Insurgency: Sandstorm – Coop Team Play Tips (as a Non-Military Player)

Tips to Coop Team Play

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Intro

Insurgency Sandstorm COOP mode is one of the great features of this game, and it kept me playing this game till today besides making friends. Besides the official coop modes, there are numerous communities, custom made coop servers for us to enjoy, so I’d say Insurgency Sandstorm COOP mode is what makes this game still alive.

I’ve played almost exclusively COOP mode for the past 2 years, and after more 2800 hours in the game, I would like to share some tips for us non- military players on how to play COOP successfully especially with servers that has ridiculous bot difficulty. A fun game is when we have a good time and winning.

Study Your Teammates Play Style

There are generally 2 types of players on Sandstorm:

• The killing machine, who only go for kills and always at the front.
• The cautious type, who cover their friend’s back and flanks.

If you’re the A type of player, you usually don’t think about other players and covering flanks because you only care about your kill count. This type of player usually has the highest kills/points but dies a lot. This doesn’t mean that they’re bad players, Type A players are crucial to the team because of their excellent aim and fast reaction time helps eliminate a lot of enemies, but they usually think about themselves.

Type B players are more adaptable to the situation, so look around for Type A players and try to provide cover for them to get all the glory. We might not be top fraggers, but we help our team to achieve the ultimate objective; which is to win the match. Type B players are what we call plugging the gap, they are more methodical in their approach, which for other people seems like a ‘slow’ player, but they actually put a lot of thoughts into every movement so not to get killed more often.

Conclusion, study your teammates thoroughly and adapt to the situation, a team needs a good balance to have a successful campaign.

Recognizing type A player and adapt accordingly.

Don’t Line Up in a Single Line and Bunch Up Together

Now this is how I see most new players do, they stay behind the point man, and the next thing is both you and him get killed by a single bullet penetrating both of your heads. Spread up a little and don’t bunch up together too close.

In this instance, both of your either die from a single bullet or you killed your mate at the front. Avoid this kind of positioning.

Watch the Flanks!

The most basic strategy in FPS gaming, but always ignored by new and seasoned players. In every map there are at least 3 entry/choke points to each objective; centre, left and right flanks. Relevant to point #1, if you see players in front of you go to direction A, its only logical for you to guard point B & C, it’s not rocket science.

The bots will use every possible entry point to get to you so be aware of where the choke points are. Most of the time where an objective is lost is when 2-3 players get shot from the back because nobody was guarding the other choke point.

Make sure all flanks are covered for a successful breach, including the back!

Move As a Team

It’s good to move as a team, but don’t bunch up too close and looking at the same spot! Do you know a single explosive can kill up to 5 players simultaneously? When I say move as a team, that means every player watch all possible entry/choke points together so you don’t get killed by a rushing IED from an angle that nobody is guarding.

As the game devs said, “nobody likes a lone wolf”, so even as a marksman watching from a distance, let your teammates know what are you doing and what kind of cover you’re providing.

This is how a good spread looks like.

Know Your Class and Use It to Your Advantage

Each class has its own function and advantage, use it to your benefit. Example, a marksman better be the last man in the team, watching the furthest choke point to provide cover for your advancing teammates. Use that damn 7x scope like its intended purpose! A rushing sniper is the same as a rifleman, but with the slower reload rate, it will be to your disadvantage.

Same with the gunner, its best for you to watch the choke point where most bots are coming from, because you have the most ammo per magazine.

Demolition has the ability to destroy cache from a distance, so let the others know to protect you so you can get the job done.

Use your class to your advantage.

Additional Tips

1. Do communicate in text or voice whenever necessary, but don’t make stupid voice and lame jokes, unless you play with friends you’ve known for some time.
2. Don’t rush please! If you capture an objective and your teammates aren’t ready, there’s a high chance they will get killed by the rushing bots. So, plan carefully about the timing.
3. Don’t shoot from behind your teammates or throw utilities above their heads, the hit box can be stupid sometimes and it may kill your mate in the process.
4. Don’t abandon your post just because you don’t see any bots coming through, they take time to attack the flanks so patience is key.
5. If you accidentally team kill, apologize, it’s not that hard. If you walk into their scope and get killed, also apologize for messing it up.

Hope this helps and have fun!