Before you get your boots on the ground, you’re going to want to go to boot camp. We’re publishing this guide during EVE Vanguard’s 2024 playtests. We’ve created it by compiling the tips and tricks of Vanguard’s best players; players who’ve frankly been kicking warclone a*se since the earliest playtest back in 2023. Whether or not you’ve been participating in the playtests too, the advice below is your best chance for ranking at the top of the leaderboards from here on out. Well, unless you’re hopeless at FPS games or your opponents have also read this EVE Vanguard guide. In which case, good luck cadet! o7

General introductory EVE Vanguard tips

These first tips are introductory; they’re true for most FPS games, but as Sturmer notes, they’re especially important in Vanguard: 

1) Play with sound and use headphones. The clearer directional channels will provide valuable information about the location of enemy players, especially in Vanguard’s multi-floored structures.

2) Be as quiet as possible. This is the implication of the first tip. Silence is your friend; don’t fire unless it’s essential. (More on sound management later.)

3) Manage your recoil. Recoil in Vanguard is significant, so unleash short bursts of fire or single shots rather than spraying and praying.

4) Use melee attacks whenever you can. They do massive amounts of damage and are the ideal finisher in Close Quarter Battles (CQB).  

That fourth point is as true for other players as it is for you. Here’s a tip from Brother Grimoire:

5) Watch your back. Checking your blind spots regularly will reduce the chances of pursuing foes meleeing you.

Here’s Limal with two more tips for Vanguard beginners: 

6) Don’t play Vanguard alone. Ideally, you should team up with friends, but playing with strangers works too. You’ll bond quickly on the battlefield.

7) Use a microphone and map a hotkey for push-to-talk mode. If you don’t have a microphone, you can still communicate using the middle mouse button, which sets targets and goals such as enemies, loot, and points of interest. You can do that in map view too. 

Next up, here’s a range of tips from Arirana: 

8) Use your full map when you have time. It’s invaluable for finding important static locations, teammates, contract objectives, and the exact spot where you died (so that you can retrieve your loot). 

9) Use your quick map when you’re in a hurry. Pressing ‘tab’ accesses the quick map, which can be viewed while sprinting. It’s very useful for checking your squadmates’ locations and making snap decisions based on where they’re located. 

10) Aim for the head. Headshots do more damage and will likely be the deciding factor in an evenly matched gunfight.

11) Even compared to other competitive FPS games, hipfire is very inaccurate in Vanguard. Only use it when you’re fighting in extreme CQB. 

12) When moving around the map, it’s always a good idea to scout for players. Enemies glow red when you’re ADS (Aiming Down the Sights).

13) If the enemy you’re targeting is taking cover, heal before you push them if possible. Impatience will get you killed.

14) Consider enabling toggle sprint in your settings. It will allow you to sprint with a deployable in-hand ready to be placed. It’ll also help if you’re getting any pinky pain. 

15) A match has four different stages that change based on time, not Vanguard activity. Stage One is five minutes long. Stage Two is fifteen minutes long. Stage Three is fifteen minutes long. Stage Four is five minutes long. You can only join a game in the first two stages, but you can join mere moments before Stage Three. 

16) By setting your graphics to the lowest settings and your FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) to ultra-high performance, you’ll get the highest framerate, the lowest latency, and the smoothest performance.

First priorities

The following tips are focused on the first actions Vanguards should take after their boots hit the ground. The first is from Brother Grimoire:

17) Build a deployable shield as soon as you spawn. It’s a powerful tool that could save your entire squad in a firefight. Open up the crafting menu (‘Z’ by default), then select ‘equipment’ and choose ‘deployable shield’. 

Your next priority should be crafting something else. This tip has been provided by Juno Tristan who has proven themselves repeatedly in the Vanguard leaderboards. 

18) Energy ammo is highly effective against other players, but you’ll need to mine resources to acquire it. As soon as you’ve deployed, make it a priority to reach an ore site. Once there, add a couple of magazines of energy ammo to your crafting queue before you even start mining. Doing so will save time on both ends: crafting begins as soon as you have sufficient resources and you’ll be alerted as soon as you’ve acquired sufficient resources - two magazines of 30 rounds apiece will suffice for most encounters.

The next selection comes from Vanguard master Arirana, to whom we’d like to give special thanks for the fantastic array of Vanguard tips they provided. Much like EVE Vanguard, they went above and beyond the call of duty.

19) If you’re the squad leader, accept a contract. 

20) Acquire biomass from dead players and NPCs. Use it to buy clones until you reach the maximum of three. 

21) You can also use biomass to heal. It’s generally not worth doing so if you’re on more than 90 hitpoints. The exception to this is if all of your teammates are alive and you already have the maximum number of clones.

22) Go and find loot; you can use your map to locate loot sites or you can acquire it from other players. (More on loot below.)

23) Now focus on completing contracts, the most efficient method of acquiring credits by far. Rewards for contracts are automatically deposited into your wallets upon completion, with no need for extraction. 

24) Unless you’re comfortable fighting outnumbered, you’re probably going to want to stick with your team while you’re completing contracts. While you could complete more by splitting up, you’ll only do so if you can avoid getting picked off by other teams. 

Dealing with EVE Vanguard’s NPC enemies and turrets

Other teams aren’t the only threat. Vanguard features numerous environmental threats like the sulfur marshes shown above, the most dangerous of which are NPCs. First things first: you’ll need to know how to identify them. Here’s Sturmer: 

25) Learn to distinguish NPCs from other players. NPCs are more likely to stand still or walk slowly, while other players will duck and run. 

Once you’ve identified an NPC, how worried should you be? Here’s some guidance from Kane Carnifex 

26) NPCs can hurt you, but they shouldn’t kill you if you’re careful. 

27) NPCs rarely react to melee kills but will nearly always search and attack if they hear gunfire. Sneak in close and melee them to avoid revealing your position.

Why’s that important if they’re no great threat? Here’s Brother Grimoire: 

28) In Vanguard, keeping quiet will help you find the enemy before they find you. Shots can be heard and stray bullets seen from a decent distance. So only shoot NPCs if it’s necessary. 

The same is true for turrets. Here’s Arirana with an explanation and many more great NPC-focused tips:  

29) As soon as gunfire or turret fire happens, hostile players will be made aware of your location and could even flank you while you’re engaged with the turrets or NPCs. Try not to engage NPCs in choke points unless you need to take some risks.

30) Adjust your passivity/aggression based on the quantity of your resources and clones. Don’t get clones out just for the sake of revenge. Farm NPCs for biomass first to get a stronger foothold in the game and provide yourself with more chances should things go wrong. 

31) Energy ammo does more damage than kinetic ammo, but it’s not easy to acquire. It should therefore be reserved for PvP whenever possible; don’t waste it on NPCs. 

32) More patrols will appear in Stages Three and Four. The NPC deathbox shows the number of NPCs killed, allowing you to gauge how fresh a lobby is without seeing a stage change.  

EVE Vanguard crafting, ammunition, loot, and deployables tips

Straight back to Arirana now for nine tips on crafting, deployables, and loot:

33) Loot respawns at the start of Stage Three and Stage Four. 

34) In Vanguard’s first map, Carrion, the loot site in the cloning chamber at the centre contains the most loot as well as the most danger. Loot until you have at least 200 energy and 100 nanites for spare ammo and contract resources.

35) The glowing green boxes contain important electronic parts and interface components used for completing contracts. Loot them whenever you see them.

36) Deployable shields block all enemy incoming fire, but allow you to shoot out. (More on deployable shields later.) 

37) Deployables can only be placed in areas with smooth, level surfaces. 

38) Signal beacons can only be placed in areas with no ceilings or very high ceilings. Just like other deployables, they are lost upon clone death and can’t be looted by other players.

39) All players must be in the green circle of the same signal beacon in order to extract. 

40) Signal beacons require 50 nanites, 100 energy, and 18 seconds to craft. They also take 31 seconds to activate once placed. 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.

41) If you have one, place a shield around your signal beacon to protect it. You must do this after placing the signal beacon; signal beacons cannot be deployed inside shields.

The next five tips are all about energy ammo. The first comes from Kane:  

42) Energy ammo is OP (overpowered), but you need to craft it first. Crafting it should be an evergreen priority if you wish to stay competitive.  

And what do you need in order to craft it? Back to Arirana: 

43) Energy ammo, also called ‘blue ammo’, does a lot more damage but it requires ten inert alloy, two reactive alloy, and 25 energy to craft 30 rounds. 

The next two tips come from Brother Grimoire:

44) Energy ammo is especially effective against player shields and deployable shields. You can bet your bottom dollar that everyone else will be crafting it, so you’ll be fighting at an extreme disadvantage if you don’t. 

45) If you can’t find rocks to turn into energy ammo, head to a data vault. The materials there - schematic cryschips and scalar microcapacitors - can be upcycled into energy ammo components, inert alloy and reactive alloy, respectively.

Our final ammunition-focused tip comes from Juno Tristan: 

46) Now that you have energy ammo, you don’t want to waste it. That said, keep it loaded in your gun ready for unexpected encounters with other players; this is your ‘travel fit’. When you need to engage with NPCs, switch back to kinetic to get the job done. That is, unless you have energy ammo in spades (200+).

Advanced EVE Vanguard PvP tips:

The tips above should level the battlefield, but if you’d prefer to master it, we’ve got 20 more advanced combat tips - all provided by Arirana. We told you they went above and beyond. 

47) Listen out for directional audio clues, like footsteps, gunfire, and turret fire. NPCs and turrets only shoot at other players, so if you hear gunfire, there will always be players in that direction. NPCs can only walk or jog, so if you hear rapid footsteps or crouch walking - which also makes quiet noise - you know it’s a player. 

48) Deathboxes make a loud sound that can be heard at great distances. Listen out for other players looting, and if you need to loot yourself then grab and move. Whatever you do, don’t signal your location and stand still. 

49) Drop a credit to leave a bait loot box at choke points in your proximity. Putting one on a  steep ramp will sometimes force players to look at it as they run up, before they’re even aware it’s there. 

50) Don’t sleep on the melee attack. It’s not just a fun tool, it will save your life. Players at full health have 25 Shield and 100 HP. Melee attacks deal 75 base damage and half as much against shields. That means if you connect two melee hits, you can kill a player in their prime.

51) Pressing ‘4’ will activate/deactivate your flashlight. Keep it off by default to avoid detection. However, once combat starts it becomes a useful tool. Not only will it help you see in dark areas, but it prevents you from being blinded by the bright muzzle flash your own weapon emits in dark areas. 

52) Sprint, jump, and ADS at unchecked areas as you come into view. Doing so will help you keep momentum, reduce the chances of you being taken off-guard, and make you harder to hit by players waiting for a slow-moving target to headshot. 

53) When you encounter a target who’s unaware of you, bide your time and choose your moment before you start shooting. If they’re too far away or concealed by cover, you’ll lose your advantage by being too trigger-happy. First, ensure no one is sneaking up on you, then get a good sightline, take cover, switch to energy ammo, and engage. If you want to be extra careful, use both physical cover and a deployable shield, especially if you’re outnumbered. 

54) The colour of your hitmarkers provides valuable information about how the fight is going. Blue hit markers indicate you’re hitting a player’s personal shield or deployable shield. Yellow hitmarkers indicate you’re hitting a player’s weak spot (their head). White hitmarkers indicate that you’re hitting a player’s body below the head. And red hitmarkers indicate that you’ve just killed a target.

55) When in a gunfight, always strafe from side to side and never stand completely still. Jumping from side to side makes you even harder to hit, and you can still ADS for short-range precision. 

56) Familiarise 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. 

57) Keep your ammo topped up. The last thing you need is to get caught off-guard with ten bullets remaining when you had enough resources to craft half a dozen mags. Keep at least four mags at all times to avoid running out mid-fight. 

58) Reloading before your mag reaches empty will allow you to use the short reload mechanism without pulling the charging handle to chamber another round. 

59) Once the mag is fully inside the weapon, the reloading animation can be skipped by performing a melee attack. That melee attack can also be skipped by aiming down the sights. This applies to both the short and long reloading animations, allowing you to fire your weapon just as quickly with a long reload as it would a short one - though this is likely unintentional and will probably be patched.

60) Deployable shields are best utilised in medium-to-long-range fights while already in a good defensive position. If the enemy is too close, they’ll be engulfed in the shield's radius or will be able to enter it too quickly for the shield to be effective. Similarly, if the enemy has good cover, they’ll be able to close ground on you. 

61) As soon as you deploy a shield, try to craft another in case it runs out while you’re still in a jam. 

62) Choose your moment for shield deployment wisely. Sometimes placing them can clutch a fight, whereas at other times it’ll get you killed. If an enemy has a direct line of sight on you, they’ll likely kill you while you're fumbling around with menus and placement or while the shield is activating. It’s better to shoot back and buy yourself time.

63) Energy ammo deals heavy damage to shields; their standard 45-second duration will drop to 10-15 seconds if hit with approximately ten rounds of energy ammo. 

64) It’s not advised that players waste more than ten energy rounds on weakening a deployable shield; it will not speed up the shield’s destruction further because shields must go through a blinking phase before they ‘pop’. Even during that blinking phase, shields cannot be shot through. 

65) When playing in a squad, pinging enemies with ‘T’ or the middle mouse button can be a powerful non-verbal method of communication. However, it can also be a significant detriment. Make sure to ping an opponent’s cover or ping near them, but never directly on them. A ping directly on an enemy will obscure them, making them harder for your team to hit. 

66) Choose your pings wisely. The middle mouse button ping lasts the longest, whereas the red ‘T’ ping and the loot box ping are shorter. If you want to remove a ping, move it somewhere else by pinging somewhere else. 

Did you find these EVE Vanguard tips helpful? Let us know in the replies! Some text has been amended for brevity, you can find the original wording at the bounty post. Image credit: CCP Games.