Quick Advice on Full Squad Build for Survival?

[Leto Atreides II]

I just want to play some survival to earn some quick achievements and see the rest of the story. But I can't even do that because even on Recruit difficulty, the game is extremely difficult (I haven't been able to finish even one mission).

All the community guides are either out of date or focused on multiplayer. I'm not interested in multiplayer at all. And the class guides are all for individual builds, not for a full team.

I would like a quick build for a highly effective full survival mode squad of four that I control all by myself. Preferably one that's fairly easy to use and doesn't take that much grinding to get.
My goal is to see the story and get as many achievements as possible as quickly and easily as possible. Thanks in advance.

[Morphic]

Heh, I can't even beat a Mission either on Soldier/Survival on Central map. I usually get towards the last ~5 minutes and die trying to get to EVAC or die waiting for a Primary Mission to Proc.

Personally I like running;

Main Char(aka you) - Assault with Grenade, Light Weapon Mastery, T1 Sensors, Vanguard Modules using a GAR-MS(switch to shotgun mode when massed/dogs) using Hollow Point and Grenade Launcher as Secondary Wep. Grenade module gives free nade every ~30 seconds; which you can toss through walls to hit STROL Eggs or whatever, and it'll upgrade your Launcher's dmg letting you 1-3 shot almost everything except Bosses.

Sonnie - Medic with Life Drone, Nano Heal, First Aid Module, Chem Bomb using GAR with FMJ and FAS as secondary. Life Drone is handy when you are getting swarmed and everything is taking hits, Heal and First Aid are self-explanatory. Though Lifedrone says it increase Revive Speed but I don't notice a difference, even when maxed. Chem Bomb I use because I always screw up using the Neutralizer module lol

Jim - Heavy Support with Targetting Systems(for dmg aura), Beta IV(for more dmg + flat increase) Safeguard(Light radius is awesome + reload speed and cone increase) Ammo Link(because I don't have anything else unlocked yet). Using Minigun with Hollow Point. Dude becomes a massive ammo hog thanks to always on Autoaim ... but the passives are amazing and the Minigun fire helps a ton in chokepoints.

King - Demolitionist with Seismic Resonator(just so I always have one available, Holers should be called A-holers since they love burrowing at ~200HP) Sentry Drone(shoots slow but IMO is worth it, has long duration) Rocket Amplifier(basically the assault grenade, just better) Mecahnic System(because why wouldn't you want this?) Using GAR-MS with FMJ and LAW as secondary.

I haven't really unlocked a lot of stuff because I've only completed a Mission once and that got me a "Bad End" cutscene lol. However I found this to be a really good comp to cover almost everything. I think the biggest problem I'm having is how the Missions take forever to spawn out. Like the Insurgant one, I'll rush it down in ~10 minutes but end up having to wait another 15+ mins just to have the second half spawn out ... which only gives me ~5 minutes to complete it.

I don't know, maybe try that? I'd imagine it would facetank Recruit since I basically blow through Soldier; except with certain Boss waves/spawns.

[V0lcanF1re]

First recommend level up your bots rank & suit, by any mean necessary.
for better skills\gear to use on the field.
push to victory but you can fail some on the way, that's how learning...

Planning to play with tactical 'slow' mode or fast key control?

watch a Colonial Marines assault on Science:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=898323690

Marksman, Medic, Heavy Support, Assault

The Real Fun is with Friends in Online Coop fight for survival

What will telling you here can be changed depends on your playstyle: fast explosive planted, alot of bullets storm spray...
and the items you find on Tharsis Field can effect your Victory or Defeat.

Good Luck Marine! Stay

[Leto Atreides II]

Few months later, still no good advice. Setzway, I appreciate the response but since you yourself said you were unsuccessful in the game, I'm a bit hesitant to take your advice.

V0lcanF1re, since you level up each suit individually I'd need to know what to level up before I level them up. I guess you're recommending Marksman, Medic, Heavy Support, and Assault. But I'd need more details, like which skills to pick.

I have no interest in playing multiplayer. I don't want to get into this game. I want to knock off some easy achievements and finish the story before I uninstall it. I prefer playing slow tactically but I'll do whatever works.

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Few months later, still no good advice. Setzway, I appreciate the response but since you yourself said you were unsuccessful in the game, I'm a bit hesitant to take your advice.

That's fine, I get that.

However after playing more I've beaten Central on Soldier ~7 times with pretty much the same setup. Turns out I wasn't playing that well and actually needed to dial it back a bit becasue I was overextending. Now I reliably get to Wave 20 each and every time. Whether I actually EVAC and survive is another story lol.

I also learned that some of the Missions only spawn during the "Overrun" phase and have set enemy spawns. Like rescuing Tyler Hunt, you have to do multiple "holdouts" with him and face 2 bosses, all while in the Overrun phase. Then fight your way to EVAC but right when you are within ~10m of the ship; 5 Hellspawn unburrow and rush you down. Another mission has you face an Insurgent that wants to be Kerrigan from StarCraft; so she'll blink all over the place and do janky ♥♥♥♥ ... while spawning Bosses. So ... yeah the game seems very unfriendly toward Single Player people. Even with Tactical Mode; an Online Game is usually waaay more efficient since you could have covered the map much faster and have significantly more stuff. Plus you don't have to babysit any bots and you aren't chewing through Ammo thanks to Auto-Aim. Not to mention you can actually set up traps and stuff.

TLDR: I've beaten Soldier a few times since then. I ended up swapping out the Heavy's Ammo Link for Suppressive Fire, Demolistionist's Seismic Resonator with the Smart Grenade, Medic's Chem Bomb with Critical Shot and Assault's Vanguard to Ammonite. I also played around with some of the Primary Weapons.

So *shrugs* try my advice or don't. Either way you might just need to get better at the game. I had to; the hard way. Had some real hair pulling moments at times and, honestly, even the MP games I got into weren't that much of a difference in terms of enjoyment. If you want a Tactical game with Story achievements; check out Infested Planet; much better gameplay IMO.

[Leto Atreides II]

Originally posted by Setzway:

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Few months later, still no good advice. Setzway, I appreciate the response but since you yourself said you were unsuccessful in the game, I'm a bit hesitant to take your advice.

That's fine, I get that.

However after playing more I've beaten Central on Soldier ~7 times with pretty much the same setup. Turns out I wasn't playing that well and actually needed to dial it back a bit becasue I was overextending. Now I reliably get to Wave 20 each and every time. Whether I actually EVAC and survive is another story lol.

I also learned that some of the Missions only spawn during the "Overrun" phase and have set enemy spawns. Like rescuing Tyler Hunt, you have to do multiple "holdouts" with him and face 2 bosses, all while in the Overrun phase. Then fight your way to EVAC but right when you are within ~10m of the ship; 5 Hellspawn unburrow and rush you down. Another mission has you face an Insurgent that wants to be Kerrigan from StarCraft; so she'll blink all over the place and do janky ♥♥♥♥ ... while spawning Bosses. So ... yeah the game seems very unfriendly toward Single Player people. Even with Tactical Mode; an Online Game is usually waaay more efficient since you could have covered the map much faster and have significantly more stuff. Plus you don't have to babysit any bots and you aren't chewing through Ammo thanks to Auto-Aim. Not to mention you can actually set up traps and stuff.

TLDR: I've beaten Soldier a few times since then. I ended up swapping out the Heavy's Ammo Link for Suppressive Fire, Demolistionist's Seismic Resonator with the Smart Grenade, Medic's Chem Bomb with Critical Shot and Assault's Vanguard to Ammonite. I also played around with some of the Primary Weapons.

So *shrugs* try my advice or don't. Either way you might just need to get better at the game. I had to; the hard way. Had some real hair pulling moments at times and, honestly, even the MP games I got into weren't that much of a difference in terms of enjoyment. If you want a Tactical game with Story achievements; check out Infested Planet; much better gameplay IMO.

Now that you've succeeded, I'm more than willing to look at your suggestions. What powerup combos do you use (if any)? Also does it matter if your main guy is assault or if another guy is assault? B/c I leveled up heavy support the most on my main guy (this is why I needed a build BEFORE I started playing).

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Now that you've succeeded, I'm more than willing to look at your suggestions. What powerup combos do you use (if any)? Also does it matter if your main guy is assault or if another guy is assault? B/c I leveled up heavy support the most on my main guy (this is why I needed a build BEFORE I started playing).

Nah I don't think it matters who is what. I personally mained Assault because of the Grenade module I was using and, at the time, Vanguard module's Taunt would, IMO, be too hard to utilize with a bot. If you mained Heavy then make a bot Assault; just remember he can fire Grenades now and then lol. Though I'd probably not give it a Grenade Launcher secondary since they won't fire it; you'd need to babysit and manually use it. Instead maybe try one of the Shotguns and pass him Special Ammo now and then; might want to swap out the Grenade module for Shotgun. IMO, Shotguns are pretty great dealing with enemies after Wave 15 and especially the Dog types.

Power Ups - I mostly stuck with Ammo Boosters since, IMO, more damage = faster enemy death = better survival. However you should definately pay attention to your Movespeed! IMO, don't let your Movespeed drop below ~4.3 since you'll basically be unable to outrun anything. Granted most of the Dog type enemies will be able to catch you at 4.3 MS; you'll still be able to outrun almost anything else via Sprint.

I pretty much loaded 3 Ammo Booster on my Medic and Assault and gave my Heavy and Demo 1-2 Ammo Booster; depending on their Stats. My Heavy is at 4.1 MS but with my current playstyle that isn't so much a problem since I have it move out before everyone else.

OH, maybe swap out the Medic's Primary for the SMG. I couldn't come to a conclusive opinion whether it helped with surviving or not. The SMG's resistence reduction seemed totally awesome but I didn't really notice much of a difference in practice. Half the times I use it, other half it's been GAR.

Overall I think it ultimately comes down to general playstyle and just getting experience playing the game. I looked at many of the, long outdated, guides and tried emulating them ... most things didn't click for me and found it worse than what I was doing. Though I think Ranks make a massive difference. Those small bonuses really stack up once you hit Rank 10+; you may just want to tool around in Rookie Difficulty to gain easy XP to earn Ranks.

TLDR: Power Ups; I just use Ammo Booster(flat dmg one) just be sure not to reduce your Move Speed below 4.2, some people use 3 of em others use 1-2. Shouldn't matter what guy is what Class; just remember to actually use their kit. You may want to swap out the Grenade module for Shotgun on a Bot Assault because it'd be a pain to constantly babysit it while it using the Grenade Launcher. Though the Grenade active skill isn't that much of a hassle to pause and throw out.

[Leto Atreides II]

Originally posted by Setzway:

TLDR: Power Ups; I just use Ammo Booster(flat dmg one) just be sure not to reduce your Move Speed below 4.2, some people use 3 of em others use 1-2. Shouldn't matter what guy is what Class; just remember to actually use their kit. You may want to swap out the Grenade module for Shotgun on a Bot Assault because it'd be a pain to constantly babysit it while it using the Grenade Launcher. Though the Grenade active skill isn't that much of a hassle to pause and throw out.

Thanks for the tips. I tried your advice, but have not had luck so far. I tried one real game and basically have no trouble until around wave 12-13 when I get wiped out. It seems like it takes both grenades and both rockets to kill one big guy, and there are usually more than one of them. This is on Recruit. Maybe I'm not putting enough points into the right skills. You can max two skills and dabble in the other two. What should be my point distribution priorities?

These skills also seem to be of limited use b/c things close to melee range so quickly. But even when I do get them off, it take 3-4 attacks to kill one boss at wave 13 on recruit. This is with about 70-80% of the energy things picked up and power consoles activated.

A single game takes forever - like 3 hours to play a single 50 minute game (b/c of constant pausing to give orders). It's a terrible way to get XP. Instead, I've been mostly AFK grinding to gain levels. I start a game with all the difficulty boosting options enabled, then alt tab and play something else while my marines die. Then I alt tab back and restart it. I get about 200 XP each time, every few minutes. Way more XP than playing for real. I have all 4 suits you picked maxed out at Aetriden Force Specialist, and my overall rank is First Lieutenant (16/25). Is this enough or do I need a much higher level to pull this off?

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Thanks for the tips. I tried your advice, but have not had luck so far. I tried one real game and basically have no trouble until around wave 12-13 when I get wiped out. It seems like it takes both grenades and both rockets to kill one big guy, and there are usually more than one of them. This is on Recruit. Maybe I'm not putting enough points into the right skills. You can max two skills and dabble in the other two. What should be my point distribution priorities?

I've been playing on Soldier and, yeah Wave 12-13 is when things start getting real. By "big guy" I'm taking it you mean Boss monsters. Yeah for most of them you are going to need both Rocket + Grenade and later multiple Rockets or Grenade. Grenades tend to get outclassed by Rocket in terms of flat damage but since their skill CD is faster I like them. Plus they can help out with lesser mobs. IMO you need to use the consumable explosives you find; like those Bunker and Plasma bombs. You set up a small trap by dropping a Bomb + Satchel, lure the boss to be closest to the center, then detonate the satchel or use a Rocket/Grenade.

As for skill priorities;

Assault - 1 point Grenade, 1 point Ammonite first. Then 1 point T1 Sensors(you can drop sensors if you want, I just like their sight bonus and Seismic dmg) and 1 point Light Weapons. Once each skill has 1 of each; I then drop 2 more points into Ammonite, 2 points Grenade, Max Light weapons. Any points left over I usually put into Ammonite or Grenade. Only put 1 point in T1 sensors, you never need more than that.

Demo - Basically 1 in everything first. I make Mechanic 2, juggle Drone and Rocket until Rocket is maxed then drop points into Grenade. Feel free to swap Grenade for something else if you find it not helping. I constantly use it so...

Medic - First Aid and Nano Heal 1 point. I then get First Aid to rank 3 asap, then bring Heal to 3. Drop 2 points into Critical and the rest into Life Drone.

Heavy - 1 point Beta and Safeguard. 1 point in Targetting, 1 point Beta, Max Safeguard, 1 point Supress, Max Targetting. Then I usually dump rest into Supress.

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

These skills also seem to be of limited use b/c things close to melee range so quickly. But even when I do get them off, it take 3-4 attacks to kill one boss at wave 13 on recruit. This is with about 70-80% of the energy things picked up and power consoles activated.

Yeah things tend to close the gap really fast, especially dog types. Like I said before, you'll need to use "traps" and the consumable explosives in conjunction with your skills to take out Bosses fast. Try to find items that will improve your weapons or abilities. There's a LAW upgrade item that will drastically increase it's damage and give it a Directional Explosive effect.

Also try "fast swapping". I.e. you use the Demo's Rocket Skill and taget a boss, then immediately switch to their LAW secondary and fire a Rocket. If you used Tactical Pause you should end up having 2 Rockets hitting within 1-2 seconds of each other. The downside is you need to wait the ~5 seconds for the LAW to reload before you can fire again. Plus you'll need to keep tabs on your Special Ammo.

Feel free to swap skills out and try different stuff. I mean your playstyle could be fundamentally different than mine and thus my choices aren't efficient for you. Recently I've swapped Assaults Grenade to Shotgun and bring a FAS as Secondary along with my Medic having a FAS. When lots of stuff get in Melee I have them switch to their Shotguns.

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

A single game takes forever - like 3 hours to play a single 50 minute game (b/c of constant pausing to give orders). I've been mostly AFK grinding to gain levels. I have all 4 suits you picked maxed out at Aetriden Force Specialist, and my overall rank is First Lieutenant (16/25). Is this enough or do I need a much higher level to pull this off?

Whoa, that's way higher level than me for Suit Rank lol. I still have ~10 levels to go on my main Suits and my Overall Rank is ~15. IMO you should be able to win, espeically on Recruit with those Ranks.

Personally it takes me about ~60 minutes to finish a single game maybe a little more but definately not 3 hours. From what I'v seen; doing objectives and some side ones then going on to actually Win or EVAC nets you major bonus XP. It seems EVAC'ing rather than dying is better than just doing a lot and dying. I ended up playing until Wave ~8-10, by then you should have found an EVAC; then I just EVAC -> "Win" -> Bad End -> More XP than dying, took ~20 minutes.

But whatever works out for you. You seem to have much more XP than I do at this point lol. It would be nice if others chimed in to help you out since it's looking like my advice isn't helping.

[Leto Atreides II]

Originally posted by Setzway:

Whoa, that's way higher level than me for Suit Rank lol. I still have ~10 levels to go on my main Suits and my Overall Rank is ~15. IMO you should be able to win, espeically on Recruit with those Ranks.

Personally it takes me about ~60 minutes to finish a single game maybe a little more but definately not 3 hours. From what I'v seen; doing objectives and some side ones then going on to actually Win or EVAC nets you major bonus XP. It seems EVAC'ing rather than dying is better than just doing a lot and dying. I ended up playing until Wave ~8-10, by then you should have found an EVAC; then I just EVAC -> "Win" -> Bad End -> More XP than dying, took ~20 minutes.

But whatever works out for you. You seem to have much more XP than I do at this point lol. It would be nice if others chimed in to help you out since it's looking like my advice isn't helping.

Hmm, I never tried evacing before because I thought the whole point was to finish the story mission. I also disable secondary objectives and point capture so I can focus on the story mission. I figured if I can't even beat the main story mission, why bother with even more stuff?

And yeah, I wish more people would give advice, but it seems that you're the only one still playing this game lol.

I'll try your point distribution and other tips and see what happens.

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Hmm, I never tried evacing before because I thought the whole point was to finish the story mission. I also disable secondary objectives and point capture so I can focus on the story mission. I figured if I can't even beat the main story mission, why bother with even more stuff?

Yeah I feel that. I would have disabled Secondaries as well if I didn't see there were Achievements for them. For some you need to complete the Primary Story one and 2+ Secondary objectives too. To make things worse; they can screw you over. I.e. you have to disarm a Nuke guarded by 10+ enemy Soldiers; if you don't do it in time the Nuke goes off. If you manage to survive; it permanently disables all Turrets or Power Consoles.

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

I'll try your point distribution and other tips and see what happens.

Hey, good luck. I hope it helps or at least points you in a good direction. If you still can't win or are having major issues ... I don't think I'd be able to help you any further; sorry. :/

[Katitoff]

One advise from me if you still try to level up something.

Do Capture Objective mission ONLY, either on recruit or soldier, whatever you feel confortable with.

They end around 10-12 wave, depending on how fast you do it and net 6-7k exp on soldier.

[Leto Atreides II]

Originally posted by Setzway:

Hey, good luck. I hope it helps or at least points you in a good direction. If you still can't win or are having major issues ... I don't think I'd be able to help you any further; sorry. :/

There might actually be quite a lot of things you could help me with. I still have a lot of questions. But honestly I haven't made another real attempt since the last one since I keep figuring why try now when I can try later when I'm higher rank after more AFK grinding.

Well, a couple of my biggest questions. First, how important is it to get all the energy orbs and power switches? Usually, when I die, I get caught offguard while I'm busy trying to get the last few orbs and switches on the map, cuz I figure I need all of them to beat the mission.

Second, how important are bonus/secondary/point capture missions to helping with killing stuff? I think they each have some sort of reward/bonus/buff that might help you out. Like I said, I usually turn them off so I've never had a chance to look at them closely. So I only have the bonus missions - clicking marine/veteran corpses, clicking sentry turrets, and blowing up STROL substances. I don't think I ever managed to complete any of the bonuses except the sentry turret one. I really don't know how much of a priority they are or what kind of buffs they give (except the sentry turret one which is kind of useless).

I have other questions but let's start with those two. Incidentally, I tried some multiplayer. Apparently, you can have up to 8 people in a multiplayer game. So in solo survival, you only have half the marines you're supposed to have? No wonder it's so hard. They should scale the difficulty down by half since you only have half the marines. Anyway, the one MP game I played went really badly, we only made it to wave 3 or so before we wiped. We were all nubs. I probably brought the wrong class/loadout too.

[Katitoff]

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Originally posted by Setzway:

Hey, good luck. I hope it helps or at least points you in a good direction. If you still can't win or are having major issues ... I don't think I'd be able to help you any further; sorry. :/

There might actually be quite a lot of things you could help me with. I still have a lot of questions. But honestly I haven't made another real attempt since the last one since I keep figuring why try now when I can try later when I'm higher rank after more AFK grinding.

Well, a couple of my biggest questions. First, how important is it to get all the energy orbs and power switches? Usually, when I die, I get caught offguard while I'm busy trying to get the last few orbs and switches on the map, cuz I figure I need all of them to beat the mission.

Second, how important are bonus/secondary/point capture missions to helping with killing stuff? I think they each have some sort of reward/bonus/buff that might help you out. Like I said, I usually turn them off so I've never had a chance to look at them closely. So I only have the bonus missions - clicking marine/veteran corpses, clicking sentry turrets, and blowing up STROL substances. I don't think I ever managed to complete any of the bonuses except the sentry turret one. I really don't know how much of a priority they are or what kind of buffs they give (except the sentry turret one which is kind of useless).

I have other questions but let's start with those two. Incidentally, I tried some multiplayer. Apparently, you can have up to 8 people in a multiplayer game. So in solo survival, you only have half the marines you're supposed to have? No wonder it's so hard. They should scale the difficulty down by half since you only have half the marines. Anyway, the one MP game I played went really badly, we only made it to wave 3 or so before we wiped. We were all nubs. I probably brought the wrong class/loadout too.

1) You don't need ALL energy orbs or power generators, but each generator increases mitigation by 1% and each energy orb increases damage dealt by 0,5% and it adds up over time.
2) Different secondaries grant different rewards, but collecting marines increases health by 5 per marine for team, destroying strols decrease opponents HP by 0,5% with "reward" of exp and even greater hp decrease for bossess I believe and other secondaries, as in side missions, grant different bonuses or prevent penalties. Activating sentries does nothing more then activates all remaining on the map once you turn on 20
3) Difficulty DOES scale, up to 4 players and up to 8 players. Survivals tactical mode grants you huge advantage, but if you want to play mp, go either for 4 or 8 player games, you can play 2 player games, but you'll have a bot to control and micro can get too intensive after wave 13.

[Morphic]

Originally posted by Katitoff:

Originally posted by Leto Atreides II:

Well, a couple of my biggest questions. First, how important is it to get all the energy orbs and power switches?

Second, how important are bonus/secondary/point capture missions to helping with killing stuff?

1) You don't need ALL energy orbs or power generators, but each generator increases mitigation by 1% and each energy orb increases damage dealt by 0,5% and it adds up over time.

2) Different secondaries grant different rewards, but collecting marines increases health by 5 per marine for team, destroying strols decrease opponents HP by 0,5% with "reward" of exp and even greater hp decrease for bossess I believe and other secondaries, as in side missions, grant different bonuses or prevent penalties. Activating sentries does nothing more then activates all remaining on the map once you turn on 20.

This sums it up nicely, IMO. While you don't need those energy orbs and activating power generators ... they do stack up and help out. I usually shoot for at least ~10 energy orbs and ~12 power generators. However I won't drastically go out of my way or otherwise put myself in a horrible position to get them. The few times I do are because the risk is worth it, IMO; like when there's ~5 energy orbs in a dead end building ... I'll go for them knowing that I could die fighting my way out.

Though those STROL substances/Eggs are very worth destroying. When you get them all it will lower Bosses Total HP by 20% which is, IMO, huge. On top of lowering "normal" enemy HP by ~10%.

The "Activate Turrets" and "dead Marines" are, IMO, ones where they are nice to get but not really worth going out of your way for. Making all Turrets active can help you out since most enemies will ignore them despite getting shot at. However they don't make a big difference.

IMO, it's the other "side missions" that can really help you out. For example; there is a mission where you need to find all the Parts to a Reaper Turret. Once you do, you need to bring those parts to a specific building; when you do, you'll get a placeable Reaper Turret. That thing is a monster for DPS. Put it in a good spot with a couple of normal turrets and the thing will just rip everything but Bosses apart really fast.

TLDR: IMO, it overall comes down to playstyle and what you think is worth it or not. I think getting ~10 Energy Orbs and Power Generators is "good enough", anything more is a bonus. STROL eggs/substances is, IMO, almost a must for you to do; its bonus is just so good. Marines, Turrets, etc. is nice but you shouldn't endanger yourself for them. IMO, the only major Secondary you should worry about is clearing Snatcher/Holer Nests and sealing Tunnels since those can really screw you over.

[Leto Atreides II]

Originally posted by Katitoff:

1) You don't need ALL energy orbs or power generators, but each generator increases mitigation by 1% and each energy orb increases damage dealt by 0,5% and it adds up over time.
2) Different secondaries grant different rewards, but collecting marines increases health by 5 per marine for team, destroying strols decrease opponents HP by 0,5% with "reward" of exp and even greater hp decrease for bossess I believe and other secondaries, as in side missions, grant different bonuses or prevent penalties. Activating sentries does nothing more then activates all remaining on the map once you turn on 20
3) Difficulty DOES scale, up to 4 players and up to 8 players. Survivals tactical mode grants you huge advantage, but if you want to play mp, go either for 4 or 8 player games, you can play 2 player games, but you'll have a bot to control and micro can get too intensive after wave 13.

Wow, never knew that about strols. Good to know, I'm going to start blowing them up a lot more now. What is the 10/10 reward for marine corpses and 4/4 reward for veterans do you know?

I finally managed to finish some capture only missions. Yay! But XP was like 2.5k-3.5k on soldier (not much more than the XP for dying in a full failed game), which isn't great compared to what I get AFK (about 6-9k/hour afk), since it takes me like 40-60 minutes since I pause a lot. Are you enabing some sort of buff to get 5-6k? Like fast mode or certain maps?

Good to know that difficulty scales so I'm not at a disadvantage missing 4 marines.

Originally posted by Setzway:

This sums it up nicely, IMO. While you don't need those energy orbs and activating power generators ... they do stack up and help out. I usually shoot for at least ~10 energy orbs and ~12 power generators. However I won't drastically go out of my way or otherwise put myself in a horrible position to get them. The few times I do are because the risk is worth it, IMO; like when there's ~5 energy orbs in a dead end building ... I'll go for them knowing that I could die fighting my way out.

Though those STROL substances/Eggs are very worth destroying. When you get them all it will lower Bosses Total HP by 20% which is, IMO, huge. On top of lowering "normal" enemy HP by ~10%.

The "Activate Turrets" and "dead Marines" are, IMO, ones where they are nice to get but not really worth going out of your way for. Making all Turrets active can help you out since most enemies will ignore them despite getting shot at. However they don't make a big difference.

IMO, it's the other "side missions" that can really help you out. For example; there is a mission where you need to find all the Parts to a Reaper Turret. Once you do, you need to bring those parts to a specific building; when you do, you'll get a placeable Reaper Turret. That thing is a monster for DPS. Put it in a good spot with a couple of normal turrets and the thing will just rip everything but Bosses apart really fast.

TLDR: IMO, it overall comes down to playstyle and what you think is worth it or not. I think getting ~10 Energy Orbs and Power Generators is "good enough", anything more is a bonus. STROL eggs/substances is, IMO, almost a must for you to do; its bonus is just so good. Marines, Turrets, etc. is nice but you shouldn't endanger yourself for them. IMO, the only major Secondary you should worry about is clearing Snatcher/Holer Nests and sealing Tunnels since those can really screw you over.

Is there any way to see how many energy orbs/power consoles you've gotten?
And is there any way to close the spawn points in the subway stations where I don't see anything above ground to blow up?

New question, how do you deal with Hellspawns? It moves ridiculously fast, so I can't kite it. And by the time I know it's there, it's already on me, so it's not like I can set a trap for it. The SHIVA doesn't seem to work very well. I think the idea is to get one marine with the shiva near the hellspawn while the other 3 get very far away. I can't seem to do that, and can't think of a way to do that. The thing moves way too fast, and like I said, you don't know it's there until it's on you. The setup I have doesn't have a root/snare and even if it did I don't think it's enough to get 3 guys really far from it. Also, I can't get the teleporter to work. I left click on it and click on my marine, then another marine to teleport and all it does it walk to that marine. If I left click on it then click on the target marine, it does the same thing.