Level Zero: Extraction – Comprehensive Guide to Aliens

Aliens Guide

By Eligitine.

Welcome to playing alien, or that thing that brutally slaughters you on merc. I am going to teach you how to play everyone’s favorite puppydog. It is deceptively deep gameplay. Before I do so however, we need to learn about the map. Knowing how to navigate each of the maps is an important skill that unfortunately can only be gotten with experience. I can help by getting you familiar with some important concepts.

The Map and You

Eggs:

Formally known as energy eggs, these are the glowing green balls that you’ve shot at so many times. They grow over time both in size and power to a cap of ~5 minutes. Eggs can be broken by mercs, so if a bunch start vanishing on your alien vision you can tell someone is there. Whenever you pick up an egg your maximum energy increases a certain amount depending on how grown the egg is.

Energy:

Now that we’ve talked about eggs, lets talk about energy. It lets you do things. There are two kinds of energy, current (light green) energy and max (dark green) energy. When you die, you lose all the maximum energy you’ve obtained from eggs. Each ability has a certain amount of current energy it requires, which is drained when abilities are used. Energy regenerates over time whenever you are not in light. It can also be regenerated much faster by standing in wires.

Wires:

Those big blue zappy things are now your best friend! There are two kinds of wire, ground and hanging. Both types will rapidly recharge your energy when you stand on top of them, although the hanging wire require you to be standing in order to do so. Hanging wires recharge your energy about twice as fast as ground wires.

Doors:

They open and close. Amazing! Doors are important as alien. They help block sightlines of your eggs and some can even completely block light from a room. Generally doors should remain shut as it provides more of an advantage to you than having them open. Doors can be forced shut by mercs via short circuiting (look for the sparks).

Vents:

Less useful then they look. Mainly useful to ‘dropbear’ a merc or two or to get a cheeky escape when being followed. Between the time it takes to enter and the only slightly faster movement speed inside of one, you’re often better just roaming the map.

Invisibility

Light hurts. A lot actually. Standing in it can kill you quickly. Luckily the alien can turn invisible and prevent light damage. Be warned, it isn’t true invisible, more like Halo-esque partial invisibility. Mercs can see you shimmer as you go by, and rather easily in a lit room.

Upon pressing the button, you will go through a short one second animation before your invisibility activates. After this, all forms of energy regeneration will stop. While invisible, you will not take light damage, and instead take a slow but constant energy damage. You can survive for quite a long time in light while invisible, even the starting energy can let you live for 10s or so.

Being invisible does have its weaknesses however. If you take any kind of damage or attack while invisible, you will take increased damage and be unable to attack or regenerate energy for 2 seconds. Mercs will take advantage of this and shoot at you while invisible.

Lasty, the default keybinding (R) is in a poor place, try to move it somewhere more accessable, such as a mouse side button or even spacebar (jumping isn’t that important).

Movement

Movement on alien has more nuance than you would think. To begin with, alien has two modes. Standing and crouching. When possible, you want to be in crouch mode. It is faster, quieter, and has a smaller hitbox. Standing mode can be used to reach mercs who are jumping, get better vision to use your powers, or to touch overhead wires. Else you should nearly always be in crouch mode.

Sprinting:

Sprinting is loud. Very loud in fact. When you are trying to sneak up on someone, it is best to just walk towards them. Your crouch walking speed is faster than the merc’s walking speed. When searching for someone to hunt however, sprint away. Stamina regens quickly so just let the bar drain.

Circlestrafe:

We’re back to 1994 here. Strafing is very powerful on alien. Circling around a merc as you attack can let you position yourself to escape better as well as forces the merc to aim (not always an easy task). Don’t just hold W and rush at someone, actively come from the sides.

Jumping:

It exists. It forces you into standing mode, which really isn’t ideal. Jump over low railings, or to hit a merc standing high up on something. Otherwise avoid.

Powers

Now we get into the real meat of playing alien. What your abilities do and how to best use them. There are technically ten, if you include invisibility and melee. We’ll talk about the latter nine.

Healing (C):

Holding C regenerates your life. Simple, but probably the second most important key in the game. Always be holding it down after a fight while you go back to a wire. A ground wire can sustain your health regen, an overhead wire can give you energy while you heal as well.

Alien Vision (Alt):

Lets you see vents and eggs through walls. Can also be used to get a better vision on scan.

Melee (LMB):

Your main source of damage, it takes 6 melee hits to down a merc from full health. Easier said than done, often you’ll only get 3 or 4 before you need to retreat. This is okay, you don’t always need to full commit on attacks. If a merc is audibly gasping and groaning, you only need 2-3 hits to down them. Downed mercs need another 3 hits to kill, less if they’ve been sitting for a bit. Being in any kind of light massively slows down your swing speed to near uselessness.

Spit (RMB):

Annoying, but should be saved for flares. Spit takes a bit of getting used to, from the slow projectile to its odd mechanics. Starting out, don’t worry about using it for damage, instead save it for the flares mercs will pull out. Spit can be charged up to increase its damage, speed, and accuracy. If you are going to spit from a distance, make sure to always have it fully charged.

Egg (1):

Glorious eggs! Can be used to set up traps and ambushes, each egg makes an area a little more ‘yours’. While a merc can destroy one with a single gunshot, you can easily place them behind doors or around corners to make it more difficult. When hit, a merc can not do anything for 3 seconds, enough to get 4 claw hits in if you are very close.

Gas (G):

Zoning tool more than damage. Do you not want a merc to go somewhere? Throw gas. For the next 15 seconds, passing through the gas will slow and do moderate damage. The projectile does very minor damage on a direct hit, so it can be used to harass. Often this is used to lock off doorways to buy time for your teammate to respawn, or launched at a downed merc to ensure a kill.

Scan (2):

Extremely simple, it has three phases. First it finds any trio on the map and shows them as blobby red lights. After all trios are dead it shows duos, and after all duos are dead it shows any solos remaining. Useful at the start of the match and at the very end.

EMP (E):

Lights are annoying, lets remove them. Disabling all lit lights around you in a rather large radius, this is one of the two main ways you will engage mercs. When a merc’s flashlight is disabled it loses a hefty amount of its life and can not be turned on for a number of seconds. In this time you are free to do a few hits. Watch out for any teammates they have or if they are going to pull a flare.

Scream (Q):

A very loud and screechy noise that makes mercs unable to move their mouse or switch weapons. The more people that get affected by this, the longer it lasts. Scream from behind to lock a team looking forwards, where you can hit them a good number of times. Can also be used as a replacement for EMP if you scream and lock the flashlight user looking away from you.

General Strategy

At the start of the match, you should have one priority: Eggs. Glorious eggs. Unlocking EMP/Scream means you can actually engage mercs, so try to do so as quickly as possible. Once you have it, link up with your teammate and roam together.

Hit and run: Going in, getting a few hits and getting out. Dying not only takes forever, but you have to get all of your eggs again. So lets not do that. Experience is the best teacher here, after you’ve gotten 2-4 hits, if the mercs look like they have brain cells, turn invisible and run away around the nearest corner. Failing that, sometimes you do just have to commit and swing until you die.

Spit and gas torture: Less effective than it once was, spit and gas lets you harass mercs from a distance while getting chip damage in. Useful for when mercs are in a very well lit area, such as elevator.

Scrambled eggs: Put 3-4 eggs in an area, then when mercs swap to their guns to pop them, scream and get in your hits.

Teamwork

Support your alien friend. Use ping (MMB) to mark things, and the talking button (V) to let them know where things are. Go in when they get in. Remember: Be stupid together! Two kind of dumb aliens are much more deadly than one who knows what he’s doing.

I hope this was helpful to you!