When you’ve spent the last few weeks playing “Titanfall” as much as we have, you know that picking the right tools for the job is a crucial step for developing a winning, robot-crushing game strategy. Luckily, no matter your experience, “Titanfall” has a loadout to meet your needs. Whether you’re a brand-new “Titanfall” player or a seasoned vet who’s been playing since launch, we’ve got some suggestions for weapon and ability pairings that go together like fine wine and delicately-aged cheese. If wine and cheese were, you know, explosive.
THE NEWBIE
“Titanfall” doesn’t allow loadout customization until Level 10, so for your first few rounds, you’ll need to select from presets. Luckily, these are all more powerful than you’d think. Even more luckily, one pilot loadout and one Titan loadout are particularly useful for brand-spanking-new players.
- Pilot Loadout: Assassin
The Assassin’s Smart Pistol gets a lot of grief from experienced players for good reason: It’s a veritable XP-printing machine in the right hands. It locks-on instantly to any of the game’s A.I.-controlled minion characters, providing the opportunity for multiple one-hit kills simultaneously. It will even take out human opponents, if you can stay focused long enough to achieve three separate lock-ons. That’s technology! - Titan Loadout: Assault
Since the slightly slower pace of Titan combat can take some getting used to, many newcomers will find the spray-‘n’-pray feature of the Assault Titan’s XO-16 Chaingun useful. It offers the opportunity to inflict at least some damage against Titans and pilots alike even if your aim isn’t exactly, ah, sniper-like. As an added bonus, as you get the hang of aiming at moving targets, you’ll discover the XO-16 can actually be fairly brutal if well-targeted on an enemy’s weak spots.
THE GRADUATE
As you begin to find your footing, you’ll discover that the above options sacrifice damage potential for the sake of user-friendliness. Sure, you can get really good at them — but the average “Titanfall” player will likely want to find something with a bit more oomph. By now, you’ve hit Level 10, so let’s take a look at tweaking your own loadouts.
Pilot
- Primary Weapon: R-101C Carbine. Embrace the Carbine. Love the Carbine. The Carbine is your friend. An effective tool no matter your level, the full-auto Carbine does reasonable amounts of damage, and can eventually be modified for long-range, close-range, or even stealthy play. All hail the Carbine.
- Anti-Titan Weapon: Archer Heavy Rocket. It takes a bit to lock on, but its range is practically infinite, allowing you to rack up Titan assists from across the level.
- Sidearm: RE-45 Autopistol. The rodeo-er’s best friend. When your Carbine clip is empty, switch to your sidearm and plunk 20 rounds into an enemy Titan’s interior in seconds.
- Tactical Ability: Cloak. Most human players will start to be able to pick out cloaked enemies pretty quickly — but Auto-Titans and turrets can’t. You can see how that might be helpful.
- Ordnance: Frag Grenade. Your standard boom-ball. Helpful in clearing rooms and ruining days.
- Tier 1 Kit: Power Cell. This lets you Cloak more often. You can see how that might be helpful.
- Tier 2 Kit: Minion Detector. Slaughtering mass quantities of Grunts and Spectres earns easy XP. The Minion Detector helps you find more Grunts and Spectres to slaughter.
Titan
- Chassis: Atlas. This will be your only option until you complete at least half of the campaign, but it’s also a solid balance of speed and durability.
- Primary Weapon: 40mm Cannon. Brutal if aimed precisely, the 40mm can also cause enough splash damage to impact ground troops.
- Tactical Ability: Electric Smoke (unlocks at Level 13). Vortex-shield volleyball is fun and all, but smoke blocks enemy lock-ons, damages enemies in its radius, and clears pesky rodeo-ing pilots off your back in a hurry.
- Ordnance: Slaved Warheads (unlocks at Level 11). The lock-on isn’t precise, but it engages automatically, allowing you to focus on more important things (like not getting pummeled).
- Tier 1 Kit: Regen Booster. Anything that helps you keep your shields is a damn good buy at this stage of the game.
- Tier 2 Kit: Auto-Eject. Until you’re comfortable with the absurd amount of action that can take place in heated Titan-on-Titan battles, you’ll be happier if you don’t have to worry about manually punching out.
THE VETERAN
By your mid-20s, you’re starting know your way around each of the game’s levels, and chances are, you’ve probably settled on your own favorite loadouts. But if not, consider these primo pairings.
Pilot
- Primary Weapon: R-101C Carbine. Yup, you’re probably better off sticking with the trusty Carbine now that you’ve got fancy attachments for it. HCOG and Extended Mag will serve you well in close quarters; AOG and Suppressor put you in stealthy sniper territory. A similarly-equipped C.A.R. SMG technically does slightly more damage, but it takes longer to get there.
- Anti-Titan Weapon: Mag Launcher (unlocks at Level 22). While not as devastating as the Archer, the Mag Launcher has the added bonus of seriously ruining an on-foot pilot’s day. Just remember, its smoke trails point directly to you.
- Sidearm: RE-45 Autopistol. That’s right, you want to hang onto this one, too. Its high rate of fire can make the difference between life or death if you’re surprised with an empty clip in your primary.
- Tactical Ability: Active Radar Pulse (unlocks at Level 19). The more you play, the easier it becomes to recognize a cloaked player. So, up the ante with the ability to see through walls.
- Ordnance: Satchel Charge (unlocks at Level 17). The ridiculous level of damage these puppies put out make them enormously useful in Hardpoint and Capture the Flag. Note that you don’t have to have the detonator equipped to set them off — a few taps of the X button will take care of that for you.
- Tier 1 Kit: Explosives Pack. More Satchel Charges equal more unpleasant surprises for the enemy.
- Tier 2 Kit: Dead Man’s Trigger (unlocks at Level 37). A recipe for Capture the Flag hilarity. Step one: Plant satchel charges around your flag. Step two: Retreat to juuuuust outside the blast range. Step three: Get killed by an enemy making a dash for your flag. Step four: Boom.
Titan
- Chassis: Stryder (unlocks after completing Campaign with either side). With great speed comes great responsibility to not get hit. But being able to dash circles around enemies is a delight.
- Primary Weapon: Arc Cannon (unlocks at Level 21). Fully charged, the Arc Cannon can do massive damage on its own… but even on partial charge, you’ll enjoy the benefit of its arcing between multiple targets.
- Tactical Ability: Electric Smoke. No reason to ditch this one. It’s the only ability that works for offense as well as defense.
- Ordnance: Multi-Target Missile System (unlocks at Level 32). Paint up to 10 targets — on a single Titan, even — while charging up your Arc Cannon, and you’ll deliver a devastating one-two punch.
- Tier 1 Kit: Fast Autoloader. This brings your MTMS back online more quickly. You can see how that might be helpful.
- Tier 2 Kit: Survivor. By now, you recognize your Titan’s doomed state well enough that you don’t need help getting out. So, why not eke out a few more moments of Titan fury before punching out? Chances are, some enemies may have already dismissed you as a threat. Won’t they be in for a surprise?
