[Reiki]

Re: S4 Skills - Version 2

Strategy Guide: Tunnel

Summary
Hello everyone and welcome to another week of S4 Skills. I'm Minoma/Reiki.Kito and I'd like to serve up a new guide for you on the ever popular default map, Tunnel. This map is unlike any other touchdown map at all. Its large size and design make it very difficult for making a goal and hard to get around the defense of players. Today, I'll teach you tips and tricks on how to use the map to your advantage.

Description:
The map is like a giant stadium, but in all actuality, it's a humongous train station. On either side, the goal post is in a narrow tunnel that can, for the most part, fit only two people side by side.  Each side starts at a cliffside high on the either end which is also protected by the laser gate. The next floor is the only safe way for opponent's to get into the tunnel. You step out down the platform where the floor is slanted until you see a black wall. Past that wall the path splits three ways. You can go forward towards where the ball is or go to the left or right which goes up onto a platform path or up a steep hill. The platform path has a tall wall on either side which is, like the black wall in your base, indestructible. Each side is exactly the same. If you go forward, you can also turn left or right to go into the little pathways which wind around the goal. At the very top is a gameplay screen that shows playbacks of you playing.

Symmetry at its best!
So now that you know what everything looks like, lets begin. Remember, this map is symmetrical right down to the ends to the Pumpbee pad in the middle. That means that there's probably the same things on the other side. Use that to your advantage. Know how long it'll take to get for a ball runner to get from either side. Work with your team to set up choke positions so you make it very hard for them to get to your goal.

Teamwork is key!
I know most people know this, but S4 is a team game. There's no solo. Beating up on one guy so that they aren't in the ballrunner's way is also part of teamwork, but the best teams have a plan. There are many things you can do to converse with each other about. For one, priority kills. Tunnel is a long map and thus requires you to go some of the most diabolic defenses ever imagined (Try going through TWO block walls to get to the goal while they respawn). They respawn right in front of the goal post so making a goal is hard. You have to work with your team to make that goal and here are some tips.

  A). Don't go it alone. It's good to push the ball into their zone and keep the pressure, but most likely, you won't make a score if you don't have back up. You don't realize how annoying it is to fend off not just a partial 1 or 2 offenders, but 5 and the 6th one is sniping. That can be really painful so keep that in mind.

  B). Know how to defend. When you're in the tunnel, you can fire at people from behind the wall safely if you angle your crosshair right. That allows you to keep people who just run straight forward from pegging you before they get into your endzone. The more people you take down before they pass your base's wall, the safer you'll be. Once like more than 4 people pass that point alive, it's highly likely they'll score.

  C). Prioritize your kills. Killing the ball runner is not the main thing you need to worry about. On average, the only way to win in tunnel is by making that -1- necessary goal which is near impossible or beating them in points. You can attain that by targeting the person that heals your team mates or kill the people that pose a threat. People that use the block skill and are currently blocking the goal become priority number 1. If they're really good block users, you won't be able to jump it. Healers are next in the priority line up as they can hide behind their base walls and heal everyone. That's incredibly annoying. This also keeps pressure on those people not to venture too far away from their team mates and makes it easier to slip into take the prize all together.

  D). Reset the ball or grab the ball and run, be flexible. I can't stress this enough. A good teammate knows when not to be the ball hog. If you're REALLY close to the goal post, get the ball through the laser gate or run like your life depends on it. 9-10, if you get the ball as far into their inzone as possible, you set up for later and later is crucial. Don't be afraid to pick up the ball or changing your plans.

The All-mighty Sniper Positions and Wall Sniping
These are key to long mid-range weapons. The skill known as wall sniping is where you can hide completely along a wall, but be covered from attack. As long as your cursor is read, if you fire, you will hit an opponent. You're locked on. When they fire back, they'll just hit the wall. This is crucial to winning a match. The Z button is also your friend. By pressing it, your perspective changes to a left side view. This allows you to snipe from a position that was unfavorable to you before. Using that, the walls in your base are good sniping positions. Moving forward. The tall platforms leading down the ramp towards the ball, those places are excellent sniping positions as well. If you have wings, you can also fly up to the scoreboard high in the air and fire from there through the little holes (Courtesy of Nitrix for showing me where). You can use the walls right next to the steep hills on either side to avoid snipers. To be more aggressive. The little corners right next to the Pumbee's platform in the middle are good for aggressive sniping. You don't have to use a sniper rifle either. Just fire with any gun and you will be safe.

Block users. How to use it and how to beat it.
Now your team will run into some crazy defense to the goal, and you'll meet some crazy offense trying to make that score. So as a block user, your job is to make it as annoying as humanly possible for someone to get into the goal. You want them to waste manpower just trying to get over the goal so you need to know how to set up a block properly.

  A). Jump, wait a second, use block. The aerial block is a useful technique defensive users can do to create choke points too high for people to jump over, but too low for people to crouch under. You do this by jumping. Once you reach your full height and come down, wait a split second before you hit the ground and hit shift. It takes good timing, but you'll create a wall that's just above the ground. Why do you do this? Well, if you put that wall as close to the goal posts starting edge, there'll be no wall jump options. You put it really, really close to the entrance, not in it so they can't use the walls of the tunnel to jump over. That way, they're stopped before they ever get into the tunnel

  B). Know when a block comes down and win to load it back up. It takes a lot of SP to put up a wall, but its good for a bit. However, you need to prioritize your upkeep of the wall as well as getting out there to score some points. It's good to go out and defend or even get aggressive and try to score, but if the opponents are getting really close to your goal, you have to keep up the wall. A wall will disperse after a while. Possibly 20-25 seconds if untouched. That means every 20-25 seconds, you need to go back and prop it up again.

Also, melee weapons are very strong against block. A counter sword combo or a plasma sword's silent dash (right click) into a hard swing (Hard right click) will do serious damage and destroy your block. Also, a full clip from a semi-rifle or two cannonade blasts will destroy your block as well. These are people you need to get rid of for the safety of your defense. You can make them waste bullets by just creating another block before or right after they destroy your other one. This is key because they waste manpower to destroy your wall and it's not worth it if it's unsuccessful.

  C). Hide! Hiding is very important in this game. You want to keep your enemies off guard. What you hide is up to you, but at all the sniper positions, you can place a good sentry gun there as a nasty surprise when people try to get to the goal. Coupled with heavy fire, any ball runner and team mates will die at the hands of a sentry and your counter attack. If you're a block user, this is especially crucial because you are public enemy number 1. They can't win if you're alive, so you need to hide what you're doing and play the poker face. Don't rely on block all the time, especially if you've got the upper hand. Do it when you know they're closing in. Then get away from it so they might chase you. It's either kill the block user, kill the block, or wait and options 1 and 3 are too long (Remember, the spawn point of the enemy/allies are RIGHT above the goal.)

Weapons/Skills that are useful

Shield - This is an incredibly useful skill because you can run in and cause havoc while taking little damage. Your ball runner can hide behind your shield and give you cover while you take out the big fish. Not only is it good for defense, but you can break out of it with a melee attack to get real close without nary a scratch on you. Perfect for anti-sniper gameplay.

Block - The unyielding block is also a useful skill for just stopping the opposition cold. Not much to say but that it helps your game a lot on this map.

Flying - Very good for sniping and abusing the vertical space of the map. You can hide in the air and pick off tons of people until your SP runs out. Best part is the fall won't hurt at all. You'll land and be able to snipe again. Also, if you let shift to deactive it and reactivate it, you fall and lift up again. That makes you a hard target to hit while sniping.

Melee weapons - These are good for the match because wearing any melee weapon increases your running speed. It also makes it easier for you to destroy blocks. These are a must have, any of the available ones. Their particular use is the AOE attack of the Counter Sword or the silent dash attack of the Plasma Sword. When you silent dash, you're virtually invincible for a second. Once the entire motion goes through, your motion can't be stopped even if you technically die. So if you silent dash into a goal, you can't be stopped and thus make the goal in a situation where you would have died and made no goal. Counter Sword stops people from doing that.

Cannonade - Two shots from this will blow up a wall. Not only that, the AOE of the attack can hit people that wall snipe so they get extra loving from this weapon. Where you generally weren't able to hit someone, you now can with this weapon. Totally useful.

Semi-Rifle - Its uses can range from close range combat to long range. It also doubles as a block destroyer. The semi rifle has many good uses in this stage in that it's not a one hit or miss type of gun. You can spray bullets and tick away at someone's life as much as you want (if you have them in your sights).

Sentry Gun - Placed properly, a sentry gun can be incredibly annoying. It counts as an enemy and will rarely miss. It shoots 4 shots then pauses for a second. Each shot deals 10 damage per. This makes them incredibly dangerous if they manage to shoot someone 4-8 times. They're also good to hide behind walls that people will run by or to fend people away from areas. The most impressive part is that it can be the perfect alarm. The weapon, if it attacks someone or is destroyed can tell you just what's going on and where so you're prepared. The shortcomings of this weapon is you only get 3 a respawn and can't prop 2 at the same time.