Guide [Issue 57] [Guest Article] Expert XP Dueling Tips: Garder

[GoldRock 6,165]

 

Welcome, readers! In this article, CoIIIaILeHu9I (formerly known as Solace), an experienced player who has been involved in top-level eSports, will be giving you tips on how to win an XP Duel in the map Garder. 

 

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Introduction: 

 

Dueling. Everyone's tried it at least once in their Tanki career, whether you're among the lower or higher ranks. While there are many tankers out there who take duels seriously, others prefer to enjoy the more diverse team battles, although this doesn't mean we should just push dueling to one side.

 

When a friend asks you for a quick duel, it really comes in handy to know several tactics in a select few maps. Experience in duels is also useful for XP/BP battles as you may end up in a 1v1 situation - for example, if you are holding the flag and there is no one to assist you, you would have some tricks up your sleeve to fend off the attacker.  

For my first series, I'm going to focus on Garder XP duels. Garder's a pretty simple map: relatively small, easy to learn, and great for parkour, right? Wrong! (Well, maybe not about the parkour!     ^_^ )

 

 

The Duel:

 

In Garder, it is common for a player to start either behind one of the covers or on the flag. If you decide to start on the flag, you need to be extremely careful when going down the ramp or even sitting behind the cover, as the enemy can still shoot through the small gap in the cover if they have a good aim:

 

 

 

 

The diagrams below show you the correct and incorrect way of hiding behind the cover:

 

Correct:

 

 

Incorrect:

 

 

 

OK, so now you've gotten off to a great start; the enemy is 1 shot and you've picked up the flag. Now what? Well, the most obvious thing you need to do is try and not get shot. Aim to close down the enemy in your base, so you only have a short distance to travel to return the flag. When you manage to kill him, the short distance from the flag means you can capture quickly and then go back into the enemy base and damage him as he spawns. 

 

But what if the enemy has taken your flag and you are spawning, then what do you do? Your main priority at this point is to make sure the enemy doesn't capture. If this means getting shot in the process, so be it, let him shoot you but just be sure to kill him and return the flag, so then similarly to before, you can wait in his base to make him 1 shot. 

 

However, if you get a good spawn and the enemy is leaving the base close to where you spawn, try and 'ghost' in his tank, or use your brief period of invincibility to merge with his tank, and follow him as long as possible. When he is about to capture, just come out and kill him but if he wastes a shot while you are still ghosting, you'll be able to finish him off and go for another flag.

 

Awesome! So now you've got the advantage and the current position is similar to that of the start. As said before, make sure you pull the flag and take it back to your base so your enemy has a long way to travel to get the return.

 

But what if the enemy manages to damage you and take your flag without getting hit? At this point, you need to be extremely careful as one mistake can turn the scores upside down as Garder is pretty small in comparison to other dueling maps, so the pace of capturing flags is much quicker. 

 

The best chance of preventing the enemy from capturing in this situation is by dropping the flag in your base and going immediately to the enemy's base to make him 1 shot. You then have enough time to spawn and pick up the flag; even if he hits you on the way, you've made him 1 shot as well so you can drop the flag again and go for the return. 

 

However, there are several things you need to do to ensure this works. The first thing is dropping the flag. Do not drop the flag anywhere on the lower part of the map or on the ramp:

 

Correct:

 

Incorrect:

 

 

The reason for dropping the flag on the flag base is so that you don't have to drive any extra distance. If you returned the flag and you had dropped the flag in the tunnel, you would have to go through the tunnel and then back to base. Also, make sure that when you go to capture, you don't jump up into the base immediately, as you could get shot and die if you are 1 shot or flip if you are 2 shots (unless you're lucky unlike me in which case you will land perfectly    <_< ).

 

So far, I've mentioned a lot to do with tactics around the flags but I haven't mentioned the tunnels much. Could be a problem, as most of the map consists of tunnels. 

 

The tunnels in Garder are tricky to get your head around at first, but when you get used to playing here often, shooting through the tunnels will become second nature. One of the things that makes a great Garder player is having the ability to see from one end of the tunnel to the other and also being able to dodge the enemy's shots through them, so I will explain how to do it below.

 

If you look carefully, the width of the tunnel is slightly bigger than the Railgun's turret. This means that if you position your tank side on to the tunnel, moving left or right slightly will let you shoot past the edges of the tunnels with ease.  However, it's not quite that simple because if your enemy loads up before you and you load up a fraction of a second after him, while side on, your chances of flipping are high.

 

Is there a way to prevent this happening? Of course, you should avoid positioning yourself side on to the enemy's shot as by doing this, you make yourself a bigger and therefore easier target for the enemy. You can turn yourself side on to your enemy only if you are planning on shooting first as shown below.

 

If the enemy rushes towards you, you have two options. You can either attempt to shoot him before he shoots you, which is slightly risky but works well if you are experienced in Garder:

 

 

Or on the other hand, you can let him shoot you first. If you choose to do this you must make sure you land a shot on him or you've given him a free capture theoretically. To increase the likelihood of the enemy missing, position your tank so you are directly facing the enemy.

 

Stand-offs:

 

Stand offs in this map are relatively simple, but things can take a turn for the worse if you don't time things correctly. Let's say you are 1 shot and your opponent is 2 shots and you are both holding each other's flag in the base. My main rule for when this happens is to drop the flag and drive straight to the opponents base to ideally make him 1 shot. When he then kills you, you will be able to respawn with full health and pick up the flag again.

 

However, he may try to exert the same tactic, in which case you must not kill him. Instead, you should aim to run away from him and avoid getting shot, even if it means circling around your base a few times - eventually if he doesn't choose to go back and pick up the flag, it will return automatically allowing you to kill him and capture.

 

Flags take about 30 seconds to return so when you drop the flag, be sure to count 30 seconds either in your head or by using the battle timer so you can make a judgement to either go for the return or go back to base. 

 

Camera Angles:

 

Garder is admittedly a "weird" map due to the several tunnels which can be quite tricky to see through, especially when you are trying to shoot your enemy through them. By changing the camera angle, it makes it easier to look through the tunnels, but the question remains: where is the best place to position your camera? The answer is to choose the best angle for you, as it varies from person to person. For example, I raise my camera slightly higher than normal for shots like this and lower it for shots like this. 

 

Tricks:

 

As Garder is unique in its own way, there are several tricks you can try. These tricks are really useful to be able to use, as many of them are great for preventing captures at the most crucial points in the game. Knowing these tricks will not only allow you to perform some of these shots, they can also make you aware of what the enemy can do as well. The key in the spoiler is an explanation of what the lines mean. The image below is a bird's eye view of some of the tricks:

 

1: At point number 1, the black line represents the shot through the two covers of each base. This shot is especially useful at the start of the match, as you can make your opponent one shot early on in the game.

 

2: The red lines illustrate all the shots possible past the covers which many people overlook, and as a result get damaged or killed. 

 

3 and 4: The arrows at point three and four show a low to high shot from the edge of the two covers up into the red base (the same is possible for the blue base). This shot, as described below, can be a lifesaver in some situations. 

 

 

1.) Near-cap:

 

This is my favorite shot to be able to do in this map, mainly because I know my opponent will be on the verge of smashing their keyboard after you make this shot! If the score is 4-4 and your enemy is about to cap, this shot can be a life saver if the enemy is too hasty. As well as taking this shot from the sides of the tunnel, you can take it from pretty much anywhere in the center of the map as long as you tilt back far enough. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.) The Shot Past the Tunnel:

 

This shot is a bit harder to do than the original shot as you only have a small area to shoot through. To perform this shot, use the flag the opponent is carrying as a "marker" to see roughly where his tank is and time your shot accordingly. If your enemy is not carrying the flag, it makes life much harder but the shot is still possible. The birds eye view of Garder above shows the different positions in which you can take the same shot (marked as a red line.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.) Making your Opponent Miss:

 

When you are leaving the enemy base with the flag, the enemy can sometimes spawn behind you. If he does, continue driving towards your own base and turn you turret to face where he is hiding. Wait till you are about to turn the corner and load up your Railgun. If he tries to shoot you, he runs the risk of missing.

 

 

 

4.) High to Low:

 

This shot is perfect for when your enemy takes the flag through the middle of the map. All you have to do is drive to the side of your flag base and shoot. However, Railgun's auto aim is less effective than some other weapons like Vulcan, so when trying to shoot from a height downwards, you need to make sure you tilt your tank forward depending on the height of the shot. 

 

 

5.) Sideways Jump:

 

Not only is this trick extremely effective if your enemy is beneath your flag, it can also be applied to other areas in the map such as around the edges. For this shot, make sure you let your tank seem as if it's about to flip and when the enemy is beneath you, load up your Railgun and take the shot - Railgun's recoil should keep you on your tracks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.) Blocking:

 

Probably the most simple but effective trick, blocking. When you are one shot and your enemy is about to kill you, drive onto a wall and your corpse should delay your enemy from returning. Garder is a great map to do this in as there are several effective places to do this as shown below.

 

 

 

7.) Hard-to-reach:

 

Similarly to blocking, the concept of this trick is to delay your enemy from returning the flag - for example, by taking it into a hard-to-reach spot such as behind the flag, giving you time to kill him or take his flag and prevent the capture.

 

 

 

8.) Over the Rainbow:

 

This shot is an extremely useful shot, as you can perform it in both your own base and the enemy base. You might find yourself on one side of the ramp with your enemy on the other side. The best thing to do from here is to nudge back and forth to try and trick your opponent into wasting their shot. If this happens, just follow him and shoot him. If he doesn't, you could try jumping straight over the ramp. Be careful though, this shot requires a fair amount of practice to be able to pull off, so just practice in a private battle.

 

The way to do this shot is by accelerating up the ramp and as soon as your airborne, hold the down arrow and the turret should tip downwards and hit your enemy, like so:

 

 

 

 

That's it tankers for this Garder episode. I hope you enjoyed this duelist advice, and I look forward to bringing you more advice on another map next time!
 

~ CoIIIaILeHu9I

 

*Special thanks to Ben, BestHope and Luffy1559 for helping me with the images.

 

Edited July 20, 2017 by Hexed

[Ninja 10,468]

Nice, I don't play Garder much though, would like to see a Sandbox one.

[marc.jp_44 20,837]

Amazing guide!

[momy950666 960]

awsome

[Regency 2,099]

I am Luffy1559 good article bro ! :D

 

"*Special thanks to Ben, BestHope and Luffy1559 for helping me with the images."  :wub:  :wub:  :wub:  :wub: 

[Electric_Grenade 24]

Can you make a Sandbox one and a Zone?

[Spy 14,687]

Very well mate  :wub:

[Hex 11,520]

Can you make a Sandbox one and a Zone?

This article was written by [member=CoIIIaILeHu9I], not Goldi ;)