Matattacks Explodet Remote Mine Tips!

[matattack]

TBD: Tips for Remote Mine Explodet (AKA Hippo)
Harroz, Matattack here with a handfull of tips that I wanted to share with you Explodet Remote Mine users. This may be helpful for Thermo as well if you read up some of the tips on positioning.

Teamwork / Team player:
Explodet is a plane that relies on its teamates and then greatly benefits most plane setups with its utility. We do poorly in the front line, and can lose our sense of prediction if playing too far back. Explodets need to be right around the center of your teammates planes, no matter where they are, pretty much at all times. (Except in one situation which I will explain under positioning). Getting gold bars, while beneficial, is not our goal unlike other planes. Protecting the team and setting up situations for pushes and defensive stances is where explodets excell. In fact, One thing I noticed is as my skill over the years have improved, I tend to get more assists then K/Ds. Getting assists is a key for explodets. Causing stalls with mines / rockets allows loopies, bipes, mirandas, and even bombers to take advantage of the situation, thus allowing strong map control. Because of our speed, try to reframe from being the flanker of the defensive play, but encourage your teammates to flank and pay attention to how to prep where the bomb carrier will be going with a mine and spam another choke point or the point to where they have to choice but to go.

Killing:
Firstly, in my opinion, explodet is not a plane that handles 1v1 situations to perfection. We do not dog fight, we control and disrupt players on the map. The generic way explodets play are by circling while spamming whats in front of you; shooting a rocket, then mine, repeat. This, while effective in situations where players do not recognize you, can be quite easy to spot and can open your guard up to flanks, nadespams, and miranda pews/lazors once timing is set. So personally, I recommend mixing it up. Instead of opening with a rocket, open with a mine. This allows placement in the map without the target being able to recognize where you are as well as blocks off choke points of there are several. If you spam rockets, the target can start to pick up your location based off of the trejectory of your rocket so be smart as to how many you use and how you move your plane during the shooting. Opening with a mine also can secure flank locations, allowing safe rocket spamming (depending on the map). Also, killing an enemy with the damage of your rocket or mine should not happen as often as killing them by pushing/shoving them into objects on the map. A given situation would be in Fallout. If you are flying in the low space, collecting items ect, do not place a mine to stall/boost or straight up hurt them by popping your mine right on them. Instead, place your mine lower or higher then the target, and pop them either up or down. This causes loads of damage as well as causes them to become inaccurate with their attack while chasing you. Your rockets should do the same. Either stall for teammates to kill, or pop them up or down into objects. Also think about the speed at which they are moving. If they are flying extremely fast towards you as you are turning a corner, do not attempt to stall beacuse they will just merely slow down rather then stall out. Instead, boost them into corners or pop them up or down depending on their movement angle. If they are heavier planes or are just flying slower in general, stall them to force their positioning out of wack.

~~Also, the one thing that Mled and I both have in common as a set rule is everytime you die, take one with you. In my case, at the very least, setup the enemy plane that killed you in such a way that your team can take advantage of them and kill them. ~~

How to get in Position:
In 90% of the maps, once an enemy bomb carrier has crossed past the halfway point of the map, you had better be on the defensive end of the map, ready to protect what is coming. Explodets have no excuse other then positioning if they fail a bomb block or fail to stall / push with a rocket or mine. A big part of positioning is understanding players in the game. Many if not all players have their habits and tactics for both defense and offense. Take notes in your head as to how people play and learn to adapt to how they will either flank, spam, or rush you and be ready. Another is knowing when or when not to heal when the enemy is rushing towards you. Generally, when up against an anchor, if they are 1/3 of the map away from being near your base, and your teammates are still alive while you are injured, rest immediately. You will have time to recover. I always make sure to place a mine to the quickest entry point to the base if the carrier were to come. In a map like Core where they can come from either the top or the bottom, place your mine below and as you land, face towards them to prep for a block if they come high to lob. This tactic secures both locations well and can help ease the stress while waiting to take off from healing. It is also much more difficult for your plane to turn down while a bomb flies up for block rather then turning up and prepping for the arc of the lop from top down. If the plane was not an anchor, and he was close by, make sure that your teammates are flanking. Sometimes it helps to have teammates let you know if you are able to heal or not. I always like to ask or let teammates know when I am healing.
The one time that I find it to be helpful where you are not around or behind your team, but infront, is right after an attempted attack by your teammates. Given you helped a push but understand that it may fail, pull back and stay on their 1/3 of the side of the map. Do not retreat all the way back to your base, where your teammates respawn. Instead, keep pressure with your rockets and mines and stay alive as long as possible! (We have a lot of hp anyways :3) This forces the enemy team to stand on their heels, allowing better item control for your team, and once you go down, your teammates now have the upper hand with the map and item control. Just make sure that you are not in the enemy turret's range or else this tactic is pretty much useless. Spam from distances, but try to mine infront of you to hold chokes. Besides that, you are the last line of defense. Your team allows you to play explo because they know you have the ability to stall or stop pushes, whether they have items or not.
If your team is aware of an incoming push, with lets say a shield or two or a wall, play further back. In my experience, people came up with the "Mat dead, GO" tactic (which gets really obnoxious -.-...) If you feel this is how the enemy team is treating you, and they are pushing with items, stay as far back as possible and only attack the oncoming bomb carrier. When shields fly through fast, charge at them as well, but do not shoot. Simply fly by them and shoot a rocket to stall the bomb carrier. If you try to go for the quick block and run in before the shields fly through, you will be caught in not only enemy fire, but friendly fire if there is a shield and you wont even survive to block.

Defense to Escorting:
After defending a play, there are several sitautions that could be available. Either A: everyone or nearly everyone has died, and now it comes to gaining map control again. B: possibly only you or someone else has died on your team and your bomb carrier is ready for the counter. or C: A second bomb is coming, so get ready to die once again! ..
In case A, while spawning with your team, simply attempt to gain map control. Do not be the first one to the middle of the map, let your mines and rockets be the first one there and arrive shortly after. Item control is key when transitioning into escorting and pushing for your team. On a side note, many explodets must let their rockets and mines go further when expected, especially when aiming outside of their current view. Wait half a more second on your rocket and you will be golden. This applies to many, many, MANY of you! In case B, remember that you are slow so..Get moving!! If the majority of your team is already at the halfway mark, you still have time to catch up, or even let your rocket catch up to shove people out of the way for an easy bomb hit. For case C, either you could be spawning first, and it is up to you to stall the bomb carrier for the rest of your team to spawn, or you spawn right before they arrive to your base to bomb hit. If you spawn first, by all means stall them. Never push the bomb carrier up because this allows for lobs. Always either stall (ignite infront of them) or shove down (ignite above them). Never do the opposite! For the second option, if you spawn when they are close, be aware that they most likely do not have any items because the first bomb hit (whether successful or not) used most of their items so fire a rocket first to prep for a stall and immediately after, go for the block and hope your team helps you out. After any of those things has occurred, do not play safe and be worried for the next bomb hit. Simply get into the mid/back portion of the map and prep for map control, pushing and shoving, and item collecting! Also, don't forget to mine hop! (its really fun! Go "A" key!)

Hope you guys enjoyed my tips and sorry if they are a bit vague, but many times tips are very situational. I hope this helps improve everyones gameplay especially when it comes to playing as or against the Hippo!!
Feel free to ask for advice ects and i'll do my best to try and help you out.
<3

[Tekn0]

To me, remote is the hardest plane to play well in alti (well at least in ball) - good tips mat!

[TwistedCookie]

Originally Posted by Tekn0

To me, remote is the hardest plane to play well in alti (well at least in ball) - good tips mat!

Easiest plane to play in ball (remote) belive me,its the ultimate plane for killing.

[Tekn0]

Originally Posted by TwistedCookie

Easiest plane to play in ball (remote) belive me,its the ultimate plane for killing.

which is why we have so many more remotes in ball compared to thermo, right?

i believe you that it might be easy for a few players (probably from tbd background) but as the numbers shows thermo is way more popular and easier to suck less with than remote... a bad remote is WAYY more damaging to a team than a bad thermo. (boost, anyone? all it takes is one late detonation).

anyway; props to all you good remote players out there (hardly a handul, at least in ball).

[zackzingki]

Very nice tips. I read the entire thing.

Saying that a plane is easier to use than another is personal preference. I think miranda is the hardest thing to use in the world, other people don't. But your wrong when you say more people play thermo than director or remote (in ball). Thermo and remote and about the same, if not, remote and director is used by more people. I may be wrong, but that's how it looks.

[ufo]

Originally Posted by matattack

pooping* your mine right on them

fixt. nice guide.

[matattack]

Arigato mr space roboto! And thanks guys :3

[Tekn0]

Originally Posted by zackzingki

Very nice tips. I read the entire thing.

Saying that a plane is easier to use than another is personal preference. I think miranda is the hardest thing to use in the world, other people don't. But your wrong when you say more people play thermo than director or remote (in ball). Thermo and remote and about the same, if not, remote and director is used by more people. I may be wrong, but that's how it looks.

I'm pretty sure there are way more thermo in ball than remote. I only count ladder, I don't care what people play in pubs, it's all filled with rev and coop players anyway.

[drunkguava]

I know this is a TBD tutorial, but do you find the same utility for remote in ball? I have such a hard time keeping track of my remotes because ball is a bit more fast paced/helter-skelter. Although, it's possible that I just play too much thermo, and I've lost the ability to really utilize remotes well. I think I also like being able to set it and forget it when I mine. I do love being able to stall people though, which is why I often go director for a change of pace.
This was super helpful, thanks mat

[leggomyeggo]

thermo is an easier beginner plane in ball imo ^^. however, remote has a much higher skill ceiling. once you can actually play remote in ball and not completely suck at it, it becomes extremely easy to seem good. once you get to that point, the only way to go is up until you get to the 'matattack level'.

looks like some nice stuff tho mat, i'd love to give it a read through sometime.

[matattack]

heh thanks again
Remote for ball can come in handy and I feel that when in the right position and your mine is ready, it capitalizes much better then thermo on taking enemies away from break aways simply because they can't maneuver around a remote mine.
Other then that though, remote lacks quite a bit when spawning during an enemy rush where one has 1 rocket to mess up their shot to goal..If you arn't able to perfectly time and place the director/remote rocket, 90% of the time theyll just score..A stall allows an easy shot, a boost pushes em in so you really can only shove up or down and at the right time. A thermo on the other hand can just shoot and depending on where they detonate their rocket, the plane will turn up or down, causing a missfire. The other downer is if the ball carrier is already right on your tail..you have no choice but to let them pass then rocket them backwards, up, or down because if you remote mine, itll just boost them into the goal. A thermo can easily just poop one out and itll knock em back. That nerf on remote was a while back though and im glad they removed it for remote or else itd be way too much overpowered. Thermo is just much simpler to capitalize in ball because of the inherant turning capabilities of the rocket and the explosion on impact with mines.

Remote is much easier for me, however, because of the ability to boost when planes go fast and stall (if not push backwards) when they come up slow. You just have to be in right positioning and have good timing/accuracy with rockets / mines. The damage on mines are just too good