Basics | Recommended Settings | Advanced | Locating the Enemy | Game plans and Scenarios | FAQs | Misc
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Basics
Keep moving:
PLEASE! Do NOT just stand there while a guy is shooting you. Strafe or something, but being a stationary target is not the way to go.

Crouch shoot:
Crouching to shoot increases accuracy. You in a 1v1 fight? Crouch and shoot if he’s not hiding behind something, but don’t crouch forever if he isn’t dying, or else you’re just a stationary target!

Crouch jump:
Ever wonder how those circus freaks jump up onto those boxes and onto the roof of the stairs? Jump and press your crouch button immediately so your feet raise up along with your body. This allows you to jump to higher places for a tactical advantage...or just for fun!

Cover:
A dude and you having a stand off? Get behind some good cover and lean to the side to minimize his probability of hitting you.

Be quiet:
To get a jump on the guys that listen for your stomping around, crouch or walk around certain corners where you suspect a jerkass to be hiding. If you’re coming to the roof with the case, you better be quiet when rounding cargo elevator and stair corners. Can’t tell ya how many times being quiet and listening for footsteps has saved my ass.

Burst fire:
One of the most important things to do when using an automatic gun. You don’t have to change to burst mode, just pull the trigger and let it go every second. Holding the trigger continuously creates recoil and your gun starts aiming upwards and all over the god damned place! Shoot small bursts to keep your gun under control, and accuracy at its best. The only time you hold the trigger is in close range combat where the guy is in your face. In that case, crouch and let a rip!

Time limit:
Shit, man! You’re on red team, the blue jerks dealth some serious ownage and you’re the only defender left! What to do?! Hopefully, by the time all your allies are dead, the time limit as tick-tocked away. It takes time for them to get the case and take it all the way back, and depending on how many blue there are, they have to be careful too. All this eats away at the clock. At about the 1minute mark, blue better at least be getting the case. At the 30 second mark, he better be rushing his ass to the helipad ASA-damn-P! What does all this swearing mean? If there’s only 30 seconds left, hope that he doesn’t make it in time…and just STAY ALIVE! Then red team wins. You don’t get a kill, but I always say it’s the team score that you’re workn’ for.

Use the voice commands!:
Warn your team of danger, tell your mates what’s up with the enemy. When you're in a fire-fight, call for backup! It's only...I dunno...COMMON SENSE if you're a novice.

Use your radar!:
Use the radar to know where your buddies are, and what areas they got covered. Also, if you hear a death sound effect and see one of the arrow-heads on your radar dissapear, you know where he died and where you can find the murderer! It also helps you find the location of the brief case. It's really all about knowing where the players are in your surroundings.

Check the Score Board:
By occasionally checkn' who's owning and who's getting owned, you can adjust how you play. This may sound a little hardcore, but it's purty simple. For example, if you run into a guy that you remember is higher up on the score board, you know that you SHOULD panic and more importantly, you SHOULD call for back up. If it's just some weiner that has a crappy-ass score, blow a cap in his ass and move on.

Recommended Settings
Sound:
Turn that god awful music as low as possible. Crank that soundFX volume up to max, baby! No, it’s not for a noisier experience –although that too may happen- its actually for hearing footsteps. In case you didn’t notice, footsteps CAN be heard! So you can hear someone coming around a corner, stalking you, or if you’re camping, you need to hear if a guy is coming so then you don’t have to stick your head out to look. Even the scaffolds make a creaking sound if you listen carefully.

Brightness:
If you turn your brightness up a few notches or so above the default, it makes it easier to see on the dark roof. Just don't make it too bright. This way, those red bastards and their dark suits won't have total advantage on the dark roof (as long as you still keep a good eye).

Simple items:
Not only do many of these settings reduce load times, but they are effective in helping your game. The same goes with this lil tip. By turning simple items on, all weapons left on the ground turn into bright white icons. This makes searching for a new weapon much easier and faster. Happy weapon hunting!

Advanced
Use your grenades! You have them for a reason!:
Lots of folks think grenades are useless. GOD DAMN! What you do is pull the pin, but hold the nade in your hand for about 4-5 seconds. Grenades have a fuse of about 6 seconds. This way, when you throw the grenade, they have less than a second to run…and BOOM! Other techniques include running away, but leaving a nade as a present in a tight hallway. This works particularly well with the fire nade, cause that leaves a wall that won’t die down for 10-15 seconds. Grenades are also vital to rushes. When you blue and go down the small elevator, pull the pin of a lil bugger and release at the main conference room door way or to either side of the entrance hall to block off a flank. But of course, red can just use nades on the entrances to the main conference room. So blue needs nades for rushes (almost any nade will do...some better than others), red needs nades to prevent rushes (mainly incendiary nades).

Shotgun Jumping:
Using your beautiful shotgun? Better jump! Jump + crouch to be a crazy-ass target. You only use the shotgun at close range, so jumping is necessary to minimize damage, and aiming downwards in the air hits their head. Any other gun, and the jump + crouching would make it very inaccurate. Only jump + crouch + shoot with another gun when you have to in order to reach a guy. Jumping around corners is also good. That way, if there’s a guy waiting for you behind it, you get the advantage of the first punch (hopefully).

Fall on Wall:
In some cases such as going down to the patio, you can jump towards the side wall and keep “walking” forward on it to slow your decent just long enough to prevent any fall damage, but it’s still faster than going down the ladder.

Going up/down:
When going up the elevators, you can actually walk up the wall in front of the cables. When going down, you can press your crouch button to descend quickly without having to aim down.

Weapon switching:
Low on ammo? Drop your gun and pick up another. They think you’re sniping? Get another gun and surprise them for assuming too much. I do weapon switching all the time. Used up M4’s nades? M4 is now useless…go find an AK. I mainly switch when I get into shotgun battles. I won, but now I have a lot less shotgun ammo…so I take my victim’s shotgun or another that has more ammo. Switch even if your ammo isn’t even that low. Every bullet counts, and eventually, everyone experiences running out of ammo.

Leaving Grenades Behind:
When escaping with the briefcase, a good idea would be to leave a lil, explosive present behind. This will stop the persuing red man in his tracks or ...end his tracks.
In fact, even red can use this to his advantage. Whenever you are running away, leaving a grenade behind is a good way to go. If you just find something suspicious and think some opponent may come down one particular hallway, leave a grenade behind to delay the enemy's travel.
OR...better yet! When you're just fooling around and just plain bored, throw a random grenade. Believe me, luck happens.

Communication:
Every once in awhile, use the “Be careful!”, "Clear!" voice commands or team chat, press space bar, press enter: just to tell your team where you are. This way, if you die, they know where to find the perp and take his ass down in your name!

Locating the Enemy
Chat:
At the start of a new round, if the enemy is chit-chatting away or bickering with some other A HOLE, he probably isn't moving much. Therefore, if you rush, you'll probably find the moron at his team's starting point, or he'll just be leaving it. Basically, if they type a lot at the start, they can't be very far from the starting point.

Dead body:
Nooooooo! One of your team mates has been bombarded with bullets! ...according to the sound effect and the message displayed in the top-left. *GASP* You've found his dead body! However...this can be a good thing, because dead bodies don't lay around forever...they only linger for a few seconds. Therefore, the person that killed him can't be far! Guns laying on the floor is also an indication of a battle (however, you can't be sure when the gun was dropped, or whether some one just dropped it on purpose)

TV shock/Copy machine:
Ya know how if you shoot the tvs/monitors in the main conference room, and that copy machine in the south office near the windows, and how they kinda do that weird shock of electricity thing? Well, if you didn't shoot the thing, and neither did a team mate, but it does the shock thing, it can only mean one thing. THE ENEMY SHOT THE POOR TV/COPY MACHINE! HE MUST BE SOME WHERE CLOSE!

Stay updated:
When ever you hear the croaking sound effect of a guy that just fell over and died, check the message that follows to see who just died and by who. This way, you know who’s died, who’s sniping, etc. Say you just passed by a team mate and then later you hear the “ACK!” and the message comes up that “Your friend was jacked by Your enemy” …you know where your friend went, so the damn jack off that killed him is probably there!

Knife drop:
If you feel that you think the opposing team may use one path, and you wanna stay close to it, but not too close, throw a knife in that spot. Then, feel free to check other areas of concern, but stay near the knives. Once you hear the distinct sounds of a guy picking up knives, you know he's there! A nice little trap told to me by Gazza...thanks man! The Gazza Server is also on the Suggested Servers page. In case you're wondering, yes, this method should work if you drop just about any weapon, but knives are just easier.

Broken windows:
Sometimes, windows can be your best friend. They make a nice, loud shattering noise so you can hear people trying to escape through them or people who are just fooling around. Either way, the people could be your enemy, but at least you now know where they are. Also, if you check a window and see it is intact, then come back later and see that it is broken and busted up, then it's a safe bet that a fire-fight or an escape/infiltration attempt occured. For example, the window near the kitchen is not usually broken unless someone went through it. Same goes for the window at the main stairs. If they're broken, just check the ledge and see what's up. About 10% of the time, I find some punk on the ledge trying to sneak up to the roof. That may not seem like a lot, but if I can catch a crook without much effort 1 out of every 10 checks, I'll be damn sure to do so. These are just a few instances of windows being your best friend. So go out there and make some new glass friends!

AFK-kill:
If an AFK is killed, that means that someone visited the spawning area of the kitchen or helipad. AFKs usually stay there. Since you know the location of the AFK, you know the location of anyone who kills him. If you dunno what "AFK" even means, you better check out the SoF2 Talk page.

Game Plans and Scenarios
Rushing:
If you’re on blue, rushing means either going down the small elevator in front of the helipad and throwing grenades in every direction, or going down to the patio to throw nades in that way. In both cases, you need backup and you’re going immediately for the case. On red, you’re probably rushing the roof to stop blue before they can even go down. If this is what your plan is, be careful for blue campers/snipers that linger around the roof to defend against exactly what you’re doing. You can rush the small elevator, but a good blue team has at least one person that throws a nade down it to prevent your sneaky ass from going up. Red can help slow down blue rushes with nades too!

Decoy:
This trick is mainly for blue. What you do is charge the helipad, or get the attention of the red guys gaurding the helipad somehow. Then, your friend with the case makes a dash for the chopper while red is pounding you full of bullets! Take one for the team!

Boosting:
Boosting or Team Stacking is where team mates jump onto eachother to boost eachother to new heights. One man crouches so the other can (and I use these words reluctantly) jump on him. The guy who's getting boosted then jumps so his helper can stand upright. Now, the guy getting boosted just jumps onto his new platform. Boosting is good for blue team to get from the patio ladder to the roof, to get on the roof of the buildings on the main roof (sounds weird, doesn't it?), and other areas. Red can use it as well to get on high spots to gaurd the helipad with snipers, or to gaurd the main conference room by boosting onto the chandeleer. Basically, it allows punks to get to places where they aren't expected to get for a suprise advantage, shortcut, or sniping post.

Outnumbered:
When you're outnumbered (or just the last surviving guy on your team), the best way to go is pick up a sniper rifle and go about your business very covertly. Try to kill the opposing team's players a one or so at a time. This way, you do not attract too much attention and you can focus easier. Never go charging into a crowd of enemies with guns blazing becuse your one gun vs. 3 or more guns is never a good thing. If it's merely you vs. 2 others, and you think you can handle the guys (i.e. they don't have the best ratios), then by all means, pounce on their asses and take 'em both out!

Outnumbering:
When the amount of surviving members on your team outnumbers the opposing team, just go for it! Especially if the opposing team only has one survivor. You can easily take them down if you just rush after them. Just don't be stupid. For example, don't charge the opposing survivors if it's a case of only 4v3 or something. If it's 2v1 or something similar to that ratio, then go ahead and take them down! The last thing a remaining enemy wants is ALL of his opponents to come at him all at once!

Dropped Weapon Border:
Here's a plan that will probably never be followed. What you do is drop a weapon (preferably your pistol) in a strategic place. Then, when the enemy comes around and runs over the weapon, they'll pick it up. This hopefully does two things for ya: makes a distinct sound, forces the player to switch to that weapon if he/she did not already have it. So for example, if you and your fellow red teammates dropped your pistols to create a ring of pistols around the briefcase (or even on the case), then when blue comes to pick it up, they trigger the sound of picking up a weapon and more importantly, they switch to the pistol. This way, you can kill him while he's fumbling around with his little crappy pee-shooter of a pistol! Definately a smart-ass plan, but definately a hard one to make happen. You need your teammates to coorperate, time to set the trap, and stay near the trap. It may require a lot, so there's no way you can pull this off every round (and if you did, unless they're is idiotic, blue will catch on and try to counter the plan).

Frequently Asked Questions
What is ping?
Ping is the connection that you have with others. You can check the your ping and that of others on the score board under the screen name. If you have a high ping, it takes more time for your computer to send data to everyone else. This could cause many problems. For example, people will see you in one place, then the next second, they see you 15 ft away because they got delayed data from you. Tsk, tsk…how cheap is that! Also, you yourself might feel lag.

What is lag?
Lag is the feeling of immobility and slow movement due to high ping. This word basically is used to describe the effects of high pings. However, just because a person has a high ping doesn’t mean he should be immediately kicked. Even cable modems have “ping spikes” which are brief periods of high ping due to whatever reasons. It may take a few seconds for their ping to fall back down, so be a little patient. When their ping stays high (400+) for a few rounds, then they’re hopeless.

What is the lag-o-meter all about?
You see red? You in trouble. You see blinking picture of a phone-line disconnected from the phone jack? You’re either disconnecting, or you’re having a major ping spike. Bummer…

Steady...

...Uh oh...

...Shit!

What is 3rd person?
Third person is a view. First person view is looking from the character's view, third person is looking from the outside. Basically, you enter something in the console, and for that round, you can see your guy from the outside. What good is this? It allows you to see AROUND your guy. So basically, you can hide behind something, but you can still see around it. This gives campers the advantage of just sitting behind something, and using the view you normally see when you're a ghost...then BAM! They pop outa no where and off goes your head. So before you accuse a guy of using a wallhack, see if they're using 3rd person. If they're constantly hiding behind stuff and popping out, they using 3rd.

Are there cheats/hacks for SOF2 MP Test?
Yes, there are cheats, but the server must activate them. I doubt there are any hacks, because what kind of hacker would waste their time hacking a demo??? Also, there are console commands that allow the user to manipulate their SOF2 in certain ways. The MP Test is really for the developers, so they enabled certain codes to enter to help their developement. However, some of these kind of help gameplay. There is a code that allows you to look through walls, and is refered to as the wallhack. It is merely a code, not a hacking program, but it is still cheating and should never be used. Head to the screenshots page for pics of the console commands in use. L&P does not allow its members to use either cheats or hacks or certain console commands.

Why does it say a server is full when it appears to still have open slots on the server list?
I have two theories. The first, the simplier, the sleeker, the meaner, the leaner, is that a guy beat ya to the connection. Perhaps someone just joined right before you? The second, more practical, more likey, more probable, the more reasonable, is that the server has spectators. Spectators do not count as players on the server list, but they still take up a slot since he COULD become a player any second. It's annoying, I know. That's why servers SHOULD kick inactive spectators since an actual PLAYER could be using that spot, but oh well...

Miscellaneous:
Shit happens: Don’t cry about it. You can complain a bit, but sometimes a dude gets lucky and nails you right between the eyes! The only time complaining is worth anything is complaining of a barrel camper or uneven teams. Get some Bengay, 'cause no one wants a sore loser!...ha...ok, that was bad, I know, I know.

Take one for the team: For god’s sake! You hear gunfire? GO HELP YOUR TEAM! Someone “stole” your kill? Who cares! Your entire team will get the win, and that’s what matters.
It's the team's score that you're workn' for!

Blocking: Please! Don’t block your team members! Don’t go randomly in front of them or cut them off while they’re shooting because it could do more harm than good. Also, if your team mate has a grenade, has pulled the pin, and is using the basic grenading technique discussed in the hints/tips, and you block him? You’ll then block his nade and it will bounce back and kill him. It’s just as bad as killing your own team mate in a friendly fire server.