Firefall Comprehensive Guide

Firefall Comprehensive Guide by Hoder

Table of Contents
1. General Info
2. Community channels & Social feeds
3. Movement
4. Basic controls
5. Life and Death
6. Character vs Battleframe
7. Leveling
8. Battleframes
9. PvP Objectives
10. Pve
11. System requirements

General Information

– Firefall is a Cooperative Teambase shooter, NOT A MMO
– Game is currently only being developed for PC (nothing about mac support and no ps/xbox/…)
– Free to play game, with micro-transactions (no money for power)
– World wide release (covered by different companies depending on your region)
– Open world PvE and most likely instanced PvP
– Clans/guilds/… are called armies
– Skill based shooter, no dice rolls involved
– Two hitboxes (same for male and female) being head and body, headshots do more damage (how much varies)

Community channels & Social Feeds

Here you can find different channels where you can find other community members or get an insight in some of the developers themselves.

– IRC: #firefall @ GlobalGamers.net (most used tool, got some red5 members in here and lots of community members always up for a chat, how-to-connect-to-irc)
– https://twitter.com/#!/JBWillcox/firefall-devs/members (most of the twitter accounts from the red5 developers/ceo/…)
– Public mumble: ip=69365.40.33 // port=4962

Movement

Character
The movement is the same as in most FPS games but with the added vertical effect thanks to jetboots. These boots push you up into the air (hold the jump button) and consume energy.
Your current amount of energy can be seen on a yellow energy bar directly below your crosshair. Energy recharges fairly quickly and you can easily climb several meters into the sky. This depends on the current battleframe you’re wearing, see below @character vs battleframes
The game also has incombat and outcombat sprint mode

Transportation
Firefall will feature next to vertical and horizontal character movement also other forms of transportation. This can be public in the form of dropships but also personal. These personal transportation means are currently: gliders (sort of wings), motor cycle and a quick glimpse of what looked like a 4wheeled jeep have been spotted.

Basic controls

For basic controls please view THIS picture (made by Fadedpez, thanks for that!)
Abilities, primary fire and alt fire will all be explained with the respective battleframes associated to them.
Other buttons should be self explanatory (if not, please post here and I’ll try to add some videos to show what they all do, or just type it out, whatever works out best)

SIN

SIN stands for shared intelligence network. This network allows you to collect and share intel you’ve gathered with your friends and teammates. The info that can be added is not only limited to characters but can involve objectives as well. For players the general colorcode is applied, meaning: blue for friendly unites, red for enemies. The SIN is not an automated device however, you will have to add enemies to it by pressing a button. The enemy can also try to evade your looks and thus evade from being put on the SIN. This creates a whole new level of tactics as not everything is automated. Putting an enemy on your SIN could be crucial to the victory of your team. But the SIN is much more then that, it has been hinted that the recon battleframe (see below) will excel at SIN manipulation. Next to that you also have army technology that involves SIN, at certain points (called tech points) you will be able to set up different SIN modules, for instance: SIN towers (Line of sight towers that pulse every now and then and add enemies to the SIN) or SIN jammers (like the wording suggests, stops the enemy from being able to put you on their SIN). Put all this together and you got a network that could be crucial to your team’s victory but you will have to remember how and when to use it, also keep in mind that your SIN network might not be what you really see (recon manipulation…). It was also confirmed that engineering turrets only shoot on targets into the SIN network, they have a small cone in front of them adding enemies automatically in the SIN (potentially only in PvE).
SIN will also be very important for PvE, everybody will have a SIN network (army SIN possible, not confirmed) where you “tap” into. This SIN will provide you with info and dynamic missions. You can add different points through the open world to this network to expand your SIN.

Life & Death

Every character has a certain amount of health based on your current battleframe (so far the numbers are, assault 1500, medic 1250, recon 1000, these can change with customization and other factors). No shields are implemented as far as we know. At this moment the Time To Kill is no more then 10seconds for closerange fights (depending on the aim), longerange fights can last longer due to the use of cover and the aim of the individuals (exception here is the recon class, who is currently the sniper battleframe). When your health reaches 0 you enter a wounded state, this means you are unable to move and stay on the ground for 15seconds. During this period you cannot fire and can only shout for help. You can be revived during this time by a teammate (takes 3 seconds) or instantly revived by a medic’s ability (see medic’s abilities section). These 15seconds can be shortened when taking enemy fire or you can be forced to tap out by an execution from an enemy player (requires melee range and has a cast time). More info about death and scoring points can be seen at the pvp objectives section down below.)

Character vs Battleframe

Once you get ingame you’ll be prompted to make a character, it could be possible you could have multiple characters per account but this is unknown for now. This character will represent and feature many of your appearances. This character is able to wear battleframes. This frames function like classes and come with different weapons and loadouts. Every battleframe can be leveled individually and you can have several battleframe layouts on the same character, you can even have the same type of battleframe, but fit out with different modules. You can easily switch between battleframes at the forge. It’s unknown how many battleframes/layouts you can carry around at this moment.

Leveling

Your battleframe choice of modules and weapons is limited to your current battleframe level. At this point we know both PvE and PvP award experience, this means you can level your battleframe from just playing PvP with it. We also got word from red5 that the current max level is 30 at this point. This a number often found in other games and could lead to the use of some interesting options (see masteries/talents in other games, this however is pure speculation)

Battleframes

You can freely switch battleframes without any additional fee and level them independently
Each battleframe has it’s unique abilities up to 3 abilities.
These abilities each have an independent cooldown and have no cost to use otherwise.

Before paxeast we knew about 2 battleframes: the assault and the medic. At pax they announced the recon battleframe. At ChinaJoy 2011 they announced the engineer but it’s going to be playable for the first time at Pax Prime 2011. Making a total of 4 battleframes, with more to come later on.

Assault Battleframe
HP: 1500 (note that this is without customization on a battleframe provided by red5, no further info on this so far, so we don’t know if this is low, average or will be close to max hp ingame)

Battleframe specific weapon
Plasma cannon
– clip size : 6 shots (total = 54))
– damage : high (can 3shot most people, 500damage and has splash effect) (confirmed)
– travel speed : moderate at big range this can be dodged when it’s seen from the launch, at close range its hard to dodge thanks to the added splash damage
– primary shot : fires an orb towards the marker (not affected by gravity), accurate (orb has splash effect but travels at moderate speed)
alt fire : scattershot, inaccurate shot but deals good damage when close to an enemy (think shotgun)
alt fire: plasma nova, you shoot out an orb of plasma damaging opponents. The longer you hold in your alt fire button, the more damage, but the slower the projectile moves, any damage taken will fire the shot off. (can consume all 6 shots)
alt fire: triple shot, fires three line shots that can ricochet off surfaces, no splash damage, increased projectile speed (consumes 1 plasma charge)

Abilities
[Pax Prime 2010] Crater (Cooldown: 60seconds)(Damage max = 1000)
When your character is in the air you can use this to slam down into the ground damaging the opponents around the impact area. The higher your character is in the air, the more damage crater does
[Pax East 2011] Afterburner (Cooldown: 60seconds)
Launches your character in the direction you are facing, can be used while jetting. This does use all your energy you have left. Unsure atm if this is usable when having no energy.
Also stated that this damages an enemy on collision.
[Pax East 2011] Overcharge (Cooldown: 60seconds)
Player gains extra damage for a 8 seconds. You get 15% added damage at the start of this effect with 3% adding everytime you hit an enemy. Stacks up 6 times. (min = 15%, max =
33%)(duration = unknown)
[Pax Prime 2010] Shockwave (Cooldown: unknown)
This ability sends out a shockwave in front of the player that damages all enemies in front, the effect seems to diminish with the amount of enemies hit and the distance. Takes up between 3 to 5 seconds to charge (ability was seen in the PvE COOP video, much has changed since)

Medic Battleframe
HP: 1250 (note that this is without customization on a battleframe provided by red5, no further info on this so far, so we don’t know if this is low, average or will be close to max hp ingame)

Battleframe specific weapon
Medic gun
– clip size : no clipsize, endless beam, limited by range and LOS (around 15foot)
– damage : None, this heals up the person targeted (target once, then you can drift your aim away) and the medic himself
– travel speed : instant, only limited by LOS and range
– primary shot : normal healing
alt fire : overheal : fast healing and can heal over maximum hp up to 50% more, this does however consume energy (energy is used for jetboots)
alt fire : vamperic beam : You take life out of the enemy (short range, 15dmg a tick) and feed it to yourself, consumes energy in the process

Abilities
[Pax East 2011] Supercharge(Cooldown: unknown)(duration = 10seconds, around that)
Supercharges makes the first person you shoot with your medic gun to get the supercharge buff, this gives them increased rate of fire and also makes the clipsize from their current gun limitless for the duration (no reloads thus)
[Pax East 2011] Healing burst (Cooldown: 60seconds)
Heals the medic and the people around him for a set amount of life
[Pax East 2011] Defibrillator (Cooldown: 60seconds)
Instantly revives a downed ally.
[GamesCom 2011] Healing wave (Cooldown: 60seconds)
A healing wave that heals everybody in a cone in front of you (30°) for 625hp, pushes away enemies at the same time and damages creatures from the melding.
[GamesCom 2011] Adrenaline rush (Cooldown: 60seconds)
A selfboost that increases your movement speed, jump-height and increases energy regen, lasts 8 seconds.

Recon Battleframe
HP: 1000 (note that this is without customization on a battleframe provided by red5, no further info on this so far, so we don’t know if this is low, average or will be close to max hp ingame)

Battleframe specific weapon
Recon Sniper rifle
– clip size : 4 shots (24 total)
– damage : 550 for a normal shot, double for headshot (in this case it’s double for other guns a headshot might not do double damage but a static +x dmg), thats 1100 for a headshot
– travel speed : nearly instant (you won’t notice it anyway :D)
– primary shot : Fires a normal shot at the target, when unscoped this is fairly inaccurate
alt fire : scopes in or out. When scoping in you have perfect accuracy, when scoped out you have quite the large spread.

Abilities
[Pax East 2011] Resonating bullets(Cooldown: unknown)
The next four shots you fire with the sniper rifle do reduced damage on impact (still double for headshot but the initial damage is [Pax East 2011] Cryo bullet (Cooldown: unknown)
Your next bullet with the sniper rifle will be a cryo bullet. This bullet drains all the energy from the target and slows them down, damage remains unaffected
[Pax East 2011] Long range mine (Cooldown: unknown)
Throws out a long range mine that explodes when an enemy comes close to it (damage unknown, aoe effect), this can be shot when using the scope from the sniper rifle.
[GamesCom 2011] Teleport Beacon (Cooldown: unknown)
A small grenade that you can throw out, after a set amount of time your character teleports to the grenade’s location.

Engineer Battleframe
[ChinaJoy 2011]
HP: 1250 (note that this is without customization on a battleframe provided by red5, no further info on this so far, so we don’t know if this is low, average or will be close to max hp ingame)

Battleframe specific weapon
Repair gun (placeholder?)
– clip size : unlimited
– damage : no damage, primary fire just heals your engineering abilities
– travel speed : nearly instant (you won’t notice it anyway :D)
– primary shot : repairs your engineering abilities you placed down
alt fire : fires off heat seeking bolts, these consume energy and do around 100dmg a shot and use around 10% energy per shot (out of energy in approx 2.5sec)

Abilities
[Pax Prime 2011] Turret I (Cooldown: 60seconds)
This sets up a small turret that shoots on enemies in your SIN, it has a small cone in front of it to add enemies to the SIN, but this is very limited.
upgrade : Turret II, cost 10 wrenches (wrenches will probably be changed later on)(slower rof, but more dmg)
[Pax Prime 2011] Forcefield I (Cooldown: 60seconds)
Places down a forcefield that stops your enemies and their bullets, allows friendlies to pass and can be shot through from the back. Limited health, once this is depleted, it goes down for a while. Can be destroyed at the base.
upgrade : Forcefield II, costs 10 wrenches (bigger and better)
[Pax Prime 2011] Force Pulse Generator (Cooldown: 60seconds)
Puts down a force pulse generator that pushes back enemies when they get close
upgrade : Force Pulse Generator II, costs 10 wrenches (bigger and better)
[Pax Prime 2011] Repair Station I (Cooldown: unknown)
Heals allies around it and gives out ammo/energy, red5 is still toying around with this so expect this to change in the future.
upgrade : Repair Station II, costs 10 wrenches (bigger and better)

Dreadnaught Battleframe
HP: 2000 (note that this is without customization on a battleframe provided by red5, no further info on this so far, so we don’t know if this is low, average or will be close to max hp ingame)

Battleframe specific weapon
Minigun
– clip size : 100 shots (800 total)
– damage : 95 for a body shot (+x for headshot probably, but don’t know exact numbers on this at this moment)
– primary shot : Spins up the minigun and fires bullets continually
alt fire : sports an energy shield in front of the minigun (not sure how much this reduces or stops damage, no details on this yet, animation is gun sides popping out)

Abilities
[Dreadnaught release video] Heavy armor(Cooldown: unknown)
Hardens dreadnaught armor, giving him tank like damage absorption
[Dreadnaught release video] Dread Field (Cooldown: unknown)
Saps energy from hostile players/creatures/npc’s around you and uses this newly acquired energy to boost your own damage output, 6meter radius (note, this does no damage, only takes energy and enhances the damage you do)
[Dreadnaught release video] Turret Mode (Cooldown: unknown)
Locks the dreadnaught in place, giving increased accuracy and rate of fire. Entering and exiting this mode leaves the dreadnaught vulnerable for a small time.
[Dreadnaught release video] Repulsor Blast (Cooldown: unknown)
Using this ability charges a knockback around your character that also does minor damage to enemies (~250, no exact numbers though =/)
[Dreadnaught release video] Thunder Dome (Cooldown: unknown)
Creates a force field sphere over the current location, can trap enemies inside or lock them out. Also prevents all incoming damage for a few seconds.

Secondary Weapons

Assault rifle
– clip size : 40 shots (infinite ammo)
– damage : 44dmg per hit
– travel speed: high (instant travel, or pretty close to it, no need to aim ahead of the target)
– primary shot: fires shots in full automatic mode, first shots are accurate but accuracy lowers very quickly
– alt fire: aims down the sight

Supressor rifle
– clip size : 40 shots (infinite ammo)
– damage : average
– travel speed: high (instant travel, or pretty close to it, no need to aim ahead of the target)
– primary shot: fires shots in full automatic mode, first shots are accurate but accuracy lowers very quickly
– alt fire: aims down the sight

Grenade launcher
– clip size : 5in clip (20 spare shots, 25total, not infinite)
– damage: around 300-400 damage for direct hit
– travel speed : slow, even slower then plasma bolt
– primary shot: fires a grenade in a cone, range is short
– secondary shot: aims down the sight

Shotgun
– clip size : 9 shots (10-12pellets per shot)
– damage: very high up close (76dmg/pellet)
– travel speed : high
– primary shot: fires a shot, spread is large so becomes fairly ineffective at range
– secondary shot: aims down the sight

PvP Objectives
So far the only pvp match we saw was team deathmatch. Other objectives (and team sizes) will be ingame as well but are unknown at this moment. The map that was already shown and playable for the people who attended pax was “Sunken Harbor”. The map featured the two base camps for teams to spawn and had several powerups spread around. These powerups varied from: extra damage, health restore, ability cooldown reduction.

TEAM DEATHMATCH
In this setup your team has to gather a certain amount of points before the other team does. The first team that reaches this number of points gains the victory.
At pax east the amount of points needed for a win was 25. Red:red5: has stated that the normal number is 50, but to reduce waiting times this was cut in half for pax’s sake.
A point is gained when an enemy is dead, this can only be done by taking their health to 0 and then following it up with an execute or waiting for them to bleed out. If the enemy is revived, no points are gained.

SABOTAGE
Sabotage is a bit more complicated then TDM, it was first presented at GamesCom2011 on Orbital Com Tower. You either start on defense or on offense, after the round is over you switch sides and try to beat the opposing team’s time. If you’re on the offensive you need to hack 3 different points, to hack a point you need to press and hold E at it for 5 seconds. After that the hack is initiated, the point can still be taken back for 30seconds, this time is static, so if the opposing team tries to hack back when your hack is already 28seconds in, it will fail. If you hack a point completely your spawn point will move along closer to the second point (defensive team’s spawning point gets moved as well). For OCT the total time the attacking team hack to take all 3 points was 10minutes. If they completed it before this time, the sides were switched and you have to try and beat their time. If they didn’t manage to get it in 10minutes, you had the full 10minutes to try and hack all 3 point. If neither of the teams were able to hack all 3 points in 10minutes it’s a draw.

PvE

Firefall supports a big, open world for cooperative PvE.
In this world you’ll be able to do all sorts of missions (confirmed = thumper and rescue missions). This will also have a lore woven into the missions but little is known about this right now. During these missions you could see items drop, at this moment the items are FFA but only your team can see it, no roll system has been implemented.

THUMPER MISSION
These missions involve calling down a thumper (sort of mining machine) that gets dropped in and starts mining for crystite. Do note that this thumper has to be unlocked through the army tech tree, little is known about this feature at the present time. This thumper however makes much noise and attracts Aranhas. These Aranhas will try to destroy your thumper so you’ll have to defend with your team and keep your mining operation Aranhas-free!
These creatures seem to be showing up in waves with every next one getting bigger with more powerful opponents.

RESCUE MISSION
These missions have been recently confirmed by red5 but no more information was given so this concludes the rescue mission part.

MOBS
This games features different mobs who can vary depending on the mission/time/zone/… you are currently in. Some info on these mobs can be found on the main site (click firefall above). Currently we have seen the Chosen, Melding Titan (normal guns don’t work on these big boys, you’ll need heavier stuff!), Brontodons (seems like the mammoths of FF, have beeen hinted to be in the lore), Aranhas (these little buggers have been namedchanged so many times already ^^)

System requirements

Let me start by saying that red5 is doing an awesome job of lowering these things as much as they possibly can and thus these could alter in the future

What we are looking at for optimal graphical card is something around 8800 (this will run the game very smooth) or more.
When running Win7 it’s recommended that you have around 4gb ram to run everything smoothly.
Cpu-wise will a 3 GHz duo core give you enough power to get this game at a constant decent framerate.

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