Totally awesome guide to git better at APB! [Beginner to Advanced]

New contact means returning players, and perhaps some new players as well. If your memory is foggy or you need a basic understanding of the game you've come to the right place!

For this update I've edited down the word count and I'm working towards getting videos for the WIP sections

Yes this guide is long, there is a lot of reading! USE THE "GUIDE INDEX" TO JUMP TO WHAT INTERESTS YOU! I will include TL;DR's where I can

I've tried to include information that is relevant to all threat levels. That being said players who are at least silver threat and R100+ will get the most use out of what I have to share

I'll have this caveat upfront that I do not have the best aim in this game, not by a long shot. The culmination of knowledge and tactics I've hoarded over the years is what allows me to go toe to toe with people who posses extraordinary aim. You can find out more information about me as a player at the end of this guide!

In this guide: I will cover how the best teams use effective communication to go on massive win streaks, leaving their opponents thinking they are cheaters. Additionally I will showcase some tips and tricks that might not be obvious to most people

Whether you've just created your first criminal or you're logging back into the game you'll be presented with the option of choosing a district. Originally this section of the guide was about choosing the right district based on your threat level, however a while back a change was implemented allowing players of any rank to join any district

Similar to most games a District is a zone, or map, on which players can play. They are broken down into three main types, Mission, Social and Fight Club

• Mission: Where players can queue up to fight over objectives that spawn randomly throughout the map. This is the main draw of APB and what makes the game unique

• Fight Club: A deathmatch style map where players are aiming to get kills, with objectives being secondary in nature

• Social: A hub to socialize with other players where combat is prohibited, kiosks in social allow for customization better than any other game out there today

• Event: These time-based districts will appear around famous holidays where players can engage in event objectives for holiday themed items

Below is a screenshot of the district select screen. I highly recommend using the Advanced tab at the upper left to get more details about each of the districts

⠀
⠀

Please note if a district has the max players of your faction it will display a red square, indicating your side is full and you may not join. (Because there is no queue system, players will spam the join button until they get in. Nobody likes this and a queue system would be greatly appreciated). Additionally be sure to uncheck both options in the upper right corner to see all districts available.

Threat, (or Rank as it's called in other games), is how APB determines what players to put against you. It goes in this order from lowest to highest:

It works similar to other competitive shooters. If you are a higher rank that means the game has determined you are more likely to win a match against someone with a lower rank.

It is calculated based on the point system within the game. Getting a kill, or doing an objective will net you points which add up to your total score at the end of a mission. If you are on the top half of the entire scoreboard (both teams combined) your Threat will increase. Conversly if you are on the bottom half your Threat will decrease.

Rank in most games, and especially in APB does a poor job of accurately showcasing yours, or anyone else's skill level. For one, you can get gold simply by doing objectives as they reward more points than getting a single kill, also if you do all the objectives by yourself you will get a medal which awards more points. Meaning theoretically you can be gold in APB without knowing how to fire your gun. Secondly the Gold Threat (or rank) encompasses a wide range of skill levels. Most other games will have ranks above gold, as I explain later in the guide. This means that a new player who did objectives without firing their gun can be the same Threat as people considered the best players in APB.

Note: Little Orbit is planning on adjusting the Rank system in APB and I will update this section when changes occur.

Character modifications (along with all other modifications) are used to tailor your playstyle. These ones of course affecting what your character can do.

More specifically you'll have one's that increase your health, but slow your health regen. There is also a mod that lets you put your current symbol over the radar of any enemy in the vicinity.

They come in four colors Orange, Green, Blue, and Yellow (Yellow being consumables)

I wish I could say that they were consistent (Example: Green means health mods) but they're colored this way for balance purposes mostly, as equipping two mods of the same color is impossible.

Certain modifications have increasing ranks, which will make their modifiers more extreme. So along with you needing to be a higher rank, and spend more money to aquire them. The benefits and drawbacks will increase as the mod rank does. If you're curious what a modification will do you can always check the right side panel when buying one from a contact.

Another important thing to note is that all modifications have a character rank (or level) requirement to equip. With a decent number of them requiring you to be rank (or level) 195

The fourth mod, or the yellow mod, is reserved for consumables. These are slightly different in the following ways. First off you don't need to be any rank (or level) to equip them. You get them randomly after completeing a mission meaning you are limited by how many uses you have aquired. Most consumables are a physical deployable item.

I suggest playing around with mods and getting the feel for what works best for you. Also talking to more experienced players about why they use their set-up so you understand how modifications interact with eachother. Except for one thing...

As someone new to the world of San Paro you might ask Why?

Simple, the cons outweigh the pros. 50% Fall damage from Happy Landings 1 is enough to save you from the tallest surfaces you can jump off of. The increased time in the braced animation from using 2 or 3 is hardly worth the trade off!

Sure, Hard Landings (Blue) is so when I fall I'm not locked in the brace animation. There is rarely a time when you will fall so much that hard landings will get you killed.

Clotting Agent III (Green) starts my health regen sooner but makes the regen time take longer. This means I can stay in firefights slowly healing, but I have to retreat longer to get my full HP back.

Spotter (Orange) will put a tag above anybody I am looking at when the mod is active, this is very useful when playing in a team.

Deployable Ammo (Yellow) will put down an ammo box for resupplying.

Let's talk about cars

Vehicle choice in APB is paramount in how successful your missions are. If your team arrives first to an objective then you will have advantage over the point. You might think then that speed is the most important thing in a vehicle, and while it plays a huge role other factors such as health, cover and carrying capacity are important to consider too

Here is a list of the meta vehicles in order from most used to least used. The colloquial term for each car will be in the parentheses

What the lack in speed the Nulander Pioneer ("Pioneer" or "Pio", Left) and Seiyo Espacio ("Espacio", Right) make up for in armor and carrying capacity. Able to fit 4 players, 2 heavy items (or 7 medium items) these cars are the kings of mission districts. You'll often find high-skilled players driving these around as they make for excellent cover out on the roadways Patriot Vegas 4x4 ("4 by 4") is a great all-rounder. High top speed and good acceleration are not the only reasons this car was S-Tier for a long time. It also came with a significant health pool over it's contemporaries. After the health adjustments it is not as strong as it once was but still a car seen often around San Paro. Don't get confused there is also a non-4x4 variant with significantly slower acceleration The Bishada Rapier ("Bishada", Left) and the Patriot V20 Jericho ("Jericho", Right) are great choices. They don't really excel in any one area and serve the role of jack of all trades. Decently quick but lacking a significant high health pool. You'll often encounter players driving these who have gotten bored of driving a 4x4 around, or just like the aesthetic The Han Veo Coywolf ("Coywolf") sports very quick acceleration. Fragile but nimble, this car is great for moving a team of players around Functioning more like go-karts than actual cars the Charge Mikro ("Mikro", Left) and Packer Vaquero ("The Jeep", Right) are fast zippy cars with low health pools. Capable of getting two players around in spaces that other cars couldn't maneuver in and are generally great for running people over

Ultimately the two most fundamental skills of APB

The act of being aware is crucial to staying alive. You should know where not only your teammates are but if an enemy shows up on radar you should know where they are too. Learning objective types

Improving Game Awareness can be done by checking your radar as it gives you information about where your teammates and enemies are. It also helps to communicate with your team. Once you are comfortable glancing at the radar every so often you should familiarize yourself with where objectives are. Don't be impatient this skill just takes time to master but knowing what kind of location your objective is at before you get there can help you determine if it's time to switch tactics.

Is predicting how the game will flow. Knowing where enemies will be heading, what their strategies are, what your teammates are likely to do, how to take objectives, and etc.

Improving Game Sense is a lot harder. First off, think that your goal is to outsmart your opponents. Ask yourself "Where are my opponents likely to be?" and "If ____ happens what are they likely to do?". This will allow you to position yourself to take your enemies by surprise, giving you the upper hand.

Quick Tip
Playing solo will improve your game sense and game awareness faster than playing in a group. Because you will have to rely on your knowledge rather than your teammates having your back. So try playing some matches solo every now and then!

Effective communication is key, it is one thing to just talk to eachother and have a good time (WHICH IS GOOD!), however this guide is for trying as hard as you can, to be the best you can. So simple call outs is not enough. This is what you need to do:

• Call out enemy weapons at beginning of match
  
• Identify the biggest threats on the enemy team
  
• Call out specifics (if a guy is on a roof, don't say "on the roof" say "on the roof north-west of X spot"
  
• If you die, do not say "argh how did he kill me? this guy is hacks!" call out where he is, how much damage you think you did to him, and where he is going.
  
• If you see a glimpse of an enemy call it out, even if it is only a thought say "beware of X direction" or if you think you know where enemies will come from, say so, don't stay silent.

Communicating effectively is calling out exactly where someone is when you see them, and you want your team to shoot at them. General directions and specific directions are two very different things though, here are some examples of what to do and what not to do:

Good: On your left, below you, running south.
Bad: On my right, below, running towards me.

This is bad because the person you are trying to communicate with might not know where you are, so knowing the enemies position relative to you would be impossible, causing a loss of kill or even the death of your teammate

Good: North side, aiming at point B, watch for flank East, through tunnel.
Bad: Enemy sniper over there, might come around from somewhere.

This is bad because even if it gets its point across that there is a sniper in the general area, the problem is it is too general, leaving your teamates to not be able to act on it.

Good: Enemy hiding behind east wall, across from point, tagged 50%, using OCA
Bad: Enemy hiding near point, lookout.

Again you're not being specific enough. If you call out that they're half and where they are, your teammates can act upon it securing a kill, however if you leave out this key information, your team will play passive. If your team plays passive this will give the enemy player a chance to recover and perhaps ace your team or something.

But my north is different from their north?!? This is what some people run into then callouts come into play. The easiest answer is to use a stationary landmark, or the player you're calling out to. It might take a quick second of thinking but over time you'll get faster and faster at it.

Now of course these examples are slightly over-exaggerated but I want you to get in the habit of calling out more specifics, it will really help in the long run. :)

DO NOT TALK TOO MUCH!!!!!!! Be aware of the right time and the wrong time to tell jokes. Try to not chit chat over other people's callouts!

I can't say this enough, the best players are the best because at some point they learned to play in a team. Playing in a consistent team has its benifits:

• You play with people you know
  
• You can work together to take down tough opponents
  
• It takes some of the pressure off you

So yeah, playing in a team is great! However how do you make your team better than other people's teams? Well there are some things you can do to make your team better

I already talked about communication and that really is a big factor in a lot of cases. This is because no matter how good a player is, it is very unlikely that they will win in a 2v1 situation when the two players are slightly less skilled. So already if you're able to set up 2v1's or 3's you can clear enemy teams together, this is the first step in becoming the best team on APB: Reloaded

Objectives! Always, always, always, put objectives first; A. they give more points than kills. B. it's how you win missions. It is fine to not go for objectives if you are defending a point, but if you are on offense, have one of your team doing the point while the others fight off the enemies. Getting to the point before your enemies is a serious advantage. Even just the ability to set up at a point will force the enemy to push into you which is always harder than defending

Final stages: There are several different ending stages in APB: Reloaded, and I wont be covering any of them. All I can tell you is play the game, talk with your team about how you want to go about these different end stages, develop strategies, find out what players are best at what, and try your best

Car Spawners: Most important thing of this entire guide maybe, car spawners cost me anywhere from 3 to 5 missions a day, either because our team doesn't set them up, or they don't blow up the enemies car spawners. FOCUS THE CAR SPAWNERS Being able to spawn close to the point is very advantageous, and high-skilled players will go out of their way to deal with these spawners as soon as possible

In general: Play as a team, not solo. Don't be that guy that just runs in and dies, wait for your team and push together. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! APB is fundamentally a team game, it's cool to frag a bunch of people on your own but the more people against you at once the less likely you will win a firefight

Okay so, you got your team and you've hit the streets a couple times, you're doing okay but you're always at the bottom of your team in points. You don't know what it is, you try your best but everyone just seems better than you, and you get frusterated.

Pause: I know this feeling, it comes with everything you want to improve in, and don't say you play a game casually if you get frusterated at yourself when you're not improving, or when you can't do something (that's not casual lelelelel). It is frusterating to play APB: Reloaded! It is a very high learning curve game, and since it is dying, you will only be fighting people who have been around forever. The best players know how to overcome this, it takes a lot of patience but here are some quick tips:

• Don't play if you're getting too frustrated.
  
• Make sure you have had enough to eat/drink before you play a match, and that your body isn't irritated (like needing to use the restroom).
  
• Instead of getting mad at yourself when you die, identify your mistakes, and try to correct them next time.
  
• DO NOT play too long! This is bad, A. you wont improve your skill, B. it will cause exhaustion and irritation.
  
• Take breaks.

Now, on to more technical things. First off be aware of your surroundings. Here is a picture example. now of course most players wont do this, but there are two things to note from this. One is, that my good friend Ophion, has left his feet exposed. This tells us where he is and even lets us shoot at him a couple times to put on more pressure. Another thing to note, is he left himself exposed, when you are running through apb, there are plenty of covers that do not completely cover the body. So be aware where you are, and what part of your models are showing. Next is knowing where your bullets go. This might seem strange, but as you see in the picture, my crosshair is not on the wall but my bullets are still hitting the wall.
This happens often when leaning and causes many players to complain about not hitting their target, because they expose themselves to being shot at, but are just shooting the wall back.

Always lean. Okay not always, there are some strange people who lean in the middle of the street, and that bugs me to no end, HOWEVER you want to lean as much as possible! (please?) I know it is a strange mechanic to get used to if you normally play first person shooters. But there are great benefits to leaning! You leave less of your body exposed, you can shoot around corners, all that good stuff.
Tip: one thing to note, if you lean, and press the switch shoulder camera button (default V) it will automatically lean to the other side.

I'm not going to waste your time explaining to you what each grenade is what what it does, GreNADES THERE! YAY!! Okay so I'm more going to talk about pre-nading. Pre-nading is amazing, if you can do it successfully you can do around 60% of their HP before they can even shoot at you! Grenades are a huge part in APB: Reloaded and knowing how to use them is key.

Corner nading is kewlio, and is what I did here, corner nading is where you nade the corner that you think enemies are going to be at. (duh) usually the proper time to do this, is if you see an enemy dash behind a corner, or you are familiar enough with the area and know that corner is often camped.

There are two options when it comes to corner nading
Option A: Throw the grenade directly at the corner.
Option B: Throw the grenade so it bounces off a wall and hits the guy behind the corner.

In this picture I'm demonstrating bouncing it off the back wall
This is done usually when you are in corridors or not really out in the open as bouncing nades against walls can limit the time the enemy sees the grenade and has time to react.

Nading corners directly is done from a distance, or with perc nades that don't travel far (and don't bounce). This is done when a player has been damaged and is going to the corner to hide, or if you're perc rushing.

I will always suggest the bounce technique, and too often I see people just chucking their nades and hoping they will hit. -sigh- just... please... learn to bounce your nades, spend an entire day in a empty district practicing at spots if you have to (with different types of grenades). Know how long each grenade takes, how far it goes, how much damage it does, its blast radius.

While we're on the subject of knowing grenades let's touch on guns. Stay with me here it will be brief, there are TOO many guns in APB! and you really don't need a huge collection. Just try these listed guns out and find one that works for you.

• N-Tec 5
  
• Joker Carbine
  
• OCA (or JG if you prefer shotguns)
  
• ALIG
  
• N-HVR 762

For a better understanding of how guns work in APB you can check out this guide:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=129866005

All these guns serve a different role in what they do, but don't just try one, make sure you really understand what each gun does. Yea it will take time, but if you really want to improve you got to know your opponent. Even if it is just a rough idea like "that gun shoots fast" or "that gun has range" that's good, you can ask your team what those guns really do.

the most ideal posistion is up high, with lots of cover, where you can see the points you are defending, or see your teammates when they advance. Of course this isn't always the case, so look for walls to hide behind, or really any cover. Cover is key, always try and limit the bullets hitting you. Use a riot shield if you have to, or a car, just remember they are destructable.

Another thing to consider about positioning is getting to objectives, if you're running to a point, or flanking around the enemy team, try to stick to walls. If you're running around in the open, you will be seen giving your opponents the advantage over you.

Make sure you know the maps and the areas somewhat well, of course this comes with playing, but try and learn the maps!! AND RADAR OMG USE YOUR RADAR GET IN THE HABIT OF LOOKING AT YOUR RADAR!!! Your radar tells you all sorts of useful things, like if an enemy fires a gun within 80m, or even drives, it will show up.

TL;DR think before you act.

Let's start this off with the quote that literally everyone knows, and if you don't already, then you're about to:

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

I'll give it to you straight, the majority of APB players are not big thinkers. These people have spent hours and hours mastering how to track and how to aim at angles to just shoot you down. They are (mostly) unstoppable killing machines, and these people will dominate in Fight Club situations.

Simple: with our superior minds. I will tell you all this; when I am facing someone that uses strange tactics I do a lot worse, and when I am not thinking through any plan of action, I end up doing worse. Even if your plan is garbage, going into combat with a bad plan is a lot more effective than going in with no plan. Oh yeah, try to avoid plans that sound like "I'll run in there and pray I hit something"

Aw ye man its easy to think stratilly man I will stratz all over them wow look at me so cool. B-^) It's really not, in fact many things can inhibit our ability to plan things out. I'm going to leave you with another quote and some examples of how to use tactics in APB.

“If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Becoming really good at missions is done by being able to play mind games on your opponent. If you're able to outsmart him/her then they will be thrown off and not perform as well.

Hold on there ace. There are actually times when blindly shooting and hoping hitreg is on your side is the best course of action. I know I just had a paragraph about why you should use tactics but let me tell you when you SHOULDN'T use them.

• Someone is shooting you and you need to focus on not death.
  
• Your team isn't together
  
• Fight Club in general. (Although basic strategies can apply there)

The best time to really think through your next manuver is when your team is together and the enemy team has no idea where you are. This allows you to form a plan to get the jump on your opponents such as sending in one person to be a distraction as the others enter from another direction, to setting up crossfires so every fight is a 2v1 scenario in your favor.

I'll give examples of two good strategies now, one for teams and one for a more 1v1 situation.

Number 1:
It has just gotten to the final stage and it is a item pickup and hold. Instead of driving car spawners into the area, drive civilian cars, or ammo cars and wait to pick up the item until the enemy team gets close. This way they don't think you've arrived yet, when really you're waiting to ambush.

Number 2:
You're engaging a enemy but you're lit, after you pop around a corner, proceed to flank him from behind. If you manage to get the kill great, if not, you've set up your next kill. If you get into a similar scenario later. Instead of flanking wait about 5-ish seconds until you think he is convinced you're coming for the flank, then gun him down.

Even though these plans sound simple, if you and your team really know that there is a plan the odds that you win encounters are much higher. Then again there are teams who can out-play you but don't let yourself get discouraged, take a breath, and focus on trying plans again. You'll find yourself winning more missions that way.

I'll link this amazing guide again, by chance you want to take a deeper delve into some more hardcore apb tactics.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=379180211

Keep calm, and keep your cursor on them. One tip is to try to aim more with your body then with your crosshair, so move your character instead of your mouse, and use the mouse for only very slight adjustments. This is why people who play on low sens tend to be better than people who play with high sens.

Make sure to take into account the lag of the server/yourself/otherplayer you might need to aim a little ahead of their hitbox, or a little behind, in order to actually reg on them. Keep in mind the hitbox is static, it wont change, no matter what shape the enemy player is, or what animation they're in (even if it's spooky animation like the superman-car-animation-bug).

If you're just about to engage a enemy, make sure you use grenades first. This will damage them and put you at an advantage!

Sure, I can talk about this for a second, and this will work for just about anyone really. For golds that spam 'lowyos' and such running flak jacket usually works against them. If you are not high enough for flak, then think before hand that they are going to use 2+ grenades each time they chuck a nade your direction. This way you can stand back and avoid the majority of the grenades. When a player is using 'lowyos' they tend to be a little less caring about how much they use nades and if you peek around a corner you can easily get them to expend their nades.

Once they are out of grenades you need to worry about the carbine, its hard to fight against because of how it is played, being that tracking a carbine user is relatively challenging. This is why it is a common weapon in high skill gameplay (along with the oscar). I would suggest using a gun that generally gets good hitreg and covers a wide bloom like the OCA, or similar smgs. DO NOT ENGAGE these weapons at 25~30m unless you're using one yourself, this is where they shine.

As for the .45 specifically, don't worry about killing them fast, worry more about dodging, that gun is super unreliable and you can easily dodge most of their shots, forcing the reload. While they are reloading then focus more on killing and less on dodging.

No guide would be complete without some tips n' tricks. Many of you will already know of most of these, and this section will be continuously updated when I find more.

Note: Some of you will be mad when I devulge secrets, but if you need to rely on these things that newcomers don't know to win, chances are you're not that great ;)

Grenade through door tip is simple, aim your grenade at the side of a door (or bottom) and have it sail through to hit un-suspecting players on the other side.

This can be done because there is a very slight gap all around the door, you can even toss a grenade under a door, however it is a lot less likely to go through.

Here is a picture of the gap between doors.

This gap can be seen by blowing up a grenade on doors. it blows up the destructable border, thus revealing where grenades can go through. A great way to avoid someone trying to shoot you from the other side of the door. (if it is closed) run along the door from left to right (or the other way, just not running foward) jump, look at the door, and press F. It will look like this: When you hit a certain speed (m/s) while falling your character will do a brace animation when it lands. This animation causes any grenade you were holding to be put away, and interrupts any firing you were doing. It is crucial to know when this will proc so you can avoid leaving yourself helpless. You can also bait other players into jumping down after you, leaving them helpless. Keep in mind there are several blue mods that change when the animation will proc. Not only should you constantly be moving when using weapons that allow you to (Shotgun, OCA) you should also avoid things that prevent movement as much as possible (Fences, Ladders). These will force you into a animation that will leave you open to shooting. Luckily, the developers at RTW left many alternative ways to jump around the map. Here are some examples I've scapped together:
Always look for ways to get to places faster. Keep in mind you can jump on some windows and doors. --wip-- --wip-- Utilizing your camera is essential in higher end gameplay, it will allow you to see more, and get more itel on your opponents thus leading to a better chance at winning. Three buttons to keep in mind are:

• Looking Behind Default: Not Bound (you must rebind this yourself)
  
• Switching Camera Default: V
  
• Zoom in/out fast Default: 0 (Zero)

Switch-Shoulder is good to look around corners without exposing yourself. Look Behind is great to press every once-in-a-while to make sure enemies don't creep up to you (BIND THIS TO A KEY!!!). Zoom in and out can be done two ways, First, is pressing 0, the second is using the +/- keys. Note: the +/- keys allow you to set a specific distance from your character and the camera does not move in when sprinting (this may be a bug).

More soon...

By now you've probably ran into someone who likes to use the car detonator mod. If you're unfamiliar with the mod, when activated their personal vehicle will be set to explode after a short timer. This timer is very audible making a loud beeping sound, their car's headlights will flash as well.

Car det mains are troublesome to deal with because they can easily force you out of a position you want to be in, because the explosion radius on the car is so massive. This can be annoying for most players as it's somewhat easy to get caught out by a car det and then easily slaughtered.

Here are three of the most common ways a car det main will play:

Easiest way to counter a car det main is to see it coming. If you check the scoreboard it will show this image next to their character name. If you see this that means they will try to use their car against you so be on the lookout.

Car det users telegraph what they're going to do pretty obviously, if they get out and run away, that means they activated car bomb. If they get out far away with their car hurdling towards you, they activated car bomb.

If you hover your crosshair over an enemy's vehicle and it shows this purple mod on it, there's a high chance the car's owner has car det. If you see this mod it is generally a good idea to stear clear, or at least be prepared to move if the car starts beeping!!

So to counter this, all you have to do is watch for the telegraph and then move out of the way of the explosion. This is easier said than done as the explosion radius is rather wide, but it should be managable with just a bit of practice. If you're feeling particularly confident, you can drop a mobile shield in the direction of their car and crouch behind it. This will sometimes end in the car bomb user killing themselves.

(Thank you Chaosek for mentioning this part, and contributing to some of the amazing vocabulary)

TL;DR: Don't be a dooshbeg.

Okay first off, everyone in APB is an ashhole. It's true, this game attracts (and breeds) elitest players. One should know how to survive in such a society without becoming a complete dickwad themselves. Here are some things you should avoid doing, if you want people to still play with, or even talk to you.

1. Don't give in to provocation, if someone is talking trash in district, laugh it off with your friends, do not talk smack back, it is what they want.
2. Don't be unsportsman-like, make sure to say gg, and compliment other players if they make good shots or good calls. (I know this is really hard to do but please try.)
3. Don't main "Easy to use guns". Sure these guns kill, but you wont gain any respect from your fellow players, it is okay to use them every once in a while though, just don't be that guy that always uses them.
4. DO NOT HACKUSATE!!! Okay there is a cheater problem (along with every game) but I see silver players hackusating me over and over again, saying its impossible that I land every shot. Well I did, I've been playing for over 5 years and have easily over 5K hours on this game (yes it's pretty much my life). That being said; most players you think are hacking have probably been playing forever.

Those are some things to avoid if you want players to acknowledge your skill you've worked hard to obtain. Now here are some things to avoid in general play wise. (Common mistakes)

1. Leaning out of windows at bad times (approaching points, or when too many enemies are near-by)
2. Hiding behind cars that are not in your mission, if you hover your crosshair on a car it will tell you if it is in your mission or not.
3. General mistakes, like nading your teammates or yourself. I know everyone does it, but try to avoid making these mistakes.

Avoiding these will make you a better player, and you will soon be known on your server as a person who is really good, and doesn't need the help of cheap tactics and easy guns.

TL;DR there's not as many hackers as you think there are

As you begin your journey through apb you'll notice that people complain a lot. This is mostly to do with the fact that APB is an old game, with a very small staff. I would like to think that this staff is doing everything they can to keep the game afloat... That being said, APB of course, does not run as smoothly as most of the top shooters out there

There are a lot of quirky mechanics and bugs that take a lot of time to be aware of and/or use. Which you have to take into consideration when you witness something totally unbelievable

One of the major complaints is that everyone is a cheater. This is easily believable as the skill gap between gold players, and other gold players, is MASSIVE. To compare it to a game most people know just getting to gold is like Gold in League of Legends, except most other players in gold are Diamond or above. To use the CS:GO ladder; getting gold in APB is around gold nova 2, but most players in gold are Supreme Master Guardian or above

This means that of course your fighting people that may seem like they are hacking their butts off, but really they're at the top of the skill tree, there just isn't a good ranking system, or MMR system in APB. Yes it is a huge problem, and yes the company has no idea how to go about it

Once you've been playing as long as I have, hopefully you will notice that the amount of cheaters is not as high as people claim it to be. In fact you'll probably run into a cheater once every 10 matches or so. It's not that bad

If you are claiming cheats before you have a single character at max rank (currently 270) you are probably wrong

Update: Little Orbit has implemented a new anti-cheat SARD into APB and day one there were speedhackers roaming around. Not only this but ALL old accounts were unbanned so it's very likely a lot of cheaters are back, and they are probably cheating again to maintain their ego. It can be very frustrating to fight these players but know they are very sad people. It still is a rare encounter but not as rare as it was before. That being said I've been hackusated recently so people still don't understand who is cheating and who is not

There will be some spots you will lose cause the enemy got there first, or brought an item there. And unfortunately some of these spots are a real pain-in-the-butt to reclaim. Here are some tips for reclaiming these spots in waterfront.

Located in the South-East corner of waterfront, it is a series of balconies, a great place for people to put an item and then retreat across the street for long range.
To retake this spot you will need some good teamwork and a good sniper. Sniper is key to getting anyone off the balcony, but you also need to watch for enemy snipers, here are some spots enemy snipers are likely to be:
also snipers as well as CQB~Mid range players will be up on the balcony behind posts, or walls.

Taking out the people behind posts, and walls is simple by having someone run along the buildings, then step out in the street to bounce a grenade in there. (Take out the enemy snipers first!!) Ex.

Located under and behind the Balconies of the Boxing arena, to the east, is the Corner. This is probably the strongest defense point in Waterfront. Don't be scared though! It can be re-taken with proper teamwork. You will however need a sniper, or mid-to-long range player, and someone who has an OPGL (or is really good with nades). This is how the enemy will likely be set up here, considering this spot doesn't require you to move around.
One on stairs watching West entrance:
One on balcony watching South entrance:
And lastly one on little roof watching both entrances:
if it is 4-man team, watch out for ones running around outside in the street or inside, covering both entrances, they will most likely be on ground if not balcony. The key to re-taking this spot is to corner-lean effectively and tag up people guarding entrances, then send the nades in to finish them off. Here is how you should look at the people guarding entrances:
This spot can be found in the middle of the map. It is not a horrible spot to re-take but it is a spot me and Ophion wanted to cover, because a good team knows how to use this spot really well. The key to reclaiming this spot is using nades and moving around (putting pressure, or dodging, just keep moving). You want to keep moving because this spot is fun to run around, and enemies will find ways to get behind you. Common nade route: then nade the next corner, push up, and shoot.
and 2 ways to approach the stairs:
nade corner and push
or you can shoot out the window on sky-walk and stand on tiny ledge. Note: here you have to watch where your bullets go, they have a tendency to hit the out-jogged wall

Everything else is basically how you would go at it normally, nade, then advance, it's not a tough spot to retake, just wanted to share some pointers.

This spot is located on the southern most highway a little west of the middle of waterfront. This roof is used by annoying players who want to be ♥♥♥♥♥. It can only really be retaken if you can snipe or OPGL them off the roof. Here are two good spots for sniping and OPGL:

and
here is also a spot for mid-range, and it has an easy acess to the ladder for CQB:
Note: they watch the last route so be careful, and try to pre-nade if you can.

These are the most problamatic spots in waterfront. Good luck missioning there!!

Finally got around to this section

This spot is referred to as "Pizza Hut Roof" or "Red Roof" and it is located SE of Double-B. This roof is commonly used as a item hold spot considering it's easy to leave an item up there and move to adjoining rooftop. The easiest way to get someone off of Pizza Hut is to snipe from the School
Here is Ophion demonstrating where you would stand as a sniper

If you are going to take this route, make sure you have a riot shield with you as you will have no cover, and it is easy to countersnipe. This posistion gives you the most view of Pizza Hut though.

Another approach is the Lower West approach, you want to prenade anybody on the adjoining rooftop which you can do like so:
I've marked to spots to bounce nades off of to hit enemies above you (to the left) and I've marked where enemies most commonly stand on that roof with a ! here is an alternate bounce on the other side (from below) where you can bounce and hit the edge of the ! area. Once you get up there check around the roof to make sure it's clear, then move to these posistions, which are great for shooting Pizza.

Another great way is to push on the other side (from below) climbing up the ladder that I marked with the red arrow.
the green arrow marks other ladders to scale the building along with more cover and more ways to outsmart the enemies above. Another thing to keep in mind is that the highway across is a great spot to snipe people on the buildings but you want to bring a mobile cover because of the extreme lack of cover
while you are up there. Located across the street (east) of the skatepark, this roof is commonly used as a VIP spot as it has great cover and great vision of spawns. The key to approaching this roof is to not go up the ladder right next to it (unless the enemies are distracted) but rather the ladders near the surrounding roofs. These are the points you should attack from.
Note: Enemies can be anywhere on these rooftops, communicate with your team to work together to take them out. A quick thing about this green spot is that it is open, so watch for your flanks!!
If you are pushing up along this roof, look out for the "death-spot" if you are lit and try to hide here, it is really easy to nade, and you will definitly die. x.x

Here is the view from the actual roof, as you can see it is a great vantage point to sniping people in the open. (Street-side view only)
This spot is great for kills, as once you're up there it is pretty hard to bounce nades into there. If you are solo, you might want to get out a OPGL or sniper, and stand on this roof:

If you plan on attacking the north ladder, make sure to stay out of sight and bounce a nade in there, take a look around up there to see where people may stand. NEVER approach from this alley way, it is always a bad idea, you're open for too long with no cover, 90% chance you will die every time you try and enter through here.

A great side to push from with any weapon really is this side
I just want to touch on this spot because some people find it a problem, you can attack it from two sides, keep in mind, enemies will be there to, because the point of LeBoyce roof is to leave an item up there and fall back. The first approach is to clear out parking garage and then snipe the roof, cover your teammates climbing up close (blue ladder) and keep an eye out for people hiding (brown arrows)

The other side is all about getting up high and sniping, the freeway is a good spot, or the roof above carspawn (NE of LeBoyce roof)
There are literally ladders everywhere (pink arrows) so switch it up and catch your enemies off guard. Or go in with a teammate, or four. Or as I like to call it, crim roof. It's an item/VIP roof. Key to taking it over, is simple. Chuck all your nades in there, and rush in with a CQB (CQC) weapon. If you hang back with a long-range rifle you might be able to get a kill but its faster to have 2 people rush in from both sides and overwhelm the enemy. Bounce nade spot (Left) and cover spot (Right)
Just a brief touch on this, it's a cute little spot, it's nice, simple, with only one way it. Just get a sniper on the open facing side (Left) you can snipe under the railings. Then push with nades and CQB weapons from the choke side (Right)

Remember the key to taking any spot is teamwork, work on your teamwork, the rest is easy.

Thank you so much for reading this guide! I hope that you have found something in here that will help you in your APB: Reloaded adventures. Of course if you play this game all day erry-day thank you for at least glancing at it.

Please leave some feedback if I'm missing anything from this guide you would like me to cover!! Feedback about whether or not you liked the guide is very much appreciated!!

Yay!

So this guide is intended to further educate the scarce population that plays apb in attempts to make the overall skill of the players better so it isn't just one group dominating the rest (like is the case in Colby NA Best).

Keep in mind everything in this guide is based on Colby (tactics etc) so you may do things differently in your server which is A-Okay! I am just offering what little advice I can!!!

A big thanks to Ophion, and justDONT for helping me get screenshots, and Chaosek for giving me some suggestions for the guide!! much appreciated guys!!

Luv ya all u APB Trolls and tryhards <3 and I love APB, it is my most played, and favourite game, despite being horrible in so many ways!!!!!

More updates to come, I plan on making this a complete guide...

Edit: I stream weekends @ http://twitch.tv/loopyfruits/ if you catch me streaming I will gladly answer any questions you have about the game to the best of my abiltiy!

This part is skippable, unless you want to know more about me

Hello I'm procrastination Maej now! Raccoonnaissance now! I'm here to talk about some things regarding APB: Reloaded, but first a little bit about myself.

I've played since RTW (Real Time Worlds) though what year exactly I don't remember now. I have easily over 5 thousand hours (though steam will only list about 3 thousand of them). This means I have been playing for a looooooooooong time. I have memorized almost everything about every gun in this game (at least to the point I know their drop-off, effective range, best mod combinations, and best situations to be used in). However the point of this guide will not be listing the guns and what they do. (If you would like to read up on very specific details about guns and mods check out this amazing guide here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=379180211

I have three main characters, Maej, Skrux, and Dexem. Along with 3 non-mains all very low rank. (I don't know why I have so many) I have switched usernames multiple times, so almost nobody knows who I am but I've been around forever. Leave a rating, I've worked really hard on this guide and I would appreciate if you amazing people could leave a rating to let others know how effective it is!!

Leave a comment, I would really like to know what could be changed, added, improved upon, or if you liked it or not!!

Let a friend know!! I guarantee it will teach them at least one new thing.

Enjoy the guide

[----------Work in Progress----------]

Aside from the other guides I've linked to there aren't a lot of people making tutorial content for this game. It's at the end of it's lifespan realistically with hardly any new players joining. I highly suggest going to twitch to watch some APB streamers and ask them some questions. The only streamer at this point in time I can recommend is Reverse.

I personally don't stream APB anymore but if you catch me live at https://twitch.tv/loopyfruits/ I will be happy to answer any APB related questions you might have! Also go check my stream out if you like music production, that's mostly what I do there!

• Cut down on text amount and some cringe "hehe" speak from my earlier years.
  
• Advice on Guns has become it's own section, was formerly tucked within another section that new players might've missed
  
• Car section revamped with new images
  
• Removed beginner communication as I assume most people know what Discord is
  
• Updated: Resources Section
  
• Fixed: Car Det Video not showing
  
• Retitled a bunch of sections, changed order of sections to break up reading.

Update 1.5:
Added

• New: Threat Section
  
• New: Character Mods Section
  
• New: Resources Section
  
• Updated Tips N' Tricks Section
  
• Updated Lets talk about hackers Section

Update 1.4: Videos!
Section "Getting the Best Start in APB" Added, Video examples were added in section "Tips and Tricks". "Tips and Tricks" was also expanded. Character list updated. Minor spelling fixes here and there.

Update 1.3:
Section "How to Play Against a Car Det Main" added, video included!! (Man this guide is getting long). Some edits here and there.

Update 1.2:
Section "Let's talk about hackers" added. "Updates and Edits" section changed to actually display updates for people just coming back. Added a bit to self improvement section regarding placement. I got a name change!

Update 1.1:
Sections "Tactics, what how when?!?" & "Engaging an opponent without tactics" were added. Along with some neat screenshots at the top of the guide. General spelling corrections.

Update 1.0:
Guide was created