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Beginner's Guide to Hawken


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#1 Climatic

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Posted February 04 2013 - 09:56 AM

Hey guys! Recently I have seen a lot of people complaining about how hawken isn't beginner friendly and that matchmaking is broken, so I decided to write this guide to help beginners to go up against some of the more experienced players.

So, why should you trust me? You are probably one of three types of players, one that is curious about the game and wants to start or just started playing, one that wants to get better (and at some point thought something like what I said above in quotes), or the one that is just bored and wants to troll noobs here. Whichever kind of person you are, you don't have to take my suggestions. I am just saying that these things listed below can be great for people who are starting, and I think that most experienced players here would agree.

A few things you should know about Hawken:
  • Hawken have a turn-rate-cap. For those of you who have played twitchy shooters, you probably notice this right away. For those of you who don't know what this is, it means that there is a cap on how fast you can turn around no matter how much you increase your dpi/sensitivity.
  • Hawken is a few of fast paced game that benefit greatly from teamwork. Sure, other games like cod/battlefield does too, but the time to kill in Hawken is pretty significant compare to those games. Therefore, it benefits greatly if people can focus fire well and they can stay together.
  • Hawken is NOT a mech simulator game.
1. Movement is the most important factor between life and death in this game!
  • For those of you who have played a lot of First Person Shooter games (e.g. CoD, Halo, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike etc), you know this is true! I have seen quite a few people who always stand still when they fire at other players. Please don't do this. Movement is key to staying alive here, you are in a giant mech suit for gods sake! You are a nice, big, red target!
  • Dash left and right (default key: hold shift + A/D) will be your best friend! They should be used to avoid major damage, to get away from an enemy quickly, and to chase!
  • Once you get a really good feel of the game, dodging becomes an instinct! Timing your dodges so it's off cooldown when enemy's secondary weapon is off cooldown will make you an unstoppable pilot, seriously. No I don't have super human reflex to dodge the TOW once I see it's been fired, so we have to rely on our instinct.
  • *Advanced Advice* The art of KITING! For those of you that don't know what kiting is, it's that you manipulate your own movement (usually cut around corner of a structure)so you stay away from the line of fire of your enemies, at the same time you are damaging your enemy. This requires that you know your weapons explosion radius as well as your enemy's precise location (most of time using radar)! So this requires some practice to execute well. Once you have mastered it, kiting will allow you to do a lot of damage while taking very little damage. Watch this video from 5:00 - 5:45, great 2 kills and 1 assist by kiting! Thanks RentAKnight


  
Or this video for a few good clips of kiting in slow motion





2. Keep an eye on your radar!
  • Ok your radar is like 10 pairs of eyes! It can detect motion around you in every direction, which means you can detect the location of an enemy when they are around a corner. If you have ever played Halo online, you know how important this is.
  • Practice looking at radar every 2-4 seconds (more often if you want to be better). Often times, you will detect an enemy before you see them, if you know their location, it's great for both offense and defense plays.
  • Boosting forward/dashing sideways will light you up on enemy radar. However walking does not, advance player will use this against you.
  • The glowing balls are repair charges (gives you pure hp), they will be dropped when someone gets killed (with the exception of siege mode)! THEY ARE MARKED ON THE RADAR as little white dots and they will give you an edge if you consume it by going near it.
3. That **INSERT OP MECH HERE** is OP!
  • In the hands of a skilled and experienced pilot every mech is OP. The more experienced and comfortable with a mech, the more OP you will seem to newer players.
  • CT-R is the best mech for new pilots!!!!!!! (the tv/microwave mech), It's strength is it's balance between health (most health possble without downside in class B mechs upto lvl 20), movement, and damage. I honest use it myself from time to time and I love it!
  • When facing an A class mech, the key is, shoot to kill! Since they are extremely squishy, one good TOW and a couple of bullets would bring them down to half health! So, don't shoot your TOW aimlessly on cooldown, make them count! The best way to be sure to land your TOW is to wait until they dash and hit them at the end of it, while they are stuck on cool down, boom TOW to the face.
4. General combat rules/tips
  • Choose the correct server before you select the game mode. It is defaulted to US West. If you are US East and don't change it, your latency will be atrocious, making your experience worse than it would have been to begin with (this is located at the matchmaking tab, in the same menu as when you choose your game mode).
  • Protect the technician, if you can. Simple, they heal you and your team, so protect them. If necessary, body block enemy's line of sight so they can't target your technician when they are low.
  • Don't DASH into an enemy line of fire when you know they have their TOW up. You can walk, you can forward boost into their line of fire, and fire your own TOW then dash to dodge their fire! Save that dash for dodging their TOW in a tight situation. Hawken is a game that benefit a lot from defensive playing style. If you noticed, you can't shoot while boosting. If you are chasing someone by boosting, your weapons will be put away. Therefore, many pilots would turn around after they cut a corner and shoot you in the face if you keep on chasing.
  • Heat manage is very important! Overheating in a crucial duel would most likely lead to the death of you, even if you are ahead. So please please please wait hide behind a cover for a few seconds for your weapons to cool when it's about to overheat. The only time you would not mind over-heating is when you are sure that next shot will land and it will finish them off.
  • Teamwork is important. Chasing an enemy into a group of enemies is not a good thing to do. Also, pissing teammates off is usually not a good idea if you are serious about the game. A GG (good game) after each match, always looks good from you no matter win or lose, and helps to make friends and build community.
  • Fire to kill, make every shot like it's your last. Accuracy > Quantities.
  • Save your teammate > getting a kill that's about to get away, If you do the math, saving a teammate will get you a kill or an assist, which is about the same exp point as you finishing off a running enemy. Also it would help you to improve teammate relationships. It's a team based game, two heads are better than one.
  • When you are about to enter repair mode, make sure you are at a good position where you can see when an enemy arrives to hunt you down (since the camera goes to 3rd person when you start repairing, any corner of a wall would do the trick).
  • For those of you who likes the the Grenade Launcher. Grenades will bounce off walls and objects before exploding. Use this to your advantage. You do not have to be in line of sight to take out an enemy around the corner. Which means they are easier to kite with, they also have lower cool-downs than the TOW.
  • Air combat is viable only if you have air compressor (an internal which let you dodge while in the air). In fact, many classes rely on air combat to deal good damage (berserkers, bruisers, rocketeers) or to have an unpredictable movement patterns (almost any A class).
  • Fall damage exist in this game, a light hover (1-2 seconds) before you land will reduce the damage to zero.
  • DON'T YOU DARE STAND STILL, DODGE THAT TOW, STRAFE, USE COVER!
Well the question I hear the most is "Where do I spend my Hawken credit/meteor points"?

In my personal opinion, I would say spend your credit in this order:
  • Spend it on new mechs, or mechs you want to try out! Find a mech you enjoy playing or do well in.

  • Spend it on consumables. This will change the tides over half of the battle. For examples, an repair charge will gives you a lot of hp without repairing, or you can use it to decrease the repair time dramatically (put an orb down and repair on top of it). Shields can cover your rear-end when you are running away or to protect you while you are repairing.

  • Spend it on internals. Some internals are almost required if you want to do well on a mech (ex. air compressor on any A/Small mechs, armor fusor on C/Large mechs)***. Some internals are just good to have (ex. deflectors, fuel converters), some are very institutional, mech depended, and playing style depended(re-constructor, air-180, failsafe).

  • Prettify your mechs with meteor credit. These will only serves as cosmetics, they don't make your mechs stronger in any ways.
If you work on mastering these tips, you can, and will be better than half of the people who are level 20+. You will be the rookie rock star! You will be the reason people rage quit! You will be the guy who pick up the chick that the level 20+ dude is afraid to talk to!

Alright that's it for now! If there are more tips and or suggestions, I will update this post! Feel free to add more tips that isn't covered in this post in the comments! Or if you have any questions, post them in the comments or send me a pm if you are shy <3

Thanks for reading!

-Climatic

***You should spend your Hawken/Meteor credit on these first rather than getting consumables.

Edit1: Grammars (thanks to burns1124 and TheFlyingVs)
Edit2: Added new contents! (thanks to burns1124, Blitz_Ace, TheRuleslawyer, Thermite, salute1v and StutterStep)

Edited by Climatic, April 28 2014 - 10:32 AM.


#2 ShadowGTR

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Posted February 04 2013 - 10:17 AM

A pretty good beginner's guide you've written there. It's surprising how many rookies don't follow some of these tips. Hopefully they will see this.

Edited by ShadowGTR, February 18 2013 - 07:27 PM.

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#3 burns1124

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Posted February 04 2013 - 10:17 AM

Climatic, great guide for the new pilots, when you get a chance try to go back and clean up some of the grammatical errors, or PM me the contents and I can help you out if english is not your forte!

Once again, you are a wonderful person for writing this up, let me add one tip to the end tho:
  • Jumping/jump boosting/hovering:  Jumping and jump boosting are great mobility tools to sneak in a well placed shot to finish off an opponent, but has a HUGE drawback.  When you jump, you expend large amounts of fuel, and cannot side dodge after landing.  An experienced pilot will almost always either pick you out of the air, or nail you on landing.  Jumping should only be done when you HAVE to get over an obstacle, or your enemy is waiting for you to move from cover into his line of fire.  You can, with practice use jumps to your advantage, but more of often than not, there are safer and better ways to move around the battlefield.  tl;drJUMP ONLY WHEN YOU NEED TO, DO NOT HOVER IN PLACE OR TRY TO FLOAT FOR BETTER SHOTS, YOU WILL GET TAKEN OUT EASIER THAT WAY.


#4 Owngasm

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Posted February 04 2013 - 11:36 AM

And thus, my nearly 70% done beginners guide is made pointless.
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#5 TheRuleslawyer

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Posted February 04 2013 - 11:49 AM

2 not immediately obvious ones for me were
1) boosting lights you up on radar (or so I read)
2) The glowing balls are repair power ups.

#6 RentAKnight

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Posted February 05 2013 - 12:00 PM

As for not wanting good content to disappear forever (who actually uses search?), is the standard procedure to add a link to the massive "tips and tricks thread?"  http://community.pla...-tricks-thread/

Do new players even look through that sticky? (oh it recently got stickied)  

I feel a bit overwhelmed looking at it.  Are all of the posts still relevant?  Are all of the posts useful and is there consistent post quality?

Props to  ArnieF4440 for maintaining it thus far.  It is nice to have a thread to point new players full of questions to.

Edited by RentAKnight, February 05 2013 - 12:00 PM.

Inactive.

#7 Thermite

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Posted February 05 2013 - 12:19 PM

Suggestion to those using grenades...

Grenades will bounce off walls and objects before exploding. Use this to your advantage. You do not have to be in line of sight to take out an enemy around the corner.

#8 StutterStep

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Posted February 05 2013 - 12:27 PM

I think a really important addition to the guide could be:  Choose the correct server before you select the game mode.  It is defaulted to US West.  If you are US East and don't change it, your latency will be atrocious, making your experience worse than it would have been to begin with.

#9 Climatic

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Posted February 05 2013 - 08:11 PM

Thanks guys these are good tips, hope you guys don't mind if I just add it to the guide!

Edited by Climatic, February 05 2013 - 08:11 PM.


#10 yOuReNeMyMiNe

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Posted February 05 2013 - 08:24 PM

Best is the video - hello - all tanks at Level 25, whats that for a rookie? Shame on this! Best is the game get a balancing system and make fights with near levels - or you have only a skill up shooter - very boring!

#11 Thermite

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Posted February 05 2013 - 09:41 PM

Spot enemies with ('Q') key. If you see a mech in the distance and it does not have a name, it is an enemy. You do not have to wait until the mech is identified with a red box.

Make sure your crosshairs point to the location, no one likes a player that spots wrong locations.

Use help requested ('Z') sparingly, Do not spam it unless you are in trouble. Do not cry wolf. You are better off hitting ('Q') instead.

If a group is trying to flank you from behind and you see them coming up the path, point to the path's exit and hit ('Q') to identify it as a hot spot.

#12 Blitz_Ace

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Posted February 06 2013 - 08:56 AM

When you get shot from behind and know this is a good time to retaliate, use the 180 degrees shift(default key: hold shift+S) to quickly turn the way your mech is facing.

I personally feel like this is a maneuver for advanced players who feel comfortable with their mobility as this can be rather confusing when used at the wrong moment.

Mastering this thought will make a difference between life and death situations when kiting multiple opponents at once.

#13 Blitz_Ace

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Posted February 06 2013 - 09:00 AM

On a side note, did you notice that when you get hit from the side or from behind, a red stripped bar and an arrow facing the way of the attack appear on your screen?

Use this to get your bearing better in a fight.

Edited by Blitz_Ace, February 06 2013 - 06:42 PM.


#14 h0B0

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Posted February 06 2013 - 09:15 AM

pretty good.

I look forward to the new strategy section of the forums.

Click me! I dare you.

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View Post[HWK]HUGHES, on March 15 2013 - 08:35 PM, said:

Oh don't always listen to h0B0. Lol.


#15 Climatic

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Posted February 08 2013 - 09:29 PM

So does anyone have any other tips for the rookies? Or field(s) that I need to touch base on? Also, please help me keeping this thread alive, so new players can read it! Thanks!

#16 Blitz_Ace

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Posted February 09 2013 - 08:46 PM

A tip for new players would be to practice heat management. It's fun to spam that TOW rocket and make bullet holes in your opponents with that assault rifle/sub machine gun but you've gotta keep an eye on that heat level so your weapons don't shut down at the wrong moment. ;)

#17 Conquistador

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Posted February 10 2013 - 01:15 AM

View PostClimatic, on February 04 2013 - 09:56 AM, said:

4. That scout is so OP!
  • If you think scout is OP, well yes,in the hands of a skilled and experienced pilot. Although same thing could be said about pretty much every mech in the game. The more you get experienced and comfortable with a mech, the more OP you will seem to newer players.

ALL MECHS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME MECHS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

Using HEAT scout in a guide catered towards newbies makes me cringe in more ways than one. Given your target audience, you should have used WolfyFTW's video clip on dueling with the CRT mech instead.

Edited by Conquistador, February 10 2013 - 01:18 AM.

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#18 SeaOfInsanity

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Posted February 10 2013 - 04:12 AM

It's weird but I never see anyone talking about Radar Signature and how it works which could also be beneficial towards a beginners learning.
Yea I use Rocket Turrets and I don't care who knows it

#19 Himax

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Posted February 14 2013 - 05:28 PM

View PostClimatic, on February 04 2013 - 09:56 AM, said:

3.

Where to spend your points? And does huge difference in levels make a big difference?
  • If you read the tooltips as you mouse over the various spots on the tree, each point in the offensive and defensive tree, they aren't too good. Each point in damage increase gives you less than 0.2% damage increment. If you deal 1000 damage without the point, each point will increase less than 2 damage per point you put into the tree. Let's face it, most of mechs you are facing have 500-800 health, so, it's not gonna make a noticeable difference in combat. Offensive tree is the considered by experienced pilots the worst, don't put any points in it!


If a whole branch of the tree is useless, logic would dictate that the tree is poorly designed...

I can't stand spunkgargleweewee. Are you saying that the game needs some redesign?
Or is this game just another run-of-the-mill twitch-shooter, where obsessive reflex speed is the ONLY thing that matters?

#20 Blitz_Ace

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Posted February 14 2013 - 07:24 PM

View PostHimax, on February 14 2013 - 05:28 PM, said:

View PostClimatic, on February 04 2013 - 09:56 AM, said:

3.

Where to spend your points? And does huge difference in levels make a big difference?
  • If you read the tooltips as you mouse over the various spots on the tree, each point in the offensive and defensive tree, they aren't too good. Each point in damage increase gives you less than 0.2% damage increment. If you deal 1000 damage without the point, each point will increase less than 2 damage per point you put into the tree. Let's face it, most of mechs you are facing have 500-800 health, so, it's not gonna make a noticeable difference in combat. Offensive tree is the considered by experienced pilots the worst, don't put any points in it!


If a whole branch of the tree is useless, logic would dictate that the tree is poorly designed...

I can't stand spunkgargleweewee. Are you saying that the game needs some redesign?
Or is this game just another run-of-the-mill twitch-shooter, where obsessive reflex speed is the ONLY thing that matters?

The game is still being developed as a matter of fact(currently in open beta) and to a certain extent, I agree that the offensive tree would need fixing to be worthwhile. I don't like spunkgargleweewee(Zero Punctuation is awesome btw) either. I expect the devs to do something about it. I can't deny that movement and positioning are important in Hawken but timing is also very important. There is a strategic side to be considered about the way you move around, when it's time to dodge, when it's time to use boost, using splash damage of your weapons, heat management, radar signatures, when it's time to attack a mech after he dodged, etc. All those factors shine more as you become an experienced pilot.




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