PassTheSalt's Comprehensive Mutation/Hero/ HMX Mode Guide

PassTheSalt

-THIS GUIDE IS NOT YET FULLY COMPLETE. IT WILL BE COMPLETED WITHIN A FEW DAYS.-

EDIT1: Added / Edited information to "Weaponry chapter", Added information to "Spinoffs" chapter


Table of Contents

About Me
MM Introduction
Basic Rules
Mutants

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Basic Mechanics
Mutants

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Mutant Evolution
Mutants

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Mutant Health Regeneration
Mutants

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Mutant Breeds
Extras

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Supply Boxes
Extras

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Purchasable Enhancements
Weaponry
Mutation Mode Spinoffs

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Hero Mode
Mutation Mode Spinoffs

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Hero Mode X
Map List/Strategy
Conclusion



About Me

Hi. I'm PassTheSalt(Pass*D*Salt Ingame), a veteran CrossFire Player (since late 2009). This is my first attempt at a guide, so bear with me. I wrote this guide to enlighten the CrossFire community and provide it with a compilation of information I have gathered on a game mode I particularly enjoy. This guide will be especially useful to begginers. Please provide feedback on this guide in the comment section below, especially if you enjoyed reading it . Also, let me know if I made any spelling or grammar mistakes aswell as any inaccurate information, so I can quickly edit it. I hope you enjoy this guide.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT responsible for any mutations or mutant deaths if you followed the "Strategy" section, despite my experience with this game. Alright, let's get started.



MM Introduction

Mutation Mode was one of the most widely anticipated game modes to be released in NA CrossFire. IT closely resembles Counter Strike Source's Zombie Mode and Combat Arms' Infection Mode. When Mutation Mode was released, it's popularity remained high after the first few weeks after it;s release. However, it quickly dwindled due to the unbalanced nature of it and the massive team co-ordination it required for soldiers to win rounds. As a result, CrossFire released two spin-off game modes based off of Mutation Mode, Hero Mode and Hero Mode X.



Basic Rules

The objective of Mutation Mode is to score kills while being a mutant or soldier. A soldier can score kills by damaging mutants, killing mutants, or surviving rounds. Mutants can score kills by mutating soldiers and winning rounds. Each round begins with a countdown, with all players starting as soldiers. During this countdown, players can formulate strategies and get in a defensive position to prepare for the incoming mutant onslaught. After the countdown, 1-2 soldiers will be randomly selected as a host berserker mutant, based on how many players are in the game. This may disrupt any strategies made by soldiers during the countdown. The round ends in one of three scenarios. When all soldiers are mutated, when all mutants are killed, or when time runs out.



Mutants

~Basic Mechanics~

Mutants have very high health and are therefore difficult to kill. They have the ability to turn other soldiers into mutants by damaging them with any weapon excluding melee weapons. Mutants flash red when they are very low health, signaling that the mutant can easily be killed with a few more shots.

~Mutant Evolution ~

Every time a mutant mutates a soldier, the mutant will gain one evolution point. You can see how many points you have on the right of your screen. There are three stages of mutant evolution, Slug, Berserker, and Titan. Mutants can gain additional evolution poitns by holding the "E" key while next to a dead mutant, or by purchasing a mutation spike (more on that later)

Slug
Evolution Points Requirement: 0
The first stage of mutant evolution, slugs have relatively low maximum health compared to Berserkers and Titans. They also cannot use their special ability for their respective mutant breed. Slugs are recognizable through their large teeth.

Berserker
Evolution Points Requirement: 2
The second stage of mutant evolution. Berserkers have higher health than slugs and can also use their special ability for their respective mutant breed by pressing the "G" key. Host mutants begin as berserkers. Berserkers are recognizable through their mask and horns.

Titan
Evolution Points Requirement: 5
The epitome of mutant evolution, titans have drastically increased health from their berserker counterparts. They can also use their special ability for their respective mutant breed. Titans are recognizable through their mask, horns, yellow veins, and glowing back.

~Mutant Health Regeneration~

The idea is simple. When a mutant stands still and takes no action for 3 seconds, the mutant will regenerate health (200 per second). If you're a mutant and you're running low on health, it would be smart to find a suitable hiding place and regenerate there. Note that damage from soldiers will stop this process.

~Mutant Breeds~

One reason I like this game mode so much is the fact that there are so many mutant breeds, each with their own unique looks, particles, sounds, and most importantly, special abilities. Special abilities cost the mutant 500 health and temporarily aids the mutant in some unique way. Here I will give a description of all mutant breeds currently released and a rundown on their special ability.

Default Mutant
Story: Originating as a secret U.S. military project, "Titan" is a bio-weapon that utilizes nanotechnology to alter a subject's biological makeup, creating a cybernetic organism with increased combat performance.
Special Ability: Movement speed increase.
These Mutants are generally regarded as the weakest breed, however this is not so. Their ability just has less depth than the other breeds'.

Dread
Story: Further research focused on augmented nano weapons was conducted on subjects from project "Titan", giving rise to this terrible instrument of war. Dread is a formidable foe, spreading fear into the hearts of human soldiers all over the world.
Special Ability: Double movement speed increase
This breed is basically an enhanced version of the Default Mutant, except that it's red and has (forks?) on his hand that I believe give him a larger attack range(correct me if I'm wrong). Personally, I think this is the mutant with the most epic weapon.

Maiden
Story: A bizarre amalgamation of the Mutant bio-weapon and Black List's Ghost stealth technology was developed by an unidentified weapons manufacturer. Maiden has escalated the Mutant War to new heights.
Special Ability: Become temporarily near-invisible.
My personal favorite. Although her special ability isn't very useful against keen eyed soldiers, her passive ability that allows her to jump higher is incredibly useful. You will be able to get to soldiers camping on tall objects that much easier. In addition, her right click animations are incredibly cool.

Smoke
Story: Corrupted and Mutated in underground labs, Smoke carries a mechanical backpack which allows him to spew out black smoke to confuse his prey.
Special Ability. Spew out black smoke.
This breed's animations and weapons are pretty cool, but his special ability is way too situational. It can sometimes be useful, but I would much rather have the reliable benefits of let's say, Maiden. Oh, and his general looks don't make up for it. He look's like a mechanical hobo.

Assassin
Story: A cunning mutant who acquired new technologies, the assassin has grenades which disrupt the position of his enemies.
Special Ability: Throw knockback grenades.
In my opinion, the breed with the most useful special ability. You can really catch soldiers standing on ledges off guard. Soldiers who see you will be extra careful when they see you. Assassin also tends to appear to lag and move side to side from the perspective of people you are chasing, making it slightly more difficult for that soldier to keep bullets on you. Think of it as Field Shovel:Melee Weapons is what Assassin:Mutants.

Xeno
Story: The alien, Xeno, has united mutants everywhere and is bent on conquering Earth. while an Elite squad of Commandos has risen up to stop them!
Special Ability: Damage-absorbing shield + small burst of speed
This mutant has a ranged attack, and is probably the strongest mutant in the game. However, Xeno is HMX exclusive.



Extras

~Supply Boxes~

Every now and then, supply box(es) will drop in designated locations around the map. these supply boxes contain extra weapons and ammo to aid in your fight against mutants. Simply run into the supply box to receive the goodie inside. You can locate supply boxes on the radar.

Drop List:
-Gatling Gun
-RPK
-M60 Advanced
-Thompson
-MP5
-Anaconda Advanced
-Primary Weapon Ammo Replenish
-Mutation Grenade

~Purchasable Enhancements~

In the shop, you can find various items that enhance your mutation mode gameplay. I will list and describe all of them.

Mutation Magazine
This increases your ammo reserves by 50%. This is extremely useful if you have a gun with a an already massive ammo reserve (M60 Adv, MG3 Gold, etc). Mutation Magazine is applied AFTER your Machine Gun Clip if you've purchased one, giving you incredible boost to your ammo reserves. You will literally never have to go to supply boxes if you have both.

Mutation Spike
A scythe-like weapon designed for mutants. If you are a mutant wielding this, you will gain an extra evolution point every time you mutate a soldier. That makes evolution just so much easier for you as a mutant. The weapon also makes you look super badass.

Mutation Jacket
A very useful item. As a soldier, the jacket will block the first mutant attack that strikes you, giving you a second chance to send a M60 Advanced bullet down their throat. As a mutant, the jacket will grant you some AC to reduce incoming damage.

Mutation Grenade
In my honest opinion, not really worth it. It's a grenade that only harms mutants and deals extra damage to them. If you miss (and usually, you will), it'll just be a complete waste. Not worth any amount of ZP. Simply put, don't get this item unless you got money to waste(which many of you do, but that's not the point). The only time this would be useful would be if a bunch of mutants were in a group standing still, and throwing the grenade into the crowd would net you a few kills.

Knockback Reduction
An item that reduces the amount of knockback you receive as a mutant. I don't know the amount of knockback this would negate so I don't know if this item is worth purchasing. I'm guessing the reduction would be pretty insignificant.

Weaponry

Choosing the right weapons to use in Mutation Mode is extremely important. It could mean the differnce between survival and mutation. That being said, I am not here to give statistics on every single weapon in CrossFire as well as review it's viability in Mutation Mode, but I am going to arrange the weapon classes into tiers and give some examples of said tier's weapons I would use.

-Primary Weapons Tier List-

~Tier 1 - Machine Guns~
This is the gun you want to be using in Mutation Mode. High power, large ammo clip sizes, large ammo reserves, and good firing rates. More ammo means more damage and more knocking back mutants. More damage and more knocking back mutants means more kills. Simple as that. There are not really any "bad" Mutation MGs out there, so here's a list of all the MGs I can think of.

M60 (and variants)
RPK (and variants)
Gatling Gun (and variants)
MG3 Gold (and variants)
FN MINIMI (and variants)
Colt M16A3

~Tier 2 - Assault Rifles~
If you're not a ZP user or if you don't have enough GP, Assault Rifles are the next best choice. Not only does the ammo last a while, but rifles have much faster reload rates than MGs, and you run a lot faster when you're carrying these, therefore making Assault rifles good for running and gunning. Here are some I reccomend:

M4A1 (and variants)
AK-47 (and variants)
Scar Light (and variants)
SG-552 (and variants)
XM8 (and variants)
M14 EBR (and variants)
Thompson*

*Although this weapon is technically an SMG, it's large ammo clip size coupled with it's ammo reserves make this weapon Assault Rifle worthy.

~Tier 3 - Sub Machine Guns~
Sub Machine guns, the bottomfeeder of MM Weaponry, provides fast firing rates, high close range damage, quick reload speeds, and low ammo capacities. These guns are reccomended for those who rather right mutants up close (a pretty dumb strategy IMO) than camp on uneasily accessible area. SMGs also have very low ammo reserves, making it difficult to fight mutants for long periods of time. I don't really reccomend using SMGs in Mutation Mode.

~Tier 4 - Sniper Rifles / Shotguns~

Useless except certain very specific scenarios. Snipers may be able to gather you a few kills if you consistently hit those fast moving mutants in the head, but u can't really defend yourself with knockback using sniper rifles since the super low firing rate is just gonna equate to zero knockback. Snipers are easily overpowered by by SMGs, MGs, and Assault Rifles, if you place your shots right by continuously one-shotting mutants in the head. Shotguns are also very ineffective as they have low power, accuracy, and knockback at anywhere longer then close range. With shotguns, you will gather very little kills as well as not being able to defend yourself against mutants by knocking them back. If you absolutely must use this tier, the only guns that I would reccomend would be the XM1014 Advanced, Dragunov, or AWM.

-Secondary Weapons Tier List-

Pistols are very important in Mutation. Once you run out of ammo, you're going to have to run to a supply box or you're good as mutated. Pistols will allow you to continue getting kills as well as knocking back mutants after your primary weapon ammunition has been depleted. They are also great for running and gunning as most pistols have good reload rate, damage, firing rate.

~Tier 1~

- Desert Eagle (Camo, Scope, Gold)
- Anaconda (Advanced)
- Mauser M1896 (Royal)
- M66

~Tier 2~

- Glock-18
- MK23 Socom
- P228

~Tier 3~

- M9
- Colt 1911
- Dual Colts
- USP



Spinoffs

Due to the increasingly unpopular (sounds weird) Mutation Mode, Z8 (or whoever is developing this game) decided to release two Mutation Mode based game modes, Hero Mode and Hero Mode X. I believe these modes are much more balanced and generally more fun to play

~Hero Mode~

Hero Mode is essentially Mutation Mode with a few variations.

- After the countdown, one random soldier will be chose as the Hero. The Hero will have access to the FAL-Camo, a primary weapon he cannot drop. The FAL-Camo is a powerful assault rifle with massive ammo clip size and a titanic ammo reserve (60/300). It also has a quick reload speed. When the FAL-Camo is right clicked, it will convert into an incredibly powerful grenade launcher, which deals tons of damage and can knockback a whole horde of mutants at the same time. The Hero will also receive a free Mutation Jacket defense for that round. All players can see where the Hero is at all times.
- Mutants will respawn as a slug after a 5 second delay after death unless killed with a headshot (when mutants are red, aim for the head!).
- Every mutant that is killed will increase the attack power of all soldiers by 20%, up to a maximum of 100%
- Mutants regenerate 200 health per HALF second rather than per second after standing still and taking no action or damage for three seconds.
- Mutant evolution is based off of rage. When Mutants take a good amount of damage, they will receive one rage point. When a mutant mutates a soldier, he will receive 2 rage points.

I like this mode because it's really fun to play as the Hero. The FAL-Camo is the only grenade launcher in the game as of now. I also enjoy this mode because soldiers can build up a momentum against the mutants (to more mutants they kill, the more attack power they will receive, which will allow the soldiers to kill more mutants).

~Hero Mode X~

HMX, like Hero Mode, is basically Mutation Mode except that it has epic twists that i fell really balances the game.

- One random soldier will be chose as the Xeno Mutant after the countdown expires. The Xeno Mutant has ranged mutation attacks, soldier detection capabilities, and a damage absorbing shield as his special ability. When Xeno is killed by firearms, he will respawn at the evolution state he was in when he was killed. All players can see where the Xeno Mutant is at all times.
- Mutants will respawn instantly after death unless killed by a melee attack
- Soldiers damage is initially increased by 250%, and every subsequent mutation will increase this percentage by 10%.
- Mutants regenerate 1000 health per second after not moving or taking damage for three seconds
- Knockback to mutants is significantly reduced
- In a game of 8+ players, 1-3 of the final soldiers can press the "E" key and become a Commando. The Commando wields Dual Kukris ONLY. The Dual Kukris deal 1000 damage per left click and 3000 damage per right click. A Commando starts with 7000 health and mutant attacks will reduce this by 1000 left click, and 2000 per right click. Mutants killed by a Commando will not revive, and Commandos killed by mutants will not revive.
- There are currently two HMX-exclusive maps, Mansion and Rooftops
- Up to three mutants (including Xeno) can be chose as hosts, rather than up to two

I absolutely fell in love with this mode. Soldiers will now actually have incentive to survive. In Hero Mode and Mutation Mode, the last few soldiers remaining can easily be taken down by the large mutant horde. Hero Mode X fixes this completely, giving both sides equal chance to win and incentive for soldiers to survive. Playing as Commando or Xeno also make you feel super boss.



Map List/Strategy

-TO BE ADDED VERY SHORTLY-



Conclusion

-TO BE ADDED VERY SHORTLY-

CyreNN

Oy son, pass me the breads

Jk, good infos so far, adding some visuals would be nice

Talonblaze

Also, keep in mind that HMX/HM/MM all have different regeneration times and amounts.

Might want to add to that. It isn't always a base 200.

XingGs

Good work so far. If you need any help, just PM me.

PassTheSalt

[MOD]Talonblaze wrote: »

Also, keep in mind that HMX/HM/MM all have different regeneration times and amounts.

Might want to add to that. It isn't always a base 200.

Yea, I'm going to mention that in the "Spinoffs" chapter later tonight. This guide is only about 45%ish complete. I'm actually writing a rough draft of this on paper.

one_9

Here are a few ideas if you haven't thought of them already:

• Add intros for HM and HMX (put em right after the MM intro)
• Damage rates? Sorta pulling a GodsGunman/VATAV on testing stats for the different modes.
• Pistols. Without them you'll be watching Mutants run up to you after you've ran out of ammo and are backed into a corner.
• Pictures! It ain't that hard to find actual database pics or even look within client files for the Item Shop pics. Maybe go farther and add pics for maps too when you get the chance?
• Within the Table of Contents, include shortcut keys (like A01) so that people can quickly find the particular section they want to read up on.

Maybe you already knew these ideas.
If you want help ingame or for other stuff regarding this, PM me.

XingGs

[MOD]9 wrote: »

Here are a few ideas if you haven't thought of them already:

• Add intros for HM and HMX (put em right after the MM intro)
• Damage rates? Sorta pulling a GodsGunman/VATAV on testing stats for the different modes.
• Pistols. Without them you'll be watching Mutants run up to you after you've ran out of ammo and are backed into a corner.
• Pictures! It ain't that hard to find actual database pics or even look within client files for the Item Shop pics. Maybe go farther and add pics for maps too when you get the chance?
• Within the Table of Contents, include shortcut keys (like A01) so that people can quickly find the particular section they want to read up on.

Maybe you already knew these ideas.
If you want help ingame or for other stuff regarding this, PM me.

Wait, how do the shortcut keys work? O.o

PassTheSalt

thisgameowns wrote: »

Wait, how do the shortcut keys work? O.o

This.

msg2short