Battle royale games demand an entirely different mindset than traditional first-person shooters. At the end of the day, it’s not about your kill-to-death ratio, the number of firefights you’ve encountered, or even who has the best loadout. To make it to the final circle, and to increase your chances of winning, you must rethink how you approach the game. You need to be patient, smart, and you need to know when and where to pick your battles. If you’re rushing into the fight with the same perspective that you do in a multiplayer game, you may realize that you’re not experiencing the same level of success. Let’s look at ways to improve your gameplay.
10 Choose The Right Starting Location
Picking a good place to drop is important. It should never be arbitrary. The wingsuit and parachute mechanisms in Blackout allow to you rapidly traverse across the battlefield, and the path of the helicopters shouldn’t prevent you from reaching almost any point on the map. Therefore, it’s essential to give yourself an advantage from the start. That means selecting a spot that is big enough to guarantee enough loot for you, and your team if you have one. But you also want to avoid fighting over a location, if possible. Choose a place that you know intimately. One that you can defend and then control.
9 Diversify Your Loadout
There are so many weapons to choose from in Blackout, ranging from pistols and shotguns to sniper rifles and rocket launchers. Equipping the right weapons is a pivotal element in the survival game. At the start, you need whatever weapon you can grab, especially if you’re amongst enemies, but you quickly need to customize a loadout that will work in any situation. The best combinations of guns give you an edge in both short- to mid-range fights as well as long-range skirmishes. A sniper rifle with a long-range scope is a valuable addition to your gear. And you’ll have to discover what shotgun, submachine gun, or assault rifle will serve you well in close-quarters combat. Find what works for you.
8 Consider Your Equipment
What you carry in your inventory should vary depending on what mode you’re playing. If you’re in solos, then you need a diverse kit that can be applied to unexpected circumstances. Playing with one or more friends? The team can share the load and hold onto different equipment that can be called upon when the occasion arises.
Holding down a building? Collect defensive gear like barricades or razor wire. Attacking another squad? A combination of sensor darts and grenades can mitigate the threat. Don’t pick up everything that you see in front of you. Whatever you’re planning, take the right equipment for the job.
7 Think Before You Fight
Probably the most important piece of advice in Blackout. Players have an instinct to initiate conflict at any opportunity. In multiplayer or other modes that involve respawning, aggression is rewarded. That’s not the case in Blackout. You don’t always want to fight. If the circle is closing in, or if you don’t have the right weapons and equipment, then don’t engage with other players. Relocate to another part of the map. Keep looting where you can. Battle royale games are not about who finishes with the most kills. They’re about who survives the longest. And surviving is not always fighting.
6 Maximize Your Advantages
If you do need to fight, though, make sure the odds are tilted in your favor. Boost your health with a trauma kit. Lay traps with mesh mines. Cover your movement with smoke grenades. Gain the high ground with a grapple gun. Utilize perks to tread silently or to hold your breath while sniping. Don’t rush into a firefight without preparing properly. An opponent or enemy squad might have a better loadout then you, but if you strategically deploy the gear you have at your disposal, you can gain the upper hand.
5 Know The Terrain
Understanding where you’re at is crucial in a survival game like Blackout. Are you exposed? What is the clearest path to where I need to be? How can I flank my opponents? These are questions that you should be able to answer with clarity and alacrity if you want to keep your head above water when moving around the map. Memorize the layout of the buildings. Think vertically and not just horizontally. If you can traverse the map with more cunning and fluency, then you’ll always have a leg up on the other players. That knowledge will save you just as much as your trigger finger.
4 Never Underestimate The Circle
Keep in mind that you’re not just playing against other players. You’re also playing against time and the ever-shrinking circle. In the beginning, you have an abundance of time and space, but that zone of conflict gets smaller and smaller as the game lengthens, and you need to be aware of the shift. There are factors that will influence you to stick around but following those instincts can ultimately result in your death.
Engaging in firefights when the circle is closing behind you delays your relocation. Greedy looting, whenever your loadout is well-stocked, invites unnecessary pressure. You always want to be in control of where you are and running away from a closing circle will endanger you every time.
3 Sound Is King
Hearing audio cues and understanding them are two different things, and if you can master them both, then you drastically increase your chances of winning a game. If you’re paying close attention, you can differentiate between the sound of footsteps in the grass outside and footsteps inside the building with you. The sound of a gunshot informs you as to the weapons your enemies possess. Short-range bursts might signal a submachine gun. A thundering crack suggests a sniper rifle. Headsets and surround sound can all improve the precision with which you are able to determine what’s happening. But it takes practice to understand what the noises mean.
2 Adapt As The Game Progresses
There are strategies that deteriorate in value over the course of the game, and you shouldn’t necessarily rely on them as the game reaches a finale. Vehicles are excellent resources when you need to travel across the length of the map or escape a losing fight. However, at the end of the game, they make too much noise and create an easy target for other players. Your loadout, even, might require adjustment as you near the final circle. A sniper scope on a rifle could be replaced by a smaller sight. This enables you to retain the high firing power of your gun while adjusting to the smaller distances the final circle will envelop. Just because something worked earlier doesn’t mean it’s the right choice later.
1 Keep Your Cool
It’s natural to get nervous or excited whenever you’re among the final ten to twenty players alive. That adrenaline will make you jumpy, and it can have an adverse reaction on your gameplay. You might shoot preemptively at a player when your position isn’t advantageous. You might rush into a building without carefully listening first. Staying composed is important to ensuring your success. Keep an eye on the remaining player count. Think about how you’ll want to navigate the small space that’s left on the map. Communicate clearly with your team. Not caving to the pressure is the deciding factor between winning a game and finishing as a runner-up.
NEXT: Black Ops 4: The 5 Best Starting Locations in Blackout (& The 5 Worst)
