Battlefield 2 Chopper Guide by Budzilla v1.03 28/09/2005 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Introduction: Battlefield 2 has been out for a while, yet there are many people new to the game who are mearly getting their feet wet. Unfortunately that means they are inexperinced with flying helicopters. Helicopters are easily the make or break unit of any game(in publc servers at least). This guide is intended to help get new players up to speed on the basics of flying and fighting, despite the complete lack of documentation that came with Battlefield 2. Please take time to read this guide if you are new to BF2 AND don't say, "No Duh!" There are plenty of players who make mind boggling stupid decisions while flying. Dont't forget to enjoy yourself! **Update** I want to thank the overwhelming positive response that I have received. I only got 3 positive emails and no hate mail however from that I conculde that my guide has gone over well. This 1.03 update will be necessary due to fundamental changes in the mechanics of gameplay the patch with the same number introduced. CONTENTS 1. FLYING a)Getting Started i-Control Set Up ii-Other Stuff Which Is Helpful iii-Creating A Game b)Flying Around i-Takeoff ii-Level Flight iii-Turning iv-Landing v-Strafe vi- Challenges 2. FIGHTING a)Take Off b)Evading Income Fire c)Gunning d)Attack Helicopter Weapons i-TV Missile ii-20mm Cannon iii-Unguided Rockets e)Transport Helicopter Weapons i-Minigun ii-.50 Cal 3. REVISE THESE IMPORTANT NOTES 4. OTHER TACTICS a)Character Classes for attack choppers b)Flag Whoring aka Flag Skipping, Stat Farming i- Character Classes ii- Tactics c)Kamakazi!!! 5. THREATS 6. THE HELICOPTERS a)Attack b)Transport 7. Special Thanks 8. Mistakes, corrections and adding other information 9. About the Author 10. Version History 1. FLYING a)Getting Started i-Control Setup W - Increase Motor Speed S - Decrease Motor Speed A - Turn Left D - Turn Right X - Drop Flares / \ | | Mouse Foward - Tilt Nose Down | | ______________ Left Mouse Button- Fire / \ Right Mouse Button - / \ Change Weapon | | | | Mouse Right - Mouse Left - | | _______________________> Slide Chopper Left | | <______________ | |Slide Chopper Right | | | | | | |_________________| | | | Mouse Backwards - Tilt Nose Up | | \ / **Note** If you inverse the Mouse in Settings then pushing the mouse foward will tilt the nose foward and visa versa. ii-Other Stuff Which Is Helpful RAM: Get 2gigs of the stuff! I noticed a huge improvement in loading times when I upgraded from 1 gig. With less disk swapping going on, you will have a smoother flight Video Settings: Crank up that draw distance to the maximum! Headset: VOIP rocks and you know it! It easier to say to your pilot, "AA GUNS TO OUR LEFT!!" than to type it out. Spend some cash on a headset and you will get alot more out of Battlefield 2 Patience: Take your time and be prepared to die alot. You won't be a good pilot overnight or in a week but keep at it and you will get loads of Gold stars to impress people of the opposite sex iii-Creating A Game OK. First of all we need a practice arena. Don't practice online because this will make you very unpopular. Click on Multiplayer tab at the top of the screen and select "Create Local". Find a large map(64 players) like Dragon Valley. b)FLYING AROUND i-Takeoff Okay press and hold the "W" key to spin up your motor. After sometime the chopper will begin to liftoff, for the moment gain height. ii-Level Flight OK, to go straight ahead, tilt the nose of the chopper downwards slightly, notice that you are going foward. The same principle applies to flying backwards. Maintain motor speed and tilt backwards. DON'T be aggresive with how much you tilt the chopper otherwise you will be a smoking hole in the ground. Treat the chopper like a baby for the time being. **NOTE**When flying you will have to be giving constant adjustments with the mouse even in level flight iii-Turning Once you master flying straight ahead it's time to turn. Press and hold either the "A" or "D" keys to turn in whatever direction you wish to head to. You will notice that you will start to lose height in most cases. Use the mouse to keep the nose from dipping too much. iv-Landing Decrease motor speed, slow the chopper down to 40Km/h or less. Keep the helicopter level with ground (and make sure the ground is level!). When you are a metre or so above tilt your nose back slightly and I mean only a fraction! At all times you should be holding down the "S" key so your landing can be as smooth as possible. v-Strafe To strafe move the mouse to the left or right SLIGHTLY! If you continue to move the mouse it will roll over and crash. Make sure you are holding the increase motor speed button With flying the best way to get better is to practice and practice and practice. Did I say practice? I'm not joking either. Fly through streets, next to buildings along roads in a forest. vi- Challenges If you think you are good, try the following obstacles (64 Player maps). All are possible and if you can't do them, you will not make much of a pilot online: -The large circular tunnel under Kubra Dam -Most warehouses can be entered where there is one large door on one side -The TV station at Sharqi Peninsula. Take off with the Cobra and fly under the construction site bar that's connecting the two buildings -Hover under a carrier! These are pretty easy themsevles. 2.FIGHTING a)Take-off If you are unfortunate to be a victim of spawn camping, take-off is very difficult. You have two options jump in and spin like crazy(hold "A" or "D") if a sniper with an M95 is in the area or a Special Op guy is trying to plant C4 on you. Just pray no team mates are on the helipad OR find and kill the SOB who is making life difficult. b)Evading Incoming Fire This is the second most important part of this guide(behind flying naturally). Make no mistake about it, helicopters are fragile and can easily be shot down with a .50 calibre weapon. What to do?: **Submission by L1b3rat0r** -When attacking a vehicle that sees you and fires back, try to fly in a random approach pattern while descending, and slow down so you can land 4-6 rockets in a pass -Fly low! Fly so low try and not fly above tree top level. If they can't see you then they can't hit you therefore can't hurt you! A stinger might be looking up in the air for you while you are skulking near the ground. You might point out that flying high gives you visibilty of the action and you can hit you targets from afar. That's true but everyone can see you also hitting targets from afar is difficult. Also multiple ground AA guns will engage you. It is easy to escape one hostile AA gun. But more difficult to escape 3. Jets are a different story but they can fly so fast and escape the threat so quickly it doesn't matter for them. Tree top level at highest!!! -Use as much cover as possible. Trees, hills, large buildings. Not only this can break lock of the missiles but guns won't be able to hit you either -Make a firing run on your target and when you return come from another direction which is unexpected -Circle Strafe! This is where you are flying in circles around a target and you ALWAYS have your nose (therefore your guns) pointed at the target. To do this move hold the "W" key and either "A" or "D" Then slide the chooper in the opposite direction you are turning. It is easier than it sounds. When firing rockets in attack choppers always aim the rockets slightly to the left of the target if your are circling right and visa versa -If you have a lock on warning in your cockpit and you are certain the enemy is a hostile jet. Find cover or even better beam the enemy. What is beaming? Where the enemy is flying towards you at your 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock position. So think of a side on collision with a car and you pretty much have it. The advantages of this move is that the aircraft will have a hard time getting a lock on you because you are crossing their HUD too quickly for them and their missiles will have to turn really hard to get you. -As you get better try to fly faster -When flying transport choppers when you see multiple APCs and tanks - RUN!! -NEVER EVER SOLELY RELY ON YOUR FLARES to escape threats. A machine gun or cannon can still shoot you down and a skilled air defence solider can fire his missiles after the flares you dropped are no longer effective c)Gunning Good aim, fire power and alignment of the planets might help when shooting down foes while you (whether you are in the pilot or gunner seat). OBSERVATION SKILLS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT WHEN SHOOTING DOWN ENEMIES!!!! You might think that's BS. I've flown in Blackhawks where the players on the minigun failed to fire a single round at a TOW missile or Stinger site. I've yelled at them over VOIP, "!$#@ HELL. YOU #!@#($#@ shoot the Stinger it is right infront of you. Less than 10 metres away!" To replies of, "I didn't see it! Not my fault." Yes its your fault if the pilot is giving you targets to hit but you fail to even fire your gun. This is differnet from missing your target because the opposition of course does not want to be killed. When you are a gunner you have a much better visibilty then your pilot. ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR TARGETS. This is especially true at enemy spawn points. Keep your pilot informed of any threats that can shoot you down. Lead Targets! If a target is moving aim slightly ahead of it of where its travelling. While this doesn't apply for guns(they are instant hit weapons), it does apply for TV missiles and unguided rockets. If you never lead a moving target you will miss most of the time. Make sure that cannon doesn't overheat. **Submission by L1b3rat0r** If the pilot comes to an almost complete stop and flies low when not at a helipad, he probably sees something he wants you to shoot. d)ATTACK HELICOPTER WEAPONS i- TV Missile The TV missile is tricky to use but instant death against anyone who it hits. The gunner of any attack chopper has access to 8 of these babies. When in the gunner position right click to switch to TV mode. A black and white screen will appear. When you have a target click on it and the missile will at that excact point. Don't fire at a target that's near the edge of the screen when the taget is less than 70 metres away or the missile will miss the target because it cannot turn in time. Also you can update the missile's impact point by double clicking in the TV view. Which makes it handy when shooting down other choppers! Also note that the white bar at the bottom of the screen indicates the missiles life span and when it runs out the missile will self-destruct. Reloading also takes a long time. **Note** The TV missile is very dodgy at times. While its automically supposed to load another after you launched one, sometimes it won't(I'm not sure if this is a bug or a design decision). So after the missile you have fired is destroyed enter TV mode again and make sure the loading sequence is taking place. **Update** The 1.03 patch seems to make the TV missile more responsive to the gunners commands. **Submission by L1b3rat0r** -The aiming reticle for the TV guided missles for the gunner is centered on the reticle for the pilot, so where the pilot points his reticle, the gunner will see the same thing in the TV guided missle reticle ii- 20mm Cannon The front of each attack chopper has a variant of these. The Chinese and American cannons are pretty much equal in terms of fire power. However the MEC chopper cannon seems extremely powerful and has lots of splash damage. This makes it very desireable especially against infantry and light vechicles. The gunner gets this weapon and mearly fires away. Be careful that you don't hold down the trigger for too long or the gun will overheat check your heat status every few seconds. **Note** Press "C" once to change view to HUD only for greater visibilty. **Update** The patch makes the cannon more effective on the China and Cobra against infantry. iii- Unguided Rockets Remember how I said fly low?? This is why. You have to point your nose at the target to hit it. Also notice how the crosshair is slighly lower than the point of impact? The rockets are not parellel but are actually aimed slightly up. Practice makes perfect. UNLOAD ALL ROCKETS in one attack run. When you get better, aim for the rear of tanks where the armour is weaker. A full 14 rocket barrage against confined enemy is very devestating. **Note** Remember to pull up when your rockets run out! **Submission by L1b3rat0r** Moving slower and lower will make your rockets hit closer to the reticles e)TRANSPORT HELICOPTER WEAPONS i- Minigun Nothing too mini about this beast. Fires an insane number of hard hitting rounds and tears up infantry like no other weapon in the game. Of course a due to its power to deter enemies it usually leads to flag whoring. Something that I love doing. Naturally the gun is mounted on the side of the blackhawk so keep giving directions to your pilot of where targets are and watch your score go up and up! However once this gun overheats it takes ages to cool down. Short bursts please. ii- .50 Cal This weapon is really only effective on stationary vechicles, since the helicopter is always moving. You can guess that this weapon is almost useless when mounted on a chopper. 3. REVISE THE IMPORTANT NOTES: -GOOD OBSERVATION SKILLS ARE A MUST -LEAD TARGETS -TRY TO FIRE IN SHORT BIRSTS when you are using cannons or side guns -USE COVER -FLY LOW -IMPROVISE no guide can cover every situation -PRACTICE AND BE PREPARED TO DIE ALOT *Submitted by SplinterRomp* 4. OTHER TACTICS a)Character Classes for attack choppers The best classes to use would be the Medic and Engineer. Chances are bullets will penetrate the cockpit glass and will seriously injure you. A medic will automatically heal you and himself. An engineer won't be able to fix their own vechicle however if there are 2 choppers around fighting together they can quickly hide and repair themselves without going back to base. Support isn't too much of a help because it takes forever to be resupplied. b)Flag Whoring aka Flag Skipping, Stat Farming This is a frowned upon practice however if you are detractor I dare you to fly a chopper around for 10 minutes without getting shot down or dying. This practice is only effective in a blackhawk, less so on a shoebox and ever worse in an attack chopper **Update** The 1.03 patch has very much put an end to this practice. Only the pilot can capture the spawn point, passengers have to hop out to speed up the capture. Not really effective in heavy combat. Of course you can make a few firing runs at the flag and thin out the oppostion then have your passengers jump out. The choice is yours. Make sure the players manning the guns DON'T leave their position otherwise you are a clay pigeon. i- Character Classes Pilot: Medic Gunners: Support and Medic Back seats: All Engineers or 2 engineers and a Special Ops Naturally the engineers are in the back repairing like crazy. THEY MUST ALWAYS BE IN THE BACK SEAT. There are 2 Medics onboard this will heal the people in the back seats very quickly and increase their life expectancy alot. While the support keeps resupplying people in the back seats with ammo. You will have noticed that instead of 3 engineers you can have 2 engineers and a Special Op. Anti-Tank classes are hopeless because it is too difficult to aim and anti tank round when flying. When you come across armour or an APC the Specail OP can drop loads of C4 on the victim(tanks and APCs cannot aim directly up) and blow them to hell! ii- Tactics Not much in the way of tactics. Except when your are taking flag, spin the helicopter slowly so the side guns can engage all targets. Also try to stay far away from the flags as possible because sneaky people usually lay loads of C4 for unsuspecting flag skippers. Also never ever land! c)Kamakazi!!! Some Blackhawk causing your team alot of grief?? Get a shoebox and place C4 on the nose. Now fly into the blackhawk. The C4 will make sure you are awarded with the kills. Can be very funny plus the other team might think twice about flying. Make sure you passengers know about this one-way flight. d)Mobile Spawn Point A transpot helicopter can fly high enough so that it is out of range heat seeking air defense on the ground. Two or three squad leaders stay in the chopper while everyone jumps out. Boring for the squad leaders but very annoying to the opposition. 5. THREATS -.50 Cal Guns. Whether mounted on a DPV or tank these guns to be utterly respected. They can shoot down a chopper in no time. Run away or destroy them as quickly as possible -IGLA/Stinger. Can shoot you down easily enough. The good news is that they are stationary and take along time to reload. The best approach to take them out when they are on a hill is to attack the site from below where the sandbags surrounding the site give it a blind spot. Then unleash your flares and rockets when you see the target. -APC or AA gun. These 2 are just as bad as eachother. Take them out or avoid altogether. TV missle works best. **Submission by L1b3rat0r** -APCS take ~4 rockets to destroy -Tanks. Some lucky player might shoot you down with the main cannon, which is not very likely. However watch out for that .50 Cal on the roof.... **Submission by L1b3rat0r** -Tanks take 5-6 rockets to destroy -Infantry. Rarely shoot down choppers. Anti tank soldiers have trouble shooting down most choppers. Don't fly low when there are Specail Ops because they have C4 to stick to the belly of your chopper. As for M95 snipers don't worry about them when you are flying. My accuracy is 57% with rifles and I've only shot a pilot out of a chopper twice whilst in flight and it was just hovering there. The rifle grenade that comes with Assault kits are a threat. 3 hits from these can shoot you down. -Aircraft. Jets are your biggest foe. Since you can fly slower, use that to your advantage. Don't bother trying to shoot down this foe. **Submitted By SplinterRomp** - Shooting down a jet can be done. Fly behind a jet that's flying straight and level and unload all your rockets. Only 2 hits are need to take down a full health jet. Make sure the jet is close. -Helicopters. An attack chopper battle will boil down to who is the better gunner. The MEC chopper has the advantage of a very powerful cannon. The best outcome would be to take out the opposing chopper with a TV missile. Try to get in close and unleash that missile! **Submission by L1b3rat0r** -IF you are engaged against a helicopter where it is behind you, tilt your nose up and fly backwards in an attempt to get behind it and straighten yourself out but; -make sure you have room -the more you tilt, the more dangerous but more effective the manuever becomes Thanks L1b3rat0r this manoeuvre is commonly called a "Cobra" 6. THE HELICOPTERS a)Attack US- AH-1 "Cobra" MEC- Mi-28 "Havoc" China- Z-10 Pilot Weapon: Rockets (14x4) Gunner Weapons: TV Missile (1x8) 20mm Cannon (China and US helicopters contain 900 rounds) 30mm Cannon (MEC chopper contains 450 rounds) Differences: The MEC chopper has a much more powerful cannon. Also it is considerably wider than the AH-1 and Z-10. So wide that if you aim perfectly with the rectile on the Mi-28 from in front or behind a Z-10 or Cobra, all the unguided rockets will miss! b)Transport US- UH-60 "Blackhawk" MEC- Mi-17 "Hip" aka shoebox China- Z-8 aka shoebox Gunner Weapons: Minigun(Blackhawk only. Infinite rounds) .50Cal(Shoebox only. Infinite rounds) Differences: There is a slight seating difference between the MEC and Chinese helicopters. The US gets the uber powerful minigun. Note that the name Shoebox is not an offical name. It is just the name me an my friends use online. 7.Thanks to these people (these are their Battlefield 2 names): adoublepa SplinterRomp -For teaching me extra stuff about flying and laying down insane challenges Dogmanslayer Some_Random_Chicken Dogtank wazzawazere -=Cpt.Killj0y=- -Shooting me down so often when I was flying and he was in a jet. Self destruction is the ultimate form of self improvement and Everybody else in 4104! L1b3rat0r thanks for sending in your suggestions! UnrealDiesel 8.Mistakes, corrections and adding other information If there are mistakes in this guide or have me write in more advice, please contact me at the email below. If you would like to add your own advice to this guide I may allow it. I WILL CREDIT YOU with what you contribute. 9. About the Author Contact email: [email protected] BF2 Name: Budzilla Clan: 4104 CPU: P4 3GHZ RAM: 2GB HDD: 80Gb VID: 256Mb Geforce 6600U (AGP) CRT: 17inch Samsung Sound: Audigy 2ZS with Logitech Z-5500 speakers and Headset Mouse/Keyboard: Microsoft basic keyboard and a MX1000 Logitech mouse Games I like: Little big Adventure 2 Falcon 4.0 and Allied Force (F4 readers would notice that;) Deus Ex 1&2 Call of Duty Rainbow 6 series Splinter Cell Series Hidden & Dangerous Series C&C Generals Enemy Territory Vampire Bloodlines: The Masquerade Commandos Series Half-Life 2 Civilization 2 10. Version History 1.0 (28/09/2005) First Release 1.03 (24/10/2005) Update for 1.03 patch Updated Intro New tactics and pointers by me Tactics Submitted by e-mail Copyright 2005 Daniel Kinna