Editing Commando (section)

==Tactics==

*Commando shines when the team holes up. The commando can handle groups of [[Crawler]]s and [[Stalker]]s with ease and pin down their spawn points. This lets Commando's teammates focus on larger targets. Most [[perk]]s (such as; [[Berserker]]s, [[Support Specialist]]s, [[Firebug]]s and [[Sharpshooter]]s) appreciate this, so the Commando's role should not be underestimated on any difficulty or map. Their role is being a wingman to tank perks such as Berserker and Field Medic; offering back up fire and distracting trashes by doing rapid attacks on them while tanking player picks them off. Be careful to cover the blind spot of the tanking or shielding player by covering just behind the corner. Your best bet would be sticking close to a wall for taking less attention from Husk fire and killing anything that steps in your sights.

*Even when fully leveled, a Commando greatly suffers from reload times when cornered. Commando needs enclosed spaces to ensure his survival since they're not capable of being mobile with perk related weapons. Commando's job is small threat elimination from a distance, to achieve that, player must ensure lowest trajectory spread possible and reload when needed. Crouching helps cutting spread by a rate of 15%, switching to single fire mode cuts another 15% with diminishing returns, and finally getting down on iron-sights cuts spread by 50%; with extra 40% spread cut from perk bonuses, Commando reaches 78% spread cut. When positioned as crouched on an obstacle, Commando should be able to pull 2-5 bullet bursts without reaching maximum spread soon and can control the kickback easily.

*Despite having large ammunition reserves and an extensive list of abilities, Commando struggles when pitted against larger specimens. Even in fully automatic firing mode, his assault rifles output mediocre damage and reload for a long duration. In these situations, player should carefully monitor the specimen's health and coordinate with his team to strike effectively. Commando player should only attempt to finish off a wounded foe when he can certainly drop them before they can close in and attack him. Learning the behavior of the larger specimens especially helps the Commando, and will give him good trigger discipline to ensure he/she does not unnecessarily cause a specimen to rage if it would otherwise deal little damage to the team. Commando should take proper cover when stronger targets such as [[Scrake]]s or [[Fleshpound]]s appear. Focusing on lesser [[specimens]] benefits the team more than enraging such targets, allowing the appropriate classes to take them down easier without being attacked by weaker specimens.

*The ability to spot cloaked foes and see enemy health bars makes the Commando the ideal squad member for eliminating the faster and stealthier specimens, specifically the Stalker and Crawler. Stalkers can easily sneak up under the fire line of distracted or inattentive players, and block or blind them with their scratch attacks. Crawlers tend to attack in swarms and can easily surround a player or hide behind a bigger specimen. These smaller foes create big problems for the other squad members by interfering while they focus on the more dangerous specimens like the [[Fleshpound]], [[Scrake]], [[Husk]] and [[Siren]]. The commando should therefore focus their attention on killing the enemies around larger specimens or any blockade in front of teammates first rather than the large specimens themselves to ensure a clear sightline. A Commando staring at large specimen like they're mesmerized to do nothing about the closing in trash, would result in team losing a squad member in mere seconds at high difficulties. Shooting at large specimen and ignoring small specimen, would cause more problems than it could ever solve and just as bad as staring to do nothing.

*Another benefit of being able to see health bars, is in dark places, and also with Perks that obscure vision, the Commando can still be very useful where other perks will at best, use more ammunition to get the job done and at worst be useless.  Commando for this reason can work very good with a Firebug or Demo locking down a corridor or doorway. Since most specimens have similar head height, and their heads are usually a set distance from the hp bar, headshots based just on the location of the hitpoint bars is very doable.  Paying attention to health bars, you can also know if crawlers are coming because they and their hp bar are much closer to the ground, and you can know if larger specimens are coming, due to it being higher in the air than for a clot or gorefast.  While you can't know exactly what's coming if you're completely obscured, it is an often over looked benefit of Commando's perks.

*One last ability seeing HP bars can grant you is knowing when [[Scrake]]'s will rage and being able to plan based on this and even communicate it to your team.  On hard and below, they rage at 50% hp and one full magazine to the head from a Battle Rifle will finish them off. On Suicidal and Hell on Earth however they rage at 75% and that leaves a very small room for a mistake on aiming head. The commando can take on the horde even in the darkest places and can effectively pave the way to new safe spots. These advantages make Commando a great "commander" and team leader to clear the kite route ahead if you have a group willing to use voice chat and work together closely.

*Besides being trash cleaner, Commando is a great distractor. Because of the loud constant firing noise that's coming from Commando's full auto fire mode rifles; any incoming specimen will first notice Commando and mostly ignore other players in the room at first. That would be handy when there's a weak and wounded teammate who is escaping away from the specimen. Opening full auto fire to the horde from a corner, will distract them and they will channel their attention to the noise, hopefully when [[Field Medic]] is on his/her way of healing the wounded ally. Firing noise even can confuse a Siren about when to scream, while there's no evident reason why this happens but when a Siren has no direct sightline of the squad, behind a wall or a bigger specimen, she tend to listen to gun fire noise before screaming and coming out to the open.

*As a level 5 or six, up to normal or hard difficulty, a full magazine in the body from a SCAR or FN-FAL will make a Scrake rage, and a full magazine of Bullpup rounds to the upper torso and head can finish them off even in a full server. This will consume most or all of your ammunition in your magazine however, so a lengthy reload process is necessary before repeating, and failure to finish the specimen will certainly hurt or kill you. At Hell on Earth difficulty Commando still can pack a punch by getting 2 battle rifles together, that'll be costly and requires a lot of trigger discipline with a dedicated team. Scrake at 6 player health scale, can be brought near enrage state with around 14 headshots from SCAR then going full auto short controlled bursts on Scrake's head with FN FAL will kill it in a blink. If you fail to aim for the head Scrake most likely chew through your armor and health while you're helplessly reloading. In a 6 player scenery, it's better to carry a basic flinching tool such as [[Machete]] or [[Katana]] for this kind of scenery where you can not control the recoil or maintain the distance.

*An alternative option for Commando is to make use of his improved reload speed with offperk weapons. Commando can take a more powerful weapon like a [[grenade launcher]] type, or a back up pistol with any shotgun to supplement his assault rifle preferably by means of a teammate's discount. Commando may use a [[Crossbow]], [[Trenchgun]], [[HSG-1]], [[M79]] or [[M32]] as a sidearm; these weapons benefit greatly from the Commando's faster reloading. As off-perk options, these weapons pack a substantial punch even without a damage bonus. The faster reload can maintain a formidable [[Weapon damage table|DPS]] for the commando, greatly expanding his available options in the field.
**Taking a [[SCARMK17]] together with a [[Crossbow]] or [[Buzzsaw]] allows the commando to pick off lesser foes with the former and headshot medium ones with the latter. This combination also allow them to observe Scrake's health bars to heavy flinch them with a bolt headshot or saw bodyshot as they about to enrage with the very next shot to put them in a slow rage state just like a level 4-5 sharpshooter capable with [[Lever-action rifle]]. DLC weapon Buzzsaw allow Commando to stun Scrakes via a headshot.
**Getting [[Flare revolver]], [[Pipe bomb]] with [[HSG-1]] with a battle rifle like [[SCARMK17]] ensures that you won't run out of ammo for a long time and can gain a small mobility while taking on the horde at open areas. HSG-1 can be used to set off darted pipebombs from far as much as SCAR, and Flare can be abused to cancel damage threshold rage of Fleshpound as long as they're crisped and lit on fire or cause a slow rage on Scrakes once you cut eyesight. When slow-motion triggered tick rate of shotgun pierce will be quadrupled to increase its efficiency.
**[[Trenchgun]] can be very fitting weapon for dealing with Fleshpounds, crisped Fleshpounds may lose their damage threshold to enrage but it still requires you to tip on your toes and cut eyesight once or twice before them to get crisped state. You must be sure that they're lit on fire again to unload your battle rifle of choice since they can still enrage by keeping eyesight for too long or enrage right away as you open fire when they're not lit on fire anymore.
**[[M79]] can be used to flinch and finish a Scrake from up close or enrage the striding Fleshpound on top of a darted [[Pipebomb]] before you shoot it with your SCAR to set it off if possible. If Commando is daring, they can easily grab [[MAC-10]]to stack grenades way faster at the cost of firepower use it as a secondary weapon to set off limited amount of pipes they can access.
**If the player has a high-ranked [[Demolition]]s Expert, he could buy an [[M4_carbine#M4_203|M4/M203]]. Player would have 2 assault rifles, but would also have a grenade launcher to make it more effective against large mobs or [[Fleshpound]]s at no additional weight then a standard M4 when paired with a [[Pipe bomb]] at high difficulty scales. Against Scrakes, M203 flinch had to be reload canceled with auto-fire by intentionally missing to switch back to your [[FNFAL ACOG]] and finish Scrake quicker. This choice, however, comes with the disadvantages of not having a semi-auto fire mode or scope and lacking damage, max ammo, and  recoil bonuses that come with the regular M4.
**Similar to the M4/M203, another popular choice among Commando players are simply [[M32]]. It gives raw firepower to deal with Fleshpound and allow you to flinch up Scrakes to finish them with your main battle rifle also being a rotary grenade launcher you can cancel its reload any time you want. This also means, the death penalty whenever you die will be very severe to you and the economy of the team. As a comparable downside, reload speed will not cover the lack of damage burst the perk has with very limited grenade stock. This off-perk weapon best be left to a [[Support Specialist]] who has an immense belt of grenades and can utilize it much better.
**Lastly getting a [[Katana]] or [[Machete]] to pair with your double assault rifles, allows you to pull infamous flinch then unload trick on Scrakes. At high player health and high difficulties 10-14 bullets to Scrake's head can be followed by a reload then flinch to unload the entire mag on their head. That is the expected hold spot equipment from a Commando with double assault rifles. An unusual but still effective approach would be losing an assault rifle but grabbing [[Lever-action rifle]] to flinch Scrakes and pick off ranged targets when you need to and pair this with a [[MP5M]] to heal teammates at front lines.

*After the 2012 christmas patch a new unique neutral perk weapon added to the game, [[Zed eradication device]] is a powerful space-themed energy rifle that is perfect for supportive roles. Commando can carry it without sacrificing too much serious firepower. Its stasis field can disable and cause the specimen to incur double damage, once its stabled. It comes with a motion tracker radar that shows and quietly alarms the player about medium and big targets. It allows player to scan a 40 meter area in front of them and even locates [[Patriarch]]. With seeing the cloaked enemies ability that Commando possess, it could be an essential weapon to have for the final wave.
**Similar to the first ZEDv1, a weapon added at the third community DLC pack in 2013, called [[Zed Eradication Device MKII|ZED Mk2.0]]. This model shoots stasis blasts instead of a single link chain and doesn't get blocked by teammates but still can be easily canceled by [[Siren]]s if they were to scream at energy ball's flight time. This model only beeps to warn the bearer against the incoming threats but weights lighter and easier to use without positioning. While it's highly effective against normal non-boss specimen, requires lots of effort to be any useful against Patriarch. Down side is, Commando lacking any proper damage over time effect to amplify the damage per second with this weapon's rather limited effects compared to original ZEDv1. So it's better be an option when you have [[Demolition]], [[Firebug]] or at least a good [[Field Medic]] to burst down any enveloped big target tangled in stasis field.

*If player does not spawn with an assault rifle as a Commando, they can search for a [[bullpup]], or any other weapon at weapon spawn points throughout the map. If player cannot find a bullpup, he or she can at least sell any found weapons to go toward buying an assault rifle.

*On the final wave, the commando can see the [[Patriarch]] when cloaked and gauge his current health. He should communicate with his team when the Patriarch cloaks to hunt him down and prevent him from healing.


===Perk Ladder===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan="2" style=width:6em| Rank
!colspan="2"| Requirements
!colspan="4"| Assault rifles
!rowspan="2"| Reload speed
!rowspan="2"| Spawn<br />equipment
!colspan="2"| Detection
!rowspan="2"| Zed-time<br />Extensions
|-
! Damage*
! Stalkers*
! Damage
! Recoil
! Capacity
! Discount
! Cloak
! Health
|-
| &mdash;
|style=background:#eee| &mdash;
|style=background:#eee| &mdash;
| +5%
| &minus;5%
| &mdash;
| 10%
| +5%
|rowspan=5| &mdash;
| 4&nbsp;m
| &mdash;
|rowspan=3| &mdash;
|-
|1
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|25|000}}
|style=background:#eee| 30
| +10%
| &minus;10%
| +10%
| 20%
| +10%
| 8&nbsp;m
| 4&nbsp;m
|-
|2
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|100|000}}
|style=background:#eee| 100
| +20%
| &minus;15%
| +20%
| 30%
| +15%
| 10&nbsp;m
| 7&nbsp;m
|-
|3
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|500|000}}
|style=background:#eee| 350
| +30%
| &minus;20%
|rowspan=4| +25%
| 40%
| +20%
| 12&nbsp;m
| 10&nbsp;m
| 1
|-
|4
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|1|500|000}}
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|1|200}}
| +40%
|rowspan=2| &minus;30%
| 50%
| +25%
| 14&nbsp;m
| 13&nbsp;m
| 2
|-
|5
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|3|500|000}}
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|2|400}}
|rowspan=2| +50%
| 60%
| +30%
| [[Bullpup]]
|rowspan=2| 16&nbsp;m
|rowspan=2| 16&nbsp;m
| 3
|-
|6
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|5|500|000}}
|style=background:#eee| {{gaps|3|600}}
| &minus;40%
| 70%
| +35%
| [[AK-47]]
| 4
|- style="background:#eee;font-size:smaller"
|colspan=12| *With perk weapons.
|}
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[[Category:Commando|Commando]]