An expansive guide to Intruder inspired by Sun Ztu’s Art of War and Musashi Miyamoto’s Five Rings that covers practically a lot for those who would like to get better at the game.
Contents
Guide to Intruder
All credit goes to LeKrapz!
Introduction
If one wishes to become better at Intruder, one must take notes of not just other peoples’ victories and defeats, but of their own victories and defeats as well. This guide will not just help those trying to get good in Intruder, but in other games as well. I am nowhere near as skilled as the best players of Intruder, but I am a competent player who takes notes about my failures and victories and of other peoples’ victories and defeat.
If one is truly serious, then I advise reading Sun Ztu’s Art of War (with parts from Sun Pin as well), Musashi Miyamoto’s The Five Rings, and learn military and police tactics; YouTube Channels such as UF Pro and Tactical Rifleman are good examples.
Player Roles
Guard The usual role of the Guard is to defend the briefcases and computers from being hacked. To be an efficient guard is to make sure that you have at least one other Guard with you. If one does not have another Guard with you, then you will be killed by an Intruder pointlessly. Having another Guard with you ensures that at least if you die, the other Guard with you may wipe out the enemy Intruder. To be more efficient with your partner, you two must patrol around your areas, checking on briefcases, seeing if any computers have been hacked, and checking in on updates with your other team members. The Guard also has a few more roles than Intruders as well.
Guard Camper For this role, a single Guard is good enough to wait in a specific room of interest (two may be used, but there must be enough room to hide discretely). To be an efficient camper, one must rig up the entrances to ensure that you may eliminate an enemy Intruder attempting to get in. Do warn your team members that you have indeed rigged the entrances and you must stay silent to make it seem that you are not there. Once an Intruder attempts to break into your room, you must not fight, but tell your team mates that an Intruder is breaking in. Failing to do so will leave them unknown to if the briefcase is gone or not or if any computers have been hacked. When done communicating, defend with your life and hope someone comes to help.
Guard on Security A Guard on Security is simply a Guard who checks the security camera footage for Intruders. It is a role similar to the Guard Camper, but due to the circumstances, the Guard on Security must give call outs as soon as he sees a Intruder on camera. Not only that, but it is also important to have a team mate with the Guard on Security since the Guard on Security is preoccupied and unaware of his own surroundings.
Guard Sniper The role of the Guard Sniper is to have their sights covering a popular route for Intruders to come and to take out any Intruders who would be farther away, mainly advantage points where an enemy Sniper might be. It is a simpler role, but one that can help.
Guard Rusher Do not confuse this role with the tactic of all the guards rushing. A Guard Rusher is someone (mainly a single player) who rushes to an enemy route to catch them by surprise. To be effective, the Rusher must run close to their route, but not head first. Instead, lie in wait to watch them walk towards their advantage (while unaware of you). When they are in your sights, you may eliminate the enemy Intruder. After that, you have a few options: You may return into the building with your team members to help them, flank a different yet popular Intruder route to surprise them as well, or go deep into Intruder territory and wait for an Intruder to attempt to escape to an extract and surprise them there. Be aware that once you use this role, the enemy Intruders will be more aware of your tactic, making it more difficult for yourself and your team to use the role.
Intruder The role of Intruder is to steal a briefcase and to hack multiple computers. To be an efficient Intruder, one must always have a partner with them for backup when facing one or multiple Guards (no exceptions, if there is an odd number, then team up with two other people). As with communication, tell your plan at the start of the round, communicate details such as Guard placements or other such things, but when inside Guard territory, it is important to remain silent throughout that time, if one must communicate, do it quietly either through mic or hand signals. And a good Intruder does not stay at a specific place for a long period of time. The clock is against you and you must help your team members. An Intruder who camps is a poor Intruder.
Intruder Sniper The role of Intruder Sniper is to shoot any Guards who are dumb enough to give the enemy a shot. In my personal opinion through what I have witnessed and experienced, the Intruder Sniper is an extremely overindulged role (more specifically for maps that require a code to get the sniper rifle). What I mean by this, is that at the start of a round, I always hear that someone must get the codes for the sniper rifle. And the times when an Intruder Sniper does get a kill, it is rare and it was on an enemy that was stupid enough to show themselves clearly to the elements. Not only that, but an Intruder Sniper usually stays back the entire time, usually being the last Intruder alive (if a Guard Sniper did not get them at this point) and now have time against them, and little hope to ever win. On smaller maps, the Intruder Sniper is simply a regular Intruder with a sniper rifle. Essentially, an Intruder Sniper is only good against bad enemies.
Communication
When it comes to communication, it is key to victory, and the lack of will lead to defeat. The basic thing that all players should know would not be the call outs, but instead the radio. When one hears their radio being turned on and off by another player, that is a silent message of: “Is anyone else still alive?” It is a message for those who would like to know if anyone else is still alive, but cannot ask it directly due to them in fear of being found by an enemy. When someone hears the clicking, click back on your radio a few short times to put their mind as ease. After you have learned that, then learn the call outs.
Communication for a Guard should be plentiful and regularly used. As a Guard who is being efficient, he has no fear of the use of the radio. The time to not use the radio for a Guard is when it is late into the game and you are alone, for if used, will give away your position to enemies.
Communication for an Intruder should be used carefree at the beginning, but later on, should become more strict and used when only needed to. To use it carefree when in Guard territory will lead to your defeat.
Planning
Planning is an important part to every Intruder and Guard. One must not sit and dwell while thinking of a plan. If you sit and dwell, your enemy who already has a plan is taking action, taking more and more steps to ruin what cocky schemes you have. When you spawn, you must know right there and then what route to take, what partner you will stick with, your role, and the possible routes your enemies will take. You must know all of this as you spawn and you must tell your team members what you will do. Do not dwell, but do not haste.
Common Mistakes
Mistakes happen a lot, but these are the mistakes that I have seen to be plentiful among players. One such mistake is to shoot, miss, and peak to shoot again to only be killed by an enemy. When you have missed, your enemy will have at least a vague location of where you are located. If you plan to peak again, peak from a different location where they would not be looking, you will be surprised by the wonders of tunnel vision.
Another common mistake I see much more often is when two players, each an enemy to each other, have pinned each other at an entrance. They know where the other is at, they know that if they do not get the person behind that doorway, they will die. So they both advance, but not in confidence, but prone and slowly about win, lose, or draw. I have seen this many times and it will almost always go in a 50/50 favor of one or the other. To combat this mistake, instead of pushing the enemy prone or crouched, push them standing. Pushing against them quicker than the snail that they try to be leads them into failure. Sometimes, if they believe they can sum up a scheme against you such as tossing a grenade or planting a charge, you must push them, for they believe that you are slow and take your time just like they believe themselves to be.
A very similar common mistake is which you are alone and plan to push through a door, but there is not just one, but multiple enemies just behind the door. You are aware of them and they are aware of you. Instead of challenging them, you can simply backtrack and go to a different route. Doing so will mean that you know where they are, but they no longer know where you are, not only that, but you do not needlessly die in a situation where you could have easily one. However, if you do plan on still challenging them, you must change your location where they would not expect. To be more effective, it is best to be at an elevated level. If you still feel as if you will lose that way, then do not challenge and retreat to a different route.
A mistake I have seen and experienced on multiple occasions would be that of a player challenging a sniper. Guard or Intruder, if a sniper knows where you are at, you will be defeated. If you are an Intruder, hide and go along a different route and be aware of a push if it happens, or throw a smoke, blocking their view. If you are a Guard against an Intruder Sniper, do not be stupid and challenge. Remember, an Intruder Sniper is only good against bad enemies. Stay inside your building and stay away from windows. Tell your team members of the sniper, then wait inside until the sniper pushes, or for a team mate to flank the Intruder Sniper.
A mistake that is not quite as common as these mistakes, but still happen, is when a player ignores their team mates. This is done mainly when being told that a team mate needs help or to follow them and the player ignores them, wonders away, and ends up being defeated in the direction they went or is suddenly alone. When a team mate asks you to follow them for help or asks for help on the radio, you must go and help if you wish to see victory.
Situational Awareness
Situational Awareness is an important skill that one must learn to achieve victory. Common way of situational awareness is simply listening to other players. Hearing their footsteps, hearing their voices. Paying attention to the sound around you can lead you to perform an educated guess of where an enemy is located.
Even the sound of gunfire is important. If it is a suppressed pistol sound, you know that it is in fact an Intruder, while hearing the Guard’s pistol fire, you know it is a guard. Hearing these sounds can help you distinguish from friend or foe. At times, the Vector might be handy. It is loud, but your enemies do not know if you are friend or foe. If worst if a team mate is on guard for hearing gunfire, he’ll shoot you out of fear. It is rare to die from your team mate, but he will most likely just get a shot into you and apologize with you still alive.
In the game, there is a handy tool that helps you to you check corners and gaps without actually endangering yourself to the risk of getting shot, the camera stick (sorry, I forgot the name of it). It helps a lot when checking openings and making sure the case is clear, not only that, put to also watch out for C4 charges and sound alerts (again, sorry for forgetting what the tools are called).
Another form of situational awareness is finding one of your dead team mates, maybe a trail of blood. When it comes to these such things, it is important for one to figure out the situation. For example: Let us say that you are an Intruder, have a briefcase, and is about to make it to extraction, but you see your team mate’s corpse, maybe even a briefcase with him. It is important to know that based off of what you have witnessed, there is an enemy that is nearby in wait. In which it is best to retreat to the other extraction or get to an advantage point where no Guard would suspect you, find him, eliminate him, then continue to your planned extraction.
Another example would of you being a Guard and you notice that all your team mates are silent. You check on one of the briefcase rooms and a briefcase is gone. Do not lost hope, it is right to suspect that an enemy Intruder is on their way to an extraction point, so it is important to give chase and hopefully find them before they make.
To be a master of your situational awareness is to be aware of not just the environment around you, but of yourself as well. Be aware that you make noise as you walk, that talking could give away your position, that you are part of the environment for everyone else, especially your enemies.
Tactics
There are a very large amount of tactics that can be done in the game of Intruder, I will not put down close to most, but a few helpful ones that come to mind; Filled with both conventional and unconventional tactics.
All Rush This is a funny, useless, useful, and simple tactic. This is when all or almost all of your team members charge onto a single route together. A way of becoming a large force onto a small force of a guard or two at a time, becoming very intimidating. Although this tactic is quite fun, it is only useful to those who are skilled. To just randos or beginners, they are nothing but chicken running wild to coyotes. To people who are not skilled, they may take down a guard or two, maybe even three, but as they are not skilled, their aim wild, they will most likely miss, and being congested means that friendly fire will ensue. A tactic for poops and giggles and only useful for those who’re skilled in combat.
Grenade Breach In a grenade breach, it is a simple, but effective tactic mainly used for Intruders. When an Intruder is about to enter a briefcase room, he has a grenade ready in hand. As soon as he or his team member opens the door, throw the grenade in. This is to ensure to cause trouble for any Guard Camper who lays in wait for you. The smaller the room that the briefcase is in, the better.
False Pattern When one is playing, you might have noticed that go to the same route over and over, or notice an enemy doing the same. This is called a pattern. However, a False Pattern is when one imitates a pattern to only throw the enemy off and leaving a possible route open with less guards. Doing this tactic is tricky and can only happen when an enemy notices your False Pattern.
Operation Fortunate Son This is a silly, stupid, surprisingly effective tactic that I made. It is a strictly Intruder tactic. Operation Fortunate Son goes as follows: Go to a zipline that reaches to Guard territory (preferably onto the roof of their building) while playing Fortunate Son on your mic. Doing so is already funny enough, but I successfully have done it a lot more than failing. Not just that, but creates a distraction for a guard or two to investigate that awesome music and of their eliminated buddy who was guarding the roof, giving good distraction for my team members to be reaching their goals such as hacking or stealing the other briefcase.
Ghosting Ghosting is a type of communication tactic. Instead of simply communicating to your team member or two through the game, but through a meta communication such as through Discord. While one team mate is playing the game, the other is spectating and giving call outs on locations of the enemies. Although this is a cool tactic, it is looked down upon and it removes some of the magic that the Intruder game offers. It removes the fear and anxiety, not knowing if their is an enemy, and figuring out where an enemy is through in-game means, it feels amazing that way. To use Ghosting will ruin a part of that Intruder magic.
Lying Another communication tactic, this is a simple tactic that would be rarely used, but when used, one will feel as if they are a genius despite a simple trick. Lying can only seem to be used when an enemy (at most times a Guard) notices you are there, but is unaware if you are friend or foe. Simply lying to him that you are indeed a Guard (do not simply say you are, you must be convincing, act as if you are a guard too), enter, and eliminate the Guard One can even lie to the Guards and say that the briefcase is gone, and when the enemy searches for the supposed missing briefcase, you take the one that is unguarded or even leave room and time for you to hack. This is a rare tactic, but a useful one.
Knowing Your Enemy I did not quite know what to call this, or where to place it, but I did find it helpful. When asking friends on help for this guide, I asked Bo0g1eMaN, a somewhat well known and very skilled man at the game and he told me that he tries to figure out the enemy team. May it be through their patterns, skill level, etc. Doing so to let give him an educated guess of the best possible route for him to go to avoid skilled players from eliminating him early in the round.
Intuition
This will be a somewhat of a mess of a category due to the nature of intuition. This is a skill that is not specific in Intruder, in anything except your own life. Before making this guide, I knew that intuition is very important and when noting the times of my failure, I ignored the gut bad feeling I had, but the times of victory, is when I listened to that feeling.
Intuition is the feeling, the knowledge of something without actually knowing. Recall the times that something bad happened and just before, you had a gut feeling that told you something bad might happen despite you not knowing the danger yet. It is a very important skill that helps those who listen to it to victory.
I asked others of how they would describe their intuition, but was only given answers about tips or what to do when in a situation such as being fired upon. I do not know if they knew the question I asked due to the vagueness that is intuition or if I was close-minded on how others feel their intuition.
To me, I recall intuition as feeling like wind. Following the path that the wind follows is the path of victory. When the wind blows against you, you must turn around to the other direction, to the way the wind blows. If the wind goes a different direction, even slightly, you must walk the same direction as the wind, or else you will walk towards defeat. Follow the wind that is intuition without fault, and you will reach victory. That is how intuition feels to me.
I do apologize for adding this here as it sounds more like a crazy rambling than a factual guide for a game, but I did feel as if it is helpful. I hope it was helpful to you as well despite how weird this category is.
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