Innovate Hub Before you install
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Before you install: the checks worth doing first
Fifteen minutes spent before the download starts saves the two things that most often go wrong later — a computer that cannot comfortably run the game, and an account that cannot be recovered.
Short answer. Check free storage and leave room for the game to grow, install from the publisher’s own page rather than a search result, create the account with an email address you control and can still open in two years, and decide before you start how much time and money the game is allowed to have.
On this page
Checking the computer
Collection RPGs are not usually demanding in the way a first-person shooter is, but they animate a great deal at once, they run for long sessions, and the desktop versions are often the mobile build running in a wrapper. That combination makes memory and heat more relevant than raw graphics performance.
The publisher’s stated system requirements are the only figures worth relying on, and they sit on the game’s own site rather than being reproduced here — requirements change with updates, and a copy on a third-party page goes stale quietly. Find them, then compare them against what the machine actually has.
Work through these on the computer itself
- Find the installed memory and the processor model. On Windows these are in Settings under System, then About; on a Mac, in About This Mac.
- Find the free space on the drive the game will install to, not the total size of the drive.
- Check the graphics option. An integrated chip is usually adequate for this genre; confirm it against the publisher’s stated minimum rather than assuming.
- Check that the operating system is still receiving updates. An unsupported version is a problem no game setting fixes.
- If the machine is a laptop, plan to play it plugged in. Long sessions on battery throttle performance and heat the machine.
Storage, and why it keeps growing
The install size quoted at download is the starting point, not the ceiling. Games in this genre add characters, locations, voice lines and event content with each update, and the installed footprint after a year is routinely a large multiple of the first download. Voice acting in particular takes a great deal of space, and a fully-voiced campaign adds more than most people expect.
The practical response is to install onto a drive with meaningful headroom rather than one that is nearly full, and to check the footprint occasionally rather than discovering it when the drive fills. A drive that runs out of space mid-update can leave an installation in a state that needs a full reinstall to fix, which is a slow way to lose an evening.
Worked example: deciding whether there is room
Suppose the publisher states an install size of 8 GB and the drive shows 24 GB free.
- Start with the stated install size: 8 GB.
- Allow the same again for updates and downloaded content over the first year: 16 GB.
- Leave the operating system its own working room — as a rule of thumb, around 10 per cent of the drive, and never less than 10 GB.
- 16 GB plus 10 GB is 26 GB, which is more than the 24 GB free. On this machine, clear space first or install to another drive.
The figures are illustrative. Replace them with the publisher’s stated size and the actual free space shown on the drive.
Where to download from
Install from the publisher’s own site or from the official store for the platform. This matters more in this genre than in most, because popular titles attract imitation download pages that rank well in search results and distribute something other than the game. A sponsored search result is an advertisement, not a verification of anything.
Two habits cover nearly all of it. Type the publisher’s address directly, or follow a link whose destination is visible before clicking. And decline anything offering a modified client, a private server, an unlimited-currency build or an early copy — those distribute software the publisher did not write, and they are also the standard route by which account credentials are taken. The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes general guidance on obtaining software safely.
Setting up the account properly
Most games in this genre let a player start immediately as a guest, with the account tied to the device rather than to anything the player controls. That is convenient for about a week and a serious problem afterwards: a guest account cannot be moved to a new computer, cannot be recovered after a reinstall, and cannot be proven to belong to anyone. Progress built over months disappears with the machine.
Linking the account to an email address or a platform login, at the start rather than later, is the single most valuable five minutes in this checklist.
Use an address you will still control
Not a work address you may lose access to, and not an address tied to an internet provider you might change. A personal address you have held for years is the right choice.
Set a password used nowhere else
Reused passwords are how one unrelated breach becomes a lost game account. A password manager makes unique passwords practical.
Turn on two-factor authentication if it is offered
Where the publisher supports it, this is the measure that most reduces the value of a stolen password.
Link the account before you build anything
Do this in the first session. The linking option usually sits in settings under account, and it is easy to postpone until it matters.
Write down what you used
The email address, the linking method and the approximate registration date. Support requests about a lost account ask for exactly these.
The account safety checklist covers what to do once the account exists, including the approaches used to take them.
Four decisions to make before you start
These are easier to answer now than at the point a game is asking for them, which is generally when a decision is least considered.
Settle these first
- How much time per day is this allowed to have? Daily tasks in this genre are designed around a returning player. Decide the number before the habit forms — the time budget worksheet turns it into a weekly figure.
- How much money, if any, per month? Decide an amount in AUD, including zero, and decide it now. The cost worksheet shows how to convert shop prices into a real per-draw figure.
- Who else will use this computer? If anyone under 18 shares the machine, the family and age checklist covers classification, payment controls and the conversation worth having first.
- How will payment work? Decide whether payment details are stored at all. A stored card plus a randomised shop is the combination that produces charges nobody intended.
What to watch out for
Common traps at the install stage
- Download pages that are not the publisher’s. Check the address in the browser bar before downloading anything.
- Offers of free currency, codes or account boosts in exchange for signing in somewhere. Entering game credentials on a site that is not the publisher’s is how accounts are lost.
- Starting as a guest and intending to link the account later. Later usually means after the progress that made it worth keeping.
- Storing a payment method during setup because the prompt appears during setup. It can be added at any time, deliberately.
- Installing onto an almost-full drive because the first download fits. It is the updates that do not.
The title advertised here
Raid: Shadow Legends is the game this site is paid to link to. Its publisher describes it as a battle collection RPG built around assembling an alliance of Champions, with dungeons, Clan Boss fights and a fully-voiced campaign across twelve locations. The publisher’s description does not state system requirements, install size, cost or classification, so none of those are asserted here — they are on the publisher’s own page, which is where this checklist sends you to find them.
Paid link. Registering and starting the tutorial after following it pays ITmatters s.r.o. a fixed fee from the game’s affiliate programme. You are not charged anything, and no purchase is required.
Visit the Raid: Shadow Legends websiteSources
Guidance on obtaining software and on multi-factor authentication is published by the Australian Cyber Security Centre. Australian classifications and consumer advice can be looked up through the Australian Classification Board. System requirements, install size and pricing are matters for the publisher of a given title and are not reproduced on this site. Last reviewed 16 September 2026.