This is one of a series of posts i'm making that should help transform you from a noob to a decent player.
Please note: When I say “at S1” unless I specifically say otherwise I mean both humans and aliens are at the same stage.
Part 1:
Intro
At S1 aliens have pretty much all the advantages, so sometimes its ok to camp as S1 humans. It is vital you get to S2 however, so you need to rack up some kills as well. As a noob a great way to do this without feeding too much is to stick with other players. Stay together, kill some dretches, and watch for basilisks. Move at all times while outside your base to avoid dretch headshots, and try to keep an eye open for dretches on the walls. If you find yourself dying anyway go back to your base and chill. Get some kills while defending your base or chasing dying aliens a short way. Dont chase too far because they may be setting up an ambush.
Armor
I shouldn’t even have to say this but buying armor (and a helmet at S2) is more important than splurging on a cool gun. Unless you’re really good, you’ve got a better shot at staying alive with a machinegun and armor than you do with a chaingun/lasgun/shotgun and no armor.
Part 2
Dealing with Goons
At S1 dragoons possibly have the greatest edge in the game vs. puny helmet-less humans; in many ways at S1 the goon is more dominant than the tyrant at S3. You can spend 400 cred on a chaingun and 70 on armor and the next thing you know its all down the drain with a single goon ambush and headchomp. Even really good players can have trouble dealing with these deadly goons, but there are some tricks that help. If you’ve ever wondered why some puny human is able to take out your mighty goon, unless they got really lucky this is probably how they did it:
-Pick your Battlefield:
You always want to fight goons and other large aliens in an open space to give you more room to maneuver. Fighting a goon in a hallway or corridor at S1 is a good way to die very quickly. Don’t let the goon pick where you fight, face them on open ground or try not to face them at all. The following tactic works in a hallway too, but the chances of failure are much greater.
-Movement:
The key to facing down a goon is in outmaneuvering them. Theoretically an unarmored human can take out a fully healed goon with a machinegun if they move just right (don’t count on this happening, I think I’ve done it once and I got lucky). I call this goon killing dance “circling” though it’s a bit more complicated than that. Its all about the strafing and backpedaling, you want to be moving away from the goon at an angle at all times. This usually results in you circling to the left or right as the goon tries to pounce you. This alone is usually enough to kill a weak player, however if the goon starts to anticipate your movement you need to respond in kind. This is where the luck comes in, if I circle left and then right I’m betting that the goon isn’t going right, if he does I’m likely to die. Surprisingly enough with the right weapon chances are good that you’ll either kill the goon or get it to flee before they outguess you. This technique takes quite a bit of practice, but once you get it down you will never feel helpless at S1 again.
-Weapon Choice:
Choosing the right weapon when going to fight a goon is vital because you need to be able to deal enough damage to kill a goon quickly, the longer you dance with a goon the greater the chance you’ll slip up and he’ll get you. There are 2 weapons I prefer when going goon hunting, the shotgun and the lasgun. The lasgun is great because its fast firing and moving, accurate, and you never need to change clips. With a lasgun you can continually pour damage into a goon as you dance with it, and once the goon tries to flee you can chase it down and finish it. In addition the lasgun is the best general purpose weapon at S1 for the previously mentioned reasons (unless you kickass with a mass driver), thus making it great against dretches and marauders as well as goons. The lasgun is a tad steep at 250 cred however, especially if you include a battery for an extra hundred. This can result in the loss of significant funds if you mess up. In addition it can take a while to kill a goon with a lasgun because it doesn’t do damage in chunks like a mass driver or our other goon killer, the shotgun. The shotgun takes quite a bit of practice to use really well, but nobody is more fearsome at S1 then a great shotgun user. With just a few close and well placed shotgun blasts you can usually scare off a goon, and if they stick around, kill them. In addition it’s a relatively cheap 150 credits, giving you a bit more room for error than the lasgun. It has its problems however, namely the extensive reload time and short range. It’s pretty tough to chase down a dying goon with a shotgun once they flee, and the time it takes to change clips can get you killed or miss out on your chance at a kill. Do not use a chaingun against goons. While they are reasonably effective, at 400 credits you better kill the goon on your first try. The mass driver takes more practice than the shotgun, is almost as pricey at the chaingun, and has a long reload time +small clip. Only use it if you really, really know what you’re doing. Maybe I’ll do a weapon guide another time, but theres already one on the boards.
Part 3
Building
Building can be a good way to earn some credits when you’re low, and is vital to the survival of any base. Interestingly enough I’ve found a trend here: weak players rush out to get kills (and feed), average players usually build early on to earn credits, and strong players rush out and work their team up to S2 with kills. This isn’t necessarily dependent on skill level alone, but rather on the current state of your play. If I go out and start dying, I go back to the base and build a bit till I can afford some better equipment.
If you really are a very new player its probably best not to build, rather you should defend the base. Go out killing if you want, but if you find yourself feeding, camp. There is nothing wrong with camping as a noob, especially at S1 when aliens have the edge. If you think you can build go ahead and try it, but if somebody asks you to stop do so immediately. Its ok, we all got yelled at our first few games.
Read the Post on Human Base Building, and watch other players.
Base Move
Not going to go into this much, but there are certain maps (Niveus, Nexus, Karith, and Arachnid leap out at me) where moving is vital. This is probably a decision you should leave up to more experienced players, however if you do move listen to what people ask of you. You might need to decon, build, or guard, it doesn’t matter if you suck sometimes your team just needs an extra builder for small tasks.
I will do an S2 and S3 guide (probably one post) later.
