APB Reloaded Beginner’s Guide

APB Reloaded Beginner’s Guide by Kat G.

Part 1

Getting Started

Introduction:

APB: Reloaded is just now hitting open beta; its current studio, K2 Network, picked it up after its first studio went bankrupt, and fans of cops and robbers action are probably glad they did. This MMO action shooter gives players a new take on the MMO genre, and its open beta has become quite popular. The following guide offers new players a few handy tips and tricks to get them through their first login; part two of this guide will be more in-depth.

Character Creation

Once you’re logged in to the game, the first thing you’ll want to do is create your character.

If you really want a great deal of control over the way your character looks, click on the advanced option. When you do this, you’ll get a list of features with slider bars that adjust it between two extremes. Height, for example, can be adjusted up and down on a vertical axis. Age markings go back and forth on a horizontal slider (like a timeline).

Some features, such as Weight and Muscularity will have both horizontal and vertical axes. This gives you a lot of control over the variables of your character’s weight and musculature.

The right of the screen displays a number of color swatches. You can use this to change the color of your character’s hair, facial hair, and body hair. You can adjust these all together or individually.

Gameplay

There are a handful of important commands that you need to know for various basic maneuvers in APB:

• F – your all-purpose interaction key. F will allow you to interact with mailboxes, contacts, vehicles, doors, ladders, etc.
• SHIFT – Holding down the shift key will make you sprint for a limited amount of time. Some heavy guns will prevent you from sprinting.
• CTRL – Pressing control once makes you crouch. Pressing it again makes you stand up.
• ESC – This key will allow you to change districts.
• U –If you need to find a group for something, hit U and check the LFG box in the window that pops up.
• K – When you’re ready to receive a mission, hit the K key.
• TAB – This key will show the statistics of your last match.

Combat

• When you need to reload your ammo, press the R key.
• When you need to resupply your ammo, go to one of the ammo vending machines and hit the T key.
• If you want to swap between your primary and secondary weapons, go to the vending machine and hit I to access your inventory and choose a new weapon.
• Scrolling with the mouse wheel will scroll through all your active weapons.
• Use the left mouse click to shoot, and hold down the right button to aim. Releasing the button will cause you to fire from the hip. If you click the mouse wheel, you will arm a grenade – release to throw it, and be careful not to hold on to it for too long!
• Lastly, friendly fire is possible in this game. If you mouseover someone on your team, your reticule will be green. Enemies’ reticules will be red.

Driving

Likewise, there are a handful of important commands that you need to know for in-game driving maneuvers:

• The Space Bar activates the hand brakes, which allows you to do tighter driving maneuvers – good for tight spots!
• The left mouse button will sound the horn of your vehicle, and will possibly cause pedestrians to get out of your way.
• If your vehicle has a siren, the right mouse button will activate it. Hit the right mouse button again to turn it off.
• If you want to change the music in your car, hit P to do so.
• Lastly, when you are a passenger in a vehicle, you have the ability to fire. Press A or D to lean out the window and raise your weapon. You can press the key again to return to sitting normally in the car – useful if you’ve taken too much damage!

Factions

Criminals can do a vehicular maneuver called ram-raiding. To do this, take a vehicle and drive through the streets mousing over shop windows. When the shop window turns orange, that indicates that you can try a ram-raid. Drive into the window and smash it, then take the goods and put them back in your car, using F to interact with them. Then you can drive the vehicle back to the safehouse of your choice and give the goods to the contact of your choice.

You can also turn in a stolen car for a monetary reward. Simply steal the car and take it to an auto drop zone. The more damaged it is, the less money you’ll get for it.

Enforcers are the only ones who can arrest criminals. First, the criminal must be stunned with an LTL (Less Than Lethal weapon). The criminal will be stunned for only a few seconds, so you have to run up to the criminal quickly! Press the F button to begin handcuffing, but be aware that the criminal’s allies can free him/her.

Conclusion:

This basic knowledge should get you started in APB; check out the next guide for a more in-depth look at how to play.

Part 2.

In-Depth New Player Tips

Introduction: In our APB: Reloaded Part I Beginner’s Guide, we talked about some very basic elements of the game – how to move, special maneuvers for each faction, and driving and combat commands. This guide will go a little bit more in-depth, explaining some of the ways in which APB differs from other MMO games and helping to orient new players to the world they will inhabit in San Palo.

Movement

One of the most obvious things you’ll discover when playing APB is that the camera pans around your character freely unless you’re firing your weapon. This means that the camera is quite useful for spotting the enemy before he spots you. Use this to your advantage! Look around corners and down stairs and behind doorways to see how the enemy is moving through the area, and remember that the enemy can do the same to you.

That also means that a player can be looking at you even if their character’s back is to you. APB allows you to do 180 degree turns very quickly, so even if someone doesn’t appear to be looking at you, the camera controls allow the character to snap to the correct position, take aim, and fire.

There are also some important points to know about trying to hide behind objects in the APB environment. If you are behind a low object, or aren’t hidden well behind a wall, your hit box may still be visible to other players, and that means that they can hit you. Likewise, only NPC vehicles block bullets. Tires do not block bullets, nor do cars if an opposing player is able to aim under it.

Two tips about sprinting: First, you can reload weapons while you’re sprinting, but they have a tendency to bug when you do. It’s better to reload before you sprint. Also, only firing your weapon and driving a car make you show up on the radar – sprinting will not do that. People of Notoriety/Prestige 5 will show up on the radar regardless.

Lastly, one important feature that not all players are aware of is the shoulder switch feature. It is bound to the V key by default, and it will switch your camera and weapon to the other shoulder. In APB, bullets fire from the end of your gun, so depending on which shoulder you have your weapon on, a shot that looks clean might actually hit a wall – or a teammate!

Teamwork

Speaking of teammates, it’s important to note that team play is a very important part of APB. Likewise, it’s important to remember that, as in all scenarios where you’re working with a team, the mission takes paramount importance. Your performance should be secondary to completing the mission successfully. Following are a few tips that new players should keep in mind when they start to work with a group.

In APB, it’s the simplest things that make the best team players. For example, when on a group mission where a driver is waiting for you, the first people to arrive back to the car should take the farthest seats away (I.e. the seats on the other side of the car), while the person last to arrive takes the passenger seat. Likewise, sometimes it’s best to sacrifice whatever you need to to get an item out of a heated battle – so, for example, if you have a 2-seater car, allow the item’s carrier to jump in and driver while the driver bails.

Don’t waste time kill-farming at one objective if another objective is now in play. The only good reason to waste time staying at an old objective is to keep your opponents distracted while your teammates do what they need to do. Your own kill count is not important if you can’t complete the objective.

Communication is key in working with teammates. Use your radar to communicate with them where enemy targets are. Likewise, if you get killed tell them where, who killed you, and whether or not he’s injured. Keep your teammates up to date on objectives that are near completion so that they’ll know the status of the mission if you get killed and they have to go in and finish it themselves.

Also, make sure to have all your ranges covered when it comes to your weapons. Close-range, mid-range, and long-range weapons should all be available to you, that way you’re ready no matter what the situation calls for.

Driving

Driving is an important aspect of APB, as well as who drives. Naturally, you want the best driver to drive, but if that’s not possible, try having the person with the item who didn’t get to drop it in the trunk drive, or the person whose weapon can’t be fired out of the car.

When you arrive at a location, park in the best way you can so that you can get out of it quickly. This means planning out your parking, not just diving out of the car – make sure you don’t have to waste time reversing and turning, but you’ll be able to drive forward and get out of the location ASAP.

Another crucial distinction that players must learn to make is when to drop an item in the trunk and when to hold it. It’s a balancing point – stashing the item in the trunk gives your team an extra gun. Holding the item means that your carrier will be able to jump out of the car and deliver it quickly, even if being shot at. Choose carefully for your situation.

Plan who goes to what objective very carefully. For example, if you’re driving, you don’t need to jump out and go try to take care of the first objective. Rather, you need to drop your team off and take the last objective yourself if you need to, although it’s really better if the driver can stay in the car.

In chase situations, be tricky. If you’re driving the chased car, stay on the move and fake your opponents out with surprising turns. Don’t try to stop and repair at the gas station for a full cycle; instead, drive through several gas stations to get the repair level of the car back up. If you are the chasing car, look at your map and try to predict where the opponent will turn. Then head that way, and cut them off. You won’t catch them if you’re depending on blind luck that your firearms will hit or that they’ll mess up and crash. Maximize your chances at winning the chase by playing tricky yourself.

Conclusion:

These beginner tips should help anyone begin to understand some of the finer strategic points of playing APB: Reloaded. It’s not by any means a game that you can simply pick up and perfect easily, but these tips will help you to orient yourself to the game world, and in no time, you’ll be a pro yourself.