Crash Course For Beginners
- Basic priorities:
1. Stay on the move. You have a target to track down and you are being hunted constantly.
2. Complete your contracts with a good score Bonus.
3. Work quickly to score more kills than other players.
4. Avoid surrendering points to other players by allowing yourself to be killed or Stunned.
- Advantage goes to the player with the highest XP and character resources, so just keep playing. Your progression curve will flatten out, with higher Levels coming more slowly, but the advanced Abilities are worth striving for.
- Improvise, don't strategize. Concentrate on finding your target as quickly as possible, but remain alert and be ready to switch tactics in an instant.
- Watch how the ordinary civilians move and attempt to imitate them. Other players are just as busy as you, so a rough approximation will allow you to pass for an NPC on most occasions.
- Blending isn't half as effective as standing next to a civilian with an identical skin. Once you get close to an opponent, your Compass becomes a full disc and gives no further indication of identity. This leaves the sticky problem of deciding which of the look-alikes in the vicinity is the target, and the potential for killing an innocent instead (Fig. 1).
- Height increases your chance of targeting your contract. If you are on a rooftop above them, the range of an air assassination while following greatly exceeds the proximity you would need to achieve to reach them at street level – and you won't take damage from falling. At the same time, rooftop activity marks you out to other players as an Agent.
Confident Progression
- Advanced priorities:
1. Set up Profile Sets with complementary Abilities and Streak Bonuses.
2. Add to your score with the Kill, Action, Team and Session Bonuses.
3. Adapt your tactics to counter online enemy behavior.
- You cannot be assassinated by normal moves while climbing or jumping. However the ranged abilities will make short work of such an easy target (Fig. 2).
- Chases favor the escapee. They can use Chase Breakers to make distance and hiding spots to accelerate a time-out. So don't attempt to follow your target Compass-fashion when in pursuit: attempt to cut them off instead. Chases cost killing time, so a 50/50 gamble on whether they'll turn left or right can conclude the matter sooner rather than later.
- Take a moment to stop and look at which way the arc is moving on your Compass. From rough width and direction, you may be able to intercept your mark at the nearest intersection.
- Always climb in steps, using beams and poles, and make distance on the flat. If you climb the sheer face of a wall then you'll take time going nowhere and leave yourself open to ranged attacks.
- It makes sense to use Abilities sooner rather than later. Even with unevolved Cooldowns, the assignment of contracts and tracking time with a full Profile Set roughly equates to one Ability per kill.
- After you perform a kill, if you are too close to other players then it may take significant wasted seconds for the game to award a new contract. Head out to the exterior of the map to reduce delays.
Profile Sets
- As your Abilities increase, you'll need to define a tactical Profile Set to get the best use of them. Once all slots are unlocked then you can take two Abilities, two Perks and two Streak Bonuses into every game.
- Through advancement, you will acquire up to five Profile Sets for a range of reactive options, enabling you to choose various sets of complementary powers. You can switch Profile Sets between rounds or after dying. Give each Set a unique descriptive name to facilitate quick choices before respawn.
- If your opponents take readily to the rooftops, a focus on ranged Abilities may catch them out. If they act aggressively, defensive Abilities will humiliate them. If they are better players than you, choose a favorite Loss Streak like Score x2 to get back.
- To get you started on ideas for good Profile Set combinations, here are some Abilities that work well tactically when twinned:
Templar Vision + Disguise: try this stealth combination to maximize your chances of a Stun.
Sprint Boost + Charge: fast, acrobatic players can improve their kill count per round with this combo, exploiting it further with a Kill Streak Bonus.
Morph + Smoke Bombs: efficient combo when you are highly ranked in the match. Good for both high-scoring kills and thwarting pursuit.
Smoke Bombs + Poison: accomplished players can achieve highly rewarded kills wth these two tools.
Flashpoints
- With all Agents hunting for each other, you will often find that they converge towards flashpoints: several Agents in close proximity (Fig. 3).
- The moment you locate your target and assassinate them, even if striking from a hiding place, you break your cover for the entire world to see. You are never more likely to be killed than at this moment, as your own pursuer has had time to catch up and see you reveal yourself – and so the bodies pile up at the flashpoint. Therefore you should always flee immediately after a kill rather than blending or hiding.
- Use Poison or ranged weapons to avoid the flashpoint, leaving stealthily in the case of the former and hoping the fallout will distract your tail.
Team Tactics (Alliance Mode)
- When you Lock a target, your partner sees them Locked too, which helps to co-ordinate your joint actions.
- Co-operative actions boost scores. Before rushing to complete a kill, check if you can't maximize the return by involving your partner. Plan your Profile Sets together for offense or support roles.
- If your partner is killed, their assassin is ripe for a Stun. Cover each other when close, as you will be drawing both of your hunters to the same location.
- Use your teammate to drive a target towards your location. Setting a trap with Disguise is more effective in Alliance as enemies expect to know their pursuers too.
- Vary your solo and co-operative efforts according to the situation. When trailing, work together on one target for quality kills and Team Bonuses. Once you take the lead, it can be advantageous to split up and take a target each: your opponents may also split their attention and miss out on scoring.