Handbook to Merc

Introduction
Welcome to MercDonalds! We are very glad you decided to sign up for us and our franchise. Good payment, Cloning and our beloved Mercbucks system all for you, only just in exchange you complete the various missions and fight the threats all across the universe! This handbook will give you some insight on what you should do on your first mission and possibly subsequent ones. Our crew of Screeches is ready to assist at any moment.

Note: There is a Forum Version of a quickstart guide made by a different person right here

Getting Started


When you join the server, you will probably witness this or any other such lobby screen to the right. Click on Setup, at the bottom of the screen, and you will bring up the character menu. Here you can set your name and other settings. You will also need to choose your role to be eligible for it at roundstart. Click on Job Setup, and below you will see all of the game's various roles, such as the antagonists, squads, and special roles. It's recommended you go Alpha Squad - Mercenary until you can figure out the mechanics. As an Alpha Mercenary, expectations of you are quite low so you are free to go wild and experiment. You

The squad colors are: Red, for Alpha. Blue, for Beta. Orange, for Gamma. Purple, for Delta.

You can select up to 5 roles, each having a number. 1 is the highest and the one you are most likely to get while 5 is the lowest and the role you will get if you somehow can't get your other 4 and nobody wants this one either that also has it at lower than 5. So your Mercenary in Alpha should have 1 for this reason.

Once you picked your job, saved your settings and done everything you wanted, exit the char setup. Then click on the sleeping screech down below in the lobby thats going ZZZZZZZZZ. Once it changes into shooting and saying READY!!! instead, you are good to go and just need to wait for the round to start.



You'll want to know the layout of the MCD Saltshaker, this being the ship you'll spawn in as a Mercenary, which can be seen to the right. You spawn in the Cryogenic section on the upper deck of the ship, with the rest of the non-command mercenaries. All you need to do once the game starts is go to the left and enter one of the booths you will see with a vendor. You can also type Map ingame down in the command line(that being the reddish pink bar at the bottom right) to see the current map.

IMPORTANT: You can press Tab to switch between a Normal and Hotkey mode. Hotkey is much more recommended to use, as while Normal uses keys to move, and various ctrl+button, Hotkey simply uses WASD for movement and just one button press, so if you ever played any FPS or such game genre you are likely to be familiar with Hotkey than Normal. If you wish to use Normal, that is fine. Press Help at top-right for extra assistance. Take your time to figure out the controls.

Understanding the HUD


1 - Your stats, these change depending on your role and kit.

2 - Context actions, used for toggling the plashlight, leaving the tonk, unbuckling from chairs, etc.

3 - Toggled abilities, such as the Reporter's upload news report.

4 - Targeted abilities, such as Darth Vader's force lightning power.

5 - The accessory slot, used for cigarettes mainly.

6 - The suit slot, where your armor goes.

7 - The ID slot, self-explanatory.

8 - The chest slot, mainly used for storing guns such as rifles and shotguns, can be used for a chest webbing.

9 - The belt slot, mainly used for belts, can also store small guns.

10 - The back slot, used for backpacks, large weapons, and shields.

11 - The equip button, equips whatever is in your active hand(the hand with the white outline) into an inventory slot, such as a rifle onto an empty chest slot. The belt slot, mainly used for belts, can also store small guns. The hotkey for this is E.

12 - The swap hands button, swaps current hand. The hotkey for this is X.

13 - The use underbarrel attachment button, activates the underbarrel attachment of the gun currently held in the active hand. Examples include the masterkey shotgun and underbarrel grenade launcher. The hotkey for this is 1.

14 - The use rail attachment button, activates the rail attachment of the gun currently held in the active hand. Examples include the rail scope. The hotkey for this is 2.

15 - The toggle firemode button, used for switching between a gun's firemodes, such as an assault rifle's semi-automatic and burst-fire modes. The hotkey for this is 3.

16 - The hands, any items you pick up will go here. The active hand is denoted by the white outline.

17 - The pocket slots, used for holding small items.

18 - The drop button, drops whatever is in active hand. The hotkey for this is Q.

19 - Secondary Health Doll, click on this to check your health.

20 - The resist button, can be used for resisting out of grabs, pulls, and chairs. The hotkey for this is B.

21 - The throw button, clicking this toggles throw mode. Anywhere you click on will throw the item in your active hand towards it. The hotkey for this is R.

22 - The status button, can be used to lie down and stand up, mostly used for getting off the ground when you aren't stunned. You can crawl while in rest mode and use this to avoid inaccurate gunfire from enemies.

23 - The height layer viewing button, allows you to see what's above/below you. Hotkey for this is F.

24 - The height layer movement button, allows you to go up and down, requires a flight pack. The scroll-wheel can be used for this.

25 - The health indicator, if this is green, you're good. When severely injured, this will turn orange, then red.

26 - The temperature indicator, shows how cold/hot the environment is for you, IE, being in a plasma fire will make the icon go red, being in cold environs blue.

27 - The pressure indicator, if this is green, you're good. If the environment doesn't have safe pressure, it will flash yellow. As of a recent change, this is no longer in use..

28 - The oxygen indicator, will flash if your character is unable to breathe.

29 - The internals indicator, an empty tank means no internals, blue tank means internals are on. You can click on this to turn internals an and off.

30 - The tracker, can be used to find your squad leader, guns vended by you, or locations around the map..

31 - The radio panel, this is where you can configure headset channels, such as disabling, or changing default frequency.

32 - The help panel, acts as an ingame tutorial.

33 - Shows what last object or mob the mouse has hovered over.

Grabbing Gear
Once you enter a vendor, click on it. Then log in. The booth will lock and you can freely browse the gear, but you probably have no idea which one to pick. If you need some help with that, here is some order to help out a bit until you start buying other kits and weapons and etc.

First, you'll need to pick a kit, this'll be your armor. We'll use the W(H)Y Marine Armor kit as an example. On the left side of the Voucher UI, click the left or right arrows until you see the W(H)Y, with the W(H)Y Marine Armor kit on the right side of the menu.

Then, it's time to pick a gun. Click on the bright green button in the top left of the weapons panel. This is above the currency exchange panel. We'll go with a M41A, which costs 3 W$. It comes with a under-barrel grenade launcher by default giving you an option for blasting enemies hiding around corners. This should leave you with 2 W$, which you can spend on special ammo such as armor piercing rounds, an SMG, or two attachments.

For attachments, click on the attachment category to cycle through it. It consists of three sub-categories, rail, under-barrel, and barrel. A chain bayonet will give you a decent means of defending yourself without needing to grab a knife. Then you can get a red-dot sight, for more accuracy, or a quick-fire adapter to boost your fire rate.

With this sort of loadout, you will have a good medium-range option thats either quite accurate with bursts or very fast at firing accurate single shots, and AP ammo for facing down heavily armored targets.

Once your loadout has been completed, you still need ammo, medical supplies and whatnot and actual things to carry it in. To get ammunition for your pulse rifle, head back to the rifles section, then click on the pulse rifle, in the bottom right corner, you'll be able to vend standard ammo, as well as special ammo if you've still got the funds to purchase them. Put your Pulse Rifle on your back slot, then grab a belt and webbing in storage equipment and put them on. Its up to you how to fill up your space, but its common to usually get at least 4-6 medical pouches (Not trauma or chemical aid. Those contain only patches or only chemicals, the normal one has a mix, and it will get you up from 0 Health to full almost always), some Plare pouches and ammo for the rest.

In terms of priority, Ammo, then Medical then Plares in filling up spaces. Note that your armor also has 2 extra slots to put things in. You also have a default flashlight installed in it, somewhere along the left side of the screen which you can turn on.

Getting to the Battleground
You are prepared and ready once most of your space has been filled up and you have nothing else to spend or grab. As for the objective, the planet conditions and the Mission Type should have been announced by now. For the sake of simplicity we will assume it's Night on the planet, you need to Rescue Agent Ronald and Gather Resin Cores and the mission will be announced as a Extermination Mission. This means you are fighting Zurganids due to the Resin Cores goal. They excel at mobility and adaptation, easily gaining the upper hand if they kill enough Mercs. They can also easily reconstruct or move their bases much faster than anyone else. Indirect fights or when they have more numbers than you can be suicidal without enough firepower and skill. In a direct fight, whether you are invading their hive or they are attacking your base, they will tend to lose. With Night on the planet, it's going to be even much harder to spot them, hence the need for Plares. When placed they give a light radius than your flashlight will. The Beta squad can also handle that, but they have their own battles to fight as well. Since it's also a Extermination Mission, you will need to exterminate the Zurganids with a special order, which will cause you to come into direct conflict with them.

Check the timer on the status tab. Once it's 12:10, the ship gets out of the warp and you can begin the mission. Get out of the booth and keep going west (left) until you find ladders. Get next to one and click on it. You will end up on lower deck. Then keep heading left until you see this big box called Dawn Crawler. Walk into it and you will be teleported inside. Get your ID Card out and click on one of the seats that has Red Background around it. Do NOT Sit Next to Blue Background Chairs. Blue Ones are for Beta and you will die if you sit on one as it will launch you into air and gib you. Any other section is safe, but stick with your squad preferably.

A seat should appear with a green box next to it once you swipe your ID. Place yourself over it and click drag yourself onto it. You will buckle in. In the future once you start gearing up way faster you can take the extra time to fill up bags and put them on Crawler for extra supplies but don't worry about that for now. Listen to the radio for anything special or where exactly you landing and what's the plan. Wait until it's either 12:10 or 12:15 depending what the plan is. At 12:15 you will forcefully be launched, while 12:10 is the earliest the Dawn Crawler can be launched. Once it begins launching, the mission name will be announced and you will hear a alarm. All you have to do now is sit and watch, don't unbuckle at any point or Gravity will fuck you up. You can tell that you have landed when the seats disappear. Now go out there and perform your job!

Actually Doing Your Job
Most likely, you're going to have landed on a bunker near the north end of the map. Follow your squad mates southward, helping to shoot at any Zurganids that you come across along the way (remember to set your rifle to burst!) They'll drop Cores, and if it's safe and you have room, grab them and make sure to turn them in back on the Dawn Crawler in the marked boxes. Getting enough of these is what allows the Mercs to start the Extermination and win the round. If you see a Screech that looks vaguely like Ronald McDonald, protect him with your life; he's your other objective, and counts for as much victory credit as 40 cores. Escort him back to the Dawn Crawler, likely with a dozen more Mercs, or get a Transport Pilot to land nearby. Overwatch and the Crewmen should take care of the rest. If your squad manages to make it to the power station, guard your Engineers as they repair the broken machinery; getting the lighting back up is vital to your success.

When the Mercs gather enough points, a call will usually go out from the CO or your Squad Leader to return to the Dawn Crawler. At this point you should drop what you're doing and start running, because that ship isn't going to wait for you if the Zurganids start beating its walls in. Make sure to strap in a second time. Once you're back on the Saltshaker, the Extermination ship order will go out, and you'll have to keep the Saltshaker in the air for the next 10 minutes before a superweapon kills every single Zurg on the planet and in the ship. This means at least one of the four ISPs must stay active; there's one at each end of the ship on each deck, and they all look like giant fuses. Listen to more experienced Mercs to get a better idea of where to hold out. Usually, the chosen area will be the Engineering station on the right of the bottom deck of the ship. Build as many barricades as possible (make sure not to lock out your Tonks) and shoot anything nonhuman that you see.

For more advanced/specific guides, visit the respective Mercenary Role page.

Or click on these:

BETA Guide

GAMMA Guide

DELTA Guide

Other Tips

 * Always stick with your Squad Leader. Doesn't matter how they look like, you still should follow them, they are most likely to know what to do and organize the squad into shape.
 * Experiment! There is many different types of gear and attachments. Find out which one suits your style best.
 * You can perform a Tactical Reload by click dragging a fresh magazine in your inventory or on the ground into your gun. It uses Reflexes, so having higher Reflexes will make TacReload faster.
 * Pick up the empty magazines you drop! You can refill them with Ammo Boxes found on Crawler that have been set up (If they are not setup, grab a item called Wrench, and then click on the ammo box and wait until the action is done). To refil, just simply click on the ammo box with your empty magazine.
 * If you find yourself with no Squad Leader and a dead squad or such, follow the horde. Its better to stick in numbers than alone and easy prey.
 * Pick up the Cores and any other objective items if you can. At the very least move them into a safer area, as it won't matter how many enemies you kill if all of you just run out of ammo and the objective gets dumped.
 * Pay attention to the radio at all costs. Practice if needed. It can save your life when someone calls for a retreat or says the Zurganids are flanking.
 * Point-Blanking is not a thing here. Shoot past the enemy that's next to you or start meleeing them.
 * Bump Attacks are in this game. You can wield a melee weapon in one hand and a ranged weapon in another, and run into something while shooting at the same time, the bump attacks will have your more damaging melee weapon hit as well.
 * There is no restrictions on actions here. If you want to set up power as a merc, go ahead. But a actual engi will do it much faster than you.
 * You can wield SMG's and Pistols in one-hand and such, but any weapon that you can usually wield in one hand can also be wielded in two for a much greater benefit in accuracy, recoil and etc.