Brawl Stars Barley Guide

by MINI_WAILER02

How to play Barley: So you want to get Barley some of those juicy trophies huh? Well then, this guide is gonna give you a few tip and tricks to improve your gameplay experience as well as showcase ways to counter barley as a character.

So first of all, lets talk about Barley and what he can do. He is a projectile throwing character, meaning you will need to slightly predict your shots, as his bottles are significantly slower than bullets. His range (including splash) is a whopping 10 tiles, sharing a max range with dynamike.

His damage is in an AOE, allowing it to hit targets in an area instead of requiring a direct impact. In addition, his shots have a lingering effect meaning each shot can deal 2 bouts of damage.

For his super, he unleashes a flurry of bottles to pelt the ground in fire. If you can successfully get 3 players caught into his mess, you have a pretty good chance of building another super up near instantly, allowing you to chain supers. It takes 6 ticks of damage to achieve a new super, so you can achieve this in only 3 shots, though this requires your opponent to stand in the fire so they can be hit by both the initial impact damage, and the lingering damage. His super actually has the highest damage in the game, with a potential damage of over 13,000! To achieve this, get up as close as you can to an enemy safe in heist, and throw the super as close to you as you can. All of the bottles will land in roughly the same area, and the fire will stack, dealing around 45% damage to the safe. This can also be done in regular gameplay if you have someone such as an El Primo chasing you down. Lob that super close to you, and watch their health drain instantly.

His starpower is to regen 200 health instantly each time he uses his primary attack. This is considered to be one of the best starpowers for a starting character, as the health regen can make a massive difference in the tide of battle, allowing you to spend less time recovering and more time fighting.

So, tips to playing Barley: 1. Lead your shots. Now whilst most new players will use auto fire to hit their shots, this isn’t the best idea when playing barley, especially when at max range. For close to medium range, using auto fire is usually fine as the bottles don’t need to travel too far to hit their mark. For longer ranges, start practising manually aiming, and then try to adapt that into your medium range shots too.

1. Use the aoe to your advantage. Remember your shots still linger a bit after impact. This can be extremely useful when trying to hold areas off. Is there a gem on the ground that an enemy is trying to pick up? Throw a bottle on it as a pre-fire, and force your opponent to either back off, or risk taking some damage to grab that purple beauty. Got some enemies trying to push a flank? Lob a bottle in-front of their path, to block off their movements. This should also make it slightly easier to hit any follow up shots, as they most likely will be running backwards, but will also be in a closer range, meaning your bottles will need to travel less distance.
2. Use walls to your advantage. Barley can throw his bottles over walls, so use this accordingly. Standing behind a wall and lobbing a few shots over isn’t a bad idea, especially in modes such as gem grab or heist, where AOE effects are immensely strong. This will also allow you to stay safe, especially if the team is full of or consists primarily of close range attackers, as they would have to walk around the walk, giving you time to retreat.
3. Don’t push enemies head first. Barley is a Glass Cannon. High potential damage but held down by extremely low health. This is especially apparent when going against shotgun characters such as Shelly or Bull. Always keep your distance, and don’t chase targets unless you are 100% sure you can finish them off without risking your own life.

Now whilst it’s all fine and dandy to tell you how to play him, how about we go into how to counter him also.

1. Watch your distance. Now whilst Barley outranges most characters, there are some such as Piper and Brock, who can actually outrange him. Use this to your advantage. Alternatively, his shots are more effective at longer ranges, so getting in close and personal can work well, especially for characters such as Bull and El Primo, who can dish out high damage, and have the health available to soak up some of his damage. Just make sure he doesn’t have a super, as it can absolutely melt you.
2. Bait out his shots Considering Barley throws projectiles, you can use this to your advantage. Start moving in one direction, then as soon as you see him start to attack, immediately switch and run in a different direction. It’s hard for players to predict your movement if you constantly change and keep them on their toes.
3. Remove those walls. Barley’s greatest asset is the fact he can throw his shots over walls, keeping him safe and secure whilst dealing heavy damage. Make him regret hiding behind that wall and knock it down. Many characters supers can destroy walls such as Bull, Colt, Brock, El Primo, Piper, Shelly and so on. If barley doesn’t have anywhere safe to shoot, it makes killing him so much easier.

And well, that’s it. Hopefully some of these tips will help you at either playing as or countering barley, and if they are of any use, make sure to share them so others can benefit to. If I got anything wrong in here, or missed something important out, feel free to make a comment so I and others can be aware.