Okay, so you're not the best at gunning down sharks. You'll get there eventually. In the meantime, just because you can't be the top slayer doesn't mean you can't contribute.

The good news: Divers don't have specific types, so you're not shackled to a particular playstyle! Sweet!

The bad news: The sharks are. So we still have to cover how they work, and more importantly, how to counter them.

Mako: Small, speedy, made of glass. Even a single direct hit with a pistol will give a Mako a rough time, but the problem is landing it. Consider bringing detection equipment such as Sonar Buoys, Flares and P.A.T. senty guns. Useful ammo modifiers are Tagging, Bleed, Splitting and Sonar rounds. Drag rounds are decent too, but a single spear pistol hit will nearly drop a Mako, and a speargun will 1-shot it, so the effect is wasted. Their special ability allows them to get extra evolution points when their marked target is killed, so Makos can snowball like crazy. Try to deny them kills as much as you can by avoiding windows and such that it can't easily grab you.

Thresher: On paper, this is a slightly tougher and slower Mako. But it has a little trick: It can use its tail as a whip to deal 40/50/60 damage in a wide area. On top of that, its entire body gets thrown around when it's thrashing, injuring divers that aren't caught in its mouth if they're too close. This makes it at least as hard to hit as the Mako. Its tail is capable of knocking out equipment at full power, so you'll have your hands full trying to counter it with any equipment that isn't flares. Mines are an especially bad idea, as between the speed and the active, a good Thresher will likely detonate them in your face. As with the Mako, Bleed, Splitting and Tagging rounds are helpful.

Goblin: It's big and fast but slow to recover from lunges and made of paper. On its own, target practice. Issue being, it can spawn a decoy that will home in on you. You get points for shooting it, it causes screams when it hits someone, it's very tough to tell them apart, but fades out like a cloaking Tiger on impact or on death. Be very careul with weapons like the netgun, as you don't want to waste your shot on the fake only for the real deal to come eat you. Automatics are highly advised, as they'll burn through decoy and real shark alike in seconds.

Tiger: Tiger is the middle of the road shark, having more health than the speedsters but less than the heavies, with mobility to match. The stamina pool is okay but not great, allowing only 3 lunges before it has to recharge, and it can't sprint for long. Its special makes it nearly invisible and undetectable by flares and such for 2/3/5 seconds. Neither Toxin nor Bleed particularly excels at damaging it. In spite of their ability, Tagging can be moderately effective, as long as you land shots such that the tag is still in effect after the ability runs out or before they would have used it to make them waste it early. If you can manage to space out your sonar buoys and flares such that it can't approach you completely undetected, that will take away one of its major advantages.

Bull: So, take the Tiger, lose the cloaking, make it a little slower... and give it a super mode that grants it carte blanche to wreck face for a 4 seconds. The good news is that the massive health reserve it gets while super-ing makes it very vulernable to Toxin, Drag rounds worsen its already lacking mobility, and even in fully charged super mode it can't survive a penetrating harpoon. The bad news is that said super mode is charged by diver activity, including gunfire and shark shields. The other good news is that it has to be relatively close to said activity to get the charge, so you can often catch it lurking outside and surprise it. Because the Bull gets bonus health rather than damage resistance like the Great White, it can keep attacking your team without going for seals if you didn't hurt it enough to cut into its 'real' health.

Hammerhead: Very tough, very slow. The Hammerhead has bad Thrash damage and its stamina is garbage. It makes up for this by grabbing divers and slamming them into walls. Fighting in the open will give it a hard time, as will Drag and Tranq rounds. Toxin works on the big health pool too. High power single shot weapons are also effective due to their lacking mobility. The hammerhead is big on momentum, and not just in the strictest sense of the word. If it gets its Active maxed, it gets health for slamming into walls, AKA it heals while it kills you. If it gets Vitalized Frenzy, there's nothing stopping it from using its Active, wiping your entire team, and then starting again once people respawn. You need to deny this shark kills as much as possible, as once you get into the late game, it's much more vulnerable because everyone is packing heavy weapons.

Great White: This is the team tank. He has the highest health, and the Active lets it resist up to 50% of incoming damage. The good news is that it only lasts 3 seconds, and a great white can still be downed with enough shots. The active also allows it to resist tranq rounds at the same rate, and at max power it will completely ignore Drag Rounds and Nets. You may have noticed that covers most of the support weapons/mods in the game. Yeah. You -really- want a proper "slayer" on your team to counter these things with raw damage. That said, you're not completely helpless. The short duration of the active means that a Great White player can't use the ability until they're right in the middle of the action. If you can detect it early and hit it with a Drag Round or Net, it'll be forced to use the Active early, leaving it vulnerable... As long as you don't let it get a kill, otherwise it will likely use Vitalized Frenzy to refresh the skill and keep attacking.

Knife-Free- You move slightly faster when it's equipped, you can tickle sharks that sit directly in front of you, but it's main purpose is to give you something to do when you get grabbed. It takes around 10 stabs to kill a shark at full health, so getting a kill this way is unlikely. Still, mash Mouse1 when you get grabbed and maybe you'll get lucky.

Welding Torch-Free- You deal even less damage to sharks, but you can repair S.T.E.V.E. . The more damaged he is, the slower he moves, and if he's completely destroyed, the divers lose all their remaining tickets and the sharks win by default after a few minutes in case that wasn't enough to worry about. You won't see many sharks try to completely destroy him, but if they seem to be consciously gunning for him, definitely grab this.

Sensor-$300- This is as support oriented as a diver can get. The sensor will passively highlight gold when it's being held, and can fire sonar pings that highlight sharks even through walls for a couple seconds. The sensor will beep when it's ready to fire again, so you can swap to it for a pulse and then bring your weapon back out.

SPP-1/P-11-$500/$650- They're cheap, and you can put an ammo modifier such as Tranq or Tagging on them to complicate a shark's day. And if you can't aim, you can dual wield them with Splitting Rounds in hope of hitting something through sheer volume. Super. Just remember that adding Bleed, Splitting, or Toxin cuts into the immediate damage dealt by your shots, so if you're trying to kill something in a hurry, avoid these modifiers unless you're positive you can make up for the reduced damage with several direct hits.

Speargun/Spear pistol-$2000/$800- These guys take a little more practice to hit things with, due to their 1-shot nature, but they're good practice for less forgiving weapons like the netgun and volleyjet. If you're fighting smaller sharks or are otherwise having trouble landing your shots, go for Sonar (each shot will tag nearby sharks briefly) and tagging rounds. If you're fighting bigger sharks, go for Drag and Poison or Tagging. The smaller sharks will be highlighted just long enough for you or your teammates to attempt follow-up shots, and the larger sharks will take large amounts of damage between being poisoned and too slow to evade. They're okay for adding stacks of Bleed or Toxin since they don't lose any damage in the course of doing so, but they still can't add them as quickly as a pistol or rifle.

Harpoon-$4500- It's an expensive but extremely powerful speargun. One shot from this will wreck lesser sharks in 1 hit, and with the Penetrating Rounds upgrade, even the heavies can die in 1 hit (GW can survive 1 with its ability) That said: you can't put Drag rounds on it, you have less ammo, its hard to use effectively, and it costs so much to purchase in the first place that you'll likely be giving up equipment and such to afford it. This is more of a slayer's weapon, is what I'm getting at. That said, if you like Sonar shots but want some actual punch to back it up, this'll do. There's also Explosive rounds. Not advised. The power and AoE is good. The resulting disorientation is not.

APS Rifle-$2000- It's a cheaper but less rapid assault rifle. As mentioned in Ray's guide, the lower fire rate means you can afford to fire more often, which is good for harassing sharks. Thanks to still shooting faster than spears or pistols, it's excellent for stacking bleed or toxin on targets to force them to disengage. Just remember that you lose direct damage, same as the pistols. It's also better for hitting smaller sharks than a speargun, thanks to the volume of fire and the Splitting Rounds option.

ADS Rifle-$3300- It's the APS with a higher fire rate and more expensive ammo modifiers ($1500). As with the Harpoon, the price is high. You can stack debuffs on sharks like nobody's business with this, and even with Splitting Rounds on you can still deal appreciable direct damage. Just watch your ammo.

Volleyjet-$3000- It's a shotgun. The projectile speed is as slow as a net, so you can't snipe with it. A direct hit (5 spears hitting) packs a massive punch. That said, the ring-shaped firing pattern makes that unlikely unless you're firing from the side and/or shooting at point blank, so positioning is key. Ammo modifiers take some of your damage away, but it still hits fairly hard, and in theory should apply a stack for each spear that impacts.

Netgun-$1600- Hoo boy. Few things will get a shark angry quite like nailing them with the net. That said, the projectile speed is painfully slow. You'll have to hit them between lunges, or land the net as they charge at you. Using Barbed and Reiforced adds $2000 to the total cost, but it's often enough to kill smaller sharks on its own, and Tagging is also good. Great Whites can ignore the net for 3 seconds with a maxed Active, however.

DPV- $600- This is a scavenger's best friend. $300 more lets you highlight gold pick-ups, and $1500 more allows you to pick up gold just by swimming up to it. I wouldn't buy the latter unless there's a bunch of gold you can get in 1 pass, though, as that 1500 could be used for a bunch of other purchases. It's also great for spreading out your flares and sonar buoys.

Bangstick-$800- It's a stick. You poke sharks and they explode. What on earth are you doing trying to poke sharks with a stick? The range is obviously below that of any gun or launcher, you fire 1 'shot' then sit through a long reload, you only get 2 back-up rounds, and you can't even 1-shot the heavies with it. I've seen some divers do amazing things with this weapon, and you can get it right off the bat, but the amount of skill and low ping and sheer dumb luck it takes to use it effectively make it impossible to recommend.

Flare-$50- Capacity of 3- It highlights sharks within range as it slowly sinks and burns out. The duration is short (30 s) and the range is below average, but it's cheap and it can't be destroyed. The detection zone isn't big enough to cover a room very well, but it's good for narrow areas like corridors and windows.

Sonar Buoy-$150- Capacity of 3- More range and better duration (5 m) than a flare and it stays where you set it. That's the good news. The bad news is that sharks can destroy it with a Dash or Lunge. I have noticed that, if you happen to be dying rapidly, you can at least spam these such that the time it takes to destroy them all is prohibitive for the average player. Consider using the DPV to deploy these around the map rather than just around the current safe. If the sharks spend time destroying them, that's time to look for more gold. If the sharks don't go after them, they may stumble into them at an inopportune moment, or be forced to circumvent them. Just make sure you put them in hard-to-reach areas if you do this, like under the steps leading to the last safe in Crude. Having 1 in the safe room means your teammates have no excuse for not opening fire when a shark shows up (unless it's a Tiger, of course).

Sea Mine-$200- Capacity of 3- A high power proximity explosive that floats in place. These can be helpful. But they can also be your worst nightmare, because the damage doesn't differentiate between sharks and divers, and stray shots can set them off just as well. I've lost almost as many lives to teammates with sea mines than I've lost to sharks. Hell, as a shark, I've almost gotten more kills with sea mines than with teeth. Do not put them in the center or a room, or anywhere you expect teammates or S.T.E.V.E. to be. Also, Threshers can set them off with their Active once it is at level 3. Don't stack 3 in 1 doorway, either. It doesn't work consistently, and you're not going to win if it takes you $600 gold to get a single kill.

Medkit-$500-Capacity of 1- This case can be set down, where divers can pick up 1 of the 3 syringes set inside to heal to full health and stop bleeding effects. A lot of newbie sharks really like Serrated Teeth, but pros generally spend their points on other skills. On top of that, medkits are randomly placed near some of the ammo boxes in the maps, so you may not need this.

Supply Kit-$600- Capacity of 1- 3 sonar buoys, 3 flares, 1 sea mine, all in 1 convenient package. This is an amazing piece of equipment... if your teammates cooperate. In theory, you spend your gold on these, supplying your teammates with gear so they can save their money for bigger guns, and the task of fortifying your battleground is evenly spread among the lot of you. In practice, at least half the divers I've played with will either ignore these outright or take something and never use it (or sell it back to get more guns). Then you try to deploy them all yourself, but do a bad job because you're also trying to do the other support stuff, the money is wasted, you hate your teammates, and you never want to play support or diver ever again. Don't go down that road, for that way lies madness. Save these for divers that have proven they're willing to work with you.

Shark Shield-$700- Capacity of 1- Divers inside the sphere generated by this device are no longer highlighted in shark vision. This doesn't mean they can't see you normally, though. For maximum effect, turn your flashlight off (G). This is a priority target, and as such should be placed out of the way. Supposedly you can turn off ones you've placed by interacting with them with [E], but I haven't tried it yet. Seeing as it lasts maybe half a minute, that's a useful function to have.

P.A.T.-$700- Capacity of 1- A small drone with a gun. It tracks like a bot, making it a massive headache for smaller sharks, and it seems to spot Tigers even in cloaked mode. Heavy sharks can tank the fire long enough to score kills, and a maxed Thresher active can clear a room of them. As with shark shields, positioning is key. You can set it to follow you by interacting with it with [E], so bring it with you if S.T.E.V.E. is leaving the room. Just remember it can't shoot while in follow mode.

Light em up!: Sharks don't like being tagged. Half of what makes them so dangerous to you is their ability to come at your team from any angle and escape before you realize what is happening. That's a lot harder when they're sporting a big red outline. How you do it doesn't matter. Sensor pulses, Tagging Rounds, and Detection Equipment are all valid methods. Experiment a bit and find the way that works for you. Just remember to actually shoot at the sharks once they're amongst your team of divers, which leads me into my second point.

Shoot her! SHOOT HER!: Just because you're support doesn't mean you can't lend a gun like the rest of the team. That said, you want to be proactive rather than reactive. Don't wait for the shark to enter the room. Look out the window, fire sensor pulses where you think they're approaching from, then put some shots down range once you have a location. If they back off, good, you've bought your team some time to breathe. If they attack anyway, they'll be doing so at a disadvantage (as long as you didn't swim outside the room and get grabbed or something).

Grab the gold (and encourage your teammates to do the same): You start with $800 to buy equipment at the start of the game. Assuming you spend it all on non-consumables, you'll get $400 back when you sell it off for new stuff. An APS rifle (middle of the road weapon) with an ammo modifier costs $3000. You get $1000 for each safe opened, and there are 4 in each stage. If you're waiting for the game to give you enough gold for your build, you're probably gonna die, is what I'm getting at. Each gold pick-up you return to S.T.E.V.E. grants every member of your team $50, so it's really in everyone's best interest to pick it up whenever they see it [E] and throw it to the robot [Q]. Ideally, your teammates grab the gold in S.T.E.V.E.'s immediate path and inside the safe rooms, leaving you to go for the stuff further away. And if you're outside gold hunting and you hear them sharks coming, throw the bag before they grab you. If you take damage while carrying gold, the individual pieces drop, but if you throw the bag, you just need to grab that the next time you're in the area. It's so much faster and you need that.

Don't let it sit: Your team has 30 spare lives. Assuming everyone dies about the same amount, you'll get around 7 respawns in the entire game. 7 opportunities to change up your gear and buy new stuff. Don't waste them. If you already have the weapon you want, buy some gosh darn equipment. It sucks when you die going for gold. Not using that death to actually spend some of your hard-won money is even worse.

Check the lobby: You can check the stats of the people you're playing with before the match starts (click on the names in the lobby). If you're fighting two veteran shark players, and your divers haven't broken 10 matches, that's going to impact what strategies you use. Newbie sharks don't maneuver so well, you can dodge them more easily. They don't have as much situational awareness, you can flank them or escape their notice by being far away from S.T.E.V.E. They tend to hover outside rooms so you can pinpoint their location and get some hits in. Stuff like that. Newbie divers have their own considerations, mentioned in the next point.

Communicate: Suggest ammo types or weapons that will help counter the sharks you're fighting. Speaking of which, call out what sharks you see in case they can't tell. Tell them to buy some gosh darn equipment, or when you've put down a supply kit or medkit. Tell them to let up if they keep rushing outside and getting picked off. You're still going to have instances where you are the only diver that knows which way is up, but every bit of knowledge your teammates absorb makes them better suited for later matches.

Juke 'em out: Sharks are played by humans just like yourself (unless we've since reached the singularity, in which case I for one welcome our robot overlords). As such, they make mistakes, like zigging when they should have zagged. As such, it's possible to make them commit to a lunge or dash that passes right by you, keeping yourself alive for another few seconds and making them look like a big, shootable jerk. Divers can dash twice in succession. For pros, this means timing your dodges and using them sparingly so you could potentially stay out of a shark's jaws forever. For beginners, I'd try using 1 dash in one direction to fake them out before dashing away once they commit. Remember, sharks are better at horizontal movement than vertical, so try to vary your depth as well.

Find some friends: So, you got through a match and you found people that know which end of the gun to hold. Congratulations. Chat them up and see if they're willing to join forces. Your job is much easier when you have a team that can take advantage of your detection equipment and gold farming.

See how the other half lives: To best understand the shark, one must play the shark. You need to get a feel for how they move, and your average shark player isn't gonna chill and let you study their movement patterns. Play against the AI if you must, but try playing a shark so you see, say, how long a GW can sprint or how many rounds a Tiger can take before it can't finish off the diver in its mouth.

Here we are again. With any luck, these tips have helped you become a better player. But we're not done yet. As I mentioned in my other guide, there are times when you can't trust your teammates to do much of anything, so it's up to you. Now your goal isn't to annoy the sharks, isn't to stall them, it's to kill them so hard they turn around and find safer waters. That doesn't mean you stop grabbing gold, stop tagging sharks, or stop giving your diver buddies the occasional snippet of advice. It does mean prioritising your well-being over theirs, though. Unfortunate, but what can you do? For more information, I highly recommend the other guides, particularly Ray's "How to Dive" and Sinopia's "Shark and Weapon Statistics" for you data nerds in the audience. Both have information that I regurgitated here (mostly numbers I can't just look up in game), so thank them if you get a chance.

Ray's "How To Dive" Guide

Sinopia's "Shark and Weapon Statistics"