Lost Planet… It’s unlike any other shooter out there. Of course, there’s guns, but there’s many other unique elements that make Lost Planet stand out and on top among other games. Vital Suits, T-ENG, Animations, Grapple, and not just guns but crazy weapons like the Grenade Launcher, or the wide assortment of grenades.

You know all this stuff already though. That’s why you play, after all. But how well do you know Lost Planet? Besides the above mentioned parts of the game, there’s a whole set of abilities to use to your advantage. So whether you’re new or an oldie of Lost Planet, play the Original or Colonies, here’s a list of things you can do to improve how you play.

Tips and Tricks after the more button.

Roll

First off, the Roll/Dodge maneuver. Push and hold the “Crouch” button (left stick), then press “Jump” (“A” 360, or “X” PS3) You’ll roll in the direction you’re facing, however, you can roll in any direction you’re pushing you’re left stick. This ability is by far one that you should be using constantly within a match. It’s useful in many ways. For instance, when you roll continuously in a straight line you can actually move faster than you would if running. So if you’re racing and in a hurry to get to somewhere, roll instead of running.

The roll is also an animation. Animations are everywhere in Lost Planet, and the great part about them; almost all of them have a point of invulnerability. The roll has a brief moment when you are invulnerable. But there are two steps to it. When you first start the roll and make about halfway through your body’s arch, you can’t take damage. Now, when in the last half of the roll, as your body comes down to the ground to complete the dive, you’re at a point of increased damage.

With that in mind, learn the timing of when those two points take place. The most common use for avoiding a hit is when a rocket or fully charged Energy Gun blast is heading your way. The trick is to roll the very instant before the blast hits you. If you time it just right, you’ll take no damage whatsoever! But if you miss the timing, and roll too early, the increased damage will cause the blast to kill you instantly. You can roll to avoid the damage of ANY weapon in the game, even the homing laser, VS Rockets, Sniper Rifle… ALL of the weapons.

You can use this tactic to avoid being kill by grenades as well. If stuck with a Gum or Disc Grenade, roll right before it explodes. You can walk away unharmed if you time that just right… But this is a even trickier move do to not knowing when a grenade will detonate. There is a way to tell when a grenade will explode though; the flashing. Discs and Gums both flash their lights while out. When the lights start to flash faster, it’s ready to blow. Learn the timing of how long it takes the grenade to explode after it starts flashing fast. Once you figure it out, roll right before it explodes.

On the subject of rolling through grenades, there is a easier way to remove it unharmed. If you have a Dummy or Frag grenade toss one in front of you, and roll through the explosion at your point of invulnerability. This will cause the grenade attached to you to explode, and you to come out alive. If you have a Shot Gun, you can pull a less risky maneuver by shooting and rolling at the same time. The shot will go off just as you start to enter the roll, exploding the attached grenade.

Other Animations

The roll is one of the most commonly used animations for avoiding damage or being killed altogether. The next most used is entering and exiting a VS. When you exit or enter a VS, you’re invulnerable for the animation part of either your character climbing in/out of the seat, or the VS standing up if it’s lying on the ground. You can use this trick to avoid being ejected by the Energy Gun or Energy Grenades. If you nail that trick, you can time it right to avoid taking damage from Rockets, Grenades, Homing Lasers, or any of the other weapons. Hop out of the VS right before the blast strikes, and then hop back in to catch them off guard!

Back to you getting stuck with a grenade; If you are stuck, and a VS is nearby, enter the VS. Once you enter, the explosion will go off doing no damage to you or the VS!

A minor animation that is invulnerable is when you pick up weapons, grenades from the ground, or attaching/removing a weapon from a VS. This will happen less often for you, and it’s a very quick animation, so using this to your advantage will take some practice.

Weapons Tips

Each weapon has unique advantages you can learn and make use of. Tweak your sensitivity settings to make sure you’re as accurate as you can be. There is no auto-aim in the online modes,  so practice your aim. Here are some quick tips for each;

– Machine Gun. Learn to use this weapon first. It may seem weak, and the bottom of the food chain, but it’s far more powerful than people give it credit for. Learning to use it to it’s fullest will help you improve your skill in all other weapons. It has the ability to make people fall into an animation where they can’t return fire for a moment. Aim for their head to trigger this. While shooting, practice crouching while firing the machine gun. It brings your body mass down smaller making you harder to hit. Circle your opponent like a shark as you pump them full of bullets. Keeping yourself small and mobile makes you a harder target to hit. A common tactic is crouch repeatedly while shooting, this can cause some of the bullets shot at you to miss, and make you harder to hit. An even better tactic is to wiggle your left stick side to side while crouched and shooting. When your character moves side to side that fast, it won’t register on your opponent’s screen, causing the majority of his bullets to completely miss you.

– Shot Gun. It’s got one awesome ability that you need to learn: knock down. Now, any weapon can knock someone down, but the shot gun can do it at anytime to an enemy. To be most efficient, roll while shooting the shot gun to avoid taking damage yourself. If you have Gum Grenades, use the shot gun to knock your target down and stick a grenade to his body before he gets up. The moment he’s fully standing up, shoot to explode the grenade and receive the kill.

– Rocket Launcher. The rocket launcher forces you to stand still when you fire if your feet are on the ground. You can’t run and shoot at the same time. The best way to overcome this is to jump and shoot. When jumping and shooting you remain mobile, preventing you from becoming an easy target. When firing the rocket, don’t always aim for the person’s body. Instead, aim at their feet. This causes the explosion to produce more splash damage.

– Energy Gun. Very deadly if used properly, the energy gun is an extremely easy weapon to use. It’s great against any target, especially for booting enemies in a VS. It takes two fully charged E-Gun shots to kill a target (3 if you play the PS3 version). A great tactic is to fire a fully charged shot at a running target, followed by smaller bursts. The small bursts travel faster, starting a juggle animation. If you get good at this, you can juggle an enemy and kill him before he hits the ground.

– Plasma Gun. Although it has sniping qualities, this weapon is great for all types of combat. It’s extremely effective on VS, has the ability to one-hit-kill headshot, and will kill in only 3 body shots. For sniping, either while scoped or not, aim just a hair above your target’s head. The Plasma Gun has an extremely wide shot, so even when you aim above the head part of the bullet still hits. You have a greater chance of one-hit-killing if you practice aiming just above the head. Same with the shot gun, roll shooting is a fantastic way to use this weapon. You never have to reload. As long as you have T-ENG, you can roll and shoot. You’ll know when your target is on his last line when he goes through his stutter animation. You’ll shoot him twice, and on that second shot he’ll be stopped in a flinch animation, one more hit will kill him.

Misc Tips & Tricks

These are random tips and tricks that come to mind as I’m writing this. They’re in no particular order.

– If you need to charge T-ENG at a charge pool/station, get out of your VS. Energy will charge faster than if you stay in the VS.

– Use the third person camera to your advantage. Use it to stay hidden, yet still see enemies over your cover.

– Just because a VS is coming at you, doesn’t mean you’re dead. Aim for weak spots at the joints, especially the knees. If you can, hit the large circle joints on the back of the VS for even more damage.

– Use the zip line to transport yourself everywhere. It’s a much faster way to travel than running or rolling. Grapple something in front of you, say, a Data Post, and right before you get to it, tap the grapple button again to cancel. This will prevent you from doing the hop up animation which takes time and leaves you vulnerable. You can even zip cancel on to ledges or platforms if you time it properly.

– Learn the layouts of the maps. This isn’t really much of a tip, but it’s something you need to learn to become good at the game. In the original, each map has 3 layouts in sets of 2. So layouts 1 & 2 are the same, just with switched team spawns. Same goes for 3 & 4, and 5 & 6. If you know the layout right when the game starts, you know where to head for weapons, VS, and Data Posts.

– Anticipate your enemy. This isn’t really a Lost Planet specific tip, but it’s something you should know. When you start the game, automatically assume the opposing team is just as smart, if not smarter than you. Imagine where you would go if you were on their team. Use this to your advantage to out smart them and catch them off guard.

– If you see someone getting a Data Post, but they’re behind it, blocking your bullets from hitting them, wait until the post is up. Don’t shoot until the post is almost up. There is a slow “standing up” animation once they’ve finished. This will put their head just above the post in perfect sniping position. Aim just above the post, and once they finish, snipe away for a one shot kill.

– Crouch when throwing grenades. You’ll notice that your grenades will be thrown much more accurately, and not cause your character to waste time in the standing throw animation.

– If there’s a hole or small area you need to get to with your grapple, but it won’t let you, crouch and grapple instead of standing. When you crouch and grapple it will allow you to get into the tunnels, caves, and vents that you normally couldn’t get in to in a standing grapple.

– With any T-ENG based weapon that you can charge, you can kill the charge by clicking the reload stick. This is especially useful with the Homing Laser for locking on to more targets, without wasting any energy.

– Shoot your grenades. Use this with any grenade to make it explode where and when you want it to. Especially effective with disc grenades.

– If you are in a VS, and need to grab a Data Post, weapon, etc, learn which side you exit on to make your character exit by the weapon, and leave your VS as cover blocking any enemy shots. The FAZE always exits which ever side the feet are facing. The Cacti exits off the right side. The EVAX and VENSA exit off the left.

– Use those 90 degree turn bumpers. There’s no faster way to get to a target behind you.

– If you’re in a fire fight on foot, a cool way to catch your opponent off guard is to get close, and roll behind him, tap the 90 degree bumper, and shoot him in the back.

You may know many of these, but I’m putting this out there because I’ve noticed quite a few players who are new to Lost Planet recently. I’ll update this as I think of things, but this should be enough reading material for this session. =)

I’ve put this up in the Lost Planet forum, so if you have suggestions of things to add, post it here!