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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
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.
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.

 

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