Hi all, Kinda new here. I actually was in the original beta test and loved the game, but real life took over and I was never able to commit to the game until now. Back then I was mostly a pilot and loved it but really want to be a good inf, and I have to admit it is pretty frustrating being practically one shot at any given time I am spotted which seems to be quite often. I understand it isn't invisibility, but I am not sure its exactly cloaking either? Anyway I know its a process of learning, but hoping to get some feedback on path, and maybe certs to ease the process and possibly help become more effective at the earliest stage I can. Thanks.
Eh I just played from BR 1 for a couple hours right now as infil, wasn't bad. Any amount of certs won't make up for the fact that the people shooting you have way more experience. Just keep at it, you could buy the fresh meat pack as well to be able to SMG, that's what I find the most fun. Don't ever assume people don't see you, just use it as a tool to flank and create confusion. When it does work be happy.
First you have to decide, do I want to be a sniper, or use an SMG? For both you will want either restoration or health kits to decrease the health disadvantage Sniper Good close range secondary weapon such as a burst pistol (like T1 repeater) Motion spotters Ammo belt SMG Go for the SMG with a larger magazine size if you are not that confident with aim (like the PDW-16 hailstorm) Put a silencer on it as it doesn't reduce the damage in an SMG's effective range anyway I would recommend recon darts but you could use motion spotters (You would choose the one that suits your play style the best) Nanoweave or ASC I don't know what faction you play but I used TR guns as examples because that is my main faction Hope I helped a bit, if you have any questions I will try to help you with those too
One of my alts was made strictly to play infiltrator, and I found I could do it without tons and tons of certs. It will depend on your skill level and what you want to do as an infiltrator, though. If you like sniping, bolt-action's are generally preferred, so you can 1 hit kill with a head-shot. The NC get one for free as a starting weapon, but the TR and VS will have to buy one for 100 certs to replace their semi-auto sniper rifles. The semi-auto rifles have been much improved over the last months, and are viable, you just have to get more than 1 hit. I believe the new character quiz will give the infiltrator the close range Bolt-action on any faction, which allows for up to 4x optics, but no scope-sway. These are great, but you have to get in closer than the longer 6x optics-based rifles. These are actually my personal favorite for sniping. If you want some faster-firing weapons, you'll have to save some certs or drop some station cash. The automatic scout rifles can be used for more of an assault or run-and-gun style, and cost 250 certs (if I remember correctly). While they provide some more range, they are generally not as useful as the SMGs, which are costly at 1000 certs. There are loads of options between the semi-auto and bolt-action sniper rifles of close (1-4x optics) and long range (6-12x), as well as the SMGs and scout rifles. Once you find your playstyle, you can work towards these different weapons. Aside from the SMGs, the rifles are all essentially mirrors of each other, so it doesn't matter which faction you choose. - There are also new Empire specific rifles, with each one getting a special type of rifle with unique characteristics. Or, if you like to stay cloaked, the Stalker cloak will let you do so indefinately, but you can't use a primary weapon, relying on your pistol. The options for pistols will be more focused on which faction you are part of, though. A great way to help out your team is through the recon darts or the newer motion spotter. They only provide a small amount of experience, but it can add up quickly in a big fight. I would put a few ranks into these early to make the most use of them. There's loads more to talk about for the specifics, but I'll leave that to those who play the class more.
Hey Swiftly, I played as Infiltrator during beta too, and at launch I was pretty much only infiltrator from BR1 (although I have diversified my play quite a lot since then). The default rifle is pretty decent (I'm TR) as long as you try to engage from medium distances. You won't be winning any up close battles, so try to avoid them. Hang back, get a decent firing position with cover nearby and pop out of stealth, shoot as much as you can and duck down / re position if you need to. If you have access to station cash, pick up a RAMS.50/Longshot/Parallax if you want to be sniping. They are great weapons, I use a 12x scope but it's personal preference, a lower zoom with let you get those close range head shots more easily. If sniping isn't your thing, that's cool too. Pick up an SMG like the Armastice (TR) or NS-PDW. You can ambush targets up close very easily and get some nice killstreaks. There's also the Vandal if you enjoy the medium range "battle rifle" approach. Figure out which style you prefer and get the weapon to suit you. But don't worry about it if you don't have the SC to buy them, use the default gun and save certs for other things for now. Onto Certs, The default cloak is worth putting a few ranks of certs into early. You'll be able to get into stealth faster, which is pretty important. You don't need to go too mad, invest into it until the cert cost starts getting too expensive. You'll notice the difference. Your Recon Darts / Motion Sensor is also important to upgrade. I like the sensor, because it'll earn you motion sensor bonus XP when people kill enemies spotted by it. It's not much, but if you get it early on it'll pay for itself. You can put it near you (not too close or it'll give you away) so you can see when people are flanking or sneaking up on you. Many infiltrators prefer the darts, when they are upgraded they are great and can be resupplied at an ammo pack. Whichever tool you use, they'll give you crucial data about where the enemy is. Use them as much as you can! I use the extra ammo suit slot, because when I'm alone doing my thing, I hate running out of bullets. A couple of ranks into this is all you really need. It's cheap, and handy! I don't find nanoweave that useful since you are going to be squishy and easy enough to kill even with it. Stealth is your advantage, not toughness. Flak is pretty handy to prevent you getting killed by stray explosives, but not needed. Keep away from exploding areas! Flak will save you from Proxy Mines though, which is a nice bonus. Proximity Mines are pretty neat, you need to learn proper placement but they'll get you kills. The medical kits are really handy too, and cheap to boot! When it comes to certs, buy whatever you feel you'll get the most use out of. Spread your certs out to start with, don't dump everything into one upgrade because it gets expensive fast. General Hints When you are running whilst cloaked, you are fairly easy to spot. Don't sprint infront of enemies and expect them not to see you, chances are they've already heard you cloaking and decloaking and are keeping an eye out of cloaked people. Cloaking makes you harder to see (and removes the triange from your if you've been spotted) Flank around them, go somewhere unexpected. A little risk here and there can pay off big time if you get into a good spot. Flank, shoot, retreat, move around. Outsmart them. When sniping, use cloak to search for targets safely. Cloak up and have a look out. If you see someone, decloak and shoot, then retreat to cover again. Poking your head up without cloak is risky. This is why upgraded cloaking nanites is so useful, you can spend longer "in the open" and less time waiting for it to charge up. Re-position from time to time. Even a slight move can prevent countersniping. You'll get a feel for it, it just takes some practice. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.
As long as you have 100 certs to buy the cheapo bolt action (unless you're NC in which case you already have it), you're pretty much set for sniping. Killing opponents with the same sniper rifle is really just as effective with starting gear as with fully upgraded gear, given equal player skill. Certing into darts will improve situational awareness, certing into cloak will decrease your downtime when sniping. Certing into a suit slot can improve your survivability among other things, but only if you're taking damage which should be relatively rare when sniping from long range. Playing a CQC infiltrator or more in-your-face medium range, that's a completely different matter and will require a lot more certs to be spent in order to be effective... therefore, start out with long range sniping, build your aiming skill and gather certs until you know what you want to do with the class.
Not having the certs can be frustrating. I have an NC infil character.. but played Engineer and repaired tons and tons of turrets etc.. just to get certs, which I then spent on the infiltrator.. try it for a while.. My main advice for new infiltrators is "battle patience".. with the new lattice system you can see on the map which base will be attacked next.. get there early.. scout out the area., "Q" targets (gets you points when they are killed) Also, stick around after your faction captured a base.. lots of times the enemy is not gone, they hang around and want to try to re-cap it.. you should stay back and see if you can spot them, then kill them. bouncing bettys are good for this as well. As sniper you can also make it your mission to protect the HA or Max that is in the open, because most enemies will try to take them out.. find that enemy.. take them out.. it can be very fulfilling to know that the only reason your faction capped a base is the fact that you kept your HA alive.. Battle Rank will come automatically.. Also, never spend your last 500 - 1,000 certs.. even when you want to .. keep them.. live without spending them for another week, then you may find out that you really don't need that upgrade that you wanted.. and then you find something else to buy with them.. and then, before you spend it, come to the forum and ask others what they think of the upgrade that you are looking for.. Many times this forum has saved me hundreds if not thousands of certs..
CQC CLOSE QUARTERS COMBAT: Primary: a generation 2 smg if you're vanu its the sirius Secondary: Commishner nanoweave 4 (try to get it too five after all the other certs) rank 5 cloak rank 3 recon detect device sniping primary: ns vandal secondary: commishner exact other same certs
I ranked up my infiltrator without playing much of any other class. It's very slow (or at least was at the time). Doing it over I'd play a medic or engie during big battles to earn certs, put those certs in to a couple upgrades on the heal/repair tools (get certs faster) and then spend those certs on infiltrator tools. Move around a lot, maybe 2 or 3 shots from one position (if you're lucky). Avoid overcloaking or spotting targets when it's a smaller fight - both of these can give away your location from a pretty far distance. I use spotting targets as an emergency "they have to know X is coming" role. Eg: if i see a max or something coming towards friendlies that they don't see, I'll spot it. I generally don't cloak unless I'm on the move. The cloak-target-uncloak-fire-cloak is basically a "I'm right here!" beacon. With sniping, target selection is everything. Turret engies, medics, and anyone standing still are prime targets. But don't discount popping shots at a max that thinks it can just stand there. Some are big babies and will run after a headshot CQC - never stop moving. Understand the flow of battle and go in directions it isn't. So many times I'll see infiltrators (among others) run head first in to he fight, they're probably going to die. Instead think how you can get around and beside the enemy to cause havoc. Try to do so in creative 'who would come from there?!' ways. You're a distraction, not a front line killer. Don't get discouraged by anyone that says infiltrators (sniping or cqc) are useless and to play a real class. They're either not that good at it, got beat by one recently, or simply don't understand the value of selective target elimination. They are wrecking balls, you're a surgeon.
Hey Guys, Thanks so much for the great feedback! It is a definite help! I am currently playing Vanu on Waterson right now. Hope to see you on the battlefield.
Motion Sensors vs. Recon Darts: Both give XP when your allies/squadmates kill enemies within their detection radius. Both will only detect enemies who are moving, so stationary enemies are invisible to them. Motion Sensors are good if you're going to be operating in a relatively limited area for an extended period. They have to be dropped where you are standing, so you do have to be able to get to your chosen location safely first. If you're an SMG Infil camping a point, slapping a Motion Sensor down in the are will provide you and your allies with useful intelligence for a long time. They would also be useful if you're sniping from a fairly static position. Motion Sensors don't show up on the minimap until you're close enough to have been detected by them already, but can be shot/destroyed before their timer is up. Recon Darts are good if you want advanced intelligence about enemy activity in an area somewhat removed from your position, and in areas where it might be too dangerous to actually go yourself. They can also be restocked from engineer ammo-packs (friendly and enemy) instead of needing a terminal. They do show up on the minimap however, regardless of where you are, but cannot be destroyed before their timer runs out. They only last a short period though, and you really need rank 4 or better before they become useful. Before that point, your stock of them is painfully small, and their detection radius and ping frequency are very poor. Regarding weapon selection: SMGs should eventually be your weapon of choice if you want to do lots of close-quarter work. The NS-7 PDW is pretty much the best you can get right now, mostly because its damage falloff is insanely good compared to the faction specific SMGs. The big magazine and fast reload help too. As an added bonus, if you buy it with SC you'll be able to use it on all of the characters on your account, even if you want to switch factions at a later date. The NC's Cyclone is arguably better at the shorter ranges, but the NS-7 offers so much flexibility it's hard to argue against it. If you like sniping, you will most likely want a bolt-action as soon as possible. As some have mentioned, NC Infiltrators start with one, and there are 100-cert options available for the other two factions. They suffer from lower muzzle velocity, however, so you'll eventually want one of the high-powered rifles anyway. I don't spend much time sniping myself, mostly because it's not a squad-friendly activity, so I can't really offer you much advice here. I will say that you probably don't actually need the 12x scope most of the time. If you're inside 150m or so, the 8x is probably more than sufficient for all practical purposes. There are also bolt-action and semi-auto sniper rifles that fit the lower powered scopes (4x and below), which are actually quite useful when suppressed and operating from positions within enemy territory. Scout rifles are the middle-ground. The automatic variants are only 250 certs, which is a good deal for a heavy-hitting automatic weapon with significant effective range. They are limited somewhat by having very small magazines, and you'll generally only get 1 or 2 kills between reloads. On the other hand you'll want to stay mobile as an Infiltrator, so you can take the opportunity to reposition while you have to reload, which makes it not quite as much of an issue as it could be. The Semi-auto variants are move expensive, and are arguably superseded by the unscoped semi-auto sniper rifles, which have longer chamber times, but better accuracy and higher damage. Either option fills the same basic role, and your choice will largely be determined by your personal tastes and preferred range of engagement. On cloaks: The basic Hunter cloak is a nice, one-size-fits-all tool for evading detection and sowing confusion amongst the enemy. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and increasing its rank will shorten the cool-down timer, allowing you to spend more time cloaked. The Nano-armor Cloak is a more specialised tool, for use when you expect to be under fire on a regular basis. It's probably most useful to the SMG carrying Infil, and can buy you precious time to escape if you over-reach and find yourself further from cover than is advisable. Once you break line-of-sight, it basically fills the same role as the Hunter Cloak. The Stalker cloak is a harassment tool. While equipped, you cannot use a primary weapon, so you will be depending on your Pistol as your first, last and only bullet spitting device. On the upside, it recharges even while engaged so long as you are not moving, and while stationary and crouching the cloaking effect is significantly better than the other two options. With it, you could potentially operate inside an enemy base for an indefinite period, restocking your ammunition and consumables from hacked terminals, abusing hacked static defenses, and generally making life miserable for the enemy. Regardless of which you are equipped with at any given time, beware of flashlight toting enemies, as the attachment will reveal cloaked infiltrators caught in the beam.
From BR1 I played inf at launch. Was the most fun ever hehe.. Every single person was standing still shooting while I lopped their head off on easmir from that big rock in the north overlooking the base. It was glorious and I'd go through full clips of rounds before I had to go some where to restock. Now a days people are more wise and those old spots are where people look. You have to be more inventive these days and each base large base has a unique spot for me, some more effective than others. I just went on a 28+ kill streak at the eastern biolab in indar sniping attackers on the landing pad for example. Most snipers avoid the Silencer but if you like flanking (the only real way to be effective as a sniper) then I suggest you use it and get used to the drop with it. I used longshot for an age with the silencer and its good up to any range, you just have to learn the drop. Now I use the rail jack with it and though it has a drop after the delay is over it still seems to be instantaneous. The damage fall off is less too meaning bar nanoweave you will always two shot some one with body shots regardless of range. Longshot is limited to 3 body shots with the silencer closer to max range. So for me thats the nieche that the Railjack now fills, the best silenced BAR. If you are new buying a big shiny sniper rifle won't make you so much better but for example it makes things easier at range sometimes. Depends alot on your playstyle.
Well, to add/modify this to my own personnal opinion (I liked how it was set up Sniper Good close range secondary weapon such as a burst pistol (like T1 repeater) or Commissioner. Motion spotters Ammo belt SMG Go for the SMG with a larger magazine size if you are not that confident with aim (like the PDW-16 hailstorm) Otherwise stick with the lovely lower capacity more deadlier version. If you're NC, you HAVE to use cyclone. Put a silencer on it as it doesn't reduce the damage in an SMG's effective range anyway I would recommend recon darts Nanoweave
I need either a bolt-action, full-auto scout rifle, or an SMG to play inf. Unfortunately, the only one that comes with any of those is the NC inf(I don't count the free 1x-4x bolt-action that comes with the quiz, since I have no need for that). I think the Inf should come with an SMG. All of the other classes get a shotgun, so it only makes sense. Luckily the fresh meat pack is only $2, and that comes with one(the worst one in the game, imo, but still a cheap option).
I realize that, but I generally don't care to battle at that range with an Inf, especially since nearly every gun in the game beats it at that range.
I think the PDW also beats some of the ESF SMG's in close range. I don't know if im using the hailstorm wrong, but I always do better with ext mag PDW in CQC. Being able to kill targets at medium range is just a bonus.
Did you mean inf SMGs? You're confusing me :/ edit: oh you mean empire specific SMGs? No, the PDW has the lowest TTK. It's only virtue is that it's the best for longer ranges.
Play like you don't have the Cloak OP. Read that online, and it's pretty helpful. Er, No, PDW is terrible in Close range compared to the Other SMGs, It's only at range is when the PDW begins to shine especially bright.
Haha it would be pretty cool with some smg's strapped to a scythe I think the PDW does better than the hailstorm at all but the real close ranges, but I haven't tried the other ES SMGs. They might be better. Terrible? Not as good, that's true. But it's still good at CQC with the ability to engage at range to.
