What will this guide teach you? Simple. It will highlight useful controls and keyboard shortcuts. It will tell you what to do, so you're at least as useful as an AI bot, who to their credit actually do more than most noobs do. It will also give you a basic understanding of what your job is.

Q is to quick switch between your primary and secondary weapons.
C is to switch between your current weapon's firing modes, if applicable.
X will drop ammo for your team.
E toggles Auto-Fire.
G will toggle your last placed explosive/ground item, pressing G a second time will detonate that item.
F will throw flares where your mouse cursor is or nearby. Use flares liberally, they regenerate slowly. Shooting in the dark does not work, you will miss and waste ammo.
Y will make you sprint. It has a fairly long recharge, so if you time it wrong, you're boned.
U will turn on object highlights to make things easier to see/find on the map
F11/F12 will toggle the UI, this is what you press if you discover your overlay has vanished.

Your inventory is arranged in a 3 X 2 grid.
To use inventory items, left click them.
Some inventory items will require additional clicking.
Explosives will require you then left click a second time to designate where you want to place them.
Certain first aid items will require you click on your target, whether yourself or another team mate.

You can also activate your inventory by holding control, and pressing the corresponding key in grid form as follows:
QWE
ASD

To attack something the proper (not stupid Auto-Aim) way, hold shift, then left click on what you're trying to attack.

You will see a glowing orange dot when holding shift near where your mouse cursor is. If the dot does not turn RED, you are not likely to hit your target. Play around until you're used to what makes the cursor turn RED. Its quite intuitive, unless you're an imbecile.

Auto Aim should NOT be your default form of offence. Unlike AI bots, you do not have unlimited ammo. Nothing annoys the crap out of people more than an idiot blazing away ammo with Auto Aim.

Auto Aim is normally used only in the following situations:

1. You're activating a turret or some other world object
2. The enemy is too close and manual aiming is finicky
3. You're focusing on something else REALLY important. If this is the case, kindly toggle burst/single fire mode.
4. You're a derp Terminator using your Autocannon mode for crowd control, and your team mates are okay with you blowing holes into them by accident.

Otherwise, you're wasting ammo. And if your team mates are smart, they won't give you a single bullet more, as well as probably leave you for the aliens to eat.

In Red Solstice, you can toggle Auto-Aim on and off by hitting the 'E' key.

This will cause your character to automatically fire at targets within range.

You may be wondering, why do some people have such a negative view on Auto-Aim? What's the difference between manual and auto-aiming?

To answer these questions, I'll start with explaining the mechanics behind things.

Auto-aim mode is indiscriminate. When it is enabled, it will make your character blaze ammo, and continue blazing, at the closest available target within range.

When your character is auto-aiming, he will also blindly fire off into the dark.

WHEN AUTO-AIM FIRES INTO THE DARK, THERE IS A BUILT IN % PENALTY WHICH WILL CAUSE YOUR SHOTS TO MISS.

You will notice red 'miss' indicators flashing over your character when this happens.

The biggest difference is:

WHEN YOU MANUAL AIM, YOU DO NOT HAVE A BUILT IN CHANCE TO MISS WHEN FIRING INTO THE DARK. IF YOUR MANUAL AIMING IS ACCURATE, YOU DO NOT HAVE A BUILT IN % MISS CHANCE.

Auto-Aim therefore gets its bad name, from people who just leave it turned on and waste ammo indiscriminately by allowing their character to fire off into the dark at targets they are unlikely to hit.

Another thing to note about auto-aim is that it is a detriment to characters who are trying to flee, as auto-aim will slow their character down, forcing them to fire on the move, which is slower than normal movement.

The situations to use Auto-aim in are:

1. Creatures are really up close and personal, and manual aiming is finicky.

2. You have lit, clear line of sight, or are shooting at something huge and impossible to miss, and are sure your auto-aim shots are hitting with perfect accuracy.

3. You are multitasking and doing something else, and need to fire at the same time for whatever reason.

If you are not in these situations, then please turn Auto-Aim off and manually aim.

As a noob, follow this basic rule. Don't touch anything if you don't know what it does. Ask someone more experienced if you're curious instead of experimenting.

Things you can (And probably should) touch:

1. Inactive turrets

Scattered across the map, these automated turrets are inactive until a Marine turns them back on using his suit systems. Do this by right clicking the turret in question which will begin the process, indicated by a dial that slowly fills.

Once active, they will fire at enemies in the vicinity, providing a modest amount of additional firepower. This helps more with preventing enemy regeneration than anything else, but every little bit counts.

Once you activate a set number of turrets, normally 20, all remaining inactive turrets on the map will come online as well, providing not only significant helpful firepower, but also an experience boost.

2. Offline Power Consoles

Indicated by a small battery icon on the minimap, these provide an armour boost to your entire team, and also turn on the lights making it easier to spot enemies.

In addition, some are linked to nearby turrets, which makes activating them a more efficient way of getting more turrets online.

3. Lockers

Lockers come in 3 different varieties, Basic, Average and Quality

The better they are, the longer they take to search, but the better quality the loot you possibly find is.

Search them for supplies to keep your team going.

However, keep in mind the key resource in this game is TIME, not LOOT. So if you spend too much time looting, you will likely lose the mission.

4. Explosive barrels

You can pick these up to throw at enemies, but doing so consumes some of your suit's armour. Right click to pick them up, left click to throw them.

5. Dead Marines and Rubble

These are lootable items which give ammo and boosts to your team. Grab them when you see them, and once you grab enough you get a good XP boost.

6. Energy Batteries

These just need to be walked over to be collected. They give your entire team a boost to their energy, helping you level more quickly.

The person who takes them also gets a damage boost. As such, please give them to your team's Marksmen or Demo, or other high damage class to get the most out of them.

The plethora of items may be a bit overwhelming. Here's a rough guideline of what's gold, and what's junk.

Very Important:

Shotgun shells (Ammo for shotguns, kindly give to people who know what the hell to do with it instead of shooting parasites)
Combat Stims (Free passive movement boost, and extra movement on use when you need it)
EVAC beacon (Give it to the team leader, its for calling down the evac ship)
Various ammo for different guns/weapons

Kinda useful:

Health, Armour and Weapon boosts (These give a passive boost as long as they're in your inventory. Pretty nifty.)
Medical supplies (Not really useful if we have a decent medic around, but since those are sometimes hard to come by, they'll save your bacon)
Satchel Charges + Directional Primer Charges (best explosives, since they can be remote detonated)
Seeker Bombs (Bombs that auto guide to nearby enemies and do not hurt friendlies. Spam away. Just watch for accidental detonation of other explosive things)
Bunker Bomb (very high damage explosive, needs to be set off by another explosive but does huge damage. Used to kill bosses)
Flare Gun (shoots a big flare like the Recon's ability, really good for shootouts when you're on the run against big mobs)

Okay to have:

Various explosives (usually not as useful as satchels since they have to be either proximity or sympathy detonated by other explosives going off. Usually palm them off to our Demo)
Seismic resonator (stops enemies coming back to life when you place one near their corpses, but otherwise only used endgame to kill burrowing enemies)
Safety Zone Beacon (Don't play with these unless you know what you're doing. They basically call in an artillery barrage in a large area, which will kill off your friends if you're not careful.)

Kinda crap:

Road flares. They're like the flares you have, but last longer, but otherwise don't do jack. Plus you actually have to be on top of where you want them placed. So not so useful.
Elysium detector beacon thing - Detects enemies but you have to set up three of them. Not all that useful considering enemies show up on radar anyway.

Staying Alive

The aim of this game is not 'loot every locker on the map'.

The goal is to move through the map completing objectives as quickly as possible, while LOOTING THINGS THAT ARE CONVENIENTLY ON THE WAY.

If you are GOING OUT OF YOUR WAY TO LOOT THINGS, YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG.

Do not run off solo. Unless you've made a clear decision to do so and are an excellent player, in which case you would not be reading this guide, it is way too easy to suffer from RNG death by picking up a broken leg while your team is way too far to help you.

Bosses

Bosses, the really big ones, are killed using explosives, sniper fire and autocannon fire.

Do not shoot them with your assault rifle, unless you have none of the above options. You are just wasting ammo.

In fact, if you have none of the above options, the right course of action is running the hell away.

Obviously on that note, turn off Auto-Aim when a boss is nearby.

Status Conditions

Being hit by enemies will bestow a plethora of unpleasant and often deadly conditions on you, as indicated by icons both on the right and bottom of your UI.

Poison is one of the most common conditions, usually caused by being bitten by Parasites. It gives you a very slow HP drain, which usually won't kill you too quickly. Remove it by yelling for a medic with one level in first aid, or by giving yourself anti-venom.

Bleeding makes you lose HP when you move. You stop losing HP if you stop moving. Unfortunately this usually means you get eaten. Usually stay still and yell for a medic with two levels in first aid. It is cured by Fibrin Bandages, Nanites and actually competent medics.

Fractures are probably a death sentence if you don't have something to cure it, because they slow you down, turning you into the proverbial friend who got outrun by all his other friends while being chased by bears. It is cured by nanites, or a medic who has 3 levels in his first aid module. Good luck finding one.

Assaults have the additional benefit of having a skill that cures status conditions at the cost of health, meaning they do not have to rely on the quacks who pass themselves off as medics in most games.

Disclaimer: I only play a certain number of classes, so some of my info is based on what I have witnessed, and hearsay from my team members who play those classes. If you want to suggest some tips or hints, I may listen. However if you want to say I'm wrong and stupid about your precious favourite class that I hate, well go ahead, but I'll probably just ignore you.

Assault

Great class for people who hate relying on others, has a bit of everything.

They do decent raw damage with their weapon, and have healing skills which can help them survive if they don't have a medic available.

They also can specialise in specific weapons, such as shotguns, rifles and grenade launchers, allowing them to use their weapon of choice to greater effect than other classes. The shotgun and grenade launcher skills also give them a skill based rechargable use of those specific weapon types.

A great pick for new players who just want the luxury of trying things out, and also great for vets who want to run a class customised to their playstyle.

Heavy Support

Unfortunately gets a bad name, because many noobs like to pick any class they can get with a big gun, the HS's biggest problem is that its really slow, and being slow is a death sentence, as well as a detriment to the team, since they have to slow down for you.

Not only that, in the hands of an inexperienced player, this class is a massive ammo hog, often burning ammo to little effect.

I suggest not playing this class unless you know what you're doing.

In the hands of an experienced player, the HS mows down most enemies with impunity, as well as provides a great damage boosting aura to his teammates, with his minigun providing a rate of fire that allows him to take down both small and large enemies with equal ease.

Learning how to manage your skills as well as how to use ammo prudently is a must for players wanting to play this class effectively.

Demolitions

Explosives are the main method of taking out bosses and other tough mobs, and the Demo class specialises in this.

They have a skill based rocket launcher that doesn't require ammo, and also have skills which provide free explosives.

They're meant as a support class, but one which is vital like the medic, since their role isn't easily replaced.

A good demo will make sure he blows up enough crowds your team doesn't get overrun, a bad one will blow up your squad. Nuff said.

Medic

Currently my favourite class, the medic has very good survivability for two reasons.

Firstly, they can cure status effects, which are a very common cause of death in the Marine Corp, and also heal.

Secondly, they have a movement boost skill, which allows them to outrun other, frequently hazardous things.

A good team will seldom need a medic outside of an unlucky hit, but a good medic on your team is invaluable to have. Also hilarious to play as a sole survivor, since its likely if you have a team that gets itself killed, you'll be the only one who makes it to the dropship, prompting groans and complaints.

Noobs who play a medic will usually die really quickly, as they are pretty squishy, and don't do much damage.

Hellfire

A Hellfire's role is crowd control. Their default weapon the Arc-Lite does a cone of damage, allowing multiple enemies to be hit at once.

Having no friendly fire means it can be fired indisciminately when enemies are attacking your team mates in close range.

They also have skills that do a good chunk of upfront damage, but aside from that, tend to have problems dealing with mobs with higher toughness.

Their other strength is their napalm attacks, which do damage over time, allowing them to wear down tougher enemies and preventing them from regenerating.

They're a fairly tough class, with quite a few skills geared towards tanking, and as such are suited to holding the back line against encroaching enemies.

They also suffer from the same issue Heavy Assaults suffer from, a fairly slow movement speed, so learning to keep up with the team is something that needs to be learnt, otherwise they tend to slow the team down.


Recon

The Recon is a support role, much like the medic. However, unlike the medic, running off on your own, especially if you're inexperienced, will likely get you killed, as even though the Recon moves fairly quickly, he still cannot outrun most enemies, and has no self-medication skills like the Assault/Medic. An unlucky bleed or poison injury will likely end in an inglorious death.

In Recruit/Soldier difficulties, the Recon tends to very much be a luxury rather than a necessity. They have several useful skills, such as artillery calldowns, a repeat use flare gun, and the ability to search more quickly and find extra items while scavenging.

They also specialise in buffing the damage of their team against foes, again a skill not really required in earlier difficulties since classes like the Demo can still easily take down large targets without much assistance required.

Terminator

The obvious choice for every 40K fanboi, myself included.

Fun to play, but chances are if you're new at this, and you pick the Terminator, your first actions will include blowing your friends to pieces with Autocannon friendly fire. His autocannon on its special fire mode provides great damage per bullet, but also overheats, forcing you to wait for it to cool down. Have I mentioned it also does friendly fire? And sets off explosive barrels? Yeah. Shoot this when something is eating your friend's face, and you'll probably end him along with the alien.

He also teleports, like his 40K counterpart, which means like the medic, he has great survivability, being able to explore buildings all the way to their dead ends, then just teleporting himself back into the street.

I would suggest practicing this class by yourself first instead of trying it out and annoying everyone else in an actual game by dying like an embarrassing noob and tarnishing the name of Astartes everywhere.

Marksman

With the Terminator, the Marksman is a very ammo efficient class.

He fires slowly, but has great range, many of his skills focus on further improving his crit and damage chance.

The class requires a player who takes the effort to pick out dangerous targets and ending them or softening them up for his team to finish off. He has skills which increase damage against targeted enemies, similar to the Recon.

If you are not this person, and instead think its fun to derp around with this class while having auto-aim on, please don't, and let someone competent play him instead.

Like the Heavy Support and the Hellfire, he is also fairly slow, and as such, constant attention needs to be kept in order to keep up with the rest of the team.

Ammo Types

You get to choose between FMJ and HP. Always pick FMJ for your main gun. Why? FMJ is more effective against later tier enemies, while HP is better against early enemies. However, early enemies can usually still be dispatched with FMJ, just with a little more effort, while later tier enemies are nearly impossible to kill with HP bullets. Thus, unless you have a specific reason to, always opt for FMJ on your main gun.

Primary Weapons:

GAR and its variants.

These are your basic assault rifles. It comes in 3 variants. The basic variant has 2 fire modes, burst and auto. Auto is for when things have gotten too close, while burst gives you more damage per bullet, and is better when the situation is still under control.

The two variants come with a grenade launcher and a shotgun attachment respectively, and lose the ability to burst fire. For whatever reason, the secondary attachments start in a mission unloaded, so its generally a good idea to hit 'C' the moment you come off the dropship, and reload the attachment accordingly.

If I'm not wrong, the GAR variants are NOT available to certain classes like the Terminator, while the standard GAR can be equipped by most, if not all the classes.

Strike-V

The Strike-V is a semi-auto mid range rifle. It has 2 fire modes, burst and single.

The main difference between it and the GAR is that its meant for support classes such as medics/recons who are not meant to get up close and personal with their enemies.

The reason for this, is that it does better damage than the GAR at range, but does significantly less damage when the enemies are close up.

It is a safe choice for people who want to leave auto-aim on, because it has a decent damage output, while not excessively chewing through ammo.

The downside is that if something gets close, you better have a friend or secondary weapon/skill to deal with it.

Ace-43

The Ace 43 is nominally a Terminator weapon, but can also be used by Assaults who are sufficiently high level. It acts like a normal minigun in its normal fire mode, but its alternative fire mode shoots explosive shells, which are excellent for crowd control. These explosive shells however, do friendly fire and set off explosives, so you will more likely than not kill friendlies by accident if you're not careful with your auto-fire.

Arc-lite

The Arc-lite is the flamethrower used by the Hellfire class.

It can be refilled and boosted by picking up explosive barrels, and its attack type can also be changed depending on what kinds of barrels are picked up.

Good for crowd control on weaker mobs, but tougher creatures should be left to your teammates to kill, as it takes too long with this weapon.

Minigun

Weapon used by the Heavy Support, but can also be carried by other classes, it has an impressive rate of fire which does a correspondingly impressive amount of damage. However, the downside is easily seen when the weapon is used by players who aren't all that proficient with it, as it chews through ammunition like there's no tomorrow. Ideally, individual monsters will be dealt with by your team mates, while you bring the minigun to bear when they are under threat of being overwhelmed.

The other great perk which isn't immediately apparent is the fact this weapon has a cone of fire, making it great for suppressing big blobs of enemies, since it also pierces through, and is one of the main reasons this weapon is quite an asset in the right hands. (Thanks mew!)

SMG

There's a few specific reasons to carry the SMG, and that's the fact its the lightest primary weapon available, allowing you to move more quickly. The other is that it has a fairly good reload speed.

And lastly, it also makes any enemies hit vulnerable to the ammo type it has loaded.

It only has one fire mode, burst fire, which does a decent amount of damage, but is nothing to write home about.

Stinger

Sniper rifle used by the sniper class, it packs a punch, making it one of the most ammo efficient weapons around. The downside to it is of course its slow fire rate. It has two fire modes, the normal mode, and the rail gun mode, which does less damage, but can shoot through walls.

Vindicator

Weapon for Terminators which fires a beam of plasma like the Terminator's ability, I've not used this myself, so I can't really advise you either way.

Secondary Weapons

Pistol

Surprisingly not a bad weapon on its own, the pistol has a normal auto mode which has a fairly decent rate of fire. However, its alternative aimed mode does a very respectable 100 damage per shot, though with a correspondingly slow fire rate.

Another key point about it is that it loads the opposite type of ammo to your main gun, allowing you some versatility in taking on your enemies. Most players suggest using FMJ on your main gun, giving you hollow point on your pistol to deal with earlier, weaker enemies.

SAR-58

A semi-auto shotgun. The shotguns are great weapons, held back only by the scarcity of their ammunition. The SAR-58, being semi-auto, has a bigger clip than its alternative, the FAS-18. It also has better range. The tradeoff for these benefits is that it does quite a bit less damage than the FAS-18, therefore being less efficient per shotgun shell fired.

M1GL

Grenade launcher, which uses the same kind of rifle grenades the GAR-GL does. It does more damage.

FAS-18

Double-barrelled shotgun, this shotgun has the highest damage of all the shotguns. The drawback to it being its very limited two shell clip, forcing frequent reloads, and its somewhat shorter range compared to the SAR-58. My personal favourite secondary weapon, mostly due to how it complements my primary as a backup to pull out when things are getting hectic.

LAW

Rocket launcher, similar to the Demo's rocket launcher ability. Great for hitting bosses, and detonating set explosives. Naturally, watch your friendly fire.

General tips

When choosing a shotgun, the FAS-18 does the most damage, followed by the SAR, and then the GAR-MS shotgun attachment. As shotgun shells are rare and precious, most groups would suggest assigning shells to Marines carrying a FAS-18, and making them the designated shotgun troops who will step in when needed to clear crowds up close.

Burst/Aimed/Single fire always does more damage per bullet than automatic fire. Stick to those unless something has gotten really close and you need it dead quickly.

Different weapons weigh you down differently, affecting your speed. Keep an eye on this, as the game centres around being mobile and quickly completing objectives, so having a slow Marine can easily doom the entire group.

The GAR attachments, while nice, do less damage than their dedicated secondary weapon counterparts. The M1GL is not usually a popular choice, meaning its pretty acceptable for Assault players to opt for a GAR-GL to make use of all the rifle grenades looted so they aren't wasted.

This is not true for shotgun shells, as many classes will often carry a shotgun secondary. So for the sake of efficiency, avoid taking the GAR-MS unless no one else is carrying a secondary shotgun and you plan on taking the Assault's shotgun boosting skills.

Having a competent Demo is a godsend. Here's a rundown by my clan's friendly neighbourhood Demo expert.

Rundown on explosives:

To use an explosive, left click on it's icon in the inventory then left click where you want to place it.

All explosives can be detonated by another explosion. Satchels and Directional Primer Charges can be remote detonated. Rifle grenades, LAW rockets and barrels can be used.

To remote detonate an explosive, click on it and press G. Pressing G twice at any time will detonate your most recently placed explosive. You can not remote detonate someone else's explosive. You can however detonate them with a explosion.

Claymores -

Detonates when anything walks into its radius (Players included). They are safe for about 3 seconds then they beep and emit a laser pointing upwards, if you see that don't walk into it. Place these when swarms are catching up to us or far out from the Barricades in Bunker Mode.

Chain Explosives -

Requires another explosion, their main purpose is to supplement other explosives to kill bosses. You can however improvise traps by placing these and using rifle grenades or rockets to set them off.

Incendiary Explosive -

Work the same way as Chain Explosives except it leaves a persistent fire damage field. Use these in streets or areas we're leaving behind as area denial.

Directional Primer Charge -

They have a narrow cone that steadily expands outward (similar to the shotgun). Use these in narrow corridors and alleys on swarms. Can be remote detonated.

Explosive Bunker -

Huge radius with huge damage, the description fails to mention that these need to detonated with another explosion. Save these for bosses or massive swarms.

Satchels -

Easily the most useful explosive. Decent damage, decent radius. Can be remote detonated. Save for bosses or big dogs in Bunker mode.

Seeker Bombs -

Using these spawns a little bomb that quickly hits the closest target to you. Doesn't hurt team-mates. Best for medium dogs.

Seismic Resonators -

While in your inventory any enemies near you can't come back to life. When placed they force burrowing enemies to emerge so they can shot. Otherwise they can only be hurt by explosions. Take them if you have the inventory room.

There are two explosives exclusive to the Demo. Wired Explosives and the Explosive Sentry. Wired Explosives are the little black things with lasers between them, while sentries are the floating black spike balls with a red eye. Both are the only explosives that don't have friendly fire.


PROTIP: If unsure, give explosives to the nearest competent Demo player.

Once you reach about level 8, stop playing Easy/Recruit mode. It reduces the XP you gain significantly. Start playing soldier. If you still can't manage soldier at level 8, you're not under levelled, you're crap, or your team is crap. Fail less.

XP is gained through the following (Credit to [BWC] R-M-Evans from the Steam Discussion forums)

1) Scavenging (Even if you just pick something up then drop it, it still counts)

2) Objectives

3) Secondary Objectives (Ends up giving more because there are more secondaries)

3) Healing

4) Kills

Q: I hate your guide.
A: That's not a question, and I don't care.

Q: Why do I keep getting kicked from games?
A: You smell bad. Take a shower. Also to avoid this in future, you might want to say hello, then give an idea of what role you're going to play when you join a lobby. Most organised groups will kick randoms who just join without giving any indication of what they're doing.

Q: I keep running out of ammo, things I shoot don't die, what am I doing wrong?
A: Turn off auto-aim, it does a very inefficient job.

When using manual shift + left click to aim, look for an orange dot. This dot must turn red before you fire, otherwise you probably won't hit. Don't shoot into the dark, use flares. There is a built in chance of missing if you fire into the dark.

Q: Why does the ammo I had left over keep disappearing when I reload my weapon???
A: This game uses realistic reloading, meaning all ammo left in the clip is lost when you reload. You must therefore balance between running out of ammo at the wrong time, and wasting ammo. Unfortunately this also applies for shotguns, which it shouldn't. Hopefully that eventually gets fixed.
(suggested by Nooby McNoobnoob)

Q: I really liked your guide! Can I send you nude pics and other forms of gratitude?
A: I appreciate the sentiment, but unless you're hot and female, just rating my guide will be sufficient thanks!