APB Reloaded Less Than Lethal Weapons Guide

APB Reloaded Less Than Lethal Weapons Guide by HowIChrgeLazer

Dr. Stunlove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the LTL
The complete guide to helping you become better at using Less Than Lethal weapons.

What is LTL?
LTL (/ˈɛl/ /ˈtiː/ /ˈɛl/) – An acronym for the combat mechanic Less Than Lethal. Used solely by Enforcers, LTL is an alternative to suppress an opponent without killing them. If preformed successfully, an Enforcer can arrest a criminal, keeping them out of the game for longer. The arresting action can be preformed by getting behind a criminal that is stunned and pressing the action key. If their back is blocked, the arrest can be preformed on other sides of them with the action key. This will take slightly longer while the game determines if the criminal is blocked or not.

Preface:
‘Ho boy. This subject is going to be a hot one to touch. I know there are a lot of disagreements on less than lethal in the game and on the forums. Unfortunately, this guide may bump heads with certain ideals. I understand if you disagree, but please, let’s keep this from turning into an LTL nerf/buff debate. This guide is aimed towards enforcers improving their LTL skills and perhaps even help criminals avoid those painful stuns. Regardless of which side you are on, learning how to live with LTL will improve your skill dramatically.

Chapter 1: Free Your Mind Neo
If there is only one thing you take from this guide, I want it to be this. LTL as a game mechanic is NOT and WILL NOT be as powerful as its lethal counterpart. The faster you come to terms with this fact, the faster the training can begin. This statement probably makes the majority of enforcers shed a tear and some criminals to yell at their screen, “LIES!” (in a nice, G rated paraphrasing that is). Why am I making such an out-right bold statement? Based on the current Cop Role level requirements in relation to other lethal roles, G1 intends on making it more difficult to use. As an enforcer I am 100% behind this. The old ways of LTL were ridiculously overpowered unless you happened to go up against an N-TEC DVAH with Savage, Spray And Pray, and Hunting Sight.

Some Important Things To Know

• All enforcers have a pair of handcuffs. You do not need to purchase them.
• The handcuffs you can purchase modify your handcuff timer by make arresting FASTER (make sure to equip them).
• You can arrest a stunned criminal without having LTL weapons (but please, ask your team if it’s okay)

Chapter 2: When you can take the pebble from my hand…
When it comes to using an LTL combination (your choices of lethal and non-lethal weapons as a loadout) you must understand that your combat tactics will have to change completely. I notice a lot of players that I encounter tend to be very aggressive in their ways. Brute-force is simply not the only way to go with LTL. It requires finesse and sometimes teamwork. To effectively use LTL, you must be able to assess situations, act quickly on them, and be alert of your surroundings. Following this passage are very basic framework tactics for each possible combination of weapon slots. These are not be-all-end-all solutions. You will learn to improve on these methods and pick and choose for each scenario. I am only providing this to help you pick a loadout that is right for you. If you don’t know what LTL weapons are available to you, you can see the list and the requirements by going to a contact and sorting by crowd-control guns. Also, the TG-8 and PIG LTL weapons are underneath the secondary weapons category.

Primary LTL, Secondary Lethal, Grenade Lethal
Because you’ve traded your best DPS slot away for a stun gun, you have to learn to use ranges effectively. Understand what weapons your opponents carry. If they have long range weapons, strafe in and out of cover towards them or find a way to flank them. An NL9 can be used to support a person moving up with a CCG from 50m, a CCG can also be used around 30m and still be a contender in this situation. You can get to and arrest a criminal that is stunned about 50m away.

If your opponent has short range weapons, work outside their effective range. The CCG, NL9, and DMR can do this very effectively. A well placed percussion grenade can also drain your opponent’s stamina as well.

I highly recommend this loadout as your very first LTL setup. This is the easiest to master and helps you learn the necessary tactics to survive firefights. Choose the CCG if you feel you can play smart in closer situations and can’t live without an automatic weapon. Choose the NL9 or DMR if you are supporting or rather have longer range stunning capability. Bare in mind the DMR is purely support as it cannot stun on its own.

Primary Lethal, Secondary LTL, Grenade Lethal
Secondary LTLs are a bit harder to master. The best thing to do is remain calm and worry about landing your shots and avoiding ones heading for you. If you end up in a flanking situation you should be able to get two well placed taser shots in with the PIG. The TG-8 sidearm can be used to assist in situations of close quarters with a teammate using a CCG. Once again percussion grenades are recommended to be used in tandem with LTL.

Giving up your sidearm to LTL also means you have no backup if you run dry on your primary clip. Don’t forget that your secondary doesn’t have stopping power. So if you rely on your pistol to help assist in killing, this loadout is probably not for you.

Primary LTL, Secondary Lethal, Grenade LTL
Once you get to Cop Rank 4, I recommend moving to this loadout. Stun grenades can be a pivotal asset when holding choke points. However, this loadout will gimp your ability to destroy vehicles.

The tactics are about the same as for having only a primary LTL, with a few alterations. You need to have a good ability to properly prime and throw grenades. A well placed stun grenade can save you precious ammo in your CCG to take down more criminals in a shorter time span.

Primary LTL, Secondary LTL, Grenade LTL/Lethal
This is a loadout that you need to be very cautious about. You are giving yourself no alternative to clear an area. If you feel confident in your abilities, this can be (un)deadliest of them all. A single CCG shot plus a taser shot will stun a criminal. This saves ammo in your primary LTL but means you’ll have to switch between weapons frequently. These down times will expose you a lot more than the other methods proposed above.

Chapter 3: Lemme at him! Lemme at him!
Whoa there Scrappy. Sure you’ve picked a loadout and you’re ready to make a bad day for criminals, but hold on. You need to understand the advanced tactics of using LTL weapons. Due to the dynamics of the game, I can only tell you generic situations. It is up to you to tweak them based on your current combat situation.

The Crouch and Lean Buttons Love You
The crouch and lean buttons love you and you should love them back. Never neglect them or you will regret it. Crouching provides you cover and helps get more shots to land with the CCG down range. Leaning keeps you from being fully exposed and sometimes can help you get that criminal on the floor before they do the same to you.

Out Numbered
If there are criminals grouped together it’s okay to stun/kill or outright attempt to kill them first. Reducing the number of people you have to fight against to pull off an arrest will make you that much more successful.

Vehicles Are Your Friends and Your Enemies
Nothing delights me more than getting to a point where vehicles litter the street while I use LTL. Vehicles are a versatile usage of cover that can allow me to traverse towards an enemy through a normally wide open space. It gives me time to throw stun grenades, peak out to finish off a criminal, or even use my secondary weapon to weed out the numbers.

I can also jump into a vehicle and drive towards and criminal who is by their lonesome. The majority of time a criminal will unload on your car, wasting his ammo. This is a perfect time for you to strike back. Towards the end of your enemies clip, jump out of the car and make them wish they didn’t make such a poor decision.

Unfortunately, live by the sword, die by the sword also applies here. Criminals, listen up to this part, this is a life saver for you. Vehicles are a safe haven against LTL. If your enforcer friends are carrying loadouts which have no lethal primary or grenades, inside a vehicle is one of the best places to hide. If a criminal is on the verge of being stunned and dives into a car, the stacked LTL enforcer has now become significantly less effective. The only option here is to pistol the car with an RSA or ACT44 to force them back out of it. If you have lethal grenades, this is something you’ll have to waste them on. You can choose to ignore the criminal in the vehicle and move on, but make sure you are always aware of that criminal’s position. They can come back around to run you over when you least expect it. They can also drive around to distract you, allowing their team to flank.

Choke Points and Wide Open Spaces
Learning to use choke points and cover around corners will save your life. If you can get the jump on a criminal who isn’t expecting it, chances are you’ll win out in a firefight. Wide open spaces are the exact opposite. The majority of the time you WILL lose encounters in these areas. LTL SHOT FOR SHOT WILL NEVER BEAT AN EQUAL ENCOUNTER WITH A LETHAL WEAPON. EVER. If possible, manipulate your opponents to go where YOU want them to go. These means in takeout/lives missions, item held missions, and VIP missions, go to the nearest defendable area. You’ll find in time once you get better with the LTL mechanic, you’ll figure out which places are good to be and which ones you should avoid.

Lethal? Wait. I Thought This Was About Non Lethal
It is. However, depending on your group size you can actually increase your arrest average if you have one or two primary lethals running in your group. Why do you ask? The players on your team running lethal weapons can weed out extra enemy opposition and long range opposition. This gives you the opportunity to focus on one or two particular enemies to stun and arrest.

Sharing Is Caring
Sometimes its beneficial to give up an arrest to another teammate. This is especially true if you get a long range stun and your friend is closer than you are. Let them take the arrest and tell them that they owe you one later. This tactic can also help if your dealing with more than one enemy, depending on your proximity to them. Remember, faster arresting usually translates into more arresting, unless live enemies are very close to your stun.

Thanks to CaptDumb for bringing up the Mixed Team and Sharing Arrest topics.

Chapter 4: BAH GAWD! STUNNER! STUNNER! STUNNER!
Congratulations, you stunned a criminal, it’s simply time to go arrest them right? Wrong. This is one skill that is so important, I’m giving a section just for it. Knowing what to do with a stunned criminal will always keep you alive post-stun. You must ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. If you stun a criminal, you need to know if you can close the gap on them and preform the arrest before: 1) They can get back to their feet & 2) Their teammates turn you into Swiss cheese.

This means that sometimes you’ll have to give up a stun. As heartbreaking as it is, you need to pull out your sidearm or grenades and just drop ole’ yeller (spoiler alert by the way). Alternatively, if you are behind a stunned criminal with his team closing in on you, You can crouch and use the stunee as a meat shield. Usually their fellow criminal wastes ammo and kills the teammate and you have a chance to pull off another stun. It is a very risky choice, and can really go either way based on your opposition.

If you’ve successfully preformed an arrest, make sure you have an escape plan in mind. Find a place to move so you’re not detected by the enemy team or even accidentally run face first into them. This is easier said than done, but simply thinking about survival after that heart-pounding moment can get you additional arrests and keep you alive.

Chapter 5: You Can’t Break Those Cuffs
So you’ve stunned, arrested, and have taken cover. The great thing about your arrested criminal is that they are the perfect bait. Most criminals will be team players and come back for the save. This is an opportune moment to get an additional arrest. If you begin firing on a criminal a moment or so before they get to their friend, you’re pretty much guaranteed a stun before they break the cuffs. This is mainly due to the fact that the criminal in play is unaware that you are still in the area and is focused on breaking his friend free (which we can’t let happen, or we’ll be proving that COPS episode wrong D:)

Provided you are late to the party, the first criminal may get back to his feet by the time you stun the one saving them. This is where you use your own discretion. If you have enough CCG bullets, try to put the first criminal back down then preform your arrests. You can also try to drop them both with a sidearm.

One thing to note: Arresting a criminal who has been freed will not count as another arrest again until he’s be taken out (by killing or another arrest without being freed). You can thank stat padders and exploiters for that one.

Chapter 6: The Lonely Man (Sad Piano Time)
One more important topic that deserves its own section. No matter how good you are at LTL, sometimes it’s best to leave it alone. There will be encounters where it just isn’t viable and that’s okay! It doesn’t make you any less of a player to have to switch back to lethal with your ammo box. In fact, making that tough decision to switch makes you a BETTER player. It means you know how to adapt to changing situations and that you know when your out of your depth.

You’ll also find that the cover mechanics you learned through LTL will help you survive longer while using lethal weapons, in turn increasing your average K:DR (kill-to-death ratio). How cool is that?!

Chapter 7: Help Me, Help You
This is meant to be an interactive guide. If you have questions or ideas about handling the LTL game, chime in. I’m out to help educate others and learn myself.

ExESGO says, “LTL is the path to grenadier happiness.”
When you stun a criminal they become an immobile target. This is a perfect time to finish them off with a lethal grenade. Killing a stunned criminal (not an arrested one) with a grenade will count towards your Grenadier Role.

After extensive research, OneTime finds The Bird >= The Word
Stabba – CCG:
It takes eight shots to stun another player within 20 meters, and nine shots between 30 and 40 meters.
10 Shots at 70 meters. 15 shots at 85 meters. (These last two tests were done with the CCG ‘Zeus’)

Stabba – NL9:
They have changed the NL9 back to the way it was pre-RTW-Nerf. Which means it doesn’t have shotgun pellet spread anymore. It’s back to darts.
It takes three shots within 30 meters and four to five shots between 30 and 50 meters.

Stabba – Pig
One shot clip. Two shot stun.

Stabba – TG-8
Six shots to stun within 40 meters. Horrible accuracy at 25+ meters.

AleksCalhoun is all about the Pentiums baby
Bad Performance/Stuttering > Worse aim > Worse experience > Horrible experience in CQB.

The NL9 can be very lethal indeed as Kalarion found
You can actually KILL your enemy with the Stabba NL9 if you don’t have enough time to arrest the bad guy. 1 or 2 Shots after he’s stunned are enough to kill him. This is actually PRETTY useful. That way you can use the NFA-9 as a Secondary Weapon when the Crims are coming too close, so you can finish them off with it.

The Range of the Stabba NL9 is 50m. I don’t use it as a Shotgun, because I die everytime I try to do that, I use it as a normal “Gun”. I stun 30m -40m away with 3 Shots, and if an enemy is coming I just kill the person with it.

HowIChrgeLazer: A frag grenade and two NL9 shots will usually drop somebody as well.