Carrier Tactics and Strategy Discussion

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

G'day everyone.

Just felt like it would be interesting to see people's opinions, tactics and strategies for when playing with, or as, a Carrier.

My personal strat (when I'm queening) is to have one early carrier for some quick infections. It seems to work best when:

A. The drone who's becoming the carrier asked to be it (usually implies they're good at it).
B. Xenos have low pop at the start and don't need two drones.
C. There's alot of survivors or monkeys that need impregnation.

Of course, this strat suffers pretty badly when you have no drones for defences (albeit as queen you can usually fill that role until more drones spawn) or runners fail to coordinate with the carrier.

While Carriers are great at infecting, they seem to lack in defences or lethality. They do their job of combat support and they do it well. But if they don't have much to support they suffer quite badly.

Now, as when I play as a carrier, I'm all about that harrassment. Distracting, injuring, or even dragging off hosts really help with giving the xenos presence and removing confidencd in marines. However, this is usually high risk, decent reward tactics. Because ONE screwup, got too close to a shotgun, landmine, etc. And you're pretty much done.

The best way I could describe them is as glass cannons. Very useful, but very fragile.

Oh, and they are excellent at comebacks.

[NoahKirchner]

When I play carrier, which is admittedly not often, I aim for the over-ambitious marines who push xenos that have been repeatedly shot/roared in an attempt to get a kill. A lot of times they've already lost their helmet, and even if it's not a kill or infection, it's still removing another helmet from the marines or marine from the current battle.

I like to think of them as siege weapons, they just siphon supplies in the form of helmets.

[David Attenbruv]

I tried to be a Carrier recently.

I asked a few people their methods of how to be a Carrier and they described it exactly the same way as you do. Though for me personally? Hugger Combat is incredibly potent, everybody knows that. That's why after a Xeno Win you hear the wave Pvt. Baldies crying out "Huggahs wey 2 op! plz nerf!" Though because:

• Carriers are extremely fragile.
• Only carry 6 huggers.
• Huggers tend to be killed instantly by Marines.
• Queen doesn't commonly make forward skirmishing Eggs which means you got to track back and forth from the Hive to get Huggers.
• Can only throw a hugger like five tiles ahead of you which is good but, still limiting.
• Soon as you out of Huggers are just a glorified big momma of a Xeno.

I tend to opt for other Castes just because of their capabillity to adapt to any situation that comes across. Though I see your point, they are like glass cannons and I agree completely. Also NoahKircher has a point as well, they are basically seige weapons, kind of like Boilers though I find Boilers like 10x more useful.

[Casany]

I just throw my huggers at groups of 2-3 marines, or lone marines, and slash the ones I can't take back to the hive

I don't really strategize as a carrier

[GoliathTheDespoiler]

Hugger Combat is incredibly potent, everybody knows that.

Guess I'm out of the loop on what Hugger Combat means, sorry.

My guess is that its just hugger marines to stun then just slash them to death or is it just combat with huggers to either infect or kill in general?

[MrJJJ]

Guess I'm out of the loop on what Hugger Combat means, sorry.

My guess is that its just hugger marines to stun then just slash them to death or is it just combat with huggers to either infect or kill in general?

The former

[David Attenbruv]

Maybe it's just me, though for me at least it's Carriers aren't overall that useful though there's probably a few players that are level 9000 at it so. Maybe it's just a preference.

[Butterrobber202]

Don't

[Crab_Spider]

Huggers hug you because they are moving. Just a pointer

[Steelpoint]

If you throw a hugger directly onto a human it'll hug them.

[TopHatPenguin]

Aiming behind someone is how you want to get a marine as generally they'll try and run when you throw one, it also means that the marines who stand still to combat you throwing huggers will get hugged regardless of if they moved or not.

[Petchupy88]

Carriers to me seem pretty strong, if I'm playing a low pop round with 8 xenos vs 35 marines, carrier is the only class that I can reliably push back a wave of 4 marines by myself. I'm fairly bad at melee so with most of the other castes I charge in, slash someone or drop a hugger on someone then charge out losing 80% of my hp in the process to the 4 marines and then having to wait 2 minutes to heal, having not accomplished much.

Typically how it works is all the marines have lost their helmets to prior huggers. Then I down one marine, another comes in to shake/drag him and I down that marine, I back up and two marines further back step forward, I go in and throw a hugger to down one of them. Dance around a bit then once the recharge is done down the 4th marine. There something very satisfying when you down 4-5+ marines in a row by yourself!

Heres my tips:
1) Always try to throw huggers in a straight line, huggers can only be thrown a limited number of squares so if you try and throw diagonally (Even slightly) they dont go nearly as far.
2) Hide in the shadows, your goal is to run 2-3 squares into the light (in a straight line towards a marine) which should get you close enough to hit a marine with a max range straight line hugger. Then run back into the shadows. Using this method only 1-2 marines will be in a position to shoot you and you will only briefly be on their screen. If you get lucky and run in just as byond has one of its minor 0.75 second lag spikes every few seconds, you can often down a marine without him ever seeing you on their screen.
3) Make sure to keep up guard pheromone, your goal is to land a hugger while taking no or minimal damage, so you can repeat without risking your life.
4) One of the best time to run in is 2-3 seconds after a hugger downs a marine, the other marines often put down their weapons to drag/shake that marine allowing you to down another one without losing any hp. Repeating this process is how you down a full squad of marines, they often suffer confusion as to whether they should shake the marine or keep their gun up in case you come back.
5) Watchout for claymores and SADARs, if the SADAR is in the back try and put marines between you and the SADAR user, if they up front try and throw huggers around corners as they approach. If you down a SADAR user you often want to be more agressive risking going back in at lower health to try and confirm that kill.

[Hulkamania]

If you throw a hugger directly onto a human it'll hug them.

Is this accurate? According to the wiki they're stunned upon landing.

[Zilenan91]

It's not anymore. Currently carriers throw huggers then they are stunned. After their stun wears off, the huggers can freely leap on anyone within two tiles, though for the most reliable infestations you should throw them directly on top of whoever needs to be impregnated.

[Liran343]

If you throw it directly at someone it has a chance to attach anyway. But not worth to try if your egg reserves are low.

Imo, carriers are a waste of tier 2 now... just don't see them contribute to the hive more than your typical drone or runner.

[Zilenan91]

Nope. Carriers can't directly attach huggers to people if you throw it at them, I've tried. They have to be thrown near someone then they leap on the host.

Having at least one is still valuable tho because you can infest anyone anywhere without requiring a drone to nest them.

Think of carriers like a numbers game, if you can infest more than like 2 or 3 guys you have been a guaranteed net positive on the alien team

[Tokochiro]

Nope. Carriers can't directly attach huggers to people if you throw it at them, I've tried. They have to be thrown near someone then they leap on the host.

Having at least one is still valuable tho because you can infest anyone anywhere without requiring a drone to nest them.

Think of carriers like a numbers game, if you can infest more than like 2 or 3 guys you have been a guaranteed net positive on the alien team

I tested it out.

Huggers only auto attach on marines without helmets if they touch them any time during their flight.
for the marines WITH helmets, you gotta tackle them then throw the huggerio and let the muhreen walk away

[Zilenan91]

If they have helmets on the huggers can leap directly onto them and infest them if they move within their leap radius at all but if they just stand still and shoot it it'll do pretty much nothing.

[Tidomann]

What if carriers had a way of distinguishing between carrying and holding huggers. That way they can still store huggers and throw them over barricades, and still do hugger combat.

Wait what the fuck am I saying.