Guide: How To Play Section 8 Multiplayer

Section 8 is a new team based FPS game reminiscent of the old BF2 gameplay mixed with a little Halo. It invloves a lot of teamwork, and many funky weapons, tools and gadgets. I am not gonna spend time describing the story or anything else dealing with the singleplayer. This is an all out, exhaustive multiplayer guide.

Once you load up the game the first thing you should do is setup your graphics and most importantly, your keybinds. Once you are done, click on the “Dropship” option in the main menu to be sent to the loadout selection screen. This is where you “create” your player, much like you kit him out in BF2142, but in much more depth. I would suggest you look through the pre-made classes, but once you are done, click on one and lets get customizing. Once you click on a loadout, this is what you will see:

You will notice several things. It lists Weapons, Equipment and Modules as cusotmizable things and shows them all on the paperdoll on the right.

Before I get into the customization I am going to explain several basic things. First, you can not only jump but fly with jump jets for a very short time before they need to recharge by holding down your jump button. Second, you can use “Lock-On” by aiming at an enemy (with zoom) and pressing your use button. This will lock your reticule on them for a very short time, making sure all bullets hit. It is basically an aimbot built into the game. It might sound cheap, but there are many ways to counter it which will be discussed later on in this guide.

Loadout Customization

Let us go through the different Weapons, Equipment and Modules then.

Weapons

You can carry ANY TWO of the following weapons at the same time:

Assault Rifle

The Assault Rifle is the jack of all trades weapon. It has decent range, but becomes inaccurate at larger distances and this causes very little damage. At close range it will bypass any shielding your enemy might have and directly damage his health, causing a much faster death. Suggested for most kits.

Machine Gun

The MG is just what it sound like, with the exception that it becomes useless at more than 50ft or so, unlike most MGs in other games. At close range it also ignores shields and the very high rate of fire can kill people very quickly. It holds a LOT of bullets but as stated, the reload takes a while and should not be done under fire. In close range, superior to the AR but at medium range becomes useless. Great when coupled with the AR in a kit.

Missile Launcher

The Missile Launcher is… pretty straight forward. It makes things go boom. Extremely useful against tanks, heavy armor, the convoy and stationary turrets and enemy supply stations. Very weak against infantry. Not a primary weapon, but extremely useful and needed in a squad. Has very long range.

Pistol

The pistol seems somewhat out of place in this game. It has decent damage, but is hard to aim, and the l0w ROF makes it a waste to use with Lock On instead of an AR or a MG.

Shotgun

The shotgun is a CQB monster, just like any game. Unfortunately, there is very little CQB on the maps tested so far, but that might change. It ignores shields and close range, just like the MG and AR and is indeed highly inacurate. Anything further than slightly out of melee range make it useless. At close range 2 shots will kill people, but it is hard to aim without Lock On. Useful on a support character as it has a decent ROF and causes havok in enemy groups under fire.

Sniper Rifle

The sniper rifle has a scope with 2 zoom distances (use the mouse wheel by default to change) and can cause high damage when shields are down on an enemy. Takes about 2-3 shots to remove shields if they are around mid-strength. The very slow ROF makes it kinda useless to use with Lock On for general firing, but helps when you need those last couple of shots to land to get the kill.

Personal Note: If you use this weapon, please hand in your balls and any semblance of player skill when you Burn In.

Equipment

Just like weapons, you can carry ANY TWO of the following tools with you.

DetPack

The Det Pack is basically the C4 of BF2 and BF2142. You throw them out and they stick to various surfaces. With the press of a button, they go KABOOM and most likely kill everything around them. Very useful to plant on control points to prevent hacking and on vehicles to kill them. You can even leave mine traps along roads where tanks or the convoy may pass through and use them as remote mines.

Grenade

A somewhat untypical grenade. It combines the use of both the Claymores and the normal grenades from BF2. These things stick floors (and walls… I think) and have a small arm timer of about a second or so. After that, anything that comes close triggers it and causes some serious damage. The detonation range is pretty large however and the explosion is decently small. These are best placed around corners (so the enemy gets the explosion in the face) or used in regular combat and thrown directly at enemies for massive damage. Very useful.

Knife

The knife in Sec 8 is a little weird. It is not a one hit kill, but perhaps that has to do with the high survivability in this game and getting close not being such huge of an issue. Very fast stab, 2 hits kills enemies. Requires melee range (obviously) and bypasses shields, so any of those snipers with massive shields and little health can be one-stabbed.

Micro Sensor

This little thing is very useful. You shoot it out from your arm in an arc and it sticks to whatever it lands on. Then it scans a decently sized chunk of the surrounding area for enemies and reveals them on the minimap. Can be used on paths you know the enemy might take so you don’t have to keep looking there yourself. Early warning at control points or just shoot it into an enemy stronghold and get a scan of everything in there.

Mortar

This thing is the infantry’s nightmare. When you use it, you select your target with a reticule on the ground then shoot this baby out in a high arc. Once it reaches about 10ft above the target it explodes and releases several smaller explosive charges which cause massive damage to infantry in the area. Rather weak against Heavy Armor or vehicles though. Has a decent range too.

Repair Tool

The repair tools ia a highly underused equipment. It produces a green ray that repairs friendy units, vehicles, buildings and even yourself! This is the only way to heal your health, except by using Supply Stations. A player with this tool and the appropriate statistical packages is a great asset to the squad.

Sensor Blocker

The sensory blocker is one of the most useful tools available. When used, it removes your from the minimap, even if you are within the range of a sensory array or the Micro Sensor, players can’t “spot” you for their teammates by aiming at you for a little while and most importantly, turrets will not shoot you. This is very important when you are up against a stack of turrets around a control point you want to hack. This tools also allows whole squads to jump behind enemy lines undetected.

Passive Modules

Each player has 10 (ten) points to spread throughout the following modules. Each module has 4 possible points. Values in the stats are per point.

Armor Plating

This module increases your health. This makes it much easier to survive close quarter combat, especially with people using lock-on on you. Suggested for people who use the AR, SG and MG.

Anvil Rounds

Your bullets do more damage… pretty simple. Fully upgraded makes the Shotgun, Machinegun and Sniper Rifle extremely deadly. Rocket Launchers get a huge punch against vehicles.

Deceptor Plates

Slight increase in health, but the other stats are very important. Lock-On resitsance, when fully upgraded can seriously hamper people trying to kill you, since they can’t lock on, while you can. The Anti-Air damage reduction allows you to jump straight into enemy points protected through AA cannons, which will shred anyone without this module before he hits the ground.

Lock-On Booster

This is fairly straight forward. In makes your Lock-On last much longer and recharge a lot faster. Good for people that like fighting in CQC.

Repair Field

This module is only useful if you took the Repair Tool as an equipment. With enough points, this allows extremely fast repair of yourself and others, and even Heavy Armor, tanks, the convoy, VIP, Commando etc. This perk also increases your shields which make you last longer when being pelted from afar… usually while you repair.

Shield Booster

Pretty self explanatory. Increases your shields. Helpful for when you want to rush into others from afar without being shredded or if you want to stay at long range with a sniper rifle.

Polarity Charger

This module allows you to run faster, use your jumpjets more often and increases your shields somewhat. Best used for people who like moving around a lot or running missions.

Stealth Matrix

This module is generally used by the sneaky types. It allows much faster detection of enemies and makes turrets mostly useless against you as they will lock on and fire very slowly. Not only this but it increases your lock-on resistance as well. Combined with Deceptor Plates for example, you would be very safe from people using lock-on.

Gyro Stabilizer

This is a very nice module. The reduced recoil and increased Lock-On duration benefit the Shotgun and Machine Gun the most. The Assault Rifle and the Sniper Rifle dont benefit as much and it is pretty useless with the Rocket Launcher.

Gampelay

So what the point in multiplayer? Well, the point is to kill enemy players and capture points. You capture points by going to the console of each point and pressing your use key. You will then begin to hack it, and after the progress bar finishes you will have hacked the point. IT IS NOT YOURS YET! It takes a while for a point to change hands. You can see the point begins to blink in blue when you have hacked it, with the icons slowly filling up with your color. When it is completely full, you will capture the point. Before that however, any enemy can come up to a point and defuse it by using the console and waiting a little but, just like with hacking. Defusing however, is instant. An important thing to note is that before the point is yours, the turrets, sensory arrays and supply stations will be hostile, however the AA will become allied as soon as you hack the point, making it hard for the enemy to instantly drop in on you can capture it back. The first team to reach 1000 points win the game.

Alright, so you have set up your kit and you want to start playing? Very well. Find a server and head in. The first thing you will see is this:

Here you can select the loadout you want to use. Select the setup you created.

The next tab is the “Team” tab:

Here you can see how many players are in each team, as well as the map and who controls what. Underneat you can see your squad as well, including what your teammates are carrying for both weapons and equipment.

Next up is the “Map” tab:

Here you can set what you want to appear on your map, when you open it. I suggest showing all AA radii as well as all sensors. RED areas mean they are covered by enemy AA while GREEN mean they are covered by yours. Sensor arrays will show a green circle, with a rader arrow going around it.

Next up is the “Scores” tab, but I am going to skip that. It’s a score list… no real explanations needed here.

Now, the “DCM” tab is important:

DCM stands for Dynamic Combat Missions which are basically mini-missions that get played withing a multiplayer match.

Each mission has a Victory Point reward as well as a Counter Rewards (enemy gets the points) for completion and failure respectively. To activate these missions the team needs to aquire DCM points, which will be explained in a bit.

There are 4 different missions that can be activated:

Intelligence

A briefcase will spawn, usually near an enemy controlled point and someone from your team will need to go, pick it up (using the use key) and bring it to the dropoff point. The icons are a briefcase and a briefcase with a star next to it for the pickup and dropoff point.  You lose this mission when the time runs out.

Commando

The Commando is a walking death machine. Armed to the teeth with a rocket launcher and other heavy guns as well as more health than your entire team put together. You and your team need to assist him in his mission, which is usually capturing an enemy point. The icon for this mission is a helmet on your minimap. You lose this mission if he dies or the time runs out!

Convoy

A convoy is dropped on the shown location. It can be manned with two people, each having access to weaponry. The first one (driver) can shoot rapid fire rockets to kill both infantry and vehicles. The second person can shoot two mortars at once (see equipment section) with a very fast reload. The convoy itself is heavily armored and needs to be driven from its dropoff location to somewhere relatively close by on the map. The icons for this mission are a truck symbol and a truck with a star symbol for the destination. You lose this mission if the Convoy gets destroyed or the time runs out!

VIP

The general that gets dropped in is highly armored and armed, but needs to be escorted from the dropoff position to the target destination. The icons for this mission are a shield and a shield with a star for the destination.  You lose this mission if the VIP dies or the time runs out!

Make sure to do this missions of YOU WILL LOSE! Preventing your enemy from completing these missions is also vital, as it provides a great point boost.

Now, to explain how you get these “DCM Points” that activate these missions. In the main menu, under Dropship -> Awards you can view these:

Recognize these symbols? Yup, they are the same ones you need to unlock the missions. They are split into 4 categories, which are described below.

Assault

Recon

Siege

Support

So, you learned the basics of how to create custom classes, how points are accumulated, how to deal with missions and are now ready to head in. Generall, Section 8 plays like most other FPS games, however there are a few things you might want to know.

Burn-In

Choose a spawn point, and head down. You will be greeted with a facefull of fire as you hurl downwards. On the left side of your HUD you will see a bar that goes from WHITE to ORANGE to RED. When the bar hits ORANGE you get the option to brake. You can choose to brake late for a faster drop in or brake early for greater control of your descent. This is what the Burn-In looks like:

If you land on an enemy you will instantly kill them. If you don’t brake, or brake too late (red zone), you will not die, but when you hit the ground you will be stunned for several secons, which is deadly if done behind enemy lines.

Shields & Health

In this aspect, Section 8 plays like Halo 1. You have a shield that recharges automatically when you have not been shot for a little while, and you have health, which once depleted means your death.

This little tidbit on the top left of your HUD is your shield and health display. The sphere will deplete as your shield goes down, then the armor will start coloring read and a health bar will apear above it. Once that is depleted you die.

Overdrive

Overdrive is what you will use to get around the map most of the time. What you do to activate it is sprint. While you sprint, you will see a little gray bar on the left of your HUD charging up. Once it reaches max, you will get the option to Overdrive:

Hitting the overdrive button will activate it. You will switch to third person, holster your weapon and turn the speed dial to 11.

You will notice you do not have infinite Overdrive. The bar on the top left will deplete as you use it, and you will need to pause for a while before you can use it again. It will start recharging as soon as you stop running.

Jump Jets

By holding down the jump key you can fly for a short distance. When used from a sprint you can fly a good distance. Use to get on roofs, rocks, wreckage, etc. You only have a limited ammount of “fuel” though, and it takes decently long to recharge once used up. It is indicated by a bar on the top left of your HUD, usually below your Overdrive bar (if it is recharging).

Lock-On

This is a VERY important feature of Section 8. It basically compensates for extremely shitty hit detection heh. Once you aim at someone with your weapon zoomed, you can press the “Use” key to Lock-On. This will make your reticule follow them whereever they go and make all shots hit.

Once locked on, you can see the bar on the right side of your reticule decrease. That is the length of the Lock-On, which is very short. Once the bar is depleted you need to use normal aim to finish off your target, if he is not dead.

Once used, Lock-On needs a while to reload, indicated by this symbol on the bottom right of your HUD. Once the symbol fills up completely, Lock-On is ready for use again.

Buying Stuff

For every action you do, you receive money. Your current balance is visible under your Lock-On recharge indicator (see above image). You can press the buy button, default B, to access the menu.

In this menu you can select what you want to buy. If you have enough money, you will see a silhouette of the item appear on the ground where you are aiming. Press fire to purchase whatever you have selected. It will be airdropped a few seconds later.

You can choose from the following:

Heavy Armor

Giant. Fucking. Robot. Eats infantry. It runs a little faster than normal players but can’t sprint or fly. It can jump fairly far and the jump has a short reuse timer. It is armed with 2 miniguns which kill infantry very quickly at close range, but most importantly, it has a devastating melee attack. Pressing your “use equipment” key while in one of these things makes you punch or smash whatever is in front of you. Kills infantry in 2 hits, with a flashy finisher (but be careful, the finisher is decently long and you are NOT immune to enemy fire while performing it) and can demolish other heavy armors as well as turrets, tanks, convoys, VIPs, Commandos etc.

Tank

Not available in Beta, will provide info once game releases.

Sensory Array

The same that the Micro Sensor does, but in a much larger range. Helps to keep track of enemy movement.

Minigun Turret

Fairly weak machine gun turret. Easily killed before it even penetrates your shields, but very deadly in large groups.

Supply Depot

Heals all nearby friendly units, vehicles and buildings. Placed in the middle of a turret farm makes them nearly immune to anyone not wielding a rocket launcher. Also allows you to change kits.

AA Turret

It shoots people down that are Burning In on the location.

Anti-Personnel Turret

Not available in Beta, will provide info once game releases.

Anti-Vehicle Turret

A rocket turret. Rockets are slow, so generally useless against infantry, but deadly against vehicles and heavy armor. Especially in groups.

I think this pretty much covers everything for now. If you want to watch real gameplay of Section 8, head over to my Live Broadcast. If I am not currently broadcasting anything, click on the “On Demand” button and watch one of my previous broadcasts of Section 8. Hope this guide helps!