This is my one of my favorite things to do when my team isn't around and I want to kick back and headshot some people. A few things need to happen: 1 - There needs to be a fight around the Crown on Indar, and your faction must not be the defenders (usually true). 2 - You need a bolt-action sniper rifle, the more powerful the better. It should probably have a sound suppressor on it. 3 - You either need to be able to hot drop onto the Crown, or be able to sneak onto it. I tend to prefer sneaking. Don't know how to sneak onto Crown? I've got you covered. Let's look at an annotated map: The S's mark the approximate usual locations for Sunderers parked near Crown. I tend to have to sneak on from the two most eastern locations, as I am NC. Let's examine the three southern S's, as they all share a similar route to the target location. - The eastern location is probably the most common Sunderer spot of all, as it is well-protected and difficult for the Crown's defenders to access. Step one is to cut across the main road in this area heading northwest. This will usually be tolerably easy, as if there are defenders, they will usually be focusing on greater threats. Use the cloak and hug the cliff of Crown heading West until you reach the spot where you can scale up, which is just south of the small building on the southeastern corner of Crown. - The southeastern location is my favorite; as it minimizes the time I spend in areas likely to be watched by defenders. From here, cut under the bridge and proceed straight up to the same spot mentioned above. This area may be under observation, but if so, there is plenty of cover under the bridge, and the defenders will be at long range, and usually busy with other enemies. Feel free to pick them off from under the bridge if the situation justifies, otherwise proceed. - The western bridge is a tough spot to get on from, as a Sunderer parked here will usually be attracting a lot of attention from both the air and from nearly every vehicle coming out of Crown. Your best bet is to stay in the rocks on the western side of the main road until you reach the top, then cut east to the same spot as mentioned before. It is also possible, albeit extremely dangerous, to proceed directly to point 6 marked above by moving past the Crown tower on its western side. - The northern location, on the winding path, simplifies your task immensely. You need only proceed to point 6. However, if there is a Sunderer here, your chances of succeeding with this strategy actually drop immensely, as troops streaming in from this direction will cause the defenders to pay far more attention than usual to the Crown's northern environs. The usual relative lack of enemy focus here is what this strategy depends on. - If you hot drop onto Crown, try to aim for the northwest building, the one north of the C capture point. It is usually not very busy, though you should of course move from your drop pod's impact site immediately, under cloak. Now let's proceed with our sneaking strategy, point by point. The following numbers correspond to the points so marked on the above map: 1 - After reaching the peak, you probably need to recharge you cloak. Here, as elsewhere, your best weapon as an infiltrator is not a gun, but shrubberies. Crouched in shrubberies, you are virtually invisible even without the cloak; enemy troops will not notice you unless they are actively looking for you or walk right into you. The spot marked 1 has an excellent, deep set of shrubberies next to a tree where you can relax and let that cloak recharge. It's also possible to get kills from here, though the troops that you have line of sight on from the shrubberies are a - Uncomfortably close, even for an infil with a suppressed rifle, and b- Usually moving around in a way that makes it hard to get headshots. And you have to get headshots, or they will start actively looking for you rather than assuming some sniper from in front of them (rather than behind them) hit them. 2 - Cloak and run to the eastern wall of the B capture point building to find more shrubberies to recharge in. You have to time this properly; there is sometimes foot traffic in this area. Even if you are spotted, getting to the shrubberies and crouching will usually shake your pursuer, even at close range. They will usually assume you went into the B building. 3- If there's relatively little foot traffic in this area, and you can see defenders on Crown's far eastern cliffs, you may wish to take some potshots at them from the east-facing balcony of the B building's second floor. You should move on quickly and not linger, though; the B building's second floor is too obvious, and the defenders will soon find you if you stay too long. 4 - Circling around to the north side of the B building, get into some more nice big shrubberies. 5 - From point 4 to point 6 is, alas, somewhat too far for a single cloak, and there are no decent shrubberies in between. The solution is a set of boxes at the point marked 5. They form a sort of "V" opening northward, which is perfect for hiding in. Jump to the far side of those boxes to recharge your cloak. 6 - Point 6 is your ultimate objective. It is an excellent set of shrubberies just north of the Crown's main vehicle bay. Get down into those bushes, load some rounds into Mr. Sniper Rifle, and prepare to earn certs. From Point 6, you have a clear, easy shot into the Crown's vehicle bay, where people will conveniently walk in front of your rifle and stand still while looking through the vehicle terminals. Arrange yourself so that you can see the terminal clearly (but don't exit the shrubbery). Be aware of your immediate surroundings. If someone is passing by you, don't fire. If someone is looking directly at your shrubbery, don't fire. Also, resist the urge to move around and maybe cloak after firing a shot. These things make you more visible. (Yes, the act of cloaking actually makes you more visible, as its a change that the human eye is likely to notice; and of course the inevitable decloaking is also problematic). Unfortunately, this spot, beautiful as it is, should not be spammed too hard. If you headshot people in the vehicle bay over and over without moving, someone is bound to figure it out eventually, especially if you keep shooting the same person over and over. That's why, like all good snipers, you should kill and relocate. To where, you ask? Let's consult our fine Crown map once again. This map shows three sniping spots on Crown and the likely places you'll want to look for targets. Spot 2 is the shrubberies near the vehicle bay. If you believe that the guy you just killed is onto you and will come hunting for you on his next respawn, you probably have time to kill one more poor sucker before leaving. If your shot raised the alarm in the vehicle bay and people are fanning out looking for you, probably best to leave immediately. There are two options I like to use. First, do NOT retreat down onto the windy paths to the north. That is where they think you went, and that is where they will be looking (and if they're wise/experienced, they will also be checking your shrubberies). My favorite place to move to is spot 1, which is the large building north of the C capture point building. It's just possible to get there from spot 2 (and vice versa) if you time your cloak perfectly. It is usually deserted, having no terminals or capture points in it. You can snipe from a lot of places in there, but my favorites are 1 - the roof, and 2- near a south-facing window on the eastern end of the building, second floor. There is a stack of crates there that you can tuck yourself behind, which would make it difficult for someone combing the building for you to find you at all. This window still gives you an excellent vantage point onto the C building and beyond. From the roof, you of course have a much greater field of view, but that also means that you can more easily be seen. You can also move to spot 3, which is the previously-mentioned balcony on the second-floor of the B building. To get here, retrace your steps from the route you used to reach spot 2. I try to avoid the B balcony though if I can because the route requires multiple stops to recharge your cloak, and as we talked about earlier, the Crown's defenders will be suspicious that someone is in this building. Plus, the route tends to have much more foot traffic than the route from 2 to 1. Still, in some situations, it's very much worth a go. Spot 1 is relatively safe, and you can generally hang out there and shoot any targets of opportunity (or just hide) until you think you lost your heat/wanted level from killing tons of people at Spot 2. Once that happens, you can return to spot 2 and begin all over again. Before we conclude, here is, for your edification, a map showing the usual relevant traffic for Crown defenders. This is relevant as these mark both places to avoid and places to look for targets (though I make no promises that these targets will always hold still for you). Most threatening to you is the traffic on the north and east side of B, and of course the folks you have to sneak by to get onto the Crown in the southeast. You have to pick your spots, watch carefully, and time your cloaks right. You'll probably get killed the first few times you try this, as you have to have good sneaky sense and know where to look and when to hide. With a little practice, though, you can turn this little procedure into a cert-generating machine for when you have nothing better to do. If you find it unsporting to headshot poor folks who are just trying to buy a tank, remember that a- This is WAR. b- They think they're so cool, holding Crown like they think they're better than you, and c- This actually will help your team somewhat (though not as much as direct, squad-based teamwork would), as delaying and preventing vehicle spawns (and forcing a bunch of defenders to waste time combing the area for you) pulls a lot of heat off your more distant buddies. Good luck and good hunting.
Could park on the hill at the bottom by the tree using that as cover and fit a lightning with HE and shoot into the vehicle bay. Garunteed 1 kill every single shot usually 3 or more . The crown is a gold mine regardless if you hold it or not. Always people willing to be farmed. Earlier on i was playing NC bowling they were camped on the ridge opposite. Fly my liberator in nice and low with afterburner and speedframe and you get almost 10 kills each pass most of them are in maxes as well. Om nom nom certs Nice guide but i dont touch infiltrator D:
Seems legit. Snipers were doing this all day a few days ago when we were defending the crown. I'm sure a few of them made a killing, but then again, in such a target-rich environment, all snipers are going to have some fun. I made about 50 certs from sniping alone in about an hour with no xp boosters, and that was on the defending side. And using starter TR Infl gear.
Have you tried PlanetSide 2's built in recording? You just press page-up. The settings for it are on the social tab under video. It doesn't effect my performance at all when I use it.
@sharknice My god. That is amazing and is the second greatest PS2 revelation since I learned about the turret/ammo slot thing for engineers. Thanks, man! I'll cap a video of it shortly and post a video.
That was most excellent. Do you ever try to actually get in the tower and hack it up? I imagine it would be too crowded, but the disruption potential is high. Also, which gun/optics? It seems like this is one of the few places the short range optics bolt-actions would be a good go.
Situation permitting, yes, I would. Sometimes I even hack turrets, fire off a few rounds, then back off before they can retaliate. Usually there are just far too many people milling about in the Crown tower, though, and even when I successfully hack, some infil is always there to fix the problem. In this video you can see that a fellow NC infil hacks the main vehicle console, but it would be getting fixed inside of 40 seconds if I had not sniped the first few enemies who tried it. The weapon is the longshot, 12x scope (I usually engage at longer ranges when I'm not doing this little procedure). Also have the suppressor on, which is more or less necessary to not instantly alert everyone to my presence.
If the crown is really packed of enemies (meaning the vehicle queue is huge), you can run to the terminal, drop a mine there and run off. The impossibility of an enemy soldier walking inside the crown make people completely unsuspecting, even if they see the semi-invisible silhouette they most often than not simply dont react at all. A couple of times I managed something around 10 or so kills per mine I droped, you just need to pick the right places. Its really fun. Especially when you keep surviving against all odds and ran out of bullets, mines and grenades.
