HIPS Hidden In Plain Sight Tutorial

Hey guys, you may know me as "that guy who is on the U.S. leaderboard in H.I.P.S.", or "that guy who pulverizes everyone". For those who dont know me, I am Turtledudeguy, the user who is ranked #1 on the U.S. leaderboard. I have been playing since day 1 of beta, and I am here to give you a tutorial on how to play the game.


Part 1: The Basics

Hidden In Plain Sight is a relatively new Shotbow Game mode. What happens is that you will be in an arena with 4-12 players, and many NPCs. You must figure out who is an actual player and kill them. Each person has 4 lives, I know it says 3 in game, but thats including zero. You take damage when you attack an NPC, so make sure not to do said attacking. You are probably wondering how you figure out who is an actual player. If someone is not acting like an NPC, then you can attack them. More about this will be told later, but the main way to kill is that every 30 seconds, the lights will go on momentarily, removing the NPCs. Any and all ninjas you see are players, unless they do not have a sword, then they are a result of the clone power up, which will be mentioned later.

Part 2: Winning

To win, you must be the last player standing. Each player has 4 lives, and as mentioned in part one, it says 3 in game, but 3 is not including zero. Once all players are eliminated, you get 10 shotbow xp (20 if silver, 25 if gold, 30 if platinum+ rank). After about ten minutes, a message will pop up in chat saying "game ends in 30 seconds, kill the remaining players". After 30 seconds, the game ends, and nobody gets xp for winning.

Part 3: Power Ups

Power Ups give you special advantages in the game. You can buy them for varying amounts of xp in the xp store, or, if none are selected, you will get a random power up. There are 6 power ups which are Heal, Clones, Second Wind, Hawkshot, Swapper, and Revealer.

When activated, Heal will cause you to get full health. You may use this up to 2 times before it disappears.

When activated, Clones will make several ninja NPCs spawn next to you, causing the enemy player to attack the NPCs because they dont know who is the player. After a few seconds, they will disappear

Second Wind is among the most useful powerups. If you activate it, then on your next death, you will not loose a life, but you will spawn with one heart. This will be a good combo with Heal, as after you respawn with 1 heart, you can heal back to full health.

When activated, Hawkshot will shoot an arrow where you are looking, and it will do more damage than your typical attack.

When activated, Swapper will switch your position with a random NPC, allowing for easy escapes in battles.

When activated, Revealer will shoot a firework above a random player, revealing the person to all players. Be careful, sometimes it will reveal you.


Part 4: Discovering Players

When roaming around the map, you may notice some ninjas with their heads not level. If you see this, then attack them. He is guaranteed to be a player. Also, NPCs walk slightly slower than players, so if you notice this, then he is most likely a player. Also, if you notice suspicious behavior like making a beeline towards a beacon, then you may want to attack to see if he is a player.

Thanks for reading. I most likely will add to this guide in the future but for now, this is it. Do me a favor and vote in the poll. Any feedback or questions are greatly appreciated.

Very helpful, thanks! Now I know how to play, and it only took me a minute to learn!

hardest part of HIPS...
finding a match

Step 1: Walk around occasionally changing directions
Step 2: Get the hell behind a bush
Repeat