Escort Guide¶
Escort is a mode with a heavy focus on stealth, teamwork, and macro. Due to its unique lack of a compass on the defending round, players need to use macro knowledge, such as spawn manipulation, ideal pathing etc. to locate their opponents and keep their VIPs safe. On the other hand, this enables offense players to utilize all abilities and playstyles, ranging from needing to shoot down a VIP with a high point checkpoint to hiding in morphed groups to get high point kills.
Unlike other modes, neither team is in a truly advantageous position based on the role they're playing; if the defenders manage to successfully defend their VIPs the majority of the time and/or force lower score kills, they'll easily outscore the other team. If they manage to keep a VIP alive for decently long, they can easily be in a situation where they're getting 500 points as a team every 15 seconds or so - on top of the points they get off of their kills. On the other hand, if the hunters manage to get past the defenders and get quality kills, such as poisons, focuses, hiddens et cetera, they'll end the round with a significantly higher score. What this does mean, though, is that the defenders accumulate their points slowly over time, while the hunters can get lots of points in a very small amount of time.
Basics¶
Abilities¶
We have a separate abilities page for this.
The most important things to remember, though, are that defense players will almost always bring a gun and use chase expert to help locate their targets.
The reason for using chase expert is that it grants a visual indicator in the form of small streaks behind the player when in proximity of the offense team.
Their other abilities will usually help them either identify (e.g. firecrackers) or catch (e.g. knives, sprint boost) the hunters.
On offense, depending on the situation, players can bring any ability. Usually, poison and some stealth or defensive ability are used.
Offense¶
The offense round, where players have to sneak past the defenders and get high scoring kills on VIPs, is quite simple at the surface level. Upon being spotted, the defenders are in an advantage due to being the ones killing the hunters, especially if they have their guns available. This means that hunters have to employ stealth to get near the targets, where their detection meter forces a slower approach. However, when the defenders' guns are on cooldown, when there are lots of obstacles, or when the players are all close together, hunters can also use abilities to stun or parkour to outmaneuver the defenders and get to safety or to the VIPs.
Generally speaking, it makes sense to get close to a VIP's path by running behind walls or on roofs, then utilizing NPCs to get up close and get a high quality kill. Waiting in blend groups by a VIP's checkpoint can be a solid method, but players need to be wary of defenders being notified by their chase expert and using firecrackers to expose them. A different approach can be to stay in hiding further away, then running or jumping in with a defensive ability such as mute to stay safe and get a good kill.
When only one VIP is killed and the other one is still alive, it's best to try to execute it with whatever means possible. This can be something like shooting or jumping in for a simple discreet kill. It depends entirely on the game state.
When both VIPs are available, it's often advantageous to approach one VIP as a team, since the defenders will usually be split. If the VIP is in a difficult spot or the defenders are in an ability advantage (such as their gun being available or the hunters having no defensive abilities), a popular strategy is for one hunter to go in first and play the role of a decoy to get an easy kill for their teammate.
Defense¶
On defense, players have to use game knowledge to figure out where the hunters might be and keep their VIPs safe. For players coming from later games, it can help to think of this round as the defense round in Artifact Assault with the VIPs being moving bases.
Due to the lack of a compass, defenders need to rely on aforementioned game knowledge, mostly spawn logic, to get a rough idea of their opponents' positions. If they can't be spotted by conventional means, defenders use the chase expert perk to get a visual indicator whether they're in close proximity. The whispers sounds can also be used, but these only trigger when the hunters are close to a VIP, which often means it's already too late to protect the VIP. Defenders should also generally stick to the roofs, as it's easier to look down than up. Fortunately, the above tools to detect the hunters do not take height into account, meaning a player on a high roof will still get the visual indicator from their chase expert if there's a hunter below them.
Defenders need to coordinate where they are on the map and where they're looking in order to cover as much ground as possible. When both VIPs are available, defenders will usually stay roughly around one VIP each, although due to the popular team approach described in the offense section, when one defender spots a player, the other one should usually come to their aid or move towards them, as that'll often be where the second hunter is.
When both hunters are dead, the defenders can utilize spawn trapping. However, they should be wary of whether the other team has the host player, since their spawn logic will differ.
If only one VIP is dead, defenders will usually split up, with one staying near the VIP and the other "pushing" to where they believe the opposing team might be. In this case, it also makes sense to keep one player on the ground and the other on the roof.
Advanced¶
I actually don't think this is worth working on for now, but who knows?
Characters¶
It's best to pick characters that can blend into the environment well, since that can make it harder for you to get spotted. Most characters' best customizations for this are their base customizations. In the following list, bold options are recommended picks. There can be more viable options than the ones listed here and picking something unusual can catch players by surprise.
- Castel Gandolfo: Pariah, Priest, white Smuggler
- Florence: Executioner, Footpad, Priest
- Forli: Smuggler, Executioner, Officer
- Rome: Courtesan, Blacksmith, red Thief
- San Donato: Footpad, Executioner, Priest
- Siena: Engineer, Knight, red Thief, Blacksmith
- Venice: Dama Rossa, dark Thief, anything - Venice is harder to blend in on, so just don't pick something too flashy
- Anything Night: Doctor, Marquis, Dama Rossa
Customizations¶
These are just my customizations, they're not necessarily the best.
Blacksmith
Courtesan
Dama Rossa
Doctor
Engineer
Executioner
Footpad
Knight
Marquis
Pariah
Priest
Smuggler
Thief
Offense¶
Round start¶
At the start of the round, hunters generally are in the best position to set themselves up; they know exactly where the other team spawned and the VIPs will likely be walking towards the middle of the map. For every VIP route, there'll be a popular route to get a good setup, such as running across the outside towards the top of the map on Castel.
TODO: insert some examples here
However, since the defenders are in a similar situation, they'll usually have a prefered spot to keep a look out to the common approach spots.