xDefiant – 10 Mistakes YOU SHOULDN’T MAKE

xDefiant is here and we’re already making so many mistakes. Ubisoft’s military shooter has a wackier edge than Rainbow Six Siege, tossing all the Tom Clancy properties into a blender with other Ubisoft originals like Far Cry and adding some hero shooter mechanics like special abilities that run on timed cooldowns. The more we played, the more we understood that this isn’t just your average Call of Duty clone. There’s a lot to love and a lot to hate about xDefiant, so no matter what side of the fence you’re on, you’ll probably want to avoid making these 10 mistakes. Put on your tacticool gloves and start grinding those Battle Pass Tiers, we’re about to talk about all the big mistakes we made in xDefiant.

#1 Don’t Use Shotguns

Video games love a good shotgun. They’re punchy weapons that usually deal massive damage – we all know what shotguns are, but xDefiant doesn’t make using shotguns easy. Shotguns are so inaccurate they’re practically worthless in any match-ups. In a one-on-one fight, you’re better off using a Sniper Rifle. Literally any weapon is better for almost every situation.

Going back to weapons, the Sniper Rifle is currently one of the best – Snipers can take out enemies in a single hit to the body. Some factions have more HP than others, and shields can really help break up those sight lines, but Snipers have a clear advantage in any ranged gunfight. Especially with buddies from Echelon. In fact, let’s talk about Echelon.

#2 Don’t Play Against An Echelon Only Team

xDefiant really wants to be like old-school Call of Duty, but one thing the game is missing is Scorestreaks. Instead of charging your abilities, every player has a timer on their Super. And some of the Supers are incredibly powerful. Echelon, the Splinter Cell spy faction, has the Intel Ability. This ability scans the battlefield and shows locations of enemies – or you can use the Sonar Goggles Ultra which reveals enemies even more.

And that’s the most unstoppable combination in xDefiant. A coordinated team of Echelon using wallhacks and equipped with Sniper Rifles watching every lane of the map. They don’t even need headshots. They’ll see you coming – even if you’re a bunny-hopping madman. It’s only a matter of time before you get downed. Especially for beginners.

To counter this, drop Mag Barriers, use Aegis Ultras, team up with Libertad for lots of healing – or best of all, use Dedsec to counter with Lockout. We’ll talk more about Dedsec later.

#3 Phantoms Are The Perfect Beginner Faction

While Echelon are high-tier, they’re most effective for players with lots of experience aiming and scoring kills. For most of us scrubs, the Phantoms are the ideal choice for getting to know the game. Phantoms have more health than any other faction – they start with 120 HP over the standard 100 HP. The Phantoms have an array of different shields they can deploy, even if you’re better off dropping those shields before the gunfight begins.

Mag Barriers are one of the workhorse abilities of the game. You’ll see these things everywhere while you’re running around, so there’s no reason not to deploy them when you’re turning a corner you know will be camped. Phantoms just have the most survivability. They’re designed to stay alive slightly longer than their enemies.

Phantoms also have a personal shield called the Blitz Shield. This thing totally scrambles brains. Some of your enemies will shoot blindly into the shield – they have no idea how to handle it, making some kills pretty easy. Combine that with a Libertad buddy to keep you healed up and Phantoms are unstoppable. They do have a loadout weakness.

#4 Countering Mag Barriers

A typical game of Escort on xDefiant has a lot of Mag Barriers. These things are getting dumped everywhere like trash. Phantoms are an obvious pick for beginners, and there’s a lot of beginners running around right now. If you want to clean up the garbage, use EMP Grenades. Everyone can equip EMP, so use it if you’re up against an entire team of Phantoms. It breaks Mag Barriers and other abilities, so there’s no reason not to have some in your team.

The other way to counter barriers? Run the Dedsec Faction. Or you can shoot the barrier, but that’s a waste of time. Barriers are on such a short cooldown, Phantom players can deploy another relatively fast – so disable them even faster. Dedsec can hijack barriers or completely disable with the Lockout Ultra. Dedsec at the only faction you’ll need to unlock – and while they’re not the best for every game mode, they’re completely unstoppable in the right situation. Like when facing off against way too many Phantoms.

#5 You Don’t Need To Buy DLC

Dedsec are the only faction you’ll need to unlock in xDefiant. There are two ways to unlock them – you can earn Dedsec for free by getting something like 700k XP or you can pay money to unlock them instantly. If you plan on playing xDefiant a lot, there’s no reason to pay cash to unlock these guys – you’re better off buying the Premium Battle Pass and using Boosters to earn more XP.

And there’s a lot more DLC that’s absurdly overpriced here. All of it is totally optional. If you want a funky skin for your boring faction, you might want to drop some cash – this is a Free-To-Play game and we’re not going to tell you what you can or can’t spend money on – but if you’re a cheap gamer trying to stretch your dollar as far as possible, every gun in the game can be unlocked by completing challenges.

#6 Unlocking Weapons With Challenges

Like we said, you don’t need to spend money to unlock new guns in xDefiant. You don’t even need to unlock tiers in the Battle Pass. For most weapons, all you need to do is complete challenges.You can find all the weapon unlock requirements in the Profile menu. Go to Profile, then Challenges to see all the mini-trials you’ll need to complete.

One of the best Sniper Rifles, the TAC-50 – requires getting 10 One-Shot Kills with any Sniper Rifle. The MDR Assault Rifle requires reaching Level 10 on the Free Battle Pass. Literally every weapon has a different challenge, so if you’re wondering why some weapons haven’t unlocked yet, make sure to check those challenges.

#7 Don’t Stand Still

We’re going back to the basics of Call of Duty gameplay. Standing still is death in xDefiant – even moving a little bit is better. Movement is critical here, so if you’re used to playing plodding shooters, here’s a few tips to keep you living a split second longer than your enemies. I’m sure most of you out there know all these tricks already, but let’s cover the basics.

Aiming is important. Headshots deal significantly more damage – you can put down your enemies so much faster with headshots, so aim for the head whenever possible. If you’re a beginner, learn to aim first. Then you can try out bunny-hopping. Unlike more tactical games, there’s barely any aim penalty for bouncing around like a madman.

Okay, so if you don’t know what Bunny-Hopping is: you jump and crouch while side-strafing to make yourself a tough target. Even a few misses in close-quarters will keep you alive that split-second longer. Bunny-hopping is the sweatiest of the sweaty strategies, but you’ll need to learn if you want to win. If you’re still learning the game, you’re probably better off just strafing and aiming. Save the bunny-hopping for your pro-gamer phase.

And finally swap to the secondary. While holding your secondary weapon you’ll sprint faster. Basic but handy when you’re playing an objective-based mode and need to run from one side of the map to another.

#8 Don’t Leave The Welcome Playlist (Unless You Want A Challenge)

If you want to make your life a lot easier in your first hours playing xDefiant, stick to the Welcome Playlist. This is a Skill-Based Matchmaking playlist, which means new players will be paired with new players. Look, we’re not all gaming gods here. If you want to earn XP and not get too sweaty, this is the best place to hang out for a few hours. Even without boosts, you can grind up to Level 25 and get a feel for the game.

This probably sounds like blasphemy. One of the best aspects of xDefiant is the lack of Skill-Based Matchmaking. Most of the playlists don’t have it – you’ll be paired with the best and worst players at random, like true old-school online shooters. We’re not going to pretend that isn’t a lot of fun. Without SBMM, you’ll randomly get stomped or just crush everything in sight. Just imagine that SBMM is a curated garden of same-tier players, while non-SBMM is the wild west. If you don’t mind getting totally clowned on sometimes, go explore the Wild West.

#9 Leveling Up Your Guns Faster

Ubisoft must’ve been worried about players unlocking everything too fast, because the XP rate on xDefiant is agonizingly slow. Every individual gun has 40 levels, and if you want to unlock everything for your favorites, you’ll need to use them a lot. If you want all those sweet attachments, you might want to spend cash on double gun XP boosters. Or you can earn them for free.

Log into Ubisoft Connect and you’ll find weekly challenges. Completing challenges will unlock free xCoins, cosmetics and double XP boosters. Use those boosters while playing with friends for even more benefits. This is one way to get boosters for free that many players just totally miss – don’t forget to check out Ubisoft Connect!

And play objective-based modes for the most XP. Gun XP needs kills, so longer modes with more kills will get you more XP. Occupy is one of the best. While on an objective, you’ll earn more gun XP for kills. Escort and Zone Control are more long modes that make collecting kills a lot easier. Camp on the objective zone and you can earn a dozen gun levels per match.

#10 Don’t Miss The Best Guns

Everyone else is going to be using better weapons than you. That’s one of the unfortunate truths of any game with unlockable anything – and it’s your job to unlock all those best guns so you can play on the same level as your enemies. Don’t forget to check the Profile and Challenges tab to see how to unlock these weapons. No premium currency purchases required.

For Assault Rifles, grab the AK-47 and the ACR 6.8. The AK-47 is a perfect, standard AR with a lot of stopping power. You’ll unlock the AK-47 by scoring 4,000 damage with any Assault Rifle, so basically you’ll unlock it automatically just by using this weapon class. The ACR requires 10 longshot kills with any Assault Rifle – so you need to score a kill from 30 meters away or more.

The MP7 is one of the best SMGs. Unlock the P90 by scoring 10 hip fire kills, then use it to unlock the MP7. You’ll need to get 20 point-blank kills with any SMG – that means you need to get 20 kills within 5 meters of your target. Annoying, but absolutely worth it. The MP7 has high mobility, high fire rate, and enough damage to down opponents fast.

And finally, we’ve talked about it before, but the TAC-50 Sniper Rifle is one of the best weapons in the game and the bane of all newbies everywhere. Combine the TAC-50 with Echelon wallhacks and you’ve got a recipe for so, so many kills. The TAC-50 typically scores a kill with a single body shot.

Oh, and don’t bother unlocking shotguns. Unless you feel sorry for your enemies and want to give yourself a huge handicap. Honestly, that’d be a fun challenge run. Truly show your skill by using the worst weapons in the game. Or don’t. Seriously, don’t do that.