Gameplay Tips - Gears Of War 3
BASICS:
MOVEMENT TIPS:
GNASHER BATTLE TIPS:
WEAPON-SPECIFIC TIPS:
MAP-SPECIFIC TRICKS:
CHEAP AND DIRTY TRICKS:
- Stop. Revive. Think! Charging Rambo-style into the enemy isn't necessarily going to help your team.
- Don't stay still too long. Never stand still lancering for extended periods. You're just asking to get taken out by a sniper. Always be aware of opponents sneaking up on you. Keep looking around. Be aware of whether or not team-mates have your back.
- Always go for the power-weapons, but know when you're outgunned as well. If three opponents have rushed boomshot and you're there on your own, let them have it but hassle them with lancer fire from cover while they do it.
- Use your tac-com often so you always know where your team-mates are and what they're up to.
- Listen out for Myrrah / Prescott calling out "enemy forces", etc. These audio-cues mean the spawn points have swapped.
- Right hand advantage is real. It is a definite advantage!
- Stay behind cover! If there is a large open space in front of you, that will be a rifle killing field. Best you rifle your opponents down as they cross it, rather than they stay in cover and do it to you instead.
- Aim for the head! (Particularly so with snub or lancer).
- Keep your eye on the kill-feed. Pay particular attention to opponents picking up grenades. If they get them you'll need to start looking for planted grenades around corners, etc. Listen out for the "chck" sound of a planted grenade. Always use the kill-feed to watch for opponents picking up boomshot.
- Don't stop and pick up weapons in the open when opponents are near!
- Always have your shotgun in your hands when going around blind corners.
- In smoke, use tac-com (left bumper) to see better.
- At the start of each round, empty some of your lancer, ready for an active reload later in the round.
- The lefty-flip is achieved by hard-aiming around the left of cover. Then, while continuing to hold down the left trigger, pull back out of cover to stay in a lefty-flip. As soon as you release the left trigger you will drop the lefty-flip though. Note that you can even lefty-flip with grenades.
- Whatever you're holding when you die is what you'll drop. If giving your opponent a full boomshot would lead to you losing the match, then don't die with a full boomshot in your hands.
- Classic Baird has a hitbox slightly smaller than his actual outline. Therons and RAAM have the biggest hitboxes. Females, Savage Kantus and BigRig Dizzy have the smallest hitboxes. (So if you want to look like a good sport, pick that Theron instead of that dirty Savage Kantus!).
MOVEMENT TIPS:
- The run/roll button for alternate controls is the X button. The cover/mantle button for alternate controls is the A button.
- Drunken strafe: Hold both sticks left, then both sticks right, then both left, etc. Mix up your timing and don't be predictable. It's more effective than it feels.
- Wall bounce: Right stick controls the angle and direction of the bounce. Left stick controls the cancel. You slide much further towards objects in front of you than you do towards objects beside you. Objects in front of you are defined as anything inside an imaginary cone extending to 15 degrees either side of your the way you are facing. Slide distance to objects outside of this 30 degree cone is only half what it is to objects inside that cone! Therefore for the fastest bounce, you look directly at next wall as you're sliding to the first one. Cancel the bounce before you hit the wall by pressing down on the left-stick plus A button (regardless of control scheme).
- Don't ever wall bounce towards someone! Bounce past them if you are close, turning back to face them as you do so. If you can't bounce past them, side-bounce instead to put them off their shot, then come out into a strafe. Strafing is generally more effective, so use your bounces sparingly. If you get too predictable your bounces can actually make you an easier target.
- Random roadie run: Press a random direction and the run button to jerk into fast erratic movement. Exit immediately, turning to face your opponent as you do so.
- You can cancel a S.W.A.T-turn by holding up on left-stick + run button mid-turn.
- Hold left-stick down + press run button to do an immediate 180 degree retreat without needing to touch right-stick.
- "Wall-slide" pick-up weapons if they are near cover. This term is misleading because it's not necessarily a real slide though. What you want to do is stand at the very limit of where the pick-up icon still appears. Press the pick-up button. And then immediately walk towards cover while still holding down the button. You should pickup the weapon a fair way away from where it was actually located, and you should now be safely in cover.
GNASHER BATTLE TIPS:
- Time and aim your gnasher shots! Don't rush them. Often the person who misses first is the person who loses. Make each shot count. Don't just spam the right trigger in gnasher fights!
- In a 1v1 gnasher duel, if you have your opponent full-red then you don't need to advance into gib range. You can keep a little distance and down them again with the next shot. In a 1v1 gnasher duel, if your opponent has you full red and you can't get safely into cover then there's pressure on you to close in on them and hope you can get the gib before they get you again.
- Use a mix of drunken strafe, wall bounce and random roadie running in your gnasher battles to keep your opponent guessing.
WEAPON-SPECIFIC TIPS:
- Don't try killing a retro charger with a gnasher. Retro will nearly always win. Try to avoid it instead. A running chainsaw however will beat a retro-charge every time!
- If a grenade or boomshot is coming at you, run away don't roll! There is a bug with the roll-hitbox and hitbox position doesn't update until the roll-animation completes. This means if grenade/boom hits before you've completed the roll, you'll be killed even if it doesn't hit you! So just run!
- Throwing a smoke at digger-missiles, or at other grenades, can cause them to explode early. This can be used as a defensive manoeuvre if your aim and timing is good.
- You can throw incendiary grenades at roofs and the flame will drip down on opponents (and friends). However, it won't be an instant-kill like a direct hit on the floor would be.
- When firing the digger, make sure to check the line drawn out on the map for you when you hold the left trigger. If the line appears to go under an object then the missile will go under that object when you fire it. If the line stops at the object, then the digger missile will stop there too.
- Diggers can actually shoot through ceilings too! (See map-specific tricks for a good example of where to do this).
- The mulcher can be fired for much longer without overheating if you hold the right-bumper down and speed-tap the right-trigger like it were a hammerburst.
- You can "pop-shot" a grenade instead of blind-firing it to get increased throw distance without sacrificing speed of throw.
MAP-SPECIFIC TRICKS:
- Learn which objects you can mantle over and which you can't. Some small objects can't be mantled and some large objects can be.
- If you destroy destructible cover that your opponent is camped on, your opponent will be momentarily stunned and also take a small amount of damage.
- You can shoot through some cover that you'd think you shouldn't be able to. For example, on the Thrashball map you can stand up near the mulcher spawn and shoot at people on the pitch down below, even when they are in cover directly beneath you! You will need to be slightly to the left or right of them, but you can pop them with your gnasher through cover if you get the angle right.
- The inverse of the above point is that there are also spots on some maps where you appear highly visible but are actually fairly protected. These are gltichy cover spots and they seem to provide very good cover despite not looking like they should. An example of this is found on the Checkout map, where if you stay in cover near the incendiary grenade spawn you can fire down on people but still be protected yourself.
- On the Gridlock map, you can throw grenades on top of the roof above the boomshot spawn point and it will get people underneath who don't even know the grenades are coming!
- On the Thrashball map, you can stand outside one of the tunnels coming off the grenade spawn and throw a grenade over the grenade spawn point, over the tunnel on the other side and into the respective clearing at end of the opposite tunnel. You can do this with smokes to protect your approach as you grab frags. You can also do it with frags to force opponents into the tunnel where you can then lancer them down.
- On the Clocktower map, there is a hole in the roof of the room where the frag grenades spawn. You can throw grenades through this hole at people standing up above.
- On the Trenches map, at the digger spawn, you can fire the digger up through the roof to take out opponents standing above you.
- You can pop-shot the snub pistol through some cover. An example of this is on the Checkout map near the digger/longshot spawn, where you can popshot the snub across the aisles to hit opponents who are also in cover.
- On the Bulletmarsh map, you can jump off the bridge by running along the edge and then evading slightly to the side as you're about halfway along.
- Stopping power does NOT work on opponents running along cover!
CHEAP AND DIRTY TRICKS:
- Always plant a grenade on the exact grenade-spawn spot you picked it up from (look at the ground and press B). An unobservant opponent may not notice it's a planted grenade and try to pick it up. (Note: Personally I really hate frag-tags. I wish they weren't in the game. Really cheap way to get kills).
- You can "fake throw" a grenade by pressing and holding the roadie-running button, then pressing the grenade throw button immediately afterwards. What will happen is you being the run, then start swinging the grenade, then continue running. If you were holding a grenade with a large splash radius (ink or incendiary) you can track your opponents roll and then quick throw it onto where they are going to end up. (NOTE: The better your connection, the closer together you will need to press the two buttons. If the connection were perfect you would need to press both buttons together. As the connection gets worse you can delay the grenade button-press more).
- You can "fake jam" a gun by pressing the right bumper really late near the very end of the reload bar. Your character will call out a jammed weapon audio cue, but you will actually recover your reload near instantly. This can trick your opponent into advancing on you thinking you are helpless, despite the fact that you aren't.
- You can trick people into thinking they're sneaking up on you, when really they're not. This happens when you're sitting in cover and looking around with the right-stick. Your character will appear oblivious but you'll be able to see what's behind you.
- No matter what other cheap tricks you use, don't use the retro in public matches. Just don't! It's a scummy over-powered weapon that ruins the game for everyone else.
Credit for most of the above tips goes to the below links. I simply consolidated it all so I can refer to it here all in one place.
YouTube: VideoFletcher's channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCQUB_cEo8A&index=9&list=PLB74C1592CFF65640
YouTube: Vefy's channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKwW6ufRzLI&index=1&list=PLEB7B0AC4323C479B
YouTube: GOWPortal channel
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL310F327F80FBDC69
YouTube: ArCtiCvBi's lesson playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ZuaIsRE30&index=2&list=PL0EAE3FB4F9B05110&spfreload=1
EPIC Forums: Gnasher Advice
https://forums.epicgames.com/threads/880730-Need-gnasher-amp-mp-tips