XDefiant: 10 Tips For Playing As Echelon

Summary

• Know your map for Echelon success; intel abilities require strategic positioning and awareness.
• Low Profile ability allows sneaky flanking; make use of sound cues to avoid detection.
• Digital Ghillie Suit gives slight advantage in gunfights; prioritize positioning and teamwork for success.

The Echelon faction in XDefiant is the class that has possibly the lowest skill floor, but the highest skill ceiling, of all the factions. For the most part, every other faction has abilities that are fairly easy to use in a conducive way, whether it's supportive or aggressive. The Cleaner's abilities kill you, Libertad's abilities heal you, etc.

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The Echelon faction's abilities don't necessarily do anything helpful in a vacuum; but, when used situationally, they have perhaps the best abilities in the game. Here are our tips for having more success with Echelon in XDefiant:

10 Map Knowledge

The Greater Your Map Knowledge, The Greater Your Success

Map knowledge being useful is true across the board in XDefiant, but when it comes to Echelon, it's exponentially more so. Every ability for the Echelon faction revolves around intel, either gaining more intel for your team or hiding intel from the other team. The Intel Suit ability for Echelon periodically shows enemy locations through walls, as does their Sonar Goggles Ultra.

This is an outrageously helpful ability for an arena shooter, but because enemies show up as red highlights in this view, it can occasionally be difficult to tell whether an enemy has cover or not. The better you know the map, the easier it is to pre-fire or plan an attack strategy using the new intel.

9 Low Profile And Flanking

Low Profile Gives Great Flanking Opportunities

The passive ability for Echelon, Low Profile, keeps your character off the radar, regardless of what you're doing. This means the enemy team has to be either communicating or paying close attention to sound cues to keep track of you, rather than relying on the radar for intel.

This gives plenty of opportunity to flank the enemy team in an unwatched lane without someone noticing you making your way that direction on the radar, regardless of whether you fire a shot or not.

8 You Make Sounds

Unlike CoD, People Have Footsteps Here

One thing to keep in mind, whether taking advantage of the Low Profile passive ability or the Digital Ghillie Suit active ability to be nearly invisible, you're still making sound when you move. This is particularly true when you're sprinting, and it's something to keep in mind when heading for a flank route.

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Once within earshot of enemies, it might be worth slowing down a little bit; it'll cost you a couple of seconds, but it might keep you from getting pre-fired as you step around the corner.

7 You Aren't Invisible

But You Will Have A Split-Second Advantage

An important note about the Digital Ghillie Suit: you aren't invisible. You're pretty close to being invisible, but enemies that are paying attention are going to be able to tell you're there, especially if you're running or aiming down sights.

That being said, it's going to take most players a split second to register what they're seeing as an enemy player, and this is going to give you a split-second advantage in the gunfight. Fire first, and make that split-second advantage count.

6 Don't Look At Me

Teammates Will Be Priority Targets

The Digital Ghillie Suit is also going to keep you from being a priority target in situations where you have visible teammates around you. Most of the time, if you're in a group of a couple of other teammates and in a firefight, if you're using your Ghillie Suit, enemies are going to focus fire on your teammates first.

This is not condoning using your teammates as bait (okay, you can use THAT teammate as bait), but it does mean that you can afford to use the opportunity to gain an advantageous position for your team and land some particularly good shots. Just make your teammate's deaths count, or they might not be your teammates for long.

5 A Sneaky Push

Sneaky Escort Rushes Can Be Free Wins

In the Escort game mode, sometimes your team gets stalled a couple of feet from either the finish line, or a checkpoint. It can be tough to regroup and get it moving again, once the Defenders have really dug in.

If you just need to move the dog a couple of feet, equipping your pistol for the higher sprint speed and slapping on the Digital Ghillie Suit to stand next to the dog for a second might get you that little extra push you need. Be careful with this strategy because it is almost always going to end with you dead, but it can net you a win here or there where it would otherwise be defeat.

4 Intel Suit Placement

Placement While Using Intel Suit Is Paramount

The Intel Suit and the Sonar Goggles work differently from each other. While the Sonar Goggles reveal every enemy on the map, the Intel Suit pulses in a radius around your own position, meaning if you aren't near any enemies, it is not going to score you any intel.

Put yourself somewhere the ability is going to net you intel; don't waste it.

3 Ultra Needs Sight Lines

Only Activate Your Ultra When You're Going To Have Shots

It's pretty easy to waste your Ultra with Echelon, as well. If you aren't close to enough enemies to make the 5.7 pistol worth pulling out, then this ridiculously good pistol is going to be wasted.

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Make sure before you activate this ability that you're going to have a sight line on more than one enemy in the next few seconds, otherwise it'll probably be best to wait for a better opportunity. You only get one or two of these to use per match.

2 Close Range Or Long Range

Either Works Great

The Echelon faction can be made to work with any playstyle, but it can be particularly effective in either the super close range or the super long range positions. In very close range, intel changes in a split-second, and having that intel first, or denying your enemy that intel, can be paramount.

Equip a shotgun or an SMG, a weapon class that has some of the best weapons in the game, and you're going to be a problem for the enemy team.

In super long-range, the Digital Ghillie Suit is going to be less noticeable. This can make it quite a bit easier to post up a little way away and really position yourself well before taking shots at enemies that likely don't know you exist yet.

1 Lone Wolf

Attack From Odd Angles

While every faction in XDefiant benefits from solid teamwork and communication, the Echelon class can be utilized pretty well as an agent of chaos working around the edges of the fray, poking the enemy team where they're most vulnerable. You have more intel in your hands, and you're giving the enemy team less intel, than anyone else on your team.

Use that to your advantage to carefully chip into the enemy team where it hurts most, and the rest of your team is going to have a much easier time doing their jobs.

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