Tengu excels at consistently dealing damage to enemies, even against mobile targets, or when the user makes aiming mistakes. This makes Tengu a perfect weapon for newbies and low-aim players. 

Due to large pellet spread from the hip, Tengu has worse hip fire than other SMGs, almost always requiring the user to aim down sights.

Stats

Best of Both Worlds

Both SMGs and Shotguns have a number of problems that make them less effective than other CQC primary weapons. 

Shotguns fire multiple pellets with each shot, so they can easily inflict some damage with each shot. However, their Time to Kill is balanced around hitting nearly every pellet, and large Pellet Spread limits their effective range. Unless you’re within a few meters and aim well, any automatic CQC weapon is likely to kill faster. 

They also have relatively low Rate of Fire, so missing a whole shot is extremely punishing.

Shotguns also don’t have Cone of Fire Bloom, so you are expected to fire at maximum rate of fire to make your TTK more competitive. 

To summarize, to be effective with a shotgun in hectic close range combat you are expected to hold your aim pinpoint at enemy’s center mass and click at a very specific rate. Needless to say, this is hard to accomplish even for good players. 

The fact that shotguns easily inflict partial damage doesn’t mean much, because only partial damage will take ages to kill an enemy. 

SMGs have a different set of problems. On average, they have lower DPS than other CQC primary weapons, lower Damage per Magazine, and shorter effective range. The only thing they gain is increased hip fire accuracy, and 75% ADS. And sometimes you can have too much accuracy.

You have to compensate reduced firepower with your own skill, going for headshots and hip fire headshots, and outmaneuver the enemy with your mobility. This creates a significant skill requirement just to make SMGs competitive in CQC.

NSX Tengu is a perfect balance between shotguns and SMGs. Tengu easily inflicts partial damage on targets, but it doesn’t suffer from shotguns’ low RoF and from SMGs’ “too much accuracy”. You can waive Tengu in general direction of the enemy and still kill him in a reasonable amount of time. 

Tengu is inaccurate enough to be effectively used in hectic CQC setting, even by an average player. But it is accurate enough to have about the same effective range as other SMGs. 

Couple that with some very short reloads and decent Damage Per Mag, and you get a rock solid SMG in the end.

Mechanics

Mechanically, Tengu is a shotgun. Feel free to familiarize yourself with Weapon Mechanics and Shotgun Mechanics.

Cone of Fire Bloom. Unlike Shotguns, Tengu does have some CoF Bloom, in line with other 200 damage per shot weapons. Similar to other SMGs, Tengu has the same CoF Bloom for both ADS and Hip Firing.

CoF Bloom Per Point of Damage Done: 3.5 * 10-4

In this regard, Tengu shares the first place with Eridani, which is known for sustained hip fire accuracy. Of course, Pellet Spread will interfere with that a lot, but as far as CoF Bloom mechanics are concerned, Tengu is excellent.

The fact that Tengu fires multiple projectiles with each shot is a double edged sword:

Pros: 

• Makes it easier to consistently inflict some damage, even when target is actively dodging or the user makes aiming mistakes. This gives Tengu affinity for CQC and makes it friendly towards newbies and low-aim players. 
• As an additional consequence, Tengu user is less affected by flinch from getting shot, and can be competitive in duels even without Battle Hardened implant.

Cons:

• Optimal DPS is harder to reach.
• Damage can be reduced if target is partially protected by cover. 
• It is harder to focus your damage output at a particular point, such as enemy’s head. Or to single out a specific enemy in a group. 

Damage

Damage per Pellet: 50 @ 6m - 36 @ 40m
Pellets per Shot: 4
Damage per Shot: 200 @ 6m = 144 @ 40m
Rate of Fire: 500
Damage Per Second: 1666 - 1200
Headshot Damage Multiplier: 2x


Within maximum damage range, Tengu’s DPS is equal to 200 @ 500 weapon, such as Gauss SAW, which is below average for an SMG.  Considering that optimal DPS is harder to reach for Tengu, it has a comparatively low, but consistent damage output. 

Despite that, in the hands of an average user, Tengu is likely to be more effective and kill faster, just because it is so consistent at dealing damage.

Similar to other 200 damage weapons, Tengu gets hard countered by Nanoweave Armor, which can increase Ideal TTK from 0.48 seconds to 0.72 seconds – that’s 50% TTK increase for 20% damage reduction!

However, Tengu can potentially deal 400 damage with a headshot, and kill an enemy with just three headshots, with a good overkill in case a few pellets miss or hit the body.

Tengu takes 4 body shots or 2 head shots before it can reliably melee combo enemies.

Ammunition

Ammo: 20 / 140
Damage Per Magazine: 50 * 4 * 20 = 4000
Extended Mags: +4 rounds per magazine (+800 DPM)
DPM w/ Ext Mags: 4800
Reload Time: 1.875 sec / 2.5 sec


Tengu has very decent Damage Per Magazine, close to Cyclone’s, which holds the first place among first gen SMGs. Extended Mags provide a noticeable boost, pushing magazine size from “adequate” to “comfortable”. 

Tengu also has quick reloads; the long reload penalty is unusually mild for an SMG. 

Hip Fire Accuracy

Hip Cones of Fire:1.75 / 1.75 / 1.75 / 2.0
(crouching still, crouching moving, standing still, standing moving)
Hip CoF Bloom: 0.07
Pellet Spread Hip: 3.0

Due to large hip fire Pellet Spread, and larger initial Hip Fire CoFs, Tengu has notably worse hip fire than other SMGs. 

Tengu has access to a unique attachment – Hybrid Laser, which reduces Hip Fire CoFs and Hip Pellet Spread by 20%. It enables the user to hip fire with a bit more liberty, but other SMGs will still have much better Hip Fire accuracy.

Click to enlarge.

On these pictures, each weapon fires 2000 damage. This is 10 shots for NSX Tengu, and 16 shots for GD-10 Blitz. Both weapons are fired from the hip while Standing Moving – the most likely hip firing stance. As you can see, Blitz – and by extension other SMGs – has much more accurate Hip Fire. 

As mentioned, Tengu has below average DPS, and due to large pellet spread, it cannot focus its DPS when firing from the hip, and even with Hybrid Laser you can’t hip fire for headshots outside spitting range.

And with normal, partial body shots, Tengu simply takes too long to kill an enemy from the hip. If the enemy is on the beefy side, and slightly at range, you’re likely to run out of ammunition before killing the enemy, assuming you even live that long.

All of this boils down to – Tengu can be effectively hip fired, even without Hybrid Laser, but with much less freedom than other SMGs. Tengu requires more thoughtful approach. It is preferable to almost always Aim Down Sights, and hip fire only against squishy or weakened targets, or at very close ranges. 

ADS Accuracy and Effective Range

ADS Cones of Fire: 0.15 / 0.17 / 0.15 / 0.32
(crouching still, crouching moving, standing still, standing moving)
ADS CoF Bloom: 0.07
Pellet Spread ADS: 0.75
Velocity: 380 m/s
Projectile Lifespan / Gravity: 1.5 / 11.25


Overall, you can expect Tengu to have about the same effective range as other SMGs, around 20-30m. 

Remember two things:

• Tengu gets an accuracy boost for staying still or crouching.
• Tengu fires multiple projectiles, so it benefits from firing at completely exposed targets.

Given right conditions, Tengu can reach out to enemies at longer ranges, especially if they’re not Heavy Assaults. 

However, the reverse is also true. When the target has partial cover, you will need to be closer before you can do any meaningful damage.

Due to relatively large initial Pellet Spread, burst firing is not as important with Tengu as with other weapons, so you can afford to fire in longer bursts. Extremely high First Shot Recoil Multiplier makes shortbursting even less desirable. 

Tengu has slightly less Damage Degradation than other SMGs, losing 28% of damage over 29m. For comparison, 125 damage SMGs lose 33% of damage over 31m (assuming SPA on both).

Overall, Tengu has surprisingly decent effective range for an “automatic shotgun”. 

Recoil

Vertical Recoil: 0.4
Vertical Recoil Per Second: 3.33
First Shot Recoil Multiplier: 3.5x
Recoil Angle: -5 / 5
Horizontal Recoil: 0.25 / 0.25
Horizontal Recoil Tolerance: 0.6
Average Horizontal Deviation: 0.205
Maximum Horizontal Deviation: 0.5
Recoil Recovery Delay: 120
Recoil Recovery Rate: 18

Tengu has high vertical recoil for an SMG, but it’s fairly average overall. However, Tengu has extremely high First Shot Recoil Multiplier, and this is something that you will need to adjust to when firing at enemies beyond ~25m. 

Tengu has more stable horizontal recoil than most SMGs.

All that said, you will run into damage degradation and Pellet Spread issues long before recoil becomes a problem. So aside from the mentioned FSRM, recoil is not something you should overly concern yourself with when using Tengu.

Misc Stats

ADS Time To / From: 0.15 sec / 0.15 sec
ADS Movespeed Multiplier: 0.75x
Minimap Detect Range: 40m
Equip / Unequip Time: 0.65 sec / 0.25 sec

All of these are standard for an SMG.

Attachments

Optics

Tengu has access to a variety of 1x and 2x scopes, including HS/NV scope. As always, the choice will depend only on your personal preference, but generally speaking, there’s no reason to use anything other than 1x CCLR scope. 

Barrel

Flash Suppressor

This is the standard recommended attachment for most weapons, as it provides a bit of concealment at nearly no cost. Increased minimap detection range can mess with you, giving away your position to enemies outside your effective range, so if you do a lot of solo flanking, you may prefer to run Suppressor or no barrel attachment instead. 

Suppressor

Suppressor will reduce your ranged damage, reducing your Damage Per Second by up to 13%. Tengu sounds loud when you shoot it, but it sounds much quieter to other players around you. And the Suppressor makes Tengu nearly inaudible. 

Suppressor is a great attachment for flanking SMG Infiltrators and Light Assaults, who usually have more thoughtful and deliberate engagements, against unaware or weakened enemies. Having more time to ADS and aim properly will further reduce the effects of damage penalty.

However, it doesn’t make much sense to use Suppressor for aggressive pushing and hectic CQC skirmishes, as you’re likely to be spotted or lit up by a Motion Spotter anyway.

Rail

Tengu has access to Extended Mags (+4 rounds per mag), Darklight Flashlight and Hybrid Laser attachment.

Hybrid Laser reduces hip Pellet Spread and Hip CoFs by 20%. 

On paper, both Hybrid Laser and Extended Mags are viable. I’ve used both, and have been satisfied with their performance. 

The problem with Hybrid Laser build, is that Tengu has worse hip fire performance than other SMGs, and Hybrid Laser is inferior to Advanced Laser Sight.

 You would think that 20% reduction to Pellet Spread and 20% reduction to Hip Fire CoFs come together and equate to 40% reduction to Hip Fire CoFs of ALS, but it doesn’t actually work like that. Effectively, you still get a 20% reduction versus 40% reduction.

And given the fact that Tengu has worse hip fire capabilities than other SMGs even before the attachments, it doesn’t make much sense to go with Hybrid Laser.

It’s certainly a viable attachment, you can make it work, but objectively Extended Mags is better, especially when used by flanking classes – Light Assault and SMG Infiltrator.

Ammo

Tengu has access only to Soft Point Ammunition, and should always be used with it.

Recommended Attachments

This is a cookie cutter build if you don’t know which attachments to pick for your playstyle.

• 1x CCLR
• Flash Suppressor
• Soft Point Ammunition
• Extended Mags

Gameplay Tips

First and foremost, you must realize that Tengu’s hip fire is much worse than for other SMGs. You almost never want to hip fire, unless the enemy is just a few meters away. So in almost any engagement you want to be aiming down sights.

Other than that, Tengu plays a lot like other SMGs, so feel free to check out the corresponding sections of the SMG Guide and SMG Infiltrator Guide.

Remember to close the distance before engaging, when possible.

Take advantage of Tengu’s short reload. After killing one enemy, you almost always want to take a step back and reload, unless you’re flanking several enemies from a really good position, and can kill all of them at once.

Get a good sidearm, and get good with it. You’re gonna be relying on it a lot, similarly to other SMGs. 

Be careful about engaging enemies in partial cover. You won’t be dealing much damage to them.

When engaging enemies at range, you can boost your accuracy by being still or crouching. Just be careful about being sniper bait.

Conclusion

Tengu is the most competitive weapon in the whole NSX lineup. It is very effective, and will serve most players much better than Cyclone ever will – and that weapon is universally regarded as the best SMG. Unlike other SMGs, Tengu is friendly to newbies and low-aim players. It has the best qualities of shotguns and SMGs, while doing away with their worst qualities. 

Tengu is much easier to use than other 200+ damage weapons, while still letting you enjoy the feeling of impactful, high damage shots.

Worth buying?

Tengu is a must buy if you have any intention of using SMGs. 

However, at the end of the day, all SMGs have limited firepower and effective range. Most classes will have a more versatile CQC primary weapon option. If you don’t have a reason to use an SMG, you don’t have a reason to use Tengu.

Yumi is an excellent weapon for medium and long range combat, and it gives a huge advantage when firing first, more so than any other automatic weapon. But the burst delay makes the weapon a little bad in direct confrontation, especially if the enemy engages you first in close quarters. 

Playing with Yumi is like playing with any slow and accurate ranged Assault Rifle – you will have to stick to cover, be ready to disengage if you get shot and avoid rushing head-first.

Using the Yumi is the hard way to teach a player to look for good engagements; the strict requirement on accuracy and firing delay will force the user to always aim down sights and aim properly before opening fire. 

On the other hand, Yumi is a weapon that plays itself. Unlike other burst weapons, which are basically automatic weapons in disguise, Yumi doesn’t allow any Cone of Fire management, and barely requires recoil compensation. 

Yumi is predominantly a medium+ range support weapon. If you ever wanted a designated marksman rifle for a medic – this is it. 

Yumi was released in underpowered state, and was significantly buffed in Apr 27th, 2017 patch and Oct 19th, 2017 patch, and now that this weapon is actually viable, let’s take a deeper look. 

Stats

Mechanics

After you press the trigger, there is a 0.25 second firing delay. Then it takes a 0.24 seconds to fire off a 5 round burst, with 60 ms refire time between shots. For comparison, AF-4 Cyclone has 92 ms refire time. 

As with a semi-auto weapon, you can queue the next burst right after you start charging the current burst. Click-release-click-hold until the next burst starts charging. This technique is explained in detail here. 

If you press the trigger without Aiming Down Sights, you will not be able to Aim Down Sights until the weapon finishes firing.

Similarly, if you press the trigger while ADSing, you will not be able to leave ADS, even if you jump. This is actually one of the biggest turn-offs of this weapon, because when you click to fire, you essentially commit your next 0.55 seconds to firing, and this can be a problem if you get attacked by another enemy during this time. 

Melee Combo

Yumi’s fixed burstfire mode gives it an interesting mechanical quirk. You can click to start charging the burst, and then perform a quick melee attack while the weapon is firing. This makes Yumi surprisingly scary in close quarters, because even if only 4 out of 5 shots hit, a knife strike will still reliably kill standard infantry through nanoweave. 

Learn more here.

Damage

Rate of Fire during a burst: 1000 RPM
DPS during a burst: 2783 to 2083 depending on distance.

Overall Rate of Fire: ~545 RPM
Overall DPS: 1516 to 1135, depending on distance.

Yumi fires off the burst at the highest rate of fire among all primary weapons, and therefore has the highest non-shotgun DPS. Burst delay significantly reduces overall rate of fire, reducing overall DPS to be on the level of a 167 @ 550 RPM weapon. 

With perfect accuracy and bodyshots, Yumi will require two bursts against a full health target. Heavy Assaults will require an extra burst at most. It is possible to one-burst a target if several shots hit the head.

Overall, assuming good, but not perfect accuracy, you should expect 2-3 burst kills against standard enemies, and 3-4 bursts against Heavy Assaults.

Finally, one burst + one quick knife swing will reliably kill standard infantry, though it’s not an easy combo to hit against an aware player. 

Recoil

Yumi is the only weapon to feature a zero First Shot Recoil Multiplier, meaning it has no vertical recoil for the first shot. The first shot is still subjected to Horizontal Recoil, though. 

Yumi has one of the lowest values for Vertical Recoil, though extremely high rate of fire still creates a noticeable vertical pull during the burst. You can’t start compensating recoil on reaction, because the burst will be over before you can react.

Yumi has very little Horizontal Recoil for its damage profile, and a negligible recoil angle to the right. 

Recoil Recovery finishes before you can start the next burst. 

Accuracy

ADS CoFs: 0.03 / 0.15 / 0.03 / 0.15 / 0.05

Yumi has very small Cones of Fire in all stances, and reduced Cone of Fire Bloom. Most 167 damage weapons have CoF Bloom of 0.06. 

It’s worth noting that Yumi doesn’t get any bonus accuracy for crouching.

Overall, it’s safe to say that Yumi features one of the longest effective ranges among Assault Rifles. And even ranged monsters like Reaper DMR cannot compete with Yumi’s moving accuracy and low Bloom.

Hip CoFs: 2 / 2.25 / 2.5 / 3 / 0.12

Yumi has standard hip fire accuracy for an assault rifle. It can be surprisingly effective in a pinch, but don’t expect any miracles, especially if you use Compensator. 

Attachments

Optics

Yumi has access to a variety of reflex scopes from 1x to 3.4x, and HS/NV scope. As always, the choice will depend only on your personal preference.

A low magnification scope makes it feel like the weapon has no recoil at all, and it allows a wider field of view, which can be crucial while you are busy tunnel visioning in one direction and firing off several bursts – Yumi has a long exposure time. 

On the other hand, a higher magnification scope gives a clearer sight of the target, allowing for more deliberate accuracy. It can also help identify targets at longer ranges before you even open fire. 

When in doubt – start with 2x Reflex, and see whether you need more or less magnification.

Barrel

Yumi has access to Flash Suppressor and Compensator. Both are viable, depending on playstyle and intended application.

• Flash Suppressor will make you less noticeable, which is crucial in ranged combat. 
• Compensator will increase ranged accuracy and make it easier to get headshots. 

Rail

Yumi has access to Extended Mags (+5 rounds), Forward Grip, Darklight Flashlight and Underbarrel Smoke and Grenade Launchers.

Yumi is a rare case of a ranged weapon where Forward Grip is not mandatory. Yumi already has very little horizontal recoil, and at ranges where you would benefit from the Forward Grip, Yumi already gets weaker due to Cone of Fire Bloom and damage degradation.

Yumi’s underbarrel attachments are similar to those of other weapons.

Underbarrel Grenade Launcher offers a great way to increase utility, versatility and firepower. It can damage vehicles, finish off players behind cover, and even OHK if you manage to get a direct hit. UBGL was never a bad attachment to have. It has just two problems: it is usually available on crappy weapons, or weapons that greatly benefit from other rail attachments.

Yumi doesn’t have any of those problems, so it is a prime candidate for using UBGL. 

Ammo

Yumi has access to SPA and HVA. 

SPA is better within 35m and gives maximum benefit of +1.8% damage at 15m.

HVA is better at 35m+ and gives maximum benefit of +6.4% damage at 90m. 

If you’re interested in a more in-depth analysis of ammo types, /u/DrSwov has a reddit post with TTK numbers against different targets.

Recommended Attachments

There are many viable attachment combinations with Yumi. If you know what you’re doing, you should be able to easily figure out the best build for yourself. 

If you need some help to get started, here is an example of a cookie-cutter build:

• 2x Reflex
• Flash Suppressor
• High Velocity Ammo
• Underbarrel Grenade Launcher
• Battle Hardened Implant

The goal behind this loadout is to give you the most versatility and combat options, without being overly specialized in any particular area.

Gameplay Tips

NSX Yumi is way more versatile than it may seem on the first look. The burst mechanic spices things up a bit, but you quickly get used to it, and for most intents and purposes, you simply get a gun that shoots half the time, and charges up the other half. 

Use the burst delay to your advantage, and take aim properly while the gun is charging up. 

Yumi has surprisingly decent performance from the hip, but you should still invest in a powerful sidearm for close encounters, and get comfortable with it. If you get engaged while healing or reviving, the sidearm will be your go-to weapon, not the Yumi.

Being unable to fire single shots is definitely limiting, because you can’t tap-fire snipe engies behind turrets or deployables. 

Yumi is excellent at range out of the box, without any performance-enhancing attachments, so it can be used with any attachment combination and still be viable.

The burst mechanic certainly gives advantage to firing first, but it’s not like you automatically lose if you get engaged on. Dodging enemy fire and hip firing, or ADSing and going for headshots are both viable ways of fighting back, depending on situation. 

Don’t spend too much time firing at targets at super long range, you’re unlikely to kill them before they make it to cover, and every moment you spend outside cover increases the chances of getting sniped. 

In extreme close quarters, consider switching to a sidearm, if you’re good with it. You can also “pre charge” a burst as you round the corner, though it requires good timing, and you have to already know where the enemy is. 

Conclusion

Yumi is an interesting and worthy addition, both to NSX lineup and Assault Rifles in general. Not everyone will like it, but everyone can use it. Unlike most other NSX weapons, Yumi doesn’t have a steep skill requirement.

• Give Yumi to a PS2 newbie with some FPS experience, and he will be able to participate in ranged combat, even though he knows nothing about CoF and recoil management.
• Give Yumi to a hardened veteran with excellent accuracy, and most enemies will die before they realize they’re getting damaged. 

Yumi is a welcome respite from super-niche weapons, though the delayed burst mechanic   seems a little out of place on Medic, and would make more sense on Light Assault or Infiltrator, in my opinion.

If you’re thinking about purchasing the Yumi, it is strongly recommended you trial it, and use it in actual combat for the whole 30 minutes. 

Answering critique

The whole premise of Yumi being a “garbage” weapon is based on a 0.25 second burst delay, which is not a big deal, unless you get shot as soon as the engagement starts. This just means Yumi user has to be a little more thoughtful about engagements he’s taking, nothing more.

Ignoring the burst delay, Yumi is basically an incredibly accurate 167 @ 550 AR with nearly no recoil and automatic CoF reset. I wouldn’t say that’s bad.

Adding Yumi into Weapon Simulator

If you want to add NSX Yumi into my Weapon Simulator, add this string to the end of the Stats.csv file, which you can open with Windows Notepad:

804246,NSX Yumi,NS,Assault Rifle,167,10,125,90,1,60,1,0.48s / 0.56s / 0.56s,580,-,30,210,3550,2755,0.5,0.12,0.05,2,1.5,2.5,5,2,0.03,0.03,0.15,0.15,5,5,0.29,0.12,0.12,0.4,0,16,Auto,0
804246,NSX Yumi SPA,NS,Assault Rifle,167,15,125,90,1,60,1,0.48s / 0.56s / 0.56s,551,-,30,210,3550,2755,0.5,0.12,0.05,2,1.5,2.5,5,2,0.03,0.03,0.15,0.15,5,5,0.29,0.12,0.12,0.4,0,16,Auto,0
804246,NSX Yumi HVA,NS,Assault Rifle,167,8,125,110,1,60,1,0.48s / 0.56s / 0.56s,609,-,30,210,3550,2755,0.5,0.12,0.05,2,1.5,2.5,5,2,0.03,0.03,0.15,0.15,5,5,0.29,0.12,0.12,0.4,0,16,Auto,0

Keep in mind that it won’t properly simulate Yumi’s burst mechanics.

Rocket Launchers in PlanetSide 2 can be used by Heavy Assault class, and count as their tool. They deal moderate damage to all targets. There is a large variety of launchers; some of them deal increased damage, others can lock on to ground vehicles or aircraft, or use laser guided or even TV-guided systems.

Most vehicles require quite a few rocket launcher hits to take down.

Launchers deal mediocre damage to vehicles in most situations. Pairing them with another player or damage type works best. Finding these opportunities or working in teams will greatly enhance your effectiveness with whatever launcher you use.

/u/Renuse-Sol-Ex

Normally, a single Heavy Assault with a Rocket Launcher is only a nuisance. In order for him to represent any real threat, the vehicle must be already damaged, distracted or otherwise vulnerable, and the Heavy Assault himself requires cover and freedom of movement. 

Rocket Launcher Mechanics

Rocket Launchers follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons.

Most Rocket Launchers deal Direct and Indirect Damage. You can think of it as “piercing effect” and “explosive effect”.

Direct Damage

The Direct Damage of all launchers uses the same Damage Resist Type 34 – Infantry Rockets. Therefore, all rocket launchers can be directly compared to each other. 

• Infantry, MAXes and ground vehicles have no built-in resistances against that Damage Type. Therefore, they will take that damage directly to their Health. 
  • Rockets do not deal increased damage on headshots.
• Aircraft, especially ESFs, take bonus damage from this Damage Type.

You can calculate weapon damage to vehicles using the Toolbox.

Indirect Damage

Rocket Launchers that have Indirect Damage, can be split into two groups:

Standard

Rocket Launchers that are primarily intended to be used against ground targets have Indirect Damage Resist Type 6 – Common Explosion. Any rocket hit will produce splash damage in a small area. 

• Infantry takes full damage from that damage type.
• MAXes take 50% less.
• All vehicles except Flash are immune to it.
• Flash takes 25% reduced damage.

It’s worth noting that compared to mines and frag grenades, rockets deal very little splash damage, and it can be further reduced by first rank of Flak Armor and Ordnance Armor.

Flak Detonation

Lock-on Launchers with dedicated anti-air capability use Indirect Damage Resist Type 12 – Flak Explosion. In-game description will mention this fact.

Rockets from these launchers automatically detonate near enemy aircraft, damaging them with Indirect Damage. Aircraft take bonus damage from Flak. You can use the Toolbox to find out exact resistances.

Flak-type rockets will not produce splash damage in any other circumstances, so it’s highly unlikely for anything but the aircraft to be in range of Flak damage.

• Still, ground vehicles and MAXes have immunity to Flak damage.
• Infantry has no resistances to it and would take full damage if it managed to be in range of Flak explosion.

Indirect Damage Hidden Distance Scaling

Currently, only Empire Specific Ground-to-Ground lock-on launchers are affected by this obscure mechanic. 

Dumbfire Mechanics

Dumbfired rockets start flying at relatively low Starting Velocity, and then rapidly Accelerate to Maximum Velocity, listed in-game as “Muzzle Velocity”.

Starting Velocity and Acceleration are hidden in-game, and can only be accessed via Census API, and without these values you cannot fully evaluate rocket’s speed. 

Rockets dumbfired from Lock-on Launchers do not accelerate, they always fly at their Starting Velocity.

• While flying, rockets are affected by Gravity.
• The slower the rocket is flying, the more time Gravity has to affect its trajectory, so faster rockets with more Gravity can sometimes have less projectile drop than slower rockets with less Gravity. 
• If a rocket doesn’t hit anything during its Lifespan, it will self-detonate. 
• Rocket’s trajectory will be more flat if you’re shooting downwards.

Lock-on Mechanics

• Some of the launchers can lock-on to ground vehicles and/or aircraft. 
• Some of these launchers cannot fire without an established lock (cannot dumbfire).
  • Both these facts will be mentioned in the launcher’s description.
• Rockets dumbfired from lock-on launchers will not accelerate, though they usually have slightly higher Starting Velocity.

To gain a lock, user must hold the enemy vehicle inside Lock-on Angle of the sights for several seconds. Lock-on Time is the same at all ranges and against all targets.

On launchers without dumbfire capabilities, you can hold “fire” key to fire as soon as the lock is established.

There are two statistics related to lock-on distance:

• Lock Range – determines the maximum range at which a target can be locked.
• Lock Hold Range – some launchers can keep tracking the target with a lock even after it has left the Lock Range.

In other words, launchers that have Lock Hold Range longer than Lock Range can hold a lock at ranges where they can’t establish a lock.

Launchers that can lock on to both air and ground targets will have different lock-on ranges against them.

When target goes outside Lock-on Angle or Lock Hold Range, a launcher can keep the lock for a short amount of time, equal to Lock-on Loss Delay.

However, during that time the lock is still fully functional, and you can take advantage of this by angling your rockets to make sure they don’t hit anything on the way to the target. There is a more extreme example here.

Vehicle Stealth defense slot can increase the lock-on time by 0.25 to 2 seconds, depending on vehicle and Vehicle Stealth rank. You can find specific numbers in in-game descriptions of Vehicle Stealth.

Fire-and-forget: after the rocket has been fired with a lock, it will automatically track the vehicle without the need to maintain the lock.

The rocket will only pursue the target for Lock-on Lifespan amount of time, so theoretically the rockets can be outrun, but it is usually impossible outside of edge cases, like an ESF at maximum lock range, afterburning away.

The “agility” of a locked on rocket is determined by Lock-on Turn Angle. If the vehicle performs evasive maneuvers, the rocket may not be able to adjust trajectory in time, and can miss the vehicle.

If then the angle between rocket’s flight direction and direction to the target becomes greater than Lock-on Lose Angle, the rocket will lose the lock. This means that the mechanic of dodging lock-ons is built into the rockets themselves. 

It is currently unclear if locked on rockets are affected by Gravity.

Proximity Seeking

Proximity Seeking rockets are dumbfired as usual, but if they fly near enemy aircraft, they will automatically snap lock-on to them. 

Currently the only rocket launcher employing this mechanic is T2 Striker, though similar mechanic is applied to Coyotes and Hyena Rocket Pods.

Lock-on Related Stats in Census API

The Census API contains a lot of information, related to the lock-on behavior. Unfortunately, most of that information is wrong and meaningless. Values that are actually being used by the game are recorded in the part of the API without public access. 

For example, according to Census API, NS Annhilator has:

• Starting Velocity: 50 m/s
• Maximum Velocity: 100 m/s
• Lock-on Acceleration: 6.67
• Variable lock-on time: 1.5 sec @ 100m -> 2.5 sec @ 300m

And here are actual rocket travel times for different distances, acquired by in-game testing, by frame-by-frame watching of 60 FPS Shadowplay recording:

As you can see from the testing, Annihilator rocket covers 350m over 3 seconds, which means average velocity of ~116 m/s, which clearly exceeds supposed “Maximum Velocity” of 100 m/s. It also seems to travel at a constant velocity, despite the fact there is an “acceleration” statistic.

There is naturally some inaccuracy due to measuring method, but not on the scale of 0.5 seconds. I have ran into similar walls with G2G and G2A lock on launchers. 

As a conclusion: listed Muzzle Velocity can not be used to judge locked on rocket speed. Same goes for such stats as lock-on range,  lock-on time and lock-on loss time.

Rocket Launchers did used to have their lock-on time vary with distance to the target, but it was changed in one of the patches, and now lock-on time is the same at any distance, though it will vary from launcher to launcher.

Some values, like Lock-on Turn Angle and Lock-on Loss Angle cannot be effectively tested. In Rocket Launcher stat sheets below, you will see a red question mark in brackets (?) to highlight stats that are listed in the API, but could easily be wrong.

Lock-on Lifespan is probably correct.

Vehicle Interaction

Vehicle pilots receive a warning when you try to lock-on to their vehicle, and they can see whether the source of that lock is someone on the ground or an air vehicle.

When a rocket is tracking the vehicle, they get continuous warning and they can see flying rockets on the minimap as pulsing red dots. 

Establishing and holding a lock will not give away your position.

Decoy Flares and IR Smoke

Air vehicles can use Decoy Flares utility to remove the lock and prevent locking for several seconds. Any lock-on rockets already in flight will automatically miss – veer off skywards and self-destruct. 

Ground vehicles can use Smoke Screen to the same effect, though it is much less popular. 

Mythbusting

There is a myth that jumping or falling greatly increases hip fire accuracy of dumbfired rockets. Busted.

Misc. Rocket Launcher Mechanics

Sprint Override: after firing a rocket, the player cannot sprint for a certain period of time. Depending on the launcher, this delay ranges from 0.3 to 0.5 seconds. 

Terminal Resupply to Instantly Reload: you can double-tap the “use” key (default [E]) on an infantry terminal to instantly reload all your weapons and restock on ammo. This can be a great way of boosting your combat rate of fire while using a launcher.

However, resupplying at a terminal mid-reload will result in your character doing a non-skippable reload animation after the resupply, so before resupplying make sure to switch to something that doesn’t need reloading. 

Fire Detect Range of 100m: when fired, all launchers put their user on the minimap of enemies within 100m.

Iron Sight Time: all launchers take 0.35 seconds to ADS, and 0.15 seconds to return from ADS to hip firing.

ADS Movement Speed Multiplier: most rocket launchers have 0.5x multiplier, the only exception is NSX Masamune, which has 0.33x.

Reloading continues in a vehicle: if you enter a vehicle after the reload has started, the reload will continue and complete successfully while you are inside. This works the same for all weapons, but only after they spend all ammo in the mag.

Munitions Pouch Suit Slot allows to carry extra spare ammunition. One extra rocket / magazine / battery per rank, up to 4 ranks.

Dumbfire Launchers

These launchers do not have any sort of laser guidance or heat seeking, but they deal the most damage per rocket.

The ability to instantly fire a highly damaging rocket make them great against MAXes, hovering aircraft and other vehicles at close range. 

According to my tests and confirmed by /u/Renuse’s experiences, a rocket dumbfired from the hip while standing moving is guaranteed to hit an infantry-sized target within ~6.5m, as long as you aim exactly at its center mass. 

Dumbfire launchers can be used as one-shot “sniper rifle” against camping Infiltrators and Light Assaults, as it’s a guaranteed OHK if the rocket touches the player.

All dumbfire launchers share the same Damage Resist Type, so they can be compared directly. 

Starting Launchers

Despite looking different, these launchers function exactly the same between factions.

Starting rocket launchers are your basic RPGs, they have good velocity and damage, but hitting mobile or distant targets can be challenging. Iron sights can be especially inconvenient when trying to compensate for projectile drop.

Quick reload lets you keep dealing a solid amount of damage to ground vehicles, especially at close range, but starting launchers aren’t very effective against aircraft. Even if you manage to hit them, you will still need multiple hits to destroy them. 

One rocket is almost enough to get an ESF burning. If you do manage to get a hit, you can quickly finish off the ESF with about 20-30 bullets from your primary weapon.

Valkyries require at least 3 rockets hits, and other aircraft even more. At that point, using a lock-on launcher for easy guaranteed hits is likely a better bet. 

One rocket deals 32% to 42.5% of MAX‘s health, depending on whether he has Ordnance Armor, and of what rank.

NS Decimator

Can be used by all factions.

NS Decimator is a heavy RPG. It deals more damage than starting launchers, but reloads longer, carries fewer rockets, and the rocket itself has lower velocity, which makes it more susceptible to Gravity and harder to use against vehicles at range and aircraft.

Compared to starting launchers, Decimator deals ~34% higher damage per shot, and usually requires 1 rocket fewer to kill a vehicle. 

Both dumbfire launchers can deal roughly the same damage with the amount of carried ammunition, but starting launchers still deal ~23% more damage per reload time (damage per minute) than Decimator.

However, requiring to fire fewer rockets makes Decimator safer, and higher damage per shot is more desirable against infantry and MAXes at close range:

• Decimator deals 57.5% to 43.4% MAX’s health in 1 rocket, depending on Ordnance Armor.
• One direct rocket hit will kill full health infantry without Flak Armor 3+.

One rocket will reliably one-shots ESFs without Composite Armor. Such overwhelming power earned the Decimator lots of love and adoration from the community. 

Decimator is noticeably harder to use at any meaningful range, so often it is better to stick to starting launchers. After all, it’s better to hit with a weaker missile than miss with a stronger one.

The Kraken

The Kraken is a cosmetic variant of the Decimator, granted for completing the auraxium level of rocket launcher Directives. Kraken has an auraxium shader, and its rocket explosions have noticeable visual and sound effects.

The Directive requires you to earn an auraxium medal (1160+ kills) with five different rocket launchers. Since most rocket launchers are no longer effective against infantry, this directive is very hard to complete for the moment. 

Lock-on Launchers

Empire-specific Ground-to-Air

Despite looking different, these launchers function exactly the same between factions.

These launchers can lock-on to enemy aircraft, but they can still be dumbfired against ground targets, which makes them incredibly versatile. A Heavy Assault armed with one of these will have an option against every target type in the game. 

Comparing G2A launchers to default dumbfire launchers:

The good: there’s virtually no performance loss against ground vehicles at close range.

They are also more convenient to use:

• Scope doesn’t get in the way like Iron Sights, and it’s great for dumbfiring.
• The rocket is slower, but it flies at a constant velocity, so it is more consistent and predictable within ~75m.
• It is less affected by Gravity, and doesn’t require as much compensation for drop within 200m. It will have ~50% longer travel time, though. 

The bad: default launchers deal more damage to MAXes and Infantry, since rockets from G2A launcher do not produce splash damage when fired at ground targets. 

The ugly:

• Low velocity and shorter lifespan limit G2A dumbfire range at 250m. 
• G2A Launchers have much worse hip fire accuracy.

Empire-specific Ground-to-Ground

Despite looking different, these launchers function exactly the same between factions.

These launchers can lock-on to enemy ground vehicles, and they can still be dumbfired against infantry and MAXes, or vehicles at close range. 

Interestingly, G2G launchers deal a tiny bit more damage per shot than default dumbfire launchers. That would be enough to let them reliably oneshot infantry without Flak Armor…. if not for hidden indirect damage scaling. Up close, G2G launcher rockets will deal less splash damage. So the rocket will oneshot only at 30m+. 

G2G launchers have great accuracy and consistency within their relatively short lock-on range of 200m, as long as the vehicle is in relatively open field and the target cannot just hide into cover to throw off the lock. 

NS Annihilator

Can be used by all factions.

NS Annihilator cannot dumbfire, but it can lock to both ground and air vehicles. Against ground targets, it has a longer lock-on range than dedicated G2G launcher.

Annihilator deals less damage per shot, but it has faster reload and ~half a second shorter lock-on time, and it also carries more rockets. Overall, Annihilator can deal slightly more damage before having to resupply. 

The inability to dumbfire makes Annihilator ineffective against ground vehicles at close range, and useless against infantry and MAXes.

It’s not necessarily such a terrible thing, as it simplifies the decision-making. Removing the option to dumbfire against MAXes and infantry forces the player to rely on firearms, but it also removes the possibility to be flanked and killed while handling the launcher, or missing a crucial rocket. It also makes it nearly impossible to accidentally hit an allied unit. For these reasons, Annihilator is the best launcher you could give to a complete FPS newbie. Which is probably the reasoning behind it being included in the Elite Recruit Bundle.

NS-R3 Swarm

Can be used by all factions.

NS-R3 Swarm is a sidegrade to Annihilator. It too cannot dumbfire, and can lock-on to both ground and air vehicles, with same lock-on ranges and lock-on time.

Swarm is magazine-fed, with 3 rockets per magazine, each rocket dealing slightly more than half of Annihilator’s rocket. Swarm can fire only 1 rocket per second, and requires you to maintain the lock for 2 seconds while firing 3 rockets, while the Annihilator is strictly fire-and-forget.

All in all, Swarm has about ~17% lower damage per minute than Annihilator, but in return it can output the most amount of damage per reload. 

Swarm has two firemodes:

• In default firemode, it fires fast, but not very agile rockets. They are great at quickly reaching a large or slow-moving vehicle, but can miss a more maneuverable target.
• In secondary firemode, Swarm fires slow, but agile rockets. They are nearly impossible to dodge, but they can take a long time to reach the target, and can potentially run into terrain or be outrun.

 Empire Specific Rocket Launchers

These rocket launchers embrace the traits of different factions: volume of fire for TR, precise and powerful punch for NC, adaptability and versatility for VS. These launchers are rather unique, and historically have been a hot topic for community, with constant calls for nerfs or buffs, and with whole squads being organized to play around their strengths. Things have been calm and stable lately, though. 

All of these launchers are weak on their own, especially outside their element, but – just like everything else – become noticeably stronger when used in greater numbers in coordianated squads.

T2 Striker

T2 Striker is a magazine-fed rocket launcher, with a focus on sustained fire and close range anti-air. Striker dumbfires small, fast rockets both when hip firing and when looking through the scope. If a rocket passes within ~15m of an enemy aircraft, it will automatically snap lock-on to it.

Striker can be a great deterrence to aircraft when terrain and proximity interferes with traditional lock-ons, but it’s fairly average against armored ground vehicles. 

Striker’s velocity does not seem to follow the parameters in the Census API. Here are some results from in-game testing:

Due to high velocity – more than twice as fast as default dumbfires – individual hits are easy to score, so the Striker can sustain fire on distant targets without any trouble.

Striker is a versatile launcher that can engage both air and ground targets, but noticeably lacks in alpha damage, and exposes the user while firing. 

When dealing with distant targets, starting Cone of Fire becomes a real issue, and has to be managed by staying still. Striker also has a little bit of CoF Bloom, but it’s no big deal and can be ignored, for the most part

Striker has maximum range of about 445 meters.

Tip: Striker is fully automatic, you don’t have to click for each shot, you can just hold “fire”.

Striker is ineffective against MAXes, requiring 14+ rockets to kill one.

NC15 Phoenix

• Phoenix fires slow TV-guided missiles, almost as damaging as Decimator’s.
• While the rocket is in flight, the player uses his first person camera to steer to rocket.
• During that time, the player character is forced to stand and becomes immobile; vulnerable to enemy fire.
• The rocket is slow, emits distinctive blue flames and a screeching sound effect, and can be shot down.
• The reloading process only starts after the user exits the steering mode.
• The rocket can fly maximum 295m away from the user. Flying further will force a detonation. While steering the rocket, players can monitor the distance to their body in the upper right corner.
• Phoenix cannot fire from the hip.

Phoenix users have accumulated a lot of tactical and mechanical quirks to help them:

In prolonged hunkered-down fights, dug-in NC will pull out the Phoenixes. You don’t need to coordinate with them. Pull yours out, and wait for them to fire theirs. Fire yours right away. You should be able to follow where the first NC rocket is going, and most Phoenix users know to do this trick of following the first rocket. It leads to coordinated spikes of damage without actually coordinating.

/u/CloaknDagger505

The Phoenix packs a serious punch and has the incredibly useful trait of not needing line of sight to engage. The best time I’ve found to use this weapon is in support of a friendly armor push: position yourself closely behind, out of enemy line of sight, and fire your Phoenix over cover towards the fight. Focus on an enemy that is being engaged by your allies. This technique is just brutal when you combine it with friendly Vanguards. They cause enemy tanks to seek cover, and you follow the burning tank into cover with your Phoenix and blow it up. You’ll want a vehicle of some sort so you can keep up with the friendly push, and keep the enemy in your range of 295 meters.

Solo Phoenix is amazing against inexperienced and distracted tanks from a flanking position, and can quickly kill even an MBT. Engaging veteran tanks that are not distracted will result in them killing, evading or outrepairing you, so its best to avoid.

Against aircraft, Phoenix can sometimes get good surprise alpha damage. ESFs take especially high damage, almost enough to be one-shot. But you won’t be able to reliably hit evading aircraft. Hovering Galaxies and Liberators are fairly easy to hit, if they are in range, however. 

Pressing the “Change Camera” key (default “T”) after the shot switches the first person rocket view to third person, allowing for a much wider Field of View, which really helps with finding and tracking targets.

Alternatively, you can press the “Hide HUD” key (default Ctrl + F10) after the shot to remove the scope overlay.

Unfortunately, in both cases you lose the distance tracking.

/u/SteveFrench2017

The rocket can be accelerated and decelerated for better control, same as an aircraft.

/u/Daetaur

You cannot fire the Phoenix while crouching, even when using crouch toggle. Firing the rocket will force you into standing once you enter the camera mode.

It’s something to keep in mind if want to avoid exposing yourself as sniper bait.

/u/M0XNIX

You can prematurely end the steering process by pressing the “Exit vehicle” key (default “E”). The rocket will continue flying, but with a heavy drop downwards. It will still deal damage if it hits something. You can use this technique to shave off a few milliseconds between shots by “exiting” the rocket when it is about to hit something. You can also use this to pseudo dumbfire the Phoenix at close range targets. 

If you have a fancy gaming mouse, it can be convenient to have a thumb button that would increase mouse’s sensitivity while steering the rocket, so you can easier make sharper turns. 

You can use the keyboard to steer the rocket. The rocket will respond to Aircraft Controls for Pitching Up and Down, and Rolling Left and Right. Arrow keys by default. You can also change rocket’s speed to make sharper turns.

Phoenix one-shots Engineers’ MANA Turrets, and kills the Engineer in the process, unless they bail before impact. This is the main reason I use the Phoenix, because a well placed MANA Turret can pin down a whole squad.

/u/DammitBran

Lancer VS22

Lancer is not a traditional rocket launcher, it’s more of a charge up anti-materiel plasma rifle. Lancer’s battery holds 9 plasma cells. By default, Lancer fires weak bolts of plasma that deal minor damage and consume 1 plasma cell. But the user can hold down the trigger to fire more powerful bolts:

• 1.5 sec charge – 3.5x damage – consumes 2 plasma cells
• 3 sec charge – 7x damage – consumes 3 plasma cells

Lancer has no projectile drop and pinpoint accurate while aiming down sights.

Charged shots are more ammo-efficient, so normally Lancer is used in charged mode. It is a common tactic to charge the shot from the hip, and fire it in ADS mode. That way, you can move faster while charging.

There are several ways to cancel the charging process, should you need to:

• switch to a sidearm
• start reloading the Lancer
• perform a quick knife attack
• press “Toggle Weapon Visibility” key (default “Ctrl + F11”)

Due to highest in class projectile velocity, Lancer is easy to use at range. It can even be used to snipe ESFs. Low scope magnification can be a nuisance at extreme ranges, though. Lancer has a considerable damage degradation after 150m, so it’s not very effective at 200m+.

More than any other ESRL, Lancer is known for being used en-masse in organized squads. However, its main allure was that once a certain critical mass of Lancers was reached, the squad could delete any enemy vehicle within render distance. Now that Lancer has considerable damage degradation, it’s less effective in that role. It’s still does a good job of consistently inflicting damage to vehicles at great distances, but the necessary critical mass to instakill a vehicle is now at around ~20 Lancers.

With Lancer, VS heavies can engage any vehicle on the battlefield at basically any range. The charge feature lets you choose how to distribute the damage. Instead of always charging (which does yield the highest percentage of damage), use the appropriate charge for the situation:

• Two fully charged shots take ~6.5 seconds to empty a battery and will deal 1400 base damage. The enemy pilot will have ~3.5 seconds between shots to react to incoming damage.
• Alternatively, you can start with one fully charged shot, then follow up with a lvl 2 charged shot, and then finish with an uncharged shot. It will take ~5.8 seconds, giving the enemy only a couple seconds to react and dealing 1150 base damage.

The key to the Lancer is to focus fire on targets that are already being engaged. Since you can choose how to distribute the damage, you often can easily steal the kill. For this, I like to use Flashes to get in flanking positions of big tank battles.

Don’t try to solo a veteran tank crew, unless they are already engaged or otherwise distracted. If they can’t kill you, they will just disengage or outrepair your damage.

The Lancer shines against light vehicles. Once you get enough practice, hitting a cruising harasser is pretty easy. 

Lancer is great for sniping MAXes. Unless running Ordnance Armor 3+, they will die to 3 charged shots within 150m. Note: Lancer doesn’t deal bonus headshot damage.

However, Lancer is horrible against infantry and MAXes at close range. Its lack of burst damage makes it useless on the front lines.

/u/SteveFrench2017

Other Launchers

NSX Masamune

NSX Masamune is a quad-barrel rocket launcher, and a part of the unique Nanite Systems Exports weapons lineup. It has some interesting mechanics. 

In hip fire mode, it fires all barrels at the same time like a shotgun. Crouching and staying still will increase hip fire accuracy. 

In ADS mode, it fires all rockets one by one over 0.75 seconds. The player can use the scope to steer the rockets, similarly to Engineer’s AV Mana Turret. A reload can be started 1 second after the final rocket is fired.

Rockets do not follow the crosshair exactly. They start flying noticeably below the crosshair, so usually you have to aim above the target for rockets to hit. 

When leading a moving target, it is better to overlead and then drag rockets backwards, rather than trying to drag rockets forwards. Overleading fast moving targets may require an extreme body turn, though.

Rockets accelerate much slower in ADS mode.

Masamune always fires and reloads all 4 barrels, so it can be treated as a pseudo single shot launcher.

Keep in mind that you are exposed and vulnerable while steering the rockets, and you are not reloading while doing so. Masamune also has reduced ADS Movement Speed Multiplier – you can only move at 1/3rd of your normal movement speed while ADSing.

Masamune can be hard to use properly, but it’s a powerful and versatile launcher, capable of close range MAX and infantry takedowns, accurate long-range hits on ground vehicles, and effective air deterrence out to medium range.

Masamune is also okay for anti-infantry purposes; it can one shot infantry without Flak Armor, if all 4 rockets hit. A full salvo will damage an ESF without Composite Armor into a burning state. 

Masamune can do a lot more than most launchers, but it also takes a lot of skill to use at range, and can often deliver lower than optimal performance.

Tips and Tactics

Quickscoping

When engaging enemy vehicles at “medium range” of 50-100m, it’s a common tactic to “quickscope” a rocket launcher. You use your hip fire crosshair to aim, then start Aiming Down Sights and fire the rocket during Aiming Down Sights animation, before you actually see Iron Sights align.

For rocket launchers, it takes 0.35 seconds to transition to Iron Sights, but only ~0.15 seconds for Cone of Fire to shrink to ADS state. 

So as long as you fire ~0.15 seconds after you pressed the ADS key, your shot will have the same accuracy.

The point of this tactic is to be more efficient with your time, and spend less time being exposed while aiming. Staying still at the moment of the shot will increase accuracy as well.

Ballistic Crosshair Overlay

Hitting distant targets requires compensating for projectile drop, which can be tricky to do, since iron sights will be obscuring the target. While massive amounts of practice can help, there are a couple of completely legal tricks you can employ.

If you use RTST Crosshair Overlay, you can use these ballistic crosshairs:

Enable “Centered image” option.

There are 4 red bars, each serves as a crosshair for 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m. These crosshairs are scaled based on 1920 x 1080 resolution and 74 degree Vertical FoV. If you play at a different resolution or FoV, you will have to scale the crosshairs accordingly. 

At 100m+, rockets have so much drop that your target will be obscured by iron sights. You can avoid this by hiding your weapon model, default Ctrl + F11. Obviously, it helps to rebind it to something more convenient. You cannot shoot while the model is hidden, so you will need some quick finger work. 

You can bind Toggle Weapon Visibility in-game and Toggle Crosshair Overlay in RTST to the same keybind, and then you will be able to toggle between aiming and firing with one button. You will need a secondary keybind for Toggle Weapon Visibility so you can synchronize these things when you first log in. 

If you have a gaming mouse, you could create a macro for a thumb mouse button that would hide the weapon while you’re holding the button, and show it when you release the button. Effectively, you would have a “hold to hide weapon for aiming” key. You could also rig that macro to fire as soon as the weapon is shown. 

Rocket Jousting

It is  a common tactic for a Heavy Assault to turn the corner with a Rocket Launcher ready and surprise the enemy with a point blank rocket shot. This tactic is especially effective due to Internet Delay advantage.

Keep in mind this is only really effective against infantry if you use NSX Masamune or NS Decimator, as other launchers are incapable of reliably killing infantry without Flak Armor.

There are a couple of ways you can improve this trick:

1. Firing the rocket while jumping will allow you to preserve sprint-level speed.
2. If you activate overshield after your feet leave the ground, you can also gain overshield’s protection from enemy fire and your own splash damage without receiving movement speed penalty until you land.
3. If you deactivate overshield before your feet touch the ground, you will not suffer overshield’s penalty at all. 
4. Immediately after the rocket shot, you can switch to something else, like a sidearm, med kit or even C4, depending on what you want to do next. Switching to LMG is usually a bad idea, as it will take much longer. 

Video demonstration.

Naturally, these improvements require some quick finger work, and require a lot of skill to pull off in combat scenarios. But it is deadly effective against infantry and MAXes, and allows to do a ton of damage while still being very mobile.

C4 Combo

There used to be a special trick you could do: deploy C4 on enemy vehicle, and then use Rocket Launcher’s splash damage to detonate it, saving a bit of time required to detonate C4 manually. However, now that Rocket Launchers deal little splash damage, this combo is no longer possible.

Calculating Launchers’ Damage

You can use the Toolbox to calculate Rocket Launchers’ damage to different vehicles with different defensive certifications. 

Credits

This guide wouldn’t be possible without generous contributions of other community members that have answered my call for help with this guide. Every response in this thread is appreciated. Especially helpful people: 

• /u/NS_CorraDald
• /u/Teoke
• /u/magnanimous_xkcd
• /u/PS2Orange
• /u/CloaknDagger505
• /u/t0nas
• /u/TheSubEx
• /u/kennyn172
• /u/Nazgren
• /u/commissar_emperor x2
• /u/RYKK888
• /u/gitroni x2
• /u/st0mpeh
• /u/PlansThatComeTrue
• /u/xxkid123
• /u/Xerox1231
• /u/zharrhen
• /u/SanguinaryXII gets MVP Stars for explaining splash damage scaling.
• /u/shanterlad
• /u/SteveFrench2017 great tips on Lancer and Phoenix
• Thanks to Xerox1231 for pointing out some typos.
• /u/Renuse-Sol-Ex for his explanation of Rocket Jousting tactic and other tips. 

NSX Fujin is a throwing knife. It goes into grenade slot, and thrown using the “throw grenade” key. A headshot with this thing instantly and silently kills most infantry targets within 20m. Fujin can be used by all classes. By default, you carry 2 Fujins at the same time, and Grenade Bandoleer suit slot will provide 2 additional Fujins per rank.

The only way to unlock NSX Fujin is to complete the Gold level of Nanite Exports directives, which requires you to get 160 kills with four NSX weapons.

Is NSX Fujin worth it?

The only practical use for Fujin is silent assassination of stationary enemies within 20m, which makes it a fairly situational item. Depending on your class and playstyle, the amount of such enemies you encounter will range from “some” to “none”. 

And enemies like that are usually unskilled, low-priority targets. You don’t help your faction that much by aggressively hunting for them. And often they can be taken out almost risk-free with melee, which would be just as silent. 

Moving unaware enemies are much harder to headshot with a Fujin. However, throwing is silent and stealthy, so usually you can throw them without much risk – enemies don’t notice when you miss completely. 

Carrying only a single Frag Grenade is usually a waste of the slot, so Fujin can be useful as a replacement-filler. However, most classes get access to more impactful or versatile grenades. 

Technically, Fujin can instakill any standard infantry within 20m. One could argue that provides an amazing outplay potential. However, Fujin is incredibly bad in straight-up fight:

• It’s hard to headshot a moving target, especially when it is shooting back.
• Most firearms can deal more damage in the amount of time it takes to throw a Fujin and then re-equip the weapon.

Throwing becomes a viable combat option only if both your weapons need reloading, and even then it’s more of a “last resort”. 

Fujin doesn’t make a good combo with melee attacks:

• It cannot reliably combo-kill an enemy with Nanoweave Armor.
• There will always be a delay between throwing and swinging.

You can try playing on Internet Delay by throwing while stepping in and out of cover, similar to how you would use a pump action shotgun, but strict requirements to aiming and timing make it challenging at best.

However, just because something isn’t practical doesn’t mean it’s not worth using, right? NSX Fujin is perfect for the the world of PlanetSide 2, filled with besaltered, bored veterans. It introduces a new, sparkly fresh and unusual way of killing. All the trouble one has to go through to even get the NSX Fujin only makes it more exclusive and adds to the “special snowflake” factor.

You can also feel like a genuine ninja or badass specops operator. All those knife throw scenes in action movies? Fujin hits the spot. If you love that entourage, enjoy being stealthy or got nothing better to do – Fujin is right for you. Otherwise – don’t bother.

Stats and Mechanics

Census API link: Item ID: 6003418

Cost: 25 Nanites per one throwing knife.

Damage: 500 @ 20m – 250 @ 50m.

Fujin has the same damage resist type as bullets, so it is reduced by Nanoweave and deals damage to vehicles that take damage from small arms. Ignore the official description “Fujin […] slices through infantry defenses”.

Headshot: 2x Headshot Damage Multiplier (patchnotes are wrong)

This means that Fujin is lethal on a headshot against standard infantry targets within 20m, and within 26m against non-NAC Infiltrators. Enemies with Auxiliary Shield can survive a headshot.

Legshot: deals 70% damage when it hits legs.

Minimap and Sound: Fire Minimap Detection Range is only 1m, so effectively you don’t show up on enemy minimap when you throw a Fujin. It is also very silent and has a barely noticeable tracer, like the Crossbow. 

Sprint: Fujin seems to have the same ~0.3 second Sprint Recovery Delay before you can start throwing out of sprint, and ~0.35 second Sprint Override Delay until you can sprint after throwing.

Speed: Fujin starts flying roughly ~0.5 seconds after you press the “throw” key and has 70 m/s velocity. 

Rate of Fire: after you throw a Fujin, there is a 1 second delay before you can start throwing another one. Effectively, it means 1.5 seconds between throws.

Accuracy and Range: Fujin is pinpoint accurate, even while jumping and falling, but it has some projectile drop. The Projectile Lifespan is equal to 3 seconds, so the maximum flight distance is 210m, but obviously hits will be hard to score.

Interaction with other weapons

You can throw a Fujin:

• Right after firing any weapon or using melee.
• During a burst of a burst fire weapon
• During a reload – the reload will be interrupted. 

Throw Timeline

When you press the “throw” key, the following happens:

1. You spend some time unequipping your weapon. Unequp Time is equal to 0.25 seconds for all known weapons.
2. Spend 0.1 seconds throwing the Fujin (visual animation takes 0.2 seconds). Knife actually starts flying in ~0.5 seconds after you press the “throw” key.
3. Spend some time equipping your weapon back, depending on weapon’s Equip Time. 

This means that you can fire a pistol almost right after throwing, but there will be a significant delay before you can fire an LMG. You cannot do a quick melee swing until you finish equipping a weapon.

You cannot switch weapons while throwing. If you try, you will equip the weapon you had in your hands before throwing, and only then start equipping another weapon.

But you can throw while switching, if you start switching weapons right before you hit the “throw” key. 

A comprehensive example: you are reloading an LMG. Suddenly an enemy appears. You start switching to a pistol, and immediately hit the “throw” key.

1. You will spend 0.25 seconds unequipping the LMG
2. then 0.25 seconds on equipping (or unequipping?) the sidearm
3. then 0.1 second on throwing the Fujin. 
4. then pistol’s Equip Time on equipping your pistol. Fujin will start flying slightly earlier than you can fire the pistol.

Action Buffer

You can “buffer” actions right after throwing by holding a certain key. For example, you can throw a Fujin, and then hold the “throw” key until you throw another Fujin in the shortest amount of time possible. Or you can throw a Fujin and hold “fire” button, and you will start firing as soon as you re-equip the weapon. Or you can hold both keys, and you will fire until you can throw again. 

Similarly, if you want to start sprinting as soon as possible after the throw, simply start holding the “sprint” key immediately after you pressed the “throw” key. If you were already holding the sprint before throwing, you will have to release the key and start holding again.

If you want to perform a quick-knife attack after throwing, you don’t need to hold it, one press is enough. 

Example: you want to sneak up and silently kill an unaware enemy. When you move close enough, you hit several keys right after another: equip the sidearm, throw the Fujin and press quick melee. You can strike all 3 keys at once, and your character will automatically play out the actions: start equipping the sidearm, throw the Fujin, then perform a quick knife attack as soon as possible, leaving you with sidearm in hands in the end.

In this example, you equip the sidearm to shave off some time before the quick knife comes out. With this example, I don’t mean to imply that it’s necessarily better than doing 2 quick knife swings or wielding the knife.

Tips and Tactics

Big rule: don’t use Fujin on enemies that are already engaging you. Resist the temptation of throwing the Fujin at everything that moves, because shooting is usually a better option.

A stationary, unaware target within 20m – these are your rules of engagement if you want Fujin to be reliable.

If the enemy is moving, but isn’t aware of you – you can try instakilling him with Fujin before engaging with your primary weapon. Enemies usually don’t notice a complete miss, so if you have several Fujins, you can make several attempts relatively risk-free.

Fujin can be a great “numerical equalizer”. For example, if you stumble upon several unaware enemies, you can quickly remove some of them with Fujins before going loud with your primary weapon against the rest. 

Aiming

At close range, Fujin doesn’t have that much projectile drop, so aiming at the upper part of the enemy’s head usually guarantees a headshot. 

With normal weapons, you aim first, and then fire. With Fujin, it is easier to press the “throw” key first, and then aim at the target during the 0.5 seconds of the throwing animation.

It’s much easier to hit the Fujin when you remain stationary yourself. 

If the enemy is moving in a straight line, you can make it easier for yourself to headshot him by moving behind him, so that he moves directly away from you. 

It is recommended to use crosshair overlay with Fujin, as it heavily relies on pinpoint accuracy from the hip. 

Rebind the “throw grenade” key to something more convenient than default [G]. A thumb mouse button, perhaps.

Videos

When searching for NSX Fujin videos on youtube, always check the date. Videos released before Dec 22, 2016 patch are outdated.

A montage by Inshpekta Gubbins:

3rd Person Animation tests:

In some ways, NSX Tanto is similar to another NS carbine, NS-11C, which is more traditional and easier to use.

They both feature 75% ADS movement speed, good accuracy and low damage output. But there are noticeable differences between them as well. Let’s take a closer look at both weapons and figure out which one might suit you better.

Stats

NSX Tanto

NS-11C

Shared Stats

Damage

Maximum potential benefit of:

• HVA: +7% damage at 60m
• SPA: +3% damage at 15m

Both carbines deal exact same damage, and have access to both SPA and HVA. However, NS-11C fires 8.6% faster, and has more ammo per magazine by default.

NS-11C gets a small edge for potential raw damage output.

Bullets-to-Kill and Time-to-Kill

Headshots

Standard Target

Nanoweave Armor 5

I don’t list BTK and TTK against Heavy Assaults for the sake of saving space. You can perform that analysis with the Toolbox yourself. 

Numbers above show the general trend: both weapons take a lot of time to kill, but before factoring accuracy and recoil, NS-11C takes slightly less time due to higher Rate of Fire.

Hip Fire Performance

NS-11C

NS-11C has the usual carbine-tier starting Hip Fire accuracy, and very low Cone of Fire Bloom, which means it can sustain hip fire without losing much accuracy. This can be especially noticeable while flying or jumping. 

NS-11C’s hip fire isn’t anything special, but still better than for most ARs and LMGs, and more than passable in a pinch, though low RoF and DPS limit your firepower versus hardened targets, especially if you’re not close enough to hip fire for headshots.

NS-11C takes the edge for ease of use when hip firing.

NSX Tanto

NSX Tanto offers perfect starting accuracy in any stance. It has high Hip CoF Bloom, but even then, it takes 7+ shots to exceed Hip CoF of NS-11C with Laser Sight, which isn’t even a standard attachment.

Tanto is potentially the most accurate hip fire weapon in the game. You can even countersnipe with it! But that potential isn’t easy to reach. You still have to contend with recoil and CoF Bloom.

NSX Tanto requires finesse. You can’t point it in general direction of the enemy and hope for RNG hits. You have to engage in bursts of 4-8 rounds, depending on distance and aiming point.

And because of the weapon’s low DPS, that aiming point better be the head, or you might find yourself outgunned.

Unlike with NS-11C, Tanto can realistically go for hip fire headshots at any distance, but naturally it will be challenging at 20m+.

In that regard, NSX Tanto can be interesting for people who played a lot of Counter-Strike, and used to hip firing and short bursting.

Additionally, you can tap hip fire the Tanto, and let Cone of Fire fully reset between shots. It would mean firing at 536 RPM or ~9 rounds per second. 

Tanto’s hip fire is best suited for a high-aim player with low mouse sensitivity, large monitor, excellent PC performance and Vertical Field of View below maximum. All of it would increase the relative size of the target on your screen, and make it easier to get good hip fire hits from greater ranges, at the cost of reduced awareness and twitch aim effectiveness.

NSX Tanto gets the ultimate edge for high potential accuracy of hip fire.

Both

It’s worth noting that both weapons have low DPS and are not suited for CQC domination. Unless you can reliably hit headshots or engage with a complete surprise advantage, it is better to avoid hip firing, and keep your distance, especially with NSX Tanto’s super low DPS.

Ranged Performance

NSX Tanto and NS-11C have different Recoil and Cone of Fire characteristics, and can be easier or harder to use depending on player and situation.

However, both carbines are likely to be inferior at range to 167 damage carbines, such as Razor, Pulsar C and Cougar, and don’t stand a chance against the magnificent cannon of destruction – AC-X11.

ADS Accuracy

Again, NSX Tanto’s big selling point is that its first shot is perfectly accurate, even on the move. While its ADS CoF Bloom is higher than average (0.06 vs 0.05), it still takes 10 (!) shots before NS-11C becomes more accurate, even when fired from a completely still position.

On that note – it is beneficial to start the engagement with NS-11C while stationary, if you’re engaging an unaware enemy at range from a safe position. But you don’t have to be still throughout whole engagement, you can start moving after you fire 5 shots and receive no accuracy penalty – that’s just how CoF Mechanics work.

In that case, NS-11C will be almost as accurate as NSX Tanto, the worse starting CoF isn’t likely to play any role, unless we’re talking about extreme ranges of 150m+.

NSX Tanto gets the edge for ADS Accuracy.

Recoil

NS-11C

As far as conventional 143 damage carbines go, NS-11C’s accuracy and velocity are above average. The only carbine that has it better is T5 AMC, mostly thanks to access to Advanced Forward Grip.

NS-11C has the lowest vertical recoil among carbines, which makes it very easy to hold on target. High First Shot Recoil is a bit obnoxious when you’re trying to engage a small target in short bursts. 

Overall, NS-11C isn’t something you would want for extreme range shooting or “sniping”, but it’s more than capable at range, and respectable for a carbine.

NS-11C gets a slight edge for ease of use at range.

NSX Tanto

The first obvious thing is high Vertical Recoil, and lack of Compensator to tone it down. Unlike NS-11C, you will have to consciously compensate for Vertical Recoil every time you engage with Tanto, and getting good hits at range may be challenging. The combination of low RoF and High Vertical Recoil is the opposite of convenient.

Lower FSRM makes short bursting a bit more convenient. Even though actual first shot recoil is the same as for NS-11C with Compensator, at least recoil is more consistent from shot to shot.

NSX Tanto has lower Horizontal Recoil, with 30% lower Average and Maximum Horizontal Deviations. It also has less pronounced Recoil Angle, and with less Variance.

All of this goes a long way of making Tanto’s recoil pattern more consistent and predictable, even if takes more effort to compensate for.

If you tap fire and let the crosshair fully settle between shots, you can take up to ~5 shots in 1 second, and each shot will have perfect accuracy. Potentially, you can kill a stationary player with 5 headshots within 0.85 seconds. Most players will not stand and get shot for that long, but you can potentially “snipe” an oblivious sniper or an engineer behind a turret. 

You can also snipe deployables with it.

NSX Tanto gets the edge for potential accuracy at range. You can see where this is going.

Other Traits

Equip Time

Carbines in general have the shortest Equip Time among primary weapons, and NSX Tanto has the shortest Equip Time among carbines. Returning to NSX Tanto from most sidearms or tools is going to take only 0.75 seconds. 

Combine that with perfect hip fire accuracy and you get the best quickdraw primary weapon. This can be especially important for Engineers, when they get caught with a Repair Tool out, or if you’re playing with Med Kit Primary.

That said, NS-11C is only a 0.05 seconds behind.

Ammo Pool

For some reason, NSX Tanto has a huge amount of reserve ammunition. A lot of the time that doesn’t matter, but it can occasionally make a crucial difference for a perching Light Assault, and NSX Tanto certainly benefits a rooftop camping playstyle.

NSX Tanto gets the edge for ammo pool.

Reload Speed

While NSX Tanto has pretty decent reload speed, it’s still 0,45 second slower than for NS-11C, which reloads faster than average.

NS-11C gets a slight edge for reload speed.

0.75x ADS Movement Speed Multiplier

Both carbines allow you to move 50% faster while Aiming Down Sights than with most other primary weapons. It’s a great trait for dancing in and out of cover, slicing corners and dodging enemy fire in a faceoff. 

It can allow you to survive just enough time to get your aim where it needs to be and get those hits.

This trait is especially obnoxious in case of NSX Tanto, which is still pinpoint accurate on the move.

Cross-faction tracers and sound

Both carbines share this quality, and it can add precious milliseconds before enemies identify you as a threat. This is especially important considering how many shots you need just to down one target, and how long it takes to fire them all.

For psychological reasons, this trait is most useful for VS players, as most of their weapons go “pew-pew”.

Which one to use?

As you probably have picked up along this article, NSX Tanto has higher potential than NS-11C, but is harder to use. It can be treated as a more extremely tuned version of NS-11C, the next logical evolutionary step. 

• If you already enjoy the playstyle of NS-11C, but wish you had more control – you’ll like what NSX Tanto has to offer.
• If you are just thinking about entering the realm of accurate, mobile carbines that reward good aim – it’s better to start with NS-11C and transition to NSX Tanto once you feel comfortable with the playstyle.
• If you value versatility and no-nonsense ease of use, and enjoy airborne combat – you’ll have better success with NS-11C.
• If you prefer a run & gun and in-your-face aggressive playstyle – you won’t like either of these weapons. 

Gameplay Tips

Both carbines specialize at “medium range” of about 20m to 50m. They can engage outside these bounds, but it’s not really their forte. Keep your distance when you can, and don’t try to snipe with them, and you should be fine.

Light Assaults really benefit from their sustained accuracy, which makes them great weapons for perching and general rooftop shenanigans. Just do your best to resist the temptation of jumping down in the midst of enemies.

If you are assaulting a building, either try to stay away the furthest from enemies, engage them in their backs, or stay behind your allies. 

When engaging an enemy in a 1v1 shootout, make full use of 75% ADS speed multiplier, and strafe erratically. If there is a piece of cover around – even better. Try to play the cover and catch the enemy sprinting or distracted. If you get under fire the moment you show your nose – just go back and wait for a more opportune moment. 

Both carbines require a lot of hits to down a target, and sure take their sweet time firing them. This means that after 1-2 engagement attempts, enemies around will likely know your exact position. Try not to stay in one place for too long, and engage from different angles when possible. 

Go for headshots when you can, but for both carbines there is a certain distance where they just can’t get them easily and reliably.

While theoretically NSX Tanto can shortburst or tapfire for headshots at any distance, it’s likely to take a disproportionate amount of time, giving an aware target an opportunity to hide in cover, and for other enemies to shoot you. 

In those cases, it’s perfectly fine to for bodyshots. Both carbines have great sustained ADS accuracy, and you’re very likely to eventually kill the enemy, unless he hides into cover or you get sniped first.

Attachments

Both carbines have access to mostly same attachments.

Barrel

Lack of Compensator for NSX Tanto is hurtful, but high Vertical Recoil seems to be the intended downside. And if Tanto had access to Compensator, it would be considered mandatory, pushing out other Barrel Attachments as viable options, and Compensator’s penalties would affect the intended feature – perfect starting hip fire accuracy.

While NS-11C has access to Compensator, and a lot of successful players enjoy using it with one, it’s far from being mandatory. NS-11C has the lowest Vertical Recoil and Vertical Recoil per Second among all carbines, and its performance at range is mostly limited by Horizontal Recoil and low damage. 

Suppressor works great on both carbines, as long as you keep in mind it comes at a cost to your maximum effective range. If you don’t want to deal with that, feel free to use Flash Suppressor instead.

This is a rare case where all available barrel attachments are viable and worth considering.

Rail

Forward Grip is recommended for NS-11C. The random nature of Horizontal Recoil limits your effective range in annoying and unpredictable way. 

While you could go the direction of “compensating weapon’s weaknesses” and equipping a Laser Sight, you wouldn’t get much use of it. When possible, you should simply stay away from close quarters altogether. When not – you still get the benefit of 75% ADS, and still the drawback of low DPS. 

With same reasoning, I recommend Forward Grip for NSX Tanto. It already has predictable and consistent recoil pattern, with one of the lowest Horizontal Recoils out there. 

You could say “if my Horizontal Recoil is already so great, I’ll just use Extended Mags” – and it would be more or less fine for medium range.  But in my experience, usually you cannot afford to stay exposed for so long to fire a whole magazine. 

You already take a long time killing one enemy, you’re likely to get noticed and shot, and you’ll need to go to cover and change position. Might as well reload along the way. 

And if 30 rounds isn’t enough for the user to kill even one target, they should work on their aim or engagement choices, not on attachment picks.

NSX Tanto is already very accurate based on Cone of Fire mechanics. It makes sense to tune the recoil up to par. Unlike NS-11C, NSX Tanto can really reach out. 

Ammo

While both High Velocity Ammo and Soft Point Ammo offer small, barely noticeable bonuses, they always seem to cause the most amount of argument. It comes down to what you value more, performance within 10-27m or after 27m. 

My personal recommendation is to go with HVA for both, as it can potentially offer higher damage increase, and increasing the velocity can’t hurt. 

Optics

As always, optics are up to personal preference. You can use any optic and do good with it.

But since both weapons require good accuracy, going with higher magnification is common and advised. 

For NS-11C, I recommend 2x Reflex. 

3.4x or 4x scopes are viable, but you may find them unnecessary, as less consistent Horizontal Recoil makes your crosshair shake too much.

Weirdly enough, optics choices for NSX Tanto are much more limited, it has access to only one 3.4x Reflex Scope, and no 4x Scopes.

If you are using NSX Tanto with HVA and Forward Grip, I would recommend the 3.4x Reflex. Since Tanto has much lower Horizontal Recoil, your effective range isn’t as limited as for NS-11C. You can also tap fire or “snipe” at greater ranges. And in close quarters, where high magnification would be a burden, you still get the excellent hip fire accuracy. Win-win!

Be prepared to deal with annoying Vertical Recoil, though. If you find it too much, it’s fine to use 2x Reflex or even 1x Reflex.

Additional Material

• Weapon Mechanics Guide – to learn more about inner workings of PlanetSide 2 weapons.
• Gunplay Guide – a collection of detailed tips on using weapons, aiming and engaging.
• Weapon Analysis Toolbox – compare and analyze different weapons.

Wrel’s video review.

NSX Naginata is a new cross-faction LMG, and the first weapon in upcoming Nanite System Exports lineup of weapons, that are intended to be hard, but rewarding to use, and they will all probably have some sort of a unique mechanical quirk.

In case of NSX Naginata, the quirk is the accuracy of sustained fire, as long as you stand still.

It’s worth noting that Naginata doesn’t share the NS weapon trait of 75% ADS speed. Same as most other LMGs, Naginata has 0.5x ADS Movement Speed multiplier.

Stats

Damage output

Naginata’s maximum bullet damage of 150 and Rate of Fire of 659 are slightly unorthodox, but still very similar to some other LMGs that do 143 damage at 652 RoF.

Naginata deals 1647 DPS within maximum damage range, and 1372 DPS at minimum damage range and further. 

This is slightly below average, but comparable to other weapons that rely on accurate shooting. 

With 90 rounds per magazine and fast reload, Naginata can just keep firing without much downtime.

Bullets to Kill and Time to Kill

As you would expect, an LMG with just one tier of damage degradation and a relatively high RoF will experience a smooth performance decline as range and enemy defenses increase.

Due to the fact that Naginata’s damage degradation starts at 150, and the closest bullet damage threshold is 143, Naginata’s bullet-to-kill values remain more consistent within 0 – 25m bracket. 

Tables below are mostly just for reference.

Naginata has standard Headshot Damage Multiplier of 2x and requires 4 headshots to kill within 51m. Aux. Shield adds an extra headshot at 52m+, but at that kind of range it’s irrelevant.

Heavy Assaults

Naginata requires 5 – 7 headshots to kill a Heavy Assault, depending on distance and shield type. 

Cone of Fire and Bloom

Hip Fire CoFs

Naginata has unremarkable hip fire accuracy. Relatively high RoF adds a bit of consistency, and Naginata will not perform absolutely horribly in a pinch, but you still should try to stay away from hip firing distances, and be careful when storming buildings in first lines.

ADS CoFs

Naginata’s starting ADS CoFs leave a lot to be desired. 

Standing moving accuracy of 0.4 is more or less normal for LMGs, especially on those that rely on volume of fire. 

But 0.15 stationary starting CoF is comparably bad.

Just a 0.05 degree difference from the common standard of 0.1 is not a big deal, but overall it means Naginata will have trouble reliably hitting far away or small targets even with the first few shots of the burst.

Advanced CoF Mechanics

This is where it gets interesting.

When standing still and aiming down sights, Naginata’s maximum CoF will be much smaller than usual.

Normally, maximum CoF is 3 degrees for ADS and 7 degrees for hip firing.

But Naginata is different:

Maximum ADS CoF while standing still: 0.6
Maximum ADS CoF while crouching still: 0.4
Maximum Hip Fire CoF while standing still: 4.25

In other words, Naginata will only bloom for the first 5 shots while staying still.

As a result, Naginata can provide relatively accurate sustained fire. 

But there is another effect.

As you may know from Rule 1 of Advanced CoF Mechanics, if you change stances and your Current CoF is larger than Maximum CoF for your new stance, your Current CoF will reduce to match the Maximum CoF.

So if you fire on the move and bloom your CoF too much, instead of stopping your burst you can stop moving for a moment to “reset” your CoF.

So with Naginata you could use stutter stepping instead of burst firing to boost accuracy on the move.  Or even crouch. 

Recoil

As pulled from DBG API by planetstats, here are Naginata’s recoil stats:

Vertical Recoil: 0.8
Recoil Angle: -1.5 / 1.5
Horizontal Recoil: 0.16 / 0.16
Horizontal Recoil Tolerance: 0.4 (max 2 bounces in one direction)
First Shot Recoil Multiplier: 1.8x
Recoil Decrease: 13

Naginata has very high vertical recoil, even larger than notorious Gauss SAW, which has Vertical Recoil of 0.55 and fires much slower. 

Recoil angle is largely irrelevant and horizontal recoil pattern is very tight. 

Recoil Decrease is slightly above average for LMGs, but coupled with very high Vertical Recoil Per Second, burst-firing Naginata can prove challenging. 

Battling the vertical recoil is pretty much the main thing you will be doing while using this weapon.

Effective range

Naginata has a carbine-tier Projectile Velocity. 490 m/s is very low for an LMG.

Coupled with below average ADS accuracy, relatively low bullet damage and very high vertical recoil, Naginata will have limited effective range, despite very tight horizontal recoil, and even if you stand still. 

Going outside effective range

As long as you can stand still and fire from safe cover, Naginata will remain relatively effective in engaging exposed enemies, even if they are too far for comfort. 

Since Naginata can unleash and sustain a large volume of fire, you are bound to kill the enemy, eventually. You will have to compensate for bullet drop and bullet travel time, though.

Attachments

Scope

Due to high vertical recoil and limited effective range, it is better to stick to 1x scopes.

2x should be usable, but unnecessary. If the target is too far away to be comfortably engaged with 1x scope, it is probably outside your effective range anyway.

Rail

The default choice here should be the Forward Grip. While Naginata already has great horizontal recoil by default, it is the only thing limiting your accuracy.

In theory, you can compensate for 100% of the vertical recoil, you have “locked” CoF while standing still, and there is no recoil angle variance. 

So using a Forward Grip will increase your maximum potential accuracy. 

Extended Mags only increase magazine size by 45 rounds (+50%), while most other LMGs get +100% bonus. 

With a very fast reload and risks associated with sustained fire, you are unlikely to need more than 90 rounds at a time, making Ex. Mags not valuable.

Naginata’s LMG-tier hip fire accuracy and increased hip fire bloom make Laser Sight and hip firing in general not very viable.

Barrel

Naginata has access to Flash Suppressor and Compensator.

Both are viable, but in this case Compensator is much more useful. 

While one could make an argument that removing muzzle flash would conceal your position and let you stand still and go full auto with more safety, it’s still dangerous and bound to attract attention of enemy snipers.

To avoid being killed too fast, you would want to activate overshield in advance, turning yourself into a big glowing target, and then removing the muzzle flash doesn’t do much.

Compensator will reduce the harsh vertical recoil, which is probably the most valuable effect you could get from an attachment for Naginata.

Ammo

Naginata has access to both SPA and HVA. 

Due to unusual maximum damage of 150, Naginata doesn’t suffer an immediate penalty to bullets-to-kill when going outside maximum damage range.

As opposed to some other weapons, where increasing maximum damage range from 10m to 15m is a big deal, it is not for Naginata. 

As you can see on the graph, SPA will improve performance in 10m – 30m bracket, while HVA will improve performance in 30m – 85m bracket.

Both offer very small bonuses of up to 1.5% (SPA) and 5.2% (HVA) damage increase in best case scenario. Both are viable, but with Naginata being a relatively close range weapon, SPA will probably be more useful. 

Optimal engagement

The ideal engagement for NSX Naginata is somewhat reminiscent of MCG Mini-Chaingun, where you would want to spin it up, and then abuse the static ADS CoF to take out multiple enemies. 

The main difference is that NSX Naginata has to be stationary, but actually has accuracy to feasibly kill people at range. 

So with NSX Naginata you would want to find a position with good cover and minimal exposure, open only in a small arc in front of you, so you can sit still and fire with relative safety, and mow down exposed enemies as they come by.

Naginata makes a great defensive LMG, or when moving from cover to cover. But you absolutely don’t want to stand still and fire out in the open. Even with overshields, it’s just suicide. 

Don’t get stuck on “optimal”!

Don’t get dragged into line of thinking that you need to be always stationary while using Naginata. It is slightly not as good on the move as other LMGs, that’s it. And you can compensate for it with burst firing or stutter stepping.

Most of the time, especially when you’re under fire, you will still want to move while firing.

Only stand still to engage when you have full health and overshield energy, and only behind cover, and preferably when you engage first. 

Recommended Heavy Assault Loadout

In order to live up to Naginata’s high uptime, you will need a loadout that leaves you with the least downtime, and makes you tanky at the same time.

The cheapest, easiest to use and the most reliable combination would be Advanced Shield Capacitor with Resist Shield and Med Kits. 

With a combo like that, you spend the minimal amount of time recovering in cover, and the most effectively engaging enemy from cover, which is where both the Naginata and Resist Shield thrive the most.

Battle Hardened seems like a good implant to combine with all of that, to give you more potential to outshoot the enemy while tanking their fire. 

The rest of the loadout is up to situation and preference.

A minute of sad realism

Naginata is pretty much a heavily nerfed LMG with a ton of vertical recoil and a gimmick that you won’t be able to use in the majority of normal engagements. 

Like Phaseshift, it’s a cute little weapon, but alternatives are more reliable and much simpler to use. 

If you’re looking for effective, simple, tried and true, you should stay away from Naginata.

If you’re looking for high skill cap / high reward weapon, a weapon that could take months to master, but if mastered would slay legions before you…

… you should still stay away from Naginata.

If you’re a tired and bored veteran and a weapon mechanics nut, if just “killing” enemies heats your blood no longer, and now it’s more about “how” you kill enemies – then Naginata can add color to a few evenings. 

Nonetheless, it is a good attempt, and it is very inspiring to see developers bend the borders of conventional weapon mechanics like that, and I look forward to using the Naginata and other upcoming NSX weapons.

The guide is now concluded, feel free to comment or ask questions below.

Adding Naginata into Weapon Simulator

If you want to add NSX Naginata into my Weapon Simulator, add this string to the end of the Stats.csv file, which you can open with Windows Notepad:

804249,NSX Naginata,NS,LMG,150,10,125,65,1,91,1,0.55s / 0.64s / 0.64s,,-,90,450,4000,2800,0.5,0.12,0.06,3,2.25,4.5,5,4,0.15,0.15,0.4,0.35,-1.5,1.5,0.8,0.16,0.16,0.4,1.8,13,Auto,0

Keep in mind that it won’t properly simulate Naginata’s CoF mechanics, but you can still use it to check out TTK at various ranges or compare attachments.

• Dark orange links to other guides or anchors within this guide
• Purple links to videos in pop-up viewboxes
• Blue links to images in pop-up viewboxes

Intro

Sniper Rifles are long range primary weapons, exclusive to Infiltrators. Most Sniper Rifles fit into one of these two categories:

Semi Auto Sniper Rifles (SASR). These fast firing rifles can take rapid follow-up shots, but require two headshots to kill most enemies.

Bolt Action Sniper Rifles (BASR). These rifles are much more powerful, and can potentially kill in one headshot, but they need to be rechambered between shots, which significantly reduces overall rate of fire.

Do not be confused by SAS-R, which is an NC BASR. 

While all Sniper Rifles are fully capable of killing enemies with bodyshots, it often takes too long, giving the enemy a lot of time to take cover, and for enemy snipers to countersnipe you. Firing several shots in a row also broadcasts your position to other nearby enemies. 

So both Sniper Rifle types focus on getting headshots, and killing enemies with as few shots as possible. 

By default, TR and VS infiltrators use 99SV and VA39 Spectre semi auto rifles respectively, NC infiltrators use NC-14 Bolt Driver. 

Similarly to Shotguns, differences between Sniper Rifles of different factions are mostly cosmetic, with the exception of Empire Specific and Semi Auto sniper rifles.

Compared to other precision weapons, like Scout and Battle Rifles, Sniper Rifles deal more damage per shot, but have bad moving accuracy, and in most cases require the user to be stationary while shooting.

Sniper Rifle Mechanics

Sniper Rifles follow the same Weapon Mechanics as other weapons.

Scope Sway

Rifles with 6x-12x magnification scopes have Scope Sway; whenever you Aim Down Sights, your crosshair will float around a certain area. 

All Sniper Rifles with sway have the same amount of Scope Sway. As far as we know, it is constant, across all scopes and all situations. Naturally, higher magnification scopes will magnify Scope Sway, the same way they magnify recoil. 

Holding Breath

Players can hold “Hold Breath” key (default “shift”) to almost completely suppress Scope Sway. Target Focus Implant can increase the amount of time you can Hold Breath.

Additionally, “long range” Semi Auto Sniper Rifles have access to a free Ballistics Computer attachment, which completely removes Sway on all scopes.

Bullet Drop

Bullets in PlanetSide 2 are affected by Gravity:

• Most primary weapons: 11.25
• Sniper Rifles: 7.5 (33% less)
• VS Semi Auto Sniper Rifles and Phaseshift: 0

Ballistic Table

Ballistic Table helps to compensate for bullet drop while doing long range sniping, especially with a Suppressor. 

A ballistic table contains the distance to the target, and a number of mildots that you have to raise your aim by in order to compensate for drop.

Here’s an (outdated) example table for Suppressed RAMS .50 using 10X scope. 

This table also includes the number of mildots in a full-height infantry target. You can use it to measure the distance to the target, or you can use Sweeper HUD implant for that purpose.

You can go to VR Training, write a ballistic table on a piece of paper and then pin it to the monitor with a sticker.

Ballistic Crosshair Overlay

This is an alternative to a Ballistic Table. This example crosshair is configured for:

• 6x zoom and 550 m/s projectile velocity Sniper Rifles, such as Long Range Semi-Auto Sniper Rifles and Tier 2 Bolt Action Rifles.
• 1920 x 1080 resolution.
• Vertical FoV of 74 degrees.

Markings on the left show the height of standard infantry target at 200m and 250m. Use them to measure distance to the target, and then use the couples of dots below the crosshair to compensate for bullet drop. Video demonstration. Download link.

There are no markings for closer range, because within 150m these rifles are mostly point and click. This makes Ballistic Crosshair Overlay mostly pointless, because most of the “useful” sniping is done within that distance.

To use it you will have to install Recursion Stat Tracker with a Crosshair Overlay module. In case you’re wondering, this is completely legit and you will not get banned for using it.

This particular example is mostly just proof of concept. It will not work for players with other Vertical FoV or resolution, or for a rifle with a different Zoom or Projectile Velocity. 

If you’d like to use a Ballistic Crosshair Overlay, you would probably have to create your own, using a bit of Photoshop and a few screenshots.

Field of View

Having the right FoV settings is especially important for snipers.

• With lower FoV, enemies will occupy more space on your screen, making it easier to land headshots at long range.
• WIth higher FoV, you will see more of the game world on your screen, which can allow for better situational awareness in CQC sniping.

Increased Headshot Damage Multiplier

Weapons usually deal increased damage when hitting the head:

• Most primary weapons: 2x
• Bolt Action Sniper Rifles: 2.1x
• Phaseshift in “bolt action” mode: 2.2x

Increased Fire Detect Range

When you fire an unsuppressed weapon, your position is highlighted as a dot on the minimap of all enemies within this Fire Detect Range:

• Most primary weapons: 40m.
• Sniper Rifles: 100m.
• Directive Sniper Rifles: 150m.
• TRAP-M1: 40m

Increased Tracer Visibility

Sniper Rifles have more visible tracers than other firearms. They are thicker, and linger for longer. 

Increased Scope In Time

Scope In Time is the time it takes for a weapon to transition from Hip Firing to Aiming Down Sights. 

• Most primary weapons: 0.15 seconds
• Rifles with 6x-12x magnification scopes: 0.3 seconds.
• “Close range” sniper rifles that use 1x-4x scopes: 0.2 seconds.

Additionally, while scoping into high magnification overlay scopes, you will have a temporary blackout, and there will be a short animation with crosshair moving in. Overall, it takes about extra 30-50ms. 

These values refer only to weapon animation, Cone of Fire Mechanics are a separate issue.

Additional Forward Grip Benefit

In addition to its usual effects, Forward Grip reduces Vertical Recoil by 15% for all Sniper Rifles, except TRAP-M1.  Forward Grip bears a 0.1 second Equip Time penalty for all Sniper Rifles.

Semi Auto Sniper Rifles

VS Semi Auto Sniper Rifles do not have bullet drop.

Long Range

99SV and Spectre are the starting weapons for TR and VS Infiltrators, respectively.

Unlock cost: 325  or 250 

Bullets to Kill

• BS = Bodyshot
• HS = Headshot
• X + 1 = X Headshots + 1 Bodyshot

To boil this information down to a memorable form:

Semi Auto Rifles kill infantry in 2 headshots at all ranges, and in 1 headshot and 1 bodyshot within ~100m. Heavy Assaults require an extra headshot.

Close Range

Bullets to Kill

• BS = Bodyshot
• HS = Headshot
• X + 1 = X Headshots + 1 Bodyshot

To boil this information down to a memorable form:

Semi Auto Rifles kill infantry in 2 headshots at all ranges, and in 1 headshot and 1 bodyshot within ~50m. Heavy Assaults require an extra headshot.

SASR Mechanics

Tap Firing Issues

Tap Firing refers to the technique of firing single shots while letting the crosshair fully recenter before each shot.

Given proper timing, Tap Firing provides good accuracy and optimal damage output. Weapon’s affinity for Tap Firing is determined by its Recentering Speed. 

Good Tap Firing skills are generally important for using any semi-auto weapon, but Semi Auto Sniper Rifles also have a big and unique issue related to overzealous Tap Firing. 

SARS are among the few weapons with negative Recoil Recovery Delay, and they fully Recenter before the Refire Time is over – before you can take another shot. Especially if you use them with a Forward Grip, which reduces Vertical Recoil for sniper rifles, and thus reduces the time the weapon needs to recover recoil. 

However, unlike Recoil, Cone of Fire does not start recovering until Refire Time is over. 

So if you fire as soon as you can, you will fire before Cone of Fire recovers, and you will be more likely to miss.

For both SASR, recoil recovery finishes before CoF recovery starts, even without Forward Grip. One could argue that Forward Grip provides an extra moment to correct the crosshair placement between shots, but the difference of ~0.02 seconds is imperceptible to the eye.

Effectively, Forward Grips is useless for SASR.

These issues are less apparent for “long range” SASR, as they reset CoF very quickly.

Bolt Action Sniper Rifles

VS Bolt Action Rifles have bullet drop.

Each faction has a large selection of Bolt Action Rifles. They all have slightly different stats, with main differences in reload time, velocity, bolt chamber time, and the distance at which they can kill an enemy in one headshot.

Bolt Action Rifles are identical between factions.

BASR Damage Comparison

Tier 1 – Close Range

Tier 2 – Medium Range

Comparatively low projectile velocity will require you to deliberately compensate for projectile drop when going for targets outside 150m.

Bolt Driver is the starting Infiltrator weapon for NC.

Unlock Cost: 325  or 250 

Tier 2 – Long Range

Tier 3 – Extreme Range

When sniping targets at 250m+, take an extra second to properly Hold Breath and compensate for Scope Sway, because at those ranges even suppressed Scope Sway can mess with your crosshair placement.

Unlock cost: 1000  or 699 

 BASR Mechanics

Bodyshots

BASR can kill full Nanoweave infantry with 2x Bodyshots within:

• Tier 1: 73m
• Tier 2: 44m
• Tier 3: 107m

So if the target is being particularly evasive, and you can’t land a headshot, it may be better to go for easier bodyshots.

Melee Combo

All BASR can reliably kill a standard infantry unit with a melee combo, and it can be an effective way of disposing enemies that managed to close the distance with you. 

An enemy with full Nanoweave + Aux. Shield will be able to survive a melee combo from a Tier 2 BASR, but it should be a rare combination.

Try to develop a habit of equipping a sidearm right after a melee combo. Recovering and rechambering a BASR after a melee combo is going to take more than two seconds, and it’s better to do that after you make sure there are no enemies around.

Alternatively, you can use this trick to quick melee after a shot during the chamber animation.

Sidearm Combo

When faced with an enemy at close range, it’s a common technique to land an “easy” bodyshot, and then finish off the enemy with a sidearm.

Bolt Action Chamber Time

The Bolt Chamber Time shown on in-game weapon stat sheet doesn’t tell the whole story. You can learn more about it here, or just use the values provided in this guide. 

Straight Pull Bolt

Normally, you can’t rechamber your rifle while Aiming Down Sights, and you have to always leave ADS to let rechamber animation begin. You will not be able to ADS during rechambering.

Straight Pull Bolt attachment allows you to start rechambering the rifle as soon as Refire Time is over, and enables you to enter and leave ADS at any time during rechambering. 

VS version of this attachment is called Supercooled Coil. 

This significantly increases your effective Rate of Fire, as you don’t have to sit through Scope In Time after each shot. However, this can potentially lead to developing bad habits, such as tunnel visioning, so remember to often break ADS during rechambering to take a look around.

Quick-scoping

Normally, a Bolt Action Rifle with a 6x+ scope is a liability at a distance between 3m and 6m. Hip fire is still too bad, and high magnification makes it very inconvenient to ADS, not to mention that ADSing itself takes more than 0.3 seconds.

The standard procedure is to close the distance and go for a melee combo, or a hip fire headshot at nearly melee range, but it’s not always possible. Equipping a sidearm also takes half a second, and you might be dead by then.

Quick-scoping gives you another combat option in that situation. It relies on the fact that Cone of Fire Reduction starts as soon as you begin ADSing, and takes roughly as long. So by the time you would fully complete ADS animation, you would have 100% accuracy. However, you don’t need 100% accuracy to hit a shot on a target within 3-5m.

A skilled player with impeccable timing can fire an “accurate enough” shots during ADS animation, before the crosshair becomes visible.

To perform this trick you have to fire about ~0.2 seconds after you start Aiming Down Sights. You can release ADS key right after you click fire. 

• This trick benefits a lot from having Crosshair Overlay.

The optimal amount of time to be holding ADS before firing depends on whether you’re going for a headshot or a bodyshot. Headshots require tighter CoF, so you have to give it more time to shrink. 

Another factor is whether you were moving or stationary when you started ADSing. If you were standing still, your hip fire CoF was a bit smaller, so it would take a bit less time to reduce to the size you need.

Quick-scoping is not advised when going for a headshot on a full health enemy player.  This has a lot of potential to fail, and even when done in 100% optimal way, you’re shaving off roughly a tenth of a second.

Quick-scoping is much more viable when going for a bodyshot to finish off an already wounded enemy. Then you don’t have to hold ADS for nearly as long to get an accurate enough shot, and you have much more margin for error.

You can see Mustarde doing a bit of quick scoping in this video. 

Empire Specific Sniper Rifles

TRAP-M1

TRAP-M1 is classified as a Sniper Rifle, but functionally it is a burst fire Scout Rifle. TRAP has two fire modes: 3 round and 2 round bursts. 

2x burst has less recoil and CoF Bloom, and is intended for longer ranges than 3x burst. As other sniper rifles, TRAP has poor hip fire. 

TRAP-M1 spent a lot of time in underpowered state, so it accumulated a lot bad faith with the community, often being called a “trap purchase”. However, the weapon has received a trickle of buffs over the years, and now is in a pretty good shape. 

Taking advantage of full rate of fire takes a bit of getting used to, but allows for a surprisingly high damage output even with bodyshots. The unusual damage model of 184 – 167 makes this weapon very consistent over range, and you can always switch to 2x burst mode when you need accuracy over firepower.

AF-8 RailJack

One of the few true railguns in NC arsenal, Railjack is the hardest hitting bolt action rifle, and has the highest projectile velocity of any infantry weapon in the game.

As always, there’s a catch: Railjack has a 0.2 second firing delay between trigger pull and the actual shot, which makes it somewhat tricky to use, because you still need to adjust aim for target movement during those 0.2 seconds.

If we include firing delay into bullet travel time, a bullet from EM4 Longshot will reach the target within 552m faster than a bullet from Railjack. So in order to benefit from its higher velocity, you have to be compensating for target movement during the fire delay. Otherwise, Longshot is objectively a better weapon.

Tip: you can bind “Fire” to your keyboard, so you can fire the Railjack without having to click the mouse. This should make it easier to keep tracking the target with the mouse during those 0.2 seconds.

Due to firing delay, RailJack is the easiest rifle to quick-scope with. With other rifles, you need to have very precise timing. RailJack’s firing delay does it for you. Simply click ADS, then immediately click fire, and your shot will have a nearly perfect accuracy, without having to ADS all the way.

This is excellenty demonstrated in this video.

Phaseshift VX-S

Embracing adaptability and versatility, Phaseshift can switch between “semi auto” and “bolt action” fire modes, though in reality the “bolt action” mode is just a more powerful semi auto mode. 

In semi-auto fire mode, Phaseshift has similar performance to a TR / NC “long range” SASR, though it can fire only 6 shots before overheating. 

In “bolt action” fire mode, Phaseshift has much more recoil, but kills standard infantry in one headshot within ~257m, and you can make two back to back shots, potentially killing two targets under a second (example).

It is highly recommended to use Phaseshift with a Forward Grip, as it reduces the high Vertical Recoil of “bolt action” mode.

Both fire modes don’t have any bullet drop, which effectively makes Phaseshift the only OHK-capable weapon without bullet drop. This makes it an interesting choice for a Suppressor, which reduces velocity to 467 m/s and OHK Range to ~240m.

Phaseshift also uses heat mechanic instead of ammunition. It doesn’t require reloading, and effectively has infinite ammo, but it needs to cool down between shots. Mechanics:

Firing accumulates heat. The amount of accumulated Heat Per Shot depends on the fire mode. When you stop firing, after a Heat Recovery Delay, the weapon starts bleeding off the heat at a Heat Recovery Rate. 

There is only so much heat the weapon can accumulate at once, equal to Heat Capacity. If you overheat your weapon, the weapon will suffer an Overheat Penalty before it can start cooling down, and you will not be able to fire again until the weapon fully cools down.

Directive Sniper Rifles

Cross-faction Rifles

NSX Daimyo

DIRECT DAMAGE	225 @ 10m – 175 @ 350m
RATE OF FIRE	180 RPM
VELOCITY	600 m/s
AMMO	3 / 30
RELOAD TIME	2.2 sec / 3 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

NSX Daimyo is a rather unique semi auto sniper rifle. It deals low damage to body, but thanks to Headshot Damage Multiplier of 5x, it is capable of killing infantry in one headshot within 180m.

Landing a headshot is pretty much the only way to kill with this weapon; it simply doesn’t have enough damage per mag to kill even one infantryman with bodyshots. 

On the other hand, if you can land headshots, Daimyo lets you take 3-4 potentially lethal shots in a period of time where a BASR would be able to make 2 shots at most. Daimyo has the most immediate killing potential of any sniper rifle.

However, even if you are capable of consistently landing headshots on multiple enemies back to back, there are other considerations:

• Daimyo cannot kill deployables in one shot.
• Leveraging Daimyo’s advantage over a bolt action rifle means firing several shots without recloaking inbetween, which is potentially dangerous.
• Daimyo has more projectile drop than other sniper rifles with the same velocity. This is intentional.

Daimyo is most effective in the range bracket between 20m and 100m, and it directly competes with Tier 1 “Close Range” BASR. Compared to them, Daimyo has a set of other disadvantages.

• Tier 1 BASR can kill NMG / Adrenaline HAs within 22m. Daimyo cannot kill any shielded Heavy Assault in one shot. 
• An accidental bodyshot with a BASR can be often converted to a kill with a second bodyshot. Daimyo is limited to headshots as the only option.
• When suddenly confronted by an enemy at extremely close range, a Tier 1 BASR can go for a bodyshot, and then finish off the enemy with a quick melee strike or a few sidearm shots. With the Daimyo it’s either headshot or I should have already had my pistol out. (c) AnuErebus

The weird combination of relatively high velocity and strong bullet drop is often brought up as Daimyo’s greatest downside, but at the moment it’s not clear whether this amount of drop is intentional, because based on its stats, it should have exactly the same drop and velocity as Tier 3 BASR.

While Daimyo can be spammed more or less effectively, perhaps you should treat it simply as a rifle that lets you take another shot if you miss. You still should recloak often for the sake of survivability. 

Due to inconvenient drop, Daimyo is most effective when you are fighting against enemies on flat ground, so you don’t have to adjust for drop against every new target. Like other NSX weapons, Daimyo seems to be especially effective in one specific scenario, and mediocre in all other scenarios. It’s an interesting and unusual, polarizing weapon, but if you’re looking for tried and true, consider using a Tier 1 BASR instead.

In addition to the standard Darklight Flashlight, Daimyo has access to a couple of other rail attachments:

Anti Materiel Rifles

NS-AM7 Archer

DIRECT DAMAGE	400 @ 25m – 200 @ 200m
INDIRECT DAMAGE	100 @ 1m – 25 @ 3m
TIME BETWEEN SHOTS	1.5 + 0.25 = 1.75 sec
VELOCITY	525 m/s
AMMO	5 / 30
RELOAD TIME	3.0 sec / 4.25 sec
UNLOCK COST	1000or 799

Archer is a special rifle, available only to Engineers. It is weak against infantry, but capable of dealing high damage to MAXes and minor damage to armored vehicles. If Archer’s bullet travels more than 25m, it will deal splash damage in a small area. 

Archer has surprisingly good Hip Fire accuracy, which can be useful against targets at close range. Archer also has 0.75x ADS Movement Speed Multiplier.

Since archer takes up the primary weapon slot, and it’s not effective against infantry, Archer Engineers have to rely on sidearms for infantry combat.

You can use the Toolbox to calculate Archer’s damage to different vehicles.

NS-AM8 Shortbow

NS-AM8 Shorbow is one of the possible item rewards for winning a Critical Mass Alert, this is the only way to obtain it. You must already own NS-AM7 Archer in order to be eligible for this loot reward.

Shortbow is a variant of the NS-AM7 Archer with the following differences:

• Smaller magazine.
• Faster reload.
• Uses 1x or 2x optics.
• Has shorter Equip and Unequip Times, as well as access to Comfort Grip.

The latter would be the main reason to use Shortbow over Archer; it’s a weapon that you quickly pull out to deal with a MAX at close range, and then just as quickly put back.

Gameplay Tips

This video by Wrel does an excellent job of covering basics of Sniping.

A bit more advanced video by Cyrious Gaming.

Sniping seems very simple on the surface. And indeed, there is nothing particularly hard about using a Bolt Action Rifle to headshot a stationary enemy within 100m. Hold Breath, point and click, collect certs.

However, this shallow approach won’t get you very far. Bad snipers constantly get counter sniped, and struggle to kill anyone important, and are generally useless to their faction.

Choosing a Position

This topic is well-covered in Wrel’s video above, but to re-iterate, you want to find a flanking position to a mass of enemy players. 

You need a piece of cover that you can hide behind while reloading and recharging cloak. This can be a rock, a tree, a hill, a pile of boxes, etc. 

Ideally, you want to be on the high ground, as it makes you less noticeable, harder to reach, and gives you a better view. 

Getting into a good position might require some Parkour skills or a Wraith Flash. A disposable  Valkyrie or Ejection Seat ESF are also popular ways of getting into a position.

Looking for Targets

In real life snipers, always work in pairs, and have a partner to designate targets for them. In Planetside, you’re on your own. Here are some places where you can find targets to snipe:

• Near spawns – Sunderers, spawn tubes. Do not shoot. Freshly respawned players have invincibility, and even if you kill, they’re gonna respawn a few seconds later anyway.
• Choke points – enemies involved in a cover-based firefight with your allies near any door, corridor, bridge, narrow passing. Even between player made structures and parked vehicles.
• Cover – places where the enemy hides, repairs, heals, goes AFK, has tea parties. That includes vehicles running for cover. If they are running – that means repair. That means mostly stationary Engineer heads.
• Windows – easy targets since they have to stay still to shoot through a window.
• Landing pads – favorite spots for Engineers behind turrets and snipers.
• Phalanx Turrets – Engineers like to repair them and snipers like to hide around them. Fun fact: At certain distance turrets don’t render so you can shoot through them. It’s a bug exploit. Don’t make it your life goal.
• Trees, Rocks, Corners – Think of the best places you would hide if you were going to snipe.
• Terminals – Do not hesitate to shoot the heads before they disappear in the vehicle.
• Enemy Explosives – People like to leave mines in weird places.

– H_Q_

Being Useful

Obviously, you won’t be contesting any points while sniping from a hill. As a Sniper, your power lies in the ability to kill any infantry target within hundreds of meters. So that’s what you must be doing: thinning out enemy numbers by killing enemies that your allies can’t reach.

Especially:

• Counter-snipe enemy snipers. Pay attention to their tracers and try to catch them out of cloak.
• Assassinate enemy Medics and Engineers behind turrets.
• Interrupt Heavy Assaults who are lining up Rocket Launcher shots.
• Harass enemy Light Assaults, who are trying to flank from high ground.
• Snipe enemy deployables, such as Shield Recharging Fields and Spawn Beacons.

Even distracting enemies and forcing them to take cover against you is a form of oppression, and can be enough to turn the tides in your favor.

Pay constant and conscious attention to what you are doing and how effective you are. If you’re sitting among allies, and just snipe whoever shows their face, then you’re not solving the chokepoint, you are the chokepoint. 

Rhythm

Sniping is all about the rhythm:

1. Cloak and move out of cover
2. Pre-aim at a target
3. Hold Breath
4. Correct Aim and Decloak
5. Stand still and shoot to kill
6. Cloak and Move, while taking a look at the Minimap and around your character.
7. Repeat.

Enemy snipers are by far the biggest threat to you. To avoid getting counter-sniped, you have to get in the rhythm. You only want to be decloaked and stationary for as long as it takes to fire off a shot.

You have to be stationary while shooting, because Sniper Rifles have poor moving accuracy, and will struggle to hit a headshot on an enemy outside 20m.

Right after a shot, you want to cloak and move, even if just a little bit. If you don’t move, an enemy sniper might just send a shot to where he last seen your head, and snipe you out of cloak. 

Make sure to always move a few meters in a random direction. An experienced or a lucky sniper might adjust for your movement, and snipe you out of cloak even after you moved (!).

Protecting Flanks

Remember to take a look around once in a while, and pay attention to the minimap. After enemy snipers, your second biggest threat is enemy Light Assaults, who can and will hunt you down.

Don’t let them catch you off guard. If you see an enemy approaching, and he’s too close to be sniped, you can still get an advantage: cloak and crouchmove into a better position, and open fire with your sidearm on enemy’s back.

Always keep an ear out and listen. 

Most of snipers play like they are AFK, looking down the scope. They can be spotted/taunted, I can cloak and activate a power knife multiple times without them paying any attention.

– Mad_2012

Be careful about spotting enemies. Your voice will give away your position, making you much easier to find if someone’s already looking for you.

EMP Combo

You can throw an EMP to about 40 meters out, and affected standard infantry will die from one SASR headshot or one BASR bodyshot.

Sidearm Love

Being comfortable with your sidearm of choice really pays off for a sniper. It will be your go-to weapon in most close quarters situations, and you really should invest your skill and resources into it.

You may want to steal a page or two from Stalkers’ book.

Hold Breath Management

It is highly recommended to use Target Focus implant while sniping, as it trivializes Hold Breath Management, and gives you much more breathing room while lining up shots.

When using a Bolt Action Rifle, remember to release Hold Breath key while the weapon is rechambering. This way you can squeeze in several shots even without Target Focus implant. 

Muscle Memory

“Muscle memory” refers to leading moving targets and compensating for bullet drop on the subconscious level, without having to think about it. This ability develops naturally, but it takes a while. 

The velocity difference between Sniper Rifles is enough to throw off your muscle memory, so if you are serious about sniping, it is highly recommended to stick with one rifle and one scope, unless you’re doing Directives.

Drag-shooting

See: Drag Shots.

Close Quarters Sniping

Refer to this guide by Davregis.

Sniper’s Loadout

Hunter Cloaking vs NAC

Hunter Cloaking is the default choice, as it guarantees a lot of uptime, gives you freedom of movement when moving into a sniping nest, and has a quick recharge. 

Nano Armor Cloaking has been used in the past by some very successful infiltrators, as it significantly increases survival chances in a sniping duel, and almost removes any chance of being sniped out of cloak. 

However, short duration and long recharge would make NAC impractical for most players.

Recon Device vs Motion Spotter

Recon Device if you want to support your allies with Recon from a safe distance. However, it runs out of darts quickly, and massively benefits from running Ammo Printer implant. It also requires quite a lot of upgrades to become truly useful.

Motion Spotter if you want to protect yourself from being flanked. Great longevity and effectiveness even at lower ranks.

Suit Slot

Flak Armor can be surprisingly useful, as it is not uncommon for snipers to come under vehicle fire.

Nanoweave Armor. Gives you an edge in case you get flanked. Increases your survival chances in ranged duels against automatic weapons and non-infiltrator enemies.  Mostly useful for Close and Medium range sniping.

Advanced Shield Capacitor. Reduces downtime if you get injured. Arguable usefulness, because a headshot from an enemy sniper will kill you even if you’re at full health, and if you take a bodyshot, you will take some health damage as well, and would have to eat a Med Kit just to benefit from ASC. 

And as a Sniper, you should always have free access to a piece of cover to let you regenerate shields in peace.

Adrenaline Pump. Makes you faster while getting into position, but does nothing for you once you arrive.

Ammunition Belt. Can be useful for experienced snipers, who legitimately run out of ammo once they find a good position. Ammo Printer Implant makes this obsolete, though.

Utility Slot

Normally you would run Med Kits, but AP Mines can also be useful in certain situations. If your sniping nest has limited approach paths, you can place mines to protect your flanks.

While doing a bit more aggressive infiltrating, VS and NC mines can be combined with EMP Grenades for devastating multikills.

Implants

Recommended

• Battle Hardened is crucial when sniping from amidst allies, you cannot afford to miss critical shots due to screenshake. 
• Target Focus. Enough said about it.

Honorable Mentions

• Ammo Printer. Solves ammo issues, and provides a steady supply of Recon Darts and Motion Spotters.
• Regeneration.  A convenient way of restoring health if you’re not running Med Kits.
• Catlike 5. Invaluable in getting to good positions, and makes it easier to escape or fight back if you get flanked.

Heavy Assaults are bruisers of PlanetSide 2, tough as nails and with a lot of firepower. Heavy Assaults’ motto is longevity and versatility. They can outlast any other infantry class, and have an answer to any threat. 

Equipment

Equipment, same as life, has no price (c) Alpha Group

This video is slightly outdated, max Nanoweave Armor and Reflex Sight + Forward Grip for your starting LMG are provided for free now.

Heavy Assaults have access to a large variety of equipment, which allows them to choose from many playstyles, and adapt to any situation. 

• Recommended Early Certifications for Heavy Assaults

Primary Weapons

Primarily, Heavy Assaults use LMGs – Light Machine Guns. They are large automatic weapons with poor Hip Fire accuracy, heavy recoil, and low to average DPS. However, they have huge magazine sizes of 50-100 rounds, which allows them to score multiple kills before having to reload, and generally send a lot of fire down range.

Heavy Assaults also have access to another exclusive primary weapon type – faction specific Heavy Weapons.

Other primary weapon choices include SMGs, Battle Rifles and Shotguns. 

Sidearms

Being comfortable with a sidearm is important for Heavy Assaults, as they spend a lot of time reloading their LMGs and Rocket Launchers, as well as switching between the two. If an enemy attacks the Heavy Assault during any of that, pulling out a sidearm for self-defense is the quickest option. 

Tool: Rocket Launcher

Heavy Assaults have access to a wide variety of rocket launchers and other anti-vehicle weapons. You can check out an in-depth Rocket Launcher Guide here, and calculate Rocket Launchers’ damage to different targets using the Toolbox.

Grenades

In addition to standard Frag Grenades, Heavy Assaults have access to two exclusive grenade types:

Keep in mind this video is quite old and likely outdated; so don’t focus too hard on specifics.

Concussion Grenade

• Non-lethal “crowd control” grenade.
• One hit will heavily blur the screen and reduce turning and movement speed.
• Two hits will invert player’s mouse controls.
• Unlike most non-lethal grenades, still has a grenade indicator.
• Enemies affected by your concussion grenades will yield assist XP when killed by another player. These assists will count towards Conc Grenade ribbons and medals.

This grenade has arguable effectiveness. It’s effective at keeping enemies in their place and facing in the same direction, but that’s surprisingly useless when trying to push through a chokepoint. Enemies are already facing your direction, it’s not THAT hard to adjust to changed mouse sensitivity and return fire somewhat effectively. Certainly with enough accuracy for a close range engagement. 

So Concussion Grenades are more effective in flanking scenarios, so you can keep several enemies in once place and facing away while you mow them down one by one.

Anti-Vehicle Grenade

Unlike standard Frag Grenades, AV Grenades are capable of damaging all vehicles, dealing damage comparable to a rocket from a default dumbfire launcher. They also stick to vehicles and MAXes.

Damage: 750 @ 1m – 100 @ 5m.
Damage Resist Type: 34 – Infantry Rocket

Trivia: one AV grenade is enough to get ESF without Composite Armor burning. 

AV Grenades are popular, since normal frags are rarely useful, while AV grenades give additional utility and are a requirement for Heavy Assault directives.

Note: AV grenades will not stick to NC MAXes with active Aegis Shield ability. However, if the grenade has already stuck, activating the Aegis will not make it fall off.

Suit Slots

Heavy Assaults have Nanoweave Armor fully certed and equipped by default. In addition to that and other Suit Slots, they have exclusive access to:

Munitions Pouch

Increases the amount of Rocket Launcher ammunition a Heavy Assault can carry. One bonus rocket / magazine / battery per rank, up to 4 ranks.

Not recommended unless you specifically use Heavy Assault for solo hunting enemy vehicles. Can be helpful if you have a special loadout that you use only for deterring enemy vehicles with a lock-on launcher. 

Utility

Heavy Assaults have access to Med / Resto Kits and C4.

Since HAs already have an anti-vehicle and anti-MAX tool in the form of their Rocket Launcher, most HAs prefer cheaper to run Med Kits, as they considerably increase longevity and survivability under fire.

C4 is deadly, especially when combined with a Rocket Launcher, but Heavy Assault is literally the least mobile class, and may face trouble in deploying C4 successfully. 

Abilities

Heavy Assaults’ ability covers then with a bright layer of faction-colored protective shields. While the overshield is active, Heavy Assault is much harder to kill, but moves 25% slower (this penalty is multiplicative). 

A Heavy Assault with active overshield becomes extremely durable, and able to survive normally instantly lethal things, such as: direct hits with Decimator, sniper rifle headshots (not always), power knife attacks to the body, point blank body shots with a pump action shotgun, etc. 

• Heavy Assault cannot regenerate his personal shields while the overshield is active, much like a cloaked Infiltrator.
• If all of the overshield energy is drained, there is a 3 second delay before the energy regeneration starts.

There are different varieties of overshield ability:

Nanite Mesh Generator

This ability creates an overshield which effectively grants bonus Health Points. 

• Nanite Mesh Generator has 450 energy (source).
• Activating it costs 10 energy, and then energy continues to drain at a rate of 12.5 per second.
• As long as it’s active, it will use energy to absorb incoming damage at 1:1 ratio.
• Energy is slowly restored while NMG is inactive. It takes 28 to 20 seconds to recharge fully depleted energy depending on rank of the ability. 
• Absorbs fall damage.
• Works with Flak Armor and Nanoweave Armor (they reduce incoming damage before it is absorbed by NMG. Confirmed by in-game testing).
• Taking damage while NMG is active doesn’t affect the regeneration timer of personal shields. But they won’t regenerate while NMG is active.

NMG is often used to provide an instant advantage in a 1v1 encounter. Even when HA is caught by surprise and get shot in the back, often there is enough time for him to activate the NMG for instant 400+ HP boost and gun the enemy down. 

Energy regeneration rates:

Pros:

• Can be used in reactive way; it can be activated mid fight, after the user has already taken some damage, and it will still provide the full benefit.
• The penalty to movement speed is inflicted only as long as ability is providing a benefit; once the energy is drained, the ability deactivates, and HA can move at full speed. 
• Stacks with Nanoweave and Flak Armor.

For example:

• Heavy Assault, no nanoweave: 1000 Health and Shields + 437.5 Overshield = 1437.5 effective HP. 
• Heavy Assault, nanoweave: 1437.5 / (1 – 0.2) = 1400 / 0.8 = 1797 effective HP. 

Cons:

• Comparatively slow recharge rate.
• Effectiveness directly depends on the available energy.
• Overshield gets weaker with each passing second, so prolonging the engagement is undesirable. Having to activate and deactivate the ability several times during an engagement is even more undesirable.

Verdict: Nanite Mesh Generator is best suited for close quarters fights, where you don’t know where an attack will come from. It’s cheap to upgrade, but works almost as well without any upgrades. Great synergy with Nanoweave Armor.

Adrenaline Shield

Adrenaline Shield functions similarly to NMG, the main difference is that you can restore energy by killing enemies, and adrenaline shield drains more energy per second. There’s still some passive energy regeneration, identical to unupgraded NMG.  

Passive energy regeneration: 12.5 (unconfirmed)

Activating it costs 25 energy, and then energy continues to drain at a rate of 18 per second.

(source)

This ability is very expensive to upgrade, and only a good player can take advantage of it. 

Verdict: experienced players and Heavy Assault mains will eventually want to upgrade from NMG to Adrenaline Shield, but there is no hurry.

Resist Shield

Resist Shield grants a flat 35% damage reduction while active. This damage reduction is applied to headshots, but not to fall damage, and does not stack with Nanoweave Armor or Flak Armor – the highest available resistance is used.

Energy is slowly drained over time, but taking damage has no effect on it. Upgrading the ability reduces energy drain over time.

Resist Shield recovers energy faster than NMG, and generally provides higher uptime, available whenever needed. 

Heavy Assault with Resist Shield can have up to 1000 / (1 – 0.35) = 1538 effective health.

Recharge time: 17 seconds to full energy.

Pros:

• Doesn’t lose effectiveness over time. 
• When getting damaged, allows for faster recovery to full potential.
• High uptime.
• Great synergy with any positive effects that restore shields or health.
• Consistent maximum effective HP.
  • Potentially better effective HP versus headshots than NMG / Adrenaline + Nanoweave combo. For example, Resist HA can survive a headshot from a Tier 1 BASR.

Con:

• For maximum effect, needs to be activated before taking damage.
• Needs to stay active while you are taking damage, slowing you down.
• The less health and shields you have, the less effective is this ability.

Verdict: Resist Shield is best suited for ranged fights, where the Heavy Assault operates from cover, controls his exposure, and at any time can hide to safely recharge shields and restore health.

Due to fast recharge rate and high uptime, Resist Shield can be activated whenever the player expects danger, without negative impact on future engagements.

Gameplay Tips

Still weak against vehicles

Despite having access to a lot of unique anti-vehicle equipment, Heavy Assault is primarily an anti-infantry class. Infantry in general is weak against vehicles, unless used in numbers and with coordination.  If your primary goal is to destroy vehicles, consider using a vehicle yourself, they are much more effective in that role.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the tools at your disposal against vehicles, just be aware that you will probably not be able to destroy enemy tanks head on, especially on your own.

Best class for infantry combat

Heavy Assault has both low skill floor and high skill ceiling. It’s easy to pick up and start having success, but an amazing player will perform equally amazing things. 

Large magazines on LMGs. Even a newbie is likely to score a kill before running out of ammo, and it gives a skilled player the ability to get a lot of kills before needing to reload.

LMGs have high, but controllable recoil. This doesn’t mess with a newbie’s ability to get kills at close range, while a skilled player will learn to suppress recoil and fire accurately even at longer ranges.

The overshield ability gives room for error to a newbie if he gets caught out of position, and it gives a skilled player the ability to go against multiple enemies and still survive, or  to successfully engage from an unfavorable position.

Access to a Rocket Launcher means that a newbie can just run around the corner and discharge his launcher into a MAX’es face, die 0.001 seconds later, and still be useful to his team. A skilled player can calculate the trajectory and one-shot hovering ESFs with a Decimator rocket. 

The overall versatility and access to variety of equipment ensure that the player is never left without a fighting chance. Newbie never feels completely helpless, and a skilled player gets a chance to shine in every aspect of the game.

Heavy Assault has a lot of potential, but it takes a skilled player to live up to that potential.

Heavily relies on personal aiming skill

Tactical errors can be fixed by fast and precise shots. Nothing can fix errors in shooting.

– Alpha Group

This quote embodies Heavy Assault gameplay.

Due to lack of stealth and mobility, Heavy Assault can’t be picky about his engagements. For that reason, shotguns and SMGs don’t fit HA very well, because often he can’t get in effective range of these weapons.

Overshield can give a tactical advantage, or offset a disadvantage, but all it does is ensures that HA will live a little while longer. HA still has to kill the enemy before he kills the HA. 

Dodging enemy fire while hip firing is almost never a viable combat option, because overshield slows down the Heavy Assault, and LMGs have terrible hip fire.

Most LMGs have low to average DPS, so to get fast kills, HA has to go for headshots.

All this boils down to the fact that in majority of situations, the correct way to engage for a Heavy Assault is to aim down sights and go for headshots, while suppressing recoil and managing Cone of Fire.

A Light Assault can get kills and survive by picking smart engagements and correct positions.

A Heavy Assault must shoot better than the enemy. Incidentally, that’s why players with best accuracy are often Heavy Assault mains – it’s just how they have evolved.

If you’re not confident in your personal aim, and you don’t want to develop it, consider looking into other combat classes, or weapons that don’t require a lot of aiming skill. Heavy Weapons in particular.

Recommended Early Certifications

In addition to other recommended certifications that are useful for all classes, Heavy Assaults benefit the most from:

Tool: Ground to Air Lock On Launcher – it will allow you to deter enemy aircraft, while still being usable against ground targets. 650 Certs.

Ability: Nanite Mesh Generator – upgrading it will slightly increase the energy regeneration speed. Get it to Rank 3, which will cost only 31 Certs, but don’t waste any more on it.

Advanced Specialization Program

You can learn more about ASP here.

Reserve Hardlight Barrier Access

Allows use of Reserve Hardlight Barriers in the Utility slot. This could be potentially useful for holding points solo or with semi-coordinated squads, or for roleplaying. But no self-respecting Heavy Assault main that values combat efficiency would ever give up their Med Kits for this contextual perk. And tight coordinated groups of infantry would likely include an Engineer to provide ammo anyway, who is a better candidate for deploying barriers.

Flash Grenade Access

Provides access to Flash Grenades for Heavy Assault. This unlocks only the classic Flash Grenade, not the Quick-Det variant. Flash Grenades are potentially better for breaching, as they are better at neutering enemies’ ability to shoot back, and they don’t have a grenade indicator. 

Heavy Weapon Secondary

Allows use of Heavy Weapons in the secondary weapon slot.

Sidearms are still going to be better for situations when you need to just quickly finish off an enemy after running out of ammo for the primary weapon, or when you are caught reloading or using your Rocket Launcher. 

Besides shortest Equip Time, sidearms also have fastest reloads, so they will also take less time to reload and go back to your primary weapon. That speed is what you would be losing when going for a Heavy Weapon secondary.

What you would be gaining depends on your faction:

NC05 Jackhammer is a highly competitive shotgun, which combines accuracy and versatility of semi-auto shotguns, and power and quick TTK of pump action shotguns in burst mode. 

X2 Lasher is a situational tool for suppressing groups of enemies, and denying them access to certain areas or entrances. 

T7 Mini-Chaingun is a hip fire-centric automatic weapon with high DPS and mobility.