Alien Strategy and Tactics

The aliens have their own set of species-specific strategies. However, most of them are limited to melee attacks only.

Dretch
In general, Dretches should always ambush their prey. A one-on-one confrontation with a rifle-wielding human will probably end with one living human and a Dretch corpse. If they have time to aim, they will often hit their mark.

Most humans will fire their entire clip of ammo at the dretch as soon as they see it. While it takes 2.7 seconds for them to fire the bullets and 2.2 seconds to reload, you can make quick work of him. Pro-humans will not fire all their bullets and they are hard to take down. If you come across a lower-level human, you should 1. Let him see you and duck behind something near him. 2. Wait for him to empty his ammo, you have a better chance. 3. When you finally go for him, you should jump and aim for the head. The aimer in the middle of the screen is there for a reason. Most don't know it is the area where the dretch does the damage. If your standing at the foot of a human, it is possible not to even hurt him if your aimer is turned away.

Running straight at your target is to be avoided, as is standing still in front of them while you bite. You should always hit and run over and over until your target is dead. I don't like to use wallwalking with the dretch because I think it tends to slow him down. You can't jump while on the wall which is a big problem. Just try attacking a human on the ground without ever jumping and you'll know what i mean.

If the head is unprotected, bite it!

Granger
Grangers can't fight. If you're a Granger, forget it.

Advanced Granger
Advanced Grangers are somewhat better at fighting then plain old grangers. They can use a weak swipe attack and shoot spitwads of creep that do a small amount of damage to unarmored humans.

Fighting as an Advanced Granger, known as "battle granging", is not allowed on most servers and in extreme cases you will be kicked.

When you get Advanced Granger your team has to be stage 2. This usually means the enemy team is also stage 2 or even stage 3. Even a 1v1 with an Advanced Granger and a human with a rifle and no armor, usually results in a dead granger and a human without any health lost and his purse a bit fatter.

Killing a granger will give the human more points from the kill then if they killed a dretch. The granger was not build for fighting, don't fight with it unless your alone and there are no eggs and you are building a overmind when a human is attacking it. Even then, your probably gonna die.

Basilisk
The Basilisk is the hardest play as. Its grab attack does prevent humans from turning, but it is easy to shoot and is not as fast as the Dretch. It does have a wallwalk and can be very useful in destorying a turret on the ledge as the Basilisk can walkwall and bite at the same time. Early in the game when you only have 0-1 frags with you, you may spot a human building a forward base. If you kill him before he puts up any turrets, you can evolve to a basilisk and destory the repeater/other buildings.

The battlesuit has more resistence to the grab then other armor. A useful way to make use of the basilisk is to wallwalk above/next to a door and wait for a human to come past. Then you just grab his head and make quick work of him.

Advanced Basilisk
The Advanced Basilisk is pretty much the same as the basic Basilisk, but it can spray paralyzing gas.

Marauder
The Marauder is one of the most devastating alien species. It can jump great distances. It is also capable of walljumping; this allows it to gain a massive amount of speed in narrow spaces such as hallways.

Going on a hopping spree is one of the best ways of shredding the other team to bits. Try jumping from head to head and clawing everything you can.

Advanced Marauder
The Advanced Marauder is like the basic Marauder, but it can also unleash a devastating zap attack. To use it, aim at your target and press the secondary fire key. Provided you stay within range, the zap can continue for a full second. It can also jump between humans and their structures, creating mass damage in a very small amount of time.

Dragoon
The Dragoon has a pounce ability that allows it to kill jetpacking humans in midair. This is useful for clearing A.T.C.S. of skycampers.

Advanced Dragoon
The Advanced Dragoon is like the basic Dragoon, but it's faster, has a longer pounce range, and can fling deadly barbs at humans or structures.

Tyrant
While powerful, Tyrants are at a disadvantage because of their size. They are best used in hallways, provided there are no other aliens around. The tyrant is like the "Lone Wolf" of the alien team because they are best used by themself. In open areas the humans can easily dodge the charge attacks, this is why hallways are best. Humans can't dodge in small hallways. They face either 1.Facing the tyrant, which usually means death. or 2. Retreating to their base. If another tyrant or goon or even dretch is in the hallway with the tyrant, it won't work. A blocking alien can end up killing the tyrant in most cases. Tyrants have almost 0 jump, this means that it can't reach places just about every other alien can. (Dretchs and basilisks wallwalk and goon can prounce and marauder can wall jump) In open areas the tyrant is useless. Jetpacks can easily kill a tyrant without ever getting hurt.

They are useful for clearing structures.