Hawken Beta Tips

Written by Charles Husemann on 12/17/2012 for PC  

1. Check out the tutorials.  Although Hawken is a First Person Shooter, there are a number of unique game play elements that the tutorials will help the aspiring Hawken pilot to learn and master like using the alternate function of secondary weapons and learning to dodge.
2. Check out the mech store.  On any given week we have a number of rental mechs available for free so you can try out different mechs and decide what you like before you buy one. 
3. Check out the mech garage.  This is where you are going to do all your customization on your mechs like changing your primary weapon, items, internals, etc.

The Rocketeer is a really great starter mech.  It has the seeker missile primary and hellfire missiles which are both heavy damage lock on weapons.  At long range, the rocketeer is a deadly opponent and really easy to master, but you will need to watch out in close combat situations as the splash from hellfire and seeker missiles will hurt you and your opponent.

Movement is everything in Hawken.  Your mech is a huge war machine that does not move the same way a human being would.  Learning to be efficient with your movement and take paths that will allow you to keep mobile so you don’t suffer the slowdown that occurs during extreme direction changes.  For instance, stopping and strafing left to right seriously slows down your mech, making you an easier target.  If instead you continue to move forward while strafing, your mech will maintain its forward momentum while still making a hard target for your enemies to track.
When you level up, where you put your points depends on how you like to play.  If you are an aggressive player that likes to mix it up on the front lines, the defense tree is going to be a good choice for you as it will increase your survivability and make you a much harder target in up close combat.  If you like to hang back and pound your enemies, the offense tree is going to make each of your shots more powerful and make you a real threat from distance.  Lastly, if you are all about movement then the movement tree will have you dancing around your enemies.  You won’t be as tough or hit as hard, but you won’t need to since you will be on them and gone before they knew what hit them.

We'd like to thank Paul for taking the time to answer our questions as well as Shannon for coordinating the interview.