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Guide for newbies : Overcoming Squad Culture Shock (V16)
By Chris
"Oh my god, this game is far beyond what I thought"
I know the pain, here's a simple guide.
Let's get used to Squad's gaming style.
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Created by
Chris
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Category: Gameplay Basics
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
Nov 21, 2019 @ 2:53pm
Dec 11, 2019 @ 12:57pm
12,507 Unique Visitors
240 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
People are way more friendly than you may expect 
Using microphone is what helps you get good 
It's near impossible to play One Man Army 
Occupying objective is far more helpful than camping enemy spawn 
It's not a good idea to open fire immediately upon spotting an enemy 
Sprinting too much only makes you die faster 
A low K/D ratio is really not a problem 
Special roles can have a great impact on your team 
Those who enjoys this game are who works with teammates together 
Leading Squad is extremely stressful but rewarding 
Comments
People are way more friendly than you may expect
Squad has one of the least toxic community among shooter games.

Have a question? Ask and we will answer you =D

Normally, there will be several servers dedicated for newbies. It's always a good idea to join them to make friends with people who are also new there. Joining a clan as recruit is also welcome, most of the clans playing Squad are looking for and recruiting new players.

Here are several ways to get better understandings to Squad.
  • Play in-game tutorial and practice weapon in training rage (HELPS A LOT!!!)
  • Join official forum, steam community or clan
  • Ask other players in-game

Asking other players in game is all good, keep polite and be positive and people around you will always be happy to sort your questions out!

  • Squad Leader: Normally your squad leader (SL) will be an experienced player, he will have enough knowledge to answer you. However, the job as SL is very high work load and stressful. Your SL may be busy talking to other SLs in command channel and commanding the squad. Expect delayed or no response if you have questions in the middle of gunfight.

  • Clan Members: Those people could be senior player, or even server admins. It's always a good idea to seek for advice from them. For example, I'm from [RIP], if you see players with this title when playing in our server, it's always welcome to look for help from us.

  • Server Regulars: Often see the same guy in your squad? Stay in your favorite server and make friends here, and you will realize the magic power of squad's friendly community!
Using microphone is what helps you get good
Having a headset or simply a microphone is essential

Using microphone enables you to:
  • Call out target and direct your teammate("Hostiles 2nd floor!")
  • Announce your intention ("Frags out! Breaching!")
  • Greet people and make friends with them
  • Enjoy quality sh*t talk with people you meet for the 1st time
  • Sing "Country Road"

Voice chat is what make Squad so unique, with a microphone, everyone can inform each other about the news on the battlefield immediately. Somebody saw something, and he/she announced it in the radio, squad leader acknowledges it and marks it on map. Then the whole team, 40 players know that there's a cheeky ba*tard marksman hiding on the rooftop.

This greatly improves overall situational awareness of your team, remember that in squad intel advantage is what helps you win the match. Additionally, not having a microphone is generally the No.1 reason of getting kicked from Squad or from the server.
It's near impossible to play One Man Army
This game is called "Squad" because you are going to fight with your teammates. Here comes some of the biggest differences between Squad and other traditional FPS.

  • Your reload time is relatively long, up to 4~5 seconds or more.
  • You can one shot people in the head, but so do your opponents.
  • You will bleed to death after getting shot.
  • There's no automatic health generation when taking cover.

Those are the factors which stop players from playing John Rambo style. Yes, you can still spray and mow down several people, but you must disengage and patch yourself up after getting shot back. This implies that the combat efficiency of a single rifleman will not be good, if he tries to engage multiple hostiles in the same time. What's more, getting shot means your health will drop to half or even more, and you must go find a medic or you may not survive the next gunfight.

Fighting with no friendlies will end up in 1 vs multiple, remember that shots to kill in squad is around 2~3 on body, 1 for head. It's never a good idea to play one man army, rushing enemy stronghold head-on is only giving your opponents free tickets...


Occupying objective is far more helpful than camping enemy spawn
Here are some basic match objectives in Squad:

  • Advance and Secure (AAS/RAAS) : Capture flags to win
  • Territory Control (TC) : Capture as many sectors as possible to win
  • Invasion : Push to the last flag to win / Protect the flags to win
  • Insurgency/Destruction: Protect/Destroy weapon cache to win

There are no objectives as "killing as many players as you can". Killing hostile players cause enemy team to lose 1 ticket, but capturing a flag in AAS match brings a huge differences in 60 tickets between you and enemy. So racking up kills will not help that much than capturing a flag. Remember, a downed enemy player can be revived easily, but a lost flag will be a pain in the a*s for your opponents.

Here's a common mistake made by new players. Sitting outside a capture zone and camping spawn rally / HAB can be fun, but it does not help your team. You have to physically be inside the capture zone to neutralize a flag. And spawn HAB needs 2 players to disable.

As conclusion:
  • Push into the cap! Search and destroy enemy spawn point.
  • It's okay to stop and shoot, but continue pushing in once you cleared them out.
  • Never leave your SL rushing into enemy HAB alone.

It's not a good idea to open fire immediately upon spotting an enemy
Don't be trigger happy.

Here are some general rule of thumbs for trigger discipline:
  • Don't open fire if you can't score a hit.
  • Don't open fire if your teammates don't want to draw attention.

Here are the consequences after opening fire too early:
  • Every opponents around you heard you, experienced players with earphone can tell gun type, direction or even pin-point your location. You basically lost half of the fight by revealing your position too soon.
  • Drawing attention can ruin your team's plan, don't be "that f*cking clueless blue berry" by opening fire at long distance when your team is sneaking into enemy's backyard.



If you need to shoot, make sure that at least you can score a hit! Opening fire at 500~600m with small caliber rifle only tells your enemy that you're here. Deciding when to shoot and when to not shoot is tricky, play more squad and you will be able to find that balance very soon. It's generally considered a good habit to observe before opening fire, here are the reasons:

  • You can tell if the guy you saw is with his buddies, if yes, catching them in the middle of road or open ground can cause the biggest damage.
  • Stabilize your gun, catch your breathe and aim carefully. It's always better to start engage when you have full stamina.
  • Analyze the situation, if your team is playing sneaky, will this enemy blow your cover? If no, leave him alone; if yes, prepare to open fire soon as he gets too close.

Remember what Captain McMillan said in Call of Duty:

"Kill him, or let them pass. Your call."
Sprinting too much only makes you die faster
Stay, observe and detect, estimate, choose, identify, do and evaluate.


  • Stay
    Don't hit sprint and run straight into the battle! Doing so will turn you into the easiest target. When sprinting, your field of view is reduced, you cannot check your surroundings carefully and thoughtfully. And it's very easy to miss a corner, then get shot from there by "unnoticed" and "unseen" enemy. What's worse, your stamina will be low, which reduces weapon accuracy when returning fire, making yourself even more vulnerable.

    So take your time, find a safe area to stay, then observe surroundings.

  • Observe/Detect
    Before having direct eye-contact with your opponents, you can already utilize lots of in-game mechanism to analyze the situation around you.

    Check your map, do you see hostile markers? Where? Listen to the background noise, do you hear the sqeezing track noise from that tank? Is that gunfire from enemy or friendly? Monitor your radio channel, did the Squad Leader or teammates tell you where the enemies are? Scan the horizon, do you see people wearing different color uniform running around you?

    Detecting "There are something around me" is essential for the next step.

  • Estimate
    Alright, by noisy gunfire and busy radio comms, you can tell that there are hostile forces around you. Here comes a question: What are the consequences of having them, "problems" to be precise, around you?

    For example, if you are in a tank, an enemy Rifleman or a Heavy Anti-Tank could have very different consequences. Another example, if you need to cross an open ground, the area is believed to have many hostile forces around, what could the result be, if you get caught in the middle of open, if you choose to run straight through?

    Know the situation around you, them estimate what will happen next is the key to survive.

  • Choose
    Choose available options once you realized "problems" around. Plan your approach, think different ways to complete the task.

    For example, to take over control of the house in front of you. You can either run straight in, go John-Rambo onto enemies' face. Or toss your grenade into the window, blow their s*it out. Or simply call friendly BMP in and F everyone up in the building with 30mm HE.

    List possible options, the more experience you get, the faster and more solutions you have.

  • Identify
    Once you made your list, identify the best way to meet your objective.

    For example, you need to kill a tank, which one is the best way out of all available options?
    Call LAT/HAT support, friendly IFV/Tank or Air Strike?

  • Do
    Execute your plan.

  • Evaluate
    How did it go? Did outcomes meet my requirements? Are the better ways to reduce operation costs?

    Evaluation after action can make a player grow up rapidly. By reviewing the consequences brought in by your choice, you know under what situation, what can be the best answer.
A low K/D ratio is really not a problem
Not a fast-hand player? Always feel bothered by CQB?
Don't worry, here are some essential roles in Squad for you.
  • Squad Leaders:
    They plan, they lead, they take you to victory. Your squad leader will be extremely busy marking map, talking with other squad and telling you boys where the enemies are. Normally, it's SL's job to mark target, and let squaddies do the job together.

  • Medic:
    He comes, he revives and he heals. Although the medic may not be sitting on the front line, he stops your team from losing tickets by reviving and healing people. (Don't give up when having friendlies around!) With a good medic, your Squad can be very OP because of new bleed-out mechanism.

  • Logistics Truck Driver / Helicopter Pilot:
    Those who volunteer to do logi run or fly transportation helicopters are some of the best mankind on the earth. They spend their free time running supplies for your team, letting you enjoy Run & Gun without worrying ammo and build points.

  • APC/IFV/Tank Driver/Commander:
    A good driver may be far essential than a good gunner. A good driver knows when to push in and when to retreat. They will bring you in and out from battle safely, or jump out of vehicle to repair engine and tracks.

    A good commander will keep the driver and gunner updated about everything happening around you. He directs fire for you and call out new targets, while coordinating with the driver or even other friendly units.

    Believe me, having a good driver/commander combination makes you feel like in heaven.

Look! Those people does not come face to face with enemies, but it's because of their contributions, which created such unique gaming environment of Squad.

Special roles can have a great impact on your team
Unlike Battlefield or Call of Duty, some weapon kits are limited. For example, the Heavy Anti-Tank(HAT) kit is 2 players per team, which means that only 2 in 40 players will have this kit. Wow, super rare kit, is it super powerful? Can I kill a lot of enemies with HAT kit?

Absolutely NO! these are specialized kit to do specialized jobs. As the Heavy Anti-Tank trooper, your primary mission is hunting down hostile armored vehicles. From my point of view, playing as HAT is a tough job because:

  • Your rifle often does not come with optics, you are weak with anti-infantry jobs
  • You have to sprint a lot to catch up with maneuvering vehicles
  • Enemy vehicles always show up when you ran out of ammo or stamina
  • Missing a shot costs 80 ammo points, which is fairly expensive

Some special kits need experienced user to function correctly.
Don't choose those special kits for fun, it can decide the fate of your team!

Practice them in the training range before jumping into the battle with special kits, there are too may sad stories about incorrect usage of special kit, for example:

  • Going hiking with HAT kit, leaving friendlies being F'ed by heavy armor
  • Wasting ammunition by missing targets every time
  • A squad with 2 HAT kits went super fobbing in the back (Invasion game mode)
Those who enjoys this game are who works with teammates together
Unlike other FPS, which you can SOLO a lot and have fun. The aim of Squad is making players work together, same as I mentioned above, there's no one man army in Squad. Why? Here are some good stories about teamwork to share:

  • Hoping into an IFV commander, calling out target and directing fire, then giving instructions to driver. We drive here and there, supporting friendly infantries by taking down hostile armor one by one, then raining down hell onto enemy HAB. My gunner was a new player but he told me that he had never experienced such teamwork between vehicle crew before, I he loved it so much. We became good friends immediately.

  • Joined a 8 man squad with no SL, people asked me if I can take over. Accepted and took everyone into battle, created FOB and fought hard. Won the match and other Squad Leader appreciated me to take command and responsibility. Was one of the best memories.

  • Became friends with lots of people from different countries, share daily life and sh*t talk together, singing happy birthday songs for each other....well, you never know how wonderful this community is until you joined it.

Leading Squad is extremely stressful but rewarding
The Squad Leader kit is a very special role, you have to really "direct and guide" your squad. And this is the exact reason why it's ill advised to play as SL as new player. It's highly rewarding, but also extremely stressful, not good for blood pressure and good weekend emotion.

Those made me feel exhausted
  • People not having microphone or disregarding your instructions, but crying for rally point every time they feel like to.
  • Getting a*s-kicked by the other team, people blame you for losing the match but your squad was that one which sit on defense for the whole game.
  • Coordinating between other squads. Squad 1's leader does not understand what he's doing and pi*sed squad 3's leader off, you have to calm both of them down and re-established the team....

Those great memories from Squad Leading
14 Comments
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Literally Free May 28, 2022 @ 11:56am 
If you take HAT kit and don't know how to use it, you're getting kicked. Go practice in the range.
UltraToad May 15, 2022 @ 2:01pm 
One small problem I found in the "Special Roles" catagory. We all know this is a game right, I will choose whichever class I want and I will have fun with it- I dont really care that it requires expertice, Because how do I learn? I do it. I get in game experience. Training range is sure, useful but with things considering range, Its practically useless because all ranges are marked out. In game I dont always have enough time to ask for a ping on a position then get the range. No, I have to learn physically to guesstimate the range. Which learning, is apart of the fun. If I get kicked form a squad while im learning a certain kit because simply "You Suck" it just makes the whole community seem even worse for that person
FiLtHy_ThE_DaWg Apr 16, 2022 @ 11:42am 
I've been playing since 2015 I think ... Don't squad lead if you have no experience in squad, you'll get found out pretty quickly ... when you do SL don't be too authoritative, people will leave your squad, try suggesting stuff rather than giving orders .. its not the real army !!! Don't join a Squad and then start asking basic questions like "how to I change the sight on this weapon" do the training and watch a few vids on youtube first .. and finally don't ever ever ever team kill .
SoundBeat Nov 8, 2021 @ 2:09pm 
Well I dont SL often because my voice sounds depressed 24/7 xD
La Escopeta Infernal Conji May 31, 2021 @ 5:19pm 
I'll see what i can do.
La Escopeta Infernal Conji May 31, 2021 @ 5:19pm 
But yeah, i've heard how people in squad are.But i'll manage.But i did consider trying to use some sort of thing to atleast work so eh.
La Escopeta Infernal Conji May 31, 2021 @ 5:18pm 
I see what you mean, i'm stupid
Mauadib May 30, 2021 @ 6:39pm 
Sister I would expect to get kicked often then. Having a microphone and using it really is that important to the smooth running of a squad and many squad leads just won't bother dealing with a squad member that can't/won't talk.One thing you could do I guess is just make a Logistics squad yourself but you will be getting talked to a lot by the other squad leads so you will end up typing a hell of a lot where just saying things while you are driving will be much easier. What Chris said about a squad lead having a lot on their plate is probably even understated. It is why I don't SL super often I just don't have the brain power to do it most of the time. Because of that SLs in my experience just don't have time to read some one typing instead of talking to them. Unless you are in a squad that is sitting back I guess.

I guess the TLDR is that if you use text often and your SL is fine with it congratulations but don't expect all SLs to be that lenient.
La Escopeta Infernal Conji May 30, 2021 @ 11:51am 
Question, about the part with no mic.I personally have a issue talking so i use text often.
Chris  [author] Jan 17, 2021 @ 9:56pm 
Sad to hear that Gravx, I would say that it depends on which server you go, and what time you visit. It may be a try-and-error cycle to find a good server (at least for me it worked like this). So try different ones, leave the shitty ones and find a better community for yourself is the better solution.