Overview
No character on the team is more essential to the team than the engineer. While other characters can dish out far more damage shot for shot, the engineer has more influence than anyone over how the game is played. At their best, an engineer defines the flow of combat for their teammates and provides them with a coherent base of operations along with all of the tools needed to destroy the enemy. Without a quality engineer, your base is doomed to be overrun by enemies and Horde becomes basically unplayable. But the life of an engineer is often a grind, meaning a successful game may require you to spend more time repairing your base to protect your team than focusing on killing the enemy directly.
Placing the Fabricator
Every Horde game begins with the Fabricator being placed somewhere on the map. As the engineer I always try to get to the Fabricator first, but wherever it is placed is the core of your base. There are three reasons for this:
- Enemies will not spawn too close to the fabricator
- Downed allies can be revived at the fabricator; and
- If you die during a wave, your character will be revived at the fabricator.
Therefore, you will want to choose a location for the fabricator that will be as easily defensible as possible. The spawn locations on each map are usually good options, as they allow you to put a wall at your back and concentrate all of your fire in one direction without enemies sneaking up behind you. Some levels, such as Harbor, Reclaimed and Training Grounds have elevated platforms from which enemies can come from all directions which are also strong options for bases.
The Repair Tool
The biggest difference between the engineer class and most of the other classes is that instead of spawning with a pistol, the engineer begins the game with a repair tool in the pistol slot. This tool allows you to repair anything you’ve built out of the fabricator by “shooting” it with the repair tool from a short distance away for a small amount of credits. In addition to restoring the “health” of fortifications, the repair tool also reloads the ammunition in the sentry turrets.
Barriers: The walls of your base
Once the fabricator has been placed, the next major task is to construct the barriers that will protect the team and define the dimensions of your base. Look around the area and determine what are the spaces in which a barrier could be laid that the opponents won’t be able to run around. A good base has no more than 2-4 of these chokepoints that require a barrier.
Barriers have four levels of strength:
- Spikes
- Barbed Wire
- Electric Fence
- Laser Fence
Level 1 and 2 barriers don’t stop enemies, they merely slow them down and do a bit of damage. However, after 3-5 seconds most enemies will emerge on the other side of these with at least 80% of their health intact.
Level 3 and 4 barriers do not allow enemies to pass through. Enemies will attack these barriers from the outside causing themselves damage, but until they are destroyed they will keep the enemies out.
Placing barriers strategically allows you to define the base from which your team engages the horde. When placing barriers, make sure there is cover nearby, so the engineer can work in safety while repairing the barrier for the team. At the end of every wave if not more often, take a moment to scan your base to make sure all of the barriers you need have enough health to survive the next wave.
Sometimes an engineer will create a safe zone with barriers only to see their team spread out across the map with no regard for the area you’ve created. This is frustrating but remember, it’s your job to work with the team you have, not the team you might wish to have. If people are actually working within defensible areas consider shifting the fabricator and barriers to their location.
The team playing too far from the fabricator means the enemy can spawn right on top of you, and it may be impractical for teammates to get back to the fabricator to deposit money, purchase defenses, or revive teammates when necessary. However, if your team is roaming the map without a home base or is stationed in an area you don’t believe is defensible, it’s appropriate to continue to build a defensible base in the hopes that as waves require your team to seek shelter they will appreciate the base.
If your team does not deposit money and just roams the map without regard to the base, you may want to consider just picking up the strongest weapon you can find and operating with the same disregard your team has. Or possibly just quit and find a better team to play with.
Everything Else
Every other item in the fabricator can make it’s own distinct contribution to the team.
Decoys: These fake teammates can be placed on the battlefield to distract enemies. Higher level decoys can take more damage before being destroyed, and level 4 decoys explode when destroyed. Enemies will focus their attacks on a decoy if the decoy is closer to them than actual COG soldiers. This distraction both reduces the amount of damage your team takes and makes the horde that much easier to kill.
Weapon Lockers: A weapon locker creates a slot where a teammate can reload any weapon they’ve picked up on the battlefield except pistols. A level 1 Weapons Locker creates a slot for a single weapon to be reloaded, a level 2 locker has two slots, etc., and the highest level of locker is level 4.
Forge: The forge allows your team to convert the guns dropped across the level into credits that can be spent by your team. This is particularly valuable when you have Jack playing on your team, as they have bonuses that allow them to receive significantly more credits by depositing weapons into the forge. Higher level forges reward the team with more credits for each weapon melted down.
Sentries: Machine Gun Sentries and Shock Sentries are the only offensive weapons in the Engineer’s arsenal. MG Sentries placed strategically at the edges of your base can easily end up destroying more than 80% of the enemy if they’re properly placed and repaired, but at the higher levels where they are most effective they come at a very hefty cost and require regular reloading. Shock sentries do not kill enemies but they do shock them and therefore slow them down, making them easier for the team to kill. EDIT: Shock sentries may kill enemies with very low levels of energy. I honestly don’t use them so I don’t know but it probably is true.
