Smartgunner
So you chose to play Smartgunner? Take down some notes, newbie.
Your Equipment
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M56 Head Mounted Sight:
A core piece of the Smartgunner’s equipment. This allows for you to have low level nightvision, as well as an increased view range. Do not that it requires the M56 Powerpack in order to operate and be equipped. -
M56 Power Pack:
The Power Pack is the core of the Smartgunner’s kit. It provides power to both the smartgun and the M56 HMS. It starts with a pre-loaded and fully charged High-Capacity Power Cell already in it, which will provide 10,000 units of power. The Power Pack can be fitted with new batteries if you run out of power. -
M56 Combat Harness:
The Smartgunner’s armor, needed to be able to carry around the smartgun on your back. There is no reason to use any other armor, as it will prohibit you from using the Smartgun effectively. -
M56 Smartgun:
Your new pride and joy. This thing is your moneymaker, take care of it and it will take care of you. We will talk about the Smartgun later, as well as how to use it effectively. -
M280 Pattern Smartgunner Drum Belt:
Only use this belt. The sidearm belt is useless, as you do not need a sidearm. Can hold six drums. -
First Aid Autoinjector Pouch:
I would recommend that you take an EZ-Injector pouch, as it will allow for you to give yourself quick medicine in the middle of a fight without having to fall back for a medic. -
Machete Pouch:
ALWAYS take a machete pouch. It may not seem useful, but it is incredibly so. Firstly, it will take out resin nodes in one hit, instead of two like the knife. Secondly, if you for some reason get capped and swallowed by a Xeno, you can pull out your machete instead of a knife and do significantly more damage, which means a better chance of escaping and gibbing a xeno.
Now that you know about your basic equipment, lets move on to your prep vendor.
Squad Prep Vendor
Now that you have all of your basic equipment, you’re going to want to spend the vendor points that are available to you. You have 45 of them. The first thing you are going to want to do is buy two smartgun drums, using 30 points. Now you’ll have four drums. You can get a fifth from the ammunition vender next to the attachments vendor, and a sixth from Requisitions. With the last fifteen points buy an engineering pamphlet. It may not seem useful now, but there are plenty of times where there will be no squad engineers, or they will be incompetent. So now you’ll be able to make basic barricades.
So now that you have all your gear, what’s next?
B R I E F I N G
I cannot express this enough, but you are VITAL to your squad. Attend briefing so that you don’t get lost, or end up separated.
Okay so now what? You sat at brief and listened to whatever command wanted to say.
GET TO THE DROPSHIP!
What was that? You don’t know which one? Well then pay attention in brief next time!
Deployment
So now you’re all ready to go and start killing, right? WRONG! You are not going to start murdering as soon as you land. You need to stick with your SL and RTO. They are two vital components of your squad that will both relay orders, and can order you ammo from Requisitions if you are running low. Do not go running off on your own, you WILL get capped, and then come here to complain that SG is garbage and weak.
Strategy
Since you’re the SMARTgunner, you’re going to be SMART and not stick yourself in front of everybody. You have IFF for a reason! Stay behind a line of marines and provide them with covering fire. Further, now is a good time to go over some of the M56 System’s features!
Firstly, you have IFF, meaning that you cannot shoot friendlies unless you de-activate it, which you should almost never do unless ordered to do so.
Secondly, you have a built-in motion detector, be sure to use it to spot Xenos hiding around corners, as well as stray Lurkers that may be out to backline you.
The next two features you should be using are the accuracy improvement, and recoil stabilization features, both of which are self-explanatory.
And finally, what makes the smartgun excel at its job is the fact that you are able to swap between Armor Shredding, and High Damage rounds. High damage rounds should be used on targets with low armor such as Runners, Spitters, Boilers, Ravagers, and Lurkers. The Armor Shredding rounds on the other hand, should be used on high armor targets such as crushers, the Queen, Praetorians, etc.
So, now you have a basic idea of how to play smartgunner and not piss everyone off around you while doing so. Good Luck!