Smaller dretch and/or with more health

[Josellis]

While playing as a dretch, I have huge problem killing humans. I know, I am new and I am not used to playing as a dretch. But as soon as I upgrade to something else, I find it much easier to survive. I believe that dretch should be the most basic and most vulnerable type of aliens, but not to a point where it is virtually impossible to survive.

[n00b pl0x]

er...try zigzagging jumping and/or moving randomly... dretch owns. get the humans head in the middle of ur screen s1 and bam 96 damage...and if you somehow cant do that...you can always resort to wall-climbing for offense...but bah...

[Josellis]

Well, I have tried zigzagging, but I still get kill ...

Of course, there is the possibility that it is only me being killed easily as a dretch, but I dought it. And I might just need some practice.

[n00b pl0x]

practice sounds like a good idea...and yes youre one of the few that get killed easily as dretch...unless youre trying to dretch flaming bsuits or sumn

[kozak6]

Yeah, the dretch requires a lot of practice to be used effectively.  It's damn hard to learn when you are just starting out.

Attacking a human face to face as a dretch can be very difficult.  Ambushing your prey works well enough until the humans get helmets.

Try climbing up above a door or somewhere you won't be spotted immediately, wait for a human to go by, and try attacking from behind.

Make sure that you aim for the head.  Dretch headbites do 96 damage.  It's possible to score a headbite from the floor if you look up at just the right angle, but it can be tricky.

Movement helps a hell of a lot.  Zigzagging helps, but the key is to get up off the floor.  

Also, there is another option if dretching it up is too hard.  If you go 2 minutes without dying, you are awarded an evo point.  You could ask the builder if he needs help, and assist him for a few minutes until you get some points.

Avoid evolving to basilisk because it is much much harder to play as than the dretch.

[Neo]

Yeah, make sure to use your speed, as most humans can't keep up with it, especially if you use a high wallwalk speed.

A good tactic, especially for interior jettards is to climb to a roof and drop on their heads, as you'll get 2+ headbites in quick succession if you get it right.

A dretch in trained hands can slaughter humans at stage 1.

[a Granger]

I agree with dretch owning s1 hummies, but just owning, you cant kill buildings with dretch.

And some text about my experience:

Let me see… first hour I played tremulous,
I was a complete disaster, I can’t avoid laughing about myself now:
 Barricades in the doors, acids in long range corridors, eggs anywhere, etc…;
then came the evolve issue: I evolved dretch first,
there was only one human, and he was no where to be seen, so I supposed that I could try killing their reactor, you probably now what came next:
Went through the door, and then (brakka, brakkka bum), and the message: Unnamed player was gunned down by a turret
I said “!@#”(not reallly bad word, but in Tremulous For All, they said anyword now is worth a mute), then I evolved marauder, and I threw myself into the human base! Yeah!
I was dead in less than  3 seconds.
And the struggle for survival begun…
I find out, human base is impassable while they have more than one turret, so I waited for humans to come out, and I got owned, s3 humans after 2 min of deaths, I got kicked out of course.
So I became a builder, with all the manuals and guides read, good bases, crazy bases, forward bases, etc…
Then one day, I was 1vs.1 against someone, I was on human team(bad luck with slots, cause I’m 100% alien), and I got owned(special thanks to Weed Whacker), So I discovered that Aliens aren’t weak, they can be hard to learn, but once practiced…
You Still Get Owned!(sometimes),

I know I’ts not much help, but I just want to make post spam!
   Now I can give good fight, and I'm 4 months old(nearly all mac players are).

[pyrax]

I love the dretch.  And in direct response to your suggestion, no it does not need to be powered up.

I have my good days and bad days still but here are a couple of pointers that serve me well:

1) Assuming you're fighting an s1 human, and unless you've scored a headshot or a couple of body shots, you should run away if you get hit.  That's right, don't stay in the fight to get finished off easily because a death for you means a kill for them.

2) Definitely don't attack a human at the other end of a long corridor.  You won't make it.  Instead, wait around a corner (much like you would to stealth pounce with a goon) to force them to bring the fight to you.  This problem is lessened in very wide corridors and open areas.

3) Don't block! There's two different types of blocking. If you're attacking a human simultaneously with a goon (for example), try not to put yourself between the goon and the human.  Nothing is more irritating than having your goon swipe absorbed by a stupid dretch player.  What I try to do is position myself where the human is likely going to try to run away.  What often ends up happening is either the goon gets the kill or the human backs into my dretch for a kill for me!

Secondly, stay off the floor if you're traversing through the level (especially when you're nearing the human base).  You'll probably save your teammates a lot of evos by doing so.

4) If you're having trouble getting bites in then remember that lag affects aliens as much as humans.  You have to lead the human a bit in order to land an attack.  This is most easily proven if you go to a server where you have 200 ping or more.  If you try to bite a human that is moving directly away from you (so that you're running into his backside) you'll find that you don't actually score any hits.

I think that's all for now.

[Radiohead]

Dretches are so incredibly useful in s1. The beginning of the game, just wallwalk when you see a human, simple. Then when they are reloading, go for the head Boom they are down to 4, just headshot them after and wala. Score 1 for the boys back home!

[Captain Ventris]

A dretch in trained hands can slaughter humans at stage 1.

Once, when the enemie's power was knocked out, I killed 13 humans in a row. In one life. In less than a minute.

[holyknight]

make sure to wallwalk it makes people dizzy and then attack them headbite.

[jal]

Two dretch combat tricks(?) I use a lot are: Don't jump to the player, but jump to a side of him (so you will fall at behind where he is) and while you pass at his side, look at his head (You don't really need to touch the human, y'know). If everything goes fine, when you fall at his back, keep looking at him and jump. That's two fast bites, one while you pass, another while he turns.
Another trick(?) is: if the player is close to a wall, just don't go for him (act as if you go for him, but don't), go for the wall, reach the position above him (wallwalking, ofc), and, looking down move to your sides (you can headbite him a pair of times very quickly).