Note: because the campaign missions are structured similarly to freelance mode aside from fixed loadouts and varied objectives, and because I believe that building your own loadout and running amok in freelance mode is the true heart and soul of the game, this guide will focus primarily on mechanics shared between the two modes and otherwise on freelance mode. Credits to Hugh Monahan for allowing the use of multiple images and gifs. Oh, and for being one of the lead devs. That too I guess.




So you've accepted your contract from the Solo Nobre Concern to betray everyone you know and love in exchange for a big paycheck and a ticket off the hellhole that is Novo Solo. Congratulations! This wise decision will secure not only a steady financial future for you, or maybe your next of kin, but also secure your place in the history of Solo Nobre as a revolutionary and a hero. But oh no! This game is hard, and now you, the cold-blooded killer, have been killed cold-bloodedly by your former comrades, who are understandably upset with your decision to shoot them with bullets. What's a pilot to do? Well, Brigador, buckle up because it's time for a lesson in GAME MECHANICS.


Brigador is, in theory, a very simple game. It's you against the world. WASD to move, point and click with the mouse to shoot. The campaign features pre-built loadouts and assigns you various tasks depending on the mission parameters, usually pretty straightforward - but freelance mode is even simpler: accomplish one of three objectives and exit the map - rinse and repeat until you've completed the spaceport and gotten off the planet. In practice however Brigador is a complex beast, with a lot of mechanics hidden just beneath the surface, even in spite of the tutorials.

In a freelance run, your objectives are simple: stay alive and do one of the following:

• Destroy >70% of the enemies on the map
  
• Destroy all orbital battery guns
  
• Destroy all captains

Complete any one of these objectives and the gates will drop, allowing you to leave and move on to the next district, or get to the shuttle if you're on the spaceport. A successful run is defined by your ability to get off the planet by escaping the spaceport. An unsuccessful run ends in death. You can select the spaceport at any time after finishing your first map, but many bonuses are determined by whether you achieved the required conditions on ALL maps in the maplist. Generally speaking, the more maps you do, the more money you'll make. Your money is increased by accomplishing certain additional objectives (such as never raising an alarm) and multiplied based on the difficulty of your chosen pilot and vehicle. If you think you're doing poorly, don't like your build, or want to try something else but still want money for your trouble, select the spaceport and bug out ASAP.

The most basic quirks of Brigador's mechanics are its movement system and aiming system. Movement is oriented on your vehicle's facing, which means that no matter what vehicle you play, W is always forward, not up. It's simple enough to understand when things are calm, but if a fight starts to get out of hand it's surprisingly easy to lose your bearings. Always remember that your vehicle's headlights indicate your facing - one set indicates turret facing, while the other indicates leg/hull facing. A green directional indicator (toggleable in options) will also indicate your leg/hull facing, while a purple arrow will indicate the location of your mouse cursor.

In mechs and tanks, A and D will affect your facing - think back to the tank controls of Resident Evil games. A will turn your vehicle counterclockwise, and D will turn your vehicle clockwise. S is your backpedal - always a useful tool. In agravs, A and D will allow you to strafe and your facing is locked to the location of your cursor - just remember that these too are affected by your vehicle's facing, NOT the camera angle.

The aiming system, despite the look, is fully three-dimensional, which means you can very easily over- or under-shoot your targets if you're not careful. Note that the trajectory lines for your shot terminate 4/5ths of the way to the point of impact. This means some eyeballing is required when firing on a target. When aiming direct-fire weapons like machineguns and lasers, this matters little - try to have the tip of the reticle more or less touching the target. For explosive weapons and projectiles with slower or wider arcs, aim short of your target to land a direct hit on the chassis or at their feet. When combating agravs, you must ensure that the shot will hit them in three-dimensional space - meaning you must account for their position on the z-axis as well as their position on the x- and y-axes. It's not as bad as it sounds - here's a helpful graphic:


Note two things here: the first is that you want to align your weapon with the target on the y-axis - for agravs, this means pointing the weapon in the direction of its underglow. The second is that you don't have to aim the invisible impact point directly at your target - as long as the trajectory line crosses through the body of your target, you will hit.

Virtually every weapon has a different projectile speed, ranging from the very slow artillery pieces, to the high-velocity cannons and machineguns, to hitscan lasers. When on the move, all inertia from your vehicle's movement is carried over to your weapons. This change is reflected by your aiming reticles. The faster you move in the same direction as your projectile, the faster and further your projectile will travel. Moving in the opposite direction will slow your shot and shorten its range (to the point where driving backwards while firing artillery will actually cause the shot to arc backwards!) Moving perpendicular will cause the shot to come out at an angle. The slower your projectile's travel speed is, the more it is affected by this inertia.

As a final note, all weapons will follow the trajectory lines precisely with two exceptions: shotgun-style weapons and certain lasers have an accuracy cone. This is simple enough that a graphic will suffice:

Both you and your enemies essentially have two health bars to consider - shields and hull. Shields are blue, hull is green. For the player, this is significant because while both bars start out at full, shields can be replenished - hull armor cannot. Avoid hull damage at all costs. Player vehicles are also capable of overcharging their shields - indicated by a lighter blue - for a massive boost that decays over time. Overcharging your shields is simple - just keep picking up shield drops until you surpass your 'maximum' shield charge. You can tell you're overcharged when part of your shield bar is light blue and starts decaying. Additionally, the small blue particles that orbit your vehicle will become brighter and move more quickly (also, these will disappear once your shields are depleted.)

Different factions have different ratios - Spacers have small hull bars, big shield bars, and little overcharge potential. Overcharged shields on a spacer vehicle tend to decay at a faster rate. Loyalists are true all-rounders (and great for beginners,) often boasting strong hulls and moderate shields. Corvids, on the other hand, have moderate to large hull bars, very small shield bars, and high overcharge potential. In contrast to Spacers, Corvid vehicles often have a slower rate of overcharge decay. As a result, Corvid vehicles usually reward more aggressive behavior, while Spacer vehicles generally lend themselves well to slower, more methodical play, with Loyalists being very adaptable to any situation. Note that these ratios apply to enemy factions as well, but are even more extreme.

Enemies can't replenish shields, health, or overcharge at all - but their hull and shield ratios are still important to you. This is for two major reasons. The first is that upon entering a map, all enemies start in an unalerted status with shields powered down. When an enemy is attacked or spots you directly, they will start charging their shields slowly. They will also raise their shields in response to an alarm. Noise alone will not cause an enemy to raise their shields.

The second reason those shield/hull ratios are important is because different weapons inflict varying amounts of damage to different types of armor. Other things to consider when choosing a weapon include rate of fire, explosive radius, environmental damage, penetration, stun damage, burn damage, and knockback values.

These stats can be seen when purchasing a weapon, but as a rule:

• Lasers are usually excellent against shields, good against hulls, do poor environmental damage, and have no environmental penetration, notable exceptions being the Railgun and
  Black Hand.
  
• Machineguns are excellent against hulls, decent against shields, decent against environments, and have poor penetration. They don't usually do a very good job at dazing enemies, but their rate of fire and fast projectile speed make them excellent for dealing with smaller units as well as larger ones.
  
• Cannons are good against shields, excellent against hulls, excellent against environments, and have good penetration - generally sacrificing fire rate for superb stats in all other fields. Their stun varies, but is often very, very high. Many have an explosive radius
  
• Artillery varies wildly based on specific weapon type, but your basic rocket launchers and mortars are fairly comparable to cannons, though they fire in sharp arcs and often have very poor projectile speeds. For most artillery weapons, they are most useful against still targets or those moving in a predictable pattern, even behind walls, but are a poor choice against smaller targets.

Again, some weapons just don't fit the pattern. The Pinch is one example - an artillery weapon that deals massive shield damage, but relatively little hull damage and almost no environmental damage. The Black Hand is another - it's a laser with short range, excellent wall penetration, very poor shield damage, and extremely high burn damage.

What are some of these effects I'm describing, such as stun or burn? Some weapons will inflict a large amount of stun damage to an enemy and daze them for a moment, affecting their acceleration and firing speeds. Very useful against bosses, kamikazes, and well-armored targets who can't be eliminated outright. Others will inflict burn damage that will continually drain a target's health even after you've stopped firing, like a traditional burn or poison effect. Still others will inflict knockback, knocking your target around or forcibly changing their facing. Many combine more than one of these effects at once.

Rather inconsistently named, these weapons have infinite ammo and are arguably the single most important piece of equipment you will arm yourself with. All special weapons have infinite ammo and run on cooldown timers, and are used more for their utility than killing power. If your special weapon has a firing arc, you can hold the fire button to get a trajectory line showing where it will land. Like artillery, the projectiles are slow, so the line is sharply curved and heavily affected by inertia.

• Smoke Projector
  Also known as the smoke launcher, this weapon launches 10 canisters in rapid succession that will each project a tower of smoke. By sweeping your cursor as the weapon fires, you can draw a wall of your desired shape. The smoke lasts 12 seconds and has a cooldown of 20, and during this time enemies will not be able to see you - though if they're already aware of your presence they will fire on your last known location.
  
  
• EMP Grenade
  Simple, easy, effective. The EMP warhead launched by this weapon will disable all enemies within its area of effect along with their shields - note that their shields are not depleted, simply inactive. After 5 seconds the effect will dissipate and your enemies and their shields will be active again. Agravs caught in the blast will take heavy damage upon hitting the earth, and can also damage their allies this way.
  
  
  
• Active Camouflage
  Active Camo is another simple weapon - it turns your vehicle invisible and has the added effect of making your engine completely silent. Lasting 6 seconds, its duration is short, but so is its cooldown, which means it's also the best panic button in the game. Remember that enemies who are close enough will see through it and shoot you anyway, and firing any weapon will deactivate it.
  
  
• Audio-Kinetic Pulse
  Be careful who you call ugly in middle school. The AK Pulse, formerly the laughingstock of the special weapons category, is now a powerhouse of destruction and by far the most offense-oriented option available for this slot. The Pulse is fired in a directed cone about 30 degrees wide that obliterates buildings and cover as well as enemies, essentially functioning as a scaled-up donkey, albeit much louder and less precise. Its biggest drawbacks are its long 8-second cooldown timer, loud report, and relatively short range, but its ability to eliminate pursuers, destroy orbital cannons from safety, and assist in quickly destroying captains makes it a very powerful choice for aggressive or hit-and-run playstyles.

We've briefly gone over the three factions in the weapons and shields section, but vehicles can be further divided into classes. There are three primary classes of vehicle in the game - mechs, tanks, and agravs, or anti-gravs. Simple. A peek into the game files shows these can be further divided into subclasses; for example mechs include standard mechs, light mechs, powersuits, and (technically) foot units. Tanks are officially divided into standard tanks, light tanks, treadbikes, and tuktuks. Agravs include standard agravs, gravbikes, and gravtanks. Don't stress too hard about subclasses - if it's not immediately obvious where a particular vehicle falls, it's probably not a big deal.

Player vehicles are defined by various stats seen in-game including top speed, turn speed, turret traverse speed, acceleration, braking speed, reverse speed, reverse acceleration - the list goes on. As a rule, Corvids go very fast when driving forward, and very slow when reversing. Loyalists are very maneuverable in any direction, and Spacers tend to be a bit slower. Every vehicle follows its own rules, though.

The other thing defining player vehicles are their weapon mounts and melee capabilities. Weapon mounts are divided into five categories. In order from biggest to smallest they are: Heavy, Main, Auxiliary, Turret, and Small. Every vehicle has its own fixed combination. Additionally, every vehicle can inflict melee damage of some kind.

Melee damage is inflicted only on enemies and the environment, never the player. Colliding with an enemy is never a bad idea unless that enemy is a spotter you're trying to avoid, or a kamikaze. Be wary of colliding with explosives, but otherwise environmental collisions are fine. Melee damage can be dealt by "grinding" into a target or object - simply driving into it and perhaps wiggling back and forth to increase trample damage - or via your melee attack. Mechs have a stomp, tanks have a boost, and agravs have a body slam. Yes, I know the boost is useful for more than just melee but for simplicity's sake I'm just going to call it a melee ability. Melee is bound to space bar by default.

Mech stomps are arguably the strongest melee ability of all. Quick and damaging in lighter mechs, large and absolutely devastating in heavier ones, the mech stomp is one of the strongest tools a mech pilot has available to them and an excellent answer to enemies great and small who make the foolish mistake of closing the distance. A carefully timed Touro stomp will obliterate small vehicles in a large area, crush effective ratholes through buildings, or make short work of a captain's backside armor. The boost, which for most tanks is a speed boost, has utility both in making a getaway as well as increasing your ramming damage. Certain tanks downshift instead - the Dragon for example has a torque boost instead of a speed boost, slowing down its movement speed but considerably increasing its crushing power. Agrav body slams usually inflict damage in proportion to the weight of the vehicle itself, and how high it is off the ground - it takes time for an agrav to return to full height after a body slam. A heavy agrav like the Huss slamming the ground from full height will deal a great amount of damage, but if a Pompadour pilot starts mashing his spacebar over and over he won't find himself doing very much.

Remember: melee damage costs no ammo!

Spotters are enemies capable of raising the alarm on a map. The alarm state is exactly what it sounds like - if an enemy capable of spotting you (indicated by the eye above their chassis and a blue line of sight drawn from their vehicle to yours) is alerted - either by taking damage from you or spotting you for too long - it will begin to radio your position (indicated by an orange radio tower icon.) If the spotter succeeds, they will alert every enemy on the map to danger and trigger the activation of their shields, as well as draw nearby enemies to your position. This is especially a nightmare scenario when dealing with Spacers, as their shields comprise most of their health pool. Try not to make a spotter mad unless you can kill it outright!

A second nasty effect of an alarm is that it will trigger orange-striped panic walls to raise throughout the map. These walls are tough to destroy, don't turn into rubble (so half-destroying them won't make them any shorter) and worst of all, lower themselves for enemy units to cross! Needless to say, panic walls are generally very bad.

There are two types of building related to spotting and alarms: communication towers and power substations. Both are included on your HUD as sub-objectives (though their locations are unmarked) and will not only earn you money, but also provide special bonuses when destroyed. Communication towers resemble radio towers, and when all of them on a map are destroyed, enemy spotters who make a radio call will take significantly longer to complete their call to HQ, thus providing you more time to kill them. Power substations are recognizable by their four large power coils, and have a similarly useful effect - if the panic walls have been raised, destroying all substations will cause them to drop again. Keep an eye out for both!

The alarm state will be indicated by a bright orange triangle at the top of your HUD.

Enemies killed in Brigador will frequently drop one of two items: shield orbs and ammo pickups. Drop tables seem to be randomized based on enemy type, but I can't give exact numbers.



Shield pickups are recognizable as glowing blue orbs that spill out in every direction. Generally, larger enemies drop more orbs upon death, with bosses and generator units dropping the most. These orbs will stick around for a few seconds, slowly changing color from bright blue to purple to a faded red before fading out. When shield drops sit on the ground, they will 'cool off' and lose their charge. The longer you wait before picking them up, the less of a charge you will get. Wait too long and they will disappear completely. It pays big dividends to be aggressive about picking up shield drops - ideally you should always try to stay above overcharge level if possible. Shield drops are "magnetized" and will float towards your vehicle if you get close enough, making pickup easy.

Ammo drops are recognizable as glowing black and orange bullets. Approach one and an animated sprite of a magazine being loaded will appear over your vehicle. Pressing your reload key ('R' by default) on these ammo pickups will reload a small portion of your ammunition gauge for both weapons. This of course means it's a good idea to try and keep your ammo counts for both weapons consistent, if possible. Note that ammo drops may explode (for no damage) after sitting around after some time, and can also be blown up by a stray shot. Aim carefully.

Ammo stations are buildings with a statue of Great Leader standing atop them, each one carrying reloads for one of the game's four ammo types. These are: laser ammo, machinegun ammo, cannon ammo, and artillery ammo. Which station carries which ammo type is randomized every time you launch into a map, but the locations of the stations themselves are fixed. Enter the colored circle and hold the reload key to replenish ammo for that station's ammo type. Obviously, ammo types that don't correspond with your loadout are useless, but all ammo stations can be blown up for a nice cash bonus. As long as you don't let them blow up on you.

Different vehicles have different health and shield values, we know that. But also worth noting are armor values - stats that will affect whether your damage is decreased or multiplied, and by how much. Every vehicle in the game, yours and your enemies', will take increased damage when hit in the side of the hull, and massively increased damage when hit in the rear hull armor. While this is straightforward in an agrav, there are a few quirks for other vehicles. In tanks, this is based on the facing of your hull, not your turret. In mechs, it is affected by your upper torso, not your legs.

Certain vehicles also carry additional quirks. The Killdozer takes massively reduced damage with its frontal armor facing the enemy. 'Ultra' class player vehicles, such as the Treehouse, take a sum total of 30% less damage than other vehicles do, to increase their already formidable survivability.

Most vehicles travel backward slower than they travel forward. Agravs often travel sideways slower, too. Some, like many Loyalist vehicles, are very maneuverable in most any direction, while others have it really bad - especially Corvid vehicles. Try reversing in the Dragon and you'll quickly discover that the 85-ton assault battle tank has a reverse gear powered by bike pedal. In these cases, you may have little choice but to continue plowing forward, but no matter what direction you're moving, you should try to face your frontal armor towards the enemy as much as possible and minimize exposure of your vulnerable rear armor. Likewise, and perhaps even more importantly, you should strive whenever possible to hit the enemy in the sides and rear. This goes double for captains.

Arguably the single top priority for any Brigador player should be mitigating damage as much as possible. It's you against the world, after all, and you don't get continues. Believe it or not, armor, shield ratios, and shot dodging are not your biggest concern when avoiding damage - the single most important factor in avoiding damage is line of sight. With the exception of enemies who use indirect fire weaponry such as mortars, enemies in Brigador will not shoot you if they cannot see you. The only quasi-exception is an enemy who spots you before you throw up a smokescreen - such an enemy will fire at your last known position, but not directly at you.

Two of the most powerful defensive options in the game - smoke launchers and active camo - revolve around visibility. Managing which enemies can see you when and where is key to surviving high-difficulty encounters. Bear in mind also that an enemy who doesn't know you exist is just as good as one who can't see you, if not better. The lesson is simple: do not aggro additional enemies once you've started fighting unless you really have to, or unless it's beneficial to you to do so (such as going out of your way to kill a generator truck to restore your shields in the middle of a fight.)

For a quick demonstration on line of sight and how to take advantage of it, see this video with goofy pictures on it:

Learning your enemies and prioritizing targets is also very important. It's good to avoid your enemies' fire by using concealment, movement, and defensive abilities to control the flow of a fight. It's even better to take an enemy out of the equation entirely. Memorize the various enemies and what they do. As a rule you should prioritize spotters and kamikazes first, and then follow up with these general rules: when you have the jump on your enemy, kill as many big targets as you can. When you get stuck in a fight you think you can win, prioritize the heavy hitters. When you find yourself stuck in a fight you're trying to escape from, target the small pursuers first. When on the offensive, it's a good idea to take out the hard hitters when they're most vulnerable, but don't underestimate the damage that small vehicles like powersuits and treadbikes can do, and don't expect to outrun them for very long without a powerful defensive option like EMP or active camo.

Memorizing the various enemy vehicles and what they're equipped with will go a long way towards knowing who you should shoot first, but remember that spotters and kamikazes are usually the most dangerous enemies and should be killed or avoided at the first opportunity. Spotters are recognizable by the eyes above their heads, while kamikazes are universally recognizable by their glowing red headlights. Play it smart and pay attention!

Enemies also have different drop rates for ammo and shields. I can't give you exact (or even very accurate) statistics, but try to commit to memory who drops what. Worth noting are that treadbikes, tuktuks, and other pursuers seem to drop ammo fairly often, captains often drop more shields than their lackeys, and generator units (trucks for Loyalists and Corvids, agravs for Spacers) always, always drop shields in massive amounts - usually enough to overcharge you in one go.

One of the core gameplay concepts in Brigador that makes it unique is its destructible environments. It's not exactly a new concept, but what's remarkable here is that every piece of the environment is destructible. If you really, really wanted to, you could spend 30-something minutes on a map running around and flattening everything into rubble but the walls and gates making up its edges (and those guarding the ship on the spaceport.) Unless you're on some kind of crazy no-collateral-damage challenge run, you will need to know how to take advantage of this.

Buildings and props in Brigador come in many shapes and sizes, and differ in height, HP, ability to impede movement, and density (or how well they'll stop your shots from penetrating.) Apartment blocks are, of course, very sturdy. Bunker and necropolis walls are even sturdier. Shantytowns will crumble to dust if you so much as sneeze at them. Most buildings with lower density also have lower health, but there are some exceptions like the grated walls protecting the orbital batteries on many maps. Play around to find out which are which, but be careful - some buildings explode. More on that later.

Remember how I mentioned that the enemy will only shoot you if they can see you? Cover and concealment will be your primary use for buildings. A lot of the time, a tall hedgerow or block of shipping containers will be the only thing keeping the enemy from finding you and surrounding you, and you'll find yourself playing ring-around-the-rosie to flank and destroy your target. At other times, you'll want to chew your way through the environment to make a hasty escape or funnel enemies into a makeshift chokepoint. Cutting small holes through the environment to squeeze through places you otherwise couldn't is referred to as ratholing, and you'll become very familiar with the mechanic as you go.

The uses for concealment, cover, and ratholing are almost endless - flanking, escaping, hiding, ambushing - most combat will require you to find the right balance behind just how much of the environment you want to destroy and how much you want to leave standing.

There are explosive buildings in Brigador. They are not bright red. Do not make the following mistake:


Explosives in Brigador can be very inconspicuous, unless you know what you're looking for. Even then, they can be very easy to miss. A simple list of things to watch out for:

• Ammo Depots (statues of great leader which dispense ammo for you)
  
• Pipelines. Not all are explosive, but keep an eye out for bright yellows and dull greens
  
• Orbital batteries
  
• Fuel trucks
  
• Aerospace fuel towers (resemble two grey balls in iron scaffolding)
  
• Gas stations

Explosives are very dangerous. They're also extremely useful. Obviously, they can be used to destroy a large number of enemies at once, and because they inflict massive, massive damage (much higher than virtually any weapon in the game,) a carefully timed shot can even be used to oneshot boss vehicles.

More importantly though, is that explosives also do massive damage to the environment. Here's what what they do for ratholing:


Explosives are usually rather carefully placed, many times to act as a quick catalyst for clearing the environment of a building or wall you don't want to be there. They can be a get-out-of-jail-free card, or a big fat ♥♥♥♥ you, depending on how careful you are.

Just remember that they're very noisy.

Noise is very simple. It attracts enemies and acts as a method of aggro. Almost everything you do emits some level of noise: even your vehicle's engine may attract enemies on the other side of a wall to come investigate.

Noise will never alert enemies, only attract them. Therefore, even if an enemy hears something suspicious (including a loud explosion!) they still won't power up their shields unless they spot you or an alarm is raised. Noise you emit can mostly be broken down into three categories: noise centralized on you, noise centralized on your gun's muzzle, and noise centralized on your shot's impact.

Standing, walking, stomping, belly flopping, etc. all emit differing levels of noise. Firing your gun emits noise - how wide that circle is depends on how loud your gun is. High explosives, chainguns, and railguns are loud. Lasers, subsonic machineguns, and non-explosive artillery tend to be a bit quieter. Heavy mounts are booming, Small mounts are very quiet.


Noise centralized on you (like your engine) will naturally attract enemies to your position. Firing your gun will attract enemies to the location you were at when you fired, as will your shot impacts. This is of course to avoid players simply launching loud, explosive weapons around a corner and drawing attention away from themselves.

Environmental explosives are another matter entirely and will attract enemies to their position, not yours. What's more is that most environmental explosions are extremely loud - much louder than any of your guns. They'll attract enemies in a very wide area, but will almost always override the sound that your guns produce. Very useful for a Brigador who thinks outside the box.

Knowing all this, let's go back to square one: choosing your build. What's a good vehicle? What's a good gun? What defensive ability should I take? The options are myriad and there are no hard rules, but here are a few good things to consider:

• Have close range combat covered. In a tall vehicle like the Touro or Treehouse, your weapons have a minimum range. You can always stomp or crush your enemies, or belly flop or crouch to aim low, but it's also a good idea to have a weapon you can fire up close to your position for when those treadbikes start swarming your feet.
  
  
• Carry at least one weapon that does decent environmental damage. Stomping, belly flopping, and crushing will all clear buildings quite admirably, but these are all terrible ways to deal with explosives - and remember that the orbital batteries are explosive.
  
  
• The one-two punch. Mixing a laser with an impact weapon is almost always a good idea, and will often leave you with shield, hull, and environmental damage all nicely covered.
  
  
• Doubling up. More risky, but some weapons just go really well with themselves. Twin cannons can make up for low fire rates, and twin machineguns can put down twice as much firepower as a single mount. This is only possible on vehicles with two mounts of the same type.
  
  
• Choose your playstyle first, then your chassis and weapons. Some equipment is just plain better at doing a certain job than others. The huge, slow frame of the Treehouse and its dual Heavy mounts obviously make it a bad idea for stealth or hit-and-run playstyles, but stick some loud, powerful guns on the tank with a smoke launcher and you've got yourself a fighter. Speaking of which...
  
  
• Do not neglect your defensive ability. In many situations the defensive ability you chose is significantly more important than the guns you chose. You should make use of it as often as possible - it has infinite ammo after all.
  
  Choose your pilot, choose your vehicle, choose your equipment, and go hog wild.
  

Pilots are pretty straightforward. Your choice in pilot is partly a matter of flavor, but will also determine the difficulty of your freelance run. Norman Osberger is a schmuck with nothing to lose so he'll sell out to the SNC for pennies on the dollar, but on the other hand nobody's really going to pay him any mind. A renowned warrior-pilot like the Spacer Antero Giian, however, is going to turn some heads. Giian starts out at a higher difficulty, calls more attention to himself with every district, and can end a run with a lot more attention than most pilots, but the SNC is willing to shell out much bigger dividends to have him on their side.

In gameplay terms, the more expensive a pilot is for you to recruit, the greater the difficulty of your run, and the bigger your payout multiplier will be at the end.

If you're looking for some pointers, try one of the following:

• Vehicle: Touro
  Primary: Abbot 105mm HE cannon
  Secondary: Mae Dois .50 cal machine gun
  Tertiary: Smoke Launcher or EMP
  
  A real workhorse - mighty, versatile, and easy to play. The Abbot is extremely powerful, dealing huge damage to any armor type, and because it's high explosive, it's also relatively forgiving of missed shots. It has incredible penetration values, fast projectile speed, and a good rate of fire. Downtime and ammo supply can be covered by the turret-mounted machine gun. By virtue of being on a turret mount, it traverses much faster than the main mount and can cover speedy targets or save precious cannon ammo in the long-term while dealing very respectable damage on its own. Use the cannon as your primary and the machinegun as your backup. Stomp or machinegun enemies who get close - the Abbott will deal serious self-damage - and use the smoke launcher to control line of sight and the flow of battle. The EMP will offer similar utility in the middle of a fight while offering you more options against Spacers, with whom this build may struggle.
  
  
• Vehicle: Dragon
  Primary: Abbot 105mm HE cannon
  Secondary: Broiler 12MW Discharge laser
  Tertiary: Smoke Launcher
  
  A fighter like the Touro, the Dragon Wagon is defined by much more aggressive action. Do what you can to overcharge your shields (be mindful of when and where you kill generators) and get in the enemy's faces. The Dragon boasts powerful armor and replaces its speed boost ability with a 'torque boost' - rather than go faster, it crushes hard enough to kill any boss in the game by touch. The Abbott and Broiler make for a great one-two combo, both dealing high damage with a direct hit, and decent splash damage on a miss. Again, smoke will allow you to control who you fight and where by essentially building a wall anywhere you want it.
  
  
• Vehicle: Prowler
  Primary: Galinha 12mm railgun
  Secondary: Confessor 25mm HE autocannon or Gutterball 120mm smoothbore howitzer
  Tertiary: Active Camo
  
  The Prowler is fast, has an incredible speed boost, and a low profile. It's a chassis built for hitting a target and bugging out, and that's just what this build is for. The Galinha offers a rapid rate of fire, accurate shots, and performs admirably against both shields and smaller units at range. The Confessor offers pinpoint environmental damage at any range coupled with a great firing rate that complements the Galinha perfectly. The Gutterball, meanwhile, is devastating to environmental targets despite being non-explosive and travels in an arc, meaning it can be fired over walls. A carefully-aimed shot will eliminate most enemies instantly if you hit them from behind, which is exactly what the Active Camo is for.
  
  
• Vehicle: Pompadour
  Primary: Thunderclap 14MW Tri-beam laser
  Secondary: Gutterball 120mm smoothbore howitzer
  Tertiary: Active Camo
  
  The Pompadour is a lightning-speed machine with a brutal punch and strong overcharge potential. Like other corvid vehicles it moves fast and pays big dividends for aggressive behavior. The Thunderclap is a versatile weapon at any range and the Gutterball will make short work of unshielded targets, while the Active Camo lets you set up any ambush at your own pace.
  
  
• Vehicle: Tomahawk
  Primary: Banshee 20mm AP Caseless chaingun
  Secondary: Broiler 12MW Discharge laser
  Tertiary: Active Camo
  
  An expert build, but extremely powerful, the Tomahawk demands skillful agrav maneuvering and a cool head to keep you alive, but if you know how to dodge rockets, flank, and when to cut your losses and run for your life, the firepower on this agrav will tear enemies to shreds at close range, where it truly thrives. Active Camo for flanking opportunities and quick escapes.
  
  
• Vehicle: Broodmare
  Primary: Otomo 20MW Focusing laser
  Secondary: Thunderclap 14MW Tri-beam laser
  Tertiary: Smoke Projector
  
  Literally easymode. The Broodmare's generous health and shield pools and completely absurd weapon mounts allow you to equip two of the strongest weapons in the game and get through most fights with your hull unscathed. The Otomo will melt anything whatsoever at close range, and the Thunderclap will zap targets to death from afar. The Broodmare's biggest weakness are its size and speed; it's a giant monster and thus its weapons have a minimum range, and it moves like a dinosaur in a tar pit. With its loud weapons its feet will get swarmed quickly, but this is fine: it has one of the strongest melee attacks (if not THE strongest) in the game.
  
  
• Vehicle: Rope Kid
  Primary: Disco 11MW Disruption laser
  Secondary: Black Hand 8MW Discharge irradiator
  Tertiary: Audio-Kinetic Pulse
  
  Do you have have brass balls? Are the other builds here too easy for you? This speed demon relies very heavily on your ability to take advantage of all the lessons the game has taught you so far, especially on a Precursor James run. The Black Hand can be used to burn or eliminate enemies caught flatfooted (even through walls!) while the disco can be used in a direct-fire role to kill pursuers that you missed, shred shields on tougher enemies, and otherwise speed up your kills when it really counts. The Audio-Kinetic Pulse can also be fired through walls to eliminate enemies, including troublesome spotters and captains, and can also be used to dig ratholes or target explosive structures and orbital guns. Played correctly, you can speed around and ambush an entire map of Spacers to death without them ever getting a chance to react, or engage the endless waves of Corvid vehicles head-on, dancing through a barrage of rocket and cannon fire. This build will test you, but it can get the job done.
  
  

For a thorough demonstration on how to apply most if not all of these lessons within the context of a freelance run, check out this high-level contract: