I made time today to play Defiance so I could do the episode quest line before the premier. It was a fun chain of quests, I certainly recommend it. Here are a few of my lessons learned.

Tactics matter: If you are grouped, use flanking and draw fire off each other, especially for the mutants with shields. Go to high ground and use sniper rifles from range to avoid things with nasty

attacks that will kill you quickly close in. If you are down, try and crawl to cover or out of bad ground effects before you self revive.

Loadouts: I started with 2 loadouts. You can have different gear and different EGO powers set up in each one. I set up one for precision and ranged attacks and one for close combat attacks. Easy to switch them out.

Mods: Weapons that can be modded will show the slots when you view them, but only some weapons can be modded in all slots. Pay attention to the type of slots that can be filled and only buy the right mod for the right slot. (P.S. The episode quest’s final reward is a weapon with all 4 mod slots available.)

Vehicles: The dodge charger is faster, more durable, and can carry a passenger. The driver side and passenger side doors actually matter for getting into the vehicle, which is pretty cool. Set waypoints on your map (right click an objective). You will see a dynamically updating path marker to your objective, which is a good way to avoid getting into bad terrain or getting lost.

Distractions: There are a ton of bright and shiny things out there. Pick a path and stick with it or you will never feel any continuity in your questing. Go back later and do the side quests and kill things in the area if you want to. That being said, stopping for arkfalls is worth doing. There are some very nice rewards from those, and they feel like epic struggles against some very nasty things. Speaking of very nasty things, if you see a giant hellbug spit big blogs of nasty in the air, they will kill you if you stare at them like a Newb and get hit.

Outfits: You can have a different outfit for a different loadout and the episode quests are likely to help you add to them. I have 4 I can pick from now, but my armor and sunglasses are likely to stay with me for a long time. These shades look great with my facepaint and markings!

That’s it for now, I’m still learning the ropes, but it is a very fun game. I do recommend having a partner to run around with if you can manage it.