Four tips that may come in handy as you first enter the challenging world of Dust 514

As you set foot on your first hostile planet Dust 514 can seem a little daunting.  These tips should help you ease into life as a mercenary.

Train some skills

You may be tempted to dive right into battle before even looking at your character sheet. While there is no doubt that this will certainly be a lot of fun, you stand a much better chance of success if you first apply your 500,000 spare skill points awarded to you on character creation.

We will be providing some example initial skill allocations in the days to come, but in general when you are new to a game like DUST 514 it is a good idea not to specialise too early.

You will start with a few basic skills that relate to the class you chose on character creation. Level a few of these up to level 2, perhaps levelling weaponry and your primary weapon skill up to level 3. Next, purchase a few handheld weapon upgrades, and,if you are an arbiter perhaps consider purchasing "armour repair systems". Train these to level one.

You will find that spreading your skillpoints around in the early stages of character development will make you a lot more effective than putting all your skillpoints into just a small number of different skills. This is because each level you train, there is an exponential jump in the amount of skillpoints required for the same gain.

You do not not need to spend all your 500k skillpoints, but we would certainly recommend it.. you can always win more!

Resupply with nannohives

Nannohives are nifty pieces of equipment that allow you to resupply you and your teammates. If you chose the enforcer class during character creation this will be equipped as standard. To Drop a nannohive, simply hold down R2. This will bring up the equipment menu. Select the nannohive using the right analogue stick and release R2. To deploy your nannohive simply press R1.

If you can't kill the enemy - heal your friends

If you are finding kills ellusive during your first few matches then perhaps you should consider the medic class. Equipped with a nanite injector the medic can revive fallen teammates, an activity that actually gets you 60 war points 10 more than killing the enemy! To select your nanite enjector, hold R2 to bring up your equipment menu, select with the right analogue stick and release. To revive a fallen brother; simply walk up to his or her body and press R1.

If you chose the arbiter class on character creation, you will also have access to a repair tool that can heal armour on both friendly mercs and friendly vehicles. You get warpoints for triage when you have healed enough of their armour (25 wp at a time). It is also worth pointing out that the medic is not a non-combat role, its actually quite a fast paced way of playing involving lots of quick switching between firing on the enemy and triage.

Use free vehicles!

Many people wrongly assume that all vehicles must be paid for. There is one vehicle that you can call in free of charge. The "Light Assault Vehicle".

Depending on where you spawn, you can spend much of your time just running towards the action. The starter fit LAV (Baloch) may not be a formidable vehicle in terms of firepower or hitpoints, but it does get you from A to B quickly. This is vital in the early stages of a skirmish game and is very useful at most other times during play.

Depending on your choice of race and class, you will either have a Baloch or a Onikuma. To call in your vehicle, simply press right on the D-PAD. You will be presented with a menu. Select "LAV" and then "Baloch - Impact [STARTER FIT]" or "Onikuma - Impact [STARTER FIT]". After 15 seconds a dropship will deliver your speedy new light assault vehicle.