Phantom

Phantom Class battle rig: Specializes in concealment and long-range engagements.

The Phantom possesses powerful stealth and informational abilities, and the strongest long-range offensive payload weapon in the game.

Payloads

Ballista EM3

Highly accurate electromagnetic projectile launcher with increased penetration capability.

The most powerful of the payload weapons for long-range combat, the Ballista is a powerful rail gun that automatically locks on to targets and eliminates them with pinpoint precision.

The Ballista has a charge time before it shoots, so while it possible to “dumbfire” the weapon without a lock, it usually isn’t a good idea unless you’re ambushed and have no time to lock on, or you’re confident enough in your accuracy to manually fire it.

In comparison to most other payload weapons, the Ballista takes a little longer to kill targets (if you allow it to lock on fully), but it won’t miss once locked. And if you keep your distance and pick your targets carefully, it’s extremely hard to defend against. The Ballista shots can also penetrate light cover and still kill their target without trouble.

If you examine the maps later in the guide, the Ballista will lock on to enemy players out to almost 1500 range, or about three grid blocks on the rangefinder maps.

Pulsar

Advanced EM sensor allows you to visualize enemy positions.

The Pulsar is a short-lived, but powerful, informational payload, giving you perfect highlighting and positional information on all nearby enemies.

You can use the Pulsar just before assaulting a known enemy position, or defensively to locate nearby enemies if you suspect you are surrounded.

The Pulsar doesn’t guarantee you’ll win the resulting firefights, but knowing exactly where your enemies are standing and looking gives you a strong edge, especially if you move fast and don’t let enemies react after they are tagged by the pulse.

Active Camo

Renders you almost invisible.

A very straightforward payload, Active Camo gives you almost perfect invisibility, allowing you to ambush enemies or sneak past a guarded area.

Be warned that you can still be tagged by the Tracker perk and other locational perks or streaks, and you do have some visible distortion around your body as you move, but you are otherwise difficult to spot, especially at range.

Traits

Marked Target

Damaging enemies will mark them for death, preventing regen for five seconds.

Marked Target prevents enemies you shoot from regenerating for five seconds, which doesn’t sound long, but is an eternity in an active firefight. It is an almost guaranteed death sentence if they are engaged by a teammate before they regenerate.

Marked Target doesn’t actually help you in combat, however, so its best use is usually on a medium- to long-range build AR or LMG build, where you can gain bonus score from the Marked Target assists. Sniper setups aren’t usually quite as good of a match, just because glancing damage with the other weapons are more likely than the more frequent miss-or-kill shots from sniper rifles.

Likewise, you can certainly use it on close- to mid-range setups, but shorter range engagements tend to end in a fatality on either side, meaning the delayed regen is likely to get you a postmortem assist at best if you didn’t secure the kill yourself.

Marked Target works nicely with Hardline to earn you even more bonus score.

Rearguard

Equips a back shield that provides protection against an attack from behind. While shielded, melee attacks from anywhere but the front are negated.

Rearguard is a very, very specific trait. It can protect you in situations where a) you are scoped in and stationary, b) you are unaware of an enemy sneaking up on you and, c) that enemy chooses to melee you from behind for a quiet kill rather than simply shooting you.

Because the circumstances where Rearguard can protect you are so specific and limited, you’re usually better off with Heightened Senses to provide you with better situational awareness, or Marked Target to earn some extra score.

Heightened Senses

Fast moving enemy targets will appear on your minimap.

A strong informational trait, Heightened Senses gives you advance warning of nearby enemies. Heightened Senses is also useful on an aggressive build, particularly when paired with Pulsar or Active Camo.

Heightened Senses detects enemies that are jumping, thrust jumping, or sprinting. It does not detect walking enemies. While detected, enemies appear as a dot on your radar for roughly two seconds, but be aware that enemies with the Hardwired or Ghost perks can evade this detection.