Cheesecake's guide to NOT LOSING HORRIBLY

The Basics

1. If you don't know your allies, pick a class you're decent with. This allows you to effectively combat the enemy.

2. Know what works vs Pros, Turrets, and Bots. The gunner's mortar isn't as effective against pros because they're a slow moving projectile, and only the most unaware sniper is going to die to two shots from the mortar given how much time it takes between the initial firing and the arrival. They're better against set path bots, and turrets. His minigun is a pro shredder. You can reference any number of guides here for what works vs what for which class.

3. Know your class weaknesses. If you're assault, you're not winning face to face with a pre-spun gunner. Flank him. Instead of going out the side of the base he's on while playing on Grenade III, jump out the front and take a lift to his side, and toss a bomb at his feet before engaging. This throws him from his position, possibly to a ringout if he reacts slowly with his slam (or its recharging) and if not a ringout, then he's damaged and you've got the advantage. Again, there are numerous guides that feature class match ups for your selected class. Learn who to avoid and who to hunt mercilessly.

4. KILL THE BOTS. This is screamed from the rooftops in EVERY guide out there, and lamented severely to the point of almost sounding pathetic, but this is an essential element of crossfire and you ignore it at your own peril. If you like losing in 2 minutes in games that have a 15 minute regulation duration, then go ahead.

General Strategies

1. Get to midfield, and hold enemy bots there. Do not let them pass. If they die at midfield, then they can't drop your moneyball and you can't lose until overtime, but losing in overtime isn't the same as being annihilated in a shorter duration than it takes to start a game.

2. If you're engaging an enemy pro, and the bots slip a little past you, its ok. The pro will kill you if you ignore him, so its better to take out threats to your bot grinding. Just make sure that once the threat is neutralized to clean up the bots. Getting your bots to their base to WIN isn't my goal here, but naturally once your bots start pushing up, escort them the best you can. Should they get wiped by a tank/assassin, fall back to midfield and keep working their bots.

3. If you have to fall back to avoid dying at the hands of an enemy pro, be careful not to do so through a bot lane. If their bots wipe your current wave out, they will pick you off. If possible, destroy them on your way out of combat. This way you're achieving two goals in one.

4. If you can't get to midfield due to a strong enemy push, at LEAST get out of the base. If you have the cash, pop a lazerblazer and upgrade it to three, then babysit it until you can get your bots past it. If you can't heal it, its not a big deal. Usually it'll destroy the bots that come up in time for your next wave to get to you, then you can move them to midfield and try to clear out their bots.

5. DO NOT LET THE BOTS TOUCH YOUR MONEYBALL. If you have bots getting ready to pass by your main base turret on either side, drop everything and STOP them. Grapple, ice trap, hell standing in front of them delays them slightly. Letting your moneyball drop guarantees incoming heavy damage to it, as the sound is very distinct and audible throughout the arena, and enemy pros are going to be buzzing around ANY moment. You probably already have one or two hanging outside of the spawn ring as its rare for bots to drop a moneyball completely on their own.

6. If you're about to drop out of spawn and you hear a juice activate, see if its one of yours doing a defensive juice. Not very likely, but check anyway. If its not one of yours, just walk back into the base and wait for about 6 seconds. No sense giving them free kills and cash, and they're going to destroy your turrets anyway. Sure, there are ways to stop juicers but you take a huge risk in doing so, and if you're reading this guide seeking to improve or learn (instead of just curiosity) then chances are you lack the experience necessary to use what you need to stop them effectively. No offense, but I'm probably right so keep your $25 to yourself, deny it to their juicer, and wait. If you happen to be playing support, and have level 3 airstrike, drop them in a triangle pattern around your moneyball, and retreat inside the spawn. You might get lucky and take out the juicer without having to ever face him.

7. If you're with random people, and there are three assassins/snipers already, don't pick either of those classes! They have the least armor and are easily killed by ANY decent assault/tank. Besides, competing for backstabs isn't going to be killing bots, and you'll have tons of competition for those bots which means level 3 passive is awhile off.

8. Pick at least two classes to focus on. If you 'main' tank, and you're getting dominated by gunners, instead of ranking your passives up to level 3, hold on to that money and switch to assault. While you CAN flank gunners as a tank, tanks are far more visible and good gunners are watching the whole battlefield for targets and flankers. The gunner is at his best when pushing pros out of mid range where the minigun does far more damage than anything but sniper rifles or the rail gun. While you COULD duke it out as tank, chances are they will still shred you enough to where a slim could pick you off while you fall back.

Advanced section

Once you've moved up to becoming more than just a leaf on the wind to your opponents, and become a major obstacle to your opponents, you can employ a few of these tactics to make your inevitable loss due to idiot pubbies a little more drawn out and difficult for the other team.

1. Assassins can control BOTH lanes on all of the maps. Its more difficult on Grenade III as the bot lanes are so far apart, but its still possible if you're confident in your lunging. Lunge off a lower level platform with the $50 jump pads to the middle, and you can get to the other side of the map in seconds. Beware ejectors. The dagger has been reduced in power but a Gold RoF dagger is still one of the fastest ways to take down a wave of bots, even the super blackjack waves that start happening toward the end of the game. Lunge them from behind, few swings and they're destroyed. Rush to the other side,

2. Full Deathblossom= dead wave. Its rare when this doesn't outright destroy them, but nothing a followup burst of jetgun won't take care of, or a few Rightstick Melees for the juice.

3. Placing your firebase next to a level 3 lazerblazer and hacking both will effectively lock down the lane to all but a jackbot. The enemy bots will stop to fire at your turrets, and you can out heal their damage easily. Use your third hack (It recharges fast enough to keep three turrets hacked) for a turret on the other lane, if anything just to slow the bots down. Use this strat if you're pushed past midfield. If you're up at midfield, get your firebase under cover, and let it work. Beware enemy supports, one airstrike and your firebase is gone. There are only a few spots where a level 3 airstrike can't hit your firebase, so if you see a support in the area of your firebase, and he seems aware of it, grab it off the ground (even if it results in burning a recent hack) since the skill regen on it takes quite awhile. Even if the airstrike kills you its better to deny them that extra little bit of cash from your turret and lets you place it again MUCH sooner than if you were to let it get destroyed.

4. Sniper level 2 ice traps stop oppnent bots. They can't move, letting you drop a flak on them or explosive round. Don't be afraid to drop an ice trap in a bot lane.

That's all for now. Please, don't hate on me in the comments

Reserved, and stuff.

Good guide. You missed one though...

If your team already has 3 assassins and you haven't picked yet, DON'T PICK ANOTHER ASSASSIN!

unless its forum-team against randoms. we purposely chose 6 assassins, and won against a team with 2 tanks. it was a close game, but imagine how not-close it woulda been otherwise. more of a handicap tho. wana play safe then get a good combo of pros and firepower and skills.

:lol: :lol: :lol: Good times brah, good times.

But yeah, most teams are made stronger by good class diversity. If you always play X or Y class and your team already has 2 or more of them, think of it as 'now is a good time to learn a new trick'. Or you can play a class that usually wrecks your face and use the same tactics that always annoy you.

A team with three bad Assassins and one great one is generally much better than a team with three bad Assassins and a mediocre Assault. However, if you know that at least one of the Assassins is actually a good player, then go for your best player-killer.

Good point about class diversity.

Thing was broTranq, we were all pretty competent assassins. Whenever they'd bring a tank up, we'd SWARM him. He'd kill at least one of us, but he was so busy fighting off assassins that he couldn't push the lane. The other players saw all of the paper mache armor kill opportunities and couldn't resist.

I think the time our ball dropped was more us enjoying swarming tanks a little too much