Use a headset and listen for directional audio cues like footsteps, gunfire and turretfire. Any distant gunfire or turret fire you hear means there is a player in that direction, because NPCs and turrets only shoot at players. Deathboxes make a loud sound that can be heard from decently far away, be careful about looting and listen for other players looting. If you have to loot, grab and move, don’t signal your location then stand still. Rapid footsteps are always players as NPCs can only walk and jog. Even a player crouch walking will make some noise.
Drop 1 credit to leave a bait lootbox at choke points near you. Putting them on steep ramps will sometimes force players to look at them as they run up before they’re aware it’s there, giving away their location.
Avoid making unnecessary noise, unless you want trouble to find you. If you have no reason to fight NPCs for biomass/clones or to complete Dust to Dust, you should avoid their aggression as much as possible. Once any gun/turretfire happens players nearby will instantly be made aware of your location and could even flank you while you are fighting the NPCs resulting in your swift death. Avoid chokepoints with NPCs unless you don’t mind the risk.
Don’t sleep on the melee attack, it will save your life at some point and is a fun tool. If you land your hits, it will kill a player at full health in 2 hits. Players have 25 Shield 100 Health, melee attacks deal 75 base damage but deal half damage to shields. NPCs are less likely to be alerted if you melee kill something around them, but will almost always instantly aggro onto you if any gunfire happens, so it can be used to stealthily take down unaware NPCs and avoid giving away your location to nearby players while you’re at it.
Pressing 4 will activate/deactivate your flashlight. It should be off when trying to avoid detection by players, but once the shooting starts it’s a useful tool. It can be used to avoid being blinded by the extremely bright muzzle flash your own weapon emitts in dark areas as well as help you see outside of combat if you’re having trouble.
While running around the map, it’s a good idea to scout for players as much as possible without wasting time. Enemies always glow red when spotted while aiming down sights. You can sprint + jump + ADS at unchecked areas coming into view as you move around the map. You will keep most of your momentum while sprinting, be caught off guard far less, and harder to hit if there is a player looking to headshot you when you stand still.
When you encounter a player that isn’t aware of you, wait for a good opportunity before you start shooting. If they are too far or concealed by cover to secure the kill you will only give up your advantage. Ensure there isn’t a player also sneaking up on you before you engage. Get a good sightline, take cover, switch to energy ammo, and place a deployable shield if want to be extra careful. Use both your physical cover and shield to stay alive in case you are outnumbered.
The color of your hitmarkers give you useful information about how your fight is going. Yellow hitmarkers mean you are hitting a player’s weakspot which is their head. Blue hit markers mean you are hitting a player’s shield hp below the head or a deployable shield. A white hitmarker means you are hitting a player's body below the head, and finally a red hitmarker means you just killed the target.
Hipfire is very inaccurate especially when compared to other games, only use it when fighting in very close quarters.
When in a gunfight, make sure to strafe left and right; never stand completely still in a gunfight. Jumping left and right can be a good tactic to make an opponent miss while you can still aim down sights for short-long range precision.
Familiarize yourself with the recoil pattern. Pull down and slightly to the left to counter the beginning of the pattern, then alternate between left and right the longer you shoot. Practice headshotting bots while controlling recoil to improve.
Keep your ammo topped off, don’t get surprised with only 10 rounds when you had crafting resources to craft 6 or more mags of ammo. Keep at least 4 mags at all times to avoid running out midfight.
Reloading before your mag reaches empty will allow you to use the short reload animation without pulling the charging handle to chamber another round (longer reload animation). Once the mag is fully inside of the weapon, the animation can be cancelled with a melee, which can be cancelled by aiming down sights allowing you to immediately fire. Strangely, this also applies to the long reload animation allowing you to fire your weapon just as soon as you could with a short reload skipping much of the animation. (This may not be intended and patched in the near future)
Use a deployable shield in a medium-long range fight when in a good defensive position. Craft a new one ASAP in case yours runs out before you’re done using it. When active, they block all incoming enemy fire but allow you to shoot out. Sometimes placing a deployable shield can clutch a fight, and other times it can get you killed. If an enemy is in direct line of sight and shooting at you, you will likely die before your shield goes up so it’s best to just shoot back rather than fumble with the menus, then fumble to place it in a suitable spot, then wait 2 more seconds for it to activate. If the enemy is too close, the radius will engulf them too or they will only have to take a few steps to get inside and end you. If there is too much good cover close to the shield, the enemy can use it to safely close the distance and push into your shield. Just like all deployables, they can’t be looted or dropped for other players and are lost upon death.
Energy ammo or blue ammo does more damage but requires 10 inert alloy 2 reactive alloy 25 energy to craft 30 rounds. You need to mine a few rocks at the edges of the map or convert cryschips and microcapacitors you get from mining tech vaults to obtain alloys. Energy ammo should be reserved for fighting players unless you have an excess of 200 of it.
A deployable shield normally lasts ~45 seconds and the time goes down faster as it takes damage, but energy ammo deals heavy damage to shields and will cause a shield to die within 10-15 seconds if you shoot it with ~10 rounds of energy ammo. More than that will not speed up it’s destruction because it still needs to blink a few times before it can pop. Even when a shield is blinking it can’t be shot through.
When playing in a squad, pinging enemies with T or the middle mouse button can be a powerful non verbal communication method, but it can also be a significant detriment. Make sure to ping an opponent’s cover or near them but never directly on them, because the ping will cover the enemy giving them free concealment from your team. Be aware the middle mouse button ping lasts the longest before disappearing, and the T red ping and lootbox ping last the shortest. If you want to get rid of a ping move it somewhere else with a T red ping and it will disappear fairly quickly.
If your enemy is taking cover, heal before you push them if you can. Impatient greed without caution will get you killed.
Aim for the head, headshots do more damage and will likely be the deciding factor in a gunfight.
First thing you should do when you spawn in is open your crafting menu with Z, select equipment, then craft a deployable shield. Open your crafting menu again with Z, then select Ammo and craft 1 kinetic ammo.
Accept a contract if you are the squad leader.
Find mining deposits or tech vaults to mine in order to craft Energy Ammo. Energy Ammo does more damage than kinetic, and requires 10 Inert 2 Reactive alloys 25 energy to craft. It should be reserved for PvP, avoid using it on bots as much as possible.
Get biomass from dead NPCs or players and buy clones until you are at the maximum of 3. Do not use biomass to heal when you have 90+ HP unless you already have max clones with all teammates alive, it’s mostly a waste.
Find loot, either from a lootsite on the map or a player. The Lootsite in the Cloning Chamber at the center of the map contains the most loot as well as the most danger. Loot until you have at least 200 energy 100 nanites for spare ammo and contract resources. Glowing green boxes contain important Electronic Parts and Interface Components used for completing contracts, loot them whenever you see them.
Start focusing on completing contracts. Stick with your squad if you are not confident in winning 1v3s. You can split up to complete contracts/earn credits faster at greater risk of being picked off. Contracts are the most efficient source of credits by far, and the rewards are deposited into your wallet instantly upon completion, no extraction required.
Use your map. The full map is invaluable for finding important static locations, finding your teammates, finding contract objectives, and the exact spot where you last died to get your loot back. Tab will access the quick map which can be viewed while sprinting to avoid wasting time. It’s very useful for checking the location of your squadmates as well and make decisions based on where they are located.
A match has 4 different stages, that change based on time, NOT vanguard activity. Stage 1 is 5 minutes long, Stage 2 is 15 minutes long, Stage 3 is 15 minutes long, and Stage 4 is 5 minutes long. Loot respawns at the start of Stage 3 and Stage 4 and more patrols begin appearing. You can only join a game in Stage 1-2, however you can join a game right before it changes to Stage 3. The number on NPC’s deathbox counts up based on the amount of NPCs that have been killed, allowing you to gauge how fresh a lobby is without seeing a stage change.
Adjust your passivity/aggression based on your level of resources and clones. Don’t risk getting cloned out to get revenge, build your clones back up by farming NPCs first to stay in the game so you have more chances in case more things go wrong.
Enable toggle sprint in your settings if you are having pinky pain or want to be able to sprint with a deployable ready to be placed.
Lower graphics settings and set FSR/DLSS to ultra performance to get the highest framerate and therefore the lowest input latency and smoothest movement.
Signal beacons can only be placed in an area with no ceiling or a very high ceiling. Just like other deployables, it must be placed on a smooth-ish surface. They require 50 nanites, 100 energy and 18 seconds to craft. They also take about 31 seconds to activate once placed, so if you haven’t already started crafting one before the clone death timer reaches 49 seconds it’s already too late unless you can steal another player’s. It’s a good idea to place a shield on your signal beacon after it’s placed, as you cannot place a signal beacon inside of a shield. All squad members must be in the green circle of the same signal beacon in order to extract. Just like all deployables, they can’t be looted or dropped for other players and are lost upon death.
