Firefight Tips Round 2

Time for some more awesome Firefight tips. Read these and take them to heart, or get berated by me in-game. Remember that Firefight is designed to be resource scarce, so if you're a jackhole with the resources, you are directly affecting your teammates.

Understanding supply drops. When you hear the announcer say "Five enemies remaining," that means your team is about to finish a round. There are three rounds per set, and five waves per round. At the end of every round, every player's health and stamina is automatically restored, weapon lockers are filled up, detached turrets are restored, and health packs are replenished. Additionally, all the alien weapons dropped around the map are cleared out for the new round. THIS IS IMPORTANT. When you hear the announcement that there are only five enemies remaining, DO NOT KILL THEM RIGHT AWAY. Fill up on ammo and grab any weapons lying around that you're going to need. When in doubt, check your HUD for the Wave indicator. All five bars need to be filled up to finish a round.

Use health packs sparingly. Each level should start with four health packs. Those health packs have to last all five waves of a round. Remember that your stamina recharges if you stop taking fire, so when your screen turns red, just go hide for a while. It is absolutely inexcusable to use a health pack to restore stamina. Your health (represented by the long horizontal bar below your compass) does not recharge, and it will start to deteriorate if you use up all your stamina and keep taking damage. However, aside from a somewhat annoying beeping, you are in no danger of dying if your health is low, but you let your stamina recharge. In general, it's also a bad idea to use a health pack just to stop the beeping. When should you use a health pack?

1. To keep a streak alive. You get more points the longer kill streak you have. If you're on a long streak and your health is really low, it's not a bad idea to use a health pack.
2. When black eye is on. With the black eye skull on (usually in wave 3), you can only recharge your stamina by melee'ing opponents. This is often a difficult risk-reward proposition, especially when facing drones. If the black eye skull is on, it may be OK to use a health pack. Also, you're halfway through the round at this point, so more health is coming soon.
3. When you're the last man standing. If you're the last one alive, you have to make it to the next wave to bring your teammates back in. In this situation, you should do whatever it takes to stay alive.

Remember: The health packs only respawn after five full waves in each round.

Use ammo wisely. Refer to the previous post with tips about how to take out enemies efficiently. If you empty a rocket launcher on a Brute Chieftain and don't kill him because you could have just hit him on the back of the head without using any ammo, you are hurting your team when you need those rockets for a Wraith or Hunter later on. The tips in that previous post all still apply. Here are some new ones:

• Engineers: One overcharged plasma pistol shot will kill them. You won't see them die instantly, but they will float up and explode within a few moments. Watch out for exploding debris. When the Mythic skull is on, it may take two shots. Engineers should be your #1 priority when you see them because they make all other enemies much harder to kill. Drone leaders, Hunters, and even Brutes become effectively impossible to kill with bullet-based weapons.
• Brute Chieftains: To add on the previous post...Chieftains may carry hammers OR fuel rod cannons. Both variants of Chieftains are immune to the n00b combo (overcharged plasma + head shot) and can sustain MASSIVE damage before dying. Both variants will charge at you in close quarters, however, which allows you to sidestep and hit them on the back of the head for a one-punch, no-ammo kill. There is quite literally no reason to use any ammo AT ALL on Chieftains. Get in close, be quick with your stick, and bop them.
• Banshees: Banshees make an appearance on Windward. The best way to kill them is with a MOUNTED missile pod. There's really no good reason to detach these missile pods on Windward, leaving them attached gives you unlimited ammo so that you can just unload on the Banshees. The Banshees are not required kills to finish a wave, but are a nuisance that should be dealt with.

Learn the spawns. If you understand where the enemies are coming from, you can often wipe them out extremely efficiently. It's typically pretty obvious because enemies will generally come out of "monster doors" or drop down from Phantoms. In both cases, they're start in a tight cluster and can be quickly dispatched with grenade spamming, fuel rods, rockets, or hammers for huge points and medals. As an example, on Windward the Phantoms will often drop off big groups on the landing pads downstairs. Because there's nowhere for the enemies to go but up a very narrow walkway, it only takes one player at the doorway to take out the entire wave. Hello, Killionaire!