Some of the intricacies of Titanfall’s weapons, abilities and loadouts will doubtless be explored over the weeks to come, but we’ve played enough of Titanfall to get a good idea of in what situations particular abilities are most beneficial, what weapons are the most useful and how you should construct your loadout for certain game types.
With that in mind, here’s our advice on pilot loadouts, weapons, ordinances, tactical abilities and tier 1 and 2 kits.
If you’re racking your brain over titan builds, we’ve also put together a Titanfall titan build guide.
What weapon is going to be best for you is going to be more down to playstyle and personal preference than any other part of the pilots loadout, but, there is some advice we can give you nonetheless.
Firstly, don’t write off the R-101C Carbine just because it’s Titanfall’s de facto default weapon.
The R-101C Carbine is perhaps Titanfall’s most versatile weapon. It’s not going to beat the EVA-8 Shotgun in close range encounters, but otherwise, the R-101C Carbine is capable at close range and very handy when it comes to picking off pilots at both intermediate and long range.
The EVA-8 Shotgun is best used up close. You never would have guessed that, right?
What you might be surprised to find, though, is that, while you always want to get as close as possible with this gun, the EVA-8 Shotgun has a longer range than you might expect. Once you learn to judge your distances, the EVA-8 Shotgun can be deadly.
The Smart Pistol MK 5 automatically locks on to targets, making it great for beginners. Against more experienced pilots, though, the Smart Pistol MK 5 takes too long to lock on and get shots away for it to be a viable choice for better players.
You can probably guess the problems you might face using the Longbow-DMR Sniper and Kraber-AP Sniper – Titanfall is a very fast paced game. For that reason, stay away from these guns unless you’re a skilled sniper.
We can’t honestly say that we clicked particularly the G2A4 Rifle or Hemlok BF-R, finding them less useful that Titanfall’s aformentioned weapons.
The C.A.R SMG is a competent gun, but we found the R-101C Carbine more useful at range.
Finally, there’s the Spitfire LMG. This gun has an initial kick which can make it unwieldy, but it may prove effective for players who can harness the gun’s potential for damage by learning to compensate for its unwieldy nature.
When it comes to anti-titan weapons, we’re not keen on the Archer Heavy Rocket. The reason for this is that this weapon requires a lock-on and the time it take you to get that can make you vulnerable as a pilot.
The Sidewinder on the other hand can be fired at will, allowing you to make use of your agility and speed to outmaneuver titans in confined spaces – for that reason, we prefer this anti-titan weapon until you unlock something more powerful.
When you’re confronted by a player using the MAG Launcher as a titan, you’ll realise what a pest this weapon can be. Spamming enemy titans with grenades is a great way to control space, forcing them to retreat in order to avoid grenade damage.
Our favourite, though, is the Charge Rifle. The reason? Massive damage. Granted, you do need to charge this weapon for quite a while with every shot you fire, but this doesn’t mean that you need to place yourself in harms way while using the Charge Rifle.
If you spot an enemy titan, get yourself out of harms way and start charging the weapon. Once the Charge Rifle is almost ready to fire, you can then pop out of cover and hit the enemy titan with a devastating shot.
We’re not particularly fussy when it comes to Titanfall’s sidearms, so we’re not going to pretend we’ve got a clear favourite.
The B3 Wingman is the king when it comes to pure damage, but you might prefer the RE-45 Autopistol or Hammond P2011 for a superior rate of fire.
It is generally fairly easy to spot cloaked pilots, but that doesn’t mean that Cloak isn’t useful.
Applying Cloak as you approach a Hardpoint Domination objective will often give you a slight advantage and for that reason, it’s worth using in that mode.
In general, cloak is useful when you’re trying to avoid being spotted by enemy titans, and, if you find someone has left their titan in AI mode, it will not be able to spot you at all while you’re cloaked.
Stim boosts your speed and health regeneration. The latter is useful in any game mode, but we’d recommend having a pilot build with Stim equipped ready for Capture the Flag. In that game mode, speed is king, making Stim an obvious choice.
Active Rader Pulse gives you the ability to see your enemies through walls for a short time.
We’re sure you don’t need us to elucidate as to why that’s useful. What we would say is that it’s worth trying this ability out in Pilot Hunter, a mode where tracking down other human players is the priority.
We prefer the Frag Grenades over the vision distorting Arc Grenades simply because we’re meatheads who prefer the Frag Grenades superior damage.
If you’re playing Hardpoint Domination or Capture the Flag though, the Satchel Charge or Arc Mine is your obvious choice of ordinance.
The Satchel Charge is self-detonated, while the Arc Mine is automatically triggered by enemies.
In either case, placing them in or around capture points in Hardpoint Domination or at your flag in Capture the Flag should get you some easy kills.
The Power Cell recharges your tactical ability faster, making it a solid choice for any loadout.
It’s arguable that the Enhanced Parkour Kit is a worthwhile choice for Capture the Flag mode, but, again, the Power Cell will give you more opportunities to use your Stim ability – it’s arguable which is best.
The Explosives Pack increases your Ordinance ammo capacity and as such is a great choice in Hardpoint Domination and Capture the Flag, if you’re using Satchel Charges or Arc Mines to booby trap flags or objectives.
Run N Gun is another sensible option in Capture the Flag, allowing you to take out enemies while you’re on the move without having to slow down, but can be useful when chasing down opponents in any mode.
The Quick Reload Kit and Stealth Kit round out your options. The Quick Reload Kit is a good all-round choice that will be useful in any mode, making it less likely that you’ll get caught with your pants down while reloading.
The same goes for the Stealth Kit, but it might be worth giving it a go in Pilot Hunter as a means of making it more difficult for enemy pilots to track you down.
We’re going to say that the Dome-Shield Battery isn’t particular useful right off the bat, so leave that one well alone.
The same goes for Dead Man’s Trigger – an ability that detonates all your planted explosives when you die. It’s just too reliant on luck to be useful.
If you’re obsessed with hacking, then The ‘Icepick’ would be the obvious choice, but, again, we’d question how useful this is given that you’re unlikely to spend a significant amount of your time hacking while playing Titanfall.
The Minion Detector – an ability that makes grunts and specters appear on your minimap – is particularly useful if you’re not the best at first-person shooters, helping you to pick up easy grunt kills.
Even if you’re a more accomplished player, however, having an awareness of where grunts are can be worthwhile, even if you just want to pick off a few to take a little slice out of your titan’s build time.
Warpfall Transmitter accelerates your Titanfall, making it particularly useful if you like getting kills by dropping your titan on opponents – we’ll admit, that is incredibly satisfying.
The Guardian Chip makes your titan more accurate while it’s in auto-mode. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time outside if your titan, then this one’s a no-brainer.
However, we’d also recommend you give Guardian Chip a go in Hardpoint Domination. Set your titan to guard mode and leave it by a captured objective and the Guardian Chip will mean that your titan is going to do a much better job of holding onto it.
Good weapons in Dark Souls 2: Dual Caestus
Soul Sacrifice Wiki .
Happy Birthday! Russell Crowe turns 51 years
How to Unlock Return to Sender Achievement in The Witcher 3 DLC Hearts of Stone
What Games Journalism Needs: More Honesty, Fewer Standards