Some of them are much too powerful. “Small” terrestrial robots are perfect, but flying machines and large robots…
How to Deal with Soviet Machines
Сrеdit gоеs to Emerald Child!
- Go to SKILLS, then look at the TECH tree which has two branches. REMOTE HACKING is the fifth skill on the left side of the TECH tree. You’ll have to choose all the previous skills before you can get that one though, but it’s worth it.
- Once you have the first level of REMOTE HACKING, you can hack machines. Use your binoculars and focus on a machine. Press X (or whatever button your console uses) to go into TECH mode. A yellow outline of the machine will appear along with some info like health, what it is currently doing, and more importantly what percent chance you have of successfully hacking them., On the bottom of the screen, it will tell which button or key on the keyboard to press to hack the machine you’re focused on. On keyboards, default is “Q”. Press that key or button and it will either be successfully hacked or not. If it does, the machine will have a pale blue glow to it and the machine will make a sound. If you don’t have HACKER as the active specialization, the machine will become confused and sometimes will shoot other machines. If you DO have HACKER as the active specialization, they will definitely attack their side.
Some other things though:
- Make sure to do this at a distance and in a place where they can’t get to you if possible. If you continue to hack the machines and stay in the same spot, they will eventually be able to target you.
- So if you’re in spot where it’s possible for them to get to you, right after a successful hack, IMMEDIATELY move to another spot, the farther the better, and keep out of their line of sight. If you can see them, the can also target and see you eventually.
In my own experience, I don’t always see the full fight because I’m hiding out of their line of sight, but the battle sounds I hear, the night sky lighting up and sometimes the earth shaking is pretty exciting!
- When moving to another location after a successful hack, the best way to move without them detecting you is in the prone position (lying on your stomach flat on the ground). You’re basically crawling away, but it’s really very difficult for them to sense you that way. So don’t panic and run away – they’ll be able to target you easier if you’re standing. Just stay calm and crawl away in the opposite direction until they’re unable to sense you or it says you’ve escaped the battle.
- Hacking them so that they are weak enough to finish off takes time. How I speed it up is that I take pot-shots at them with a weapon that has a silencer. You can shoot them at least two times before they’ll try to search for the shooter. So that’s what I do: shoot two times and then dive into cover and wait until the indicator that they’re searching is gone and then I do the two pot-shots all over again, rinse and repeat.
I fought my second firebird (another Scout or Easiest Class) tonight. For me, it pretty much was the belief before that I was at closer range that was the issue, so I’m having a bit of difficulty estimating on Firebirds. But, I did engage later, and was able to put in about 7-10 shots with a Kotenok while it was moving forward and diagonal to engage, it then started firing. This was at least 40% closer than before when I started engaging. I was able to hit more often, averagin 70% or so hits during each pass, and overall I even hit with 2 of three LG-9 RPG rounds when it was slowing or stopped to switch directions. So, the shorter engagement range helped a lot.
In total I took it down using only about 25 Yellow 5 Crown Kotenok Rounds using AP first for about 12 Rounds, and then switching to FMJ for the next salvo. I also put a burst of PM-71 LMG (Purple 4 Crown) into it of maybe 15-20 rounds, which hit fairly effectively getting it to start smoking. 2-3 LG-9s hit, the last taking it down from just outside Vallinge Church in the NW Farmlands.
So, overall, used at least 40% less total ammo, and even though I took time letting it make passes, overall fighting and shooting time must have been under half as long. That’s a good sign, on top of the higher hit percentage per shot in pretty much every category. Oh, and I had no Dynamic Crosshair this time, using the Clearer GasMask fixed mod with no crosshairs from the Generation Zero Helpers Mod Pack, that just got fixed so that it now shows the Pet Health Icon as well. Quick Fix by him.
UNFORTUNATELY, I lost track of it as it went behind the walls of the Church and never saw where it crashed, and after 30 minutes of searching in a widening spiral out to about 3/8th of a mile, I had to give up. Only 2 bars of XP for the Lvl 20 Character, so meh, and no loot. That was very disappointing as they tend to give fair amounts of loot often, especially in ammo, so I was hoping to make up for the two battles ammo expended. Not a big deal. But at least for me, on a Scout Class, I can see myself doing better.
I just have to make sure, I choose when to down it, and experience will help me predict when it is close to death. And I have to at least no the compass direction and immediately mark it in order to have a chance to get the loot. Bad luck there.