Firefall PvP Beginner’s Guide

Firefall PvP Beginner’s Guide by AustinNH

Maybe this has already been done but it seemed to me that a quick starting guide for FireFall PvP was in order. I hope it doesn’t overlap too much with something that’s already been posted. This guide is intended for people interesting in getting into FireFall PvP and want to know what to expect and some basic tips/strategies. I’m not an expert player, but I’ve started feeling like I’m not a total drag on my team, and I’m hoping I can get some other people to that point to. I’m guessing there are some mistakes or downright poor advice in here somewhere, so I hope more knowledgeable/expert players will point that out and make their own contributions!

Contents
1. Your Mouse (Settings)
2. New Battleframe Mechanics
3. Basic Fighting Strategies
A: Teamfights
B: Maps
C: Staying Alive
D: Revives/Executes
4. Accord Battleframes
A: Dreadnaught
B: Assault
C: Biotech
D: Engineer
E: Recon

1. Your Mouse (Settings)

FireFall PvP makes unusually high demands on mouse precision. While it’s true that practice brings improvement, there are some simple things you can do that can help a lot. Once you get used to your new mouse settings, you should start seeing improvement in your ability to hit stuff. This information translates well to other FPSs.

First of all, according to my own in-game testing, the mouselook in FireFall is not affected by Windows pointer settings included pointer speed and mouse acceleration (“increase pointer precision”). Would be great to get some independent verification/testing just to make sure I’m not insane.

Second, go in game and adjust your sensivity there. Different people will prefer different settings. The important thing is that you can easily turn your character at least 180 degrees without having to lift your mouse, but it’s not so sensitive that you can’t aim accurately on far away targets.

Third, you don’t really need a fancy mouse, at least at this stage. But one useful feature of them (pointed out by The_Mess) is that extra mouse buttons can be bound to your abilities, making them easier to use in battle. It is important that you have enough room on your desk to move your mouse comfortably. A decent mousepad helps too.

Taking these simple steps can help you improve your aim and help you track the fast-moving targets in PvP.

2. New Battleframe Mechanics

Part of the reason people may have trouble starting out in FireFall PvP is that the battleframe parameters are different in PvP. All characters move, and jet faster etc. Some practice you may have had tracking moving targets or dueling in the PvE world won’t translate directly to PvP because of the altered battleframe specs.

(This was pointed out by Roziel. Specifically that the charges are to the battleframe specs, not the physics, such as the strength of gravity. If anyone has the specific details on the differences between PvP and PvE mechanics, that would be helpful. Although I think some of this may be changing soon anyway.)

3. Basic Fighting Strategies:

A: Teamfights
FireFall PvP is team oriented. This means different things in different games. In FireFall it doesn’t mean you should stay in a tight little ball with your team, which can result in getting owned by AOE or getting surrounded. You should, however, at least be aware of where your teammates are, and generally stay close enough that you can help them and they can help you. Do not enter a fight unless you know your team has your back. If you see a teammate fighting a winnable fight, help them (if it’s an unwinnable or hopeless fight, don’t charge in after them, feeding the other team another kill).

Tides can turn very quickly in an engagement. Flaking maneuvers are powerful and chasing wounded enemies can be dangerous.

B: Maps
One of the important things to know about each map is the location of the heath pickups. These are extremely useful for keeping teammates in the fight and denying the opposing team kills. Health pickups are a valuable map control objective. Fighting an enemy when they have easy access to a health pickup gives them a strong advantage. On the other hand, if you suspect an opponent will dash for a health pickup, you can use this to prediction land some damage just as they pick up the health.

C: Staying Alive
FireFall PvP is a game that I describe as having a low “lethality.” The combination lots of HP, mobility, and escape abilities means that, unless you’re truly overwhelmed, you can often escape a losing fight with your skin. This is very different from many modern “realistic” shooters where you die in just a few hits and escape is usually not an option because, well, you can’t fly in those games. When you’re low on health, get out of there. Force your assailant to get pounded by your teammates if he wants to chase you (this is why it’s important to stay aware of your team). Maybe you’ll be the bait that catches a couple kills for your team. At the same time, be wary of flanking maneuvers that could cut off your escape.

When playing TDM remember that the winner is the first team to 25 kills. Even if you have a hard time killing things, by being hard to kill you make it that much harder for your opponents to win. 2/2 is just as good a score as 12/12. Actually 2/2 is probably better because 2/2 means you were alive more often to give assists and support your team in general.

D: Revives/executes
If you’ve played PvE (and died), you’re familiar with the revive mechanic. In PvP you can also execute a downed enemy, securing the kill so they can’t be revived. If you revive a teammate you deny the enemy team a kill. You also get your teammate back in the fight faster. But reviving takes a long time and both you and your downed teammate are very vulnerable. For this reason, you should not rush to revive every downed teammate you see. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been downed only to see my teammate come to revive me so we can both get killed! Do not try to revive a teammate until you’re sure the area is clear!

cutt1nedge pointed out that, “Execute adds 10 or so seconds to the respawn timer. Useful for objective modes.”

4. Accord Battleframes

As I said I’m no expect but I think I can give some worthwhile quick suggestions for at least the accord battleframes. They’re pretty well rounded, all being able to dish out some good damage and many having some support abilities. They’re not neatly devided into “DPS” “tank” and “support.” They all have important abilities that you should not forget to use (remember to use your ultimate/HKM as well!). They all have powerful main weapons that you should use most of the time (instead of secondaries).

A: Dreadnaught

The main weapon here is a machinegun that is most effective at medium-short range. It has a large magazine size which is great for drawn out fights. If you can consistently keep your crosshairs on a nearby enemy, they’ll drop pretty quick. Altenate fire is a frontal shield that prevents all damage from the front, but not from behind.

1) Repulsor Blast
This ability knocks away and damages nearby enemies after a brief (<~ 1 sec) delay. I found this most useful for the easy-to-land damage. I can imagine very high skill utilization of the knock away effect to separate an enemy from their team, pushing them into your team, pushing away a high a threat enemy to protect yourself or your teammate, pushing people off the edge of The Rig. I wasn’t able to do any of that successfully, though.

2) Heavy Armor
For a few seconds, damage you take is reduced by a percentage (35% I think). Note that this is damage MITIGATION, unlike the Electron’s Bulwark, which absorbs a flat number of points of damage (400 I think). This affects how it should be used. If you activite this armor when you only have 1 life left, you’ll still only be able to absorb 1 point of damage before you die. With Bulwark you would be able to absorb 401 points of damage. On the other hand if you activate this right before you take 1500 damage, it will block 35% of this damage, or 525 points of damage, while the Electron’s Bulwark would still only block 400 points of damage. So you can see that optimally you will activate Heavy Armor with full health right before a big fight where you expect to take a lot of damage, not after the fight to save your skin at the last second.

3) Explosive Rounds
This temporarily gives a bit of splash damage to your bullets. Use it before a fight, especially when attacking a target on the ground or against a wall. It won’t help you much attacking a target flying through the air.

4) Accord Mortar Launcher
Oh my! For a few seconds you have a super-duper-ultra powered grenade launcher with unlimited ammo (but only for a few seconds). You know what to do.

B: Assault

The main weapon is a Plasma Cannon that deals good direct hit damage but I find it most useful (and easy to use) for it’s splash damage. Fly above them and when they land on the ground, easy (relative to a weapon without splash damage) splash damage. When they’re against a wall, easy (relative…). The challenge is managing jet energy and positioning to maximize the number of these reliable hits. It’s a pretty fast projectile, so hitting flying targets is also doable, if you have good aim. Alternate fire is a shotgun thing. When playing against Assault, avoid getting caught in tight spaces where it’s easy to land the splash damage, and try not to get caught stuck on the ground with no jet energy!

1) Overcharge
Temporarly increases all your damage output. Use it before a fight.

2) Afterburner
This gives the Assault it’s mobility. Launches you a good distance in the direction you’re facing, and gives you brief speed buff afterward. Use it for escaping, getting to health pickups, and rushing to assist a teammate. Use for chasing with caution.

3) Crater
Drop to the ground and deal AOE damage. Note that this doesn’t drop you straight down, but at a slight angle in the direction you’re facing, so you have some ability to “aim” it. When landing near obstacles, they can often push you off course causing you to miss. Use it to kill stuff.

4) Shockwave
This sends a big circular wave forward a short-medium distance dealing lots of damage over a wide area. Try to turn the tides of a fight by hitting multiple targets.

C: Biotech

This is a healer with some damage and toughness to round it out. Main weapon is a rapid fire BioNeedler. It’s very accurate, but it is not hitscan, meaning that the bullets have some travel time and you must lead your target slightly. Decent medium range DPS if you can track your target and lead properly. Alternate fire is a shotgun thing.

1) Healing Wave
Sends a wave forward with a large AOE that heals friendlies and damages and knocks back enemies. Don’t be afraid to use it for the damage, although you do have other ways to do damage and this is one of few ways to heal an ally. Try to hit multiple targets (friendlies and enemies) with it. Don’t waste it on a fight that is already won or already lost. Use it to turn around a close a fight. I do not think that this heals the user.

2) Poison Trail
Use it to lay poison all over an area, or bait enemies to follow you and let them eat poison.

3) Triage
Like the Dreadnaught’s Heavy Armor, grants temporary mitigation of incoming damage. During its effect you can also revive teammates much faster. Sometimes I want to use this before a fight like Heavy Armor, and sometimes I want to use it for the quick revive. But the intended use seems to be to actually revive teammates during firefights.

4) Accord Chemical Sprayer
Temporarly grants you a weapon that damages enemies and heals allies in a narrow cone in front of you. I’m not sure what the range is. Although it has some AOE, I think it will mostly be useful as a single-target ability.

D: Engineer

This is the frame that makes the least demand on mouse precision. It is good at maintaining control of a small area of the map. Heath pickups, important bottlenecks, or objectives if you’re not playing TDM are all useful areas to control. When playing against the engineer, sometimes it’s best to leave and control another area of the map, rather than banging your head against his turrets and shield wall. The primary weapon is a sticky grenade launcher with remote detonation (secondary fire). A single grenade does meager damage. Effective use of this weapon requires detonating multiple grenades on a single target. You can do this by laying several grenades at a bottleneck you expect an enemy to pass through, or by predicting the landing spot of a flying enemy. See an opponent running for a health pickup? Let’s see how that health tastes with six grenades!

1) Supply Station
Tosses in front of you a pad that spawns health and ammo pickups after a delay. Place this near an area you want to control or a prolonged fight so you and your teammates can heal and get back into the fight quickly. Note that enemies can use the pickups too (I think?) so place it thoughtfully.

2) Forward Shield
This tosses in front of you a shield that blocks enemy fire and movement, but not friendly fire or movement. Use it to block a narrow passageway or as a damage buffer in front of your turrets, your teammates, or yourself. Lasts until destroyed (like all engineer deployables).

3) Heavy Turret
Places an automated turret. After dealing enough damage the turret will upgrade, increasing its damage dealing potential. Because of the upgrade mechanic, it isn’t as good for instantly placing down in a quick firefight as it is for controlling an area where it will have the opportunity to upgrade and remain useful. It’s pretty easy to destroy these turrets by themselves, but hard to destroy them when the engineer or anyone else on his team is nearby. Enemies may be vulnerable when they’re distracted by destroying your turret, so take advantage of that.

4) Accord Anti-Personnel Turret
Wow. This places a temporary mannable (not automatic) turret that has a machinegun fire that does tons of damage. Use it to clear an area or defend an important objective for a short time.

E: Recon

The Recon is a nice blend of damage, support, mobility, and escape. Of coures there’s a downside. It has the lowest HP of any frame and no real defnsive abilities (except for escapes). The mobility comes from having higher movement speed, rather than from any specific ability. Primary weapon is an assault rifle that will bring enemies down quickly if you can keep the crosshair on them. This is most effective at medium-long range. Secondary is a nice scope with a wide FOV (unlike the other Recons’ scopes).

1) SIN Beacon
This shoots out a sticy beacon that for its entire 30-sec duration marks nearby enemies on SIN so they take increased damage and can be seen through walls. Note that this shoots ahead in a stright line so can be placed from large distance. This is your main support ability. Use it in an area you want to defend or clear. Placing it near a single enemy may not be much use because they only need to move a short distance away from it to make it ineffective.

2) Decoy
This is your “oh ****” button. Cloaks you for a couple seconds and places a decoy at your current location. Useful for escape, but good players will usually expect it. Don’t expect people to fall for it more than once. Try to be unpredictable. Changing direction right after you cloak will make it much harder for enemies to follow you. Note that some abilities such as SIN beacon (I think) can reveal you while cloaked.

3) Cryo Bomb
A hand grenade that explodes on impact dealing damage and slowing enemies. It does some damage but don’t underestimate the power of that slow. It leaves enemies very vulnerable. Use it like other splash damage weapons against enemies that are on the ground or near a wall. Try to predict the landing point of a flying enemy and intercept them with a grenade. Remember what I’ve said about enemies running toward health pickups. Note that their is a substantial delay while your characetr goes through the throwing animation.

4) Accord Artilary Strike
After a short delay, a barage of explosions hit the targeted area. It does work indoors, unintuitively. It’s hard to hit a moving target with this so use it to clear an area or cut off a choke point.

I hope that this will help some people get into FireFall PvP and start having fun. Please feel free to add your own contributions/corrections to this thread or make suggestions for changes. Maybe we can expand this into some type of community-edited beginners’ guide with multiple contributors.

Thanks to the following posters for their contributions: cutt1nedge, Roziel, Zalamael, raary, The_Mess

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *