Of The Apes 2

Of The Apes 2 Guide: What It Actually Is And How To Play It

Of The Apes 2 is a mobile survival game from NetEase that drops you into a post-apocalyptic world where humans fight for resources against ape factions. It's not particularly groundbreaking, but it's competent in the ways these games need to be. The core loop revolves around gathering materials, building base structures, crafting gear, and engaging in real-time combat against ape enemies and other players. The graphics are decent for a mobile title, though they can lag on older devices. The game is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Search for "Of The Apes 2" directly. The iOS version is roughly 1.8 GB and the Android version is around 2.1 GB after the initial patch. Make sure you have at least 3 GB of free space before installing — the game expands significantly after you finish the tutorial. After downloading, create an account. You can link it to Google Play Games or Apple Game Center right away. I can't stress this enough because I lost a week of progress on my first account when I started on guest mode. The login flow is straightforward, but don't skip the linking step. It took me about three minutes to set up properly.

Starting Out — The First 48 Hours

When you begin, the game hands you a small starter base and sends you on a series of scripted missions. These are mostly there to teach you the mechanics. The first thing most players do wrong is spread their resources too thin. You'll get asked to build several structures simultaneously early on, but not all of them matter equally. Priority buildings in order: 1. The Scavenge Camp — this is your main resource generator. Upgrade it first.

2. The Armory — you need weapons before you can reliably take down higher-tier apes. 3. The Med Tent — healing items become essential once you hit zone 3 and beyond. Everything else can wait. The game will pressure you to build the farm and the workshop early, but those can wait until you have surplus food and materials. The tutorial missions themselves give you enough to survive without rushing into those structures.

Combat Mechanics That Most Players Miss

The combat system uses a mix of auto-targeting and manual skills. The auto-aim works fine for low-level enemies, but it becomes unreliable past level 15. Ape enemies have different hitboxes depending on their type. Heavy apes like the Gorilla Brutes have a wider chest area you can aim for to deal increased damage. Lighter apes like the Raptor Scouts move fast and the auto-aim tends to lock onto terrain behind them instead of the enemy. Here's something the game doesn't tell you clearly: blocking drains stamina, and stamina does not regenerate while blocking. Most players just mash the attack button hoping to out DPS an enemy, but against tougher apes this leaves you wide open. The effective approach is to block incoming hits with short taps rather than holding the block button. Each block tap costs about 8 stamina versus roughly 25 per second when you hold it. Against a Gorilla Bruiser, this difference between holding block and tapping it can mean the difference between surviving and dying in a fight that should be winnable. I spent about six hours trying to clear Zone 5 alone before I figured this out. The enemy was a medium-weight ape I kept losing to because I was just holding block and running out of stamina mid-combo. Once I switched to tap-blocking, I cleared it in under ten minutes.

Resource Management And The Economy

The in-game economy runs on three main currencies: Scrap (used for construction), Food (used for training and healing), and Credits (the premium currency, earned very slowly through gameplay). Scrap is the one most people underestimate. Early on, Scrap feels abundant because the tutorial gives you plenty. By the time you reach mid-game, you'll realize you needed far more than you thought. One counter-intuitive thing about the game: upgrading your base defenses is usually less efficient than upgrading your hero stats. Defenses only matter during raid events, which happen on a fixed schedule. Your hero stats affect every single combat encounter you have, including the resource-gathering missions. Pouring Credits into defense buildings early on is a waste. Put them into your hero's attack and health stats instead. You'll progress through the main game significantly faster, which unlocks higher-tier Scrap generators that make up the difference on their own. I made this mistake during my second account and had to reset my building strategy entirely around hour 20. Switching my focus from buildings to hero upgrades cut my progression time roughly in half for the rest of the run.

Cooperative Play And Guilds

The guild system in Of The Apes 2 is optional but fairly impactful. Guild Wars happen every Thursday and Saturday evening. You don't need a powerful guild to participate — the matchmaking is somewhat forgiving. The real value of joining a guild is the shared tech tree, which gives passive bonuses to all members. Even a casual guild can provide a 10-15% boost to your resource gathering speed if you contribute enough to their common research pool. Search for a guild that has at least a few active members during your time zone. Dead guilds are a waste of space. I've seen too many players join large-sounding guilds that haven't had activity in weeks.

Known Issues And Workarounds

The game occasionally has server hiccups during peak hours, especially on weekends. If you're getting disconnect errors during PvP matches, try playing between 10 AM and 4 PM local time — the servers tend to be less loaded then. This isn't a fix, just an observation from playing during both windows. Another issue is the auto-battle feature during resource missions. It's convenient but often sends your hero into fights they can't win. The AI prioritizes the nearest enemy, which means if you have a heavy ape and a light scout nearby, it'll target the heavy one first even though the scout could be taken down quickly. I turned off auto-battle for missions past Zone 3 and just handle those manually. It takes more time but reduces unnecessary deaths, which saves healing items in the long run.

Bottom Line

Of The Apes 2 is a solid entry in the mobile survival genre. It has some rough edges around the economy and the AI behavior, but the combat is responsive and the progression system is fair if you understand how the resource tiers work. It's free to play, and you won't feel forced to spend money if you play at a steady pace. The game is designed to reward consistency over short bursts, so checking in daily for about 30 minutes is more effective than playing for three hours once a week.