Through the Scope: Mr. Murdoc's Infiltrator Guide

I would like to begin by saying I'm no pro, just an avarage player who would like to make this guide for any beginners on their first steps on Planetside 2.


So you've decided to pick the Infiltrator as your class in PS2, you jump through the warpgate, all pumped up and ready to take on the world with your rifle and cloak, here are some tips I've been able to gather to make sure you won't become just 'another sniper' in this massive war game.

1. You are a SUPPORT class. Your role is provide long range intel/anti-infantry/high-priority attacks OR infiltration to an enemy base.
2. Sitting on top of a hill somewhere, waiting for a target to show up isn't doing you or anyone any good
3. Lone-Wolfing will not cut it. In order for you to be combat effective, you will need to follow your role and SUPPORT your team

During Beta, there was much hate for the Infiltrators becasuse most of them did the exact opposite of the three things I mentioned above, making them a sort of useless class. Let's go ahead and change that.

Basic Facts
- Your cloak lasts 12 seconds and takes 6 seconds to recharge. (Activated with 'F' by default)
-You cannot fire anything while cloaked.
-You can, however, aim down the sights of your weapons, hence, using your sniper scope, while cloaked.
-While zoomed in, hit 'Shift' to hold your breath and stop the rifle sway for a few moments. It should be noted that this only works with the Sniper Rife.
-Your third weapon is the Sensor Dart, firing it will allow you to detect enemies within a certain radius of the dart's impact for a limited duration.
-At long distances, bullets begin to lose atlitude. This is known as 'bullet drop' and you will need to compensate for that in order to make long range kills.
-You can hack enemy terminals (making them your empire's) and enemy generators (causing them to explode after some time)

On the Battlefield
As I stated earlier, as a lone wolf, your impact on the overall game will be minor, if at all, hence, I would suggets joining up with a squad of your buddies, or joining up with an outfit for really big organized attacks. However, these tips apply for both squad members and lone wolves.

1. Situational Awareness: Always know where you (and your squad) are in relation to the enemy forces by using the continent map and the minimap, knowing this will help you choose the best cover before the battle starts. Trust me, hiding behind that huge rock won't do you any good if the enemy is actually flanking.

2. Location, Location, Location- Always be on the lookout for any vantage points. You are the most effective if you can overlook the enemy forces, your vantage point must also have cover, because the bad guys won't just let you pick them off, they will open up on you on the first chance they get. Learn how to balance between the overlooking factor and the cover factor while picking your vantage point. Prefer ones with muliple firing options, because once the enemy fires back, you're going to want to be able to cloak and hit them from another way.

3. Keep Your Distance- Fun fact about online gamers- THEY HATE SNIPERS. Maybe it's the big gun, or the stealth suit, I don't know, but if you walk around with your squad and get sighted in, trust me, the first hail of bullets is coming your way and while Light and Heavy Assault classes can either tank damage with their shield or just fly away, you'll drop down, looking very much like Swiss cheese. Walk with some distance from your squad members, the enemy will rather sight in a group and use the old Spray-and-Pray tactic than take crack shots at some guy walking alone. Once the shooting starts, or if you were able to spot them before they noticed you and your buddies, cloak and run to the nearest vantage point you scouted earlier (because you paid attention) and take the first shot.

4. Prioritize Targets: You are given a long range gun to be able to think and decide what to shoot at. As the offensive support class, it's our job to keep our defensive support units alive and kill the enemy support units. Enemy Infiltrators should be your first target, they will try to kill your support units and they will try to kill you. Find them and kill them first. Medics and Engineers (if there are tanks involved) come next. Once you've downed all of the enemy support units, you can help your friends finish off the enemy Light and Heavy Assaults.

-Regarding enemy MAX units, it would be better for you to kill the Engineer healing the MAX instead of shooting the MAX itself. These guys are your last priority target.

5. Flanking- If you couldn't find any good vantage point or was engaged in an area where none existed, you can always cloak and hit the enemy from an unexpected angle, like their side or rear. Note that when you fire your gun, unless it has a silencer on it, you will appear as a red blip on the minimap, so it is suggested to shoot, cloak, change your position, decloak and shoot again. Rinse and repeat.


Attacking A Base

While attacking outposts, it would be better for you to keep you distance and just snipe enemy forces as they crawl out of the woodwork, outposts are fairly small in size and are full of cover so don't expect too many kills.

The fun really starts at attacking large bases and bio labs as this is a moment where you need to make a choice- you can either stay at distance and engage enemy Infiltrators and Heavy Assaults who are taking perimiter defense and shooting at your guys, or you could live up to your name and infiltrate the base.

Inside a base, you will need to use/remember several things:

1. You're not John Rambo- Your job is to sabotage the enemy defenses, not kill every single soldier in the base with your bare hands and a toothbrush. Avoid enemy contact, stay hidden and use your cloak for short intervals while running from cover to cover.

2. Concider getting a Scout Rifle- They are not as effective as the other class' bullet hoses, but they will do a better job at these ranges than a sniper rifle. You can hack an infantry terminal (marked with a gun) and use it to resupply yourself with a scout rifle (if you purchased one).

3. Claymores- when you hack a terminal or sabotage a generator, the enemy knows about it and they will come to fix your doing and of course, kill you. Planting a claymore at the doorway and waiting for them while cloaked will make it much easier for you to kill them. You can even plant the claymore and move on to your next target if you're not that keen on killing them.

4. Sensor Dart- Want to go into that room but you're not too sure about enemy presence? Simply fire off a sensor dart into the room and you'll quickly learn how many of them are in there and where they are exactly in the room.

5.The AMS Sunderer- The AMS is a utility system that can be purchsed for the Sunderer vehicle, that when deployed (by pressing 'B' while driving the Sunderer) will turn it into a stationary spawn point for your empire until it is destroyed. When you're inside the enemy base, you can try to reach their vehicle bay, hack a terninal, spawn an AMS Sunderer and deploy it, allowing your forces to attack the base from within.

Briefly covering Base Defense, just find a good vantage point and engage the enemy support units, then the assault units. Concider switching class/main weapon if they are already inside the outpost/base as you are not effective at these ranges.

I will not touch the issues of the Decoy/EMP grenades because I never had the chance to use them.

Hopefully, this long post will be able to turn some so called 'snipers' from their wrong ways and make them productive members of their factions/squads. I do hope all of you new guys will have a lot of fun, and if any of you happen to playing as NC or Vanu on the Euro servers and see someone peaking at you between two rocks up in the distance, that might be me, saying hello with a high powered rifle.

Hope you enjoyed-
Mr. Murdoc

I have not read your guide fully but I just saw your points for On The Battlefield...and I know this is gonna be a good one but I will continue reading now.

I approve of this guide. (Not that I''m any kind of pro either) One thing I would like to add, is USE THE "Q" KEY! When you're in an overwatch position, especially in smaller actions, you may not always be able to kill an incoming enemy troops. Alert your fellow soldiers by marking them with "Q" and if you have a mic, try to tell them whatever specifics you can, such as distance, direction, etc. Don't let enemy reinforcements take your squad by suprise.

quick guide for infiltrator: use a different class

in general terms:
if you are sniping -> you are totally useless to your team
if you are doing everything in the above guide, from the A to the Z -> you are almost totally useless to your team, considering what you could be bringing by rolling ANY other class


this game is:
50% close/medium-close quarters combat in small bases
40% vehicle warfare
10% rest

now, the million dollars question. can someone tell me what are the 2 areas where a infiltrator is, simply put, U-S-E-L-E-S-S?
yep, thats right. in CQC and anti-Vehicle. woah guys, how did you guess?


basically, the worst of medics or HAs is a billion times more valuable for any team than the average inflitrator.

hell, you could roll an eng and do nothing but hump tanks all day long and you would already be a trillion times more valuable than the best infiltrator player on earth


so just save yourself a lot of time and frustration, and start rolling the rest of classes. sniping in this game is all sorts of horrible, and the support than a infiltrator can provide is worth less than 1% of what any other class can accomplish with an incredibly easier time


last but not least, infiltrator has BY AND LARGE the absolute lowest time played/xp ratio of any class

While I have to SOMEWHAT agree with your analysis, I do think some of this is wrong. Even in the beta, when the Inf was EVEN WORSE, I was still able to do some significant damage and even took a whole bio lab with only the help of, say, 3 other guys that I wasn't even on comms with... the TR pistol is a beast If you really learn the class, it can be very rewarding and helpful. Some people like a challenge... your analysis is correct for the 80% of infiltrators that share your opinion but are "testing it just to see" but don't actually put enough effort into it because they've already decided it's a piece of crap. In the hands of a true expert (which I am by no means claiming to be) it can be very effective.

I personally love the infiltrator and have hardly any issues getting a headshot...Most people lack patience I guess. I find the infiltrator good at spotting things like deployed sunderers and taking out that annoying medic reviving everybody.

I just dislike the fact that the light assault weapons seem to snipe even better at times than the sniper rifles at medium-long distance. >_<

lol.. someone ******** by sniperz?

your kidding right? noone who has working WASD keys ahould be ******** by snipers in this game, unless he was already on the brink of death
being OHKO by a sniper is currently the best gauge to tell a piss poor player from miles away

LOL...ROFL...HAHAHAHAHAHA. Curze - aka pro gamer....Ive had no problem dispatching fools who think the WASD is the anti sniper mechanism....you my friend fail. And dont forget the pistol, its more than just a rock slinger, those things hurt. Every class has its role. Its apparent you have never competed in any online game lol. And btw those that have to use WASD constantly are usually the ones that are "not" the best...the good players are the ones killing you over and over again because they are not using the WASD, they are using the environment and their brains.

This post is a great post for those beginning in infiltrator class, good job on the post OP. You get the hang of it you can take the infy into some heavy fighting and get close and personal. There are those that can use a sniper rifle no matter their range.

1. An annoying tip, using an infiltrator to be annoying and disrupting can be useful too, just because you are not hitting someone does not mean you are doing nothing, I hate that sound just as much as other people, makes alot of players have to either take cover or change their POV just to see wth it is coming from.

2. My other advise would be to realize this is not a slow paced game either, if it takes longer than 5 seconds to aim on someone, you either need to move or change targets, or take a pot shot within 3 seconds if you plan on doing anything, get your target to stop and look or change his routine. As well sometimes that brings out other players as well as other infys that might be hiding.

3. Sniper vs Sniper....if you have to face off, try to get distance if you have a bolt rifle, any semi close range his a huge advantage. And as always keep moving, use your cloak and try to make your those shots count.

4. Check your line of site, think circle. If there are enemies at more than 180 degrees....you need to change positions, as a sniper your FOV is more likely around 120 degrees if not less. If your trying to look more than 180 degrees you are covering too much ground.

5. Have an escape plan, if you have a squad of HA chasing you down....realize where you are at, dont be piping over a fkcn hill and realize the only thing behind you is a big asss building and no where to go...death usually follows.

6. The shoot and miss factor, again like the OP said, if you shoot and miss, recover and re aim (that means move slightly to a diff position and shoot again).

7. Take some risks....dont be fish and stay in one spot and pew pew...but this my opinion, go for the knife, go for the 21 bullets in the face, try the up close hs with bolt rifle, try jumping on a stationary enemy tank and doing a dance cause you were cool enough to do it while they dont know. Run along side an enemy tank for cover before disappearing while laughing your *** off. Shoot an HA once just to piss them off and run away. Have sniper duals, go search out that bastard sniper trying to kill you only to pwn his *** up close.

Just my two cents, take it for what it is. I love the class, nothing better than pissing people off over the stupidest of things

what many people forget is that you don't need to kill your target to do something.

if i rack a medic with a body shot from a bolt action rifle every time they leave the safety of cover, they are going to change their play style. the eventually won't go out to revive enemies that tried to make a push and failed. they are going to know that the moment they stop to revive someone, i'm going to split open their hemet like an overripe watermelon.

the net effect is going to be that people are going to cluster up on that medic...AKA frag bait.

so i've convinced the medic to not revive his friends, sending them back to the sundie, (which may or may not be there any more) , and i've created an attractive target for my HA's and LA's to chew into.

also consider a sniper WAAAAAY off in the hills. bolt action and a 12X scope...and a great view of the back door of an outpost spawn room.

well he can scope in, tell his squad what's coming where, how many tanks he sees, etc. remember, knowing IS half the battle (the rest involves, red, blue, and purple tracers)
he can also plug a meatshot into targets preparing to go into battle...meaning that your guys have to do approximately 1/2 the damage they normally would to get a kill, as well as simultaneously providing more work for their medics.
Finally, our eye in the sky will see all the people who are trying to flank the attacking force. they can either again, provide intel for any designated marksmen in the main force, or when the flanker attempts to line up an ADS shot... well let's just reuse that overripe mellon example again.

so in sum: KDR MEANS PRECISELY ****E. a good infiltrator does more with their rifle to grease the skids of conquest than their KDR will ever reflect.
sadly, the 80/20 rule applies to infiltrators, just like it applies to everything else

Hey man, sadly, I'm the 80, but trying very hard to be the 20 because it just sounds so awesome (someone probably has to be older than 12 to enjoy being a 20), but I need to go around finding an outfit first (as well as racking up enough certs to buy upgrades/guns)

So here's my question. I have received a few useful answers with regards to whether to upgrade to a new sniper rifle (TR infil) or just buy upgrades for the current default 99SV.
People say the other sniper rifles are just sidegrades in terms of damage, is that true? And since I'm TR (don't wanna switch to VS/NC, I'm a loyal Terran!!! lol), we don't get the default bolt action sniper rifle.
In my opinion, I probably shouldn't upgrade to a bolt action, just because I suck at headshots, with my current rifle, I can only lead at most 2 shots, and miss the third, which means no kill, so if I do get a bolt action, I will probably end up getting lots of assists but no kills.
Again, if upgrading the current gun is the general consensus, my first upgrade should be the barrel right? Then a 12x scope (if I buy a 12x, I first zoom to 6x then 12x right? Or is it one or the other?)
Reason why I'm asking so many questions about upgrades is because I don't want to waste my precious cert points, It took me a very long time to collect a few.

first off, not raging at you, more raging at the KDR = Pwnage cod attitude that seems to pervade everything nowdays.

secondly, i personally prefer a bolt action, unless i am getting into a moderately open area like your typical amp station. then i tend to grab a semi auto (i also tend to be shooting at wounded targets to the damage/bullet change affects me less) the added bonus of a bolt action is that if you get a meat shot, the increased damage raises your likely hood of a 1 shot kill anyway (more damage you are doing means less damage they need to have taken for a 1 shot. i think you can 1-shot meat shot a target with no shields, but not 100% certain)

for close in work, like a biolab, i prefer a scout rifle

as far as scopes, all scopes are fixed power. a 10x should be more than powerful enough for any long range work you are thinking of, unless you want to go to extreme distances (then grab a 12)


anyways, keep your chin up. the first step towards getting better is realizing that you didn't know everything, and that the kill isn't the only thing

I play infiltrator using an automatic scout rifle (20 bullets) and in my opinion I help A LOT running to enemy bases and hacking their ant-air turrets, terminals and planting bombs in strategic places.

As a sniper, I kill medics, engineers and I also cover the sundereer checking if there are enemies trying to flank our squad.
My K/D ratio is normally 4 or 3 ( 100 kills - 25/35 deaths).

This is not Counter Strike, all the classes are needed in a squad. If you dont know how to play this class, just play another...

infiltration to-do list, after leaving flash with scout radar somewhere central but hidden
1) hack the vehicle terminals (first priority, if it all goes wrong I can exfil fast from a prehacked terminal)
2) hack any resupply terminals (may need supplies after mining)
3) hack any air pads
4) lay mine at flag
5) cap first flag .. now they know someones around

Then check out other flags, resupply, or hack turrets (turrets low priority because you should have already hacked the air pads)

So even before ive killed anyone ive prepared a base for being taken over, imagine their face when they see your team coming over the hill and they cant spawn a vehicle, cant resup to HA, cant even get lolpods going

noob enemy kill the terminal for maximum lulz or the pros get held up for at least a minute or two relaying back to their spawn for their own infiltrator to unhack, and from there you just create general mayhem, go back and recap ones they retake (and go via a terminal to resup to drop more mines) while firing the recon tool into groups you see facing your incoming troops.

and none of that is useful to the team?

this is actually a real good chat but i think im the only VS and im pretty proud of the pile of certs im collecting (only 100, think of the name, mexican enough?) and i have a real hard time infiltrating with the bloody first defult sniper you recieve it horrible! i had to hit someone 3 times in the head beofre they finally died, i occasionlly find myslef getting more kills through the pistol (not sure if i should buy a manticore should i?) but hacking is very useful, and anyone that things this class is useless is a fool. :3

i have never get a kill with the vanu pistol... but i made some ***-kicker rampages with my stock sniper rifle, Oh the irony!

Infiltrator in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use it *AHEMM* *AHEMMMM* is useless.
Anyway.
That aside, just wanted to offer a tip. When hacking terminals/turrets/generators, you don't have to press and hold "E".

-As soon as the "Press E to hack etc." message comes up, just tap "E".
-If you remain at the spot where you're standing, you're free to turn around, crouch, aim your gun at the door, paint opponents, reload etc.
-and the hack progress bar will keep running.
-You don't have to be a sitting duck while hacking. Don't press and hold, just tap "E" !

double send, sorry

Those WASD keys aren't going to save you when you're standing at a terminal. Just saying.

The Beamer is garbage. I find the Manticore much better...but its still just a pistol. You'll want a suppresser on it for sure.

If you already have 100 certs saved up, I'd grab the XM98. Its a bolt action sniper rifle capable of one hit kills with a head shot. Try it out in VR first so you get a feel for how a bolt action fires. Don't forget to hold shift to steady your aim when making your shot.