Running With Friends is Zynga’s first ever take on one of the most popular mobile gaming genres. The main thing that separates this game from the countless other endless runners is the social aspect. You can send games back and forth, a la Words, Scramble or Gems With Friends, and the person with the best score comes out the victor. There’s a ton of ways to get a good score, so feed the addiction and read on for the beginner’s guide to Running With Friends!
Before you even play a game, the main thing to know is how to start a game. If you connect the game to Facebook, the game automatically detects how many of your friends are playing, and allows you to immediately start games with them (and send an invite to any of your friends who aren’t playing). Otherwise, you can use the “smart match” to randomly match up against people, or you can enter someone’s username and start a game against them manually. This requires you to know their username first, though.
The real fun begins once you start a game with someone. Then, the running begins. You start off of an endless running course, and you have to dodge, jump over and slide through obstacles, as well as switching courses in order to stay on the paths.
There are two different scoring metrics in this game. You run a certain amount of meters (this score entirely depends on how far you run) and you collect stars as you go. The meters and the stars add together to calculate your score in one round against an opponent. You and your opponent each have three rounds against each other, and the total added up scores determine the winner.
There are many ways to collect stars. One of them is to actually pick up the stars in the stage. The yellow stars are worth 1, while the red stars that appear in the first round are worth somewhere between 5 and 10 stars. The blue stars that appear in the second round are worth between 10 and 15, while the rainbow stars that pop up in the third round are worth between 15 and 30 (the numbers for these three stars are randomized). The gigantic yellow stars are worth 1,000 stars each.
Stars are also earned by sliding through obstacles and jumping on bulls. Most obstacles can be slid through – these include boxes, hay bales, other people who are running, police barricades, traffic cones, and any other relatively small obstacle. The traffic cones are worth 6 stars each while the other ones are worth five stars each.
Continue on to part 2 of the Running With Friends beginner’s guide!