After easing ourselves in though Battlefield: Hardline’s campaign (so much better than the last two games!), we’ve been hitting the servers pretty hard since launch. We’ve been impressed with how stable the online action has been and it looks like Visceral have learned from DICE’s mistakes in Battlefield 4. So you’ve no excuses to not get the most from the online action. However, life as a cop or criminal can be seriously tough out there. So why not improve your chances by checking out our Battlefield: Hardline multiplayer tips.

Fire in bursts

Hardline’s assault rifles have a mean kick to them and sustained firing causes your crosshair to dance around the screen making distant targets difficult to hit. You don’t necessarily need to adjust the firing mode of your assault rifle to burst fire, just manually fire in shorter bursts and you’ll notice how much easier it is to maintain a steady aim and not have to worry about reloading to finish of a single opponent.

Buy a new assault rifle

Sorry to get all technical on you, but the default assault rifle is just balls. The recoil unleashed for merely looking at the trigger is incredibly frustrating and the low damage output is particularly disappointing. Money earned from matches can be spent on new weapons and the first weapon you’ll want to buy is one with reduced recoil and accuracy. Sadly, you’ll have to choose between buying one for the police or criminlas. Having the unlocks tied to each side was a terrible idea and is very costly. If you’re light on funds, maybe opt for the mechanic’s sub-machine gun at first, as it’s much steadier than the first assault rifle, albeit at the cost of range.

Tag enemies

Even if you’re having a rough round, you can still be a massive help to your allies by tagging any enemies you see by tapping R1/RB, which will place an orange arrow over an opponent’s head and put them on the minimap. If you can keep your cool and do this in a Crosshair match, you’ll find out where the VIP is hiding. Snipers scanning an area from above are especially useful for tagging. Give the button a quick press before you pull the trigger and even if you miss your long-range shot, your friends will know where the lucky bastard is. You’ll get some points if someone else kills your tagged targets too.

Listen for chopper pilots bailing

Sitting in a gunner seat in the helicopters is great fun and it’s the fastest way to get into the action when a round starts. Sadly, pilots are dicks. They’ll bail for no apparent reason mid-air, sending everyone to their doom. You don’t have to wear a headset, just listen out for the AI saying something along the lines of “I’m handing the controls over to you.” This means the pilot has gone, so hot swap into the pilot seat or bail and parachute to safety. If you are parachuting, be sure to pull the cord at the last possible moment so snipers can’t pick you off as you float back down.

Armoured Command Centres FTW

Need to beef up your kill/death ratio? Then get in one of the bus-sized mobile command centres. These heavily armed vehicles absorb tonnes of damage before exploding and many opposing players don’t seem to register them as a threat or are unable to detect which window you’re using. There are two side windows on each side, each with a mounted machine gun with unlimited ammo. Snipers don’t appear to be able to shoot you either (or I’ve been really lucky at least), so until someone comes at you with a grenade launcher, have fun. Fill the thing up with allies or just park it sideways at a junction with plenty of scope on both sides to pick enemies off and you’ll probably be able to get five kills before someone decides to do something about you. Swapping between vacant seats in most vehicles allows you a wider view of your surroundings and will keep your trigger finger busy throughout.

Keep moving in Hotwire

There really isn’t much to this mode. Once you’re in a car that earns conquest-style points, just keep moving in a lap around the map and be wary of any dead ends as the loss of speed slows your points down. Let allies hop in and make a beeline for any unused vehicles so they can jump out and score some points too. If you’re riding shotgun to defend the driver, be sure to lean out the window by clicking R3 so you aim anywhere. The grenade launcher is handy to take out rival vehicles, but beware of the aiming arc as reloads between shots leave you very vulnerable.

Need money? Play Hotwire

Unless you’re a regular player of online FPS titles, the early hours of Battlefield: Hardline can be hell. The default gear is poor and upgrades are seriously expensive. So if your takings from regular modes like Conquest, TDM or Heist aren’t bringing home the bacon, get into Hotwire mode. It doesn’t matter if your behind the wheel of a points-scoring car, leaning out the window of one shooting enemies, or just doing nothing in the back seat, you’ll earn serious cash. The vehicles are surprisingly tough, so everyone can get some decent time in behind the wheel before eventually blowing up. The best thing about racking up the cash in this mode? You’ll have shit loads of fun while you’re doing it.

Avoid melee encounters

This isn’t Call of Duty where a single melee strike is enough to earn an easy kill in close-quarters. Multiple hits are required for a kill. So even if you’ve got the drop on someone, just shamefully unload a clip into their back and hope the tickrate doesn’t screw you over and they shoot you anyway.

Although…

Ok, if you are feeling brave and can take an enemy out from behind or use the taser for a different non-lethal takedown, you can hold a button to ‘interrogate’ him, which will add some enemy positions to your team’s minimap. Don’t blame us if you get shot in the back 90% of the time during this procedure though.

Swap to sidearm to sprint

Sprinting while holding your sidearm weapon (pistol, revolver etc) is actually faster than running with your main weapon. This is especially useful when you spawn far from the action, like at the start if you’re late hopping into a vehicle and face a horribly lengthy run to the ‘arena’ in the larger Conquest maps.

Pick up your teammates

There’s a special place in hell for people that don’t let their teammates hop into their car, chopper or bike at the start of a match. You don’t even have to stop and sit through an animation while they get in. They can stand almost anywhere alongside a vehicle and instantly get in via the button prompt. Picking up an engineer can save your bacon too as they can equip the welding torch and repair any damage to your vehicle while you’re on the move. Have another couple of allies leaning out the windows with grenade launchers and assault rifles and you can be pretty damn unstoppable!

Hopefully you’ll have some luck with these tips. Do let us know if you have any of your own or you’ve discovered a sneaky exploit. We’d love to hear how you’ve been finding the game’s campaign and multiplayer too.