Battlefield 2 Chopper Guide by Budzilla v1.3      29/05/2006
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This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed
publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other
web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a
violation of copyright.

Introduction:

Battlefield 2 has been out for a while, yet there are many people new to the
game who are mearly getting their feet wet. Unfortunately that means they are
inexperinced with flying helicopters. Helicopters are easily the make or break
unit of any game(in publc servers at least).  This guide is intended to help
get new players up to speed on the basics of flying and fighting, despite the
complete lack of documentation that came with Battlefield 2.  Please take time
to read this guide if you are new to BF2 AND don't say, "No Duh!" There are
plenty of players who make mind boggling stupid decisions while flying.
Dont't forget to enjoy yourself!

**Important**This guide has been updated for the game mechanics in the 1.3
patch. I don't know what little surprises EA and Dice have for us in the near
future. So this will be my last update becasuse I'm too lazy and not getting
paid for this. I can't see myself re-writing this thing after every patch that
comes out.


CONTENTS

1. FLYING
  a)Getting Started
    i-Control Set Up
    ii-Other Stuff Which Is Helpful
    iii-Creating A Game
  b)Flying Around
    i-Takeoff
    ii-Level Flight
    iii-Turning
    iv-Landing
    v-Strafe
    vi- Challenges
  c)Special Forces Helicopter Movement

2. FIGHTING
  a)Take Off
  b)Evading Income Fire
  c)Gunning
  d)Attack Helicopter Weapons
    i-TV Missile
    ii-20mm Cannon
    iii-Unguided Rockets
  e)Transport Helicopter Weapons
    i-Minigun
    ii-.50 Cal

3. REVISE THESE IMPORTANT NOTES

4. OTHER TACTICS
  a)Character Classes for attack choppers
  b)Flag Whoring aka Flag Skipping, Stat Farming
    i- Character Classes
    ii- Tactics
  c)Kamakazi!!!

5. THREATS

6. THE HELICOPTERS
  a)Attack
  b)Transport

7. Special Thanks

8. Mistakes, corrections and adding other information

9. About the Author

10. Version History





1. FLYING

 a)Getting Started
   i-Control Setup
     W - Increase Motor Speed
     S - Decrease Motor Speed
     A - Turn Left
     D - Turn Right
     X - Drop Flares



                                   / \
                                    |
                                    | Mouse Foward - Tilt Nose Down
                                    |
                                    |
                              ______________
Left Mouse Button- Fire       /              \   Right Mouse Button -
                            /                \  Change Weapon
                            |                 |
                            |                 | Mouse Right -
Mouse Left -                 |                 | _______________________>
Slide Chopper Left           |                 |
           <______________  |                 |Slide Chopper Right
                            |                 |
                            |                 |
                            |                 |
                            |_________________|

                                    |
                                    |
                                    | Mouse Backwards - Tilt Nose Up
                                    |
                                    |
                                   \ /

**Note** If you inverse the Mouse in Settings then pushing the mouse foward
will tilt the nose foward and visa versa.

   ii-Other Stuff Which Is Helpful
   RAM: Get 2gigs of the stuff! I noticed a huge improvement in loading times
   when  I upgraded from 1 gig. With less disk swapping going on, you will
   have a smoother flight

   Video Settings: Crank up that draw distance to the maximum!

   Headset: VOIP rocks and you know it! It easier to say to your pilot, "AA
   GUNS TO OUR LEFT!!" than to type it out. Spend some cash on a headset and
   you will get alot more out of Battlefield 2

   Patience: Take your time and be prepared to die alot. You won't be a good
   pilot overnight or in a week but keep at it and you will get loads of Gold
   stars to impress people of the opposite sex

   iii-Creating A Game
   OK.  First of all we need a practice arena.  Don't practice online because
   this will make you very unpopular.  Click on Multiplayer tab at the top of
   the screen and select "Create Local". Find a large map(64 players) like
   Dragon Valley.

 b)FLYING AROUND
   i-Takeoff
   Okay press and hold the "W" key to spin up your motor.  After sometime the
   chopper will begin to liftoff, for the moment gain height.

   ii-Level Flight
   OK, to go straight ahead, tilt the nose of the chopper downwards slightly,
   notice that you are going foward. The same principle applies to flying
   backwards. Maintain motor speed and tilt backwards. DON'T be aggresive
   with how much you tilt the chopper otherwise you will be a smoking hole
   in the ground. Treat the chopper like a baby for the time being.

**NOTE**When flying you will have to be giving constant adjustments with the
mouse even in level flight

   iii-Turning
   Once you master flying straight ahead it's time to turn.  Press and hold
   either the "A" or "D" keys to turn in whatever direction you wish to head
   to. You will notice that you will start to lose height in most cases. Use
   the mouse to keep the nose from dipping too much.

   iv-Landing
   Decrease motor speed, slow the chopper down to 40Km/h or less. Keep the
   helicopter level with ground (and make sure the ground is level!). When
   you are a metre or so above tilt your nose back slightly and I mean only
   a fraction! At all times you should be holding down the "S" key so your
   landing can be as smooth as possible.

   v-Strafe
   To strafe move the mouse to the left or right SLIGHTLY! If you continue to
   move the mouse it will roll over and crash. Make sure you are holding the
   increase motor speed button

 With flying the best way to get better is to practice and practice and
 practice. Did I say practice? I'm not joking either. Fly through streets,
 next to buildings along roads in a forest.

   vi- Challenges
   If you think you are good, try the following obstacles (64 Player maps).
   All are possible and if you can't do them, you will not make much of a
   pilot online:

               -The large circular tunnel under Kubra Dam
               -Most warehouses can be entered where there is one
               large door on one side
               -The TV station at Sharqi Peninsula. Take off with
               the Cobra and fly under the construction site bar that's
               connecting the two buildings
               -Hover under a carrier!

   These are pretty easy themsevles.


 c)Special Forces Helicopter Movement
 The helicopters in SF are HUGE. They handle differently too. Think about
 sliding acrosswet ice, let's say you turn right. While you maybe facing
 your new direction, you will drift towards the way you were originally
 going. So flying these choppers requires more input then the other choppers.
 Just give yourself more lateral room to work with when you are fighting.




2.FIGHTING

 a)Take-off
 If you are unfortunate to be a victim of spawn camping, take-off is very
 difficult.  You have two options jump in and spin like crazy(hold "A" or "D")
 if a sniper with an M95 is in the area or a Special Op guy is trying to plant
 C4 on you.  Just pray no team mates are on the helipad OR find and kill the
 SOB who is making life difficult.

 b)Evading Incoming Fire
 This is the second most important part of this guide(behind flying
 naturally). Make no mistake about it, helicopters are fragile and can
 easily be shot down with a .50 calibre weapon.  What to do?:

 **Submission by L1b3rat0r**
 -When attacking a vehicle that sees you and fires back, try to fly in a
 random approach pattern while descending, and slow down so you can land 4-6
 rockets in a pass

 -Fly low! Fly so low try and not fly above tree top level. If they can't see
 you then they can't hit you therefore can't hurt you! A stinger might be
 looking up in the air for you while you are skulking near the ground. You
 might point out that flying high gives you visibilty of the action and you
 can hit you targets from afar. That's true but everyone can see you also
 hitting targets from afar is difficult. Also multiple ground AA guns will
 engage you. It is easy to escape one hostile AA gun. But more difficult to
 escape 3. Jets are a different story but they can fly so fast and escape the
 threat so quickly it doesn't matter for them. Tree top level at highest!!!

 -Use as much cover as possible. Trees, hills, large buildings. Not only this
 can break lock of the missiles but guns won't be able to hit you either

 -Make a firing run on your target and when you return come from another
 direction which is unexpected

 -Circle Strafe! This is where you are flying in circles around a target and
 you ALWAYS have your nose (therefore your guns) pointed at the target. To do
 this move hold the "W" key and either "A" or "D" Then slide the chooper in
 the opposite direction you are turning. It is easier than it sounds.  When
 firing rockets in attack choppers always aim the rockets slightly to the
 left of the target if your are circling right and visa versa

 -If you have a lock on warning in your cockpit and you are certain the enemy
 is a hostile jet. Find cover or even better beam the enemy.  What is
 beaming? Where the enemy is flying towards you at your 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock
 position. So think of a  side on collision with a car and you pretty much
 have it.  The advantages of this move is that the aircraft will have a hard
 time getting a lock on you because you are crossing their HUD too quickly for
 them and their missiles will have to turn really hard to get you.

 -As you get better try to fly faster

 -When flying transport choppers when you see multiple APCs and tanks -  RUN!!

 -NEVER EVER SOLELY RELY ON YOUR FLARES to escape threats. A machine gun or
 cannon can still shoot you down and a skilled air defence solider can fire
 his missiles after the flares you dropped are no longer effective

 c)Gunning
 Good aim, fire power and alignment of the planets might help when shooting
 down foes whether you are in the pilot or gunner seat.

 OBSERVATION SKILLS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT WHEN SHOOTING DOWN
 ENEMIES!!!!

 You might think that's BS. I've flown in Blackhawks where the
 players on the minigun failed to fire a single round at a TOW missile or
 Stinger site. I've yelled at them over VOIP, "!$#@ HELL. YOU #!@#($#@ shoot
 the Stinger it is right infront of you. Less than 10 metres away!"  To
 replies of, "I didn't see it! Not my fault."  Yes its your fault if the pilot
 is giving you targets to hit but you fail to even fire your gun.

 This is differnet from missing your target because the opposition of course
 does not want to be killed. When you are a gunner you have a much better
 visibilty then your pilot. ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR TARGETS. This is especially
 true at enemy spawn points.

 Keep your pilot informed of any threats that can shoot you down.

 Lead Targets! If a target is moving aim slightly ahead of it of where its
 travelling. If you never lead a moving target you will miss most of the time.
 How much leading depends on the weapon(guns need some while rockets need
 lots).

 Make sure that cannon doesn't overheat.

 **Submission by L1b3rat0r**
 If the pilot comes to an almost complete stop and flies low when not at a
 helipad, he probably sees something he wants you to shoot.


 d)ATTACK HELICOPTER WEAPONS
   i- TV Missile
   The TV missile is tricky to use but instant death against anyone who it
   hits. The gunner of any attack chopper has access to 8 of these babies.
   When in the gunner position right click to switch to TV mode. A black and
   white screen will appear. When you have a target click on it and the
   missile will at that excact point. Don't fire at a target that's near the
   edge of the screen when the taget is less than 70 metres away or the
   missile will miss the target because it cannot turn in time. Also you can
   update the missile's impact point by double clicking in the TV view.
   Which makes it handy when shooting down other choppers!

**Note** The TV missile is very dodgy at times. While its automically supposed
to load another after you launched one, sometimes it won't(I'm not sure if this
is a bug or a design decision). So after the missile you have fired is
destroyed enter TV mode again and make sure the loading sequence is taking
place.

**Note** The centre of the TV view for the gunner on the PILOTS HUD is not the
centre of the screen. In regular BF2 all TV missile cameras are centred
between the centre of the screen and the gunners view info display. With SF
helicopters the centre of the TV view for the gunner in the PILOTS HUD is
about a centimetre(half an inch) below the gunner view display. If you are a
gunner in the SF helicopter DON'T SPEND TOO MUCH TIME AIMING FOR THE SHOT.
The SF helicopters are  very difficult to line up with long range TV shots,
they also handle differently so it is easy to flip them if they are tilted
back too far.

**Update** The 1.03 patch seems to make the TV missile more responsive to the
gunners commands.


   ii- 20mm Cannon
   The front of each attack chopper has a variant of these. The Chinese and
   American cannons are pretty much equal in terms of fire power. However the
   MEC chopper cannon seems extremely powerful and has lots of splash damage.
   This makes it very desireable especially against infantry and light
   vechicles. The gunner gets this weapon and mearly fires away. Be careful
   that you don't hold down the trigger for too long or the gun will overheat
   check your heat status every few seconds.

**Note** Press "C" once to change view to HUD only for greater visibilty.

**Update**
The patch makes the cannon more effective on the China and Cobra against
infantry.

   iii- Unguided Rockets
   Remember how I said fly low?? This is why. You have to point your nose at
   the target to hit it.  Also notice how the crosshair is slighly lower than
   the point of impact? The rockets are not parellel but are actually aimed
   slightly up. Practice makes perfect. UNLOAD ALL ROCKETS in one attack run.
   When you get better, aim for the rear of tanks where the armour is weaker.
   A full 8 rocket barrage against confined enemy is very devestating.

**Note** Remember to pull up when your rockets run out!

**Submission by L1b3rat0r**
Moving slower and lower will make your rockets hit closer to the reticles

 e)TRANSPORT HELICOPTER WEAPONS
   i- Minigun
   Nothing too mini about this beast. Fires an insane number of hard hitting
   rounds and tears up infantry like no other weapon in the game. Of course
   a due to its power to deter enemies it usually leads to flag whoring.
   Something that I love doing. Naturally the gun is mounted on the side of
   the blackhawk so keep giving directions to your pilot of where targets are
   and watch your score go up and up! However once this gun overheats it takes
   ages to cool down. Short bursts please.

**Note**Since 1.2 patch this thing was completely nerfed then improved up and
only God knows now. The minigun is weaker that I've seen plenty of infantry
dance around the bullets and survive. It's now not much better than the .50cal
guns on the other transport choppers. Thanks EA and Dice good work on removing
the America's ONLY firepower advantage in the skies or anywhere for that
matter. *Steps off soapbox.*

   ii- .50 Cal
   This weapon is really only effective on stationary vechicles, since the
   helicopter is always moving. You can guess that this weapon is almost
   useless when mounted on a chopper.




3. REVISE THE IMPORTANT NOTES:
                            -GOOD OBSERVATION SKILLS ARE A MUST
                            -LEAD TARGETS
                            -TRY TO FIRE IN SHORT BIRSTS when you are using
                            cannons or side guns
                            -USE COVER
                            -FLY LOW
                            -IMPROVISE no guide can cover every situation
                            -PRACTICE AND BE PREPARED TO DIE ALOT
                             *Submitted by SplinterRomp*




4. OTHER TACTICS

 a)Character Classes for attack choppers
 The best classes to use would be the Medic and Engineer. Chances are bullets
 will penetrate the cockpit glass and will seriously injure you. A medic will
 automatically heal you and himself. An engineer won't be able to fix their
 own vechicle however if there are 2 choppers around fighting together they
 can quickly hide and repair themselves without going back to base.
 Support isn't too much of a help because it takes forever to be resupplied.

 b)Flag Whoring aka Flag Skipping, Stat Farming
 This is a frowned upon practice however if you are detractor I dare you to
 fly a chopper around for 10 minutes without getting shot down or dying. This
 practice is only effective in a blackhawk, less so on a shoebox and ever
 worse in an attack chopper

 **Update** The 1.03 patch has very much put an end to this practice. Only the
 pilot can capture the spawn point, passengers have to hop out to speed up the
 capture.  Not really effective in heavy combat.  Of course you can make a few
 firing runs at the flag and thin out the oppostion then have your passengers
 jump out.  The choice is yours. Make sure the players manning the guns DON'T
 leave their position otherwise you are a clay pigeon.

    i- Character Classes
    Pilot: Medic
    Gunners: Support and Medic
    Back seats: All Engineers or 2 engineers and a Special Ops

    Naturally the engineers are in the back repairing like crazy. THEY MUST
    ALWAYS BE IN THE BACK SEAT. There are 2 Medics onboard this will heal
    the people in the back seats very quickly and increase their life
    expectancy alot. While the support keeps resupplying people in the
    back seats with ammo.  You will have noticed that instead of 3 engineers
    you can have 2 engineers and a Special Op. Anti-Tank classes are
    hopeless because it is too difficult to aim and anti tank round when
    flying.  When you come across armour or an APC the Specail OP can drop
    loads of C4 on the victim(tanks and APCs cannot aim directly up) and
    blow them to hell!

    ii- Tactics
    Not much in the way of tactics. Except when your are taking flag, spin the
    helicopter slowly so the side guns can engage all targets. Also try to
    stay far away from the flags as possible because sneaky people usually
    lay loads of C4 for unsuspecting flag skippers. Also never ever land!

 c)Kamakazi!!!
 Some Blackhawk causing your team alot of grief?? Get a shoebox and place C4
 on the nose. Now fly into the blackhawk. The C4 will make sure you are
 awarded with the kills. Can be very funny plus the other team might think
 twice about flying. Make sure you passengers know about this one-way flight.

 d)Mobile Spawn Point
 A transpot helicopter can fly high enough so that it is out of range heat
 seeking air defense on the ground. Two or three squad leaders stay in the
 chopper while everyone jumps out. Boring for the squad leaders but very
 annoying to the opposition.





5. THREATS

 -.50 Cal Guns. Whether mounted on a DPV or tank these guns to be utterly
 respected. They can shoot down a chopper in no time. Run away or destroy
 them as quickly as possible

 -IGLA/Stinger. Can shoot you down easily enough. The good news is that they
 are stationary and take along time to reload.  The best approach to take
 them out when they are on a hill is to attack the site from below where the
 sandbags surrounding the site give it a blind spot. Then unleash your flares
 and rockets when you see the target.

 -APC or AA gun. These 2 are just as bad as eachother. Take them out or avoid
 altogether. TV missle works best.
 **Submission by L1b3rat0r**
 -APCS take ~4 rockets to destroy

 -Tanks. Some lucky player might shoot you down with the main cannon, which is
 not very likely. However watch out for that .50 Cal on the roof....
 **Submission by L1b3rat0r**
 -Tanks take 5-6 rockets to destroy

 -Infantry. Rarely shoot down choppers. Anti tank soldiers have trouble
 shooting down most choppers. Don't fly low when there are Specail Ops because
 they have C4 to stick to the belly of your chopper. As for M95 snipers don't
 worry about them when you are flying. My accuracy is 57% with rifles and I've
 only shot a pilot out of a chopper twice whilst in flight and it was just
 hovering there. The rifle grenade that comes with Assault kits are a threat.
 3 hits from these can shoot you down.

 -Aircraft. Jets are your biggest foe. Since you can fly slower, use that to
 your advantage. Don't bother trying to shoot down this foe.

**Submitted By SplinterRomp** - Shooting down a jet can be done. Fly behind a
jet that's flying straight and level and unload all your rockets. Only 2 hits
are need to take down a full health jet. Make sure the jet is close.

 -Helicopters. An attack chopper battle will boil down to who is the better
 gunner. The MEC chopper has the advantage of a very powerful cannon. The best
 outcome would be to take out the opposing chopper with a TV missile. Try to
 get in close and unleash that missile!

**Submission by L1b3rat0r**
 -IF you are engaged against a helicopter where it is behind you, tilt your
 nose up and fly backwards in an attempt to get behind it and straighten
 yourself out but;
             -make sure you have room
             -the more you tilt, the more dangerous but more effective the
             manuever becomes

Thanks L1b3rat0r this manoeuvre is commonly called a "Cobra"



6. THE HELICOPTERS

a)Attack
 US-    AH-1 "Cobra"
 MEC-   Mi-28 "Havoc"
 China- Z-10

 Pilot Weapon: Rockets (8x5)
 Gunner Weapons: TV Missile (1x8)
               20mm Cannon (China and US helicopters contain 900 rounds)
               30mm Cannon (MEC chopper contains 450 rounds)

 Differences: The MEC chopper has a much more powerful cannon. Also it is
 considerably wider than the AH-1 and Z-10. So wide that if you aim perfectly
 with the rectile on the Mi-28 from in front or behind a Z-10 or Cobra, all
 the unguided rockets will miss!
**Note**The 1.2 patch reduced the armour on these choppers. You can still take
a tank round to the body and survive. Since a tank round removes around 75% of
your health you better head to a friendly helipad.

b)Transport
 US-    UH-60   "Blackhawk"
 MEC-   Mi-17   "Hip" aka shoebox
 China- Z-8     aka shoebox

 Gunner Weapons: Minigun(Blackhawk only. Infinite rounds)
               .50Cal(Shoebox only. Infinite rounds)

 Differences: There is a slight seating difference between the MEC and
 Chinese helicopters. The US gets the uber powerful minigun. Note that the
 name Shoebox is not an offical name. It is just the name me an my friends
 use online.

c)Special Forces
 US & UK AH-64 "Apache"
 Everyone Else MI-35 "Hind"

 Pilot Weapon: Rockets (8x5)
 Gunner Weapons: TV Missile (1x8)
                 30mm Cannon 900 Rounds

 Differences: These attack choppers are almost the same. Except the Apache
 feels more responsive to the controls of the pilot and can turn tighter.




7.Thanks to these people (these are their Battlefield 2 names):
adoublepa
SplinterRomp -For teaching me extra stuff about flying and laying down insane
             challenges
Dogmanslayer
Some_Random_Chicken
Dogtank
wazzawazere
-=Cpt.Killj0y=- -Shooting me down so often when I was flying and he was in a
               jet. Self destruction is the ultimate form of self improvement

and Everybody else in 4104!

L1b3rat0r thanks for sending in your suggestions!
UnrealDiesel




8.Mistakes, corrections and adding other information

  If there are mistakes in this guide or have me write in more advice, please
  contact me at the email below.

  If you would like to add your own advice to this guide I may allow it. I
  WILL CREDIT YOU with what you contribute.





9. About the Author
Contact email: [email protected]
BF2 Name: Budzilla
Clan: None
CPU: AMD 4200+ X2
RAM: 2GB 3500LL
HDD: 400Gb
VID: ATI 512Mb 1900XTX
CRT: 19inch LCD VX922
Sound: X-Fi Elite Pro with Logitech Z-5500 speakers and Headset
Mouse/Keyboard: Microsoft basic keyboard and a G5 Logitech mouse

Games I like: Little big Adventure 2
             Falcon 4.0 and Allied Force (F4 readers would notice that;)
             Deus Ex 1&2
             Call of Duty
             Rainbow 6 series
             Splinter Cell Series
             Hidden & Dangerous Series
             C&C Generals
             Enemy Territory
             Vampire Bloodlines: The Masquerade
             Commandos Series
             Half-Life 2
             Civilization 2



10. Version History

 1.0   (28/09/2005) First Release

 1.03  (24/10/2005) Update for 1.03 patch
                    Updated Intro
                    New tactics and pointers by me
                    Tactics Submitted by e-mail

Copyright 2005 Daniel Kinna