2. Blacklight: Tango Down General hints and tips

To make this more accessible, I'll divide it up into a few sections. I'll try to give a nice guide for setting yourself up properly before you go out into your first match.

INTRODUCTION TO LOADOUTS

Blacklight has a variety of weapons and tags to customize how accurate and powerful each loadout is. A loadout is one of 4 custom classes that you can create to your liking. Choosing whatever weapons you want to carry, the weapon's tag, as well as the armor that your character will wear. How you set up your loadout can dramatically change your performance. You can also change more superficial things, such as camo.

Loadouts are accessed from the armory, an option available before and between each match, as well as in the main menu. You unlock more options for your loadouts as you progress into higher levels.

Each loadout has 3 variables that can be affected by your choices of weapon and armor. The variables are displayed by 3 bars under your character in each loadout's screen. This has been described by Zombie Studios as the "LMS" system.

• Lethality: This is the top of the 3 bars displayed. It is represented by 3 bullets. The more filled up this bar is the more accurate your gun becomes, and the less recoil your gun will experience when fired.
• Maneuverability: This is the middle of the 3 bars displayed. It is represented by 2 arrows. The more filled up this bar is the quicker your character moves, the faster you turn around, your sprint speed increases, sprint duration increases, and how quickly your sprint recharges.
• Survivability: This is the bottom of the 3 bars displayed. It is represented by a shield with a cross in the center. The more filled up this bar is the higher your maximum health becomes, the quicker your health regenerates, the longer your HRV lasts, the quicker your HRV regenerates, your ammo capacity, and your reload speed.

Changing weapon attachments (barrels, sights, silencers, tags etc...) changes these variables. Try to find whatever combination fits your play style. Make the classes as diverse as you can though. You'll want to be able to fit the situation at hand.

WEAPONS

To make things more convenient, I will provide you with some information on all the weapons available in Blacklight: Tango Down. There are 3 types of weapon that you get in each loadout. I'll go over them one type at a time.

Primary Weapons:

Sub Machine Gun

• Unlocked at Level 1
• Weakest Primary Gun
• Quickest Fire Rate
• Best SMG Model is the SMG SPARTAN, unlocked at Level 39
• Highly accurate

Assault Rifle

• Unlocked at Level 1
• 2nd Weakest Primary Gun
• Fire Rate slightly slower than that of SMG
• Best Assault Rilfe Model is the ASSAULT PHALANX, unlocked at Level 47
• Highly accurate
• Long Range

Sniper Rifle

• Unlocked at Level 1
• Strongest Primary Gun
• 2nd Slowest Rate of Fire
• Best Sniper Model is the SNIPER COVERT, unlocked at Level 50
• Large clip size with quick reloads
• Almost always an instant kill

Shotgun

• Unlocked at Level 3
• 2nd Strongest Primary Gun
• Slowest Rate of Fire
• Best Shotgun Model is the SHOTGUN BREACH, unlocked at Level 44
• Very often an instant kill at close range.
• Medium clip size with quick reloads

Light Machine Gun

• Unlocked at Level 10
• 3rd Strongest Primary Gun
• Medium Rate of Fire
• Best LMG Model is the LMG WARMONGER, unlocked at Level 46
• Generally low accuracy
• Large clip size with slow reloads

Those 5 weapons will be the main tools that you'll use when playing Blacklight. You can select one for each loadout, and you can customize them however you'd like. Camo, stock, sight, and various other things about them can be tweaked. Each one has its good points and its bad, as you see listed above, but all have uses.

While you'll notice that I listed some traits changeable by the LMS system under the weapon qualities, I'm going off of the gun base traits. With the proper weapon upgrades you can make the weaknesses of a gun slightly less noticeable.

Now, take a moment to notice this small issue: You have a selection of 5 weapons, yet only 4 loadouts to customize. Because of this, one weapon must always be left out, if not more. You can have 2 of the same type of weapon, but I don't recommend it. I instead recommend that you use one of each weapon in your loadouts, excluding either the SMG, LMG, or Assault Rifle. This leaves you with the ability to handle any situation adequately. Ultimately the choice is up to you though, and if you want every loadout to have a Shotgun, then be my guest. Use whatever configuration of weapons works best for you.

Next, we move onto the Secondary Weapons. You will use these less often, but don't think they're not important. Every Secondary Weapon is a pistol, and each one is useful in it's own way.

Secondary Weapons:

9MM

• Unlocked at Level 1
• Weakest Pistol
• Quickest Fire Rate
• Best 9MM is the 9MM ECHO, unlocked at Level 33
• Takes 3-5 well placed shots to kill an enemy
• Quick Reload

.45

• Unlocked at Level 7
• Mid Powered Pistol
• Decent Fire Rate
• Best .45 is the .45 MARKSMAN, unlocked at Level 36
• Takes 2-3 well placed shots to kill an enemy
• Average Reload

Revolver

• Unlocked at Level 15
• Strongest Pistol
• Slowest Fire Rate
• Best Revolver is the REVOLVER TACTICAL, unlocked at Level 41
• 1 well placed shot can kill many enemies
• Slow Reload

At this point, you should try and consider what sidearm will best compliment your Primary Weapon. I tend to use a Revolver when I snipe, a .45 for my SMG/Assault Rifle loadouts, and a .9MM for my LMG/Shotgun loadouts. This, again, is your choice. Play to preference. Use what you're comfortable with.

Have you gotten your loadouts nearly ready? Eager to go into a fight? Well, we're almost ready. There's just one last type of weapon we need to cover: Equipment. Most of your Equipment is made up of grenades, excluding the Proximity Mine, but we'll get to that. Equipment has 2 sub-categories, Primary and Secondary. You can select 1 of each for every loadout.

Primary Equipment

Frag Grenade

• Unlocked at Level 1
• Can be thrown a good distance
• Often scores an instant kill
• Nice blast radius

Proximity Mine

• Unlocked at Level 17
• Can be planted on almost any surface
• Often scores an instant kill when triggered
• Smaller blast radius
• Great for setting traps or covering the back entrance to a specific hiding spot

Secondary Equipment

Digi Grenade

• Unlocked at Level 1
• Creates high-tech censorship style field of pixelation
• Spherical blast radius
• Does very small amounts of damage

EMP Grenade

• Unlocked at Level 1
• Small Blast Radius
• Does very small amounts of damage
• Anyone near an EMP when it explodes will go into a "Blue Screen of Death" type of blindness, resetting your HRV and disorienting you

Throwing down both of your grenades in combination to each other can be very effective. The Secondary to confuse, followed by the Primary to kill. I recommend Mines for your Sniper loadout, and Frags for most others.

At this point, you're set to go. The rest of this page will just be general tips and information. Proceed to the main walkthrough if you feel confident enough in yourself. If not, you can keep reading.

The HRV

Blacklight has a very unique tool that helps combat camping (though not eliminate it by any means). The HRV, or the Hyper Reality Visor, is activated by pressing Up on the D-Pad. Using the HRV allows you to see through walls. You'll be able to see teammates, enemies, ammo/health crates (more on these later), objectives, and automated turrets (more on these later, also), all from the safety of cover. There are, however, 2 draw backs to this x-ray-like vision. The first being that you loose the ability to shoot while you're using it, and for a moment afterwards. The second being that it can only be used in short bursts. Once you're used to the side effects, though, HRV becomes an indispensable tool for callouts and forming strategies.

I recommend that you communicate with your team mates about when to use your HRV, as well as what you see when you do. If done correctly, someone on your team should always have the ability to use HRV. Take turns using HRV and help each other to locate targets quickly and efficiently.

Ammo and Health Crates

Eventually you will be injured and low on ammunition. You'll be on the brink of death, the small bit of health or ammo reserves you have left not being enough to take on anyone properly. This is where Ammo and Health Crates come in handy. You can identify them with HRV by the circle that appears on them. They look sort of like dumpsters filled to the brim with Pizza-Warmer-esque health kits and Ammunition Cartridges. To refill ammo or regain health, all one must do is stand close enough to one of these bins for several moments. Health crates are usually placed near each base, while ammo crates are either nearby, or in the middle. Ammo crates will also refill any lost equipment as well, so make sure you replenish your grenades.

Starting Bases and Turrets

In an attempt to minimize spawn killing, players start in bases on the opposite side of each map. The bases cannot be easily entered by the enemy team because of automated gun turrets that fire on them if they do. The turrets do intense damage, and they do it fast. I recommend avoiding them if at all possible. Spawn camping is still a huge problem in this game, but if it gets to be annoying you can hide in most bases well enough to avoid it for awhile, and the turrets will keep you safe. Depending on the base, there can be multiple entrances and exits, as well as in-base ammo crates. There is not a base that has an in-base health crate, however. This is most likely to encourage players to leave the safety of home base.

If you're ever in trouble and near your team's base, I recommend rushing into it. You may get pinned down, but the time it buys you can allow you to regain health and allow you a moment to breathe before approaching another enemy.

Later in the walkthrough I will discuss the "campaign" when it becomes relevant to the leveling achievements, but for now, I think these tips are sufficient enough. We need to be moving on to the actual goal of this walkthrough: Earning 12/12 achievements and 200 Gamerscore.