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BUGS - Beginner's Universal Guide to SMITE

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by Aramey updated July 14, 2020

Smite God:

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Introduction



Welcome! This guide is mostly addressed to completely new and freshly returning players. It's a collection of information about general features of the game. I'll try to cover all basic gameplay mechanics and game modes Smite has, not just Conquest. It's also probably not designed to be read in one sitting.

If you think you're familiar enough with the game and just want some insightful Conquest tips, check out The Overarching Conquest Guide by Branmuffin17


In short, SMITE is a multi-platform free-to-play MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) - a team vs team game where you play matches (usually 20 to 50 minutes) as gods/deities from various mythologies on a small, rather symmetric map with the usual goal to destroy the opposite team's base. What makes it so different from other MOBAs like League of Legends or DOTA 2 is the third person view and more skill-shot abilities rather than point-and-clicking.

*NOTE* This guide has been partially updated from the last update (Season 4) to the current SEASON 9 by me (Branmuffin17), with multiple references and information pulled directly from some of my guides. Aramey hasn't been around for a while so I'm trying to keep this alive.

What's new in Smite?


Here's a quick overview of the latest updates to Smite mostly for the returning players.

Latest patches:
  • Patch 9.5, "Slipknot." Huge adjustments to starting god health, as well as per-level health and protection increases to increase time-to-kill (TTK). Also increased minion and objective stats, as well as objective damage.
  • Patch 9.4, "The Jade Emperor." Yu Huang added. This patch, aka "The Nerfening" saw significant nerfs to a large number of items and gods.
  • Patch 9.3, "Heavenly Light." Various adjustments but nothing of special note.
  • Patch 9.2, "The Destroyer." Shiva added.
  • Patch 9.1, "Season 9." New season! Art style of Conquest map changed, Obelisk objectives added. Crit system reworked. Relics completely reworked with 3 tiers of options. 5 standard items now have a Tier 4 "Glyphs" that add extra functions to the items. New Slash mode replaces both Siege and Clash.

Main Season 9 Conquest / General Changes:

Season 9 (Patch 9.1) hit on January 25, 2022, with a variety of new Conquest map features and items. Patch 9.5 has added / changed a variety of map features as well.

Here are some of the key changes:
  • Conquest Map Art Style: Shiva is affecting the battleground. Winter is over and the lighting is bold daylight, and a temple to Shiva sits side-by-side w/ Mount Olympus on the Order side.
  • New Conquest Gameplay Feature - Obelisks: new objective cycle that occasionally spawns Lost Knights, which drop Offerings for the Obelisks. Provides a unique lane-pushing buff (Trebuchet) for the team that completely fills their Obelisk first.
  • Season 8 Conquest Map Features Leaving: The big Draugr (Duo-side), Lesser Scorpions and Mist Lanterns are gone.
  • New Mode - Slash: This 5v5 mode replaces Siege and Clash, combining elements of both into a fast-paced, objective-based teamfight mode.
  • New Items - Relic Reworks & Upgrades: The relic system has been completely overhauled. Tier 1 relics are still free, given at levels 1 and 12. Tier 2 (minor upgrade) is 300 gold. Tier 3 (2 major upgrade choices w/ extra effects) is a total of 800 gold (500 more than the T2).
  • New Items - Glyphs: 5 items now have Tier 4 forms (2 choices of upgrades w/ extra effects). These cost 600 gold more than the T3 form of the item. The glyphs build off of the following items: Breastplate of Valor, Deathbringer, Heartward Amulet, Jotunn's Wrath, Rod of Tahuti.

Current Tierlists:

Please visit The Overarching Conquest Guide's Tierlist Chapter for current tierlists.

Latest God Releases:

Yu Huang (April 2022) - Chinese Mage. Straightforward mage kit with a unique escape.

Shiva (February 2022) - Hindu Warrior. Mobile and aggressive kit with an ult that can deal damage or heal teammates.

Atlas (December 2021) - Greek Guardian. Large AOE and displacement abilities.

Cliodhna (October 2021) - Celtic Assassin. Unique ability to enter and move through walls, along with the option to attack while within.

Charybdis (August 2021) - Greek Hunter. Unique attack progression providing interesting item synergies.

Dictionary


Players tend to use a lot of acronyms and terms that for a non-gamer (or non-MOBA player) might sound like a weird foreign language. It's better to know some of them if you decide to play this game. I will explain the usual terms and statistics separately.

GENERAL TERMS

STATISTICS

Terms mostly based on smite.gamepedia.com and leagueoflegends.wikia.com.

An alternate dictionary created by xMysterionz can be found HERE.

Lobby / User Interface

MAIN LOBBY
(That's the screen that you will see after launching the game.)

The first set of buttons (words) on the left will be described below.
  • Play - Click here to select from multiple versus and coop modes, training modes, custom matches, etc.

  • Gods - Click to see a list of all gods. Click on any god to learn about them and their abilities, set up the god builder (for custom item listings), etc.
    God Tab Details

  • Store - Click here to purchase skins, gems, and unlockable items with gems or favor.
    Store Details


  • Battle Pass - Click here to see the current battle pass details, see your progress in the current battle pass, unlock the battle pass with gems, etc.

  • Esports & Live Streams - You'll find a lot of links and info to streams and pro play here. You can also vote on games for a chance to win points, purchase items from the viewer store, etc.

  • Vault - You can purchase Golden Keys with gems, that are used to unlock special packs from the current and previous seasons. These may include unique items such as voice packs, wards, skins, etc.

  • Other Events - Shown above "Slipknot" - these are additional events where you can purchase exclusive/limited items.

The buttons at the bottom right of the screen will be described below:
  • Quests - complete these to get free favor and other unlockables.

  • Reward Center - any chests you unlock or gifts you receive can be opened here.

  • Friends List - Add or view friends and invite people to your party here.

  • Clan - if you're in a clan, you can view clan details here.

  • Learn - watch tutorial videos, look up common terminology, and learn the VGS (voice guided system) here.

  • Profile - contains statistics of your account, match history, achievements etc.
    Profile Details

  • Notifications - self explanatory.

  • Settings - contains the typical options for audio, video, UI and controls, but also lets you customize spectator mode and targeting tools.

God Selection

IN-GAME HUD

Gameplay Basics



PC DEFAULT CONTROLS

ABILITIES

ITEMS

RELICS

COMMUNICATION


IMPORTANT TIPS

  • Warding! - Some players say that vision wins games. Ward is a consumable item that can be placed on the map to grant vision in that area. It's very useful in modes with a jungle, mostly used in Conquest, sometimes Siege (only Sentry Wards) and Joust. Since Season 4 there's also Chalice of the Oracle - consumable that holds 2 wards and can be refilled in the fountain. Place it on crossroads to get the best vision, on entrances to your lane to notice enemies coming to gank you and near important neutral objects in the jungle.

  • Call missing enemies - when enemies leave your lane remember to warn your teammates about it by using VGS commands under VF keybinds.

  • Respect your manabar - it's one of main issues with new players, it's also why Meditation Cloak is considered a noob item. Don't spam all your abilities, use them only when they're needed. Going back to base too often might cost you experience and gold.

  • Know when to back off - I see some players fighting jungle monsters 1v1 and failing. If an enemy clearly deals more damage to you than you do to him you should give up and back off.

  • Beware of minions early game - though minions might don't look like a threat, they do a lot of damage at first levels.

  • Beware of objective aggro - If you go in enemy tower's/phoenix'/minion's range and there's no friendly minions to take the aggro, you will be the target. If you start attacking enemy player in the aggro range despite your minions being there the enemy objective will change the target to you.

  • Kill structures in order - you need to destroy structures in order. You can't damage a phoenix if towers in that lane are still standing and you can't damage Titan if all phoenixes are alive.

  • Research info outside of the game - read more guides/builds, watch some pro players on Youtube and Twitch and be part of the community. That way you will learn some things faster. If you just play the game you might get stuck at a certain level of knowledge.

You should probably also read
Basic mistakes you want to avoid by Devampi

Tips for League of Legends players

League of Legends is my mostly played MOBA right after Smite, so I can point out some major differences. Players coming from other MOBAs might also find some tips useful.

  • There's no runes and masteries - yup, you don't have to worry about different builds for different matches. In Smite every player is equal in terms of god stats no matter what is their account level.

  • There's no summoner's spells - instead we have active items (Relics) that can be bought for free during the match and have 2 separate slots in the inventory. This allows people to addapt to certain situation, especially in modes with Blind Pick.

  • There's no lane-swapping - I noticed that as a big thing in higher level games and LCS. It doesn't exist in Smite, mostly because of the placement of buff camps.

  • Please, don't call lanes "top" and "bot" - there is no top and bottom in Smite, the view is not isometric and map can flip depending on which side you start. "Top" is called sololane (lava side), "bot" is called duolane (beach side).

  • Last-hitting is not necessary - since basic attacks are skillshots and can be bodyblocked, last-hitting minions is not required to get gold. Though if you do last-hit them you'll get a bit more gold. Noone will call you a noob if you miss a minion here... well, unless you're in pro-level ranked match where people count every gold coin.

  • All gods use manabar - I know that in LoL there are lots of champions that use a different secondary bar or their abilities don't cost anything allowing them to stay in lane for days. In Smite every god uses mana and casting ability "for free" is very rare.

  • Jungle buffs are dropped on the ground - kind of like the Herald buff. Thanks to that we can kill the camps faster, worry less about who last-hits it and don't waste jungler's time. Just try to not stand too close to it if someone else is supposed to take it.

  • Don't waste gems on new gods - gems are equivalent of RP, you can get 50 per week if you do daily quests regularly. Buy gods mostly with favors (IP). From what I noticed favor/minute gain is much faster than IP/minute in LoL, we also have more first wins of the day and various other rewards. If you really want to spend money on gods you should go straight for the 30$ godpack (all gods unlocked, all future ones + favor refund for the ones you already bought).

  • There's no AP/AD - though the term "ADC" is still commonly used, gods are categorized into 2 groups (physical and magical) and scale only from 1 type of power on both their basic attacks and abilities.

Gods / Roles


The characters we control in Smite are gods and deities from various mythological pantheons (mayan, roman, norse, greek, egyptian, hindu, chinese, japanese and now celtic). They are separated into 2 types of damage : magical and physical, meaning you can't buy items with physical stats for magical god and vice versa, for example Anhur can't buy Rod of Tahuti while Freya can't buy Deathbringer.

Many gods work well in different roles depending on the item build and god's kit, but they are categorized into 5 groups :
  • Guardians (magical) - they have more crowd controls, more base health and protections while dealing less damage. They're usually tanky supports. Their main role is to be in the frontline, protect their teammates, initiate fights, CC enemies, assist the kills and take aggro of the objectives to tank it. Some can be built to deal a lot of damage like a close-range mage(for example Ymir or Bacchus).

  • Mages (magical) - they're meant to deal tons of damage with their abilities while being fairly squishy. They usually stand behind attacking from a safe distance. Some of them have good healing abilities ( Ra, Hel, Chang'e, Aphrodite) so they might choose more supportive role and focus on healing their team rather than dealing the damage.

  • Hunters (physical) - or ADCs, Marksmen. They're meant to deal a lot of damage with their ranged basic attacks. They are usually responsible of taking down structures fast and "carrying" late game.

  • Assassins (physical) - they're all melee gods. Depending on the god they're either mostly ability-based (f.e. Bastet) or focus on basic attacks ( Bakasura). They're the most mobile out of all classes, but rather squishy. As they're good in 1v1s, but can die really quickly in teamfights, their role involves waiting patiently for a good moment to strike and picking off weaker gods with a sudden attack. That's why they're usually played in the jungle.

  • Warriors (physical) - or Bruisers, Fighters. They're all melee gods. It's a mix of guardian's tankyness and assassin's damage. Sometimes called "Jacks of all trades, masters of none". They have good sustain and can work well both as a support and a damage dealer.

TIERLISTS: Which god is good?

Team Synergy

God Mastery

Game Modes


MAPS

GAME CATEGORIES

WHERE TO START?

OBJECTIVES ON THE MAP

Conquest




Legend:
  • Duo Lane (longer lane)

  • Mid Lane

  • Solo Lane (shorter lane)

  • Harpy (XP) Camps

  • Gold Fury,Fire Giant,
    Oracle Harpies,Pyromancer
    Totem of Ku,Jungle Shrine

  • Damage Buff,Mana Buff,
    Speed Buff, Reduction (Void) Buff

  • +Towers

  • +Phoenixes

  • +Titans


General Info & Rules (Taken directly from The Overarching Conquest Guide)

PICKS

USUAL START (Outdated)

EXAMPLE WARDING SPOTS (Taken directly from The Overarching Conquest Guide

USEFUL STREAMERS AND YOUTUBERS

For a super in-depth Conquest guide check out
The Overarching Conquest Guide by Branmuffin17

Arena


Legend:
  • Mana Camp: +25 MP5 regen + 10% CDR

  • Damage Camp: 20% damage + 10 mag power / 5 phys power

  • Basic Attack Camp: 15% Attack Speed + 15 magical basic attack damage / 12 physical attack damage

  • +Phoenixes: Invulnerable phoenixes & minion spawn locations
General Info & Rules (Taken directly from The Overarching Arena Guide)

PICKS

USUAL START

TIPS

For a super in-depth Arena guide check out
The Overarching Arena Guide by Branmuffin17

Assault



  • 5 vs. 5, single lane, no jungle (aka ARAM, or "All-Random, All-Mid")

  • Gods are randomly assigned from the entire god pool

  • Trade gods with others during the God Selection stage, or re-roll using either 25 gems (no!!!) or 125 favor (that's reasonable, at least)

  • Cannot go back to Base/Fountain...only way to heal is via Vital Orbs, HP5, lifesteal, abilities, Healing Potion/ Multi Potion, and Meditation Cloak

  • As with healing, the only way to buy items is to die. Mostly, try NOT to die, but if you're sitting on a chunk of $$$ (enough to buy at least 1 full item) and you can die without giving the enemy credit, do so strategically (more on this in the Tips section).

  • You start with 3,000 gold. This allows you to buy almost any tier 3 item at the start, if you choose.

  • You start out at level 5. This allows you to activate all abilities, if you want. Why wouldn't you? See my Tips section (under General Tips/Skill Prioritizing) for examples.

  • Stacking items banned from purchase: Book of Thoth, Devourer's Gauntlet, Transcendence, Warlock's Staff.

TIPS


For a super in-depth Assault guide check out
The Overarching Assault Guide by Branmuffin17

Siege

RULES

PICKS

USUAL START

TIPS

Joust




Legend:
  • Damage Buff Camp: There is one of these, and is composed of two Tigers and one Tiger Buff Holder. It spawns at 2:00 into the game and has a respawn time of 3 minutes (180 seconds).

  • Speed Buff camps: There are two of these, both on the same sides of the map closest to the phoenix and are composed of two Tree Demons and one Tree Demon Buff Holder. They spawn at 0:10 into the game and have a respawn time of 3 minutes (180 seconds).

  • Mana Buff Camps: There are two of these, both on the same sides of the map and are composed of two Turtles and one Turtle Buff Holder. They spawn at 0:10 into the game and have a respawn time of 3 minutes (180 seconds).

  • XP Camp: There are three of these, one across from the Demon King camp and two on the same sides of the map in between the damage camp. They are composed of two Tree Demons. They spawn 0:10 into the game and have a respawn time of 2 minutes (120 seconds).

  • Bull Demon King Camp: There is one of these on the side of the map. It spawns 4 minutes into the game and has a respawn time of 5 minutes (300 seconds).

General Info & RULES (Taken directly from Branmuffin's Joust Tips)

PICKS (Taken directly from Branmuffin's Joust Tips

TIPS

1v1 DUEL

Slash

RULES

PICKS

TIPS

Match of the Day


Match of the Day (or MOTD) is a fun mode that changes rules everyday. It can be found in Play -> Normal -> *last mode on the bottom* (it has various names). It doesn't count to your statistics, but still provides favors, experience and worshippers. The rules are enlisted in the mode description and the most common ones are:

Only X god/skin allowed - let's you play a certain god/skin even if you don't own them. For example Greek vs Roman mode or 5 Trophy Hunter Kalis vs 5 Dread Queen Serqets.
80% CDR + Infinite Mana - this is pretty similar to URF mode in LoL. It let's you spam your abilities as you want. So make sure to don't buy items with CDR, MP5 and Mana. Also try to focus on your damaging abilities rather than building basic attacks.
Random pick - it's just like in Assault. Instead of picking a god, you get a random one from the ones you own.
Draft pick - read "League" chapter for more details. Each team can ban 3 gods, they pick gods one by one and can see enemy team's picks. If you don't know what's worth banning check the tierlist links in Gods/Roles chapter.
Reverse pick - you pick gods for enemies and they pick gods for you, so make sure to not give them the strongest ones.
Instant level 20 - that means buying starter items is pretty pointless.
50k-100k starting gold - which allows you to buy full 6 items. Don't forget about special potions like Elixir of Power, Elixir of Defense, Potion of Magical Might or potion of physical might and Rituals.

Ranked (Leagues) (Not Updated)


GENERAL RULES

DRAFT PICK

BEFORE YOU GO TO RANKED

How to get free stuff? (Not updated)


Click to view

Useful Links

forums.smitegame.com - Smite's official forum
reddit.com/r/smite - Smite's official subreddit
smite.gamepedia.com - Smite Wiki, contains a lot of in-depth informations about the game. Big part of this guide.
twitch.tv/HiRezTV - Smite's official Twitch stream. You can find there SPL matches, hosting pro players, live patch notes etc.
smite.guru - contains a lot of statistics, builds, tier lists and rankings.
smitedatamining.com - contains info about possible future patches based on files digged in the game client.

Version

(19 May 2022)
Updated by Branmuffin17 for Season 9.

(14 July 2020)
Updated by Branmuffin17 for Season 7.

Archives

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Collapse All Comments

1
Branmuffin17 (400) | January 4, 2017 12:16pm
Hallelujah! Thanks for updating, Aramey!
1
maribearie | July 16, 2016 2:11am
Time for some updates! Erlang Shen (July 2016) :P
1
itsNonin | July 10, 2016 3:21pm
Guide is slowly getting a little outdated but great content and will help many many beginners in this game. Very helpful
1
Devampi (105) | February 12, 2016 12:29pm
That's still rotating.

Lane swapping issomething they do in LoL:
duo lane is in the solo lane at the start of the game (or during the laning phase) for a while.

It's to get and try to get an early kill or when solo has a bad matchup (I don't know the exact reasons for it)
1
Zelvios (1) | February 11, 2016 7:09am
One thing; you do rotate lanes. "There's no lane-swapping - I noticed that as a big thing in higher level games and LCS. It doesn't exist in Smite, mostly because of the placement of buff camps."

This kind of does exist on Smite. There's lots of rotations & end game = group fights/split pushing. Everything else about this guide is accurate/great. Nice job.
1
Aramey (1) | December 2, 2015 2:04am

I feel sad for you Aramey ... so much work to be done when we go into S3 ...

Challenge Accepted! xd
1
ThePerfectPrism (56) | December 1, 2015 10:52am
I feel sad for you Aramey ... so much work to be done when we go into S3 ...

BUT AMAZING GUIDE NONTHELESS !

Had my +1 for a while
1
Branmuffin17 (400) | November 28, 2015 10:56pm
Holy hell, Aramey...I hadn't seen your guide until people started pointing it out in Prism's favorite guides thread.

This is an awesome, perfect guide for beginners. I have to add your link to the definitions & references section of my assault guide. Got a bit of work to do on it anyway, so it's a perfect time to throw it in there!

Edit: Oh, and thanks for linking my guide! So cool!
1
Aramey (1) | October 6, 2015 7:34am
Zilby wrote:

Holy **** this is a good guide. I don't understand why this doesn't have more praise, it's coherent, well organized, has awesome visuals, and soooooo much content. +inf. Only thing I would change is to possibly add more spoilers so that scrolling through it doesn't take quite so long. Also, can I link players to this on my items guide for stuff I don't cover?


Sure, and I'll link your guide in my item section in return :P
1
Subzero008 (112) | October 5, 2015 7:21pm
The one thing I'd add is a constantly updated list of the meta bans.

Serqet, Athena, that beetle thing, Ao Kuang, etc.

Maybe a guide on how picks and bans work, too.

Other than that, it's a good guide.
1
Stuke99 (56) | October 5, 2015 4:33pm
...Beautiful.
1
Zilby (132) | October 5, 2015 4:02pm
Holy **** this is a good guide. I don't understand why this doesn't have more praise, it's coherent, well organized, has awesome visuals, and soooooo much content. +inf. Only thing I would change is to possibly add more spoilers so that scrolling through it doesn't take quite so long. Also, can I link players to this on my items guide for stuff I don't cover?
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