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Thread: Guide to Engineer 2021 edition (By Karl)

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    Guide to Engineer 2021 edition (By Karl)


    The role of squad engineer is one that is arguably as essential as that of the medic, yet is vastly less popular, and harder to traditionally "learn", with less guides and fewer consistent players to teach you the ropes.

    In the past engineers were very powerful, with strong cades and sentries that could easily scare off xenos and keep them out of areas. However, when marines shot at xenos from behind the safety of a barricade it was deemed to be "cadehugging" by much of the xeno playerbase and dev team at the time, so engineers recieved three large nerfs that would forever change the role. These nerfs were primarily to barricades and their cost as well as their strength, and how easy it was to repair them.

    The role of the engineer is to make and maintain defences for the marines, repair infrastructure such as APCs or vendors on the colony, demolish or deconstruct things so marines can go through them or shoot through them. This is an oversimplification and the aims of the role will be talked more about later.

    With that preface out of the way, I'll start with the first thing that confronts you as a squad engineer : your loadout.

    Section one : the loadout.

    Items with their names in orange are the ones that I reccomend for you to take. Items with their names in red are noobtraps.

    As an engineer, you do not use the marine vendors to gear up, but instead you can gear up and get your equipment in the special engineer prep room, which is the third door internally in your squad prep, after the SL and spec gear rooms. It has space for three engineers to gear up at once, which is the maximum number of engineers per squad. It is unlikely you will see more.
    OcMMZte.png Image provided for assistance.

    After eating, the first vendor you want to use is the one on the near wall, your automated closet. I'll discuss every item in it now.


    • Standard equipment - vend all of this and wear it, you don't really need the MRE but you can take it if you want. Remember it's a small size item and therefore better carried in a brown webbing or your satchel/backpack instead of in your armour. It is imporant to note that this also contains the special technician helmet, which has an integrated welding visor (however it will make you stand out as an engineer in a crowd). When welding, you must use welding protection such as the visor of this helmet or welding goggles, or you will go blind.

    Armour

    • Light armour - this is the preferred armour for most other roles, and your instincts will make you gravitate towards it. However, other armours may be much more useful as engineer. Remind yourself that engineers do not typically do much combat, such as pushing xenos, and as such the utility of such armour may be reduced for you. It also has only two storage spaces compared to the three of medium armour, making medium a more attractive choice. I would personally not take light armour for most operations, unless you intend solely to focus on unga-ing with sentries or engitech upgrades (uncommon and not recommended)
    • Medium armour - three storage slots, good compromise between mobility (you will not be the straggler that the Queen picks off and caps during a retreat) and protection. Reccomended.
    • Heavy armour - only useful for bravos, but it also loses a storage slot. Few reasons to take this.

    Back storage

    • Technician satchel - literally no difference between this and the chestrig you spawn with. Massive noobtrap, you don't need two satchels.
    • Technician backpack - seven normal size item storage slots, of situational utility. If you want something to store spare stuff in, vend a backpack from the vendors in your squad armoury, not from this vendor. I see few engineers use this for good reason, as they could get the welderpack, which holds one item less but also contains welding fuel.
    • Machete scabbard - obvious noobtrap, useless for engineers.
    • Welder backpack (welderpack) - Six normal size item slots, about 280 welding fuel, which is basically enough to last the entire round. Comes with the disadvantages of a backpack, which is that you have to take it off your back and put it in your hand if you want to take stuff from it. It used have 5 storage slots and was also the only backpack/satchel with integrated welding fuel storage, other than the welding kit which can't store anything, and as such used to be the automatic preference for engineers. Nowadays, you can pick from between the welderpack and weldersatchel.
    • Welder satchel - Four normal size item slots, can be used without having to take it off your back, which is a big plus. It holds less welder fuel than the pack at only 100, which can be problematic sometimes but usually you will be able to find a welder tank to refill it, or beg for fuel from the VCs or other engineers. You can also bring a welding kit to the fob (findable in the locker in the north section of hangar, by where the PO printer is, as well as in ship engineering) to refill your torch. Useful and equally viable as the welder backpack, especially if you take the g8 belt. Notably you can fit your sentry in here, which makes it much easier to deploy on the go.

    Belt slot

    • G8 general belt - a VERY good choice for engineers, it can hold three normal sized items, such as sentries, light replacers, materials, entrenching tools, and all those other annoying normal size items. Synergises with a magazine pouch or shotgun shell pouch so you can still use your weapon. Can also be got from req or the vendors in squad armouries, but is rarer.
    • Ammo load rig - You should ideally be using either the m41 or l42 with this, as the m39 is not a good engineer weapon. Preferable to the toolbelt, but is eclipsed by the g8. It holds five magazines, but so can one mag pouch and your armour. Can be found in surplus vendors.
    • Pistol holster rig - If you start taking this rig, you may fall into the dark downwards spiral of believing that a pistol is a good and viable weapon. It is not. Especially not for engineers. Unless you feel like carting around a peashooter, don't take this. Can be found in surplus vendors.
    • Revolver holster rig - As above, but the revolver might be better due to heavy ammo.
    • SMG holster rig - As above, the SMG is bad for engineers due to its high falloff and also this can't even carry ammo or use a magharness.
    • Shotgun shell rig - For shotgun users, pretty much essential if you are using the shotgun as it holds 14 handfuls compared to only 5 in the shell pouch. You can also use this solely to carry around ammo for a masterkey, which is useful as it eats through ammo extremely fast. Just remember to also take ammo for your main gun. Can be found in surplus vendors.
    • Mortar shell belt - situational, unless you can confirm you're going to be the mortar operator of the round don't take this. Can also be got from req, and they never run out.
    • Toolbelt - useful because it starts full of tools, however you should not be wearing this - it takes up your valuable belt slot and can only carry two more items than your brown webbing (with a little more variety of items). As the multitool and cable coil are rarely used, you can typically just take this to put the tools in your brown webbing and other two in backpack, then dump it. Or put them in a tool pouch and put your screwdriver in your ear slot.

    Pouches (you can take two) (all of these are easily found in req)
    • Construction pouch - three slots for materials, etools, and cable coil. Without this you will have a REALLY hard time carrying around your materials so it is pretty much essential. GET THIS FROM THE VENDOR IN SQUAD REQ, NOT YOUR VENDOR.
    • First aid pouch (injectors) - Take this for self medding, but put the injectors in your webbing or backpack or helmet. The pouch itself is mid.
    • First aid pouch (pills) - Basically injectors that don't fit in your helmet and are more finicky to use. Mid to meh.
    • First aid pouch (gauze + ointment + tricord + splints) - mid, you can get all this shit from a marinemed or nanomed. Might save you time when gearing up. Remember to always take gauze tho.
    • Explosives pouch - inefficient storage for c4 or claymores, much better to put them in a medkit in your backpack.
    • Flare pouch - it is not your job to throw flares, big noobtrap. Let PFCs do it, otherwise bring flare packs in a secondary backpack.
    • Large pistol magazine pouch - if you are doing some janky shoulder holster loadout with this it might be viable, but just remember that pistols suck (with the VP as a kinda-exception but how are you gonna get your hands on it)
    • Magazine pouch - holds 3 magazines, very good for m41 as you basically will only ever need this + armour storage for all your ammo needs.
    • Shotgun shell pouch - can only hold 5 shotgun shell handfuls, so is not as useful as the mag pouch. Still better than putting them in webbing.
    • Medium general pouch - literally any other pouch can do this pouch's job better. Holds 2 small items or magazines.
    • Pistol pouch - noobtrap for the same reasons as the large pistol mag pouch.
    • Tool pouch - ALTERNATIVE TO THE WEBBING - screwdrivers now fit in ear slots so you can fit all the tools you need plus a highcap industrial welder in here, however this can make it more inconvenient to get your screwdriver. However this lets you have a lot more welding fuel. GET THIS FROM THE VENDOR IN SQUAD REQ, NOT YOUR VENDOR.


    OTHER POUCHES YOU CAN'T GET IN YOUR VENDOR
    • Autoinjector pouch - unless you have made a deal with the devil for a PFC's minimed pamphlet, this is 100% useless for you.
    • Large general pouch - trash, large magazine pouch does its job better. More specialised pouches are better in every situation.
    • Electronics pouch - you don't need the storage, at most you need like 2 cells and 1 apc board, if you ever need more pack them in a backpack and leave it in the fob to resupply at.
    • Large magazine pouch - straight upgrade to the magazine pouch, take.
    • Large shotgun shell pouch - straight upgrade to the shotgun shell pouch, gives you 10 more shots. Still kinda mid.
    • Survival pouch - you should LOOT THESE from dead survivors or other colonists for their metal, but for you they are kinda trash since the only useful things they hold are a crowbar and metal.
    • Medkit pouch - you can put a lot of stuff in medkits so this is useful for freeing up a normal size item slot in your backpack (but you rarely need to do that)
    • Reagent canister pouch - this filled with unga plus a bell backpack makes you a based combat frontliner engi. Otherwise a bit much for your personal healing.


    Uniform accessory
    • Webbing - can hold three magazines, take instead of a magazine pouch if you are using a toolpouch loadout, but can be harder to get your mags from.
    • Brown webbing - can hold five small items, put your tools in here! (to be precise, screwdriver, crowbar, wrench, welder, and wirecutters)
    • Black webbing - does the same as brown webbing but looks worse.
    • Shoulder holster - only useful for pistol loadouts, pistol loadouts trash as discussed before.

    Mask
    • Gas mask - Makes you look like an NPC alpha who takes a gas mask because they think it helps them. Spoiler, it does not.
    • Thermal coif - Optional for snow maps currently, still makes you look like an NPC.


    Next we come to your equipment vendor, in which you get 45 points to buy stuff. A lot of the stuff in here can be easily acquired from other places, and as such is a noobtrap. Same colour scheme as the other list.



    • Essential engineer set- literally essential, why would you not take it. Contains 50 metal, 30 plasteel, 25 sandbags, an etool, a light replacer, a c4 brick, and a highcap power cell.

    Portable defence (sentry) (pick one)

    • Normal sentry - Comrade Sentry, old reliable, not a super low or high damage output. Unless Carl Johanssen is in the round and is taking everyone's sentries, you should probably consider the flamer sentry instead.
    • Flamer sentry - the George Forman griller, hurts xenos a lot and their dino brains will make them want to immediately resist, giving them a LONG stun where you can finish them off. Make sure to use it in a safe spot because if marines walk into the fire it fucks them up, and if it gets destroyed it makes a big explosion of fire that really fucks marines up. Useless against Queens and Ravagers.
    • Tesla - used to be king, now is a bit shit. It is bad at defending cades, its primary purpose, because nowadays cades get trappered from 20 tiles away where the tesla can't reach. Only use on GUARDED cadelines or with an upgrade.
    • Bell - situational and bad, only take if you are gonna get an upgrade kit because then you can get the badass bell backpack that slows down xenos and stops them from running away.
    • Flag - trash noobtrap that is never useful in the slightest.



    Sentry upgrade kit

    Okay, so you can spend 15 points, which is a LOT (20 plas or 30 metal), to get an upgrade kit for your sentry. The upgrades are as follows -

    • Mini-sentry - Less damage but more RPM than the standard sentry, resulting for a higher DPS sentry that shoots more. You can pick it up then put it down to reset the ammo counter so running out is not much of a concern. This is really just a stronger version of the standard normal sentry, which I would rank at a similar level to an unupgraded flamer sentry, but with more utility against ravs and queens.
    • Shotgun Sentry - It's a sentry that shoots buck shells, but has a VERY limited range of only two tiles. Put this behind corners that xenos are likely to charge out of, so they don't see it and run into the buckshot blast. However, it's not very strong without marines following up on the stuns it delivers.
    • DMR sentry - basically a sniper spec that only fires normal unaimed bullets. Good at providing continuous support fire but this is utterly unable to kill anything by itself as the bullets only have 60 damage. At least it won't kill you like the plasma sentry does. Still pretty good.
    • Assault flamer - a rare pick, due to the fact that it is VERY similar to the standard flamer sentry, the main difference is that the fire that this fires burns up faster, so it'll be easier to push with it firing. Currently unobtainable.
    • Mini-flamer - A straight upgrade to the standard flamer sentry, fires three times as fast with little to no damage penalty. However be mindful this uses a lot more ammo and can create massive walls of unpushable fire.
    • Plasma sentry - basically a flamer sniper sentry. Better at killing because the damage isn't utter dogshit, however it leaves a cloud of phosphorous smoke which hurts marines, and it hurts them a lot more than xenos.
    • Overclocked tesla - mega chad tesla that stuns t1s and t2s and disables t3 abilities. The only downside is that its range is a measly 3 tiles.
    • Mini-tesla - tesla that zaps faster but only slows down enemies, basically a straight downgrade.
    • Motion detector belltower - has a MASSIVE range and MD pings enemies, alongside slowing them down. However due to the limitations of the belltower (it can only slow down/detect the same enemy once in a short time period) it is still not that good. Still better than the standard bell.
    • Cloaked belltower - basically the normal belltower, but cloaked. 2 tile range, use it to trap and kill lurkers and other harassers.
    • Belltower backpack (called an IMP frame) - Amazing at killing t3s, xenos rely on being able to get in, deal damage, then get out. By stopping them from getting out (with methods such as bodyblock and this super cool belltower backpack) you make klling them way easier.
    • Extended flag - big flag, flag is shit, don't take.
    • Warbanner flag - stronger version of the flag, flag is shit, don't take.
    • Flag backpack (called a JIMP frame) - backpack version of the flag, probably actually useful due to all-the time portable buffs, still worse than basically every other sentry.


    My recommendation - once you get good with sentry manipulation and placing, start thinking about taking some of these. As a standard or new engineer, you should still be spending most of your points on materials.

    Pro tip : Sentries will also target the friendly green xenos that spawn with an XRT (currently disabled due to techwebs being disabled). WHEN YOU HEAR COMMAND IS CALLING AN XRT, OR IF A FRIENDLY ERT SUCH AS PMCS ARRIVES, TURN OFF THE SENTRIES IN THE FOB. (This can also happen with event characters who do not get marine IFF tags on their ID cards.)

    Engineering supplies


    • Airlock circuit board (2pts) - useless noobtrap, you never need to use it.
    • APC circuit board (2pts) - noobtrap, you can print more from the autolathe or get from an engineering vendor (the yellow one).
    • Entrenching tool (etool) (2pts) - noobtrap, req has more and you already got one.
    • Small fire extinguisher (5pts) - noobtrap, can be easily got from the marinemeds in medbay.
    • High-cap power cell (3pts) - noobtrap, can be got from engineering vendor.
    • HIDP grenade (6pts) - noobtrap, can be got from squad armoury vendors and req, also not useful.
    • Claymore box (5 claymores) (18pts) - can be viable if you know where to put them, but mats are more useful.
    • 10 metal (5pts) - Get 40 of this to make wires out of. ESSENTIAL.
    • 10 plasteel (7pts) - get 20 of this to fill up your stack, or more if you want to skip out on sandbags. DOUBLE ESSENTIAL.
    • C4 brick (5pts) - can be got from req but they have limited numbers, sometimes useful.
    • Rangefinder (10pts) - semi noobtrap as you can just get better versions from a jtac kit.
    • 25 sandbags (10pts) - get 25 of this to fill your sandbags up (unless on a bad map for it)
    • Super-cap power cell (10pts) - useless noobtrap, literally has zero use. SGs might beg for it but their normal cells last like an hour with no need to change.
    • Welding goggles (5pts) - useless since you already have a visor in your helmet and you can buy metal instead. Only bought by snowflakes who hate the technician helmet and want the standard helmet. Basically, Charlie marines. You can also get these from tool vendors.

    Special ammo and attachments


    • All of this costs six points. If you have six points left, you can get ten more metal for five points. Never buy any of this.


    You have now fully geared up from your prep vendors and can head to the armoury section of squad preps where you can get your gun and some other things.

    Guns


    • M41 - Used to be considered meh, now is quite good. Has falloff but it's not extreme, has some basic AP. Reccomended attachments : 2x scope, red dot sight, rail flashlight. Vertical grip, angled grip, underbarrel flashgrip, masterkey shotgun (The masterkey is extremely good at demolishing walls to make firing lines but eats a lot of buckshot ammo), miniflamer (bad at killing xenos but good at clearing vines on LV, can be refuelled from your welderpack), laser sight. Bayonet, recoil compensator. Probably don't use the stock. Viable for both pushing xenos and defending from them, with different attachment setups. A well rounded weapon that you can carry from 6-7 mags for (including the one in your gun) if you took my reccomended loadout, which gives you about 300 rounds of ammo total.
    • L42 - semi noobtrap, has high ammo consumption which is bad for engies. Can be kind of useful as a ghetto sniper for keeping smaller xenos away from your cades.
    • M39 - Only good for chasing down xenos due to its obscenely high falloff, making it ineffective past four tiles. Not reccomended for engineers.
    • M37 - The famous shotgun, you basically have to be using the shotgun rig with this unless you want to run out of ammo super quick. Buckshot is good for chasing which you don't do a lot of, slugs are good for making things fuck off, which you need to do a lot, flechette is the awkward middle child. Reccomended attachments : magharn, red dot, rail flashlight. Underbarrel flashgrip, angled grip. Bayonet, recoil comp. If you are slugging, taking the stock can be good.
    • Any pistol/revolver - trash at damage, trash for loadouts. If you take this as your primary you are getting noobtrapped. (other than the VP but where are you gonna get one)
    • HPR - very good for ammo storage, not as good on damage. Take if you want to RP as a machine gunner in the fob siege. A bipod and reflex would be good on this, maybe even a BC. Bipods give it IFF when deployed.
    • MOU - Good for chasing, which you don't do a lot of. Does not work well by itself, and you are going to have a hard time carting two guns around. Not reccomended.


    Shit that you can get from req (and sometimes your squad armoury)


    • More nades - you don't need these.
    • More c4 - good on certain maps, if you want to fill up extra space then take this.
    • AP ammo - maybe useful if you take a mag or two, but you are not a PFC. Don't be an AP hogger.
    • Jtac stuff - useful for mortar engies, but you do have more important stuff to focus on than jtac. Preferably just take a jtac key for the mortar.
    • The mortar - only one of these, if you want to use it get it before it's gone and take the mortar shell backpack if you plan to cart it around (mortar use will be discussed in more depth in a later section)
    • MDs - your loadout doesn't have space for this. Unless you have a shit loadout. (unless you used a welderpack and only put the etool and sentry in it and didn't get a g8 which I can kind of understand but just makes everything so much more difficult for you in general)
    • Intel kit - useless right now lmao
    • Flamer - NO
    • m2c - DOUBLE NO
    • Mk1 - fuck off you're an engineer not a combat PFC. Unless you're thwomper.
    • M79 (the grenade launcher) - super hard for you to store ammo for, and generally not a great gun. Mid.
    • m56d - you will be better at using this than a normal marine, but carrying the ammo can be a big pain, and when you're at the front you should be focusing on cades.
    • Ext ammo - not as highly sought as AP, can be useful for you to save on ammo space.
    • CAS flares (individually) - if you know cas exists, and you are bravo, you can take a pack to throw around the fob if evac happens.
    • Comm keys - Bravo - good for coordinating fob defence. Req - good for shouting at those damn ROs to give you more metal. The rest - situational, you probably do not need them.

    Shit you can get from around the ship


    • Extra materials - there are some in req, engineering upper, and the OT workshop. CTs probably will get these in time, and you don't want to get in trouble with MPs. Not worth the effort to steal.
    • Industrial blowtorch - a better version of the normal blowtorch with double the fuel capacity, can be printed from a hacked autolathe (there is a normal autolathe south of the dropship Alamo in Tcomms storage, go to it, use SCREWDRIVER on it -> cut the item template control wire -> use SCREWDRIVER again, it's hacked and you can print them). LITERALLY NO REASON NOT TO GET THIS.
    • All other tools - the autolathe can print them.
    • Power cells - can be got from a yellow engineering vendor, there is one of these in tcomms storage too by the autolathe.
    • APC boards - see above, can also be printed from the autolathe. You should have at least one.
    • Medkits - GODLY for internal storage, empty them out and put small size items in them. C4, APC boards, power cells, cable coils, etc etc all fit. The only things that don't are grenades and magazines.
    • Medical supplies - at least you need gauze (to go in helmet). Otherwise get gauze, a tram injector, and splints - they will give you the power to run to the nearest medic for proper heals.
    • Highcap industrial blowtorch - (get from tool vendors) ONLY fits in tool pouch (and satchel but it's normal size), good if you are using tool pouch, way too big otherwise.
    • Meson scanners - give you an annoying yellow tint that doesn't help you in the slightest.
    • t-ray scanners - situationally useless.
    • Welding kits - you don't need this much fuel, unless you are taking a weldersatchel or one of the noobtrap backpacks that I told you not to get!


    After you've finished your loadout by getting your industrial blowtorch from tcomms storage, load tcomms onto the primary dropship. Check it in your "IC" tab, if it's not been set then just put the parts in the crate and leave it. In order to load tcomms, you need the circuit board, two micro manipulators, two hyperwave modulators (I forget their exact name), two power cells (use the ones in tcomms storage), and some wires (one stack is enough but take both, why not). All these items are present in tcomms storage so you need to take them all, put them in the crate, drag the crate and the folded up tcomms tower onto the primary DS, open the crate, push the tower onto the same tile as the crate, close the crate and leave it there. Make sure nobody takes the crate off the primary DS.

    Once you get your loadout done, and get tcomms loaded, you are free to do whatever you like on the ship until deployment.

    Section one addendum one : nailgun

    The nailgun is a unique engineering tool that is only found groundside, but might be added to engineer vendors sometime in the future. Uniquely, it functions as both a tool, and a weapon.
    It can typically be found in engineering areas on maps, which is the case for LV, BR, prison, and trijent. However, on ice it is found outside a bit northeast of engineering, and on kutjevo it is found above the kitchen. It is trivial to acquire on LV and BR (if lz2 is primary). If you can't find any, check the dead bodies of survivors - they often take them.

    It is a normal size item and has a mag size of 50 rounds, mags are small size items and can fit anywhere normal small size items or magazines can fit. Typically two nailguns will spawn with about three mags, this is more than enough. I reccomend you put it in your g8 belt (drop the light replacer) and you put one spare mag in your backpack/satchel.

    Nailguns, uniquely, can repair barricades when welders cannot (i.e. when the barricade has taken too much damage) and they can also repair walls, and repair the holes in walls. In order to do this, you need to hold either metal or plasteel in your offhand, and click on the damaged structure with the nailgun. It will perform a channel, and some ammo and materials will be expended. They also function as weapons similar to the SMG, with more falloff - uniquely if a t1 xeno is standing next to a wall, and you hit them with a nail that would otherwise hit the wall, they will be pinned to the wall and get a small stun of about 3s (perfect for PBing them).

    Overall, the nailgun is a useful tool, but situational. It is perfect for saving heavily damaged cades, and as an alternative to the welding tool (but it needs materials for repairing.) Overall rating : POWERFUL if you know what to do with it.

    Section one addendum two : the masterkey

    Loads 5 buck, 4 buck per wall + girder, 9 buck per rwall + girder, 1 buck per airlock. Resin takes a varying amount. Take it with a shotgun belt and spare ammo at a safe point, and you can become great at clearing sightlines. Also kinda works with stuns.


    Section two : an in depth look at your equipment

    If you want to be an effective engineer, you NEED to take these tools

    • WELDING TOOL - you need this for : Welding doors, welding vents, repairing cades, deconstructing walls the normal way, making walls, making doors, fully fixing apcs, repairing sentries, deconstructing reinforced tables, making new apcs, turning rods into sheets, repairing vending machines, reparing m2c machine guns, repairing walls, repairing tank or APC parts, and repairing synths. It has a few unique mechanics, namely that it has limited fuel which is consumed upon COMPLETING any action. You need to have the blowtorch ON to perform actions with it, which can be done by pressing the z key. You can refuel this fuel from a weldertank or any welder backpack. There are three varieties, with the normal blowtorch holding 20 units, the industrial blowtorch holding 40, and the high capacity industrial blowtorch holding 80. Note that the first two are small size and can fit in any webbing, while the highcap can only fit in a tool pouch or back storage, as it is normal size. If you want to repair something, the blowtorch can probably do it. The OTHER important mechanic is that you NEED to use welding protection - welding goggles, a welding visor, or the visor integrated into your technician helmet - to use it. If you use it without protection, you will take eye damage and eventually go blind.
    • WRENCH - you need this for : moving and deconstructing cades, deconstructing walls, unwrenching pipes, making walls, making doors, deconstructing and moving handrails, deconstructing chairs, deconstructing tables, moving vending machines, moving sentries, etc, etc. Works just like a wrench on any other ss13 server. If you want to move something, the wrench can probably do it.
    • CROWBAR - you need this for : opening unpowered doors, fully fixing APCs, deconstructing cades, deconstructing walls, and a few other less common things. IF you want to open something, the crowbar can probably do it.
    • SCREWDRIVER - you need this for : opening the wires panel of doors and APCs (essential to hacking or deconstructing them), moving cades, deconstructing cades, deconstructing handrails, moving handrails, deconstructing walls, making the tcomms tower, making windows, dismantling windows, placing the m56d, repairing vending machines, and some other less common things. This fits in your ear slot and while it can be annoying to get from here it is generally better.
    • WIRECUTTERS - you need this for : taking wires off barricades, all types of hacking, APC repair, repairing vending machines, and not much else.

    Without these you will be literally dogshit. Take all of them and put them in your brown/black webbing (other loadouts work too).
    Semi-optional tools
    • MULTITOOL (also known as security access tuner) - used for NICHE hacking such as hacking vendors, unbolting bolted doors, bolting doors, hacking doors on the ship without leaving fingerprints, and deconstructing sentries (i.e returning them to their item portable state). Not essential to have but I reccomend keeping it on your loadout in either your backpack or backpack internal medkit.
    • CABLE COIL - used for very few things - vendor repair, APC repair, tcomms construction, door construction, APC construction, and synth repair. Not useful until you need it, at which point it becomes very useful. You should probably take one stack in your internal medkit.


    Materials and what you can make with them

    Metal
    There are a lot of things you can do with metal, but only a few of them are actually any good.
    - Metal barricades - THE staple tool of engineers. Prevents movement by walking, but can be jumped over if not wired. You construct these by holding metal in your hand, hitting z, and facing the direction you want them to face. If you want to move them, you can use your SCREWDRIVER then WRENCH to unanchor them, then drag them around and rotate by alt-clicking. To anchor them back, just WRENCH then SCREWDRIVER them again, and CROWBAR them if you want to fully dismantle the cade. Costs 5 metal to build. More detail on HOW to place cades will be given in later sections. Can be repaired with a WELDER. If they take too much damage, a welder will be unable to repair them, so unless you have a nailgun you should move a fresh cade into its spot and then dismantle it. You can upgrade them with 2 metal.
    CADE UPGRADES
    - Biological protection (++Acid) - good against acid-spitting castes - praetorians, boilers, and spitters. This reduces the incoming damage from these big cade-killers a LOT and as such is very useful, you should probably be upgrading the main fob cades to these.
    - Physical protection (++Melee) - good against everything that's NOT acid-spitting, use these on the outermost layers of fob flanks so flankers can't breach them as easily, giving more time for bravo guards to radio for backup.
    - Explosive protection - useless outside of hvh.
    - Barbed wire - Can be added to any kind of barricade other than wooden, gives a slight health upgrade, damages xenos when they slash it, prevents you, and xenos, from jumping over them, prevents runners and lurkers from pouncing over them, and prevents warriors and oppressors from moving you out from behind them. MANDATORY TO DO TO ALL CADES. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE PUTTING BARBED WIRE ON EVERY CADE. Costs 2 metal per one wire. Can be removed from a cade with wirecutters, if you are so inclined (as humans cannot vault cades with barbed wire on them, this should be done to let people escape if they are cut off or there is no plasteel in the line).

    Other uses of metal
    - APC frames - Costs 2 metal, used during the APC repairing process, which will be discussed in more detail later.
    - Repairing vendors - You need some metal to make a new panel for them, which will be discussed in more detail later.

    Plasteel
    You do one thing with plasteel, and that is making plasteel cades. They are unique in that they can be flipped up and down by marines, making a gate for you to get in and out of without letting xenos in too. Warning : hostile humans can also flip these up and down! They cost 10 plasteel to make and repairing and moving them is the exact same as with metal cades. One unique mechanic they have is that you can link rows of them, making flipping one of them flip the entire row. You should always do this. If they are in a 3-tile wide line, the APC can drive over them without destroying them too. They have more health than metal cades, but this rarely comes into play as xenos focus on metal cades anyway. A special but somewhat risky tactic that really only works on bald xenos is to let them come into a cade line via an open plasteel cade, then close the cade behind them (with the rest of the cadeline intact). This blocks them in and makes them easy to kill. Video demonstration here: (REMINDER THIS ONLY WORKS WITH THE BALDEST OF XENOS)

    What you're meant to do with the other things in your loadout

    • C4 - use to breach walls and rwalls to get into areas that xenos are fucking stuff up in, use to clear a path for the APC, use to break walls that give xenos cover (BUT NOT RESIN WALLS). Basically the masterkey but it destroys walls in a 1 tile radius around itself. (3x3 square)
    • Claymores - place in the backlines where lurkers walk about, hide them under stuff like wooden planks and other big sprites, always put facing north or south because you can see them very easily when they are facing east or west. Do not put them inside cades because then they will blow up when marines drag dead xeno bodies into the fob.


    Section three : fobbit

    Right, you've landed on the planet and are ready to cade up the fob- oh wait nobody is setting up comms. YOU have to do it!

    Steps for setting up comms


    1. Move the tower to a good place. It should be semi-near the main door of the dropship, and a place that marines will likely occupy until evac. It should NOT block marine or APC movement paths.
    2. Move the crate to the tower.
    3. Click the tower with cable coil in hand, this will add the cables to the tower and begin the construction process, PERMANENTLY anchoring it in place.
    4. Click the tower with the tcomms board in hand.
    5. Add the rest of the components - 2 hyperwave filters, 2 micro manipulators, 2 cells, and some cable coil. Examine the sprite of the tower if you forget what to put in.
    6. IMPORTANT if the sprite of the tower dissapears once you put in the last component, do not panic. Simply Alt-click the tile of the tower, and in the "tile" panel that will pop up, get your screwdriver in hand and click the name of the comms tower. If this does not happen, move to step 7
    7. Screwdriver the tower, and you are done.


    Okay, now comms are up and you can get on to the fun part, actually making the fob.
    Disclaimer : you were probably not ordered as a squad to make the fob. However, as an engineer, there are typically not enough of you, and it is your duty to make sure the fob is at least secure before abandoning it for the front lines. Unless you know that three or more engineers will be making the fob, you should assist.

    BASIC FOB PLANS FOR EVERY MAP

    LV-642

    LZ1

    LV LZ1 fob.jpg

    IMGUR LINK : https://i.imgur.com/uoA5Nmz.png

    Rest of the guide is WIP, it takes more than one day to write such a long thing. I will be consistently adding to it, feel free to make suggestions.
    Last edited by Stan_albatross; 01-01-2022 at 08:32 PM.
    Karl Karlsson, the man (and sometimes Captain)
    Maxwell, the synth
    Enhath'vot Guan-Dha, the predator
    Also a feature Coder & CM's Maintainer Team Manager

    Timeline :
    Spoiler Spoiler:

    [CENTER]Retired Synth councilman, forever a member of IO gang

  2. #2
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    Amazing guide! But dude, multitool is useless? IMO multitool is the only way to go for sentry gaming. I often manage to fold a sentry right Infront of a queen, so she can't destroy it. Putting a multitool in a backpack would be a waste since it's longer to access and time is essential, especially when sentries are made of paper and break extremely fast. And I wouldn't recommend weldersatchel, you can and you will run out of fuel pretty quickly and it's possible that there won't be a fuel tank to refill (a weldersatchel can fully refill an industrial blowtorch only 2.5 times). Also you mixed up M37 (shotgun) with M39 (smg). And in defense of MD, you can carry it in your backpack, the sound at least will notify you that hostilities are nearby, which is useful. Anyway, great guide, I feel ashamed for wearing a toolbelt. Can't wait for updates since I am an engi main now. In addition, I would advise to get a bravo key from req, allows better coordination during FOB sieges or if you just decided/were ordered to stay in FOB.
    Last edited by ihatethisengine; 08-08-2021 at 04:46 PM.

  3. #3
    Dev Team Manager Stan_albatross's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ihatethisengine View Post
    snip
    Multitool I agree is far from useless, but it is less important. Often many engineers will just plop their sentry on a fob flank which means that the multitool effectively becomes dead weight (this is because the flamer sentry is not so good for frontlining). I just keep it in my backpack or will keep screwdriver in helmet (probably need to add that to the guide lol)

    Weldersatchel is viable I think, you don't need to -Constantly- be refuelling. If you run out beg for more fuel from other engis or VCs.

    For the MD, my instincts make me want to leave them for people who can actually use them well, also you don't really have any reason to be alone (the main scenario when an MD is useful).

    Glad to know you liked the guide, I will be adding a section going into more depth on cades + sentries next, along with a guide to making fobs.

    Then hacking, apc repair, your enemies, frontline cading, unorthodox strategies and niche things, and hijack engineering.
    Karl Karlsson, the man (and sometimes Captain)
    Maxwell, the synth
    Enhath'vot Guan-Dha, the predator
    Also a feature Coder & CM's Maintainer Team Manager

    Timeline :
    Spoiler Spoiler:

    [CENTER]Retired Synth councilman, forever a member of IO gang

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    Cool guide and well written, I especially liked the Loadout part and your recommendations about items, its something we don't see often in Guides like this. Suggestion:
    Can you write a section about some tips on scavenging materials in certain maps? For example, in Fiorina Science Annex you can find around 300 sandbags, 50 plasteel and 150 metal from certain parts of the map. There can be times where you'll need more materials and Req might don't have enough points to buy them so you'll have to find another way to supply yourself, be it looting surroundings areas or de-constructing nearby objects.

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    Member TopHatPenguin's Avatar
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    Your guide is now featured on the Squad Engineer wiki page for further reading. Congratulations.

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    tool pouch can hold four hi caps if you feel like it

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    Since you now can fit screwdriver into ear slot, you can easily fit all the other tools you need in tool pouch.

  8. #8
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    any opinions on the new sentry upgrade? From what I've seen the plasma is meh to setting your teammates on fire where the DMR seems like the best in general. Overclocked tesla seems good for sieges.

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    Member EOD-501's Avatar
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    Plasma is good just use it smartly is has quite the range, ff is a real problem though. Dmr is a bit iffy it’s good for plinking boilers
    Drake Manwell the Trying Marine

  10. #10
    Dev Team Manager Stan_albatross's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ObsidianCrow View Post
    any opinions on the new sentry upgrade? From what I've seen the plasma is meh to setting your teammates on fire where the DMR seems like the best in general. Overclocked tesla seems good for sieges.
    I've added a section on them
    Karl Karlsson, the man (and sometimes Captain)
    Maxwell, the synth
    Enhath'vot Guan-Dha, the predator
    Also a feature Coder & CM's Maintainer Team Manager

    Timeline :
    Spoiler Spoiler:

    [CENTER]Retired Synth councilman, forever a member of IO gang

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