Blackpopp suggested that he and I should write a "STRATEGY Guide" (thanks Di9ital) for playing RB6 Lockdown multiplayer on Xbox Live. The purpose of the guide would be to help Lockdown players--newbies and regulars alike--improve their skills in multiplayer by sharing what we have learned through experience. I wanted to keep it as short as possibe but after just completing about 1/5 of the guide I realize that it is going to be quite long. I will post the first portion just to get a little feedback. If you read it please just let me know if you found it useful or not. Due to this particular part's content, I think it will only help the newbies out. The other segments will be aimed at helping the average and even advanced players.

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Rainbow Six Lockdown Strategy Guide
By KO Someone & Blackpopp

This guide is intended for anyone who plays Rainbow Six Lockdown on Xbox Live who wants to step their game up. You don't have to be a newbie to learn from what you're about to read; in fact, the players that will find this guide most usefull are those who are already familiar with Lockdown but aren't quite as skilled as the better, more experienced players in the game--but even the best players will learn a thing or two from reading this. This "Strategy Guide" was created by Blackpopp and myself in response to those who constantly ask for advise on playing this game more skillfully--this is our answer to all of those questions. We've included as much information as we could while being as brief as possible.

Part 1) P.E.C. Character Selection

If you search for hosts using optimatch you will notice that most rooms are adversarial gametypes with PEC mode enabled while the other rooms are cooperative games. Rarely will you see a non-PEC mode game because every regular player on Lockdown uses PEC; those who create non-PEC games are new to the game or aren't familiar with hosting. We're not saying non-PEC mode is bad--actually it can be quite fun--but no one plays it. For the sake of brevity we will only be discussing PEC mode. When it comes to choosing a PEC character class you have four choices: Engineer, Commando, Spec-Op, and Combat Medic.

The Engineer is arguably the most powerful class because of his extremely powerful and ridiculously plentiful explosives (he can carry up to eight grenades or seven traps in each of the two item slots) but Blackpopp and I--as well as most of the Lockdown community--choose not to use Engineers as our main characters because most people who play this game don't like getting blown up by the Engineer's explosives; in fact, it pisses many people off. Using the Engineer doesn't make you an unethical player but when you rely too much on his explosives it can hinder you from improving more important skills in the game such as shooting, movement, and strategy. Players who master these skills can use any character class and play well, but most of these players choose not to use the Engineer due to his piss-people-off-factor. Another reason not to choose the Engineer is because many hosts don't allow the use of explosives in their rooms--many players like to go strictly "guns up". With the exception of his keycard explosives are the Engineer's only advantage. For those of you who want to use the Engineer anyways there's nothing wrong with that, but we recommend keeping the explosives to a minimum if you want to improve in other areas.

The Commando and Spec-Op classes aren't overpowered like the Engineer but they don't have any attributes that make them advantageous to use either--they're low tier. There are many good players who use either Commandos or Spec-Op's as their main characters but as we've said before, skilled players can use any of the four classes and still play just as well, but when Blackpopp and I want to play at the top of our game we always choose the most effective yet non-controversial character class: the Combat Medic.

Most of the best Lockdown players choose the Medic class due to its many advantages over the Engineer, Cammando, and Spec-Op. The Medic's most valuable tool is his Medic Pack. "Medpacks" cost only 20 credits (the price of a SINGLE grenade) and you don't have to replace it until its beyond repair. When you max out the training points on your First Aid skill you will be able to not only heal teammates but yourself to 100% health in about a second, which is a huge advantage. The other useful item that is unique to the Medic class is Adrenaline, which works similar to the medpack but instead boosts both your accuracy and life bar by 10% (once you max out the training points for adrenaline). This isn't very useful by itself but after you've maxed out your Toughness skill the adrenaline will bring your health up to 131%. The Medic is the only class that can do this. The Commando comes in at second place at 120% because he has the Toughness skill too but the Engineer and Spec-Op are limited to a normal 100%.

The Engineer's proximity mines deal 130% damage to anyone within range of their explosion. The Medic is the only class that can survive such a blast...but barely since he has only 1% health left...oh righhhhhhht, that medpack thing...nice isn't it? Although Medics can survive one proximity mine it doesn't mean they can survive two. If you're an Engineer and want to blow a Medic up with a proxy, do it the right way--double them up; plant two right next to each other. If you're a Medic or have one on your team and this happens its still advantageous to you because that Engineer has to use twice as many proxies to get the same effect.

Yet another plus for the Medic is the ability to see what percentage his teammates' health bars are at which allows you to see where each of your teammates is located in relation to your screen. This allows you to have a better sense of situational awareness because you can tell not just where your team is but who on your team is getting shot and where. Often you can tell where the opposing team is merely by seeing where your team isn't. Since your teammates' names and health are always on your HUD you are effectively immune to the Sensor Jammers that Engineers and Spec-Ops sometimes carry with them. Overall, this ability is awesome and should always be used to your advantage.

The only downside the Medic has is the limited amount of grenades he can carry. He is limited to eight grenades after equipping them in both item slots, while the other three classes may carry twice as much (16) if they do the same. This weakness isn't very significant though because if you're using a Medic you never should use up both of your item slots for grenades unless you're playing against an Engineer that always plants proxies, plants them in pairs, and plants them EVERYWHERE. In this case, it is sometimes wise to bring eight grenades with you so that you can blow up a clear path for yourself in order to gain ground on the map. Be warned though, once that Engineer sees you throwing grenades he'll know that he can kill you with just one proxy; which means he'll spread them out instead of doubling them up--creating twice as many threats to you.

Part 2) Adjusting the Options Menu

You can improve your performance in the game before you even start playing, and to do this all you have to do is tweak a few things in the options menu. By making the changes that Blackpopp and I are about to recommend you can seriously impact your gameplay for the better so give it a try. To do this you need to go to Lockdown's main menu (the one that pops up after you start the game and skip the intro video) and select Options.

Now that you're in Options you can make the most significant change, which will be in the Gameplay menu. Go there and you will see that you can toggle First Person Weopon on and off. Turn this OFF. It will make the gun that appears on your screen dissapear, leaving you only with the targeting reticle--trust us, this is a very good thing. With just the reticle on your screen you will be able to see more of what's around you because that clunky gun no longer blocks your view. It makes aiming a whole lot easier, especially for the iron-sighted guns (the ones without scopes) because when you zoom in you'll be able to aim with just that little white dot (reticle) which you can move in any direction without your gun covering up your target. It takes some getting used to and takes a little fun out of the game (you won't be able to see your gun firing) but doing this gives you a huge advantage over those who don't.

The other things that you can turn on and off from within the Gameplay menu are Aiming Assistance and Enhanced Targeting. Ignore Enhanced targeting since it doesn't effect multiplayer at all--it only applies to single player. Aiming Assistance on the other hand will have a significant impact on your gameplay for multiplayer.

Aiming Assistance slows your reticle down when your crosshair is aimed at or near an opponent, making it easier for you to target him. You don't have to be aiming directly at an opponent for Aiming Assistance to effect your reticle; actually, that player can be pretty far away from your crosshair. Just try to imagine an invisable box around each enemy where your reticle slows down. Often, you can use your Aiming Assistance to find where an enemy is located by just moving your cursor over their general location--and you don't have to do it on purpose either, lol. When this happens you'll feel a slight "tug" on your cursor as you look in that opponent's general direction which lets you know he's there. This is very useful for finding opponents who are trying to hide or who happen to be camouflaged particularly well.

Without Aiming Assistance your reticle will not slow down and will function normally. For those of you who are used to having it on or are new to the game we recommend that you keep this option turned ON. Turning it off will most likely cause you to lose significant control over your aim.

But, if you are used to it turned OFF already or would like to practice with it not on we recommend that you leave it off because if you can play just as well or better like this then you have a nice advantage over those who can't. Having it turned off allows you to be very precise with your aim; almost surgical. This is because with Aiming Assistance turned on sometimes it's possibe for it to interfere. For example, if you take aim at an opponent by first aiming at his foot--which isn't the best place to shoot someone--and you try to adjust your aim by moving your reticle up his body to his head--a much better target, duh--you'll notice that it takes a fairly long time to do due to the slower movement caused by Aiming Assistance. The fraction of a second longer this takes may allow that opponent to kill you first; making you vulnerable. Also, if two opponents are close to each other or are both in your line-of-sight and you want to aim at opponent (A) but your reticle happens to be over opponent (B) it feels like your reticle "sticks" to opponent (B) as you move your reticle to opponent (A). The longer time that this takes once again makes you vulnerable. In general, if you aren't used to turning Aiming Assistance off, don't do it; but if you're used to having it off anyways, then keep it that way. Regardless of what you're used to though, we recommend that you at least TRY doing it the other way because you might find that it works better for you. If it doesn't work out just switch the option again and go back to what you're accustomed to.

The next thing that you should consider adjusting from within the Options menu is Look Sensitivity, which you will find after selecting Controller options. You can adjust your X sensitivity (horizontal; left and right) and your Y sensitivity (vertical; up and down) anywhere between 1 (least) and 10 (most). Blackpopp and I recommend that you set X as high as you can; put it up only as high as you can control though--too much and your aim might turn to ****. When it comes to adjusting the Y, it's not as important because when playing Lockdown you don't need to look up and down as often or as drastically as side to side. But still, it's best to set this as high as you can while still maining control. Blackpopp and I both have our X sensitivity set to 10. My Y is set to 5 while his is at 3. Personally we find Y set to 10 to be hard to control, but everyone is different; it's all up to the individual--YOU.

The reason we recommend higher sensitivites is simple: The faster you can look at something, the faster you can shoot that something. Speed like this comes in handy when you are moving through a map and scanning your environment for threats, looking left, right, up, and (sometimes) down...high sensitivity allows you to do this VERY quickly; the faster the better. Also, when you zoom your weopon in a high sensitivity allows you to still keep your head on a swivel; meanwhile, a low sensitivity doesn't. This is because when zoomed in your crosshair is focused on a smaller area which means it takes longer to rotate your view--especially 360 degrees.

In Lockdown, reaction time is key; those with a faster reaction time often prevail. With our X sensitivities set as high as they are, often Blackpopp and I can react fast enough when getting shot from even BEHIND to kill the opponent before they kill us...assuming they don't shoot us in the back of the head with their first few bullets, lol. Aiming Assistance is especially handy to have enabled in situations such as these where you don't have much time to react, since it pretty much slows things down for you. Pretty much, when it comes to your controller sensitivity--turn it up as high as you can. Don't worry if you can't increase it to the max of 10 right away--you can do it gradually over time; that's what I did.

The last option we strongly suggest tweaking is Video where you will see the Brightness bar. Making the game brighter is generally the best thing to do because it makes the more shadowy areas on darker maps pretty much dissapear or at least lighten up significantly; making it more difficult for your opponents to use darkness as cover. It may be beneficial to adjust your TV's settings as well because their options generally include contrast and color and other good stuff that change the visuals in games. Find a good balance using the brightness option. Just be sure to make it as bright as possible without making the lighter textures and colors blur together; that's too bright. You may have to do this a few times to get it just right, but it'll be worth your time and effort.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KO_Someone,

Hey, you explanned everything but the mos important thing.
What botton do you shoot with?

;p

Finally its up, but not finished.
Updates coming soon!!

Blackpopp

sup KO and Hate. hey man, nice STRATEGY GUIDE. Yall have my support on this. I'll send the forum link to others that play R6: Lockdown. I'm sure they'll find this very useful.

yea u got my support to looks good

I don't know why I couldn't put the words STRATEGY and guide together while I was writing it, lol. Thanks Di9ital. I'll post the other segments as soon as I finish them. The newest one will be up in a day or so. Thanks for letting people know this is here; hopefully it'll help someone get better.

I think this is a good idea some of my friends and I did something similar for lockdown on ps2 there was a site just for knowledge as well as having a gaming community were we could have tons of fun it was the myspace of lockdown if you will.... so I think you guys are off to a good start I think I have improved I got booted for owning someone I couldn't help that I had 66 kills whats a girl to do lol Im improving Digital trying to get my ratio up.... and my kills and deathes have improved i think its over 500 kills and deaths

yo yall no OV3RDOS3 is da best squad dkms is lame dey boosted up like lames dey lames lames lames 1 more time LAMES terroist man i want u in ma squad what u mean i wont let u in it lol u crazy man but u gotta be down wit only mine yall OV3RDOS3 is number1 yall no it we'll take on any squad yall should get da game bigger spread it out on diff games tell people bout lockdown get more peeps on it aint that man we need more squads on it whatttttt up mz splita

No Comment!!!

Oh..and BlaCK, I'll be on LOCKDOWN tomorrow bro so I'll take those pics and use them for the guide, man. The shyt will be bananas. LOL

Blackpopp and I finished Part 2. We edited the Guide to include it; we'll do this with the other parts as soon as they're finished. Hope someone reads it, lol. Thanks for the support everyone.

Hey, this didnt work last time so i guess ill try it again lol


XxBlackxX

dude terrorist i think ur jus jelous cause u cant join i dont think u got th skillz no more man u gettin old u gettin up there man cant teach an old dog new tricks lol LMFAO y dont u hop on we'll see who the real best is dont say nuthing jus hop on lets gettir done

Wow!! your a funny guy panic, your squads a joke, your a joke. Next time i see you on lockdown, ill demonstrate wat it means to have skill. And please keep this thread about the topic at hand!

Damn Spammers!!

XxBlackxX

LMFAO. I'm scared now. Maybe I shouldn't sign-in into LD anymore. LOL. I'll be taking pics for the guide, Black. I told KO I rather have the both of yall in a game-room and do it there. let me know wzup bro

WoW I like it so far now I just find part 2. LoL.

Some great tips, but i already suspected the ones about being a medic ("guns up"). One question i do have. Does your connection speed make any difference at all or the distance from the host as i live in Australia.

Hey INVSBL, nice to see you on the forum (same to you I.P.). Your connection speed shouldn't effect your gameplay because to play on Xbox Live--which you do--you have to have at least a high speed internet connection such as DSL or Cable. The garbage known as Dial Up isn't capable of supporting Xbox Live. So as long as you're not downloading much or using up your connection in another way then your internet should keep up with the game just fine. I've had both DSL and Cable and really, I never noticed a difference between the two when it came to playing Lockdown.

But to answer the other part of your question, yes I think the distance between you and the host can influence whether or not you have more or less lag. As a general rule, the closer you are to the host, the better I think. Since you live in Australia I think you experience slightly more lag when you play in a game hosted by someone from the USA or Britain since they are so far away. The extra lag you recieve from this should still be playable though.

The single most thing that causes lag on Lockdown in my opinion is the host's connection. If they have a bad connection due to downloading **** or some other reason then that room becomes laggy for everyone...except the host. The host can't tell he's got a **** connection but everyone else can. These rooms are the ones that lag out mid-game or cause multiple people to loose their connection to the room at the same time. Don't join these rooms--they're too laggy.

Sorry for the long answer INVSBL, but that's my opinion on the lag issue. Do you know anyone else in Australia who plays Lockdown? If you do try joining his host and see if it's less laggy than most other rooms you join. Also you can try hosting rooms yourself. If you do this and people complain of lag then my guess is that your distance from the other players is causing more lag.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: KO_Someone,

I haven't been worked on the guide lately but I'm going to write up Part 3 tomorrow night I think. Blackpopp and I should have it up soon.