Lockdown Guide

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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/or 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

Using a Powerful or crowd controling bomb, like Shivermist Buster or other bombs, you can, for the most part, keep the opponent off the capture points. It is also good to stick with a group, because the more poeple there are on a point the faster it is captured.

Dealing Damage

Almost how everyone is nowadays, be a striker wearing something in the Wolver Line and hold the most powerful swords you can find, Divine Avenger, Gran Faust, Final Florish, Barbarous Thorn Blade, etc.

Common 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.

Polaris - This shock-inducing gun that fires exploding bullets with high knock-back is a common sight in Lockdown arenas of any type. With its wide range, the Polaris line is a force to be recognized.

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.

Divine Avenger - This elemental, two-swing sword is a powerhouse of damage. Though slow, its heavy damage output 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!

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 it inflicts shadow damage instead of elemental damage.

Strategy: Same as DA's.

Final Flourish - 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.

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 may drain extremely quickly, especially if 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 not be increasingly effective against more than 2 enemies progressively.

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

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.

Recon

Guardian

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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 avaoid 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.

Bomber Tips

Spamming bombs never helped... Unless you feel like scaring your opposition to death.

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.

What you should know before starting

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

Recon

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.

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.