Cheesecakecrush's Guide to Monday Night Combat.

I live for speed and deadly accuracy. I love crab fat, Tiki Style.

Or, in other words.

Cheesecake's comprehensive guide to Monday Night Combat

First off, mad props to Uber Entertainment for making probably the most addiction arcade title I've ever played, and for continuing to invest their time and energy into making it a much more complete title.

Now that i've said that, we'll get started immediately with the basics.

Section I: Enemy Classifications

First, if you don't know what everything is, go to the "How to play" section in the MNC menus. Read everything. Character bios, weapon/skill descriptions, bot and turret descriptions. Done? Good. Now we may proceed.

There are 5 classes of enemies that you'll face (ok, technically four but I'm counting the Jackbot XL as its own class, ok?) in Monday Night Combat.

Pros (players)
Bots
Turrets
Jackbot XL
Moneyball

Every weapon in the game is effective against some of these and not so much against others. The following class guides will tell you what is good against what, and what will basically waste your time, ammo, and probably your life trying to do (Assault Rifle vs Level 3 Rock-it. Yeah. I've seen it happen. It was sad.) Your job is to pick a class and learn what each of their weapons are effective against. In general, the list is as follows.

Assault: Pros, Bots
Assassin: Bots, Jackbot, Turrets
Gunner: Pros, Turrets
Sniper: Bots, Pros, Jackbot
Support: Situational
Tank: Bots, Pros, Turrets.

The support is situationally good against Pros, Bots, and turrets. Otherwise he's pretty much a sitting duck. Playing him requires smarts and good logistical skills. And also a healthy sense of the teams needs. More on this in his guide.

Section II: Things to buy on the map

When you enter a Crossfire match, you'll notice many things. Weird bumps on the ground. Spunky Cola banners on little widescreen TV's in the center of the map. Green exclamation points all over, and one in the center. Little circles on the ground next to higher ground. These are purchasables, which you use some of your money to activate.

The buttons on high ground next to the big circular pads are called Ejectors. They'll have a green holographic circle with an exclamation point in it near them. These will wipe all enemy bots (except jackbot) and send pros flying. $50 for a shot, when its up of course.

The button in the center of every map is the Annihilator. It costs $250, and will destroy every enemy bot, heavily damage their jackbot, and do light damage to all enemy pros and turrets.

The pink banners near the center are Juice machines. They cost $500 and they give you a full Juice bar. Juice will send you into overdrive, dealing MASSIVE damage and making you very resistant to damage. You'll also move, fire, and reload faster. You will build Juice naturally by firing your weapons at enemy targets, but it gets reset if you die. Certain weapons/abilities build more juice than others, however.

The little nubs around are Turret Nubs. These allow you to build your base up with automated defenses. The Support can hack these to increase their range, but even without a handy support on your team you'll still need a few of these to delay the enemy bot push.

Section III: Tips

Destroy their bots! They can't drop your moneyball if their bots are gone. You can do this quickly with the assassin, efficiently as the tank, or just whither them down with the other classes. Just because you can't wipe them like a 'sin is no excuse for letting them waltz into your base. Sniper freeze traps make a great final defense.

Is it Overtime? Do you have over $500 sitting in your stash? Go buy juice and rock their moneyball or kill them around yours. If you do this the enemy can't buy juice, and that's a big advantage.

Want to scout the enemy before you dedicate all of your starting cash on skills? Pick the default Assault class and go test the waters before you spend a dime. This will let you pick an appropriate class to handle how the enemy team is playing, and have the full $300 plus whatever you earn to upgrade with.

The Assault

The Assault is well described in the tutorial, so I'll get right to his skills and gameplay tips.

Bomb

The assault's bomb is a very versatile skill. You can use it defensively to block an area, during a retreat to give you a better chance to survive, or you can throw it at distracted opponents for a great opening attack. Until level 3, its recharge is rather slow, and even then it'll take awhile to recharge, but it will be recharging while you have it placed so its still going to be available if you pace your use.

F.L.Y.

This skill is the source for the Assault's superior mobility. This gives a flat hover at a rate faster than you move if you're stunned, but slower than any of your speed boosts pickups. It will allow you to make some slick flanking moves that most enemies won't expect, and allows you to safely get higher position and take great falls without damage. It will reduce your accuracy, so unless you're running gold you're better off not fighting while flying.

Charge

This move gives you a burst of forward speed, which will damage enemies it comes in contact with. Great against enemy assassins. Upgrading to 3 will give you a powerful launching grapple at the end of the charge. There is much debate about upgrading to level 3, since the grapple makes you very vulnerable to enemy attack while you're performing it. I've found that this vulnerability doesn't reduce the effectiveness of Charge 3 for me. Another use is against Juiced enemy pros. Its MUCH more effective in knocking them away and whittling down their juice duration.

Passive

This is a must-have at level 2, optional at level 3. The Assault's jump is the same as the Supports without this. Which is to say its minimal. This also adds Critical Shot, which gives small boosts to your damage which can edge out a victory in your favor if you get lucky. There are some Assault builds that utilize the Endorsement to push out massive crit damage very frequently with Passive 3. If you are using a Crit build, make sure to upgrade this to level 3 ASAP. Otherwise, if you have the money free, go for it.



Weapons

Assault Rifle

This is your bread and butter weapon. Use it against Pros and Firebases. It will pin down pros looking to survive, it will mow down unarmored opposition, but will lose damage with distance. Left Trigger aims, reducing bullet spread. This will slow you down dramatically, so use only when you don't have pro attention. Otherwise, do not aim and strafe/jump to dodge enemy fire.

Grenade Launcher

This beauty is your anti-bot/moneyball weapon. It will do good damage to them in a small area. It will also bounce off walls: it will detonate a set time after it hits the ground, or after a set distance. The max distance is a valuable thing to know: you can use it to hit snipers that think they're gonna headshot you while you're dodging. Toss some grenades their way and watch them fall back to safer territory. A sniper forced into enclosed spaces is much less of a threat.

Endorsements

A good endorsement build is very important to the assault. I currently utilize two different builds depending on my needs and the oppostion.

Armored Assault

Gold: RoF
Silver: Armor
Bronze: Accuracy

This gives good protection from environmental hazards and allows a good amount of health to remain after an assassin frontstab. With your gold RoF, you should be able to do rapid damage, potentially kill, any pro you face. Even if not, you can put a clip and a half into the other player before you have to bail on the fight, or his backup arrives.

Offensive Assault

Gold: RoF
Silver: Accuracy
Bronze: Clip Size

I use this build to hammer players that are either consistently distracted by my team, or are just really bad so that my life is rarely at risk. This gives you great strafing accuracy with which to out maneuver other pros while consistently hitting them with a stream of AR fire. The clip size helps to make sure they die in one clip, as a reload can be a deadly delay.

Always experiment with endorsement builds and find what works for you, or find several of what works for you. You'll have 6 custom slots and you will inevitably settle on two classes (or more, like me) that you're best with.

Gameplay

I recommend this for your initial buy order:

1: Passive
2: Charge
3: Bomb
4: Bomb

After this, upgrade what you like at your leisure. The Assault isn't gimped when you don't upgrade your skills in a set order. Upgrading your passive at initial spawn means you maintain max jump height, and charge will let you get into (and out of) battle faster.

Protip: When you have the space, practice the "Jump Charge." Its simple. Press A to jump, then activate your charge on the way up. This keeps your forward momentum longer than just a ground based charge. This will also let you get away while using Charge 3 and won't tie you down with the grapple during escape. Also useful for clearing a long jump to surprise attack someone.

Always be on the lookout for enemies engaged in some other action, like fighting an ally, or attacking bots, setting up turrets, hacking firebases, etc. These foes are vulnerable and will take heavy damage from a concentrated AR burst. When they take notice, stop aiming and start dodging while maintaining fire on them. You may not hit them alot now that they're trying to avoid your fire, but your mitigating damage the same way and you've given yourself a great headstart on killing them. If you have them below 50%, try to hit them with your bomb. Flick your aim up for a second to throw it to gain some distance, and then aim back down and continue firing. Even if they kite you past your own bomb, just don't detonate it. You are in complete control of the bomb. If they get the upper hand, fall back into cover past your bomb. Hopefully, they'll follow and you'll mop up what you started, otherwise you live to fight again another day.

And that really is the Assault's theme. With his high mobility, he is capable of hit-and-run on a level the Assassin, another Hit-and-Run specialist, isn't capable of. You can guard your retreat with your bomb, jump-charge off of a high rise and get some good distance (Assassin's lunging cannot do it from mid-air, and it has similar distance.) You can hover across gaps that other classes can't reach you from. And, of course, you can fight back with your AR as you retreat. The Assassin has to make a full on blitz to get away.

Protip: You should always be firing a weapon. If you don't see pros, get out your nade launcher and help with bots. Remember: If your bots are past midfield, you're in danger of having your moneyball drop. Your bots should be moving up to midfield while theirs are as well, at the VERY least. Your main job is pro control, so when you see an opportune moment to strike, get out your AR and get to work.

Target Priority

Your targets are prioritized like so:

1. Pros
2. Bots
3. Moneyball
4. Jackbot
5. Turrets

Your AR is best against pros, however you CAN use it to get an assist on just about anything by spraying everything you see. This will keep your income flowing to allow juice/turret/skill purchases. Bots go down best from the Grenade launcher, which you also will use against the moneyball, Jackbot, and turrets. Turrets are last on your list because the grenade launcher will require precision, and patience and other classes are far better equipped for turret destroying duties.

Your bomb will be a primary source of damage against the moneyball and the jackbot. Don't be afraid to stick these large, immobile targets with it as you'll take a very healthy chunk out of their health. However, if you see an Assassin on the enemy jackbot, pop it a few times with your AR for the freebie assist, and then get busy controlling the enemy team.

Reminder: You should always be shooting. You have a long range explosive for bots and distant pros, and a rapid-fire close range powerhouse. You'll have many targets, so get firing! And also: Its far better not to panic and always use the correct weapon. They're too different to use in a role its not suited for.

Juiced

Juiced, you are a one man wrecking crew. Your Grenade launcher will deal heavy damage to turrets, the moneyball, it will one shot bots, and do heavy damage to the jackbot. Your AR will ANNIHILATE pros, so if you're pounding the moneyball and you see the enemy spawn, switch and wipe them out. Remember, even when juiced Turrets are a low priority target, and if you're going to juice down one of their turrets make sure its a heavily armored, expensive one. Namely unprotected level 3 rock-its and Shave-ice turrets. Avoid 3.3 Rockits though, as they will do heavy damage to you even with the protection Juice provides.

Conclusion

The Assault is a hit-and-run specialist with high-mobility and a wide range of moves at his disposal. His bomb is a great suppression/damage tool, capable of a one-shot with a stick, and ring-out capable as well. Charge is a great mobility suppliment with good combat options.

Protip: Never be afraid to retreat to preserve your life, as you build natural juice slowly compared to other classes. Juice is an important tool in this game, capable of swinging a stalemate in your teams favor quickly. Save your life and the juice!

Reserved for Assassin

The Gunner

The gunner is the main offensive tool of any team. His Minigun spews large amounts of powerful bullet that decrease at range much like the Assault's Rifle. His Mortar is a turret destroying dream come true, and when Juiced he can take down fully overhealed level 3 rock-its and Shave-ices turrets with ease. He builds his juice slowly, but chain kills on the other team combines with bombardment of botwaves should leave you with plenty of money. His skills protect you from point blank attacks, where the Gunner is vulnerable due to his slow speed while spinning/firing his minigun.

Target Priority

1. Pros ~Pros fall quickly to concentrated minigun fire.
2. Turrets ~The mortar, especially juiced, will devastate enemy turrets of all kinds
3. Bots ~The Mortar is decent against bots, and will build your juice the fastest.
4. Moneyball ~Deploy under the spawn ring and Minigun the ball. Good money for skills/juice
5. Jackbot ~Mortar him, but assist-poke if more capable classes are engaging it.

Skills

Passive

This is your most important skill. At level three, your weapons will be in their fighting form, and anything you can do to get to level 3 ASAP, do it. The Dual miniguns fire rate is capped at Silver RoF endorsement, so you can get away with using something else for gold unless you want a maxed out Mortar as well.

Slam

Slam is a powerful shockwave around the Gunner, and is important to level up to at least level 2 for the increased radius and damage. If you hear an Assassin cloak near you, hit Slam. You may get a ring-out and a nice chunk of change for your trouble. Only drawback is it un-spins your minigun, but that won't take long to re-spin if needed. It also takes a second to use, so if you're about to die to gunfire just keep shooting. Also note: HUGE radius at level 3. Don't be afraid to upgrade to max if you have the money. It will be well spent.

Deploy

Deploy roots you in place, moves you into First Person, and increases your accuracy. It also adds a small amount of critical shot at level 1, a good amount at level two, and adds armor at level 3 with a headshot shield. Deploying against an unaware opponent is a surefire way to drop their health FAST. Also, I'm not sure of this, but I think deploying reduces the dropoff in damage that you experience slightly. Make sure to get your kills/heavy damage and then un-deploy and move, as the longer you sit the more vulnerable you are to headcrab/ground zero, and at less than level 3 deploy, headshots.

Gunner Grapple

This skill is a rather low damage grapple, even when leveled up to level 3. At level 3, however, it gets a launch. A good combo if you get surprised with your mortar out is to use your Mortar grapple (alt fire), land your Gunner Grapple, and if you don't have level 3 gunner grapple, Slam them away. Any Assassin should fall to this combo, but you are VERY vulnerable as this takes several immobile animations to complete before you can get your guns spinning again.

Strategy

You have the strongest gun in the game vs pros. Use it. Get to where the pros have to pass and punish them for daring to set foot in your space. If you have a support willing to heal you, get your gun reloaded and get back in there. You are going to be the strongest pro suppression/killing force available for your team and at the largest radius of effectiveness (the Sniper can be lethal at longer ranges but requires distance which can severely limit your effective area depending on the map.)

Enemy turret keeping your team back? Blow it up! You have the strongest anti-turret gun available. Enemy bots marching on your base? Get your mortar out, Slam them, then gunner grapple/mortar grapple any blackjacks you get close to. Player grapples insta-kill blackjacks, and heavily damage and Bouncers you will face. You can also grapple Gapshots, but it really doesn't make sense when you can shoot them down with ease due to their low armor.

When you get juice, use it to blow their base sky high, then get out your minigun and shred the enemies. Build Juice with enemy bots with your mortar. In a pinch, you can minigun a few blackjacks down quickly, but your reload will eat up alot of time which could be use mangling enemy pros.

When the enemy moneyball is down, your job is to control the enemy pros primarily, and use your whole minigun clip on the ball as a secondary objective. Your massive anti-pro power is better utilized against pros, while anti-moneyball classes can better take it down. Is this spawn-camping? Yeah, but you're not invincible out there. Besides, if you can set up a spawn camp, the other team has already lost. If your allies are also spawn camping, get down and work the ball. There is no point in torturing your opposition. So, essentially: If nobody else is controlling the enemy team, do it. If they ALL are, work the ball.

Against enemy snipers/assassins: Snipers and Assassins are going to be your biggest problem. You'll be able to gun down almost any other class before they can get you, but the sniper will take you out long before you get into range. Launch a few mortars toward him and his nearest cover, then get into cover yourself. Your head is HUGE, so he'll be able to headshot you easily. Assassins love to back-grapple you as your miniguns slow you down to fire them. And, on top of that, it means your focused somewhere else. If they stay cloaked to back-stab, hit your slam if you hear them coming. Dont' take the chance. Slam, then jump, then relocate immediately. They will either make their presence known and attempt to attack anyway, or retreat. Either way, they now have the advantage.

Conclusion

The Gunner is THE offense pro. His Minigun is a powerhouse, and he can single-handedly level the entire enemy team. Enemy turrets are in constant danger of a Mortar assault from him, and his juice will guarantee an enemy base being reduced to smoldering wreckage.

Reserved for Sniper

Reserved for Support

Reserved for Tank

Reserved for everything else I couldn't fit in the other posts.

I'm done after one. Seriously.

Reserved for JackTrips

Waiting to see what all you do for gunner/Support honestly as those two end up my more played classes.

Otherwise: Resereved so I can reply at a later time.

Nice first post. It's a good guide for new players. I remember when I fist started I had no idea where to buy juice and what all those things did. This is a great idea, if you actually go through with all of it.

Yeah, I'm gonna start up a few of the Class guides in a bit. Can only write so much at once before I get really bored.

Bump: Assault and Gunner Guides complete.