Para|Medic's Guide to Aliens

[Para|Medic]

Aliens Guide v. 1.0

This is an intermediate, and in some bits, advanced, guide. I'm going to keep the newbie basics to a minimum and assume you know what each class is, and basically what it does. Some of this guide is information collected from posts of various forums and the wiki. Much of it is my own. I'll try and give credit to those who's stuff I have plagiarized  0:).


A little note on Lagged vs. Unlagged games.


The following is a little brief on Lagged and Unlagged games. And what effect you can expect them to have on your alien.

From http://Unlagged.com/ "When you want to play a game over the internet you normally connect with you local client to a dedicated server, that is mostly far away from you. The result from this distance is that all the packets that you send and receive have to bypass this distance. And that needs some time.

The time a packet need to get from you to the server is normally called ping. The higher your ping the more problems will you get when you play on that server because you will lag, that means the packets you get from the server are "old" and so you can't react in time to whatever happens on the server. It also means that everything you send to the server is "old" for it and most of your actions will be to late to deploy their full potential.

A problem you often have when you play on a server with a high ping is that you aim at an enemy and shoot, but you wont hurt him. This is caused by the lag you have.

An easy example for this is the following: You see the enemy on you computer in a specific position and shoot. The information that you have shot will be stored in a packet and send to the server, but in the meantime the server is moving on with its calculations and the enemy you shot at will be moved forward. When the server than receives your packet it compares the position you shot at and the position of the enemy. But because the enemy moved forward during the time your packet needs to get to the server you wont hit him."

Thanks Unlagged.com. Whats this all mean?

The basic breakdown is this: Lagged means you need to lead your target by the amount of lag (or ping) you have. If you have a high ping, you need to lead more. With less ping you need to lead less. In real world terms with less than 100 ping you can basically aim at your target (except at long distances, play around and you will get an idea what you have to lead with. Fortunately with aliens you are generally at short ranges so with 100 ping you don't need to correct). With 200 - 300 ping you will need to lead slightly, maybe a step ahead of your opponent. In real world terms 200 - 300 ping is close to the max ping you will really want to play with in a lagged game. Beyond 300 ping in a lagged game and you are putting yourself at a significant disadvantage.

Unlagged tries to correct for high ping. It does this by taking your 'shoot' packet and attaching a 'target' to that packet. In effect, adding what exactly you shot at. So it means, what you swipe at, will take that damage (if of course, on your game, the damage hit) In Unlagged, if you hit someone the damage is done... only... its not done at 'server speed' (which we will say is 0). The damage is done at the speed of your ping. You did the damage and had, say... 250 ping. That means the damage will be done to the target with a little lag. The same lag as a player with 250 ping would normally expect to see in a lagged game. Basically transferring the lag you should be getting in a Lagged game, to your actions that everyone else sees based on yours and their lag. SO, basically in Unlagged the damage you get is based on everyone elses ping. In lagged it's based only on your ping. Lets do a scenario for an example.

In Unlagged, you are attacking the human base. You have 60 ping. You enter the human base and attack a turret, destroying it. You attempt a retreat with 250 health. As you round the corner of the base you glance at your health and note 50 health due to damage from the defenders. You think you are safe but that is not quite true. Someone with 300 ping saw you rounding the corner and managed to pull off a well-placed shotgun blast which (in his screen) killed you. You however (with lower ping) saw yourself make it around the corner. Tough luck, you actually didn't make it around the corner because someone with shitty ping saw you round the corner "later" than you actually did. You die. In Unlagged it is all about everyone equal. Everyone has to play the game according to everyone else's lag. You have to take into account everyone else's lag in an Unlagged game. Unlagged games benefit people with high pings ONLY. Unlagged can drop damage on you, damage you didn't expect because you were playing a slightly different 'battlefield'. You saw the field one way but someone else (with higher ping) saw it slightly different.

In Lagged, you are responsible for your own ping. In the same scenario in a lagged game you would have lived. But lets take a look at a scenario where Unlaggged would have helped. You are a Goon with 300 ping. You are moving though a hall and encounter a human with a shotgun. In lagged you are responsible for your own ping which means you will need to lead your target by a decent amount (because you have 300 ping). You engage the human and he (with 60 ping) can pretty much shoot wherever you are and assure himself a hit. You however, need to lead your hits so that means you have to anticipate his moves (ever so slightly, 300 ping is a disadvantage but not insurmountable. Don't get me wrong, 300 ping is difficult to play with in a Lagged game, but not impossible). You attempt to lead your target but he manages to dodge your attacks. Without leading him you will almost always miss because he will have moved in the time it takes you to attack. And leading is imperfect. He manages to kill you, partly because he saw you closer to where you "really" were (because of his lower ping) and you die because you could not correct for your own higher ping. (he was not where you saw him by a larger margin). Lagged games benefit low pings ONLY. Unless you can take into account your own ping and slightly correct for it that is.

What if you both have the same ping in a lagged game. What you both have ping that is 300 in an encounter? (a normally crappy ping for a Lagged game). Unless I'm mistaken both pings will pretty much cancel each other and you should have something close to an even playing field. That doesn't mean you can stop leading. Just means you are both at the same disadvantage.

What's this all amount to? Well, both Lagged and Unlagged have problems. Play around with both and see which you like better. I personally prefer Lagged with a low ping to anything else. Lagged with a slightly higher ping (around 200) is doable. I don't like Unlagged with any ping, there are odd delays and unexpected spikes in damage because attackers may have crappy ping, crappy ping that I end up paying for because I get an unexpected spike in damage. Perhaps I'm used to Lagged, but IMO I would rather everyone was responsible for their own ping instead of pushing off that responsibility to everyone else. Proponents of Unlagged claim it evens the playing field. I suggest those with high ping that complain on a lagged server, move onto a lagged server with better ping for them or stick on Unlagged servers.

The really short story? You will not see top tournament games in any FPS played in Unlagged, ever (they play LAN but whatever, Lagged would be second choice over Unlagged). Years of playing FPS's tend to train people to lead their targets. Most "old schoolers" are used to playing without Unlagged and leading their targets. If you are coming from a game without Unlagged and seem to be having trouble, try a Lagged server and see if that fits better.


On to Aliens

Aliens tend to be better loaners, as opposed to Humans, aliens can solo much better than humans can. While they are arguably more difficult to master, they lend themselfs to a different type of gameplay. Aliens on the whole are more powerful than Humans of the same stage. Don't of course let this fool you into thinking you can go in and "rambo" any situation. Aliens are a hit and run class. They are best suited for quick attacks and retreats. Aliens are fantastic at ambushes and gorilla tactics. Teamwork can take a little bit of a backseat (compared to humans) due to an easier retreat. Aliens, as opposed to humans, tend to deal their damage in quick spikes. Humans tend to do their damage over time. Aliens attack in spurts, humans in a steady stream of damage. There are of course exceptions (the Luci cannon does damage like an alien attack, one big burst). Aliens are also at an advantage in that they are not tied to their base for ammo and health. People bitch humans camp... well, humans are designed that way. They have better base defenses because they need better base defenses to protect the armory and medi. Humans cannot leave on extended attack missions the way aliens can. This means if you are up against better players than you, you can bide your time and wait for their health or medi to get low. Alot of humans tend to misjudge when they should be getting back to the base. Maybe they were on a good run racking up kills, maybe they didn't realize how many tubes there were in the alien base. Whatever the reason, a human running back to the base is always going to be an easier target than one coming out.  Learn to pick where and when to fight a human.

For beginners I would suggest learning a couple aliens before moving on to some of the more difficult aliens.

Get good with the Dretch, work on your Goon, and last practice with the Rant. The Lisk and Mara are great aliens but require a substantial amount of practice. You will only frustrate yourself if you waste your evos on a class you cannot use. Save the Mara and Lisk for later, when you can reliably make up lost evos with a Goon or Rant, then go back to practicing with them. They are fun, but difficult.

The following stats are a collection from the wiki, forums, and experience. Health is obvious. Speed is really only useful for comparison. Regen is how many HP you gain when you are regening health (per tick). Reward is how many credits humans get for killing you. The damage has 3 sets of numbers like this: N-## / A-## / B-## This corresponds to damage to Naked humans, Helmet and Light Armor, and Battlesuit.  Damage to a Battlesuit is always .2 that of normal damage. Light armor however has modifiers from 0.25 to 0.4, depending the angle of the attacker. The back seems to be better protected. So these numbers are flexible. Repeat is based on how quick you can pull off the next attack in milliseconds (1000ms is 1 second). Range is some arbitrary range in the game. Only really good for comparison. Much of these numbers are from data collected by |FA|JoE,  much of it from the actual Tremulous code assembled by b0rsuk of the Tremulous Forum, and some, from actual in-game testing. Thanks to 'a Turret' and 'Gir(need more tacos' for some of this data.

Granger/Advanced Granger


health: 50/75
speed: 0.8/1.0
regen: 2/3
build delay: 12sec/17sec
reward: 200/250


blob damage: 4
blob repeat: 1000ms
blob speed: 800

claw damage: 10 feet/20 torso/40 head
claw repeat: 1000ms
claw range: 64


The Granger is the alien builder class. At stage 2 the advanced granger becomes available. Data seems to indicate the advanced granger is a slower builder than it's stage one counterpart. I need to confirm this.

Before we get into building with the granger I feel I need to point something out. The granger is not an attack class. I'm going to repeat this for emphasis. The granger is NOT an attack class. Yes, it can spit. Yay... if you take into account damage per second of granger spit you're looking at a whopping 4 DPS. That means to take out a turret with 190 hit points would take 47.5 seconds to kill it. It's not going to happen in a real game. The damage output is so small I didn't even put up the data for claw damage to anything other than naked humans. Don't go out and attack with the Granger. It makes you look like a noob. Don't do it. This is called being a "Battlegranger" and people hate it. You have no attack skills worth mentioning so you are basically a big fat 250 paycheck for any moron who can aim. On top of that you end up feeding (that is, giving the other team one more kill to get closer to the next stage, and thus closer to bigger and better weapons and armor). You also move slower than any other alien so you often end up blocking the retreat of aliens who need to get out, and end up getting them killed. Some people claim the Granger is great for bating humans out of the base. You are wrong. You look like a nub without a basic understanding of the game. You are more likely to be a pest to your own team than you are to bait someone out of the base. Anyone that falls for this 'baiting' is not someone who will be anything close to a real threat in the game anyway. Anyone teamkilling a battlegranger is most likely doing their team a favor so cut them some slack. They may have saved your life or the life of a teammate.

Now with that out of the way... DON'T FUCKING BATTLEGRANGER.

Ahem... excuse me.

Now with that out of the way.

Building
One of the alien strengths in Tremulous is the quickness with which they build. Aliens build considerably quicker than humans do, but, at a cost. The alien base is considerably weaker than human bases. The Human base is to keep aliens out and kill thoes that stick around. The alien base (while often deadly) is more aimed at slowing down attacking humans. This is great for you, the base doesn't kill the human outright, it lets you get the evo for killing him. This of course assumes someone sticks around to defend the base. Humans can let their base do most the work for them (they often do lol) but aliens can get screwed over pretty quick if the base is undefended. The Overmind gives a warning when it's under attack, the eggs do not. Humans will use this to their advantage and fuck up your eggs leaving you with no spawns. Defending doesn't mean you need an actual defender. Oftentimes the Granger becomes the defender by screaming in teamchat whenever a human pops on on the radar, oftentimes with some indication where the human is (i.e. Incoming!!! Side hall!!) This is so helpful. Try and let your team know whats going on in the base. If things look bad and the base is screwed, try and flee and place an egg somewhere. This "last stand egg" can sometimes save the whole team. If you can run around the map dropping eggs here and there (usually on large maps) occasionally your team can rally and pull out a win. And you, the lowly granger, are the hero of the match.

The following is jacked from TremulousWiki (unknown author) I have added minor notes at the end of some paragraphs when I felt it necessary.:

Overview

Alien base defenses kill relatively few humans. Rather, they are intended to make an area of the map uncomfortable for human life, to distract, to draw fire, and to delay human attackers from reaching the important structures. A dispersed base is more important for aliens than for humans because humans have area effect weapons (flamethrower, grenade, lucifer cannon) that can attack multiple structures at once if they are clustered closely together. It is simply a waste of time to build 5 acid tubes on the ground near each other since a single grenade will eliminate them all at once. Eggs should never be clustered together. Make humans fire at each structure separately.

Human threats

At stage 1, the painsaw suicide attack is a serious threat. One or more humans wielding painsaws can eliminate the Overmind and any ground eggs they can reach in a few seconds. Acid tubes rarely deal damage quickly enough to kill these suicide rushers. Accordingly, it is best to BLOCK humans from reaching the Overmind if at all possible.

At stage 2, the humans acquire pulse rifles, which can eliminate alien structures in line of sight rather quickly. However, aliens acquire the ability to place many structures on ceilings, out of reach of painsaw rushers.

At stage 3, humans acquire the lucifer cannon, which can kill most alien structures in single shots.

Alien Base Building - Stage One

Aliens are limited to a very simple base structure in stage one, with only eggs, barricades, and acid tubes as potential accompaniment for the overmind. At this stage, alien structures would be unable to repel a good human attack without support from defending aliens.

When building view your acid tubes as expendable, easily replaceable distractions that will delay a human advance long enough for your fighting teammates to do the serious damage. It's often advantageous to place a forward egg, surrounded by a few acid tubes, to surprise scouting humans and possibly drain them below 97 HP so they are vulnerable to death from one Dretch headbite. Para|Medic- Be reasonable. An egg and a tube in the middle of a hallway is a waste of build points and will feed the other team credits when they kill the egg.

Although overmind moves are usually not practical during stage one because of a likely early human attack, you can protect your overmind by making sure it can't be attacked from an angle where the attacker would be shielded from larger aliens. If necessary, place tubes and eggs near the overmind to make nearby corners inaccessible to sneaky humans.

In stage one, standard grangers can achieve wallwalk-like movement with the help of a friendly Dretch. Advise the Dretch to use wallwalk to cling to the very bottom of a wall. Then, jump on top of the Dretch, using it as a platform. Once you are on top of the Dretch, advise it to advance up the wall. Each time you jump with your granger while on top of the “Dretch elevator,” you will move a little higher. This technique makes it possible to build in some hard-to-reach areas while still in stage one. Para|Medic- This is obviously time consuming and difficult and should not be attempted in a public game until you have plenty of practice.

[Para|Medic]

Alien Base Building - Stage Two

The largest gains that the aliens make by achieving stage two are a wide array of powerful structures and the potential to upgrade to advanced granger for more hit points, maneuverability, and most importantly, the ability to easily build on walls and ceilings. It is very important for aliens to take advantage of these new capabilities by totally reworking their base immediately upon reaching stage two. Para|Medic- Oftentimes skilled builder have 2 bases for each map. A stage one base and a stage 2 base. More on this later.

First on the agenda after evolving to advanced granger should be constructing a booster to help your team do more damage and regenerate faster. Place the booster where it can't easily be shot from beyond the range of your base defenses, but is easily accessible to aliens of all sizes. Do not bury the booster deep in your base where aliens can't reach it - it is more useful the closer to the humans it is! If your team is applying enough offensive pressure to keep the humans in their base, you might want to build the booster at a small forward outpost so it is easier for attacking aliens to use. In all cases, it is helpful to let your teammates know where the booster will be and encourage them to use it.

Next, begin using your wallwalk ability to move base structures from the floor, where they are vulnerable to saw rushes and grenades, to walls and ceilings where they can survive longer and also do more damage. Eggs should be placed safely out of common human lines of fire from doors and vents, but close enough to these openings that they can provide creep to sustain base defenses. Keep in mind that an egg's hitbox (the portion of a structure that must be hit for it to take damage) is at its base, so, for example, an egg in a groove on the ceiling would be very difficult to destroy even if it protrudes out of the groove. Para|Medic- Check lines of sight. If you can se something from an undefended hallway, it will get taken out.

Deconstruct some of your acid tubes to free up BP for trappers, arguably the coolest and most powerful structure available in Tremulous. Trappers are extremly deadly when paired with either defending aliens or acid tubes, so you should decide upon a tube-to-trapper ratio accordingly. If you are in a large game with lots of aliens to defend, you can replace every acid tube in your base with a trapper and count on your teammates to deal out damage to trapped humans. In smaller games, it is smart to leave a few acid tubes around, in case there are no aliens in your base to take down trapped humans. Para|Medic- For the most part, relying entirely on trappers is stupid.

Trapper placement is an art in itself, and if you master it your team can repel even the strongest human pushes. Trappers freeze humans by firing a projectile, but their aim is not very excellent. A trapper can only target humans that are within a conic area extending outwards from the trapper's base. Think of the trapper as creating a tripwire pointing in the direction that the trapper is pointing. With this in mind, it is essential to always place trappers so that they will be perpendicular to human paths - ideally, on a wall facing a nearby door, or on the ceiling above the door, facing downwards. The “floortrapper,” a trapper on the floor, will not affect any human unless he literally stands on it, and should therefore never be built. Trappers have considerable range, so it is possible to place them far enough away from the entrance that they will be protected from splash damage from lucifer cannon fire and grenades launched from outside, but still be able to trap incoming humans. Basically, try to arrange your trappers so that humans cannot destroy them without getting trapped first. Well-placed trappers frustrate humans and make your teammates' job much easier. Para|Medic- Keep in mind the trapper blob is kinda slow, a run/jump through a well trapped doorway is oftentimes all it takes to get by it. Sometimes it still gets you, sometimes not. Try and get an acid tube near the path a human must take to get by the Trapper. The tube will slow them down slightly and the trapper has a better chance of getting them.

Alien Base Building - Stage Three

After you are done setting up your base in stage two, you shouldn't need to make many changes. Aliens only have access to two new buildings in stage three, and neither is very remarkable.

Inexperienced builders assume that because hives cost more BP and are available later in the game, they must be superior to trappers and acid tubes. This is simply incorrect. Although hives can output more damage than acid tubes, they can only target one human at a time and are therefore very ineffective against any group of human attackers. Trappers and acid tubes can slow and damage many attackers simultaneously, making them the better choice. Hives are somewhat suited for taking down jetpackers that may venture into your base, because their insect swarms have a slightly longer range than acid tubes. However, if your trapper and tube defenses are adequate, jetpackers should not even be able to enter your base in the first place. Hives seem underpowered for their build cost. Para|Medic- The Hive is great at keeping jet-pack humans on the ground. The hive attack moves so slowly thats basically as fast as it moves. Hive/trapper combos are actually pretty good but the cost is prohibitive enough the build points is almost always better spent on tubes. You get 2 hives for the cost of 3 tubes. Stick with the tubes most of the time.

The hovel is somewhat of a joke in Tremulous, as, in the event of a large human attack, grangers are usually more likely to survive by scurrying around on the ceiling, rather than hiding inside a conspicuous building. The hovel's true merit is that it costs zero build points, and so is essentially just a free barricade you can use to shield your overmind or eggs from fire or prevent common routes for luci jumpers (humans who fire a charged lucifer cannon shot at their feet to reach a platform). The hovel can also be used to block human approaches, replacing the barricade for zero bp. Para|Medic- The Hovel is useful when placed in front of the OM to keep grenades away from the base of the holy Overmind, and painsaw rushers have to go around it. Basically use your head with the Hovel, don't block your teams access to the base and try and place it in a useful spot. 

Once in stage three, the granger's main role is to maintain the existing base until sudden death.

Thank you TremulousWiki and the unknown author of that article. I would have written alot of the same stuff (Turns out I did, I got about halfway into the threats, and build stage overview before I said fuck that, TremulousWiki already did this and probably did a better job (and less swearing) so I took theirs.) I did trim some stuff out that I personally disagree with... some stuff about floor trappers being useful (the hell??) and some stuff on barricades. (usually the BP is better spent on a trapper or tube)

Stage 1

Overmind


Cost: 0 bp
Hit Points: 750 hp
Regen: 6
Build time: 30 sec

The Overmind (or OM) is the heart of the alien base. Along with the eggs, the entire base's defenses should be built to limit human access to these structures. You get one OM. If it goes down your team cannot evolve and you cannot build. In addition no alien structure will function without the OM. Acid tubes don't work, trappers don't trap, etc... So.. in short keep that thing alive. If a human attacks the OM and gets it to 1 hp before dying or running off it will take the OM 2 minutes 7 seconds to regen to full health. In that 2 minutes alot can happen. Don't let your defenders run off until the OM is back to at least 75% health. A wounded OM is a small step away from a dead OM. At stage one you have to worry about a saw rush. The machine gun on the other hand takes 5 full clips and 22 seconds to take out. Worry about the saw rush. Early on get a tube or 2 near the OM for saw defense. In later stages you can use a barricade to defend, but it's not suggested. Most times the bp could be better used elsewhere. Keep a tube or two near the OM for saws and rely on outer defenses and active defenders.


Egg


Cost: 10 bp
Hit Points: 250 hp
Regen: 8
Build time: 15 sec

Along with the OM, Eggs are your primary concern when building base defenses. Without eggs, your team cannot spawn, build and defend them accordingly. Eggs are also required to build further out from the OM. They produce a radius of 'creep' that allows you to build other structures away from the OM. Be careful when deconstructing eggs. If something is not on the creep provided by other eggs or the OM and you deconstruct an egg, any structure that was relying on the creep provided by that egg will be immediately destroyed. Also worth noting is when the game enters ESD (no spawns, full evos/credits) any structures relying on that creep, will again, be destroyed. Build your Booster within range of the OM. It's also a pretty good idea to keep some base defenses within range of the OM. An alien egg on the by the way, completely heals after 33 seconds. If a rifle attacks, a rifle clip packs 150 damage, so it takes a little below 2 full clips to take out an egg. Try and maintain 2 - 3 eggs in a base. Relying on 1 egg in any base, no matter how well defended is a recipe for disaster. One, well-charged Luci can take out an egg so it's a good idea to have backups, on a large map occasionally a well hidden egg outside the base can save the game. Each base is different and each game is different. If you have 5 teammates, 3 eggs is probably too much. Your teammates cannot spawn quick enough to back up the spawn queue. If, however, there is a spawn queue it might be a good idea to build another egg.


Acid Tube


Cost: 8
Hit Points: 125 hp
Regen: 10
Build time: 15 sec

This is the workhorse of the alien defensive structures. They are cheap and effective. Tubes work best when they are kept out of line of sight until they are at least in range of doing some damage. Tube damage is based on proximity, not the animation of acid spurting out of the tube. Just because it looks like the acid falls on humans when they come through the door, doesn't mean they are doing good damage. The closer to humans the tube is, the more damage it does. Tubes work well in groups to stack up damage on humans. Hidden behind walls near doors and around corners work well. At stage 2 humans get grenades. Grenades will rip up rows of tubes on the ground. Try and keep groups of tubes off the ground (about waist to head height on a human) to avoid grenades destroying them in one swoop. Get creative with tubes, find what works and what doesn't. Watch skilled builders place tubes, where they put them, how they conceal them etc, and keep in mind, like mentioned above, tubes are expendable. If a tube can delay a human long enough for backup to arrive to kill him or shoo him away, it's done it's job.


Barricade


Cost: 10 bp
Hit Points: 200 hp
Regen: 14
Build time: 20 sec

'Cades are teh suck. Anything that can block a human will block alot of aliens, use them sparingly. I have to say I rarely use them. Maybe one game in... I dunno... 50 will I build one. Probably closer to 1 in 100. They are expensive and pretty much useless. The bp would be better spent elsewhere. In the upcoming release of Tremulous 1.2 barricades will be cheaper and allow aliens to pass... so... hopefully they will be more useful later.

Stage 2

Trapper


Cost: 8 bp
Hit Points: 50 hp
Regen: 6
Build time: 12 sec

Trappers are Great. Fires in a Line-Of-Sight cone, stops movement, and prevents non-Battlesuits from turning. Like mentioned above a trapper can only target humans that are within a conic area extending outwards from the trapper's base. Think of the trapper as creating a tripwire pointing in the direction that the trapper is pointing. With this in mind, it is essential to always place trappers so that they will be perpendicular to human paths - ideally, on a wall facing a nearby door, or on the ceiling above the door, facing downwards. Don't build floor trappers. Just don't. You'll look retarded. Keep the trappers off the floor. Floor trappers are never going to trap anyone. For a floor trapper to work, someone would have to try and jump over the trapper. I tend to rely mostly on tubes with a couple well placed trappers near high traffic areas. Ideally you want to place your trappers in an area that forces humans to split their attention on the trapper and the bases other defenses. If somone has to turn away from the bulk of your base to shoot the trapper you have done a good gob splitting their attention. Oftentimes this can lead to a fat juicy target with his back to you while he deals with the trapper. It's important to remember trappers have pretty low health (50) which makes them weak vs. nades. Anything lower than about head height on a human can get taken out by a single nade tossed on the floor below it. If you look below in the example base on Nivius, the Nivius Base S2 shows how precise placement of trappers can make them appear to 'float'. This is done by placing the edge of the trapper on the edge of a wall or ledge. This can be useful in fine-tuning the placement for maximum efficiency.

Booster


Cost: 12 bp
Hit Points: 150 bp
Regen: 8
Build time: 15 sec
Poison damage (total): 4 damage for 5 ticks. 20 damage total.

Build a Booster as soon as you hit stage 2. The booster Gives aliens poison for 30 seconds, Doubles regeneration of all nearby Aliens except for Tyrants. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE ON IT FOR THE REGENERATION BOOST, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE POISON YOU HAVE THE REGENERATION BOOST! Don't crowd the booster if you need to regen quicker. Make room for other aliens by getting your poison and moving on. Again, you don't need to sit on top of the booster. If you are a Rant, don't even bother with with the booster. As a Rant, if you need poison to get kills, you're doing something wrong. (and you're probably not going to get more kills anyway, Rant damage is balanced as such they will kill or not. poison is almost always not going to help. If 2 swipes doesn't kill, 3 will, but poison won't help either way.) Again- as a Rant, you're probably wasting your time with the booster. You will not regen on it and it is unlikely the booster will help you get kills. If you feel like grabbing poison when you pass through the base feel free, but I would not suggest going out of your way to grab it. You're likely wasting time doing so. The booster is particularly effective wen used with the Dretch headbite. A headbite on a naked human does 96 damage, the poison from booster does 4 damage a tick, so unless the human is really quick with his medikit, you will have a dead human real quick.

Stage 3

Hive


Cost: 12 bp
Hit Points: 125 hp
Regen: 10
Build time: 20 sec

Expensive and almost always useless. Great vs. jet-packs but usually an acid tube will do a better job. Yes, they do more damage, but the hive attack is so slow anything on legs will outrun it. Sometimes good when used with a trapper but I usually rely on the quicker building and cheaper acid tube. If you have your last 12 bp's and you are going to build a tube, near a trapper, consider using a well-hidden hive. Like I said above the Hive is great at keeping jet-pack humans on the ground. The hive attack moves so slowly thats basically as fast as it moves. Hive/trapper combos are actually pretty good but the cost is prohibitive enough the build points is almost always better spent on tubes. You get 2 hives for the cost of 3 tubes. Stick with the tubes most of the time.

Hovel


Cost: 0
Hit Points: 375 hp
Regen: 20
Build time: 15 sec

Free barricade. Like I said above, the Hovel is useful when placed in front of the OM to keep grenades away from the base of the holy Overmind, and painsaw rushers have to go around it. Basically use your head with the Hovel, don't block your teams access to the base and try and place it in a useful spot. One of the biggest mistakes I see nub players do with the hovel is block access to the OM and eggs completely. If a human gets by, bigger aliens have a hard time getting over the hovel and it may cost them the game. The Hovel block may seem like a good idea until a human gets by and your Rant defenders can't jump over the hovel and have to watch as a lone human pwns your base.


Here's some examples of useful building techniques and examples.

Nivius Base Aliens S1



[Below] From above you can see the setup forces humans to sit there and take out the barricade and cluster of tubes before attempting a saw rush. If they do decide to rush they will have a really hard time making it past the tubes and get some actual damage to the OM.



Obviously this base would need to change as soon as you hit S2 and can build on walls. See below for a solid S2 Alien base on Nivius.


Here is a nice wide shot of an effective Nivius Base S2.


The real nice thing about this base is the 3, amazingly effective trappers. Build 2 on the rails over the door making sure you build them off the edge of the rail


The third trapper is built on the middle light as a kinda insurance trapper. If they jump past the first two trappers the light trapper will get them when they land. Also built off the edge of the light. Another thing worth noting is the placement of the eggs, both in the corners built on the edge. Sometimes humans forget to kill these eggs (sometimes). Building them on the ceiling also keeps them away from nades.

[Para|Medic]

ATCS Alien Traps

[Below] Building this Trapper/Tube combo on both sides of the walkway (in the alcoves as pictured) can be very effective at stopping alot of traffic. Make sure you build thoes trappers right up against the wall in the corner as pictured, it forces the humans to move further into your base to get an angle to shoot at them.



[Below] The Egg on the right permits building a trapper on the wall to the left. That trapper there does a fantastic job at stopping humans from making it to the far corner where they can sit and shoot the OM. Also note how when a Dretch spawns from that egg, it drops directly onto the Booster for poison. If that egg gets killed, the booster and trapper will automatically die. The default placement of the OM prevents building close to the opposite wall (where the Trapper and Booster are built) so the only thing supporting those is the creep from the egg.




Attack Aliens
Now onto attack aliens (Don't fucking attack with the Granger  )

Pro-tip Before we start I will tell you to focus on headbites, chomps, aiming etc... if you find you are having trouble landing heabites (or chomps or swipes or whatever) there's a trick you can do to help out your aim. Press tab to pull up the scores. The scores are split between aliens on the left and humans on the right. Between them is a scroll bar with a white line on the left and a white line on the right. The right line is dead center running vertically. Put your finger on this line and now press the tilda key ( ~ ) to pull up the consol. The red line at the bottom of the consol is dead center running horizontally. Move your finger over to the red line. Where these two points cross is the center of your screen. You can mark your screen with a bit of sticky-tac or a tiny piece of tape to help you center your hits. Even a dry erase marker works. Just make sure you check and make sure your screen is not going to get damaged by whatever you put on it. (I take no responsibility if you do fuck up your screen in any way). Once you get comfortable with centering your hits you can loose the tape or stick-tac. This little tip may give you an idea how high up you have to aim a headbite with a Dretch, or whatever. Someone will bitch at me this is cheating. Fuck you. Its a mark on a screen, so suck it. If you have a problem with it play a different game and STFU.

Dretch


speed: 1.3
health: 25
regen: 1
reward: 175


bite damage feet: N-24 / A-7 / B-4
bite damage torso: N-48 / A-16 / B-9
bite damage head: N-96 / A-28 / B-19
bite repeat: 500ms
bite range: 64


The Dretch is arguably one of the most important aliens in the game and will subsequently receive more attention than some of the other classes will in this guide. The skills you learn as a Dretch will transfer over to many other aliens. If you're good at something with the Dretch (i.e. ambushes, or wallwalking) the skill will transfer over without much adjustment. The Dretch is the starting class and the foundation of your alien game. Without a strong Dretch game, your other aliens will suffer. Most games are decided in S1 who will win (not always but frequently enough). Once one side gets momentum going it's difficult to slow them down. If you can get a Goon within one minute of start, you have probably doubled your odds at finishing the game before the S3 standoff. The Goon is the springboard for the rest of your game. Pay it the respect it deserves by spending some time working on it. Becoming effective at the most important alien in the game requires 3 distinct skills. 1- Effective ambushes, 2- Effective closing, and finally 3- Effective Attacks.

1- Ambushes

Each map has areas that you can use to your advantage to limit the major human advantage over you. Namely range. You are limited to short range and you should do everything in your power to eliminate that factor from the equation. Find areas in corners, avoid areas with long hallways. Hide behind things and use the terrain to your advantage. Think like a human, what would you be looking for when moving towards the alien territory? Always wait for the last possible second to move. You have to balance distance and surprise. You always want to surprise the human but you want him as close as possible.

-Use terrain to your advantage, corners, boxes, walls, whatever.
-Wallwalk is a great tool to set up a good ambush spot.
-Remember, Dretches are not commandos, they are ambushers. You cannot take damage like other aliens.
-Wait, wait, wait. Wait for the right moment to strike.
-Learn to balance surprise and waiting. If you are spotted before the human is close enough you have cut your odds of getting that kill.
-You can sometimes use a retreat to set up a second ambush.
-Learn the maps and find your own good spots to ambush from.
-Using your radar and jumping out from behind a corner can get you quick easy headbites.
-You'll get a feel for jumping with practice. Until then stick with the walls and keep the jumping to a minimum.

Here's an example of a decent ambush tactic along with some good spots in A.T.C.S. to try it out.

In this example pick your spot, wait for the human to round the corner, and as you wallwalk around the corner try and keep the human in your sights. As you round the corner of the wall you may get lucky and the human may be a little too close to the corner and you might get a lucky headbite as he rounds. This means one quick simple bite anywhere on him to finish him off. The key is timing your move from your starting point. You want to come around that wall the same time the human passes it. He may miss you and you can get behind him. You may bite him as he comes around. Either way he will have a hard time tracking you as you move across the 3 surfaces and you can quickly close the distance on him. You want to time this particular ambush just right. This all depends on your ability to read the radar. Pay close attention to the radar and really understand the information it is giving you.

2- Closing

Closing is moving. Once you have the human in a good ambush you should not have alot of distance to cover. There are a couple basic rules moving with a Dretch. Don't move in straight lines and keep them confused. Try to get behind humans when you can. Keep them looking for you. A Dretch at your feet that can circle around you is almost impossible to kill. One maneuver I like is zigging and zagging, wallwalking around a human to disorient him while moving in. once you get close enough try and strafe  around him while looking at his head. The key is to safely close any distance between you and him and get into that area real close where keeping you in his sights is almost impossible. A special note on Wallwalking- Learn it. Wallwalking is one of your best advantages, some maps have ceilings so low you can headbite humans from the ceiling. If they back up against a wall, get on that same wall and try and move in a smooth circle around their heads. People are used to shooting things that move in predictable ways, particularly targets moving on the floor. Wallwalk adds another level in movement. Taking your movement options from the 2D floor and using that third dimension you  can really confuse players. Try and wallwalk as much as you can stand. Get comfortable with it as quick as possible. Try bouncing, run at a wall, run up the side, make it about halfway up the wall (or about human head height) and jump off the wall. You'll pick up speed and still be difficult to hit when fleeing. If you can string together several bounces you can get going quick, remain difficult to hit, and still maintain some control. You're wallwalking less but it's a good start.

-Never charge a human with a Dretch. It's never going to get you kills.
-Jumping should be used sparingly. A jumping Dretch is a Dretch moving in a straight line. Dretches moving in straight lines are dead Dretches.
-Jumping is loud, a human can hear you jump from pretty far away. Don't loose your surprise on a human by jumping at him.
-When you do jump make sure it is not toward or away from a human.
-Sometimes jumping can throw off humans, depends on their skill.
-In your settings set your wallwalk speed to something you are comfortable with. I like 'Fast'. Some people like 'Slow' or 'Medium'.
-When wallwalking use the Shift key (or whatever you have 'walk' binded to) like a break. I'll use Shift when I loose myself or to slow down when making a snappy turn.
-Practice a few quick wallwalking maneuvers  and get them down. Like the ambush tactic in the pic above or other fast maneuvers that you can pull off in a pinch.
-If you are too far from a human, fall back and try and lead him into another ambush. YOU decide where to fight, don't let him pull you into a loosing situation. Stay in control. Make him come to you. The best way to close the distance between you and a human is to let them do it unknowingly.

3- Attacks

A single Dretch can be a horror on humans in S1 due to their headbite (HB) damage of 96. Get good at the HB. It is possible to do a HB from the ground, it takes some practice but the practical upshot is you rarely have to worry about humans owning you in S1. The trick to the HB is aiming above the humans head by about 1 foot. Image below (thanks ShakeZula.)





You can kill a naked human in 1 second. No, that is not an exaggeration. You have a bite repeat of 500 ms. You need 2 bites to kill a human so you can, in effect, kill a human in 1000ms (or 1 second). The only trick is landing one HB and following up with another quick attack. If we follow the 3 steps you want to ambush, close and headbite. Try and make that first attack a HB. After you have them on the run you can relax a little and just focus on landing another hit. Listen to the human wen you bite. If you land a HB on a naked human you will be rewarded with a lower, more painful sounding grunt. Thats the sound of a nearly dead human. If you get a torso or worse, a leg bite, you will get a higher sounding grunt. Listen to the grunt you get and react accordingly. If you get that low grunt, you can land a second hit anywhere. If you get that higher grunt, you know you will have to land a HB to finish him. Oftentimes after an initial attack the human will back away in a straight line. This is not the time to charge him. This is the time to strafe him. Again, don't let a human pull you into a fight he will win. After an initial attack, this is a great time to use the walls to close the distance on him and land that final blow. At S2 the booster becomes available which greatly improves the damage a Dretch can do. A single HB with poison from the booster will kill 95% of the time. Use this to your advantage and grab poison every time you can.

With groups of humans the same rules apply. Ambush and try and land a HB. Try and keep the bulk of the humans between you and your initial target. Let them finish him off. Use the walls and either fall back or follow up your first attack with a second. Use groups of humans against each other and let their numbers confuse them. Learn when yo fall back and when to push forward. Approach a group of humans with caution. Even skilled Dretches can have a hard time with groups. With poison you can do some good damage quickly by landing as many bites as possible on groups. If you make them HB's you can drop a group quickly.

At S2 humans become much harder to kill. With a helmeted, armored human you should rely on hit-and-run tactics and keep an ear out for that low grunt. When you hear that try and get in with that final blow. Don't push an attack unless you feel confident you can either finish or get out safe. Anything else is just feeding.

Special attention should be paid to Shotguns, Lucifer Cannons, and Las Guns. These can be particularly effective on Dretches, the Luci especially so. Fall back if you have to. Let them come into the base if you need to and let your defenses do some of the dirty work. Too often Dretches charge into a battle they are hoplessly outgunned and complain when they feed. Pick your battles. Choose who and where to fight. I would suggest avoiding armored humans if at all possible until you are confident you can do some damage and get out.

-Learn how to headbite. Always aim slightly above the head.
-Make your first surprise bite a headbite.
-Follow up a headbite by strafing around the human to disorient him, put other threats between you and your target. Use him as a shield.
-If you approach a human from behind, make that first bite a headbite.
-Listen to the grunts human make. When you hear that low grunt, keep the pressure on them, but don't get sloppy.
-Humans move predictably. You can tell when someone is going into a corner. Use the corner to nail 'em.
-Count off the rifle rounds. Move in when they are low.
-A rifle clip can sustain 2.7 seconds of full auto fire. Move in at 2.5 seconds, dance with him till then draining his clip.
-Humans tend to back away in a straight line when reloading
-If a human is using bursts of fire, try and guess when he is low and move in. 

This video shows some bites, effective wallwalking, and taking out single Turrets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16Sqq7AU_0  Props to  FR34KShow

This is a great video showing some serious turret killing skills .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7Y62aWRoBU  (unknown player)

[Para|Medic]

Basilisk


speed: 1.25
health: 75
regen: 2
reward: 225


claw damage feet: N-16 / A-4 / B-3
claw damage torso: N-32 / A-4 / B-3
claw damage head: N-64 / A-19 / B-12
claw repeat: 600ms
claw range: 96

grab range: 64


The Lisk is one of my favorite aliens in the game. They are certainly the most fun. Basilisk's probably have the biggest learning curve, and I am by no means a master, but with practice they can be a real terror. A pro Basi is by far scarier than a decent Rant or Goon. Nothing here will make you a pro Basi. The Lisk, above all other aliens, requires patience and practice. Don't expect to do well with a Lisk until you have put in a good chunk of time playing with one. It may be the most rewarding class to play but it is by no means the easiest. The Lisk is without doubt the most difficult class to play. You have been warned.

For attacking the human base I would suggest keeping your attacks to Turret. The Lisk has little health and most bases will chew your Lisk up and spit it out. Particularly if the base has a telsa in it. It's possible to hop the RC with a Lisk however difficult and time consuming. The Mara is a better choice for hopping the RC. The Lisk is great vs Turret as it's grab will slow the turret turn speed to the point where it is pretty easy to kill a single ret. Multiple Turrets can prove more challenging.

The Basilisk has a couple effective strategies you can practice on. The Lisk has relatively low health for the size. One half a rifle clip can kill a Lisk, so keep that in mind when on the offensive. It's unlikely one clip will actually get you but not unlikely enough to risk a full frontal asult. The Lisk plays a bit like the Dretch in terms of attack. Use some of the ambush tactics we covered in the Dretch section above. More than any other class you will be required to effectively use the wallwalk and avoid straight-line attacks on humans. You will get chewed up. You are a bigger target than a Dretch and you will need to avoid fire whenever possible. Try and initiate attacks only when at full health.

When moving up on unsuspecting humans always use the shift key to walk. The Lisk makes a distinct sound as he walks which can give you away before you ever make your attack. This will change in 1.2, but in the meantime, get used to walking up on unsuspecting humans.

I use a couple tactics when taking solo humans. I generally try for an ambush like we talked about above. Once you close the distance on the human you're looking to get the grab. When the Lisk makes the grab you will hear a high pitched "Yeeeaoh" sound. Listen for this sound. Practice a little and keep an ear out for that sound. Once you hear this sound IMMEDIATELY press the shift key to walk and strafe around to the back side of the human. I suggest using the walk key so you don't move too quickly and loose your grip. Your grip is entirely dependent on keeping the human centered in your crosshairs. If you manage to grab a human and let him slip out of your crosshairs you will loose your grip. Practice landing a grab and in one smooth motion pressing the shift key to walk and slide around to the backside of him. You want to be on the backside of him to prevent him from pulling off a lucky shot on you. Once you get behind him you can either try and look up and swipe his head (which is risky, you might look a hair too high and loose your grip), or focus on his torso and swipe there (less likely to loose your grip, but takes precious seconds to do). Keep in mind, you will do at least twice as much damage going for the head. Personally I will drag it out if I think I have time, let them panic in my clutches while I slowly kill them. If, however, time is important or reinforcements are on the way, go for the head. Once you can keep a human in your grab and slide behind them without much difficulty, practice the head-jump. The head-jump requires you to get behind the human and maintain your grasp while you make a quick jump and land on their head. The real trick is keeping them held while you do this. Practice with a friend if you can, Grab him, get behind and tell him to try and get free while you try and get on top of his head. It requires you to look down as you jump up, keeping the bulk of your target centered in your screen. It's harder than it sounds, but the reward is a much easier headshot and some good protection from attacks. Do your best to keep the bulk of you Lisk body on the back edge of his head. Humans can look up slightly and still manage a kill. If you are still having trouble, you can just focus on keeping your grip and bouncing up and down while slashing. If you stay in front of him, prepare to loose alot of fights when they frantically shoot you.

One useful tactic is to scavenge. Stick around a fight for a minute, a little out of the way and wait for a larger alien to pick a fight. Oftentimes when a Goon or Rant take major damage they will flee and the human will chase. This is an awesome opportunity to pick off an already weak human that is distracted with a chase. Keep in mind you are just as much a target as your fleeing teammate so stay on the walls and wait for your moment.

Vs. groups the Lisk at a disadvantage. A Lisk can completely remove one of them from a fight but the second can cover his buddy. One method, should you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, is using one of them as a human shield, putting your target between you and the second human. It works but requires alot of finesse and skill at strafing. Obviously while you are using this poor sucker as a shield you would be swiping him. Hopefully his buddy is doing some damage to him as he tries to get you. If you manage to drop the first target I suggest quickly retreating or pushing a second attack. Remember, the Lisk's wallwalk is one of his greatest advantages, use it to fall back when needed. I try and spend most my time on walls and ceilings. Oftentimes you will accidently get the jump on an oblivious human with his eyes on the ground. If you do try for a second attack, don't be surprised if you fail. The Lisk is well suited for ambushes, but not as well for full frontal assaults. I tend to retreat after one kill and set up for a second attack. You only have 75 health.

With groups of 3 or more, you are better off falling back or trying to flank. You can sometimes confuse a group by doing a few hit-and-run's, Dretch style, without sticking around to grab someone but oftentimes it is a suicide run.

Avoid Battlesuits and Luci cannons if at all possible. Both are well suited to effectively funlily the Lisk grab. Save your evo and find easier targets. If you must, the Lisk grab will slow a Battlesuit's turn so you can dance around him while he tries to get you his sights. It's not suggested. I like to grab suits while they are in range of a tube and hit them before running off. Larger aliens are are better suited for dealing with Battlesuits. When a Luci is grabbed, they will almost always charge a shot and shot their feet. One fairly effective tactic is to grab them and immediately back off, letting them shoot themselves. Rinse and repeat. Again, not suggested. You will probably die trying this one. If you move quick you can get on a Luci's head, look straight down, and bounce as you swipe him. The bouncing will keep you away from the Luci blast. It can be done, and props if you can pull it off. Again- Not suggested. Incredibly difficult to do.

I should mention. If you plan on playing Lisk, be prepared to get teamkilled... alot. When you latch onto a human your teammates, like a magnet, will come running to "help". In their nub frantic slashings you will get your evos stolen and oftentimes teamkilled. Get used to it. Play on servers that offer retribution to get your evo(s) back. Don't be a douche and start swearing at your teammates however much you may want to. (believe me, i've been there) It's the nature of the game.



Advanced Basilisk


speed: 1.25
health: 100
regen: 3
reward: 275


claw damage feet: N-16 / A-4 / B-3
claw damage torso: N-32 / A-4 / B-3
claw damage head: N-64 / A-19 / B-12
claw repeat: 500ms
claw range: 96

grab range: 64

poison breath damage: 4 per tick. 10 ticks total. 40 damage max.


The Adv. Lisk gets 25 more health, a faster claw repeat, 1 more health per regen, and the Gas! Everything I covered in the Lisk section applies here. The Adv. Lisk gives you an additional attack. The Lisk gas. I love gassing humans but unfortunately the only humans that you can gas are ones without a helmet or battlesuit. Gas does quite a bit of damage so if I engage an enemy that dosn't have a helm, I'll usually lead off with a gasing. I'll do this for two reasons, one, If they get free the gas may finish off what I didn't, and two, gas has the amusing side effect of disorienting helmet-less humans XD. A disoriented human will have a hard time hitting you (or anything for that matter). Other than gas you have a little more health. The extra 25 health is not enough to play a more aggressive game. Stick with what works.



Marauder


speed: 1.2
health: 150
regen: 4
reward: 350


claw damage feet: N-20 / A-6 / B-4
claw damage torso: N-40 / A-12 / B-8
claw damage head: N-80 / A-24 / B-16
claw repeat: 500ms
claw range: 96


I am by no means an authority on the Mara however I will do my best. Much of this was inspired by Beerbastard and his guide. He had some fantastic demos but unfortunately, they have expired on mediafire.com.

The Mara is a flexible alien that can be very effective at a number of things. A bit of a jack of all trades but really a master of none (save perhaps RC hopping, which we will cover later) The Mara is the cheapest class I would suggest for attacking bases. Their jump ability can help you get in quick, and back out quick before taking lethal damage. I'll cover hits required for various human structures here.

5 hits for a single Turret with average maximum damage around 72.
24 hits for a full health RC totaling 12 seconds.
5 hits for the Armory totaling 2.5 seconds.
6 hits for a Telenode totaling 3 seconds.

The Mara can put out damage pretty quickly with a .5 second claw repeat.

The Mara's real strength is movement. The Mara has a walljump ability. With a Mara's walljump ability you can hold the spacebar (jump) and bounce off of walls very quickly, this can be used in hallways to pick up massive speed very quickly. I'll try and cover some movement techniques.

When walking on the ground, move in parallel with the wall and jump forward and strafe slightly into the wall while holding the space bar down. You will bounce off the wall and pick up a little speed this way. Repeat this quickly enough when you land and you can build up some more speed. If done correctly you can alternate walls on a hallway and really rack up speed quickly.

Bounce around a few maps and try and find some shortcuts. Some maps have areas you can use to your advantage to either build up great speed or evade attackers.

Work on keeping up your momentum around the map. Don't try and stay on one wall wen moving, try and bounce to parallel walls on the other side of a hallway, or use corners to grab a couple jumps around bends. Get to know the difference between an elevation jump and a momentum jump. the architecture of some maps makes elevation simple while maintaing speed difficult. Other maps make elevation difficult but maintaining speed easier. Get to know what map work for your style and choose the Mara accordingly. If you have a tough time moving around on a particular map, choose a different class. Some maps are large and wide open making the Mara a difficult class to play there. Some maps are well suited for the Mara with tight hallways and small rooms.

The Mara can play a little more aggressively than the previous aliens but not by much. The Mara tends to play best when used as a hit and run alien. Your swift movement and wall hopping can keep humans confused and make killing you difficult, use this to your advantage by hopping in, engaging a human for one or two swipes and backing out. Attempt to lead the human further and further away from help. Sometimes by the time they realize they are in trouble, it's too late to get back. You can move faster than a human, more so with a walljump so don't let a near dead human get away.

The Mara can jump over humans. This can be used to land a head swipe as you pass over them (hint- look straight down at their head when you pas over them) or, you can use this to disorient the human. If you brought backup with you occasionally when the human tries to track you, your backup can get some damage in before the human realizes. Practice jumping over a human and getting a strike in. On a helmet-less human you can get 80 damage with a single strike. After that it's 1 more strike anywhere for a naked human, or 1 to the torso for an armor wearing human. A single naked human is short work for a Mara. You can approach a naked human with some confidence of an easy vicotry. A baby-fresh human (naked with a rifle) is almost too simple. 3 to the torso or 1 to the head and one to the torso. A full rifle clip can do 150 damage. That is of course if every bullet hits. A rifle clip empties in 2.7 seconds with an average of 55.5 damage per second. A full armor human (helm and armor) is a bit more work and I would suggest using the hit and run tactics.

In addition to the hop and swipe mentioned above you can aim your jump to either side of the human and aim for the head that way. Vary your tactics and keep the humans on their toes. You have the same range as a Goon, get a feel for that range and keep your jumps closer than that if you intend to land any hits.

The Mara can circle a human close to their feet and do some good damage, when the human gets a bead on you, jump up and over them to keep them disoriented. Keep it up and you can get good damage in. The key here is to keep the human panicked. If you take too much damage you will have to decide to flee or continue the attack. I base my decision on fleeing after I have committed to a full attack on how the human is doing. If i've heard that low grunt, i'll keep up the attack.

Really, as a Mara, you're top priority in most cases should be not getting shot as opposed to getting that swipe in. If it takes 5 seconds longer to get the kill, no big deal. But a dead Mara isn't going to get any kills. You're biggest strength is how difficult it is to kill you. Keep that in mind when you play your Mara.

Quick note here since I see it all the time. On Niveus, when fleeing the default human base, when you get to the ledge above the door (the door leads to a short twisted hallway... it's the ledge you drop down to get to the "front" entrance of the humans default base) You can't get on the ledge using the walls. Use the doorframe to get up onto the ledge.


Advanced Marauder


speed: 1.2
health: 175
regen: 5
reward: 450


claw damage feet: N-20 / A-6 / B-4
claw damage torso: N-40 / A-12 / B-8
claw damage head: N-80 / A-24 / B-16
claw repeat: 400ms
claw range: 96

zap damage: N-80 / A-20 / B-20
zap chain damage: 60 / 20 over 2 naked targets. 41 / 26 / 13 over 3 Naked targets.
zap lasts: 1000ms
zap repeat: 1500ms


The Adv. Mara gets 25 more health, a faster claw repeat, 1 more health per regen, and the Zap! Zap is difficult to aim and requires keeping the human in range. Once you land a zap you don't need to keep them in your sights, just in range. The zap can do good damage if you can keep a human in range. I find the best use of zap is hitting a group of human, especially if you loose your target in a croud after landing some good damage on him, a zap to the crowd can sometimes finish him off as it chains to the rest of them. Zap can also get some good damage on a ret so hit a ret once or twice and finish it with a zap. Other than that stick to what we covered above, Other than zap you have a little more health. The extra 25 health is not enough to play a more aggressive game. So again, stick with what works.

Side note- The Adv. Mara can finish off a full health RC in 9.6 seconds vs. 12 seconds with a regular Mara. Definitely a big difference and usually worth the extra evo if you go for an RC hop.

[Para|Medic]

Dragoon


speed: 1.1
health: 200
regen: 6
reward: 500


claw damage feet: N-40 / A-12 / B-8
claw damage torso: N-80 / A-24 / B-16
claw damage head: N-160 / A-48 / B-32
claw range: 96
claw repeat: 700ms

pounce damage: N-100 / A-20 / B-20


Ahhh the Goon. Tremulous' asshole. Available at S1, with not 1, but 2, one-hit kill attacks. Easily the most unbalanced class in Tremulous... And I love it. The Goon can simply own in Tremulous. It takes practice but a Pro Goon can finish a game on most maps in a little over a minute, maybe two. (I've seen it done in under a minute on ATCS and come close to a minute myself several times. My record is around 70 seconds.) See A Tremulous round in 80 sec by Puma[F]lame for more. The Humans in that clip are nubs but most public games are full of 'em, it still shows some good attacks.

Once you get good at Goon prepare to get alot of 'OMFG HAX' accusations. The class is unbalanced and lends itself to this kinda crap.

Good Gooning (Yes, I made it into a verb. -Suck it) is an art. Watching a good Goon is like watching an artist paint. Everything flows and just... makes sense. It takes alot of practice to get to this level. Fortunately there are a few things you can focus on to start. You have 3 basics to good Gooning. 1 - Pouncing, 2 - Headchomps, and 3 - Tactics.

1 - Pouncing

Everyone plays the Goon slightly different. Some play a twitchy Goon with small, quick hops and snappy attacks, Some play a graceful Goon with large smooth jumps and precise attacks. Some play their Goon as a mini Rant acting like a tank that can jump far. Others play the Goon more stealthy and snag sneaky kills. I think the Goon is probably the most interesting class because of this. You will play the Goon differently than I will, and differently than the next guy. Once you master some of the basics, you can begin to develop your own style and recognize other styles, picking and choosing what will fit your style.

Holding mouse 2 will charge your pounce. Letting go releases the pounce. Aiming up when you pounce will give you a better pounce than aiming level or down. Usually all that is required is a little flick upward with the mouse as you release your pounce. You can keep your aim higher and give a little flick down to pounce as well. The flick up seems to give a lower profile jump while the flick down seems to give a higher profile jump. Play around with pouncing. The amount of flick you give will determine the distance and angle of the jump. The direction and height by how high you are pointing. With practice you can quickly move through halls by accurately releasing your pounce. You can charge a pounce while in the air of a previous pounce and thus build up considerable speed moving this way. Pouncing is easy to learn but difficult to master. In time you will be pouncing through halls with ease. Occasionally you may get hung up on doorways etc. Some doors will grab you more than others. Remember the doors that you can hang up on and anticipate accordingly.

The pounce attack is a great lead off attack, especially in S1 when an armorless human can be killed in one pounce. The real trick to pouncing is... ok, imagine your Goon has a sword coming out of his face. The sword has a decent range and is centered in your screen. When you pounce that sword is there. You do not have to pounce into a human to kill him. You can slash him with your sword as you pass him with a pounce. This video may give you a better idea what I'm talking about when I'm talking about this 'sword' idea. Watch that video and imagine a sword coming out of your Goon. You only have to aim your pounce, much in the same way you aim a Dretch bite, to land a pounce. There is little I can add here. Practice make perfect as they say and it is no less true here. Your pounce has a good range and if you find humans camping in a doorway full of Turret you can snag a kill simply by pouncing past the doorway, parallel with the wall the door is in, and aim your pounce into the doorway. Sometimes a human will get too close to the doorway and you can snag yourself an easy kill.  You can also use this tactic to keep humans wrangled into an area you want them in. For example the ATCS human base, you can pounce back and forth from ledge to ledge to keep any stray humans from attempting an escape snagging thoes that get too close to your line.

Camping humans can be a real pain. When humans camp the game slows to a halt. Fortunately, a well placed pounce or two can snag you kills on even the campiest humans. Get a good read of the human base and find an armorless human. Once you have him in line, Pounce at him and grab the kill. You'll take damage from the Turrets but as you pass them they will have to keep turning to get a line on you. Use this time to snag another kill with a headchomp or prepare your pounce out and back over the Turrets. If done quickly you will take minimal damage while getting yourself a kill and hopefully getting one or two humans to chase. Even a well defended base is open to this quick hit and run. Keep an eye out for opportunities and don't be afraid to take some damage to get them.

In general combat, unless the human is unarmored, I tend to limit my pouncing. Slashing is easier to control in tight quarters and just as effective if not more so. Keep an eye out for a human attempting to flee. Pouncing is a good way of keeping a human from getting away. When escaping consider what weapon your opponent is using. If it's a scanhit weapon (one that hits instantly like the las gun, rifle, massdriver, shotgun, or chaingun) you may not make it wen fleeing. Scanhit weapons like the las gun can make it very difficult to get away as you will have to break line of sight to be "safe". If you don't think you'll make it, go for one last attack. You will need to figure "how long will it take me to break the line of sight, what's my health, and what's the accuracy of the guy I'm fighting." If any of these is "too long, really low, and pretty fucking accurate" You might consider going for a last attack.

Pounce a Ret 2 times to kill it. Or 1 pounce and 2 swipes.
Pounce an arm 3 times to kill it. Or 1 pounce and 3 swipes.

-Open up a fight with a pounce for a kill or a quick 20 damage. Beware of Luci's when doing this though.
-Practice pouncing in slow games by only using the pounce to get around.
-Prepare for your next pounce (hold mouse 2) while in the air from the last pounce.
-Try up and down flicks to feel the difference. Use what works for you.
-2 pounces can kill a ret. Pounce over it once, turn around, and pounce over it again to kill it (while taking very little damage. Remember to aim down).

2 - Headchomps
The headchomp is what separates feeder Goons from the real treats. It may take awhile but once you get the headchomp down, you can finish a game in S1 or clean up 3 or more humans in a group. Below is an example of correct aim for a headcomp.





You will need to aim slightly above their head to nail it as you can see. Headcomping is a skill in and of itself. Without it, you will just be another nub Goon throwing away your evos. Practice with a friend. Find someone who will let you practice in a real fight without killing you when you get too low. Go for one swipe. If you miss and it the torso, start over. Keep it up until you can rely on it to save your life. Anything less than a headchomp and you will be doubling your time and effort getting kills. Again, less than a headcomp at least doubles the time and effort to get the kill. Learn it. I don't know how to stress this enough. Learning the Goon headchomp is on par with ground-headbites as a Dretch as far as importance goes. It should be on your shortlist of things to (try and) master in this game. It is the only way you will drop a battlesuit in one-on-one combat. 4 headchomps (or a pounce and 3) to drop a battlesuit.

Keep these in mind when attacking a base.
3 hits for a single Turret with average maximum damage around 55.
12 hits for a full health RC totaling 8.4 seconds.
4 hits for the Armory totaling 2.8 seconds (longer than the Mara, believe it or not).
4 hits for a Telenode totaling 2.8 seconds.

-Headchomp whenever possible, it's twice the damage.
-On stairs or an incline it's actually difficult not to headchomp if you are above the human. Lure them to an incline for a quick victory.
-Pick your battles, choose who to fight when.
-The luci and shotgun can be deadly. Shotguns take 3 well placed shots to drop a Goon.
-If you want to help a Basi who's grabbed a human, please be careful. The Basi worked hard for that kill, don't TK him for it. 1 swipe will TK a Basi.
-You can take out a chaingun one-on-one but it's not a guaRantee.

3 - Tactics

Goons play differently than other classes we've covered so far. Like I mentioned before, everyone plays the Goon differently. Spectate good players and remember tactics that fit your play-style. Keep them in mind and practice them when you can. Check out what lines they use for movement or escape. Pay close attention to their footwork in a fight, how do they move, how to they try and position the human in the fight, how do they lure and lead players to the area they want to fight in... Take it all in and mimic what works until you can make it your own. As versatile as the Goon is, it is only as good as the playbook you draw off of.

Goons can lure quite well, A crying Goon is an enticing target. When you take major damage and retreat, try and find somewhere you can ambush and turn the fight around. Obviously this is  risky tactic but the reward is there. You will need to take into account what your target has for a weapon and what kinda skill you're up against. You can tell within 10 seconds what kind of player is behind the other screen in a fight. If you are out classed, flee and pick your battles. As I already mentioned above, if you are up against better players than you, you can bide your time and wait for their health or medi to get low. Alot of humans tend to misjudge when they should be getting back to the base. Maybe they were on a good run racking up kills, maybe they didn't realize how many tubes there were in the alien base. Whatever the reason, a human running back to the base is always going to be an easier target than one coming out.  Learn to pick where and when to fight a human. If you are outgunned, back off and chose when to go in. You are no good to your team dead. Play it smart and know when to go into battle. Martyrs don't get respect in Tremulous, they just feed the other team stage kills and credits.

Learn the importance of a suicide rush. Learn when it's helpful and when you are just going to throw away evos. Sometimes in a game it's worthwhile to suicide on a base attack. Suicide rushes are useful when it benefits the team as a whole. This is accomplished when your suicide rush is followed by easier kills for your team or weakens the humans significantly. A suicide rush on the armory for example is useful only when it will put the human team weaker as a whole for longer than time it takes to build a new armory. If building a new armory is as simple as putting a new one up, it's not worth it, but if you can keep the pressure on by pouncing any new armories that are being built for a time. If you can keep the armory down for a minute or more you can significantly weaken the human team. Usually this will require the participation of another skilled Goon. One suicide rushed the armory while the other hangs back. As I mentioned above, it is not difficult to get a pounce into a human base and ounce out again, usually taking less than 100 damage. The other Goon hangs back and waits for the new armory to be built. When that blue armory pops up, the second Goon pounces it and pounces out, luring a human or two to follow. By this point the first Goon should be in position to protect the fleeing Goon from followers. After attacker have been dealt with, it's his turn to pounce the new armory. Back and forth, 2 Goons can cripple the human team. Even better if none of them have energy weapons like a Las gun or Mass driver. It takes 2 skilled Goons working in tandem to pull off but can turn a game that was not looking good. I know, getting players in Tremulous to cooperate is like herding cats. Stick with a friend familiar with the play if you have to.

Pay special attention to poorly protected RC's in game. A Goon can make short work of the RC if you can get on top. The RC has a "dead zone" above it. You will take much less damage while on top of it. A suicide rush on the RC that succeeds is always worth it. If you can get 6 hits on the RC you are halfway there. Again, 2 Goons in tandem can tear apart the RC. If the Turret are not correctly placed they might not be able to cover the top of the RC, or you can get on the edge of the RC and put it between you and the Turrets. Correctly moving yourself is key. When I hop and RC (with a Goon or Mara) I'll immediately begin swiping it and moving myself into a position where the Turrets cannot hit me. Don't panic when you hop an RC and start taking damage from the Turrets. simply move to the outside corner. Sometimes the Turrets are correctly placed, sometimes not.

Spectate skilled humans and watch how they dodge. Pay close attention to the humans you do play. Watch how they move. Watch how they dance and try and predict their movements. Humans tend to move in the same way to dodge. They get used to a pattern that has helped them in the past. Everytime they manage to dodge a nub Goon, it reinforces that same dodge movement. You can exploit this programed pattern to your advantage if you can learn to predict it. Every human is different but the skilled ones are easy to point out in a fight. It may be weapon choice or a style of movement. True randomness is difficult for humans to produce, watch for patterns and exploit them.



Advanced Dragoon


speed: 1.1
health: 250
regen: 7
reward: 600

claw damage feet: N-40 / A-12 / B-8
claw damage torso: N-80 / A-24 / B-16
claw damage head: N-160 / A-48 / B-32
claw range: 96
claw repeat: 600ms

pounce damage: N-100 / A-20 / B-20

barb damage: 110
barb repeat: 1000ms


The Adv. Goon gets 50 more health, a faster claw repeat, 1 more health per regen, a bigger pounce jump, a larger hitbox, and Barbs. You are a larger target now so keep that in mind. The shotgun is still dangerous considering. Chainguns can be a real menace so keep an eye out.

The Adv. Goon has the ability to attack at a distance with barbs. This alone make is one of the strongest classes in Tremulous. Humans have to remain diligent of Goon snipers otherwise their base will always fall. I have yet to see a base in Tremulous that was well defended against Goon snipers. In order to protect the base humans must always have a defender or two in or near the base. The Adv. Goon's ranged attack is only as good as your aim so keep in mind the barbs shoot out like a grenade launcher, not a rifle. They lob the barbs into structures. With practice you can get pretty accurate from long distances by aiming above your target. Develop a feel for ranges and necessary horizontal adjustments to your aim. Use that sticky-tac or tape I mentioned above to assist your aim at long distances if need be.

- 2 barbs will take out a turret. You only need 2. Stop shooting 3 into the Turrets. You're wasting one.
- After you shoot 2 barbs into a ret, pick a new ret and shoot your last one into it. You will spawn a new barb in about a second if you do them quick. After your 3rd barb, pause (if you can) and wait for that next barb. You can finish off 2 Turrets in one sitting very quickly.
- 3 barbs will take out an Armory. If you have a clear shot, take it out.
- 3 barbs can weaken the RC pretty heavily. If you can team up with another sniper, both of you put all 3 into the RC and try suiciding on the RC. 2 Goons can usually take out a poorly / moderately well defended RC this way.
- If you're not going to suicide on the RC, focus on the Turret. Weaken the defenses for Rants and other aliens.
- Don't forget, you're still a Goon. You are not just a sniper. You can engage in combat if you need to. I see too many Adv. Goons that flee from a rifle for fear of taking any damage. People seem to forget they can still headbite.

[Para|Medic]

Tyrant


speed: 1.2
health: 400
regen: 7
reward: 800

claw damage feet: N-50 / A-15 / B-15
claw damage torso: N-100 / A-30 / B-40
claw damage head: N-150 / A-60 / B-40
claw range: 128
claw repeat: 750ms

regen aura range: 200 (80% of tesla range)
regen aura modifier: x2

charge speed: x2
charge damage: N-45 / A-15 / B-10
charge repeat: 1000ms


The Rant. The Tank. Fun, to be sure, however they can feel "one dimensional". They are effective killers with a whopping 400 health, but they lack the finesse of a Goon, or the stealth of a Dretch. The Rant is a great class to finish a game or grab a bunch of evos to share with your team, but after awhile, you may find them lacking in depth. It's a tradeoff, efficiency for artfulness. Play round with them, have fun. But don't expect the same dynamic you will find with other classes. I like playing Rant when I don't feel like thinking about it.

|FA|PMJ has this to say:

"Tyrants are the most heavily armored (400 hp) and most expensive class available (5 evos) to the aliens. One thing you need to keep in mind, especially if you’re new, tyrants are huge. This means that they are the easiest alien to block other aliens with, so make sure you stay out of doorways, and stay to one side of narrow hallways where you could best serve to defend a retreating ally.

Due to the large size of tyrants, they are much easier to hit than the other classes, they are also easier to block upon retreat. If you are attacking the human base, especially where ramps are concerned, you always want to face the direction of movement. You do not want to back into a human attempting to block you in front of a bank of Turrets.

Tyrants are a relatively simple class with two basic attacks. Charge and swipe -simple as that. Using a combination of the two attacks makes them both more effective. The tyrant charge is useful to flee enemy fire when you have low health, but when you’re attacking an enemy or attacking an enemy structure, hitting either with the brunt of a Rant charge before swiping them will make your attack more effective.

When attacking an enemy base, you’ll likely want to take out the most important structures first. The likelihood of that happening is slim, unless said structures are especially unprotected. You’ll have to take out the defensive structures first if you want to make any progress. When you’re attacking a line of Turret, keep in mind that the Turrets cannot fire through one another. It is best to pick one end, and work your way down, either until all  the Turret are gone, or until you have a chance to take out a vital structure.

Depending on the level of your health, and depending on the armament of the chasing human/humans, sometimes you can “fake them out” by charging away after an attack, but stopping just out of sight to intercept any chasers."

As Potty mentioned, Tyrants will often block their teammates, often leading to the death of a teammate. Please try to avoid blocking whenever possible. In addition, the Rant slash can do some nasty damage to teammates so be aware and be careful to avoid this.

-Charge into a turret and slash it once. It'll go down. Don't waste your time slashing more than once if you charged it.
-The "Fake-out"Potty mentioned is very effective. Similar to setting up a second ambush with the Dretch.

[Archangel]

you have like six billion fucking BP. try building *without* immense amounts of BP. other than that, seems like a relatively good guide.

[Para|Medic]

Built on |FA| server with 150 BP. I forgot to mention that...

[mooseberry]

Lot of words. Seems like a decent guide though. Shame is most noobies who need this will probably not read it.

[F50]

One for humans would be awsome. Nice job, although, examples with 100bp would be better.

[CreatureofHell]

Looks pretty nice!

[Para|Medic]

Nice job, although, examples with 100bp would be better.

I wrote it around a year ago just for FA clan. Initially I never thought I would post it anywhere other than our forums for the clan but as it grew in size I figured I would at some point post it elsewhere.

I appreciate everyone's kind words.

[Sayeru]

Haven't read everything but really nice work.

[amz181]

Very very good guide, but let down by having quite a massive BP.

[tskuzzy]

Excellent guide overall. The only place that needs improvement is the building section. I would never build the bases you screenied there. That's like nade/luci heaven.

[resistance]

Great guide and awesome ATCS infographic.

[Para|Medic]

Thank you.

[riderrocker]

hey, what HUD are you using for those dretch headbite screenshots?

[Baconizer]

hey, what HUD are you using for those dretch headbite screenshots?

It looks like Chomper's HUD with modified colors.

[riderrocker]

yeah, how do you do that? I like the green crosshair better than red

[Para|Medic]

It's "Fallen-Hud" made by Damien of FA for clan members.

I dunno if he wants to release it but I'm sure if you popped over to our forums and asked he would be more than happy to offer suggestions.

[Baconizer]

Or you can just change the colors in the HUD. I don't know if Damien tweaked anything else, though.

I also don't remember how the color codes work, but someone in IRC should be able to help you.

Finding the correct files to edit shouldn't be hard at all.

(Take a look at Volt's HUD Making Guide.

[riderrocker]

k, thanks

[Para|Medic]

He did make a number of changes including color. I'm not big on making HUD's so my best suggestion is ask around and see what assistance yu can dig up around here.

I'll say this though- a custom HUD can be a really big help. Damien added a number of helpful things to the HUD including but not limited to Goon Barb indication, Leader Board, Lag and FPS indication, Cross hair, etc... There are some great HUDs on offer worth checking out that offer some of the same things.

[Archangel]

Goon Barb indication, Leader Board, Lag and FPS indication, Cross hair

so exactly what every other HUD has?

[Colynn']

Goon Barb indication, Leader Board, Lag and FPS indication, Cross hair

so exactly what every other HUD has?

Plus Leader Board is based on Hellrider's HUD.

PS: Very nice and complete guide, nice job.

[xandersears]

Thanks, great help, especially the goon pouncing. While not many (other) noobs are likely to read it, maybe if it was stickied it would have more chance *hint hint*

[Minimum]

Very nice guide. Covers every topic. GJ.

Have a cookie.

[Pazuzu]

Good stuff. Thanks!

[Para|Medic]

I'm glad to see people are enjoying the guide and finding useful advice in it (even if the build section is a bit of a letdown but as I mentioned I had written it for the |FA| server which has 50 more BP than others, Hopefully you all can get some good stuff from that part anyway)

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.