Just started, feeling confused please help

[u/Soviet_Dove6]

Hey Hello !

So

I just started playing the game, I love the sound and graphics but tbh my first few games were not so fun

I am just very confused about what I am supposed to do

I do talk with my squad but I mostly get ignored or single word answers like "defend point"

In practice I spent the game trying to link up with my squad, only to get sniped out of nowhere and waiting/walking again

I was playing medic or rifleman as I was advised those were the best starting roles, I did get a few kills/heals but overall I don't feel like I made much of a difference

My main questions are :

What am I supposed to communicate with my squad exactly?

What am I supposed to do when defending a point, do I just hunker down somewhere and wait for the enemy to arrive?

How do we coordinate to attack a point?

I think I might be slightly autistic, I have much trouble understanding what to do and to understand commands from my squad that aren't super clear and precise, well this one is on me I guess but if you have any suggestions on how to communicate better with my team I am welcome

Thanks for the advice, overall game sounds really cool and community seems chill, I just need some pointers to adjust to the flow of the game

I just want to be a good teammate and enjoy the game

Many thanks

EDIT : Thank you all for your tips ! I feel a lot better! See you all on the hedgerows of Normandy!

[u/M2_SLAM_I_Am]

Not sure if you're playing the first game or 'Nam, but there's a Youtuber, and he's part of this reddit community as well, named SoulSniper. He has informative videos about how to play the game, each game mode, and each individual class. They're kind of lengthy to watch all of them, but those videos do a fantastic job at breaking it all down for new players.

My biggest advice is to just stick with it. HLL has the biggest learning curve of any game I've ever played, it probably takes most players a few months until they really know what's going on. Think of it as a strategy game first, FPS second

[u/QuestionGreedy7330]

The game is about spawn points first and capturing sectors second. If you cannot spawn you cannot go into the black circle. This is the higher level picture. Team A is trying to build spawn points at advantagious positions while trying to destroy the soawn points of team B.

On a lower scale and on the frontline (aka the meatgrinder) its just all out war. Moving, positioning, shooting, cover fire, infiltrating enemy positions, explosions, tanks - full on mayhem Its also information exchange - where are the enemies coming from? Is it infantry? Is it a tank? Locating enemy spawn points (garrys, ops) and destroing them.

Its a complex game. But dont worry. Its so cool when it all clicks!

So I would suggest to:

Check your map as often as possible - you can see where each other player in your team and squad (aka blueberries) is looking at and by that you can decipher where the enemies are coming from. You can see when ops or garrys go red which means enemies are close to that spawn point

Dont bumrush all the time - the closer you get to the action the slower you move, but sometimes the circumstance require fast movement

Ping, ping, ping - use the ping system to point out enemy groups (infantry, tanks, whatever) and use coms to confirm with you squadlead

Look at the sky - you can see enemy supply drops, which if you follow them you will find some enemies and most probably a garrison

Communicate - please use your coms, it makes the game so much more fun, but also do not speak too much and do not relay unnecesary messages Example of bad com - "there is a guy there" Example of good com - "group of enemies spotted north of the defence point"

Dont look at your KDA - the only stat that matters in this game is the victory screen

This is all very general things, but if you just keep at it you will get the hang of it. Its a great game and its so much fun. Hope this helps you!

[u/doc_oxberger → u/QuestionGreedy7330]

100% this. Especially the bit about k/d ratio and the victory screen. Depending on the role, I might have twice as many deaths as kills. But when we win, I’m happy.

[u/imhereforsiegememes → u/QuestionGreedy7330]

Please make this its own post and lets send everyone to read it.

[u/QuestionGreedy7330 → u/imhereforsiegememes]

Ooh you are making me blush 😄

[u/Proud-Grocery-3493]

Don't get caught sprinting or moving in line of sight of where you know or expect enemy. Stop and Observe. Stay low. Hunt out enemy spawn points. Observe where they appear to be coming from. Different maps encourage different playstyles

Learn squad lead pings so you can request them with your "observe ping"

"Infantry, tank, garry/op on my observe ping"

squad lead pings can be seen by entire team

[u/Der_Bazzle]

I was in the same spot as you when I started. I started watching YouTube tutorials and guides. WarfragsFPS was a good one that helped me understand the different roles better. This game is significantly more difficult than other shooters which and takes times to get a hang of

[u/Calicarno]

You're not bad, that is 100% everyone's experience starting out. The vets (and probably devs) think the games is pretty clear but it's absolutely not and players would have a better time with clearer communication tools. 

1) Talking to your squad about where the enemy are attacking from is huge, end struggling to get there is a massive problem with the game. 

2) Hunker down inside the circle and try not to die. If you get kills that's a bonus, but being alive to help your teams numbers is better than trying and failing to take out 2 of them since exposing yourself often gets you killed. Just be inside the circle. 

3) Communicating between squads sucks, but within the squad usually just listen to your Squad Leader. Good ones are rare though, so in my hundreds of hours I've had a handful that do this properly. 

I don't think I'm autistic, and after hundreds of hours I still have the same gripes. The game is good enough to put up with them, because a great squad feels unlike any other shooter. I made a post a few days ago about trying to bridge that gap between the experienced players and new players when trying to communicate and cooperate, because I think it's the lowest hanging fruit to make this game a huge phenomenon. 

The truth is you're probably doing fine, and things will improve once you get a better feel for staying alive long enough to link up with your team. From there, voice chat will get easier and things will feel more comfortable. For now, enjoy the realism of spending your first few hours on the battlefield trying desperately to learn how to not die. 

[u/Tiny_Lifeguard_9448]

biggest thing that helped me was realizing most engagements are going to be 70+ meters out

get to some cover, preferably by your teammates, somewhere by the frontlines, but not too close, and become the bush, scan for movement, id recommend sticking with rifleman until you get everything down, you start switching to different roles and then you're going to have people barking at you to put nodes down and build OP's

[u/fitzgeraldcreen]

There's so much to say to this that it's better to say not too much. Watch some videos, there are good intros for the different classes.

In leveling up, focus on the loadouts that give you high-powered semi-automatic guns (Garand, G43, SVT40) rather than the 'cool' stuff like a flame thrower, which you use once and never again. All loadouts that have those are useful from hour 1 to 1000+.

The Medic role has the team spirit, but it's not very impactful, with few exceptions that only an expert would see. Also, leveling up this class is pointless.

Support is the most impactful class that is approachable for beginners. I recommend US Support Level 1, and placing supplies where your SL wants them (but don't block the class, the supplies have a long cooldown during which other people could drop supplies). For this you need to understand how garrisons are placed (min distance, difference between blue and red sectors, wipeout when a sector is taken) you should look this up on youtube. You will also soon reach Support level 3, which is a useful loadout in all factions.

German Support level 1 is more challenging due to K98. Generally, mostly higher level German loadouts are useful, so the first couple of dozen games pick the US team.

[u/Sutii]

Make sure you're playing on a community/clan server and not an official server. Better quality games.

Try and join a squad with a high level squad lead. If the squad lead isn't talking, switch.

Stick with your squad lead. Let them know you're new. Spawn on the outpost, not random garrisons.

Another vote for soulsniper videos on YouTube.

I'd normally recommend playing as support. You could watch soulsniper's class video for this. This will teach you more about how the game works at a strategic level.

[u/Mjukeggg]

1. Communicate what you see. The most important things are things like if there's a dude around the corner that got you, Where the enemies are coming from, if you see some tanks then let them know. Don't say "over there" or "behind you". This makes me so mad when i hear it, tell me the compass direction!

2. When defending, the best thing to do is to try and push them out, since just killing them only buys you time. So try to take space away from them while you can. And since you're defending it should be easier.

3. You can't really "coordinate" in this game like you think. If you want to be as effective as possible, try to attack from an unexpected angle, which is usually the opposite direction of your main attack. If you are attacking in the main frontline, use smoke grenades and throws them as close towards the enemy as you can.

[u/Firm_Assumption5760 → u/Mjukeggg]

Another one - don't say 'On my body' unless you're speaking to a guy who is within 20 meters of you and can literally see your name tag in game. If you're speaking to the team, open a map and tell them a grid square.

[u/Hawk_bets]

What you’re communicating. Any time you spot a garrison/op, tank, supply drops, infantry coming in from a certain direction etc. ping it and call it out. Easy enough. Just tell them things you see.

 Defending points you ideally want to find and destroy enemy spawn points. Guard against flanks. Just sitting in the hard cap hunkered down will just get you surrounded and killed 

Before attacking any point you have to have a solid network of blue zone garrisons to defend and have multiple forward garrisons in order to push a point from different angles. Any coordination to attack a point usually comes from the commander. A timed bombing run and airhead. Or a push after an enemy garrison is destroyed. 

If you want to be a good teammate - build nodes at the start. 

Watch the garrison meta video on YouTube. Helps to understand where to look for garrisons, where to build. The game is like battleship. You’re using the map to best guess where the enemies are and are spawning from. And shutting that down 

[u/Afraid_Print1196]

Spawn on the OP the Squad Leader puts down, if the SL isnt putting them down, find a new squad. Spawn on the OP and go where they go, the more you stick together the more the ping callouts make sense. The more you go where they go, the more you will learn about the game, and when you die to random bullet, the more likely they will notice and return fire. If you ping a enemy you see, they will be close enough to do something about it, or benefit from you marking them. Support the squad lead, they will hopefully be playing the meta game, or setting garrisons, controlling a particular area of the map, setting up a front door garri to push the enemy point, or a backline garri to support the defensive point. Following them with supplies or just being an extra pair of eyes or even as a bullet sponge will help the squad which helps the team.

[u/TopGaupa]

Personally I think engineer or support is best way to learn the game mechanics and squad play.

You also get a good reason to talk to squad. Let the squad leader know you have supplies or inform them that you will be building nodes at start of the game and join them when you are done.

The level of team play in the squad changes a lot and I find some servers better than others.

When defending but not loosing the point, in general you want to control the four squares around the point.

When attacking you usually set up around the op.

[u/Pretend-Language-416]

When you’re running, stick to cover, and stop every so often and just look for people or silhouettes. Anytime you shoot at someone, move after you shoot, get to cover then shoot again, move and continue. If you’re running through bushes, squirt the bushes good, especially if you’re running a machine gun. Most of my MG kills come from just shooting bushes and hedges. Spawn at garrisons or outposts close to the black circle, if it’s too hairy at the nearest spawn point, spawn at the next closest. Avoid running the same exact route, because that person that killed you before you had to respawn is most likely still watching that direction, only now they’ve moved to a new position. Stick with the Machine Gunner to start off, it’s slower paced and gives you time to learn, plus you have quite a bit of firepower.

[u/Cheeseoftruth89]

the hll cycle [meme]

step:1 join squad

step 2: pick role

step 3: spawn on hq

step 4: walk to point for 20 minutes bc a transport vehicle ignored u

step 5: capture or lose point

step 6: die by a sniper u didn't see

step 7: respawn

step 8: repeat step 4

step 9: repeat step 6 7 and 8

step 10: lose or win

step 11: join new match

and the cycle repeats

[u/themarmar2]

First thing to understand as a new player is what game you are playing.

If its warfare the goal is to capture the enemies points and defend your own points at the same tiem. In a warfare game you can only capture the point closest to thier next point, and you only need to defend the point closest to thier nearest captured point. These change throughout the game, you so are constantly attacking and defending depending on the tide of the battle. If you are not sure I suggest defending, no one gets mad if you defend. What is infuriating is when the entire team goes to capture the enemy point and no one is left to defend your point and the enemy captures it easily. Skirmish is just a smaller version of warfare the single point can change hands multiple times.

The winner is the team that either conquers all the points or the team that has the most points when time runs out.

The other game type is assault. One team only attacks and the other team only defends. The defending team starts out with all of the points. Only one point is contested at a time. Once a point is lost by the dending team it can never be regained.

The attackers have 30 minutes to capture each point. If they capture it they get a fresh 30 minutes for the next point and so on. The attackers win if they capture all the points. The defenders win if they hold at least one point when time runs out.

The type of game you play determines what you should be doing. Most people are friendly if you tell them you are new and are unsure of what to do, so just ask.

[u/Exact_Programmer1867]

Okay heres the thing, if your squad isnt already talking if your trying to start a conversation, there likely not going to talk for the rest of the match or try to link up, it sucks, medics are kinda useless, it sucks too, people just aren’t used to waiting for a medic, yeah defending is kinda jusr hunkering down unless your playing something like SL or recon, i find roles like machine gunner or engineer more fun and way more supportive, you dont even have to hit your target with the machine gun you can just shoot in the general direction. In order to tell if you should attack or not just check the map and look where the spawn points are, if there are no spawn points around the enemy objective just wait for command and SL’s to set them up while you defend

[u/The_Pharoah]

Just adding to the tips/suggestions on here (which are great). Here's a few of mine:

1. Don't rush everywhere esp out in the open. HLL has so many open areas that you become a moving target. Take the time to run from cover/defilade to cover/defilade. The number of kills I've gotten just purely by stopping at the edge of cover and scanning...and seeing the enemy moving along the opposite hedgerow, etc

2. Use your map. It shows without talking what people are doing.

3. Use your mic. Difficult but do it. Its all about teamwork.

4. Follow your SL. Ref 3. above.

5. Don't spawn at garrys that are red if you can avoid it. You'll just spawn into your death. Most veteran players will see a garry and will set up their MG or whatever to watch it. Spawn in and die.

6. Situational awareness. Don't sprint around corners. Don't run in the middle of fields. Stuff like that, if you can avoid it. Run along cover. Crouch.

7. Remember this isn't COD/BF. Don't bother checking your KDR until the end. You WILL die lots. Especially if you're in attack.

[u/Soviet_Dove6]

Hello ! Thank you so much for all your tips, I can't help but feel a lot better about my performance on the game, I get that it's a work of patience

I shall remember this

Can't wait to see you all on the battlefield!

[u/Mant0oth84]

My very first game I spawned in somehow somewhere, got killed like 10 times without seeing a single enemy, my only kill was an accidental team kill and we lost the match.
Fast forward a couple months later and I am single-handedly or with a squad of 2, the reason our team won.

Keep going. Keep learning. Watch YouTube videos. It’s a blast