The Full Newb Guide to Chromehounds

Imshall · Last edited by Imshall on Wed May 30, 2007 5:30 pm; edited 2 times in total

Over the past few days we've had a few new guys join the squad (welcome to you guys) however they have very little idea about what some of us now see as the basics of the game. What I have done with the help of Sam is put together this guide on all things Chromehounds to help our new guys out. This is long but it's everything you'll ever need to get started so let's begin

Contents
- Chromehounds terminology
- Myths and Laws of Chromehounds
- Menus
--- Join/leave/manage squad
--- Mission tag
--- World News and System Settings
- Garage
--- Garage menus
--- Hound Parts
----- Legs
----- Cockpit
----- Generator
----- Heavy Arms
----- Light Arms
----- Assist parts
----- NA Makers
- Hound Build tips and tricks
--- Hound build techniques
----- Protecting your Cockpit - Absorption Armor
----- Protecting your Cockpit - Absorption Armor with a diagonal spacer
----- Protecting your Cockpit - Isba Spacer Trick
--- Weapon Firing modes
----- 3 Cannon Triangle
----- 4 Cannon Column
--- Cannon Builds
----- Isba Column
----- Double Absorption, Quadruple Damage aka Tall Guy Badman
- Useful tips

Chromehounds terminology
Online gaming is a strange and wondrous place, complete with it's own language and code of conduct. Chromehounds is no different. When you first joined The Crusade or another squad you'd probably heard a lot of words like 'gator' 'quad cannon' 'isba trick' and the like. Well here is an explanation of those words and more:

CH: The abbreviation for Chromehounds

RT: The abbreviation for roletype

Soldier: One of the 6 CH roletypes. Soldiers are frontline fighters that dish out the damage.

Scout: One of the 6 CH roletypes. Scouts primary job is to capture COMBAS towers and relay info about the enemy. In the modern CH they also deal with being shock troops and base destroyers

Defender: One of the 6 CH roletypes. The Defender is a more heavily armed and armored version of a Soldier. They soak up the damage then dish it out again! Defenders are normally tasked with defending the base until a base rush tactic has been deemed non-existant, defending the Tactics Commander or defending a key COMBAS tower to ensure a COMBAS win.

Sniper: One of the 6 CH roletypes. The sniper is your rear guard, hyper damaging support Hound. Snipers are one of the most feared, efficient and common roletypes that has spawned many changes in tactics, game play and builds.

Heavy Gunner: One of the 6 CH roletypes. Heavy Gunners aren't a prominent in todays CH however they are used as the heavy artillery and base destroyers of our little game. Depending on the pilot using it the Heavy Gunner can be like using a Swiss army knife or using butter on a hot summers day to fix your car.

Tactics Commander: One of the 6 CH roletypes. The Tactics Commander or TC is the intelligence hub and command center in CH. The TC can use his map to see enemy and friendly Hounds and ACV's. if their is a commander in the squad you'd do well to listen to his orders because he's the man with the intel.

ACV: ACV's are small annoying drones on the battlefield that serve no more purpose than a distraction. Their most annoying quality is giving your position away so when sneaking up on or defending a base make sure you keep an eye on ACV movements.

COMBAS: COMBAS towers are the large structures that generate an NA field that allow you and your team mates to talk and also allows the TC to see enemy hounds. It takes 8 secs to capture a COMBAS tower and they are indestructible so make for excellent cover.

NA Field / Network Area / NA: The Network Area or NA is a field of radio contact produced by NA Makers and COMBAS towers that allow you to communicate with team mates. It also allows the Tactics Commander to see Allied and Enemy Hounds and ACV's

Heavy Arms: A branch of weapons in CH. The heavy weapons produce large amounts of damage and fire power yet make up for it in their large load requirements and recoil. They are explained furthur in this guide

Light Arms: A branch of weapons in CH. The light weapons are the bread and butter of CH. They contain everything from machine guns, assault rifles and bombs to Sniper Cannons, Howitzers and Rocket pods. They are explained furthur in this guide.

Spacers: Spacers are pieces of shaped metal with fixed joints that allow you to move parts into otherwise unavailable positions. They are critical to certain Hound designs such as the Gator and due to their high durability and KE:CE defense double as Armor especially in the Isba spacer trick.

Splash Damage: Splash damage is the term given to the damage caused by exploding Howitzer and Heavy Cannon rounds. When a Howitzer or Heavy Cannon round lands and explodes it causes an outward force in a circle around where the shell impacted. This outward force is strong enough to cause damage to a Hound and is known as Splash Damage. The principle has produced the tactic of aiming for the ground by a Hound to damage them with Splash instead of risking ammo on trying to get a direct hit. It is also the major power and ability the old Double Double builds used to great effect.

Base Rushing: Base rushing is a tactic employed by certain squads which involves charging the enemy base with scouts equipped with machine guns, piles and or bombs to destroy the base before you can kill them all. It is generally considered a cheap tactic and should be avoided.

Base Dialing: Another cheap tactic that involves learning how to hit an enemy base from a specific spot before the enemy has the ability to retaliate. Anyone found base dialing will be removed unless the tactic is being employed against squads that have previously dialed our base.

Base Ranging: A variation of base dialing. Whilst dialers know from the get go what range to fire at and where to fire from base rangers don't. They rely on spotters (mainly scouts though anyone who can see the shots land) to adjust their aim for them so they can hit the required spot. This is a legitimate tactic that is encouraged to be employed in many squads.

Japo's: Slang term for the Japanese players of CH who to quote Neo " learn at school how to play Mech games." Their is nothing more daunting than having to fight a squad full of Japanese Hounds.

Japo Hounds: The slang name given to the Hounds that Japo's use. While their is no specific build (like Gators or Quad Cannons) the Hounds are generally, super fast, highly accurate and very powerful in a slim line package. The most common weapons are Grenades, Assault Rifles, Cannons and Howitzers.

Squad 44 and The Polka dots : The bane of all Humans fighting the CPU. These are two of the most hated squads in the CPU Arsenal. Squad 44 are all in white and pack a nasty Heavy Gunner and Soldier. The Polka dots do what they say on the tin and have some interesting builds all sporting a nice Polka dot camo.

Gator / Gator sniper / Gator Cannon: Gator refers to a style of Hound build where the cockpit is covered by four sniper cannons or cannons with the weapons projected out in front of the Hound.

Quad Cannon Quad Cannon is one of the most common style of Hound seen on the battle field today. The design involves using four cannons positioned in certain ways for maximum effect.

Double Double / DD: The double double or DD is an old Hound build that was made virtually ineffective after CH was patched. The basic idea was two heavy double download cannons placed either side of a strong cockpit on top of RJ-401 legs. It allowed for massive amounts of damage normally outputted by Heavy Gunners on relatively fast movement.

Triple Double / Triple D: The cousin to the DD. The triple double is only accomplishable on multi-ped legs and uses three of the heavy double cannons seen on the DD. It has amazing fire power capabilities and is starting to see use again by a few users. (Never ask me to make one, last time I tried I got it to move at 17 speed. It took me nearly 5 mins to move 1 grid on the map Razz

)

Drinking Bird / DB: The Drinking Bird or DB is a style of Quad Cannon that creates a Hound that looks like a bird with a long beak that is about to drink.

Isba / Arm spacer trick: A way of covering your cockpit from damage. This is explained furthur in the guide.

Chicken Legs: Slang term that refers to the Naqa and Jamal Sal Kar inverse legs. The name is given because they look like chicken legs.

Super Weapon: The Super Weapons or Super Hounds are Hounds that only appear after certain conditions are met. You can read more about this in another thread by Gorfinkle in the forum.

Rafzakael: Rafzakael is a fictional military organization in CH that deals in arms trade between nations. They produce their own set of low weight parts based off of parts you can buy from the 3 nation stores. The parts are only available from playing the single player campaign. Their are a few nice parts however many of them are just low weight, low energy consuming versions or parts you can buy that have longer reload times, lower damage or lower ammo than standard parts.

The Pink Warrior: While not exactly an actual CH term it is one you may here in The Crusade. The Pink Warrior is one of our members, HaeZen to be exact. The self proclaimed Pink Warrior is a formidable warrior of Gay and you can always tell him by his Black with pink heart camo and infamous Pink Warrior symbol given to only a few Disciples of the Pink.

Myths and Laws of Chromehounds
- Once a part has been destroyed all furthur damage caused to that part is transfered straight to the cockpit no matter how many parts stand between it and the cockpit
- Durability only counts when your being hit
- Cooling systems don't stop Heat Seekers
- Adding more than 1 Rotor Craft to a Hound will not increase the Hover time
- You can't fly
- Every Hound has a weakness
- You can't fire your guns underwater
- Oil barrels do hurt when they explode. You don't get credit for destroying a Hound by killing it with exploding oil tankers (well no credit from the game, credit from squad mates is a different matter)
- When time is up on a game the winner is decided on who has the most COMBAS towers at the end not who has the most living players.
- Their are 3 ways to win War missions. Most COMBAS towers, Base destruction and destroying all enemy Hounds. Destroying Hounds is the most difficult
- Anyone who sends you hate mail because you dropped their base or held more COMBAS towers is an idiot. You should politely reply in turn that their are 3 ways to win, you weren't going to fight on their terms and so decided to win by COMBAS's or Base destruction. Tell them that if they don't like it go play a different game. If they persist with the hate mail then you tried to be nice so flame away Very Happy

- Anyone who complains that your a "noob" for dropping their base when they have obviously left it undefended deserves to have it destroyed and this fact pointed out to them.
- My name is pronounced 'im-shall ('im as in the bad english pronunciation for 'him') not Ish-mal. Look at the letters closely (Imshall) the 'm' comes before the 'sh' sound. If I wanted to be Ishmall, I'd spell it like that!

Menus
The menus in CH can seem quite daunting at first however once you get your head around them their not that bad. I'll start with the main menu then go along the options that the game gives you.

This is the Lobby, it's the main menu that you see when you enter the squad lobby. From here you can access:
- Join/leave/manage squad
- Garage
- Missions
- World news
- System Menu

You'll also be able to see who's in the lobby at that time. You'll see everyones gamer picture and CH number and when their talking their little green light will flash on. By pushing the right bumper ( The button above the right trigger or R1 if you remember that old PS2 console Razz

) you'll change the look to so that you can flick through the members in the lobby and access their Gamercards. It's also a good way to check who's in the lobby at that moment.

Let's look at the Join/leave/manage squad tag.

In this first menu you can access:
- Squad member list
Here you can view all members of the squad. Any members who are in the lobby you can also view their current Hound and medals. Please note that if you want someone to view your current Hound after you have made changes to it you have to come all the way back to the main lobby, then the game will load the new Hound data so other people can view it.

- Squad Profile
This is the profile that people look at when looking for new squads. It matches some of the search criteria that you looked for before finding our squad. Please do not alter this squad data.

- Squad Emblem
This is the squads personal emblem. The actual emblem is one that Caspa made with the clan tag CSD written on it. Their are no restrictions on changing the emblem however for the most part we'd like to keep it as CSD however if you must change it for a laugh we can't stop you.

- Squad Colour
The squad colour is a camo pattern that is available to all squad members and is also the default colour your Hounds are in when you build them. We'd appreciate it if you didn't alter this from the Wasp camo we currently have.

- History
The history shows the most recent missions we have deployed on and also shows when people join and leave the squad.

- Widthdraw from Squad
Pretty straight forward and we hope you don't have to use it. Please tell us if you are though, it's only kind.

- Traderoom
The 6 traderooms allow 2 people to trade Hound parts, Assembly data, Money, Emblems and Camo. It is also used by some to show they are currently inactive. If you see someone in the trade room by themselves for a long period of time their probably inactive and will have a black bar underneath their gamer picture instead of a green one. Please note that you are unable to trade Download and Rafzakael parts.

On the right hand side you'll also be able to see the squad profile, current emblem, and who the squad leader is (CSD Caspa).

The next tag in the main menu is the garage however we'll look at that in greater detail along with builds and parts later on.

The third tag is the Mission tag. From the Mission tag you can join, search for and set up games. To join a game click on the mission tag, select either Neroimus war, individual mission or Free battle. From their you can Squad Rendezvous to find everyone who's in a mission. A point of notice is that you can't join a game that's rank is set to one lower than your rank. So a Major can't join a Warrent Officers game however anyone below Warrent Officer can such as a Private 1st class.

As I have said their are 3 types of missions you can go on. Neroimus War is the standard matches that we play.
Individual missions allow you to play against ACV's for money, good if you need cash (though it's quicker to ask someone to lend you 50 million which I'm more than happy to do).
Freebattles work in a number of different ways but allow people from all three nations and all different squads to play with and against each other with no loss except your pride. You'll notice that the Hounds you fight against in Freebattle are quite different to what you'll fight in Neroimus War so be prepared.

You can search for Neroimus missions by following the same steps as joining a mission someone in the squad has set up but instead of selecting 'Squad Rendezvous' you select 'Search for Missions'. You'll then have search criteria to fill in. All you need to change is the amount of players it is for and the rank. You need to search for games of the highest rank in the squad. For example if you me and Caspa are in the lobby you'd need to search for a 3 player game at Major rank because Caspa has the highest rank of Major (at the moment anyway Razz

).

How do you set up games however? By following this picture guide you'll know how! The order of pictures is in columns from left to right so start at the top left picture then go down the left hand column then go to the top right picture and go down the right hand side column.

If any part of the diagram is unclear or you would like more info on the finer details then please post here and I will explain furthur or ask me in game.

The final two tags you don't really need to worry about. They are World news and System settings. In World news you can vote for your political candidate if their is an election, view the news and get data on the top 100 squads. Their isn't much to explain here so it's best to just go and take a look through this menu yourself and ask if their are any problems or anything you don't understand.
The system settings menu is basically your equivalent of the Options menu in other games. Here you can turn off the annoying background music, change brightness and alter controls to fit your play style.

Garage
Ok this is the most used menu in the entire game and you'll probably spend more time in the garage making and improving Hounds than actually playing the game, especially as your just starting out. The Garage can be access from the second tag in the main menu.

When you open up the garage you shall see this menu:

You can also see what each of the menu's do. For now we'll look at Assemble Hound. When you select it you'll see this menu:

This menu will allow you to change your Hound and build virtually anything from the parts you have. Before we do that let's look at the confusing little image in the top right corner. The explanations are colour coded to the colours in the image.

- Weapon settings not done: The first image, when highlighted yellow means that you haven't set your weapons. This means that the game will pick the first 4 weapons applied to your Hound and put them in 4 separate weapon slots. This won't give you nearly as much damage output as your Hound is capable of so make sure you set those weapons!

- Generator not good enough: The second image when highlighted yellow shows that the Hound your using is using more power than your supplying to it. This causes your Hound to move slower, rotate slower and also causes a slight decrease in acuarcy. Their are 3 ways to remedy this. Firstly use a larger generator, secondly use a cockpit with a better energy ouput (you can check this by selecting a cockpit and pushing the left bumper twice) and thirdly remove some excess parts.

- Over weight limit: If your over the weight limit then your Hound will not be able to run. Sometimes you'll be a few hundred over sometimes it's by 1 weight (and no drilling holes to get the extra 1 weight is not a viable option cool as it may be). Their are 2 ways to help the situation. Firstly, change your legs for a higher load legs. Sometimes this isn't possible or viable as you lose too much for what you gain. Secondly, lose some weight by removing or changing certain parts for lighter ones. This again may not be viable however sometimes necessary to get the build you want.

- No legs: Your problem sounds pretty simple to me... This will show red when you haven't selected any legs. (This corresponds to the yellow tag in the picture)

- No cockpit : Once again pretty simple, you don't have a cockpit... This will show red when you don't have a cockpit.

- Hound out of proportion (too long/wide): When this second to last icon shows red your Hound is out of proportion and either too long or too wide. You can easily tell when because the game will show a large red bubble around your Hound where parts need to fit in to be viable.

Ok now that you know about the warning icons lets move onto the Pie chart below. This chart is pretty simple, it just shows based on what parts you have used what roletype your Hound is most like.

Below the Pie chart their is a set of basic and useful statistics for your Hound. Their all pretty self explanatory however ones you probably don't know are:
- Use parts: This is the amount of parts on your Hound against how many parts your cockpit can handle electrical data from.
- Aprox. Effect time: This is how long in minuets your Hound can run for, literally. If your Effect time is 14 then your Hound can run and move constantly without stopping for 14 mins. Games last 15 mins max so you'll want a 15 min effect time or slightly higher to make sure you have enough fule. if it's lower then that's ok as it's how long your Hound can move constantly for. If your not moving then your not using fule. Keep that in mind when checking your effect time.
- Heat:Cooling: This shows the heat that your Hound produces and how much cooling you have. Heat effects how easy you are to spot on thermal sensors and also helps with reducing the effect of incendiary round. If you have the weight or know you need a low heat then get a cooling system (it's a support part) if not then don't fret if you don't have one.

Ok now onto the menu on the left. The first three options are self explanatory, you can add, remove, and change Hound parts.
You then have weapon settings, in which you can group your weapons to fire in certain orders. This is very important for your Hound and even more so when using Howitzers, Cannons and Snipers because your firing order effects how closely your shots group together. One thing to note here however is that the first weapon that you select in your weapon setting is the weapons gun cam you will look through when you zoom in whilst playing. We'll worry more about firing order later though.
You then have Set system device. This allows you to set the chips in the cockpit to increase your firing accuracy, speed, acceleration and rotation speed.
Finally in some weapons such as Cannons, Howitzers and Sniper Cannons you can set the ammo type used in the guns. We'll come onto this in a little bit but first we'll look at the different Hound parts in the game.

Hound parts
Their are hundreds of parts in the game and when you get everything from all 3 countries you'll be spoiled for choice and want to try everything at once. What I'm going to do now is go through the different types of parts, what they do, their advantages and disadvantages and the most commonly used.

Legs
Their are 6 different types of legs and they are:
Bi-peds:
Roletypes that uses them: Soldiers
Advantages: Relatively fast and have good rotation and turning speed
Dissadvantages: Relatively low durability and load
Most Commonly used: T-Sal Kar, TL-Kalb and M10TL Shaw

Bi-peds are the light fast Soldier base of choice. The Advantage of the Bi-peds is that they allow your Hound to circle an opponent quickly with their high turning speed. One thing you'll have to learn about the bases is the difference between Rotation and Turning speed. Rotation speed is how quickly your cockpit can rotate 360 degrees. Turning speed is how quickly your Hound can turn in a circle and how wide it has to move to run in a circle. For Soldiers and running circles around your enemy you'll want a high turning speed base and the best base for that is the Shaw. If however you need more speed then the T-Sal Kar is your base of choice.
When running a Bi-ped you'll need to be quick and use terrain to your advantage to get around and outmaneuver the enemy as your legs can't take much punishment.

Inverse legs:
Roletypes that uses them: Soldiers/Heavy Gunners/Defenders
Advantages: High Load and Durability
Dissadvantages: Slow speed and slow rotation
Most Commonly used:RJ-Naqa and RJ-401

Inverse legs are the most commonly used legs in the game. They are, strong, have a high load and stability and in the case of the Naqa are quick enough to get to the fight in good time. Their are really only 2 inverse legs you need to know about the Naqa and 401's. The Naqa are more commonly known as chicken legs because of their slender design. They have a lower load and stability than the 401's however make up for it in speed. Saying this however the Naqa's don't have a bad stability infact they are in the very top of the stability list. 401's are used when your design is much heavier than the Naqa's can handle.

Multi-ped
Roletypes that uses them:Heavy Gunners/Defenders
Advantages:Extreemly high load capacity and durability
Dissadvantages: Very slow moving and rotating
Most Commonly used: N/A

Multi-peds are not seen very much but have their use in being the highest load capacity legs in the game. They also have the highest stability so if your trying to build a Hound with 8 Howitzers or Sniper Cannons then these are the legs to use. When picking Multi-peds find the ones that hold everything you want and give you the highest maximum speed.

Tracks
Roletypes that uses them:Defender/Heavy Gunner
Advantages: Good load and durability. Excellent turning speed
Dissadvantages: Large target for snipers
Most Commonly used:M14CL Meade

Tracks are another commonly seen base. They combine a lot of good features such as high load, rotation speed, durability and stability however have one major flaw. They are big targets. Very big, and any sniper worth his money will be able to land some good solid hits on them. While speed is nice, sometimes not getting hit at all is better, so you'll have to make the decision between using Inverse and Tracks.

Wheels
Roletypes that uses them:Scouts/Soldiers
Advantages:Good load, high speed
Dissadvantages:Low durability and turning speed
Most Commonly used:WL-Faras

After the CH patch wheels got a serious upgrade. They are now the base of choice for scouts and fast soldiers. While low in durability the wheels make up for it in speed and follow the rule that durability doesn't matter if your not getting hit. The big point when using wheels however is rocky terrain and weapons fire. You wouldn't have thought it but wheels can be stopped dead on the smallest pebbles and attempting to re-accelerate, back away from the obstacle and get the heck outta their before your ripped to shreds is no easy task. If your thinking of playing a scout power to you but it's a base and roletype that comes with a learning curve that when mastered is very rewarding.

Hover
Roletypes that uses them: Scouts
Advantages: Very high speed
Dissadvantages: Very low durability
Most Commonly used: HL-Labua

Take it from a scout, don't touch them. In todays CH hover bases are seriously underpowered compared to wheels and aren't worth their hassle. The only time hovers are useful are in water maps where you need to keep on top of the water, base rushing with machine guns and making a scout that runs at 370 speed.

Cockpit
Their are three types of cockpit based on the chips that they can hold. 9-sloters 8-sloters and 7-sloters. Slots are the amount of room that the cockpit has for chips. Each of the chips takes up a certain amount of slots and most of the time you'll want to be using a 9-slot cockpit. The best and most commonly seen 9-slot cockpits are the C-20 and C-10 used for almost every Hound so as a rule of thumb start with these. For scouts you'll want the Brooke for it's slender design. If your feeling a bit outlandish and don't want to be using the Brooke then the C-Dabbur is what you want. Don't necessarily stick to these three but they are used most commonly for a reason Wink

.
Their are only really 2 8-slot cockpits to be using, the C-100 and the C-110. Most commonly seen on Gators and Drinking Birds and a few Isba trick Hounds. They hold in at around 6500 durability each and will outlast almost any other part on your Hound.
Just like the Hover base, stay away from the 7-slot brick cockpits. They ain't worth the trouble son! Despite having a massive durability they also make a wonderfully large target for snipers and as always durability only counts when your being hit and not being hit is always best!

Chip settings - Chip settings are an intrical part of your Hound design and you'll need to pick the chips that help your Hound do what you want it to do. I'll explain what each of the chips do now.

Mobility COM - Enhances the maximum speed your Hound moves at and how quickly it accelerates.
Weapon COM - Don't ask, no one knows what it does... seriously... I've written this entire guide I'm not just going to lazy out of a quick sentance...
Stability COM - Enhances the stability of your Hound and your rotation speed

Once you have all of the chips from the three countries the standard and most effective chip setting is

Mobility COM - Neumann
Weapon COM - Ithnan
Stability COM - RC1500

However for fast attack soldiers and all scouts you'll want:

Mobility COM - Neumann
Weapon COM - Ithnan
Stability COM - Hopper

The Hopper will give you a higher rotation speed compared to the RC1500 however lower stability. It's the rotation you'll want for the fast attack soldiers and scouts to better ensure a kill.

Generators
Their isn't really any hard and fast rule when it comes to generators. When deciding on a generator pick one that does what you want it to do. First look at which generator puts your maximum speed to the highest. If their are a few that give a top speed then pick the one with the most durability as their is nothing worse than having your generator blown during a fight.

Weapons
This is where things get exciting, the guns! Firstly we'll take a look at the Heavy arm branch of weapons, looking at what each of the types do and their advantages/disadvantages then move onto the Light arms.

Heavy Arms
Compared to the Light Arms the Heavy Arms are small in number. Yet what they lack in diversity they make for in fire power. Heavy arms don't have what we call Hexagonal Frames. This means that you can't attach Heavy arms in the same close formations as you can with say Machine Guns. Their are 3 different types of Heavy weapons:
- Heavy Rockets
Heavy rockets are the bigger heavier cousin to the Rocket Pod Light Arm part. In a single firing the Heavy rockets do roughly the same amount of damage as the Light arm variants however they are about 2 or 3 times as heavy. So why use them? Suppressive fire. Heavy Rockets reload twice as fast as Rocket pods so you can keep an enemy under fire, whilst you move in for the kill or wait for your team mates to finnish them off. Don't bother with the Tarakian Heavy Rocket launchers. Your best bet is the Sal Kar Basal, which has the fastest reload time or the Morskjo HR1000, which do the most damage and are only slightly slower to reloaded than the Basal.
If your looking for something to keep the fire on your enemies this something you'll want to concider but if you want to do a lot of damage in one blow, then your better off with rocket pods.

- Heat Seekers
Whilst normally considered cheap weapons, especially when used en mass, heat seekers are extremely effective weapons. They cause all mobility bases to stop dead and their reload time generally keeps the enemy locked in place unable to move and unable to fire back effectively due to the large amounts of smoke produced on impact. Their are two different types of Heat Seeker, single and double firing. One types fires one missile and the other fires two. While the immediate choice might be for the double firing one, your going to quickly run out of ammo so you'd better have a back up weapon to finnish the job.
Heat seekers can be foiled by missile counters which cause the missile to veer off course. Heat seekers also have a minimum range and so will be most effective at close to medium range. In addition Heat Seekers can also become ineffective against fast moving targets. By moving in a constant circle around a heat seeker, if your fast enough, the missile will just fly round the back of you and crash into the ground.
So whilst the Heat Seeker has it's advantages when it hits it's target their are some disadvantages and features of the weapon itself to consider before applying it to your Hound.

- Heavy Cannons
Heavy Cannons were once one of the most devastating weapons on the battlefield. Now, with minor exception too the Double Cannon once used on DD, they have been replaced with Howitzers. The Howitzers output roughly the same, if not higher, damage than the Heavy Cannons whilst using less weight and having a lower recoil. These weapons are best avoided with exception to the Double Cannon's which in a triple double build can be devastating.
As a side point you can download a Heavy Double Cannon from the Xbox Live Marketplace, if you go to the Chromehounds section and download the free Heavy Cannon part. That is probably the best Heavy Cannon in the game so get downloading people!

Light Arms
Light Arms are the Bread and Butter of Chromehounds and 9 times out 10 what you'll be using on your Hound. In this section I'll go through each of the types of weapons, what they do, the best in class and different ammo types.

Machine and Gatlin Guns
Gatlin guns have seen very little use on the battlefield for the main reason their useless. They have very low durability and don't output enough damage to be useful.
In the machine gun category their are 3 different machine guns, one from each country. Mostly it comes down to personal preference however it is generally accepted that the Tarakian Stylet Machine gun is the best out of the three. Whilst it doesn't have the highest damage per round it does have the shortest re-load time and so you get more rounds per second and thus more damage per second.
Machine guns are most commonly used to take out bases on fast base rushers however can be used to take out enemy legs and generally annoy them with a constant stream of fire.
Machine guns are most useful when you fire them in groups of 3 or 4. Using them singularly just doesn't do enough to be useful.

Grenade Launchers
Grenade Launchers come in 2 different categories, single and triple shot version. Both types are used for one purpose and that is stripping the guns off of enemy Hounds. They follow the idea that if the enemy hasn't got any guns, he isn't a threat which is very true. Yet which to chose? Single or Triple shot? Depends what you want it to do. If you've got shooting at speed down pat then you'll want single shot grenades. They do the most damage in a confined space and if you hit a gun will seriously damage if not strip it completely.
Triple burst however do less damage yet launch three shots at a time and will cause a wide area spread unless your unbelievably close that all your grenades land on the same set of weapons Razz

.
However when deciding which grenades to be using, only pick grenade launchers from Sal Kar. They produce the highest damage launchers and best of all their in hexagonal frames for easy linking unlike the grenades from the other 2 countries.
Grenades are best used in groups of 2-4 for maximum effect, with combining Single and Triple shot grenades into separate firing groups.

HEAT Rockets
Heat rockets, when mastered, can be almost as deadly as Cannons on the battlefield. They are fast firing, do up to 1000 KE damage and can stop wheel and hover bases in their tracks. When multiple rockets are made to fire in a one after the other stream they can deadly. Like grenades, when it comes to choosing HEAT Rockets Sal Kar versions. Once again this is because of their high damage and hexagonal frames. Rockets from the other countries are fine however if you may have trouble getting them to group together well on there single point frames. As a side point of note their is a download HEAT Rocket that is very light, does a high amount of damage and quite quick on the re-load. They aren't however free, you'll have to pay 100 Microsoft points for them but if you really like the rockets or have a 100 points to spare then I seriously recommend them.

Shotguns
Shotguns come in two types single and double shot versions. The single shot versions have a higher damage per shell and ammo count than their double shot cousins. Double shot shotguns do more damage in a single firing however expend their ammo very quickly.
Single shotguns are best for prolonged battles where you need to keep your ammo count up high. Double are most useful for taking down bases and doing a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
Once again, these are best used in groups of 2-4 for maximum effect. Though be sure to chose the shotgun you need for the specific task at hand.

Assault Rifles
Assault rifles are starting to see more and more use on the battlefield, especially in Japo builds and can be deadly like HEAT rockets when mastered. Unlike other weapons in this game their aren't really any top assault rifles, it's a very balanced group of weapons. The difference between them follows closely to the country that makes them.
Sal Kar's Assault Rifles are low weight, low damage but fast reload. So if you want to keep a constant stream of rounds as a support weapon then these are ideal.
My personal favorite are the Tarakian ones which have an excellent balance between damage and re-load time. They are also the best to start with to find what you want your Assault Rifle to do. Are the Tarakian ones too slow? Then try Sal Kar Assault Rifles. Are they not powerful enough? Try the Morskoj versions for a high damage round.
On the subject of Morskjo Assault Rifles they are the slowest reloading, highest damage rifles in the game. They are excellent at doing large amounts of damage and are best supplemented by another hound with Tarakian or Sal Kar Assault Rifles.

Sniper Rifles and Sniper Cannons
While they might sound like the same thing, Sniper Rifles and Cannons are two very different things. Sniper Rifles are weaker, faster re-loading snipers good for endurance sniping, a starting sniper, urban sniper and as a support sniper. Sniper Cannons are high damaging snipers with a massive re-load times. They are best used by snipers who know what their doing however don't let that put you off, you've gotta learn some time! One thing that should be noted however is that Sniper Rifles have a slightly shorter range than their Cannon cousins thus you will have to get slightly closer to be most effective. Personally I'd be using the SR-200 Morskovian Sniper Rifle, however if you want more info on choosing a Sniper Rifle, talk to Gorfinkle as he has most experience with them. But as always, find the one that suits your personal playing style and needs.
Sniper Cannons are great for heavy hitting snipers. They do however have a very small ammo clip so every shot counts however the damage you can do in a single salvo has been known to take out enemy Hounds in one go. The most commonly seen Sniper Cannons are the Morskovian SC-200's however the Tarakian Epee's are a good lighter weight alternative. Once you feel you have sniping under control or you need even more kick from your sniper the free downloadable Saber is an excellent choice for high damage output however has only 3 rounds in it's magazine with an 8 round extended mag.
Sniper rifles are excellent if you want a fast shooting sniper or a light sniper weapon to put on your Hound. Sniper rifles also have an interesting quality in comparison with Sniper Cannons. If you compare certain Sniper Rifles to Sniper Cannons in the time it takes 1 sniper Cannon to re-load you do as much, in some cases more, damage to the Hound by firing a Sniper Rifle multiple times.

For example the Morskoj Sniper Cannon (SC-200) does 1193 KE damage and re-loads at 11200 speed. The Morskoj Sniper Rifle (SR-200) does 980 KE damage but reloads at 3500 speed. So in the time it takes you to fire 1 SC-200 you can fire 3.2 rounds from your Sniper Rifle (11200/3500=3.2). That means that you have a potential damage output of 3136 KE of damage (3.2*980=3163KE). That's a potential damage different of 1943 KE damage between the Rifle and Cannon. However this does require all of the Sniper Rifle rounds to hit their target to cause this damage and is assuming that your rounds are relatively close so that they don't lose damage over range. (We'll look more at the effects of range on sniper rounds after the following advanced section)

Sniper Cannon/Rifle Comparison data (Advanced analysis)
This is an advanced section of the guide. If you are new to the game this may be confusing to you so you can skip over this section in red however you might find this interesting as I'm sure the more advanced members will.

As you can see from the data above their is a great potential difference between what sniper rifle and cannons can output. The same can be seen when comparing SR-200's to Epee's. This time the potential damage difference is 800 KE damage. However their are some things to consider first.

For example, Sniper rifles only have KE rounds thus they lose damage incrementally over extreme ranges. This might not cause a massive increase in damage. Secondly, the comparison data is between KE and KE rounds not CE and KE rounds which every self respecting sniper user has in his Sniper Cannons. Thirdly the data also relies on all of the rounds striking the enemy target, which is an impossible assumption to make for every time you fire your gun. Even the best snipers can't land every shot, their are too many variables. So whilst the sniper rifles have the capacity to do much more damage in the time it takes for you to fire your Sniper Cannons it isn't always (though certainly sometimes) entirely viable or possible at the ranges you and the enemy Hounds engage at especially when skill levels between players can vary dramatically.

So you know the difference between the two snipers however when you decide you want to try the Sniper Cannon, you find that you have the option to pick between 6 different types of ammo. What's that all about!?!

Basically their are 2 types of ammo, KE or Kinetic Energy rounds an CE or Chemical rounds. Each of them have slightly different qualities, both useful depending on what you want the Hound to do.

KE rounds deal damage based on their impact velocity, when they hit a Hound. KE rounds lose energy the furthur they have to travel (just like bullets in real life). So the furthur away the Hound the less damage your going to do. KE rounds have the highest damage potential out of all the sniper rounds but at most engagement distances your not going to get the maximum damage from your rounds. Their are 3 different KE rounds to chose from.
The first on the list is the most basic round. Remember you have expenses to pay at the end of the mission so if your low on cash you may need to use these rounds. They are the lowest damage of all the rounds and are best avoided if you have the cash. The second KE round has the same range as the first round but travels further. Good for long range sniping with KE rounds. The third and final round has a slightly shorter range however does the most damage out of all the rounds.

CE rounds do damage based on a chemical compound in the bullet. Because of this CE rounds do the same damage at any range however they have a slightly lower damage to start with. Much like KE rounds the first CE round is the cheap option for when cash is low. The second and third rounds just increase the damage of the bullets whilst leaving the range the same. An interesting side note here is that nearly every part in CH has a lower defense against CE rounds than KE rounds, increasing your potential for damage furthur.

So which to pick? Well, snipers are meant for long range. They also need to do a lot of damage at all ranges. Nearly every Hound out their has lower CE defense than KE. So CE rounds are the obvious choice with good reason, and that's what almost every sniper is going to be throwing in your direction. As the saying goes "if it hurts, it works" and CE rounds most certainly hurt.
So where does this leave KE rounds then? Well 2 places really. KE rounds do more damage than CE rounds as long as the KE round doesn't start to lose velocity and thus power. So if your feeling adventurous Sniper Cannons with KE rounds at relatively close quarters is going to hurt, big time. So for the urban sniper KE is your friend
Secondly base destruction. It is entirely possible, though difficult, to destroy an enemy base using Sniper Cannons (this is even harder with Sniper Rifles, trust me! This is due to the Rifles shorter range compared to Cannons). You can only do this with KE rounds as CE rounds have little to no effect on starting bases. This tactic does require a lot of ammo however and at least 2 snipers to perform effectively.

Well that's most of it for snipers. It is a very long and somewhat complicated issue, however the key thing to remember is that you need to pick the Sniper and ammo for what you want it to do. Any questions about them post here or ask me, Caspa or HaeZen in game. For opinions and info on Sniper Rifles ask Gorfinkle, as he's the man with the most experience with them.
Building effective Snipers and how to get your shots as tight together is explained furthur in the guide under Hound Builds.

Rocket Pods
Rocket Pods are the light weight, cousins to the Heavy Rockets. Once again these are weapons with a learning curve however once mastered, they can be a hell of a force to be reckoned with. Rocket Pods have a slower reload time than their Heavy Rocket counterparts however a lower weight so you can use 2 or 3 for the same weight and produce a much more damaging burst of fire. Rocket Pods come in two variations, the 4 and 6 shot types. Many people's immediate reaction when picking Rocket Pods is to go for the 6 shot version because they obviously produce more Rockets thus more damage. Which is entirely true... if all the rockets hit.

6 Pack Rocket Pods obviously produce a greater recoil and spread than the 4 shot versions because your firing more missiles. At very close ranges this doesn't matter as much because it's much easier to hit your target however at medium to long range your rockets are going to go into a wide spread. This is bad because your not going to be doing as much damage at these ranges. However it does have the advantage that you can hit a larger group of enemies, if their are multiple contacts moving towards you, or blanket a wide area to ensure at least a few hits against a fast moving target that would otherwise dodge your rockets.

4 pack Rocket Pods on the other hand have a lower damage output yet a lower recoil. This allows for very accurate firing (well accurate for a Missile barrage) against close range targets and the ability to better hit a target at long ranges. The dissadvantage here is that you won't do as much damage in a single barrage, especially at close range, and you can't blanket an area against multiple targets.

With this in mind you'll need to pick a Rocket pod that best suits your needs. Their also isn't a "Best Pod". You need to find your comfortable balance between reload speed, damage and weight for this weapon type. (The information and opinions on Rocket Pods were inspired and shown by ACE of the Chromehounds Official Forum enhanced and re-written with a bit of me, so cheers ACE!)

Cannons
Ah, the weapon of choice for a large majority of the CH community. Cannons (not to be confused with Sniper Cannons) are one of the most seen weapons on the battlefield and has spawned one of the biggest arguments in the game: Analace or Falchions?

I'll say it now, the most commonly used Cannons in the game are the Analace and Falchions, both from Tarakia. Their is no reason why you can't or shouldn't use Cannons from other countries however these are used most widely for a reason Wink

. The big debate comes from the two different Cannons statistics.

Analace Cannons are the slightly lower damage, but faster re-load Cannon. The Falchions are the opposite to this and are the higher damage, slower re-load version. Personally I'm an Analace man, I like and need my fast re-load times. However if you ever see HaeZen use Cannons you can be sure he's probably using Falchions for the extra damage output. Both have their merits and you just have to find the one that fits your play style.

Much like Sniper Cannons their are 2 types of ammo for Cannons, KE and CE. Even though your normally fighting in close quarters with Cannons, CE rounds are the way to go. Almost every part has low CE defense so your going to be doing more damage even at close ranges by using CE over KE. I'd suggest using KE rounds when you know another Cannon Hound is being deployed using CE rounds so that at least one of you has the capacity to help take a base down. Believe me when I say their is nothing worse than having your TC tell you to take a base down and have to tell him no because no one has KE rounds.

Howitzers
Another one of the top three most commonly used weapons in Chromehounds. Howitzers have gone back and forth with effectiveness over the past few months however have finally settled down with a few specific builds holding the field down.

Howitzers are supposed to be long range bombardment weapons to take down enemy bases and pound enemy Hounds from long range. While not impossible these can be quite difficult tasks with the changes to Howitzers and the guns are now more commonly employed as close to medium combat weapons capable of doing large amounts of damage on impact, along with recoil splash damage if your too near a shell when it explodes. The Splash damage effect, along with the Howitzers high amounts of damage, give the Howitzers the ability to strip weapons off of enemy Hounds in much the same way as Grenade Launchers do. So when facing a Howitzer Hound be prepared to lose a few guns here and their (all of them if your really unlucky!).

The best types of Howitzers are the ones that produce the lowest recoil when firing. This allows your shots to land in a tighter group and so do more damage to enemy Hounds and Bases. To this end, the Sal Kar Matar and Thajar (sp?) along with the Tarakian Espadon's are the lowest recoil howitzers and give the best firing groups. Once again, it's a matter of preference here so try each of the Howitzers out and use the ones you like and feel most comfortable with.

The final thing to consider when using Howitzers is ammo type. This is another weapon with a choice of ammo however unlike Cannons and Sniper Cannons, the Howitzers don't have a choice between KE and CE rounds... well not exactly.

Howitzer shells must be KE rounds. However unlike other KE rounds the Howitzers work on a different principle for their damage. Howitzer KE damage comes from how much energy is released when the shell explodes, not from how fast the shell is moving. This leads to the three types of shell you can pick from the KE category. The first is the economy shell, just like in Cannons and Sniper Cannons. The second shell, most commonly known as the 60 shell, produces a wide, high splash damaging explosion that is excellent for taking out enemy Hounds. This is because on impact it spreads damage through more parts, hopefully stripping them, and when fired at the floor has a higher chance of causing damage.
The third shell, also know as the 90 shell, has high impact damage but lower splash damage. This is ideal for taking out bases, as it focuses the energy into the base and not the ground around the base, and is also good for destroying Hounds quickly as the focused damage, if it hits the cockpit, will cause massive amount of damage, taking some cockpits out completely.
The most effective combination in Howitzers is a 50:50 split between 60 and 90 shells so that you are able to take out bases and cause high amounts of splash and impact damage to enemy Hounds.

The other type of shell available to Howitzers are the incendiary rounds. Incendiaries produce a self igniting chemical, similar in some ways to Napalm, that sticks to enemy Hounds and slowly burns them to death. It does this by causing the Hounds generator to overheat, causing the generator continuos damage. Once the damage has destroyed the generator, the damage is transfered straight into the cockpit, slowly burning the Hound to death. It's a cruel but highly rewarding way to destroy enemy Hounds. Their are a few notes with Howitzers however.
Firstly, Incendiaries only work if the Hound has a generator attached to the Hound. No generator, no roast metal for dinner. Secondly, the best way to stop the effect of Incendiary rounds after you have been hit, is to not move. By not moving you allow the Hound to cool faster (your not moving so not producing extra heat). The obvious flaw with this is that if your not moving then your an easy target, so either quickly get some cover or get your team mates to distract the enemy for you. Thirdly, put some radiators on. This is obviously easier said with hindsight however if you think their are going to be fires then adding a good cooling system (preferably one that puts your cooling higher than your heat) is always a good idea.

What about the different Incendiary types however? Well you've got your basic economy round. Then the second round, aka the 200 round, produces a low intense heat fire that burns for a long time. Great for making the enemy suffer, you sick bastard! The third round, aka the 200N, produces a high heat intensity fire that doesn't last for quite as long. Basically the 200 does damage over a long time whilst the 200N does a lot of damage, before quickly disappearing. So for Incendiaries a mix of the two is often best. Incendiaries make for a great support weapon, in accomplice to Assault Riles, Cannons and other Howitzers.

Key Fact: A key fact about Incendiaries and how long they burn for. When an Incendiary hits a Hound or strikes the floor, it produces a spread of flames that last for a certain amount of time and can effect any Hound that passes into the fire. The 200 round produces the flames on the floor for the longest amount of time. How long a Hound is effect by the fire for is determined by how quickly the Hound can cool down after it has left the area covered in flames.
For example, Jimmy is hit by 200 round Incendiaries. His Hound starts to burn and would continue to burn if he hadn't stepped out of the flames. Now that Jimmy has moved his Hound out of the flames he is no longer being continuously being burnt however his generator is very hot and needs to cool down to stop taking damage. Jimmy makes his Hound stand still and allows the Hound to cool before moving again. (Jimmy could tell it has cooled down because his controller had stopped vibrating). If Jimmy hadn't stepped out of the flames then he would have continued to burn until the flames dissapeared, and then his Hound would have had to cool down to stop taking damage.

So once again, decided on Howitzer and ammo type based on what your comfortable with and what you want your Hound to do.

Mortars
Mortars, are well... Mortars. They are single framed weapons that have to attach to either a hexagonal shaped weapon or a join on a cockpit or generator. Mortars have many uses depending on which of the four ammo types they are equipped with. Mortars come in 4 types:
- Shell
Shell Mortars work just like grenades do however their damage output is much lower. They are a nice addition to a Hound that wants some weapon damage power but doesn't have the weight to use Grenade Launchers.
- Incendiaries
Much like Howitzer Incendiaries, Mortar Incendiaries produce a burning flame. The flames produced however do not last as long and are not as intense as Howitzer Incendiaries (en mass however they can be just as deadly)
- Flares
Flares, do exactly what they say on the tin. They produce a strong light source when fired into the air, excellent for night maps where visibility is low. They can also be used cleverly in certain tactics such as marking enemy bases and Hounds by sending a flare up in the grid they are found in. This also helps Heavy Gunners place their shots. By putting a flare in the air a Heavy Gunner has a sort of target to shoot for to bombard an area. Flares can also be used as signals when out of NA range and a TC isn't present. For example sending up 2 flares could sign enemies ahead. The same signal tactic could be used by flashing your light however that's something for people to decided on a system for in another place.
- Smoke
Smoke grenades, do exactly what you think. Produce a thick blanket of smoke they you are unable to see through without thermal vision for either blinding the enemy or to cover your escape.

Mortars aren't really a weapon commonly used however when used in inventive ways can be just as useful as your Grenade Launchers and Cannons.

Bomb and Mine Launchers
Another uncommon sight on the battlefield. This is mainly due to their insanely high re-load times and impracticability in a fight. Bomb Launchers produce a selection of high explosive bombs that explode after a few seconds. They are great for taking out bases however are generally useless against Hounds unless they are very slow or you manage to maneuver them on top of the bombs just as they explode (which will generally destroy a Hound outright).
Mine Launchers are generally useless. Their re-load times are just too high to be effective at laying down in large amounts as a forward offensive then pulling back before you are destroyed. However just because a lot of other people haven't had much luck doesn't mean you shouldn't try, so test to your hearts content!

Assist Parts
Their are many types of Assist Parts that basically assist your Hound in different ways. Their are 7 types in total. The Assist parts are activated by pulling the left trigger, whilst the rotor craft must have the trigger held to remain active. They are:

- Visual assistants
Visual assistant parts are Thermal, Night and Mine detection parts. Thermal sensors switch your view to a thermal camera that shows the heat of objects around you including bullets which can get annoying. Try not to activate them after getting hit by Incendiaries.
Night Vision allows for better vision in the dark however try not to use machine guns with this vision equipped as it will get very annoying. Also don't activate it when a flare goes off, it ain't pretty.
Mine detector highlights land mines with a bright pulsing red outline. If you still manage to step on a mine when this is active, then you deserve to be blown up to be honest Razz

.

- Cooling systems
Cooling systems reduce the amount of heat produced by your Hound, making you harder to spot on thermal, as well as reducing the cool down time after being hit by Incendiaries. It does not stop Heat Seekers locking on to you. It will however make you a less likely target for a Heat Seeking missile as it seeks out the strongest heat signature (funny considering it being a Heat Seeker and all) so if your standing next to something hotter than you then their going to get all the attention not you...

- Fuel Tanks
A nice idea by FROM (the game developers) however Fuel Tanks are without a doubt the most useless part in the game. They give the Hound a large and unnecessary boost to their effect time but do not add energy like a generator does (which to be honest might have been much more useful). Its only use is as a lightweight alternative to spacers.

- Missile Counters
Missile Counters do just that, counter missiles. However they only counter Heat Seeking Missiles. The Missile Counter works by firing off a sort of very hot flare that causes the Heat Seeker to veer off course. My personal favorite is the Tarakian shield and has so far not let me down however try the other counters and see what you think works best.

- Rotor Craft
Rotor Craft allow your Hound to hover for a few seconds. They do not allow your Hound to fly as in the Armored Core games so get that idea out of your head straight away. You can however hover off of the ground and if you run off a hill whilst activating the hover you can glide in that direction for a short while. The Hover also helps in reducing and removing damage from falling from cliffs if you activate the Hover near the end of the drop. The Best Rotor Craft is the Sal Kar Naqr which.

_________________
Grab life by the horns, kick it in the balls and when it stands up to fight make sure you have the bigger axe!

OWRWP Act (Offencive words replaced with 'Puppy') Don't make us use it!

Imshall · Posted: Wed May 30, 2007 5:05 pm Post subject:

Newb Guide to Chromehounds Part 2

- NA Jammers
NA Jammers produce a small Jamming field which renders you invisible to NA Makers. Jammers only have a short effect time however this can be increased by using multiple NA Jammers. Because the NA Jammer actually produces a Jamming field slightly bigger than your Hound you can encompass another Hound, rendering them invisible if they are close enough together.

- Armor
Armor is a critical part of Hounds today. It gives you an extra layer of defense against snipers and will save your life. Their are actually 2 types of armor which not a lot of people realize. The first type is absorption armor. This type of Armor is a flat plate that covers a wide area and just soaks up damage. It has a high durability but a low KE:CE defense thus it just takes a pounding until it breaks up.
The second type of Armor is Deflection. This Armor is triangular in shape and when struck causes rounds to deflect off without causing the armor large amounts of damage. It has a high KE:CE defense however a low durability so it "blocks" most damage caused by bullets and the low amount of remaining damage is subtracted from the armors durability. Deflection Armor is best used against Assault Rifles, Machine guns and KE Cannons, Sniper Cannons and Sniper Rifles.

A good mix of Armor is generally best, however most Hounds will use Absorption armor because it has the ability to protect against all guns by just soaking up as much damage as possible.

NA Makers
NA Makers are the things that produce a moveable NA and allow a Hound to see Allied and Enemy Hounds and ACV's on their map. It makes a Hound a Tactics Commander however uses large amounts of power and load to fit it and a high energy output generator on.
Their are many different types of NA, each ranging in the size of NA field they produce. The bigger the field the bigger the load and the more juice it needs. Pick a NA that suits your needs best. Personally the Tarakian NA's are a good compromise between, load, energy consumption and NA field size however if you need to see all the map fast then Morskoj is where you need to be. The Sal Kar NA's are best for TC/Scout hybrid Hounds. You use your speed to capture COMBAS towers and use the lightest NA to keep load down just so you have the ability to see things using the map.

Hound Builds - Tips and Tricks
Hound Build Techniques
Here I'll explain some basic techniques for Hound building. Before attempting these tricks you should be familiar with the Hound construction menu. I'll use the optimum parts for each build when showing them but where available show a selection of different parts you can use instead.

These are by no means perfect and definite and some builds may be impossible for you at the moment. If so the best thing to do is try mixing and matching the Cockpit protection techniques with 3 or 4 weapons from 2 different weapon groups (3 Cannons and 3 Grenades, 4 Assault Rifles and 3 Heat Rockets, 3 Rocket pods and 1 Heavy Rocket launcher). Experimentation is the name of the game so try different things, but the builds below are worth trying and noting when your building in the Garage.

Protecting your Cockpit - Absorption Armor
This is one of the easiest ways to protect both your generator and your cockpit using 1 piece of armor.

As you can see the Armor Protects the generator and 75% of the cockpit. To do this you need to follow 4 simple steps.
1. Select a base, preferably Bi-ped, Inverse or Tracks however it will work on some hover and wheel bases and a few multi-peds.
2. Place the Generator on the legs first. Making sure the Generator has a join on top and infront of it.
3. Place the cockpit on top of the Generator
4. Place a flat armor piece on the from of the Generator rotating it with the 'X' button so that is stands vertical to cover the cockpit.

This can also be done the other way around by placing the Cockpit down first then the Generator on top then adding the armor. This can be done using almost any legs, generator, cockpit and armor. It is best done using the C-10 and C-20 cockpits due to their short design, however works just as well with other short cockpits.

Protecting your Cockpit - Absorption Armor and Diagonal Spacer
This method protects the cockpit furthur than the previous trick however requires extra load due to the use of a spacer.

This can be done in the same way as the previous trick but using these steps instead.
1. Select a base, this works well on all bases.
2. Place the Cockpit on the legs first
3. Then place the Generator on top of the Cockpit
4. Place a Diagonal Spacer on top of the Generator facing downwards so that it looks like a forward slash (/) as shown in the picture above.
5. Place a piece of Absorption armor to the front of the space.

This method covers the whole of the front of cockpit as well as the generator however requires a little extra load because your using a spacer in addition to the armor.

Protecting your Cockpit - Isba spacer trick
The Isba spacer trick, is a way of protecting your cockpit by taking advantage of the Isba spacers good durability and KE:CE defense without using the large load normally taken up when using the Absorption Armor techniques.

This is slightly more complicated than the previous 2 techniques however is a lot more useful.

1. Firstly select your legs (This works on nearly all legs however for the point of exercise try doing it on Bi-peds or Inverse)
2. Select either the Isba or Arm spacer from your spacer list.
3. Roate the spacer to look like a backwards or badly drawn number 7, like in the picture above.
4. Attach a generator to the back of the spacer. Make sure the generator has a joint facing downwards.
5. Attach a Cockpit to the under side of the Generator so that when you look at the Hound head on the Cockpit is covered by the spacer.

And their ya go! That's the Isba spacer trick. Now let's look at some specific Hound builds using these techniques to cover the cockpit.

Cannon Hounds - Firing Modes
Before we look at specific Cannon Hound builds their are two ways of linking and rotating the Cannons to get the best firing group when using either 3 or 4 Cannons. For 3 Cannons it's the 3 Cannon triangle, whilst for 4 Cannons we use the 4 Cannon Column.

3 Cannon Triangle
The 3 Cannon triangle links 3 Cannons on the same side of a Hound together for the best grouping possible. It doesn't produce as much damage as the 4 Cannon Column however frees up some load for other parts you may want/need on your Hound.

Basically, the 3 Cannons must be attached to the Hound in a triangle or Arrow head formation:

----------------------------------- C2
--------------------------------- C3
----------------------------------- C1

(Each 'C' represents a Cannon)

To do this place your first Cannon on the side of your Cockpit. Then place the second Cannon on top of the first however this time you must rotate the second Cannon (using the left analogue stick) so that the orange arrow points down instead of up. The third Cannon should be attached to the second Cannon and rotated so that the orange arrow points towards the top left hand corner of your screen.

Once you've rotated the Cannons into position you need to do the Weapon Settings from the Weapon setting tab in the Assemble Hound menu. This is the order you need to put the weapons in:

Cannon 3, Cannon 2, Cannon 1

This will produce a tight firing group that is useful when you need to shave weight off of a previous 4 Cannon Hound.

4 Cannon Column
The 4 Cannon Column is slightly easier to do, does more damage and produces a better shot grouping.

By the end on this you should be able to rotate and order the Cannons in the same way as in this photo because after this we're going to build the Hound in that photo!

If you can't see it in the photo the Cannons should be arranged like this:

C4
C3

C2
C1

To do this place your first Cannon on the side of your Cockpit. Place the Second Cannon on top and much like in the 3 Cannon Triangle rotate this Cannon so the orange arrow faces downwards. Repeat the last two steps for the third and fourth Cannons by placing Cannon 3 on top of Cannon 2, then attaching Cannon 4 to Cannon 3 and rotate it downwards.

This should give you the effect shown in the picture above. You'll know if it has worked because their will be a large gap between the barrels of Cannons 3 and 2, just like in the picture.

For the weapon settings you'll need to place them in this order:
C4, C3, C2, C1

This will give you a very tight group and excellent damage because your using 4 Cannons instead of 3.

Cannon Hound builds - Isba Column
Ok now that you can use the 4 Cannon Column grouping and the Isba spacer trick, lets make the Isba Column.

The Isba Column is a Quad Cannon Hound that has a high damage output, hard to hit design. It goes by the idea that durability only counts when and if you get hit. For this Hound you will need:
- Sal Kar Naqa legs
- Isba or Arm spacer
- A generator that is capable of performing the Isba spacer trick
- A Cockpit that is capable of performing the Isba spacer trick. Preferably the C-110/100 or C-20/10 Cockpit.
- 4 Cannons of your choice

You might also want some Absorption or Deflection armor to furthur cover the Cockpit along with any other parts that you wish to add to better suit your needs on the battlefield. Ok now lets build it.

Firstly select your legs then use the Isba spacer trick to cover your cockpit (this is explained above). For your system settings you'll want a high slot Mobility COM and a 3 slot Stability COM with the highest stability. The most preferable setting is:

Mobility COM - Neumann
Weapon COM - Ithnan
Stability COM - RC1500

Once you have done that use the 4 Cannon Column firing mode to place your 4 Cannons of choice on side of the Hound (this is explained above). Once the weapons are attached, properly rotated and the weapons are set (don't forget), your all done! Well done, you just built an effective Cannon Hound! Now let's try it again but use Absorption Plates instead of the Isba trick.

Double Absorption, Quadruple Damage aka Tall Guy Badman
This Hound outputs the same damage as the Isba Column however instead of trying not to get hit by minimizing Armor, this Hound prepares for the inevitable whilst trying to keep a reasonable amount of Mobility.

You can use your own Hound parts for this, the parts listed in the picture above or the parts listed below. Whatever you chose however the procedure is still the same. Parts you'll need are:
- Sal Kar Naqa legs
- 2 identical generators Generators, preferably the Ampere
- A C-10/20 Cockpit. Other Cockpits work however you'll need something with similar dimensions to the C-20 such as the Brooke or other Tarakian cockpits for this to work
- 3 Identical pieces of Absorption Armor, preferably the AM-120
- Missile Counter, preferably the Tarakian Shield
- 4 Cannons of your choice

Now how to build it:

1. Select you Naqa legs and then place one of your 2 Generators on top of them
2. Place the Cockpit on top of the first Generator
3. Attach the 2nd Generator to the top of the Cockpit
4. Place a piece of Armor in front of both Generators so that the Generators and Cockpit are completely covered just like in the picture
5. Attach your Cannons in the 4 Cannon Column way not forgetting to do your weapon settings
6. Attach the Missile counter to the Cockpit and then cover it using a piece of Absorption Armor.

Their you have it a second Cannon Hound! This is a lot more durable than the Isba Column however works just as well. Try both and see which one lends itself towards your play style.

Sniper Builds
(Currently under construction. Would like some help with how to build a Gator Sniper as well as some Pictures of my Wing Formation Sniper)

Usefull tips
- Build, build, build and build some more. You'll only get better at this game through trial and error. Combine different weapons, try them out. If it doesn't work as expected, tinker and change parts until it's more to your liking. If it still doesn't work then scrap it and move on. I've gone through about 40 different scouts and I'm only just finding my perfect scout.
- The perfect build is what build you are most comfortable with. It might not be able to destroy 6 Hounds, it might not be the fastest, it might not be the most durable but if you enjoy using it then that's what matters. Though be prepared to get advice from other people on weapon and mobility upgrades.
- Keep moving. If your in a fight nothing will get you killed quicker than standing still.
- If you don't know ask. We're always happy to help and you can always get a straight up view on your Hound if you ask us to take a look at it, along with suggestions for improvement.

Well that's about it. Thanks for reading, I hope it has been useful and if you have any questions or anything to add to this then please let me know through a PM on here, Xbox Live or ask me in game! Cya all online!
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Grab life by the horns, kick it in the balls and when it stands up to fight make sure you have the bigger axe!

OWRWP Act (Offencive words replaced with 'Puppy') Don't make us use it!