Falling on your back in SOCOM? Can’t get that one important kill? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here, you’ll learn basic important fundamentals, as well as concepts and tactics. Being an elite SOCOM player is closer than you could ever imagine.

The Basic Strats
Most of your strategies going to be organized on-the-fly with your teammates via headset. Regardless, there are simple cornerstone tactics that can determine life or death.

Use your grenades!: So many players have died because they trust their bullets more than brains. If you’re sure there’s an enemy within your perimeters, don’t try to flank them, just throw a grenade over there and chances are they’ll either be blown to pieces or will run out in the open where you can pick them off. Smoke grenades are also a very handy thing. You can easily flush out snipers in a certain area, or just provide cover for your team. Think there’s someone camping? Before charging at them, throw a flashbang, which will make their vision pure white so they can’t see anything at all, not even arms-width away. Then you simply walk up to them and pop a cap in their ass. Grenades are so useful, I can’t even press it enough. They’re easy to use, have a large disaster radius, and are extremely lethal. Use grenades, use grenades, use grenades! You might die a few times while learning, but don’t get discouraged because once the learning hump is overcome, you’re set.

Move around: Close-combat shooting is quick, fierce, and inevitable. There isn’t much time to think, so your reflexes are going to come into play more than wits. Probably the biggest thing to do is to pan back and forth while shooting the opponent. Being a still target isn’t a good thing, and it’s much less work on their part. So be slippery and move around while taking fire at point-blank range.

Watch everything: Many times SOCOM will require brains which deeply comes into play. If you’re on your own, or with only one other teammate, don’t just walk in a linear line. Look left, look right, and definitely look behind you. Zoom in, check places where enemies could possibly be, you know, the whole nine yards. Lots of enemies will come from directly behind you, so make sure you’re constantly checking your rear. If you have a friendly trailing you, tell them to cover you while you run through any area. Never, ever, run in a directly straight line for too long. If you do, you’re asking to be killed, and chances are that’s what’s going to happen. This is particularly important for sniping--don’t just hang in one spot without looking around. Staying zoomed in for more than 10 seconds at a time on one spot is a bad thing, don’t be caught.

Keep cool: SOCOM can become very intense at times. If you’re the last remaining team member, and the computer says there’s more enemies against you, then don’t freak out and go on a hectic rampage. Keep yourself together and find a nice perch or area and pick off some foes. Frantic = bad.

When the time calls for camping, camp: Many people despise camping (staying in one spot for a long time) in other online shooters such as Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six. But SOCOM is an exception. Camping is quite welcomed in SOCOM, so when you see the enemy running the same pattern and route over and over again, camp in a high spot or secretive area and snipe them off one by one. Camping is particularly useful when you’re outnumbered. Silenced guns are the best for camping, but you won’t always be that lucky.

Use the headset to the max: The headset is a wonderful thing, so use it often. Always stay in communication with your team members. Tell location, condition, or whatever else. When you’re dead, chat with your other K.I.A. teammates about strategies for next round. The headset is just waiting to be used, so why wouldn’t you?!

high: Yes, it does matter where you shoot your enemy. If you’re aiming at their feet, chances are you’ll wind up dead. Aim around their chest and head for better survival. Targeting in close-range can be a problem in SOCOM, but it eventually becomes a second nature.

Cover: Always try to travel in stealth. Hide behind rocks, shrubbery, foliage, and so forth. Zipper Interactive has made the environments very realistic with lots of places to cloak, so never travel in an open area unless you have a death wish in hand (or the opponent has terrible aim). Tall grasses are particularly good to travel in while proned during jungle levels. The desert maps don’t have quite the cover that the jungle environments do, but there’s still no excuse for not being stealthy. All the maps have some form of protection: boxes, foliage, boulders, walls, you name it.

Sensitivity: The options menu allows you to set your joystick sensitivity as well as other things. It’s very important that you change this to your fortè, otherwise problems may occur. Mess around with each level, swap things, and so on. Once you find the one you like, keep it and the game will play much more smoothly (and your kills should increase). Otherwise targeting can become a huge pain in the neck.

Change stances: Most people already do this, but if you’re not, you should probably think that over. Proning (lying down) is very convenient for sniping and sneaking around. Crouch down at all times possible. Why? Because your accuracy improves and you’re a smaller mark for opponents.

Don’t be trigger happy: SOCOM has a very realistic recoil. Therefore, the more you’re on the trigger, the worse your accuracy gets. The best thing is to fire in small, rapid bursts (about 2 or 3 rounds) with an automatic weapon. If your weapon is semi-automatic, you don’t need to worry about this. Machine guns also don’t need to worry much about this, but you shouldn’t tape down the trigger button either.

Be a good team player: Always work with your teammates, don’t be a rebel. You’re not going to get a kill in lots of games, which isn’t a problem. But if you organize the attacks, then you’ve already done more than most all those players who got kills. Don’t be about the glory, that’ll come when your team wins.

Travel in groups: Anyone who’s played other online shooters should be familiar with this concept: you’re more likely to live with a group of allies than on your own. Many SOCOM players will care less about this strategy, but be the one who organizes it if no other players are willing. If this even means tagging behind another stubborn player, then do that also. It can easily determine if your team wins or not. Read later about group maneuvers.

Don’t be stupid: Don’t. Be. Stupid. Three simple words that are so important you can’t possibly imagine. Do I really need to explain this? I think you know the difference between stupid and smart when it comes to SOCOM.

Your strategies: Do what you need to do. You’ll be coming across your very own tactics at one point or another, so use them in casual combat.

The Arsenal
I’ll be blunt with you: the gun you choose isn’t all that relative. You’re either going to pick an automatic, semi-automatic, or sniper rifle weapon. What is important is how you use it. But I will provide suggestions for each team, just to enlighten you.

SEALs: The SEALs have a great selection of rifles. The best overall rifle is the M4A1 SD. The accuracy is moderate, but there’s a nice scope and it’s silenced which is a gigantic advantage. The M40A1 is a more sniper rifle type gun (it’s the only one for the SEALs on many maps). It’s also a two-shot-kill (one in the head). So if sniping is your desire, find a spot and pop some heads open (ew). The M63A is a great option if rapid fire rate is your fancy.

SEALs don’t have the best pistol selection unfortunately. The M23 (Mark 23) is a great handgun, and so is the 9mm SD. Either one will suffice.

Terrorists: The best all-round terrorist rifle is hands-down the 552. It has a great scope and is extremely powerful. The F90 is another great selection. It has the fastest fire rate in the game, which isn’t a bad thing. This gun is wonderful in close-range battles. The M82A1A may look like a machine gun, but it’s not. It’s actually a sniper rifle that can stop a tank in its tracks.

Terrorists have an amazing selection of pistols. My personal favorite is the Desert Eagle .50. Sure, it’s very loud, but who cares? Chances are it’s so loud that your enemies will go running in the opposite direction they know you have a DE.50 in hand. You can literally kill two enemies with one shot if they’re lined up. The F57 is another great pistol selection.

Once again, gun selection is usually pure preference. Those are what I personally believe are the greatest all-round.

Strategies:
Traveling is groups is very important like I mentioned far above. Here’s some tips for keeping them alive:

Cover them always: Don’t be the one in the back who didn’t catch the enemy flanking you all. Check backwards and make sure there’s no opposing forces tracing your path. If an enemy is in front, leave that for your friends to take care of. If someone is scouting an area, zoom in and look around for opponents. Otherwise, you’ll be the one to blame.

How many?: Two to four people is always good, but three to four is ideal. Too many isn’t good because the enemy could simply throw a grenade and blow the crap out of you all. Organize it and keep it together, never leave a man behind.

Don’t take the road well-traveled: Stick to walls and small paths where enemies probably won’t be waiting for you to pass through. Why did the three SEALs cross the road? To get shot that’s why. SOCOM has plenty of small little areas for stealthy travel, so do that exactly. Walking in a huge gigantic field is just plain stupid, so don’t do it...ever.

Switch-it-up: Try not to do the same strategy more than three times, otherwise the enemy will lock-on to what you’re doing and take your entire team out. Snipers will also be more alert. Do whatever it takes to change your strategies often.

Bunny hopping: Watching your allies while in the afterlife is quite convenient, especially if they’re skilled. You can pick up great tactics from them when competent so be an apprentice and learn.

Stick together: Don’t let one player wander off on their own for whatever business (unless necessary). That is, unless you want to see them in a box. Need I say more?

Headset Etiquette
What to say is significant. Don’t mess around and ramble on about your skill or mom or whatever else crosses your mind. If you see enemies, say “We’ve got hostiles.” Kill an enemy? “Hostiles down.” Getting hit with lead? “I’m taking fire!” Get it? Got it? Good. It’s important to be serious about these things at the most practical times. If you’re playing with your friends there’s of course more flexibility, but for the most part act like a real SEAL (and yes, even on the Terrorist team). “Affirmative” or “Roger that” is proper for agreeing and equivalent to “OK.”Also, if you see enemies, tell where they are instead of blabbing out “Terrorists!” It’s something that everyone can understand, no matter how good or bad they are at SOCOM.

Closing Thoughts
Surely there’s more strategies out there that aren’t listed, that’s a given. There’s so many that they can’t possibly be written down on paper. Every time you pick up SOCOM and play, some other procedure will be used, no two games are alike. A good suggestion is to take the skills you learned in other shooters and put them into casual play. The key is to make these elements a second nature, so attempt that and chances are you’ll be raising hell in no time at all.