Faulty's Helicopter Gunners tips

[FaultySanity]

Keep in mind, this is aimed at people that really suck at gunning, people that know what they are doing in a gunner probably wont get much out of this.

If you have a tip that i can add, please post it!

Written By: FaultySanity
Created: 7/24/05

Helicopter gunning - and you.

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One of the most fun and exciting things to do in the air-class field of BF2 is the Helicopter gunner. This tutorial is focused on the art of gunning in 2 man Helicopters (Cobras, etc).

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Enter/Exit:
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Getting into the gunner position:
The first thing you have to do to get into a gunner position in a helicopter is to be within range of the helicopter and press your enter/exit key (default "E"). In order to be a gunner, you have to get in after the pilot gets in. If you find yourself in the pilot position, simply hit F2, and you will be switched to the gunner position (assuming there is no one in the gunner already).

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Camera adjust:
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Once you get into the gunner, you should get into the habbit of hitting "C" to hide your HUD (chopper control panel model). Without removing it, it will block your view and take up important space.

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WEAPONS:
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As a gunner, you are equiped with 2 weapons: a TV guided missle (usually used for taking out vehicles or large groups of people) and a chain gun (usually used to do damage to vehicles and people).

THE TV GUIDED MISSLE:
The TV guided missle is the main feature on the gunner position in the helicopter. It is a manually guided missle that destorys any vehicle in one hit. To access your TV guided missle screen, simply switch to your secondary gun (Right-Click). Once you have the screen up, you simple click your fire button (left click) and it will launch the missle. In order to steer the missle, put the cross hair over the target to re-direct and click. BEWARE: Clicking the mouse too many times or attempting to re-position the missle too often in 1 shot will render the missle very difficult to steer.
One of the most important tips to keep in mind when using the missle on STATIONARY targets (Stingers, Tanks, landed choppers) is too launch the missle with the CROSSHAIR DIRECTLY over the target. Shooting in the center and then redirecting will render the missle virtually useless.
Remember, the less you re-direct it, the more accurate it will be. You will Most likely be able to take out a target when your chopper is directly behind/infront of it - chasing it. Shooting at an enemy chopper going past you is very difficult to do. When taking out a black hawk or apc, it may be a good idea to make sure it is an enemy - since the TV missle camera is in Greyscale - you have to look at the text color with your regular camera.

Recap:
*Clicking the mouse too many times or attempting to re-position the missle too often in 1 shot will render the missle very difficult to steer.
*launch the missle with the CROSSHAIR DIRECTLY over the target
*Shooting in the center and then redirecting is rendering the missle virtually useless
*You will Most likely be able to take out a target when your chopper is directly behind/infront of it
*Make sure your target is a foe

THE CHAIN GUN:
Another weapon is the chain gun. This is an automatic gun that can be used by holding down the primary fire button (Left click). This weapon is ideal to use while waiting for your TV missle to reload. You can also use it to take out jeeps/bugys, or unarmoured vehicles. Be informed of your temperature gauge, because once you overheat - you will have to wait a few seconds until you can refire.

Recap:
*This weapon is ideal to use while waiting for your TV missle to reload
*take out jeeps/bugys, or unarmoured vehicles

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Communication:
Use your voice communication if you and the pilot are in the same squad. If you know a good pilot, ask to play with him/her sometime with Ventrillo or Teamspeak. These are program that allow you to speak over the microphone to eachother with added clarity. I garuntee that you will do much better if your pilot and you are talking and communicating. Such as if you spotted an enemy tank but the pilot didnt - you can tell the pilot "loop around back, i saw a tank".

Recap:
*you will do much better if your pilot and you are talking and communicating

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The gunner is a very fun thing to do and is quite easy to catch on to.

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Thats it for this tutorial, hope you learned something or got some good gunner ideas.

If you have a tip or idea that should be added, pleasego ahead contact me:

Email: FaultySanity@gmail.com
AOL IM: FaultySanity726


Comments/ideas would be appreciated!

[K.B.Strandberg]

Do you automatically repair the vehicle as an engineer in the gunner seat ?

[imported_Fusion]

Do you automatically repair the vehicle as an engineer in the gunner seat ?

No.

Nice guide. But uhhh wtf is this?

Getting into the gunner position:
The first thing you have to do to get into a gunner position in a helicopter is to be within range of the helicopter and press your enter/exit key (default "E"). In order to be a gunner, you have to get in after the pilot gets in.

Pretty self explanatory lol.

[FaultySanity]

unfortuantly, no - as same goes for supply, supply does not automaticly resupply yourself...although im not sure if it repairs/resupplies the vehicles around you.

And Fusion - you never know man...there are some pretty dumb people out in the world :D

[SubmitDFL]

Yes it will repair/resupply vehicles if you get the chooper close enough.

Another tip: Blackhawks

As long as you sit on the side seats of the blackhawk (ie not on the gunner postion), you can repair/resupply/medic the crew members in your chopper. Comes in handy when you have one spec ops per side (right and left), one support on side set, and one engineer side seat. The chopper will get repaired and spec ops will have as many c4 as they can toss. Ofcourse getting rammed be another helo or jet will ruin your week.

www.dflegends.com

[imported_xRandoMx]

Learn how to use the tv missile, or don't bother jumping in the attack copters as a gunner.

Important TV Missile kills:

The jet that just flew by you(yes, you can tv missile them, especially when they're cruising around nice and slow, picking off copters).

The full blackhawk with inflight engineers doing repair.

The enemy copter in an attack copter duel. Rockets are weak in this scenario, and you'll often end up in a nose to nose slugfest, which can quickly and easily be ended with a tv missile.

Mobile AA. This should always be your first target, imho, especially if he is tracking you. The pilot can fake him out a few times, trying to get close enough for rockets, but it is a dangerous situation. Just tv missile him and no sweat.

[WeeeOooO]

Er... Teamspeak or ventrilo? HELLO? Theres VOIP in the game for a reason.. use it, makes life easier, no extra programs running, and you can even talk to a commander with it if your a squad leader... no need to alienate yourself

[FaultySanity]

Er... Teamspeak or ventrilo? HELLO? Theres VOIP in the game for a reason.. use it, makes life easier, no extra programs running, and you can even talk to a commander with it if your a squad leader... no need to alienate yourself

Yes, i know about VOip - but mine cant be enabled (dunno why, its a very strange bug) so im not sure who can talk to who in VOip (as far as between Commander - squad leader - squad memeber, that jazz)

[hipthewonderchuck]

I'm sure this is a moot point but just to add.....
When in a Blackhawk Door gunner position be sure to keep those chaingun barrels rolling in a hot LZ! It takes a few seconds to get the barrels spinng fast enough to fire so keep them spinning by periodically tapping the fire button when the revolutions start to drop. This way when that sneaky bugger pops into view you are ready to rock and roll with little to no warmup time!

-a message from your friendly neighborhood medic

[BigBadBob]

ever shot down a jet with the TV Guided missle? I did last night, me and my gunner were near the US carrier on Dalian (we had all flags) and an F-35 took off.

Well i shot my missle (at the time we were perpendicular to carrier) and i followed him with the missle almost to the point that it automatically blows up. Pulled and lanned it dead center in the exhaust.

The pilot almost soiled his britches.

[FaultySanity]

ever shot down a jet with the TV Guided missle? I did last night, me and my gunner were near the US carrier on Dalian (we had all flags) and an F-35 took off.

Well i shot my missle (at the time we were perpendicular to carrier) and i followed him with the missle almost to the point that it automatically blows up. Pulled and lanned it dead center in the exhaust.

The pilot almost soiled his britches.

Nice, I havent even gone as to try to shoot one down...unless its takingoff. :laugh:

[imported_xRandoMx]

I tv-missiled the same guy 3 or 4 times last night. We had no jet pilots, so he cruised around the map really slow picking off choppers, made it easy to hit him with the missile.

[Thelron]

When in TV-missile mode, friendy vehicles (I believe) show up with the friendly [X] over them like in most aircraft huds. I'm not *certain* about it because I just spent some time playing with the laser missiles in the f/bs but I'm pretty sure you do get the boxes in TV mode. I think.

From personal experience, its best to get used to staying in 'gun' mode while flying around (so you can scan for targets and quickly gun down infantry/jeeps where it would take too long to line up a TV shot) and then switch to TV mode when you find a target. If you try to stay in TV mode just hoping for stuff to show up you'll be caught off-guard more often than not by something to the sides.

Also, if you aren't able to steer the missiles well enough to down jets, just lay into them with as much gunfire as you can. Jets are fragile and their pilots don't like seeing their health creep down, especially as they can't be certain it is you that's chewing them up. Plus, not all jet pilots fly slow enough to realistically hit 'em with the missile, some folks prefer to harass copters with gun passes rather than wait for the lock-flare-lock sequence.

Big bit of help- if you're moving to a CP and you see 'extra' assets laying around, blast 'em, especially AAs and APCs. That way if someone happens to spawn they can't jump in the vehicle and ruin your day (likewise, blow up any AA/TOW launchers that you can on your way in if you don't have live targets to deal with). They respawn decently quick but hopefully not until you have the place capped. Nothing worse than thinking an area is clear and suddenly the LAV behind you springs to life and sticks an AT rocket into your chopper and lays into you with their gun, if your pilot doesn't spin you around fast enough that can be a quick curtain-call.

[Stripper_Clown]

I also think that flying in gun mode is better. Lets you see more, you can look to the left and right, and you get the red and blue text. Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm pretty sure the TV guided missle will not reload unless you are in that view, meaning you should stay in that view until it reloads....unless I'm wrong about this (or it was fixed in a patch).

[toXicRabbit]

the tv guided missle CAN reload when in the gunner mode

[imported_Striker]

Good info here - Thanks :)

[Rafterman]

Now, how about a pilots guide?

I'm a pretty good gunner, but it totally pisses me off to have a pilot who's more worried about flying around than giving his gunner good targets.

And don't even get me started on the TV missle -- I've had bots give me better target pictures than real pilots. Most of the time the target is off the screen before I can even pull up the TV hud.

[imported_xRandoMx]

Definitely fly in gun mode and switch to tv mode when an appropriate target presents itself. Drives me insane to fly over infantry and the gunner does nothing but play with himself in tv mode. I tend to think of the tv missile as the anti-helicopter, anti-aa weapon, to be used mostly defensively. Anything else we can deal with at our leisure with rockets and cannon fire.

When I purposely setup the gunner for a missile shot, I always do it at fairly long range. If I am in close, he is just gonna have to take what he can get because dodging trees, eryx, rammers, etc. takes priority at that point.

[imported_ColonelPanic]

I coulda swore you could move the TV missile without clicking. A flick of the wrist on the mouse seemed to make it move in a different direction for me. I might be mistaken though.

[Forest]

I coulda swore you could move the TV missile without clicking. A flick of the wrist on the mouse seemed to make it move in a different direction for me. I might be mistaken though.
I was wondering that too. Does clicking make it change direction faster or something?

[Hugh G. Wrection]

I think it works the same way the AT rockets do, ie. you fire but keep the mouse button pressed down and then steer it a little in-flight by moving the cursor. Am I wrong?

[Stripper_Clown]

If you don't click the missle won't move. What I haven't tested is wether or not it moves if you click button never release the mouse button. Anyone know the answer to this?

[Sllutmonkey69]

If you don't click the missle won't move. What I haven't tested is wether or not it moves if you click button never release the mouse button. Anyone know the answer to this?

If you fire the TV missle and hole down the button you can move it by moving the mouse yes. But it seems to work differently than the AT missles. Do some testing. Fire a TV missile into space and then try to move it. You will find you can only move it 4 or 5 times? maybe less maybe more. Its moves in jerks, and then you can't controll it for like 10-15 seconds and then you can move it again.

I will have to test it clicking as I didn't know you could click move it either hehe :).

Also when in TV mode I don't think little X's show up on friendlys ... I think there is no way to tell. please post if you know a way.

[Forest]

Also when in TV mode I don't think little X's show up on friendlys ... I think there is no way to tell. please post if you know a way.
I've seen them show up before, so maybe they only show up when they are inside that box in the middle of the tv screen?

[Defy]

Allies show up as X's in TV guided , they show up, but you have to realize that the TV guided missle is probably the most powerful weapon in the game, so it may take time to master this weapon of mass destruction.

On a note to this topic, great guide, this will defentily be unvaluable to the new members to our site and to the community of Battlefield 2.

[Stripper_Clown]

I have seen the x's show up, but a lot of times they show up after I shoot the tv missle :cry:

[Relativity]

I have seen the x's show up, but a lot of times they show up after I shoot the tv missle :cry:

If they do that...pray and then move your target crosshairs into the top right corner of your screen and click like crazy to send that TV missle off track instead of hitting your bud :)

[FaultySanity]

I was wondering that too. Does clicking make it change direction faster or something?

Im not sure for everyone, but for me it changes direction when i click the mouse.

[masterwolf]

No1 Gunner Tip : - Find a Pilot That can Fly - i get so sick of gunship whores that cant fly to save themselves (and have the TK count to prove it!).

If your pilot is good (and there are not Ace Jetjockies on teh server) you can do some spectacular popup attacks with the TV missiles. Basically you find a hill somewhere overlooking a CP, pilot pops up you launch - pilot pops down while you guide the missile - works wonders at kubra dam!

[The Source]

I find that if I click once (lightly) an initial [+] appears marking where I am aiming...if I click again, then the missile launches. As you move to the target, keep clicking on the target to update the missile vector (you like that?). I don't know how effective holding the button is, but clicking a few times works for me. I have also found that I detonate on the ground often if I don't aim high enough (ie I put the plus right in the middle of the target).
The original post here seems to make sense, aim a little high.
Memorize where TOW and AA emplacements are. As a gunner attack these immediately. Often you can't see the TOW on the screen but if you know where it is, you can fire guns or a pre-emptive TV-Guided.

[Stripper_Clown]

Not so much a gunner tip as a pilot tip: If you have a gunner and are fighting another attack helicopter for the love of video games please get a higher altitude. Nothing sucks more than sitting gunner seat and not being able to do sh*t because the pilot decides its a good idea to try and fly under the other heli and rocket its underside. Trust me when I say you will take them down much faster if you can get above them.

[imported_ColonelPanic]

Also when in TV mode I don't think little X's show up on friendlys ... I think there is no way to tell. please post if you know a way.


The X's don't always seem to show up on friendlies in TV mode. I think it must be a bug.

[Forest]

I just did some testing on a local server and found out something interesting.

Whenever I was a chopper gunner and fired a tv missle on an online server, I had to hold the mouse and move it towards a target to hit it. However on a local server I had to click it to get the [ + ] to show up and move the missle. I have no idea why this is different but it certainly is strange.

[The Source]

Nah, I get the [+] online most of the time (80%)...sometimes it just fires on the first click, but most often I get the [+] first to tell me where I'm aiming, on the first click.
Also, I noticed that I didn't have to be in TV mode until the Hellfire reloaded...I switched to guns and when I came back, the TVGuided was loaded.

[.Rosco.]

I'm sure this is a moot point but just to add.....
When in a Blackhawk Door gunner position be sure to keep those chaingun barrels rolling in a hot LZ! It takes a few seconds to get the barrels spinng fast enough to fire so keep them spinning by periodically tapping the fire button when the revolutions start to drop. This way when that sneaky bugger pops into view you are ready to rock and roll with little to no warmup time!

-a message from your friendly neighborhood medic

It doesn't help to keep the barrels spinnin. I tested it several times and even if ya keep them spinnin it takes the same amount of time to start firing as when the barrels aren't moving.

It should work but it doesn't.

[WeeeOooO]

Actually, yea it does help to keep the gun spinning, you just have to keep it spinning at the closest possible speed.. which is kind of hard to do, you just have to keep clicking once its about to fire

[JaketheMedic]

Good info

[gunner.b0b]

Not so much a gunner tip as a pilot tip: If you have a gunner and are fighting another attack helicopter for the love of video games please get a higher altitude. Nothing sucks more than sitting gunner seat and not being able to do sh*t because the pilot decides its a good idea to try and fly under the other heli and rocket its underside. Trust me when I say you will take them down much faster if you can get above them.


yeh i love playing as a gunner, but this to gets me when you get s00pa 1337 pilots who can fly good but havent got a clue what it means to be in the gunner posistion. Usually they either, fly low showing off with their 1337 low level speed flying rendering both my weapons useless. Or they fly with nose up too high so all i get in TV view is a nice shot at the sky :S

However when you get a good pilot who is aware of how to fly AND attack/defend correctly then you can clean up that armour bigtime.

So Pilots remember.. as far as what ive sussed, what you see in your target view, ie the green cross, if you keep that just below the green horizontal line your gunner has perfect view to use TV. Also pilots, TRY TO KEEP IT STEADY! it only takes a split second to fire off the TV and for it to hit its target, youll make the gunners job so much easier if you can keep your cool. I know it seems like eons but the steadier you hold it, the less time itll take then you can be off again.

As for movement of the TV in flight hrm jury is out on that one, you get so little movement in such a short space of time, i wonder if trying to move it is a waste of time? Just aim better ;)

The TV view is great for sussing enemies early in the chopper, i usually use it (with flag/base markers switched on) when im approaching a base usually some way off, if there is armour i will attempt to take it out, if not i immediatly switch back to gunner mode to clean up the infantry mess.

If a chopper vs chopper fight occurs then both parties skills are really tested. I would say the best tactic is to gain higher airspace than your opponant that way you can easily get out of the way of those pesky stingers bothering you while your having a good air scrap.
If the fight rages on in mid air, pilots dont be too quick to run back for repairs, i have killed many a enemy chopper crew by my pilot quite amazingly dodging the battle and sneekily following the enemy copter back to their repair point, wait till it lands/hovers for repair .. then TV em BOOOOM goner.

BTW just as an after thought.. has anyone tried to let off a TV in jet/heli while your pilot is trying to dodge AA/stingers other TV's?
Just wondering if anyone had had experience with the attacking missiles been thrown off by the heat source of you letting the TV go?

[imported_xRandoMx]

Altitude is always preferable in attack copter vs. attack copter, just so you can end it in 2 seconds with a tv missile hit.

OMG, I love when I've got somebody in the front seat I can depend on for that. If I don't, I usually don't bother with enemy attack copters unless they're smoking. All we do is dance around each other wasting time with guns and rockets when we could be beating the crap out of each others ground armor and infantry. :-)

Transport copters, on the other hand, are like buckets of chum to my shark.

[Pedro]

I'm sure this is a moot point but just to add.....
When in a Blackhawk Door gunner position be sure to keep those chaingun barrels rolling in a hot LZ! It takes a few seconds to get the barrels spinng fast enough to fire so keep them spinning by periodically tapping the fire button when the revolutions start to drop. This way when that sneaky bugger pops into view you are ready to rock and roll with little to no warmup time!

-a message from your friendly neighborhood medic

it doesnt matter if the barrels are rolling or not, you still have the same delay there... call it a bug if you want, but thats how it is... try it out yourself...


Important TV Missile kills:

The jet that just flew by you(yes, you can tv missile them, especially when they're cruising around nice and slow, picking off copters).

whatever man...

[coldmist]

When in the gunner seat, and the pilot is hovering over a flag, I switch to F10 view (from behind and above). If I see an enemy spawn, I just hit the fire button and move it over to him (using the shell bursts on the ground to target as I swing the gun).

This way, the view is constant so you can see several people spawn in different spots, and you have a huge view of the area around you.

[Jeebus007]

When in the gunner seat, and the pilot is hovering over a flag, I switch to F10 view (from behind and above). If I see an enemy spawn, I just hit the fire button and move it over to him (using the shell bursts on the ground to target as I swing the gun).

This way, the view is constant so you can see several people spawn in different spots, and you have a huge view of the area around you.

damn i never i thought of that one. thanks!