Tips on how to use stealth in game

General Discussion
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I got carried away and maybe bragged to much in another topic about stealth in game. A lot of talk about stealth skills not working and the machines are to good at detecting players (NOT). I am going to try and share some of the things that I have found that makes it easier to sneak around the machines. Please add to these tips so we do not get nerfed machines that become blinded to players movements. Your results may vary. This info may help some or I could just like to chat about Gen Zero, sorry for the long post.

To avoid detection understand how the machines detect you.
Know the abilities of the machines and what their function is in the game.

Runners are nicknamed “Dogs”, they look a little like dogs and have dog like abilities where they are the best at hearing and seeing you. Limited to line of sight but when in combat mode can hear your every move. They will also be the first to run to your last know position from any of the other machines and are followed closely by hunters.

Some of you may have lost detection but because you stayed to close to your last know position you were detected again. Runners will do a quick “search” and find you quickly while hunters will stage around the area waiting on the runners to find you. Assume all the machines but the harvesters can use the IR, Low light and OPV. So you can’t hide in buildings and the entrances of bunkers to evade detection. But, they only use them when they think you are in the area.

Machines will make a sound that lets you know they detected you, even if the status sensor did not change or light up. Just being detected will not cause them to go into combat mode till you are in their line of sight, and it only takes one and then all the machines know where you are.

A detection doesn’t mean you are found but which ever machine it is, now is looking in your direction and is cycling through its sensors to see you. And yellow could mean it has alerted other machines where to look also. Sometimes you can stop them from finding you by dropping and stop moving.

Test the field of view for each lone machine when not in red or yellow mode. Approach a lone machine from its back side, try to walk past it, from a slight distance, till you get a white or yellow status light up. Try to then stay in the outer edge of that FOV without triggering the machine to combat mode. Once you learn each machines FOV then avoid all their FOV when they are together. This comes in handy when trying to take out machines one at a time without being detected. If a machine is facing you and you fire at another machine, you will be spotted as soon as you pull the trigger. Never shoot at a machine that is facing you unless you are going for a single shot or you want to start a battle.

Taking out the runners and hunters that are “guarding” a bigger machine is easy if you look at which way they are facing. And if a few are pacing then wait till they turn away.

Once you learn a few stealth tricks try to pick parts off one hunter in a small group without being detected. Make sure all the hunters are facing away from you. Once hit it will turn around to try and see where the shot came from, the other hunters should remain clueless. Wait till it goes back to normal and shoot at it again. see how much you can pick off it before you destroy it.

Hope this helps some of you newer players. Keep in mind that some of us started before DLC weapons and before there was a prone function in the game. The machines were also twitchier about detecting us and then chasing after us with guns blazing as if their goal was to breed us.

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Once you’ve finished all missions and there’s nothing anymore to do than destroy/build bases a lot of 'bots simply don’t budge once attacked. They just stand there and wait to be destroyed. No more stealth needed. Gone agression of the initial game.

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But a good use of stealth and none of the machines will attack. And you pick them off before they know where the attack came from.

Yeah, that has changed due to all the complaints about how easy players were spotted and then die.
My regular character has no stealth skills from the commando tree, all skill points were for a vanguard specialist. But I can still get past most all the machines. Escape a swarm, double back and pick the machines off one at a time without getting back into combat. May take an hour, but some of us don’t care for the add in base building and the amusement park duck shoot they call base defense. And prefer to hunt and stalk for the machines like the game started out to be. The missions were to help learn the game and the after all missions, the hunt began and that is also when all the big guns (exp) came out.

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skill Tree 40% and 40%, then 10% and 10% on the clothes, for a total of 50% each, and I give 20% to jump boost

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Stealth skills may be one way to go for some but skill points can be used for other skill that are more useful like reload speed or throw distance. Stealth is not something you can buy with skill points but is learned by experimenting with what draws attention to you and stop doing that or use it as a tactic.

Hide from machines by using the terrain. I like to run up a hill just enough to see the machines but can drop to prone if even slight detected. Once I know where the machine is, I run down the back side of the hill to keep the earth between you and the machines. More earth there is between you and the machines, less likely to detect you. I have been in battle and more machines turn up. To avoid taking on a lot of machines at once try running over a hill or ridge, turn 90 degrees to the hill as you get out of the machines’ sensors line of sight. They stop at your last know position and search but then you loop around and attack from a different direction. May take a few machines out before they detect you again. Machines don’t learn, so what worked once can be repeated unlimited times when you find the right terrain.

Speed is noisy, so to avoid detection, sometimes crouching or going prone are all the speed you need. If you can hear what you are stepping on so can nearby machines, avoid making noises. Sprinting is noisy so use to run away and run for cover. Hiding behind buildings only works for a few seconds but to avoid detection, go prone and stop moving or sprint to better cover like a bigger building or go deeper into a town and put more buildings between you and the machines. This is a good tactic if machines give chase. Carefully loop back around and take machines out one at a time and not a dozen at a time. Taking on machines one on one is easier to do than 12 at a time. So use run as a tactic to bring the machines to your battlefield and out of theirs. Machine swarms are ambushes, so don’t stay in that area but run for rough terrain. Large rocks, hills, cliffs, ridges and so on, are all things that block machine’s LOS, but continue moving so when they search the last place you were detected, you are not in that area anymore.

When moving towards machines look for hiding places you can retreat to if detected, to many machines in the area or for whatever reason, run back to them.