Any advice for playing as the Dretch???

[kozak6]

I can't seem to figure out how to effectively play as the Dretch.

The only piece of advice I consistently hear is to aim for the head, but that never seems to work (for me, anyways).

Does anyone have any suggestions or advice?  Or am I forever cursed to play as a human?

[Vector_Matt]

Go for the head,  :wink:  and practice, practice, practice.

[OverFlow]

Another good piece of advice is to never travel in a strait line.  When heading for a human, never go directly in their direction, or you're an easy target.  When jumping at them, follow the same strategy, in you jump strait for their head, you might hit them, but you will very likely die.  Jump to the side of them and as you fly by, turn in their direction.  

If that doesn't work, wallwalk and go nuts while they waste ammo trying to hit you, when they reload, get a hit in, then run away again.

The whole 'defence is the best offense' thing is a good strategy.

[Nosfore]

Also note that humans tend to move backwards as they are fighting dretches (or pretty much everything else..). So it's easy (but unintuitive) to predict how they'll move when you jump toward them.

If you practive enough, you can "direct" them much like a shepherd dog would do. Thus, you may prevent them from reaching cover and so they'll eventually deplete their magazine and will be forced to reload in the open.

That is when you have a good chance to execute two attacks. One at the head that will do near fatal damage and a simple leg bite that will finish off the victim.

If you want to be successfull as a dretch, you must master the evasion technique. Jump-Strafe-Jump-Strafe-Wallwalk-Jump-Strafe... Keep circling around then, but don't expose yourself to bite. Wait for them to reload.


Also, waiting on a corner for a quick jump-bite can save you a lot of effort! Use your alien-radar to predict the right moment to jump.

[Stof]

Do not aim for the human, aim to the side of him. You can damage an human just be beeing somewhat near him. Use the terrain configuration to make it easier to hit the head. For example, walk on a railway when the human is on the ground, walk on the wall slightly above the human head. When the humans get close to the wall in a high ceiling room ( happens very often in corridors ), then attacking from wallwalking is to be prefered : stay on the wall, looking to the ground, use strafe left and right to place yourself above the human and go forward for the kill and then go quickly backwards. Repeat as necessary.

Against battlesuits, aim for the head too. If he's using a chaingun, go ! Chaingun is very inacurate and very bad against dretches. Try to stand on their head if possible. On the other hand, do not attack lucifer using battlesuits unless you can precisely time his charge/fire pattern. Attacking flamethrower using battlesuits is plain suicide.

Avoid jumping too much. You are perfectly silent while you do not jump. Use wallwalking a lot to move. Use wallwalking as much as possible. Learn the maps from a wallwalking point of view, it'll help while playing as a dretch/basilisk, and also as playing human to learn from where the aliens will attack. Dretches cannot attack buildings except turrets and teslas. Kill a single new placed turret as soon as possible to annoy the human builder who placed it. It the turret is complete and you are alone, kill it by getting close to it and staying always on it's back as it slowly tries to turn towards you. Do not get close to a working tesle, ever.

[Neo]

A tactic i find useful, atleast on non-laggers, is to attack low and when they aim down jump at their head and finish them off
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[[EVIL]Unknown]

another nifty tactic i use when its quiet and a few humans are just standing around to just jump on their head.(takes practice) and look down...instant head shot..or also what makes that easier is to target humans that are against walls.. will help u land on their head easier withought overshooting..u can also wallwalk look down and walk at their head for an instant headshot also while they are leaning against wall..

never stand against a wall if u are a human..big mistake always stay in open space

[Paradox]

Jump, jump, and more jumping.
Travel randomly, and more than anything else, use wallwalk to escape. Walking randomly from floor to wall can shake an opponent faster than anything else.

[SLAVE|Mietz]

i just love those chaingunners at S2, kneeing on the floor to hit anything, inviting for headshots

[Teiman]

As drench, wait the humans walk, then follow and attack his back. == strategy if you hare the next level of alien, because the next level can also stuck players. Other than that, attack and hidden strategy.

[werepants]

I like to use wallwalk a lot, but then jump to regain my orientation.  If you are wallwalking, you can likely dodge just about any bunch of humans at least long enough to get away.  I have been able to take 2-3 humans at once by wallwalking like crazy and just jumping at their heads whenever I come at all near.  jump without wallwalk is lame, wallwalk without jump is blind .  (10 points to anyone who knows what quote i am adapting...)  Jump also really helps to get on the wall when you have one of those really tight angles that are hard to get across.  Nothing is as fun as hurtling across the room and sticking to the wall.  like spiderman...

[Ardbug]

I watched a brilliant dretch pilot earlier today, he would run along the floor and headshot humans left and right, with the camera angled upwards, dretches hit the head of even battlesuits from the floor, very impressive, especially if you come up behind an unsuspecting victim, and slurp him in 2-3 hits

But you wont do well as a dretch unless you learn to climb walls, first because on stage 3, you need to get out of the tyrants way FAST to prevent blocking them to death, wallclimbing is the fastest way off the floor, and second because you are an easy target on the floor.

[Purple Panzer]

jump without wallwalk is lame, wallwalk without jump is blind .  (10 points to anyone who knows what quote i am adapting...)

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. ~ Albert Einstein

May i redeem my points for a cookie(s)?

[werepants]

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. ~ Albert Einstein

May i redeem my points for a cookie(s)?

You need 100 points for a cookie.  :lol:

[hodge]

1. hide
2. Aim for head & body. Leg bites doesn't inflect much damage.
3. When spotted move in a less predictable fashion, and move out of view. When humans knows how you move and where you are located you put your whole team in danger since you are an easy kill.
4. Try your best to fight like a ninja as a drench, hidden and dangerious.

[Stasis]

I find that "aim" as alien is a relatively hard thing for most alien players to understand, as most people think "AIM?! WHARZ MAI GUNZ???/"

My big ticket to dretch is knowing that speed is everything. Play quickly, act quickly, jump early, jump often. Zig zagging all over the floor may help a single human expend ammo, but you sacrifice time by not killing anything. Also, with 2+ humans, zig-zagging to make humans miss is a newbie trap.

[stahlsau]

i've found aiming as dretch is almost impossible with too much lag. Everything above 100ms just plain sucks. You jump at s/o's head, and when you should hit him he's actually somewhere behind you.
As bigger alien it's not that bad because of the bigger range and stuff, but as dretch...argh, i hate it
[note to myself: get fastpath and dsl16000]

[Camion]

Another question, what is the role of the Dretch at the beginning of a game ? What do you must do ?

[Survivor]

Another question, what is the role of the Dretch at the beginning of a game ? What do you must do ?

 
Ambushing lone humans who dare go far from their base. They should not, i repeat, should not be used near human bases unless you know what you're doing.

[KorJax]

Agreed, at early stages in the game, and even in later stages most times,  Dretchs SHOULD NEVER attack a base full of humans.  Why?  Turrets will rip you up and all you will be doing is feeding the human team.

To "attack" with a dretch, you should attempt to lure humans out of thier base (such as, letting them know your out there), and ambush them outside of thier base.  NEVER ATTACK A GROUP OF HUMANS BY YOURSELF AS A DRETCH!  You can try and pass through, but if your by yourself as a dretch, the odds are against you and you will die when you attack a group alone, especially if freindly fire is off.

In early games, the ONLY time its wise to attack a human base if someone sees them moving the reactor, and as such,  their turrets are down.  Then, with a group, it might be a good idea to jump in and feed off their spwans.

If you can effectivly attack a human base as a dretch, then you dont need to be reading this thread.  Its also a situation where you have to know the map.  Some human bases (such as the default Karith one) are more "suitable" for dropping in on a dretch if your with a bigger group of other aliens than other maps.

[Raumkraut]

In early games, the ONLY time its wise to attack a human base if someone sees them moving the reactor, and as such,  their turrets are down.  Then, with a group, it might be a good idea to jump in and feed off their spwans.

 One word: transit.

[Neo]

yeah but thats cos unlike the alien base the humans have no defences in place. Which kinda unbalances the whole deal, as aliens can get up there before the first turret has even finished spawning.

[next_ghost]

I love jetpackers flying in low corridors, they almost have a big "NOOB" written on their head, flying a few inches above ground thinking it will be any useful. Just wallwalk on the ceiling and run straight for their face Sure kill, always works.

[werepants]

even on some of the other maps that works.  on uncreation there was a jetpacker laying down pulse rifle spam on the alien base.  i just started as a dretch, so i climbed the wall and sat just above him and jumped - took down most of his health and a lot of his height, and then just jumped again from the ground and finished him off in a hit or two. :wink: