the first and foremost important aspect to high scoring is extreme aggression, plain and simple. shooting at and killing all you can, and going for the powerups you need is what will get one setup and in the zone for dominating. from the very start of wave 1, i will try to kill all that i can, and with my weapon speed and damage bonus, most stuff in wave 1 will die the second i aim at it. this wave and all others after, i will vie to kill everything, close or nearby, and hopefully get powerups. if powerups are far away i want, but i see others nearer to them, i will normally not try to get them since someone nearer is mostly like going to acquire them. so i will focus more on killing stuff than obsessing over getting powerups. another aggressive method is to trans to powerups, something that annoys me to see when i am so close to a wanted pu, but it is all part of fair play i guess. i suck at transing accuracy, though i can trans the supersoldiers and early wave predators fairly well. but i don't tend to trans to powerups. part of aggression comes with speed too, and for this reason i will often speed boost on medium and larger maps the moment my adrenaline hits 100, since my adrenaline skills will keep it lasting awhile (i have every adrenaline thing now, but adrenline surge is the tops!) anyhow, aggressive gameplay early on contributes to getting one what is needed early on. in later waves, aggression can lead one to being vulnerable to dying, but vampirism skills are wondrous to refilling health amidst the chaos from intended or incidental kills.
the second most important aspect to score are the weapons used. a wop is needed, of course! now, there are generally very good weapons for any map, and some weapons that are best for a particular map type. and a skilled player with even a fair weapon can beat a less better player with the best weapon. for instance, last night on a map, chest was opened and people all vied for essr, ssr mini heavy, wand, etc. it was a small map, and i wanted howitzer or combat shotgun, for they do the best on cramped, passaged maps. i got the combat shotgun and shaka had wand, and he even snagged a lightning rod too...he was definitely probably going to win in score, but his wand would leave him hurting for hp without a doubt. anyways, wave 18 ended and he was just 100 points behind me. he activated lrod wave 19 and killed most of the army guys and was ahead a bit at end of wave. wave 20 his lrod was still going too, but then i went for enemy selection (to be detailed later) and killed as many lucifers as i could, along with queens and titans, things he would ignore probably since they take longer to kill for adrenaline to fuel lrod. in the end, i got high score by 400, which normally would not have happened if the map was larger to shoot things better in clear view with the wand. one needs to choose the right weapons or make the best weapon they can from their wop and pus avilable for a certain map. i will make a new strategy post sometime giving my insights to every single weapon type here and how they should be used to their best. only weapons i never tried for a whole map are piercerator and web, which i'd like to on the right map sometime. the next paragraph would logically seem one on powerups, but i will do that in a little bit.
artifact use is wonderful, and every single one but the electromagnet and jump boots can contribute to killing enemies better in some manner. but i suggest adr needs to be at least 150 and having adrenal surge skills for best artifact use. double damage and the triple damage artifacts can last multiple waves if one is highly aggressive and primarily kill the enemies that give good adrenaline, as well as applying at least +5 or more energy powerups on a wop. i have recently (a week ago) tried an enhanced triple damage from wave 15, and i kept it going until the end of the wave 20. now, weapons types help with this too in regards to getting kill adrenaline, and the energy powerups. each shot on those certain enemy types (vampable enemies) gives as much adrenaline you have on gun as extra adrenaline. so every lil lady shot, or mini ssr beam hitting an enemy will be 5 more adrenaline each hit on those enemy types if you have on an energy 5 powerup. if you use double rocket spread and all 12 rockets hit a large queen/titan at once, there is 60 adr even if it doesn't die right away! so then, the artifacts themselves also need to be used at the right time. i will save lightning rod (each lightning shot also act to give adr if adrenaline powerup is on) for wave 18 usually since it can be kept going until the map end. if the map is very large and i have no speed powerups, i will save it until wave 20 when most enemies come out. ice rune works best on masses and it is the fastest adrenaline user...so using it needs wisdom...i normally use it on wave 18 or 20, but 17 or 19 or 20 are fine too, but normally it is an artifact for small maps. the same goes for fire rune, which is weaker overall for a damaging artifact. if i have one, i normally will use it waves 17 and 19 since it seems to do well on army guys more than other monster types. if i happen to resurrect with an artifact and the situation is looking bleak, as in many teammates dead, i will use an artifact right away to hopefully win through the wave, but also be able to use it before i may fully die. artifact use is definitely a skill all its own. also, be aware that enemies give their own distinct amount of hp when killed. vagaries give a lot, and army guys give a lot too, so using an artifact on waves 17-19 is not a bad decision usually. i will almost always used the crappy enhanced lightning rod on wave 8, for it kills smiths nicely, smiths have a fair adr delivery and smith also give a nice score too i find. otherwise, enhanced lightning rod tends to be used up extremely fast on any wave after..but this artifact on wave 8 has saved me and maps many times getting a wand smith when an mp5 won;t kill one fast enough. so, artifacts use is what tends to bump up someone killability a good bit, and the more kills equals a higher score.
as i have mentioned, the type of map played is very important in many ways to consider everything. you need proper weapon to kill things near or very far, and the powerups used can have you do fairly, or very well too. on large maps, one needs a rapid-fire, fast projectile, straight shooting weapon overall..but even a slow blast or flare will rape if one applies superforce pu and have speed powerups on. i can even dominate on the pyramids maps in the wide open area with rocket spread if i have superforce and speed5 or superspeed..i will mainly jump up and shoot down to enact a ring of concussive rocket blasts at enemies below. small, tight maps are great for flak and rl weapons. grar, there are just so many possibilties i could mention! but one really needs to weigh the pros and cons. on small maps i want a good rl if i don't summon anything, and if i happen to have a bio rifle wop but my rl is not a wop, i will use bio with spread for awhile until i get a good setup for an rl. i will even use bio spread on large open maps if i have superforce and superspeed for awhile. bio, though, isn't the best for most maps in later waves, even with high damage pus. again, herein comes aggression...if i use link spread or bio spread, i will get right into an enemies face to shoot so all projectiles from the spread can hit and kill something faster. so the important thing here is to keep in mind what type of "normal" weapon you'd like to setup should one never have access to a summon powerup. really, though, a rocket launcher is always a fine fallback for any map. as another point for maps is the spawn points...some maps have more spawn points in a general area than another. so hanging out in a certain range can be better than going all over. for instance, damned dust2k5 has more enemies appear in the area where the rl and flak are, opposite side of map from deemer cage room. i hang there usually if i decide to play the map. again, more enemies to kill, higher score/
powerups are what this game is all about, and the magic can be found in correctly setting up a weapon as best as can be. but there are some powerups one should always have: 2 infs, protection, damage pus..and on weapons one can hurt oneself with..a heal pu always! beyond this, the right powerups then are one's decision. small maps with titans are very dangerous, so i try to always have 2 titan shields. wand deaths suck and can eb cheap, so i never feel content until i have one instagib shield at least. for slow firing weapons, force5 or superforce are a must, on any map. superforce is essentially a requirement on large maps if one wishes to kill well with the slow projectile firing weps like rocket launcher and flak weapons. map types also dictate what the best pu can for a rocket launcher, and on small maps, i will always love a double rocket spread over flare or fireball even. rocket cluster does nicely, but always cluster needs a superforce since it can be so darn slow in both speed and fire rate. blast needs superforce if possible too, but force 5 at least. darmar for link works well on open maps, but not so good close quarters fighting since the spiral nature makes aiming hard with the eyes, plasma ball does nicely on all map types, and has splah damage effect, but i feel overall that spread if best overall pu for the gun. i prefer blast always on flak, but razor is fine too, but lacks the base damage i want. bio i will only use if i get one wop from the spawn point, put spread on, and for earlier waves only..never later waves (past 10). i will use a regular mini too for the first 10 waves if i have nothing better for rl or flak powerups, and on this gun, vorpal is sweet on those vampable enemy types subsceptible to that effect. i don't like to use zen ben shotgun ever...its just not good...which is why lightning gun should return, for it is useable on all waves well enough. sniper rifle is just as bad at zen ben with any powerup setup. anyways, there is one more aspect to powerups i mentioned a million times and has been a recent topic of discussion...propulsion versus pullforwards. i can say this...one can vere go wrong with having pullforwards on. you pull enemies towards you, you get an extra damaging effect from it that kills enemies faster, and if you pulls an enemy towards you, it means you are pulling them into any oncoming shots of yours to die more quickly. pullfowards alsoo takes enemies out of other's aims more into yours, making them more likely your own kill. pullforwards work with superforce, so you can never go bad with this combination on large maps. be careful on small maps, though, for pullforwards on a titan above you can make for a crushing death
thaty is why i always move backwards when using pullforwars and shooting at a titan. propulsion is the king of status effect powerups, because its rate of effect is almost 100% for every shot, unlike pullforwards that has like a 60% chance of effect for every shot. propulsion has the damage enhancing ability as well, and iis just awesome. this powerup is not as common as pullforwards. here i will list my preferred weapons for propulsion or pullforwards if i happened to have both powerups always available. i use pullforwards mostly though on everything.pullforwards: bio spread, link spread, blast cannon, cluster, spread, flare, fireball, mini ssr, ak47, lady, mini rl, howitzer
propulsion: mp5, razor, turbo laser, inferno beam, darmar, lightning gun, laser rifle, super shock wop, wand, enhanced ssr, particle
remember, one cannot use superforce with propulsion, so keep this in consideration. now, as i stated many times before, if one puts propulsion on a laser rifle, wand, enhanced ssr, or super shock wop, have +7 damage powerups on, and have a very high damage bonus, you will kill almost every vamapable enemy type in one hit! very cool at times to enjoy the rapeage. i will end this powerups section by saying that beginning of a map, i collect powerups, even if i still am using a regular mp5 to wave 10, and i will stick them on any other wops i have with retention in case some disaster happens. this is what makes the resupply skill important, as well as ammo bonus and weapon speed....i still remain kill leader with a non wop mp5 as i collect things i plan to use later, or waiting for a good pu or summon so i can then use my gold wrench. this is how one never sees me suicide or die much. i will kill myself after i summon a weapon and have already used my gold. i will make sure my wops with powerups have retention on them, hold the gun i summoned, and kill myself with it. oh, and if one wnts 3 score points extra per enemy kill, use the cheap award powerup
hehe, i can tell when someone only wants to play for score when i see big headedness X} i never use it, my slots have better pus that fill them.the last point to make for high scoring is proper enemy selection. this can entail a lot of detail, so i will try to make it more summary. now then, believe it or not, as the highest level on a map, i do all i can to make sure you other guys live so i am not the last one. i will always go after every wand or laser rifle enemy i can so they don't pick you guys off before me. as highest level, they will and often aim for me anyways if i am near >,,< joey coded in the game for enemies to go for the highest level player or lowest level player in their range, so this is why sometimes enemies can run past you and try for someone else. if i have two instagib shields on, i will always get in a wands face and try to kill it as i can, diverting his fire to me only and letting you others help out killing it without threat. anyhow, usually the enemies with wands or laser rifles are also worth more score points. all enemies have their own score, and this is why enemy selection can be very important if one wants to do well. i will focus on these enemies too, since they tend to be the harder enemies in most cases. queens, titans, vagaries, effigies, lucifers and army guys provide sweet score values. while i don't know any numbers exactly, i do know army guys are 25 points each. one should notice big score increases after wave 17 and 19, always. enemy selection is also important to survuvung longer, for dying and losing fight time contributes to score loss. many of you have seen me fight in hordes of bad guys, losing tons of health, then suddenly i am almost full health again. i have vamprisim level 10, so i get 100% of the damage done back as hp on vampable enemies. what i want to relay here is that sometimes (often for me) one needs to stop fighting a certain group of nonvampable enemies and quickly find something to vamp off of or face resurrecting/dying. so often i see high level players try to fight turbo laser dragons and die, yet a vagary is nearby waiting to have hp sucked off of. i am also sure joey and cj properly setup the army guy waves to use more strategy and skill than just shooting anything... notice the nonvampable to vampable ratio of enemies. now, how many of you often try to kill those vampable enemies more than army guys because you know you can kill the vampable ones faster? i am sure most of you do. this can be a bad bad thing...during waves 17 and 19, i try not to kill the vampable enemies unless i myself need the hp. i save them for everyone else if they need it, so you can survive and i am not left alone D: so while i kill high-point army guys, the rest seek more the easier to kill enemies which are the source of vampable hp. this is probably a reason so many players get knocked out in these waves..besides the nukes going off x..x selecting the right enemies is a good part of what this game is about in order to rightly survive, keep others alive, and succeed to the end. if it wasn't for the higher levels "hogging" all the enemies, no maps would be won...we need to cut down the numbers so there is less enemy fire for the lower levels to have a better chance.
lastly, there are some score tricks too. find a deemer enemy, just kill the deemers. i believe each deemer kill is worth 30-40 points. do this for a 20 seconds and one will be in firrst place by a lot in an earlier wave. killing nukes gives points as well.
to end this, remmber that to many here, this is not just a game to shoot stuff, it is an rpg, and in rpgs with stats and special items and such, strategy is very very important. and this is among the hardest type of strategy to apply because it needs to be quick and on the moment decisions made frequently. this is how it can be so very fulfilling to win a map, especially when there aren't many super weapons out there. score to me is just score, and i only obsess about it when someone says to me, "i want to beat you." hehe, if i know this is wanted, i will play harder than ever with that in mind on that map. i have been beaten many a time, and i don't really care if i lose. usually those with the best weps and pus dominate anyways, and i am not always so lucky to get what i need. regardless, i don't have pride and hate myself or such if i am not top scorer, i am glad to know i can bring victory so often! i get more angry for losing a map than losing to someone in score
oh, and i get mad mostly when Dust2k5, trainingdays, or egyptcorps maps are voted for so much! >,,< draedrae likes more variety and different stuff ^,,^/ so, as i know from speccing so many of you during those times you see me talking and messing around, i know who plays much like i do and who doesn't, and those who tend to are those who get criticized for cheating or noone being able to fathom why the highest scorer's score is unbelieveably high. stop worrying about score so much and just enjoy the game, damnit! we don't need any negativity and anger here more than there can be at times. so anyways...i hope what i wrote here helps with some of you score-obsessed competitive types!
if i happen to remember something i want to add, i will edit this :}
oh, and i know merc is all like "damn drae and his book-long responses. i don'have time to read all this!"
. Thank you for typing this up. This in its own sense is just as valuable as the Player Guide. I cant wait to try some of these techniques you posted :D. Again thanks for all your hard work and dedication to keeping us "score hogs" alive 
:butthead: :axe: