Overview
A comprehensive guide to success in PVP game modes.By the end of this guide, we hope you will know how to efficiently:Pick your loadout for the objective, Cross open ground safely, Attack objectives head on, Execute a successful flank, Defend objectives from the point, Hold ground from the flank, Support your team to victory.See you in game!
Introduction
There is a lot covered in this guide. It’s expected that you won’t absorb all of the finer points on the first read. Please feel free to add the guide to your favourites and revisit it after a few sessions to see which points you’ve taken on, and those which you can still incorporate into your gameplay.
By the end of this guide, we hope you will know how to efficiently:
- Cross open ground safely.
- Pick the most useful class.
- Support your team to victory.
- Attack objectives head on.
- Be efficient on the flank.
- Defend objectives from the point.
- Hold ground effectively from the flank.
- Lead by example.
One of the most frustrating things in Insurgency PVP is dying when you feel like you had no way to survive the situation. This does happen, even at a high level, but it happens a lot more to players who play recklessly than those who play methodically.
Having said that, don’t get upset/annoyed at every death, especially if you’re killing enemies between deaths. The game is meant to be enjoyable, but also challenging. Don’t expect your K/D in Versus to be anywhere close to your Co-op K/D!
Being alive means you are helping your team (for the most part). Here are a few questions to keep in mind when making decisions about your next actions.
- Where can I be seen from in my current position?
- Where did I last see the enemy? Where can they get to from those positions?
- Where can I get to safely with minimal exposure to enemies?
- Do I have enough ammunition to not run dry during my next fight?
- Am I taking fire? If so, from where?
- Is my cover solid?
We’ll explore these questions first in the next section: “How to not die”.
How to not die
Where can I be seen from in my current position?
- If you know where the bullets/grenades/rockets are coming from, check the sightlines you can be seen from.
- Beware, explosives do not care that you’re around the corner from the person who threw/fired them.
- Take into account that if you have already been seen, you can still be shot through soft cover and sometimes hard cover (.50 cals and mounted guns don’t stop for walls).
Where did I last see the enemy? Where can they get to from those positions?
This takes a bit of map knowledge, but if you see an enemy on a rooftop, running into cover, you should do a few things:
- Call Enemy Spotted on the comm-rose at the cover where you last saw the enemy, or give a concise location in voice. This will alert your team to the threat.
- Look around the enemies last position for places they might leave through, or worse, pop their head out from.
- Don’t get tunnel vision, be sure to remember the enemy is there, but make sure others aren’t sneaking towards or past your position.
- Take the shot when you have it, but don’t waste your magazine suppressing an enemy unless your position is safe from other threats, and you can reload safely.
- Help your team out by confirming your kills, it’ll stop them from covering empty angles.
Where can I get to safely with minimal exposure to enemies?
- Take stock of the closest 20m between you and your objective.
- Is it safe to cross?
- If there is cover and no friendly dead bodies, move cover to cover and lay down suppressing fire when necessary.
- Do not leave yourself without rounds in your weapon while out of cover.
- If it’s not save to cross, either pop smoke that blocks the angles of greatest risk, or move sideways where safe.
- N.B. If there is an enemy helicopter above, pick your route carefully, to put cover between you and the heli. Often this means you have to hold position in a building and will lose an objective. Other times, you can escape the heli’s cannons/miniguns and make it onto the point unseen.
Do I have enough ammunition to not run dry during my next fight?
- Fresh mag before any expected gunfight unless you have none spare.
- Pick up an enemy’s gun/mag, or swap to your secondary ASAP during the shootout.
Am I taking fire? If so, from where?
- Return fire, 3-5 round burst (don’t dump the mag before you’re in cover).
- Try to call out the enemies position on your way to cover.
- Don’t peek if you don’t intend to shoot.
- Return appropriate fire until you are no longer receiving fire.
Is my cover solid?
- No, wood is not solid.
- No, metal sheeting is not solid.
- Yes, concrete blocks are solid.
- Yes, concrete walls are solid.
- Yes, some wooden crates are explosion-proof (your feet stick out, so get tucked in nice and tight).
- Yes, some of the thinner/smaller examples of the above Yes’s can be shot through by Helicopters/Anti-Material Sniper Rifles, and Mounted Guns.
Always bare in mind that your legs are behind you when you’re prone (sometimes they will poke through a wall – same with your backpack when stood up/crouched).
In the next section we’ll talk about how to make the fact you’re still alive, count towards winning the round.
Make yourself useful
There are 3 steps to being useful to your team.
The first step to making yourself useful is not dying, so make sure you’ve read the previous section thoroughly.
The second step is to choose the right class for your intended playstyle.
When you choose a class on joining a game, there’s a relatively large list.
You might see that some of the classes are full and others aren’t. Don’t be disheartened, you’ll be able to play as the classes that are full some other time I’m sure.
If you are playing the game for the first time, or are on a new map for the first time, I highly suggest you pick the class you’re most comfortable playing.
The classes I would recommend to brand new players are:
- Rifleman
- Breacher
- Advisor
They are the easiest classes to pick the basics of the game with.
If you are using the least situational classes poorly, it can do the least harm to the teams’ chances of success. This is a good thing.
I know it’s tempting when you see the marksman slot open, but running around with a sniper rifle or LMG on a new map is just going to get you killed.
If you are a little more experienced and the Breacher/Advisor slots are taken up, You shouldn’t be playing as a Rifleman anymore, unless every other slot is filled.
You know the maps a little better, and by now you’ve seen how much difference having a Commander on your team can make when their Observer is helping them call in Fire Support for the team.
It’s time to sniff the Commander’s backside for a bit.
Being a good Observer
Don’t get tunnel vision and get killed while blindly following your Commander around, use the previous section to guide your actions, but stay as close as you can without being reckless.
There’s a helpful icon in the bottom left that shows your distance to the nearest Commander on your team.
The in-game voice lines will tell you when it’s your time to shine, or you’ll see “Request Observer” in the Team chat.
This means the commander is actively trying to call in support, and you aren’t close enough to them.
First, check the map! If there are other Observers closer to the Commander, you don’t need to make a beeline for the Commander. Let them call in the Fire Support! Just make an active effort to be closer to the Commander in case the Observer nearer him gets killed.
If you are the only Observer alive or nearest the Commander, get to them and find cover!
You don’t need to be able to see where the support is going, you just need to survive long enough to see “Fire Support Confirmed” in the Team chat and hear the voice line play.
A big mistake players make once they hear/see Fire Support on the way, is to start pushing towards the enemies before it actually starts.
This can get you strafed, exploded, or gassed by friendly fire if you move too soon.
Pay attention to what is called in by the Commander and act accordingly.
PLEASE DON’T RUN INTO CHEMICAL SMOKE WITHOUT A MASK!
Specialising
Okay, so you’ve played for a bit longer and you’ve played most of the maps at least 5 times.
You’ve died to that guy with the *choose one from [Sniper Rifle/LMG/RPG/Helicopter]* enough times that it’s time to be on the other side of the kill feed.
Marksman is the easiest to pick up, and is often the last player left alive on a team (for all the WRONG reasons).
Marskman played right
Stay to one side of the point to minimise your chances of being flanked on both sides, and keep the flanks clear of enemy marksmen (well, enemies generally).
Try to thin out the enemy waves from a distance, then swap to your secondary when things get close.
When the friendly reinforcement wave number hits 0, push to the point to help your teammates capture.
You need the waves, or you will undoubtedly lose.]
Marksman played wrong
Sitting 200m+ from the enemies and clicking on their heads, wondering why you have so few kills.
Bullets drop with range, and you need to lead your targets.
The impact of this can only really be seen at 75m+ for Marksman weapons, so don’t stray too far from the point, or you’ll find yourself having to lead and aim above the target by around half of the scope radius (not reliable at all in most cases).
Running into an objective with a Mosin/M24 drawn, expecting to clear the 3 enemies from it. Use your secondary when clearing indoor areas, or practice hipfiring with the DMRs (M14 EBR/SVD).
If you see the friendly reinforcement waves number hit 0 and you’re still on the flank? You’re the a**hole that’s going to be the last alive when your teammates all die on the point.
Check the leaderboard regularly to avoid this. If all of the names on the left are going dark except yours, you need to get to the objective (if it gets to the stage where you’re the only one alive, you already left it too late).
Gunner played right
Large drum fed weapons are extremely powerful if used correctly, so get behind cover, or on your belly with cover around you, and deploy your bipod.
If you swing your aim around and see that you have blind spots, you can break the limits of the bipod by strafing. Don’t strafe enough that you undeploy the bipod! Swing your aim while tapping left or right and it will settle with your bipod centered on your view.
Your greatest tool is your magazine size. Use your rounds sparingly, and you’ll not often die while reloading. It only takes 1-4 rounds to kill with 5.56mm and 1-3 rounds to kill with 7.62mm – regardless of armour.
Pick a spot where you aren’t obviously showing your head over the top of a roof, so you blend in a little better.
A flash hider is the cheapest invisibility cloak you can get as a Gunner. Without a flash to find you by, you can only be located by sticking out too far from cover, and the sound of the shots you take (yet another reason to use your ammo sparingly).
Try to find a spot near the objective, and don’t fall into the trap of trying to run and gun with your LMG. Your kills while on the move should come mainly from your secondary.
When enemy helicopters are in the sky, and the team’s Demolition players aren’t able to deal with it, you can shoot down Cleric (Minigun Support) with a box or so of LMG ammo. Be sure to lead the target!
Gunner played wrong
Giving yourself too many angles/routes to cover, and getting easily flanked/overwhelmed.
If you can avoid this, you should end up somewhere in the top half of the leaderboard without much trouble.
Dumping your mag at a curtain of smoke and then getting killed while reloading, is possibly the most embarrassing thing you can do as a Gunner. Please don’t do it. (N.B. There is nothing wrong with suppressing smoke generally, just don’t dump the mag).
Demolition played right
Your one real job as Demolition, is to eliminate vehicles. Never spawn without an RPG, or sufficient “aimable” explosives to take down a helicopter, or technical (pickup truck with mounted MG).
If you bring a heavy carrier and an RPG, you get 2 rockets. Highly recommended until you’re confident in taking out helicopters first try every time.
Sidenote, helicopters fly in from their spawn in a straight line, then level out and become reactive.
If you track their incoming flight path, you can predict much more easily where they’ll be, before they start strafing and avoiding incoming fire. This will make you the hero of your team, also.
If you can’t hit the heli on its way from spawn, then try to shoot them from behind, as they don’t dodge incoming rockets if they come from behind the cockpit (whereas they have a dodge animation for oncoming rockets – combat this by sending 1 rpg, then having the other demo shoot the other after the animation starts).
Clear difficult objectives with 40mm grenades and IEDs/C4 explosives. Also, destroy Weapon Caches remotely with one shot from an RPG or IED/C4 and skip the delay on frags/planting manually.
There are some positions an enemy Marksman can take that are really obnoxious to clear, and you can assume that there is at least one enemy making a beeline for them at the start of a round.
If you can get a look at them from near the spawn/resupply, don’t hesitate to fire a rocket at them and resupply for the spare rocket back (RPGs are the ultimate any-sniper weapon, as they fire almost perfectly flat and deal splash damage, so you can aim for just behind the enemies’ cover and guarantee the kill).
Demolition played wrong
Blowing yourself, or other teammates up.
It’s really simple. If you’re going to blow up a friendly, don’t shoot/trigger/throw it. Swap to your guns, and click on heads instead.
The third step to making yourself useful, is to play the objective. PTFO
We’ll talk more about how best to do this in the next sections.
Playing the Objective
Depending on the game mode, this takes several forms.
The tactics work the same way, with the exception of Firefight.
While there are friendly reinforcement waves, the most effective tactic is always to clear the way to the point. The more friendlies that can make it onto the point, the higher the chance of success.
You can either do this from the center, or from the flanks. Note, they are often equally effective when teammates move together.
Great, the path to the point is now clear.
If you were coming from the center, you should get to the point, move through and clear it, then defend it from counterattack on the side the enemies will come to it.
You have to clear the objective once you are on it, otherwise the enemy spawn wave will arrive and overrun you. Unless you’re extremely lucky, you will fail to defend the objective from your side of it.
If you were on the flank:
With 2 waves of reinforcements or more remaining, it’s up to you whether or not to push onto the objective.
If you stay on the flank, you should be in a position to prevent enemy reinforcements reaching the point to defend it.
You may get caught in an enemy spawn wave and not make it, so time your run right, and stay in cover from the enemy spawn direction where possible.
If your team has no more reinforcement waves, you no longer have a choice. It’s either get to the point, or die trying.
If you are the last alive and have a suppressed sniper rifle in spawn, you’re either going to run out of ammunition and have to sneak around with a knife between your teeth, be found and killed easily, or win against all odds. It’s not really worth trying.
Defending from the point
When defending with your feet on the point, you should be looking to control entrances, while exposing yourself minimally to enemies off the point.
Face a teammate who is covering your back, and hold the angles they can’t see, while they hold the angles you can’t see.
Do your best to communicate when you need to reload or can’t cover them. “Need Backup” or talking in game will do fine in most cases.
Defending from off the point
As Demolition/Gunner/Marksman, your job is to hold as many sightlines between you as possible, to ensure that the guys on the point aren’t stretched thin by the enemies reaching the point.
Use cover that will protect you, while being able to see a wide enough part of a heavily travelled route to be effective (don’t be the Gunner that covers a tiny gap between concrete bollards and reacts too slow to hit anyone crossing it).
Insurgent Demolitions should stay mostly in cover until Security call in their helicopters, potentially get a vantage point near the resupply so you can get more rockets if you miss.
Security Demolitions should cover the roads, to avoid fully-loaded technicals reaching the point untouched.
Marksmen should look to hold a long road/valley and stop people advancing along the sides of the map.
Be aware you are the weakest class to defend yourself from automatic fire, and use good cover where possible.
When the enemy team has no more waves, or significantly fewer waves than your team, there is little point in attacking objectives. On defence you can either hold the point, or push up to find the remaining enemies.
The game becomes a team deathmatch mode where one team has the upper hand. Play slow and careful, and make sure you are defending the last point.
This is particularly important in the Firefight game mode, where you can hold 2 objectives, but die to the last enemy player, and you lose the round.
In Frontlines, capturing the penultimate enemy objective will reduce their wave count to 0, and they must recapture the objective, or survive your teams’ remaining waves outright to resist defeat.
When you are down by more than 2 waves, this isn’t really an option, and you must try to recapture the objective at all costs to regain another reinforcement wave.
Leading by example
Now you’ve successfully cleared and defended an objective and pushed through and won the round with and without your team’s Fire Support.
Congrats! You are now proficient in the basics of Insurgency: Sandstorm PVP.
I’ll add a section here on playing as Commander in PVP later, you don’t really need to worry about it while you’re new.