PlanetSide 2 Essential Gameplay Tips Guide

PlanetSide 2 Essential Gameplay Tips Guide by RedCat

So I’ve been working on this guide for a while for my own outfit (Sound of Violence), it’s not fully done yet and I still have a lot to add and is subject to change, but here it is anyways. I might be doing YouTube video tutorials / tips / tricks if anyone is interested. Also on a side note: this is more catered towards new players or noobs as you call them.

I wanted to take some time to give some tips on how to become a better player and a better squad leader, these tips will include getting the perfect mouse sensitivity, combat tips and other tips in general. We would like everybody to read through this carefully, and hopefully everybody will benefit from this.

First things first pt1: Getting the right mouse and mouse sensitivity

* Wrist vs arm:
This is different for everybody, some players are more comfortable moving the mouse with their arm and most players are more comfortable moving the mouse with their wrist – I highly suggest that if you do move your mouse with your arm, try changing to wrist because in the end you will be able to react much faster. However, don’t take my word for it, this is what works for ME it might not work for you, but it’s something to think about.

* Palm grip vs claw grip:
Best explained with a single picture: http://i.imgur.com/HkuAE.jpg – which one are you?

Now that you understand these difference lets talk about mice: If you do not own a gaming mouse, and you have a cheap 5 dollar mouse, I highly suggest considering buying a gaming mouse, why? They have better lasers, they track better, they fit better to your hand etc etc – this is a must if you like PC gaming.

And no, not all gaming mouse are that expensive, the one I use is the CM Storm Spawn which is about 25 dollars and is a claw grip gaming mouse.

There are many mice, and I can’t tell you which is the right one for you, but if you know whether you use claw or palm, hand or wrist you can figure out for yourself what kind of mouse to get. Every mice is different, one might be a palm grip mouse and the other might be claw grip, some mice have 18 buttons on the side and some only 2 – get the one you like the best and start shooting!

Now before telling you how to adjust your mouse sensitivity, there is one important thing: you NEED to turn ON “raw input” in-game, this will turn of all mouse acceleration.

MOUSE ACCELERATION = BAD, a quote from cyborgaming.com:

“Acceleration is something that a lot of gamers aren’t even aware of and they need to be because it can result in inconsistent behaviour with their mouse. Put simply, acceleration increases the speed of your mouse cursor based on the speed you move your mouse. This might sound like a good idea but it causes problems – if you move your mouse from point A to point B then you’d expect your cursor to do the same thing each time you move the mouse between those two points; with acceleration enabled it won’t because you’ll vary the speed that you move the mouse between those two points and end up with inconsistent aiming.”

How to get the right mouse sensitivity?

Keep adjusting your mouse sensitivity in-game until you can do a perfect 180 with just a flick of the wrist, this might take a while to get right. The best way to test is to stand between 2 objects > adjust your sensitivity, flick your wrist > perfectly turn around 180 degrees. If you overshoot, keep adjusting till you get it right.

Why? So you can pull shots of like this: redcatsnapcat – This is very common for me to do, you would almost say I’ve got aimbot, but it’s simply getting the right sensitivity for me and my mouse. Being able to quickly turn around and get the jump on the enemy is vital to your survival.

Again, this might not work for you – but think about this – finding the right sensitivity is very important!! Keep messing with the sensitivity until you find a sensitivity you are comfortable with.

First things first pt2: Changing your field of view and graphics settings

* Changing you field of view
This is important. Increasing your field of view means you will be able to see more around you, and determines how much of your surrounding area you can see without turning around.

PlanetSide 2 uses vertical FOV, where most games use horizontal, a horizontal FOV of around 105 is around a 74 FOV vertical which is the max in PlanetSide 2 (you can calculate this here: http://www.rjdown.co.uk/projects/bfbc2/fovcalculator.php).

A very good example of what exactly FOV changes is the following picture (Taken from Battlefield: Bad Company 2):

Why would you NOT want to see more around you? Think about this, but also keep in mind depending on your monitor aspect ratio and resolution the highest FOV might be a little too much.

* Graphic settings and frames per second
They say, the human eye can not see anything higher than 25 FPS… sure this is true, but you want and need higher FPS than that. Why? The higher the FPS the smoother the game will feel and run plus you will have better mouse responsiveness! You will have more headroom for frame drops meaning, when there is some crazy explosions going on your frames will go from 60 > 40 instead of 30 > 20.

You also have to remember that movies and such use certain tools to create a seamless experience between frames, games do not, even at higher frames they won’t be as fluid as a movie, and in a game you visually track animated objects, players etc and you have to react quickly, therefor higher frame rate is better.

I rather play with every graphics settings on low than high (I personally have everything on low except for textures), It will simply feel much smoother and will make the game much more enjoyable, as you’ll be able to react much quicker and don’t feel any slow down of frames.

I find explaining why you need higher FPS hard to explain, but try setting all those graphics on low some time, get used to “the look” and notice it feels much smoother, especially in massive battles where a lot of things are going on. If anything, put everything on low with textures on high, it will still look good and you will have way more frames.

Being a squad member: understanding the basics of communication and listening.

As a squad member it is extremely important to listen to your squad leader and members, without listening and doing what a squad leader says everything can fall apart. If the squad leader commands you do to something, you simply DO IT without any questions asked.

Why? The squad leader is the driving force behind the squad, without him everybody would be scattered all over the map and there would be absolutely no organization at all. There is ALWAYS a good reason why a squad leader commands you and your team members to do something, cause if you don’t a base might be lost, or if you and 2 others take too much time your whole squad could be wiped out.

* Remember your number
In the squad list next to the map there is a number next to your name, REMEMBER THIS. If the squad leader or anyone else asks “number 5 please move” then you NEED to know that this is you, calling out numbers is most of the time easier for people as names do not show on the map.

* Keep communication simple and effective
This is very important, when doing serious operations there is no time to talk about how ‘OP’ a faction is how how weapon X sucks or anything like that. Keep communication short but effective, here are some examples:

NO – I crashed, the game crashes so often, it’s like I get this screen freeze and then it crashes, Ill login in a minute.
YES – I crashed……….. Back, in invite me.

NO – So what do you guys think of this and that, I think this and that is ********. I hope they fix this **** in the next patch.
YES – …

NO – I guess there’s like something 2 magriders or some **** to the left.
YES- 2 vehicles Northeast.

This is important when doing serious squad play, keeping call outs simple and effective. Do not ever say “left” or “right” when you see enemies, as left or right might be on a completely different angle for someone else.

When you do need to say “left” or “right”, use the squad waypoint or objective (the place you are going to *IF* there is any) as an indicator, if the waypoint or objective is in the north, then east becomes “right flank” and west becomes “left flank” – this is sometimes easier when there is no time to check which direction you are looking at. But try to keep this to a minimum as it will confuse squad members.

* Understanding the squad leaders job
Being a squad leader is not easy, this guy does everything at the same time: checking the map every couple of minutes, keeping track of every squad member on the map and around him, think of tactics on the fly such as figuring out how to attack and approach a base, keeping track of waypoints, keeping everyone together and much more.

Respect his position.

Being a squad leader: understanding the basics of squad leading.

Not everyone has the skills to be a squad leader, there are so many things to keep track of it can be very hard sometimes, if you are not good at leading a group of people and keeping track of a dozen things at the same time – this is fine there is nothing wrong with that.

But regardless I will give you some tips anyways, because you need to understand the squad leaders job, and once you understand it you will better understand why you need to listen to what he says.

* Communication
Communication is KEY to every fight, not updating your squad members on attack plans and not keeping them in formation and together will get you and your squad killed.

Speak loud and TELL your squad members what to do, saying “maybe we should attack X” or sounding unsure will bring the confidence the squad members have in you down really quickly.

* Picking a fight
Find the fun fight. Nobody wants to capture empty bases and stand around doing nothing. While this is sometimes necessary, most of the time other people will take care of this while you and your squad do the real thing.

Your first priority as a squad leader is to entertain, the game has to remain fun for people in your squad to keep playing, if you go around capturing empty bases nobody will have fun. But, choose carefully: sometimes it is simply needed to capture empty bases back, for example when the enemy is creeping up on the warpgate… sure you could go capture that biolab with your squad, but there is probably already enough people there: instead capture the territories around it and increase the influence at the biolab for your empire to win quicker.

* Waypoints
This is simple: keep them updated at all times, it’s a good indication for your squad members to know where to go, if you don’t update it your squad members will go to the old waypoint and members scatted all over the map.

* The map
Keep checking the map every couple of minutes, if you and your squad attack a base, and it’s taking a very long time, during that time the enemy might capture territories around the territory you are trying to attack.

Lose territory around a base you’re trying to capture > influence will decrease > base will take longer to capture.

So keep checking it, and retreat if necessary.

* Knowing when to retreat
If to many squad members are dieing without being able to spawn back, or when there is an huge overflow of enemies, or when the majority of your tank column runs out of ammo: it is probably time to retreat.

It very much depends on the situation, but keep in mind: constantly trying to keep pushing might not be the best thing, sometimes you have to retreat a couple of times to be able to capture a base back – regroup, resupply, re-organize.

* Keep your squad together and know when to spread out
Keeping everyone together and moving out as a TEAM is important, having everybody all over the place is bad. You need to tell your squad stick together, heal each-other, re-supply each-other and etc – cause if everybody is all over the place your members and you can’t get heals or ammo.

* PTFO
PLAY THE ******* OBJECTIVE – There is no point in defending a room without a control point, spawn point or anything else in it, unless the building gives you a tactical advantage such as a good spot to spawn, you could tell your members to park a sundered there, and have a couple of them defend it.

Your goal is to WIN, not to LOSE, so PTFO or ****.

That is about it for leading a squad: just know that it’s not an easy job and not everyone is up for this, again this is fine don’t be discouraged if you’re not squad leader material. But DO try it out sometimes to have a better understanding of what it’s like to be a squad leader. Simply put: a good squad leader gets results, a bad one doesn’t.

Being a class: understanding what you can and can not do

Each class is unique and has it’s own ability, skills and etc. Each class surprisingly or not is played differently, if you’ve been playing the exact same way on every class: you are doing it wrong.

* Infiltrator
Your ability is to become INVISIBLE or NEARLY INVISIBLE and hack terminals & turrets. You can walk past enemies, get behind them, take cover, and gun them all down from behind, cloak and get out. Why attack enemies from the front if you can flank or even get behind them and start taking them out?

Pick your targets: if you see a lot of enemy heavy assault shooting down your empire’s tanks, PRIORITIZE and don’t forget to spot them! If you take them out, your empires tanks wont be taken out and they can move forward freely. Think carefully when seeing a lot of enemies and stay calm, pick your target and take him out.

Hacking terminals & turrets: this is very important, if you and your squad are attacking a base and they are constantly spawning tanks from there or shooting down with turrets; hack that ****. Flip a terminal to your empire and they won’t be able to use it anymore and they can’t spawn more tanks. It’s also nice for your squad to changes classes and such. But, keep in mind enemy infiltrators can flip it back to their side.

* Light Assault
You have a jetpack, you are fast and can move quickly and jump onto things. Take this to your advantage, if you’re in a squad, get on that roof, spot enemies and surprise them by being on a spot other classes can’t get to.

Why take the stairs in a tower if you can get onto the first floor by flying up on it? Get there, get there fast before your squad does, call out enemies, how many and spot them. Use the jetpack to your advantage when you are low on health, don’t stand in a corner, instead get on a ledge where the enemy doesn’t expect you to be, for example:

Get shot > low health > instead of jumping into a corner to hide where the enemy will expect you > jump on the ledge above that > wait for enemy to check corner > shoot him down > win.

That is just one example of how you could take light assault to your advantage, take a look around and look at the possibilities around you, get on the roofs, balcony’s from behind where they don’t expect you to be coming from and etc.

* Heavy Assault
Your ability is a shield, which gives you extra armour for a limited amount of time. Use this to your advantage! If you walk into a building and 2 enemies start shooting at you, do not hesitate to enable your shield immediately (preferable before they even start shooting). It WILL save your life, as long as you can aim good!

You also have a rocket launcher, if heavy assault is your main class then try to get the lock on upgrade against ground vehicles as soon as possible, as you will be able to take out tanks much easier. Remember to use cover when shooting at tanks and ALWAYS try to hit them in the back or side, as they have less armour there.

Front > top > side > rear.

Also remember that you need to hit infantry with a rocket launcher in the chest for them to die, shooting next to them doesn’t do much damage.

* Engineer
You can fix tanks, turrets and max units. Do your job, don’t go around playing as if you are any other class, you are needed to fix those turrets and fix those tanks and max units.

If you and your squad have taken over a base, make sure to fix those turrets, and do it fast too: the enemy could already be preparing for an counter attack. Also remember to fix turrets currently being used, if a friendly is using a turret and shooting down a lot of enemies, go ahead and help him.

If your fixing tanks and max units, make sure to stay in a position where the enemy can not shoot you, usually this is behind a tank or max unit but it could also be to the side. Keep an eye out on where enemies are shooting from, you don’t want to be repairing a tank on the west side of it while enemies are shooting from the west. Also remember that the driver doesn’t always see you are repairing and might run you over, so try to keep distance.

Now on to the turret: use it – if you see a lot of enemies coming from one direction, go ahead and place your turret down, but make sure to place it correctly, don’t place it out in the open or in a spot where enemies can easily flank you, try to set it up near team mates and keep those enemies suppressed.

* Medic
You can revive and heal people and you are extremely important in the battlefield. But your main job is: STAY ALIVE. A dead medic is a bad medic – your goal is to survive, and stay behind your team mates, if they go down or lose health, heal and revive them. Running around in front of your team is bad, you will die and you won’t be able to heal or revive anyone.

Remember to use your main ability when there is a large group of players with low health, your main ability is very powerful and can heal a lot of people at the same time. This sometimes can be better then using your healing tool, because the more people who need healing > the more your ability will heal.

Do not heal or revive when there is enemies shooting at you, trying to revive or heal when they are shooting you and team mates is usually bad: kill them first then heal or revive.

Remember to survive and kill enemies first before healing or reviving.

* Max unit
You have a lot of armour, health and do a lot of damage. You can take down aircraft, tanks and infantry. Choose wisely when equiping a max unit: if there is a lot of enemy aircraft, get that AA weapon, if there is a lot of infantry, get that AI weapon, and AV for tanks.

But remember, even though you have so much health and armour: you can still be taken down. Running into 5 enemies at the same time and there is a high chance you can get killed, because together the enemy can do a lot of damage.

Therefor, make sure to have a friendly engineer near you at all times, he is your best friend and will heal you when needed. Also remember to use your main ability, if there is a lot of enemies use it and run away.

Also remember that one single max is usually a waste of resources and you will be too slow to keep up with your squad. Max units are good to push in or out of area’s with a lot of enemy activity, so get more max units and at least a couple of engineers and medics.

Playing as infantry: General tips

I’m going to give some tips on how you can become better as infantry, most of these are very general tips and will work with any class.

* Using cover
Most important is to use cover, in PlanetSide 2 you don’t have a lot of mobility, sprint strafing is slow, strafing while aiming down the sight is slow, shooting after sprinting is slow and etc.

Make good use of cover to minimize exposure, take a look around you while moving from point A to B and use buildings, tanks and other objects to move from cover to cover. Moving from cover to cover will get you from point A to B slower, but if you do get shot at the chance of you being behind cover is much greater and you will have more survivability.

* Knowing when to stop sprinting
It’s not smart to always be sprinting into building and such, the best thing you can do before going into a building / around a corner is to stop sprinting, if there is an enemy there you will be able to react faster because if you are sprinting and then try to shoot it takes a while before you start shooting, especially when trying to aim down the sight after sprinting.

* Knowing how to move through buildings
Remember what is behind you, if you move through a building why would you move in a straight line through the building? If there is an object to the left inside the building, shift left, keep moving (now this object is covering your back).

If you still don’t get it take a look at this video:

How to become a better **** Ep.23

* Know when to change your class
You need to change your class sometimes, if there is a lot of tanks > go heavy assault. If there is no medics around to heal/revive anyone > go medic. Know when to change, as much as you want to cert into the class you like the most, sometimes you have to change your class.

Even if the squad leader doesn’t tell you to change, and you notice too much or too less of the same class, go ahead and change to another class.

* Go for headshots
Always go for headshots, you will kill TWICE AS FAST. PlanetSide 2’s time to kill (TTK), is really not that low comparing to other games, you do not die that fast. This allows you to more easily always go for a headshot, the following subject will help you out with this.

* Adjust your aim
STOP LOOKING AT THE GROUND. Pay attention to where you are aiming at and where your crosshair is, you want your crosshair to be at the head level (or else chest) of an enemy always, if you move through a building up a stairs > adjust your aim and make sure you are always aiming at head level, if for any reason an enemy is up the stairs you will be able to headshot him right away.

* Stay calm
Stay calm when you see a lot of enemies, pick them off one by one. Kill one > move to a different position > kill another and so on. There is no need to panic or start spraying, just keep calm and control your aim.

* Controlling your aim
If you can keep calm, you can control your aim. Try out burst firing at medium ranges, tap-firing at long ranges and so forth. Trying to kill an enemy at medium range when spraying is not going to do anything, remember it only takes around 8 bullets usually for a enemy to die, so instead burst fire 3 times, which will be much faster.

Keep practicing.
Keep practicing all these things, this will make you a much more better player overall. If you know how to make good use of cover, knowing where to aim, knowing when to change your class when needed etc you will survive much longer, be much more viable in battles and you will be able to adapt to any situation.