How to Play Ingress: Discover, Capture, Build, and Collaborate

Ingress is a free-to-download, team-based augmented reality (AR) game from Niantic, the studio behind Pokémon GO. You play as an "agent" who joins one of two global Factions, then uses the Ingress Scanner on your phone to find hidden Portals in the real world, capture them, link them into territory-spanning Fields, and coordinate with teammates. The core loop is: discover a Portal → capture or neutralize it → build Links and Fields → collaborate on larger operations. This guide walks through each step, what you need before starting, and where new agents typically get stuck.

Before You Start: What You Need

• A smartphone with GPS and a data connection. Ingress is a "geomobile" game — your real-world location drives everything.
• The Ingress app (the Scanner). Download it from your device's app store. The website's primary call to action is simply "Download Ingress."
• A Faction choice. You must pick a side before you can meaningfully play. This is the one decision you cannot easily undo, so read the next section carefully.

Step 1: Choose a Faction

At the start, you join one of two Factions locked in a hidden worldwide conflict. The lore: a secret government lab discovered Exotic Matter (XM), a substance that enters our world through hidden Portals and carries a signal that affects the human mind.

How to decide: The choice is primarily about which team you want to play with, since gameplay mechanics are the same on both sides. If you have friends already playing, join their Faction so you can collaborate — coordination is central to the game. If you're starting alone, pick whichever philosophy appeals to you; you can still meet and work with local players on your side.

Step 2: Discover Hidden Portals

Using the Ingress Scanner, you detect and discover unique Portals hidden in the world around you. Portals are tied to real locations, so playing means physically moving through your neighborhood and beyond.

What to expect: Open the Scanner and look at the map around your position. Nearby Portals appear as points you can interact with. The game rewards exploration — the New York Times noted a player who "visited her 10,000th portal in Paris, using the locations in the game as a guidebook to the city."

Common snag: If nothing appears nearby, you may simply be in a low-Portal area. Moving toward denser public spaces (downtown areas, landmarks, transit hubs) usually reveals more.

Step 3: Capture Portals

Once you find a Portal, you capture it for your Faction — or take one back from the opposing side.

• Neutral Portals can be captured directly.
• Portals held by the Rival Faction must first be neutralized.
• Portals controlled by the mysterious Machina Virus are a third threat you'll encounter and must deal with using XM weapons.

The mechanic: You use XM weapons to neutralize Portals under rival or Machina control, then deploy your own resources to claim them. Capturing a single Portal is the smallest unit of progress — it's the foundation for everything that follows.

Step 4: Build Links and Fields

This is where Ingress becomes a territory-control game rather than a Portal-collecting game.

• Link: Connect one Portal to another to extend your reach.
• Field: Link three Portals into a triangle to create a Field that covers the territory inside it.

You expand from single Portals to networks of Links spanning great distances and Fields covering large swaths of territory. The more your Faction links and fields, the more territory it controls. This is also why the game is described as "geomobile territory control" — the map you're shaping is the real world.

Practical note: Links and Fields have geometric constraints (Links can't cross existing Links, for example), so planning where to place them matters. This is a common point where new players realize the game is more strategic than it first appears.

Step 5: Collaborate With Your Team

Ingress is explicitly team-based. The website lists "Collaborate" as a core action: coordinate with your teammates to take on complex global operations and high-stakes real-world live events.

• Local coordination: Work with nearby agents to capture and hold your neighborhood.
• Global operations: Larger, planned efforts that span regions.
• Live events: The game runs real-world events (the site references "high-stake real-world live events" and lists news items like anomaly seasons and global operations).

Why it matters: A single agent can capture Portals, but large Fields and global operations require many players acting together. Joining your local Faction community is the fastest way to move from solo play to the parts of the game that generate the stories the press highlights — like players traveling to Antarctica or making new friends through the game.

Quick Reference: The Core Loop

1. Discover — Detect unique Portals around you with the Scanner.
2. Capture — Use XM weapons to neutralize rival or Machina Portals, then claim them.
3. Build — Expand from single Portals to Links and Fields covering territory.
4. Collaborate — Coordinate with teammates on operations and live events.

What You Can Decide Now

If you want a location-based game that turns your everyday surroundings into a strategic map and gives you a built-in team to play with, Ingress fits that. Start by downloading the app, then choose the Faction your friends play (or the philosophy you prefer), and begin scanning your immediate area. The first meaningful milestone is capturing a nearby Portal; the game opens up once you start linking Portals and meeting your local team.