Reapers
#1 Rule of Reapers. Stick Together and Focus fire. No matter where they push you on the map, remember the kill order and focus fire accordingly.
The kill order itself. Some may disagree because certain enemies are more difficult than others.
#1 - Banshee UNLESS you see Cannibals or Marauders in the same room. Generally Banshees make it to you very quickly so the first set will be alone. Stay out of melee range obviously, but since the last two patches boosted her teleport range give her an extra step or two breathing room.
#2 - Marauders/Cannibals/Husks. I know this may look like wtf he forgot Ravagers, but they are slow and should only be bumped up the rank if they have direct line of sight into your current area. Cannibals also throw grenades which in a heated battle with banshees can take you by surprise as you walk right into one. Marauders are just generally aggressive and we all know about their shields. I added Husks here because they can cause huge problems if you ignore them. Use them to setup detonations or just kill them as soon as you see them, just don't let them get in close while you are fighting other enemies.
#3 - Ravagers. They can long distance nuke you, and potentially cause a wipe by having you spawn killed as you revive.
#4 - Brutes. They are dangerous in conjuction with long ranged enemies and Banshee's but alone they are low on the list.
#5 - Swarmers. You don't want to leave a large group wandering as they always hit you at the worst possible moment.
The kill order will constantly change depending on what is within sight of you but thats a good general rule.
How to fight them is different than Geth or Cerberus because they come right at you. Only the foot soldiers stop for cover. You need to be ready to move when it gets too chaotic. Generally designating a "home base" to return to is a good idea, then rotating away from them around a smallish area of the map until you return home works. Make sure as you retreat you are focus firing and stagger how you fall back. DO NOT stay in the open as its just a matter of time before a Ravager or foot soldier lights you up from across the map.
Reaper Tips and Tricks
Reapers are easier to control with "aggro" than other enemies so use this to your advantage.
Always have someone watching your flank, and ALWAYS leave yourself a way out of where you are. Movement is much more important than bunkering down.
Brutes can hit you through cover, don't count on it to protect you. They also have a one hit kill so no melee parties unless you are well versed against them.
Banshees will "detonate" 1/2 a bar after their barrier is gone and again about halfway through their armor. This is how much damage you need to do to release a teammate from the sync-kill. Pulling a missile out after it starts usually isn't fast enough to save them. They also "glitch" on cover and will try to teleport over it repeatedly but will not be able to. This is a cheese way of killing one if you have the time to abuse it.
Marauders are more aggressive with each teammate that goes down. If you are the last one prepare for all of them to rush you at once. Stay in cover as much as possible and use a rocket if you absolutely must.
It is an extremely good idea to have 1 person lone wolf the level as an infiltrator, systematically killing the Cannibals, husks, and Marauders. This makes life much easier on the team.
Cerberus
Fighting Cerberus is much different than other factions because they use your tactics against you. They have units specifically designed to counter each play style. Rather than give a kill order I'm going to go over each unit and what they do, followed by why you should kill them.
Atlas - This unit is meant to make you move and keep you supressed. It has very high life totals and is extremely dangerous when up close. If you are camping this is the one you do NOT want to let close off your escape route, or get close enough to melee. They also have homing rockets and cannon blasts that almost never miss so they force you to use cover. These guys are low priority as long as you keep them at a distance, they are great for Biotics as they tend to block groups of minor enemies behind them. They can OHK you at melee range.
Phantom - This unit is a bunker buster and works in conjunction with an Atlas. While the Atlas keeps your teams attention they sneak in behind you and go for the one hit kills. You need to be calling these girls out as soon as you see them and focus them down ASAP. They fire 3 blasts per volley with their palm gun so wait for all of them before breaking cover. They also throw a melee combo that leads into their OHK, you do NOT want to charge/melee them between this 2-3 hit combo. The last thing they do is a "ninja" stance which almost negates damage. Strip down their barriers and then go offensive as they cloak and retreat to heal.
Guardian - This is the enemy that is meant to slow down the movement oriented teams. You run into one and suddenly you are stopped cold. They have very strong melee so stay out of range. Armor piercing rounds or abilities such as Stasis or Pull make quick work of them. You can also use Concussive Shot/Carnage followed immediately by a headshot to kill them.
Engineers - These guys are priority #1. They aren't the most dangerous enemy but the turrets that they lay down are. They will place them right on top of you if you allow them to, and can cause a game over if you get downed between 1-3 turrets. They also heal Atlas armor so if you see its life going up, flank and kill the Engineer. NEVER LEAVE A TURRET ALIVE.
Centurion - Assault troopers with Shields. They are more aggressive and will walk through your gunfire to get to you at times. Take them down to avoid the all in rush they are known for, and the grenades they throw.
Assault Trooper - Grenades. They do hurt when they shoot you, but watch out for the grenades. They are easy to kill so focus them down fast to avoid the spam. Call out grenades that are near the team whenever possible.
Geth
Geth rely on slow moving pressure to corner you and overwhelm you. They are best fought from cover because they love to be grabbed and insta killed. They have no OHK abilities and lack any type of grenade.
Primes - These guys are what ruin your day while bunkered down. They cannot be grabbed and have a terrible tendancy to throw turrets behind you, that quickly kill your team. Killing the turret helps but less than 3 seconds later there will be another. They need to be taken down quickly with headshots, or you can use the Combat drone around them to set off fire explosions.
Hunters - These guys are probably the most annoying enemy in the game. They move cloaked very quickly and weild Geth Plasma Shotguns. You cannot target them unless you either remove their shield, or hit them to make it flicker. If they hit you it will stagger you, and not allow you to use any powers or rolls. You need to be watching out for these guys constantly and never let them get close. 99% of the time you lose Geth games is because a Hunter flanked your team and broke down your system.
Pyros - They have insane range and do high DPS with their flame throwers. They can hit you through cover and if you go down by one the chances of you surviving a medi-gel respawn is almost zero. Hitting them in the upper left chest with an armor piercing round can puncture their gas tank and insta-kill them. Also using powers or weapons that stagger will give you a moment of opportunity to escape as it breaks their attack.
Rocket Troopers - These guys like to hang back and shell you with rockets. They almost never miss and can shoot multiple rockets periodically. They are more of a bother than a threat, but you should definitely have someone with a long range weapon take them down to avoid the stuns from the rocket blasts.
Troopers - There isn't too much special about these guys. They can hurt if you take direct bursts but generally they are cannon fodder. They do use cover so keep in mind when turning a corner one might be camped out waiting for you.
General Rules of Gold
Everything hurts a LOT. You do not want to take shots from anything if possible. Learn to play safely yet still get out good damage. Burst damage weapons make this much easier as you can lessen the time you need to be exposed.
Use your Mic. In the pre-game lobby you should be choosing classes that complement each other, and believe it or not talking to experienced players will generally prevent you from getting kicked. If you are new just say you are and if they recommend you ditch the Geth Pulse Rifle for a Geth Pulse Shotgun on your build, be open to the idea. During the game you need to be able to call out targets, announce the time to move, let everyone know the extraction timer is low, etc. The mic is even important when you are dead as you can spectate your team and call out enemies behind them they might not have seen. Do not use your mic to sing songs, announce everything you are doing step by step, or let us hear everything that is happening in your house.
Don't try to be the Hero. It's actually harder to solo Gold with a team scattered trying to follow you without a clue what you are doing than it is without. You aren't there to get top score you are there to get max credit/xp possible.
Keep your positioning. If you decided to have 2 on each entrance to a room, don't leave your side unless its absolutely required. Nothing wipes a team faster than getting hit from behind because the person covering that zone decided to freelance.
Use your equipment! Each one has a place and time and should be used if needed. If you are sitting on 255 Thermal Clips and Ops packs you are not being as effective as you could be.
Rockets are your friend. If you get a hack on wave 10 just pull the
launcher out ahead of time, you are going to need it more than likely.
You can spawn camp them with rockets on rotation leaving 3 teammates in
the hack. Also if it seems like the room is just filled with high risk
targets, nuke them. Generally its better to shoot a wall or ceiling if
you can to avoid the rocket glitch.
Help your teammate, but don't run into a mess to get them. If you get downed in a swarm let them leave then medi-gel.
Try
to form a team that compliments each other. 3 Engineers and a Biotic
isn't a good idea. A team of Biotics or team of tech users would be
better. Obviously a soldier or infiltrator will work with either
explosive branch. Even if you are mix matched remember that you will
always kill faster together.
Bring a heavy hitter. You need someone that can take single targets
down FAST. This could be a biotic, soldier, infiltrator, etc. If you
cannot deal with a heavy before it reaches your team, your DPS is too low. On the flip side don't bring ALL heavy hitters as you need some form of crowd control against the minor enemies.
Just because you have one guy running into the spawn to assault the enemy, doesn't mean you all should follow. Its best to stay in position to force the spawns and not get flanked while the 1-2 guys go out to kill off the initial spawns. If you are doing a speed run this is null as you will all be rushing the enemy.
Enemies get more aggressive each time a teammate is taken out, so if you are the last one alive prepare to be rushed. The best course of action is to find the biggest threats and group them up for a rocket, then kill off the remaining enemies.
Objectives
All enemies spawn forever until the objectives are complete. Once complete no additional enemies will spawn.
Kill the Targets - This should be done as quickly as possible as the enemy will stop spawning once all the targets are dead. On Wave 10 you should consider using 4 rockets to speed up the process.
Capture the Points - This should be done solo by preferrably an infiltrator. DO NOT follow him there as you will bring enemies with you, instead try to shoot at everything you can to distract them. At times these are in such a bad place that the entire team is required, make sure that is communicated. When you do bring the team do not stand next to the objective with the person getting it, fan out to create a perimeter to keep the stray fire off of them.
Hack - Stay in the circle as much as possible. Prepare to expend rockets on this as some hack points are impossible to hold every direction and its better to keep everyone up with a rocket than to play the revive each other game. If you have a player who can grab the enemy attention and lure them around the map this will make the hack much easier. This is especially useful versus Banshee's as only 2 can occupy the map at a time. If it simply becomes too hard to stay in don't be afraid to retreat as a team to the other side of the map to spread out the enemies, then take an alternate route back to the objective.
Final note is have some fun. This is a team based co-op game not a competitive shooter. Rather than bash newer players try teaching them a thing or two so they become better. Sometimes all it takes is a few pointers and that noob turns into your most trusted teammate.
Edited by D4rk50ul808, 12 May 2012 - 01:04 AM.
Back to top
