PlanetSide 2 Unlocks to Avoid Guide

PlanetSide 2 Unlocks to Avoid Guide by MonkeyTR

I decided create this guide after hearing about the incoming wipe and seeing the whine threads about wasted auraxium. Unless they fix some of the more useless ones after the character wipe people will be wasting their time, so hopefully someone finds this useful. I also intended to post this in the Planetside 2 BETA section, but went in general on accident. I apologize.

Currently I am topping the leaderboard on West 01 in score/kills/kill death ratio/battle rank, and my large amount of idling game time, thus I have had my hands on many unlocks and experience with them.

Of course this is BETA, IT’S BETA! BETA, BETA~ Did you know this is BETA? Right? Well so far in my time in beta (PS1 Vet wave) they have not changed the obviously broken weapons, however they have given us a chance and made these unlocks available for feedback.

If anyone has questions about weapons I have not listed as bad, and may find my advice useful feel free to post in this thread and I will tell you what I know about the weapon.

Sunderer:
M60 Mortar – With a range of about 10 meters and the ability to shoot underneath the vehicle this is probably one of the worst upgrades you could buy. The gun itself (should you find a ground target in front of the vehicle that would rather not drive over) will kill them in two fairly close splash damage hits, possibly one in a direct hit, and a near uncountable number in the respectable splash range. It does decently against other light ground vehicles, but you will not be killing a galaxy with it. Enjoy your weapon lock if you use this weapon.
*The sunderer will easily beat any other vehicle with the default weapons including AP tanks.

Prowler/MBT:
P2-120 HE – Unlike the lightning’s L100 HE round this will take two shots instead of one at close distance to kill an enemy (same as the HEAT rounds), and like the other cannons it will kill on a direct hit. Although the splash size is respectable the damage caused by it is not, and due to the currently low ammo supply on the prowler you will be spending a lot of rounds to knock off the shields on enemy soldiers. Comet MAXes will waddle towards you and pew pew you to death.
G30 Vulcan – I wish I could give more information on this, but the spread is so incredibly stupid I haven’t had the chance to hit anything with it. At least it looks cool.
P525 Marauder – the default gun is better in almost every situation.
A30 Walker – The A30 walker on all of the MBTs is locked into firing straight forward along the axis the tank is pointing, and also cannot be aimed up or down
Galaxy:

The mortar is extremely situational on this aircraft, and considering during landings on enemy air towers you will want the 20mm to destroy active AA turrets I’m not sure how worthwhile it is. As is the A30 walker on the galaxy melts infantry and is decent against aircraft.

Liberator:
CAS30 Tank Buster – Wanna know something neat? This will destroy a lightning near instantly — if you are floating right next to it. If you decide to shoot at it from a “reasonable” distance, your gunner is having a snack, and you want to use almost all your ammunition you might make use of it before by getting hit by every vehicle and rocket in the area. If an enemy aircraft wants to ram you and is heading straight at you he will die instantly if you pull the trigger at the right moment.
A30 Walker/M12 Kobalt – The A30 walker was a surprise for me as well. Aside from the default tail gun already melting enemy aircraft apparently this one doesn’t like to do much of anything. At first it appears to have a much longer range than the A30 Walkers on other vehicles, but the damage output and weird aim on it doesn’t fit the price tag. The kobalt is also worse than the default weapon.
M60 Mortar – The last I checked it’s still bugged so that it is upside down. I haven’t had the chance to hit anything with it because of that so I’m not sure if it is good.
*Because the AP30 shredder is overpowered if your pilot doesn’t make you want to strangle his throat, the M60 Mortar could likely be the only worthwhile replacement for the default gun once it is fixed.

Mosquito:
M14 Banshee – Apparently “devastating against ground” means a cone of fire so large you’re more likely to run over that annoying infiltrator on the ridge than kill him if you try to fly close enough to hit him. It’s terrible. Along with the vulcan, m60 mortar, and tank buster if you aren’t crying over spending your auraxium you’ll get a lot of laughs out of using it.
M18 Rotary – The default gun is far superior to the m18. The m18 is only useful if you fly underneath an aircraft and fire a burst. You’ll end up resupplying for this plenty. It’s sad to see that currently their solution to making weapons better in certain situations are to make “easier” to hit with.
A2AM Pods – Instead of increasing the skill required to use an effective air to air weapon — such as allowing the missiles to lock-on at a faster rate the more accurate you are on the enemy aircraft, and if you are not accurate lock will be broken or delayed — they decided to kill the range of the lock on and require you to near fly into another aircraft before firing the missiles. The rocket pods are the best anti-air weapons in the game currently, so be sure to skip A2AM for the time being.

Lightning and Flash Unlocks by Goodkat

Lightning (I tried all):

100mm AP: For 2500, its a good gun. It is best against armor obviously and I have killed MBTs with it one on one if I get the drop and come from behind. You HAVE to learn how to aim. There is no splash damage. Two hits to kill MAX usually and one hit infantry if you hit them directly. Recommend at least 2x zoom.

100mm HE: 6000 for this one. This gun is not bad either. Pretty useless against armor except to scare the inexperienced tanks with the impressive looking fireball. Against Infantry, it is pretty good. The blast radius means you can hit them fairly hard while they hide behind rocks and whatnot but a direct hit is still recommended. Recommend 2x zoom.

100mm HEAT: My personal favorite. I have over 200 kills with this gun. It is pricey at 12,500, but worth it. My feeling (just a feeling mind you) is that it is probably about 75% as effective as both the above guns against their respective preferred targets. This is a worthwhile trade off for the versatility in my opinion. I mostly go after infantry with it and direct hits are preferable. It also usually 2 shots MAXes and is effective against other Lightnings and even MBTs. I recommend that full 3x zoom if you are going to drop the dough on this one.

Sky-guard: Although much improved since is nausea inducing debut, the sky-guard turret is still mediocre in my opinion. This gun does not have enough punch to kill aircraft except for the unlucky or stupid ones. It is an effective deterrent, but the lack of kills is disheartening. In its current state, it is too expensive. 5,000 instead of 10,000 would be closer to worthwhile.

Flash (I tried all):

Basilisk: Cheap at 2500 and better than no gun at all. This is actually my favorite for the flash. The flash is a cheap and fast transport and not a combat vehicle. I find that infantry on the ground is more dangerous to me than I to them with any flash gun (though I roll the squishy engineer). I find the best targets are unaware MAXes and vehicles and this is the best gun against them due to the decent damage and flat trajectory.

Kobalt: Supposed an anti-infantry gun, but I cannot live long enough to kill someone if I stand still enough to hit them with this thing. Honestly I think this gun sucks no matter what platform its mounted on.

Fury: Some like it. I don’t. Maybe I can’t figure out the aiming as well, but I have better luck with the easier to use and cheaper basilisk.

Hope that was informative enough to help.