Tactical Tips for Natural Selection
Last Update: 2004-08-2
Welcome, Natural Selection is a fun game available for free. NS was
built on top of the Half-Life engine. You probably already know that you can get news
and the lastest version from
Natural-Selection.org. Hopefully, you've
had a chance to read
the manual.
If you read the first manual, you'll find that this one is Much improved. It even includes specific
numbers for weapons. It's good enough that I'm going to assume you read it.
Click that manual link.
If you have questions, go to the forums. Of special interest are the Frontiersmen Strategy and Kharaa Strategy sections.
Overall Tips
Find a pair of headphones and use them for play. The stereo effect makes
you four times more deadly. Better still,
buy a gaming headset with a mic (and stereo earphones).
Figure out how to use the console. Type this into the console: "hud_fastswitch 1" without the quotes. This makes you swap weapons faster.
Unless you have a specific goal in mind, don't spend your resources.
Unless you're on an OC killing mission, you only need 100-150 LMG ammo. I know you can carry more.
The time you spend getting more ammunition is time that the alien control is spreading without opposition.
If you need to be a little sneaky, hold your walk key (shift). It will even muffle skulk footsteps to a large extent. If you need to be a super sneaky marine, crouch as you move.
Use a pseudonym (fake name). You can't be polite all the time. There's a reason
no-one ever sees my real name online. I flip out from time to time too.
New Players:
Personally, I think new players should play as aliens first. Skulks move faster
so you can explore more of the map. Additionally, hive sight allows you to have
a better understanding of what's going on in the game.
Aliens
Sneaky, mobile whoopass.
Skulks
Always where you don't want them to be.
Wall Walking:
Skulks cling to walls and ceilings. Just walk towards the wall with your mouse
aimed up and you will climb it. To let go, hold crouch. Once you are on a smooth
ceiling, you can move around by walking forward and looking up (not a good idea).
Or you can walk sideways or backwards while looking down (excellent idea).
When you're on the ceiling, turn 90 degrees and walk sideways to your goal.
The only reliable way to transition from one surface to another is if the two
are form a concave angle. In other words, a skulk can climb all around the inside
of a cube, but would have trouble on the outside. Specifically, you can't
climb from the bottom onto the sides. The maps are mostly designed so this isn't
an issue.
Boosting Into Vents:
Skulks can boost gorges (and everyone else) into vents where they are safer. Stand
directly under the vent, touching the wall and the ground. When the gorge jumps onto your
head, walk slowly up the wall. The gorge must keep hitting jump (and nothing else) for this to work.
Bite
Bite will kill a default marine in two hits. Focus will drop that to one. Marines
can get armor upgrades which will make them harder to kill. If you bite a marine who
is jumping, they will be thrown away from you. This can make the second bite very
difficult to get since you have to close with them twice. Bite has a range of maybe 3 feet (1 meter).
Don't charge straight at marines. Surprise them.
Parasite
Once parasited, everyone on your team can see where that marine is until he dies.
Parasite also works on structures though the only marine buildings worth parasiting are
resource towers and one building in a siege base.
Do Not parasite everything you see. This clutters Hive Sight and regular sight making
your team less effective.
Leap
You don't have to be touching anything to leap. Some people can fly very well just using leap.
Add silence for extra marine confusion.
To leap in vents, hold down your crouch button. That will keep you from latching onto walls and ceilings in mid leap.
Xenocide
If you die before the boom, there is no boom.
You can trigger xeno, quickly switch to leap, and throw yourself into the midst of your foes.
Optionally, most marines are confused by skulks who trigger xeno and then begin to bite them.
You need to do something to avoid getting killed before you explode.
Gorge
"Can do, I'm putting it up now."
Building
Gorges are the only aliens who can build or heal others. Aliens get to pick
one upgrade
type per hive. Generally, people want them in this order: Defense, Movement, Sensory.
Other players on your team may get Very upset if this order isn't followed.
The upgrade type is chosen by the first player to evolve into a gorge and drop an
upgrade chamber. Three chambers of each type are needed to make the upgrades as strong as
they can be.
More on building placement when I write my strategy guide.
Spit
Gorge spit is one of the few ranged attacks in alien team but it doesn't do much damage. Still, if the marines can't get
to you and you have cover and healing nearby, every little bit of damage you do helps. Just remember
gorges are primarily a support species.
Heal Spray
Heal Spray is one of the most useful abilities that gorges have. Heal spray will heal friends and hurt enemies
out to around 10 feet (3 meters). Heal spray also heals alien structures. As a support species, your best
weapon is a well-healed teammate. Keep them alive and they'll keep you alive.
If an alien approaches you, assume they need healing and start spraying them with weapon 2.
If an alien is nearby, consider firing a heal spray for them to hear to let them know that healing is available nearby.
Bile Bomb
Weapon three lets gorges destroy electrified nodes, mines and the remains of a marine base.
Be aware that bile bombing a lone node will attract the attention of the marine team. Have
a plan handy for when they come running to kill you.
Bile Bomb only hurts marine structures. It does NOT hurt marines.
Web
To lay webbing, shoot the first anchor point, then shoot the second. Webbing is NOT a drag-and-drop
operation. If you see a marine get webbed, alternate webbing them with
shooting them.
Use webbing wisely, there are limits per area and a limit for the entire alien team.
Lay web to trap marines in bad situations. Set web traps in sight of your offense chambers.
Webbing layed on the ground can be very hard to see.
This is especially true if the webbing lines up with the floor tiles.
Yes, there really is webbing in the first picture.
Lerk
Flight
Lerks are the only aliens capable of flight. Press your jump key to flap. Flapping adds speed in the direction you
are looking.
Glide by holding down the space bar. You'll spend most of your lerk time holding down your jump and forward keys
(spacebar and w). When you are gliding, look in the direction you want to go.
Go up and down to manage speed versus altitude.
The strafe and back buttons have no effect while you are in the air.
Lerks, like skulks, can boost teammates into vents. It's the same trick, but you must coordinate better because the
lerk will run out of stamina at some point.
Look up to climb and down to dive.
If you turn slowly in flight, you'll retain your momentum. If you turn too quickly, you'll lose your momentum.
Bite
Much like skulk bite, weaker and faster.
Spore
Damages marines who aren't wearing Heavy Armor. Does not affect buildings.
Umbra
Reduces the number of bullets that hit things within the cloud. A great way to keep friends
and hives alive. Does not stop expolsives (grenades and mines). Umbra is Very short lived.
After you've spored everyone into buying heavy armor, swoop in, umbra and chew them to death.
Primal Scream
Causes nearby friends and you to attack more often and it also boosts stamina meters.
Fade
Medium Infantry
52 Cards:Swipe.wmd:NothingMore:
ROFLCOPTER
wrote a
Guide to Fades. Don't
worry about the version discussion, the guide is applicable.
Swipe
Much like skulk bite, does more damage. Doesn't tend to throw victims.
Blink
Much like leap but faster and quieter. Try ducking while using blink to reduce your chances
of getting stuck on things.
Metabolize
Heal self and recovers stamina. If you aren't doing something else, you probabbly
want to be doing this. Requires some stamina to use.
Acid rocket
One of the few alien ranged attacks. Acid Rocket does low damage but will
splash onto multiple targets. Good for when you're waiting to heal up
before you get back into the fight with Swipe.
Onos
Gore
Much like skulk bite, does more damage. Throws victims pretty far.
Onos' gore attack does double damage to buildings.
Devour
Victim is taken out of the game as you slowly digest them to death.
Great for well equiped marines. Devour has more range then you'd expect
maybe 10 feet (3 meters). Failed devours (misses) cause no damage.
If you fail to devour on your first try, switch to gore or stomp.
Many an onos has died because he kept trying to devour someone. Many an alien
team has failed because their onos didn't stomp when the team rushed into a
marine base.
Stomp
Stuns marines in your path for a short time. Affects multiple targets. If you
can't get into the fight, support your teammates by stomping their victims.
Support your teammates by stomping their victims.
Charge
Causes you to run forward very quickly doing damage. Once triggered charge
continues until you run out of stamina.
Marines
Alone, a tasty treat. Together, hand-delivered, custom-made death.
Tactics
Buddy System
90% of the time, you should be with a team mate.
Spread out
Keep your teammates close to your weapons' optimal range (3 yards).
This allows you to shoot the skulk who is chewing on your teammate.
Spreading out also reduces the opportunity for a single alien to destroy the entire squad.
Keep fire lanes open
Don't march in single file.
Pick a side (left or right) and stay there.
Take the side opposite the guy in front of you.
If you play tennis, set up as for doubles.
If one person has the front-left, the other person should be in the back-right.
If you play chess, imagine each marine as a queen.
Deploy two queens a knight's move from each other to maximize their killing ability.
Let your team help
You'll get no help if you are in the way.
Duck when you want supporting fire.
Don't run towards your teammates while they are shooting.
Don't stop in a doorway.
Travel light
Try playing without using the armory at all.
You can get a lot more done if you don't get extra ammo.
Ammo makes you run slightly slower.
Loading up on ammo every time you spawn takes you out of the game for too long.
Phase when you can
Phase gates go to important places.
Everytime you spawn, traverse the phase network before getting ammo.
One of the gates may be under attack and you'll be there to save it.
Plan against Hit and Run attacks
Higher alien lifeforms are well suited to hit-and-run attacks where they swoop in,
do some damage and run away for healing. Have a solution ready for this problem.
Standing in the doorway to slow their escape sometimes works. Blocking
like this can keep the alien from reaching safety in the last critical seconds when
his hitpoints are low enough to kill him.
Chase the big guys when they run away. 9 times out of 10, they are running because they
are too wounded to fight. Of course you should be aware that good alien players will have a
backup plan waiting.
Weapons
All marines spawn with an LMG (light machine gun), a pistol and a knife.
LMG (50 shots)
Excellent for medium to long range engagement (5-15 yards). You spawn with enough
ammo for 80% of the missions you'll go on.
Pistol (10 shots)
Excellent for very long range and as
a backup when your LMG goes empty. Some people prefer to shoot pistol first, then swap
to the LMG when the alien gets closer. Pistol bullets do more damage then LMG bullets.
Click fast. Pistols can kill many skulks before the skulk can react.
Knife
Has a range of about 2 feet. Do lots of damage, but you still need 3 hits to kill a skulk.
Shotgun (8 shots)
Effective in close to medium range (0-5 yards). Save your shot until the alien is in close.
Plan your reloads, they take longer then the LMG. Does
damage in large clumps so it's possible to kill an alien before they realize how much damage they've
taken.
HMG (125 shots)
Heavy machine guns are effective in close to medium range (1-10 yards)(slightly longer useful range than shotties).
HMG's do half damage to buildings.
Plan your reloads, they take a while.
Grenade Launcher (4 shots)
Grenades behave much like pipe bombs from Team Fortress. You can bounce them off walls and floors.
The grenade will detonate if it touches an alien, if an alien touches it or after a second or two.
A few grenades can act as a (very) temporary minefield.
Plan your reloads, they take a while. Grenades and their explosions are Not affected by umbra.
Grenades destroy webs.
Motion Tracking and some practice can make grenade launchers amazing.
Mines
Mines are easy to dodge if the alien has time to think about it.
Don't give the aliens a chance to think about dodging.
Plant the mines in places that aliens won't expect or in places that they must hurry through.
Anywhere with a marine counts as a place that aliens must hurry through.
Turrets also keep aliens busy so that they don't have time to dodge mines.
Mines are now 3d objects. Since you can stick them to walls, marines can use them as stepping stones
into interesting places.
Marine weirdnesses:
The round Armory can be Used to get half clips of
ammunition. (I'd prefer whole clips half as often, but *shrug*)
The Scope on top of your LMG is
purely decorative. Sorry. If you want a sniper rifle, use the pistol. (Yes, the pistol, trust me.)
Recoil is non-existant. LMG's and HMG's are less accurate then pistols
all the time, regardless of how many shots are fired.
Destroying Offense Towers:
Don't try to dodge the spikes shooting out of alien Offense Chambers (OC).
Stop at the last corner before the OC and crouch down. Move out a very little
bit at a time until you can see a tenticle. Shoot that.
It might look like your gun is pointed at the wall, but if the crosshairs are on
target, you're set. 3 or 4 richocets off your cover is fine as long a most of the bullets
are hitting the OC and you aren't taking any damage.
Alternative #1: If something or someone it attracting the OC's fire. You can just
stay farther away then them and shoot away. It takes 3 or 4 clips of LMG ammo
to destroy a single OC. If you are able, shoot any defense chambers first.
Alternative #2: LMG's have more range than OC's. Very rarely, an alien will build an OC far enough down a hallway that you can shoot it without receiving fire. This is a mistake on the alien's part.
Alternative #3: Charge it and run past it to cover. *Ninja Trick*
Alternative #4: Charge it with 3 or 4 friends.
Alternative #5: Charge it alone and circle-strafe it. (Might be possible)
Alternative #6: Charge it shooting and die. (Bad Idea)
Destroying Other Alien Structures
None of the other alien structures can hurt you. When you damage them, the
entire alien team will get a warning which will bring aliens to your location. If you
think it's worth the risk, go ahead and kill the structure. If it's a great location to build,
consider leaving the structure alone for a minute and building a phase gate.
Think first, knife second
You'll have the chance to chose between killing a movement chamber or a hive. Go for the hive.
Top Down Views of the Maps are available
Current Maps hosted by
Jim "|DL|JazzX" Olson.
Maps from Beta 4 (one revision ago) on my server.
Drop me a line if part of my site was useful. Or write a note in
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Copyright Tom Cerul 2003-2006
