Well congrats, your credit card apparently works.

So when you get in the first thing you are going to do is pick one of your characters to play with. Each one is unique so try them all out. You level up not the character so don't worry about testing them out and not liking one. Also keep in mind that playstyle has a lot ot do with the weapons you have equiped. There is a guide in this section about what class can use what weapon by Warin. So if you want to dive down into the details you can view it in that guide http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=536854559

Now when you start playing the first thing you need to know as a new player is to STICK with your party. The first playthough you do I would suggest you pick a person and follow that person as close as you can. Forget the fighting just follow the person so you can learn the map a little and not be the cause for the lost game. Now when you did that two or three times you probably need to know the following:

1. you can only carry 1 healing item. So use them to keep topped up and pick up the other if you see an extra one.
2. When the horde comes the best thing to do is find some kind of hallway. Something to narrow the horde so you have an easier time kiling them and don't lose.
3. If you see a huge rat. Go ranged on him, try not to go smack the thing unless absolutely necessary.
4. You have to turn on VOIP to hear other players. By default it is turned off. Also G is the PTT key by default.
5. When a player is down you press E to help him up. But you have to HOLD E not just tap it.
6. Hit the storm vermin in the head if you want to kil lthem.
7. Use your bombs. They are amazing for dispatching groups. When you hear the horn that lets you know a horde is about to come make use of them.
8. You can map grenade and heal to a use key in your options.
9. Loot rats are the one that are carrying a bag. Kill them.
10. The dice after a win are RNG (so you will probably get a crappy item) and if it RNG if it will be usable by the class you are playing when doing the mission. So even if you get a good item, you probably can't use it.
11. The harder the difficulty the less lucky you have to be with the dice to get something that isn't white. However considering you get NOTHING for doing 30 minutes in a mission and losing you will want to careful how difficult the mission you are doing is.

So hopefully at this point you have actually won a few games. If not don't worry this game takes some getting used to. Now when you win you get items (loot) and if you lose you get NOTHING. So don't lose. Now once you level up you will get a forge and that thing is your best buddy.

1. When you have 5 items you have no interest in using combine them in the forge. 99.9% of the time it seems you will get an item for the class you are not currently playing however the item is awsome so you might play that other class. The newly forged item will have an enchantement on it and be green (assuming you didn't use 5 blues.. which you shouldn't have because you just stated playing...).

2. Once you get that sexy new weapon that is probably for a different class you want to upgrade it. So in the forge you have rocks on the bottom (white. green. blue). you need those to enhance the item and you get them by salvaging.

3. MAKE SURE you want to salvage that before you put it in salvage. Unlike the other two menus they is no "confirm" or warning. It just instantly destroys it so if you drag over the wrong thing, bye bye.

So at this point you have won a few easy or normals and have weapons that don't absolutely suck. Congrats.

1. Stay with the group

2. Stay with the group

3. Use dorways and narrow passages when the horde shows up

4. Use your granades

5. There are tons of potions. Don't be stingy, pop them.

6. If dummy is far away getting dragged off or is down. Screw him, stay with group move on. You will get a chance to release him further down the line. Don't risk the whole mission to help some random internet noob that cant follow rule 1 and 2. Remember if you lose you don't get loot.

7. Do not engage gatling rats in close range. The only reason to do this is because he happend to jump down right next to you. Shoot them because they do a ton of damage. By the time you get close to them you will almost be dead.

8. There is limited healing, don't be the dummy that is almost dead an using up all the healing and leaving the other 3 players screwed.

9. Be situational. If you see your buddy getting dragged off and you use pistols. Shoot the guy dragging him, don't chase them down with your sword just because you can't remember what key switches your weapons.

10. You get people up when the enemies are down.

11. Most charged weapon attacks are interrupted by damage. So trying to get a big charge up on that hammer in the middle of rats.. Not gonna work.

12. If you see a dwarf with a shield make sure to stand behind him when the you are getting ambushed. If he is any good at all he will be knocking them back and have his shield up delaying them from getting to the party. Stay behind him so you don't take damage because you think you are hot stuff. ideally the guy with the shield is taking the most damage and/or is doing such a good job blocking and pushing back that nobody is taking damage. I have gotten past half way in missions with several ambushes with only me (as dwarf) taking damage.

13. Go in and make sure you have the party highligts set to ALWAYS. This way you can tell them apart from rats and always have that yellow glow. Why this is not default is beyond me.

yeah this is a basic guide so sorry :) my buddy was downloading the game so I had a 20 minutes to burn. This should help any new player though.

you can play him however you like. But when you get on a dwarf ranger there are certain expectations so keep this in mind. Whan someone sees a dwarf ranger in the party they general expectation is this:

1. He has a shield and is going to push back and be defensive
2. He has a hand gun and will help take out ratling guns and other high priority mobs when he gets a chance.

So to try to avoid some stress for you guys, if you want to play the two handed blow down a hallway with damage go ahead and play the human. This will just help you align with expectations and not get balony from your party.

So when you hear the horn you need to find a hallway. Get to know the map so you know where these areas are and make sure to call out on VOIP to follow you to the hallway you are going to. Any decent player is going to instantly go to you and stand behind you.

Once you are in said hallway it is your job to knock those rats around so the AOE monsters in your party can whoop them.

Make sure to use shield bash, remember you priority is not to kill them but to delay them and do that taking the least amount of damage possible by you and your team.

As a dwarf you have the unique ability to get accidental headshots hehe. It just happens to line up because you are thier size so take advantage of that.

Do not forget to block and push people back. Even if you are not being ambushed it is a good idea to maintain your health. Block and knock those rats around to try not to take damage while you are killing them.

I personally have a shield that kocks people back further. If you are ambushed and need to move tell people then knock your way to wherever you are going. The sewer mission is a great example. At the end when you need to get going tell them to follow you and make a path in front of you by knocking those rats away while moving forward with the party.

Now we all know you can play each class based on the weapons and do whatever you like. With that said here is what I like about the empire soldier.

1. Shotgun OP! This weapon is very sexy and there is nothing like shooting down a hallway and seieng 7-10 rats flying back and dead.

2. Hammer time - Honestly the weapon I like the most on this character and is actually the starter weapon. Swords comes in a close second but the hammer.. sexy

So how woud you play said character with a hammer and shotgun? Besides the typical running around and bashing mobs with the hammer there are a few situational uses for this toon that help the party when ambushed.

1. Taking a step back and charging up the swing to knock a bunch of rats back.. Priceless. This is something that will help the dwarf in front of you and will delay these mobs getting to the party. This shouldn't be the ONLY thing you do but you should do it a few times to help out.

2. Line them up and boom. Get in that hallway and go to town with the shotgun. That shotun is Amazing in hallways against multiple mobs. so after you do a knockback pulling out that shotgun and making sure they stay down is very useful to the party.

3. Save the guy that is down. You may not be great at getting that rattling gun but you don't really have to aim with the shotgun so you are particularly good at getting a quick shot off to save a team mate that has been incapacitated.

4. Hammer to let people rez. A shotgun blast and a hammer does wonders for clearing out a small area so your team mate can finish reviving someone without getting hit.

To shield bash in the game it is fairly simple, you hold right click and click left click and bam you got a shield bash. BUT how, why and where to use it PLUS what about that sexy special shield swipe?????

Siheld bash:

Well this may not be the very best way in the world to do it but generally here is what I do:

a.If we are in a hallway and there are a ton of enemies pilled a mile long I will shield bash, block for a little and shield bash. I will essentially not swing.

b. If we are pushing to get from point a to point be I am pushing the enemies out of our way (like the end of the sewer mission). I’ll just tell the them to kill what they can as we go and literally carve a path all the way to the cart.

Now for the shield swipe:

If we are in an open area I tend to use the shield bash less and opt for the swipe so I can hit more of these rats. In a hallway they are all in front of you so you are going to knock them all back but if you get ambushed and your team is out in the open it is best to stay mobile and see what you are doing. So I tend to favor the special attack (holding the left mouse button a little longer) and will use that to try to keep the rats as far away from any of my team mates as I can.

now those are the basic ways and reason to use the skills. however remember when you have a party member down and there are rats around you can PUSH the rats off you and get him up or keep the rats off the person who is picking your team mate up.

There are certain things that just come naturally to some and maybe a little less naturally to others. While playing I notice that most players do not block or push and this is a shame as it is an integral part of getting off your max damage and taking minimal hits.

There are very few situations where you are just going to charge up your charge attack and let it go. Mainly because if you get hit while charging it up it will stop the attack. This is where the push comes in. If you are facion mobs make sure to push FIRST then charge up and let them have it. Also if there are to many mobs do not forget you can DASH backwars. So you could PUSH, Dash back, charge up, deal out the pain.

If you do this you are more likely to get off your big sweeping attacks when surrounded by enemeis.

This is another observation I made while playing with randoms. There are some who honestly try to stay with the party but get left slightly behind. Then they get stuck fight rats and take FOREVER to catch back up or the party as to go to them to kill the rats.

This is mainly because they forget they can PUSH the rats off them. There is no reason to have to fully engage rats when not under ambush. You can bash and move, bash and move just fine and not take any damage. You can kill the rants once you are back in safe range of your party.

Every time you are away from your party you are rolling the dice. The assasin is bad enough but you can be grabbed by a hook through a wall and be totally up a creek. So make sure to remeber if you are far away from your party and have rats on you, you DON"T have to kil lthem. Just push them off and get back to your party.

This also works for the end of sewer. Just because the rat is there doesn't mean you have to kill it. The best way to get to the cart when the door is down is to push rats around and get to the cart instead of fighting your way to the cart at the risk of getitng killed. I have often been the only one to make it to the cart becuase my team is not aware of how to navigate with rats around.

Ok if you have done everything above (which means at this point you don't SUCK) the first thing to know is the loot system in this game blows hard.

Now with that said, currently the best loot map is horns. The reason for this is 2x grim, 3x tome, and if you are luck you might even get 2 extra dice. This means on hard you could get an exotic. Because this is one of the BETA maps you have a higher then average chance of running this with people who know what they are doing. But if you get into a group of higher levels and you are acting stupid (not following this guide bascially) expect to be kicked.

The other method that is decent is running smugglers run over and over. It is easy enough on hard but there are no grims or tomes. This means the best you will probably do here is blue and it would take just about an act of god to get you an exotic. However the runs are short so you can always fuse.