So you probably saw Pun’s post regarding PR: BF2, but when you get it all set up, it’s difficult to understand! Don’t worry! Let the Monsta show you how to professionally navigate PR, the simple way.
(This is for Dakotta, but you can use it too if you want to)
Joining a server
When you start PR: BF2 after updating it, it seems almost like every other game start screen. However, there are different options to click on. For starters, just ignore a few things. If you want to tweak your controls or graphics options, click on options. Otherwise, there are only a few things you want to click on.
There are 2 server types. Player versus Player (Which is “Deployment”) and Player versus Bot (Which is “Co-Operative”). Click on either of those, and then click join internet. If you don’t see any servers, DON’T WORRY :). Just click on “Update List”, which will be on the menu to the left. Servers will start to pop up.
Find a server that you like, or search for a custom server using the search bar. When using the search bar, enter the search words and click on “Update List” or just simply press the “Enter” key. When you find a server that you like (I outlined the one I liked in red), double click on it to join!
While you are waiting to join the game, you are in what is called the “Briefing Room”. This is the splash screen before the game starts. It shows you important information pertaining to the current map, such as map size, map name, vehicular assets, objectives, and server rules, which are all important to look at. When first joining a server, a pop-up box might appear in the game that says “Adjusting shaders”. It means the game is just optimizing itself for you, don’t worry about it, it will disappear before the game starts. When you are ready to join (AKA when the map is all loaded, and you actually can see the button), click on “Squad Assignment”
Spawning, and all other basic information
Congratulations! you now see something like the screen above. It’s a big screen with lots of important information. I call it the “Player Operations Hub”. Let’s just start off with that left side of the screen, which is the kit selection, and squad selection area. For now, let’s just focus on joining a squad. Click on the “Squad” tab.
Now, to select a squad, click on the “Join” button, next to a squad name. For this example, I am joining squad “Charlie”. If you want to leave the squad at any time, click on “Leave”. Since you may want extra pointers, I will tell you some other important things, such as squad creation, although until you get more fluid at the game, you will probably just join one of ours (Usually, aloha squads are named “Bastards” but depending on who is making the squad, it can be different). To create a standard squad, just click on “Create” under the “Squad” tab. It will automatically name it for you. To create a named squad, click “Custom Squad” and type in a name (it gets all capitalized anyways, so text formatting doesn’t matter). Press “Enter” and voila, your new squad is ready to accept players. Now that you have a squad, click on the “Kit” tab.
Picking your kit for the situation is important! Make sure that your kit is what assists your team, and more importantly, your squad the best. BEFORE YOU PICK ONE OF THESE KITS, you need to be aware that there are other kits too. Read the entire guide thoroughly so you don’t miss that. If you are going for one of the special kits, spawn just as a rifleman. Otherwise, pick your kit. I will explain the basic kits that are at your disposal. Limited kits are only availible after your squad has at least 4 people, and even then there are limits on how many there can be in the game.
Officer
The officer is a kit that is usually reserved only for squad leaders, and more often than not, I don’t use it that often even when I am one. An officer has many important items, such as binoculars, a radio and smoke grenades. The officer is supposed to communicate with other people and make sure that the battle goes smoothly. It is only going to do your squad/team any good if the squad leader is the officer, so I don’t advise using it, as it is incredibly user intensive, as well as boring, and you will be relaying orders and calling for support more than fighting. Every person is an important part of the team, however, so if your team needs more direction, don’t be afraid to step up.
Grenadier
This is another kit that is also usually reserved for squad leaders, or at least intermediate-expert players, as the grenade launchers sights can be confusing, and the grenades have a minimum distance they need to be fired before they explode (so you don’t kill yourself). They are also dangerous to teamates and enemies alike, so don’t fire them when engaging enemies close to teamates. However, when in the right hands, a grenadier is a valuable asset. If there are no anti tank soldiers around, a grenadier can take out hostile light vehicles, and groups of enemies. They also have access to rifle borne smoke grenades, which can assist your team when playing against players (Currently there is a bit of an issue; bots can see through smoke in PR. I heard they are trying to fix that though) as the grenadier can lay down an effective smokescreen.
Rifleman
Riflemen are standard infantary units. The rifleman carries extra ammunition as well as frag grenades, as well as the rifle. Most people who are going after a specialized kit will choose the rifleman kit, as it is unlimited. Don’t be fooled by people saying it is useless, however. That extra ammo comes in handy, and they carry a lot of magazines. Rifleman is probably one of the kits you will start out using, as it is the easiest to get familiar with the PR controls, and it doesn’t have any extra responsibilities except for using extra ammo in emergency situations.
Automatic Rifleman
Autorifleman is a support gunner class. As a support gunner, you need to be with the squad at all times. Listen for orders, and make sure you nail enemy soldiers before they can start taking shots at you or your team. The machine gun makes you a significant threat, and the AI, as well as enemy players tend to like to take out the autorifleman first, so if you aren’t ready to be blasted at first, you might want to hold off on getting the big bad LMG. Supressing enemies is also important, so just shooting near a group of enemies near cover is good enough, and it allows teamates to move, or medics to assist injured teamates.
Breacher
A breacher fills in the CQC role, as well as the saboteur role. The grappling hook allows you access over fences and buildings, which allows you to escape enemies, find alternative routes, or get your team over/down from obstacles and buildings. The shotgun allows you to go toe to toe with enemies that are close by, while your C4 can be used to set traps or sabotage any enemy vehicles that might be nearby. This is another kit which might be good to start off with, as it gives you a multitude of weapons to use, but be careful, the blast radius of those explosives is a lot bigger than you think.
Corpsman
The combat lifesaver is possibly one of the most important and useful classes you can be when starting out in PR. The combat lifesaver can help up wounded teamates and administer medical aid. The epipen is used to revive critically injured teamates, while the medikit can be used to heal teamates who are just wounded. A combat lifesaver also carries extra bandages, which stop bleeding temporarily, and can be used when your team needs to retreat and you can’t stop to heal someone.
Rifleman (AT)
This is basically an upgraded rifleman without ammo that carries a single use launcher that can be used to eliminate tanks. If there is not a dedicated anti tank person in the squad, this is the next best thing. Be careful, rockets can drop a bit over distance. You also only have one rocket, so try not to use it unless there is a tank, APC or AA, or if there is an ammo crate nearby. It’s also not frowned upon to use the rocket to take out large groups of enemies (like I said, that blast radius is a lot bigger than you might think it is), and depending on the situation, that is what you should use the rocket for.
When starting out, being a medic or rifleman is probably the best kit for you to get acclimated to the game. You will be instrumental regardless of your kit, so don’t feel ashamed that Punchdance is rocking the MG or Anonymous is firing missiles while you are running around healing everyone you can. Nobody is ever displeased to have a medic around, and there are even medevac squads for some servers, when large groups of players get injured. Before you get excited at the aspect of playing, first take a look at the map and click a spawn point. I will explain more about the map later.
Click on one of the white dots to pick an area to spawn. If your squad leader wants you to spawn on them, look for a green dot that is outlined, and can be selected. When you select your spawnpoint, you can click on “Done”.
If you see this, you have spawned in at the point you selected. I spawned at the base. Take a minute and orient yourself to things occuring around you. When you spawn you should first link up with your squad and then head to a kit/ammo crate. What’s that? A kit crate allows you to change your kit to something, either specialized or to a different kit from the basic 7. Before you head out, you should always head to a crate to get the kit that your squad leader or that you want. Give the mouse wheel a scroll to check your kit.
I chose the grenadier kit. Notice how my kit has it’s own weapons and other items, outlined in red. This is your kit. If you don’t like it you can always change it. You may have noticed 3 things on the bottom of your screen. The little bar on the bottom left, outlined in green, is your sprint bar. It shows how much energy you have, which is how much you can sprint. Keep an eye on it and only run when you need to. To sprint, press “Shift” and move using the “WASD” directional keys. The thing on the middle, outlined in blue, is your compass. This is extremely important, as people will often call out targets by compass bearing or direction. You should too. If you ever see any targets, press the “Local Speech” key, which is by default, “H” and say “Enemy(s) at bearing XXX(The bearing that they are at, such as 160)” or “Enemy(s) to the X(Direction, such as East)”. If possible, give a distance to them, such as “100 meters” Alert your team whenever enemies are nearby. There is one small thing outlined in purple at the bottom right. This is how many clips/pieces of ammunition you have, as well as the fire mode. To change fire mode, press the “3” key.Are you satisfied with your current kit? If not, that’s okay! Walk up to the crate in the picture. Press and hold “T”
You will see the 1st image, which says “Request/Drop kit”. If you keep holding “T” and left click while it is gray like that, you will come to the next image. If you moused off of the circle, just mouse back over it, and it will re-highlight in gray (you cannot see the cursor, so just move the mouse to the center of the screen, it’s not that hard to do ;)) There are a lot of kits to select from. Each one has it’s own purpose. What purpose do they have? I’ll explain further down the page. To select a kit, mouse up and down until you find one you like. Click on it, and then it will either spawn, say all the kits have been issues, squad limitations, or that you need at least 4 people in your squad. If you press “Enter” or the “Home” key, then click on the “Squad” tab, you can check on the other squads and see what weapons they are using, as well as how many people are in your squad. To exit the screen, do not press “Esc” or else you will end up at the main screen. Click on “Done” or press “Enter” or “Home” again. If your kit spawns, it will say something along the lines of “Your kit has been allocated at your feet”. Look down, like on the third image, and press the “G” key, which swaps out your kit. You’re ready to rock. Before you go out, it is always a good idea to open the map. Press the “M” key.
The Map
Understanding the map is very important. Take a look at the image. I have taken the liberty of highlighting certain aspects of it for you to understand easier.
I went ahead and outlined the player’s location in a perrywinkle blue. The friendly base is outlined in purple, while friendly points are outlined in orange. Teamates are outlined in blue, while squadmates are outlined in green. The enemy points that need to be capped are outlined in red, and the enemy base is outlined in a grayish purple. Your location on the map is shown by that white angle. If you are in a vehicle, the angle will be poking out of it. To zoom in closer, press “N”. To zoom in even more, press “N” again. To zoom out, tap “N” a third time. You might notice that the sectors are named and numbered. Currently, I am in sector Foxtrot-13-6. Commanders or squad leaders sometimes order you to move to a specific grid section. You have to be fully zoomed out to look at the grid sections properly, so make sure you do that.
Vehicles
More often than not, you will be using a vehicle to use to a far off location. To enter a vehicle, point at the door and press “E”. To switch seats in the vehicle, press any of the “F#” keys. For example, when you are in the HMMWV, “F1” is the driver, “F2” is the gunner, and “F3”, “F4” and “F5” are passengers. You can see which seat you are in by looking at the bottom left of the screen. You are in the seat that has a the biggest green colored square. As a sode note. the gunner seat on vehicles is often slow to turn so don’t be surprised if you can’t target someone while your driver is speeding along trying to avoid getting slammed by an RPG or rocket. When driving a vehicle, use “WASD”. “Space” either drops a crate, repair station, or honks the horn, as does left clicking. We will mostly be using transports, and not logistics trucks, but sometimes when the “TRANS” squad isn’t doing their job, situations can go south and we do need to use logistics vehicles in order to get supplies. Avoid using vehicles willy nilly, as they often take a decent amount of time to respawn. You may have noticed that you have a GPS displayed as a minimap when you are in the vehicle. This is useful and you can use this to properly advance to objectives.
Combat
As I neared the location I wanted to exit, I saw a rocket flying towards the vehicle. It missed but it shows you a good example of what the supression feature is in PR. When bullets or explosives impact near a players location, the player becomes supressed. When you get supressed, it’s usually a good idea to hide behind a wall, crouch behind a barrier, or to hit the dirt. To crouch, press and hold “Ctrl”. To lie down, press “Z”. To get up after lying down, press “Z” to stand up immediately or press and hold “Ctrl” to crouch. When being supressed, try and locate the source of fire after the supression effect goes away. It might take a few tries, but buy and large, you are usually able to locate the target. When you do, call out the target’s location and lay down that fire on him!
For example, view the image below.
I called out the target by using the local talk and saying “Target at bearing 145!” before me and my teamate behind me dropped him. The tank spun around and fired a shell at 2 more targets that were behind this guy. You have to communicate in this game. To shoot, left click. Zoom in with right click. As said earlier, pressing “3” changes the firing mode. If there is a target attacking a friendly, try and take him out. This is one of the most realistic combat games and losing teamates isn’t like “5 second respawn” in most other games. It can take 20, or longer. Always try to get healed if you end up wounded, but if you have to, press “Enter” and click “Give up” so you can respawn and get back into the action faster.
Anti Tank
The AT soldier does what the title says. AT soldier’s armament primarily consists of anti tank weapons, and a lot of them. Your job as AT is to eliminate armor that is threatening your position. Additionally, you can use the rockets to hammer enemy positions. You are a higher threat when you are an AT soldier, and both enemy players and AI will be in a rush to eliminate you before anyone else.
Sniper
The sniper needs to stay far away from the main field of battle, and requires a spotter to assist them. A sniper’s job is to get to high ground and cover as much area as they can. A spotter assists the sniper in finding targets. On some maps, the sniper’s role is better suited to a marksman, so be wise when choosing your kit. Heavily urban environments might require the lowered zoom of a marksmans rifle, while large maps several KM in every direction might require the services of snipers more. There is also bullet drop, so factor that in. When sniping, be wary of counter snipers.
Spotter
A spotter assists the sniper by pointing out targets and distances. If you are a spotter, your job is also to protect the sniper if enemies sneak up close. Spotters can also be used on their own by squads to spot enemies, and vehicles. A spotter is best used out of the way, and from a hillside or building in safe territory, but close enough to actually see hostiles. The spotter isn’t overly armed, so a rifleman or marksman guarding them is usually a good idea.
Anti Aircraft
Like the AT soldier, this soldier primarily uses AA weapons. This is only useful when the enemy has air support so it isn’t always useful, unlike the AT soldiers, because there are always enemy ground vehicles on maps, and the AA rockets can’t be used on ground targets. However, when there are enemy aircraft, this soldier needs to be on the ball when it comes to spotting them, and threatening them. Just chasing the aircraft away is good, you don’t even need to shoot missiles (besides, they often start spewing flares uncontrollably when locked on).
Combat Engineer
If you are a combat engineer, you repair vehicles. We won’t be running too many vehicle squads, but when we do, we always will need an engineer. The job of the engineer is to repair friendly vehicles and sabotage enemy ones. Pretty fun, but usually only on PvP servers, as bot controlled vehicles are almost always moving. Their range is also limited, so they should never get caught alone. I do believe engineers can also place mines, which is useful.
Machine Gunner
Upgraded autorifleman with more ammo, better gun, and heavier rounds. A MG moves a lot slower too with the gun out too, so this is strictly for controlling hot areas with lots of points to cover. Machine gunners should always be on roofs or emplaced behind cover somewhere, like behind a jersey barrier or in a window. Make sure nobody flanks and fires a rocket at them, as it is going to be hard for standard enemies to be able to get a decent shot with all of the supressive fire.
Rifleman AP
Basically an EOD tech that can place anti personnel mines. Other than that, pretty standard rifleman. This is best used when defending a position, and covering entrances or exits. Just be careful and warn your team where you place the mines. On bot servers, you almost never see someone playing as this, as the players are often trouncing the bots.
Marksmen
Basically a downgraded sniper with more mobility, and able to operate almost solo. while keeping medium to long range engagement possible. The marksman has more mobility, and even though they can operate solo, they should be used by a squad to engage hostiles that are farther away, out of reach of less accurate weapons.
Crewman and Pilot
These kits are required to operate vehicles. Nothing really special about them other than that. I wouldn’t just choose them out of the blue, because teamates who operate those vehicles might need them, and they aren’t that great offensively.
Advanced Controls and Information
I will go into detail about some advanced controls that may or may not be of use to some of you. Pressing the “C” key by default will change your weapon sight to an additional one, if possible. Some weapons have canted ironsights in addition to a scope, an additional scope, or even ironsights on the scope. Every weapon is different so you should try it out.
There is bullet velocity and gravity in this game. You need to compensate for movement, and drop, especially at distance. There is no given formula and every weapon is different. Some rockets travel faster than others, and some bullets travel faster than others. It is not like AoS, which is why there is a bit of a learning curve in the community, although even Dakotta, who thinks it is very complicated, caught on very fast about the travel speed and drop.
Here is a video of one round of PR: BF2
Well, that pretty much covers the basics of PR. I hope this can help you understand how it works a bit more. I will make a short tutorial video regarding these controls so it is a bit easier to understand 
List of aloha PR: BF2 Players
Punissure (Punchdance)
SpookyAnonymous (Anonymous)
Kalifsky (Dakotta)
VoiDGamer (shywolf91)
Yusixs (GuardiaN/Sarim)
TwoDayUDie
Monstarules
CapRex
israellee
FerrariFlunker
These users have yet to pick a nickname, and their username might change
Kuunikal
NalaIsCool
Mile
