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Introduction

Welcome, Spiral Knight! This guide is meant to show you all the ins and outs of the Player versus Player (PvP) game, Lockdown. Lockdown is a PvP activity that closely resembles the game "King of the Hill." In this children's game and popular video game multiplayer PvP mode, multiple people compete to stay on top of the hill for the longest time. In Spiral Knight's Lockdown, two teams compete for multiple "hills," "capturing" a Control Point by standing by it until it has been claimed. Points are accumulated by both teams by keeping control of Control Points for a [certain amount of time] until a certain point goal has been met. Depending on the number of control points, the point goal is either 500 (for a 3 control points map) or 900(for a 5 control points map).

If you play some online shooting games, you might say Lockdown is similar to Domination.

The purpose of this guide is to provide players tips on how to win Lockdown matches. We will give you helpful advice, such as equipment recommendations, strategies on how to attack and defend points, team coordination, and more.

Capturing Points

Stand on top of the point and you will automatically start capturing the point. The more people on your team standing on the point the faster the point is captured. The rate at which you capture a point when there are opponents on it is simply Teammates on the point-Opponents on the point. If the number is zero then capturing is stopped.

Weapons

There are many weapons that are used during Lockdown, but there are trends of commonly used equipment.

Note: the best version of the weapon alchemy line will be used.

Guns

Polaris and Supernova - These guns fires exploding bullets with high knock-back. With its wide range, the Polaris can easily cover choke points and find recons. The Polaris also has the ability to shock enemies.

Strategy: To be effective with this weapon, one should stay far away from target(s). The bullets will expand and deal more damage, and possibly also hurt other nearby enemies as well.

Any alchemer alchemy line gun ( Nova Driver, Hail Driver, Magma Driver, Storm Driver, Umbra Driver ) can be used for their damage and status effects, they can also be used alternatively for different status or damage types.(Shadow or elemental damage along with freeze, shock, and burn effects)

Swords

Divine Avenger - This elemental, two-swing sword is a powerhouse of damage. Though slow, its heavy damage output, wide swing arc, and long reach is highly prized in both the PvP and PvE worlds.

Strategy: Best to keep some distance, like using a gun. Because of how slow you become, strikers can get behind their back after the second swing. Recons can sneak around them too. Just try not to be there when the enemy turns around and tries to strike back. Only use the second swing if you're sure it will finish people off.

Gran Faust - This two-swing sword is almost exactly like the Divine Avenger, save for two very notable traits: it can induce the curse status effect, and inflicts shadow damage instead of elemental damage.

Strategy: Same as DA's.

Final Flourish and Barbarous Thorn Blade - This fast piercing sword can deal substantial damage in a short amount of time and is very effective in hit and run strategies.

Strategy: Very similar to the DA strategy, but this time you don't want to come in close. Stick to keeping distance.

Glacius,Combuster, Voltedge, Acheron - These swords are used by guardians and striker fairly commonly. The charge can do significant damage to anyone who doesn't resist it and will inflict them with the status condition the sword grants them. The regular attacks are also quite strong and a full combo will do more damage than a full combo of a DA or GF.

Strategy: Charge this when standing at a control point. When a striker comes along, release the charge. You can also use this charge attacks for range killing bombers.

Fang of Vog - This powerful sword, when charged, will do the same as the Brandish family, except it is much more powerful and goes all around the user like a Calibur charge (which can be useful in crowded places).

Strategy: Same as Brandish, but this time it's good to come in REALLY close to the enemy (kamikaze style).

Warmaster Rocket Hammer - This sword, has a combo where you leap towards the direction you are attacking, on the second swing. This leap can be very useful for "hit and run strikers", leaping right into bombers, killing sneaky gunners, "seek and destroy recons", escaping guardians, and for people who just want to have a bit of fun.

Strategy: Use your imagination! What can you do with a sword that propels you forward on the second swing?

Triglav and Sudaruska - These swords are not used commonly due to their slow speed and lack of specialized damage. They are outclassed by the Divine Avenger and Gran Faust though they can be use for their charge and status effects.

Strategy: Same as Divine Avenger and Gran Faust.

Dread Venom Striker and Wild Hunting Blade - This extremely fast sword is rarely used due to invincibility frames which cuts out nearly half it's damage. It can be used to interrupt players using slower swords.

Heavy Hatchet - This sword is commonly used due to fact that it is obtained as a mission reward with the UV ASI High. It has a long reach and does high damage.

Guardian Tips

Guardians are mostly a support player. It is advised that they use their shield to cover allies in the heat of battle. However, the shield drains extremely quickly, especially if you or your allies are taking a lot of hits.

Guardians are also good for defending a point. Their shield ability allows them to defend from any surprise attack and launch a powerful counter-offensive. Be warned, this will less effective when going against more than 2 enemies.

It helps the team that the Guardians use their shield to cover wounded allies, as the shield has a slight healing ability, so allies do not need to travel all the way back to the base to recover.

Dont pick a fight with strikers without a well thought out plan, it could mean victory or loss.

Recon Tips

Because of their cloak ability, Recons are good for launching surprise attack, even in the heat of battle. A recon can disappear, only to re-appear behind the enemy with a hard and fast attack.

From a defensive standpoint, it is best for a Recon to not stand on the point directly, but stay cloaked. Unsuspecting enemies will advance to what they believe is an empty point, which allows the Recon to quickly eliminate the intruder.

As a Support role, the Recon may also use its Death Mark ability to strip opponents of their armor defense, making it easier for attackers to dispose of them. However, straying too close to the enemy will result in damage, which will break your cloak. Caution is advised when undertaking this course of action.

Be warned, although the Recon is rendered invisible during its use, the recon marks give away the fact that there is a Recon in the vicinity. It is advised that when launching surprise attacks, the Recon stays away until it wishes to strike.

It must also be noted that while the Recon Death Mark strips armor defense, this ability does not do anything to the shield of a Guardian. The shield's ability will stay the same, but the user itself will have no defense except the shield.

Another technique to be taken advantage of is shield tapping. The recon lasts about a second after you take of your shield. Using this with a quick weapon, you can repeatedly tap the shield button to slow the recon time limit and attack without being seen.

One useful recon tactic is to use a flourish line weapon and attack them with the first swipe, and then "shield cancel". This make you appear for about half a second, and you're safe back in your cloak again.

Striker Tips

Strikers are typically an offensive class, with increases in sword attack power and an speed (when the booster is used), the Striker is good for hitting hard and fast.

While attacking, a Striker should not rely on attack power alone. Instead, a Striker should use his speed to avoid damage, usually by circling around to the back of an opponent while they are attacking, and hit them before they can react.

The Striker should take care to sustain as little damage as possible, due to the health decrease the Class provides. Try to save as much boost power as possible.

A good tip would be to have one fast gun weapon (antigua lines) to seek out recons in the vicinity. By Saphirality

Bomber Tips

Lockdown is a great place to let your l337 bombing skillz shine, whether you feel the need to whip out a cold snap and make your enemy go 'oh snap', or if you want to see the Gran Faust striker's squirm while helplessly spinning in a vortex... either way much fun is to be had. As you probably realize, bombing isn't simple when competing against other conscious beings instead of mindless drones, and there are a lot of things that can't be predicted. To start, the best way to find your place as a bomber in PvP is to vary your styles, and never consistently follow each match after the other by spamming Voltaic or Shiver (although both are very effective methods). And although it is hard to say so... having entirely bombs equipped for PvP isn't a well thought out plan.

Here are a few things you need to know and consider before putting your hard hat on and going bowling with your Nitronome.

1. Each class has different Bomb bonuses
   • Recon has a Very High CTR bonus
   • Guardian has a Low CTR bonus
   • Striker has a Very High Charge Time Increase
2. This means a lot of different load-outs can be used. E.g.; Full Volcanic demo can be used with a Guardian class to reach max ctr, Only one 5* bomber piece [never bombastic[ever]] is needed with Recon (along with a lvl 10 bomb) to reach max etc.
3. Another thing to consider is that Max CTR can still be achieved on striker (although expensive it is one of the best bombing methods) i.e. Full Mad Bomber + 2x Elite Bomb focus mods.

Striker

Striker to a bomber is pretty useless to a bomber... at least you would think so. The class is actually OP once a bomber gets around the boundaries, and if you can afford it, you'll quickly outwit the typical Vog Cub Strikers. Having max CTR will mean you can kite your way into a horde of enemies, dance around them with Shivermist or Voltaic, throw a couple of Dark Briar's in and you've wiped out an entire team. Then if you get close to death, just speed gently into the distance - and to stop other Strikers from following, just spam a few Shivers behind you and you're safe. This all sounds nice, but in reality you are sacrificing a lot. The typical way of reaching Max on striker is Full Mad Bomber, Level 10 Bomb and 2x Elite bomb modules. This option however leaves behind the max damage a Completely Mad bomber holds with an elite boom mod, along with other status trinkets such as shock, fire, pierce and shadow. The Mad bomber set also greatly reduces status effect defences... which can be fatal (such as shock.... stupid shock ruining everything). But as always there are ways around this. The most efficient way is having a Vhigh CTR bomb (negates the striker penalty), and then the rest is your choice (see armor section above).

Guardian

This class is probably the most meanest and cruel way of playing lockdown. Camp at one base and spam Voltaic. Strikers will come and get shocked at the edge. Start shooting them with Polaris, or go up to them and rage Final Flourish them. They'll most probably die, and then when someone starts shooting you, just shoot them back with Polaris. If someone is going to jump into your bombs and hit you with a hammer, simply shield and then counter attack. This strategy has no comeback so far, but the drawbacks include being extremely bored. By Saphirality

Recon

You will see this class in almost every random team you join nowadays, given that the CTR of being recons suggests that recons are mostly for bombing, and quickly. This makes this class the ideal class for crowd controlling bombs, spamming Voltaics outside their base, spamming briars around and quick offensive bombs. For most people this is the hardest class to master, given that having entirely bombs is not a good PVP set, and the timing and placing of bombs is very important. You must also take in the fact that people are going to be shooting you, and the most problems self training recon bombers forget is that they have a disappearing ability, which come into use when someone is spamming you with a Polaris. By Saphirality

Gunner Tips

First things first. Obviously you shouldn't use the autogun line because you have to stand still, and that makes you extremely vulnerable. Don't use a full combo of any gun [Unless its a last resort and you have nothing to lose], because reloading makes you vulnerable. The antigua lines are qutie usefull for revealing recons and finishing off low healthed enemies. Pulsar lines are used mainly for spam and discouraging enemies. If you want full gunner then have some gun-specialised caps and armors. Callahan is good for recons and can be whipped out when an enemy is shocked/frozen/etc. Some normal damaging guns are quite useful, such as Valiance which gives a mini knockback. Alchemer lines weapons are used for damage and status effects. Use their charges only when you know you have enough time to recover from the blast.

Striker

A striker gunner is one to fear. Whip out your Umbra, blast some Skolvers, and dodge all attacks. Easy as it sounds, the route of a gunner is very difficult. your main priority is to DODGE, DODGE and DODGE. Did I mention dodging? As a gunner, you will be drawing a lot of attention and your boost is very significant. Also, carry a gun thats well suited to your ability. Are you a defensive/run away kind? Catalyzer them, and watch them run into your bullets. Are you offensive? Grab an Antigua line and a Valiance, and watch them attempt you come near you while getting pushed back by your Valiance, or stunlocked by your Antigua. Are you an in-betweener? Grab a Polaris for your out-of-boost-weapon and some alchemers for some heavy damage.

Recon

This might be the hardest class to play, especially with guns. Why? One single attack could ruin or fuel you. Once that cloak breaks, you're going to have to face strikers who juggle you to death. Because once your cloack breaks, YOU ARE SCREWED! Thats why playing recon gunner is so hard. Also.. the damage is mediocre and hard to eliminate enemies. Back to Ld tips. One of the main things of a recon is to stay hidden. To surprise an enemy capping a point, stunlock your enemy with an Antigua. A full clip can do heavy damage. Although once enemy is over their surprise,whip out your Valiance to keep enemies from striking distance. The recon deathmark isnt too useful for a gunner because the last thing you want is for a Skolver to find out a gunner is nearby. Even if you get a deathmark onto an enemy, it can be hard to get shots onto an enemy. Once you reveal yourself, even for a second, a zooming Skolver with a flourish can scoop you out of your cloak.

Strategy: Creep up on some standing enemy at a control point, and do a full Blitz combo right next to them. Risky, but effective. By Saphirality

Guardian

This class isnt even recommended for a gunner. Unless you are a super natural gunner, I honestly have no idea how to play this class. I suppose you should use weapons that can cancel and keep enemies afar. Such knockback weapons are Pulsar and Blaster line weapons. Pulsars for keeping enemies as far as you can. Once they have escaped your spamming, whip out your Valiance and shoot them. It has high bullet speed and good knockback. An alternative for the Valiance is the Antigua, although Valiance serves a better purposes, as long as you don't do full combos.

For guardians i recomend florish line as 1º weapon, a gun moderate fast and a heavy sword (DA or GF) as 2º sword. The biggest handicap of a guardian is his speed. His force is in heath and in his shield. The best way to play guardian is with a gear / trinkey that give you much in asi and sword damages. ( vog/skolver line) you can use 2 heath trinkey for a more defensive guardian or 1 heath trinkey and one asi/damages trinkey for a more aggressive guardian. Good guardians can always make the first hit on a striker because you can forecast and anticipate the movement (important asi). Only with a very good asi and damages you can beat a striker in a 1 vs 1. when under gun atack, i would say the best way to fight is NOT shield up ( because it only destroy your shield and dont solve the problem, and you will need the shield for the sword fight). So you just have the to improve your movement and you can easyly avoid polaris and other +- slow guns. At te same time you avoid the gun shots, you can shot with a fast gun ( AP or S) or move into the gunlisger in order to use your sword (aggrecive move). You can use the diferent speed with shield up or not to avoid the shots ( its harder to hit). When facing a bomber its easy too. If the bomber keep bomb in bomb area, use gun to hit him. in this case i think it easier to hit with AP or S because have long range, fast shot and fast traver. If the bomber is moving around you just have to cross him and use sword when he is charge. If he run away you can switch to gun and hit him.

guardian special situation:

many times, you are under striker and bomber atack. In this case, you can shield up and enter into bomb area. When you do that your shield will "vibrate" as reactions of the bomb efect every sec. the bomb efect will never broke your shield, so you can be there as far as you want. So you may ask what is the benefite of being there ? the benefite is that its very hard to hit you (making damages). When the striker come on you he will try to hit, and he will, but in +- 80 to 90% of the cases it wont afect the shield heath, because when the shield "vibrate" its like "undamages". and this will give you the oportunity to step out of the bomb area when you want and hit the striker when he wont expect. he will expect your shield is almost broken, when in reality its not. when under gun atack, if it is fast guns i would say its hit +- 50% of the shots

by Korh

PS. with some pratice you can use final flourish charge to kill strike a striker if you can predic correctly his moviment. I normally do it when i am defending a base with only 1 or 2 "doors" and i am waiting for a striker coming.

Sword Tips

Striker

Nearly everyone in lockdown is in this format. Nowadays, people won't bother to cap their nearest point. Instead they will zoom to an enemy base to get damage which isnt bad, but there cannot be the whole team zooming to the enemy's base. Anyways, the weapons you want is a flourish, a line of sealed sword, and any type of gun that has mobility. A flourish should be used for practical use. Using a flourish takes quite a bit of skill. When using a flourish, you should attack with the first hit and then cancel the animation with your boost. Then zoom back to your opponent and repeat process. A sealed sword is for defensive use, once your boost is down. If you can predict your enemy's move, then you can counter-attack with a sealed sword combo, effectively buying you time to regain your boost and dealing heavy damage. Finally, a gun. A Valiance, AP/ Setenza, and Pulsar are extremley usefull. If out of boost and at far distance, you can gun them down. If you happen to use a heavy sword type, like Divine Avenger, Gran Faust or Troika lines, remember to try and only use the first hit, then canceling it with a boost, zoom to the other side of the enemy and repeat. Using the second hit makes you extremely vunerable unless you get some decent attack speed increases.

Watch this, and you might learn some tactics. [1]

Recon

NEVER reveal yourself. The deathmark can be useless unless in crowds. In a 1v1, the last thing you want is to have the enemy know you are around. Once the yellow exclamation is struck, the enemy will go in a frenzy trying to find you making it almost impossible to land a hit. Back to killing. You can usually land a hit onto your enemy before being able to escape. Then, wait for your foe to either run out of boost and wreck some shields. Thats when you can go effensive but not too much. Land one hit, dissapear, and strike agian. repeat process until enemy flees or dies.

Strategy: Camp invisible at a CAPTURED point. Some dumb enemy will come along and try to recapture it. As soon as you see an enemy, do a surprise GF combo. Make sure you dont miss! By Saphirality

Guardian

Guardians are support/defensive players. Guardians can support allies though the shield will break alarmingly fast if your allies are taking heavy damage. A striker can be hard to take down because of all the zooming around. Therfore, you need to be able to counter and predict where the striker will strike next. Therfore, you can keep your enemies just beyond striking distance. If this isn't possible for you at the moment, use the shield. When you see an enemy zooming in, tank one shot then counter attack. Repeat until shield is broken. then try to use full combos, thus able to deal damage and stall time for your shield to regenerate.

Hybrid Tips

Hybrids are people that use multiple different kinds of weapons to adapt to the current lockdown game, depending on the gear of the other team, the damage type the other team is using, and so on. Here are some tips:

Striker Tips

If you are using a Snarbolax set, and you repeatedly get frozen by someone's shivermist, then what do you do? Change to Skolver set of course! Being a hybrid Striker is all about dealing the right damage that the enemy doesn't resist, and the right gear that resists the enemys damage type. Of course, you have to always keep in mind that you don't always have to use the same weapon type. By Saphirality

Recon Tips

The class I play when I feel like having fun is a hybrid recon. Basically, spam shiver everywhere, and whoever you can't shiver (skolvers), you Gran Faust them. Have a Polaris ready if your cloak breaks. Or, you can just spam Voltaic everywhere and quickly Final Flourish everyone else. Probably the biggest problem with recon classes is ASI on all weapons. By Saphirality

Guardian Tips

Combos, and teamwork

Guild matches are pretty intense, with some pretty unique strategies being used by different groups.

Firstly, it's pretty obvious that gunners beat bombers, bombers own swordies, and swordies practically @#$% gunners. You have to always keep this in mind when playing lockdown. If you're a striker and you see a guardian spamming bombs, you don't just go up and gran faust him. That's a one way ticket to death. Obviously, you shoot the bomber to the ground. If he gains some sense and starts shooting you back, then you obviously stop shooting and whip him with your gran faust, BEFORE he has time to get out his bombs or swords.

The most common method for a bomber is the Freeze and Voltaic lock. Voltaic is the better option as most players aren't equipped against shock whereas sword masters use Skolver, which has a high freeze resistance (they walk casually through shiver). The idea is to block the entrances to a control point with the vaporizer's wide radius... effectively holding the point. You will find strikers like to fly right into your bombs assuming they can zoom;GF;fly away. In the event that your enemy has a Polaris/Supernova... run (unless you are skilled at dodging flying bombs). Either that or pop up your guardian shield and wait for a team-mate to two-hit them with a Gran Faust. The combination of Freeze and Shock is a safe bet for locking a position into your team's hands. Having a friend to use the alternate bomb is optimal.

Another tactic that works only the Lockdown Map, Gardens, is to get a bomb with a big radius and stand right outside the enemy base and spam it. Since the base entrance is tiny, one bomb with a big radius will cover almost the whole entrance. Something that helps a lot is the pillar that stands in the middle of the base gate. This can cover you from internal enemy gunfire. By Saphirality

There are many ways to ruin the fun in this game; however as a bomber I believe GF'ers and DA'ers ruin the game ~ The following method is for you evil doers needing revenge (mwahahaha).

Team Strategies

Not that many teams go into each battle with a plan. Simple team maneuvers can greatly increase your teams chances of winning. Here are a couple of tips:

1. Balance positions- don't all stick to a single group. Keep an equal amount of each class. 2. Stick together- going solo will leave you an easy target for large groups with a guardian. Stick in groups of twos or threes. Again, vary the classes. 3. Guard your bases- many people enjoy continuously attacking bases or circling the arena and conquering each base as you go. While sometimes effective, a more practical way to win involves simply guarding two of the three bases. Your team will win quickly.

Here are also some strategies that can be used in a guild battle:

• Shield wall: Create a wall of three guardians. Keep the shields up and take turns attacking. One attacks while the other two block. Damage taken will be canceled out by the group shields. Also have one or two strikers weaving their way in and out. Do quick attacks and then retreat behind the line.
• Recon Camping: good defense. Chill invisible next to a base. When an unsuspecting enemy comes along they can easily be surrounded.
• Preparation: Before a guild battle, prepare your team. Below are some ideal team class setups.

Team 1 Two Recons (Bomb) One doing stun and the other doing shock. This will make your enemies VERY slow (spasms from shock + stun status). Two Strikers (Sword) These will have the skolver/toothpick/gran faust setup and rage at the enemy, leaving them scared or dead. One Striker (Gun) Using a powerful gun while keeping at a distance, this person will keep firing the enemy, making them very annoyed... and dead.

Team 2 Five Strikers (Sword) These will have the same skolver/toothpick/gran faust setup, and will swarm kill whoever appears outside the enemy base. One Guardian (Hybrid) This person will heal his teammates.

Team 3 Four Recons (Bomb) These will bomb any weapon in the RSS/Stagger/Voltaic/Graviton/Electron/Nitronome/Retribution/Briar families (Do NOT use Shiver or Veiler because freeze doesn't affect skolver and poison is useless in an almost full bombing party) and overwhelm any enemy with status inflitions. Tip: Having an enemy stuck in a Graviton, Stunned by Stagger and bombarded by Retributions is a easy death to whoever gets stuck. Two Recons (Hybrid) These will join in the bombing until someone starts shooting the bombers, in which these recons will disappear among the fray and appear next to the shooter's side using a Gran Faust.

Team 4 Six Strikers (Gun) If your guild is lucky enough to be equipped with a full arsenal of people that are skilled at striker gunning, then put them all in the same team. There's no direct way to kill a gunner, since the very good ones are seemingly unpredictable, so putting six on one team will annoy the enemy very much, especially recon bombers and guardians. You will win quickly and effectively. Try having one gunner to run around the map, checking the CPs are still yours and not being overtaken by some sneaky recon that bypassed.

Team 5 Five Guardians (Hybrid) These will all go in a group, from one control point to another. Keep all those shields up, so whoever that needs healing will get three and a half pips each second. If some strikers come try counter attacking. Shielding together makes your shield five times as more health. One Striker (Sword) This person will have the same skolver/toothpick/gran faust setup and weave between the guardians, healing, being shielded and attacking at the same time.

Team 6 One Recon (Bomb) Spam Voltaic outside their base.

One Recon (Sword) Suprise kill anyone you see with a Gran Faust/Divine Avenger.

One Striker (Gun) Shoot anyone that appears.

One Striker (Sword) Hit anyone that appears.

One Guardian (Hybrid) Spam polaris outside their base.

One Guardian (Hybrid) Shield and heal.

First six teams posted by Saphirality. Feel free to post more under this endline.