Playstyles - Host & Non-Host

Playstyles - Host & Non-Host, by Marty via sr discord

Host
The host of the room is the player who made the room, or the player who is at the top if the original host left (the host doesn't always have the ability to start the game, but still has host powers during shifts). The host is special in that they can run eggs without suffering from any lag and from some desyncs, like Maws never surfacing to attack. On a decent team and if the weapon composition is okay/flexible, the host is the best candidate for running most of the team's eggs.

Basket eggs
The ideal strategy at max difficulty is to lure everything to the basket and remove key threats as they appear. Since most of the eggs will appear near the basket, the host should always run them and their teammates should try to ignore them. That helps gain time since the host has no lag, and even insignificant egg lag is enough to be less productive.
The host has to know how to survive as well to run eggs efficiently. Learning substrafing is also quite a necessity. Finally, you should still kill stuff as well even as host. Usually though, you can spend slightly less time on killing and only kill what blocks your way to an egg (or another boss with closer/safer eggs).

Eggs/Playstyle as Non-Host
When not playing as the host but as a regular player, try to notice how bad your egg lag is. The worst it is, the more you will need to favour farther eggs. If you barely have any egg lag you can help with closer eggs.
The other players will also usually have to make up for the host's focus on eggs by removing Stingers/crippling Flyfish/cleaning the basket area. Don't be shy to use specials as the shift progresses. Bomb Launcher in particular greatly helps the host if used around the basket (ideal special for the host themself).

Exceptions
-The comp is Octobrush/Inkbrush/Jet Squelcher/Dapple Dualies and you have the Dapples as host? No, you should not focus on eggs as host. The comp is pretty bad at killing and you have the most powerful weapon, you need to focus on killing.
-The comp is Luna Blaster/Slosher/Hydra/Flingza Roller and you have Luna as host? You will need to ignore eggs most of the time and be on Stinger duty.
If your weapon is the only one that's good at something in the comp or if your weapon is the only one with good DPS, even as host you will need to spend less time running the basket eggs.
-On Cohock Charge, if everyone plays cannons well, ideally the host + a player with a light weapon run eggs. The host runs basket eggs and the other player runs far eggs. Even if you have a heavy weapon as host it might be best for you to run eggs (since the team is supposed to lure and since you are supposed to run basket eggs, it will not be too much of a handicap).

Freelance
If you end up being host in Freelance, you will probably not always be able to play your role as host  like intended, since you will often have to carry Freelancers who have no idea what they're doing. Freelancers tend to put a lot of focus on eggs, so if you lure bosses to the basket, chances are they will want to run all the eggs while they should be doing something else (for example, killing Stingers). Instead of playing host strictly as you should, you will often be forced to make up for your team's mistakes by going out/focusing on other things (it still happens fairly often in squads as well even when you should be playing host: it's not necessarily your fault).
However, when Freelancers start dying and time is running out, you can take advantage of your host powers to run eggs quickly and effectively. Be as opportunistic as possible: when your Freelance teammates make mistakes, take advantage of them depending on the situation and meet quota as quickly as possible. If you're confident in your ability to win games consistently in Freelance though, you don't always have to start games as host (which can be done by making a room and starting immediately).