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Shockforce’s Game Guide


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#1 Gamenot

Gamenot

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Posted 17 March 2016 - 05:06 PM

Greetings, I am Shockforce/NightFrost, a player from back in the AG Metal Assault game days. I would like to think I was and am still pretty good at the game. Most of this guide will be from a PvP perspective but I have a little to say about the PvE modes.

 

Since returning I have noticed that a bunch of things have changed and that some features may or may not be missing. I have added a change section for old players.

 

While this is just a text guide at this time, I hope to eventually add in videos and pictures to demonstrate my exact intent.

 

Characters:

A very important step to enjoying the game is to choose which character you want to play as. You should try out all the characters and choose the one you like; not the character that seems to be the best.

Carl

A strong character in general.

The three skills he wants on his hotkey bar are Running Jump, Recovery, and Dash. If you cannot find enough room on your hotkey bar then you can get rid of Running Jump but I highly suggest against it.

 

His other unique skill Endurance is really not that good unless you are doing Mission and allows him to go for top time.

 

The high-end trick that you can do with Carl is that he gains control of fire after his Running Jump animation ends but while he is in mid-air letting you make ideal angle shots on prone enemies or from closer to an enemy’s head from above. A warning: using the grenade launcher and then immediately using running jump will cause the grenade to be wasted.

 

If you jump perfectly to rest against the side of a ledge his head clears the ledge with a little extra room letting you surprise enemies but you can also jump backwards to the opposite ledge to more easily fire over.

Carl’s special, Speed Star is pretty fun. The level 3 in co-op is really good on the Outfoxed maps but not so much elsewhere. In PvP Speed Star gives opponents hell.

 

Changed: The healing nerf really hurt his ability to dive in although near the end of the previous metal assault people were getting good enough to counter dives. In addition his running jump animation seems to end later than before not letting you do the trick shot as easily.

Marie

Another very good character.

 

Her Double Roll is actually one of the weaker of the movement skills for offensive purposes because it pauses for an instant in the middle and at the end and because it runs on for so long it telegraphs the ending points. When it becomes annoying is if opponents have any sort of lag because the pause and ending points are not as clearl

.

As Marie is so small she has a really hard time firing over ledges at enemies. She can somewhat fire over ledges by jumping to the opposite edge of the ledge she is attempting to fire over. At the same time, because she cannot shoot easily over edges she loses out in corner fighting. However, she can gain back some of her corner fighting with Sharpshooting because she can suppress grenades.

 

What you want on your hotkey bar is Sprint and Healing at minimum. Then take your pick of Sharpshooting(recommend) and Double Roll. Hawk Eyes is not mandatory although it is strong for larger and more open maps like Port Hezan.

 

Hawk Eyes lets you avoid using a scope, which can be decent although it makes it harder to aim because everything becomes smaller.

 

Sharpshooting gains back the accuracy Marie loses from using Sprint which is extremely good for charging and sniping enemies. Additionally Sharpshooting being active means that bullets will destroy grenades allowing you to bypass some and save enemy team-mates. The grenades destroyed by Sharpshooting detonate as your own grenades and can blow up enemies or cause you to suicide.

 

Double Roll can be good because it moves Marie farther than her normal roll, and is good as long as you be aware that it is heavily telegraphed. There are several mechanics of Double Roll to be aware of. Firstly, she can cancel performing the second roll, rolling the direction you are headed, same as normal rolls, moves you further than rolling backwards, and the direction of the roll and facing direction of Marie can be changed for the second roll. I personally undervalued this skill it is strong for charging at reloading enemies and running away from enemies; particularly when disengaging from rifle and shotgun fire. If needed it can be used to confuse enemies at close range.

 

I personally value Sharpshooting over Double Roll and Double Roll over Hawk Eyes. All of them are strong skills but Sharpshooting gives the largest amount of power, reliability, and control. Specifically, the better accuracy given by Sharpshooter means that the reward payoff for accurate mouse targeting is more consistent which is better for self improvement, long range exchanges will more often go in your favor, lower accuracy weapons are made more viable, and the ability to counter grenades enables her team to pull off more aggressive tactics.

 

In co-op she is the weakest until later levels for the zombie fights because where Carl and Ai have grenade cooldown reduction and Burton has Spear she has no extra skills particularly helpful for clearing out “zombies” until she gets her SSP. She is, however, really good in boss fights.

 

In mission mode she is nearly as good as Carl because of her large stamina and high movement speed. Against bosses she fairs better because her small body lets her dodge out attacks.

 

Changed: Marie is stronger with the healing nerf since she gets hit less than other characters. Her healing is now not weaker(it used to have a really long cooldown) than other character healing skills and still is an AoE buff.

Ai

The grenade cool-down lets her stall out for long periods of time just by continuing to chuck grenades. This can let her reload, heal up, wait until allies join up with her, or simply limit enemies’ choice of actions.

 

She can clearly fire over ledges by jumping to the opposite edge of the ledge she is trying to fire over. The only weapon she can perfectly line up snug to the ledge and parallel to ledge floor is a rocket launcher… and it is really hard to do and likely to get you killed.

 

In co-op she is probably the best in general because she can grenade almost every second which lets her do much more zombie clearing than other character.

 

In mission mode she is probably the worst in terms of time completion but if all you want is to pass through a mission she is good at that from auto healing.

 

The skills that need to be on her skill bar are Back Step and Sprint. Because she has passive healing she is the only character that can forego having healing on her skill bar. In some ways not having heal is a positive because enemies will not be able to guess that she is low health. That said, those mind-games can also be played on other characters too.

 

Generally, the main uses for Backstep are: dodging body-shots, reducing damage from grenades, dashing onto reloading enemies, and dashing up angled floors. There seems to be a trick I have seen BARISTAR use where you can hide the grenade launcher charge up inside the Back-step by right-clicking to use the grenade launcher and then immediately Back-stepping to dash in or away from an enemy. The trick can be used surprise enemies with an immediate grenade to the face. The secondary trick (that also applies to Spear and Running Jump) is to use it to launch yourself off an edge to quickly move across the map.

 

Decoy grenades are pretty mediocre, they do a little bit of damage and confuse the heck out of enemies however the main problem with it is that tosses in the correct grenade randomly and makes it hard to snipe enemies with grenades if you have cornered them. With that said it is pretty obnoxious area denial. I might note that it does allow her grenades to partially counter-counter Marie's Sharpshooting because the explosion damage of the dummy grenades does not appear be converted to Marie's damage meaning any of the dummy grenades exploding close range will still do damage and expend any bullets Marie uses to clear them.

 

Her special hiding skill is ok. It can be shocking though to enemies on the second level and can be used to capture points without alerting enemies. Level 2-3 can be extremely good for early triggering zombies in co-op mode. On level 1 she is invisible until she jumps or gets near enemies, level 2 she is only spotted near enemies, and level 3 she can walk past enemies without being spotted. Opening doors will always give her away.

 

In a 10 minute game expect to use up anywhere between 30 and 60 grenades or more depending on map.  In co-op you will need as many grenades as you can get.

 

Changed: GNiSoft seems to have fixed how crappy Back Step used to be by in addition to reducing hitbox size(allowing you to pass through some bullets) and increasing defense. Back Step seems to now be a viable alternative to rolling. In addition, with the nerf to the healing skills she is even stronger than before.

Burton

Probably the hardest character to play because of his big body and lower move-speed. It makes it hard to avoid getting hit. His height has its good and bad points.

 

The increased rocket explosion radius and heavy weapon movement increase are nice perks and probably the main things going for Burton.

 

Laying prone is not so great as his body is wide and long so he still has a large area to get hit. This is especially dangerous around grenades. Be also aware that his feet go back as well which can be an issue for dodging.

When jumping to fire, his head always fully clears ledges which lets him easily fire across the upper ledge on crouching enemies. I suggest lobbing a grenade up over the edge and following up with a snipe/rocket/shotgun timed to make it hard for them to escape the grenade.

 

In PvP spear is an interesting gimmick. It should not be used every time an enemy gets close but you need to use it sometimes so enemies stay scared of you. If you end up going off a ledge when using spear you accelerate even more covering a further distance which you can use to move faster or surprise enemies. Hitting an enemy with spear gives you enough time to change weapons. Additionally, if you are good enough at timing you can stun lock an enemy for a bit of bm (it is slightly tricky because hitting a stunned enemy will not refresh the duration but if you walk back to the end of its range it is easier to pull off because Burton’s Spear pauses briefly at the end of its range XD.)

 

In co-op spear is extremely good against red zombies which would be tricky to deal with otherwise.

 

His special skill, The Rock, is really good in PvP after he has the second level version. With that said, head-shots and rockets will still bring him down quickly so dodging rockets and snipers is still recommended.

 

When playing against Burton you need to always be aware that he can Spear you, if he turns to spear, you need to make the decision to either roll/dodge into him to dodge it if you are really close or escape move. If a Burton is not running away when he seems in a disadvantageous position he is most definitely thinking about Spear.

Additional Character Comments

Since returning I have played around a bit and have roughly figured out the PvP viability of the characters:

Ai = Marie > Carl > Burton

 

Ai right now is the strongest PvP character. Her Backstep skill is really good now (letting her tank grenades and dodge out of situations where she needs to go further than a roll.) I think at current she is the strongest character in-game in PvP because of her passive healing factor and, more importantly, her low cool-down on grenade use both of which give her constant power up-time.

 

Carl currently has a lot of problems surviving on the frontline he used to dominate. The slightly better firing angle and the ease he can pull off grenade tricks does not fix his lack of sustained combat ability. Mainly he suffers from being fragile in the face of the sniper meta. With that said, his body frame and the weapon placement on his body is the best to take advantage of corner fighting .

 

Marie is a benefactor of the healing nerfs because her low body size lets her avoid a heap of damage. The second core that makes Marie so good is that she has no accuracy penalty from Sprint when you pair it with Sharpshooting. She provides a bit back to her team because her healing AoE heals and Sharpshooting enables her to save team-mates from grenades. Additionally, the healing she gives to herself is stronger than other healing skills and she does not have to worry about MP or SP usage because she has so much of it. Although, I consider Ai to be the strongest, the power difference between Ai and Marie is too small for my bias to say Ai is standout better.

 

Burton is, as always, the lowest in terms of PvP viability. He is just too big and slow to hide his body from weapon fire and is given no additional escapes. Burton’s options are to fight to the death or fire from locations where enemies cannot easily follow him during his reload. Escaping a gunfight is a low success task. In defensive 1v1 Burton wins against any aggressor not named Ai, who can always avoid spear with Backstep.

 

A small note I would like to make about movement skills; double roll, running jump, spear, and back step can be chained off of rolls. But if you want to change the direction it channels to you need to wait until the very end of the roll to use the skill.

 

Weapons

Right now the selection of weapons are fairly limited. I am not sure if the lack of variety in weapons is intended and I am not sure if that will also stick.

 

One thing to note is that you can only have 1 of each type of standard in-game drop weapon; however, you can have as many as you want of real money shop weapons allowing you to say have multiple rifles. A common use for this behavior is to have a real money grenade launcher and a standard rifle (or vice versa) to be able to have the choice to use grenades or

Rifle/Grenade Launcher (& Grenades)

In general, the rifle will be the bread and butter weapon for players. This being that it is the best weapon for completing missions, decent in pvp, and the second best weapon in co-op.

 

The main strengths of rifles are; area denial, low downtime, and the ability to dish out damage without reloading before switching to other weapons. While the bullets are in the air the enemy cannot be in that area, and if they miss a shot with a sniper/shotgun/rocket-launcher a rifle can dish out a large amount of punishment during the opponent’s reload.

 

There are interesting choices given by the rifle class. The grenade launcher is equally as good as the normal rifles. There is a bit of learning involved but it is pretty much like a mini Rocket Launcher. What you will want to do is memorize good positions to fire the grenade launcher from. Grenade launchers are particularly brutal, same as Rocket Launchers, when the launched grenade is hidden inside weapon fire or lobbed from off-screen. Unlike rockets grenade shells do not detonate at the end of their range and instead expire completely although they will still detonate on impacting with terrain which can be used to your advantage.

 

Regular grenades are also really good since they offer a lot of area denial forcing enemies to move in a specific way; the way you want to. Grenades are most easy to use on players below you. The best way to get good at grenades is to use a lot of them. The first method to getting good is to go into a game with a full inventory of grenades and test out positions to throw grenades from and then repeat execution of that position memorize for later. The second method is to constantly attempt high reward grenade throws whenever they are available to get an estimated feel of how grenades will fly. Different characters have different throwing heights and throwing power so you would have to learn throwing positions and throw intuition specific to the character. A small trick with grenades is that they can be hidden behind some doors and obscuring sprites. I have found this particularly useful on the right side of most maps with doors because doors hide a bit of space to the right (the obscuring trick applies anywhere where sprites obscure the character such as on Secret Base L the boxes near the tank refuel area or the support beams around the central capture point . )  Grenades have a bit of a bounce which can generally be used to get at enemies below your ledge but on the same side as you by bouncing it off the opposite ledge or off a wall (think ">" or "<" grenade travel path.) Additionally you can use the bounce to stall a grenade for a short time on a ledge before it drops to give enemies less time to react ( I found this sometimes useful on Port Hezzan.) Optimally, grenades are most dangerous when the detonate in midair a bit above the ground. An important detail to note is that whenever grenades bounce they lose a lot of momentum. Which brings up another interesting trick that is not usually useful except in co-op; grenades will stop completely, sometimes in mid-air, if their velocity goes below a certain point.  This means that if you trap a grenade between bodies or terrain you can stop it completely at that location. Trapping a grenade is in fact usually very simple because grenades you throw will bounce off enemies, terrain, and most importantly; your own character. If you throw a grenade from point blank (from your character's head) into another body it will bounce off both and instantly hit 0 velocity and stick. Mainly I use this when trying to grenade a clump zombies from below, by jumping up so just my head comes into contact with the zombies I can suspend a grenade inside the clump instead of the grenade bouncing off.

 

Be aware that grenades and grenade shells will travel faster and reach their targets faster the closer to straight down the angle of throw is because of gravity. However, when standard grenades hit terrain they lose a lot of speed so the fastest arrival of a grenade occurs with less bounces. When finding good positions to throw grenades some trade-off has to be made for safety of the throw vs travel speed of the grenade vs the reaction time you give your enemy.

 

On reaching Staff Sargent ( '^' rank) the explosions from your own rockets and grenades will also damage you.

 

Rifles, in-general, benefit well from all stats.  Bullet-speed ensures that bullets will get through doors faster which is good if you are fighting around them. Damage, on the other hand, kills faster and accuracy ensures your damage hits more often.

 

If I had to pick the most important stat for a rifle it would be bullet speed. If you do not have enough bullet speed enemies can escape and reduce the rifle dps by running away from it or rolling through it, additionally it also means your stream of fire can be more quickly adjusted to your enemy's position if they change direction.

 

Changed: Since I last played it appears they have nerfed the range of the Grenade launcher so it is not quite as strong as it once was; however, the Grenade launcher is still ridiculously good. Rifle meta has fallen to the sniper meta; however, I personally still get the highest share of my kills on rifle. Once movement speed picks up again rifles should come back into meta.

Shotgun

Shotguns are probably the weakest weapon to start mastering. That said, shotguns will be unpopular up making them cheap and the higher power shotguns are ungodly broken. The endgame and some of the real-money shotguns are the most broken things in the game, allowing you to 1-shot body-shot kill at half a screen away with an ridiculous reload speed.

 

The best stats for shotguns are: Accuracy(to where all 3 are able to hit at a decent range) > Damage(up to where it 1 hits) > Range = Bullet Speed > Fire Rate = Movement Speed > Additional Damage > Additional Accuracy.

 

Rocket launcher

This type of weapon has a large payoff for getting a better early weapon. But it is not great to invest too much into this weapon type. The main reason for this is that hitting an opponent with a rocket (nearly) always spells death and rocket detonate at the end of their range(very important.) Because rockets detonate at the end of their range, having a longer range does not actually make a rocket better because there are set ranges convenient for the rocket to detonate at. With these points in mind you lose out on stat gains from range and damage as well as you get the normal handicap of rocket launchers making your running speed very slow.

 

On reaching Staff Sargent the explosions from your own rockets and grenades will also damage you.

 

Because rolling does not make a player invincible there is a pretty simple trick you can do where you fire at the ground under the rolling person to kill them.

 

The best stats for rocket launchers are: Accuracy(to where it flies straight) > Range(specific ranges, higher is not better) > Bullet Speed > Move-speed > additional Accuracy > additional Range.

In PvE you can value Reload Rate and damage much higher because Zombies do not really dodge much.

 

Changed: Rocket launcher AoE seems to fall off in damage more to the edges than it used to, meaning indirect hits from rocket launchers do not seem to kill players as often. I may just be remembering the power wrongly.

 

Pistol

Surprisingly, sinking money into a good pistol pays off well. If you use a Rocket Launcher or Sniper Rifle you will inevitably be using the pistol a lot as a defensive or finisher weapon. The main issue with pistols are that they are only part of a weapon. A main weapon will usually out-damage them, there are some exceptions with the stronger pistols.

 

If you are on sniper/rocket/shotgun(the larger reload) weapon reload it is usually best to switch immediately to be able to defend yourself or get away.

 

Do not be afraid to land shots on your enemy especially if you suspect they are already low. Pistols are all generally good. The faster reload pistols generally deal out damage faster and make it harder for your enemy to dodge your shot. Taking your pistol shots carefully rather than going full auto can be best because there is a decently long pause in between shots that enemies can dodge. The best stat for pistols is bullet speed because most enemies will try to dodge or run if they are low and bullet speed makes it much harder to evade controlled pistol shots.

Sniper Rifle

Currently, the game is in a sniper meta. This means that everyone and their mother is using a sniper.

 

Some people like the scope, I hate it personally. It requires stamina, it makes you vulnerable to enemies nearby, and it when you have the scope you cannot use grenades (if you do not have a scope you can use grenades with the sniper.) Using the scope even requires stamina. :sigh: Actually, I lied a bit about not being able to use grenades with a scope. If you switch to a weapon that can use grenades and start charging the grenade you can swap back and then throw the grenade. Still a little bothersome.

 

I would suggest the dot sight because generally you only need to have the direction of enemies to know where to shoot and it lets you know where enemies are off screen with little investment. Personally, as soon as I get enough money for a dot sight I am removing the scope immediately. Changing to a scope does take a bit of an investment, sadly it is 20k to remove the scope and 5k+ to add on the dot sight.

 

That said, the cases I have found the scope useful is for head-shotting troublesome humanoids in mission mode game modes and calling the SSP barrage down from long range (you can scope and call SSP from any distance.)

 

Accuracy > Accuracy > Damage = Fire Rate = Move-speed unless you are Marie, where you can take Sharpshooting and go for more damage. Be aware that Sprint really messes up sniper accuracy.

 

Changed: even though sniper rifles were strong in the AGE metal assault era they are now even stronger than before because the healing nerfs(instant healing -> heal over time) make players extremely vulnerable to and after getting shot by a Sniper Rifle.

 

Weapon Strategy

 

Rifle is usually a good weapon to default to because you can fire out most of the clip and then switch to a sniper or shotgun to finish the enemy off with a body shot. When there is a safe time you always want to switch to rifle and reload it so it to avoid reloads in combat. If an enemy starts to reload, charge them. If they have to roll about to dodge your bullets it slows down their reload. In team play simply firing across obstacles and ledges to limit enemy movement can be strong. When firing in hallways crouching can be good..However if you get into a firefight lock where both you and your enemy end of the hallway it is usually better to jump up and down and fire downwards into their body.

 

Grenade Launchers; these have a bit of a wind-up time. Generally they are best used from max range, behind curved terrain, or to force a roll since the windup is very telegraphed. It also may be possible to hide the use behind allies or in Ai's case, her Backstep.

 

Sniper Rifle is the other good weapon to default to because it is strong at all ranges and can be backed up with a pistol at close range. If the sniper round body-shots then 1-3 pistol shots will kill the enemy. And there is still the possibility to head-shot. If you notice an enemy has started a roll you can head-shot them. There are also angles you can fire at where taking a shot at their head near guarantees a head-shot because the head is still vulnerable during rolls. A generally telling sign as to if a sniper shot has hit is if the hit enemy uses heal. If you have a dot sight or previous information about where enemies are moving you can take informed shots out of sight for a chance at picking up a kill.

 

Shotguns normally are for use at doors and under ledges. Technically shotguns have an advantage against snipers at close range but this advantage is low. All 3 shrapnel need to hit to instant kill. On the ground Ai and Marie do better with shotguns aiming upwards with shotguns where Carl and Burton are better at aiming down. When firing over ledges Carl and Burton have an easer time because of how high up they hold the shotgun. This has to do with the height that the characters hold their shotguns.

 

Rocket Launchers are probably the most complex weapon to use. Ideally, the best range to fire a rocket at the enemy is from max range. Even if enemies attempt to dodge the rocket they can still die from the explosion when the rocket expires. Since rockets are slower than Sniper Rifle bullets and less oppressive than Shotguns or Rifles it makes Rocket Launchers strictly worse for 1v1 combat than other weapons. Firing at a player usually results in the player trying to roll through the rocket to avoid it. However, there are a few tricks that can help in scenarios where you are facing a close opponent with a rocket launcher. The first trick is to aim slightly below the enemy player's head. This means that if they roll forward their head ends up headed straight into the rocket, this can work if your enemy's tendency is to roll towards you when you fire a rocket. The second is to fire at the ground below the enemy's feet, this means that if the enemy rolls over the ground the rocket hits they will die regardless. The final is to charge into them and suicide which can sometimes be the only viable option. Rockets have the additional trick of splashing damage through terrain, meaning you can kill off people from through thin floors, walls, and sides of ledges.

 

On switching to a pistol, if your immediate opponents are not already close to dead the best option is usually to throw down a grenade and beat a retreat. On the other hand, technically you can 100 -> 0 someone with a pistol especially if you get a few head shots on them. If you are completely cornered with a pistol do not be afraid to take a shot or two, there are cases where your enemy may be bluffing on the amount of their remaining health and checking is far better than not. At the same time, be sure to think of pistols as mini Rifles; similar to rifles you generally do not want to expend the last shot in a clip because it puts you into reload when you could change weapons instead. Additionally, like Rifles, if you have used up pistol shots you will want to switch and reload the pistol when it is safe to do so.

.

 

Titles

Currently some of the best titles to get for PvP are:

 

Broken Wings:  -1 power, +2 movespeed, +1 sp

Comments: generally good since it is extra move-speed

How to acquire: This title is easy to get as you can just enter a really tall map to jump down from or use a helicopter(take the helicopter up really high and detonate it by exiting the helicopter far above the map.)

 

Stone Cold:  -1 power, +1 bullet speed, +2 rate of fire

Comments: Really good for snipers/rockets/shotguns, they generally do enough damage anyway

How to acquire: It can be difficult to get because you need to get the ACE position (best scoring player) in PvP.

 

Target Practice: +1 rate of fire, +1 movement speed

Comments: Effectively in between Stone Cold and Broken wings in terms of PvP

How to acquire: Takes a long time, complete Steve's quest Snipe It by killing 200 players with a sniper rifle, then complete John's quest Sniper Squishy by dying 500 times to a sniper rifle.

 

I might note that there may be other titles that would be good that I may not know about (accuracy+reload rate or would be awesome)

 

A few weaker titles that you can make do with are:

 

Maginot S-quire (+1 range, +1 accuracy, +1 sp) 100 Team free battle wins

Ex-loner/"Hot Potato"/Grenadier (+1 movespeed) Just add your first friend is easiest since they do not have to friend you back(you can add me if you like :))

Staffmaster/Gunslinger (+1 accuracy) level up or kill 200 with a rifle and and you have this

 

Suggested Weapons

Pictures incoming.

 

A good beginner set of weapons would be:

Pistol: Sureshot-AA03

Rifle: E-15c

Grenade Launcher(Rifle): Lincoln-2001

Sniper Rifle: Hawk-1

Shotgun: Lincoln-301

Rocket launcher: L1-R1

 

The next step up in terms of good affordable gear is:

 

Pistol: Eagle-3 (runs out of bullets fast but hard to dodge)

Shotgun: Isabell-AA03/Mag-4(Both equally good)

 

 

Decently priced upgrade:

 

Pistol: Dwarf Caiman-02 (Dwarf is one of the best pistols, really hard to dodge because of high bullet speed) Note: Chen-00/01 are both good because of bullet speed but run quickly out of ammo

Shotgun: Island-M01/Sunshine-02

Sniper Rifle: Superage-A30/Delta-K (Superage for more headshot action, Delta-K for bodyshot capability and headshot)

Rocket Launcher: Gazelles-02 (1 more ammo in each clip)

 

Expensive upgrade:

 

Sniper Rifle: JY-Type-A1 (Strong bodyshot damage, good accuracy, decent other stats)

 

Piggy bank breaking upgrade:

 

Sniper Rifle:

BlueWing-High (Best balance of stats in a sniper, instant perfect headshots, decent body-shot damage)

Generation-SP (Good best headshot weapon)

 

 

Noob-trap weapons:

Sniper Rifle:

Next.K-F02 if you do not care about you aim, this is the weapon for you. It gives you no consistency when aiming from anywhere other than close range and even then not over edges.

Hz-3 VERA Bullet speed is actually a problem, accuracy stats means it is almost too accurate and the stats are wasted. You are better off with Superage-A30.

Superage-A50 It is still good although there are better weapons than to break the bank on than this one

Shotgun:

Crasher-5 Worse than the Isabell-AA03. Worse accuracy, worse range, worse bullet speed, worse rate of fire... the damage does not make up for the shortcomings... you expect better stats when paying more money.

Rocket Launcher:

Anything under 60 bullet speed.

 

 

PvP Gear

In general, non-shop gear does not provide a huge enough advantage to be broken. NPC gear is good enough for nearly every PvP battle except clan battles and tournaments. Out of all the items there is only one item I can think of that gives a large significant advantage:

 

Light Flak Jacket.

 

It is a trade-off of armor for movement speed. Why? If you run too slowly you get head-shot or gunned down.

 

The PvP Movement Speed Discussion

This has its own section because it is so important.

 

Movement speed is the best stat in the game for PvP. Move-speed let you get on enemies when they are reloading or run away if needed. It lets you complete missions faster, outrun some bullets, and more easily roll past enemies wasting rifle bullet stacks. In addition lagging players will have a harder time targeting you and getting targeted (when they have more move speed.)

Even though Sprint horribly reduces accuracy it is always worth adding to the skill bar because movement speed is so good.

 

Character’s rolls goes further because of traveling faster, dodging across a greater area and additionally your move skill skills get improved by move-speed going further;  Carl’s case Running Jump goes faster sending Carl further(actually a bit worse when using the skill against the ceiling) and Marie's Double Roll, like normal rolls, also travels further. Note: Ai's and Burton's skills, Backstep and Spear respectively, are not affected by movement speed during the skill, which works to their advantage on slowing terrain in missions and Grand Trap. With that note the "momentum" part at the end of Backstep and Spear are still affected by movement speed.

 

 

Additional Co-op Remarks

This mode is pretty good for gaining gear. You will always want to play this mode on hard since the easy mode rewards are much less. How hard maps are to complete in order are Dolor Valley, Outfoxed, Cursed Woods, Outfoxed II, Slate Hill, Grand Trap, Buckeye Vale = Chris' Revenge.

If you are looking for weapons, this is probably the mode you want to grind out.

 

From what I know:

Sniper Rifles can be found from Slate Hill(H).

Rifles can be found on Buckeye Vale(H).

Dolor Valley(H) gets you trinkets.

Outfoxed II(H) gives pistols and Infected Zombie.

Grand Trap(H) is where you farm shotguns

Chris' Revenge(H) is where you farm rocket launchers

 

In general Slate Hill(H) and Outfoxed II(H) give the best value for ease of completion.

Buckeye Vale(H) requires a stupid amount of deaths and Tokens to get the SSP to kill off the boss.

Dolor Valley(H) generally provides you with way too often with trinkets which are a poor way to make money but is decent for grinding experience.

Grand Trap(H) It kind of annoying to complete because the mobs are strong and spawn all around so rocket launchers are not as effective.

 

The number of boxes given on hard maps (H) are as followed:

1-5     -> 1 box

6-10   -> 3 boxes

11-16 -> 5 boxes

 

Additional PvP Remarks

The game was designed around PvP. Wearing more expensive gear in PvP is not recommended (with the exception of boots and a better flak jacket) until later levels because repair costs will drain dry.

For this mode you want as much move-speed as possible because it will let you punish enemy reload time and escape when enemies try to punish you.

Not much else to say that I have not already said other than fill up your inventory with grenades.

 

Additional Mission Remarks

This mode probably gives the best rewards, specifically weapons, weapon mods, armor, upgrades, and cash. But to have a reasonable chance to get anything decent from this mode requires you to at least get to the third map and play on veteran. At that point the missions become pretty hard but the payoff is really good.

 

For clearing Missions more easily you need better gear, co-op gear can work to help, but the best thing you can get for clearing mission is a rifle with bonus Mission damage.  After that, bonus damage rocket, and then sniper.

 

One thing to note is that grinding out map 1 missions on Veteran gives a chance of getting a Light Flak Jacket. Map 2 Veteran missions generally give you mods and crappy gear, sometimes a weapon mod. I have not made it past map 2 but the rewards on map 3 are much better.

 

 

Edit 3/22/2016: I missed a few things, trapped by thinking that the movement skills were still the same as before, and.added weapon  strategies.

Edit 3/24/2016: Proofreading sweep, re-evaluation of Marie, killing some bias, grenade tactics and techniques

Edit: 3/28/2016: Fixed the comments about how Backstep, Running Jump, Spear, and Double Roll works. Backstep & Spear; not affected by movement speed. Running Jump & Double Roll; affected by movement speed.

Edit: 4/9/2016: Patch changed how Sharpshooting works, detonation of converted grenades now do full damage to Marie. Good because it was OP taking almost no damage before

Edit: 4/12/2016: Fixed the comments about how Backstep and Spear work. Backstep & Spear are partially affected by movement speed. Added section on PvP titles. Added section on suggested PvP weapons. Revisited evaluation of weapon stats for pistols.

Edit: 4/19/2016 I lied a bit about not being able to use grenades with a scope. Another grenade trick.

 

Up next(hopefully): terrain, rolling and corner fighting


Edited by Gamenot, 19 April 2016 - 10:12 AM.

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#2 xXDemenSlayerXx

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Posted 21 March 2016 - 01:41 AM

This is an extremely detailed guide and is highly recommended for the new and old players due to changes of in game mechanics.

Great information

 

                                                                           10/10


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#3 Gamenot

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Posted 24 March 2016 - 05:56 PM

Updated.


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#4 EggsDee

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Posted 26 March 2016 - 09:27 PM

Shockforce, you're a beast! Thanks for making this guide. Helped me learn the game a lot.

I was wondering if you play a lot of Coop or Missions or PvP?

There's a lot of little quirks about Coop runs that may be useful for noobs to know, and I was thinking of either making a guide myself or helping someone make it so that we can educate the playerbase.

Coop is the bread and butter of the game right now (and it's your only viable option as a free-to-play player).

There's a lot of things to know if you're just starting, such as:

  • On Dolor Valley (H) which is perhaps the easiest map to complete, you have to start off farming ammo for your Rocket launcher and facetank the zombies for the first few levels so they gather up in bunches and you can farm points better
  • When JUST starting out, your goal is to get good at Coop (best way is probably playing Dolor Valley (H)) and get enough money to buy yourself the locked Hotkeys a Flamethrower (then you can do the harder maps MUCH easier)
  • It's very good to make friends with the good players and learn from them; that way you can become better much faster
  • Some other delicate things, such as always checking doors with Rockets because zombies can hide behind them and Rocket blasts go through the doors

You're probably more experienced than me, so I think you should make the guide, and I can maybe point out some things that I have learned in the past 30 hours that I logged onto this game? If not, I'll make the guide eventually, but it will just take longer :P


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#5 Gamenot

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Posted 27 March 2016 - 12:43 AM

Shockforce, you're a beast! Thanks for making this guide. Helped me learn the game a lot.

I was wondering if you play a lot of Coop or Missions or PvP?

There's a lot of little quirks about Coop runs that may be useful for noobs to know, and I was thinking of either making a guide myself or helping someone make it so that we can educate the playerbase.

Coop is the bread and butter of the game right now (and it's your only viable option as a free-to-play player).

There's a lot of things to know if you're just starting, such as:

  • On Dolor Valley (H) which is perhaps the easiest map to complete, you have to start off farming ammo for your Rocket launcher and facetank the zombies for the first few levels so they gather up in bunches and you can farm points better
  • When JUST starting out, your goal is to get good at Coop (best way is probably playing Dolor Valley (H)) and get enough money to buy yourself the locked Hotkeys a Flamethrower (then you can do the harder maps MUCH easier)
  • It's very good to make friends with the good players and learn from them; that way you can become better much faster
  • Some other delicate things, such as always checking doors with Rockets because zombies can hide behind them and Rocket blasts go through the doors

You're probably more experienced than me, so I think you should make the guide, and I can maybe point out some things that I have learned in the past 30 hours that I logged onto this game? If not, I'll make the guide eventually, but it will just take longer :P

 

Certainly,

 

I mostly play PvP but I know enough about co-op.

 

Dolor Valley is a good map for being introduced to co-op but as I said; the rewards for playing it are quite low since it gives trinkets, which do not sell for much. As I stated before, Slate Hill(H) and Outfoxed II(H) are the best maps for ease of completion vs reward for the general population of players.

 

Flamethrower is not useful on every map although it is strong particularly for the Outfoxed maps and Grand Trap. Most things can be dealt with using a rocket launcher.and grenades. Some maps have very specific requirements to make the map easier. Buckeye Vale requires everyone to have stupid amounts of gold coins and to purposely die for SSP. Grand Trap is easiest with more Flamethrowers. Both the Outfoxed maps are easier with Flamethrowers but they are not required; the outfoxed maps mainly depend on people knowing what to do. Slate Hill requires 2 or more Burtons to stall the Zombies with well placed use of Spear for the best chances of success.

 

As for doors, there is a slightly pricey trick you can do to spot zombies stacks. If you add dot sight (the cheapest one preferably) to your rocket launcher (and/or pistol) the mouse target will light up red when enemies are in your line of fire even if they are behind closed doors. This will let you give some doors the pass since the dot sight will tell you if a door is clear of zombies so you will not always have to use a rocket to check..


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#6 Gamenot

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Posted 27 March 2016 - 11:17 AM

Just  a status update. I will be unable to work on the guide much more until after April 10th.


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#7 EggsDee

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Posted 27 March 2016 - 05:13 PM

Certainly,

 

I mostly play PvP but I know enough about co-op.

 

Dolor Valley is a good map for being introduced to co-op but as I said; the rewards for playing it are quite low since it gives trinkets, which do not sell for much. As I stated before, Slate Hill(H) and Outfoxed II(H) are the best maps for ease of completion vs reward for the general population of players.

 

Flamethrower is not useful on every map although it is strong particularly for the Outfoxed maps and Grand Trap. Most things can be dealt with using a rocket launcher.and grenades. Some maps have very specific requirements to make the map easier. Buckeye Vale requires everyone to have stupid amounts of gold coins and to purposely die for SSP. Grand Trap is easiest with more Flamethrowers. Both the Outfoxed maps are easier with Flamethrowers but they are not required; the outfoxed maps mainly depend on people knowing what to do. Slate Hill requires 2 or more Burtons to stall the Zombies with well placed use of Spear for the best chances of success.

 

As for doors, there is a slightly pricey trick you can do to spot zombies stacks. If you add dot sight (the cheapest one preferably) to your rocket launcher (and/or pistol) the mouse target will light up red when enemies are in your line of fire even if they are behind closed doors. This will let you give some doors the pass since the dot sight will tell you if a door is clear of zombies so you will not always have to use a rocket to check..

 

I found Slate Hill (H) to actually be quite hard, due to Wave 5 of Red Zombies at the very bottom of the screen, and the fact that there are so many layers to the map. It's easy to miss when you're in a random pub game and people often leave gaps that end up killing Lucy. I feel like that's exactly why we need some new player guides: people should know the basics, and the general strategy for every map.

 

I agree about the Flamethrower, and the closed door trick is exactly why I think you should continue building your guide / writing new ones. That's very clever and was completely unknown to me. However I still think the best tactic would be to spam Rockets at any upcoming door, especially because Fast Zombies tend to spawn in large groups after you pass certain points (or is it after you cap the point?) in Outfoxed II, and opening those doors without dispatching of them first is suicide (I got one shot a bunch of times until I learned). All these little quirks would be very useful to know as well, but perhaps more suited to an advanced tactics guide?

 

I also think a great help would be a free-to-play player guide, which would summarize how to play the game without spending any coin right away (I feel like this is important: no one wants to drop money on a free-to-play game right away until they put some hours into it and decide they enjoy it). I imagine it would be something along the lines of:

  1. Learn to play Coop properly (find some friends to run maps with, learn to host matches and get people to join, etc. etc.)
  2. Upgrade your armour to the cheap White-tier armour sold in the shop (the boost is significant I feel).
  3. Unlock Hotkeys 8, 9, 0 (do you have to buy Personal Storage too? I don't know because I got the New Player package that they gave away if you played before the 21st of March).
  4. Keep playing Coop until you can afford some good weapons, such as the Flamethrower.
  5. ??? (Some "where to go from there" kind of thing, but I'm not sure because I've only surpassed Step 4 recently :P)

I've been a free-to-play player and logged 30 hours into the game thus far, and played with some really good players. It's been a blast, and I want others to know how to succeed too.

 

Lastly, I think these guides should all go up on Steam. I don't know if you play from the Steam client, but I do. You can post them yourself, or if you give me permission, I'll post them and give full credit to you and link the original threads and everything.

 

PS: I am totally down to help with any portion of the guides, such as maybe recording video, or helping you do some run or test some theory or whatever. My IGN is the same: EggsDee. I'm on at kind of irregular intervals because of full-time university, but please don't hesitate to message me either here or on the forums.

 

Just  a status update. I will be unable to work on the guide much more until after April 10th.

 

Hey no rush at all man, thank you for taking the time to write these things! You're making the game a better experience for all newbies :P 

But of course, real life comes first. 


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#8 Agitodesu

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Posted 31 March 2016 - 04:23 PM

Nice guide, there were tons of information on it thanks for the effort.


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#9 EggsDee

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Posted 03 April 2016 - 09:19 PM

Hey man, do I have your permission to post this guide on Steam? A lot of new players are coming from Steam, and there are absolutely no guides available for them. I will give full credit and take no credit for the guide, and will post the original link as well.


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#10 Gamenot

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Posted 09 April 2016 - 08:56 AM

Certainly, but note that this guide is a WIP and not really a newbie guide.


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