Overview
Here is a list of various useful starting tips I found while playing this game with friends. I hope you will benefit from some of them!
Introduction
This guide’s purpose is not to train you to some sort of general strategy, but rather to let you know about little details you may think of while playing, which are mostly not explicitly told to you. This is basically a bullet point list of things I found out overtime which helped me survive. I plan on updating this guide when an update pops in and/or when someone happens to notice that one of those tips is inaccurate or incorrect.
Also, this is my first guide. If it’s bad, don’t stop yourself from telling me why! I’ll be glad to know what you think of this piece of advice. 🙂
And without further ado, I say: let’s get terrorized and frightened!
Different Ammo Types
There are four ammo types in Space Beast Terror Fright, each represented by a different color. Each ammo type is fired at different speeds and deals a different amount of damage. Marines start with Orange, the ammo type that deals the less damage and fires the quickest. The following levels are respectively Red, Blue and Green. If you have several types of ammo in your gun, the strongest ammo (Green) will have priority. When you approach an Armory core, the color of the text “500 Ammo” will represent the type of ammo that this core will give you.
The damage and Rate-of-fire stats below are not entirely precise and may require a bit of correction. If you notice that one of the numbers is wrong, please post a comment below with the value you’ve found. The stats below show how many shots it takes to take down one Xenomorph.
When using the Rifle, it takes:
- 6-8 shots with Orange ammo (with a rate of approximately 600 Rounds Per Minute)
- 5-6 shots with Red ammo (600 RPM)
- 3-4 shots with Blue ammo (520 RPM)
- 2-3 shots with Green ammo (450 RPM)
When using the Razor, it takes:
- 10-12 shots with Orange ammo (900 RPM)
- 8-10 shots with Red ammo (730 RPM)
- 5-6 shots with Blue ammo (730 RPM)
- 3-4 shots with Green ammo (600 RPM)
It would be harder to find out the exact damage of Hammerx2, Hammerx4 and Shotgun, as everything depends on the amount of bullets that hit the target, which is not always easy to see.
Green ammo seems to have a higher DPS, and gives you the advantage of lasting for much longer than Orange. One thing Marines sometimes do is fire most of their Orange ammo so they can have more Green ammo. This can sometimes be a problem due to the time you may spend doing this; I would advise you to do this when you’re close to the end of the mission but haven’t turned all the coolants off. You also need to make sure that your allies get some good ammo as well: if you were to die, all the green ammo you took so far will be wasted.
On another note: if you’re going to empty your clip, don’t do it near an ally! Bullet ricochets could remove most of his HUD and even kill him before you even realize what you’re doing. Bullets may even ricochet in your face if you shoot specific corners. Try looking for some kind of empty room where you can be sure no one will get hurt – but don’t get so far away from your teammates either, as you’ll waste time for the mission and might put yourself in danger!
Finding the Reactor
When no one has a reactor finder, you may be interested in reaching the reactor room quickly to make sure nearby breaches don’t fill the room while you’re not looking. In order to find the reactor quickly, here’s a simple tip you can do anywhere on the map.
The numbers on doors and cores are not random; they seem to correspond to (X;Y) coordinates. When you go forward on the X axis, the number increases by 1; when you go forward on the Y axis, it increases by 33. The important thing to know is that the reactor’s coolants are always in the 500’s, so you can just approach it by looking for numbers that get closer and closer to 500-600. For instance, if you started at Door 60 and you see a Door 200 at the end of the corridor, that’s where you should go.
Since cores follow the same rule, you could easily guess the number of the sentry that’s above me: since it’s right next to Door 681 on the X axis, its number is 681+1, so that’s 682. If you try to do the math with the doors on the left, you’ll notice that the sentry’s number should be 649+33… which is also 682!
This strategy works often in Corridors and Dungeons, but rarely in Mazes and Minimazes; this is because those two layouts have a lot of paths that are close to the Reactor in distance, but require you to travel in tons of different directions before actually reaching it. Dungeon layouts usually have large open spaces around the reactor so you won’t have this issue.
Surviving an Outage
Sometimes, a power outage will occur, and you’ll notice that the breaker is three meters away from you. And some other times, the closest breaker is thirty meters away and requires you to go through a triple breach corridor, eventually requiring you to look for another one. But where can you find one?
One important thing about breakers is that no single upgrade will add breakers to your map; only the text above your radar will help you find one. Because of this, if you recently were hurt and lost your HUD’s text, finding breakers will be much harder due to their small size and the little amount of light you get during an outage. Because of this, it is crucial that you repair your text display whenever it breaks, as this might be one of the most important things you can lose by being hurt, along with your radar. Not repairing your text would also prevent you from seeing the reactor cooldown, the current objective progression and the distance from datacores and airlock. In the best of cases, this will make you lose a lot of time. In the worst case, you’ll be an easy target for the Xenomorphs. In the worst-worst-worst of cases, you’ll kill your whole team being unable to even look for the airlock. So quit screwing around and go repair that text display!
Secondly, it can be really useful to memorize the location of some close breakers, especially in a tough situation where you’re in a corridor with aliens on both sides and you won’t have time to check whether you’re running in the right direction if an outage occurs. If you died and are now spectating someone, you can try to look for breakers close to them while they’re busy shooting aliens.
Finally, if you meet a dead end with a breach, and if you don’t need to go back there anymore, take some time to close every single door on the way. Don’t bother turning on all the sentries unless you have a very quick download speed. Doors take a few seconds for aliens to open during an outage, and forcing the aliens to open four or five doors before reaching you is going to buy you so much time to calmly look for a breaker.
Your best frienemy, the Sentry
Sentries can be a great asset for Marines, shooting most of the aliens while you finish off the couple of astro-creeps that managed to go past it. But we Marines can never be safe from their friendly fire… Or can we?
If you stand in a long corridor next to a sentry and see a wave of aliens come from the other end, you could simply stand back and let the sentry do the job while you hide behind cover to avoid its ricocheting bullets. Once the horde becomes thinner and easier to take down by yourself, it’s not always bad to close the door in front of the sentry to prevent it from accidentally shooting you and removing useful parts of your equipment, like your radar, in a situation where you actually need them. Now you can carelessly shoot down the (few) aliens coming through and download your data at peace!
Ricochet isn’t the only thing you should be worried about, though. When a sentry shoots a Xenomorph, an important amount of knockback will be applied to them. Never put yourself in a situation where the beast stands between you and the sentry, as the sentry’s knockback can easily boost the beast toward you and catch you off-guard.
Marines: More than Meatshields
When playing multiplayer, it’s not always a good idea to have everyone walk together right next to eachother, especially in tight and turning corridors. In a group of four, the Marine in the back will be almost unable to shoot anything coming in front without hurting his teammates. Sure, he could watch their back, but sentries and laser gates do a pretty good job at this in most situations. So what could this poor Marine do for his team?
Let’s start with the obvious one: by separating the group of four Marines into two groups of two, or any other combination you desire, Marines will be able to look for datacores quickly and in various places. It’s often useful, seldom necessary to have a second Marine next to you, to activate sentries or watch a breach behind you, so two squads of two can be a good idea. Just make sure you don’t get in your teammate’s line of fire!
Another thing you can do is guard an important breach or group of breaches while your team looks for datacores. This will prevent important spots like the Reactor room, or the path from the reactor to the airlock, to be filled with dozens of Xenomorphs. This isn’t really a fun task, as fights will usually consist of one or two beasts at once, but it sometimes is necessary to do it. Be on the lookout for ammo stations, as depending on the map, you might be doing this for a while. Otherwise, you could stand still behind a laser fence and let the beasts come at you, killing them without any effort. Be careful though, as a power outage could turn the laser fence off and catch you off-guard.
When you’re in a calm situation, it’s also useful to check out the other Marines’ upgrades; does anyone have an Airlock pathfinder? If so, tell your team to follow them in case they don’t know the way back. Does anyone have a quicker download speed than you? Let them deal with sentries and cores in priority. Does anyone have Aim Assist, Motion Tracker, Green ammo, good Infravision, or a combination of those? Ask if they mind being on the frontlines to defend everyone. Likewise, if you notice that someone is hurt, try to find a repair station, or warn your teammates so the Marines with a pathfinder can escort them to one.
Conclusion
I hope some of those tips will help you in your future missions! Once again, criticism is always interesting, and I’ll be glad to hear what you think of this list. If you have a tip in mind that you think should be added to the list, or if you find that one of the tips needs to be more accurate or explained differently, please post a comment below and let me know about it. Don’t forget to add this guide to your favorites if you found the information within in to be helpful! 🙂
Now it’s YOUR turn to terrorize and frighten those filthy Xenomorphs!