First things first: this guide is NOT going to explain to you what cert points are, what the mechanics behind it are, what you should buy for [insert class/vehicle/situation here]. I am assuming that you are familiar with the basic concept, and if you aren't you can always minimize this page, open a different guide or a Planetside 2 Wiki, and look it up.

Alright, now that we've sorted that out, let's take a concrete situation. There's this lovely addition for your character that you want, that one little thing that will turn you from an average random player to the elite pro-gamer that we all know you really are, but you're cert-broke. What to do now? Well, you could of course just play the game for a while and hope that your compulsiveness to spend every single cert you earn on the cheaper (but not-quite-as-awesome) certifications that are available elsewhere doesn't strike you unexpectedly. Or you could focus yourself on grinding those certs for a while, to get there faster and "really" enjoy your game another day.

A situation like that you will come across pretty often: Planetside 2, at least as it is currently, is grinding-based even if you buy stuff with your Station Cash: there's unlocks of all sorts that can only be purchased with certs, and much like real money, they aren't going to fly into your pocket by themselves. Some may argue that the "goal" of Planetside 2 is to drive the other two factions back to their warpgate and whatnot, but in the long term what counts is that you earn certs to become better at the game, to get a better experience.

This guide will go through some basic methods of gaining certs. By no means will this be advanced strategies of how to coordinate yourself with your outfit as well as with your friends cross-server in order to squeeze every last bit of potential out of your farming. If you've spent a few (dozens of) hours with this game as well as guides about it, you will probably know a good deal, if not everything, of what I will go over, so don't be too disappointed if you don't find the breakthrough idea you've always been hoping for.

Understood? Well, if you're still reading this I guess you did. Just pick your category from the list to the right to see what there is to do. Good luck out there!

P.S.: If I am referring to individuals as "He", to all the "she"s out there, don't feel offended. I didn't forget about you - it's just easier to use one term for everything. If that's not okay with you, feel free to Copy/Paste this guide into your Text editor of choice, add "s"es to all the "he"s in the guide, then send it back to me so I can make a second version of this guide. Thank you :)

Before we start with any of the concrete stuff, we'll need to look through this:

-Do you have a membership on Planetside 2? (20% XP boost)
-Do you have a Booster that gives you additional % of XP/Cert income?
-Is it Double XP Weekend (if you are a member), or some other boosting event?

If you have membership or a Booster that is going to expire soon (in a few hours to a few days), or it is Double XP Weekend and you're a member, it might be a good time to farm some certs - the best time of course is if you can stack the Boost and the Double XP Weekend. Of course, this won't be amazingly fun, and at certain points you -are- going to be a little selfish and go for the certs instead of helping your faction strategically, but considering the number of players on the server, and how many of those are after action and fun themselves, you aren't going to make a big difference. And hey, even if because of the lack of your support your faction is eventually pushed back to the warpgate, who really cares? In the long run it doesn't make a difference because, in the game as it is while I write this guide, there is no long-term "winning" or "losing".

If you are a player who doesn't spend much/any money on Planetside 2, and/or doesn't want membership and boosts, you should use the advantage of Double XP weekend as much as possible - an hour spent farming equals two hours during the rest of the time, and because of players being around more on weekends (no school, work etc., and other players, friend and foe, are the source of your certs) you will get the highest gain.

Next, place personal objectives for yourself. I find this very helpful to discipline myself, and hold my urge to spend my certs instead of saving up for something big. This can be "I will farm for the next two hours", "I will play the game until I have earned 50 certs", or "I will just farm until I can afford X item." Make them realistic and reachable - it makes for a more rewarding feel when you complete the objective, and if you like to spend your certs the moment that you get them, it will help you control yourself.

Alright, moving to the more ingame stuff. Planetside 2's mechanics will of course have a big impact on how fast those certs will be rolling in, so we want to optimize those fast and easy.

Before checking anything else, make yourself familiar with the timings of the now-added Alerts - even if you log in 1 second before the alert ends, you get free XP and certs, and even if your faction is warpgated you gain something. There's multiple alerts per day, try to get as many as possible.

Log in once a day at least, to cash in your free passive reward - this goes up to 12 certs for non-members. Again, you don't lose anything from logging in, and you can sync this with logging in for alerts.

Now the real ingame stuff...

First of: join a squad. No, we're not talking about organized strategic play here, but being in a squad and doing stuff for them actually improves the amount of XP gained per action. You can of course form your own squad of like-minded people, or you can join a random squad in the area, and drop back out as soon as they start doing something you don't want to participate in.

What does a squad do for you? Imagine that you are an Engineer, and you repair a squadmate's Lightning tank (while they are inside it): instead of the usual "Repair" XP you get "Squad Repair", which is worth more - 5 XP per tick. Let's do the math: 250 XP equals 1 Cert, 250/5 = 50. Fifty squad repairs earns you one cert, without counting in the XP/Cert gain from the repair without the bonus, which generally is 5 or 6 for a vehicle. 50 sounds like a lot for a single cert, right? It's really not that much considering that an Overheat Cycle of the Level 1 repair tool (saving the last tick so that the gun doesn't actually overheat) is worth 8 or 9 ticks and that most vehicles require at least 2 full repair cycles if they are damaged badly.

A similar situation comes up if you're a Medic: Healing a squadmate gives you 2-5 extra XP per tick. Reviving them gives you an extra 25 - same amount as killing somebody without a headshot. That's 10 Revives = 1 bonus cert for no added effort.

There is no bonuses for helping somebody in your platoon or outfit out if they aren't also in your squad, which is why you should always be with a local squad. Granted, if you can't find a squad that is open and has the same target as you (or one you are willing to go after yourself) just join a random one - there's a small chance that you'll meet a friend in the vicinity. It's better to be in a squad than not to be - and if the squad needs somebody who actively participates, let them kick you out.

Second, rather be defending than attacking - defending friendly territory gives you a +15% bonus to your XP, meaning that you get those certs rolling in faster. Of course you won't always be defending your territory, but it's better to be than not to be.

Third, try to be on the continent where an Alert is taking place - you cash a nice +20% reward during those two hours for everything. Between being in a squad, being defending territory and being in an Alert continent you get +35% bonus, to which comes squad Repairs, Resupplies, Heals, Revives and all the like, at literally no effort or money spent on your side.

Not fast enough yet? Then start going for Ribbons. You typically earn them without even really noticing, but every Ribbon earned (there's ribbons for literally everything, from getting kills with a certain weapon to healing/repairing and spotting people) gives you 250 XP for no extra effort (that's one whole cert!) and the first five ribbons you earn every day get you a lovely 750 extra XP for a total of 1000. 20 certs in your pockets for playing the game, how awesome is that?

Alright, you've checked your membership, boosts and weekend, you're in a squad, and you're ready to start your grinding session for real. Or you just skipped ahead and want to read how to actually farm certs, that's cool too.

Before we go into the specific classes and vehicles, let's take a look at what everyone can do - talking about infantry here. Vehicles are unable to do a variety of things such as capturing a point, so we are focusing on foot soldiers. This section's stuff can be done by any and all classes, so feel free to pick your personal favorite.

• Kill people. Many of those who're reading this are probably facepalming against their keyboards right now, but it's true. Kills aren't really something farmable because enemy infantry will not be standing somewhere, waiting for you to mow them down - and they will fight back. However if you are good at FPSes, why not? One kill earns you 100 XP - five kills give you two certs, and that's without counting in bonuses such as killstreaks, Headshots and Group Kills. A high-risk high-reward method, and well... it's 50% of what Planetside is about anyway: shooting people in the face before they do.
  
  
• Capture Bases. Another faceboard? Yeah, I guess, but it still deserves a mentioning. You don't even need to be at the capture point when the base is changed to your faction, but you need to be close enough to it that you can see the status of each capture point and the progress of capture on your HUD, above the map (unless you got your map magnified). Small bases get you 250 XP - one full cert -, medium bases get you 500 XP - two certs -, and big bases (facilities such as Amp stations and Bio labs) get you a whopping 1.000 XP - four certs, which until now is the highest amount of XP in the game that you can get for a single action - aside of blowing up a 12/12 Sunderer maybe, but that's multiple actions: the Sunderer kill and the people kills.
  
  The advantage of base-capture is that you don't even need to actively participate in the capturing process, either by standing near a capture point or by keeping enemies from taking it back. You could just hang out in some corner of the place, crouching and waiting, or you could fly over the territory with your ESF just as it's getting captured. It's all about being at the right place in the right time.
  
  Ghost-capping, I should say, isn't the safest method of getting some farm because of the extreme slowness of the capturing process even for small bases. While it may be of help to your faction to capture an uncontested base and push influence further, the payoff is minimal, and you can get even what a big facility is worth in a matter of seconds or minutes in a medium/high activity area.
  
  A second note about ghost-capping: no matter if you are playing solo or with a squad, always check your map for enemy activity. If anything happens the territory you are in will get marked with an approximate percentage amount of allies and enemies. So long as it's the latter, you can safely stand in an adjacent building or something and listen to footsteps or incoming vehicles. However, as soon as enemies are detected, you should stay away from the capture point unless you are in a squad with medics. Why is that? Even if it's a single lonely soldier, if they see Point A is contested when they move onto it they'll know you are there. They can respawn a million times if it needs to be because it's their base and they got a spawn room nearby, while if they kill you once it's all over - unless you got a Sunderer, but using one solo is risky. If they see Point A is theirs or yours, even if their map says "Enemies detected" they won't know if you are at the edge of the Hex, or just outside the capture radius with your gun ready to shoot them. You'll need to capitalize on your advantages to come out well in this situation.
  
  Ghost-Capping is not advisable if you plan on farming though. The XP gained is minimal compared to what you might earn in a battlezone. For instance, as a Medic resurrecting 3 fallen comrades and healing them by itself is worth a small base capture. 15ish Revives is worth a Biolab, Amp Station or Tech Plant. And if you want to farm safely you can make more XP by repairing turrets, generators and other things far behind the front lines.
  
  
• Overload/Stabilize Generators. Overloading a generator or SCU gives you an initial 250 XP, and if it explodes before the enemy faction it belongs to can stabilize it you gain a further 250 XP, along with getting kills for all the people that might be dumb enough to stand around the generator/SCU when it explodes.
  On the other hand, if it is your generator and you stabilize it before it explodes, you gain 250 XP. You have 2 minutes between it getting overloaded and it exploding, so unless it is guarded it shouldn't be a big problem. Just don't stand near it when the beeping goes very fast, because that means it's about to explode. Try overloading a generator shortly before the base is capped, then stabilize it right after - double payoff!
  Note: to overload/stabilize a generator, stand near it facing it so that the prompt appears, then press and hold your action key (by default E) until it's overloaded/stabilized.
  
  
• Spot Enemies. That is to say, in an active territory. Even if you aren't equipped with the weaponry necessary to kill the enemy you are spotting, if you are the one to mark a foe and they get killed soon after, you get a little reward. The default for one infantry unit is 20 XP, but there is bonus XP for squadmates killing the person you spotted, and for vehicles. Plus, spotting is free so unless the enemy might hear you - and you will give away your position as a result - you can just spot everything that moves and doesn't have a blue marker above their heads.
  
  
• Knife Engineer turrets. Not everybody knows that - at least I didn't until recently - but Engineer's deployed turrets (both Anti-Infantry and Anti-Vehicle) are vulnerable to your close-quarters knife attack. 2-3 hits will take one down and give you 25-28 XP - not much, but you gotta take what you get, right? And once again, the knife attack is free, so if you're not exposing yourself there is nothing that speaks against using it.
  
  
• If you are a Squad Leader with at least one level of the Spawn Beacon, use it. It doesn't necessarily have to be the one and only spot to drop a beacon at, but of course a good spot is great. Either way, each time a squadmate uses that beacon to drop into the action, you get 10 XP. You can't complain about an almost-free 10 XP, right?

Infiltrator is first on the list, so we're starting with that. If you don't like that, please hand in your complaint and I will read it in 4-5 years, thank you.

Before starting, consider if you want to snipe or infiltrate. The Infiltrator is both, and if you have the certs or Station cash to afford it, buy a Scout Rifle or Submachine Gun to make things close and personal - unless you are pro and can quickscope or noscope anybody with your Bolt-Action Sniper before they can shoot you.

• If you want to snipe, go ahead - like with all Killing-based farming methods, it's not a very dependable way, but if done properly, it's the safest because you can kill people that can't kill you back. I'm not going to go over how sniping is properly done, what position you should be in, how you should use your cloak and whatnot. If you are a TR or VS soldier however, your starting Sniper rifle will be a Semi-Auto weapon. Is that a good thing? Sadly not: for proper sniping work you need a Bolt-Action sniper rifle, which is available for 250 Certs (though the arguably best are the more expensive RAMS, Longshot and Parallax). Bolt-Action snipers need to go through a short animation after each shot, even if not reloading, while Semi-Auto snipers can fire multiple shots in relatively quick succession. However a Bolt-Action sniper deals much more damage per hit - around 500, enough to bring down shields or kill a nonshielded soldier -, and can instantly kill any enemy soldier with a headshot - even if they are at full health and shields (but not overshielded), earning you 110 XP - 100 for the kill, 10 for the Headshot.

• Close quarters, as I was going to say. You should probably be using a Scout Rifle or Submachine Gun, unless you are very good with the sidearm or at close-quarters sniping. The one exception of course is if you're going with the Stalker Cloak.
  
  
• As an Infiltrator, I personally advise that you pick at least one level of Anti-Personnel mines (Claymores, Bouncing Betties and Proximity Mines for TR, NC and VS respectively), to plant them in unexpected spots. Putting them in doorways, at one end of a staircase, in the corner behind a generator, on the landing area of a jumppad or simply around a corner of an often-used corridor is a good way to get some sneaky kills, and Infiltrators just excel in indirect combat - not to mention that the enemy who you just blew up will get mad as Hell. Other good locations are near capture points (especially if they have only one accessway and/or are in tight areas), near terminals and in spawn rooms of bases that you are about to lose.
  
  
• If you capture a point inside an enemy base, above all stay away from its capture radius once you got it if you know that there are enemies in the area. Even with your cloaking device, if the enemy sees that you are standing near the point they will be on their guard, and you lose most of your advantage - especially now that the Darklight Flashlight has been implemented to give Infiltrators away. Some people will shoot corner areas where Infiltrators are likely to hide out.
  
  
• You can hack class and vehicle terminals as well as phalanx turrets for 25-28 XP each, which is not just good for your cert count, but also for your team. If you can hack an occupied turret the enemy inside will get ejected out, allowing you to shoot them before they know what happened for some extra XP. Plus, you can get into the turret you just hacked, and destroy nearby turrets and vehicles or kill infantry - hacking a turret is less rewarding than destroying it (100 XP).
  
  
• Using your cloaking device, if you are careful you can get sneaky kills from unexpected angles. As an example, I once hid just next to the exit to an aircraft platform of a Bio Lab owned by an enemy faction, and used my cloaking device and the objects around me to hide myself. After that, I got a 6 kill streak using my Bolt-Action sniper rifle (not even suppressed) to headshot people from behind while they were aiming downwards at enemy vehicles and infantry, or at the sky to shoot enemy aircraft. And of course there's the classic spot of hiding out on the near-inaccessible top of Aircraft towers (The Crown is probably the best-known example) by using a Drop Pod, from where you can shoot people in the back easily.
  The Stalker Cloak is a bit more "fun" than "farming" oriented, but it can be an effective tool: infiltrate a base, capture points, hack terminals and perhaps get a sneaky kill or two with your sidearm - ideal for those that can read enemy movements well.
  
  
• Finally, remember your Recon device - it's that dart gun that fires those funny glowing christmas balls. It's actually useful for things other than annoying people at your warpgate: not only does it detect enemy movement in a rather wide radius from where it has landed, it also gives you a 10XP bonus if a teammate kills somebody that has recently moved within that radius, and thus was marked on the minimap. It's best used in high-traffic areas such as near spawns or capture points and around areas where the enemy faction has holed themselves up if you want to farm it.
  There's also the motion sensors which can be useful in the vicinity of highly frequented areas - hide them around where you would also stick your AP Mines, but a little more hidden to prevent them from being found out too quickly. They can also help divert the enemy's attention so that they turn their back to you while you sit in a corner with your cloak on.

Conclusion: the Infiltrator is a class that's not necessarily bad for farming, but I find it to be sub-average unless used by experienced players. Its design revolves more around stealth play, which is more "fun" than "lucrative".

The Light Assault is, similar to the Infiltrator, a class more designed for "fun" play. You get relatively little utility overall. That is not to say that a well-used Light Assault isn't able to grind certs, though.

• Your jetpacks. Use them. No, seriously. The jetpacks are the one reason why people say that the Light Assault is a class better at infiltrating than the Infiltrator. The mobility it gives you allows you to gain advantages which in turn you can make use of for some easy XP. For instance, in big facilities you are able to jetpack over a wall, get to a generator, overload it, run back outside and jetpack back over, with minimal risk of getting shot at, and even if so, you've got good chances of getting away if the enemy isn't too close. Similarly, you can attack from unexpected angles, sitting on rooftops and small ledges while the enemy is guarding the door. This makes for perfect sneak-kill opportunities.
  
  
• C4. Super useful on a Light Assault, especially when combined with the Drifter Jump Jets, because you can fly from a high ledge and toss them down on enemy vehicles/infantry with little to no risk of getting shot at yourself. Two levels of C4 allows you to carry two packs, allowing you to destroy most vehicles.

Not much to say: the Light Assault is a relatively straightforward class with some great potential, but I find it to be a class not really made to farm.

The Healer. The great person that everybody likes to see. The one that gets all the "Thanks" voice macros. The dude that everyone invites to their birthday and bachelor party. The one guy/gal that takes your date away and you're not even mad - actually maybe you introduced them to each other. In short... the Combat Medic.

Why, do you ask, does everybody like the Combat Medic? It's because of that little thing that they got on their tool slot 3... yeah, the Medical Applicator. Guess what it does? It heals people by shooting them. Hell, it revives them too. It revives them if they had three grenades thrown at their faces. It revives them if a tank ran them over. It revives them if a tank shot them with explosive rounds. It revives them if they had their head popped by a Sniper. It revives them if they die because of a horrible disease. It revives them if... yeah, you get the point.

What's better, no matter how badly wounded and close to death that soldier is, the Medical Applicator will bring them right back to perfect condition with that green beam - no need for an artificial leg, the Combat Medic grows it right back for you in a few seconds. That's how futuristic Planetside 2 is. But I'm digressing.

• The Medical Applicator - Part 1.As you might have guessed by now, the Combat Medic's Medical Applicator is going to be the item you will use all the time. For this occasion I recommend that you use Instant Action to get to the place that 80% of the server population will be at, to the biggest meat grinder you can find - aside maybe of The Crown - so that you can test if the Medical Applicator really has infinite ammo. By the time you're done your Medical Applicator should be overheating even if it's not implemented in the game. And what, may you ask, will you do with that lovely tool? You'll heal and revive people.
  
  
• The Medical Applicator - Part 2. Healing somebody can be done with both your active ability (used with F, by default) and with your Medical Applicator. The former works slower and needs to recharge, but can heal multiple people at once, while the Medical Applicator works faster, on a single person. Your active ability also can't revive people. On the other hand, an upgraded Medical Applicator can also revive MAXes - they're going to be pretty grateful I'm sure. And so will your cert count because MAX Revives give you a little bonus. You won't be able to repair them, that's where an Engineer comes in.
  Both the Medical Applicator and the AoE Medical Applicator give you points for healing people, and a small bonus for healing squadmates. You might not get any points at all if you don't heal a certain minimum (I believe it's 1/4th of a circle for one tick).
  Worried about enemy forces shooting you while you've got your Medical Applicator out? Well...
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Regen Field: You'll have to choose between a temporary AoE heal that you can also heal yourself for free with, or this bad boy: the Regen Field deploys a big dome in the color of your faction which slowly regenerates the shields of anybody who stands in it - and also acts as a magnet for grenades, snipers etc. by the way. It won't be enough to sustain someone through gunfire but it will get your fellow soldiers into the thick of battle a few seconds faster than if they wait for the shield recharge to kick in. The advantage of the Regen Field is that, when deployed in high-traffic areas or where people will trench up to shoot at their foes, you can entirely forget about it and earn Shield Repair XP without lifting a finger. Relocating the shield to the best spots should be your priority, but there is no truly "wrong" place to deploy it.
  
  
• Shooting. Guns aren't your first priority, they come second (unless the enemy is right in your face). If you are in a big meat grinder where people are constantly getting shot down near you, you might never even bring your weapon out - Heals and Revives are worth more in the long run, and they're easier to get because wounded/dead allies aren't trying to shoot you in the face. In short, they're easier to farm than kills. Also, you get to hear about Tango stuff, how you should get bonus money and/or how alien entities are smiling at you, which is a good thing in my book.
  NOTE: This of course only applies to situations where you are in relative safety around a corner or behind cover and you can revive people nearby without exposing yourself to potential threats that might still be around. Make sure that the area's secure before healing and reviving your teammates rather than whipping out your Tool when seeing a skull nearby on the map. When in doubt keep your primary at hand.
  
  
• Passive Systems. Particularly useful if you're getting ready to sit in that 11/12 Sunderer that's just leaving a battlesite, full of wounded soldiers, if you like the Medic I would recommend a level of your passive systems because they'll heal soldiers that're in the same vehicle as you at a slow rate. You still get some XP for it though without any real effort, so it's something to be considered.
  
  
• Revive Grenade. A useful tool in big meat grinders, especially in tight corridors and other places where many soldiers will clump up at one location. (I'm looking at you, Biolabs) Ideally your allies get killed by a well-thrown grenade and you toss your own nade out into the group of dead bodies, getting several revives at once.

The trick about playing a Combat Medic is all about proper positioning and being aware of where your enemies are. Tunnel-visioning in on a group of 4 skull icons where you could be getting Revives off can lead you to your death, often without even getting a Revive out of it. In addition you are very vulnerable while Reviving because you are limited to a small radius around the soldier you are applying your Medical Applicator on and the enemy has an advantage on you with their primary weapon drawn. I would consider the Combat Medic to be the ideal class for the inside of a Biolab or any location where there are many soldiers on foot and some form of cover to heal from - and that is preferably hard or impossible to access with a vehicle or aircraft.

In any case a Combat Medic is often more "risky" to play than an Engineer because being able to heal and Revive (and getting XP for it) requires enemies to be nearby to hurt/kill your allies, whereas an Engineer can deploy stationary ammo crates and stand in the safety of an allied vehicle while repairing it. But the higher risk pays off because of how much a Revive is worth.

All things considered, the Combat Medic is a great Cert-grinding class, and is medium-risk high-reward if used smartly. Its utility excels in large battles where there are tons of infantry dying left and right, with preferably some cover to heal and revive from without getting shot at in the meantime.

Have you read about how awesome the Combat Medic is? Well... there's his rival, too. The one that often gets "Thanks" macros, but not quite as many because people don't always pay attention. The guy that nearly everybody needs, but you only realize you do when you're knees-deep in trouble. Presenting the Engineer.

Why do you ask, do I say that the Engineer's so unacknowledged? A few practical examples: you are a Heavy Assault with your amazing Rocket Launcher, blasting enemy aircraft in the sky and enemy tanks on the ground, feeling good about yourself. Until there's the dreaded 0/0 on your HUD, indicating that you are out of ammo. You couldn't have cared less about the people around you, now suddenly you hope hard that somebody's an Engineer who thought of dropping an ammo crate down for you. If there is not one within 5 centimeters of your feet you start voice-macroing for everyone in the vicinity to give you that damn ammo, while running around like a headless chicken. And finally, somebody drops the crate down, and you think "Hmph, finally man. Took you forever." Then it's reloading and shooting again.

Other situation: you found yourself with 750 Mechanized resources, and thought that it'd be a good idea to get a Lightning tank out. Who cares about that you're Light Assault, it's not like tanks can get damaged or anything. A minute later, you enter a fight with an enemy Battle Tank, and get pretty beat up. Down to half HP, you make a retreat and desperately look around for allies to repair you. Finally, somebody runs up to you with a short black gun in hand. An Engineer? Better keep on rolling to get away from the tank that's on your tail. He gets a few percent of repairing off on you before you gently remind him that he's in your way, by running him over. That'll teach him, trying to block you and get you killed. Then a tank round hits your back, and you blow up. Why the Hell did that Engineer not repair you more? Freaking useless idiot.

Situations like these, though probably way less dramatic, happen every day in Planetside 2. The most thankful people would have to be the friendly MAXes that you repair, because well... it's almost the same deal as a Combat Medic healing infantry. If you are going to drop Ammo Crates down or repair allied vehicles, you're unlikely to earn any "Thanks" voice macros. That being said, the Engineer is great at farming XP and Certs, because he's essentially a support unit, and Planetside 2 rewards assisting your allies.

• The Repair Tool. It repairs destroyed Generators and SCUs, damaged or destroyed phalanx turrets and class/vehicle terminals, damaged friendly vehicles *pant pant* and MAX suits, in other words everything that isn't made of flesh and bones, but metal and nanites. It can compare to the Medical Applicator from the Combat Medic in that it restores "health" to allies and gives XP per tick, however they heal different stuff, the Repair Tool "heals" relatively slow (takes longer to repair a vehicle than to heal a soldier), and it overheats if used constantly. The Repair Tool is the Engineer's primary support tool, his primary farm income, and awesome at what it does.
  
  Repairs give you 5XP/tick for vehicles (ground and air), phalanx turrets, Generators and SCUs, 10XP/tick for MAXes, and a bonus 5 XP/tick if the vehicle/MAX Suit you heal is occupied by at least one squadmate. It doesn't sound like much (you need 50 Repair ticks to get 1 Cert), but considering that Repairs take long, a single Overheat cycle (from your weapon being completely cool to overheated) spans 8 ticks at level 1, or more if you upgraded your Repair tool. Repairing a fully destroyed Phalanx turret, Generator or SCU takes about 3 full overheat cycles, giving you 24 ticks for repairing it. Plus, the turrets you repair are likely going to be in friendly territory (unless you're repairing a hacked, nondestroyed Phalanx turret in hostile territory) so you will earn that additional 15% XP per tick. That does add up to a pretty decent amount of XP over time.
  
  The downside of the Repair Tool is its speed, if you repair non-stationary targets - that is to say, friendly vehicles and MAX suits. Often times people aren't going to stop moving - preferably in a direction away from you - just because you repair them, even if they are clogging the proximity chat with Repair request voice macros. Even worse, friendly tanks occasionally decide to give their Reverse gear a test, and run you over in the midst of you repairing them. You're standing next to a tank instead? Well guess what, you're Vanu and that Magrider you're repairing just side-strafe-ran-you-over. Or the tank driver swings their gun around, knocking you in the head with the barrel and killing you. Or a second tank drives by closely, and runs you over while the other tank blocks your escape route. MAX suits on the other hand are going to think that it is the perfect time to use their Charge ability and run far, far away while complaining that nobody repairs them.
  
  A super safe method of farming is to repair phalanx turrets, generators and SCUs in bases that're behind the front lines, the further away the better. These places are rarely visited by anybody else, meaning that you don't have to share stuff, and there's no enemies to worry about. If you can't help it, you can also visit a base that's adjacent to one owned by an enemy faction, but you'll risk getting attacked, especially if you repair vehicle shield generators when the road you are blocking is getting used by enemy vehicles using that road to get around.
  
  
• The Ammo Crate. You can deploy two of these: either the one in Slot 4 (5 if you have a weapon with underbarrel attachment) which comes by default, or the one from your ACE tool (Slot 5/6) that you get by switching firemodes (default key is B) when the tool is out. Ammo Crates resupply ammunition to nearby allied soldiers, one clip at a time, giving you "Resupply" XP (10 XP/tick) for every clip given to an allied soldier - 15 XP if you resupply a squad. A Resupply will also occur if your ally doesn't miss a full clip - they could have as much as one bullet missing and it will get resupplied to them, hence why some people will shoot once, then reload to get the friendly Engineer the Resupply XP. An Ammo Crate has infinite ammo and is just limited by a timer since when it was deployed. Only one Ammo Crate per Engineer can be deployed at a time.
  
  The Ammo Crate is the Engineer's second support tool. You've got unlimited uses of this little guy, so deploy it without fear. There's no good reason that you shouldn't drop one, unless you already got one deployed in a good spot. Whenever there's some skirmish going on, put one down. When your faction's in a tight hallway pushing forward against an enemy force, put one down. When there's a group of Heavy Assaults on a cliff edge, peppering enemy vehicles and aircraft with their lock-on Rocket Launchers, put one down. When you're at a capture point, twiddling your thumbs for the base to be captured, put one down. When a Sunderer is deployed and people are swarming out from there, occasionally coming back to change class/restore their shields... guess what? Exactly: you put one down. The only downside of this is that the first ammo pack is replaced by Mines if you unlock and equip them.
  
  The downside to Ammo Crates is similar to that of the Repair Tool: it seems to contain a miniature Jedi who will Force Push every allied unit in a 10 meter radius away from it, especially if these soldiers are low on ammo, and spam the proximity chat with voice macros requesting ammo. A minute of silence for all our friends who're playing Engineers, running after people who are sprinting away from them trying to show them that they have ammo boxes... okay, that's enough. Moving on.

(apparently I've reached a character limit, so the Engineer is getting more discussed in the following chapter)

*Ahem* As I was saying...

• Ammo Crate + Repair Tool Combo. Is it possible? Can you combine those two tools? In a way, yes it is. The situation's as follows: you are on some relatively open territory, attacking or defending a base. Enemy aircraft are soaring through the skies, which essentially is a Double-Burster-MAX mating call. Within minutes the place is crawling with soldiers in suits, looking at the sky until their neck snaps into that position forever - and keeping on looking from there - and, as soon as the mentioned aircraft come into sight for an attack, the pewpewpew starts. Shoot until both Bursters are empty, reload, rinse and repeat. Enemy shooting back at them? Take some damage, shrug it off, keep on shooting.
  
  At this rate, those MAXes will be running dry fairly soon, right? Of course, you as an Engineer see your opportunity, and drop your Ammo Crate on the ground. Then step back a bit as a flood of armored units come to swarm around that Ammo Crate like flies around a huge-ass... ehm, yeah, you know what I mean. You'll be hearing a lot of dingling sounds while your HUD displays "Resupply" until it's burnt into your eyeballs. Are we happy yet? Sure not, because those MAXes aren't moving away from that Ammo Crate until it's gone, and they actually notice that it is. Stationary MAXes who've taken damage mean easy prey for your Repair tool. They'll thank you, and so will your Cert Count.
  
  
• Mines. Engineer-exclusive Anti-Tank Mines are a very powerful tool, but a double-edged sword. While two of them can blow up any non-mineguarded vehicle that they end up beneath of, you need to get them there first. Of course, mines are intended to be placed on the path of enemy vehicles that will drive on top of them, but more people actually run up to said vehicle and drop them beneath them, then get the hell away from there. Here's the double edge: you need to get there first. And I don't know about you, but so far other people haven't been very nice about letting me get to their vehicles so I could blow them up. You'll need to be sneaky or fast to get there if the vehicle is guarded, and neither is an Engineer's specialty. That being said, if you run across an abandoned vehicle, drop a pair of mines and reap the rewards. Not really a farmable thing, but it doesn't hurt to carry a few mines with you for situations like these.
  There's also the AP Mines which can be particularly useful if laid down around corners where nobody sees them. One needs Flak Armor or level 2 Nanoweave armor to (barely) survive an explosion from direct vicinity, but Heavies with their shield on can also resist it.
  
  
• Underbarrel Grenade Launcher. Credit goes to Pirate34 for the idea! As an Engineer with the Carbine that has the Underbarrel attachments you can turn yourself into an artillery weapon, peppering enemy forces with underbarrel grenades while your Ammo pack keeps you from running dry. If you are locking down a small room or looking down at enemy forces from a balcony you can easily get a kill streak.
  
  
• MANA Turret (AP/AV). The MANA turret is a great item to farm with in general. In infantry-intense spots such as inside of buildings or around Bio Labs as well as near jump pads that can be used by the enemy faction, deploying your Anti-Personnel Turret allows you to mow down enemies and rack up a lot of assists and kills with relative ease. You can also siege enemy spawn rooms.
  The AV Turret might actually be OP. Its projectile speed, flight distance and damage are all amazing and the long cooldown between shots is handlable. While it's not entirely fire-and-forget (if you leave the turret before the projectile lands it will start to drop) you can guide it around corners and pick off enemy vehicles and even infantry from afar, long before they can shoot you. Try grouping up with a few friends and concentrate your fire on a single enemy vehicle, especially during big zergs.

The Engineer's my personal favorite for farming points because he supports both infantry (ammo) and vehicles (repairs), giving you great versality in your grinding session. You won't get as many "Thanks" voice macros by your allies as a Combat Medic will, but that's not what you're after anyway.

Heavy Assault. The big guy that people complain about being "Easy mode" because of their shields and powerful weaponry. Can you farm with him? Yes, to an extent.

• Get Kills. The Heavy Assault is most likely the easiest class for killing other people in straightforward combat, so if you want to farm kills without using advanced strategy and similar sorceries, this is the way to go. I'm not going to say much about killing here, though. Just remember to press F + LMB to win.
  
  
• Kill vehicles. You don't want to be the scumbag that stands by his friends and watches them shoot rockets at the enemy vehicle, only to whip out your Rocket Launcher and shoot a single rocket, getting the kill. Maybe that'll get you better farm because kills are worth more than assists, but you'll become the one guy that everybody hates. And you don't want to be that guy. Instead, shoot your deal of rockets and hope for the best.
  
  
• Hurt Enemy Air.If you have a lock-on Rocket Launcher for air or there is a stationary aircraft in the sky (Liberator or Galaxy, most likely) shoot at them to get some Surface-to-air-damage XP (20 XP per tick). Not really farmable, but you also get a chance at killing people.

Overall the Heavy Assault isn't a real "farming" class, it's designed for killing stuff. You can try yourself but I wouldn't recommend it if you want to farm dedicatedly.

The final class, the MAX, doesn't really have a special nook it can be used at, however it deserves its own chapter because I say so.

The MAX is very similar to the Heavy Assault in that its job is to kill other things. Not the best support class - actually the MAX is more of a supported class -, but it does a better job than the Heavy at it because well... a MAX has armor and heavy weaponry on its arms which is out all the time. No switching between Rockets and Bullets.

As a MAX, your best bet is to be somewhere hard/impossible to reach for enemy vehicles with high firepower (such as the inside of a Bio Lab, or a bigger building/tunnel) with Engineers around you who can repair you and restock your ammo (those ammo crates are good for you, don't you run away from them <.<), and maybe a Combat Medic or two that can revive you if the Engineers fail at their job. A good setup would be 1-2 MAXes, 2-4 Engineers (2 per MAX) and 1 Combat Medic per 2 Engineers, but at least 2 Combat Medics in total. The MAXes can farm infantry, which is what they're best at because they can kill soldiers before they can kill them, and protect the rest of the team, the Engineers repair and resupply, the Medics heal the Engineers and each other, and revive anybody that might get killed.

You can also use Bursters on your MAX to shoot at enemy aircraft for some Surface-to-Air damage (same as the Heavy Assault with rockets), and against pilots who don't manage themselves well enough, you can get kills. ESFs, Liberators and Galaxies are all worth several points, and if the people inside don't bail out you get extra points for the kills.

I find that the best bet is to go for anti-Infantry MAXes, and stay somewhere that you'll just get infantry running at you, and no tanks or such. Overall, like the Heavy Assault the MAX isn't a real "farming" class, but it is moreso one than the Heavy Assault because of its resistance. I wouldn't say it's good to dedicatedly farm with one, but when having a "fun" session it's a good way to get some certs nontheless.

Alright, done with the classes, moving on to the vehicles. I'm splitting this into two categories for simplicity, because not all the vehicles are going to have enough worth saying to make a whole group for them.

If you pick any vehicle at all, unless you're sitting in the back of a Flash, you almost have to be an Engineer, to repair your vehicle. Exceptions can be made if you're a Light Assault who dumps their aircraft on first occasion to bail out and run on by foot, or maybe if you play Infiltrator who wants to run around hacking terminals and ghost-capping bases that you know are not going to get attacked. Or if you're a Combat Medic with some levels in your Passive Systems, and you're sharing a big vehicle with other people.

• The Flash: Not much to say here. You can use the Flash along with a scout radar Certification to farm kills, or if you're a good driver, you can go for roadkills. Or you can have a friend drive for you while you sit on the back and shoot/lay C4/mines in drive-by mode.
  The flash is also a nice alternative to the ESF if you want to get far behind enemy lines and overload generators, kill turrets (in which case an Engineer with an AV turret is ideal) or hack them (which gives you the advantage of being able to cloak your vehicle). It's slower but much safer than an ESF.
  (Thanks to Leviathan for this idea!) Make sure that there is an equipment terminal nearby, that you have double C4 for your Light Assault and the Cloak upgrade for your Flash. Pull a Flash, go Light Assault and plant some C4 on the front of the Flash, then switch class to Infiltrator and cloak the Flash. Drive it into an enemy vehicle (not undamaged Sunderers) and blow the thing up by shooting the C4. You can also switch seats as Light Assault and blow the C4 up manually.
  
  
• The Harasser. With an explosive weapon on the second seat the Harasser is great to kill infantry, and can possibly dish out a little damage against tanks and Sunderers to get an Assist bonus. Harassers are also relatively easy to get roadkills with because they are rather large and fast. Don't even consider going one-on-one against a tank though - you will most likely be murdered on the spot.
  
  
• The Lightning: Lightnings are made to kill stuff, and as a light vehicle you shouldn't get into a skirmish against a heavy tank. So, Lightnings are best used to farm enemy infantry, or maybe phalanx turrets when outside an enemy base. HE rounds are recommended over the default turret. AP Rounds are a good alternative if you think you'll run into many Sunderers. It is not advised to go into fights against enemy tanks unless you are a very good pilot because the Lightning Tank is a light tank with little armor. You can also attempt the Skyguard to snatch someGround-to-air Damage XP, but it's not as rewarding, and harder to get.
  
  
• The Main Battle Tank. This is going to be either a Prowler, a Vanguard or a Magrider. The same thing as for the Lightning Tank applies, with the exception that you can take on other tanks and Sunderers as well. Generally engaging enemy heavy tanks is a high-risk high-reward thing because things could go either way, and it mostly comes down to skill - and a bit to the certifications you have vs. the enemy's certifications. Lightnings are more of a medium-risk high-reward thing because they're lighter, but don't think yourself fully safe just because your tank is bigger - you could very well be the one who gets killed. Farming enemy infantry and phalanx turrets is also a way to go.
  
  
• The Sunderer. For some in-depth information on the Sunderer, I recommend my own other guide on it (well, you gotta advertise it somewhere...). Basically, I recommend a Sunderer with the S-AMS Cert (the one that allows you to deploy as a spawn point) and either Proximity Repair System or Proximity Ammo Dispenser equipped. From there, drive with a big vehicle zerg and make sure that if somebody fires as much as a single bullet or round, you are there to resupply it (if you have the Ammo Dispenser) or, if they take any damage, you are there to repair it right away (with the Prox. Repair System). Try to deploy in a location that is close to the battle and safe from tanks and Heavies shooting you from afar, and make sure to do it fast before other Sunderers can deploy and block you. Resupplying a vehicle gives you 10XP per tick, and every time somebody spawns on your Sunderer you get 2XP. Not much but it adds up rapidly in big fights, and there is no real effort in for you.
  
  
• The Phalanx Turrets. Not really ground vehicles in the strictest sense of the word, but they're on the ground and they can be accessed, so it's worth mentioning them. Phalanx turrets can be very effective cert farms if used properly - especially AV Turrets. An accurate gunner can shoot down enemy aircraft, ground vehicles and infantry - infantry are instagibbed by direct hits, tanks take 2-4 shots depending on where they are hit, ESFs take 2 hits, and Liberators/Galaxies take several but you're unlikely to be firing at those. Phalanx turrets are immensely powerful, but because you are stationary and generally in wide-open spots (on towers, at a hilltop in Ti Alloys and other smaller outposts etc.) you become a big target for tank rounds, Rockets, C4, Rocketpods, Daltons and so on, so you are unlikely to be making a big dedicated farming session out of it before you have to leave. However with some Engineers supporting you and good aim you can rack up a load of XP and Certs - for instance if big groups of infantry are charging from a Sunderer deployed at the bridge near Ti Alloys, and you can't see the Sunderer itself. AP and AA Turrets both are also useful, but AP Turrets have a very wide spray after the first few shots making them less viable at a range, and AA Turrets have a wide spray which makes them more able to scare enemy ESFs and Liberators away than to get kills.

Much like with land vehicles, aircraft can't really do much in terms of dedicated farming, though there are some possibilities if you want to take to the skies. The same recommendation of being Engineer (with exceptions) applies here.

• The ESF. Either a Mosquito, or a Reaver, or a Scythe. With your Empire-Specific Fighters you can engage other aircraft for high-risk low/medium-reward situations. This isn't recommended because in dogfights other pilots tend to bail out or crash their aircraft if damaged badly, to get away from their agressor or deny them XP and Certs. Maybe to not feel so bad about losing the fight. Either way, you could very well end up fighting a tough dogfight with you not getting a single XP point out of it even if you win.
  
  You can abuse the speed of flight of an ESF to get to just about any spot on the map quickly: by flying over a territory that is about to be captured or defended you can get yourself some quick Capture/Defense-Ribbon XP with minimal risk. Just make sure to fly over the part of the territory where the Capture points are displayed on your HUD, as this is where you will get the XP at.
  
  Using Rocket Pods, you can also try to farm infantry for some points. This is a medium-risk situation because lock-on rocket launchers can hit you while you attack others, however the rewards can be great if you're a decent pilot who's able to get some good hits off.
  
  You can attempt to farm Lightning Tanks, MBTs and Sunderers. Lightning tanks that aren't equipped with a Skyguard are probably the easiest targets because hitting a moving ESF is super difficult - aircraft are considered to be the hard counter to vehicles, currently. It's a low/medium-risk high-reward thing, but once again farmability is limited because it depends on the enemy being there, and being unable to defend from your attacks.
  
  A final, relatively safe strategy to farm, is to get far behind enemy lines into their territory, mainly focusing on facilities but also on smaller outposts which have Generators and/or Phalanx turrets. Hover in place and use your main gun and Rocket Pods to shoot the turrets, starting with Anti-Air just to be safer from possible counter-attacks. Each turret kill gives you 100 XP. For the PS2 veterans, it should be said that Generators were patched to only be overload-able once the base itself can be captured. Plus, you're creating some farm for Engineers from the other faction who might be farming just like you are. If not, well, the enemy will have a half-wrecked base to work with when they get attacked.
  
  
• The Liberator. If you've got a Liberator, your targets are all at ground-level, however unlike an ESF you are a big, slow-moving target which can get hit by smaller enemy aircraft and non-flak tank rounds - which hit like a firetruck. Farming vehicles is one option, but for the best rewards attack infantry. Turrets with explosive rounds are a great alternative to the default guns here, but remember to keep something to defend yourself against ESFs. You get 10XP if your Gunners kill something, but it's nothing to write home about.
  
  
• The Galaxy. As a transporter pilot you won't be getting any kills because you have no weapon, however you can occupy a Gunner seat to attempt shooting some stuff. The Galaxy is however not a farming vehicle: it's made for strategic play, transporting people to, and dropping them in, important locations. There's a small bonus if somebody you dropped recently kills somebody else (Deploy Kill) but it's not a farmable value. Same for Gunner kills, or assists if you're flying and your gunner gets a kill. The only option might be to use the Galaxy as a Liberator, equipping it with Bulldogs and/or Walkers and going for bombardment or Air Superiority with four gunners.
  
  Thanks to swifter for pointing this out: Equipping your Galaxy with 4 Engineer gunners and going on a rampage in the sky then quickly repairing when damaged can be a good way to earn some certs if your gunners know what they're doing and you are an able pilot. The Galaxy can withstand enormous punishment before going down, make use of this.

Everything that can't really be listed in a specific section above will be mentioned here, such as specific places to farm at or methods that apply to specific situations (but still are opportunities to consistently farm, and not based on luck to occur).

Thanks to Gamebuster21 for this!
When attacking a Biolab, most classes have the opportunity to set themselves up at one of the teleportation rooms which one teleports into from adjacent facilities. These are similar to spawn points in that there are bullet-blocking shields which cannot be passed by factions other than the one that owns the facility that they teleport from.
Engineers can make a good amount of certs by dropping Ammo Crates near the doors and windows and repair MAXes, Medics can resurrect allies who storm out from within the shields provided that they aren't too far out, MAX units can use their Anti-Infantry weapons to run around a corner, mow down a few enemies who siege the point and run back behind cover for repairs and Light Assaults can attempt to quickly reach higher balconies or roofs with their jetpacks for a few kills from above.
Of course this can only occur when a medium to large-scale battle is occuring for a Biolab.


Defend jumppad landing pads.
Jumppads in areas where they are not empire-specific (such as the ones on Biolab aircraft landing pads and their adjacent areas) not only are a strategic advantage to make use of, they can provide medium-risk medium- to high-reward farming opportunities especially for Engineers. Setting up a turret or parking a vehicle with anti-Infantry weaponry equipped (such as a Sunderer with one or two Bulldogs) and keeping an eye on the sky will allow the person to see incoming enemies (be wary of Light Assaults who can interrupt their flight path and land elsewhere) and shoot them the instant that they hit the landing pad. The biggest threats here are Light Assaults which can Jetpack-C4 just about everything beneath them, followed by Heavies whose Rocket Launchers require relatively little aiming to be effective against Infantry, then Shotgun users (against Infantry) and people smart enough to quickly throw a grenade. Note that Engineer Turrets cannot be set ON a landing pad anymore as they could before - this was fixed because it would effectively block the landing pad, killing anybody who comes in with the impact onto the turret.

I hope that this guide helped you, and that you become a better farmer in the future. Please leave your constructive criticism in the comments, and if you downvote let me know why so I can improve myself.

I'll also be taking in any farming/grinding methods that I didn't mention, but other people thought of - just leave a comment or send a message and I'll add it, giving you credit for it.

Also, I know you're going to do it anyway ;) but please avoid promoting your faction/insulting the others, or arguing with other players which one is the best. If you want the world to know why your faction of choice is the absolute best, you can just... I dunno, write a "guide" discussion yourself, or go to a Planetside 2 forum and do it there. Competitiveness is cool but this is a guide for everybody ;)

Thank you for having read this far, I hope you enjoyed the guide. If not, I don't know why you're still reading this. Have a good day!