Online Multiplayer: How to Get Good Introduction

Starwars Battlefront players young and old gather round to witness this full encyclopedia of knowledge I have amassed through thousands of hours in one of my favorite multiplayer games of all time. I am writing this guide to help newer players get into the fun of multiplayer when they might otherwise be frustrated at the complexity of a game they previously thought were indomitable in with single player and co op. This will be divided into several parts for the casual noobs to the intermediate players and even tips and advice for the seasoned BF2 veterans to hone their skills to the next level. This is simply the introduction so feel free to skip around the following guides at your leisure, however I think you will find the content in the following guides to be of additional value if you read the following overview of both my experience and my philosophy of the game. Without further ado, lets begin to cover one of the greatest Star War’s game of all time and how to hone your ability no matter where you fall in the skill spectrum.

Part 1: Philosophy of the Skill Cap

Do you constantly find yourself blindsided by other players? Are you often killed with little to no understanding of how you were taken out so quickly and easily? Do you struggle to break even with your KD ratio at the end of a multiplayer game? If any of these hold true this is the guide for you.







All of us have been labeled as noobs at some point in our multiplayer games of choice. For myself, SWBF2 2005 was the first game I ever played in a multiplayer setting. I remember playing hundreds of hours with friends and by myself dominating the AI thinking I was an exceptional player before I found that I could connect to servers online and had my ego completely destroyed when I realized I had no idea why I couldn’t measure up to so many of the other players online. If this game frustrates you because of the seeming ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skill gap, try to look at is as a challenge to be overcome. I promise all the players like me who worked to overcome it loved the journey of it and you will no doubt find it rewarding when you unlearn some of the bad habits of fighting AI and transition your latent ability into your newfound zeal on the battlefront!

The game may seem very unbalanced to new players, especially those who are more familiar with modern games. While i wont deny the game isn't fine tuned it would definitely be wrong to say the game isn't fair. SWBF2 2005 is one of the few games that rewards skill through the in-game balance. Kill-streaks and loot-boxes don't exist here. If you want to top leader boards or at least learn the meta then be prepared to adapt to a truly unique style of sandbox shooter game play that really does thrive by its own set of unique rules. The result is a truly addicting gameplay that will reward you with the hours you put into it as you don't grind for exp of your in game characters but instead simply play and enjoy the star wars BF2 experience and improve your own ability through the following general advice, tips, and tricks.

How to Get Good as the Noobiest of Noob's: Philosophy

Okay lets skip to the part where you actually learn the things you should be doing to improve your skills. Like many of you when i first began i was blown away by the overwhelming amount of rockets, thermal detonators, and to my noob horror detpacks flying across my screen in my first online games. The standard trooper class as you may have realized simply isn't the best class for beginner players (unless you have a small team of friends). Instead, you should learn to play the heavy/ shock/ vanguard trooper class.

Perhaps surprisingly the heavy/ shock/ vanguard trooper class (we'll call them rocket troopers), is also one of the more common classes used by experienced and veteran players. This class is by no means a "Noobtube" they are a easy to learn hard to master class that is surprisingly nuanced to play. In learning to play the rocket trooper you will hone the fundamental skills of the game and train yourself to learn how to both aim and doge some of the most devastating instant kill weapons in the game. The class is plenty good with team attack on, but a lack of team attack helps elevate the rocket trooper to a new level of deadly. Mines are now the ultimate short range weapon and you can fire your rocket at close range with impunity making hitting the target far easier.

For the purpose of this guide i will instruct you how to fight. Not how to win CQ maps through clever CP stalling or other forms of team gameplay. This guide is simply to hone your keyboard abilities in combat with other players so keep that in mind as I list the priorities you should keep in the back of your mind when playing them. Remember if you are killing the enemy you are pulling your weight on the team. Practicing how to be a good fighter will also help prevent you from inadvertently funneling yourself into kill zones where you cannot practice the techniques i will list below.

In essence, consider adjusting the way you play so that you can practice new things and experience the game from the multiplayer lens. Learn to defend advantageous ground not tied to CPs, know when to disengage and run away from unwinnable fights, and then learn to bait enemies into YOUR preferred battlefield which will consist of tight corners and ideally closed hallways as a rocket boi.

How to Get Good as the Noobiest of Noob's: Technique

Here are the tips i recommend to becoming a good player.

Stick to tight spaces whenever possible to make the full use of this class. Fight the enemy on your terms where the following weapons are used to their greatest potential giving you every advantage.

Primary Weapon Rocket Launcher: generally don't aim center mass and never aim for head shots. This weapon is an instant kill on contact and hitting a moving target with a center mass shot requires incredible aim most veteran players can't muster. You will occasionally get lucky, and aiming center mass is a good idea for large groups in crowded hallways but aside from that make a habit of AIMING AT ENEMY PLAYERS FEET. The reason for this is obvious. Its a rocket, rockets deal splash damage. Assuming you miss the player's actual feet you will most likely deal splash damage and potentially still kill your opponent if the shot was close enough. This means even if your target was previously wounded you are far more likely to deal the remaining splash damage needed to kill them or even deal enough damage where your teammates can finish him off or your next shot/ blaster pistol can make the difference. Once again keep in mind hitting your opponents feet will result in the same full damage with potential for splash so improving your foot aim will drastically improve your lethality in combat.
Try to aim slightly ahead of where your opponent is moving too or predict where they are moving too so you can get full damage of your weapon. This will take practice but the power of an instant kill is a great asset to new players to make them threats on the battlefront!
Waiting for an enemy to roll and then firing in the spot where you know they will move too is exactly what you need to practice to transcend the skill gap between a noob and a veteran. It takes practice to get the shot placement down, but its easy enough to learn because rolling will lock the enemy into a predictable 2 second move that begs you to fire that well timed rocket into. I cannot stress how important this tactical trick is. New and average players will tend to roll both more often and thus more predictably, leaving this to be one of the best ways to score easy instant kills when you otherwise may not hit your target.
The enemy will typically be wary of you knowing and fearing the power of your instakill shot. Use this to your advantage in a team setting and have your team mates pressure the enemy to roll for you before lining up that perfect shot! This of course takes a mild degree of patience and calmness under fire so keep practicing!


Primary Secondary Mines: As you might've guessed placement is key. The mine is a big red glowing object that screams don't touch me! so make sure you are sneaky and effective with your placement. Knowing where not to place them might be obvious. Open fields are easy to ignore and walk around. Placing a mine in the open is a great way to waste a mine. Additionally placing a mine on sliding doors is virtually useless as those will seldom trigger. Try to place mines behind sharp corners and behind sliding doors to get kills, and also try placing them on friendly CP's. Remember that your opponent's will see command posts your team controls as red. Mines glow red. If you place the mine directly on the CP it will be almost completely camouflaged and will usually net you kills to the unassuming players. For the most part mines wont get you too many kills this way, players are generally smart enough to check corners and but obviously every kill counts! The real strength of mines is area control. Place them in tight areas like corridors to block off and slow down the enemy team. Often, placing mines in these conditions can net you kills as it prevents your opponents from moving into that area making it easier for you to aim your rocket! This is part of the more advanced skill cap for the class.
Moving forward aiming your camera all the way up with mines and then releasing will allow them to travel further. Practicing this can help you aim your mines far enough to kill in an explosion that doesn't kill you. Throwing the mine and then immediately rolling to the side can often help new players escape the explosion but try to learn not to rely on this. As rolling sparingly is a major part of the veteran skill cap because of how vulnerable it can leave you. This is one of the most powerful weapons you have at your disposal especially when team attack is disabled. Make sure to always have at least one mine on your person at all times so you can use this close range kill option. The following picture shows you the difference of aiming the camera all the way up and moving forward vs just looking up (not moving forward) and throwing the mine. As you can see the blast radius can be just far enough not to kill you without rolling away to safety.

As a new player sometimes pulling a close range suicide is the play to do. If you are near death, are overwhelmed by enemies, or facing down a player with full awards/ hero a suicide is often the objectively best thing you CAN do in that situation. So yeah don't be afraid to kill yourself, just try to do it only when its absolutely necessary otherwise you wont be improving the much harder task of killing and staying alive.
Secondary Secondary Thermal Detonator: Okay this is commonly overlooked weapon by noobies who don't know how to cycle between weapons mid battle. Alongside mines, thermal detonators primarily serve a role in area denial but can also be used to scatter enemies forcing them to roll. Once again, having enemies roll is one of the best things you can have happen for you as a rocket boi with one in the chamber. Force your opponents to do that with thermals and then punish them with that well placed perfectly timed shot.

Secondary Weapon Blaster Pistol: This will be your least used weapon but by no means will it be a useless weapon. For the most part there is an opportunity cost of using the blaster pistol. Having it equipped means you sacrifice reloading your rocket and using it over a loaded rocket is only for niche circumstances. Its usually better to fire your rocket at the opponents feet and miss than it is to trade rounds with the likes of any class not using a pistol. Because of this, pistols will generally only be used to finish off wounded enemies and occasionally pepper foes when your intuition tells you to save that shot because you smell a roll and need to have that shot loaded and ready to fire.
Understand that you should fire all rounds of you blaster pistol as fast as possible at your opponent when you do use the pea shooter. That way if you fail to eliminate the enemy (which often happens due to the weapon's poor accuracy, damage, and 8-9 shot rapid fire) switch Immediately back to your rocket launcher so you can reload your main damage dealer. Your pistol will cool down while you reload the rocket, but the rocket wont reload itself when you use your pistol.

TLDR

1. Main the Heavy tooper class
2. Make your rocket shot count. Dont panic, simply having a loaded round will make enemy players wary of your rocket. They will be on the defensive UNTIL you fire (unless they have a vantage point) meaning you can afford to wait for the perfect shot.
3. Always aim at the feet
4. Use grenades as area denial and to force players to roll/ expose themselves to your rocket
5. Use mines circumstantially to your advantage as area denial and close range kill options
6. Always shoot as fast as possible with your pistol and always switch to rocket when pistol overheats

Defense is the Best Offense: Philosophy

Now that you understand the fundamentals of fighting as a rocket trooper its time to learn the basic rules of "defense" in SWBF2. This is the true meat and potatoes of the game. Defense in this sense isn't your armor value, hit points, or tanking. The main way you will stay alive is through active evasion, circumnavigating your opponents shots and moving in such a way that you minimize your potential to take fire.

At first glance this game may not seem like one that prioritizes evasion, but more so than most shooter games knowing how to dodge effectively is one of the most important elements of the skill gap. The combat in this game isn't quite as fast paced as many other games.HOWEVER, the blaster rounds, rockets, and other weapons are slow, inaccurate, and often hard to aim. Because of this, skilled veteran players rely on both a mixture of good aim, impeccable evasion, and a tactical understanding of the map and its assets/ dangers to dominate the battlefront. Staying alive longer is important in this game. Dont sacrifice yourself in reckless attacks that might net you a kill but will still see you revenge killed by your opponent's team. Practice playing to stay alive, heal your character whenever possible and if the situation allows for it don't be afraid to switch to the engineer class and repair droids near a advantageous position to fortify for yourself and your team.

In servers where awards are enabled this style of game play is even MORE important. Every kill and point you earn is an asset to your rocket trooper. Playing the game and surviving longer will make your character more powerful and thus even harder to kill while becoming an even greater asset to your team. Don't expect to be earning max rewards anytime soon, but by simply adjusting your priorities you will hone your skills around learning how to get max awards in a game which will truly go a long way to making you a formidable foe in the battlefront.

Defense is the Best Offense: Technique QBJJ

So how do you effectively evade enemy attacks? Rolling may be the first thing that comes to mind however this is a trick you should use sparingly as I will explain below.

Quarter Back Jiggle Jiggle: Not really sure what else to name this style of evasion but it is without a doubt the most effective way to confuse, misdirect, and fake out your opponents. I gave it this name because it reminds me of the same little dance an American football quarterback will make to confuse and evade opposing players attempting to tackle him. Without sprinting, rolling, or jumping the QBJJ entails moving left right and diagonally in all 4 directions and occasionally up and down. The length of how long you move in any given direction shouldn't usually exceed 3 seconds and should not leave you in the same place because you keep backtracking. Think of it almost like a dance where you literally dance around the battlefield towards advantageous ground, away from poor ground, and into areas where you can avoid fire and kill the enemy. There's no real pattern to this besides those general rules. The main intent after all is that this action should be pattern-less so your opponents cannot out predict your movements. If you find you keep getting killed relatively quickly during your QBJJ then focus on honing that even more because most likely the chance is you are just moving too predictably and not erratically enough.

To best execute the QBJJ one has to try to read the opponents movements to predict their upcoming action. I will get into the mind philosophy of this in a later guide for veterans, suffice to say for the purpose of this guide you must learn to move in such a way that you are hard to hit while still allowing for you to hit the enemy if the opportunity presents itself. Make sure you ALWAYS do the QBJJ when locked in combat. the QBJJ is even a good idea when not in combat to help prevent a instant kill from a sneak attack or sniper outside your field of view. The more you do it, the more natural it will flow and feel.

For instance, if you find yourself staring down a rocket trooper, you will often find a QBJJ standoff immediately if you are a rocket trooper yourself. Both players will have a deadly 1 shot kill equipped actively waiting for the perfect shot. Noobs who dont know the QBJJ will simply walk, jump, or roll in a predictable direction without ever altering their movement direction. Against a 1 shot kill weapon (and anything for that matter) this is the absolute stupidest course of movement you can take. That would be an example of a player not even considering evasion as part of their toolkit to being a good player. Don't make that same mistake, do not allow your opponents to score easy kills on you by moving in a predictable way.


I understand this technique is somewhat complicated to explain without visual examples so just stay tuned for future guides when I will go into greater depth and hopefully provide short video clips to illustrate the maneuver. However, If you try applying the side to side diagonal erratic walking pattern in game I think you will quickly understand what I mean as the skill really speaks volumes and literally makes the difference between a complete noob and a experienced player.

Defense is the Best Offense: Technique Continued

Once again QBJJ is the best possible action you can take for evasion, I want to really stress that. Since QBJJ is your primary defense, consider rolling and jumping to be your secondary defenses. Situationally better than your primary but not most of the time. You will eventually reach a point where you just *know* when to QBJJ, jump, and roll and the movements come naturally to you. However, until that time, try to jump and roll as sparingly as possible so that you can prefect the QBJJ which is one of the most if not the most important skill you can learn in the game.

Rolling: Honestly, rolling is part of what makes SWBF2 2005 so iconic. It has the potential to propel you towards cover, seemingly teleport you to a nearby high ground, and evade the incoming rocket, detpack, or thermal detonator. Rolling is absolutely a key part of the skill cap in this game. BUT knowing when to roll is just as important as knowing when NOT to roll. for example

Do Not's of Rolling
1. Do not roll away from a explosive when you could otherwise dodge it by QBJJ.
2. NEVER roll away from an opponent with a chambered rocket for the same reason you want players to roll from you when you have a loaded rocket.
3. Do not roll in the open
4. Do not make your rolls predicable
5. Generally don't roll more than once in a 8 second period, and don't roll right immediately after a previous roll

The Do's of Rolling
1. Always roll if not doing so will result in your death. (IE a rocket is trained directly where you are going and you can only roll to avoid)
2. Roll into cover or up little hills and inclines to help further evade enemy fire
3. Generally roll in the opposite direction your opponent is aiming, but mix this up in repeated fights or you opponents will start predicting a pattern.
4. Roll to recharge weapon cooldowns (see later guide for what applies and the specifics)
5. Remember to roll diagonally from time to time as well

Jumping: Okay similar to rolling this is circumstantial and not to be overused. Still knowing when and when not to jump can make all the difference in battle. I am once again listing the Do nots first to emphasize not to rely on this and instead to practice QBJJ as much as possible. I debated saving this for the experienced section guide but figured it will help you stick to try and learning QBJJ if you knew why these 2 options were comparatively not as good, so have at it. Try to practice short bunny hops and running long jumps to get a feel for how you will move when executing these maneuvers. If you don't know where you will land with a jump you aren't jumping effectively. Go in diagonal directions without a running jump and then immediately holding the keys to go backwards to do a small hop. Practice this for consistent results.

Do Not's of Jumping
1. Never Jump without a goal. If you are jumping its to get higher ground, evade a shot, or to situationally throw off an opponent.
2. Do not overdo it.


The Do's of Jumping
1. Double tap w to get that running long jump without the startup sprinting delay. Use boosted jump as needed but be careful as the extra seconds in air will leave you vulnerable.
2. Do short hops to jump on top of crates and boxes and immediately make use of the vantage to fire your rocket. High ground makes all the difference for aiming at players feet.
3. Execute a running long jump when trying to escape enemies and you are expelling that last bit of stamina before you run dry.
4. Consider running long jumping towards the enemy if your momentum will carry you past them into advantageous ground for you to fight in. Use the immediate confusion to launch a rocket and throw a thermal in a kind of shield wall breaking charge.

Conclusion

Whether you are a casual fan or long time enjoyer of SWBF2 2005 (pic related for both) I think you can agree that this game has many MANY layers. This easy to learn hard to master game is full of challenging yet rewarding skill caps that honestly dwarf most other games. Knowing is of course half the battle, and I will continue to publish guides with the full repertoire of my knowledge to make overcoming this skill gap easier and more enjoyable. Don't be daunted by this seemingly hard prospect. Even the best of players cannot win 2 on 1 or 3 on 1 battles with players who at least understand the basics. Commit the basics to your play-style and add your own unique flavor and charm to them. Play the game how YOU enjoy playing and just take away anything you want and leave whatever you don't want behind. I hope we can continue to grow the BF2 community into a fun space where we all unwind and come together just like we did in the beginning years of its debut.
I look forward to seeing you on the Battlefront! I can think of no greater honor than having been defeated by people whom I helped train. Feel free to reach out for in game lessons and or just to say hello. Now take these lessons to heart young padawans and venture forth to test your mettle against me and the other longtime veterans! May the force be with you.

[mokMan23]

Sweet guide! I just got rolled in an online match by shock & heavy troopers, but could still hold my own in a match as an Assault Trooper since I already knew techniques like QBJJ. I thought the Heavy class sucked when playing against bots...
But, I feel a skill celing this high for an old game harms communities more than helps, since most players will see how long this guide is & dismiss it, especially since 2017 SWBF2's had an explosion in popularity with tens of thousands playing, while you can almost never find one full lobby in this game. I still love 2005 SWBF2, but 2017 SWBF2's the better online experience for most people.

[Burning Mercy]

great guide with some great tricks, though while the heavy trooper has its strengths with the high explosives, you're forgetting just one thing this class also has, the absolute fucking gift from god, the award pistol

[Derpasaurus Rex]

lol @circles I am part of the top level of SWBF2. But I'm more than down to join and hangout. Im sure there's some tricks my self taught ass may learn from :P

[When Doves Cry]

@derp you should try playing on the BCL if you are interested in the top level of swbf2! discord.gg/swbf2 is the discord link, i think you will learn a lot of new things there

[Derpasaurus Rex]

Thanks Slop! Its always a pleasure seeing you on the battlefront. You are certainly the respectable fighter

[slop]

Legendary guide bro lots of work put into it I can tell. Happy to see my name pretty high up on the list in the pics you posted :)