Paintball ·Jul 08, 2025

Paintball Beginner's Guide

What is paintball and what do you need to play?

We have created a guide that explains what paintball is and what equipment you need to play! If you are completely new, it might be a good idea to try it out before you buy equipment so you know a little bit about what you need or want. Contact your nearest paintball club and they will help you! The paintball community itself is a very inclusive environment so they will probably be more than happy to help! If you are wondering if it hurts to play, the answer is no. You are so full of adrenaline and as long as you have some clothes on, it doesn't hurt very much, but you can expect to get a couple of bruises! Paintball is very good exercise, suitable for all ages, both sexes and is incredibly fun!

First a little history

Did you know that the paintball marker was invented in 1960 and was then used to mark trees by lumberjacks? It was not until 1970 that the game of paintball itself was invented and The world's first official paintball game was played in 1981. It didn't take many years for it to become a very popular sport all over the world! In the USA, paintball has become a bigger sport than snowboarding and English football!

Paintball equipment

So what do you need to play paintball? Quite a lot actually! You need a marker (the gun itself), a magazine, air/Co2 tank, paintball mask and of course paintballs! All of this comes in many different varieties which we will go through now.

Paintball marker

There are mechanical, electric, semi-automatic and fully automatic markers! We recommend that you check what the people you are going to play with have, so that you can buy the same ones they use so that you are playing equally. We have markers in all price ranges, so here it is really only your budget sets the limits! A classic and a safe choice is the Tippmann 98 which is a semi-automatic marker that is easy to use and provides good performance. Another model is the Tippmann Stormer Basic which is a mechanical paintball marker that is very easy to use! You can find all our markers here!

Paintball magazine

As a first-time purchase we recommend a gravity feed magazine. They are mechanically driven, work well and are a affordable alternative (does not work on full-automatic markers). Do you want a A better option is to choose an electric magazine. They feed the bales a little faster, have a higher capacity and the bales do not get stuck as easily as they have something called "anti-jam", but these magazines are again quite a bit more expensive. A standard gravity feed magazine with 200 rounds that fits most markers can be found here!

Air/Co2 tanks

When choosing which tank to get, it is a good idea to ask what they offer where you are going to play or where you can fill up the tank. The most common is air and most markers are made ready to use with air. An advantage of choosing Co2 is that it is cheaper and is a good choice if you are buying a mechanical marker. But Not all paintball markers can use Co2 due to the innards and Not all places have refills. All Tippmann markers can use Co2 and air. We usually recommend for beginners to buy a 0.8L 200 bar air tank.You will then get an affordable and good tank perfect for your use! You will find such a tank here! Otherwise you will find all our air and Co2 tanks here! If you are unsure about what to choose, send us an email at post@game-on.no.

Paintball masks

We recommend that you purchase a mask that covers the entire face, of good quality with double glass. You want one that fits well and doesn't fog up, because if not it can ruin the whole game! Therefore recommend to invest a little and buy a little more expensive mask. If you normally wear glasses, we recommend that you buy Dye i5 as you can fit them under the mask. Otherwise, you will find all our paintball masks here here!

Paintballs

As a beginner or for rental markers like T12, Tippmann 98 and SW-1, we recommend that you buy affordable paintballs, because they are the hardest and do not crack so easily - We highly recommend Virst Field Paintball Balls! Generally we say that 500 rounds are enough for a tank, but if you are going to play for a whole day and If you have the option to fill the tank with air/Co2, we recommend that you have between 1000 and 2000 paintballs. There are 2000 paintballs in a box. You can find all our paintballs here! We also recommend that you buy pods to hold paintballs in when playing and a pod belt. Both can be found at here!