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Hood: Outlaws & Legends Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Think loading screen tips, but expanded with a couple more useful trivia.

Maps & Spawns

  • You know which map you’ll be playing on during the pre-game lobby. Some maps feature more open areas and have good vantage points, some are more tightly knit and encourage endless brawls. Bringing the right class to the right map can help you a good deal.
  • During the intro to the map (after lobby, before match start), the game will showcase the three objectives. These are not the actual objective locations. Don’t go off looking for the Sheriff only at the location showcased: he could be anywhere.
  • At the same time, be aware that the Sheriff does have a wide selection of spawn points, but usually spawns in a central or balanced position. He may wander off to one side of the map though.
  • The vault can spawn in a number of specific positions per map/tileset. Memorizing those will allow you to search compounds more effectively. Note that the vault does not specifically prefer neutral positions and may end up on either end of the map.
  • The vault contains both an ammo and a gear box… but the gear box never empties, allowing you to spam grenades with impunity if near the vault.
  • Note that, once your team has hold of the key, the vault’s approximate location will be provided in the line of text at the top of the screen and the vault’s PRECISE location will be provided to the key holder above their health bar. Unless the key trades hands to the other team, this means the team obtaining the key first will have an information advantage for finding the vault first.
  • Whilst sheriff, vault and even spawn points are semi-randomized on the map, extraction points are not.
  • Likewise, whilst the precise position of guards is not fixed for all guards, there’ll usually be the same number and type of guards in a given area/room per map. Knowing which map has enemies where allows for a much faster ‘stealthy’ approach.
  • Note that during the black screen transition from intro to actual game, the game is already running; avoid uncrouching or sprinting, because it’s entirely possible to begin the game within the field of vision of a guard (who is only not detecting you because of your crouched state).
  • On most maps, there’s a set of mirrored extraction points, from which each one is significantly closer to one team’s spawn. Getting the chest to the extraction point closer to your home spawn will give you an advantage in the final battle, as it allow you to cut off the enemy team’s respawn route by capping the nearby spawns, whilst they cannot do the same to you. Alternatively some maps have ‘neutral’ central spawns, that may be very close to the home spawns of the team, and thus make capped spawns a lot less relevant to the final combat.

Stealth & Movement

  • Tagging guards can help your teammates avoid faceplanting into said guard around a corner, saving you a lockdown and the attention of the enemy team. As well, tagging gives 25 points (once per enemy) to both exp AND ability charge (and another +50 if a teammate kills the tagged enemy). Tag everything, even if just to charge your ultimate faster.
  • R lets you throw rocks, in case you forgot that part of the tutorial. Next to turning around guards so you can stab them, it also makes for a hilarious sight if you make the Warden turn around just as an enemy is sneaking up to him. Most NPCs turn around quite fast, making it near-impossible to ‘dodge around the view cone’.
  • Key and Chest will be made visible to the enemy team if any NPC spots it (or the carrier, respectively). Dropped Keys/Chests are only visible to the team that dropped them, unless a guard or enemy player spots it. Yes, you can retrieve the chest and then hide it in a dark corner. Note that either objective cannot be hidden by bushes or similar, and will always be marked if in line of sight of an enemy… even if that enemy wouldn’t otherwise notice you.
  • If you trigger an alarm, your ability will be locked, you will be visible to the enemy team, and whoever saw you will be marked with a red exclamation mark, and start chasing you. Break line of sight to the NPCs (ladders work well), and then sneak into a bush (or generally sneak. Note that it will take MUCH longer for your revealed status to disappear, out of line of sight or not, if you keep sprinting around). They will lose track of you, and shortly after your revealed status will disappear. Alternatively, climbing a rope or moving though a crouch passage will keep the NPCs away, too.
  • Be wary that you will receive no warning if an enemy player spots and tags you. The only time you’ll notice that you have been tagged is if you’re suddenly sniped after sitting down in a bush, or when John comes lunging around a corner to introduce your face to his mallet. If you see an enemy looking into your direction, assume that you have been tagged. Break line of sight, stay crouched, then relocate to a different position without entering line of sight.
  • Note that you cannot tag enemy players that are sitting inside of bushes, even if you can ‘see’ them. Also, it’s near impossible to tag an enemy sitting behind a portcullis, or on top of a rope spot, as you will end up tagging those objects instead.
  • Both the smoke bomb and invisibility (both Hunter’s tools) will clear a tagged status (in the case of Invisibility: with a delay). Alternatively, poisoning (Mystic) or flashing (Ranger) the enemy who tagged you will clear the tag. Killing them works, too.

Guards & The Sheriff

  • Similar to staple stealth games like AC, enemies have an alertness icon above their head when you enter their cone of view. Sprinting will reveal you near instantly, whilst you can actually spend several second sneaking about before they ‘spot’ you, depending on distance. It’s entirely possible to cover a brief gap in cover in ‘plain view’.
  • Maryenne can sneak up to enemies from the front, over a short distance, and essentially facestab them due to her Passive. From behind still remains the safer option though
  • If you perform any kind of attack or execution, whilst an enemy is in progress of spotting you, you will be instantly revealed. Be wary of sightlines when going for an assassination.
  • Be wary of Archers. They usually only spawn on elevated positions, like watchtowers, and have a surprisingly long view cone. If you get ‘randomly’ spotted with no guards nearby, look upwards and there’ll probably be an archer aiming at you.
  • All NPCs, bar the Sheriff, can be killed instantly with an assassination. Knights in particular are heavily armored and take a lot of effort to kill, making it near-always more effective to either break contact (with gear, preferably) or to simply bait them to a teammate for a quick stabbing.
  • Both Knights and the Sheriff are heavily armored and basically immune to ranged attacks. A Robin can empty his entire quiver into a Knights head, and still not kill him. Don’t waste ammo.
  • Note that, at first, only a single Knight is present in any given game; in front of the vault. However, if the chest is spotted (and the state enters lockdown), squads of knights will spawn on all extraction points, plus another squad that will move in on the chest. Furthermore, singular knights may show up and replace already killed guards. This does not happen if the chest is snuck to an extraction site, and then spotted afterwards.
  • The Sheriff in particular is both an annoyance and an asset. Try luring him into a position between an enemy (home) spawn and the objective. At worst, it will slow them, at best, spot and or kill them. Be aware that the Warden will generally move towards the last guard-spotted location of the chest, but can be kept in position by repeatedly throwing rocks.
  • Note that the best tools for disabling the Sheriff are Robin’s ultimate, John’s grenade or, in fact, Tooke’s Heavy Attack; the latter takes a while, but is mostly save, due to Tooke’s range. Be wary that you will probably be spotted though.
  • If the Sheriff spots you, he will mindlessly chase you down until he loses sight of you. This even applies if other players enter his field of view. Do not rely on the Sheriff to help you, he may spot the other players, but will only attack you, until you lose him.

Combat & Assassinations

  • There is no limit on when a player can be assassinated (albeit it is arguably tricky to get someone who is currently sprinting). The only controlling factor is whether the enemy player is facing you.
  • Note that the same does not go for guards: Alerted guards will always face you, and are therefore immune to being assassinated once aware of you. However, if they switch their focus to a second revealed player, you can stab them again.
  • ‘Combat Assassinations’ involve flanking an enemy with two players. He can only face one direction, so one of the two attackers will get an assassination. This makes it highly inadviseable to engage in a 1vs2 (or more), unless you can keep the enemy from bypassing you (such as in a doorway).
  • In general, combat between two melee characters becomes a game of timing: Whoever parries, gets a free hit and wins. In combat between a melee and a ranged character, it becomes a game of kiting the melee, trying to make him waste stamina on attacks whilst dodging, before going in for a close-range headshot.
  • Note that ranged characters who face an inconfident melee character, can essentially hold him stalled simply by aiming a charged attack at him from medium distance; the melee character can block, but doing so will drain his stamina, allowing the ranged to wait until the guard drops to deliver an assured hit (or three).

Caps & Pacing

  • Capture Spawn Points! Especially if you’re just running past an enemy one. Those 5 seconds invested might save yourself and your teammates 30 seconds of running later. In all but one map, the position of the extraction determines which spawn points (by proximity) give a big advantage to the respective controlling team.
  • If possible, before comitting to a brawl, throw a quick glance at the map: are the closest spawns to the combat location controlled by you, or the enemy? If you got the advantage, comitting into a 1 for 1 trade is usually a net-benefit for your team, as the enemy will have to spend more time returning.
  • Don’t mindlessly winch if the area isn’t safe. You’ll just make yourself a target and a free kill.
  • In reverse, don’t sit in a bush if all enemies are dead and a spot on the winch is free.
  • Try to approximate the number of active enemies. If you own all nearby spawns, and just killed 3 people, chances are you won’t see more than a lone enemy in the next 2 minutes. Use that knowledge to determine whether to defend a cap, go for the objective or whatever else.
  • If you’re at the winch, and haven’t killed an enemy in the past minute(s), don’t try to 0-100 the extraction. The enemy WILL interrupt you, and if they do it towards the end of the winch, and you either lose the teamfight or don’t control the nearby spawns, they might steal the victory. If you’re not certain the enemy team is dead, leave the last 2-3 notches of the winch alone.
  • Note that once the extraction has been started, every time you die, your respawn times is increased by 2 seconds, quickly ramping up beyond the usual 10 seconds. Plus potential lack of nearby spawn points, and a death can easily take you out of a fight for 2 minutes. It therefore is an entirely valid tactic to only pretend to winch, but stop the second the enemies approach, specifically to add more time to their respawns (by killing them).

Characters

Robin (Ranger)

  • Note that headshots are NOT lethal. They just get a hefty damage multiplier. To deliver one-shot-kills, you need to either have the Bodkin perks or deliver charged headshots.
  • Your gear (flashbomb) hits enemy either in very close proximity, or if they are looking into it’s general direction (even from quite a distance). Being flashed clears all tags, melee locks and instantly drains the entire stamina bar, preventing the enemy from both sprinting and blocking/dodging.
  • Be wary of flashing yourself, since you’ll be, generally, looking right at the spot you threw the flashbomb to. Turn around right after throwing to evade the flash, but be wary that the enemy could have done the same.
  • It might be tempting to go full Robin Hood on all guards in sight, but take note that randomly shooting guards will likely cause one guard to see another’s corpse, and trigger an alarm anyways. Also, assassinations are faster, do not use ammo, give more exp, more ability charge AND gold.
  • Your explosive arrow is a 100% assured kill if you can hit an enemy directly. However, if the initial arrow impact doesn’t kill them, they’ll be able to run around as walking bomb… be wary of turning a melee enemy into a suicide bomber that will do his darndest to take you with them.
  • Don’t waste ammo on uncertain shots. Take the time to wait until an enemy has stopped moving for a clean kill. As well, don’t forget that you can kill enemies mid-execution to save a teammate. Timing is everything.
  • Note that there is no stamina cost or such to charging up shots, and you can hold a charged shot foever… but be advised that you will be VERY visible with a white flare effect whilst holding a shot, thus giving away your position to a potential counter-snipe by the enemy Robin.

Marianne (Hunter)

  • Your omnidirectional assassination skill works on Guards only (albeit including all variants like archers and knights, too).
  • Your assassination animations are both the fastest, and the ones where the attacker moves about the most, making it harder for your victim’s teammates to save them by killing you.
  • Without the respective perk, your ability does not make you really invisible. You can hardly use it to escape out of melee combat, but it makes you completely impercetible to guards. Additionally, it breaks and prevents melee lock-ons… until you take damage, that is.
  • Your crossbow deals very little damage, outside of perks or headshots. Don’t try to win a ranged duel with a Robin, unless he’s already on very low health (remember to tag!).
  • Your smoke bombs aren’t really that useful to give cover to a winch, because the location of the winch is still known to enemies, and they can fire through the smoke, now even without the risk of being spotted by the winchers. BUT the smoke will prevent a nearby Sheriff from targeting your winchers.
  • Your smoke bombs can instantly clear any tagging and melee locks on anyone entering the smoke cloud. This includes both allies, such as the chest carrier, but as well enemies.

John (Brawler)

  • Whilst your special passive is to open portcullis, you should use this ability VERY sparingly, as it leaves you highly exposed. Furthermore, nearly all portcullis have a side-entrance just a couple seconds of walking away, sprinting through that route is often faster than having a John raise a gate.
  • You have both the highest hitting melee’s in the game, but as well the slowest, most telegraphed and with the highest recovery. Be wary of players both aware of your approach, and skilled enough to parry/dodge your charge, as missing it will put you into an easily punished position.
  • Whilst your ability makes you almost immune to damage, it does in fact NOT make you immune. You can still be stunlocked into oblivion by two (or more) attackers at melee range, you can still be parried and, most critically, you can still be backstabbed whilst you wail at a defensive target. Even with your ability up, don’t mindlessly rush into 1vs2s.
  • Your gear, the frag grenade, is a highly potent ranged option, and also instantly lethal to anything in range (and heavily damaging to everything close to the AoE). Learn it’s targeting arc and the map to lob it over obstacles at key areas, like cap zones, carriers or winches.
  • If caught alone by a pack of knights, don’t hesitate to nuke them with your frag. You can easily replenish gear, but recovering health, time, or a respawn is a bit more critical.
  • Keep in mind that Robin can’t do much to you as long as you got stamina and aware of his position. Just block, tag him (!) and move for cover, whilst waiting for your Robin to take him out.

Tooke (Mystic)

  • Your heavy has the longest range of any melee attack and, given the right circumstances, can one-shot classes without health boosts. But it as well has a very narrow hit zone and can be side-step easily, especially if the enemy is close to you. Try to keep them at a medium range for maximum accuracy.
  • On the topic of his heavy, consider utilizing the game’s lock-on feature to increase chances of hitting.
  • You got a monopoly on healing; no other class has any way whatsoever to regain health. Be aware of that fact, and consider sticking around teammates to throw out some healing in a clutch situation.
  • Stamina is a very limited resource, and usually melee classes expend their entire bar to kill a single target. If that target is healed in the middle of the 1-2-combo, the tides can easily turn by virtue of the attacker becoming a stamina-empty victim.
  • Note that Tooke’s assassination animations for players take quite a bit longer than for guards, and that he’s therefore very exposed if you utilize assassinations mid-combat.
  • Note that your gear (poison bomb) does not directly affect those within it’s AoE, but applies a debuff that lasts for a couple second even beyond leaving it’s AoE. The debuff drains Stamina, but most importantly, completely prevents stamina regeneration, meaning that any hit mid-combat will probably turn into a sitting duck, that can neither attack, block/dodge, nor sprint. This includes yourself (perk nonwithstanding) and your teammates.
  • Additionally the poison bomb is a quite lengthy stun and blind to all NPCs, including the Sheriff. Use it to clear off pursuers, or to give your winches a (somewhat double-edged) break from being chased by the Sheriff.
  • When using the healing grenade perk (and not currently trying to avoid a nearby enemies attention), consider lavishly spending your gear whenever you see a gearbox. Just throw it in the general direction of a teammate, in case they want the heal, and pick up a new one. This goes twice if you’re near the infinite gear box in the vault.
  • A key detail your ability description forgets to mention: Your ability will NOT reveal players who are crouching/sneaking during the ability’s activation (unless you equip the perk doing exactly that).
  • You can shorten the search time for a vault (once you know it’s compound location) drastically by using your ability (preferably central); The vault door is always guarded by a Knight, who both never moves (opposed to regular guards patrolling) and has a different shape (due to his heavier armor). Thus, your ability will reveal the Knight’s outline, giving away the position of the vault.
Written by Alblaka

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