Tips

Open to discussion on any of this, but here’s basically everything I’ve learned in a few hundred hours in a massive wall of text. I play in both public matchmaking lobbies with no voice chat as well as is an experienced premade with thousands of hours between them. All applicable to both IMO. Sorry for the poor formatting, I’m not very experienced in write-ups.


Damage from behind deals a LOT of bonus damage. Melee, bullets, all doubled from behind. Stacks with headshots. (Edit: Not turrets)

Something even friends of mine with 1000 hours tend to ignore is to get a feel for how and when to conserve ammo. End of a wave with 1 or 2 trash mobs left? You can pull out your sledge (or knife if you’re mlg) and bap them, no need to waste ammo. Same with clearing sleeping giants as a group. A bullet saved in the start is one more bullet before you’re dry on reactor in 20 minutes.

On the flipside, ammo = consistency. It’s harder to melee something than to just shoot it, so there are times where you get a double or triple giant spawn you just know you can’t stealth, or a scout in a REALLY risky room; Shoot it, spend the ammunition to not have to risk failing stealth and wiping. The singular most reliable player I know is also the most ammo-hungry. He never goes down, but the cost of that is that he shoots absolutely everything.
Side note, if someone wakes up the room, you have a couple seconds until the mobs scream and alert scouts, so if you see a room go red and you can see the scout before it’s screamed, SHOOT IT! It pays to have someone with a HEL Rifle or Sniper just aiming at a scout’s head ready to pull the trigger the entire time in case somebody says “oops.”
More on niche playstyles later, but ‘overwatch’ is absolutely a useful minor, self-appointed team role. Others include defender, crowd control (SMG/PDW/HEL Shotgun,) Stealth guy, supply runner, terminal/hacker guy, bio guy, etc

Use your resources! this game is about resource management, but while being stingy can stretch the value of supplies, being too stingy WILL kill you. If you’re holding a 2 use ammo pack and 2 of your teammates are below 80% ammo on both weapons, refill them so you have your hands free for something else, it means you leave less behind. (Sometimes you’ll want to leave resources in strategic locations for later, but this is still pretty universally true save for niche cases like where you don’t want to heal because there’s infection or something)

Additional point to above, pick up your sentry when you’re not actively using it so that if you find a tool refill, you can drain it on the spot rather than having to run it all the way back to your turret and having to return again to pick up another supply.

Reloading makes you SLOW. Don’t reload a slow gun if you have an enemy or two right behind you, they WILL hit you. Try to keep sprinting until you find a small ledge or corner to break line of sight, or better yet have someone else cover you while you reload. If you see a teammate’s been firing for a while and they’re going to need to reload soon, wait a second to start firing until they’re dry then step forward and cover them in turn.

Giants deal 40 damage per hit, and their attacks last longer than your invuln frames after being hit, meaning if you stand completely still and a giant attacks you, you’re getting smacked for 80. either Break line of sight and KEEP IT BROKEN until the attack finishes, or dump enough damage into him to stagger before he can attack. Stepping back out of cover too soon can and will get you killed.

Mods:

Somebody mentioned this above but if you’re not Mod-averse, ‘Perfect Boosters’ on R2Modman makes your boosters maxroll and unlimited uses, so instead of expendables, it turns into collectibles. Levels are balanced around having no boosters, but if you’re still learning or just want to play weird niche ‘builds’ nobody’s stopping you from taking 140% supply efficiency and being the ‘supply person’ who doles out all the tool and ammo. (In pub lobbies I run +125% Regen Cap for fun, so I can sit on 45 HP instead of 20 letting everyone else eat the medpacks. It’s game-changing for sure, but it’s within my tolerance; Boosters can unlock more niche playstyles if you’re into that.)

If you want to learn how the numbers of everything work, a mod called ‘PreciseUI’ is a fucking blessing, I learned how infection, scan timers, and stamina worked in 10 minutes of having this mod installed. Downside, a lot more UI clutter. I don’t mind the loss of aesthetic, but lots of people do. ‘Damage Analyzer’ is also an eye-opener for understanding how damage in this game works with real-time feedback on an enemy’s HP bar and modifiers to your damage (from behind, headshot, and stealth multipliers, total damage amount as well as the mob’s total HP (iirc, A light melee can deal 2-3 damage, a sniper headshot to the back of a sleeping enemy’s head deals *hundreds*. strikers have 20-30 hp for reference)
Damage Analyzer is in chinese but you don’t need to read it to understand all the info it gives you.

Weapon Stats does what you think it does, shows you the raw stats of every weapon in lobby. Not terribly useful as a new player but in combination with Damage Analyzer you can quickly learn what damage thresholds one-shot which enemies to which parts of the body.


Personal thoughts on the idea of roles:

Building a team identity for myself was the most motivating thing I did for myself as a noob, I’ve played with Perfect Boosters since the start since I was introduced my seasoned players, but even without the ability to be carried by supply efficiency boosters, just being able to say “I’m resource guy, I’ll loot stuff and keep an eye on everybody’s resources so you don’t have to worry about it” gave me a sense of purpose and usefulness while learning. Find something you like and cling onto it like a familiar crutch for a little while so you can focus on learning *literally everything else*.

As Drummer said, different weapons for different situations. My primary weapon is ALWAYS Hel Shotgun, because like an MMO I play as a ‘Tank’ when I can. I sit between my team and the enemy wave, crouching in front as far as I can possibly be on the edge of the bioscan. I don’t kill stuff, I stunlock it.

If an enemy comes around a corner I won’t shoot, because both it’s too far away to deal meaningful damage AND my three teammates are obviously about to obliterate it.
If four enemies come around a corner I shoot maybe once per second, just frequently enough to stunlock thick groups until my team can whittle it down to a more manageable state, then I reload while they’re firing. I magdump maybe twice per level as a panic button.

There’s a couple types of ‘DPS’ roles, if you subscribe to the ideology.

Generalist: Classic DPS role, you aim at enemies and shoot until you’re out of ammo or enemies.
Lots of guns fall under this category, though a lot of them are seen as subpar. Your assault rifles, some shotguns, SMGs, etc. (Try the Choke Mod if you haven’t, ok range with the ability to fire off four killing rounds within a second, useful for trash mobs AND boss mobs.)

Marksman: Some people with an affinity for precision will rock things like Pistol + Hi-Cal Pistol because they can click heads and be super ammo-efficient. They’re your room-clearers and do the same kind of shooting most of the time. HEL Rifle, Sniper, HEL Gun (if you can manage windup), etc go here. Your main targets are the Giants, Hybrids, Chickens, and Chargers heads in fights. Try to be the first one to blow up a head since you’ll likely deal the most damage with its’ one-time-use damage multiplier (Doubling a Sniper shot is a lot more damage than doubling an Assalut Rifle bullet)

Food for thought: the HEL Rifle is basically a Sniper with twice the ammo efficiency, it just doesn’t one shot giants and hybrids to the head as a tradeoff. Weigh what you value more. Both have a place, but sniper’s is way more niche.

CC/Tank: Weapons with either high stagger, high rate of fire with piercing, or both. Hello HEL Shotgun my beloved. Other guns that work her here the HEL Autopistol, Drekkers, Veruta machine gun, etc (not exhaustive.)
Your main objective is crouching in front and making sure that any enemy that makes it within 6 meters of your team gets staggered, then your secondary objective is to kill stuff while your team is safe. Cover reloads, crouch in front so teammates can shoot over you to create layered fire, and if shit hits the fan you can always magdump both weapons and call for a fallback. If you have multiple Melee Resist boosters, it becomes viable to literally facetank enemies with enough health instead of having to fallback, reload, then regroup and resume a scan.

(If you do decide to try HEL Shotgun, keep in mind its falloff range starts at >>>**4 FUCKING METERS**<<< so generally don’t fire from half a room away unless you desperately need to stagger something, it’s a waste of ammo)

Scattergun: Yeah it gets its’ own line.
You walk up to boss monsters and delete them. Send tweet.
If you have a lot of ammo you can also just blow up giants/hybrids in one click if they’re in your way and nobody has a sniper rifle (which nobody does because it’s been nerfed into unusability)
You can kind of use it as a spray-and-pray shotgun in a pinch if your primary is out of ammo, but it’s a very big ammo sink.

Keep in mind that all guns are different in varying ways, meaning many guns can achieve two more playstyles depending on how it's used. Despite its' status as a meme weapon my partner utilizes the PDW as both a reliable killing AND Crowd Control weapon depending on the situation.

Melee roles:

Sledgehammer: Old reliable, it does everything and it does it well.
One shots strikers even to the body with a full charge, kills scouts, hits elites hard, very forgiving and consistent.

Spear: Slightly extended range compared to the Sledge with comparable damage, at the cost of moving slower than all the other melees while charging.
Personal favorite for killing Scouts as reliably as possible, though the sledge does this as well with less downside. Higher Precision multiplier so you’re viable for popping a sleeping giants’ head if you’re stealthing and your team doesn’t have a knife user, or if they’re just not confident.

Knife: For speedrunners and veterans usually, but absolutely try it out; You clear rooms fast and you’re the person who takes the headshot on sleeping giants.
As to why: The knife has a backstab and headshot damage multiplier just like every other weapon, but it ALSO uniquely has a ‘sleeping’ modifier that deals even MORE damage if the enemy is also asleep, and these multipliers apply multiplicatively meaning that a headshot to the back of a sleeping giants’ head will do nearly 2/3rd of a giants’ health in one hit, even more than a spear or sledge despite their wildly higher base damage.
If you chain headshots you can clear an entire room in 10 seconds, but it’s absolute garbage if you miss the head or back because its base damage sucks, you NEED to hit the back or head for the high damage multipliers.
You can kill scouts, but you MUST hit the back of the head. If I’m running knife I usually ask my team to take care of scouts while I clear trash.

Bat: I want to say it’s just trash but I know there’s a couple niche uses for its high stagger, I just haven’t bothered with them.


Bonus DLC segment, mod suggestions:

I couldn’t play without:

Resource Helper: Displays a little icon when there’s a collectible resource within ~20m of you, so you don’t have to struggle when someone says “two rooms back on the right upstairs there’s a medpack”

Perfect Boosters: Totally subjective, but having the availability to bring boosters to make it easier IF AND WHEN YOU WANT is invaluable.


Nice to have:

Ping Everything: lets you middle mouse click enemies for teammates, just like a biotracker.

The Archive: A fuckload of excellent QoL stuff like a kick and/or ban from lobby feature, quick links to your team’s steam pages, etc.

ColorEquipment: Color grades everyones resource % numbers. White = full, orange/red = uh oh. Excellent if you’re the resource guy.

ColorGradingHUDInfo: makes the overview of a teammates resources when you look at them permanently visible and from any distance, invaluable if you’re the resource guy. Does the same as the above but if you don’t line the big HUD aspect, skip this.

ActuallyNoSway: Flashlight facing front not the ground please thanks

BetterBots: They’re a little less stupid, they will still shoot you in the back of the head.

DownInFront: You don’t deal friendly fire damage while crouching. I turn this on in pubs and off in closed lobbies where people know not to walk in front of me.

Fridos_Smartping: If you can’t be fucked typing List and Pinging every consumable in the zone. Clientside, it pings everything in the zone for you only.


Funny:
OPSniper: Gives the sniper rifle a 50/99 ammocount and makes it deal 9999 damage

RainbowScout: Makes scout tendrils cycle rainbow colors

Damage Numbers: I literally had to turn it off after my first time using it because I couldn’t see my screen beyond the rainbow bold numbers assaulting me like cyberpunk malware. Unironically somewhat helpful to visualize damage like Damage Analyzer, this one's just way more meme

THXScout: Makes it way funnier when you trigger a scout. (This mod requires a dependency that disables matchmaking, so sadly you can’t use this if you play in pubs)



If it interests anyone, here’s my current modlist code for R2Modman. To copy and edit it for yourself, launch R2Modman, select the game, click ‘Import/Update’, ‘Import from Code,’ and paste the code. It’ll download all the mods and you can add and remove them from there as desired.

019921d9-5017-4a8f-abbd-f4629e5cc35e

You'll need to download R2Modman, I'd link it here but you shouldn't click links from a strangers' pastebin, that's how you get viruses :)

I’d suggest disabling Autohack and Faster Hack for most people, I just hate the QTE more than I care about integrity so I don’t mind the minor game-changing mod. SentryGunEverywhere can also be used for cheese but I use it to reduce the finaggling of placing a turret on a just-not-flat-enough floor.