Although half of your skill is your talent at the game, the second half requires a little more thinking. This is where strategy comes in.

Gameplay Stratagies

Strafing

Moving laterally is called strafing. It is governed by your use of the (default) keys A and D. Start strafing; you evade enemies better, and it will play into the next strategy: trick jumping.

Jumping

Like strafing, jumping also gives opponents a harder target to hit. There's more to just jumping though; there's a whole skill to learn called trick jumping (recommended reading), which helps you do more than just evade oncoming fire.

Camping

Camping is the strategy of playing defensive and waiting for an opponent to come by. As long as you don't stay in a place where you can be caught off guard from behind, this strategy can be very effective. Some players dislike campers though because they slow down the game.

Lining

Lining is very much like camping, but instead of waiting to shoot, you shoot continually into one spot, waiting for someone to unexpectedly run into it. This strategy is greatly looked down upon, so it is not recommended. In addition, a careful player can easily spot a liner.

Hiding

Hiding, possibly on par with camping, is the strategy of just hiding from the opponent's eyes. This can be useful if you're holding a flag.

Reloading

If you pick up a larger CO₂ canister or you spawn with a larger unloaded canister, remember to reload (default key: R) as you leave your base. This way, you will not run out of gas halfway through a battle. There are some situations to not reload though, such as when you know the enemy is right about to enter your base, or the path out of your base is too short for the time to reload.

Useful Tips

Console

Learning how to use the console is very important. A vast number of functions can only be acccessed via the console. The console can be used to make multi-step scripts, bind messages to keys, etc. etc.

Map Strategies

Sometimes, maps may have secrets, or less well known parts to them. Check out our map guides for strategies for some maps. It may give you an understanding of the whole game better as well.