So you’re a brand new bald private right out of basic. During battle you see a funny green runner waltzing towards you making an ominous noise, the marines around you panic and either run or start shooting wildly. Next thing you know, a screen wide green cloud coats the frontline and you fall down dead. The xenos overrun the position and the CIC stares in disbelief as their push turns into a FOB siege.
Congratulations, you just came face to face with the xeno equivalent of a mortar/CAS/OB. The Valiant Acid Runner.
Abandon all those “marine mains”, come join the xeno side and let me coach you in how to kill yourself in a manner that will bring cheers from your sisters and calls to nerf you from the talls in dchat.
In my personal opinion, playing acid runner can be one of the most fun ways to play xeno. You don’t have the stress of playing T3 and needing to not waste your slot. Yet you can have such a massive sway over how the battle goes. Going for a crazy acid explosion can be exhilarating and I recommend anyone give it a go for a different way to play.
How do I become an acid runner?
The first step is to evolve into a runner. As a larva, simply press the evolve button shown below (or the evolve option in the alien tab) to open the evolution options in the center of the screen. Then select the runner option.
After evolving, you next need to head to the alien tab again on the right side of your screen. Look for an option which says “Purchase Strain”. Once found select it to bring up a menu, select the acid runner option.
Congratulations, you have just become Queen Mother’s bravest soldier, ready to follow your red ancestors into the Xafterlife.
Hold up sister, before you can go off and blow yourself up, maybe you should learn what your abilities actually do.
Abilities and you
The top of your screen will have a set of different buttons, each providing a different ability for use in either combat or support.
In the order of appearance:
-
Rest: Lets you sit down and heal.
-
Regurgitate: Lets you spit out talls you have devoured.
-
Observe xeno: Pulls up a menu for you to select a specific xeno to look at. Good for watching the frontline and finding spots to blow up on.
-
Tail stab: Is gonna be your main offensive move. Has an extra tile of range over the standard slash. It deals 1.2x damage and will coat the target in acid. Importantly it generates 14 acid.
-
Hide: Lets you hide under objects.
-
View tacmap: View the tacmap. Appreciate the queen’s fine artwork.
-
Evolve: Evolve into a lurker (Why would you want to do that?).
-
Corrosive acid: For 100 acid, you can melt a barricade or meltable object. Your acid is strong and it is good for deleting some robusto’s main weapon or creating a small breach in a cadeline. However it costs the same acid used for your final ability.
-
For the hive: Primes your ultimate move. Starts a 20 second timer where you slow down, glow green and start making noise. At the conclusion of the timer you blow up in a radius determined by your max acid. This should be your focus. (Note that pressing it again after priming will cancel the ability at the cost of 250 acid. Try to make sure you deselect it after priming so you don’t accidentally cancel it.)
Now then, you’re ready to hop into the battlefield and begin brewing that sweet bomb. The first step to brewing up the hive’s biggest bomb is to start building acid.
The basics of acid warfare
In the status tab, you will see a statistic called “acid”. This is a number that ranges between the minimum of 0, and the maximum of 1000. There will also be a purple/pink bar next to your health bar by your character sprite.
The pink bar is a visual display of the acid statistic. Your goal is to increase this number from 0 to 1000. This will increase the radius of your acid bomb from the minimum of 1 tile, to the maximum of 5 tiles, with you at the center.
There are two methods for increasing the amount of acid. Either by sitting down and waiting for the number to increase to 1000 (0.5 acid per second), or by combat. We will focus on combat as sitting down and waiting is long and boring, you’re a runner, you live life in the fast lane.
Two attacks generate acid, either slashing (generates 14 acid), or tail stabbing(also generates 14 acid). When generating acid there are two targets that will make the number increase. Talls (known as humans), and headhunters (known as predators/jamaicans/whatever else people come up with). Attacking prone targets only generates 8 acid per slash (Thanks Unknown920 for this info).
At this point, you can go and begin generating acid for the hive. BUT! 7/10 acid runners don’t even get to scream “FOR THE HIVE!!!”, they fall in combat beforehand.
Tips for living fast
These are some tips that will let you live to set off an acid explosion.
-
Make use of your tail stab while slashing. Tail stab has an extra tile range compared to your standard slash. It will keep you further away from tall weapon fire making sure you live longer. You also don’t have any other abilities you need selected during general combat, so you can always keep the tail stab primed.
-
Hit and run. While you may lose some of the speed of a runner, you are still fast enough to run circles around talls. Run in and get a few tail stabs or slashes off on one or two talls, then run off and heal/find new targets. While it is enticing to try kill some talls, your job is to build acid so you can go out in style later on.
-
Make use of your acid damage. Slashing and tailstabbing will coat talls in a layer of acid which slowly does damage over time. They either need an extinguisher or have to roll to remove it. Simply slash a tall, wait for them to roll, then go slash again. Just watch out for their friends.
-
Choose your targets. The ability to choose which tall to attack, and which tall to leave alone comes with time. However you can still learn which players are good, and which are free acid by watching them fight on the frontlines. Watch their loadouts and their job roll, stun weapons can spell a quick end. I will provide a list of my own targets you may want to look out for. Also look out for downed marines. While they do generate less acid per slash, they can’t fight back and can get you a few extra slashes.
-
Teammates are your friends. Having other sisters with you as you build acid can seriously accelerate how quickly you reach 1000 acid. Any T2 which can stun a tall should be part of your backline gang (e.g. lurker or warrior). When they stun a tall, make sure they aren’t capping them and just begin slashing. Your damage isn’t actually that good so you should easily be able to generate around 100-200 acid off one tall.
-
Use friendly fire against the talls. Attacking right into the thick of talls is a risky move, but there is one thing that will keep you alive if you do. Talls are adverse to friendly fire, if they shoot at you and miss, they’ll hit another tall. This fact sometimes causes hesitation and may prevent PFC John Robusto from shooting at you. However some bald private may shoot at you anyway, and some marines will just aim well and hit you. !DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!
The main thing to remember is: STAY ALIVE!
Here are some targets that you may want to watch out for and some tips around generating acid from them.
VOX's hitlist
You can find what these talls may look like from this page: Marines - CM-SS13 - Wiki
Hospital Corpsmen: Usually medics are busy trying to treat injured talls. They make good targets for a few however other talls usually will come in to protect them if you attack often.
Smartgunners: SGs make for a few easy slashes as well. Their weapon doesn’t stun which allows you to get a few slashes in while taking little damage. Usually the weapon will be in AP mode as well which does less damage to you. Still don’t overstay your welcome as the damage does stack up in the end.
Intelligence Officers: Usually found in the backlines. Finding a bald IO is just free acid. But if they have a squad with them watch out. Most of their kit is focused on collecting intel and not dying, not focused on fragging backliners.
Demolitionist/Grenadier: These two specialists may be a riskier play. Demolitionist will usually be targetting T3s and T2s, they probably wont fire on you unless they have another weapon. Grenadier is in a similar position but for different reasons. They probably wont fire you as their grenade will hit them as well at close range. However they may fire on you as you run away!
Extra Mentions: Predators can be a good way to build lots of acid in the early game. They are strong and can take lots of hits, but wont be able to catch you. However attacking one will most likely make them target you for the rest of the round and they can do plenty of damage in close combat.
Unlike talls and predators, synths don’t provide any acid when slashing them which make them a waste of time (Thanks Lmwevil for pointing this out) . The standard synth is not much of a threat since they only have melee, and really only prioritise looking after the other talls. Combat synths should be avoided due to being able to use guns.
So, you’ve hopefully generated 1000 acid, and are now ready to inflict mass casualties on the tall frontline. First we will cover the basics of using your bomb ability.
Boom Basics
After selecting your acid bomb ability, you first need to trigger it. Find a safe spot where marines cannot see or hear you (Usually make sure no talls are on your screen). Then press the middle mouse button to start the countdown.
On the status window you will see a timer show up that is counting down from 20. Your body will turn green and a noise will be emitted. In hive chat you will also put out the message “FOR THE HIVE!”. You will also be slowed down which is a major thing to remember.
Before the timer hits 0, you need to get as many talls within a 5 tile radius of you as possible. If the timer hits 0 and you are not dead, you will spray acid in this area. NOTE: Going into crit does not stop the timer, only death.
During this waiting period, you should scream “WITNESS ME!” into the hive chat. This will attract the attention of any other sisters that missed the initial message. While you may think screaming this is just seeking attention for your actions and is a method of showing off, it does have a tactical use. Sisters can watch how well you do, indicating whether or not they should follow up.
Personally, I move in with around 8-10 seconds left on the clock. This normally gives me enough time to maneuver into a good position whilst also giving talls less time to shoot me.
Normally giving yourself less time is better, as blowing yourself up will respawn you as a larva, but dying to bullets will just send you to dchat to cope instead.
So, you’re ready for your big moment. Begin planning where you want to hit as you race around generating acid. I have three targets that you will most likely end up hitting.
The Cadeline
Cadelines have two areas, the area within with many talls to hit, and the area outside.
Ideally you want to blow yourself up within a cadeline. The first step is to locate a breach in the line or an open barricade. Once found, make sure talls aren’t replacing it and begin the countdown. Usually I will start the countdown and move when there are around 8-10 seconds left on the clock.
Once inside you are in extreme danger. Talls will be scrambling to kill you as the cades prevent them from running away. Simple start zigzagging around in help intent to keep the close marines shuffling around you. Use the hide ability to move under things and make it harder to click you. Your acid bomb should hit as many talls and cades as possible.
The Medics
Hitting the medics is probably the safest option for having a massive effect on the flow of battle.
Usually talls will throw all their dead in one spot for medics to revive. This results in the medics grouping up in one spot. As you race around, keep an eye out for this area and start planning. Find a spot near them where you cannot be seen or heard and then begin the countdown.
Move in at around the 10 second mark and begin zigzagging through the mass of talls. Try to follow if the medics begin running off. You should be fairly safe as many medics tunnel vision on their patient. Just keep an eye out for recently treated talls who will target you.
If you take out all the medics, the talls will no longer be able to revive each other. This results in a near instant rout as talls scramble to the next nearest group of medics, usually back at the FOB.
The Frontline
The other two options wont always be viable. But there will nearly always be a frontline. The front wont have any cades, but it will have lots of angry talls packing good weapons.
Attacking from the front is only ever really good if you can follow up a queen screech. Simply coordinate with the queen, start the timer, give it about 5-10 seconds and follow her. Wait for the queen to screech and then start zigzagging across the top of the talls. Hopefully you kill most of the frontline talls and other xenos will follow up the damage you did.
I find flanking the frontline a more effective method to getting a more effective bomb off. Simply find a spot away from the marines to begin the countdown, then walk towards them as you reach the 10 second mark. By coming from the rear, many marines will try to run away from you which forces them towards your fellow sisters. This prevents them from running too far away from you but does make them focus more on shooting you.
Just be careful on the frontline, the talls WILL shoot you. Especially watch out for fire as the damage can munch through your health pretty quickly.
So what now? Hopefully you just blew up copious amounts of talls. Dashing their hopes for a quick victory. Upon blowing yourself up, you will respawn as a fresh new larva at the hivecore (You don’t use up any caps or burrowed, by successfully blowing yourself up you get a free respawn). HOWEVER, if you successfully blow up and there is no core, you will respawn as a larva right where you died. Just remember to run after doing this.
Now you go do it again! Kill even more talls and bask in the salt thrown your way by those who died to you.
Get out there soldier and blow yourself up for the good of the hive!
If anyone has anything else to add I would be happy to put them into the appropriate section.
