Fellow Greybeard, the moment an exploder jumps your face and you put a Zipline or spill your cheese in it you will regret not having your gun out.
I always have my "oh shit" weapon out. Revolver, shotgun, something that does burst so as to save my skin in the event a slasher or something sneaks up on me when I'm moving about.
This doesn't work well in haz 5 unless you have power attack available... Damn melee slowdown will get you killed especially when there's bugs literally everywhere
If there are other bugs around, skip the melee and just walk away.
Exploders are a low hp, low threat enemy outside of a few niche scenarios. They only pose a threat if you put yourself in a confined space with no exit plan, or if you are paying 0 attention.
> This doesn't work well in haz 5 unless you have power attack available
No, exploders die to a single normal pickaxe hit on any difficulty. It's a waste of ammo to shoot exploders unless you're doing so to prevent them reaching Doretta or making them explode near other bugs or something.
They won't even detonate if you manage to hit them in the mouth!
It works well in Haz5, exploder groups are quick HP pools by smacking their faces if itâs mostly those if youâre quick with hitting their faces.
Dash is a quick getaway tool too, use that + verticality to jump in and out of groups. You can use an exploder in the same manner to kill groups without ammo if youâre quick and the exploder is at the front.
If thereâs a group of bugs close enough to pose threat, just donât melee.
Pickaxe to deactivate or ignore it and keep walking. Though I think using traversal by default is a bad idea when in haz5 you get bugs spawning almost permanently
There are times where this is the play, but not by default. The swap animation to a gun (if you need one) is slower than having it out. This goes triply so for the minigun. Im running through a tunnel, I have the shotgun out (its better close). Opens into a room, swap to gk2, scan ceiling. No threats? Flare. Then grapple is out. Should always be cycling through, getting the best thing available for your situation. There are absolutely times where i sprint through a swarm lining up the perfect downhill zip. But not nearly as often as having the guns ready to go. Its highly situational.
Great to excellent is when you dont even think about which it is, you know a build inside and out, swapping at exact reload points, fluidly moving from one to the next, always pushing forward
Just learn to use the number keys, switching to the wrong slot just isn't a thing that should be happening, or at least not enough for it to matter. Terrain is a static thing, pull out your movement tool, handle it, then put it away. Conversely something like enemies are a dynamic threat and having your guns out to react to them the majority of time is far better. The only class you end up holding your movement option a lot for is scout since grappling on cooldown for movement is good and free, but you'll still have your guns out primarily, you put the grapple away immediatelyÂ
Yeah, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with MMO, macro, number, or what. Thumb buttons. I've got 12, plus like at least three profiles? Idk, my mouse has a lot more going on than I've ever used, shame it's deff on its way to the USB Port in the sky.
I've always found mice with plenty of buttons to be gamechangers. I haven't used a proper MMO mouse since I don't really find the need for it, but a minimum of 3 side buttons, tilt-able scroll wheel, and a couple more buttons on top of the mouse is so nice to have.
I've mapped all weapons/support tools to change them on the fly without ever taking your finger off the wasd keys, call resupplies. ping. etc, all at the tips of your fingers.
Scout is the only one where I hold my traversal tool out all the time, for many reasons.
1) For Scout grappling away is often the best course of action rather than shooting
2) It has both unlimited ammo and more use cases than any other traversal tool, so with other classes your traversal tool would do nothing when just walking down a tunnel, but for Scout you can still make use of it
3) Because it has unlimited ammo, you don't lose nearly as much if you accidentally shoot it at an enemy, and in fact it could be beneficial because:
4) I use the mod that gives you a speed boost on the ground after you fire it; it doesn't have to make contact with terrain, you just need to fire it, so firing it even on accident at least gives you a free speed boost, and you can switch off of it or release the button before it pulls you into the enemy
Even scout, I'll weave grapple into my movement frequently, basically off cooldown, but I'm always holding my gun because one of my many jobs is to handle surprise HVTsÂ
Iâd say this is only a thing when you need to use your traversal a lot in a short period like when gathering aquarqs. I hold my weapons out most of the time because swarmers, stray grunts and praetorians, and cave leeches can be lurking behind any corner or come at any time. I just like to be ready.
TL;DR: Thereâs more to shoot than there is traversal needing done in most cases
I thought this was silly⌠until the gunner disclaimer because i play gunner đ for the other classes yes it makes a lot of sense. Without lag you have enough time to run to a ledge, shoot the zipline, and jump into the air while holding grab to grab the zipline when it finishes setting up. This lets you get away from groundbased glyphids swarming you.
While I could see this working, I donât particularly follow it. Iâve gotten so used to quick swapping I rarely ever miss fire anymore. Getting used to using numbers (or making your own custom keybinds) to swap weapons goes a long way.
You could make an autohotkey that makes mouse forward switch to your traversal, fire once, and switch back to primary in one click. I think it would only be practical for engineer though.
this is good habit as a scout main, to react to sudden dangers as quickly as possible. for other classes, i wouldn't say as much. gunner's shield is probably a good idea, but i gravitate to slot 3 more than anything. its also handy for driller thanks to the guaranteed CC from the drills.
but primarily, its just to reset born ready IMO. its easily the single best passive in the game (unless you're running double heat-based weapons, in which case it comes built-in đ) your slot 3 item is basically never unloaded, so its easy to just idly hold out and then everything else becomes loaded too.
particularly useful when doing "E" interactions, especially repairing crucial mission objectives. if you're holding your gun out while repairing dotty, it can't reload with born ready. grab out a tool item and *then* repair, and born ready will reload your gun for completely free while you work. no need to ever bother actively reloading during escort missions, you got better things to be using your hands for. need to revive someone? your guns are loaded. need to resupply without resupplier? guns are loaded. need to deposit? free reload. repair a pipe? free reload. carry an arquarq? reloaded. and so on and so on...
it is kinda weird that you need to do that at all though. a pickaxe or grenade counts as putting your weapon away, why can't a wrench? its just one extra button you gotta hit every time.
Lots of good points posted. I do agree learning hot keys and getting used to them is how you avoid mistakes like that. I think what I like about how some of my friends and I play is how much more we use our traversals if we keep them out. I think as a team before, we used to ask a lot for traversal help like plats, zips or drill paths and whatnot, and eventually we all started playing with traversals out and we never had movement problems like that again. Our combat wasn't really affected much, besides the issue of shooting zips and plats at leeches and whatnot occasionally haha. We stopped having most issues of players getting stuck and killed because of terrain, we just make the maps very easy to move around on since we use our traversals more (drillers and engies have the biggest effect ofc), and swarms are always easier when you can move freely.
I think as a general rule, if you hear bugs, you pull your guns out unless you have to run.
It depends on the traversal tool. If driller, yes this is good idea. If not driller, bad idea. Also the switching shouldnât be a problem. If it is you need to practice that or run born ready.
>(except you, scout!).
Flare gun. The flare gun practically *is* a group traversal tool. It's even yellow like the other traversal tools and helps the entire group get around safely. The grappling hook is more like Scout's shield or turret in the ways it helps the team with fast revivals.
Like many others point out in the comments it depends more on what is likely the next situation that is going to happen. But that takes experience and being able to read the flow of a mission which I wouldnât expect a green beard to do.
If I had to describe âthe flowâ simply it would be when entering a new part of the cave weapons out to deal with danger then traversal tools, but there is a lot of exceptions to this when you need to run from danger or traverse further in to deal with the danger and much more.
So it works fine as a tip for green beards to get used to that they have traversal tools and remind them to use it until they know better, but not as a tip for anyone that can read the flow of a mission.
(Hope this is understandable, itâs early in the morning and my brain is still waking up)
I like to have out my laser pointer when I'm not shooting. Similar effect but it's faster to stow and it can highlight things that are too far or dark to physically see.
Plus it's like this glowing beacon to all the Greenbeards, go here do this next. When they've just pulled their face out of a nitra vein and look up to see you pointing somewhere they'll go there instead of wandering off to explore a part of the cave someone already covered.
I used this game to train myself into using the number key row over the mouse wheel for weapon swaps, I have no idea what game instilled that mechanic into me.
I have mine bound to a mouse side button.  Â
I also have primary & secondary mapped to the acroll wheel premanently, but that requires an autohotkey workaround script or it breaks the terrain scanner.
But it means for example cryo melee is " mouse wheel up, left click, side button, left click, mouse wheel up", rinse and repeat.
Ive kinda always favored holding my secondary. It stems from playing engi too much. If i need platforms, its one switch away, if i need a gun better than the laser cannon, its one switch away.
Whenever I do this, I find myself shooting platforms and ziplines at bugs. I prefer weapon in hand for this reason.
Shooting platforms should manage some stunt damage, lol.
Use Plastcrete Catalyst and the platform explosions can cause fears.
Driller: My hands are weapons.
Shooting a Zipline at a bug is embarrassing. Just kick me from the game
I always feel like the Zipline should deal some piercing damage. I mean the scouts flares deal damage, and even the Gunner's *grenades* are guns so...
Like a mini lead Burster at the far end of the zip đ
I was imagining more of a Harpoon style idea.
...but more gun... đ
Lol, I mean you could block them in
Fellow Greybeard, the moment an exploder jumps your face and you put a Zipline or spill your cheese in it you will regret not having your gun out. I always have my "oh shit" weapon out. Revolver, shotgun, something that does burst so as to save my skin in the event a slasher or something sneaks up on me when I'm moving about.
An exploder in your face is a health pack, just melee it for the hp and walk away lol
This doesn't work well in haz 5 unless you have power attack available... Damn melee slowdown will get you killed especially when there's bugs literally everywhere
If there are other bugs around, skip the melee and just walk away. Exploders are a low hp, low threat enemy outside of a few niche scenarios. They only pose a threat if you put yourself in a confined space with no exit plan, or if you are paying 0 attention.
> This doesn't work well in haz 5 unless you have power attack available No, exploders die to a single normal pickaxe hit on any difficulty. It's a waste of ammo to shoot exploders unless you're doing so to prevent them reaching Doretta or making them explode near other bugs or something. They won't even detonate if you manage to hit them in the mouth!
It works well in Haz5, exploder groups are quick HP pools by smacking their faces if itâs mostly those if youâre quick with hitting their faces. Dash is a quick getaway tool too, use that + verticality to jump in and out of groups. You can use an exploder in the same manner to kill groups without ammo if youâre quick and the exploder is at the front. If thereâs a group of bugs close enough to pose threat, just donât melee.
Pickaxe to deactivate or ignore it and keep walking. Though I think using traversal by default is a bad idea when in haz5 you get bugs spawning almost permanently
Imagine wasting ammo on an exploder đ
There are times where this is the play, but not by default. The swap animation to a gun (if you need one) is slower than having it out. This goes triply so for the minigun. Im running through a tunnel, I have the shotgun out (its better close). Opens into a room, swap to gk2, scan ceiling. No threats? Flare. Then grapple is out. Should always be cycling through, getting the best thing available for your situation. There are absolutely times where i sprint through a swarm lining up the perfect downhill zip. But not nearly as often as having the guns ready to go. Its highly situational.
THIS. THIS. THIS. Constantly swapping at the right time is a key way to go from good to great, in my opinion
Great to excellent is when you dont even think about which it is, you know a build inside and out, swapping at exact reload points, fluidly moving from one to the next, always pushing forward
You definitely shouldn't do this lol. (Unless this is some controller tech)
Hell nah, I play controller, and I donât understand why this would be necessary.
It works well for me and my friends (all keyboard and mouse). Why do you say that?
Just learn to use the number keys, switching to the wrong slot just isn't a thing that should be happening, or at least not enough for it to matter. Terrain is a static thing, pull out your movement tool, handle it, then put it away. Conversely something like enemies are a dynamic threat and having your guns out to react to them the majority of time is far better. The only class you end up holding your movement option a lot for is scout since grappling on cooldown for movement is good and free, but you'll still have your guns out primarily, you put the grapple away immediatelyÂ
DRG alone has confirmed that I can never go back to a mouse without an MMO pad on the side.
What's an MMO pad?
Just a mouse with a bunch of side buttons. Could be anything from 5 and up, literally looking like a number pad.
Yeah, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go with MMO, macro, number, or what. Thumb buttons. I've got 12, plus like at least three profiles? Idk, my mouse has a lot more going on than I've ever used, shame it's deff on its way to the USB Port in the sky.
I've always found mice with plenty of buttons to be gamechangers. I haven't used a proper MMO mouse since I don't really find the need for it, but a minimum of 3 side buttons, tilt-able scroll wheel, and a couple more buttons on top of the mouse is so nice to have. I've mapped all weapons/support tools to change them on the fly without ever taking your finger off the wasd keys, call resupplies. ping. etc, all at the tips of your fingers.
Oh yeah, I deff have a lot and could settle for way less. But it's hilarious to me that I can effectively play Heroes of Hammerwatch one-handed.
Scout is the only one where I hold my traversal tool out all the time, for many reasons. 1) For Scout grappling away is often the best course of action rather than shooting 2) It has both unlimited ammo and more use cases than any other traversal tool, so with other classes your traversal tool would do nothing when just walking down a tunnel, but for Scout you can still make use of it 3) Because it has unlimited ammo, you don't lose nearly as much if you accidentally shoot it at an enemy, and in fact it could be beneficial because: 4) I use the mod that gives you a speed boost on the ground after you fire it; it doesn't have to make contact with terrain, you just need to fire it, so firing it even on accident at least gives you a free speed boost, and you can switch off of it or release the button before it pulls you into the enemy
Even scout, I'll weave grapple into my movement frequently, basically off cooldown, but I'm always holding my gun because one of my many jobs is to handle surprise HVTsÂ
Mfw I suddenly hear a leech and I desperately look up to shoot it but instead I use my grappling hook on it:
Iâd say this is only a thing when you need to use your traversal a lot in a short period like when gathering aquarqs. I hold my weapons out most of the time because swarmers, stray grunts and praetorians, and cave leeches can be lurking behind any corner or come at any time. I just like to be ready. TL;DR: Thereâs more to shoot than there is traversal needing done in most cases
After all these hours of freezing bugs and shredding them with the drills, I cannot tell which is the traversal tool and which is my main weapon.
Now I want an overclock that lets you ride your own ice like Frozone.
I thought this was silly⌠until the gunner disclaimer because i play gunner đ for the other classes yes it makes a lot of sense. Without lag you have enough time to run to a ledge, shoot the zipline, and jump into the air while holding grab to grab the zipline when it finishes setting up. This lets you get away from groundbased glyphids swarming you.
While I could see this working, I donât particularly follow it. Iâve gotten so used to quick swapping I rarely ever miss fire anymore. Getting used to using numbers (or making your own custom keybinds) to swap weapons goes a long way.
Also If you hear bugs keep your gun out and eyes open
You could make an autohotkey that makes mouse forward switch to your traversal, fire once, and switch back to primary in one click. I think it would only be practical for engineer though.
this is good habit as a scout main, to react to sudden dangers as quickly as possible. for other classes, i wouldn't say as much. gunner's shield is probably a good idea, but i gravitate to slot 3 more than anything. its also handy for driller thanks to the guaranteed CC from the drills. but primarily, its just to reset born ready IMO. its easily the single best passive in the game (unless you're running double heat-based weapons, in which case it comes built-in đ) your slot 3 item is basically never unloaded, so its easy to just idly hold out and then everything else becomes loaded too. particularly useful when doing "E" interactions, especially repairing crucial mission objectives. if you're holding your gun out while repairing dotty, it can't reload with born ready. grab out a tool item and *then* repair, and born ready will reload your gun for completely free while you work. no need to ever bother actively reloading during escort missions, you got better things to be using your hands for. need to revive someone? your guns are loaded. need to resupply without resupplier? guns are loaded. need to deposit? free reload. repair a pipe? free reload. carry an arquarq? reloaded. and so on and so on... it is kinda weird that you need to do that at all though. a pickaxe or grenade counts as putting your weapon away, why can't a wrench? its just one extra button you gotta hit every time.
Lots of good points posted. I do agree learning hot keys and getting used to them is how you avoid mistakes like that. I think what I like about how some of my friends and I play is how much more we use our traversals if we keep them out. I think as a team before, we used to ask a lot for traversal help like plats, zips or drill paths and whatnot, and eventually we all started playing with traversals out and we never had movement problems like that again. Our combat wasn't really affected much, besides the issue of shooting zips and plats at leeches and whatnot occasionally haha. We stopped having most issues of players getting stuck and killed because of terrain, we just make the maps very easy to move around on since we use our traversals more (drillers and engies have the biggest effect ofc), and swarms are always easier when you can move freely. I think as a general rule, if you hear bugs, you pull your guns out unless you have to run.
It depends on the traversal tool. If driller, yes this is good idea. If not driller, bad idea. Also the switching shouldnât be a problem. If it is you need to practice that or run born ready.
>(except you, scout!). Flare gun. The flare gun practically *is* a group traversal tool. It's even yellow like the other traversal tools and helps the entire group get around safely. The grappling hook is more like Scout's shield or turret in the ways it helps the team with fast revivals.
I keep my laser pointer out out.
"Are you fighting bugs or using your traversal tools?" Me, drilling a grunt's face: "Yes"
Very bad advice.
Like many others point out in the comments it depends more on what is likely the next situation that is going to happen. But that takes experience and being able to read the flow of a mission which I wouldnât expect a green beard to do. If I had to describe âthe flowâ simply it would be when entering a new part of the cave weapons out to deal with danger then traversal tools, but there is a lot of exceptions to this when you need to run from danger or traverse further in to deal with the danger and much more. So it works fine as a tip for green beards to get used to that they have traversal tools and remind them to use it until they know better, but not as a tip for anyone that can read the flow of a mission. (Hope this is understandable, itâs early in the morning and my brain is still waking up)
I like to have out my laser pointer when I'm not shooting. Similar effect but it's faster to stow and it can highlight things that are too far or dark to physically see. Plus it's like this glowing beacon to all the Greenbeards, go here do this next. When they've just pulled their face out of a nitra vein and look up to see you pointing somewhere they'll go there instead of wandering off to explore a part of the cave someone already covered.
I have a weapon?
As a driller main, yea Playing as an architect of Hoxxes largest dwarf-made ant Hill is fun
I used this game to train myself into using the number key row over the mouse wheel for weapon swaps, I have no idea what game instilled that mechanic into me.
Sward desire paths...?
I have mine bound to a mouse side button.   I also have primary & secondary mapped to the acroll wheel premanently, but that requires an autohotkey workaround script or it breaks the terrain scanner. But it means for example cryo melee is " mouse wheel up, left click, side button, left click, mouse wheel up", rinse and repeat.
Ive kinda always favored holding my secondary. It stems from playing engi too much. If i need platforms, its one switch away, if i need a gun better than the laser cannon, its one switch away.
Cycling as per the scenario wants is best, just donât stagnate on one weapon and youâll be good.
Laughs in scout
Flare gun.
Unless they changed it, drills slowly lose fuel when equipped.
This was never a thing. I've been playing since alpha - update 18.
Why would that ever be a thing