Starship Troopers: Extermination – Operator Class XP Guide

Guide for farming class XP for Operator class as of patch 0.3.1.144125.191.

Introduction

This is just a small guide to acquire Operator class XP effectively. Why get class XP though? Because according to the official Discord FAQ, there seemingly will be no progress reset on the official release of the game (this is Early Access) and at the time of this guide being written, there is no XP limit on class XP and future updates may include new utility tools, perks, weapons and such.

Suggested Loadout

Weapons

• Morita MK1 Carbine: Has more stagger unlike the default Morita rifle, at the cost of higher damage dropoff outside close quarter combat range.
• TW-109-E Emancipator: The heavy pistol, can stagger bug warriors. Useful in a pinch and for pesky bug gunners.

Utility

• First Aid Stim: Basically what enables the XP acquisition strategy. Each teammate you stab gives you 10 XP, but it can only used on them when they are wounded. You can also use it to heal yourself, but it doesn’t award XP when used that way. An extra benefit is that you can instantly revive people with it.

Grenade

• Chem Grenade: Can be thrown in a choke point to nearly instantly pop drone bugs for easy 1 XP ticks. It will also damage and slow other bugs going through it, while also reducing the visibility of your teammates, leading them to be injured more.

Perks

• Pain Boosters: Gives you a move speed boost when you’re attacked by bugs. Useful for extractions or running away from tigers or swarms of warrior bugs.
• Synthetic Underarmor: Cuts melee bug damage by half, useful for extractions and just surviving in general.

Other Considerations

• C-32 Chi-Hong Grenade Launcher: Can be useful for farming bugs, particularly during a horde base defense.
• Rocket Launcher: Can be useful for farming bugs, particularly during a horde base defense. Though you trade your side-arm (usually) in the process. Not really worth fighting over it though, but feel free to grab it if nobody does. If nobody takes out that pesky grenadier and it makes the difference between the ARC being destroyed or not, go for it.
• Ammo Fabricator: Can give decent XP, but your teammates need to use it. I prefer stims because you can force them on people.
• Heal Beacon: You only get one of those (unless you pick the Utility Satchel perk) and the healing is slow (not sure how it works for XP, does each heal tick give XP?) and restricted to the area you place it. It’s useless if people don’t stay in its area of effect, but it can be used to sustain Bastion teammates in siege mode.
• Medical Station: You can only have one of these (unless you pick the Utility Satchel perk) and you can only have two placed at one time. You can’t force people to use it. Personally, Ithink it’s bad compared to stims.
• Scan Beacon: Gives no XP but it makes bugs easier to kill and see.
• Nuclear Det Pack: Special mention because it is useless in most cases. You can plant them outside the wall during a base defense, but more often than not it will explode with nothing nearby or you will get killed trying to place it. This will most likely see its use in the unreleased Horde mode in the future.
• Napalm Grenade: It’s a decent enough grenade, though I prefer the Chem Grenade for the slowing effect.

General XP Acquisition Strategy

Game Mode

You’ll want to play in AAS (capture) mode. Because everyone is basically stranded in the wasteland during the first part of this game mode while attempting to complete various objectives and getting shot or hit by bugs in the process. This means more opportunities to heal teammates and/or reviving them.

ARC can also be done if you want to switch things up, but it’s harder to get healing XP in this game mode as people travel long distances in small groups, or they stay behind to defend the base with little change of getting hurt in the process.

Difficulty

Trooper (Normal) is the best compromise in difficulty, as it is somewhat easy to survive and still easy for your teammates to get wounded as the bugs have more hitpoints than Recruit (Easy).

Obtaining XP (AAS Mode)

As the game starts, you’ll want to follow your teammates to the landing defense spot and heal them as they get injured using Stims. Optimally, try to find someone oblivious to a bug hitting them so you can stim them several times quickly. Also don’t try to save your teammates from getting hit, you want that to happen. When the bunker drops after the objective is complete, replenish.

For the remaining objectives, special bugs (gunners, tigers and eventually grenadiers) should start spawning. You’ll want to tag your “contribution” by shooting them a few times. When your teammates kill them, you’ll get a “shared kill” and XP. Keep healing people up, you can also use your ability to heal a bunch of people at once and revive them as it comes off cooldown. If people split to do objectives, then travel between groups to heal them as needed.

During a base defense, try to find someone using a grenade or rocket launcher. It’s very likely they will hurt themselves using them. You can also try to find a Bastion that is in siege mode outside the base (it happens) and just heal them. If nobody is getting hurt, just shoot bugs or go replenish your stims during the downtime. You don’t really want to repair walls, as breaches means people will get hurt. Though you’ll want the ARC to complete its job for the bonus XP at the end and to prevent an early evacuation.

During an evacuation, you’ll want to refill your stims before leaving the base. With a full stim stack, you should be able to easily make it to the dropship by using your own stims to heal as needed. You’ll want to melee any drone bugs that slow you down and use the warrior bug knockback to your advantage. You can climb on things to escape bugs if it gets too hairy, or jump off high ground. Once you make it to the dropship, replenish your stims and heal anyone that makes it. If you have the right loadout, you can try to go back and revive people. Just make sure to be inside the ship before it departs so you get the sweet extraction bonus XP.

As a side note, if there’s any team killing being done for some reason (gas first disputes, griefing), heal the “winning” faction. Use them and others as meat shields for retaliation if needed. Use your stims to heal yourself if needed.

If you’ve got nothing to do, shoot bugs that don’t directly threaten your teammates.