TSA’s Top Ten Killzone Shadow Fall Multiplayer Tips

It’s rather annoying that in a world of utterly pointless tutorials, the Killzone Shadow Fall multiplayer drops you in the deep end without a word of explanation. Missions are detailed in one line of text, the HUD markers are less than clear and the confusion was not helped by the lack of proximity chat when the game launched.

In the first few weeks a lot of gamers, presumably those who had switched from Xbox to PlayStation were playing the game much like Call of Duty – run about and shoot. Killzone does not work like that – you have to play tactically and unless your team mates are playing as a team, you have little hope of success.  As a couple of weeks have gone by it seems players have begun to learn the intricacies of the game and the multiplayer has improved considerably. However, completing the 1,500+ challenges requires a lot of work, so here are some of our top ten tips to help you achieve this goal.

Keep your load outs fresh.

The first thing you should do is sort out the load outs, as the defaults need a bit of tweaking if you want to plough your way through the challenges. Make each as unique as possible with different primary weapons and abilities – make sure you scroll through them all, for some stupid reason the menu screen only shows three items so a lot of people are missing out on using certain weapons and abilities, most notably the resupply crate which is rarer in-game than a friendly Helghast solider.

Seek out maps and Warzones.

The maps take a good while to learn but a few have already become favourites, notably the Penthouse map which offers compact gameplay and layers of vertically and the Park which has plenty of cover for sneak attacks. Others, such as the Train Station, are just too big with far too much wide open space.

If you want to make some serious dents in your challenge tally then ignore the featured Warzones and delve in to the browse menu. Some of the official Warzones do not include all the missions so hunt out a Warzone with a specific objective. If you really want to rack up the challenges then find a quiet Warzone because unlike in Killzone 2 and 3, you still get experience if you’re not playing against someone else. I found a Warzone which was just the beacon missions and as one of the challenges is to hold on the beacon for 50 minutes I wandered about by myself as the challenges pinged in the corner.

Using the browse Warzone feature will also highlight a very important detail, namely if AI players have been enabled. If they have been activated, you will not progress any achievements which makes playing these zones pretty much pointless.

If you want to win, change class.

You are never going to win a game if your team is selfish, unfortunately a lot of players are and choose one class and stick to it. If no one on your team is dropping spawn beacons, change to support and help out and you will get thousands of points for doing nothing as your team use your spawn. When you have to defend a target, selecting scout and enabling the cloak is good move. The enemy can see you when you move but if you stand completely still by a doorway they are very unlikely to spot you and you can rack up the kills.

Use the Stun drone.

Surprisingly few people employ these handy robotic chums but they are extremely useful: not only will they stun the enemy, they will destroy shields and most importantly, the buddy drones of the Assault class. Those little buggers are incredibly hard to hit and as one of the challenges is to destroy 200 of the blighters then your friendly Stunner will help out with the hard work.

Beat the spawn campers.

Team Deathmatch games usually quickly swing to one team overwhelming the other and camping outside their base, picking off the enemy as they pour through the limited exits. It’s a problem that has always existed in Killzone but there is a simple solution: select the Scout class with the teleport ability and as soon as you spawn inside the base, teleport. You will end up on the other side of the map, hopefully away from the enemy, so wait until the teleport has recharged (it’s quite quick)  can sneak up behind those dratted campers and pick of four or five before they work out what is going on. When they do and start firing back, teleport out to safety, recharge it as  you creep back to the enemy and repeat the tactic.

If you whole team did this then you could wipe out the enemy spawn campers in a matter of seconds, I’m flummoxed why people continually try and run out of the base exit into a storm of bullets.

Use weapon attachments.

As you progress through the challenges, you will need to amend your load outs. Despite Guerrilla claiming everything is unlocked the start there are many attachments and explosives that can only be unlocked by challenges. These new items have to be used to progress through even more challenges, for example the rather tedious “Kill 100 enemy players while using the Flashlight attachment with your weapon.”

Some of the attachments are useful such as the zoomed scopes and mobile mines, while others are useless and actually hinder your game. The laser pointer does not add a nice red laser dot indicating where you are firing, it just gives your gun a massive red laser beam that can be seen from a mile off, thus giving away your location.

Check your profile regularly.

You can do this via the Killzone website and check out which challenges you can target next. For a quick overview check your profile in-game and you will be informed as to which challenge you are near to completing for each class.  You can then use this information to reconfigure your load out and decide the best type of match to achieve your goal.

Don’t be hasty to respawn.

If you have launched a Stun Drone or Air Support Drone, they will continue to fly about whilst you bleed out. It’s usually worth lying on the floor for a few seconds to see if they can rack up some kills for you whilst you are safely dead.

Combine your firepower.

Air Drones and Buddy Drones will disappear when you respawn, but turrets, supply boxes and spawn beacons do not, although you cannot have a spawn beacon and a supply box at the same time. What you can do is find a decent place to drop a turret, and then when you respawn, activate an Air Drone, giving you triple the firepower of your standard soldier. Spend some time finding the best places to drop turrets (look for elevated positions) and using this technique you can cut down swarms of enemies in a hail of bullets.

Don’t be afraid to quit.

You should be able to tell within a matter of minutes if your team are playing together or just looking out for themselves. If it’s the latter, quit and find a different game, it is pointless trying to achieve an objective when the rest of your team are playing snipers and not helping out.

Don’t forget you can join the newly-formed TSA Killzone Shadow Fall clan and join us shooting people in the face and running about like loons.