13 February 2026

9 Essential Tips to Winning More Battles in MENACE

By newsgame

MENACE is a punishing game that can challenge even the most seasoned of tacticians. Things won’t always go your way, and not every mission will result in zero losses, but even, so clever control of the battlefield and the game’s mechanics can lead to some very satisfying results. This guide covers some useful tips and tricks players can use to make their missions in MENACE flow a bit more smoothly, regardless of how bad the odds seem to be.

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Cover vs Concealment

MENACE Concealment icon — MENACE Concealment indicator

Putting something hard between your squads and the enemy is often the best way to mitigate incoming damage, but that’s not the only way to do so. MENACE has a Concealment system that you (or the AI) can use to hide units in the fog of war. Units can only see other units if they are within their Vision Range — a unit’s Concealment stat effectively reduces the Vision Range of another unit against them, making them harder to detect compared to others.

You’ll know if your squads are concealed if they have an eye icon above their unit icon. You can also check if they’re within Vision Range if you press R, or if you hover your cursor over an enemy. Concealment effectively makes units invisible to opponents, so take advantage of that.

Firing weapons will break a unit’s concealment unless they’re using suppressed weapons.

Always Bring Smoke Grenades

MENACE Smoke Grenade — MENACE Smoke Screen

Smoke Grenades are great for concealing your units. Smoke clouds will completely obscure lines of sight, giving you the opportunity to reposition squads that have been caught by machine guns, mortars, or other forms of heavy ordnance.

Having at least one squad or a vehicle with Smoke Grenades can change the tide of battle in an instant, especially when you’re fighting Pirates or Rogue Army units.

Suppression is King

Suppression reduces a unit’s AP and Accuracy, and if they’re suppressed hard enough, they’ll eventually become Pinned Down, preventing them from taking action (though players can still order troops to crawl away). When engaged in a head-to-head firefight, the first thing you want to do is suppress the enemy as hard as you can and hope that you can pin them down before they can start their turn. This completely prevents them from attacking you, minimizing casualties while allowing other squads to flank around and destroy targets.

You don’t need to hit enemies to suppress them, so don’t worry about weapon accuracy too much unless you’re actively trying to eliminate an enemy squad.

Deploy as Much as Possible

Infantry squads have the Deploy ability. When deployed, units gain the following bonuses:

+15% Accuracy
+15% Defense
+15% Damage Reduction
1 Concealment

A deployed squad won’t be able to move, but that’s a small price to pay for such good bonuses. Use this once you get into a good position, or if one of your squads get ambushed while crossing open terrain.

Specialize Your Squads

By assigning roles to your squads, you’ll be able to optimize your use of supplies and distribute your equipment more efficiently. For example, squad leader Pike in MENACE works great as a backline support unit who gives allies extra AP via his ability. Since he’ll likely be at the back of the fireteam most of the time, he won’t need any good armor or primary weapons, and he won’t need extra Squaddies either. Give him a special weapon like an HMG or rocket launcher, and he’ll still be just as useful as everyone else.

When promoting squads, make sure you’re picking perks that complement their intended role.

Rotate Your Squad Leaders

Squad leaders will eventually get tired of you keep bringing them to missions. After your third or fourth full operation or so, one of your SLs will get the Weary debuff. This does nothing on its own, but if they’re Weary and you take them to a mission, they’ll get the Exhausted debuff, which will significantly reduce their max AP. Exhausted squad leaders will barely be able to move during battle, especially if they have less than 90 AP.

To avoid exhaustion, make sure to hire one or two new squad leaders early on, then swap them in once your original crew starts getting tired. At this point, it’s just a matter of rotating your roster so that nobody ever goes on a mission exhausted.

Use Abilities & Equipment

Unit abilities can come from either perks, accessories, or equipment. These offer significant boosts to their combat power and utility, such is the case with the aforementioned Smoke Grenades and Pike’s Taking Command ability. Other strong abilities/equipment include:

Binoculars: Extends a unit’s View Range and Detection by 2.
Target Designator: Mark an enemy unit, making them visible even when they’re out of sight while increasing Accuracy against them.
Camouflage Kit: Increases Concealment by 2.
Night Vision Goggles: Removes all night-time sight penalties.
Call Out Target: Improve Accuracy against a marked target.
Command: Rally – Rally allies and reduce their suppression.

Use Vehicles as Transports

Some armored vehicles (namely troop carriers) can be used to transport friendly squads as long as they aren’t using any heavy vehicle weapons.. Not only will this let you redeploy infantry to more advantageous positions quicker, but you’ll also protect them from incoming small arms fire. Vehicles also provide excellent cover for infantry.

Mobile infantry tactics like this work extremely well with Squad Leaders like Lim and Carda, who both have the Mobile Infantry perk that reduces the AP cost for entering and exiting vehicles. Exconde is the perfect pilot to take for tactics like this thanks to his Sentry perk, which further boosts the defense that vehicles provide to nearby infantry.

As strong as mobile infantry tactics are, they are also incredibly risky. If a vehicle is destroyed while carrying troops, you can easily lose both your pilot and your infantry squad leader.

How to Get Free Squaddies

MENACE WOO OCI Upgrade — MENACE Wayback Outreach Office

Squaddies are a finite resource; every time one of them goes down during a mission, they’re gone forever. To mitigate this, you can install the WOO and EXWOO facilities aboard the Impetus through OCI upgrades. These will increase your Manpower (a.k.a. Squaddie pool) by a fixed amount after every mission. Med Bays also give you a chance to save fallen Squaddies from otherwise certain death.