If you’ve spent any time grinding matches in Brawl Stars, you’ve probably glanced at the mastery track for your main brawler and wondered how to speed up that progress. Stacking mastery points doesn’t just give you bragging rights, either: you unlock exclusive skins, coins, chroma credits, and even profile badges as you hit each tier. I’ve been playing Brawl Stars for four years, and I’ve tested every trick in the book to cut down the grind, so I know exactly what works and what wastes your time. This guide breaks down exactly how to get mastery points in Brawl Stars, with no misleading hacks or pay-to-win shortcuts.
Core Rules for How to Get Mastery Points in Brawl Stars
Before you start optimizing your grind, it’s important to understand exactly how mastery points are calculated, because a lot of common player assumptions about the system are wrong. Mastery points are only awarded for matches you play with a specific brawler—you can’t earn points for Shelly if you’re using Colt, obviously. The amount you get depends on two main factors: your trophy rank for that brawler, and how well you perform in the match, not just whether you win or lose.
You get more points for matches at higher trophy ranges, and more for high kills, high damage, and objective contributions, not just first place. If you’re just starting out and still learning how to get mastery points in Brawl Stars, focus on getting to 500 trophies on your first main brawler first, as that’s where the point payouts start to get really worthwhile. At 0-500 trophies, you’ll get 10-25 points per good match, while at 1000+ trophies you can get 30-60 points per strong performance.
You will not earn any mastery points for matches you leave early, even if your team wins after you exit. That’s a common mistake new players make when they get frustrated with a bad team comp, and it’s an easy way to waste 10 minutes of your time. You also won’t get points for friendly or custom private matches, so stick to public matchmaking if you’re grinding. Bonus mastery multipliers apply during event weekends, so that’s the perfect time to block off a couple hours to play if you’re chasing a specific reward.
Top Strategies to Earn Mastery Points Faster
You don’t have to grind 10 hours a day to hit mastery 15 on your main. The trick is to play smart, not hard, and focus on activities that give you the highest possible point return per match. If you’re serious about figuring out how to get mastery points in Brawl Stars as fast as possible, prioritize these strategies:
- Stick to game modes your brawler excels at: If you’re playing a tank like El Primo, don’t queue for Snipers Only showdown—you’ll get crushed, deal almost no damage, and walk away with 5 mastery points for 10 minutes of play. Stick to Siege or Brawl Ball where El Primo can tank damage and score objectives to rack up big performance bonuses.
- Queue with a pre-made team of 2-3 players: Solo queue is unpredictable, and you’ll often get stuck with teammates who throw matches or ignore objectives. Playing with friends you coordinate with cuts your loss rate by 30% on average, which means more wins, better performance stats, and more mastery points per hour.
- Focus on objective contributions over kills: Kills look good on your stats screen, but Supercell weights mastery points more heavily towards objective play. For Brawl Ball, that means scoring goals; for Siege, that means collecting bolts and attacking the enemy turret; for Gem Grab, that means holding gems for as long as possible. You’ll often get more points for a loss where you held 10 gems for 2 minutes than a win where you got 2 kills and did nothing else.
I used to grind solo showdown nonstop for mastery points, and I was getting around 150 points per hour. Once I switched to queuing for my main’s best mode with a friend, that number jumped to 350 points per hour, and I hit mastery 15 on my Colt 3 weeks earlier than I planned. It’s not about playing more, it’s about playing the right matches.
You don’t need to push trophies super high if you don’t want to, but every 100 trophies you gain on a brawler increases your per-match mastery point cap by around 5, so it’s worth pushing to at least 750 trophies on any brawler you’re grinding for mastery. Avoid low-player-count event modes like Duo Showdown if you’re trying to grind fast, as they have lower average point payouts than 3v3 modes.
Common Mistakes That Slow Down Your Mastery Point Grind
Even if you’re following all the best strategies, small mistakes can cut your mastery point gain in half without you even noticing. I’ve made all of these mistakes myself, so I know how costly they can be. First, don’t swap brawlers every other match. It’s tempting to try out new brawlers when you get them, but every time you swap, you’re resetting your progress on the brawler you were previously grinding. If your goal is to hit a specific mastery tier for a reward, stick to that one brawler for 80% of your playtime until you hit your goal.
Second, don’t waste your time on matches with bad modifiers. Some event modifiers, like Glass Cannon or Super Fast, can make your main brawler completely unplayable. If you log on and the only available mode for your brawler has a bad modifier, take a 30 minute break instead of forcing matches and losing most of them. You’ll come back refreshed, and the mode rotation will have updated to something more favorable.
Don’t spend gems to skip mastery tiers unless you’re only a few points away from a limited-time reward. Gems are much better spent on the Brawl Pass or exclusive skins, and you can earn the same points in a few hours of play for free. A lot of players also think that losing matches gives zero mastery points, that’s not true. You can still get 10-20 points for a loss if you played well, so don’t leave early even if your team is losing badly. I once got 18 mastery points for a Gem Grab loss where I dealt 12,000 damage and held 8 gems before my team got wiped, which is almost as much as I get for a low-performance win.
Maximizing Mastery Point Rewards Once You Earn Them
Mastery points unlock rewards at every tier, and you don’t have to claim them right away, but there are smart ways to time your claims to get the most value. First, every 5 mastery tiers, you unlock a big reward: either a large chunk of coins, chroma credits, or a mastery skin. Wait to claim these big rewards if you’re close to unlocking a new brawler or upgrading your main. Coins are always in short supply for most players, so holding onto a 500 coin reward until you need it to upgrade a brawler to level 11 can save you weeks of grinding for extra coins.
Mastery skins are completely exclusive and can’t be bought with gems, so if you really love a brawler, it’s worth grinding for their mastery skin even if you don’t care about the other rewards. The animations and design for these skins are usually way more unique than regular shop skins, and they show off how much time you’ve put into your favorite brawler.
If you’re a competitive player, mastery badges show up on your profile during power league matches, so hitting mastery 15 on your top 3 brawlers can give you extra credibility with your teammates. I’ve had teammates immediately trust me to play my main in high-stakes power league matches just because they saw I had a mastery 15 badge for it, which cuts down on team conflict and leads to more wins. You don’t have to grind mastery for every brawler, but having a few high-mastery brawlers on your roster goes a long way.
At the end of the day, grinding mastery points should be fun, not a chore. You don’t have to follow every tip here 100% of the time—if you want to mess around with your friends in friendly matches or play a brawler you’re bad at just for laughs, do it. But if you have a specific reward you want to unlock, these tips will help you cut down the grind significantly. Next time you log on to play, pick your main, queue for their best mode with a friend, and you’ll be shocked at how fast you can rack up points. Now that you know how to get mastery points in Brawl Stars, the only thing left to do is jump into a match and start grinding.