In this small guide I want to cover as much available knowledge about ziplines as possible. Although, at the same time I don't want to cover too obvious stuff, so if you find some simple stuff missing it's ok — you still can learn it in the game. In addition, I may not cover zipline patterns that are not directly and absolutely beneficial. At this point I wanna include everything I know about but don't wanna mess your head with not important stuff that you can customize for yourself from your experience.

Note that I also feature there other publicly available guides and materials in case you need better explanation or some additional details. I appreciate the effort of our fellow minahs and I want to contribute in the same way by mixing my experience and knowledge with ones of the best community works.

In the first months of Early Access zipline was the ultimate savior cause there were simply no macteras back then. Moreover, enemies' projectiles were so slow that you could protect yourself from Spitballer's ball with just one pickaxe hit. Although, nowadays it's still possible to kill Spitball Infector from zipline:

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Nevertheless, it's very dangerous to stay on zipline when there's enemies with distant attacks around you. According to Banagement, it takes 15 damage before you fall off a zipline. However, on the other hand, using a zipline when you feel like there's too many ground enemies around you is still a smart choice. And not only for gunner, but for anyone since anyone can use a zipline to save own HPs and reduce the risk of going down. And take note that these enemies can get you off zipline:

BET-C
Hitscan aimbot with slow rotation speed.

Dreadnoughts
Fireballs are not easy to avoid. Nevertheless, brom10 on DRG's subreddit and
Syndralix on DRG's Official Discord found a way to dodge that fireball:



Macteras
The number one target priority while you're on a zipline. By the way, if you're snatched by grabber you can still save yourself by holding E.

Naedocytes
The number two priority target cause even if you fall it'll easily get you killed on the ground.

Glyphid Menace
Won't get you off zipline instantly but it'll happen shortly anyways. You need to either stun the bug or start moving immediatetely to avoid going down.

Q'Ronar Shellback
His spitting accuracy is so high that there's no doubt he will hit you if you won't move before the impact. Consecutive hits plus fall damage usually make you go down.

Spitball Infector/Korlok Sprout
Can hit you hard but can't move thus it's easy to make another zipline somewhere else.

Spitters
Harder to spot, but in general they are less dangerous.

Bulk Detonator
Can attack you at 8 meters range from the ground.


Glyphid Oppressor
Can slam you away from zipline.

Glyphid Praetorian
Can spit on you if he finds the right angle.

Glyphid Exploders
Have amazing ability to run incredibly fast at you and then ascend by climbing on each other bodies till they reach you which triggers the explosion.

Also there's low possibility that Deeptora Swarm, Stabber Vine, Cave Leech, Q'Ronar Youngling and Nayaka Trawler can get you while you're riding zipline.

In addition to that, you can be pushed off zipline by wind tunnels and steam geysers. Lava geysers and radiation can damage you right on zipline. You can also get frozen and fall down but you'll get no damage in this case. Be aware of falling crystals too. Mainly it's macteras and spitters who usually counters your zipline gameplay, but don't forget about other stuff as well.

As for mod choices, I think it's all the matter of taste here. Personally, I use 50m zipline since I really like to launch it far away to the ceiling or to some wall when entering the cave.

In general, there are 6 in-game ways of staying alive if you're about get knocked from the zipline:

1. Resnatching. Right after getting knocked from zipline move your camera on the same zipline and press E to resnatch it.
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2. Safety zipline. Place second zipline under the main one in advance so you can snatch another one on the way down by holding Use button (E). To make it even better, you can follow Space-90's advice and turn it into vertical X to have joint between two lines in the middle rather than near beginning of the lines on the ground. That will expand amount of positions you can take while on zipline and will also allow you to choose sides — to which end you wanna quickly slide down from the middle.
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3. Releasing the brake. Hold W to release the brake right before being shot to raise the riding speed and quickly go down. But that's only available while you descend. There's details from Banagement:

• Travel speed on zipline by default: 1.75m/s.
  
• Time to activate the speed boost: 0.25 seconds.
  
• Minimum angle for boost: anything past the 3rd tick above 0 or the first tick below 0.
  
• Minimum boosting bonus: 1.1m/s.
  
• Additionally you get 0.3m/s per 1 degree in angle.
  
• And there's 2m eject distance from end of line when using speed boost.

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4. Speedclimbing. Spam jump forward + resnatching rapidly to boost your ascending speed. The higher the angle the faster you need to spam it. By default, hold 'W' key and press 'E'-'Space' combo repeatedly (right GIF) or just use the macro[pastebin.com] (left GIF):
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More about speedclimbing in this video made by AxisKronos: https://youtu.be/Bumz8fqMlFk
5. Soft ground. Place ziplines above snow, goo or ask engineer for platforms. Even if you fall you'll likely to get just a low portion of fall damage.

6. Hover Boots (perk). The easiest way to counter fall damage.

To be honest, it's not all, it's just that the other ways are based on luck. Also note:

引用自 DRG Wiki：

Because the Status Effect provided by Disconnection Protection is bugged out to be semi-permanent (instead of temporary), Gunners can provide their whole team with a 25% Fall Damage Resistance buff for an entire mission with just one Zipline (provided that no one gets downed).

Strafing from the Air Road!

Sometimes having one zipline is not enough. You already know there's many threats that can knock you off your zipline. And the standard approach to deal with that is to jump off zipline, throw a shield gen, destroy as many threats as possible and quickly change position if necessary. But there's also that way.

You can quickly drop 3 ziplines in the form of the Road and kite on them almost like if you were on the ground. You can then expand the Road further and turn it into the Field. Thus, the ground enemies can't get you and your threats with distant attacks also can't get you while you certainly CAN get them at the same time. You also save position and shield gen.


I'm using automated Zipline Speedclimbing technique that was mentioned in previous section, i.e. you better use appropriate macro[pastebin.com] for that. Hold macro button to invoke macro repeateadly, I also didn't include W in macro so pressing it manually will pull you up above the zipline and then towards. That way you can do evasive dashes to any side while staying on zipline. Also realise that you can freely shoot below and in front of you while quickly moving towards the Road with macro. Releasing move button (W) would make you slowly fall down and you would need to rise again before air jump can be initiated, therefore you might also wanna use another way of using Air Road.


Yes, you can simply perform zig-zags towards the Road and be safe. That's just manual jumps&grabs between the lines. It's actually the best way of safe escaping towards some direction. But it's hard to make pauses and strafe if you're really under high pressure dodging several distant attacks. So it's just escape move imo. And, unlike Above-Zip moves, it also works on client side.

Above-Zip dodging is cool way to dodge&shoot during regular swarms consisting of different threats while Under-Zip dodging is good way to escape multiple threats and escape. For instance, I may use Above-Zip to easily kite several dread's fireballs on zipline and Under-Zip to escape from Caretaker and avoid being hit by multiple appendages. That's sort of extreme moves for extreme situations.

Generally you throw a zipline over the battlefield to have good angle of view and be safe from ground enemies' attacks. One of the plays I do is throwing a shield and then zipping out of it when it expires. You can also jump on ziplines from above and switch them mid-way to get where you want to be. Also you can throw ziplines over sticky goo or just throw it in a tunnel (in escort mission, for instance) at high angle so you can quickly move through (when releasing the brake). However, depending on circumstances you need to adjust your zipline application.

That oppressor seemed dangerous but luckily he was told by AI to climb the drop pod and do Sonic Stomp towards the ceiling instead of bumping me away with Rage Quake. But even if so I could rehook anyways.

Usually all you need to do here is to throw a zipline which will still be in the triangulation zone and far from any point of terrain at the same time. It shouldn't be too high so you'll be able to jump to grab it. One zipline is usually enough, although if your mate wanna join you on the line — you better make separate one just for him in parallel to your line so you won't interfere with each other. And since you'll probably resupply anyways after the defense you may throw additional parallel lines just for dodging spitting attacks. As another example, jonnooo really helps his team just by staying alive on that line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVahDTypwnk

One for me, one for you, Bosco!

I recommend throwing ziplines to different sides of cave where:

• you see aquarq in the wall, zipline plays platform role but also helps to deliver it with ease, also the same goes for eggs and oil shail;
  
• you see ledge to some higher place with resources;
  
• you or your mates may certainly fall, i.e. creating airbags;
  
• you see cave below the base, zipline is almost necessary in this case.

Caretaker is in my spiderweb!

• One of the common zip strats there is the one that helps driller to get to the top in order for him to throw Satchel Charge on top of the Caretaker. And you should do it especially if you see your engineer building platform bridge for that, so you better connect it to the ground with zipline.
  
• Another thing to be concerned about is making escape zip when defending Hack-C, things may go bad mid-way - it means you can simply be overwhelmed at some point. And it's totally fine to leave Hack-C, gain hp/resupply, go back, clear all bugs and continue.
  
• Also check out one of my special strats against Caretaker: https://youtu.be/ObWMXArPq_0

Cave Leech Cluster
Although scout is the best bait to leeches, you decide whether to go in or to strafe before.

Exploder Infestation!
If you're low enough exploders can climb in the air and trigger the explosion.

Low Oxygen
You need to refill oxygen time to time so your riding is limited.

Mactera Plague
Direct zipline-counter, obviously you can't really use ziplines there aside from traversal.

Shield Disruption
Fall damage fully reflects on your HPs.

Elite Threat
Introduces elite macteras, menaces and spitters. You've been warned.

Well, in this case zipline has two functions:

• Getting you closer to the target.
  
• Helps to avoid damage.

First one is kinda easy, all you need to do is to throw zipline right close to the tower. Beware burster module and drones. And thanks to Siirvend for showing how to utilize the second function (at 9m 36s):
https://youtu.be/fiuqgXDB1Uo?t=576
Place a zipline to connect Nanite Bomb Dispenser and Tritilyte Shard if possible. Use it if it helps you to get in the throwing range faster than by walking on the ground. You can throw explosive charge to your teammate right from zipline if he's up to be the Man-in-the-Middle, i.e. catch and throw explosives instead of walking.

Also, I recommend you to check out PsychicSploob's strategy:
https://youtu.be/iMgmQ0ZD_tU?t=207

Thanks for checking out my guide!

UPDATE: I found out that when guner releases the break he gains acceleration just like scout. So, just like scout he can send mates into the air if you time it right. For instance, one of the accidental cases is shown there.[www.twitch.tv]

S02: There is a bug with "change direction" button after you use it aiming towards another closely placed zipline to grab it directly. In this case you can only switch directions if you aim in the appropriate one. More info[ghostshipgames.atlassian.net]

S02 Ascended Venting: client side, place 2 ziplines close to each other, hold Forward to slide down from one, turn your camera upwards and press Use a few times to switch to another zip, don't release Forward. It makes you slide upwards on the parallel zipline.

Also I really like that recolor mod for ziplines![drg.mod.io]

And don't forget to communicate and point your team when you throw ziplines to eggs, aquarqs and so on, i.e. in not so obvious cases like crossing the pit.

That's about it. To be honest, this game's community has grown so big that when I wrote my first guide it was just about 50 guides but now it's like 5 times more! It'd be great if I could turn it into a series of guides - hence you see that this guide is named as tools. No promises, though. All in all, I hope you learned smth new there and feel free to ask questions in the comments or correct me if I missed anything you find really important to know.