Beginner's guide

How a match works

100 players split into three teams: Lonestar, Valkyra and Manticore. Somewhere on the map is a randomly placed Control Zone, 2 by 2 km. About every 30 seconds, the team with the most players inside it scores a point. First team to 100 points wins.

Inside the Control Zone is a smaller Hot Zone that moves around during the match. Every player standing in it counts as two for scoring and earns double cash. Towers inside the zone can be hacked for extra money. The map guides show the callouts for each map and, where it is known, where the zone can land.

Your first match

1. 01Join a squad at HQ before you buy anything. A squad gives you shared markers, someone to revive you and a ride to the zone.
2. 02Buy a cheap kit. Our budget loadout costs $2,600: the T-21, level 2 armor and helmet, a small vest and bandages. Add an Emergency Resuscitator, which costs nothing, so you can revive teammates.
3. 03Get a ride to the zone. HQ is a long way from the action. Take a vehicle or a helicopter with your squad, or deploy straight onto your team's spawn vehicle once one is out on the map.
4. 04Stay close to your squad inside the zone. Close enough to revive and be revived. A lone player in the zone scores the same as one in a squad, but lives a lot shorter.

Getting shot

When you are shot you go down first. You are not dead yet. You only respawn if you give up or the down timer runs out, and the timer is long.

The same goes the other way: reviving a teammate is one of the best-paying things you can do. See how to make money for what each action pays.

Money

You get $10,000 once, when you start. After that, the cash you earn carries over from match to match, and everything you buy comes out of it. New players get 50% off everything at the vendors until around level 10, so the first matches are the cheapest ones you will ever play.

The rule of thumb: only bring a kit you could afford to lose three or four times. Read how not to go broke before you buy anything expensive, and use the loadout builder to see what a kit costs before you pay for it.

Roles

There are no classes to pick. The gear you buy decides what you do in a life, and what you do earns experience in one of six roles. All six add up to your overall level.

Assault

Fights with rifles. The most familiar role if you come from other shooters.

Medic

Heals and revives. Always useful, and reviving pays well.

Recon

Snipes and spots enemies for the team.

Support

Builds at FOBs and deals with vehicles.

Driver

Moves the team in ground vehicles.

Pilot

Flies the team in helicopters.

Start with Assault if you just want to shoot, or Medic if you want to be useful from the first minute. Both keep you in the middle of the fight, where the zone and the money are.

Guns and ammo

The T-21 is the best first gun: it costs $600 and sits in A tier on our tier list. The expensive guns are better, but not by enough to be worth losing while you learn the maps.

Standard ammo is fine against light armor. Once you run into level 3 and 4 plates, switch to armor piercing. The ammo guide explains why, and the shots to kill calculator shows how many hits any gun needs against any armor.

Mistakes to avoid

• Spending most of your starting cash on one expensive gun. One bad life and it is gone.
• Giving up while you are down. Wait for a revive unless nobody is anywhere near you.
• Walking to the zone alone. It is far, and you are easy money for anyone on the way.
• Fighting outside the zone. It doesn't score, and the kill rarely pays for the risk.
• Forgetting ammo. You pay for every round, and running dry in the zone is a wasted kit.