Tactics Important perk tips and tricks for players

[C_Gibby]

Ok, I've made a list of all the necessary skills for players to learn and tactics to use as they progress in using their desired perk. I am hoping for a sticky! Ssshh, don't tell anyone!

This guide was initially intended for new players but it has since then evolved to a point where just about anyone will learn something new!

Sharpshooter

• This perk is used to take on more powerful threats, and be effective from a distance.
• Sharpshooters best ability is the high likelihood of making insta-kill headshots. Always aim for the head. When a sharpie shoots a zed in the body, you can consider that shot a total waste.
• Make insta-kill headshots over longer ranges whenever possible. Sharpshooters shouldn't even have to get anywhere near the buggers, and his abilities at longer ranges help make that so.
• You should learn to make headshots whilst hipshooting. The game doesn't have a crosshair, no, but it's a simple concept. You just need to know where the center of your screen approximately is. An insta-kill in a hipshot will really help you in close scraps with the zeds.
• Make headshots over longer ranges whilst hipshooting if you can learn to do so. That way you can kill zeds easily whilst still moving at full speed, and it arguably helps prevent tunnel vision.
• Do not spam the M14. Seriously, don't. It's a bad habit, and the M14 does very little damage with bodyshots, which are what you're going to be getting if you spam. Your survival chances will be slimmer than they were, your teammates will be endangered as they have nobody around who can reliably handle a Fleshpound with a crossbow, and you'll slowly but surely build up your reputation as a very poor player.
• Be independant of the M14's laser sight. The M14 does have a fancy little laser, but your 9mm, Handcannon, crossbow, and LAR do not. You won't always have an M14, so you won't always have a laser. This is why learning to hipshoot without a laser is extremely important.
• A good sharpie player would be able to take headshots with dual handcannons. Don't be so keen to try this, though. One sight is always better than two, however, the dual handcannons can tear swarms of clots to shreds when firing rapidly, however it is an inefficient method that eats up your ammo supply very quickly.
• Learn to appreciate the power of the lever-action rifle. It can stun a husk and even a scrake with a headshot. It also outdamages the handcannon and the M14 and it's extremely cheap at

 

[Deadbolt]

good stuff

 

[HalfDemon]

good stuff

^ seconded

 

[Fat Cat]

good stuff

True

 

[Major Liability]

Forget a sticky. This should be on a screen that pops up the first time you load KF.

Just one thing I don't like - bullpup vs. AK is a matter of preference. I survive much longer and kill specimens much, much faster with the AK on any difficulty.

 

[HCX]

A few points. Your mileage may vary, since I usually play as a melee-focused medic or penny-pinching commando on six-man Suicidal.

• Commando: While I find the AK's sights iffy, it tends to make quick work of crawlers, clots, gores, bloats, stalkers and to a lesser extent, sirens if it's on semi- and you have the "mental crosshair" trick down so you can score consistent head-shots.

• Demo: It might be worth noting that tossing a hand grenade and detonating it with your launcher is useful when you need some extra power. Another trick is to put a pipe bomb on the outside of a door, weld it, and place another on the inside. This helps extend the door's lifetime by blowing apart the first crowd to start hammering on the outside.

• Pipe bombs are great for creating fallback positions for if things get too heavy. This helps the team quickly reclaim valuable breathing room and avoid getting swarmed with their backs against the wall. It's worth noting that sirens will disable them, so near corners or some other obstruction is more ideal since sirens require line of sight to damage things.

• Medic: The MP7M is a bit more formidable than you give it credit for. Like the bullpup, the more common zeds go down in 3-5 shots if you don't just fire from the hip, while the siren is killed with about 3/4 of the magazine at typical range. I'll agree that the darts take a lot of practice and it doesn't help that they'll sometimes have no effect. I usually just run towards the patient as I fire so that if need be, I can just whip out the syringe. Again, it can help to bring up the sight.

• Berserker: While husks and sirens are best avoided over open ground, a berserker can often hack them apart without retaliation if he uses cover properly. The only trick is to get the clot/gorefast mob thinned out first. Once it is and you're able to cut your way through, the husk will be dead or stunned with one swing, and the siren is likewise helpless once you're in her face. Not for everyone, of course, and good support helps.

• Likewise, I've found melee combat with crawlers situational. If you're out in the open, it's easy to trick them into leaping at thin air by circle-strafing. Once they've done that, they're temporarily still and easily cut down without retaliation. The same applies to cramped spaces, but they're more likely to land square in front of you, where they'll remain still for a much shorter time and will likely bite you anyway.

A little more off-topic, any perk will benefit from having good shooting technique, especially commandos and sharpshooters. In brief, this means planting your feet, aiming your sights for the head, and maintaining a good rhythm so you're less likely to panic.

To a lesser extent, being proficient with melee combat will often help. A firebug or demo shouldn't have to waste time and ammo firing their pistol on a lone gorefast when they can use a quick knife swing to decapitate them. For a more extreme example, my usual early game medic wields an axe so I can draw sirens and husks away from the team before killing them with an overhead swing. Otherwise, they can lead to shaved armor or simple panic among the others.

</wall o' text>

 

[Deleted member 24443]

Pretty good list. Here's some points you may want to include:

Support Specialist:
- You are the engineer of the team. That means you can weld /unweld doors faster than anyone else. This can be lifesaving in a frantic fight, holding your back clear of specimen for a brief period of time. This means, if everyone holds the line in front of you with their long range weapons (like on farm), but there's ZEDs inside a house and you can't take on them, weld the door and inform the team. It can also help setting up a defense position (like the U-shaped room construction on the second floor on biotics).
This also means that you can shorten the way through a welded door much faster than anyone else. Help the team.

Commando:
- Make use of your ability to see health bars. At higher perk levels it will allow you not only to see stalkers a few metres away but also see enemies in the dark, meaning you can take them out without utilizing a 9mm or asking a Support Specialist / someone with Shotty. This works even better in the grassy environments of farm, when everyone is watching out but you'r' the only one that can see ZEDs inside the gras. This works especially well for small specimen like Crawler / Stalker. Save a few lifes this way.

- Learn which health bar belongs to which specimen. They show up above their heads, and with little practice you can see what is going to attack you from the dark, be it gorefast, crawler or siren. This works well alongside hipshooting and shooting in the dark. With some practice, you will be able to pull of headshots just by seeing the health bar of an enemy.

 

[C_Gibby]

*moar tips*

Added to the list!

 

[koneko]

I like everything there except the Bullpup .vs. AK section on Commando. That just reeks of bias, considering it isn't that hard to get used to the AK iron sights (and then non iron sights later on) for easy head shots.

Personally, I find the AK much more useful than the Bullpup on Hard/Suicidal, but the consensus is that it seems to come down to personal preference.

 

[C_Gibby]

Forget a sticky. This should be on a screen that pops up the first time you load KF.

Just one thing I don't like - bullpup vs. AK is a matter of preference. I survive much longer and kill specimens much, much faster with the AK on any difficulty.

It's more about people treating the AK as the best weapon before the SCAR and not seeing how valuable the bullpup actually can be in the right hands.

 

[smilin]

I'm going to take *some* issue with this:

Realise that the AK-47 is overrated and is really a medicore-damaging weapon with rather high recoil. It is only any good for the lower levels, but you shouldn't be playing on a difficulty when you actually need it, either.
Remember that even though the Bullpup has low base damage, in the hands of a higher-level commando, it is a vicious, devastating headshot machine.
​

I don't think it's so much that the AK is overrated as the bullpup is under rated. Another mistake is a direct comparison.

A lvl 6 commando has a huge clipsize and pretty much no recoil at all. With this in mind the bullpup is a great *long to medium* range weapon. It can be left on full auto, used in bursts, and behaves almost like a laser gun for cutting off long distance heads. At short range though it just doesn't have enough power to stop you from being overwhelmed.

The AK has punch and at lvl 6 the recoil on the AK is negligible. That said the AK is a great *medium to short* weapon. The AK also makes a great wave 1 weapon. Just flip it to single-shot mode and you'll have plenty of ammo.

The two guns together are a great combo. Bullpup at range, switching over to AK as range closes.

The SCAR is a *long to medium* weapon and much better suited to replacing the bullpup. Yes, it does have punch for short range but full-auto fire is typical at short and the SCAR clipsize just doesn't handle this gracefully.

My start play:
Bullpup (auto), long-medium range.
AK (single shot), medium range.
AK (auto) short range.

My ending play:
SCAR (single shot), long-medium range.
AK (auto), short range.

I'll also flip my single shot scar to full auto if a husk/siren is about to hurt the team.

 

[Nubbers]

I found myself nodding in agreement with nearly every single point you had to make, except one: regarding the sharpshooter's independence of the M14's laser. Yes, I can pop heads from the hip. But that does not mean I should ignore a tool provided me.

At longer ranges the laser sight is nigh-worthless, and thus I find myself 'shooting from the hip', or estimating. However close in (and with the occasional ZED time), I can pop off 20 consecutive head shots that are as guaranteed to hit as anything, and that is optimal when the situation gets thick.

Sure, you can argue that a good sharpshooter doesn't need the laser, and you would be right in many cases. I'll argue that not using this particular provision errs on the side of hubris.

I hate ending on negatives when I'm not actually pissed off, so I will reiterate that everything else you said was spot-on.

 

[C_Gibby]

Lol, glad you like my guide, Nubbers!

Yeah, I know what you mean about using a tool that's provided to you. When I say people are dependant on the laser, these people will never learn how to hip-shoot effectively because they rely too much on the laser.

Before the M14 was introduced, every sharpie had to learn how to hipshoot with the LAR, HC, 9mm and Xbow. Now because of the inclusion of the M14 and its laser sight, newbies ignore this skill. They depend on the laser so much, that they're unlikely to bother learning how to hipshoot with the other weapons. They never learnt how to hipshoot! It's a very important skill to every SS.

They only rely on the Laser, and ironsights. That's it.

 

[Major Liability]

That's pretty funny that some people don't use the laser. You're already using the M14, why not go all the way? It's not like you can see the laser until they're so close it's irrelevant anyways.

 

[C_Gibby]

There's nothing wrong with using the laser when you're using the M14.

It's just that you need to stop yourself from growing dependant on it.

 

[Evilsod]

That's pretty funny that some people don't use the laser. You're already using the M14, why not go all the way? It's not like you can see the laser until they're so close it's irrelevant anyways.

Because i can't be arsed to turn the useless piece of crap on all the time? Its a fact there is absolutely no need to not use the laser sight, so why the hell is it not on permanently. Especially when it switches off every time you change weapon and i try to favour my 9mm or LAR whenever i use M14.

 

[CandleJack]

A few points. Your mileage may vary, since I usually play as a melee-focused medic or penny-pinching commando on six-man Suicidal.

The term you're referring to is Zerdic. A Berserker Medic. Not a "melee-focused medic" as medics do not focus on melee.

Also, penny-pinching commando?

 

[outofrealman]

First thing for EVERY perk. Learn to headshot WITHOUT uing the ironsight or red dot sight and set everything in full auto if you can and learn to shoot just 1-2 bullets.

Once you did it, you will not consider the ercoil of 90% of the weapons.


Some points I would like to add:
Medic
- you will not take dmg from clots/crawlers when you have armour, so listen carefully and keep notice around you, as when they are attacking you, ONLY the armour point in the screen will change. If you are not paying attention, you may get hit several times.

- the goddy armour makes you can actually "tank" even a raging fleshpound. You can take 4+ hits from a raging fleshpound before you die.

Commando
- crawlers die in one SCAR bullet if you are playing a suitable difficulty of your level. So, KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE in sight. You are the best man to kill these little things.

- Clear all the small stuffs when a support/sharpshooter try to down some scrakes/fleshpounds. You should only shoot them when they are charging, otherwise, you should ignore them TOTALLY.

Support
- when carrying AA12 + hunting shotgun, you still have 3kg left. So it is a good idea to play as medic on early waves and grab the medic gun. Then you can do the perfect job to supporting the team. You do what nobody does. Which can be healing, welding, or killing. Do what your team need instead of shooting a single clot.

- unweld the door that you know it will break. In this case you can weld it shut again after clearing the zeds behind it instead of losing the door.

- as you have much carry weight to spare, run around more to collect weapons to sell on early waves.

- you dont really need to aim for the head, it is better to let more bullets to hit everything behind your target.


Berserker
- learn to kill a crawler in mid air. This can help you much in many cases such as group of gorefast is several feets away and some crawlers is very close to you. But even you master in killing crawlers in mid-air, it is also recommanded to use your backup weapon for them if no other threat is near you.

- primary attack can only "cancel" the attack of scrakes, not stun them. Use your secondary attack on scrakes. Run in front of a fleshpound WHO IS NOT targeting you. Body lock him until he rages and start melee him like crazy.

 

[Deadbolt]

Run in front of a fleshpound WHO IS NOT targeting you. Body lock him until he rages and start melee him like crazy.

that is a lot more successful as a medic than beserker because you ultimately dont turn out as groundbread.

as a commando, i like to run scar, ak47, and mp7. i take the mp7 to help out the team medic, or act as one if the team doesnt have one. in times where it is wave 10, and an fp comes in and mauls everyone, and there is that brief time to regroup and heal eachother, it is quicker to shoot 2 mp7 shots at people along with 2 syringes. people get healed much quicker. you can also heal someone else and then urself without delay.

 

[Nubbers]

Yeah, I know what you mean about using a tool that's provided to you. When I say people are dependant on the laser, these people will never learn how to hip-shoot effectively because they rely too much on the laser.

I sensed that is what you were referring to initially; as I finished my reply I thought, instead, that I should have suggested a rewording. Something like, "Yes, the M14EBR has a fancy little laser, but your 9mm doesn't. Learn to achieve head shots without an aid, because you won't always have an EBR."


.: Nubbers :.