In its most general sense, guerrilla tactics involves the combination of methods used to carry out any action. Urban guerrillas wage guerrilla warfare and psychological warfare.

There are five major components to guerrilla tactics:

1. the specific nature of the situation;
2. designing the action to meet the specific nature of the situation;
3. the objective;
4. the type of action designed to meet the objective; and,
5. the method for carrying out that action.

Urban guerrilla tactics embody the following features:

1. They are aggressive and offensive in nature. Defense means death for us. Since our firepower, resources, and manpower cannot match that of the enemy, we cannot defend ourselves against an offensive or a coordinated attack made by the "gorrillas." So our tactics must vary, and can never be permanent, and that is the reason we cannot defend a fixed base, nor remain in any one locale, waiting to repel the encirclement of reaction.
2. It is through the tactics of attack and retreat that we preserve our forces; and,
3. Tactics that enhance the development of the urban guerrilla are those that wear down, demoralize, and harrass enemy forces. In this way tactics allow the urban guerrilla forces to survive and expand until the revolution can establish rural guerrilla warfare, which plays the decisive role in a revolutionary war.