Nightwolfs Experience for Lone Wolves

Overview

Things I have learned over the course of nearly 2000 hours in game bouncing from one random team to the next.

Fair Warning

This is written from my experiences that not everyone is a “winner”. It is just what I have learned from slogging through the good and the bad over 2000 hours and what I wish I knew when I first started all those ages ago. If you take the Sesame Street version of the world that everyone that tries is a “winner” you may be a touch offended by the way I word things, just ignore it 😛

This is not meant to be the be-all end-all way of doing things it is just what I have seen work the best most of the time with random groups.

Know Your Team

Rule #1: Always assume your team is terrible:

Yeah I know, it’s a dark way of looking at things but it is easier to do that rather then suddenly realize your gunner is too busy mining gold and ignoring the huge wave of bugs barreling down on your near dead team. Better safe than sorry.

——- Be wary of teams with double classes: double classing is not bad per se. But with random teams who may not always be the best, having one of each class ensures you have all the tools you need for a team to get out of any situation.

——- Watch the group dynamics: Is the engie platforming everything for the scout? Is the scout mining nitra or properly lighting a cave? Is a player dying all the time from simple grunt waves? It is important to know where the group will be weak at. If the scout is ignoring nitra veins or the engie is not platforming them, the team might struggle on having enough ammo. This means it is more important for you to mine every vein you can reach or choose to call ammo pods at the next cave entrance before they might waste them on regaining 2 hp.

Rule #2: Darwin was always right, nature will exterminate the weak.

——- A dead dwarf is useless: If a teammate is always dying on high haz levels to simple things do not rush to pick him up even when it might get you killed. Clear the area, make sure you have enough ammo, then pick him up when it is safe to do so. What is the point in sacrificing your hp if he is just going to die 30 seconds later.

——- Know when the team is at its limit: Point Extractions are perfect examples. If a team is struggling to handle even basic waves, it is not going to get any easier as time goes on. Help them get the objs done and in the event the team is dead and you are the last survivor, if you cannot count on them to handle what is coming ahead or if you cannot safely revive them, smash that button and get out. Better a win than a total wipe. *I never advocate calling the pod in on a whim but if you are certain the team is beyond hope or your ability to carry them go for it.*

Rule #3: Ranks matter…..mostly….

——- Player Level: Level matters, it takes roughly lvl 300 for a player to crawl above being a noob. Lvl 300-600 to finally be good. Above lvl 600 is finally vet status. Why? Just all the little things you learn along the way of investing the time to grind the way up the level. How to handle bugs, how much ammo you waste, what you should be doing in your role etc. Is it absolute? NO, but in 2000 hours it applies almost to everyone I have seen. There are always exceptions to the rule. Why is it important? When you join a team you can roughly guess the skill level of the group and how much work you might have to do to keep them alive. A group of lvl 700’s will probably handle everything that comes their way with ease. A group of lvl 200’s might struggle when the game throws the hard stuff at you. Is it possible for a player to have 10,000 hours in the game and still be lvl 200? yeah, but show me more than 100 of them in the game who have done so lol.

——- Honor Badge Level (Bronze Silver Gold etc): Not as accurate as a player level but you still have to invest time to rank it up there. At a glance just gives you a bare bones way of judging how able a person is in their class. Is it absolute? NO, but most platinum players or above will be fairly competent. Anything below platinum and its safer to assume they are still learning the game.

Rule #4: Manage your little dumplings of death.

——- Keep watch over their ammo. This little gauge is not terribly accurate as far as I can tell, not that I have put much effort into trying, but it is a rough idea of your teammates ammo amount. Around 2 full bars out of 4 generally will mean their main weapon ammo is low. Sometimes players think they can mooch along with only one clip left not wanting to call in a supply pod just for themselves, these little bars can show you how the average ammo amount remains for all your team. Better to call in a pod and top them up when it is safe than running dry in the swarm.

——- Tell them where to fight. Teams tend to stand and fight wherever they are as often as not. Not always in the smartest of spots. If a wave is coming tell them they should fight in a safer spot you are already at or call in a supply pod in your spot to magically draw them to you.

——- Pay attention to their weapons: Gunners who pack miniguns are great at single target damage. Gunners with autocannons tend to be better with managing a swarm. It’s not an absolute mind you but more often than not it applies. Knowing what weapons they are packing helps to judge when they might need help. For example; A minigunner vs a bulk 90% of the time he will be fine. A autocannon vs a bulk, maybe might not hurt to go help him.

Back to the basics: Don’t get killed.

Rule #1: Movement is LIFE

Never stop even while firing. Long as you are moving the bugs might miss a swipe at you or you can run away. Jumping is also key, smash that space bar when you get flooded with bugs, up down left right long as you keep your hit box moving in the 3D there is always a chance for a bug to miss nailing you. More often than not they will. That being said also be wary of altering the terrain that might impede movement. This is incredibly more important in small caves or tunnels. A drillers satchel charge can leave a huge hole that can outright damage you during a fall or at the very least is something you now have to worry about dancing around in the middle of a swarm. The same can also be said of bulks when they die. Always drag a bulk away from the minehead or objective before killing it whenever possible. Suddenly fighting a large wave of bugs in the bottom of a pit can sometimes wipe a team from limited movement and blind spots.

*This was not a good idea, digging a trench around the event. I get why they did it but it is a small cave and it is easier to simply weave around the purple waves. The team ended up frequently getting caught in the trench while they were dodging the flying bombs and dying….Movement is Life*

Rule #2: Control the Swarm‘

Bug AI by default will try to surround you. This is most noticable in the grunts as you will see a group of them pass by you trying to get a surround on a player. When they get a successful surround on a team is generally when you begin to see the bloodbath especially in tight quarters with oppressors. Instead always try to herd bugs into a group for aoe kills, not only saves on ammo but is safer to keep the bugs where you can see them as opposed to your blind spots.

—– Gunner: Hands down the most capable of the classes to control a swarm. The autocannon with fear added on allows you to herd bugs either away from the group or to actually group a spread out swarm into a tight mob for a good aoe kill.

—– Movement: Always keep the bugs in-front of you, partly to keep them from attacking your blind spot but mostly to keep them in-front of your fire. When the bugs begin to swarm fall back as you fire. If the swarm gets too thick to just run out of swarm, focus on the big bugs like a praetorian or oppressor. Run at them and hop over them to quickly get out of the surround. Similarly using cliffs or trenches or any terrain that would impede bug movement to escape works as well.

—– Bugs can further be herded by the drillers sticky flame or the gunners incendiary grenade as the bugs will actively try to walk around the fire. The engies platforms with bug repellent works but its kinda a meh at best.

Rule #3: Take advantage of weakness and bonuses available against the bug

—– All classes have access to a variety of weapon effects: stun, fear, shock etc. Bugs in fire biomes will have a weakness for freeze. Similarly bugs in ice biomes have a weakness to fire. Know what these weaknesses do and where they can be most effective.

—– Bugs are subject to certain environmental effects. The webbing in a fungus biome for example not only slows players down but bugs that get caught in it as well. The same goes for the fungus goo, slows both players and bugs, standing in a large patch can SOMETIMES be a good idea to slow incoming bugs.

Rule #4: Ammo is precious. Don’t waste it.

—– If you have been watching your team then pretty quick you should know if they are mining all the nitra that they can and if they are blowing through it unnecessarily fast. A good team will always have enough nitra and will handle the swarms without wasting it in massive amounts so you have nothing to worry about. A bad team (as we assume all are initially) will bypass nitra veins and go through 2 supply pods just to kill a simple grunt swarm with a 4 man team leaving the group struggling from one nitra vein to the next. If you have not had this happen, just wait, you will.

—–Get in the habit of conserving ammo. Don’t use your main weapons just to kill a simple grunt when a pickaxe power attack will do. Don’t waste your main or heavy weapons on a small group of grunts when a grenade will do just fine. After awhile, even with bad teams, you will always have plenty of ammo to take on the next swarm while your team is scrambling to find the next nitra vein allowing you to carry whole swarms if need be.

—– Never underestimate the power of the pickaxe attack

Rule #5: Always stay at full health:

Only missing one or two HP and there is a sugar crystal nearby? Grab it, unless a team member needs it more. Silly as it sounds that one or two HP may be the only thing between you and death. Never pass a sugar crystal if you are anything less than 100% HP

Rule #6: Pick where to fight, do not let the bugs pick for you:

While you cannot always know when a swarm might hit you can generally get a idea if you keep track of when the last swarm spawned. NEVER fight in an unexplored cave. Cave leeches and spitters to say nothing of massive chasms or just bad terrain can and often will butcher your team of randoms while they are in the middle of a potentially large swarm. A good team will never have an issue with this but like I say “ALWAYS assume your team is terrible until you know better“.

—– Choose where to fight. It should not take long to get an idea of how capable your team is. Running with a group of newbies? Best not to push your luck. If a swarm spawns mid-tunnel and you do not think the team can handle it fall back to the last cave that you know is clear. Safer to fight in a cave where you know what the terrain is like and that you know is clear of cave leeches or spitters allowing the team to focus on the swarm. Sometimes this is not do-able due to low nitra or just a super long tunnel to the next cave your team is mostly through.

—– Always map the cave you are in before you move on. Give a once over to take note of sugar or what the cave is like, large pits, deep ravines, etc. You don’t have to map the thing in detail just a rough once over in-case you need to fall back so you know what the terrain is like while you are fighting. This has saved my ass repeatedly when my team dropped like flies and I was the lone survivor.

Combat Mechanics

• Magma Biome
  • It can be pretty annoying for newer players but of all the biomes it is easily the most useful for killing bugs while limiting the amount of ammo you use or being able to kill bug packs with limited ammo on hand. A player with the elemental insulation perk fully upgraded can be largely immune to the fire effects especially the driller who can outright stand on a lava gyser for a time.
  • Lava Gysers – bugs will actively try to walk around these but its fairly easy to lure entire bug packs into their aoe to take fire damage. Moreover, they can be detonated for an explosion similar to a drillers satchel charge in damage! The easiest way to destroy them is with the drillers satchel charge but it can be done with guns you just need to use a grenade to toss inside the center of the gyser or use a minigun to peel away the rock around it exposing the core.
    
  • Hot Rock – again, bugs will try to walk around this and for larger bugs it does little to no damage but this will kill swarmers. Pretty handy when you are being chased by a pack that you cant fend off for one reason or another or just easier to let the rock deal with them without wasting ammo.
  • Lava Spouts – Bugs will largely walk through these and they will do little damage to praetorians or larger but they are pretty awesome at massively weakening a grunt as well as giving them the dot fire damage. Handy for thinning out a swarm or just saving ammo and dragging grunts through them until they die.
    

  • Know the Gunners Shield

    
    Know how long the shield takes to recharge and how long it last. The stat screen where you can set up the gear mods will tell you but knowing my shield last for 9 seconds was not the same for me as getting a feel for how long 9 seconds is in one or more swarms. Deploy it when a swarm hits then pay attention to how long it last before it goes down. This is entirely player dependent. Good players will kill quickly so it may not need to be up that long to give you a chance to take the pressure off. Newer players will kill slowly so tweaking it to last longer may be more important for your survival. Only way that I found worked for me was to just keep tossing it down and pay attention.

  • Sandstorm/Blizzard

    – If your team is low on health or just struggling and a swarm hits toss a shield down just as the swarm hits you to maximize its usefulness and set up sentries. Sandstorms/Blizzards are not dangerous in themselves but being blind and unable to know where its safe to move away from the swarm plus the possibility of taking a wrong step and falling 100m into a pit can and will get you killed sometimes. Huddle under the shield and give the team time to get the swarm under control. I have seen teams that suddenly saw a bulk appear in the middle of the sandstorm then they all scrambled around for safety only to blindly leap off cliffs to their death. Funny…and not funny.

  • The scouts IFG grenade is pretty awesome as an enemy warning system. Mining high up can sometimes be a dangerous affair as you might not always hear bugs approaching you for one reason or another. Dropping an IFG as you start mining is handy since it makes that funky sound when bugs enter the field and slows them down buying you time to fly away or mine just a little bit more. Certainly saved my bacon more than a few times.
  • The Mining Head in Point Extraction missions adds a significant amount of DPS to the mission in terms of keeping bugs in check. Mind you its not going to be tearing down bulks but it deals massive damage to the swarms that spawn and cross it even when you are talking about just working down a grunts HP to only half, that is ammo you are not wasting. When the turrets start to run dry is when you need to make a call if your team can handle the load of killing entire swarms or not. Be mindful of when turrets start running dry and poofing on the mine head, that is more work your team will have to do to carry the game from then on. Sometimes the smarter play is to leave while you can.
  • Loot bugs are a fantastic way to rack up extra nitra. Most missions have enough loot bugs to squeak an extra supply pod or two! A good team will always have enough nitra mined so you will not really need them but its worth killing them anyway in the event you need the supply pod faster or just want to push that nitra amount over the top for the next pod. NEVER leave a loot bug alive!
    

Class Mechanics

• Learn to work without an engineer! : Popping around random teams, not every engi you come across is going to be the brightest or most attentive apple in the bunch. Nothing will make your life easier in randoms as a scout than simply learning to work without an engie. How do we do this?
  • [1] The Power Grapple: This works best with veins on the side of walls. You do not need fancy overclocks to work without platforms. Grapple a mineral vein just above it and reel in. Just before you contact the wall release the grapple and do a scouts power attack with the pickaxe carving out a notch in the wall just above the vein for yourself. Momentum will continue to carry your scout forward and the notch will be just big enough for your hit box to fit inside. It takes some real work to get the timing down but once you do you are free to mine without an engie attached to your hip.

    There is one note of warning, this works best on veins like nitra where you can stand on the vein itself protruding from the wall in the event you dont get the timing right and carve a hole less deep than you need. So stuff like gold or morkite will punish you more so for getting this wrong way up yonder. Also this is super tricky with veins very close to a roof as the power attack will carve into the wall but being so close to the ceiling your hit box might collide with the ceiling before you can slip into the hole you carved out knocking out off course and falling. Doing it more than once might sometimes be necessary.

  • [2] Hover Boots: Nothing is your bread and butter without overclocks like hover boots. When the power grapple will not work you can grapple up to the vein, trigger the hover boots, then carve out a notch with a power attack and few pick axe hits just before the boots run out. As you fall grapple back into the hole you made. Again takes a little bit to get the timing down and hang of but once you do you are set! Remember to dig your little hole upward to give yourself a little leeway on the hitbox contact.
  • [3] Overclocks: The Hoverclock for the M1000 and the Special Brew for the Scouts shotgun are amazing at saving you from falls or just allowing you to fly quickly away without your grapple albeit they take a little getting the hang of to work without killing yourself. Really you only need one but they are fantastic tools for breaking you free of a need of an engie.

• Platforming: Just tossing platforms up is technically doing your job but the difference between a dead scout and a live one can frequently be on how you platform.
  • Long Nitra Veins: Don’t place platforms on long vertical veins at the bottom. Place them in the center. The reason being is that when the scout has to jump to mine the top sometimes the walls will curve outwards forcing the scout off and potentially to his death. By having the platform in the middle of the vein the scout can mine the top of the vein without needing to jump and can mine below the platform easily enough to reach the rest.
    

  • Veins crammed into the roof/ceiling: Mineral veins on the roof can sometimes be super tricky to platform especially when you are looking near straight up. You want to find a surface below the vein that will allow enough room for the scout to fit between the roof and the platform. Easier said than done sometimes when you are 100m below. When you find a surface sufficiently below the vein don’t limit yourself to it needing to be exactly next to the mineral vein itself. You may have a spot that requires popping 4 or 5 platforms to reach the vein. If the scout tries to reach and your spot is too small for him to fit he may well end up falling to his death while his grapple cools down.
    
    

  • When in doubt double plat: If you are not absolutely certain the platforms are far enough out for the scout to land on…do not guess. Just fire 2 or 3 more to be sure.

• Do not leave the scout alone: If the scout is still mining while the team moves on to another cave do not walk off with them. Stay in the cave until the scout is largely done. Good players it will not be an issue for but newer scouts can suddenly be ambushed by bugs they never heard coming and die. Hang with him and cover him until you think it safe to leave him and move on.

• These are usually an annoyance at best but with low health or no shield missions they can sometimes be a killer. The Drillers EPC with flying nightmare is pretty awesome at deleting these enmasse just fire it to skim above the ground and wipe out entire fields of these spores with ease!
  
  

XP at a Glance

XP and Missions
Individual mission xp is actually altered by a number of things, some you can control, some not so much. Listed here are just the ones that provide the largest swings to xp.

The stuff you can control:

• Hazard Level: The higher the more xp you will get. When you run with randoms however they may not always be able to handle the higher haz levels like 5. If you are running xp speed runs with randoms it is actually safer to simply run haz 4 as opposed to 5 as they are more likely be able to handle the enemies on 4 without it taking forever. On the other hand if you have a team who know what they are doing, 5 is the way to go.
• Credit Amount: Technically you can’t control this but you can in terms of which mission you choose. Higher credits for primary and secondary mean higher base line xp before you factor in other things. Around 2000 credits for the primary objective and around 1000 for the secondary is the sweet spot.
• Minerals Mined: This is less important on non-double xp missions than on them as each mineral counts as 1 xp so even 200 minerals does not amount to much. On double xp missions this can add up if you have modifiers like mineral mania or max length caves.

Stuff you cannot control:

• Modifiers: Modifiers can add fairly significant xp bonuses and are worth reading up on.
• Random events or error cubes: Even failed events and error cubes add roughly 2000 xp. Its all RNG based but if you luck out with them it can really give your final xp a real boost.

In the event you really want to grind out levels, hosting speed runs is the way to go and can net you whole class levels in just a few hours depending on your luck. So how do we max out our bang for the buck in randoms?

We start with the mission. Always double xp if its up. Always max length and cave complexity or max available. A good team can cram in 3-4 runs in a 30 min map roll over.

*Something to note, missions default at haz 2? I think? so they will show credit levels for haz 2. Sometimes you have to go in and host at haz 4 or 5 for them to reflect haz 4 and 5 credit levels.*

Target Goals for Double XP

• 1000 xp per min. Depending on the team and mission. 1000 xp per min is the absolute minimum below that is a failure. What that means is that for every minute spent in mission you should walk out with 1000 xp. So a 20 min mission length should be 20,000 xp at the end mission screen. A little less is fine so long as you are close.
• Primary and Secondary Objectives Only. No Gold, no nothing. Events and Error cubes are always welcomed but be mindful of the time. 10 mins should generally be the target limit you are aiming for. Even a failed event will still net 2000 xp which means 4000 xp on a double xp run so start the event and just leave. Painful, I know, but its about the xp.
• If multiple double xp missions are available, run each at least ONCE. I cannot explain why but in missions if you run the same mission say 4 times. The FIRST mission will always yield more xp than the 3 done after even if nothing else changes. If you get 20,000 xp out of a double xp mission and run it 2 more times the missions after the first will never yield that 20,000. No idea why this is.
• Time. A good team can do a double xp speed run mission in at least 10-15 mins. Less as they re-do each mission over again getting faster each time. So you should be able to squeak in 3 runs before the map roll.
• Be picky who you take. Anything under Bronze 3 or really Silver 1 is likely not able to keep up with regard to random players. Some are but its not worth the the guess work if you do not know them ahead of time.

If no double xp is available

Target Goals

• 1000 xp per min or 500 xp per min. Depending on the team and mission. 500 xp per min is the absolute minimum below that is a failure. What that means is that for every minute spent in mission you should walk out with 1000 xp or 500 xp. So a 20 min mission length should be either 20,000 xp or 10,000 depending on your goal.
• Time. 20 minutes is the limit. This also allows 5 mins for getting back to the pod so you should be able to be around the 30 minute mark map roll.
• Be picky who you take. Anything under Bronze 3 or really Silver 1 is likely not able to keep up with regard to random players. Some are but its not worth the the guess work if you do not know them ahead of time.
• Primary and Secondary Objectives Only. Events and Error cubes are always welcomed but be mindful of the time. This can change depending on your target time limit. If 20 minutes you can mine other things along the way with a good team. If just 10 minutes no messing around get the objectives and get out.
• Credit Amount. This is far more important on non-double xp runs. You want haz 4 or 5 with missions where the primary goal yields at least 2000 credits and the secondary over 900 credits. This will ensure you get the minimum 500 xp a min or better yet put you closer to 1000 xp a minute even on a non-double xp mission.
• Hazard Level. When running with randoms on speed runs I highly recommend hazard 4. If you know the group and know they can handle it, then by all means 5 is better.

Missions at a Glance

Point Extractions:
Hands down the easiest mission to run in the game. A good team can finish a haz 4 or 5 mission in just 5-10 mins. Cave Level and Environment mean nothing, the difference between an easy mission and a hard one entirely depend upon the team. Sticking to a few simple goals can ensure any PE mission goes smoothly. Bug waves will spawn faster over time so do not be wasting time messing around.

Target Goals:

• Mission Time: for Hazard 4 and 5 20 minutes is generally going to be your limit in randoms. A good team can handle more, a bad team might not even make it that long. On average though 20 minutes will be the limit for most random groups before the bugs get beyond their ability to handle.
• Objectives: Primary and Secondary Objectives need to be done in under 10 mins. A good team can get them done in just five regardless of the map. This leaves an additional 10-15 minutes for other things like cleaning the cave or dealing with Machine Events. ALWAYS get objectives done first as the escape pod cannot be called until the primary objective is done. In the event of a bad team where it all goes wrong you can at least call the pod and get out with a win and at least the main objective done.
• Class Roles (Assuming 4 man team with no double classes)
  • Scout: Soon as the landing wave is over or before if you are good, get out and get enough nitra for 1 to 2 supply pods. This ensures the team can reload on ammo or health while you are otherwise busy. The Scouts main job is to get the Secondary Objective and Nitra on the map. Ignore the Arqs unless they are on the ceiling.
  • Driller: Single most important class on this mission. Get the Main Objective first, all the arqs. Ignore everything else unless the scout is not doing his job and getting nitra for a supply pod. Team cannot leave if it all goes wrong until the Main objective is conmpleted and if you have a bad team you may need to bail early if it all goes south.
  • Gunner: Control the swarms that come killing as quickly as possible so the scout and driller can do their jobs. Also place ziplines to ALL levels of the map. If the driller has to drill to every level that is wasting time and his drill ammo. Assuming it is all under control, does not hurt to escort the driller and keep him covered while he is digging up arqs.
    
    *Example of different levels of a map that should have ziplines for easy access*

Egg Extraction:

Things to note:

• Scouts should always stay on top of keeping the team supplied with at least enough nitra for one pod especially if the team is pulling eggs.
• As soon as the wave from initial landing is clear, if you think the team can handle it, pull one or two eggs. Why? Team should be at full ammo and be able to handle one or two egg spawned waves.
• Each egg pulled will trigger a seperate spawn on top of the mission spawns. If the eggs are pulled within a fixed time of each other the spawns will still occur but you may not get an audio warning after the first egg spawn.

Salvage: These are fairly simple enough its the defense part that most teams have an issue with. There are a few things to keep in mind that make it go much easier.

• When ever possible defend the objective in large flat areas: Frequently the objective will spawn/drop next to a wall or somewhere not ideal. You want room to move around in while still staying in the circle and room to engage bugs at a distance before then enter the defense radius. A driller can easily fix this with a satchel charge rigged for AOE Mining (maximum effect radius).
  

  We fix this in steps

  • [1] Go up to the walls and drill roughly upwards. Each time you destroy a chunk you will see the dirt break graphically. Wait until you see two of these dirt chunks break then stop. Place your satchel charge and move back. When you detonate it (assuming it was set for maximum Effect Radius it should remove exactly the amount of dirt just above ground level with the objective and deep enough in to leave very little sticking above the ground. Move 2 – 3 character lengths over and do it again until you have a large cleared area around the obj.
  • [2] You should have little bits and pieces left jagged up from the ground, use your drills and clear away the debris until its roughly flat. This will work with magma biomes as well as the satchel charge creates hot rock but the drillers drills leave only normal rock when its destroyed so you can clean up the hot rock.
  • [3] The end result should leave you with a vast open space to see bugs coming in time to melt them away.
    

Events and how to handle them

The TOWER OF DEATH (aka Omen Modular Exterminator)

Hands down the one event that probably wipes random teams more than any other. The event itself is relatively simple, stand on the pad, open the weak points and destroy them. The trick is dodging all the garbage it throws at you combined with environmental hazards and bug spawns. Lack of coordination or skill between the team is usually the downfall of most randoms.

Fun Fact: The purple crap ( radial pulse burst) has a maximum range of 22 meters (i would go with 25 to be safe) so any cave smaller than 25m that the event is in is not safe on the ground. Outside that 25m and it just fizzles out so you can stay out of its effective range!

So, how do we run this with randoms?

Step 1: Check the tower out first.

The tower can spawn a possible 4 different “sections”. The bottom section will ALWAYS be the radial pulse weapon ( the purple crap)

It is the two on top you want to check. You are looking for one that says DRONE PLATFORM
This one shoots out little flying bombs. They are slow but they are also dark colored and can be hard to notice in the chaos of things.

Step 2: Find the platform that opens the bottom section.

Have the players stand on the pads. Once they begin to “charge” a little display will pop up showing you which section of the tower that pad controls.

The section of the tower that pad is charging will turn yellow and then green when it opens. All you care about is which section it controls. Once a team member finds the pad that controls the bottom call it out, mark it with the scanner.

Step 3: Pull it together.

Explain what to do. Poor coordination is generally what kills teams. Run this after a swarm has spawned when possible so you have some free time to work with before the next spawn. If the tower has a Drone Platform make sure the engie sets up his turrets and have the players keep a eye on killing off the bombs. The scout should stay out of range and snipe the tower as well as focus down the flying bombs. The other 3 players (gunner,driller,engie) will stand on the pads looking for the one that controls the bottom section.

Once that pad is found, the GUNNER will stand on the pad and keep it open using his shield and dodging the purple crap while firing while the rest of the team will fall back away from the pads so they can dodge and focus fire the bottom section. This will allow the bottom section to be destroyed quickly. Once the bottom section is done then everybody can pile back in opening pads and usually its fairly easy to finish off.

Things of Note:

• You can dance around on the pad pretty far, you do not have to stand on it DEAD CENTER to activate it. Helpful in dodging the purple crap.
• Once the tower has been initially deployed but not turned on, you can stand on top of it and fire away. Bugs will crawl on it but they sometimes get wonky at the time, they will sit on the side staring at you but not actually attack, Not always but most of the time it seems. Handy in a swarm.
• The critical weakness modifier does apply to this event.
• If the gunner has full shield ammo, always keep a shield dropped down. This will let the rest of the team run inside and recharge their shields as well as just a safer area if things get out of hand. Super handy for keeping teammates alive.

Ebonite Mutation

Nothing special about this one, shoot things make them dead. There are some things of note however.

• Different ebonite bugs have different point values. The Praetorians are worth 2 and the smaller Grunt ones (the ones you can one hit) are worth one point.
• The Ebonite bugs are affected by fear such as from the gunner autocannon so you can run them off.
• Easiest way to deal with this is a combination of the engies lure with the scouts slow grenade.

Random Stuff worth a Peek

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• Don’t argue with the host. If you do not like how a host is running his game or the team is playing just leave. It is also in his power to out right boot you so arguing is pretty pointless in the end. Plenty of fish in the sea and neither the host or the team will put up with lectures on the way they are playing anyway.