if you're not too picky or ambitious.

Upgrading your initial weapons is relatively cheap, and will undoubtedly grant you a slight edge over other baseline players. But the damage gains are minimal compared to buying a new gun.

Of course, new weapons are expensive, and it can take some time to accrue enough money to buy the better examples. But that makes it all the more advantageous to save your money.

Even the cheapest automatic, the Guillotine, gives out more damage than a fully upgraded default Legend.

Purchased weapons also come with bonus effects, like incendiary bullets or bonus headshot damage, and upgrades offer much bigger improvements.