Guide to SL and Vehicles

Introduction to SL/Vehicles
Welcome to SL, that one class that will make you drive vehicles and ram into every single possible god-damn tree on the map. Or inevitably get stuck on 1 pixel of a wall in a 2x2 hallway. On the other hand, when you aren't busy stuck or destroyed by everyone, you are truly a force to be reckoned with.

Being SL
Being a SL is a tough job that requires keeping attention to several things at once. First, you must select a vehicle before you even do anything. Depending on the Company, your choices are different. Guardpower can get IFV and IFV-W, while other companies get Tonk and Jeep. Not to mention the Company Rank requirement before even being able to select SL. Its likely to hit your wallet hard as well due to the costs. Even the main gun itself is vastly different depending on your choice, if you even buy any!

Once you get past all that and deploy onto the AO, you are THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON ON THE GROUND. Everyone's markers point towards YOU and nobody has any idea where the objective could be. You are the one with the tacmap, so thus you must navigate to it. Tacmap is the Tactical Map and shows you the ENTIRE MAP. It covers your entire screen and you can move it around.

Whatever you do, treat your vehicle as the most important thing possible. Its armored, it has tons of health, can ram enemies to death, has a strong Driver Gun or Sentry, and can have a turret that's either highly effective vs Infantry or a cannon that can destroy Demos, Buildings, Walls, other Tonks, etc. If push comes to shove, you can use it as a Makeshift Cade or to seal Breaches temporarily until someone fixes it. Either way, avoid losing it as long as possible.

Other than that, TALK TO YOUR SQUAD. Your squad needs coordination, to be aware of things they SHOULD be aware. If you are in crit and likely to die, yell at them where evac is. If everything is calm and you are just standing still, check the tacmap. Tell them where the enemy is coming from, if there is a enemy tonk inbound, etc. Its very subjective on what to tell vs not to, but remember that you have the tools necessary for most info in the game. Learn the map. Learn the roads. Learn the locations.

Understanding Vehicles
''Note: This is about the Vehicles themselves and their respective stats. Since they use different movement and controls, they are a different beast from just playing Mercenary.''

Vehicles are costly pieces of equipment for heavy support. They are tough and have enough firepower to shred though people and alien alike with ease. Do not in any way shape or form underestimate Vehicles. Do not also charge off with them into the abyss and die alone, Vehicles function best when they are supported together by other Mercs. SL's are the only Mercenary class who get vehicles.

If you wish to keep your vehicle alive when it takes damage, you need to bring either repair tape, or a welder. If you have one of those, simply have it in your hand and click on the vehicle while outside. After a few seconds, you will repair some damage to the vehicle. Repair tape fixes more damage but its 1-use only, while welder is infinite, but fixes far less.

Keep in mind however, that getting a vehicle seriously damaged constantly and repairing it is a heavy toll. Your Max Health will reduce further and further, and this debuff can't be removed without re-deploying, so try and make sure it never takes too much damage at any point. Integrity determines how much accumulated damage it has taken and reduces the max HP. You can see how much your health was reduced by examining the vehicle and seeing its Health and Integrity as well as on the Healthbar and the numbers below them (90% means 90% Integrity, thus you only have 90% Max HP.).

Vehicle Controls
Tonk currently controls in a manner of Tank Controls, meaning that turning isn't instant. Hold W/S or Up/Down keys (whichever you use to control your character north and south) to accelerate forward or backwards. Press A or D (Or Left/Right keys, again depends how you control your Character. Hold them if you are going rather fast) to turn. This is the tricky part. If you went Backwards previously, the side directions are reversed. Meaning that pressing the key to go LEFT will make you go RIGHT instead and etc. (If this is gone, please correct).

This is all for controls of a Driver. To take control of a vehicle, enter it and click on it. To release controls, click the vehicle itself again.

To shoot your gun just press Left Click. It has a irremovable firing arc directly to the front. Simple to learn but harder to master (there is a few tricks you can do with movement in particular, but you will have to learn and practice them). If you are ever stuck in a 2-tile hallway or other similar tight spots, just keep turning until you can fit in.

As for the Gunner/Turret however. Pressing the W/UP key will zoom you out a bit, and holding it will zoom you out further until you stop or its at maximum zoom. S/DOWN obviously will start zooming you back. A/LEFT and D/RIGHT will turn the Turret itself around. To fire your guns, either press Left Click or Right Click (On TONK with Tonk Turret, LMB is a HMG and RMB is Tonk Cannon.) Remember that it has a firing arc, so you can't have shells firing EAST while you are facing WEST.

If you wish to exit the Vehicle, simply press EXIT on the ability bar to the left of the screen.

Other Tips

 * This has been said and will be repeated. KEEP YOUR VEHICLE ALIVE FOR AS LONG AS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE. Its a insanely valuable tool.
 * On Assault-Data, Vehicles serve as Respawn Points and causes people to spawn inside of them instead of at outposts. As long as you are within 10 tiles of it, it will keep functioning like this.
 * Any people not from your squad cannot board your Vehicle or use its Turret. Only members of your Squad and you can use it
 * You can exit the Vehicle on the left side of the screen by pressing the Exit button. Its that easy.
 * Your vehicle has permanent lights on. They are always pointing at the front. You can either turn your whole vehicle around to hide them or use them to light up paths on MvM (Merc vs Merc)
 * Your Vehicle WILL flatten cades if it drives into them but will rise back up if you get off. This flattening allows people to walk through them as if they weren't there. If your vehicle dies while on top of them, they stay flattened. To raise them back up, they must be clicked on by anyone not inside a Nest/Vehicle.
 * When all else fails, ram. Ramming always does damage to anything. It deals respectable damage and hits as fast as Knights. Even a Jeep can easily solo people with its sentry firing at the same time while it rams.