1K hours in this game so far and i have alot more to learn. and in more ways than one i honestly wish i could redo certain things during my first hours... and the fine people in the Amish clan, as well as the gentleman Rafterman showed me alot of general tips in the ways of the infantryman, the support, and the tanker. and those are what i will show to you now.

1: When you start up your game, you should consider going into your options first of all, in Game, i recommend enabling the "Spawn with bayonet attached" option, you should also set your in game name here and your field of view. you may turn on the incremental throttle for both tanks and vehicles, you will get maximum speed out of your vehicles that way, non incremental doesn't get you to max speed as quickly, entirely your choice.

in your Input tab, you can tweak everything associated with your mouse, this includes smoothing, sensitivity when ADS and sensitivity when in a menu etc. you can alter this to your own preference in your own time

I recommend at least setting the effects audio level to a lower level than default, i mostly play the game at 0.15 or 0.30 if i feel like i need to hear better, when you are in your first artillery barrage it can be deafening. this is still entirely up to you

your Controls tab might also be worth taking a look at, in the default controls of the game the situation map (the map) button is F, the melee button is middle mouse and some other options are different to other more modern equivalents to this game, so if you feel like you want to change these go right ahead, don't let anyone stop you, in the long run it will be worth it.

Lastly, you may see these options in the HUD tab, they are "Use Native Role Names", "Use Technical Ammo Names" and "Use Native Weapon Names", i recommend you keep these off until you know what you are doing, these can lessen alot of confusion early on. if you really feel like you want to mess around with it at least do so outside of an active match, do it in offline mode if anything.

2: I highly recommend joining the Darkest Hour Official Discord, here you can ask for tips and engage with the larger community, you can also see if the servers are populated in there without launching the game, which can be quite handy and can spare some time.

So, you think you got what it takes to survive out there on the battlefields huh? all of your previous gaming ventures, in similar games such as Battlefield, Call of Duty, Fortnite and whatever else kids these days play you are most likely inclined to believe that you are good at most shooters, but this notion will have you thinking this game will be another pushover right? Well, i will be the first to tell you that you are quite wrong about this statement, and your first hours in this game will also make you very aware of this fact... here's some tips for you to start off with.

1: Don't pick any other classes than Rifleman, the other classes may feel more interesting and you will really want to play them, but i urge you to resist your feelings and play rifleman instead, this class will give you everything you want out of this game and more, the weapons may not vary much, but the versatility of that one class is astounding, you will learn the most playing out of this class, you will get the most satisfaction out of this class, and by god your teammates will only love you for picking it.

2: Generally you want to keep your head down, stay close to cover, soft cover (Bushes, Foliage, People etc.) are what you want to move close to. Hard Cover (Rocks, Sandbags, Houses, Dead Animals etc) are what you want to move behind when the bullets start whizzing by your head, if in doubt or if there isn't any type of cover nearby just go prone and hope for the best.

In case you hadn't noticed, when you are aiming down sights, you have a ♥♥♥♥ ton of sway, and this sway will probably frustrate you beyond all limits, not only this, you will also shortly be looking at the sky cus the recoil will nearly jolt you off of your little virtual feet... to prevent this issue entirely just stay close to cover when you want to ADS, you should see a little icon on the bottom right of your screen above the compass, so when you are aiming from behind cover, you will most likely be more accurate because of that little icon there...

3: You keep dying and you spawn far away from the action? why don't you join a squad? if you press the Squad menu key (P by default) you will most likely see a few squads already made, join one, the squad leader in that squad will place rally points, and you can use these rally points to get into the action sooner.

Playing in a squad in this game is probably the best and most essential thing for you as a new player, here you can be more aware of what needs to be done, your squad will most likely be there for you in a combat situation and this is where you will also be able to utilise your many talents as a rifleman for the better of your squad, if you join a squad, you are a badass player.

Additionally, if you join a squad, try to be on your Squad Leader at all times, he needs to have a squad member nearby in order to place rally points and work efficiently as a squad leader, you can determine where your squad leader is by looking at your map, he's the big green bastard running around like a headless chicken.

4: Learn to identify the uniform of your team, there is indeed friendly fire in this game, and intentional team killing will most likely lead to your swift banning, so don't do that. the best thing for you to do if you aren't sure who's who in the zoo is to shoot anything that isn't wearing a uniform you don't recognise, when you know you can safely look at a dead enemy soldier do that, if you can't be presented by such an opportunity just try and stick close to your squadmates. if you accidentally kill a friendly, just type an apology and move on.

one way that i determine what i'm shooting at is to basically look at the shape of the silhouette, on certain maps and with certain uniforms you can tell who an enemy is by the colour of the uniform, or by the shape of their leggings, this is only for personal use and it's purely my personal way of identifying an enemy soldier.. you will have to find out what works best for you.

5: Remember to lead your target, especially with the semi automatic and bolt action weapons. you probably aren't gonna face alot of lead problems if you play alot of other shooter games, but if you are on a high ping server this will affect the lead, you will have to increase your lead a little bit to compensate for lag, note this isn't the case for all computers, it differs.

6: Try not to die alot, even if you are new, if you know how to stay alive and you do, you will probably get the respect and attention of your other squad members if you manage to stay alive and hold a location of interest. keep on truckin' soldier, you'll get through it.

7: When shooting it's pretty important to know that there is a bullet drop, everything has a bullet drop, tank shells, rifle bullets, MG bullets, SMG bullets etc. all have it's own associated bullet drop, so if you are engaging an enemy soldier at a farther distance than normal remember to compensate for the bullet drop as well..