General Tactics

Keep Your Eye On The Enemy and Blast Them
A new player usually has the greatest difficulty, and experiences the greatest frustration, learning to keep your opponent in your sights. Your enemies are not fools. They will weave and jump to avoid you, get behind you, or hover into the sky while blasting away at your shields and armor. They can be tough. And when they do something stupid? Well, do what they do to you, blast them to cinders and ashes.

Your first goal, after learning to maneuver your CyberPod, is to learn how to get more of your shots to hit your target. The first step in this process is learning how to keep your nose pointed at your opponent. If you have mastered maneuvering in your CyberPod, this should already be under your belt. So, the question remains that when you take that shot, how do you know it is going to hit?

If the enemy is running away from you, toward you, or is stationary, this isn't a problem. Simply point your nose at them and fire. To see if you are actually doing damage, you will need to have targeted the enemy using the "E" or "T" keys. When your opponent is targeted, a display in the lower right corner of your screen will show your enemy's shield and hull status. The status display is broken into four quadrants. The top one is their nose, and the bottom one is their rear. So, if your opponent is facing you and your blasting away at them, the top quadrant on your enemy's shield and/or armor will start wearing away. If this isn't happening, then you aren't hitting them.
Of course, only a fool would sit around and allow you to blast away at them. Your enemy is going to be running, weaving and jumping to avoid your shots. This usually means they will be running at or away from you, at an angle most of the time. And that means you are going to have to learn how to "lead" your target.

Leading your Target
When a target is moving, if you shoot directly at it, by the time the shot gets to where they were standing, they will have already moved and the shot will miss them. That means you have to fire ahead of your target, leading it so that your shot and their pod will arrive at the same place at the same time, hopefully with devastating effect. How much you lead your target depends on three things. How fast they are going, which direction they are going, and how far away they are.

There are no simple tricks to master this one. Experience is the best teacher. As you practice leading your target, you will get much better at predicting where to aim. Here are some guidelines to help get you started.

•  The further away the target is the more you need to lead your target.
•  The faster your target is running, the more you need to lead your target.
•  If a target is running away or toward you, you don't have to lead them as far as if they were running perpendicular to you.
•  If they are running away from you, then you have to lead them a bit more than if they were running toward you.
•  The hardest targets to hit are the ones that are furthest away. If you are having trouble hitting them, try getting closer.
  
  Gang Up On Them
  A very basic and effective strategy is to gang up on an enemy. In missions where you are in control, use the Communications link (the "C" key) to tell your squad to attack your target. Concentrating your firepower on one target at a time quickly diminishes their power and ability to strike back.
  
  Facing Superior Numbers
  When out gunned and outnumbered, use explosives. Explosives have limited uses. Once depleted you have to reorder them. However, they are powerful. They are the great equalizers in the game. They can quickly reduce the number of opponents you face. Rockeyes, Grenades, Rollers and a well place Mortar can really ruin your enemy's day. To use them most effectively, you need to keep two things in mind.
  
  First, you need to place them accurately. Squandering your explosive weapons is simply a waste. If you can't hit using them, don't use them. It's usually better to wait for a good shot rather than letting loose and hoping it hits. Second, use enough of them to destroy your opponent. There's no point in using explosives if you don't intend to damage their hull and probably destroy your opponent. So, when using explosives, keep up the pressure till your enemy explodes.

Sniping
Sniping is hitting your opponent from cover or from distances beyond their range (or nearly so). You can use the ridge of a hill or mountain, the corner of a building or the top of a roof when snipping. In this way you can dish out a considerable amount of damage while avoiding a great deal of damage. It takes a while to learn how to do this well, but done effectively there are times when it's the only way to go. Be aware, however, that it usually takes extra time to snipe rather than rushing ahead and blasting away. The best time to snipe, usually, is when you brute force isn't much of an option. In CyberStrike 2 you won't find many times when sniping is the best option.

Sneak Attack
A sneak attack is laying into the opponent before they can lay into you. If you can dish out massive damage at the start, you can quickly take out your opponents with a mad rush. Sneak attacks are usually started by a bombardment of rockeyes, grenades or mortars. When done right it is a truly satisfying experience.

Hover Attack
This is a tough one to master. Use a hoverjet to fly above your opponent, then lob explosives down on them. Hover jets don't last long, but used effectively they can help to deal a lot of damage while avoiding enemy fire. A flying, moving object is probably the hardest to hit, which is the reason why a Hover Attack is sometimes an appropriate response to a very difficult situation. When used against the game opponents, you will want to keep moving, since they are very good shots and a stationary pod hovering overhead is a ripe target.

Support
This may not sound glamorous but it's a solid strategy. In a firefight, you are going to get hurt, and you are going to need to get out of the area to regenerate shields and repair armor. However, that doesn't mean you need to leave the battlefield quietly. Take out some enemy power relay towers on the way, and help your squad by dropping your own power relay towers into the gaps in your power grid. Even if you are not hurt, it often makes sense to take the time to destroy enemy towers and lay a few of your own in strategic areas. Battles are often lost because of inadequate power grids.

Battlefield Salvage
When an CyberPod blows up, it ejects the modules it was carrying. You or your enemy can pick up those modules and use them. If you have space in your bays, you should try to pick up the loose modules. Modules on the ground have distinctive shapes, and you can target the module to see what it is. If you pick up a module you don't want, remember that you can eject it using the SHIFT key and the number of the module bay containing the module you want to eject.

When to Cut your Losses and Move On
You are going to lose pilots and CyberPods during missions.
Don't worry, if the losses aren't too great, move on, buy a new CyberPod or hire a new pilot. In the really difficult missions, don't expect to come away unscathed. However, if you lose more than one pilot or CyberPod (except on the harder missions) consider replaying the mission. You could still survive and buy what you need, but losses have a way of piling up. If playing through the mission two or three times results in a more acceptable loss ratio, then it is worth doing. Besides, you could probably use the practice.