Overview
The SA LS official guide against the tools and toys of GTA online, how to fight and how to avoid
General Combat
You will mainly come across vehicular combat, PVP that’s solely player versus player with no vehicles is a rarity and only usually happens when both sides have run out of weaponized vehicles
This segment will guide you on what to do if your opponent has an advantage because they have a vehicle and you don’t, or don’t have an appropriate counter to their vehicle
This map, crudely drawn shows locations on where to go, red being interiors that would limit both threat of land and air vehicles, such as the Khanjali, Nightshark, Insurgents, mostly APCs, and Oppressors.
Purple shows parking garages which are usually solely useful against air combat such as jets, Avengers, and helicopters without gunners, however, an Orbital cannon can penetrate through 3 levels of parking garage, so if the opponent is in a facility, stay on the ground floor.
If you are confident enough, try and snag the attention of the opponent for as long as possible, to prevent that person from moving on to other people to target. This can be done through taunting, granted if you are not susceptible to getting upset over chats, or occasionally taking shots at the perpetrator.
Counteraction of the Ground
This segment is what specifically to do against certain vehicles and what behavior to indulge in as a result
Nightshark and Insurgents
Notice how I grouped Nightsharks and insurgents together due to how similar they function. The resistances are similar and the armor modifications are also similar.
Note a few things in the image of the Nightshark that started this section. Firstly, the armor is coating almost all of the important areas (mainly the windows, also can be seen on the insurgent). This window armor is impervious to bullets, leaving the small slots the only way to damage the driver. These windows have one flaw however, they remove the ability to shoot out of the vehicle with the ‘drive-by’ mechanic in the game. The only offense this vehicle has now is the front mounted, stationary machine guns in the bumper.
The general weakness when running across a Nightshark like this is the weapons and suspension being so low. It’s relatively easy to find a waist-high wall somewhere nearby. All you need to do is to climb on top of it, making the Nightshark completely incapable of damaging you. The driver would be forced to drive away or to get out and expose themself trying to fight.
To kill the driver, all that is needed is a relatively high fire rate weapon, preferably the minigun or widowmaker. Just hop on a waist-high wall and aim for the slots around the driver seat. Using explosives is highly discouraged as with the Nightshark and Insurgent, it takes over 20 direct explosives to destroy, unless you are luck to get more vulnerable areas, such as under the car or the interior via removed doors.
The insurgent shown is the other armor setup you might find. As you see the windows aren’t nearly as blocked, which also allows for the driver to use the aforementioned ‘drive-by’ mechanic and have an offensive edge, so small walls won’t save you this time. Also even if it did have maximized armor, with a secondary opponent, they could utilize the roof-mounted gun while still being defended comfortably.
However it would fall the same weakness as the minigun/widowmaker strategy even more, since there is more likelihood TO hit the driver, and if there is a gunner, it is recommended to go for the gunner first as they have a higher damage output than whatever the driver’s choice of weapon is. The gunner has a good weakness to exploit and that is if the vehicle is flipped, the gunner will fall out of the vehicle, so to flip it all is needed is the up-and-atomizer. Even if it doesn’t flip it will be extremely difficult for the driver and gunner to hit you with accuracy
Khanjali
The Khanjali is pretty menacing, a tank with no way to kill the driver and a secondary seat for a machine gunner. To make it short and simple, if the user is oblivious to you, the best course of action is any vehicle and sticky bombs, 5 to the rear of the Khanjali and it will destroy it for sure. Otherwise, the thing is pretty slow, being a tank and all, so really any normal car can outrun it.
If you have a buddy with you, one of the things you can do as well is get a helicopter with an explosive gun, such as the Valkyrie or Avenger, and fly almost nearly directly above. The tank simply cannot aim high enough to hit the helicopter, while the gunner can repeatedly shoot the tank from above.
Other Ground Vehicles
Other vehicles can be summed up under the same weaknesses. Either explosives, exposed drivers, exposed gunners, high fire rate weaponry through armor slots, or interiors
Counteraction against Air
Jets
Jets are pretty hard to deal with, especially when the pilot knows what they’re doing. Homing rockets won’t do against any jet, it’s one of the worst guided rockets in the game. The operator of a jet is hard to hit. These jets are known as The Strikeforce (or B-11), Lazer, Hydra, Molotok, and the Pyro.
Just like most jets have the same strengths, they have the same weaknesses as well. There are the game’s rendition of Anti-Aircraft armaments such as the Chernobog and AA Trailer, but buying these seems asinine to the normal player, especially since both require a 2nd player to be both portable and offensive.
Some of the parking garages on the map earlier might work, but assuming you might want to move around a bit there are other ways to deal with them. If you rather not go off the radar, having an explosive resistant vehicle of your own, such as an insurgent, nightshark, or Menacer is ideal just in case. But any car will work with this strategy which only consists of prediction. Just observe where the jet is going, jet users line up their flight to align with you, so don’t let them. Use the buildings of Los Santos in your favor. Just obscure their alignment by taking a road perpendicular to their flight path, and just keep doing that every time they align. It’s recommended you enlarge your map to keep an eye on where the jet is and what direction it’s facing.
If you have invested into a bunker, do the research until you unlock explosive ammo, and upgrade the heavy sniper to the Heavy Sniper Mk2 and equip explosive rounds. Against Jets, the rather ‘hit-scan’ type explosive makes it easy to hit the jet and do significant damage, and if not destroy it surely freak the pilot out enough to bail.
Homing missiles of any type from any vehicle might work, but the best pilots know how to avoid the best of them by simply circling around for long enough until they explode behind them. But it’s worth a shot, as you never know the skill of whom you’re facing.
A traditional dogfight might work, if you have a jet of your own, but you might not want to go for it until the opponent is off your tail long enough to get it without them realizing what you are initially headed for.
Again, a good weakness if you don’t have explosive ammo is high fire rate. If they don’t manage to kill you within a few ‘strafes’, a minigun or widowmaker will cause the jet to start smoking, especially of they hydra, which is especially weak against small arms fire.
Oppressor Mk1 and Mk2
This is a rather important opponent to be facing, as the vehicle itself has had it’s fair share of hate among the community for being overpowered, though countering it is rather easy.
Of all my hours of playing the game, a few strategies had stuck out to work, one of which being of course, minigun/widowmaker as the operator is exposed and hard to hit, so putting as many rounds towards them increases chance of hitting the target.
The main arsenal seen on both bikes is Homing Rockets, which are supposedly the best at tracking in the game, and from the users I have seen using it maliciously, really rely at the tracking function, so if you aren’t next to a wall or in a vehicle, and running around, the chance they hit you with unguided rockets is hilariously low.
Going into rather compact spaces is also a great counter, since it makes explosives so much more dangerous with the splash damage, so parking garages are a very reasonable location to go to if pursued by one. Also they cannot zip around enclosed spaces as they can open spaces, so hitting the opponent with conventional weapons is also easier.
If you are lucky you can also use a Mk 2 against a Mk 2 if you happen to shoot enough rockets once locked on, but it has mixed results.
If pursued in an air vehicle, go up for an extended period of time, then go down. The Mk 2 is fast, but it struggles with verticality, it can only go up and down so fast.
One of the rather defensive and offensive methods to dealing with them is a Nightshark or insurgent with no window armor allowing sticky bombs to be thrown at the Mk 2 while in the comfort of a heavily explosive resistant vehicle, giving you plenty of chances to make a successful throw, only amplified if done so in an enclosed space where they cannot distance themseves from you
Helicopters
Like many attack helicopters, the big weakness is enclosed spaces such as parking garages. If you find yourself in an enclosed space, even alleyways, good, then you can use any explosive launcher you have. The helicopter, if singling you out, won’t be very mobile if trying to kill you in such a space, making potshots with rockets a very viable and harmful solution (to those in the chopper)
General Defense
Usually a good general defense, despite the cost, is the Kosatka guided missiles and the Yacht Defenses (if you can bait the aircraft user to come near the yacht)
Conclusion
This should be suitable enough to fight against the tools and toys of the modern GTA Online Griefer for the next time you see one.