Wave 47 on River

Made it to wave 47 on river last night before we all died.  We split up between the two buildings on either end of the bridge.  We tried to grab the mortar between each wave and fire off all three rounds before retreating to the buildings.  At the end of each wave we grabbed the grenades which spawn in the houses halfway down the roads next to the river.  We planted the grenades in areas where the enemies typically spawns or take shelter.  We had two people switching between sniping and using the torque bow from the spawn point of those weapons in the buildings.  We also made sure everyone was aware of the callouts on the map such as upstream-near, upstream-far, upstream-ramp (going down to the river), downstream-near, downstream-far, downstream-ramp.  Also, one house is covered in ivy and the other house isn’t so we used that as a way to call out enemies and ask for assistance when needed.  I’m pretty sure we could have beaten it through all 50 waves, we just had some really bad luck at the end.  When we lost we had all 5 players in one building.  2 upstairs sniping, 2 guarding the door, one on the walkway in the back of the building.  We had a couple grinders make there way to the doorway which kept us pinned down.  A kantus kicked down the shield and we were overwhelmed after that.  We restarted on wave 47 (without shields or our preferred weapons) and beat the horde without any problems through wave 50.  We made sure to let maulers get close enough to use so that we could grab their shields after they went down.  We built up our defenses and took the enemies weapons when we had a chance.  We all had microphones and we all called out enemy positions.  We made sure we didn’t waste sniper ammo by calling which locust we were shooting at.  I’m pretty sure we could have beat all 50 waves without restarting,  just had some bad luck.  That was our highest ranking game on River according to the leaderboards.  I am ranked 6257 out of 2,944,758.  That puts us in the top 0.2%.

Wave 49 on Horde – Day One

Three friends and I teamed up with a random player to get to Wave 49 on horde on the Day One map before we were all killed last Friday.  We made it that far without restarting.  We dominated the entire game until we all were taken out by ink above the regency balcony.  We were doing fine until we all 5 ended up over regency due to the two players over the arcade being taken out and spawning on our side at the start of the next wave.  This allowed the horde to focus their fire on one side and take us out.  We restarted at wave 49 and split up between the balcony over regency and the balcony over the arcade.  Three over the arcade and two at regency.  We quickly beat waves 49 and 50.  The key is to keep people on both sides (regency balcony and arcade balcony).  One person always needs to run the heavy weapons on the regency side.  Another person always needs to guard the base of the stairs on the regency side.  The remaining three players better be using sniper rifles and torque bows nonstop.  I’m pretty confident we could have beaten all 50 waves without restarting if we could have stay split up between the two sides all 50 waves.  Its only a matter of time before we beat it start to finish without restarting!  Currently ranked 6,066 out of 2,760,842 in horde on Day One.  That is the top .22%.

Strategy to Beat River in Horde – GOW2

Here is my latest strategy for beating all 50 waves of horde on the River Map on GOW2. This strategy should highlight a proposed strategy that changes between rounds and repeats every 10 waves.

Waves x1 – x5 (like 1-5, 11-15, 21-25…) should have a sniper in each sniper/torque bow spawn location. The fronts of their buildings should be defended by two more players using the lancer as their primary weapon and whatever weapons they want as secondary weapons. I suggest using the default weapons since the ammo automatically reloads after each round. The final player should be using the mortar. While the mortar is respawning, this player should also be helping to defend the two snipers. The person with the mortar on the bridge and the two players defending the buildings are responsible for healing everyone. The snipers should keep busy sniping the incoming horde. At the end of every wave everyone should try to get more ammo. The mortaree should be picking up a fresh mortar, and the two building defenders should be picking up the grenades in the nade spawn buildings. Below is the map highlighting this stategy.

River Strategy Waves x1 - x5

The next phase of this strategy requires the group to start migrating to one of the two sniper buildings during waves x6 – x8 (6-8, 16-18, 26-28, etc). The mortar should be picked up and moved closer to the building being defended at the end of each wave. The two snipers should now be up in the top level of the building sniping down field and across the river. The other two players should be defending the mortar and the house. The snipers should revive each other and the mortaree and the defenders should revive each other when necessary. There should also be a focus on collecting shields. The shields will be a necessity in waves x9 – x0 to keep the bloodmounts at bay. Snipers defend the bridge and front side, defenders defend bridge and front side, mortar shoots at largest group of enemies and fights closest enemy when without the mortar. Same as before, everyone tries to get ammo at the end of each wave and two people try to get the grenades and the mortaree gets a fresh mortar.

River Strategy Waves x6 - x8

The final phase of this strategy applies to waves x9-x0 (9-10, 19-20, 29-30, etc.). During these waves, the entire group sticks to the one building which is being defended. Do not worry about the mortar during these waves unless it is wide open to go get the mortar. You should have a minimum of 4 shields by now. Two in the doorway to the building, one on the ramp going upstairs and one in front of the most vulnerables sniper. Two snipers should be upstairs trying to take out the horde while crossing the bridge and coming from straight ahead of the building. Its more important to take quick shots than accurate shots at this point as the grinders and boomers will take out the snipers very fast. A third person should hide behind the columns on the second floor straight back from the door and should help defend the doorway. The final two players should be defending the doorway. If a shield is kicked down, those players are responsible for picking them up and holding them in the doorway. Everyone should help defend the doorway if this happens. The only thing that can hurt you from the other side of the shiled is a mauler so they should be taken out when they get too close. There should also be an emphasis on taking out the kantus right away because their ink will down you very fast in the higher rounds. Nobody should ever go for ammo, go for the mortar, or leave the building for any reason during these rounds. You will not make it back. Someone will usually go to save you and they will not make it back either. That leaves three people and they will not beat the horde. Stay in the building.

River Strategy Waves x9 - x0

I drew my strategy on the over head map of River which I borrowed from http://www.infektedmedia.com/gears_of_war_2_overhead_multiplayer_maps/gears_of_war_maps.php which has awesome maps.

Beat the horde on Pavillion

A random group and I beat all 50 horde waves on pavillion last night.  We had to restart a lot of times, but eventually beat all 50 waves.  We had to use two strategies to make it through all 50 waves.

Our main strategy was to stay in the hallway where the ammo spawns (in front of the room where the shield spawns).  Every wave we grabbed the shield that spawned and placed it in the doorway at the end of the hallway.  At the end of every wave 2 or 3 players would reset the shields.  One or two players would run for grenades in the halls on the side of the map.  The last player would run for the mulcher in the gazebo.  We would all take turns grabbing the ammo box as soon as it spawned to make sure we all had max ammo at all times.

We shot over the shields on both ends of the hall to keep the horde back.  When the horde got past the shields we would all focus on the side that was breached, eventually falling back in the shield room and defending the small hallway to that room.

We were all beaten at wave 40 and restarted at that level.  We did not have any shields.  We kept trying to defend the shield room, but the bloodmounts were too fast and that room was too small to beat wave 40.  Finally we tried a different strategy which was to go to the lowest part of the map (down the stairs on either side of the gazebo).  From there we spread out so it was harder for the bloodmounts to take us all out.  There is a small corridor between the two sides on the lower part of the map where the mortar spawns. We made sure to grab the mortar whenever it was available and kept firing rounds at the stairs to the lower areas (whether we saw an enemy or not). If a bloodmount did make it to the lower area, we would run through the corridor to the other side and fire back through the corridor at the bloodmounts who had a harder time making it through the narrow corridor.

We had to try that strategy a few times before beating wave 40. Once we beat that wave, we went back to our original strategy of defending the hall and we were able to do that without much trouble once we have a few waves to get our shield defenses built back up.

Gears of War 2 Overhead Maps and Spawn Points

These maps show where the weapons spawn on each map.  They also show the enemy spawn points on each map.  Very nice!

http://www.infektedmedia.com/gears_of_war_2_overhead_multiplayer_maps/gears_of_war_maps.php

10 Tips to Beat Day One

Over the past few weeks my teammates and I have gotten pretty good at beating Day One.  We still haven’t beaten it without restarting, but it usually only takes a few restarts to beat it all they way to wave 50.  I think it is just a matter of time and a little luck before we beat it start to finish without restarting.  We can consistently beat this map and have done it with as little as three guys.  Here are 10 strategies to beat Day One…

1.  Always have a person running the heavy weapons.  Figure out who is the best with them and let them go nuts.  The faster you use up the heavy weapons ammo, the faster it reappears so don’t worry about using up the ammo.  (Heavy weapons alternate between the mortar and Hammer of Dawn every other wave on the regency balcony.)  People that suck with heavy weapons should let someone else run them.  Even if there is an unused weapon sitting there because a good aimer can drop 5 good mortars in no time at all.  A sucky aimer can drop 5 sucky mortars in no time too I guess, but the point is, unless the heavy weapons expert is constantly neglecting their job, give them time to pick up the mortar and put it to work.

2.  Have somebody guarding the stairway up to the regency balcony.  The heavy weapons don’t do any good if the person never has a chance to use them.  Its very important to have somebody watching the heavy weapons persons back and to pick them up when they go down.

3.  Pick up the shields that spawn in the arcade every round and bring them over to the base of the regency stairway.  By wave 10 you should have plenty of shields to keep the maulers and bloodmounts at a safe distance while you take down the horde.  Wait for these big guys to get hung up on your shields and then drop mortars and hammers on them.  Death from above yo!

4.  Having 2 to 4 people guard the regency stairs has worked well.  The more people we have had guard the stairs the better we have done.  We have also played where one or two people are over the arcade balcony, but it is impossible to revive those people when they go down in the later waves.

5.  EVERYONE needs to replant shields at the end of every wave so they do not disappear.  Ideally each person picks up a shield before the previous wave finishes.  This allows you to plant up to four shields each before they disappear during the next wave.

6.  Name the locations on the map so everyone that is playing understands when you say something like “Take out the Kantus by the arcade”.  For naming conventions, we use “Regency” for the area infront of and under the movie theater balcony, “Frat House” for the building across the street with the orange banner, arcade for the arcade, and “The Office” for the office/retail building to the left of Regency which has a sign that says “Office/Retail” if you look up.  Also use convention “left”, “right”, “far left”, “far right”, “straight ahead”, etc as much as possible so teammates can call out locations of enemies and downed teammates.

7.  Get the mortar dialed in right away.  Practice with it on early waves.  When on top of Regency, you cannot hit the horde with the mortar when they spawn “far left”.  Only use the hammer of dawn when they are far left.  Wait for the horde to come between The Office and the parked cars next to it to fire the mortar.  It is also easy to fire the mortar at the horde when they are in the bunker on the sidewalk to the left of the Frat House (straigh ahead of Regency).  The best time to use a mortar is when the horde spawns to the far right of Regency because you can reach all the way to the end of the street when the horde spawns in one tight bunch.  A single mortar can take out multiple targets to the far right, this is critical in later rounds.

8.  Do not waste the Hammer of Dawn chasing down targets.  Pick a patch of ground in front of a walking target and start “firing” so that death-from-above coincides with the enemy walking directly onto your targeted spot.  Chasing down walking targets with a poorly aimed Hammer uses up too much ammo.  Also, pointing the Hammer of Dawn directly at a walking target can cause the aiming process to constantly reset and you will never be able to get a shot off.  The laser from the Hammer of Dawn needs to stay steady for a couple seconds before the satelitte can fire.  Aiming at the ground allows the satellite to lock onto a steady target and fire.

9.  In “The Office” on the other side of a small wall is either a gorgon pistol or magnum.  Make sure each person picks up a beefier pistol from here in the early rounds.  The pistols do a lot of damage when properly aimed, especially at slow moving targets like butchers or maulers.

10.  Do not be a rambo and go after enemies by yourself.  Time after time we see people try to play chicken with maulers and every time they go down.  Stay behind shields and stay with your team.  This is a team game and it requires coordinated attacks by the entire team.  Everybody plays a different part and they are all important.  A coordinated team should have these people

Player 1 – Gorgon/Magnum, Lancer, Hammer of Dawn.  Always on Regency Balcony running heavy weapons.

Player 2 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Torque Bow or Boomshot. Always guarding stairs to Regency Balcony and behind shields.

Player 3 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Torque Bow or Boomshot. Guarding stairs to Regency Balcony and behind shields.

Player 4 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Sniper Rifle.  On either balcony, perferably Regency.  Can help with Heavy Weapons.

Player 5 – Gorgon or Magnum, Lancer, Shotgun.  This person uses the shotgun to take out tickers at a distance, espcially when they are near larger enemies.  Floats between Regency Balcony or base of stairs at Regency.

Double Experience – Labor Day Weekend

I made it to wave 48 on Day One last night playing horde. It is a double experience event and every 10th wave is only Sires. It was pretty awesome. Too bad we couldn’t beat it all the way to wave 50 in one shot. We started over on wave 48 and made it to wave 50 without any trouble.

Our strategy was to have 4 guys below the regency stairs. They protected the stairway and had plenty of boomshields. I was above the regency balcony running the heavy weapons. I didn’t have to get ammo once during all 50 waves because I used the Hammer of Dawn and the mortar. I also used the Magnum and the Lancer which regenerate ammo every wave.

Every 10th wave was strictly sires. It was pretty easy to chainsaw them all down even on wave 50. I think those waves were the easiest waves. It was definitely fun.

More info on the Horde Labor Day Event.

River Massacre

Our most recent game on River turned out much like the past games we played on River. We hold up in the house near the bridge which faces upstream. This time we tried a different shield strategy which was awful. Instead of placing shields in the doorway we placed one shield to the right of the sandbags in front and two shields to the left of the sandbags. The bloodmounts just jumped the sandbags and killed us all inside of the building. That strategy was poop. The best shield strategy we have used was to have two people holding shields in the house doorway and have two additional shooters standing behind them to keep away maulers. Bloodmounts get close but they do not get through the human shield barrier. The gorgon pistol which spawns in-between the vehicles outside of the house to the left complements the shields well with this strategy. The mortar is also key in doing well on this map, but you need people defending the person which holds the mortar. At the end of each round, have 4 people replanting shields and one more person picking up the mortar from the center of the bridge. Don’t plant the last shield until the mortaree is safely inside the shield barrier.

Playing on Security

Security
Our most recent attempt to beat the horde was in security. We made it to level 37. Shields were collected throughout the game and placed in the doorways by the lasers. Each member did a great job calling out which shields they were going to reset between each wave and we lost no or very few shields each wave. Players also made a dash for the grenades located at the end of each hallway to the left and right when it was clear.

We were overtaken by a few locust because the barrier went down and they were able to kick the shields down and get the jump on us. The lasers were not the main line of defense and we did not count on them ever being up since the locust can shut the lasers off on the other side. We did have a sniper or two that tried to prevent them from shutting off the lasers. We also made good use of the have artillery. The mortar and mulchers were key in getting as far as we did.

When we play this map again we can probably make it further by having two people watch the left and front left, two people watch the right and front right and one person running the heavy artillery and watching the center.

Key takeaways…

1) Call who is getting which shield(s) at the end of each round.
2) Don’t count on the lasers being up ever.
3) Grab the grenades when possible.
4) Make sure each player has a zone they watch (rarely deviate from your zone).
5) Call out enemies for the heavy weapons person.
6) Stay spread out in case of ink, tickers and boomers.
7) If a shield gets lost, replace it with bullets.