Blacklight Retribution Loadout Customization Guide

Blacklight Retribution Loadout Customization Guide by shylanakolae

I don’t know how anyone else does it, but I figured I’d share my thoughts on the process of putting together a full loadout that caters to a player’s particular playing style.

1. Free Your Mind

Just like in The Matrix, man. You’ve got to let it all go, Neo. All your preconceptions. Don’t go into the game thinking “Oh, I’m going to be a sniper” or “I’m going to be a heavy weapons and explosives user”. Nuh-uh. Doesn’t work like that. All the other players out there will see to it that that little dream of yours gets crushed real damn fast.

Instead, don’t start thinking about the kind of loadout you want to build until you get used to the game; how it plays, how you actually play it, and how other people play it, too. That is what will help you determine the kind of loadout you should try to put together; not some delusion of competence with a certain type of weapon or set of armor and gear.

2. Find Your Weakness

Everyone has one, whether we want to admit it or not, even when playing games. Figure out what yours is as you play the game more. Is it accuracy, controlling recoil, or getting mowed down every few seconds because you’re not paying quite enough attention to your surroundings? All of these things can be countered and reduced with the proper loadout.

Play every map, every game mode, before making any final decisions on what your weaknesses really are, and what kind of loadout you think would be best for you. GP doesn’t accumulate very fast, and spending it on items it turns out aren’t very useful to you later on is a real bummer.

3. Chose a Primary Focal Stat

The game is designed and balanced well enough that no one can excel in absolutely every aspect of the game, no matter how hard they try to put together a loadout that they think will let them do that. Weapon damage is traded for accuracy, armor protection is traded for speed and mobility, etc. Choose one to focus your attention on, whether it’s weapon damage or accuracy, armor protection or speed, or whatever, and stick with that.

It’s best to focus on your biggest weakness, so you can shore it up with the proper equipment, but you don’t necessarily have to do that, really; it’s just a good idea that could help you out a lot in the long run. I don’t necessarily follow it myself 100% percent of the time, but when I do, it certainly makes a noticeable difference in my performance and overall enjoyment of the game.

4. Choose a Secondary Focal Stat

After choosing a primary stat to focus on for your armor and your weapons, choose another one to be another priority for each. Usually, you want your secondary focal stat to be something that either counters your primary one, or complements it. If you’re focusing on weapon spread, counter it with damage-increasing components, or complement it with recoil-reducing components.

When comparing items that cater best to your primary stat, pay attention to how well they cater to your secondary stat as well. Some items may have the same damage or armor rating, but will have significantly different spread values, or movement penalties. For a breakdown of which components affect which stats, have a look at this. For the actual numbers, you’ll have to find them either in-game, or here.

5. Test Drive It

Before you commit to any item in your loadout, test it out first, by renting it from the marketplace for a day, or maybe three days; it’s up to you. The point is to actually get some hands-on practice time with it, before pulling the trigger on a much larger, no-refunds GP payment that you might regret if you’re not careful.

You want to be absolutely sure that it effectively does what you wanted it to do, and learn its subtlties and tricks of the trade before plopping down even more hard earned GP for it for a longer period of time; or permanently, which is really expensive.

6. Pull the Trigger

If you’re satisfied with your loadout after testing it out, then feel free to go ahead and pull the trigger on the purchase. Some people think it’s better to save up your GP and buy everything all at once, while others think it’s a good idea to buy each component as it becomes available and you can affort it. It’s all personal preference; it’s entirely up to you.