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Best way to play as low level in the city full of enemy?

I'm a new player on Ingress. I'm currently level 1, with quite a long way to go to level 2 (1500/10000). Where I live all the portals seem to have level 4+ resonators on them, and all fully shielded. That means I do very little damage to them (when I tried on one I was doing 1% damage, which I believe is potentially rounded up).

As a new player is there anything I can do to practically help the game in my area or do I just need to continue the relatively tedious job of hacking until I get to a higher level where I have weapons that can actually have a significant effect... There sadly don't seem to be any of our resonators destroyed ever that I could replace...

Even teaming up with other players doesn't seem worthwhile because I have nothing I can contribute to a team... Even in a group my damage is likely to be insignificant and if we can neutralise any enemy portals they'll want to be deploying higher level resonators than I have available...

So I guess the question is what can a noob do in a high level area?

N.B. This isn't just a question about how to level up quickly since there are a few others on that subject. Its focussed on how I can contribute at a low level. Though I appreciate the answer may be to level up as fast as possible. :)

Community
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Chris
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I was going to mention other points such as create fields, hack all portals (enemy: AP, friendly: items) etc.; but you clearly say that you are looking to contribute at low level and not just asking on how to level up quick. So, I'm going to tailor my answer for teamplay and assume you can read the other answers to level up :)

Recharge Portals: Do you live or work near a key portal that is often under attack? Learn how to use 'Upgrade' option to only recharge a single resonator, and keep the highest level res topped up whenever you pass by.
Yes, you can recharge portals with a key as well; and should do that if needed ... but it is far more expensive & inefficient to recharge all 8 res, and you have a small XM pool.

Defending portals under attack: So, you have a key to a friendly portal and notice it is under attack. Don't rush to recharge asap, if it has all 8 res up - wait till 3-4 die, and then recharge. This way, you heal the remaining ones more, and an attacker running low on XM may not have enough to overcome your added resistance.

If a nearby portal is being hit, deploy resonators to fight back - don't try to recharge and run out of XM. However, if attacker is L4+ they can nuke your L1 res quite easily, still worth a try though (L4s also run out of XM ;) There is also a strategy to keep deploying L1 res when attacker destroys a reso - this way, you get 500 bonus AP each time while forcing him to use more XMP.

Use Faction chat: Ask if higher level players don't need lower level items. If someone offers to help you level to L3+, take that offer - its easy for a higher level with a few keys to nuke enemy portals, let you make fields and get you running quickly.
If a friendly portal is being attacked, you can alert those online so they can recharge it (if they have the keys).

Using Intel map: Players 'in the field' cannot easily check for nearby targets unless they are toting around a laptop or tablet. If someone asks 'I am passing through X region, what do you want me to nuke?' -> you can guide them to take care of troublesome enemy farms; if they are nearby there is the added bonus of going out and getting AP from the freed portals too.

Alok
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Leveling up as fast as possible is indeed part of the answer.

However, while you are leveling, you should be amassing a store of resonators, bursters, and keys while hacking everything you can find.

You can contribute by recharging any friendly portals you come across that need it, and should you happen to come across an opposing team member attempting to attack one of your ally's portals, this can be a fairly significant contribution.

However, stockpiling items for when you hit the higher levels is the most important thing for now (unless you luck out and find some unclaimed portals).

Beofett
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Teaming up is actually a very good strategy. The high level player attacks a portal until it is almost dead, then you deal the killing blow, gaining lots of AP. You then deploy your low level resonators for the AP bonus, and the higher level player can upgrade.

Daenyth
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    You are only explaning how to level up for a noob. But i think the OP was asking also about what value low player can give.

    And talking about value which low player can give is to hack higher level portals and give items to higher level players for them to take down some portals. And on that taked down portal let lower players deploy resonators.

     – Bomberlt Jan 10 '13 at 09:21
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    @Bomberlt Items obtained from portals depend on player level, so a lowbie won't get higher reso/xmp to give to higher levels. – Alok Jan 16 '13 at 01:05