How to enjoy Squad even without friends

Overview

This guide is made for people, who cant find Squad enjoyable due to low teamwork on servers. Here you will find tips on how improve your chances to find good random players to play with.

Foreword

Hi! (sorry for my bad english)

Im Antol, known for being annoying on Discord and for working in Meme-Department at r/joinsquad. Some months ago i decided to make a tutorial for newcomers that wanted to try Squad game alone for the first time.
You know what that means… “Squad is meant to be a teamwork oriented game but i dont feel that, people dont work together etc.”
Most of the time these words are written around sales and free weekends where there is a huge amount of newbies trying to find out how to play it.

With 8+ years of experience in Project Reality and Squad i found that many veterans and especially new players really miss a social and psychological aspects of these games that should keep in mind.
Some people think that you cant play and enjoy Squad without being in clan or without friends… its true if you dont know how to find great people to play with 😉

Lets see how to improve your ability to find good players to play with = thats critical aspect of finding great gaming experience.

First of all = find a good server

There are many servers in game. Some of them are popular and great to play, some are only popular.
Things that can make difference: good playerbase (especially Squad Leaders), active admins, server rules. Time is important too: most of good players jumps in from 6pm to 10pm local server time.

During Free Weekends there are Official Squad servers too, but try to play on Clan Servers because of active admins and veterans that usually play there.

Here is a list of recommended servers where you can find active admins and good Squad Leaders that will lead you to victory:

EU Region
♞♞ [PL/ENG] Polski Serwer Klanu HSR [Europe / Poland] ♞♞
★★★ SQUAD EUROPE ★★★ by JoinSquad.eu
[EU] The Coalition
[M] MUMBLERINES TEAMWORK #1 [ENG ONLY]
[RIP] Rusty In Places UK/EU Sq#1

NA Region
TacticalGamer Squad Server
SquadOps.gg
Desmo Playground ?
West Coast Tactical
Bellas Battlegrounds
[USA] Firestorm
TBG
FaT

Other thing to keep in mind. Most of servers have whitelists. If you’re on it then you can join server without waiting in queue. Check their websites or discord for more info.

Once you joined a server…

Look at the battle situation of match. Who is winning? How many tickets left on your team? What time?

You need to know that playing on losing team, especially when your team is being pushed back to last flag, round after round (due to team balance) – isnt the most enjoyable experience. Especially for a newcomer like you that just downloaded game and tried it for the first time.

So yeah. Timer starts always from 2:00h and decrease. If round lasts for 20-30 minutes and your team is pushed to the last flag – change team. Dont wait till next round because enemy can steamroll your team again (take flag after flag).

If teams are balanced enough you can go to next step – joining squad.

…dont create your own squad.

Its hard to be Squad Leader. You’re new. You dont know how to play, how to lead other people. Dont ruin game experience for other newcomers like you. Because thats a Squad Leaders job = make a fun experience for themselves and OTHERS.

Be Squad Leader when you gain more experience.
PS. Keep in mind that you become Squad Leader AUTOMATICALY when creating New Squad.

Choose your squad specialization – Infantry only for first rounds.

There are different types of squads in a round in this game. Squad role is normally written in name of the squad. There are Infantry Squads, Vehicle Squads (like Tank, APC), Logistics Squads etc. … all of them take different aspect of game.

For newcomer like you i suggest joining Infantry Squad. Why? Because being squad member in that squad isn’t the most critical function when looking at whole team. Squad Leader and squad members will have time to explain you game mechanics and you will understand game more in that type of squad.

Second thing: if you join for example Tank Squad, Squad Leader of that squad usually will not have time to explain mechanics and actively work with new player. They’re focused on their objective and these types of squads works best when they’re small (no necessary info and radio spam etc.).

Search for “signs of teamwork” in squads before you join them

Yep. Thats right. You can check if squad presents a good level of teamwork without being in that squad.
How? You need to find “signs of teamwork”. I’ve wrote most of them below (if you know about others, pls let me know in comments). The more your potential squad have – the better.

1. Look at squads at Deploy tab. Search for INF Squads.
During sales and free weekends, veterans like to name their squads like Newbie Squad, Training, New players, Noob Squad etc. Join them – Squad Leader of that will train you!

2. Squads with more members are really good to join. Bigger = better.

3. Check if Squad Leader have actualy Squad Leader role/kit. If he dont have it – he is probably lone wolf and dont care about his squad.

4. Look if squad is sticking together. You can rightclick squad and then highlight it on the map.

5. Check if squad have deployed their Rally Point on map (blue flag with squad number)

6. Check if squad have any medic. If at least one – good.

7. Langauge can be a big barrier in this game. English like in other games is a common one. If Squad is communicating in other language – it will be most of the time typed in squad name (like ENG Inf, GER, etc.). Search for your language first, then others you know

PS. Fun fact: i’ve never learn english in school (Poland here). I just started playing Project Reality back in 2010. So if you want to learn english – play this game! You will be surprised how many you can achive – not only speaking but even confidence in talking with strangers.

If you found a squad with enough signs of teamwork – join it!

First steps after clicking a “Join Squad” button

You’re in. Now its time to say hello.

And here are two things:
1. If they respond – good. Some of your squad members at least use their microphones.
2. Squad leader and others will know that you’re using microphone and can easly communicate with you.

Always say hello when joining squad. If that squad dont communicate – look for another squad to join.

After that you should always ask Squad Leader what role you should take and where to spawn.. If he tells you to take kit whatever you want – try to take basic rifleman. Dont take marksman – its a bad idea in Squad universe. If you want little more challenge – take a medic! That way you will have a special place in your squad and everyone will appreciate it. You will learn game faster too.

Next step is telling your Squad Leader that you’re new player. “Hold on… they will laugh and pointing fingers at me!”
Not exactly. Squad is a mature game and mostly mature players are playing this game. If they starting to laugh at you – join another squad.
So once you tell that you should find others willing to help you. Ask them about game mechanics and how to play. Its really that easy.

Spawn in, stick together, communicate, ask if you dont know what to do, look how other plays, focus on your squad and objectives, focus on your squad’s survivability. Enjoy the game!

Ending

When you’re new always try to thinking that way: if i dont enjoy that squad, that team, that server – change it. Rounds in Squad can be very long and its just a waste of your time.

There are people who got Squad game and tried it without success in less than 2 hours… its really hard to experience what Squad can offer in only 2 hours. But with this tutorial i hope that new players will have a better idea of social aspect of game and will have a better chance enjoying it in 2 hours.

Squad can be different. Because foundation of this game is made from people – more than in other games.

Hope you to see on the battlefield one day.
Antol out.

v1.01:
-fixed things to be fixed
-added new servers and communities from comments feedback