Overview

PlanetSide is a very unique game; in fact there is no other like it out there right now. Since it is so unique there is really nowhere else to find good experience to bring into PlanetSide. Shooting, Strafing, Crouching are all things that you can pick up easily and even carry over from other games. But there are systems in PlanetSide such as Certifications, Equipment, Global Maps, Incentives and more that make it a bit more work to understand. The game is based on capturing bases and territory to make your empire great, so there is much more to it than just killing x amount of enemies. An organized squad or outfit will beat a disorganized mob any time of the day in PlanetSide and this in many people's opinion is what makes PlanetSide so great. We have created this manual based on our years of experience in the game. We hope it helps you get into the game faster and understand what you are doing.

The Basics

So you just picked up your Reservist account and you need to prepare for battle in PlanetSide. This guide is written to help you get your feet wet in the persistent battle that is PlanetSide.

The first thing you will be doing is creating your account, this aspect is pretty much the same as in any Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO). Pick your character model voice and empire. Once that is done you will be loaded into the Sanctuary. For more information on each empire be sure to check out our In Depth sections on the Terran Republic (TR), Vanu Sovereignty (VS), and New Conglomerate (NC).

Each empire has their very own Sanctuary where they are immune from all attacks. Here you can enter Virtual Reality (VR) training to try out a variety of weapons and vehicles available, update your certifications and also build some load outs. You can see some examples of loadouts on our certifications page. You will be presented with a Training Screen to run through some basic tutorials. It is highly recommended that you do this as you will gain in game experience as well as a basic understanding of the game.

Before you head out head up to an Equipment Terminal and press "G" to bring up the equipment screen. At the top of the window you will see several tabs Weapon, Support, Armor; Click the favorites tab and pick one of the load outs. You can make custom load outs at any time, just pick the equipment you want and click "Save Favorite". Once you are done you need to get into battle. Pushing escape and clicking "Instant Action" is the quickest and easiest way to get into battle. Once in, you can look at the map screen (Default is "M") and see the hot spots surrounding your location. That means there is some level of combat in these areas. Head on outside and get involved!

Interacting

You interact with quite a few objects in PlanetSide. Most actions are via the keyboard but you can also use your mouse to click on the various buttons on the interface. To bring up your mouse arrow you just press your "TAB" you will then see your mouse pointer on screen and can interact with the buttons.

You can use the keyboard to interact with most objects and menus in the game as well. "G" this gets you into Equipment Terminals, Vehicles, Turrets, and more. Also it displays on screen when an object is interactive and what button to push to get into it. While in battle you can bring up your inventory interface by pressing "I" and move, drop, and destroy items. If you have a secondary weapon in your inventory you can simply Right Click the item and it will place it into the holster and swap that weapon out. There are a ton of other shortcuts to get around such as well!

Talking

To type in chat to people in your local area you can type /l Hello There this will broadcast your text to a small radius. When inside of a friendly base, or in the sanctuary you can type /b this will broadcast your text to the entire friendly base SOI. Also if the continent is locked by your empire /b will broadcast to that entire continent. And finally one that you will use quite frequently is /s this allows you to chat with your squad mates only. For a full listing of slash commands including chat, and emotes click here.

Finding a Squad

Finding a squad is a very important part of the game. Many people will tell you that having a good squad to play with makes the game so much better. Finding a squad who is looking for members is pretty easy to do nowadays and is just a few clicks away. All you need to do is turn on "LFS" (Looking for Squad) which is on your chat menu (Push tab to bring up your mouse arrow and hover over the chat display) once you click LFS you can search for a squad from there.

The Command

When you get into the game you will almost surely see a commander do some kind of global or continental broadcast. These are signified on your chat hud by a different color and are preceded by [Continent Name All] or [Global]. These are Command Rank (CR) 5 players who worked their way up the command ladder. Most of the time they are relaying important information about Primary Continent's, current battle status, and requests from other players. CR5 players play an important role in PlanetSide.

The Lingo

You will see allot of lingo once you get into the game, some is self explanatory and some is not. Below is some of the common lingo you will hear over command and local/squad chat.

• Barneys - Reference to the Vanu Sovereignty Empire
• Congs (Smurfs) - Reference to the New Conglomerate Empire
• Elmo - Reference to the Terran Republic
• CE - Combat Engineering is deployed or needs to be deployed.
• AA - Anti Aircraft weaponry
• AI - Anti Infantry weaponry
• AP - Armor Piercing ammunition
• AV - Anti Vehicular weaponry
• Hot Drop - Bailing out of an air vehicle on a tower, or base.
• Cloaker - Enemy wearing an infiltration suit.
• Fraggles - People who stick to the Caves.

Conclusion

You are now ready to get into battle in PlanetSide! But there are plenty more things that you can learn along the way so always be ready. Be sure to check out our forums if you have any questions on how to get around, what weapons to use against what and more. Please feel free to take a look around our site, we have in depth sections on all aspects of PlanetSide!