Tribes Ascend Infiltrator Flag Offense Guide

Tribes Ascend Infiltrator Flag Offense Guide by gop88888

Are you sick of feeling useless as you destroy the enemy generator? Seen that pretty flag defence guide but just can’t get into it? Maybe this is for you!

Part 1: Your tools

As an Infiltrator you have a large variety of tools at your disposal.

Primaries:

Rhino SMG: A fully automatic bullet based gun. It does 75 damage a hit and has a large clip for a few seconds of fire; Great outdoors, bad indoors. This is the default weapon for the Infiltrator, and is great for flag offense more than it is for gen offense. This weapon is somewhat redundant with your two choices of secondary weapon. Great for taking people who are in the air out.

Stealth Spinfusor: This is a single shot explosive weapon, boasting 700 damage for a direct hit. This weapon is best suited for hitting people when they touch the ground, as the splash damage is enough to two shot a light class (most of the time). No point in wasting shots at an enemy who is mid-air, unless you are crazy skilled. This weapon is viable in both indoors and outdoors combat, and is probably the best option for flag offense.

The Jackal: I have no personal experience with this, but according to people I have talked to, this 3-shot remotely detonated sticky grenade launcher is not that great for outdoors combat, but is deadly indoors. Each grenade does 500 (?) damage per explosive charge. I cannot say for sure, but the general consensus amongst the people I have talked to is that this weapon is a poor choice for flag offense, as its only real use is to kill the HoF.

Secondaries:
Silenced Pistol: Amazing bullet weapon. 170 damage a shot, picks of weakened enemies like a champ. It has a rather slow projectile speed, but it has an insane fire rate for the amount of damage it does. Great compliment to the Spinfusor.

Throwing Knives: Basically the silenced pistol with slower fire rate and smaller clip size in exchange for 375 damage, faster projectile, and a small splash radius doing 100 damage for a near miss. While technically out DPS’ed by the pistol, they make you feel like a badass. The differences are minor, so pick whatever secondary feels the coolest (so the knives).

Belt Items:
Sticky Grenades: Grenades that stick to things, need I say more? These do 1200 damage on direct stick/if the enemy is in the centre of the blast radius. Good for hitting the HoF hard, and if you stick a light class they can say bye-bye. These are a great offensive supplement for you, and are pretty much your only hope of taking out a heavy. This is the most offensive choice for belt item, great for killing the enemy defence.

Prism Mines: These things are wonderful, I love them to death, and most people hate them though. These mines create a sort of green-laser that works as a trip wire, and when set off do 700 damage. They are the second least visible mine in the game, but people who do see them often mistake them for friendly mines when placed in the enemy base (I don’t get this, who is that stupid). The people who don’t see them are often unaware that they are in a minefield even after they trigger one, they think it was Spinfusor shot and are put on edge (Yet again, how – Only the jugs Spinfusor is green). They can be used as a way to make your presence known without even being seen. Great for offense until the enemy team catches on (In pubs this can even take as long as ¾ of the game). Only really viable on Sunstar and Temple Ruins

Smoke grenades: Instantly cloak you, and keeps you in cloak for 2 seconds, even when taking damage or when you are out of energy; pure utility and great for mind games. Get off a Spinfusor shot; let them see you – then simply disappear. This really puts defenders on edge and often distracts them from your cappers, the ultimate goal of defence disruption.

Stealth Pack: This is what makes you unique, this is what makes you survive, this is what makes you powerful, and this is what makes you a threat. Invisibility at the cost of energy, seems like a sweet deal, right? The drawbacks are as such: You become visible for a moment if you shoot or get shot. That’s it, simple right? Wrong. Invisible does not mean invincible – you are often even more vulnerable when in stealth than when you are not, as you will often have little energy left. Well, that’s what you should tell yourself.

Part 2: Why do this?

Often times you will not immediately see the effects of your work, as the defenders will just keep respawning. However, over time you will begin to see the defenders become frustrated, and they will mostly focus all that frustration in order to snuff out your life. Remember the effect their constant respawning had on you? Now imagine their frustration they must be suffering, even if they kill you, you can strike back anytime, anywhere. When the defence is trying to expect the unexpected, they fail to expect the expected (mind=blown), and your capper can easily slip in and be half-way across the map by the time they realise what has happened. If this happens, you have literally countered the static defenders (HoF, Technicians) and gimped any chasers that were focused on your invisible ass (if they were, then shame on them). While other classes can gain the attention of the defenders quicker, none can hold said attention like you. Be there, let your actions be seen, but never be seen yourself – and you will hold the attention of everyone even though no one is looking at you.

Part 3: The plan

There are 4 factors in your job:
– Who
– When
– Where
– How
How you employ these factors determines how well you are doing your job. Attack the right people, attack them when they least expect it, where they least expect it, and from an angle they can’t conceive. Primarily, your target is the defence around the flag, forget the generator – the other Infiltrators will handle that. Your secondary target is any flag carrier stupid enough to think the defence will be enough to shield them. They can be protected from the outside, but what stops a knife from the inside?

When to attack is tricky. Always hit them when they are on the ground (except when finishing off weakened targets), when they aren’t looking in your direction, when they walk into inventory stations they are vulnerable for roughly 3 seconds, when they are reloading is a good opportunity as they can’t fight back, and immediately after they have used a lot of energy on jet packing/their own pack abilities.

Where to attack is simpler, hit them so you knock them any direction except directly away from you. People sub-consciously assume the attack came from the direction opposite of where they were knocked back to. If you are behind them, knock them to the side, if you are to the side, knock them backwards or forwards. This often buys you enough time to re-cloak before they can find you.

Finally: how to attack. The Spinfusor is a great weapon as it is a burst damage weapon, you deal your damage and then re-cloak, and the SMG however keeps you visible while you are doing damage – so keep this in mind. Attack from angles they won’t expect, as in not from being level with them. If you hit them from the ground they will find you much more quickly than if you are above or below them. Temple Ruins is a good map for this as there are many spots you can stand where they won’t immediately detect you. Also if possible attack from a decent range, as then you will be re-cloaked even before they are hit.

Part 4: General Tips

– INVISIBILITY =/= INVINCIBILITY
– IF YOU ARE ANOTHER CLASS DO NOT STAND ANYWHERE NEAR A CLOAKED INFILTRATOR
– Do not commit to killing one person single-mindedly, this will get you killed.
– Learn the common hiding spots for Infiltrators, then avoid them like the plague
– IF YOU ARE ANOTHER CLASS DO NOT STAND ANYWHERE NEAR A CLOAKED INFILTRATOR
– If you get a persistent follower, lead them away from the base, then break the line of sight then cloak, they will often not even realise you cloaked and continue away from the base hoping to pad their score with kills, this is even better if you lure away a heavy, as they will get back much later than you will
– Break line of sight before combat cloaking unless you have smoke grenades
– The only class that has less firepower than you in a straight up fight is the sentinel class, be aware of this before entering any duels
– INVISIBILITY =/= INVINCIBILITY
– If you must duel, strike first, this is the power of the Infiltrator class
– If you are caught with no chance of stealthing, then expect to die – this is the only time to play recklessly, you will die anyway so try to take someone with you
– Use hit and run tactics if at all possible, guerrilla warfare is your specialty
– If you manage to cloak without breaking line of sight first, stop and RUN back towards your chaser and to the right, people often think you will head either away, or to the left for some reason – at least in my experience
– A technician turret can be taken out safely by shooting it with the silenced pistol once, then immediately following up with a melee attack
– INVISIBILITY =/= INVINCIBILITY
– Automatic weapons are easier to dodge while running, if they are spamming automatics in order to find you, walk – they expect you to be using ski-slopes
– Make the defence feel like their own base is trying to kill them
– IF YOU ARE ANOTHER CLASS DO NOT STAND ANYWHERE NEAR A CLOAKED INFILTRATOR
– Raiders with jammer packs are a threat to you, do not go near them – they are essentially area denial to you
– Drop jammers are the same thing, except they are significantly easier to kill, being inanimate and all
– IF YOU ARE ANOTHER CLASS DO NOT STAND ANYWHERE NEAR A CLOAKED INFILTRATOR
– Melee light classes, sticky mediums, do both for heavies
– INVISIBILITY =/= INVINCIBILITY
– You can still be heard as a cloaked Infiltrator, skiing and walking make a lot of noise, spam Ctrl, this makes you only much really light almost inaudible thudding sounds
– Have fun, you sadistic maniac