Ten Top Tips for Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Published March 11, 2008

David Knight of Prima Games offers his top ten tips for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas 2. Try these out as you attempt to stop the terrorist siege of Sin City.

Tag the terrorists first.

Tagging Terrorists

Your A.I. teammates can earn you experience points (XP) by killing terrorists. However, you'll earn more XP if the terrorists they kill are tagged. Consider hiding behind cover and tagging terrorists for your teammates. On Normal and Realistic difficulty, the XP awarded is the same as if you'd taken the lethal shot yourself.

Avoid Innocents

Not all XP earned is permanent. By injuring or killing teammates and civilians, you can incur an XP penalty. But no matter how incompetent you may be, your actions will never result in a demotion, even if your XP dips below the prerequisite level for a certain rank.

Take cover.

Watch the Corners

Be careful when moving to corners. Even if your body is behind cover, your arm, shoulder, and leg nearest the corner may be exposed. In some instances, corners can even be penetrated by some of the more powerful weapons. So if you start taking damage, quickly back away from the corner and consider another plan of attack.

Be Aware of Your Cover

Not all cover is created equally, so before ducking behind an object, assess its qualities and orientation. For instance, don't take cover behind objects constructed from glass, wood, or plastic. Even low powered weapons can slice through these materials. Instead, seek out solid objects, preferably built from concrete, stone, or metal.

Ready, aim …

Aimed Shot

While in cover mode, locate the thin crosshair icon in the center of the screen. This indicates the direction your character is aiming. Use this crosshair to aim your weapon before peeking out of cover. Once the crosshair is over your target, peek around or over your cover and notice how your weapon is already aligned with the target. Make any small aiming adjustments then take the shot. This allows you to pop in and out of cover quickly during firefights, limiting your exposure when taking aimed shots.

XP Modifier

To prevent players from exploiting the XP system in low population adversarial matches, a modifier system has been implemented. This adjusts the total amount of XP that can be earned based on the number of players a match. The more players in a match, the more XP is awarded. So before starting a match, make sure you have at least 12 players to maximize the amount of awarded XP for all players.

Arm yourself.

The Power of Armor

The protection provided by each piece of armor is cumulative and applied globally to your character's torso and limbs. Therefore, the cumulative protection value of arm, leg, and shoulder armor could help you survive a shot to the chest, even if you're not wearing body armor over your torso. However, this global armor value does not protect your character's head, nor do the various unlockable headgear pieces, including helmets. All headgear and other articles of clothing are purely aesthetic and have no impact on protection or mobility.

Seven Bar Status

When selecting armor, there's no reason to load your character with more than seven bars of protection. A seven bar protection value reduces damage by 40%, the maximum allowed. Increasing protection beyond seven bars will only slow you down.

Dancing the tango may not be so fun.

Tangos and Shields

Watch out for tangos equipped with ballistic shields. They advance rapidly, hiding behind their shields while firing handguns. Because their torsos are completely concealed, try grazing the tops of their heads or shooting their arms or feet. If all else fails, attack with frag grenades or use flanking maneuvers to hit them from the side. Breaching charges are also very effective if one of these tangos is standing on the other side of a door.

Study Your Opponents

During adversarial matches, study the tactics and equipment loadouts of your opponents and counter them with the proper gear. If they're using tear gas, counter by wearing gas masks. If they're locating your teammates with the GPS device, block their scans with a radar jammer. If they're using smoke and thermal vision, blind them with flashbangs.

Article by David Knight (Prima Games)