Javelin Gunner Guide

## Small Group Survival Guide

*"That's a serious chunk of firepower."*
In the future there may be guides for the Javelin Gunner in other modes, but for now the Survival guide is the only one available.

### A Primer on Survival Mode

In Survival, your primary objective is to survive to 50 minutes and either reach the evac shuttle or wait out the 2 minute timer. In practice, your real goal is to defeat the periodic Tier 1 zombie spawns to prevent the Infestation Level (IL) from exceeding the safe maximum of 40. If the IL is allowed to get too high, zombies on the map are randomly given mutation buffs that dramatically increase their movement and attack speeds. The rate at which these buffs are applied is proportional to how much the current IL exceeds the safe maximum. If any of the Boss Type zombies are able to gain a mutation, it usually leads to a quick demise, so it is critical that you keep the IL low to maximise your chances of survival.

With Tier 1's addressed, the other concern are the Tier 2 and 3 zombies. There are two main strategies to deal with them: basing, which is typically done with larger groups (8-12 players); and lapping, which is typically done with smaller groups (1-4 players) and will be the focus of this guide. In the lapping style of play, the players constantly move as a group along a pre-planned route around the map. The slower Tier 2/3 zombies are ignored as much as possible and left to follow along behind the players, while the faster or more threatening zombies are killed. As the spawn triggers for Tier 2/3 zombies will not activate if the number of these zombies exceeds a certain threshold, this largely negates the threat of Tier 2/3 zombie spawns blocking the path ahead.

### Desirable Qualities for Lapping

Given that we will be using a lapping strategy (ie constantly on the run), we can see that perhaps the most important quality for a good choice of MOS is the ability to deal large amounts of damage in the smallest possible time frame. Secondary desirable qualities include item independence as insurance against poor item spawns, slowing effects, vision, and general survivability.

Now the pertinent question here is: how well does the Javelin Gunner match up against these qualities? To give a bit of a preview of what's to come, the star of this show is the Anti-Tank Rocket. For a short cast-time followed by a variable-length delay for the projectile to travel to the target point, you get 7.5k explosive damage (before modifiers) to everything inside a small area of effect (AOE). If you follow the suggestions in this guide, you can realistically get over 45k damage from a single rocket. Aside from the impressive raw damage output, the AT rocket is also fairly flexible in its use. The long range lets you snipe dangerous T1's before they get close. The cooldown is relatively short too (especially with -5s for each level of Javelin Skills), combined with the high individual damage and the non-negligible AOE, it is also useful for clearing fast threats such as hunter packs or yetis at short to point-blank range.

The Javelin Gunner also has a suite of other tools to complement the venerable AT rocket, but it's about time to get into the guide proper.

### Javelin Gunner Abilities

In this section, we'll take a look at the various abilities that the Javelin Gunner has to offer, and give some guidelines on how they are used under our survival context.

Note that all three of his rocket abilities, HE, AT and guided, deal damage in an area immediately behind himself when fired. This is known as backblast. Without any points in Javelin Skills, this backblast damage can be fatal to teammates, so be wary of your positioning.

### Recommended Skill Builds

There are two, closely related skill builds that are recommended for small-group Survival runs.

 1-4
 5-8
 9-12
 13-16

 1-4
 5-8
 9-12
 13-16

For runs where you are confident you can get to level 5 or 6 by the 10-minute mark (usually 1-3 players), build A prioritises maxing Javelin Skills so that you can start farming explosive charges ASAP while there are still few T1 threats. Build B instead goes straight for the AT rocket, which makes up most of your contribution in larger player count games (4+) when the levels are slower to come by.

### Recommended SI's

The most straightforward selection of Skill Identifiers for the Javelin Gunner is to go for maximum rocket damage with Whiz Kid (WK) and Big Game Hunter (BG). The recently released Finesse (FS) SI is also great value for Jav since you make use of all three boosts it provides. If BG and FS are not available, Intellectual (IN) makes a fine substitute. Other SI's worth considering include Energetic (EN) and upgraded versions of Synthesizer (SY2 or SY3). A special mention for the rare Anti-Tank SI - if you have the opportunity to use this, it is well worth it. The second SI to pair with it should instead be an energy SI such as SY3 or FS, as the massive cooldown reduction provided by AT makes energy the real bottleneck for your damage output.

### General Strategy

At the start of the game, you should at the very least grab the energy cells that start next to your spawn point. You should also consider grabbing the medical supplies at the Sewerage plant and the flashlight in the middle of the map. After that, head to Thalim. With the recent changes to the town, it can dump a load of zombies in front of your path when it falls if you begin lapping too early. For this reason, it is recommended to camp at Thalim for early experience until it falls (or it becomes impractical to stay) to prevent that issue. It can take some time for the spawns to ramp up in the beginning stages of the game, so you can use this time to move some items around. There are a variety of useful items in Thalim such as flare guns, ground flares, ammo and more medical supplies, but not all of it is in easy reach. Hence it will be beneficial for the later stages of the game to move these items to a move accessible location alongside your planned lapping route. Keep in mind that jumping off from the walls of Thalim onto the ground outside city limits will cause jump injuries, so it is important to keep an eye on the entrances to prevent yourself from getting trapped inside once the spawns pick up.

Once Thalim falls and you start lapping, you have reached the real start to the game. In general, try to conserve your items where possible. Sometimes people will spam flares just to get the item out of their inventory, but they will be much more useful later. If you really need the inventory space, just drop them on your lapping route instead. You might also find it useful to turn on hold-fire in your additional actions menu (Z-V) to prevent unnecessary shooting, especially if you're playing alongside some more ammo-intensive classes. Do your best to ignore 'trash' T2/3 zombies and only kill threats such as fliers or fast zombies.

Your AT rocket should be held for use on T1 zombies only (with the exception of the Arch Vile, which is somehow only a T2). The T1 zombies come in two forms: ones that provide a direct threat to your health due to them possessing speed, range, or special abilities (looking at you lacerti), and Gourmands. While it is unlikely that a Gourmand will ever deal damage to your character, their real threat lies in their contribution to the infestation level. As Gourmands are relatively slow, they tend to accumulate near to the back of the horde with the trash zombies. If they aren't cleared, this will result in the infestation level slowly rising over time, and eventually leading to mutations during the large spawns towards the end of the game. Of course, your targeting priority should go to direct threats first, then seek out Gourmands in the rear once those have been dealt with. In rough order of importance, you should target lacertis first, then fast and ranged T1, then any other T1 that keeps pace better than the Gourmands, and finally the Gourmands.

Any excess energy you are accumulating should be spent on producing explosive charges. Even using both AT rocket and explosive charge on cooldown, you should have enough of an energy reserve to use a paralysis trap or claymore when needed without having to burn through energy cells. This is however dependent on how frequently you use your binoculars.

When confronted with a fast mob that you have to clear, for example a hunter or yeti, you have two main options. The first option is to use a point-blank AT rocket. First sprint+jump to make a gap between you and your pursuer, then fire an AT rocket just off your character in the direction of the T1. With proper spacing, this should eliminate your attacker without needing to take a hit. Alternatively, you can use the explosive charge and paralysis trap combo. After making some distance, place an explosive charge underneath your current position then move to just outside the edge of its AOE. If there is still a gap between you and your pursuer, proceed to place a paralysis trap just inside the explosive charge radius and run away from the trap. Otherwise, abandon the charge (to be recovered next lap) and try and create a gap again.

The provided screenshot shows an example EC+trap setup for a pursuer approaching from the left. Importantly the paralysis trap was only placed *after* leaving the radius of the explosive charge to prevent self-destructs when something like a yeti unexpectedly jumps onto the trap and prematurely sets it off. Depending on how many pursuers you have, you may want to place the trap deeper towards the explosive charge to prevent the leading zombies from getting nudged off the edge of the radius by their fellows.

When your explosive charges near the maximum stack size in your inventory, place them in stacks of around 8-10 near your lapping route so that they are easily reachable later, but aren't in the way of your path in case of an encounter with explosive zombies. The purpose of these EC stacks is to prepare some fast damage on the endgame bosses, accessible simply by placing a paralysis trap on them while running. It may be worthwhile advising your teammates that you are saving the explosive charges for this purpose, else they might trigger them prematurely.

### Advanced Tactics

Once you feel comfortable with the fundamentals of playing the Javelin Gunner and have developed a reasonable aim with the AT rocket, here are some more advanced tactics you can apply to gain every advantage possible.

#### Circularising

Kiting is a fundamental skill in UAC that you may already have developed through playing classes such as the Flamethrower or Cyborg in organised lobbies. Kiting is Survival is very similar, but it is important to keep in mind both why you are doing it, and when it is appropriate to do it. The first and perhaps more obvious reason is to delay the zombies at the front of the pack. This gives teammates who are slowed or who have encountered an obstacle in front more time to resolve the issue. It also lets other, potentially slower zombies further back catch up, which brings us to the second reason: clustering or circularising the zombie pack. By taking a sinusoidal path during your kiting, you can effectively circularise the pack while simultaneously making time for your ammo-based DPS classes to output some damage. Many classes that are strong in Survival have area-of-effect damage skills that benefit greatly from the zombies being as closely packed as possible, and the Javelin Gunner is no exception. Recall that the AT rocket has a small, yet non-negligible AOE - with the zombies circularised with appropriate kiting, you can reliably hit 4 (T1) targets at once with a single rocket, and possibly more if there are also fliers or free-pathers in the pack. As the Javelin Gunner does not have much else to do while waiting for cooldowns, he is a natural candidate to do this kind of kiting. Note that in order for you to benefit from your own circularisation, you will likely have to use near-point-blank AT rockets, so it is important to already have a feel for the rocket cast time to judge when you can safely cast it. In order to get moving as quickly as possible after finishing the cast, it is recommended to shift-queue a move order after targeting the rocket.

Keep in mind that the usual dangers to kiters still apply. In a Survival game, these usually take the form of lacertis and stalkers that can displace zombies on top of you, horrors that can slow you or pull you back when at full energy, and impalers or lickers that are hidden in the pack. These hazards can be mitigated by keeping awareness of what zombies are nearby or are likely to arrive in the next spawn, and increasing your kiting distance appropriately.

#### Team-leader Pings

A somewhat underused feature in the game is the team-leader ping for Fireteams. One player in a fireteam (usually the first to join it) is designated a team leader, and has the ability to place a ping using the middle-mouse-button. This ping can be placed on terrain, on items, or on units. When placed on units, the ping will follow the unit as it moves. The ping will be visible both on the minimap and in the game view, *even through fog-of-war*. This is the feature we are looking to exploit.

Consider a fairly common situation in a Survival run: you just dealt with most of the last T1 spawn, and are now targeting the Gourmands in the back. To kill them, you would use your binoculars behind you, spot a Gourmand, then fire off an AT rocket with the appropriate lead. This would repeat until you clear off all remaining Gourmands or the next spawn arrives, costing you 61 energy for the AT rocket (assuming both the rocket and Jav skills are maxed) and 9 for the binoculars cast, for a total of 70 energy per cycle. However, we can use TL pings to eliminate the binocular use completely after the first cast. After spotting the first Gourmand with your binoculars, set a TL ping on it. This will now let you track its movement through the fog and hence blind-fire it with AT. Just with TL pings, you can already eliminate every second use of binoculars (since Gourmands only need 2 AT rockets to kill), however we can do better yet: you may have noticed that the AT rocket actually provides a small vision radius around the target point for a few seconds after the rocket has been fired away. After blind-firing and killing a TL-pinged Gourmand, you can use this vision window to TL-ping the next Gourmand in line without needing to use binoculars at all. In this fashion, we are saving roughly 9 energy per 26 seconds (the cooldown on AT rocket before reductions).

Gourmands trailing in the back tend to be fairly close to each other in a line, so after seeing the spacing during your original binocular or rocket vision window, you can adjust your blind-fire to land between your TL-pinged target and the next Gourmand to hit both at once, increasing the efficiency of your rockets. This kind of fine adjustment to your aim requires you to already be confident at landing AT rockets at range, which is why this is filed under 'Advanced' tactics.

The TL-ping tactic can also be applied to other, more difficult to kill bosses such as Ares or Minevra if you manage to spot them early - more detail on this in the Wave-specific strategies section.

### Wave-specific Strategies

At risk of providing more overlapping content when a dedicated Survival mode guide is released, this section will cover the T1 spawns in Survival and provide suggestions for defeating each spawn. Every 5 minutes, starting at 10 minutes, a major wave of T1 zombies will spawn headed by a boss. There are also smaller waves at 5 minutes and 50 minutes, which do not have accompanying bosses.

At the beginning of the game, the T1 zombies that can be present in spawns consist of Gourmands, Immussilus, Rasuli, Dilophosaurs and Hunters. This roster will expand over the course of the game.

#### 10 Minutes: Ares

The boss for the 10 minute wave is Ares, a fast T1 that can sprint much like Hunters or players. The easiest method for defeating Ares is to spot Ares approaching from a distance, then sniping with AT rockets while maintaining distance as best as possible. TL pings will be invaluable for this purpose once you first spot Ares. Once the 10 minute mark arrives, keen an eye on the infestation level counter - when it spikes up, Ares should have spawned. When this happens, try to focus on lapping rather than kiting heavily. The idea is to make good progress forwards so that Ares ends up trailing behind with the rest of the pack, even if it spawned somewhat ahead of you originally. Once you have made some appropriate distance from your previous position, place a ground flare or flare gun at a choke point behind yourself - the bridge crossings tend to be good choices for this. Continue to follow your lapping course while constantly checking the flared area for Ares. Usually it will appear near to the front of the pack, but sometimes it can take some time to appear depending on where it spawned. It typically takes 3-4 AT rockets to kill Ares, depending on your skill build.

In the event that Ares manages to get close to your group, perhaps by spawning directly in front of you, you will need to make use of optimal sprint toggling and cliff jumps where possible to outpace Ares. Given that Ares cannot follow down cliffs, one or two cliff jumps will typically give you enough time to kill it if it does get close.

#### 15 Minutes: Minerva

Minerva is the boss for the 15 minute wave. Minerva, like Yetis, has the ability to jump to a random player within a fairly large range and has a relatively fast base movement speed. The cooldown of Minerva's jump almost exactly matches your own jump cooldown, so the best way to keep out of attack range after Minerva jumps into the group is to synchronise your jumps to Minerva's. Much like with Ares, the easiest way to defeat Minerva is to spot it from range with flares and make use of your impressive range with AT rockets to kill it before it can jump at all. It should only take 2 AT rockets to kill Minevra.

If Minevra manages to close with the team, it is very difficult to both keep distance from him and find an opportunity to fire an AT rocket if Minevra decides to pursue you exclusively. Since Minevra has a shorter jump cooldown than you, in order to keep from getting hit after every jump you must alternate between jumping or sprinting as soon as Minevra starts his jump. As Minevra also has a high base movespeed, this can very easily deplete your stamina bar after 3-4 jumps. If medical supplies are plentiful, you might want to consider tanking a hit in order to land a point blank AT rocket. With level 4 AT, this typically leaves Minevra at ~30% of his max health, which hopefully allows the rest of your team to deal with him before he can lead to any deaths.

After the 15 minute wave, future T1 spawns will also include Yetis and Lacertis.

#### 20 Minutes: Metasis

The 20 minute wave only features Metasis as a boss, which has no special abilities other than being a flier and is not fast enough to cause many issues. The main concern are the various other T1 zombies that spawn alongside Metasis and raise the infestation level. Usually the fast zombies such as Hunters and Yetis will make themselves known to you rather quickly, but after clearing them you should consider kiting the remaining T1 zombies into clumped groups to gain better efficiency with your AT rockets (see the section on circularising for more information). You should aim to keep your AT rocket perpetually on cooldown until all the T1s have been eradicated.

Starting from the 20 minute spawn, future T1 spawns can include Gargantuans.

#### 25 Minutes: Arachnathid

The 25 minute boss is the Arachnathid, a fast cliff walker that can charge like a Lacerti. As with the previous dangerous bosses, the easiest way to deal with the Arachnathid is to spot it early with flares and set a TL ping on it. This will be especially useful to keep track of its location after charging. Due to the long range at which the Arachnathid will begin its charge, you may need to wait until after the charge before you attempt to hit it with an AT rocket. 2 AT rockets should be more than sufficient to kill the Arachnathid.

#### 30 Minutes: The Mortarion and the Maw

The 30 minute wave features possibly two 'boss' zombies. The Mortarion is a long ranged artillery piece that always spawns on this wave, but is mostly harmless. As you will be on the move a lot of the time, it should rarely hit you (and doesn't do significant damage anyway). The only thing to be wary of are the three impalers that spawn in its place after the Mortarion itself is destroyed. The second boss - the Thresher Maw - is much more threatening, however only spawns in 50% of games (and then only when the average lobby XP is sufficiently high). The Maw is extremely fast and can move through cliffs like fliers or cliffwalkers, but moves in straight lines until it makes a sharp turn every few seconds, and is fully affected by abilities that can only hit ground units. Its unique movement pattern can be exploited by jumping aside or changing direction as soon as it makes a turn, allowing you to outpace it even with its high movement speed. Furthermore, its vulnerability to ground-only abilities means it can be slowed by smoke grenades (and trapped by grav 'nades for that matter). This is a good opportunity to use your smoke grenade ability to delay the Maw and give your team some breathing room. Only 2 AT rockets are needed to kill the Maw. Keep in mind that there will be many other T1 spawns alongside the boss(es), which should be cleared as soon as you finish dealing with the Maw (if it spawned) in preparation for future spawn waves.

#### 35 Minutes: Metasis returns

Similar to the 20 minute wave, this wave only features Metasis as a boss but contains a relatively large number of other T1 spawns. The main challenge here will be efficiently clearing the infestation level in preparation for the boss finale in the next two waves. An MGL used together with some of your saved explosive charges is a quick and easy way to clear Hunters and Yetis (or just a paralysis trap if you didn't find an MGL), otherwise you always have the option to use an AT to clear ~3 of these faster T1 in a clump. The sooner you can clear the fast T1, the sooner you can get to work on the 'bulk' T1 (ie anything slow enough for you to circularise safely). The main goal for this wave is to clear the infestation level to below ~10 (ideally down to the minimum of 1) to give you a buffer for the last two waves. The bosses in the last two waves will likely take most of your time to clear, so having the infestation level buffer to support the bulk T1 spawns that accompany the bosses is key to preventing 'unlucky' mutations.

Starting with the 35 minute wave, future T1 spawns will also include Cursed.