So, you’ve raced around the VR shooting and driving ranges, and are now BR4, with 10 Certification Points. The remaining one point and implant slot are to be earned in the field and the minimal Character Sheet (Press ‘O’) will keep track of this for you. Looking at this, you’ll soon notice that Planetside is trying to help you, and has spent some of your Cert Points already. Don’t panic – characters under seven days old are allowed to ‘forget’ Certifications at will, without timer delays, so during this period, you can quickly and easily juggle these about and experiment until you’ve got something you’re happy with.
The important thing to remember is that Planetside has no economy. You don’t buy equipment, you buy the ability to requisition the equipment. For example, once you’ve certified in Sniping, you can draw as many Bolt Drivers and Heavy Scout Rifles, and their ammo, as you need from any friendly equipment terminal in game, as often as you like. The Certifications are permanently with you until you choose to unlearn them, when you get the points back to spend on something else. This must be done using a Certification Terminal, either in the Sanctuary shuttle waiting room, or out in the warzones, in the basement of Bio Laboratory bases.
As a newbie, the game gives you the following certifications, ready spent:
Medium Assault (2): Access to three medium infantry weapons, Sweeper (shotgun – indoors, 25m or less), Punisher (average rifle with one-shot multi-function grenade launcher, 25-100m) and that Empire’s assault rifle, (a decent medium range rifle for outdoors, 50-150m). These are all decent guns for general use, but do not excel. However, all of the other infantry weapon specialisations require you to have this certification first, so it’s an important first step anyway.
Reinforced Exosuit (3): (a.k.a ‘Rexo’) The biggest suit of armour that isn’t a MAX unit, which are different. It has the largest backpack space, room for two rifles, and has a greater damage absorption than the certless Agile Exosuit everyone gets. However, it is slower, and cannot be worn while driving any ‘enclosed’ canopy vehicle. Even so, anyone intending to spend any real length of time on foot, should probably be wearing this.
Harrasser (1): A two-man dune-buggy. Very fast and maneverable, but very fragile too. The passenger controls a roof-mounted 12mm anti-infantry machine-gun, and the driver is allowed to wear Rexo, above. Fun, but not terribly potent.
ATV (1): Allows access to three different quad-bikes, one with machine-guns, one with rockets, and a cloaking one for Ninjas (see below). Extremely fragile, and best used for fast transport between fights.
That’s seven, and you’ll have another three points spare after rushing around the VR training, making ten. The MA and Rexo certs are actually both very versatile and worth keeping if you don’t have something more specific in mind and need those points. The two vehicles are mostly there as filler – very few Certifications cost one point – most are two or three.
One of the winning features of Planetside, to my mind, is how many different playstyles there are, compared to the more usual MMO, and it isn’t all just about Counterstrike 'BOOM! HEADSHOT!' skills. (PS has no hit locations - shooting a guy in the foor hurts just as much as the head - aim for the stomach for best chance of hitting them.) Which set of Certs is best for you would depend very much on your own gaming skills and likes.
Personally, I’ve always liked the Combat Engineering, Sniping, Repair work and the occasional fling with an AA MAX suit, but then I’m quite slow at the sheer adrenalin ownage skills. All these are slower, more methodical play styles, which all require more in the way of planning and forethought, and less in the way of hypertension and tartrazine dependency.
If you do want to charge in and own people with leet skillage, I’d recommend AI MAX, Heavy Assault, Rexo, Special Assault (Thumper - Grenade launcher spammage), and maybe a Medical Gun or Engineering Pistol for those between-duel patch-ups. If you want to play this way, do join a squad – the BR25 regulars often just burn points on Medical and Repair, and will heal and even resurrect you if you go down near them.
Driving game fans will want to go with the tanks, which are very satisfying if crewed well, and those joining the game in teams will get the most out of the larger multi-person vehicles. Armoured Assault II, Flail, Ground Transport, Air Support and Assault Buggy all provide multi-crew vehicles, and there is a real potential for teamwork to be honed and reap big rewards. I’d recommend considering Engineering if you drive tanks lots, so you can duck behind a nearby hill, hop out and repair the thing between sortees.
Ninjas, Rogues and similar will want Infiltration Suit. This plays a lot like Thief and Splinter Cell re visibility, and is about creeping. As well as assassinating unwary grunts, Cloakers also often take Hacking, and Advanced Hacking, letting them steal unattended enemy vehicles and resupply from enemy terminals, Engineering and Combat Engineering, so they can set booby traps and sabotage back-line facilities and ATV or Air Scout for fast transport. Invisible Advanced Medics make a great insurance policy for a squad too, able to wait until the right moment, and then raise the entire squad from the dead to wreak more havoc.
The flyboy certs, Air Scout and Air Assault are a life all of their own, providing two very powerful Apache Helicopter-like light aircraft, which can totally dominate a battlefield in the hands of the skilled. Of all the vehicles in the game, the Mosquito and Reaver are the two that seem to need the most skill to use well – mental flexibility, spatial awareness and eagle eyes are all required. I’ve never been able to get the hang of these, so usually take some kind of AA, just to work out my frustrated rage on them.
Crafters (No, really!) will be most interested in the support certifications. There is a quiet sort of pride to be had from ensuring that the base assault has a sound logistical backing, and most bases are won or lost not on individual leet skill, but on availability of spawn points. Ground Support provides these spawn point trucks. Engineering helps keep bases and vehicles fully operational, and Medical and Advanced Medical make for a very useful front-line medic, and help drive the advance from behind, indirectly but significantly. Air Support provides a flying, mobile vehicle repair depot and tank lifter which can be set up in seconds to provide support for tanks and the BFRs, and also a massive troop transport plane, good for siege busting paradrops. Ground Transport provides several squad vehicles, making you a useful addition to any team, even if your trigger skills aren’t as good as they could be, or once were.
There is a full list here, but for such a rudimentary game concept, I’d always been surprised that there were so many different ways to play it. As a starting point though, I’d recommend getting stuck right in and experiencing the horrors of base assault grunting firsthand, so:
- Keep: Medium Assault, Reinforced Exosuit, ATV
- Lose: Harasser
- Learn: Heavy Assault
Then find an equipment terminal nearby and make up the following, and then save it as a favourite:
- Armour: Reinforced Exosuit
- Holster 1: Plasma Grenade (Free to all, use to light up suspected Ninjas with green fire!)
- Holster 2: Empire Heavy Assault Weapon (This will be either an MCG (TR), Jackhammer (NC), or Lasher (VS) – generally best used for indoor work, under 50m range)
- Holster 3: REK (Use to hack door lock panels – not a gun! In the Support tab)
- Holster 4: Empire Medium Assault Rifle (Cycler (TR), Gauss (NC), or Pulsar (VS) – best used outdoor, at over 50m range)
- Backpack: Ammo for the above guns, to about half a backpack’s worth. Really – you’re doing unnaturally well if you outlast a full backpack of ammo. Don’t use the orange ammo – this is supposedly Armour Piercing ammo, intended for vehicles and MAX units. There are generally better weapons for dealing with those though; you want white (or green) ammo, and your main target is other foot troopers. Also take at least two First Aid Kits (The long boxes, not the Medical Applicator or juice bottles.). Pressing F1 will instantly use one and boost your health by 25. There’s a second or so delay between them, but can be used in fights and can often mean winning or losing in a one on one. Take more if they’ll fit. Also, take a few packs of handheld grenades – versatile, and cost no certs.
Once you got all that saved, press escape, and select ‘Instant Action’ from the list. Doing this will respawn you at the nearest fighting, saving you walking miles or needing a vehicle. The downside is that you don’t get to choose where you go. The next half hour will be frustrating, chaotic, and quite possibly psychologically damaging. Use the HA indoors, and the MA outdoors, and try not to hit your own guys. Follow the herd, give it your best shot, and don’t worry about dying lots…even the top leader-board guys do that, and in time, you’ll be able to take more and more of them with you as you do.
If the horror doesn’t drive you away screaming, join me again tomorrow, as we look at what is actually going on out there, and cover The Base Assault Timeline in detail, looking at who should be doing what, when, where and why!