I have played this game for over a year now and have amassed this much information to create a guide that will explain how to start strong in Retro Bowl, avoiding the pitfalls that many new players fall into.
I will also lay out some retro tips for beginners, strategies, and the key area of improvement in the game.
And with this much information, I hope you would avoid some of the more common mistakes many players make, who ultimately wind up quitting the game because they do not understand how it works.
Retro Bowl Tips for Beginners
In the beginning, your Retro Bowl team will be absolute trash. You’ll have a QB that can’t pass, an O-line that can’t block, and an offense that has no flow. Your defense won’t get much pressure on the QB and plays poorly off the line of scrimmage. A few things can fix this:
- The Scouting Staff is one of the most critical areas of the Retro Bowl. Always hire a scout to find hidden talent in other teams’ rosters.
- Always try to win as many games as possible, even in the preseason. This will give you more coaching credits to upgrade players, facilities, etc.
- If you see someone playing horribly who has potential (low morale or not), bench them and give them time to recover. If they still don’t improve after a few weeks on the bench, release them and save some cap room.
- If you have a player who is about to retire soon (4th year or older), trade him for draft picks or low-level players before he does so (you’ll get high draft picks for all-time greats, but also some lower-level players for others).
- The first draft picks you should take depend on your team’s needs. For example, if you have a weak defense, take one of the best defensive players; if your offense is soft, take a good offensive player, for example, a good QB or WR.
- Try to get every trophy in this game as soon as possible because it gives you extra XP points that can help upgrade some of your players’ stats faster.
- Always try to give XP points to your players who are having trouble catching passes or getting open (for example, my WR’s have a problem with one-on-one routes, so I give them XP points on those).
Retro Bowl Strategies
Some of the best advice I can give you is to play to win! Your first season or two will be rough, but when you finally get the team you want, you’ll be amazed at how much better the game becomes.
The following are my strategies for success in Retro Bowl:
1. Play to win. All of your decisions should be about making you a better team. Don’t tank to get high draft picks. Don’t trade away good players for crappy ones just because they’re on your bench instead of the field. Don’t hire a coach who doesn’t fit your offense just because he’s cheap and available. Every decision should be made with an eye on winning that season, and every decision should be based on what will make your team better next year.
2. Be aggressive in free agency and try to sign great players early in their career before they get too expensive and go elsewhere. You’re not going to win by signing guys who are past their prime, and all that money you save may not even help you if it’s spent on coaches or facilities instead of players.
3. Be aggressive in the draft and draft as many high-quality players as possible.
Retro Bowl: Key areas of improvement
Moving forward, with the new update coming out this year, I think it’s important to understand what the state of this game is. While the game has dramatically improved from its launch year, many fundamental flaws hold it back from being a genuinely elite simulation. Therefore, I want to go over some of my thoughts about what should be changed/improved going forward.
Key areas of improvement: WRs – WRs are too reliant on my observations’ catch points. They generally only need to get one step on their defender wide open when they receive a ball. This contrasts with RBs, who have much more work before getting into space. This is further exacerbated by how easy it is for WRs to make catches with either one hand or even no hands at all.
Adding a progression system would help address this issue and make WR less dependent on their ratings. Additionally, increasing the XP required per level up will force players to take advantage of every play and result in more real catches and releases by WRs.
Progression system – The current system isn’t very well done and often results in players being maxed out at an early level.
Final Words
Retro Bowl is a delight to pick up and play – it will have you hurling balls down the court in no time. However, it also has many levels of complexity that draw you in deeper and make it easier to spend hours playing without realizing the time has flown by. Retro Bowl is one of those rare mobile games where the combination of simplistic gameplay and complex strategy creates an excellent game for all ages and keeps gamers coming back for more every day.
