Helpful Tips for Newcomers
Learn about firing lines. Team damage is a thing, so don’t be running back and forth in front of the firing line trying to be a damn hero. Hold the line soldier. If gunner bugs are around then movement is required of course, but if you cut across the firing line, don’t moan about getting TK’d, it was an accident you brought on yourself
REALLY don’t be running back and forth in front of a sieged Bastion. . They have a job to do. they can hose a warrior advance to the point it gets stagger-locked and you can kill them all without risk of getting overrun. force the Bastion out of siege and you put it on cd, then if you get overrun and killed it’s your own damn fault because at that point the Bastion couldn’t hit the side of a barn if he was locked inside it.
Chem/ Napalm grenades….damn useful things under the right circumstances. under the wrong circumstances you are giving the bugs a cloaking device that’ll let them get right on top of you before you see them. Use wisely.
Don’t run into a chem cloud trying to get melee kills (see points 1 & 2) And yes, I’ve seen people do this. Go figure.
Try not to “steal” the rocket launchers from the hunters. They are by far the best class at making good use of them (assuming a reasonably intelligent hunter). You want to have the best chance of a win and safe extract? Let the hunters have the rockets. Any left should go to the Bastions.
You can crouch behind a Bastion and 9/10 times the Gunner bug that was shooting you will switch target to the Bastion. Let them tank it while you kill it. Give them ammo as a reward and they won’t care you tried to get them killed.
Combat repping is a thing. If you get lucky and there is a lull in the fighting on whatever bit of wall you happen to be on, look down, press B followed by fire button. Hoorah, you getting good at this game.
You know the guy that goes off alone in just about every horror film ever made? Remember what happens to him? Don’t be that guy. Being alone is bad.
Really good Hunter players sort of get a pass on point 8. But far better if they run as a pack on ARC missions. Watching what decent hunters can do in a pack on red-runs, and how fast they can do it is an eye-opener. Especially if they’ve all got rockets. (see point 5).
Always, if at all possible, “Tag” an elite mob (default is middle mouse button). This pings it for the team to see, and deal with as quickly as possible. If you use comms try to call it out as well (particularly during the base defence phase).
Any class can double jump the outside of a tall wall EXCEPT if it’s built on the edge of a slope. If you’re standing below the base of a wall, it’s a no go. You cannot double jump the inside of a wall (because of the walkways), nor a gate (which are taller than walls).
Ammo crates regen. When one is used up, or blown away, as long as there’s still gas in the HQ, you can lay down another one. I don’t know if this works with ammo fabs, too. Check your build tool for availability late in a defense. You could be pleasantly surprised.
Always drop an ammo fab either inside a Bastion’s encampment, or right next to it, especially during base defense. Anywhere outside his reach and he has to tear down his shields, which defeats the purpose and decreases his effectiveness.
DO NOT lay down more than one ammo crate before at least the outside wall construction has been built. Then parcel the other 3 to strategic positions – but NEVER side by side. They need to be near the points of most action.
Those with ammo fabs – and every hunter/support should carry them, IMO – should lay one on every NSEW wall of the defense, whenever they can, but especially as the defense progresses. (8 ammo fabs for 3 hunters on a rooftop is probably overkill) Don’t make defenders have to jump down to find ammo in the middle of a defense, especially in a multilayer wall base build. Besides, you get XP for it.
Supports – remember to activate your medic drone as often as cooldown allows you. Sometimes in the heat of things it slips our minds. But if you can manage it, always make sure it’s available and activated for the end scramble. Saves a lot of lives.
If you’ve equipped the green circle of life (healing beacon), you get to use it ONCE. Don’t forget and waste it, but be discriminating.
If you want to carry the shock lines, go into the tutorial and practice how to lay them down. They are an underrated bug defense when used properly.
A hunter is quick and able to reach safe spaces upward, so he’s very good at covering allies and search and destroy missions (extermination missions, jump from building to building to find a line of sight to kill grenadiers and so on).
An operator have a very good survivability with his medical drone and a way to easilly transport canisters as he can put one in a slot (6) and carry the other one by hand without being slowed down. He’s by far the most efficient to move canisters to base, revive allies and repair structures during the ARC defense phase.
A bastion can secure entire area by bodyblocking and shooting at bugs continuously, granting a big amount of suppression. He’s by far the most resistant to damages, especially with the proper upgrades. His ability to protect entire areas is especially usefull to secure ressource points and critical defensive points during base defense. Especially when a wall is destroyed, he can hold a lot of enemies to gain time for his teamates to repair walls.
Use a mic if at all possible. In easy mode particularly don’t be afraid to ask questions as a newbie. Most times you’ll find a few experienced players there who are trying to help newbies grind xp, and they’ll be able to answer most things. If not, it’s maybe just a quiet team (it happens, especially on the EU server as language can be a barrier at times), there’s always the next one. This can trigger a whole lot of friendly banter, which makes for a fun run.
Going to stress the importance of the ammo fabricator….outside of very specific builds (possibly) there is literally nothing more important you can put in that slot….and definitely nothing better at grinding xp you can carry there.
Press tab to bring up the map, zones tinged yellow (a&s matches) are where the next mission is going to be….if you’ve ever seen people running off before the mission dropped and wondered how they knew which direction to go, that’s how.
By default the Z key brings up the player list, here you can see your kill-count & server ping, it’s also where you find the individual mute option (if someone is being annoying in chat), and the report player option. ( the speaker and exclamation mark icons respectively).
Farming XP during extraction is only worth it if you are 100% certain you can make it out. However, be under no illusion, this is a very selfish thing to do. If you die everyone on the team loses out on 25 XP. Also your example may encourage others to do it, and if they die as a result you will lose 25 XP for each of them (as will the team). In the long run, an early extraction will net you more XP as you can play more matches and do the things that earn way more XP. Warrior kills are only worth 1 XP each….not worth the wasted time tbh. Do this regularly and you shouldn’t be surprised if people remember your name, and there are always ways to make their distaste known next time around.
Covering an extraction is not the same as farming, do not mistake one for the other. If you are covering, check the map as often as needed. as soon as you see everyone is clear, get out.
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