Onslaught tips and tricks

[Blitz]

In the spirit of improving the overall gameplay, here's a thread to post tips, tricks, or questions about onslaught. I'll edit this top post periodically so it can be used as a quick reference. I'll start things off with a few basics:

Game Objectives

• Link a series of power nodes between your core and your enemy's in order to lay open the enemy core to attack.
• Destroy the enemy core to win.

Special Moves/Behaviors

• You can teleport between nodes you control. Step onto the node and hit your "Use" key. Click your destination on the map.
• You cannot spawn at or teleport to a node that's under attack.
• You can also teleport from the core: jump on top (or anywhere near it) and use it like any other node.

Link Gun: Know this!!!

• Use the link gun's alt-fire to transfer power quickly. You can speed the charging of a power node by firing at the node's platform or at the spinning ring above the platform.
• Boost ("Link") beams for even more power. When your teammate is charging a node, fire your link alt-fire at him/her to increase power/speed of charging. Linked guns are more effective than the same number of guns firing independently.
• Vehicles can also be repaired or "recharged" in this manner.
• The link alt-fire is also a fast way to destroy an enemy power node, though not as fast as certain vehicle weapons or the redeemer.
• Remember you can boost the link gun for other uses, such as taking down nodes, attacking vehicles, etc.
• You can move around while you're linking or being linked by other players. As long as you don't move too much or too quickly, you can do so without breaking the link(s). This can help you avoid incoming vehicles or sniper fire.

AVRiLs

• AVRiLs are anti-vehicle rockets. There is an AVRiL gun, and an AVRiL turret on the Raptor. Both lock onto enemy vehicles when you keep the vehicle in your crosshair. Guns track better than raptor alt-fire.
• The AVRiL gun crosshair can autotrack a vehicle by hitting the alt-fire.
• Drivers get a warning message when you lock on with the AVRiL. To give them less time to react, fire in the general direction of a vehicle and lock on when the missile is close to your target.

Grenades and mines

• Grenades stick to vehicles and players...there are a lot of sneaky places to leave them. Remember that when you are killed, your grenades or spider-mines explode.
• If you want to covertly attack a node, load the base up with grenades and then detonate them. This does a lot of damage, and the enemy team isn't alerted until the grenades explode.
• Use spider mines to defend a node. If you're not going to stay back at a node (or even if you are), spread around a few mines to lay in wait for attackers. If everyone on the team does this each time they spawn at an empty node, it can be nearly as effective as leaving a defender back.
• Spider mines can be directed to run to a location using the alt-fire. You don't need to hold the alt-fire. Just fire at a location, and off they go.

Vehicles (General Tips)

• Hit your "use" key to climb into or bail out of a vehicle.
• Larger vehicles need "gunners." More than one person can climb in...one person drives (and might be able to shoot one gun as well), one (or two) people shoot different guns.
• You can run over your enemies to kill them. Pressing crouch or alt-fire in the Manta executes a crushing maneuver to drop down rapidly and squash other players.
• When you control a power node, it generates vehicles for your team. Different nodes generate different vehicles.
• Enemies can't take your vehicles from the spawning platforms, but if you drive one and jump out, in can be stolen. Don't leave powerful vehicles (such as the tank) just sitting around.
• You carry no momentum when getting out of vehicles..so if you're going way fast and jump out you just drop straight to the ground.
• You can switch between positions in a vehicle by hitting 1,2,3 on your keyboard ala BF1942. This can make a good player almost as effective without a gunner as with one.
• Protect key vehicles by jumping in as a gunner, sniping enemies on foot, or healing with the link as needed.

Destroying Nodes

• The quickest way to destroy a node on foot is by either shock-comboing it (land the combo directly between the node base and floaty piece) or maybe flak primary directly into it (secondary flak seems to be effective as well). Or a direct deemer hit to take it out in one shot.
• Again, don't forget about boosted link guns for quickly destroying nodes.

General Strategy

• In most maps, speed rules. The faster you can get to and take down nodes, the faster you'll gain an advantage. Make sure at least some players on the team are filling this vital role.
• Boost your nodes to build them faster. With few exceptions, it is better to have that node up than to wait while it's building. Other teammates may be waiting to attack the next node in line.
• Heal damaged nodes. When you respawn at a node, heal it before jumping into a vehicle or teleporting away.
• Boost teammates. When you see a teammate healing a node or a vehicle, or attacking with the link gun, use the link-alt fire to boost them. You can also follow key vehicles on foot and use the link to heal them as they are attacking.

ECE Vehicles
(From Steve Polge, Epic Games)

Paladin:

• Defense oriented vehicle, great for protecting power nodes and tight areas.
• While the shield is up, shooting a regular fire shot into it will cause a shock blast around the Paladin, which is effective in clearing out nearby infantry.
• You can shoot almost immediately after lowering the shield, but you will be exposed for a short time as the shield energy cycles before you can bring the shield up again.

Self Propelled Mobile Artillery

• Alt-fire shoots out the mortar camera. Alt-firing again deploys the camera. Then you can use WASD to control the reticle on the ground, which sets the SPMA target. If the reticle turns red, it means that the camera cannot see the center of the target zone, and can therefore not target that position. This means that the SPMA can only shoot at targets which are in the line of sight of the camera.
• This is important, because the mortar camera can be shot down. Also, you can shoot AVRiLs at a mortar camera. If the AVRiL gets a line of sight to the SPMA vehicle while traveling towards the mortar camera, it will change targets to the SPMA vehicle, allowing defenders to indirectly destroy the SPMA.
• If you fire without deploying the camera, the mortar shells have a short fuse, so they cannot be used for parabolic trajectory attacks.

Cicada

• This is a ground-attack flying vehicle, very effective against fixed positions and slow moving enemies.
• Raptors are much better air-to-air fighters. In general, they eat Cicadas for lunch. The key for the Raptor pilot is to stay above the Cicada, so the Cicada's belly turret can't be used.
• The pilot can target positions (not specific enemies) using his alt-fire. Hold down alt-fire, and missiles will load up after you have selected a target. While doing this, the Cicada can take cover. When all missiles are loaded, or you release alt-fire, the missiles will come out and seek the targeted position. Fire in a direction with some clearance (up is often good), so the missiles don't run into an obstacle.
• The belly turret's alt-fire releases flares which will distract incoming heat seeking missiles (AVRiLs) if fired at the right time. The Raptor's guided missiles use a different guidance system, and aren't thrown off by the flares (this is why Raptor missiles can only target Raptors, Cicadas, and Mantas).
• The Cicada will hover in place if it has no pilot. A skilled pilot can quickly switch to the belly turret to use either the regular fire, or the alt-fire against AVRiLs.

Suggested Reading
Check out SIAB's post (right below this one) for lots of general tips on strategy and teamwork.

[Squirrelinabox]

Heh, I personally think you can't really "teach" others to play "smarter". You either can see the big picture or you can't. However, I'll try to post a few things to maybe get some people to open their eyes when playing onslaught.

- Like CTF, killing means very little, the objectives are everything. This means if you aren't fighting near an important node, you aren't helping your team.

- What nodes should you be attacking? Well, there are A LOT of possibilites. The obvious node to attack would be the next in the "chain". Meaning, attack the next enemy node that isn't locked. However, you may also want to attack the enemy trying to repair or build a node that may even be locked for your team. This will slow them down, even if you can't take that node.

- The beginning is VERY important. If you are in your base loading up, you are hurting your team. You should grab the weapons in the nearest locker, grab a vehicle, then head towards a node. Now, if you are coordinating well, you should have 1 guy head for the nearest node and build it up as fast as possible while a few guys head for the middle point. The person that grabs the manta should head for the first point, since it will get them there the fastest. The first node should be built almost the same time your team hits the next node. You can also send some people for the farther out node that is connected as well, but I have found that you don't have to rush and nab that one as fast as you need to go for the middle point (since both teams can hit it right after the first node).

- Heal your damn nodes! If you spawn and see your node is hurt, heal it first, then move on. So many nodes are left very weak while their team doesn't realize it.

- If you have no nodes left and your base is under attack, don't have your entire team defend... you need to take back the near node. You have no chance of winning if you can't regain that node, so be the hero and try and take it back or at least destroy it and slow them down. If you can take that node, the enemy can no longer attack your core, so it is a MUCH better option then just slowing your defeat by only defending your core.

- Defend your nodes. Ok, I rarely do this cuz it is more fun to go attack a node than do defend one, but in some situations, defending a certain node is much more important. For instance, if your team has all the nodes and can attack the core, maybe you should stay and defend the last node instead of attacking the core like the rest of your team. If the other team is smart, they will send people to try and destroy your node, and nothing is more frustrating than attacking the core or a node and then get cut off because your team didn't hold the node connecting it.

- When healing/attacking nodes, don't do it standing still. Seems like the only way people know how to kill other is by running them over, so don't make yourself an easy target... dodge around, jump up and down, strafe back and forth, MOVE while attacking/healing a node. Keep your aim on the node while circling around it. When you are dealing with a node, you usually can't see too much else so you can get blindsided easily... make it harder on your enemy by moving around while attacking a node.

Thats it for now. All common sense stuff, but there seems to be a huge lack of common sense out there

[phalanx]

yeah thats all very well
but once you are down to the last node you can forget it as the enmey has control of the tanks
also you can jump in the manta

[Freakish]

--I've found that the quickest way to destroy a node on foot is by either shock-comboing it (land the combo directly between the node base and floaty piece) or maybe flak primary directly into it. Or a direct deemer hit to take it out in one shot.

--You carry no momentum when getting out of vehicles..so if you're going way fast and jump out you just drop straight to the ground.

--You can switch between positions in a vehicle by hitting 1,2,3 on your keyboard ala BF1942. This can make a good player almost as effective without a gunner as with one.

--Grenades are fun...there are a lot of sneaky places to leave them. Remember that when you are killed, your grenades or spider-mines explode.

[Blackshado]

There's something to be said for kamikaze node destruction missions in vehicles. Just plow right through and stop on the node, then get if you can. Either way, when the vehicle blows it'll damage everything around there, including the node I assume.

Oh, and weapon locker control is huge. There is no ammo outside of those, so a team can't build or heal without them.

One strat I like is kamikaze ride into an enemy node, park on it, then dash to grab their weapon locker and use any weapon but pulse to fight. You don't want to hand them a fully charged pulse when you die...

Oh, and did anyone else get a daredevil announcement while driving a Hellbender? Its when you do mad flips or rotations with enough air time. I sense a side bragging rights contest on that one. Its little things like that that will make the game last.

[Blackshado]

p.s. Is it just me, or are most weapons insanely nerfed? It takes 3 body shots with LG for a kill, the pulse does next to no damage, and telefragging is pretty much a thing of the past. Seems like they've noobified the only one-shot kills, like vehicular manslaughter, flak or mini spammage. Ah well, time to adapt I guess.

[Squirrelinabox]

Freakish, is primary flak on nodes better than secondary flak? I tried both and it seemed for me that secondary was better, but I might be wrong. One cool thing if you are on the blue team is that if you need to take back the node near your core, you can go up the hill and lob secondary flak balls on top of the node

I haven't tried the vehicle node killing thing... I don't use vehicles, well, only to get to a node, I don't use them to attack or anything... I REALLY HATE vehicles in onslaught.

[Freakish]

Originally Posted by Squirrelinabox

Freakish, is primary flak on nodes better than secondary flak? I tried both and it seemed for me that secondary was better, but I might be wrong. One cool thing if you are on the blue team is that if you need to take back the node near your core, you can go up the hill and lob secondary flak balls on top of the node

I haven't tried the vehicle node killing thing... I don't use vehicles, well, only to get to a node, I don't use them to attack or anything... I REALLY HATE vehicles in onslaught.

I don't know..I've used both but was only paying attention to primary flak and saw it did pretty well.

You can do that on red team as well, but you need a vehicle to get you up to the top of the hill (get some speed!). Then you can rest out of site and lob flak balls into the node.

(and yeah..the weapons feel nerfy to me..)

[phalanx]

if you want a quick way of destroying nodes control the tanks they dish out a hell of a lot of damage
when using a raptor the built in avril locks onto other raptors and mantas automaticaly

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by Squirrelinabox

- Defend your nodes. Ok, I rarely do this cuz it is more fun to go attack a node than do defend one, but in some situations, defending a certain node is much more important. For instance, if your team has all the nodes and can attack the core, maybe you should stay and defend the last node instead of attacking the core like the rest of your team. If the other team is smart, they will send people to try and destroy your node, and nothing is more frustrating than attacking the core or a node and then get cut off because your team didn't hold the node connecting it.

Agreed, but to that I would add, don't waste time hanging back defending invulnerable nodes. Go forward and defend the next in line...falling back only when you have to. The turrets can see part of the area around a neighboring node, but it's too easy for attackers to avoid that area. If you're waiting for the neighboring node to fall, you're not helping the team.

[Squirrelinabox]

Yeah, I see A LOT of people hanging around invulnerable nodes when they are desparately needed in an attack. No need guarding a node that is 2 or 3 nodes back in the chain.

Oh, and I was on a server (don't think it was the UP server) and a guy was actually spawn camping with a tank. Hilarious. He was on the hill just lobbing shot after shot at our node. Our node was locked so he couldn't hurt it, and he apparently knew it cuz he wasn't even aiming for the node, just the spawn areas. VERY frickin lame. Granted, we could spawn elsewhere, but it was annoying as hell and I had to waste time going back to our base, get an anvril and head up and destroy him.

Vehicles=lame

[Ghost_of_War]

A tank is the most effective piece of hardware in the game when used correctly... and to be truely effetive, it NEEDS a gunner. So don't just run past your teams tank when you see it, jump in and start blasting!

An experienced gunner makes the tank almost invunerable because he can take out aircraft and other hostiles that are too hard to hit with the main gun. I've found the best way to use a tank is as a long range artillery weapon. No sense putting your tank in harms way, just find some concealment, scope in and lead your targets with the main gun... all you have to do is hit close to them. As for the machine guns, they are pretty much an auto-hit so you don't need to lead with them... just scope in and spam 1000 rounds at your target, that should be sufficient. With a good gunner and a great pilot inside, your tank can dominate the game.

Note to tankers:
Gunners and pilots should both make sure the have Link guns before jumping into the tank... if your tank takes damage, pull back and repair it. One of you should stay in the tank at all times. If both of you get out to repair at the same time, someone like Freakish will be hijacking the tank right before you get it repaired.
(Trust me, this does happen.)

Note to non-tankers:
If you see your tank damaged, don't just run by, stop and repair. It takes a long time for the tank to respawn and it's the most effective piece of equipment available.

Ghost "Top Gun" of War.

[Creeper]

Originally Posted by Ghost_of_War

blah blah blah..
An experienced gunner makes the tank almost blah blah blah...

So that's what.. someone who's played for two days instead of one?







1337-ifying the demo.. nothin finer.

[Ghost_of_War]

Originally Posted by Creeper

So that's what.. someone who's played for two days instead of one?

1337-ifying the demo.. nothin finer.

Allow me to rephrase that...

A gunner who doesn't suck ass makes the tank almost... blah blah blah...

[Blitz]

Originally Posted by Creeper

So that's what.. someone who's played for two days instead of one?

lol