Planetside 2 takes place in the year 2845, on the far-off planet of Auraxis. Across it's landscapes, a huge war rages between three empires. Each one is devoted to it's goals, and will never surrender until the other factions are wiped off the face of Auraxis for good.
However; who are these three factions, and what do they strive to achieve?

Terran Republic
The oldest of Planetside 2's empires, the Terran Republic was formed after a Great War struck the Earth, and the Republic united all the Earth's nations under it's banner. They were the ones who took humans to Auraxis when investigating a wormhole, although it closed behind them and now none of the Empires have connections with Earth.
The TR colour scheme is red and black.

New Conglomerate
A loosely-tied together band of companies and corporations, the New Conglomerate believes that the Terran Republic is too oppressive, and that living under it's command is the same as being a slave. They attempted to sabotage the TR from within on it's voyage to Auraxis, eventually leading to the war we fight today.
The NC colour scheme is blue and yellow.

Vanu Sovereignty
The Vanu Sovereignty is a group of scientists and scholars. After humanity found ancient alien artifacts in space, scientists have been astounded by them, and eventually adapted this ancient technology to their own human designs, making state-of-the-art guns and vehicles. Although they originally remained outside the war of the other two factions, they declared themselves an individual sovereignty to the NC and TR, joining the war.
The VS colour scheme is purple and green.

Each empire has their own combat style. All the factions have their own weapons and vehicles, though the majority of items are developed by Nanite Systems, which can be used by all three empires.

Terran Republic
The TR use old conventional weapons. Their weapons are fast-firing with high magazine sizes, and their vehicles have the highest topspeeds, both on air and ground. However, this comes at a price. They have the lowest damage per bullet, and their vehicles don't have as much armour as the other two factions. The TR also have a large focus on strength in numbers, and it's not uncommon to see huge hordes of black and red soldiers charging towards a base.

New Conglomerate
The NC use essentially anything they can get their hands on. Their weapons and vehicles are basically the TR's opposite. Their weapons have high damage per bullet, but a much slower rate of fire. Their vehicles are much slower and much less agile than those belonging to the TR and VS, but they pack much more damage and have heavier armour, allowing them to last longer in a fight.


Vanu Sovereignty
The VS have high-tech energy weapons rather than the conventional weapons used by the TR and NC. Their weapons have no bullet drop-off, and instead lose more damage over distance. Their vehicles use mag-lev hovering technologies, allowing them to be very agile, at the cost of firepower and amour. The VS commonly use their battle tanks and fighters more than the other two empires, as they can often dominate other vehicles when organised and coordinated.

Vehicles can turn the tide of any battles, and are one of the keys to success. When using a vehicles, I would reccomend being an Engineer, so you can hop out and repair your tank or aircraft should the time arise.
Each empire has their own empire-specific vehicles, as discussed in the previous section. They have their own strengths and weaknesses, which this section will discuss.

Terran Republic
The TR's Empire-Specific Fighter (ESF) is the Mosquito, and their Main Battle Tank (MBT) is the Prowler.
The Mosquito is the fastest vehicle in the game, and has a wide variety of upgrades that can be put into it, making it potentinally one of the most versatile vehicles in the game. It's high acceleration and top speed allow it to quickly enter and escape from a battle hotspot, using it's fast-firing weapons to inflict damage to infantry or harrass vehicles.
The Prowler is as fast as the common pool Lightning tank, and has a main gun which can quickly fire two shots, unlike the other MBTs which only have one shot per magazine. The Prowler can use it's speed and high fire rate to plow through infantry, leaving the enemy both shocked and devastated.


New Conglomerate
The NC's ESF is the Reaver, and their MBT is the Vanguard.
The Reaver is not as fast nor as agile as the other two ESFs, but it packs a lot more firepower. Due to it's lack of agility, the Reaver does not make the best dogfighter, unless it's had lots of certs put into the dogfighting airframe. The Reaver is the ideal ESF for ground bombardment, as it's powerful rockets and guns alllow it to deal heavy amounts of damage to vehicles and infantry alike.
The Vanguard is sluggish but strong. It's the slowest of the MBTs, but packs a large punch and can resistant lots of attacks. It can easily destroy enemy tanks and grounch vehicles, using it's heavy armour and powerful main gun to wreck havoc on it's victims.

Vanu Sovereignty
The VS's ESF is the Scythe, and their MBT is the Magrider.
The Scythe is the most agile of the ESFs, and almost as fast as the TR's Mosquito. It excels at dogfighting, using it's quick turn speed to quickly adjust it's flight path and intercept other fighters.
The Magrider is unique because it does not use wheels and tracks like the other two MBTs, it instead hovers above the ground. This allows the tank to strafe, giving it increased agility, accompanied with it's Magburner, which allows it to move at twice it's normal speed in a quick burst. However, the Magrider's main gun cannot be moved and remains at a fix angle, so having a second gunner for precision shots is optimal.