About This GuideThis guide is for the cunning, the captain that seeks not only to destroy their enemy, but do so in a way the provides the least risk to their ship and crew. This guide is about stealth, ambush, and more. It is not necessarily only for a Squid pilot, but it has the squid mindset at heart. Please enjoy.
The Brief VersionThe idea is use stealth and misdirection to sneak upon your enemy and destroy them before they have a chance to respond. How this is done varies greatly upon the map, the players, and the ships involved. Highly coordinated teams are extremely difficult to sneak up on, especially if they know the map. However, this knowledge can be used against them.
In general you will need to use terrain, cloud cover, and your enemies blind spots to approach. The most important factor is the vertical distance. Many ships (and players) have a harder time looking up or down, as opposed to straight off into the horizon. The further you are from their ship, the easier it is to see you, which is why you need to use terrain and other cover to approach as close as possible. The best method is to use your ally as a distraction. If they have something to look at, or at least somewhere to look, they're less likely to spot you.
Once the distance has been closed, commence the ambush. Strike hard and fast, hitting them in their blindspot. Some ships are easier than others. Very often you'll be initiating solo, so you'll have to either run away fast, or hold out for your ally if things don't happen perfectly (they almost never do).
The Rules of SquidsassinationAs an assassin, there are a number of rules to follow. These mostly involve common sense things like communicating with your team, working with your team, and to only use your power for good; although that last one is usually skipped over to save time.
As for the real rules, they are as follows:
-Know your ship
-Know the enemy
-Know the area
Know your shipKnowing your ship is the most important thing. Before knowing your enemy and knowing the area, you have to know yourself. What is your ship capable of? Did you pick something fast and agile? Something slow? Does it turn well? Rise and descend? Depending on how your ship handles (and what weapons your brought) will depend upon your approach and engagement of the enemy.
For the purpose of stealth, you usually want something that's a bit speedy and not all that noticeable. A galleon for instance, is incredibly slow and very difficult to hide. While a squid is a lot more nimble and less obtrusive.
Ship Stats| Ship | Armor | Health | Speed (m/s) | Acceleration (m/s2) | Turn Speed (degrees/s) | Turn Accel. (degrees/s2) | Vertical Speed (m/s) | Vertical Accel. (m/s2) | Mass (tonnes) |
| Goldfish | 400 | 1100 | 40.11 | 3.5 | 13.99 | 7.99 | 16.99 | 3.25 | 150 |
| Junker | 700 | 500 | 26.01 | 4.3 | 16.18 | 15.24 | 17.06 | 3.00 | 125 |
| Squid | 230 | 850 | 47.00 | 5.50 | 18.95 | 20.00 | 17.00 | 4.00 | 115 |
| Pyramidion | 650 | 700 | 32.00 | 2.50 | 11.00 | 6.25 | 16.97 | 2.75 | 200 |
| Galleon | 800 | 1400 | 30.02 | 2.10 | 8.02 | 5.06 | 17.01 | 2.25 | 320 |
| Spire | 400 | 750 | 25.99 | 3.00 | 11.99 | 15.02 | 17.00 | 3.75 | 150 |
| Mobula | 600 | 700 | 28.00 | 4.25 | 14.02 | 3.5 | 17.01 | 7.5 | 120 |
In the table above, colors relate to relative places in the categories. The best get green, followed by blue for next best; red being the worst in that category, and orange being right above the worst.
Knowing how your ship handles, as well as it's profile (shape/size) can help you determine how you're going to plan your approach. A squid or spire can fit through a lot of narrow spaces where ships like the mobula would get stuck.
Pilot ToolsAlong with your ship, you need to decide what piloting tools to bring. It is recommended to bring mobility items over utility items. Sudden bursts of speed, rapid rising or descent can make a huge difference; as opposed to bumpers or the range finder. Tar isn't a bad option, but while it obscures the enemy vision, it also gives a very clear indication of where you are or have been.
When picking items, you also have to decide whether to maximize the strengths of your ship, or compensate for weaknesses. A goldfish or pyra may want to bring a phoenix claw to make up for sub-par turning, where a squid could leave that item at home; or even bring it for light speed rotations.
Personally I recommend a kerosene or moonshine along with both the hydrogen and chute vent; unless you need the phoenix claw, in which case leave the chute vent behind. A lot of ships and weapons have harder time rising and aiming upwards than shooting downwards.
Know your enemyOnce you know yourself, you have to know your enemy. Pay attention to the ship they bring and the weapons they have on them. Some ships are easier to approach than others, but that won't help you much if run into one of their mines or find out that sniping ship has close range alternatives.
Difficult ships to approach are the Junker and Squid, where easier ships to approach at the Goldfish, Spire, and Mobula. Galleons and Pyramidions are neither easy or difficult.
The Squid is hard to approach due to the lack of obstructions to view that most other ships have. They often have the engineers running all about the ship who will notice an approaching ship. The Junker has a similar issue, with lots of open unobstructed view; and more importantly weapons all around, along with the fast turning.
The Goldfish, Spire, and Mobula tend to have a weakness near the rear of the ship, as most of the crew is focused on facing forward or off to the sides. The Goldfish less so than the others, since the engineers will still be moving about and keeping their eyes open. While on a mobula they're almost always stationed by the front guns.
For the Pyra, the gunners are often forward facing, and the back engines and balloon make it difficult to keep an eye behind the ship, but the lower deck engineer often keeps an eye to the sides and behind. The galleon has the pilot looking forward and off to the sides, while the crew have an easier time looking all over.
Always attempt to approach a ship from their 'blind side', which is both where they have no/few guns and can't see you. This depends on the ship and their loadout. For instance, if a galleon has a lumberjack/flak side and a hwacha/carronade side, you can feel fairly safe at getting very close to the long range side, as the arming times will prevent much of the damage from affecting you.
Be aware that it's ok to change your ship choice based upon what your enemy brings. It may not be smart to try to sneak up on a junker with a squid, since you'll never be able to avoid their guns, but a pyra or goldfish might be able to take it out without as much incident.
The final part of knowing your enemy is actually knowing them. You want to keep track of their location, as well as knowing how they tend to play. This may be more difficult in random matches, but you can usually figure it out after the first engagement or two. A lot of structured teams often play the same way from match to match, making it easier to figure out how to approach them.
Know the areaThis is my favorite section of the guide. Knowing your ship and the enemy is all well and good, but you still have to be able to reach them. As per this guide, you need to do so while being totally undetected, and that's my specialty. The basics is using the clouds and terrain to your advantage, and a lot of it takes experience and practice. However, this guide will provide some places to start.
Canyon AmbushThis is one of the best maps to start practicing on. It provides some of the most cover with clouds as well as terrain. It's not as complicated as Paritan so you'll have an easier time flying and predicting your enemies movement. As you spawn in the map (in any map really) you'll generally be facing where your enemy spawned. On this map, both teams often group up and advance straight down the middle. This is where you get to disappoint them. Instead of barreling straight ahead, choose to shoot either left or right into the clouds and around the canyon. Assuming the enemy heads straight, you should easily be able to slip up behind them. Never try to fly out in the open. Keep aware of the different elevations in the terrain as well.
Instead of hiding in the clouds and flying around the cliffs, you can hide behind hills near the bottom of the map. For instance, near the blue side there's a massive drop off right near the entrance of the canyons. Hiding down under that can let the enemy pass up above you completely unaware.
One thing to note is where the clouds are. There's a lot of stationary clouds on this map, but they're floating roughly in the middle between the sky and ground, leaving open space below and above them. A lot of enemies like to fly either above or below, and some right inside the clouds. Try to keep track of where they are in relation to the cloud wall.
Paritan RumbleOne of my personal favorites. This map was made for the ninja. Lots of structures and clouds all obscuring the view. However, this also provides lots of hazards for even the best pilots to run into. Depending on your enemy, they may be flying high or low. Flying high lets you avoid a lot of the structures, but you're easily spotted. Flying low can often keep you covered, but they expect you down there. I recommend flying around near the edge of the map. The closer you are to the center, the easier you are to spot, while near the outskirts is a lot of interesting and deep terrain to slip between. Try not to travel at full speed, and communicate with your crew so you don't run into something.
All teams are highly on the lookout in this map, making it harder to remain totally unspotted. But if you proceed with care and use the buildings, clouds, and narrow passages, you can often get the jump on your enemy.
Duel at DawnLots of clouds and terrain, but it's more deceptive than you think. A lot of these won't really hide your ship, and only give you the illusion of being hidden. This map, like the previous ones, keep crews on high alert, as you could be anywhere. Knowing the enemy teams spawn location helps, and since teams don't have an immediate view of each other, you can often drop down and high tail it to some better terrain to hide behind. There's a very large structure in the SE that can be passed around, although it might take some fancy flying. If you're going to be low on this map, you should be very very low, essentially scraping the bottom as you hide behind the smallest of scrap. Your enemy will be expecting you behind the bigger objects.
FjordsNow things are getting more difficult. This map starts both teams with a plain view of each other, but also comes with a lot of subtle options players often neglect. The most obvious is the peaks right between the two teams. It's possible to fly under them and use the clouds or ship structure (depending on your direction) for cover as you approach from below. However, it's very easy to spot someone going for such a maneuver if they're not distracted. It's much easier to go from East to West than the other way.
The next path is the South side, where you can use the peaks and clouds to hide your route as you slip behind the mountain and arrive into more clouds where you can either rush out, or slip behind them through more clouds and behind more peaks (depends on location an which way you're heading). To reach that path from the East, try to travel high to get into the clouds. Going low will get your spotted easily. From the West you can either fly into the clouds behind you, or scrape up along the side of the mountain until you slip behind the peaks.
The less known path is actually along the North side. It looks completely open except for that long stretch of clouds. Most players doing fly that high for fear of being spotted, but the clouds actually provide really good and unexpected cover. You can then take this from East or West, again using clouds or terrain at the far side for extra cover.
Battle on the DunesThis is by far my favorite ninja map. You might be saying there's absolutely no way to get a squidsassin on this map, and that's exactly what I want you to think. Well, until now sadly. The benefit of this map is that it's so incredibly open, but also highly dynamic. Enemies will almost never expect you. It really helps with the moving clouds and sandstorms.
At the start of the map, pay attention to the cover. The clouds and storms will be moving west to east. If you're spotted at the start, start moving towards your enemy, or in any other direction until you're covered in a storm. If you can make it to the west behind the large structures due to a long chain of clouds and dust, do it. However, this is not your final stop. You will then continue to move with and behind the clouds, approaching your enemies ever so slowly. Very little do they expect you to be moving with the clouds, and you can arrive right next to them, as they all continue staring straight ahead, expecting you to come barreling out of the clouds in front of them.
If you can't make it west, go east. Follow the clouds and don't overshoot or lag behind them. Duck behind cover, and keep using the clouds to move. This can be a little slow and take time, but this level of stealth can be a game changer. You always want to keep an eye on your enemy. If you notice them getting swallowed by a dust storm, feel free to move openly, as their vision is completely gone. You generally want to hang low, near the bottom of the desert floor when there's not as many clouds, or when doing your final approach.
Also be aware of the hills and valleys. There's some surprising elevation differences you can take advantage of for cover.
A Few Final NotesOnce the approach is finished, you have to strike hard and fast. This is why a stealth ship needs to have an amazing crew. You shoot too soon, or miss a lot, and everything falls apart.
Make sure your communicate with your ally ship. This is something I often forget, and it comes back to bite me almost immediately. While I'm off being sneaky, my ally is being rushed by both enemies, or barreling straight at them. Two stealthy ships often don't work as well. If possible, you want your ally to act as bait and scout, keeping an eye on them, as well as giving them something to look at. As it's most common for ships to travel together, they often don't expect you to ambush them alone; easily scoring your a kill. While the enemy tries to react, your ally should already have been pushing in to help mop up the remaining ship. Rinse and repeat.
Never try do the same thing too often. You don't want to become predictable. If you keep on trying to slip up behind them from above, they're going to expect that, change it up so they're never sure where you're going to strike.
Sometimes it can help to change roles with your ally ship. Be the assassin the first couple kills, let the enemy know you're the sneaky one. Then 'accidentally' let them see you slipping around a cloud or structure. If your last few attempts were well executed, all of their attention should be on you, letting your ally do the sneaking and ambushing.
If you can't always remain hidden, use lots of misdirection and cunning. Like above, having your ally out and visible helps keep their attention on them. If you get spotted, make sure you appear to be going a certain route or predictable path. When you lose the spot, change directions. This works very well on dunes with the moving sand and clouds.
And again, make sure you communicate with your team. You don't want them trying to follow you and giving you away anymore than you want them getting rushed by the enemies.
((I'll try to get some videos up of some matches like this in action. ))
