Battlefield Hardline: How to Use the Zipline and Grappling Hook

There’s no question that Battlefield Hardline has some really cool gadgets. Items like Tasers and the all-new Survivalist are sure to keep players tinkering with their loadouts for many hours. As cool as those two are, though, there’s no denying that the Zipline and Grappling Hook are likely to be the most popular additions that Visceral Games introduces. With that in mind, we wanted to briefly go over how you can use these two gadgets, making sure that when you’re staring up a ledge with your trusty Grappling Hook in hand, you’re not shot in the back trying to figure out why it doesn’t work.

The Grappling Hook

This is one of our favorite new additions to the game. We dislike people who camp on rooftops so much that we started calling them roof rats. We even tried to get the hash tag #RoofRat to stick in the early days of Battlefield 4. Regardless of whether it catches on or not, consider us très pumped to have more gadgets at our disposal when it comes to humiliating these vertical villains.

On to the good part. How do you use this thing? Unfortunately, you can’t fire it at the ledge of any building you want. Luckily, Visceral Games was wise enough to highlight which ledges you can use.

When you have the Grappling Hook equipped, look up and you may notice that the ledge of a building glows just a bit. This indicates that you have found a Grappling Hook approved spot. If you aim at that spot, you’ll notice the indicator changes from a circle with a line through it, to one that shows a square and dot in the middle.

Once you’ve found a Grappling Hook friendly ledge, fire that bad boy and it will magically attach itself, at which point you can begin your ascension. To climb up, simply approach the hanging piece of rope and up you go. Now, here’s hoping that a bush wookie sniper doesn’t shoot you while you’re busy sneaking up behind that pesky roof rat.

The Zipline

This is a simpler device to use when bullying your way around the streets of Los Angeles in the Battlefield Hardline beta. In fact, the reticle on the Zipline looks exactly like that of the Grappling Hook, meaning you can clearly see when you’re able to use the device.

Let’s assume you just used your trusty Grappling Hook, and now it’s time to make your escape. Since you’re still petrified of elevators (but somehow not hanging from a rope high above the street), the Zipline seems like a good option. Once you’re ready, take aim at a building or solid surface below you, and within a range of about 35 meters. If your reticle is a circle with a line through it, either you’re too far away or the surface is invalid. If the reticle is a square with a dot, fire away and then make your daring escape. Just try to be careful. More than once we simply slammed into the side of a building, further above ground than what is healthy, then promptly slid down the wall and seriously injured ourselves from the fall. Good luck!