Overview
Tips and tactics for single player.
Skills explained.
Assault – ability to quickly focus your aim with weapons that arent sniper rifles. By far the most important skill. Assault operatives have the highest skill, Snipers have the lowest.
Sniper – ability to quickly focus your aim with sniper rifles. Snipers have the highest rating of course.
Stealth – ability to move quietly without alerting enemies. Highest on Recon guys.
Leadership – not sure what this does but I always have a high Leadership guy in each squad. Theres only 7 or 8 high Leadership guys.
Observation – I believe this is the ability for your teammates to spot enemies.
Mechanical– speed at picking locks, worthless. Everyone can do it, just a little slower.
Explosives – speed at disarming bombs and planting door charges, worthless. Everyone can do it, just a little slower.
Electronics – speed at manipulating electronics, worthless. Everyone can do it, just a little slower.
That’s all the skills I can think of. If I missed something it really doesnt matter. The only skill that really matters is Assault.
Team and equipment selection
Standard configuration:
Two 4-man squads
G36k rifle and silencer, or MP5/10 and silencer
Medium black armor
Mk23 .45 pistol with silencer
**6 smoke grenades** the key to winning
This setup works for all missions.
Each squad should have a Leadership guy and 3 Assault guys. The Recon, Electronics and Explosives guys will have good enough Assault skill as well and are interchangeable with the Assault guys. Use them heavily in the early missions to build skills. Save your elite guys like Chavez for the endgame.
A 4 man squad maximizes firepower and spotting capability, as well as staying effective if someone goes down. In some levels there is a large outdoor area where a lone sniper can come in handy so he would be Squad 3.
Rifles will always kill someone in 2 hits max, regardless of shot placement. Some of the pistols and SMG’s can be noticeably weaker and take several more shots to kill.
SMG’s are faster to focus your aim when you are moving around corners. In an indoor only map give everyone an SMG. In maps with a large outoor area (first 3 levels for example) give one squad rifles and have them clear the outdoor area.
THe G36 and L85A1 have a built in scope so you can take a silencer as your one attachment and have both. So there is zero reason to use the other rifles but the scope isnt necessary so do what you want. The silencer *IS* necessary, recoil is too high without it and you are guaranteed to fail hostage and bomb missions.
If you use SMG’s I like the MP5/10 a lot due to high damage, the MP5SD has low damage but a built in silencer so you can have a scope too. The UMP is also viable, dont bother with the others.
If you use a sniper use one of the silent rifles with the thermal scope.
The Mk23 has a good combination of power and ammo capacity. You should never need to use the pistol unless you’re moving a sniper.
Armor is a matter of preference. Heavy armor will drastically slow down reloading or switching between weapons and grenades. You can get killed during the transition. Medium armor is a good balance but do what you want they are all viable.
Smoke grenades are awesome and the key to not dying. When you know there are enemies in a room smoke the doorway and sit in the smoke and 99% of the time you can kill the enemy without them seeing you. This is the key to hostage rescues, approaching bombs, clearing large rooms, crossing large areas, and every other challenging situation.
Some hostage rescues are tricky without flashbangs. (level 2 church) Smoke the door, crack it open, flashbang, move in. Pretty foolproof.
Fire and movement.
This is a stealth game. Stay crouched and move slowly unless you know you have cleared the area. You will often catch enemies with their backs turned and unaware.
Smoke doorways when you know there are enemies inside. Slowly open the door with the mouse wheel and move inside, you can kill them without being shot at. This is by far the most important tactic. When you run out of smoke grenades switch to the next team member. 8 people x 6 smoke grenades = 48 smoke grenades. If you die with smoke grenades in your inventory thats because you screwed up and didnt use your smoke grenades.
There is a Fluid Posture button that I bind to the G key. Use it to lean around corners when crouched, if the enemy is far enough away you will be able to shoot before they see you. This is crucial.
There is an Action button that you can use to direct your squad members. Smoke the doorway and tell your team to open and clear, they will get the job done. This is how you rescue hostages. You can also point them to a spot on the floor and tell them to move there. Dont tell your team to use grenades or to open a door unless you have smoked it, they are stupid and will die. You need to be in control of all grenade use.
There is a Hold button that will make your team sit still. Useful if you want to enter a small room or peek around a corner and dont want them crowding you.
When making far shots with a rifle switch to single shot mode.
Memorize enemy locations. There is some variation but not much, at least half the enemies are always in the same spot.
Listen for audio queues, if you hear a Huh? there is a close enemy that just heard you, wait for him to walk in front of you. If an enemy sees a grenade they will yell “Grenade!”
The most dangerous rooms are the large ones with many enemies at different elevations. Smoke the door and get a few kills, then feel free to back out and enter from a different door and angle.
Tips.
Dont bother with planning, it wont work unless you know the map and enemy locations backwards and fowards. And then you dont need planning anyway.
Memorize where the enemies are.
As casualties mount you’ll get some generic no-name replacement guys. Use them as expendable scouts.
If there is a large area with exploding barrels hang back and shoot the barrels, enemies will come running and you can get some easy kills.
Always, always, always use silencers.
Always, always, always carry smoke grenades.
If there is a bomb to disarm throw 3 smoke grenades around it, you can disarm it right under the enemies nose.
If a certain path through a level works stick with it. Approach the room where you died from a different angle, and lots of smoke.