StarHawk Corner - Jetpack Tango

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The Rocketeer vs Ground Troop

By Erebus-of-Dark
Edited by Guardian_Bob

Jetpacks have an advantage over troops. Why shouldn't they? They paid the Rift for the advantage. Players can only obtain a jetpack through buying, not through dropped items. That being said, there are some ways for a single troop to survive against the jetpack.

1. Be aware!
   • Jetpacks are always shown on the maps when flying, whether they are shooting or not. This gives a ground troop a good opportunity to spot incoming jetpacks from across the map. More importantly when you're not getting hit, and you see a red dot on the mini-map that is moving fast, it is almost surely a jetpack. If it is coming straight at you, they are probably moving in for the melee or shotgun kill.
2. Evade!
   • If you see that red dot coming straight at you and your back is turned, don't look at it like some gawking teenager. Let then get in close. only when they are pretty close should you start strafing and turning. If they came in for that melee you need to wait till they commit and you can follow up with your own melee. If this fails they'll be much closer to the ground and you can follow up with the shotgun. The key is letting them think they are getting an easy kill unnoticed.
3. Stay at range
   • If a jetpack attacks you from a distance, you can use your sprint to evade their fire. Doing so makes you just as hard of a target to hit as they are. Zig-zag and move away. When you become harder to hit, the jetpack usually becomes easier to hit back as they tend to stay still as they aim. This puts you on even ground as they can't move up and down as much, just like you. Most jetpackers will close in, rather than try to aim and lose maneuverability. If instead they move in close you need to keep sprinting away without taking fire which should give you lots more time to find cover. As they keep closing they will get faster, so keep strafing.
4. Find cover
   • When you get a jetpack on your tail, find cover quick. This gives you a spot to recover, keeping you in the fight longer. Also it will narrow the field of fire making the jetpack come at you at only certain angles which reduces the benefit of his mobility. If you can only both shoot each other face to face, the playing field is level.
5. Threaten
   • So far this has been a lot of running around and hiding, how about we fight back? First step is to threaten. That may mean making the fight long distance and firing with your rifle (if they are shooting you with one, remember they are now a lot easier to target). Or it might mean blasting a few random shotgun blasts when the jetpack gets close. It might even mean dumb-firing an RPG in jetpack's direction if you don't have time for a lock to at least let him know you got an RPG. The trick is, don't concentrate on getting the kill, instead concentrate on staying alive. Dodge first, fire second. This is a battle of attrition, the longer you last, the more you will hinder your target. Many jetpacks will try to hit unsuspecting troops en-route as an easy kill, so your goal is to prove that you're not an easy kill. The jetpack will likely move along to their original objective.
6. Survive
   • Doesn't sound very impressive, but this is the key to winning against jetpacks. They have limited fuel for all that flying around. If you can stay alive long enough at some point you will see the Jetpacker do one of two obvious things:
     1. Go to ground (with some obvious sputtering of engines, showing his fuel is actually gone).
     2. Fly straight as a shot to a higher ground.
7. Return Fire
   • If he landed on your ground without fuel, they are now a troop just like you. Time to show him the folly of their ways, as they are weak to all the same troop to troop attacks. If they tried to fly away and you have the RPG this is likely your only shot at getting a kill so use it. You can also use the Rifle here as players tend to seek high ground in a straight line.
8. Move on
   • If they escape you to higher ground, congratulations. You've survived against a superior force in one on one combat. Now it is time to go back to your objective. Unless you are defending, a jetpack will not hunt you down specifically again. They will continue their own mission in frustration that they lost a supposedly easy kill.

Did you know

• Did you know that mines will jump from your hawk to a turret? You can take one out without missing a beat if you're careful.
• Did you know you can hawk stomp an auto turret? Not sure if you're supposed to, but you can.

StarHawk Corner - Hawks in Space

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Flying in Space

Since I started with Acid Sea for the ground, I'll start with space for the air. As such I present the Space Air Map.

Map

The red H is health, yellow H is homing missile, purple S is swarm missiles and green M is mines.

Did you know?

Today's did you know comes from LeatherHeart.

• Did you know you can use a jetpack to knife a mech driver? Sweetest kill in the game.
• Did you know you have a suicide option? Hit start and select respawn.
• Did you know that the bunker has 3 spots for auto turrets? Place them on the roof to keep people from getting the drop on you.
• Did you know that you're safe in the bunker? Shots go out, they don't go in. Watch that top entry though.

StarHawk Corner - Armed to the Wings

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Weapon Pickups

So far we've focused on the ground game, and while this post will include a screen shot or two from the ground combat, today we'll be focusing on the hawk.

So let's talk about flight, or more appropriately hawks. The hawk is a mech that can transform into a plane and it can be devastating. It comes with a load of swarm missiles and a gun with unlimited ammo. In mech form you can jump, stomp, walk and shoot your gun and missiles. It appears to be basically impervious to rifle fire and the driver appears to be mostly protected when in mech form. (I've tried shooting the driver specifically, either it isn't possible to get a clean shot while they're moving or they were protected.)

The rocket launcher will lock on to it when in plane mode, but not in mech mode. Grenades do reasonable damage against it, but using rocket launchers is really key. It can transform quickly and boost away when in trouble.

So as for health, there is no bar or anything showing your health, however the screen appears to be cracked the more damage you take and if you're flying you can sometimes see your own wings on fire.

The movement in mech form is slow; however, you can grab the flag and then board a hawk. Trying to run the flag back in mech mode is kind of like running the flag in a tank in Warhawk. It is big, it is slow, and you feel like a sitting duck.

Just a side note, like the hawk, you cannot fly a jet pack with the flag. Keep that in mind when you grab it.

As for weapons there are air mines, swarm missiles, homing missiles and the gun as mentioned above. While you can attempt to collect barrels while flying, transforming into the mech does help a lot.

The transformation from plane to mech conserves your momentum so take that into account, or you'll over shoot and end up in the drink. Also hitting things while boosting is bad. Your hawk will go boom. Gone are the days of collision damage, best I can tell. If you hit something hard enough to damage your hawk it'll just blow up.

On acid sea, you can land on the pipes and in space you can land on the asteroids. What's truly frighting about landing on the pipes in acid sea (other than missing) is you can build some structures on those pipes, provide they are small enough.

The energy shield appears to only prevent incoming shots, hawks can fly/walk right through it.

The air mines come in packs of 4, but launch in packs of 4. They don't appear to be as powerful as they were in Warhawk; however, just like Warhawk you can keep pooping them out. They are also much smaller and harder (as there's now 4 of them) for ground troops to clear. DeadSpider points out they are magnetic now but can be removed by using the automatic scrub.

Power Ups

So how do you get these fantastic weapons? Simply fly through the appropriate floating hologram. Here's what they look like:

Swarm Missiles

Homing Missiles

Air Mines

Health

Did you know?

Today we have a couple of did you know tips, the first from @MonkeyJoe315 and the second from Seventy_X_Seven

• Did you know until there are at least 6 players no one gets rift energy from the pod beacons or home base? If you're trying to play around in pre-game, hit up those barrels.
• Did you know the proximity mines will jump from where ever you place them and attach to the enemy vehicles? Place them on the Razorback and drive by a hawk to watch it go boom. Note the mines have a 3 second delay on them so you can get away.
• Did you know during the pre-game you can't capture the flag? You can't even drop it, so don't even bother picking it up.

One final note, for those who are still wondering what the mine pickup looks like, here's a picture for you:

EDIT:

changed a few details based on updates from DeadSpider

StarHawk Corner - No Swimming

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Holiday

Today in the US this is Thanksgiving, or as the rest of the world knows it, Thursday. In the US it is customary to have a huge meal with friends and family followed by some kind of entertainment, American football for example. Increasingly Thanksgiving has also been a day of video games, as everyone has the day off.

So in the spirit of the holiday, I'm going to fill you up with a huge article. And stay tuned for dessert, you don't want to miss it.

Acid Sea

That's right folks, I'm doing a map analysis, at least from the ground. That means weapon locations and my own strategy.

So let's start with the map:

The Map

So let's start off with weapons. I'm not claiming this is all of them, and this is just for the ground game, but here's where you find:

1. The repair tool
2. Rifle ammo
3. Mines
4. 2 barrels
5. 3 barrels
6. 3 more barrels

Note, the map is basically symmetrical, with the exception of the mines so only 1 side is shown.

Strategy

So what I like to do on this map, is to spawn as close as possible to point A. In fact as the drop pod is coming down I'll steer it as close to A as possible. Next, I'll grab the repair tool and drop a garage at point A. Jump in the jeep and get moving, time is of the essence.

As you go past point 4, take out the two barrels, as you'll be down to 1 pip of rift energy. Keep driving up to point B and shoot all of the six barrels between point 5 and point 6. Now that you have 3 pips of rift energy, drop an outpost, aka spawn beacon. This gives you rift energy as you continue to blast away at the barrels. Now you'll be spent on rift energy, but your outpost will start feeding you some.

Wait for the barrels to respawn and shoot all 6 again. Place 3 walls at the mouth of point B and upgrade one to be a gate wall. You're now somewhat protected. Keep hitting those barrels and in no time you'll have your launch pad up, second garage, bunker, beam turret, auto turret or two and energy shield. Take care when placing these items that they do not obstruct your line of fire for the barrels or driving though this place. I usually wait till the end to put down the launching pad or garage. From here you have a great striking point to attack the enemy.

During this time having a team mate or two stay at home and build up walls around your flag is a very good idea.

Dessert

So, here's a set of did you know tips.

• Did you know you can change positions in the Razorback 4x4? Simply hold X and select the position just like you would have done in Warhawk. Why the change? Well, in Warhawk the game had to delay a dismount to see if you were pressing the button or holding it to change seats. By moving the change seats button, you can dismount as fast as you can mount.
• Did you know you can start driving or firing while still changing seats? While the animation is going you can simply start doing things instantly.
• Did you know the passenger in the Razorback can also fire? They can throw grenades and shoot, so riding shotgun isn't so bad any more.
• Did you know the pulse rifle has a scope on it? Hit L1 and it'll zoom in a little. This makes the gun a whole lot more accurate, just don't practice spray and pray.
• Did you know you can control the beam turret? Try it out, feels bad ass!
• Did you know you the auto turret has a weak spot? Look for the center of the auto turret and hit it with a sniper rifle for a 1 shot kill, or aim carefully with your rifle to take it down quickly
• Did you know you can mount a turret on a wall? Makes the wall into an offensive weapon.
• Did you know you can spawn a building while in flight in the hawk? Takes practice but if you fly low enough you can drop an auto turret in the middle of the enemy's base.