Tips and Tricks to Effective Gameplay

Gear Up. It's that game you sometimes play when you are feeling competitive and having the urge to dominate your opponents and/or help your teammates to victory. However, have you ever seen someone with the same goal, but failing to do so? This guide is to help people like them become an effective player, being able to shoot up their opponents and take little in return.

Most other guides suggest build loadouts, but you can never know if you are comfortable with the playstyle. It also feels rather unoriginal to do that, though it is completely possible. Now, this guide you are reading right now will give away some tips, some you may already know and some you were completely unaware of. Now, enough talk, time for... more talk, I guess.

When you are making the perfect, most powerful loadout (according to your playstyle), you will want to make sure that you choose the correct parts for a killer (or healer) tank. Sometimes, you may underestimate or overestimate the abilities of it.

• It's normally hard to tell if your loadout is either a light, medium, or heavy one. However, there is the best way to tell is if your acceleration is optimal. First, check if your acceleration is under 1/4 of your maximum speed. If it's higher, you have the correct propulsion for your ride. Otherwise, you'll have to invest in some heavier gear and you'll probably be all set!
  
• What weapon would you feel most comfortable using? If you don't like dealing with trajectories (arc / path of projectile), then use a weapon that fires bullets. If you would rather use more skillful tactics to fight enemies, then try out a weapon that uses projectiles that take time to travel to your target. Once you get the hang of predicting your enemies' locations, then it becomes a breeze to shoot down even the heaviest foes with the lightest weapons.
  - Using a cannon-related weapon? If so, then choose a weapon whose recoil your tank can handle. The higher the fire rate, the more recoil it will have to take. Strangely, this means that the lowest fire rate will knock over your tank the least. However, this doesn't mean you can't try out all of them for yourself!
  - What bullet-spraying weapon would be best for your build? If you are using a light build and you don't plan on having to travel slowly for ammo, the Basic Minigun is your best bet. Even though it has the lowest fire speed and ammunition, it still has the highest DPS of 48. If using a heavy build, try going for the Gatling Gun. You won't be very fast and able to outrun smaller enemies, but you'll have more opportunity to shoot them down with all your ammunition. Though having the least DPS for a rapidfiring primary of 43, it is a good choice. When using a medium build, try the Machine Gun. It has a bit more ammo and fire speed than the Basic Minigun and more DPS than the Gatling Gun at 44. However, it is always your choice to choose one you like!
  - The Shotgun is a great choice for sure-fire 60 DMG hit-and-runs. Though its DPS itself is horrible at a measly 23, its damage can be deployed at first encounter while recharging behind shelter. Overall, it is best used on a more skillful player. Flamethrowers of all kinds are horrible, promoting W+M1 behavior and removing the game of skill!
  
• At any kind of light or heavy build, make sure to add variety to your turret(s). On a light build, you'll probably already have the capacity to turn your entire tank around, so try a heavier and more armored turret. This adds durability to your ride. Meanwhile, with heavier builds, try using a fast-turning turret since you yourself might not be able to turn. You can always add armor boosters to the sides of the frail Sputnik turret!
  
• Speed is always key and is usually (NOT ALWAYS) dominant to armor. Turrets won't be able to keep up with you easily when you are strafing or speeding around someone. You will always be able to pick up health and boosts easily when you are mobile. Fret not, heavy builds! You can always place a SPEED BOOSTER on your ride to make it extremely fast, as well as armored. Though speed boosters are faster than 50 units, heavier builds can't easily turn. This is the advantage of lighter builds.

What kind of loadout is best suited for you? It could be a speed demon, a well-rounded tank, or even a slow but powerful juggernaut. It is quite important to find the optimal playstyle so you can dominate enemies in the way that best suits your playstyle.

• Light Loadout: 40 to 125 Armor Points
  - PROS: High Mobility, Easy To Reach Pickups, High Skill Cap
  - CONS: Fragile, Unforgiving Playstyle, Low Mass Requirement
  
  
  
• Medium Loadout: 126 to 225 Armor Points
  - PROS: Powerful Weapons, Good Durability & Mobility, Easy To Learn
  - CONS: Slower Than Light Loadouts, Less Durable Than Heavy Loadouts
  
  
  
• Heavy Loadout: 226 to 375 HP
  - PROS: Ridiculously Durable, Powerful Weapons, Forgiving Playstyle
  - CONS: Very Slow, Hard To Reach Pickups, Low Skill Cap
  

After reading so much about building, here comes the exciting part: the FIGHTING! When in combat, there are also many things to consider, despite how simple the system is. At first glance, it only seems like "Shoot at enemy and watch them die". However, that is most definitely false. Supported by these tips and tricks, combat for you just may be viewed differently afterward.

• Keep moving in open areas, and circle your opponents. If your turrets' rotation speed is better, then you have an advantage. This will make you harder to hit by snipers and toe-to-toe enemies alike, and even moving slowly will make it a tad bit harder for snipers to hit you. This is why being fast helps you last, it means that you'll be able to return fire without taking any.
  
• Memorize the pickups and their locations. Health pickups will recover a small amount of health, armor boosts cut the damage you take in half, damage boosts increase the damage you deal by 1.5x, and ammunition pickups will... straightforwardly replenish all your ammunition. Being fast will help you pick up more of these, and memorizing their locations will certainly pay off.
  - Being a sniper? If so, then be sure to have some elevation while still having access to attack and health boosts. A boosted Desecrator hit (darn, those are annoying) will deal a whopping 113 damage while a boosted Sniper hit will deal 75 damage. (Basically a Desecrator with speed.)
  
• In a deathmatch, hog up all of the pickups you can (unless you are teaming). If you do so, even at full health, then what will your enemies pick up? That's right, NOTHING.
  
• Found a tough enemy with a limited range? Pick them off from as far as you can. If you hold nothing but a shotgun, then quickly rush up to the tough enemy, shoot, and get away. Even the tiniest troublemaker can take down a colossus with the correct tactics.
  
• Always predict your enemy's next movement and fire your weapon accordingly. This is very important for people that like the Harpoon, the A.N.T.I Cannon, and the Grayhound. It is always strange to fire where a person is instead of where they WILL go, with any of those weapons
  

When in doubt of going to Deathmatch mode, where would you normally go? You'd go to a Team Deathmatch or Conquest server, of course! However, what would you do to keep everyone's backs turned to yours and the other way around? You would normally be a team player! Here are some tips right here to become a better team player!

• Whenever you have a spare weapon slot, use healing guns whenever possible! Also, aside from being able to heal your teammates, you can also heal yourself by firing at a wall you are on while shooting. This will make you heal yourself in a slow but steady process, good for recovering after a minor skirmish and preparing for another. You can even shoot right next to / behind teammates to heal both, being a beneficial action for both.
  
• If a friend of yours is being a sniper, it might be worthwhile being a bodyguard or scout for them. Being a bodyguard means that you're going to pick off opponents that come near the sniper (as they are normally horrible at close range), while being a scout means that you weaken your enemies for your sniper friend to finish them off.
  
• Use RIGHT CTRL (as default) to team chat! Coordinate with your team while your enemies are unaware of your speaking. Be sure to not spawn in crowds of the enemy team, as they'd happily shoot down your tank in under a second. Instead, spawn near groups of TEAMMATES and regroup whenever things are getting out of hand. Then, when an enemy spawns into your territory, show them what your team is made of!
  
• There is literally no point in kill-stealing in a Team Deathmatch, as your kill / assist will go to the team's kill counter either way. Feel free to do all the kill-stealing you want in Deathmatch mode, because that's where it all matters.

Hopefully, this guide has taught you a new thing or two about Gear Up. If you have any suggestions, post it in the comments. Only minor cursing will be tolerated, any more and I'll remove it. I will then put it in and credit your name for it.