Overview
This is a work-in-progress guide aiming to teach new players and n00b players how to play the game at a high level in an online player-vs-player setting (i.e. not survival).
Intro & Updates
MORE MORE NEW Here is an *annotated* video of a deathmatch with me and Teams Medic! You will realize that the stuff in this guide is used *ALL THE TIME*!
MORE NEW: I’ve written the section on the roll-throw. This is quite difficult to master, but can be very powerful.
NEW: I’ve typed up the section on the roll-shot, including a video with many examples. This is an essential skill to master
Comments are *very* welcome! Hate the guide? Please tell me why! Want an advanced skill covered here? Please tell me what!
Want to write your own section about some advanced Cobalt PvP skill? Contributions are welcome!
The very basics…
… won’t be covered here. I expect you know how to shoot, move, jump, roll, etc, at least at a basic level. The Mojang youtube channel has a pretty good playlist of videos explaining the basics:
Key/gamepad bindings
There are two principles in choosing key bindings (I use keyboard, but the same applies to controllers):
- You should have one key to use each weapon type; in the configuration these are the bindings that say “use melee”, “use ranged” and “use thrown”. This lets you use each weapon type immediately instead of first having to select the weapon type and then pressing the generic “use” key. Those wasted milliseconds are important.
- The “roll” binding is very important, so it should be easy to press simultaneously with anything else.
My bindings
move/jump/crouch – default (arrow keys)
q, w, e – melee, ranged and thrown slot
a, s, d – use melee, ranged, thrown
space – roll
shift – sneak
reload – r
Moving quickly with roll-jump-hold
Moving around is one of the most fun things in the game. And obviously, it’s very important being able to reach what you want when you want before the other players.
The standard way of acquiring speed is via a trick which I will call the roll-jump-hold. To do it, make yourself midair (either jump or fall from a ledge), then press the roll button, then with the appropriate timing press the jump button, and keep both the jump button pressed (“hold” the jump button) until you hit the ground. This will only work if you haven’t pressed the jump button since the last time you were on the ground (only one air jump is allowed).
What is the right timing? Well, the jump button press should always happen after the roll. The player character will accelerate in the opposite direction of where the legs are projected. In the roll-jump-hold, you wait a little bit and then press the jump — this will accelerate the player diagonally down — and then as the player hits the ground, he will rebound upwards again, provided you continued to hold the jump button. You can optionally hold the roll button as well.
A great map to practice the roll-jump-hold is dune sanctuary. Steam guides’ youtube embedding isn’t working, so here’s a direct link:
Other tips
- If you press the jump immediately after the roll, this will accelerate the player sideways, which is sometimes a good idea if you already have acquired some speed via the roll-jump-hold.
- Some weapons will propel the player in the opposite direction of the fire. This can be used for good effect to gain speed.
Challenge Go wall to wall in dune sanctuary by touching the ground only once. Here is a proof that it’s possible:
Use in speed challenge Check this out for the roll-jump-hold being used to high-score a speed challenge:
Moving quickly with the roll-bounce
*planned*
Here is an example of a good use of a roll-bounce (yes, it was intentional)
Acing with the roll-shot
The roll is one of the most unique and ingenious features of Cobalt. It is the most important move to master.
Knowing how to use the roll to aim your shot is very important. It allows you to aim in directions that would be impossible, or very difficult, or very exposing, in any other way. For example:
- If you are running away from someone and want to aim a shot at them, your best bet is to do a roll shot. If you turn at them and then shoot, you will have lost precious milliseconds and they are bound to catch up with you.
- If you want to aim down, there are only two ways: either sit like a duck at the edge of the precipice, or momentarily roll-shoot before immediately returning to the cover of higher ground.
- Jumping and roll-shooting is a good idea against an opponent that blocks your shots very well, because by the time the shot bounces back at you, you will no longer be in the same position where you shot it from.
- If you are surrounded, your best hope to handle both threats is to make judicious use of rolling. That way you know that on every roll you can threaten and maybe even shoot both opponents.
- The player character seems to aim a roll shot a lot more reliably and quickly than a regular aim. This allows you to place the shot in very specific directions.
Here is how you do a roll-shot: first you press roll, then you wait until the player character is facing the direction you want to shoot at, and then you press use ranged.
I have prepared a Youtube video with several examples of using the roll-shot:
Speed-throws, grenade walls and roll-throws
speed-throw
To do a speed throw, gain some speed, and release a throw in the same direction. The throwable will start with the same momentum. On one hand, this is sometimes the only way to throw far enough. On the other hand, fast grenades are harder to dodge.
grenade wall
The basic idea of the grenade wall is that you use grenades (usually more than one, but not necessarily) to force the opponent to make a bad choice (usually running away from the grenade into a worse situation).
A good lesson one gets from being grenade-walled is being less afraid of grenades. Grenades give you lots of slow-down, so there is usually lots of time to respond appropriately. Running in the opposite direction of the grenade is sometimes not the best idea.
roll-throw
Here is how you do a roll-throw: hold the use thrown button, then press the roll button, the player will roll and the grenade will rotate in an arc around the center of the roll; release the use thrown button at just the right moment so that the grenade gets the momentum from the roll.
In this way the grenade can be made to go on any direction.
It is easy to understand the principle behind the roll-throw, but mastering it is much more difficult. Unlike the roll-shot, the player character won’t aim the grenade in any specific way, so you need to have very precise timing in order to place it where you want.
There are several variants of the roll-throw that you can do:
- Throw over. Release a bit before the end of the roll to throw the grenade in a nice arch. The trajectory is very threatening and if well placed it’s hard to avoid. The best counter attack is sometimes running *at* the grenade, and not away from it.
- Throw down. Release immediately at the start of the roll. Probably the most useful roll-throw. Good to get quick kills and dominate ledges.
- Throw back. Great when you’re being chased, and there is still a bit of distance, but not so much that the grenade will be easy to avoid. Release a bit after the start of the roll.
- Throw up. For some reason people don’t really expect grenades to go up. They feel so safe up there, and then suddenly there’s a grenade coming at them from below. Release timing is between throw back and throw over.
video
Shot timing
*planned*