A lot of beginners would do well to read this, but some of it is mainly for Intermediates who strive for excellence. Especially with objectives, beginners may not have the skill yet needed to beat a few enemies and rush in to plant some C4.

All the guns have relatively unique stats. Different Rates of Fire, damage per hit, deploy and reload times, etc. Knowing these can vastly improve your gameplay. Not only the knowledge of the one you're carrying, but also those that of your enemy.

For instance, if I was using the Blishlok (The automatic submachine gun with the fancy holo scope that goes "click click click" instead of "bbrrrpllbrkkkkkk", for those of you who don't know), I would know it has an 18 dph capability. This means I can focus entirely on accuracy against another merc. Instead of focusing on spamming it as much as possible, focusing a short few shots that count would be more effective than spamming it. 6 hits could kill a proxy, or 3 if all of them were headshots.

Knowing your stats and capabilities can tell you instantly whether you should run or gun em down, depending on their weapon, their speed, their health, and how many shots you have left.

You can find the stats for these guns on the Dirty Bomb wikis as well as a couple guides here on steam.

You may have noticed that sometimes when you're delivering an EMP or a Drug-Sample, people fire at your and kill you when you're really close to delivering. Or maybe you planted c4 and in the last second somebody defuses it.

This doesn't mean you're a noob, or your team's stupid. Although technically it might but that isn't always the leading cause. Here are some tips to avoid having that crucial win-or-lose moment fail on you:

If you don't know what a Meat Shield is, let me explain. Only one person can defuse C4, Deliver, set C4, etc. at once. (Successfully) So a good players role, especially if you have a lot of HP, is perform the meat-shield. Stand in front of the person with your back to them and fire at any incomers. Don't try and dodge bullets- take them for your teammate! Doing this, in summary, adds your hp to theirs. So before Proxy's 90 HP can run out, they have to get through your Fletcher's 110, or your Rhino's 200.

Most people will just throw their C4 Wherever they can manage. This is a bad idea. There is a place on every, and I mean every, C4 point that can be defended well.

For instance, in Terminal, If you plant in the corners you can defend it from the MG and the sniper room. With the gate, you can defend it from that MG as well.

In Underground, you can actually plant in front of the computers.
plant in an obvious area out in the open where you can shoot at from. All the way to the left(Jackal perspective) or all the way to the right (CDA Perspective) is also a good idea.

You can shoot at Generators to destroy them! While shooting is generally not very effective, there are plenty of abilities that do it quickly!

• Throw a Stoker molotov- This does constant damage and significantly lowers the health of the generator!
  
• Bring down an Orbital Strike with Kira- This requires you to be outdoors, but it very quickly destroys the generator!
  
• Throw Nader nades- This does a bunch of damage and will have it down in no time!
  
• Throw sticky bombs and detonate them- While not too effective, roughly 10-13 sticky bombs should do the trick if they're right close to the generator.
  
• Proxy mines- This can do a bunch of damage, but the cooldown is pretty long and is a bit of a waste, so only do it if you are positive it will end the generator
  
• Rhino's Minigun- Probably one of the most effective, you can destroy a generator with Rhino's minigun in roughly 20 seconds if you let it cool down between bursts.
  
• Airstrikes + Artys- Call down an airstrike near the generator and it will deal a crapton of damage! This also requires outdoors.
  
• Fraggerz- This does a bunch of damage also, but again the cooldown is long and should only be done if you're out of immediate danger and can afford it.

You need to create barriers on the C4, to buy you more time for it to break the limit for the amount of time it takes to defuse, or till the rest of your team respawns. My suggestions would be to:

• Throw Stoker Molotov on top of the C4 (Cancelable by Redeye's smoke)
  
• Throw Proxy mines on the C4
  
• Put a turret at a firing position at the C4
  
• Put Fletcher Sticky-bombs at the C4 (Requires Remote detonation)

All of these things also work for the delivery/pickup sites of the Drug Samples, Viruses, and EMPs.

There are a few combat tricks. The one most people perform is the bunny-hop. I'm going to show you a couple useful ones.

Most people bunny-hop. Bouncing around, especially off walls, can make it harder to hit you. This may save your life in some cases, but in open space or a room with a low cieling, it could get you killed, especially if the enemy has a Sub-Machine Gun or a Light machine gun.

if you are going to bunny hop, only do it when the enemy has a shotgun. Unless they're hopping too, the shotgun will do most damage at a concentrated blast. So if you can have the blast only hit part of you, you should be okay.

Most people don't know about the Lunge. It's great for covering long distances, especially for clearing large gaps or advancing on the enemy for a heavy stab. (This can be crucial for Phantom players, as the Katana is Phantom's greatest weapon, and his speed has been nerfed.)

The majority of players will perform this by hitting the crouch key (CTRL or C) and Space at the same time. However, I have a better way. If you have ever known about the majority of game engines, most games will have a console you can open with the tilde. (~) Most games will have you activate this by going into the Game options/Advanced Options and "Enabling Developer Console". If you have ever made custom binds in TF2 or CS:GO, this is a different engine. After activating the console, bind both crouch and jump to a single key. If you have no idea how to use Dirty Bomb's UNREAL engine, just type in setbind LeftAlt "Duck | Jump" 1. This way, whenever you press the Alt key, you will long jump. You can tell if you performed a long jump by a slight FoV(Field of Vision) change that seems to indicate the wind rush.
(Note: In order to long jump, you must be sprinting.)
(Note2: Some believe this to be an Illegal move, however, this is not. The only illegal binds out there are from third-party programs like AutoHotKey. The devs know that the Unreal engine allows custom binds.

How about some basice combat maneuvers?

• Strafe: Move from side to side to avoid bullets. This is generally more effective than the bunnyhop, as it doesn't give you the Jump-inaccuracy that generally comes with the bunnyhopping maneuver. This is especially effective when SMG users are aiming for the head.
  
• Aim for the head: Especially in close range, aiming for the head can end a fight quickly and with you still having the majority of your HP left. Always attempt headshots when fighting Tank mercs. (Rhino, Turtle, Thunder, Fragger)
  
• Switch Weapons: When in a battle, reloading your primary weapon could end your life. If your weapon runs out, switch to your secondary weapon. (Pistol, Revolver, etc.) If someone is rushing you, then switch to your melee weapon (3) as soon as possible. Most people don't know what to do when they get melee rushed, so I'm telling you now: USE THE SAME WEAPON! Unless it's a phantom with a Katana, in which case, haul your butt out of there, because you're about to get murdered.

One final thing: Always keep your guns loaded!
Before you rush in, and after you win a fight, always reload your weapons, both primary and secondary. This could save your life and end another's later.

Many of you have probably encountered a fight you knew you would lose because of the opposing merc's abilities. The most common hope-crushing encounter is one with the merc known as Rhino.
Rhino is a bit of a controversial topic among different Dirty Bomb players. Many believe he's a perfectly balanced character, yet others believe he's incredibly OP.

Either way, you can still beat a Rhino by exploiting his size. First, however, you must understand his advantages.

Rhino is perhaps the most powerful merc in the game, capable of dealing out a crushing 600dps, 32000dpm, or if you want to go deeper that's a sick 1,080,000 damage in a whole stopwatch game (30 minutes).

Rhino's second biggest advantage is his health. Rhino has 200 health, giving him more than every merc in the game. Not only is this a vast number, it also means that he can't be one-shot by any gun in the game. The most powerful gun in the game, the Remburg shotgun, is capable of dealing a total of 184 damage in one hit (headshots). This would bring a Rhino down to 16 health. Easy finish there right? Not really. The time it takes for Aura/Proxy to repump the shotgun is enough for Rhino to kill you twice with his minigun.

So how do you beat this tank? This minigun on legs? The solution is not foolproof, but it is one of the best. The ability for faster mercs to quickly jump over the heads of defenders using wall jumps. The best way to kill a rhino is to use a shotgun and use a 3-shot pepper technique. As you jump off a wall over his head, shoot one blast in the general direction of his face. After the first shot, turn in midair and as you land fire your second blast. If you're lucky, he'll already be dead. But if not, perform a jump on the same wall again and pepper him a third time. If you're still alive, you should have won.

Never go up against a Rhino with a pocket medic alone, bring at least another 1 or 2 teammates with you. Take out the source of health first, then deal with Rhino.

Rhino is a very powerful merc, especially in close quarters in open areas where you can't easily perform jumps. Despite this, you can still win a fight, it'll just be difficult.

So you picked up Dirty Bomb and now you've got 30k credits. Why not buy Vassili? He's cheap and he's a sniper?

DON'T! The snipers in this game can be harder to use than those in CS:GO and TF2!
Wait till one of the snipers comes out in the free rotation(Redeye, Vassili, or Aimee) and try them out to see if you're good, or if it's definitely something you want to practice more with.

The majority of players will buy Vassili first-thing anyway. This is a bad idea. You can check your team(Tab key) and count the number of snipers. Especially if there are low-level players or if a sniper is in free rotation, your team will likely be FILLED with snipers.

(Note:Especially after the patch that removed the instant-finish sniper headshots {"instagibs"}, snipers can help the team even less.

Here are a few quick things:

Missions are in the main menu and an easy-ish way of getting more credits! Do them!

Especially after a recent patch, the more players there are on the team the longer the respawn times are! Don't do it, it's hard to get a votekick, and if you're just going to go idle then just leave the lobby and join a new one later.

This is an objective based game! While I know how great it feels to have a 47/3 Kill-Death-Ratio, the objective is most important. Always work towards getting c4 on the objective, delivering the data cores, Stealing the drug samples, etc.

While I know more than half the people on the internet are jerks, always pay attention. Unless their Dad just took their Xbox One for failing to clean their room, the majority of the time they will have a reason to be upset. You've got the idiot who likes to yell at people, but always pay attention! See people yelling "Medic!" but nobody is saving them? Switch to medic and help them out!

If you're in a 3v1, you're not going to get out alive. If you think you can run and survive to join the rest of your team, then do it. Otherwise, attack and see if you can down+finish a couple of them.

You need to pay attention to what your class specializes in: Giving out ammo? Giving fire support? Placing healing stations or healthpacks? Pay attention!

For more information, check out Sonata Dusk and HotShotHero's guide on Merc Roles: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=548513994

I know I'm going to regret this later, since I play Phoenix, but remember that medics can come and bring their teammates back up! Always finish enemies if you get the chance, so your team can keep the pressure on press towards victory!

I may be updating this every now and then, but remember that I have not covered everything a Dirty-Bomber should know. Strive for excellence and you may just reach it. Ignore your team and go solo in a team-based multiplayer shooter, and you'll fail.

Strive to make the objectives for your team easier! Place Proximity Mines or Turrets in strategic locations can be dead useful, as they can deter a few enemies, and that might just gain you the time you need to plant the C4 and blow the controls.