CRSED: F.O.A.D. – Tips and Tricks (for Solo Playing)

This is a collection of 30 tips I generally follow to win in solo at Cuisine Royale.

Introduction

All credit goes to morikahn!

This is a fun game. You wouldn’t be reading these tips if you didn’t think so as well (think about it). I’m an old pubg player. Well… pubg isn’t that old of a game, but I think video games age in dog years so whatever..

I’ve reached rank 8 in win rating in solo, and I usually hover somewhere between 50 to 100. I currently win 31% of my games. I think I’ve managed somewhere around 440 in kill rating, but I’m an old man and my combat skills will never be as good as caffeinated teenagers that have been playing FPS games since they were five. So again, whatever..

This is only for solo. I’m sure many tips will be applicable for duo or squad, but I don’t get to play those very often (my friends suck at these games) and I don’t want to mislead anyone.

Sometimes You Can’t Win

You will occasionally meet a cheater or someone much better than you or in an opponent in a completely superior tactical position that you will have no chance to survive.

Suck it up, think about what you could have done better, and hope the lesson sticks next time.

As far as cheaters, I’ve met them occassionally in this game, but its pretty rare. Way better than pubg. I mean waaaayyyy better than pubg. Like I don’t play pubg anymore cause the cheating was so bad.

Don’t Go Prone Unless You Have to

I’ll repeat this. Do not go prone unless you absolutely have to.

I kill so many people that are lying prone thinking no one knows they are there. Hint: I know they are there. I call them freebees cause its free loot.

When you are prone you can not dodge, turn quickly, and most importantly you can’t shoot while moving. All you’ve done is reduce you profile by about 2 feet. If you DO move you make a very loud sound that anyone nearby hears as well. And know they know you are moving slowly and prone, as well.

In third person you look much more visible to others than you are. The ground and foliage is very good at hiding you if you are crouching. One trick I use is I hold the E key down while I’m crouched to move my hear even further down, but keep my camera in the same position. Try it. It works.

There are only four reasons to go prone.

• To improve the accuracy of your gun and reduce recoil (so you can shoot faster).
• The only cover available is a 1 foot high wall.
• You need to hide, can’t move to a better location, and going prone is literally the only options available.
• Quick dodge to avoid gunfire. (I personally never remember to do this in a fight, but I’ve had it used against me and its quite effective).
• In all four of the above situations you should leave prone status as quickly as possible.

Learn the Difference Between the Bots and Live Players

In solo play many of the opponents are bots. They usually are weeded out by the time you get to 5 or less players (though sometimes I’ve seen them make it to the number 2 position which astounds me).

Bots are very easy to kill once you get a feel for them. They have a couple advantages live players don’t have, like they’ll see you even if you are hiding in a bush, and will sometimes just know where you are and rush you, but generally they are free loot.

Just don’t stay still when fighting them. They don’t lead shots. They’ll either stop and shoot at you and make themselves very easy targets, or slowly sidestep to the left or right.

If you mistake a live player for a bot, you are going to regret it.

An easy tell is that bots do not look around. They pick a path and just follow it for awhile. Real players look around and are generally paranoid.

Oh. Bots don’t drive cars (I’m pretty sure of this). So thats also an easy tell.

Looting Isn’t Worth It if It Gets You Killed

This game isn’t Diablo (though it can feel like it sometimes). The general behavour of many players it to move towards the sounds of a fight. Its where the action is, right? That means the longer you are in fight, the greater then chance another person is somewhere in the peripheral waiting to shoot you the second you let your guard down.

Don’t let that guard down!

I know all that juicy loot in that field is beckoning you to run your hands through its golden hair, a siren calling to you, promising love and naughty things your parents don’t want you to know about.. but its a lie!

Look around. Make sure its safe. And if you don’t think it is… just let it go.

Don’t be that guy, you know who I’m talking about.. the one that walks immediately over to the guy he just killed, stands still while shifting through the loot.. then gets shot in the head.

If you are truly desperate, just run by, grab the purple stuff without entering the inventory screen, then find cover to sort through the mess you’ve grabbed and hope you haven’t accidentally switched out your favorite weapon.

Soak Damage in the Blue Rather Than Put Yourself in a Position That Will Get You Shot

Early in the game, the blue doesn’t do much damage. If you’ve grabbed a lot of food (and you should have) you can generally weather it. The later in the game you are, the less blue you can handle, obviously.

If you manage to get a Nimbus and IV, and have a couple high end pieces of food.. you can sit in the blue most of the game. I don’t recommend you purposely play to hide in the blue (I’ve seen some people do that) but sometimes you just get bad circles and eating some blue is generally better than eating some bullets.

Always Be Looking

Its the ABCs of all battle royales.

• A – always
• B – be
• C – looking

It would make more sense if the last word was ‘cooking.’ This game IS food preparation related, but things don’t always align up perfectly.

This is probably the number one reason for the kills I get in the game: my victims didn’t see me. I see too many poeple that just sorta blindly run forward and hope for the best.

This is a game of hide and seek with guns. Every bush, corner, terrace, ditch, wooden tower, door… possible bad guy. Spend an extra half-second peeking around corners. Look behind you occasionally. Don’t assume you are safe.

Sometimes you won’t have time to look about cause the circle is pushing you and you’ll have put some trust into fate.. but most of the time you do. You can react to what you don’t know about.

Bonus tip. Keep an eye on windows. I know it can be a pain while you are running about looting a house or running through a town.. but sometimes you’ll get lucky and spot someone before its too late.

Only Make As Much Sound As You Need To

If you walk while crouching you are virtually noiseless. If you are in an area, usually a town, and you don’t know anything about it (i.e. there could be a bad guy anywhere around you) the game becomes submarine combat and the noise you make are the pings.

The less noise you make and the more noise your opponent makes the better the chance you’ll be able to ambush them.

This is goes in tandem with point 2, about not being prone. If you are prone and moving about everyone nearby knows where you are. If you are forced to go prone, keep your butt still.

Don’t Be Where Your Opponents Expect You To Be

Shoot. Move. Shoot. Move. Shoot. Move. You get the pattern?

Don’t stay in the same location after you shoot. Besides your current target now having a reticle where your head is or will be when you shoot again, people you are unaware of may be moving in and getting ready to shoot you as well. You also become susceptible to well-timed grenades.

Shoot To Kill

This may sound like a no-brainer, but I’ll explain: if you don’t think you can kill the target.. don’t shoot. This is generally an issue when spotting targets at a long distance, but can also apply to spotting someone moving quickly around cover.

In duo or squad games, long fights with combat tactics and maneuvers are a thing and wearing an opponent down is possible. In solo, no one has your back and shooting a guy to what amounts to a Jar of Food worth of damage doesn’t accomplish much and reveals your position to everyone around you (while your target is now probably going to be ignored).

If you see an opponent, and they don’t see you, use that opportunity to gets closer or wait for them to stop moving to get that kill shot.

Leave Yourself an Exit. Don’t Give Your Opponent One

Sometimes the battle just isn’t going your way. I know: its nor your fault. You don’t have the right gun, or that guy is just lagging.. or whatever excuse makes you feel better. Give yourself a retreat option.

On the flip side, if you initiate a fight, do it when your opponent doesn’t have anywhere to run to or hide.

This also means when moving about, always keep in mind what you’ll do if you find yourself suddenly under fire.

I guess what I’m saying is have a plan.

You Are Most Vulnerable While Moving Between Locations

Probably the weakest skill I see in other players is knowing how to move about a battlefield. When you are moving into new locations your information about your surroundings is at its lowest. You are constantly exposing yourself to ambush.

The goal is to minimize your exposure to possible enemy fire, and maximize your ability to accumulate information about your surroundings.

Obviously, knowing the map well helps in this regard (more experienced players will know the safest routes between locations) but there are general rules in third person shooters that help.

• Keep your head below ridge lines. Your third person camera can look-over things your eyes can’t.
• Discreetly find high ground to scan open areas you may have to move through soon.
• Do not walk atop ridge lines of hills. If you are forced to walk in the open high on a hill, pick one side or the other. If you walk along the top of a hill, your silhouette is very visible against the sky, and opponents on BOTH sides can see you.
• Skirt around places that look like a good place an opponent might ambush your from (especially if you’ve that same spot to ambush other players in another game).
• Stick to the shadows whenever possible, especially near bright things. People’s eyes contract when exposed to bright lights. Add in a monitor with poor contrast and your opponent just might not see you, even if you are standing out in the open.
• If you have the time, do not move straight in to the next safest circle. Instead ‘push the pinch’, i.e. move clockwise our counterclockwise along the circle’s edge towards where the the blue zone is moving slowest. I’ll describe this in more detail as its own point.

Pushing the Pinch

I forget what the original name of this tactic was.. but I started calling it ‘pushing the pinch’ a while back. It might sound odd, but its a pubg trick that is applicable here.

When you are not in safety, as you move towards the pinch (where the old circle and new circle are closest) the blue zone moves slowest, putting less pressure on you to move quickly and make a possible mistake.

The other advantage is that you’ll be moving perpendicular to opponents that are moving straight in, giving you the possibility of side busting them or sneaking up behind them (where they just were and THINK is still safe).

This tactic is obviously easier if you can move quickly. Wings, oxygen, or simply not being encumbered help in this regard.

Put Yourself in Tactical Positions That Maximize Your Guns’ Effectiveness

Each gun has a range that its most effective at. Guns might also require you to crouch or go prone to aim effectively. If all you have are long range weapons, you should avoid towns like the plague. If all you have or short range weapons, stick to house to house combat as long as possible.

Obviously, its best to have one good long range weapon, and one good short or medium range weapon, but early on.. you might not have that choice.

Have the Right Gun Equipped To Deal with Where You Think Danger May Come Out You Quickly

This is similar to the point above, and generally only comes into play when you are moving. Fights can last less than a second, and you can be killed before you can switch our your gun to a better one.

When danger can be right around the corner, have a short range gun out. When it may be over a hill, have a long range gun out. You might find yourself switching gun often as you move about. Thats fine.

Take That Silly as Scope Off Your Rifle When the Circle Is Small or You Know Your Opponent Is Close

This is a mistake I make often, and feel very smart when I remember not to make it. The iron sight for rifle is fine for medium to close range combat. You can also enter ADS mode fast when you aren’t using a scope.

You are going to feel really stupid trying to aim your carbine at someone at 10 meters with a 6X scope. You can put the scope back on when you leave town.

IV’s Are for Noobs or the Desperate

Health regen sounds cool, but I recommend against this item if you have a choice. I ofen won’t wear it even if I have no other accessories.

You can easily find food to heal yourself and faster. Any other accesory will be more useful to you in a fight.

Not only that, the IV is very noticable and your ability to hide behind walls or bushes will be greatly decreased.

Side note: looking for the tops of IV’s sticking out of bushes or behind walls to easily find opponents.

Caveat: The IV can be useful if you think you’ll be shot at from a long distance. You’ll be be able to heal whatever damage they do in a few seconds behind some cover.

You Can Climb Up Rain Gutters

You don’t need Bouncy Boots to get to the roof of single-story buildings. If there is a vertical rain gutter on the building, usually near the side, you can climb it.

Always Have the Jump Pad Trap on Hand

This is an incredibly useful sign and doesn’t cost many souls. Its the first trap you get. Use this trap to get to roofs of tall buildings quickly. Use it to jump over the city walls on the Mexico map.

Even if your opponent hears the trap go off, there is a good chance they won’t realize you used it to jump onto a roof. The sound of traps going off are all the same.

You Can Destroy Traps and Rituals

I’m sure a lot of the old-timers know this, but I sure didn’t. I only found out accidentally. You can hit the F key while your cursor if over an existing trap and your guy will spray white paint over it, destroying it. You can destroy your traps or other people’s traps.

Useful when you get stuck in a Quicksand trap and your speed is reduced by 80%. Or when you’ve used traps to help defend a position, but then find you need to leave it cause the circle changed.

You can also destroy rituals. Happen to be close to that Zombie Apocalypse ritual some jerk just setup. Wipe it out.

The Blue Zone Is a Sphere, Not a Cylinder

I’ve won many games because my opponent’s didn’t take this into account. Near the end of the game, you generally want to take the low ground as that will be the last safe spot in the game.

This isn’t always true. If the final circles are on the pyramids in Mexico, the center of the blue zone might be weird, but generally its ground level.

There is a weird perverse pleasure sitting in the basement of one of the mansions in Normandy as the game draws to a close, to see the the footprint above me get frantic when they realize they are trapped. To see them circle closer and closer, then stop. Then to hear the person go prone. Then..

Learn to Deal with the Uberpans

This one item makes me grimace. There are players whose whole game strategy revolves around this one item. They wear wings, use ritual of speed, and will run up to use and gib you before you have a chance to react.

On top of that, they easily reflect rifle fire.

At the end of a game, look for weapons that are effective against people that are using pans. There is a very good chance you’ll have to deal with an opponent using one. You want shot guns, assault rifles, or hard hitting submachine guns.

The other option is to pull out your own uberpan. I’ve noticed when I do that the other guy often, and quite suddenly, doesn’t want to fight at melee range any longer.

Try Not to Start the 2nd to Last Fight in the Game

When you are down to three people left in the game, you and two others, things are going to be very tense. If you start the next fight, even if you win, the other guy will know exactly where you are and push on you. There will be a good chance you are wounded too.

If the opportunity presents itself where you can take out an opponent without taking shots back, you should probably take it, but move the second the fight is over, unless you have such a superior position that the last opponent will have to approach you in the open.

Learning to deal with that close circle, three man dilemma is the largest hurdle to winning a game.

Careful Reloading or Throwing Grenades at People That Can Easily Get Line of Sight on You

I’ve won games cause the last guy decided to reload to his MG 42 around the corner where I could hear him doing it. I’ve also won games cause the last guy decided to cook a grenade when I could see him.

You can get away with this stuff against bots, but living people will take advantage of it and kill you.

You Can Destroy Stationary MG 42s at Pillboxes

If you run by a pillbox with an MG 42 and you are worried someone may shoot you in the back with it, hit it with a melee weapon and its toast. You can also shoot them from a distance. Its a funny way to deal with someone laying fire down from a pillbox.

Look for the Butterfly

In case you haven’t realized it, the butterfly (or hummingbird or mosquito or bat) is your camera man in third person. Its a very clever idea and makes the game more fair for those that want to play first person.

You can spot them at a distance with a good scope, so look for them to figure out where opponents are hiding behind walls or in bushes or in grass. Just keep in mind if you can see an opponent’s camera man.. they can see yours.

Be a Coyote, Not a Cat

Where I live, sunny Southern California, people’s cats are constantly being eaten by the local wildlife (mostly coyotes). Story goes like this, new couple moves into town and brought there beautiful kitty cat named something like.. Whiskers or Snowball or Boots or some other cute name, and one week later they are putting signs up on all the telephone poles hoping someone has seen there lost cast.

The cat aint lost. It legally had its name changed to Dinner.

Cats think they are the alpha predator, and maybe from where ever they used to live, they were. But they aren’t where I live; the coyotes are.

What happens is the cat wonders around, sees a mouse or lizard and gets into attack mode. Totally fixates on its new prey. Starts wigglings its behind and gets ready to strike. Unbeknownst to the cat, there is a coyote behind it doing the same thing (only better).

Short of it is, don’t get so fixated on the guy you are shooting at that someone else shoots you. That kill isn’t worth getting killed over. Hopefully the story helps you remember that.

Use Traps. Seriously, Use Em

You get soul points.. use em! Near the end of the game I’ve found myself with sometimes over 2000 souls. That’s cause no one spent them!

The jump and push traps are very effective. The sand trap trap can force people to eat blue in the end. Bots have no clue how to deal with them.

They don’t affect zombies.. just keep that in mind.

Don’t Let Your Gun Stick Through a Wall or Door

The game will let you do this and it you will look silly… and get shot. Zip it up and keep your tool out-of-sight.

If the Rule You Followed Brought You to This, of What Use Was the Rule?

All rules can be thrown out the door if the situation warrants it. Learn to ditch the rules when you need to. The defining quality of a battle royale game its ever changing conditions you have to adapt to.

If the rule you are following will get you killed in a particular situation: don’t follow that rule.

Don’t be That Guy

There are some particular things you can do that make your chances much greater at winning. Cheating is one of them, obviously. Don’t do that.

The other way is to exploit the game mechanics to get an unfair edge.

There are two ways I’ve seen so far that are really irksome:

• A – get an uberpan, wear wings and jump boots and use a ritual of speed to race around the map wacking people to death. People that do that are pretty much immune to long range fire, and are moving too fast for close range fire to kill them before they get you. With how ping works and the clock rate of the server, its just not a fair way to win. Don’t do it.
• B – play the Aztec warrior, spam Zombie Apocalypse, disappear whenever you are in trouble. This is a truly frustrating way to lose cause your opponent doesn’t actually want to fight. They’ll hide in some corner, and let the zombies do the work for them. They’ll probably have an uberpan out so you can hit them from range, and if you close in, they’ll just disappear and go hide somewhere else. All the while zombies are following you. Don’t do it.