Tactics Leveling Firebug . . . help!

Shoot flames at stuff

Use the FT over every other weapon, and set all the small stuff on firet o burn out. Might also help to read a few firebug guides which are dotted around if you search for them.

You do extra damage on bloats too, so if someone beheads one then go to town on that bad boy.

Splatpope said:

Shoot flames at stuff

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Pretty much, that's the ONLY way to do it. Set a lot of crap on fire, let the pyromaniac inside you laugh with hapiness.

If you don't want to actually play as the perk, I'm partial to 2 strategies to build it up FAST (relatively, you are off-perk after all).

Broke loadout: Medic
Flamethrower + MP7/MP5 + Machete
You can do a nice layer of DoT with this while keeping your team well healed. Just hope they drop some nice guns if they all wipe.

Cheap loadout: Support
Flamethrower + Shotgun + deagle brand deagles/m79/fireaxe
Flamethrower + Coach Gun + .44 mag (if they ever fix it) + machete
With either as lvl 6 support you should be able to hold your own on hard or even suicidal without too much trouble

Expensive loadout: Support
Husk Cannon (you'll need to go on-perk to afford it) + Shotgun + tacticool Benelli
Husk Cannon + AA12 + deagle brand deagles + pipes
With the right strategy either of these will cut a swath through the hordes almost as deep as the one it'll cut in your wallet.

nono you guys don't get it you gotta shoot flames at stuff

The Mac 10 on semi is such a powerful tool. Too often I see a Firebug spamming away wasting ammo with the flamethrower. It's far better to learn how to use the Mac 10 than blocking the view of your team mates.

Alphaboy has the right idea, with fakes on you're going to learn way more of how to use the firebug.

Flamethrower is more efficient than the Mac10 though, imo. I don't know the numbers, but I find quick spurts with the FT do a lot more than semi shots with the Mac10.
I still usually buy a Mac10 for ammo reasons and if needed I can headshot a Husk with it (although there are arguably better off-perk weapons for that).

Not saying I'm right. I'm only lvl4 now, I think. Just my experience.

Murphy said:

Flamethrower is more efficient than the Mac10 though, imo. I don't know the numbers, but I find quick spurts with the FT do a lot more than semi shots with the Mac10.

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It would make sense, even without the numbers. For the flamethrower, the flame attack plus the afterburn are perked by the Firebug's flame bonus. However, with the Mac-10 (and Husk gun), only the afterburn damage is perked. The Mac-10 does baseline bullet damage, and the Husk gun does impact.

So if you're looking after leveling, flamethrower is the way to go.

Leveling Firebug

Leveling Firebug

Solo Tips/Tricks For OPEN PLAYING AREAS
This worked for me from perk 0-3...
On SOLO normal or Beginner difficulty play mountain pass and camp the streets with a mac 10 or flamethrower, this'll work till around wave 5 when you start getting bigger enemies such as scrakes or fps, shoot them in the head once with MAC-10 if you have incen ammo it should lite the scrake or fp but it wont rage, then just run off, after it is unlit just shoot it again. Rinse and repeat. IF you dont have incen ammo use the flamethrower and just do a quick 1 tap on mouse burst and use the mac-10 strategy when it becomes unlit relight it. IF done correctly it will not rage. Lighting then relighting also allows you to kill off the smaller specimens while it burns up. IF you can obtain the husk cannon and you see a big enemy, charge it to full then blast, if on solo two full blasts should blow it up, on normal FPs might require three full blasts or two blasts and a full mac 10 clip. Mountainpass works best because there is a nice view in the streets, you can see things coming from miles and its not cramped up which allows you to freely kite tougher enemies. This strategy can work on ANY open map i just used mountain pass as a example because it is a common easy map (this strategy becomes easy and ineffective after perk 3 because you wont get the damage you need as quickly in which case i suggest moving to multiplayer)

Multiplayer Tips
on Multiplayer, your job as a firebug is backup, not to burn everything everywhere and block other peoples sight. your job is to ignite large crowds quickly and let them burn out or to take out the smaller specimens that come in behind fps or scrakes. Other players do not like a firebug who rages the FP or scrake because then the classes suited to take them down quickly cant do it as easily. Firebugs are not effective against fps or scrakes on multiplayer when playing hard+ because they have more health than on solo which means when you rage them the chance of them burning out before slicing you is unlikely. If caught away from the group with one kite it back and let the Sharpshooter, Beserker, Demo or Support Spec take out the FPs or Scrakes while you focus on the little guys. You do not need to hog specimens because you want money, by wave 3 you can have a full loadout (besides Husk cannon) of Mac and Flamethrower and the cost for a full ammo replacement is less than the cost for combat armor. IT isnt necessary to try to burn the crap out of a large specimen just to try to get the bounty ( i have seen people do this) only to wipe the team.

Final Word
The easiest way to level firebug is to just play it. There is no real method besides burning and burning and burning. There is no secret to it, just don't burn the things that rage. Set aflame the clots, crawlers, gorefasts, sirens, and bloats and people will love you for it. The harder the difficulty the more HP a specimen has, if your a level 4 bug for example don't play on beginner to level, go play hard it would be WAY faster. But in your case beginner and normal is what you need.

Sorry if my post was long i just thought the original poster and other people might need a few tips and helpful information on how to play firebug and level it.

Squirt flaming jizz over stuff.

But in all seriousness, use the flamethrower in squirts and puffs unless a bigger target needs more flame to bring it down. I myself don't really like the firebug perk and will be the second to last perk I lvl up to lvl 6.

And yea, don't use the Husk Launcher. Waste of space and money.

AlphaBoy said:

It depends on the situation. The flamethrower is very limited in ammo reserves, and while it does more flame damage, flame damage in itself is not always the best option, especially when taking out larger Specimens. I would say just gauge the situation. However, if you're looking to level faster, my suggestion above is about as fast as you can legitimately do it: DeathBasinSands, Mac10 and Faked Players. I went from level 3 to level 5 in one afternoon, just by using a semi-auto Mac10.
Plus, it really teaches you the benefits of which weapons to use, when to use them, and why.

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AlphaBoy said:

Download the DeathBasinSands map, it's whitelisted:

[url]http://www.sandcrawler.net/forum/kfmod.php?page=downloads&command=view&id=54[/URL]

Save up for a Mac10, set it to semi-auto and kite the heck out of Suicidal. You will earn about .2m damage by the 7th wave per game. You can also utilize the Faked Players mutator to increase the wave size:

[url]https://www.asuswebstorage.com/navigate/s?u=QeDOC[/URL]

Enjoy.

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You're a bit redundant hahahhahahaha

To clarify a common misconception: MAC10 bullets do in fact contribute to Firebug levelling, but only if you are actually a Firebug when you shoot them. Your current perk determines which damage type the MAC10 uses: the Firebug perk selects a damage type that both contributes to levelling and sets things on fire, whereas the default MAC10 damage type used by other perks does neither.

Entangler said:

To clarify a common misconception: MAC10 bullets do in fact contribute to Firebug levelling, but only if you are actually a Firebug when you shoot them. Your current perk determines which damage type the MAC10 uses: the Firebug perk selects a damage type that both contributes to levelling and sets things on fire, whereas the default MAC10 damage type used by other perks does neither.

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Now that's good to know.

Entangler said:

To clarify a common misconception: MAC10 bullets do in fact contribute to Firebug levelling, but only if you are actually a Firebug when you shoot them. Your current perk determines which damage type the MAC10 uses: the Firebug perk selects a damage type that both contributes to levelling and sets things on fire, whereas the default MAC10 damage type used by other perks does neither.

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So, as a Firebug, you get bullet damage plus afterburn damage? Hmm. News to me.

AlphaBoy said:

Sounds like the pot's calling the kettle black.

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High five mate

Also breaking news : shooting flames is what ye gotta do