Battlefield 1 Important Tips

Battlefield 1 Important Tips by Interversity

Welcome! This is a guide on how not to be a fucking casual at Battlefield 1. It’s more of a list of tips than a full game guide, and it assumes you are familiar with the controls and general objectives.


Objectives (mostly Conquest related)

  • If you are at a contested objective/flag, you will see a small bitch ass multicolored bar above the flag icon in the top center of your screen. The bar will show the proportion of friendlies to enemies with a change in color – on default, half blue half red means you and one enemy, while 2/3 blue and 1/3 red means you, a friendly, and an enemy, etc. If you’re capping a flag and you see a multicolored bar, don’t fucking leave the flag until you’ve killed the motherfuckers, because as soon as you leave, they’ll start capping it, and you’ll have to come back anyway.
  • This should be obvious but there are so many filthy casuals who don’t seem to understand – the areas in which you can cap each objective/flag are defined by a whitish box on the minimap. If the little bar above the objective icon is multicolored, the enemy must be inside that white box. Hunt that knob goblin down and fuck him up, fam. DON’T FUCKING LEAVE THE FLAG FOR THEM TO CAP IT. I SAY THIS AGAIN BECAUSE IT’S IMPORTANT AND SO MANY CASUALS FUCK IT UP TREMENDOUSLY.
  • Planes can cap flags. Sinai Desert is the easiest place to do this, particularly at G, but it’s possible to do in many places given use of a fighter and good flying skills. Fly in a tight circle in the objective area to capture it.
  • If you’re in a tank capping an objective and there are no obvious enemies around, you should still always be moving and circling your view around. It is much more difficult for an enemy to sneak up with dynamite or mines if you are constantly moving around (and in 3P view).
  • SQUAD LEADERS, FUCKING GIVE ORDERS. I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD, I WILL SPEND THE ENTIRETY OF THE GAME FOLLOWING YOUR BITCH ASS WITH GAS GRENADES IF YOU DON’T GIVE ORDERS EVEN AFTER I FUCKING TOLD YOU LITERALLY 12 TIMES HOW TO DO IT. Look at an objective and press R1/RB, or use the command wheel (hold R1/RB, use left stick to select, must hold in the direction you want to select)
  • FUCKING GIVE ORDERS. IT GIVES YOU POINTS YOU DUMB FUCKING ASSHOLE. DO IT. YESTERDAY YOU SAID TOMORROW. JUST. DO IT! (insert shia labeouf here)
  • When looking at the command wheel, you can see how many other squad leaders have given orders for each objective. If you ever get to play on a full organized team, this can be extremely useful, but otherwise it’s typically useless since so many squad leaders are FUCKING CASUALS WHO DON’T GIVE ORDERS. BITCH.
  • If you’re getting pushed back hard, it may be worth your time to figure out a way to go around the main battle and try to capture the main enemy objective (the objective closest to their base) in order to force at least some of them to retreat and deal with you/your squad, taking the pressure off the rest of your team and hopefully allowing them to push out and establish better positions. It may be worth wasting a plane to do this, depending on the situation. Horses and armored cars/jeeps are also good for fast, relatively quiet movement. If the enemy doesn’t react quickly, you can even advance backwards towards your spawn, taking as many objectives as possible until the enemy finally comes back to deal with you.
  • With that being said – DON’T JUST LET THEM HAVE YOUR FUCKING HOME OBJECTIVE YOU DUMB FUCKS. Yeah, great idea, let them pincer us the entire match! Awesome! No, you need to maintain control of your home objective (closest to base) as much as possible in order to prevent a double-sided attack.

Tanks (1000+ tank kills worth of experience, 100+ tanks destroyed)

  • In a pure tank battle, the Tank Hunter landship package will usually win. It is very accurate, more damaging than any explosive tank round (to tanks), has barely any drop compared to other rounds, and you still have the two sponsons on your sides for an absurd amount of firepower. However, the Tank Hunter package is pretty garbage against infantry, at least compared to other packages/tanks.
  • If an enemy gets out of their tank, FUCKING TAKE IT. It prevents them from getting a respawn of it, so if you’re getting hammered by tanks, you can turn the tide by going on a power play until they destroy it. If you are in a tank and come across an unoccupied enemy tank, you can get out of yours, get in the other one, and destroy yours so it respawns for your team. Ideally, get someone else to jump in the other tank and team up immediately. Likewise, if your dumbass piece of shit teammate gets out of a tank, either destroy it ASAP or take it yourself. I will literally get in tanks that are about to blow up just to make absolutely certain that the other team doesn’t get it. It is THAT FUCKING IMPORTANT. TANKS ARE OP AS FUCK, BE CAREFUL WITH THEM.
  • Learn how to angle shots properly. You will notice with enough experience that sometimes your shots at other tanks (or using the AT gun) seem to ‘dust’ or bounce off. This typically happens when your angle of attack is very shallow (i.e. your shot is almost parallel to the surface it hits). Light tanks seem to have a little invulnerable spot right on their front bumper, while heavy tanks often don’t get damaged if you hit their sloping upper surfaces. Try to hit as close to perpendicular as you can. This is SUPER FUCKING IMPORTANT for tank on tank battles, because if you miss one shot and dust another, you’re probably going to get fucked if the other driver is good.
  • Related to the above, PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR AMMO IN TANKS. One miss can be the difference between staying alive and wrecking the other tank and getting blown up. Always be aware of how much you have, how many enemy tanks there are, how much infantry support you have, etc. Also note that some packages have other weapons – the heavy tank with flamethrowers also has gas grenade drops. USE THAT SHIT. Drop it in highly trafficked areas and move away to fire your weapons.
  • CUSTOMIZE YOUR GODDAMN TANKS YOU FUCKS. FLAMETHROWERS ON A HEAVY TANK? SIGN ME THE FUCK UP FOR THAT SHIT. Seriously, the heavy tank with flamethrowers is extremely powerful in close to mid range combat and in tight spaces, and is intimidating AS FUCK. Even I get butterflies when I see a huge ass tank with two streams of flames and two streams of bullets plus a huge fucking cannon on the front and I’m an MLG 1337 pro. Also check out the light tank howitzer and as mentioned before the landship tank hunter, as well as the landship mortar for long range strategic engagements.
  • Destroying tanks is A TOP FUCKING PRIORITY. They are completely OP given how fucking easy they are to drive, and they can put a brick of shit on your doorstep real quick if you don’t deal with them. It is possible for one person to destroy a tank, but usually you need to catch them completely by surprise (or if they suck really hard, that works too). Three to four people is ideal and you are very likely to win the battle against any tank if you’re all focused on destroying it with AT guns, AT grenades, mines, mortars, etc. Since tanks can self heal, you need a concentrated effort to destroy them before they can regenerate.
  • IMPORTANT: If you are NOT playing a tanker class (i.e. you did not spawn as a tank driver), you CAN NOT use L1/LB to self heal tanks in the driver’s seat. You CAN use whatever repair mechanism there might be assigned to the D-pad, but you CAN NOT use the typical tank self heal without being a tanker. This means you’ll likely need some help from a support with a repair tool to keep you alive. (I should note that I believe this is the case due to several observations/instances in which this exact situation happened to me, but it’s possible there is something else going on that I don’t know about)

Edit: I am being informed that if you have a repair tool as the support class, you can use the L1/LB repair function in vehicles. I will test this to confirm later.

  • HELP YOUR GODDAMN TANKS IF YOU’RE INFANTRY. Tanks give you moving cover, a huge distraction, and logistical support (mobile spawn point, plus some packages have ammo/health drops). It is hugely useful to you to keep your tanks alive, so watch out for them. Make a point to go after enemy assault troops and to kill anyone trying to AT gun/AT grenade your tanks since they’ll not be paying attention to you. It takes a significant amount of time for tanks to respawn, too, so it’s important to keep their destructions to a minimum.
  • Take advantage of road kills. Especially in 3P view, you can be both shooting enemies and running them over at the same time, and the more road kills you get, the more ammo you save to take out other tanks or pesky assault troops. If there are lots of enemies in a small space, it’s like driving over an ant hill in an ATV. With flamethrowers. Fucking brutal.
  • Yes, you can kill planes in one hit with tank rounds, and yes, I have done this. Typically you will only be able to get very low flying bombers, but since they often fly quite slow, it’s actually not that hard to get a kill this way. It’s also extremely time and effort efficient if you can take out a plane with one tank round. And you can get out and teabag afterwards, as one does.
  • Use your tank to trim the playing field! On maps with lots of low walls like Ballroom Blitz, you can just run your tank through/over the walls to destroy them and eliminate cover/open paths on the map.
  • While in a tank, use your momentum/acceleration wisely. When capping an objective, time your acceleration away from the flag so that you are just capping the flag before you exit the cap area. This will help you move on to other objectives just a little bit faster, and even though it doesn’t sound like much, it could be the difference between arriving at the middle objectives first and setting up a good position and getting your ass wrecked.
  • Use 3P view to see over and around walls. You can also take advantage of cramped terrain to see through walls, the ground, bridges, etc. by moving your camera inside them. This is a massive advantage over infantry – use it. I typically only switch to 1P view to make accurate long range shots, then back to 3P for the majority of the time.
  • You can be MUCH more effective with even just one or two squad mates communicating/working with you in the tank. They can spawn as support in order to repair you, or if you have the tank package with health and ammo drops, they can spawn as assault with an AT gun and AT grenades to support you against other tanks. They can man the machine guns/sponsons/flamethrowers while capping flags and moving around the map. WE ARE BROTHERS, NOT SOLDIERS.
  • Explosive shells work as well or better than the buckshot/’shotgun’ shell against infantry, as they have splash damage and can kill multiple infantry at once, while typically the buckshot can only kill 1 unless they are lined up perfectly together. However, try out the buckshot and get a feel for the difference. I use it occasionally when I’m too lazy to concentrate on aiming shells perfectly at random infantry.

Tank Hunting

  • Assault. AT gun. AT grenades, mines, or dynamite depending on the situation. Light AT grenades. You can kill a tank at full health by yourself if you are very skilled or the driver is a complete jackass (not unusual). If you are able to, get right up next to the tank and place dynamite, move away a bit (hopefully away from their cannons/guns if possible) and detonate for an easy kill. If using mines, you can either place them well in advance of actually seeing a tank, just to cover roads and chokepoints. If you’re right near a tank, you can place the mines behind or in front of the tank, and it will be destroyed or at least significantly damaged by going over one or more of them.
  • Without dynamite or mines, if you are starting at closer range, use the AT grenades and light AT grenades first. Try to hit the tank directly, as the grenades will explode on impact with a tank. Otherwise just get it as close as possible. Then switch to the AT gun. If you are starting at farther range, use the AT gun first. With the AT gun, you can either try to find a bit of rock or cover than you can crouch and aim the bipod with, or you can prone. If cover’s available, use it; if not, just go prone. The AT gun has some drop, which you will get a feel for after a few long range engagements.
  • Aim for the sponsons on the landship with explosive weapons. You can disable individual weapons on tanks, as well as the tracks and the engine (depending on which tank it is). The driver will have to repair himself in order to regain use of any disabled weapons/turrets.

Planes

  • Don’t fucking take a plane just to transport your bitch ass to a remote perch. It’s a huge fucking waste for what will probably end up with you getting MAYBE three kills before you get fucked by a tank or some shit. IF YOU DO THIS ON MY TEAM I WILL FOLLOW YOU AROUND WITH GAS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME. DO NOT FUCK THIS UP. It is slightly more acceptable to take a plane to get to a remote objective quickly, although this is still a waste and should be done only by professional MLG pros.
  • Fighters are by far the most maneuverable and the best in straight up dogfights, with attack planes second, and bombers third. However, the gunners on the AP and bomber, if skilled, can be extremely dangerous even to a fighter. Again, LOOK AT YOUR CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS! There are 9 kinds of planes to choose from. I typically run the fighter with incendiary bombs and spotting flare, and I switch to the AP with the Behemoth hunter package when the blimp is in play. OBSERVE. ORIENT. DECIDE. ACT.
  • AA guns will fuck you super hard, and they don’t use lube. They are top priority for destroying, even higher than any plane except possibly a fighter that’s actively harassing you. Memorize where they are located on each map and keep it in mind when flying.
  • With three planes, an ideal fleet is most likely 1 fighter, 1 AP, and 1 bomber, or 2 fighters and a bomber, although it always depends on what the enemy is using/doing. Just know that having 3 fighters will hobble your air to ground efforts, although it will likely afford you air superiority. Decide what you need for each situation and adapt.
  • To get out of a chase, you can either try to maneuver in open air (vary your speed, change your direction suddenly, etc.) or use terrain to try to force the chaser into an accident. The closer you can get to a tight space like the arch on Sinai Desert or the mountains on Monte Grappa, the more likely your pursuer will lose control or nick a wing and get BTFO.
  • If you suck at flying planes, avoid using them in super close, intense battles (to avoid accidents). Try to get them during blowouts, or very early in the game where it’s not such a big deal, to get your practice in.
  • In case this wasn’t obvious, you vapid ponce, you have to lead enemy planes slightly in order to hit them. The further they are and the more perpendicular their path is to yours, the more you have to lead. You will understand the mechanics after a bit of practice (hopefully).
  • If you have the aim/skill, you can kill pilots and gunners directly without having to destroy the plane. You’ll have to come in from above for that, and it’s rather difficult.
  • It can be strategically advantageous in certain situations to aim at an enemy’s wing rather than the body of the plane. For example, if a bomber is attempting to escape you in a fighter, and you are flying along a mountain, you might try to shoot the wing on the side of the mountain in order to make them lose control and hopefully crash.
  • Don’t try to repair in the middle of the airspace. Get out of the center of the map, aim upwards and at a slight angle so you aren’t flying perfectly straight, and then repair. On some maps, like Monte Grappa, you can take cover behind the mountain while repairing.

General

  • FUCKING GIVE PEOPLE AMMO AND HEALTH PACKS IF YOU’RE SUPPORT/MEDIC. I DON’T NEED TO EXPLAIN THIS SHIT, DO I? TEAMWORK, BITCH. And please fucking revive people as medic. It is beyond infuriating to wait for a medic who’s within 10 meters of you to revive you only for him to do nothing or run away, wasting your time. YOU CHOSE TO PLAY MEDIC, FUCKING REVIVE YOUR BROS, DAMN.
  • Here’s my thought process on ammo packs while playing support, just for an idea: OH YOU’RE ON MY TEAM? SAY NO MORE FAM, HERE’S THREE PACKS OF AMMO. NEED MORE? HERE’S A FUCKING AMMO CRATE. WE GOOD? WE GOOD. (repeat for every group of soldiers)
  • If you chose to have a repair tool in your loadout, FUCKING USE IT. Otherwise you’re wasting a slot that could have been used for a mortar or ammo crate. Scrub.
  • Gas, smoke, and incendiary grenades combined with a Support loadout with ammo packs/ammo crates makes for a spammy fun time. Seriously though, you can fucking blanket an objective in gas with just a few people, and doing it with smoke is incredibly effective given that the grenades will restock before the original smoke clouds completely clear. If you can get just two or three people to help you with this tactic, it can be incredibly effective.
  • PLAY THE FUCKING OBJECTIVE IN OBJECTIVE BASED MODES. THIS ISN’T TDM, CUPCAKE, GO FUCK YOURSELF.
  • Destroy the behemoth when it comes. Now, I get it, some people are going to be medics the whole time, or scouts the whole time, and this doesn’t really apply to them. But if you’re assault or support with a repair tool or limpets, fucking help your team and get some easy free points for damaging the train/blimp/boat. Remember, you can put down anti-tank mines on the train tracks and they stay there even after you die, so there’s no excuse for not plopping some down, disabling a turret with your AT gun, and then continuing about your day.
  • When playing as the behemoth, focus on turrets, tanks, and planes first. Particularly, for the dreadnought, focus on AA guns and any of the double-shot large green turrets, and for the blimp focus on AA guns and then planes. IF YOU DON’T PRIORITIZE YOUR KILLS, YOU’RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME.
  • COMMUNICATE, GOD DAMN IT. I find someone else with a mic in MAYBE 1/5 squads I join. Even with randoms, working together over mics can vastly improve your collective effectiveness. You can tell each other where enemies are, where health or ammo is, details about objectives, warnings, coordinating attacks and defenses, ad infinitum. Even if you don’t have a mic, you can use the command wheel to let your squad know you’re here and you’re paying attention. Request orders if your squad leader forgets, say thanks for ammo or health drops, etc.
  • You can kill a mortar or AA gun user by standing in front of/on top of their mortar/gun. Try not to be a dick and only use this when someone has already been a huge dick and deserves to get fucked. Note about the mortar: If you place a mortar down as support, then leave it, and somebody else gets on it, if you resupply and get another mortar and put it down, the other person will die. Not a common situation, but mildly interesting.
  • Put AT mines in small craters, or on dark patches/in puddles, and they will be very, very difficult to see. For tank drivers, it is a good idea to get into the habit of regularly spotting the ground in front of you to check for mines. Also be very careful driving over friendly mines, because if any explosion happens near them while you’re also near them, you’re going to get fucked over.
  • If there are four medics in your squad, you don’t need to be a medic, and at least one to two of your squadmates are probably idiots. Fucking casuals.
  • UNLOCK YOUR FUCKING SQUAD. WE ARE SICK TO FUCKING DEATH OF SEEING 7 SQUADS WITH 2 PEOPLE EACH.
  • Numbers will win in small battles if both sides are similarly skilled, but if one side is much more skilled and communicates, even a small number (2-3) can take out a squad or two. Lessons learned: be skilled, communicate.
  • Medics: HEAL YOUR FUCKING ELITES! They are stupid powerful, but only if you keep them alive, goddamnit! An elite with two medics following him around can wreck almost anything but a tank.
  • Elites: Don’t fuck with tanks, unless you are a tank hunter. They are bigger and better than you with the flame trooper or sentry kit, and they can run you over no problem. Bullets do nothing to tanks and flames do just minor damage. Take advantage of chokepoints, medics, (most medics are scrubs and you will have to heal yourself around them, basically) and advantageous terrain.
  • The medic crate heals one at a time, while the medic pack/pouch heals in increments of around 10-15 (I forget. Too much time in tanks)
  • Assault: Use your AT gun on the train. Focus your fire on one turret; you can disable a turret if you land all four shots with the AT gun. This is much better than just damaging the train generally.
  • Use field guns. Focus on tanks first. Note that you need to press R2/RT or square/X to reload after firing the field guns. These can be a real fucking pain in the ass to deal with if the user is reasonably skilled, particularly for tanks which will take at least 2 hits before locating and returning fire on the gun. These can also be used to destroy walls for strategic purposes (eliminating cover or opening paths).
  • The blimp’s mortar/rockets are fucking LIT, dog. Seriously, a couple shots can destroy a heavy tank. These are super powerful, keep that in mind in how you choose to use them (maybe don’t bother the one infantry dick in the trees and instead take out the tank that is fucking us in the ass, u nomsayin)

Map specific

  • Destroy the doors around objective B on Argonne Forest with limpets or grenades if people keep fucking opening and closing them and generally being fucknuggets about them. Also a fantastic map for gas/incendiary/smoke spam. Smoke specifically can be hugely useful in intense battles over C.
  • Try to keep control of E and F as much as possible on Fao Fortress (the two objectives inside the fortress). The fort has a field gun that can do major damage with a skilled user, as well as huge strategic importance for positioning, field guns facing the behemoth, and a flame trooper kit. While on defense with these objectives, keep in mind that enemies can be lurking behind the fortress acting as spawn points for their squad, and that enemies can get on top of castle walls and become somewhat difficult to deal with. Use gas and incendiary grenades to get rid of them if this happens. Make sure to clear the tunnels connecting F and E if you get an enemy infestation (yes, there is a tunnel system connecting F and E. Go through the door on the wall at E)
  • Tanks can turn the tide of battle on Suez due to the compactness of the action. Be prepared to change to assault and get rid of the tanks as quickly as possible if you don’t want to be pushed back to your home objective. Mortars are also very effective due to the openness of the sand areas around B and C.
  • Use tanks to destroy walls in order to find enemies or just eliminate cover (for example, on Amiens, if starting with A as the closer flag, it is a good idea to destroy as many walls as possible in the houses at the flag. You should be able to keep A relatively easily, so not having a lot of cover will be worse for the enemy than for you.
  • Tanks are also critical on Amiens. Ideally you should have at least one or two infantry solely supporting you as the tank, and I recommend using the heavy tank with flamethrower due to the cramped alleyway battles that dominate the map.
  • YOU CAN FIT A HEAVY TANK INTO OBJECTIVE E ON AMIENS. A HEAVY TANK WITH FLAMETHROWERS. YEAH. “You’re welcome.” – DICE
  • You can destroy the arch on Sinai near A with tank shots/dynamite/plane crash/generic explosions. It takes a little while though.
  • THERE ARE FUCKING TUNNELS AND SHIT ON MONTE GRAPPA AND EMPIRE’S EDGE. INSTEAD OF SITTING AROUND WITH YOUR FIST IN YOUR ASS WHILE CAPPING A CONTESTED FLAG, FIND THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS AND KILL THEM.

Above all, fucking THINK. This is not a mindless shoot em up zombie bullshit fucknut game. This is a thinking person’s game, with serious strategy and teamwork making a huge difference in the outcome (and your score). Emulate Dwight Schrute – ask yourself, would an idiot do that? And if they would, you do not do that thing.

Thanks for reading, and remember this mantra – DON’T BE A FUCKING CASUAL.

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