Strategy:Radar shooting

What is radar shooting?

Radar shooting refers to the act of firing one's weapon into the darkness to determine if there are enemies lurking there. If an enemy yowls in pain as a result, you know there is one there. You can generally determine the number of enemies that were hit by how loud/layered the resulting yelps are. Radar shooting is a common activity early in the game before traits somewhat mitigate the need for it.

What should I use to radar shoot?

While radar shooting can be performed with any ranged weapon, shotguns are superior for two reasons. First, shotguns have a nice spread. The spread differs a bit between the various types of shotguns, but generally the vanilla shotgun and the combat shotgun are the best for radar shooting. Second, shotguns don't miss. If an enemy is within the spread of buckshot, it will yelp without fail.

Do note, however, that shotguns have a shorter range than other weapons. Firing a pistol three or four times down a long hallway might be a better way to radar shoot than with a shotgun.

What should I do if I tag an enemy?

The answer varies. If you've tagged a former, you can usually shoot again in the same spot and kill it. If you've tagged multiple formers or something beefier, it's advised to find cover. When you tag an enemy, it will almost always run straight toward you. Use this knowledge to your advantage. As long as you back-peddle, you should be easily able to find cover before it catches up to you. Most enemies lose interest a while after being tagged. I'm not sure exactly how long it takes for them to lose interest, but experience suggests it's roughly 9 or 10 moves. If you want to drag an enemy somewhere farther away than that, you'll need to tag them again.

How often should I radar shoot?

This is a good question. If you're new, the answer is almost assuredly "much more than you'd think." If you're playing a standard game, shotgun shells are plentiful. Don't let them go to waste! Radar shoot around every corner before exposing yourself. Radar shoot in the direction you're walking every few steps. It seems excessive, but you'll soon realize how great it is not to get shot at!

An advanced practice in radar shooting is to use your aural awareness to determine if there are any enemies nearby. When you are close to enemies, you can hear their specific cries. If all you're hearing is silence, this generally indicates that your immediate area is clear of hostiles. As you get closer and closer to an enemy, its cries will get louder and louder. You can use this information to determine whether to radar shoot and which general direction to do it in.

This practice can be used for convenience, (so that it does not have to be done as often) ammo conservation, or to avoid unnecessarily blowing up barrels and perhaps items.

Is Radar Shooting all that its set out to be?

Yes and no. Radar shooting into clear spaces is calculated and dealt out predictably. However, radar shooting around corners (conveniently named "corner shooting") causes all sorts of flack to happen. Corner shooting, in fact, is a bug. It was never intended to happen in the first place. However, it grew to be so useful that it is now considered a feature and the basis of all shotgun strategies.

The LOS algorithm says "shoot the bullet X across, and Y up/down". Whenever there's a diagonal in the tiles covered, the adjacent tiles not targeted will not be affected (unless via a shotgun blast). This can be exploited to all Hell (no pun intended) by shooting around corners unaffected.

Because corner shooting is a bug and not a strictly coded feature, many bugs in the corner shooting bug have been found.

Ashannar 12:53, 23 March 2013 (CET)