This guide is based on my personal experience and is aimed at newer players. I am neither the best nor worst player in the game, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to compile some of the useful information I have come across.


I have a Cold Peak guide here if you are interested http://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=352301863

I also created a fairly extensive stats page that calculates time to kill, shots to kill, and more with variable distance, weapons, attachments, vests, and helmets.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IznIOkCVcsjEiZ3u3T_CRMMWZRd5V_35uvwkYSea-T8/edit?usp=sharing

There are obviously multiple ways to do tower, and I don't use this specific plan as much anymore, but these are tactics that have been successful on a regular basis for my team. The following uses a line up of 1 sniper, 2 riflemen, and 2 medics.

Rifle: Machine guns are popular. But it is do-able with any gun in capable hands.

Sniper: It is possible with any sniper rifle.

Engineers: Some say you shouldn't bring an engi, and there are valid reasons why you shouldn't, but consider that they can bring extra smoke if they don't use a claymore.

Medics: Pretty much any shotty will work.

Pistols: I have found I prefer to have a pistol with high rpm and a big magazine.

General Concepts:

It is important to have 2 smokes each if you can. (The more the merrier)
-Time the smoke throwing so that there is minimal overlap, 12 seconds should be about right.
-Left and right in this guide are from the perspective of looking out of the elevator doors from the inside.
-Be in constant communication with teammates (voice preferred).
-While it is possible to beat it without using coins, it is common for some players to use 2-3 coins. More than that if people don't follow the same plan, or the smoke order gets messed up.


Some floors can be done from the elevator. Common practice is to have a rifleman on each side of the door shooting diagonally (for the most part). There should be one medic behind each rifleman. Medics should heal the whole time in elevator levels unless someone needs rescuing from a shield or enemies get in. When killing enemies inside the elevator it is very easy to friendly fire so melees are often used. The sniper should be watching everything he/she can see out the back of the elevator. It isn't a bad idea to stay against the wall of the elevator so you aren't knocked down by shields. Getting knocked down is a good way to get dead. Getting dead is bad.

Smoke is crucial in elevator levels. The first smoke should be thrown at the checkpoint. (Throw smoke before checkpoint if you have left overs though.) Smoke every 12 seconds after that. Try to keep the smoke in the middle of the elevator so everyone gets covered. Voice chat is great for organizing and timing smoke, but there are a couple ways to do it.

Smoke callers:
You can call people by name or assign them a number 1-5.
You can tell them the time on the clock when they should throw smoke "#3 smoke at :45" or "#3 smoke in 2 seconds".
Ask people how many smokes they have before starting the game.
Figure out an order. Rifles, medics, snipers is a good example, but almost any order will work.
Pay attention if the smoke thrower dies, this can mess up everything if the caller doesn't call someone else quickly.

*Note: Using a coin will give you back your smokes.

Snipers: Spec ops, sniper, turrets, demo, shield, other
RM: Demo, Spec ops, Shield, other
Med: Rescue downed teammates from shields. Heal.

If you fail here you need to go back and play some more coop and/or find a better team. Staying in the elevator never hurts.

Go right all the way to the end. One rifle on each side, one medic with each rifle. Make sure someone watches the back right door so you aren't flanked.

These enemies can only melee.

If only 2 people are alive it can be easy to get swarmed so start running. Hopefully you have some zombie-train running experience. When they follow you they will only go as fast as you do.

Poison gas in the elevator. Camp in front of it. Riflemen should be in-front, medics behind them, and the sniper just barely out of the elevator. Smoke is optional. Rifle's should shoot everything they see, medics should heal everyone and shoot only if needed, and the sniper can shoot out the back of the elevator at the demo men.

If you go all the way to the right, the sniper should shoot to the left, rifles shoot straight ahead, medics heal.

You can stay in the elevator on Floor 6 and throw smoke well. If you try this it might help to have the Rifles shoot out of the side of the elevator.

Wave 7 There will be gas in the elevator, but you can camp on the couch across from the elevator, right next to the elevator, or you can go to the right. If you go right do the same thing as Wave 6.

Enemies:
6: Shield enemies and some security guards running for the turrets.
7: Shield enemies with smg, some security guards on the ground, Gas in the elevator.

This level has demo men everywhere. The team can camp out to the right behind a desk and shoot the demos when they pop up. Keep throwing smokes, stay crouched, and have your team use silencers to attract less attention.

Elevator will work. The turret on the left side can't be shot on this level. It isn't a real problem unless your smoke routine is badly timed. Going to the right side and sitting in front a wall is an option as well. Smoke never hurts.

Elevator. There are turrets and there will likely be a couple spec ops.

This is basically Floor 4 with stronger enemies. The same plan will work just fine.

Floor 12: Heavy Gunner
Go to the right all the way to the end and crouch/prone behind the cover. You don't need smoke but many people like it. Sniper should focus on spec ops, riflemen should shoot whatever they see. The gunner will eventually make his way over to you. When he is really close everyone should run away and hide. I like to hide in the elevator and throw smokes.
Meds re-heal everyone. If the gunner kills someone don't take unnecessary risks to revive them. Keep your distance from it and kill the enemy soldiers until elevator is ready. Then either leave or kill the gunner like you would normally.

The method described for Floor 8 will work here.

I like doing 14-18 in elevator though some people wait till 15 to go to the elevator.

Random Tower Fact: Enemies on the balcony can jump down to the ground.

Floor 14

Sniper: There will be specs.

Rifles: Specs on the ground and balconies. Shields, baton guards, and specs on the ground. Rule of thumb is that you will almost exclusively see demos and specs on the balcony so shoot them when you see them.

Sniper: Focus on snipers. There will be a couple demomen and spec ops.

Rifle: Specs and demomen on balcony. Shields and specs on the ground as well.

Sniper: Mostly snipers, but keep an eye out.

Rifle: Lots of security guards with batons on the ground and some snipers on the balcony.

Sniper: Specs are the biggest priority. If there is one spec and a gunner in the turret, shoot the spec first. Smoke will protect you from turrets for the most part.

Rifle: Assaults, CQBs, and the occasional demoman on the ground. Spec ops and demos on balcony.

Sniper:There will be specs on the ground and occasionally on the balcony.

Rifle: Smg Shields, Spec ops, and baton guards on the ground.

There will be 2-3 enemies (CQB's i think) that come out of the doors to the left and right as seen in the picture. You can have someone stay behind to kill them but we usually run past them.

The team will throw smoke at the turrets, and sprint for the rockets. People that grabbed rockets should not kill enemies, just run up the ramp and wait for the glass gate to go down. Shoot all your rockets immediately. The heli will die before it takes off (hopefully) and you will get a checkpoint right away.

If it takes off, know that it goes straight up, then to the right, and then to the left.

It only takes 3 rockets to kill the helicopter or you can kill it with your squirt gun.

Getting full crowns requires some teamwork and a good line up. I recommend 3 medics and 2 riflemen for co-op crown runs. Subbing in a sniper can be a good idea depending on the map, but I wouldn't bring an Engineer because they are significantly underpowered in coop.

Medics:
Bring a pistol you can do headshots with.

Riflemen:
Every rifle will kill Assaults, CQB's, and Sniper bots with one shot to the head. Most will take 2 headshots to kill Spec-ops and Demomen at long range. Since all rifles can do this just use whatever you are most comfortable with.

Sniper:
I like Karkom sniper rifles best, then the AY550/CCR SPR, and the SVK.

These are tactics that will help your team succeed in hard missions. They aren't really necessary in regular and skilled, but you may notice improvements if you try them in hardcore.

Shooters:
-Slow is smooth smooth is fast. If you rush ahead and die, you have to wait for someone to kill the enemies so that a medic can revive you. This is slower than if you had just been careful to begin with.
-Use cover. Turets, snipers, spec ops, and demomen can cause you some serious damage. Hiding gives you a second to think, and gets that spec ops laser out of your eye.
-If you are using cover and get pinned down throw smoke. The enemy can't shoot you which gives you an opportunity to run to a safer place or shoot them since you can still see their outlines.
-Breaking up into two rifle teams can be advantagous if both rifles are competent. There are often multiple ways to get to an objective and having two teams go different ways allows you to clear areas more efficiently.

Healers:
-The most efficient strategy I have used is to have a personal medic for both riflemen. You follow your rifleman around (but don't push or bump them) and keep them at full health constantly. If the other rifle dies you don't worry about it unless his medic and the backup medic die as well.
-If it comes down to you OR your rifle staying alive, keep yourself alive. You have roughly more than 10 seconds to revive him if it is safe.
-If someone rushes too far ahead and dies, don't save them. Wait until it is safe and THEN save them if there is still time. 1 dead teamate > 2 dead teamates
-Stay behind cover so you don't take much damage and have more charge to heal your rifle.
-Be in communication with the other medics about who heals which rifle and who is spining/glitching the bosses.
-Make sure the coast is clear before trying to spin or glitch. It isn't good to realize there is a spec ops and a demo above you while you are running in circles.
-When your team gets pinned down it is often you that throws the smoke. Rifles are busy shooting so just throw one if you get concerned. Better safe than sorry.
-Related to that last point, the rifles can't always see everything, so if you see an enemy they haven't noticed let them know about it in voice chat. If you think that the enemy will likely kill a teamate before the rifle notices it, kill it. Remember your priority is healing.
-If enemies get too close to the rifle kill them. You have about a quarter of a second to kill a nearby CQB before you are both dead in hardcore, sometimes less. If you get killed by them consistently you are probably going too fast.
-If shields knock down your rifleman:
1) Shoot the Heavy Soldier
2) The backup medic should help you kill enemies standing over teamate (and ones very close by)
3) One of you picks him up and the other heals him.

If you have only 2 medics:
I recognize that some people think 3 medics is unnecessary, and they may be right, but I think 3 is safer.

If you do it with 2 medics, the medics should heal and follow the best two shooters. The third shooter can run around by himself, but if he is smart he will stay with a medic. This way you will have a group of 3 and a group of 2. You will have almost the same strategy as with 3 medics, but it will be a little bit harder to keep the group of 3 healthy.

Alternatively you can have both medics try to heal everyone. This works, but it is less organized.

More info on coop strategies here (courtesy of DSjk22):
https://www.gneecore.com/topic/18-co-op-pve-guide-01/


Now back to the Crown Run strategies

Why just 2 rifles?
Score bonuses (like skull hunter, bloody butcher, brain smasher, combo kill, etc) add huge amounts of points to your killscore. If 5 people get 5 head-shots you get some good points, but if 1 person gets 5 head-shots you get Brain Annihilator and way more points. Less shooters = more score bonuses.

-Finish the mission within time limit for time crowns.
-Try to keep the 5x multiplier the whole time for kill score crowns. This is done by getting lots of these special kills:
Defibs
Slide Kills
Melees
Head-shots


Regular and Skilled:
It is easy to use 5 medics and defib everything, but you can get killscore with headshots easily too.

Hardcore:
In HC missions the roles are reversed. The riflemen take almost all of the kills and the medics keep the team at full health and do "rescue" kills. They should keep the team at full health and not rush ahead of the rifles. By killing they are taking away from the riflemen's head-combos. A particularly effective strategy is having a designated medic for each rifle. The third medic is pretty much a backup incase shtf.


I made the name up myself but not the concept. The idea is that every kill should be a "special" kill. At the end of the mission when you look at the scoreboard you should be able to add a player's explosive, melee, and head-shot kills and it should equal 90-100 % of their total kills. Any kill not a "special kill" as listed above means that you did not get the most killscore out of each kill as you could have.

***NOTE: Defibs and slide kills are not counted in these stats so this can make a total a bit inaccurate. It is possible for melee kills to also be headshots so that can throw off the total as well.***

If you have trouble with special kills (particularly head-shots) I recommend playing more regular missions to practice them. Practice head-shots with a rifle like the Karkom. Shoot it single shot like it is a bolt action and only kill when you know it will be a head-shot. Getting 7 kills and 7 head-shots is better than spamming 25 kills and getting 7 head-shots. Eventually you will build speed and kill faster than the bullet-spammers.

Heavy gunners are quite frequent in co-op missions, but easy to beat if you know how. There are 2 main ways I've seen it done: Spinning and Flanking. No matter how you decide to kill it though, you should try to eliminate all other enemies first.

I have removed the Glitching section in an effort to appease the Crytek gods.

Spinning

Most common method you will see. It involves running up to the gunner and walking in a circle around it, while staying very close to it. The gunner should turn too slowly to hit you. Getting good at spinning will take some practice so you will want to be med so you can self-heal. Once you are good enough it can be done with any class (though maybe not as long as medic could). Most people spin counter clockwise but it doesn't matter. A recent update made it so that the gunner will focus on whoever shot it last. In an effort to keep its attention it may be a good idea to shoot it while you spin.


This method is done when there isn't a willing spinner and no one knows how or wants to glitch it. People take opposite sides of the gunner (or surround it) and take turns shooting.


The Kill:
Teammates surround the gunner and shoot it in the back when it faces them. When the gunner reloads everyone swarms behind it and shoots everywhere. Someone kills it and everyone else gets mad at that person for not letting them kill it with a sniper rifle or pistol.

Meds can defib the gunner and damage it no matter where they shock it. This means you can't revive for a while so make sure your team is healthy. It is nice for spinners if they are solo and can do it while circling without ruining their circle. Shooting it with a shotgun will cause more damage.

***NOTE: Hardcore missions have friendly fire on and it is quite frowned upon to kill the spinner. Also watch out for crossfire, it can be easy to accidentally shoot a teammate on the other side of the gunner.***

The ways to kill a mech are almost the same as for heavy gunners: Spinning and Glitching. No matter how you do it you need to kill other enemies first. Sometimes more will spawn half way through the battle (or the whole time) so you may need a dedicated shooter to take care of them.

How to kill Mechs:
1) Wear down shield by damaging cockpit
2) Shoot top of head while knocked over
repeat till dead

Shooting the cockpit is the only way to damage the shield. In Regular you can wear down the shields with bullets, but all other modes require you to use RPGs.



Exact same concept as for heavy gunners, except that it is harder to do solo because Mech's don't stop to reload and you would have to get rockets.

Spinning a mech is best done while sprinting with fast shoes, but is possible without them. You will want to be medic so you can heal yourself. Spinning can be done by any class but are usually not successful for long periods of time by anyone other than medics.

In Hardcore it is easy for the shooters to injure the spinner with splash damage from the rpg, even if your aim is good. For this reason check make sure the spinner has a good amount of health before shooting. (Checking the spinners health can be done via the scoreboard if you aren't a medic.)


Glitching is no longer covered in my guide.

These are basic tips, but some people still don't know them.

Reviving:
If multiple people die at the same time and one was a medic, ALWAYS revive the medic first. You won't get to save both, but if you save the medic he can save the next guy.

Communicating:
If you need to communicate quickly and can't talk there are 16 different talk options using F1 through F4.

Melee kills:
Melee kills get the same amount of points whether you use bayonets or a knife. Bayonets are 1 hit kills on most enemies and don't need to be repaired. You also have the benefit of being able to shoot without switching weapons. Unless you are trying to get 10,000 kills for a knife mastery or you are doing the commanders orders, I recommend using bayonets.

Dealing with Shield enemies:
If you are far enough away you can often kill a shield enemy with a quick shot to the head when they peek it out, but if they charge you should run to a wall (preferably a corner) or onto some stairs to avoid getting knocked over. Then you can:
A) Get saved by a teammate
B) Defib kill*
C) Jump shot. If you jump and aim downwards you can get headshots quite consistently with a bit of practice.
D) Die on your feet with your pride intact.

* Use only if you have to, it will take time to recharge and revive someone.