This is a guide from the more experienced to the less experienced and bewildered with our class. My intention is to compile a quick and easy reference for infiltrators, to get you from getting shot in the face wondering why your three sniper rounds to their chest had no effect or why the class isn't doing what you thought it would. For starters let's go into roles. Infiltrators typically fill two roles, the sniper and the CQC or Close Quarters Combat. The builds for these two are completely different from the other, by all means feel free to mix and match the parts and pieces to your playing style but I've noticed the separate functions tend to not overlap so well. Here is the loadout and general tactics for both: Roles: Scout/Sniper: Primary Weapon: (Bolt-Action) M77-B, TSAR-42, SR- 7, RAMS .50M Attachments: None Recommended Shielding: Hunter Cloaking Device Tactics: The sniper is designed to take a rifle at the maximum range (ergo no suppressor as you should be at the edge/off of the enemy minimap) and take out enemies via head shots. You'll find that most bolt-actions will 1-shot anything in the head (except max suits with no exceptions) unless a heavy has their shield absorb going (they glow faction color). You'll find trying to hit anything that moves next to impossible so this requires a bit of prep work as you're trying to find the rock they're going to be hiding behind and get to an angle that you can tag the tech repairing the max suit or the medic lying in wait (hint: shift holds you steady for 2.15 seconds, make them count). Patience is king, if you can't find targets you have 100s of meters to run as you find another angle on the target area, you also will typically not get the capture bonus as you're too far away- so it's all about finding that enemy sunderer and picking off the fresh spawns or guys swapping classes. Practice distancing your rife- pick a mark and put your ritacle on it, then pull the trigger and see where the bullet lands (a large flash, usually never deviates left or right of the reticle unless you didn't hold shift or ran out of breath but will go lower on the reticle the further away you are so aim a bit higher when you're unsure) CQC: Primary Weapon: (Semi-Automatic) 99SV, KSR-35, HSR-1, SOAS-20 Attachments: Suppressors (Primary and Secondary weapons), Reflex/Thermal optics Recommended Shielding: Nano-Armor Cloaking Tactics: You are a ghost and if you are seen you die, period. You don't have the firepower of a heavy or an assault- but you have stealth and the ability to confuse so use them. Knifing will not instant-kill, but it will get rid of their shielding in a single pass but requires an additional 2-3 stabs when you are hitting their armor so get into the habit of stab (middle mouse click) shoot shoot. Suppressors make you never show up on their map- and they can only tell what direction they're getting hit from which if you're quick on the trigger won't help much. Corners and ducking through rooms/windows are what will save you as getting into a gun-fight with any other class means you die, period, so be quick to run like a pansy and when they run past looking for you have that knife action ready. Special Weapons/Abilities: Recon Dart: Sends a signal (aka hits Q when looking at an enemy) on anything within LOS (line-of-sight aka doesn't work through walls) of the dart and will even make a cloaked infiltrator or enemy ordinance like bouncing betties visible. Improving causes the darts life to extend and the rate it pings targets to increase (like a sonar blip). Highly useful when helping setup ambushes, not really useful before you get past the 100 cert mark. Grenade (Decoy): Pings the enemy's map as a red dot and sounds like a noob holding down the trigger, typically lasting 2-3 minutes unless destroyed. Excellent when put in a sniper's field of vision for an easy head shot as most will stand over it wondering if they're in the wrong place. Grenade (EMP): Lets you run away from a tank or Max, silences a turret for 5 seconds. Worth the points? Not really unless you have a lot of them and like trolling instead of killing. Blinds nearby enemy's radar for a few seconds as well. Claymore (TR): Essentially it's a mine that explodes forward, so angling is key to making sure you kill the guy stepping in front of it and not your buddy shooting at him to the right. Get this and lay them in doorways or points of entry for an easy kill. Put them at the back of a choke point facing down to get a multi-kill of an entire breaching team and listen to them complain that the claymore is so OP. Bouncing Betty (NC): A grenade that explodes when walked near, so it's radius is omnidirectional. Make sure you don't frag your friends or sit behind it like a claymore otherwise you WILL die when the enemy runs by you negating your kill with a suicide. Proximity Mine (VS): A bouncing betty, without the stupid name. Armor Upgrades: Flak protects against explosions, capacitor increases the speed your shield regenerates, and nano weave increases your base health pool. Since you typically don't survive more than a few rounds anyway go with either the grenade increase or my personal favorite the ammunition belt. More time sniping and don't need a tech to go with you to drop an ammo before an operation (makes it easier for the enemy to guess your location). In summary it's important to remember you are the glass cannon if you're a sniper, or you're the black-widow if you're more CQC oriented. Either way, you will get crushed taking anything head on so getting clever with your hiding places and sneaking up on people is the way to go. If they can see you and start pulling the trigger, you lose- so snipers quit standing on obvious locations like buildings and towers and go atop a rock column the next territory over and hit the punks when they're checking their map or are pinned behind a rock like you're supposed to. Don't get frustrated you can't get a head shot on a light assault midflight as he's running through buildings- if you want to do that go heavy and try the LMGs where precision is replaced with sheer volume of fire.
I would not recommend the nano-armor cloak for CQC. The small protection is not worth the greatly shortened duration compared to the Hunter cloak. I would also recommend the semi-auto scout rifle for CQC, but that comes down to personal preference/playstyle. On the point of the Recon Device, it does not need line-of-sight to display enemies on the mini-map. Fire one on the floor while capping a point, keep an eye on the mini-map, and relax.
I think you are trying to be helpful . The class is broke You can read my post so I wont list the reasons here .
It's kind of imperative that absolutely everyone attempting to play this class know about the three levels of stealth. Allow me to sum them up for you: Level 1 (moving): You may be overlooked by people at large distances with other things distracting them. Don't assume for a second that it'll keep you safe if someone expects you to be in the area. Level 2 (stationary, standing): People scanning their surroundings might not catch you, but you'd honestly be a lot safer shooting them in the face than expecting them to ignore you. You'll still be totally visible to snipers and anyone with a reason to be looking, and it's useless indoors. Level 3 (stationary, crouching): This is several orders of magnitude better than the previous level, and you can actually use it to hide from people who are looking for you. You still won't be completely invisible and the distortion can still give you away based on what sits behind you from your enemy's perspective, but you might actually give someone the slip when you run around a corner and use this. Also, please be aware that IRNV scopes render stealth completely meaningless and you have no way of telling if your opponents are using them before it's too late.
If you mean the one used on assault rifles and carbines (not sure about heavy weapons) that is black and white with 1x zoom, that doesn't show up cloakers. In fact, if you are using that scope (HC/NC iirc) you're better off without it to find someone cloaked. If you're talking about a different scope, which I assume you are (IRNV isn't HC/NC), then sorry, but for everyone else, it's nice to know that the High Contrast scope doesn't give away invisibility.
Have to say that if someone is just starting out and not yet chosen a faction. If Sniping is your thing, go NC, best starting rifle by far. I play VS, but tried an NC infiltrator on another server after having read about the starting rifle, its very nice and made me envious, not enough to change though
I could very well be using the wrong name, seeing as how Infiltrator is the only standard infantry class I've purchased upgrades for and there are no scopes with crazy optics on any of the sniper rifles. All I know is that there's a scope which highlights player silhouettes and people have claimed that it works perfectly well on cloaked Infiltrators. I've seen it personally while gunning for a Liberator, although as I didn't own the thing and didn't bother to ask what it was, I can't say for sure.
It's been a mixed review Ghnurbles, I've got infiltrators left and right swearing it senses through walls with a line of guys swearing it doesn't. Personally I've seen it detect both ways, unless there's a way some are magically avoiding the recon dart behind a wall then suddenly the third guy that pops ups behind them was displayed briefly. I would simply say don't get lazy- assume it doesn't and position it accordingly. On top of a beacon or outside a point of entry 2-3 meters away, given the sensing range on the dart would you really lose that much time-loss of someone stepping into the sensor zone playing it safe? As to the nano-armor vs hunter, it also goes down to personal taste. I simply selected what the developers gave as a general difference between CQC and Sniper- the shield doesn't let you fire while cloaked, ergo taking fire while cloaked means they see you which is something you'd encounter more in CQC. Fully upgraded the nano-armor only has a 2.5 second less duration while boosting your resistance an additional 15%. Perfect for ducking behind a corner while taking a hit doing it. Very good point on stealth Dr., I will add the quote to the top or make it quickly hop down here as a quick reference, and thanks for catching it. As to the IRNV- stealth shouldn't be used as a blatant excuse to stand out in the open for more than a moment or two anyway. Your sniping position should be so far away your outline could be easily missed or confused with something else regardless, and you should be popping back behind cover after each shot anyway. As to an assault or heavy with it I'd say unless they're running around aiming they wouldn't be able to see you unless you're hiding in an obvious spot- in which you should have decloaked and tried wearing them out regardless. Point being- as I've stated in the guide- if you're seen, you're dead. The IRNV like the clearly visible outline in stealth that becomes more obvious if you move just adds a higher degree of difficulty to hiding in plain sight- don't do it, stick behind cover and use the plethora of rooms as potential hiding spots to avoid detection rather than sticking in the corner by the door you just entered. Mathematically speaking the odds of them choosing the same room you did if they have no idea where you ran is staggering. This is true, the NC starting rifle has higher stopping power than the other semi-auto starters of the other two. Note however that sniping without a bolt-action is ill-advised as you won't kill much anyway so use it for CQC until you unlock the 100 cert rifle which is bolt-action and then have the option to go sniper or CQC.
... well never mind, I guess you can't edit the post after a while so I'll add any other addendum or amendments and simply re-thread the guide after a week or two, especially if there's something significantly altering the infiltrator class.
In IRNV scopes cloaked infiltrators show up as a 'hollowed out' silhouette, but I can't remember being able to Q them. So, to a trooper observing a fight such people are gonna be a priority since a good deal of teammates don't notice them.
In regards to the above comment about the NC starter rifle, I find it a little confusing( not taking a poke at you ), but I found the NC starter very nice for sniping( I'm only lvl 7, so not played it much ), first drop on the toon and I got a headshot kill on someone sitting on a quadbike a fair distance away, Shooting someone in the head with the VS starter is more likely to elicit mirth. Just as an aside, most NC infiltrators I have encountered while playing on my VS use a suppressor on their handgun for CQC.
I've gotten quite a few kills, even against a HA, by hip-fire the bolt action at point blank and quickly following up with a quick knife.
Yes there will always be exceptions to the rules or in this case the guide-line. It's just a starter informative for those who are struggling with the infiltrator class and aren't sure why, and I'm glad you're finding the NC starter sniper-capable and are able to do so- a lot don't. On the mention about silencing a side-arm, it's perfectly fine and in most cases encouraged as your side-arm is pretty much CQC only ergo you don't want a red dot lighting up when you're finishing someone off. Even on my sniper loadout I have my TR3 silenced in case I need to move in on someone as the sniper rifle prevents me from mid to close range seriously, so yes- suppress those secondaries and thank you for bringing that up. Awesome! If you are comfortable doing so and can repeat the process effortlessly than by all means do so! However, in the hands of someone just starting out with the class which is going to be easier to replicate that, a RAMS-.50 with a x12 scope or an HSR-1 with a reflex site and a laser? All we're doing is giving someone a starting point- as you move throughout the game and get comfortable with your class you'll put your own quirks and flares into the tools available to you, I look forward to fighting someone that can knife me then get a no-scope with their .50 sniper while I'm attempting the 3-shot with my silenced TR3.
It should also be noted that camo doesn't necessarily hurt, but as of this patch there isn't any skin that will alter your silhouette background enough to "blend in" more so it's just for aesthetic purposes. Really weird question as I don't think they've spent much time playing the class or running a counter-sniper game, but it wasn't addressed in the guide and this is why.
whats the opinion for using full auto scouts for cqc (artemix for vs)? now i know many people arent really amazed by it, but i had way more success with it at small range than with any semiauto. thinking about simply doing 2 loadouts, the other one with bolt action then.
Again, what it should and what it does tend to be two separate things. Just play it safe and use it as if it doesn't, otherwise you may get snuck up on and there's nothing more embarrassing than a ninja getting ninja'd. I use the HSR-1 with a reflex and a laser so I don't even need to aim with my primary in CQC over my sidearm which does. And I also have that as my CQC loadout, with a bolt action for my sniper loadout so I say definitely go for it. If the extra rounds down-range work for you over the stopping power and increased accuracy of a semi-auto then by all means go for it man. My rotation is middle mouse- left click- left click (Stab-shoot-shoot) for my CQC, because my sidearm requires two shots. The HSR-1 I don't aim with only ever requires one, so really I'm wasting ammo but with a 30+ K/D ratio when I'm on station I'd say it's worth it.
Its worked every time for me, los or not, I generally shoot them inside and it detects people outside.
Yes but for the majority of infiltrators talking to me or the usual response I receive when I ask is that the dart seems to have trouble detecting people through walls- in that some are detected instantly while others only seem to get picked up when they're walking by doors and windows. No one has a straight answer on this, if a dev could clear it up that would be helpful but until that time as I stated earlier while this may be the case it's better to assume it doesn't and plan your darts accordingly instead of getting lazy and shooting them wherever.
