Guide Ghost Mode

[`iAndre]

First off I want to say that I don't consider myself to be “pro” as most people call it in GM, I think the title of pro is reserved for those who have perfectly or close to perfectly mastered the skill of being a GMer. But that also doesn't mean I'm not one of those who make a guide and consider it good when all it says is get a shovel.
Also note that this guide is somewhat opinionated as I have put my own thoughts and personal experiences in GM pubs. This guide is to help in public matches not scrims. It sounds pretty obvious but there are a lot of people out there who like to make comments like “this **** is only useful in pubs”.

Anyway this guide is covering probably most things important in Ghost Mode.
The basic concept of GM is that one side is invisible unless moving, wields knives/axes/shovels and has to set a bomb at one of the two target sites which is known as the Black List. The other side, Global Risk, is visible, has all their guns and what not and has to either kill all the ghosts or defuse the bomb before it blows up.
Although this may seem very unbalanced that the ghosts are invisible, this game is actually very balanced meaning that GR and BL have a chance of winning equally. Of course the players also determine the chance of winning but it’s very balanced unlike MM where the mutants will most likely win.

Controls:
Apart from the normal controls, you will need to know that, holding E will let you defuse or plant the bomb. If you're BL, you can also switch to carrying the bomb and then hold the left mouse button until it is set. Shift walking...I know it's a normal control but it's a control that is widely used throughout the community. Basically it lets you walk without making any sound. If you're Black List however, you are still visible (not as visible as if you were running).
That's about it for controls.

Common stuff:
There are some basic things that every GM guide will tell you and this is the section for it.

1. Gamma/Brightness- whatever you wanna call it, it's the thing that makes your screen go bright. You can toggle it with HOME and END. Pretty much everybody tells you to put it at 100. While it may hurt your eyes, it certainly has proved to help many people.
2. Opinion: I like to set it at 70 when I'm playing as ghost because you don't really need to see yourself that brightly, you know?
3. Shift walking- it's one of those things that help when you play as GR but it's not mandatory. A good player knows to ignore footsteps but knows when to walk slowly for the benefit of others. It could be considered manners
4. Bunny hopping- (THIS IS NOT THE PART WHERE YOU LEARN HOW TO BHOP) Bunny hopping is the way the Black List ghosts get around without being visible. Most good players will want you to bunny hop so that you don't get them killed and you don't lose for the team.
5. Machine guns- loud, they're annoying, and most of all, they don't run outta ammo. Most, and I hate using this word, noobs think they're invincible because they have a machine gun and so they can spray every FRIGGIN' CENTIMETER OF THE MAP. Well that doesn't work...One, anybody could just come from behind and go BAM and you're down. Two, Ghosts are constantly moving...spraying everything isn't going to get every single one of them. And three, they're just obnoxious...now some of you might disagree saying an RPK is the most useful thing in GM. I'm not going to disagree or agree, your gun is your choice but to those who like to make a ruckus (haha, always wanted to use that word), nobody can hear over your gun if they're near you.

Global Risk:
Weapons:
I’m not going to go over the stats of each gun as you can see them in item shop.

• M4s- Very nice when it comes down to trying to kill a ghost from a distance. Its light weight makes movement easy and efficient when you’re trying to get from one place to another.
• AKs- Decent in going for the long kills but even better when ghosts are all coming after you and you need something to kill them quickly with.
• SCARs- A very controversial gun...I'm not gonna go into it because I’m not a SCAR user.
• SG552- I've noticed that whenever I introduce a school friend to CrossFire and he picks up the SG, he immediately takes a liking to it. I don't know what it is with the gun...but the 1.5x on the scope makes the gun good for some purposes in GM. It’s pretty powerful so it’s an all-around gun.
• XM8- Popular gun, especially the advanced version. It’s a gun that’s good for pretty much anything.
• MP5- Weak sauce imo...Personally I hate this gun but don't let it stop you from choosing it if you like it. The advanced version especially ticks me off because of its low power.
• Snipers- there are only so many places you can snipe without being ninja'd...but snipers are fun and useful in GM. Although the weight brings you down a little, but having a good pistol will definitely match the bag up.
• Shotguns- Great at close range but terrible if you see a ghost all the way over there. If you have a pistol, put it with a shotty and it's good AS LONG AS YOU CAN AIM WITH THE PISTOL! But be sure to always reload, even though you can fire mid-reload, it’s always good to have your gun full of bullets.
• Machine guns- if you can aim with MGs, go for it but they’re really not worth the hassle.
• Submachine guns- They’re not that bad in GM, kind of a mix between MGs and rifles. But having a bigger clip makes you wanna use more ammo so try not to tempt yourself.

That's pretty much it, if you have a specific gun you have in mind that you'd like me to comment on for you, go ahead and ask. I’m

Pinpointing:
One of the few things left for the soldiers to kill the ghosts. Pinpointing is the er...art...of listening for ghosts and killing them. The word pinpointing is a bit of a misconception because it sounds a lot harder than it could be. The basic of pinpointing is at least just hearing the ghost and knowing the direction/area of the map he's at. A medium level of PPing is being able to hear the ghost and then be able to figure out where he is within a couple feet. Advanced pinpointing is hearing the ghost and then knowing exactly where he is on the dot. You could argue that they're all the same and the advanced is just faster. Which is somewhat true, but a pro pinpointer can hear breath-down ghosts over spray too.
My advice is to get a pair of headphones, iPod ones work too. And just practice. It's not necessarily something you get taught. It's self taught, you can’t teach a blind man how to feel can you? He has to experiment and wait and PRACTICE. Learn from your mistakes.

Anticipation:
Thinking ahead is something that requires logic. To take a quote from my friend, [KMA]Shun who helped me pinpoint, you have to know the map like a fat kid knows cake. If you know that a ghost just went in the water and is the tunnel at the end of the water leads toward BL base, then you should find a quicker route to BL base or think of what he would do. Of course you can’t read minds but it’s not like you’re going to be wrong EVERY single time, unless you really don’t know what the **** to do. For example, say you’re in Lab, you see a ghost run from BL base to the opening toward the vents at A, you know there’s only 2 ways to go, either the vents or drop down to the Hallway A and land next to GR base. So you make your way up to GR base and you hear that the breathing stops at where the vent would supposedly be. You rush to the vents, whip out your sniper, take aim and BAM THERE HE IS. You fire once and you smile. That, sir, is anticipation. Or hack

Dealing with hackers, hackusators and what not:
If you’re one of those people who thinks having a hacker on your team is brilliant and you’d win every single round, stop reading this guide. You’re an idiot. What you want to do is hit ESC then click Vote kick and kick that sonofa***** out. How would you feel if you were in BL and this hacker killed you EVERY SINGLE ROUND within 5 seconds? I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna be saying, oh yeah, that’s fine because hackers aren’t ruining CrossFire at all.
Hackusators…you WILL get people calling you a hacker if you anticipate and pinpoint. But there are solutions to that. Try playing with your clan or friends, they’ll tell you when you’re getting kicked. If not, you need some new friends. If that doesn’t work, try being friendly to the whole room before you get accused. Unless you really do hack, there will always be at least one person that will back you up. And there will always be people who don’t care
But most of all, don’t QQ when you die or whatever. It’s just pathetic to see someone whine about how that ghost hacks or that guy hacks. Everybody does “whine” a little saying that guy lags or that guy tanks. It’s a part of the community, if you don’t like it, get off the computer.

Black List:
Bunny hopping:
This is the secret to success. There are a lot of variations of bunny hopping and it’s very hard to cover them all. I’ll just try to teach you the first form I ever learned. It’s probably the worst one but hey, there are other guides that focus on pure bunny hopping.
So first, hold CTRL, you should be crouching. Then you hold S, you should be crouching and walking backward at the same time. Then press SPACEBAR. You should be jumping. Now this part is a little confusing for you because I have to tell you the rhythm of the hop but you can’t really read this as I’m thinking it so here we go. Each time you press the space bar, it’ll be about a lil less than a second. If you try it out in-game you’ll probably get the rhythm by experimenting. But that’s how you do it. To change direction, just move your mouse. You’ll be going backward so watch out for that.

Timing your weapon:
I’m not gonna lie, I can’t use knives. I just hate that sometimes it doesn’t kill when it should. Axe is a lot better because if you swing, it’ll usually kill them. If you’re unlucky, you’ll do 80 damage. Slashing with an axe is also a lucky thing because if you slash at the head, sometimes you’ll get a one hit kill even if the guy has 100 HP. Shovel, if you have one, you probably don’t needa know your timing.
But as knives go, here’s a tip:
Most likely you won’t kill the guy in one hit. Unless he tanked the hit, he’ll have 90 HP. Which is when you summon your slashing power and hold left and in one slash, it should finish him. Unless he has armor…then you should probably ninja it :P

In Dewero’s GM BL guide, Dewero pointed out some different playing styles a ghost can use. These playing styles don’t always work as some require a team effort which you can’t get in public games.
Well here’s something similar. It just shows different ways ghosts get around.
Rushers- probably are either new to Ghost Mode or have a shovel. It’s easy kills for easy EXP. They usually don’t bunny hop and just rush straight to the base/person. It’s hard to rush when you get teamed, that’s why most shovelers/armor users do this.
Bunny hop rushers- they like to bunnyhop to remain inconspicuous and then ninja you down. And then keep on bhopping away. They’re racking up kills while keeping alive. Doesn’t matter what kind of weapon you have, but just as long as you can bhop for your life.
Cautious bhoppers- there are two ways to go with this, either go with the C4 guy and help him or go alone. They don’t rush but rather wait for the target to come to them.
Cautious C4- they won’t risk losing the C4 to get a kill but rather wait until the planting zone is clear for them to plant it.
Reckless C4- they’ll take their kills with the C4 while telling all of GR where they are. This takes a lot of effort to keep alive as most people team on you. This is a pretty bad way to go because the C4 is important.

Weapons:
Knife- standard melee in CrossFire, does 100 damage to the chest and head with some exceptions. Not always reliable as a one hit killer but takes time to get better at.
Axe- 100 damage to almost anywhere. Unless you hit the legs, you’ll probably get the kill. A bonus with axe is that if you try slashing, you might get a one hit killer to the head.
Shovel- probably the most annoying **** you’ll come across. Its range is far and it looks delayed. But it’s just slow to register. Usually shovelers have SPOP and breath down which makes it a hard target.
If you’re decided between the axe or shovel, I would definitely say axe. Although having shovel makes life easy, you’ll get people saying “kick that shovel noob” and some will kick you. An axe isn’t as “reliable” as a shovel, meaning shovel WILL kill the person in one hit swing unless he tanks. But it’s a lot more “fairer” than a shovel.

Maps:
Lab- probably the classic map of all players. It’s not that big but it has good space for bunny hopping and nice hiding spots for ghosts. It’s one of my favorite maps just because as GR, if you can coordinate your team (or in a scrim) you can cover almost every place making it easy to win. Of course great BL players can get around that.
Relics- it’s fairly wide and roomy. It’s easy to just down and take someone out on your way down as BL. But bunny hopping is a pain because of the water and uneven floor. The coloring of the floor sometimes makes it hard to see the ghosts too.
Metro- the smoke is good and bad for both sides. It lags a lot of people when it comes out but if a ghost is standing in it, they’re shown. It’s a lil complicated with all the little nooks and crevices but it’s manageable.
Hakenkreuz- probably the easiest map for BL. With a shovel, a ghost can drop down in the beginning of the game and take down all the soldiers. It’s very easy and provides plenty of bhopping room. But GR still has many windows and holes to kill you from.
Complex- the maze of GM. With so many tunnels and pop up holes, it’s hard to keep track of all the ghosts. But most ghosts will realize this and dumbly make it obvious where they are by moving around loudly. Knowing the map will get you even more kills

 

Credits: BananaKMA