General Tips and Tricks

Assorted tips, tricks and general advice for newbloods. This constitutes advice that didn't quite belong anywhere else and covers a whole range of things.

• Remote turrets can be rotated from the command station and will 'settle' back to that position once set. By aligning turrets towards the likely entry points of enemies you cut the turret's reaction time down significantly.
  
  
• Empty portable inv stations can be resupplied by selling material back to them. If desperate scavange ammo, weapons, packs and deployables off dead enemies and sell them to the station.
  
  
• Motion sensors can be deployed on walls and ceilings. Take advantage of this to place them in unusual locations. The ceiling is frequently a good place as many people don't look up.
  
  
• Cameras work just as well as motion or pulse sensors for guarding corridors. And similarly they can be placed anywhere. But they must be aligned with your pda's command mode. Because they are dark placing them in shadowed areas is particularly effective. (They blend in well.)
  
  
• Cameras are sturdy beasts too and can be stood on by a Myrmidion, or lighter armours. Use this to hide yourself in locations where people don't expect you to be. Become the defender bringing death from above! This trick can comprimised by your shadow, if the enemy has that option enabled, so be aware of where your shadow falls.
  
  
• Sounds, the mortar makes a loud humming noise and the spin fusor is similarly noisy. When on defence choose a silent weapon and switch to the noisy one when required. I recommend the plasma gun as a good quiet choice when defending. Base raiders could do with remembering this too when raiding the larger bases.
  
  
• The sensor jammer pack will prevent automated defences from firing bar the indoor motion sensor turret. When flying on an APC near an enemy rocket turret it is worth having someone carry this pack to give the APC a few precious seconds of grace time. This won't help if the turret is being controlled by the command station though, although the controller has to notice you to fire on you.
  
  
• Rocket turrets will not fire on ground targets by default. Control them with the command station and pound those ground huggers.
  
  
• One full power sniper shot into a remote turret will render it non-functional but not destroy it. Destruction of materiele is one of things enemy commanders watch for as a sign of an attempted base raid. So disable them, rather than destroy them to quietly soften the way for a base raid.
  
  
• Most turrets have a healthy range - much further than their sensor/activation range. Placing a remote turret and then sniping with it is a fun, low risk, way of annoying the enemy.
  
  
• Need an explosion but have run out of grenades? Drop two mines either close together or one on top of each other. The second one will explode as it tries to dig in. Even better, the first mine will be left behind to be either set off by weapon fire or an unwary enemy.
  
  
• Drop a mine next to a shielded turret, or sensor, you are trying to destroy and shoot plasma near the mine into the turret. The splash from the plasma will set off the mine and produce damage that cuts right through the shield.
  
  
• Hand throw grenades with the ELF gun to quickly kill a turret or sensor. Step back from the blast though!
  
  
• Want to scan an area quickly for enemy deployables? Use the ELF gun, it autolocks onto targets and allows you to quickly scan for hidden items. And the damage it causes won't set off an enemy mine quickly, so it gives you time to retire back to a safe distance to detonate it.
  
  
• A Myrmidion makes a damn good moving obstruction inside bases. Use your body to hold enemies in the line of fire of base defences or otherwise block their progress through corridors or doors. Especially if you have a shield pack. A Myrmidion can also serve as a mobile barrier to protect a repair crew from fire, this is especially useful on maps like Rollercoaster.
  
  
• Ledges, however narrow, allow you to deploy things on them. Use this to place turrets and sensors in unusual places.
  
  
• Place mines in areas where you want a quick blast and use the plasma gun to set them off. This allows you to produce quick explosions at key moments - like for flinging an enemy back out a doorway.
  
  
• If you have a well co-ordinated team, mine selected portions of your own base. On broadside or blastside mining one side of the base corridors can really crimp a raiders day if they choose the wrong corridor to come down.
  
  
• Mining the flag is all well and good but to really stop those pesky flag raiders a Myrmidion with either a repair pack or a shield pack sitting directly on the flag is frequently best. Mines are too passive a defence most of the time and usually easily dealt with. An aggressive and irritated Myrmidion is not.
  
  
• Don't forget the global animations, in particular the kneel animation. When sniping you can use this to reduce your profile and with careful choice of terrain you can make yourself quite hard to spot. Assuming you are out of sensor range or under jammer cover of course.
  
  
• When sniping with the laser watch the vehicle pad. If someone is generating a scout hit it as it forms. Most people don't see the shot as they are engrossed at the vehicle station ordering the vehicle. As the driver climbs on board you should be charged again, shoot the vehicle again. Scouts can only take two shots from a full strength laser so it will explode - killing the driver and rendering the vehicle pad unusable till repaired.
  
  
• Do combo attacks with the laser of the disc launcher and then the laser. Get your timing right and hit the unsuspecting foe just before the disc arrives and, presto!, you have one dead enemy if they are in light or medium armour and without an active shield.