HI i have been playing from 1.04 to now but i still dont know a few things. as an alien i always find marines always firing, and as a marine i always find them firing!

when is a good time to reload? and how do u spend your ammo?

Shoot to kill.
Don't let the skulk get away and if he does, reload right away, chances are he wont come back for a few seconds, or he'll run away completly to the hive to heal.

Remember, you can always cancel a reload by switching to another weapon (and back).

ok, the place is in a 2nd hive, your in there with several teamates and a HMG, you run low on ammo, and a onos comes out, what do u do?

Fire until you're out of ammo. The combined ammo from all your hmgs should be enough...

With several teammates, I think it could be better to reload first.

If you let them fire first without you firing, he'll die slower. By the time they start running out of ammo, the onos will be running, you'll be at full ammo, and you might be able to take him out while he's trying to get away...

well it depends how much u have left in your hmg...and how many teamates u have with u.

if there are five hmgs shooting the onos (the onos won't know u r short on ammo), then any smart onos will run away anyway.

Thats why you just do what I do, and don't fire your HMG at all. Then when your other HA/LA teamates are getting raped by skulks/onos you open up and save the day. I'm surprised more comms dont instruct one or two marines to hold fire until others appear to be reloading.

The moral of this story is, learn what you feel is best and do it.


Everyone is going to give different responses. I personally do not reload right away if a skulk runs away. Where there is one, there are often times many. So read up, but really, really try your own thing.


Firing 10 bullets at a skulk and reloading after he runs could get you killed. All it takes is one to drop from the ceiling and attack. 2 bites, dead. That "switch back and forth between weapons" is not quick enough to stop 2 bites in a row.

As for advanced weapons, shotgun I reload almost everytime I have a break, you can usually begin firing soon enough if you get caught.

HMG I reload when Im out of ammo or if I am fighting advanced creatures such as Onos. Onos needs alot of fire, so if it runs, I reload. Fade, I reload when I hurt it bad enough to know it isnt coming back for a bit. Skulks, I reload when I have a chance, 10 bullets is enough for a skulk.

Grenade Launcher. You shouldnt be alone anyway, so reload when your teammates cover you.

Then again it really all is situational, I often times reload my LMG alot because the style of players Im playing against are more stalker than attack and I know I have time in between advances of skulks.

I think a bigger issue with weapons is people and their shooting methods. I see people hold down the trigger to kill skulks and use 50 bullets missing all over because they are moving the mouse to re-aim, but aren't over the skulk, and still firing.

Shoot, skulk dodges, re-aim, shoot. Don't hold the trigger down for any weapon. Same for shotgun, I find it much better to re-aim and fire, not hold the trigger and firing as much as possible. If 5 skulks charge, aim at the closest, really aim, boom, dead, next, dead, next dead. You can re-aim and if you're on target kill one skulk after another, but if you just start firing and holding that trigger, you're in for a hurtin.