Killzone: Shadow Fall multiplayer tips and tricks

This is war

Hey, welcome to Killzone: Shadow Fall multi--FFFFFFFFUUUUU another cloaked Scout just shoved a knife in my face. Again. Alright, look. The landscape's pretty brutal, and you're gonna have a tough time at first, especially with all this Scouts running around with their Harry Potter invisibility cloaks. But with some loadout experimentation, and a ton of perseverance, you'll find that it's not terribly difficult to score well in Shadow Fall's multiplayer matches.

Skill will, of course, factor into your success. I can't teach you how to aim with an analog stick, and the only way you're going to truly learn the layout of a map is by practicing. But if you go into a match with the right mindset, and adhere to some basic but helpful common sense rules, you should be able to hold your own. With the following tips at your side, you're bound to finish out on top...ish.

Be willing to adapt

Don't be one of those stubborn idiots that refuses to switch classes or layouts regardless of the situation. Choosing classes and abilities that SYNERGIZE (where's my motivational poster?) with your objectives is an easy way to gain a lot more points. If your team is getting smoked by the aforementioned cloaked Scouts--which is probably the case 99 percent of the time--choose a loadout that'll keep you, and them, alive (the Scout's Tactical Echo comes to mind). If you're having a tough time taking over a capture point, drop a Spawn Beacon as a Support, and you'll be lousy with points. Defending a key position? Go Assault with a Drone Buddy, or Support with a Turret / Air Support. It may sound painfully obvious, but gearing up with abilities and weapons that are more in line with what you're currently doing.

Don't forget to use those abilities!

Two things that will get you killed over and over and over again: reloading your primary weapon immediately after scoring a kill, regardless of how many bullets you have left in your clip, and forgetting to use your abilities. It's human nature to try and reserve your Nano Shield for when you're really gonna need it--but, more often than not, you'll die before that situation arises. Anytime you find yourself in a one-on-one firefight, drop your shield every time you can. Your enemy will be caught off guard once a protective shield suddenly appears in front of you, and you just might survive.

Have a few favorite weapons and skills? Focus on leveling them up

A Mark 1 Nano Shield lasts 60 seconds (wtf, that's actually a really long time), and has a 30-second cooldown. A Mark XI Nano Shield lasts 80 seconds and has a 10-second cooldown. All you gotta do to get the more advanced version? Kill 300 dudes while shooting through it. Make it a point to use the "View Challenges" button while hovering over an ability in the loadout menus to see what you need to do to level up the ones you like best. At max level, most abilities transform from useful supplements to overpowered saving graces.

Choose the right grenades

Each class has at least one alternative grenade that's unlocked after racking up enough kills with the standard M194 Frag. When deciding which to use, ask yourself a few questions: Are you going to play offensively or defensively? Does the map have a ton of choke points? While pretty much any nade will suffice, regardless of the situation, some do serve a more useful purpose in certain scenarios. If you're defending, say, a bomb or capture point, items like C4, Petrusite Grenades, and Laser Trip Mines will go a long way toward keeping enemies off the goods. If you're assaulting a location, or are just involved in an intense, team firefight, the classic M194--or the Assault's Limpet Grenade--are often better options.

Setting up the Assault class

Alright, so let's talk about some options specific to each class. Assault is, pretty obviously, the bread and butter option, and has a decent offensive kit. Try out all of the weapons, figure out which ones you like best, and stick with them. I tend to stick with rifles, as I find the Breacher shotgun and Valk submachine gun require me to be much closer to enemies than I'd like to be. As for abilities, you'll want to change your loadouts depending on game mode and objective. Speed Dash is a great choice for any of the Beacon modes, while Stun Blast and Drone Buddy make for decent offensive or defensive skills.

Setting up the Support class

These guys have a great mix of offensive and defensive options, so the first thing you'll want to do is decide if you need to be aggressive or hang back. Again, this depends heavily on the mode. For an offensive loadout, I'd recommend going with the Stova LMG or Pulver assault rifle. The Sickle shotgun's crazy strong, but is best used in maps with a lot of chokepoints--same with the Pulver minigun, as its spin-up time is no joke. Spawn Beacon is a great offensive tool (especially for capture and hold objectives), and is an easy way to nab some points, as you'll get some each time a teammate spawns on your placement. Turret and Air Support can be used offensively, but I find they work better as defensive tools. Oh, and don't forget to use your Revive Drone every chance you get--remember, you have to basically use it twice to actually revive a unit: once to bring it out, and again to initiate the process.

Setting up the Scout class

Okay, so you're gonna see a billion of these guys, and they always come in one of two flavors: the ones who you'll never see until they slice through your jugular, and the ones who you'll never see until they shoot you in the face from across the map. Both are obnoxious. If you're whole team is getting destroyed by the former, the only way to counter their cloaks is to play a Scout yourself and use the Tactical Echo. If you're whole team is getting picked apart by the latter, well, as the old adage goes: if you can't beat 'em, just do whatever the hell they're doing. A word of advice: If you're going to do some long-ranged sniping, try to camp out in an out-of-sight area with a Stun Drone to watch your back.

Shoot to frag

Been playing a bunch of Shadow Fall multiplayer? What other tips would you give to those looking to better their performance? And how are you dealing with all those friggen' Scouts? Let us know in the comments below.

And if you're looking for more, check out 10 tips to help you dominate in Battlefield 4 now and Resogun tips and tricks.