DUST 514 Beginner’s Basic Guide

DUST 514 Beginner’s Basic Guide by Mark Shirey

This new player guide is not for everyone; in fact most people might disagree with this. I’m not here to tell you where or how to train your skills because my style of gameplay is probably different than yours. I just like helping people in any way I can and I feel that this could help someone new to the game. Before starting my new character when the game goes live I already have a plan and strategy to what I want to be and what I want to do. I would suggest you do the same if you’re serious about doing well in this game. So before I start I don’t think any bashing is needed, if you disagree with me just post stating your disagreement because it could help new players. I also do realize that there are similar guides out there.

When creating a character you’re able to choose between 4 sets of starting skills: Arbiter, Enforcer, Sentinel, and Artificer. When choosing your character don’t worry about these names because it doesn’t affect what you’re able to do. It just simply gives you a base starting point to your dust514 career. In this guide selecting arbiter will be your best option because it gives you shield boost systems level 3 and you’ll find out why that’s important in a second.

Two of the most important skills, in my opinion, are Circuitry and Combat Engineering. I think these should be some of the first if not the first skills you put your skill points in. Circuitry when at level five gives you +25% vehicle and dropsuit CPU output per level. Combat engineering maxed out gives you +25% to vehicle and dropsuit PG output per level. What this does is allows you to equip more and better modules on your dropsuit/vehicle fittings. You will find out that taking full advantage of your dropsuit or vehicle will require a lot of CPU/PG and getting these now will save you time later.

The next two skills I think are very important are Shield Control and Field Mechanics. Shield Control maxed out at level 5 gives you +25% to dropsuit and vehicle maximum shield, and Field Mechanics maxed out gives you +25% to dropsuit and vehicle maximum armor. Rather you’re specializing in shields or armor or even both getting these skills will help your survivability in battle. Shield Control Does require Shield boost systems level 4, but because you selected the arbiter starting point you already have shield boost systems level 3.

Next I would suggest if you’re looking to be infantry on the ground I would suggest getting weaponry to level 5 next, because maxed out it gives you +10% handheld weapon damage per level and unlocks the ability to use all handheld weapons. Then I would go for your weapon of choice operation and then dropsuit command up to the level required for your dropsuit of choice, for example dropsuit command level 1 unlocks assault suits, level 2 unlocks scout and logistics suits, level 3 unlocks heavy suits. If you want to drive vehicles or fly dropships you’ll need vehicle command, and I would go ahead and max that out so you can operate all vehicles. Next get your vehicle of choice skill, and then turret of choice skills.

I understand that this guide is not for everyone, and it’s not intended for everyone. I just find that this has worked well for me so far in the beta. If you have any suggestions or thoughts please post and let me know if you think this will be helpful to a new player.