Its a newbie's guide to Planetside 2 Factions. Who they are and who to pick?

Congratulations! You decided to add Planetside 2 to your computer (and I hope to god it runs) and you're eager to start out a faction.

Or you're more interested in the pros and cons of a faction then I've got that for you as well!

Worry not! As multiple Youtube videos gives you a good rundown of each faction in details that I am unable to fill in.

However if for some reason your Youtube runs like ♥♥♥♥ and/or you avoid Youtube like the evuul corporation it is at the moment then you can use this as a backup tool.

With anydo, let's get started with the 3 factions + a bonus one!

The leftovers of the totalitarian regime. Much like the leftovers, their weapons don't do much damage but they're quick to fire and bullet speed is arguably faster on some of their specific guns.

Vehicle-wise their main tank, the Prowler, is the fastest main tank with for some reason has a lockdown ability that lets their rounds fly twice as fast at the cost of being a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ duck, which isn't bad because that duck can fire two shots before reloading just as fast as the flying rounds, and their main plane the Mosquito is fast and hard to hit due to its "small" size.

An update lets the Prowler become a bigger sitting duck by deploying frontal shields. Sounds good on paper until you realize that damage to shield also damages tank. But hey, as long as its not on constant fire your товарищ will thank you for shielding them from very frontal assaults.

....And that's the best way I can describe them. To be fair, even the devs have issue on how to make a gun for something that has an arguably basic concept, which led to the Victim Complex Meme.

Currently the TR is having an identity crisis a "TR Victim Complex", and arguably so. Compared to the other two factions, all the TR has for its guns are mainly "WAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!!" in a nutshell, and thanks to the guns' low damage outputs, they scream that their weapons are underpowered. But that doesn't mean that they're useless. Compared to other empire weapons, TR's default/beginner carbines, lmg's and assault rifles stand among the best against other weapons that you need to grind your igc for.


Pick this faction if:

• bullets are your fetish
  
• You wanna be fast
  
• you like experiencing
  
• are currently having an identity crisis and are struggling just like another regime.
  
• Союз нерушимый республик свободных, Сплотила навеки Великая Русь.

Defectors of the Terran Republic and its literally America. Don't deny it. Its literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ America. There's a Schwarzenegger voice pack. are arguably PMC's. These boyos are equipped with the boxiest equipment their megacorps has ever spent on in the R&D department. As a result, their guns fire slow but hit the hardest, and I mean hard. Ffs, their default sniper rifle is a bolt-action unlike the semiautos which 2-shots to the head, bolts take 1 and their default lmg 3-shots heads for crying out loud!

Vehicle-wise their main tank the Vanguard is what you would expect from an M1 Abrams or name-any-modern-American-tank-what-have-you: Fires one round, reloads take a while. Its ability gives it a shield to make it extra beefy. Recent update gives a utility upgrade that trades parts of beefiness for a regenerative shield. Which means less people using 2 C4's to kill you and more people using at least 3 C4's according to Reddit (I haven't read much)


Their plane Reaver reflects the same ideology. Slow as ♥♥♥♥, but unlike the other two faction planes has a really big reserve boost tank. Think of it as a B-22 without the black and mentality of stealth and more of a A-10 without the brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt.

This faction, I must say, is the most blessed and cursed faction to be in. Thanks to their raw high damage its a nightmare to fight in closed areas with a lot of friendlies. You'll end up having lots of dead friendlies if you're too trigger happy. Worse case scenario, most of the kills in your k/d may be due to killing a bit too much of your side instead of the enemy. Did I mention that this faction is America? Ah well, doesn't matter, the NC gives out "bonus checks" for every gunfire/explosive death on the planet as long as the cause is due to an NC product.


Oh and they love shotguns very, very much. Their MAX weapons are purely shotguns, its heavy weapon type is a shotgun with an alt fire that fires burst mode as a shotgun, the Reaver has a shotgun as one of their aerial cannons, and their vehicular anti-infantry guns are basically, you guessed it: Shotguns.

Pick this faction if:

• AMERICA
  
• ♥♥♥♥ YEAH
  
• COMING HERE TO SAVE THE MOTHER-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ DAY YEAH
  
• AMERICA
  
• You love getting paid for anything that you kill, including your teammates.

Another group of defectors from the Terran Republic (noticing a pattern?) and mostly scientists that believes in aliens because aliens made strange tech before they disappeared and we must reverse-engineer it. Their weapons do not have bullet drop, so fire a good 150m and you can still hit your target provided that you're not using a sniper rifle/scout/battle rifle. Go ahead. I dare you. I must strongly note that their bolt action variants do have bullet drop. This is for balance purposes though. Can you imagine a non-drop bolt action rifle? Oh wait, Vanu has that in the form of the "bolt" being really heavy recoil The main plane Scythe can hover very well making it easier for hit-and-run A2G tactics (they're really annoying. Flak Armor 5 does ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ against noobpods).

Their Magrider main tank is....strange. Like the TR faction, it has an identity crisis in the form of being very slow as well as arguably being the most fragile like the Prowler. However unlike a regular tank you have to turn the entire frame in order to aim, making you an even worse sitting duck than the prowler if you're in a bad spot. It trades it durability for a nitro boost and its ability to hover.

And that's where it gets interesting.

You see, when the other tanks turn, their treads turn the base, expanding their width hitbox to any tank rounds. The Magrider instead strafes, keeping its width hitbox without exposing the vulnerable sides, making it slightly easier to dodge shots while returning fire with a default-quick-reloading cannon that's not as powerful as the NC's but stronger than the prowlers.

Unless you swapped it with any other cannon...

And the boost? HOoooooooooooo boi it doesn't reach the speeds of prowler, but it does help the hover mechanic to prop the Magrider into places none of the other two factions would even dare to think of (ie very deep inside the enemy base or at the high points of the moutnains). A recent update on 8/28/2019 lets you add an upgrade that let's you drift while using said nitro. I haven't tested on their effectiveness so I'll just leave it at that.

By the description of the VS's Magrider's abilities, hopefully you should understand what the VS are.

Spoiler:They're ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane
They're the middle ground between the TR and the NC. Their weapons don't hit hard, the fire rate's in the middle, and bullet velocity isn't quick.

Okay I take that back. A few of their weapons can do the things TR and NC can do, but at an arguably lesser amount and they have to trade one trait in order to fully obtain the other.

But at the same time some of their specific weapons are gimmicky as ♥♥♥♥, making it harder to master compared to the other two (depending on the weapons, of course). I'd say they're the faction that are arguably the most unique compared to the three in terms of thematic appearance.

Oh and they worship this dude named Papa Vanu.

Pick this faction if:

• You're a weeb
  
• LAZERS EVERYWHERE but its just hot plasma don't take someone's word for it just pretend that its lasers
  
• The other two factions don't have enough flavor
  
• Thinking that being in the middle makes it a fair fight against the other two
  
• SPANDEX SPANDEX SPANDEX

Ok for those that aren't in the news of the game, the 4th faction is built to support underpopulated factions, but they're exclusive to subscribing members of the game.

Until now.

July 1, 2021 allows non-subscribing members to play as them, but subscribing members lets the NSO Faction/bots stay loyal to whatever empire they support. Free ones get the benefits of what the subscribing members had, without the loyalty.

I have not tried this faction, so take my opinions, analysis, and suggestions with a grain of salt until I come back to this faction a little bit more.

An update somewhere included their own MAX unit and a vehicle (Another update slaps in an additional ESF and MBT).

The NSO's MAX unit. Unlike the other 3 factions, its less durable, but it has a grenade launcher as its default weapon, with has two abilities:

• become one of the rebellion turning yourself into a tanky slow time bomb where the only way to defuse it is to KILL IT WITH EVERYTHING. You only have 12 seconds to respond, and that's a lot of time. I haven't seen many NSO's use this, and instead more of the second ability.
  
• Creating a bubbly force field that helps shield your allies.
  This is the ability I see the most when it comes to firefights.It gives breathing room to a lot of front heavy classes as well as other MAXes as well. Its a fun team-playing ability.

The update of update gives the MAX unit two additional yeetable things weapons: one locks-on to air and ground, and becoming a literal mortar unit, with (finally) MAX implant compatibility.

If I can describe it, its the lovechild of a Magrider and a Flash, without the ability to fly like a Magrider and actually having gun emplacements compared to being restricted with only rockets.

Also known as Skyguard Food, this flying stingray's noticeable traits is that it looks like a fatter scythe, has an additional turret so you can bring a friend random along, AND is primarily an A2A tank. Its bad at maneuvering, so don't think about dogfighting against ESF's with this behemoth. Everything else is fair game.

However, if you're a skilled pilot then ignore what I think about dogfighting with this fat fish. Its a bit maneuverable like the Liberators, Valks, and Galaxies, but slower than the ESF's.

An appropriately named MBT due to the fact that it acts like a psuedo-transporting vehicle, being able to carry 4 infantry with the default 2-gunner Empire MBT tanks are known for. Like the VS, this MBT said "♥♥♥♥ tank treads" and opted for 6 wheels. Because its on a tight budget and NSO execs spent the hovering technology on the flying fish. For one, it doesn't care too much about bumpy roads without tilting the barrel, but its tall stature means that there's less cover. Along with the added fact that you have a rotatable turret and not a rotatable chassis, you can't turn on the spot.


That's all the info I have for this faction. Just know that they exist and they're there when there's a huge amount of underpopulated factions.

You're free to pick this faction if:

• You're bored out of your mind
  
  
• You're on a dakka diet and red's too much for you. Unless the underpopulated faction is the TR, then I'm sorry. This is OUR place, and by Lenin you will fight for the people, whether you like it or not.
  
  
• After being sacrificed for bonus checks a bit too many times, you said "enough". Unless the underpopulated faction is the NC, then I'm sorry. Capitalism says you're used goods and the NC really, really don't care.
  
  
• The tightness of the Spandex is too much for you to handle, and to avoid horny jail, you became a robot to escape the possibility that you can become a catgirl. Unless the underpopulated faction is the VS, then I'm sorry. Papa Vanu knows no bounds and robots are just part of the fetish experimental list.
  
  
• You want to become the T-1000, but as a mercenary.

This is a first guide for me, so I'm inaccurate and bias with all 3 factions. I do appreciate the fact that you decided to spend your time in reading this guide as a future reference.

UPDATE 3/3/2020 11:41 PST: If there's enough requests then I'll add in a section of what to weapons to invest in for your faction. Empire vehicles as well. Hell I'll probably make a guide to that.

But be warned I'm not very good with numbers, the theoretical time to kill, and whether or not the weapons are good for you. They will be based on my opinion (sadly) and will take a heavy amount of time because I have a life haven't tried every single weapon in the game. That's also not accounting for how expensive some of the attachments are, and a few of them can turn a crappy weapon into a versatile powerhouse.

Feb. 27 2020:

• Made some spelling and grammar corrections. There's some crappy mistakes somewhere.

Mar. 3 2020:

• Added additional info for NSO operatives.
  
• Revised and removed some redundancy (why did I do it in the first place?)
  
• Edited the VS section [credit to Honor Guard] regarding weapon damage, ROF, and MagRider's cannon and durability except that I didn't go too into detail (numbers and all)

July 6, 2021:

• Updated NSO faction, with some stuff I plan to add later When I'm in the mood to