EVE Dust 514 New Player Guide

EVE Dust 514 New Player Guide by Arramakaian Eka

 

Welcome, n00bs! This guide is meant to get you through the first day or two of playing. Dust is hard, so prepare to die a lot. But with this guide you will get the knowledge and basic tactics which will let you get kills and even win some games. Scroll to the next post for the guide, although reading the TLDR portion will give you deeper insight into the game.

Why listen to me? I've been here since August, and playing FPSs for 15+ years. I'm merely a decent FPS player, but I've seen it all. I play for thrills, and I enjoy playing the underdog. I've also played EVE and other MMORPGs, and a "few" other games from Pong to Populous to TIE Fighter to Hitman.

Dust is hard. It happens in the same world as EVE, a space MMORPG which is known for its punishing learning curve. Dust is not as bad, but it's much harder than any other FPS I've played.

I'm here to help with that. If you follow the tips in this guide you will enrage Dust vets because you will have a fighting chance. They expect to run through you due to superior knowledge of maps and game mechanics, and higher SP and better gear. Many of them have been salivating for weeks of the upcoming slaughter of n00bs. I've chuckled, since I know it is them who are up for slaughter.

What Dust vets don't realize is that many of them are not FPS vets like you and I. Many of them are EVE players with a sense of entitlement, nolifers who think they should WTFPWN everyone just because they play more hours than you do, or plain ignorant of the skillset of your average BF/CoD/KZ/Halo/CS player.

The purpose of this guide is twofold: to give you the knowledge and tools to get a few kills and win a few games. Note that I didn't list survival; you will die. A lot. I also don't cover capping objectives and other intricacies - don't worry about them for several games. You'll learn them while playing and in due time. All you need to know is that most action in the game happens around the letters marked on the minimap; they can be captured and held by the two teams, and are one way to win a Skirmish (other path to victory is to kill them all). Ambush is dust for team deathmatch. There is no CTF or other game modes at the moment, but they will come later.

The loadouts and tactics listed here are not pretty or elegant, but they work. Utilizing them you will learn basic mechanics, map layouts, earn money (ISK) to spend later on skills and gear, earn Skill Points (SP) which you can use to upgrade skills, and be able to see where to specialize later, which is a necessity in Dust.

You lose your gear when you die, so I urge you to use dirt cheap or free Militia (starter) gear as much as you can until you are more comfortable with the game. There is no re-speccing, so spend your skill points only when you really know what you are doing.

The second purpose of this guide is to HTFU you to withstand the unforgiving nature of EVE universe. Perhaps more importantly, we also need to HTFU Dust vets (closed beta testers). There has been an increasing amount of forum QQ, whining, and calls for various nerfs because certain corps (ie. clans/guilds) and high-profile (read: vocal, prolific and mostly clueless) individuals don't like that their KDR and W:L ratio is compromised by perfectly legitimate FPS gameplay mechanics. Dust is has a rock-paper-scissors design: you are not supposed to go head-to-head with a Heavy in a Scout suit - you will lose. Instead, use tactics, terrain and cover to your advantage. And play as a team.

You will hear a lot of calls to HTFU and L2P in the coming weeks from Dust vets; I guarantee that ironically the most calls to nerf this and that, and general QQ on Dust forums will come from them. We've been getting nerfs at a steady pace already; the most recent was just yesterday for grenades since people couldn't and wouldn't adapt to a short fuse. WE MUST PUT A STOP TO NERFING, otherwise we will end up with yet another generic shooter. If you wanted that, you'd be playing Halo, CoD or BF3, since they are frankly better FPSs than Dust is.

Dust is an MMOFPS with much deeper meta game than any other FPS, and even other MMOFPSs. You will be a player in a vast game world populated by real humans involved in real politics and economy. Eventually you (we) can be instrumental in taking a planet, a region, or a ship, which is controlled by a corp of real-life breathing people, hired by another such corp. Dust is very much a work in progress like any MMO, but you are here to make it a better game - let's not dilute it by nerfing it to oblivion.

I trust you open beta testers will shake the game to the core, make it better, more challenging and fun. I trust new top corps and players will arise from your ranks. And I trust you will spill the blood of vets, and show them that a competent FPS player wipes the floor of a Dust vet even with militia (starter) gear.

Guide for three starter roles in next post.

DROPSUITS, WEAPONS, AND OTHER GEAR Dropsuits are types of armor in Dust, and can be viewed as player classes. But you can wear any type of suit you want, even change it during a match. Your skills are the limiting factor, though, and you will not be able to wear every suit and wield all weapons and equipment, yet. There are four types of suits: Heavy, Assault, Logistics and Scout. Logistics repairs (heals) and works in a support role - stay away from it for now. Heavy is really slow with lots of armor. Scout has paper-thin armor but can turn and run really fast. Assault is the best starter suit, not specialized in anything, but decent at everything. All suits come with shields and armor. After your shields are shot out, your armor will start to get damage, and when armor is gone, you die, and have to respawn. Shields recharge after a short delay, armor (generally) doesn't. Dropsuits also have space for weapons and modules, and the # and variety is very different between the suits, and even between different tiers of the same suit. There are already quite a few weapons in Dust, from assault rifles to anti-tank weapons to heavy machine guns to sniper rifles to grenade launchers to pistols and knives. You can wield any militia weapon, other weapons will usually require additional skills. There are also grenades and other deployable equipment, as well as dropsuit modules. Deployable equipment can replenish your ammo stores, create temporary spawn points, or repair (heal) your teammates. Dropsuit modules improve your dropsuit by giving you more damage, shields which recharge faster, stronger armor, or faster codebreaking. These are beyond the scope of this guide. ALL GEAR WILL BE LOST WHEN YOU DIE. Therefore I urge you to use the cheapest possible combination of dropsuits and weapons until you know better what you want to do with your money. The starter kits in the spawn menu are free, everything else costs money (ISK), which you get by playing games. You can also buy AUR with rl money, which is most useful in buying skill boosters and militia BPOs which will save you money in the long run - but these are also beyond the scope of this guide. Below is a brief guide for three basic roles suitable for n00bs. This includes the bare necessities to play in each role - wait until you have one or two days of playing before committing more skill points (SP) to skills not mentioned below. SNIPER WHO IS IT FOR: if you like being a sniper in other games, you will like Dust sniping. Low risk, high KDR, but limited ability to help win the game unless you are a good team player, preferably with voice comms. Easiest to get into, since there is a starter fit in the spawn menu which is perfectly passable. WHAT SKILLS AND EQUIPMENT DO YOU NEED: when you are in battle, just select sniper starter fit when spawning. No special skills are required, but upgrading Weaponry improves damage. DO NOT UPGRADE ANY OTHER SKILLS UNTIL YOU FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF BETTER WITH THE GAME - there is no re-speccing in Dust! BASIC TACTICS: In many games snipers are the most hated class. Also in Dust. Unfortunately there's no real stealth (invisibility or cloaking) in the game; when that's introduced snipers will literally be ******. But you can at least be Göring by wielding a sniper rifle and heading for the hills. So just do that: head for the nearest hillside or building top when you spawn. Preferably this is in the redline, area marked on the minimap in red near your starting spawn where the enemy has a limited time before they get gibbed by the system. Redline sniping will elevate your sniping to another level of scrub-enragement factor (SEF), a metric measured by the amount of forum QQ. Crouch down, and start popping enemies. Most Dust vets even in corps are too dumb to flank you, so they'll just come to forums to QQ instead of learning to play. Meanwhile you'll laugh your way all the way to top of KDR boards. DEMOMAN WHO IS IT FOR: gamers good at twitch FPSs and with superior positioning skills. You will die a lot, good KDR is tough to reach, but you can be very useful to your team in this role when played for objectives. Requires only two skills which you should have enough skill points (SP) when you launch the game. WHAT SKILLS AND EQUIPMENT DO YOU NEED: Upgrade Weaponry skill to lvl 2, Mass Driver to lvl1 - not further! DO NOT UPGRADE ANY OTHER SKILLS UNTIL YOU FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF BETTER WITH THE GAME - there is no re-speccing in Dust! Go to Marketplace, go to Weapons/Mass drivers, and buy a few Mass Drivers (the cheapest one). In the main menu, go to Dropsuits, make a copy of the Assault - Frontline suit. Edit it, and replace Assault Rifle with Mass Driver you just bought. If you get "invalid fitting" warning it is usually due to insufficient skills. You need to remove some mods until it's not invalid anymore - start by removing Militia Cardiac Regulator and/or Militia Shield Recharger. Later with more skills and better equipment you can fit more and better stuff in the slots, and have better suits with more slots. BASIC TACTICS: The confusingly named Mass Driver (MD) is actually a grenade launcher - very close to Demoman in TF2, except there are no sticky grenades. MD is called the n00btube by Dust vets because some vets still erroneously think the weapon is an "I WIN" button. It's not. Nevertheless, with competent handling it is a powerful AoE weapon with potent area denial capabilities, and high SEF due to its reputation. You won't get nearly as many kills as others, but you will get a lot of assists, and likely be more useful for your team than in the other two roles covered in this guide if you stick close to spawn points in the field (marked with letters on the minimap), or other marked buildings (they can be captured and/or destroyed).

Try to team up with someone in a logistics suit (logibro) or others who have nanohives, which will give you ammo - you will go through a lot. Supply depots on the field can be captured, and are another source of ammo. If you want more of a challenge, go for the shotgun scout route for CQC pwnage. You will need Shotgun skill for this. I recommend doing this only until you know the maps a bit better and have more skill points to spend, as proper positioning becomes critical, and shotgun is very weak at basic level and useless at medium/long range. Oh, and scout suit has paper thin armor. Bring a towel. HEAVY WHO IS IT FOR: those who like big guns and mowing down hordes of clueless scrubs. The most fun and relaxed way to play the game for a n00b. Requires more skills than either of the above, and depending on how my skill points (SP) you n00bs start with you might not be able to get into a heavy right away. WHAT SKILLS AND EQUIPMENT DO YOU NEED: Dropsuit Command lvl 3, Amarr Heavy Dropsuit lvl 1, Weaponry lvl 4, Heavy Machine Gun Operation lvl 1. DO NOT UPGRADE ANY OTHER SKILLS UNTIL YOU FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF BETTER WITH THE GAME - there is no re-speccing in Dust! Go to Marketplace, go to Dropsuits/Heavy, and buy a few Heavy Type-I dropsuits. Then go to Weapons/Heavy Machine Guns, and buy a few Heavy Maching Guns (the cheapest one). In the main menu, go to Dropsuits, make a new dropsuit based on the Heavy Type-I you just bought. Edit it, and equip the Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) you just bought. Add some mods, shield extenders or rechargers or damage mods, perhaps a scrambler pistol and militia grenades. If you get "invalid fitting" warning, you don't have the skills to equip some of the mods, or your CPU or PG consumption is too high. Remove some mods until it's not invalid anymore. Later with more skills and better equipment you can fit more and better stuff in the slots, and have better suits with more slots. BASIC TACTICS: Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) is a devastating weapon and doesn't require much player skill. You will be very hard to take down, so you will rack kills even if you get killed constantly. You will move and turn very slowly, so stay near cover and chokepoints, and stick with teammates. Mow down enemies and scream while you do it for extra points. It is ridiculous that after months of closed beta testing people will STILL run at a heavy in a straight line on open ground. Since they refuse to learn and whine on forums instead, more kills for you! That covers your first few days of gaming. There is a lot more to learn. I urge you to get voicecomms and find a good corp - your gaming experience will improve exponentially playing with teammates you can communicate with. Enjoy!