PlanetSide Cloaking Guide

PlanetSide Cloaking Guide by iluvthequasar

Professional Cloaking is a dying art. Some people see cloaking as simply getting a cloaksuit, and killing as many people as you can. But the finesse and skill of a truly good Infiltrator can turn the tide of an entire battle, not just send some enemy back to the spawn.

The Cloaksuit is extensively underestimated. Some people say “omg it sux bcuz everyone has DL…” Half of that statement is true, I’d be willing to bet money that 49/50 of players over BR12 have Darklight. BUT the cloaksuit does not ‘suck’. Think more carefully about it. If you’re sitting in a base and you don’t have Darklight on, a cloaker could simply walk right by you undetected.

Truly Professional Cloaking is a skill that takes time and PATIENCE to master. If you decide to follow my guide, your first few days will not be easy, or fun. You will die much more than you kill. However, if you master the art, you will have a satisfaction that can’t be matched by ANYTHING else in Planetside.

Finally, Cloaking will not gain you BR very quickly. If anything, the cloaksuit is the SLOWEST way to gain Battle Rank. I do not recommend it unless you are at least BR20

First off, this is what you’ll need for the most basic tasks of a cloaker:


CERTIFICATIONS:

*Infiltration suit (2 points)

*Combat Engineering (5 points)

*Advanced Hacking (5 points)

*ATV (1 point)

*Mosquito (3 points)

IMPLANTS:

*Sensor Shield

*Enhanced Targeting

*Melee Booster, and Surge are powerful 3rd implants, but you can only choose one. The choice is yours.

A cloaker’s most powerful ability is to obtain knowledge of the enemy. Knowledge of a pending enemy Tank assault is 10,000 times more valuable than destroying a generator far away to break the enemy’s Tech link.

However, a cloaker’s most powerful asset is to HAVE knowledge of the enemy. It is best to know what it takes to kill something when you’re a cloaker. If you don’t, it could prove fatal. As such, I have assembled a list of what it takes to kill several key items efficiently:

*1 boomer: Spawn tube, ANY terminal, ATV, infantry, Spitfire turret

*2 boomers: Lightning, MAX, any Buggy, Reaver, Mosquito, Unmanned FV

*3 boomers: Deliverer and Variants, ANT, Liberator

*4 boomers: Wall turret, MBT, Sunderer, AMS, Unmanned GV, Galaxy, Lodestar

*6 boomers: The Generator

ALL of these values have come from my personal experience. What I’m saying is, I’ve snuck behind enemy lines, slapped 4 boomers under their lodestar, and successfully killed it from full health. I am 100% certain of all these values.

So, next step, your loadouts. Cloakers have quite a few loadouts, but they’re all based on the same thing.

1) 3 ACEs, an REK, a jammer

2) 4 ACEs, a jammer

3) 3 ACEs, an REK, a CUD

4) 5 ACEs

5) Your pistol of choice, 2 ammo boxes for it, an REK, and a jammer

6) Your pistol of choice, 2 ammo boxes for it, an REK, and a CUD.

The other 4 are up to you.

You’ll notice that some loadouts have REKs, and some don’t. For those without REKs, that means you’ll use them when on the defensive (defending a base or tower). For the loadouts with REKs, you’ll use them on both the defensive and the offensive. Next up, is the significance of each loadout, and why/when you should use it:

1) Pretty much your standard loadout. Use this 75% of the time on the offensive. This loadout is perfect for ninja-gen-destruction because you have half the bombs needed to take it down already, and you have a jammer should a mine get in your way at the front door (or if someone comes snooping around with Darklight). You’ll understand the importance of this loadout after you’ve tried it for a while.

2) Your standard DEFENSIVE loadout. 4 ACEs is better than 3 because you can take out an AMS. The lack of REK means you can’t hack into doors and such, but you wouldn’t need to do that anyway, you’re defending!

3) This loadout is similar to #1 but instead of a jammer you use your trusty CUD. I recommend ONLY using this loadout when looking for something to OS, or if you want to sneak a nice EMP right behind the enemy front lines.

4) This loadout is good for both towers and bases, but not for attacking anything. This is for laying mines, sensors, and spitfires ONLY. I don’t recommend this for any up front combat.

5) Your pistol of choice. Whatever it may be, pick it, get 2 ammo boxes, the REK, and the jammer. Save the loadout. This is your anti-sniper/AV loadout. I don’t recommend using it for much else.

6) Your final loadout, with pistol of choice, ammo, REK, and your trusty beloved CUD. If you don’t use loadout 3 to find a good OS, use this one. It is much more versatile and you have SOME hope of defending yourself should you be attacked.

So, for one pistol holster, and a 6×6 inventory, the suit in itself is VERY versatile. But, I’m not done with favorites yet…

Remember ATV? It’s one of the certs I recommend you get. Why? Well, the Wraith is an INCREDIBLY powerful asset to a cloaker. If you want to go to the field to mine an area, you will get shot at if you’re in your agile armor. If you fill the Wraith’s trunk with ACEs, you can drive there, cloaked, lay down a trusty number of mines, and drive back, unseen. So, simply make one loadout for the Wraith. Just throw in a trunk-load of ACEs, and save it.

Finally, put some ACEs in your LOCKER. If an equipment terminal is inaccessible, your locker is the next best approach. Even in an enemy base, you can use your advanced REK to hack it and pull out whatever you need.

So, you have your certs, your implants, and your loadouts. Finally on to the strategies!

*Ninja-gen-destruction (Loadout #1)*

The most destructive thing a cloaker can do. Sneak into a base that has a massive battle on its walls, and destroy the generator without warning. This is mostly a stall tactic. It’s powerful, but there’s no way you can hold the generator against the massive force that will come to repair it. So it’s pretty much suicide. BUT, its advantage is, since the forces on the walls retreat inside, it gives your empire time to take the courtyard assuming they have a number of tanks waiting. Its second advantage is, anyone that dies when the gen is down will be forced to spawn at a different facility (assuming they don’t have an AMS in the courtyard). So in essence, this tactic is a kick in the groin to the enemy. How is it done? Well first off, before you move out, put your pistol of choice and some ammo in your locker, along with a few ACEs. Then,sneak into the base with loadout #1, and make your way to the gen. Set your first 3 boomers, and drop (NOT destroy) the detonators. Then make your way to the locker room (the room under the spawn). Hack a locker and pull out 3 more ACEs. If needed, hack the medical terminal to heal yourself. Then make your way back to the gen, set those 3 ACEs, and drop the detonators. Then, head back to a locker, rehack it if needed, and pull out your pistol and ammo, but KEEP YOUR JAMMER! Head back to the gen, throw the jammer at the boomers you laid down. If you did everything right, it will die INSTANTLY without ANY warning! Next, evacuate so the gen explosion doesn’t kill you. Take cover behind a few boxes in 3rd person mode. Watch for anyone who tries to come in. If they come in with Darklight, jam them, and use your pistol. Hold off the incoming engineers for as long as you can. Taking the gen down is the easy part, KEEPING it down is the hard task. Kill as many engineers as you can before someone with Darklight comes in and catches you without a jammer. Hopefully your empire will have done SOMETHING to take the courtyard at least. When you die, respawn, don’t wait for the enemy to take the gen back up. When you die, no matter what, they’ll repair it. If you succeeded and kept the gen down for a while, you have done a GREAT thing for your empire. This is THE biggest way to turn the tide of a battle.

*Ninja-tube-destruction (Loadout #1)*

Much quicker than gen destruction, but also riskier because you have to kill 3 tubes in front of several enemies. It’s not the best tactical advantage you could give your empire, but it proves useful if the enemy can’t get the tubes back up. Make your way to the spawn room, sensor shield active. When you get inside, place a boomer at the bottom of each tube. Then, sneak into the room behind the spawn, and detonate your boomers as quickly as you can. Reason you need to get to the room behind the spawn is that when you hit the detonator, you’re more visible for a moment. If the enemy repaired, hack a locker and pull out more ACEs. Then do it again. Do this repeatedly until your locker’s empty of ACEs, or you are killed.


*Ninja-tower-tube-destruction (Loadout #1)*

Takes the fight right out of the enemy at a tower. Can be considered harder than base-tube destruction because the enemies are in a smaller space, and it can be hard to evade them all the way to the spawn room, but if successful, they will be forced to repair. OK, first off, get to the staircase that goes from the spawn. Throw a jammer smack in the center of the room. The radius of the jammer is good and should disable everyone’s implants in the room. Then, put one boomer at the bottom of each tube. Detonate them both ASAP. By now, about 30 seconds should have passed. Throw another jammer smack in the center of the room. Whenever someone tries to repair, place another boomer in the tube and kill them. Hack a terminal to get more ACEs when needed. If you keep the enemy at bay for a long enough time, your empire will hopefully have taken the CC of the tower and hacked it. So, this IS a tide-turning strategy. Just remember that every 30 seconds, throw a jammer in the middle of the spawn room to keep enemy implants down.

*AMS-hunting (Loadout #2)*

Like most of the strategies before, this IS a tide turning tactic. Could be considered easy or hard. Find the enemy AMS, place 4 boomers UNDER it. Get outside the cloak field, and drop the detonators. Throw a jammer at the AMS. Instant *BOOM*. If any enemies were sadly caught in the blast radius of the explosion, you will get the credit for killing them too. This is another kick-in-the-groin tactic. It is the best way to win a bridge battle.

*Sniper-hunting (Loadout #1, #2, or #5)*

Not exactly a tide-turning strategy. But people will love you if you fry 3 snipers sitting on a hill picking off people at a base. Simply use a Wraith or Mosquito to get up close, and crouch-walk towards the group. If they’re close together, smack a boomer between them. If they’re far apart, jam them, and pick them off one by one. This works best against snipers, but if you want to do it to people shooting phoenixes at a base, feel free. I recommend ONLY doing it to phoenix spammers though. The TR move too much and the VS can swap weapons quickly, whereas phoenix spammers are looking through the eyes of a missile 90% of the time.

*Finding the perfect OS/EMP (Loadout #3 or #6)*

Rarely used (OS recharge time is 3 hours). But HIGHLY effective when used. Remember when I said that “a cloakers most powerful ability is to obtain knowledge of the enemy”? Well, here’s one reason why. If you sneak behind enemy lines, into a well-defended enemy base, and you observe Tanks/BFRs gathering, you can slap an OS marker smack in the middle of them all, and make them go BOOM. Feel happy, you just saved your empire from having to kill a ton of tanks/BFRs the hard way.

-ILQ