Planetside 2 Complete Infiltration Guide by Ztiller
Part 1: Introduction and The Equipment
Part 2: Movement
Part 3: The Kill and the Bail
Part 4: The Cloak, The Hacking Tool, and Supporting your teammates
Part 1: Introduction and The Equipment
I'm doing this because i'm simply getting fed up with all the constant ******** about the Infiltrator. Apparently making 4 videos wasn't enough, since people just dismiss it as "luck."
First of all: This is a game. You can either play the game, like it is intended and adapt to it, or you can throw yourself off a cliff and complain that the Heavy Assault doesn't have Jetpacks. I chose the former.
While other infiltrators complain that the Cloak is insufficient, i learned how to use it, and how to survive despite its shortcomings.
The infiltrator in General
The infiltrator often face the complaint that it is primarily a Sniper, and should be called just that. However, if you let the classes name, and not the actual class, decide your playstyle, then you might want to look for another class.
I prefer to look at it another way. The infiltrator is 2 classes in one. It can be played as a sniper, long range and precision, but weak in close combat. It is most effective from behind friendly lines, or far away on flanks.Or you can play it as a class that infiltrates bases, causes disruption and takes out key-targets.
I personally prefer to play as a combination of both. Close-range infiltration-sniper.
Maybe it's just me, but i would say that the Infiltrator is probably the most skill-based class. The other classes are quite straight forward. You point at thigns you want to do things with. The Infiltrator on the other hand must constantly be observant of his surroundings. Not only to look for enemies, but for places to hide, maneuver. He must move with a certain flow etc. You get the deal.
Phase one: Selecting Equipment
This is where you decide how you want to approach the enemy. If you are fighting in a big field-battle, you want to go for the Long-range setup, and if you are plenning on sneaking up on people, you obviously want to go for the CQC-loadout. They are similar, but have key differences.
This is what my Long-Range combat gear looks like. The most basic Bolt-action with 10x-scope, combined with a silenced Manticore and Restoration kits. Its pretty straight-forward, and you can't do much wrong picking your long-range loadout.
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/560965112120214047/59EDB9613C0084F3BD9E087DBB669583D809F1FB/
Now this is my Infiltration loadout.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560965112120215157/ABC306D1EF6B7F833686F1E5373AE51E1569A5EC/
The XM98, Bolt-action with silencer and 7x-scope. Your choice of weapon is largely personal preferences, but i suggest the bolt-actions. I'll get to why later.
A Manticore with silencer, allows me to execute quick assassinations from behind and remain undetected due to their speed. The Beamer works as well.
The silencer is very important here, because a lot of players rely on the red-dot you get when you fire, to detect you. Without it, they have nothing, and will fumble blindly. You can play without the silencer, but expect almost a 50% reduction in efficieny.
Unupgraded Recon Tool. Maybe it's just me, but i rarely have a use for it. But some people seems to disagree with me here.
Flak-armor, originally intended to protect me against grenades, but i will probably switch to the reduced Shield-recharge rate soon, to allow me to cloak faster and safer after taking fire. The majority of damage you take will be from gunfire.
Regular Frag-grenade. It have two uses. Killing enemies, and distracting enemies. Throw one, and run while the smoke is still whirling, and they will be too disoriented to notice you.
I also own the EMP grenade, but it's far to situational to compensate for the benefits of the Frag. The EMP can be amazing to take down the shields of enemies, and then oneshot them with regular bodyshots. However, i have found that after taking EMp-damage, most enemies panic and run around like crazy, making sniping simply too inefficient.
Regeneration Kits. Yes, i know that the Medkit is faster, and better. But i've grown used to these ones. Also, i'm greedy.
Some people swap these for mines, in order to get a free-kill, but i feel that i can score more kills, and contribute more by staying alive and sniping more people. Eventually, if i'm going for a hacking-spree, i will choose the mines, since they are very effective against the AA-turrets, which we will also cover later.
Part 2: Movement
The movement of the infiltrator can be separated into 3 different sections.
Section One: Within Friendly Lines
This is the by far safest time. Sure, you might get headbutted by a Zephyr round, or run over by a friendly tank, but on average you have as much survivability as the bloke next to you, and you don't have to pay any extreme amount of attention to the surroundings. You don't expect any enemies around here (We will use just that for our advantage later).
What you want to do here, is to move to the area from which you want to begin
Section Two: Crossing the no-mans-land.Let us look at this map, over the Crown.A place where you can almost always find something fun to shoot at.
http://i.imgur.com/GJt7Ssd.jpg
Generally, as a Vanu at least, you start at the big blob. Then, if i want to infiltrate, i will most likely pick one of these paths up the hill. Of course i could go around, but i don't have patience, nor is there need for me to go all the way around.
First of all, it's good too observe what you are up against, and pick a good route. Now, as opposed to what you think, picking the most occupied path might often be the easiest. The mroe enemy soldiers there are, the less they will pay attention to a small blur speeding past them. If there are tanks, then you're in for an even bigger treat: Mobile covers.
Section Two This is the by far most dangerous time.This is the time when the enemy expects you to be there, and will pay good attention even to your shimmer.
The key here is your profile. You want to make sure that even if the enemy sees you, he wont pay attention to you. He wont notice you. Why? Because there are other, more visible targets behind you, that are easier to hit. So the easiet way to accomplish this is to just sprint like a mother****er, and sprint between cover. Use bushes, rocks, holes in the ground, enemy Tanks, or even enemy MAXes. I have infiltrated quite a few bases by simply moving right behind a enemy MAX who is pulling back.
Anything that can make your profile less attractive. The closer you are, or the further away you are, the less probability that you are detected. Mid-range is where people pay the most attention. Nobody expects the guy standing right next to them to be a enemy infiltrator.
Alternatively, if there are rocks and hillsides, you can use these to enhance your cloaks effectiveness. You want to blend in as much as possible. You are much easier to spot against the horizon, where the distortion effect gets almost doubled. Standing next to a cliff will make the enemy assume that you are just a rock formation.
If you get spotted during this time, just keep sprinting. Stop and you are dead. However, by sprinting, the enemy can easily forget all about you and focus on your PUG teammates, making the assumption that some of his teammates will kill you. 95% of the time, they are wrong and end up with a sniper-round in the back of their head.
A lot of people have been complaining that i only fight the NC, but they were the ones in with the Crown today, so they get the boot.
Now, in this video i stop and shoot a few guys. It's not encouraged if you want to get inside the base. You are most vulnerable when standing still. But i was pretty much just farming Certs today when i recorded it. The best thing todo, is to only stop when you recharge your cloak, and to run as ssoon as possible.
When you are crossing the NML, only kill those that you are 95% sure that you can instakill and then get away without being spotted. Ofcourse, you can never anticipate a Hacksaw MAX rounding the corner while taking the shot, but you can make your profile as low as possible, by simply blending in to the enemy forces. Kill one guy, then leave.
This is a very common mistake. Sometimes when i infiltrate, and is chilling in some hole, i see a friendly/3d faction infiltrator trying to sneak into the enemy base aswell. And then an enemy runs by, upon which the other infiltrator immediately opens fire, and gets butchered by the following bullet-****storm. Me, on the other hand, is sitting casually in the hole, watching the spectacle, and then i run past them in order to begind my 15+ killstreak. The other infiltrator just sacrificed 10+ kills, by risking his life for a low-probability kill.
Section Three
This is when you are past the enemy lines and behind theirs/inside the enemy base. It's not as risky as the NML part, but not really as safe as the first section either.
What you want to play as the most is the fact that the enemies do not expect you to be there. Just like you do not look at your teammates to make sure they are hostile, while faffing around by the sunderer, neither does they expect you to be there.
However, due to the Drop-pod system, they will not be completely oblivious. After all, it does happen that an enemy gets past the lines through the drop-pods.
They way to combat this is once again, your profile. You want to blend in as much as possible. To make the enemy look at you, but not see you. The cloak is great for this, because it lowers your profile. It makes you less attractive in terms of attention. However, by moving as an enemy, you can still move quite well. It's not uncommon for me to stand in the middle of an enemy crown, refilling my ammo on their engineers, simply because they don't expect it. I mean, how often do you see a infiltrator stroll in and just stand amongst you?
However, once again, the rules of distance applies. The closer, or further away you are, the less they will notice you. Run through them, and they wont pay attention. Mid-range is the most risky.
The way to deal with this is by using the enemy players attention span. If he looks at you long enough, he will connect the dots and see you as an enemy. Cloak or not. That is why you make sure to constantly break line of sight. Round corners, jump into elevators, run through friendlies etc. Anything to keep the enemy looking at you for as short time as possible.
Even running around in circles on the top of a watchtower can save your life.
One good tip, if the enemy is right behind you, is to round a corner, crouch, and then turn and run straight through them. They wont be able to distinguish the milisecond of blur that passes them.
Note: You can't run straight through enemies, but you can run your "side" through them. You can clip into eachother by about 50%.
Unless you have a really good sniping spot, always keep moving. Kill one guy, bail, kill another, bail etc. Flash your Cloak on and off all the time. And Always have your cloak on when rounding a corner, or walking through a doorway. That is where the enemy have increased attention, and might double check you.
Once again: The key is not to be undetected, but to be unnoticed.
Part 3: The Kill and the Bail
Killing an enemy while infiltrating is more than just walking in with guns blazing. Before each kill, you must weigh in your probability of detection and chance of escape.
Makre sure there are not other enemies at mid-range looking at you. Friendlies right next to him are fine. They are used to seeing teammates fall down dead, unless you are in a "shielded" area where enemies are not expected.
Overall, its highly situational. Every kill is different. Some kills i choose to use the Sniper-rifle at 2-meters distance, because it will make sure that the guy does not come back to the same area looking for you. It takes more time, but it's a sure kill and less detection risk given a lone enemy.
The bolt-action sniper is my weapon of choice due to the fact that it can kill an enemy instantly, making sure that he, or his friends, cannot see where the enemy is coming from. This will allow you to rack up numerous kills, seeing as the enemy have no idea where to hide. Unfortunately, it practically only allows you to kill stationary enemies.
Judging by the nature of the enemy, you can stay and shoot a longer or shorter time. If they are in the middle of a firefight, and are coming under fire from other sources, you will remain undetected longer. However killing an enemy where others can see it, and they dont expect to be killed, will send enemies searching for you. Not for a long time, mind you. Most people don't have an attentionspan over 10 seconds. Sometimes they just assume the guy died of natural causes or something. But enough attention for them to take a good look around.
Picking your targets: Medics, engineers, Heavy assaults with rocket launchers and Infiltrators are the most typical classes to stand still. Keep an extra eye out after them, because they are not only easy kills, but quite contributing for your team if you take them out.
Only kill targets that you are 99% sure you can kill. And do it fast. I can't stress this enough. Risk your life for a kill, and you will die. The infiltrator is an assassin, not a Heavy Assault. It kills fast and effectively, then it dissapears. Most people who fail with the class have a problem here. They try to fight, when they will lose. which brings us to the next part:
The Bail.
If you get detected (And you will), it is up to you if you want to survive or not.
Some infiltrators will, if detected, pull out their gun and try to shoot at the Heavy brandishing a shield and machinegun. Needless to say, the result is often given. Even against a Medic, you are inferior and will lose 9/10 fights.
That is why the best solution when detected, is to get the **** out of there. Once again you must show off your "LoS-breaking tecnique. You want to make sure that he will have as low time to target you as possible. And you will sprint like a mother****er. No crouching, or trying to "hide" with your shimmering suit. You get away as fast as you possible can.
By doing this, you will also reduce the effectiveness of the IRNV sights that cause a lot of problems for some infiltrators. Remember: If the enemy stops to aim, he slows to a walk. If you sprint at that time, you will put a lot of distance inbetween you, making your escape easier.
The cloak here is your best friend. It will grant you, aproximately, 0.5 seconds extra of undetection, and a generally lower enemy accuracy. Enough to save your life.
You will pull this maneauver the second you hear bullets swoop by your head. Or even if you see an enemy look at you, you must be prepared to run. If you think you can cloak and hide agaisnt a wall, you will most likely end up dead. If you are in a bush, you have a 25% chance of surviving if you don't move. The enemy knows you are there, and he is out for Xp.
Most other infiltrators would pull out their gun and perhaps deal 2 bars worth of damage to the thing. I, on the other hand, performed The Bail, and lived to assassinate 5-6 enemies.
Part 4: The Cloak, The Hacking Tool, and Supporting your teammates
Now, this is where the Infiltrator gets the most hate. We have already covered a lot about the Cloak, but it's a vital part so i want to dedicate a special part just for it.
The Cloak
Like some smart guy once said: The cloak is not an invisibilty suit. It is a high-tech ghille-suit.
The cloak should not be relied on to do the work for you. You still have to use your brain and eyes if you want to survive. You have to use cover, bushes, and other objects in order to remain stealthy.
What it does do however, is to increase the time it takes for the enemy to detect you. And in good cover, it makes you practically invisible.
The cloak should be used as a assistance tool. A tool to make your job easier, not to do the whole job. That extra time it takes for the enemy to notice you is often enough for you to get between the covers and remain undetected.
The cloak also reduces the enemy accurace against you. While non-cloaked enemies have a distincs profile, the infiltrator blends in with the landscape and makes him harder to track. Once again, not by much ,but enough to make a huge difference.
When assassination people from the cloak, you want to remain uncloaked as short time as possible.
Tap F, kill, Tap F, bail. That is the standard procedure. Even if you are going to kill someone in 1 seconds, you will cloak inbetween.
When your cloak is low, and you are running across a large area: Flash it. turn it off and on. It will also reduce your profile and increase the detection time, just not as well. You dont have to wait for it to fully recharge to use it.
Often, during critical moments, my cloak never leaves red. And most of the time, i end up surviving.
The Hacking Tool:
Also a subject to much debate and complaining. The hacking tool can be used on Terminals and turrets. Both are effective, in their own way.
Hacking a terminal is great for:
A: Denying enemy class-changes or Armor/Air
B: Allowing you to rearm and refill grenades and mines, and to change class, to for example a MAX or medic, if you need healing.
However, it is also a very vulnerable position. Worth noting, is that you do NOT need to look at the target to hack it, only to start it. You can start hacking, and then turn around and prepare to kill anyoone ejected, or to bail if detected, as long as you hold down E.
Now. There are two ways to hack a terminal. You can eithersit around, crouched like a little girl in a corner. But this will not stop most people from noticing you. If they are looking for you, they will find you, even if you are crouching.
You just stand, right infront of the terminal just like any regular dude would do. Now i got detected in this video because i was greedy and threw a grenade. Otherwise, i would probably have gotten away without a scratch.
Hacking enemy turrets are great for other reasons:
A: Denying enemy turret support. A watchtower without AA turrets wont last long. A liberator only needs a few seconds to turn a defense without AA to ash.
B: Turning the enemy turrets against the enemy.
Mostly, the enemy armor is facing away from their own defence turrets, leaving you with a nice juicy view of their butt. You can easily take out 2-3 even tanks before they even know whats going on.
However, the turrets are more often than not occupied by some little joykiller. But fear not, it's just free XP for you.
The two main turrets are the AT and the AA turret. They both require different approaches.
The AT Turret: The AT turret have the barrel located on the Left side. That means that by sticking close, you can sneak around on the right side and sit on the ledge, waiting for the enemy to pop out. When he does, you will have your Sidearm ready and put 4 rounds in his face. The enemy always gets ejected at the same point, so its easy to predict where to aim.
The AA-turret: This one is trickier. The two barrels on both sides prevents you from hiding on the edges. The second you have hacked it, the barrels will push you off the ledge. This is the turret where the AP mines comes most in handy. Just place one, sneak around to the front of the turret, and hack it.
Alternatively, if you do not have the mines, you can sit in the back and prepare to shoot whoever pops out. However, this is high risk.
Not only because you might get detected, but because if the turret is firing, the guy inside will be ejected with guns blazing. I have died more than once by an enemy popping out only to immediately replace my brain with lead, simply by holding down the Shoot button.
The solution to this is to sit a little to the side. But it is still high risk and not recommended unless the gain of a decommissioned AA turret is worth it.
You can also, with both turrets, just jump into them the second they are hacked. Most of the time, the enemy wont have any weapons to damage you with, but if they have C4, you are out of luck.
Hacking unmanned turrets are mostly safe, but you still want to kep your eyes out so no enemy surprise you from behind.
Supporting your Teammates
The infiltrator is not a heavy assault. Dont try to charge the front door together with that friendly MAX.
The infiltrator is a support and disruption class.
Sitting entrenched with your enemies? 'What better way to disrupt you by making you watch your teammates drop one by one, from an unknown sniper. No place to hide is safe. The enemy will be more focused on running around, avoiding to get headshooted, than to notice the 2 friendly MAXs approachign their position. Anyone who takes time to counter them will get instantly killed.
Hack terminals to cause disruption in enemy "supply-lines." No tanks without tank-terminals.
Engineers repairing armor? Watch them panic and run for cover as their teammates drop dead. Now watch that armor try to fight with 25% health left.
An enemy pilot got out of his aircraft to repair it? Mosquitos are much prettier without pilots.
No infantry terminals=No MAXs
Hack the enemy AA, and watch as your friendly liberators notice that the base is unprotected, and swoop in to carpetbomb those NC-nuggets back to the stoneage (AKA "Freedom")
Enemy soldiers getting revived? Shoot him the second he gets up. He wont have enough health or shield to survive a bodyshot. Free xp for you, and no reinforcements for them.
Enemy entrenched at a biolab? Snipe the engineers by the MANA turrets and watch your friendly MAXs turn the remaining defense to shreds.
The infiltrator is a very useful, and resourceful class, if you just adapt to the strengths, instead of complaining about the weaknesses.
Part 1: Introduction and The Equipment
Part 2: Movement
Part 3: The Kill and the Bail
Part 4: The Cloak, The Hacking Tool, and Supporting your teammates
Part 1: Introduction and The Equipment
I'm doing this because i'm simply getting fed up with all the constant ******** about the Infiltrator. Apparently making 4 videos wasn't enough, since people just dismiss it as "luck."
First of all: This is a game. You can either play the game, like it is intended and adapt to it, or you can throw yourself off a cliff and complain that the Heavy Assault doesn't have Jetpacks. I chose the former.
While other infiltrators complain that the Cloak is insufficient, i learned how to use it, and how to survive despite its shortcomings.
The infiltrator in General
The infiltrator often face the complaint that it is primarily a Sniper, and should be called just that. However, if you let the classes name, and not the actual class, decide your playstyle, then you might want to look for another class.
I prefer to look at it another way. The infiltrator is 2 classes in one. It can be played as a sniper, long range and precision, but weak in close combat. It is most effective from behind friendly lines, or far away on flanks.Or you can play it as a class that infiltrates bases, causes disruption and takes out key-targets.
I personally prefer to play as a combination of both. Close-range infiltration-sniper.
Maybe it's just me, but i would say that the Infiltrator is probably the most skill-based class. The other classes are quite straight forward. You point at thigns you want to do things with. The Infiltrator on the other hand must constantly be observant of his surroundings. Not only to look for enemies, but for places to hide, maneuver. He must move with a certain flow etc. You get the deal.
Phase one: Selecting Equipment
This is where you decide how you want to approach the enemy. If you are fighting in a big field-battle, you want to go for the Long-range setup, and if you are plenning on sneaking up on people, you obviously want to go for the CQC-loadout. They are similar, but have key differences.
This is what my Long-Range combat gear looks like. The most basic Bolt-action with 10x-scope, combined with a silenced Manticore and Restoration kits. Its pretty straight-forward, and you can't do much wrong picking your long-range loadout.
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/560965112120214047/59EDB9613C0084F3BD9E087DBB669583D809F1FB/
Now this is my Infiltration loadout.
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/560965112120215157/ABC306D1EF6B7F833686F1E5373AE51E1569A5EC/
The XM98, Bolt-action with silencer and 7x-scope. Your choice of weapon is largely personal preferences, but i suggest the bolt-actions. I'll get to why later.
A Manticore with silencer, allows me to execute quick assassinations from behind and remain undetected due to their speed. The Beamer works as well.
The silencer is very important here, because a lot of players rely on the red-dot you get when you fire, to detect you. Without it, they have nothing, and will fumble blindly. You can play without the silencer, but expect almost a 50% reduction in efficieny.
Unupgraded Recon Tool. Maybe it's just me, but i rarely have a use for it. But some people seems to disagree with me here.
Flak-armor, originally intended to protect me against grenades, but i will probably switch to the reduced Shield-recharge rate soon, to allow me to cloak faster and safer after taking fire. The majority of damage you take will be from gunfire.
Regular Frag-grenade. It have two uses. Killing enemies, and distracting enemies. Throw one, and run while the smoke is still whirling, and they will be too disoriented to notice you.
I also own the EMP grenade, but it's far to situational to compensate for the benefits of the Frag. The EMP can be amazing to take down the shields of enemies, and then oneshot them with regular bodyshots. However, i have found that after taking EMp-damage, most enemies panic and run around like crazy, making sniping simply too inefficient.
Regeneration Kits. Yes, i know that the Medkit is faster, and better. But i've grown used to these ones. Also, i'm greedy.
Some people swap these for mines, in order to get a free-kill, but i feel that i can score more kills, and contribute more by staying alive and sniping more people. Eventually, if i'm going for a hacking-spree, i will choose the mines, since they are very effective against the AA-turrets, which we will also cover later.
Part 2: Movement
The movement of the infiltrator can be separated into 3 different sections.
Section One: Within Friendly Lines
This is the by far safest time. Sure, you might get headbutted by a Zephyr round, or run over by a friendly tank, but on average you have as much survivability as the bloke next to you, and you don't have to pay any extreme amount of attention to the surroundings. You don't expect any enemies around here (We will use just that for our advantage later).
What you want to do here, is to move to the area from which you want to begin
Section Two: Crossing the no-mans-land.Let us look at this map, over the Crown.A place where you can almost always find something fun to shoot at.
http://i.imgur.com/GJt7Ssd.jpg
Generally, as a Vanu at least, you start at the big blob. Then, if i want to infiltrate, i will most likely pick one of these paths up the hill. Of course i could go around, but i don't have patience, nor is there need for me to go all the way around.
First of all, it's good too observe what you are up against, and pick a good route. Now, as opposed to what you think, picking the most occupied path might often be the easiest. The mroe enemy soldiers there are, the less they will pay attention to a small blur speeding past them. If there are tanks, then you're in for an even bigger treat: Mobile covers.
Section Two This is the by far most dangerous time.This is the time when the enemy expects you to be there, and will pay good attention even to your shimmer.
The key here is your profile. You want to make sure that even if the enemy sees you, he wont pay attention to you. He wont notice you. Why? Because there are other, more visible targets behind you, that are easier to hit. So the easiet way to accomplish this is to just sprint like a mother****er, and sprint between cover. Use bushes, rocks, holes in the ground, enemy Tanks, or even enemy MAXes. I have infiltrated quite a few bases by simply moving right behind a enemy MAX who is pulling back.
Anything that can make your profile less attractive. The closer you are, or the further away you are, the less probability that you are detected. Mid-range is where people pay the most attention. Nobody expects the guy standing right next to them to be a enemy infiltrator.
Alternatively, if there are rocks and hillsides, you can use these to enhance your cloaks effectiveness. You want to blend in as much as possible. You are much easier to spot against the horizon, where the distortion effect gets almost doubled. Standing next to a cliff will make the enemy assume that you are just a rock formation.
If you get spotted during this time, just keep sprinting. Stop and you are dead. However, by sprinting, the enemy can easily forget all about you and focus on your PUG teammates, making the assumption that some of his teammates will kill you. 95% of the time, they are wrong and end up with a sniper-round in the back of their head.
A lot of people have been complaining that i only fight the NC, but they were the ones in with the Crown today, so they get the boot.
Now, in this video i stop and shoot a few guys. It's not encouraged if you want to get inside the base. You are most vulnerable when standing still. But i was pretty much just farming Certs today when i recorded it. The best thing todo, is to only stop when you recharge your cloak, and to run as ssoon as possible.
When you are crossing the NML, only kill those that you are 95% sure that you can instakill and then get away without being spotted. Ofcourse, you can never anticipate a Hacksaw MAX rounding the corner while taking the shot, but you can make your profile as low as possible, by simply blending in to the enemy forces. Kill one guy, then leave.
This is a very common mistake. Sometimes when i infiltrate, and is chilling in some hole, i see a friendly/3d faction infiltrator trying to sneak into the enemy base aswell. And then an enemy runs by, upon which the other infiltrator immediately opens fire, and gets butchered by the following bullet-****storm. Me, on the other hand, is sitting casually in the hole, watching the spectacle, and then i run past them in order to begind my 15+ killstreak. The other infiltrator just sacrificed 10+ kills, by risking his life for a low-probability kill.
Section Three
This is when you are past the enemy lines and behind theirs/inside the enemy base. It's not as risky as the NML part, but not really as safe as the first section either.
What you want to play as the most is the fact that the enemies do not expect you to be there. Just like you do not look at your teammates to make sure they are hostile, while faffing around by the sunderer, neither does they expect you to be there.
However, due to the Drop-pod system, they will not be completely oblivious. After all, it does happen that an enemy gets past the lines through the drop-pods.
They way to combat this is once again, your profile. You want to blend in as much as possible. To make the enemy look at you, but not see you. The cloak is great for this, because it lowers your profile. It makes you less attractive in terms of attention. However, by moving as an enemy, you can still move quite well. It's not uncommon for me to stand in the middle of an enemy crown, refilling my ammo on their engineers, simply because they don't expect it. I mean, how often do you see a infiltrator stroll in and just stand amongst you?
However, once again, the rules of distance applies. The closer, or further away you are, the less they will notice you. Run through them, and they wont pay attention. Mid-range is the most risky.
The way to deal with this is by using the enemy players attention span. If he looks at you long enough, he will connect the dots and see you as an enemy. Cloak or not. That is why you make sure to constantly break line of sight. Round corners, jump into elevators, run through friendlies etc. Anything to keep the enemy looking at you for as short time as possible.
Even running around in circles on the top of a watchtower can save your life.
One good tip, if the enemy is right behind you, is to round a corner, crouch, and then turn and run straight through them. They wont be able to distinguish the milisecond of blur that passes them.
Note: You can't run straight through enemies, but you can run your "side" through them. You can clip into eachother by about 50%.
Unless you have a really good sniping spot, always keep moving. Kill one guy, bail, kill another, bail etc. Flash your Cloak on and off all the time. And Always have your cloak on when rounding a corner, or walking through a doorway. That is where the enemy have increased attention, and might double check you.
Once again: The key is not to be undetected, but to be unnoticed.
Part 3: The Kill and the Bail
Killing an enemy while infiltrating is more than just walking in with guns blazing. Before each kill, you must weigh in your probability of detection and chance of escape.
Makre sure there are not other enemies at mid-range looking at you. Friendlies right next to him are fine. They are used to seeing teammates fall down dead, unless you are in a "shielded" area where enemies are not expected.
Overall, its highly situational. Every kill is different. Some kills i choose to use the Sniper-rifle at 2-meters distance, because it will make sure that the guy does not come back to the same area looking for you. It takes more time, but it's a sure kill and less detection risk given a lone enemy.
The bolt-action sniper is my weapon of choice due to the fact that it can kill an enemy instantly, making sure that he, or his friends, cannot see where the enemy is coming from. This will allow you to rack up numerous kills, seeing as the enemy have no idea where to hide. Unfortunately, it practically only allows you to kill stationary enemies.
Judging by the nature of the enemy, you can stay and shoot a longer or shorter time. If they are in the middle of a firefight, and are coming under fire from other sources, you will remain undetected longer. However killing an enemy where others can see it, and they dont expect to be killed, will send enemies searching for you. Not for a long time, mind you. Most people don't have an attentionspan over 10 seconds. Sometimes they just assume the guy died of natural causes or something. But enough attention for them to take a good look around.
Picking your targets: Medics, engineers, Heavy assaults with rocket launchers and Infiltrators are the most typical classes to stand still. Keep an extra eye out after them, because they are not only easy kills, but quite contributing for your team if you take them out.
Only kill targets that you are 99% sure you can kill. And do it fast. I can't stress this enough. Risk your life for a kill, and you will die. The infiltrator is an assassin, not a Heavy Assault. It kills fast and effectively, then it dissapears. Most people who fail with the class have a problem here. They try to fight, when they will lose. which brings us to the next part:
The Bail.
If you get detected (And you will), it is up to you if you want to survive or not.
Some infiltrators will, if detected, pull out their gun and try to shoot at the Heavy brandishing a shield and machinegun. Needless to say, the result is often given. Even against a Medic, you are inferior and will lose 9/10 fights.
That is why the best solution when detected, is to get the **** out of there. Once again you must show off your "LoS-breaking tecnique. You want to make sure that he will have as low time to target you as possible. And you will sprint like a mother****er. No crouching, or trying to "hide" with your shimmering suit. You get away as fast as you possible can.
By doing this, you will also reduce the effectiveness of the IRNV sights that cause a lot of problems for some infiltrators. Remember: If the enemy stops to aim, he slows to a walk. If you sprint at that time, you will put a lot of distance inbetween you, making your escape easier.
The cloak here is your best friend. It will grant you, aproximately, 0.5 seconds extra of undetection, and a generally lower enemy accuracy. Enough to save your life.
You will pull this maneauver the second you hear bullets swoop by your head. Or even if you see an enemy look at you, you must be prepared to run. If you think you can cloak and hide agaisnt a wall, you will most likely end up dead. If you are in a bush, you have a 25% chance of surviving if you don't move. The enemy knows you are there, and he is out for Xp.
Most other infiltrators would pull out their gun and perhaps deal 2 bars worth of damage to the thing. I, on the other hand, performed The Bail, and lived to assassinate 5-6 enemies.
Part 4: The Cloak, The Hacking Tool, and Supporting your teammates
Now, this is where the Infiltrator gets the most hate. We have already covered a lot about the Cloak, but it's a vital part so i want to dedicate a special part just for it.
The Cloak
Like some smart guy once said: The cloak is not an invisibilty suit. It is a high-tech ghille-suit.
The cloak should not be relied on to do the work for you. You still have to use your brain and eyes if you want to survive. You have to use cover, bushes, and other objects in order to remain stealthy.
What it does do however, is to increase the time it takes for the enemy to detect you. And in good cover, it makes you practically invisible.
The cloak should be used as a assistance tool. A tool to make your job easier, not to do the whole job. That extra time it takes for the enemy to notice you is often enough for you to get between the covers and remain undetected.
The cloak also reduces the enemy accurace against you. While non-cloaked enemies have a distincs profile, the infiltrator blends in with the landscape and makes him harder to track. Once again, not by much ,but enough to make a huge difference.
When assassination people from the cloak, you want to remain uncloaked as short time as possible.
Tap F, kill, Tap F, bail. That is the standard procedure. Even if you are going to kill someone in 1 seconds, you will cloak inbetween.
When your cloak is low, and you are running across a large area: Flash it. turn it off and on. It will also reduce your profile and increase the detection time, just not as well. You dont have to wait for it to fully recharge to use it.
Often, during critical moments, my cloak never leaves red. And most of the time, i end up surviving.
The Hacking Tool:
Also a subject to much debate and complaining. The hacking tool can be used on Terminals and turrets. Both are effective, in their own way.
Hacking a terminal is great for:
A: Denying enemy class-changes or Armor/Air
B: Allowing you to rearm and refill grenades and mines, and to change class, to for example a MAX or medic, if you need healing.
However, it is also a very vulnerable position. Worth noting, is that you do NOT need to look at the target to hack it, only to start it. You can start hacking, and then turn around and prepare to kill anyoone ejected, or to bail if detected, as long as you hold down E.
Now. There are two ways to hack a terminal. You can eithersit around, crouched like a little girl in a corner. But this will not stop most people from noticing you. If they are looking for you, they will find you, even if you are crouching.
You just stand, right infront of the terminal just like any regular dude would do. Now i got detected in this video because i was greedy and threw a grenade. Otherwise, i would probably have gotten away without a scratch.
Hacking enemy turrets are great for other reasons:
A: Denying enemy turret support. A watchtower without AA turrets wont last long. A liberator only needs a few seconds to turn a defense without AA to ash.
B: Turning the enemy turrets against the enemy.
Mostly, the enemy armor is facing away from their own defence turrets, leaving you with a nice juicy view of their butt. You can easily take out 2-3 even tanks before they even know whats going on.
However, the turrets are more often than not occupied by some little joykiller. But fear not, it's just free XP for you.
The two main turrets are the AT and the AA turret. They both require different approaches.
The AT Turret: The AT turret have the barrel located on the Left side. That means that by sticking close, you can sneak around on the right side and sit on the ledge, waiting for the enemy to pop out. When he does, you will have your Sidearm ready and put 4 rounds in his face. The enemy always gets ejected at the same point, so its easy to predict where to aim.
The AA-turret: This one is trickier. The two barrels on both sides prevents you from hiding on the edges. The second you have hacked it, the barrels will push you off the ledge. This is the turret where the AP mines comes most in handy. Just place one, sneak around to the front of the turret, and hack it.
Alternatively, if you do not have the mines, you can sit in the back and prepare to shoot whoever pops out. However, this is high risk.
Not only because you might get detected, but because if the turret is firing, the guy inside will be ejected with guns blazing. I have died more than once by an enemy popping out only to immediately replace my brain with lead, simply by holding down the Shoot button.
The solution to this is to sit a little to the side. But it is still high risk and not recommended unless the gain of a decommissioned AA turret is worth it.
You can also, with both turrets, just jump into them the second they are hacked. Most of the time, the enemy wont have any weapons to damage you with, but if they have C4, you are out of luck.
Hacking unmanned turrets are mostly safe, but you still want to kep your eyes out so no enemy surprise you from behind.
Supporting your Teammates
The infiltrator is not a heavy assault. Dont try to charge the front door together with that friendly MAX.
The infiltrator is a support and disruption class.
Sitting entrenched with your enemies? 'What better way to disrupt you by making you watch your teammates drop one by one, from an unknown sniper. No place to hide is safe. The enemy will be more focused on running around, avoiding to get headshooted, than to notice the 2 friendly MAXs approachign their position. Anyone who takes time to counter them will get instantly killed.
Hack terminals to cause disruption in enemy "supply-lines." No tanks without tank-terminals.
Engineers repairing armor? Watch them panic and run for cover as their teammates drop dead. Now watch that armor try to fight with 25% health left.
An enemy pilot got out of his aircraft to repair it? Mosquitos are much prettier without pilots.
No infantry terminals=No MAXs
Hack the enemy AA, and watch as your friendly liberators notice that the base is unprotected, and swoop in to carpetbomb those NC-nuggets back to the stoneage (AKA "Freedom")
Enemy soldiers getting revived? Shoot him the second he gets up. He wont have enough health or shield to survive a bodyshot. Free xp for you, and no reinforcements for them.
Enemy entrenched at a biolab? Snipe the engineers by the MANA turrets and watch your friendly MAXs turn the remaining defense to shreds.
The infiltrator is a very useful, and resourceful class, if you just adapt to the strengths, instead of complaining about the weaknesses.
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