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Dirty Bomb open beta thread

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Latest update: The Guardian Update

Overview

Dirty Bomb is a F2P class-based team-based (multi-stage) objective oriented competitive shooter developed and published by Splash Damage.

Store page
(Steam only)
Main site
Twitter
Wiki

Platform: Windows
Play types/formats: Quick play/casual MM and server browser up to 8v8 for all game modes. Competitive/ranked MM (5v5 - Stopwatch only. Right now you need to be at level 5 to be eligible for it).
Game modes: 3
Maps: 8 (Objective, Stopwatch) + 2 (Execution)


There's a free merc rotation
Permanently free mercs: Aura and Skyhammer

Tips:

  • Overview by Splash Damage: http://dirtybomb.nexon.net/news/2396/dirty-bomb-open-beta
  • Play your merc! This isn't FFA or TDM, this is team-based and objective driven. If you want to be good, if you want your teammates to have a good time, then play your merc. If you're a medic, then heal and revive people, if you're fire support provide them with ammo, if you're engineer do objectives. Always think how you can help your team. If you're a support type, don't worry about KDR.
  • The modes are based on primary objectives, but completing secondary objectives is useful. It can make your life as a defender or attacker easier. It's covered in the blog post. They're generators which can be repaired or destroyed. The other is zone control.
  • For the repaired EV to move forward people need to be close to it, hug it.
  • Aiming and TTK:
    • TTK is higher than a lot of modern shooters, though not as high as older ones. So always try and aim for the head. That way you can take a merc down with around 3-4 shots depending on the merc. Shooting the body or other parts will take them longer to die. In the audio settings you can turn on hit detection and it will give you a "ding" sound when you hit someone in the head.
    • Tips on how to aim by Pansy (caster)
    • Don't rely much on ADS. Hipfire is not only totally viable, it is very encouraged to use it in close and medium quarters. From a distance, if you're in a good spot and have a weapon suited for it, use it if you must or if you want to finish a kill. But do not rely on it. It narrows your view and slows your movement. This is a fast game with agile players, lots of group encounters and medium TTK. ADS will only handicap you.
  • Movement:
    • Be always on the move. Even when you're fighting. This comes from the above point.
    • You run faster with a melee weapon equipped.
    • There is crouch jumping, wall jumping, long jumping, which all can lead to trick jumping. Here's a basic guide about movement. And here are some map specific advanced moves (due to map updates, this won't be up-to-date, but you get the idea).
  • Finish your kills/gib mercs who are down: when you or a teammate get the kill on someone, they go down and lie in agony, waving and such. During that state they can be revived by a medic or other mercs. So, finish them either by shooting them or with a melee attack, but watch out for Nader's special ability.
  • You might want to pay attention to the spawn timer. There are two timers in the upper corner. One is the match, the other is the spawn timer, which shows when you and your teammates can spawn again after being killed. This can be used for strategic purposes or to be a guidline to not be reckless and get annoyed (if you always have to wait 20s to get back, that won't be fun).
  • You can charge your medic's defibrillator. If you revive a merc with a fully charged defib, they revive with full health.
  • When you're defusing a C4 or repairing an EV the progress stacks. So, if you have to stop and engage in combat and then you or a teammate return to the objective you don't have to start from the beginning, it will continue where you left off. Or, if you start defusing as a non-engineer, and it looks like you won't make it, and an engineer joins in, they will pick up where you were, which can help in making it in time.
  • Video: 7 New-Player Dirty Bomb Tips & Tricks!
  • Article: 13 things you need to know about Dirty Bomb
  • If you're wondering which mercs are good for starting, the two permanently free mercs and whoever are on rotation are usually good for pub/casual play. Try them out and see what fits your style. For competitive teams right now Fragger, Vassili and Sawbonez are the core with Skyhammer, Bushwhacker and Nader getting some picks. If you don't want to grind for/pay for certain mercs individually then you can take a look at the Ultimate Starter Pack.
  • Kudochop's stream. He's a member of Team ZFZ, who are competing in Dirty Cups. He usually streams Monday-Friday 10am-4pm PDT. He's doing giveaways and answers questions, gives tips.
  • Starter settings guide by a competitive player

The mercs


Even though this is a class-based game Splash Damage doesn't like to call it that. The reason is every class has multiple mercs in it that provide for a different type of play, making this more hero based, similar to MOBAs, which Splash Damage aren't afraid to admit. There are two permanently free mercs (Skyhammer and Aura), others are locked while 3 others are on free rotation. You can permanently get mercs with either in-game credits (more on this later) or cash. The mercs that were in from the start of the closed beta cost 30000 credits or 5$. The ones that came and are coming later are 50000 credits or 10$. You can assign 3 mercs to your squad and you can switch between them during matches. You can change your squad in the menu or lobby. The current merc pool is:

Role-call videos (only the newly added mercs since the Steam closed beta launch have them)

Game modes

Objective:
dViJLSS.png


One team defends, the other attacks. Countdown starts from 6 minutes. The attacking team has to go through primary objectives in order to complete the map. If they complete a primary objective, the clock resets. Completing secondary objectives doesn't give additional time.

Stopwatch:
14K5K8e.png


Two rounds. Teams taking turns in defending and attacking. The team completing the map fastest wins. Or if neither complete the map, then who did the most objectives wins. The first round countdown starts from 15 mins. The second round's timer will depend on the first. So, if the first team completes the map in 7 minutes, the second round countdown will be that. Or if the first team can't complete the map, the second team will have 15 minutes to complete the first objective..

Loadout cards

Every merc can have additional loadouts. You can get them by opening cases, which like GO gives random results. Cases can drop after match or you can buy them. There are two type of cases, the generic and elite. The former costs 1000 in-game credits only and contains every type. The elite costs cash starting from $5 (there are bundles) and only contains Silver, Gold and Cobalt. The new update also introduced Bronze loadouts purchase. For either in-game credits or cash you can buy single cards or bundles.

Loadouts can give mercs different weapons and augments. Currently the loadouts range from Lead to Cobalt. Lead gives you 1 augment, Iron gives you 2 and from Bronze it's 3. The difference between Bronze, Silver, Gold and Cobalt is purely cosmetic. You can trade up cards for a specific merc you choose with certain amount of lesser tier cards and in-game credits. 3 Lead + 500c give you 1 Iron, or 3 Irons + 1000c give you 1 Bronze, 4 Bronze + 2000c give you 1 Silver, 4 Silver + 4000c give you 1 Gold and 6 Gold + 10000c give you 1 Cobalt. You might also see people with Obsidian cards. There are two sets of those. One for the people who were there since the alpha and for those who played during the Steam stress test weekends.


or
a more detailed "tree" for this merc (lacks the Cobalts)

Credits

How to earn them?:

  • Perform well in matches and rank up.
  • Daily bonuses: first win of the day or completing first match in xyz mode will give you 500 credits each.
  • Missions: You have 3 missions wich reset every 3 hour. The amount of credit you get is based on their difficulty. 1 star = 500, 2 stars = 750, 3 stars = 1000 credits. The difficulty is based on how long they take to complete. But every one of them is designed to be completed within those 3 hours. You can also abandon missions which you don't like and you'll get assigned a new one within those 3 hours.
  • Boosters: with cash you can buy 3 type of boosters which are going to double the credits you can earn within a certain timeframe. These are 6 hours for 3$, 9 hours for $6 and 12 hours for $8. What's important they'll only count time spent in matches. So, a booster can last you weeks, if you don't play much per day.
  • Purchasing the Ultimate Starter Pack will grant you 50000 credits in addition to the 5 mercs and 2 elite cases.

I hope I got everything important, but you should find everything in the links.
 

Karak

Member
For some odd reason they placed reviews or coverage of the Open Beta(until tomorrow) under embargo though you see them everywhere. So I can't discuss some stuff officially.

But overall there are some interesting bits to DB for sure.
 
Yeah, that interesting. People are streaming it everywhere, there's no NDA in the beta. I guess they just wanted to direct the press stuff for the open beta launch, so people can take a look at them fresh and be interested to check the game out,...or not.
 

jem0208

Member
Finally, I was in the closed beta (maybe alpha?) when the game was attached to the Nexon launcher but when they switched over to steam I never got a code.

Was really fun when I played it.
 

Karak

Member
Yeah, that interesting. People are streaming it everywhere, there's no NDA in the beta. I guess they just wanted to direct the press stuff for the open beta launch, so people can take a look at them fresh and be interested to check the game out,...or not.

Agreed and that is pretty much my assumption.

I just have to say that the way games are now delivered to fans has been irreversibly changed by early access, and especially by F2P and man. Its a unique ride.

Trying to review a game based on not only what it offers as a normal game but what it may offer, how that could change via price or offer fluctuations, possible future support, and about 1/2 dozen other things that in the past was just a 60$ package + a possible expansion is growing cumbersome.
 
Yeah, I mean look at something like CS:GO. It's still pay to play, but it's totally different now compared to when it launched. If people now look at the reviews they won't get the full picture. Sites are trying to adapt to this, but I don't know if they'll be able to keep up or manage to transition. Was it Kotaku or Polygon who designated certain journos to certain games so they keep covering the updates? How is that going? Streamers, YTers, social media are probably better now to convey this stuff than the old model. Look at the IGN guys making their own twitch channel.

With DB, the Bronze purchase, the boosters, daily bonuses, 3 hourly missions only came last week. Will the press even cover those? What will be the situation 1 month from now?

Finally, I was in the closed beta (maybe alpha?) when the game was attached to the Nexon launcher but when they switched over to steam I never got a code.

Was really fun when I played it.

Are you sure? Did you check the spam folder? Maybe could have contacted Nexon support.
 

LtOrange

Member
I really got into this over the past week and man is this a fun game. It really feels like a return to form for Splash Damage and I can't wait to see how Dirty Bomb evolves.
 

Valkrai

Member
I'm really liking this game now, feels much better than before closed beta. Although I'm still waiting for Phoenix to be playable again, they really like to tease him :(
 

GavinUK86

Member
I was in the alpha many moons ago and it was a bit rubbish, played the beta for a bit, still thought it was a bit rubbish. Have to see what it's like when it releases proper.
 
I'm really liking this game now, feels much better than before closed beta. Although I'm still waiting for Phoenix to be playable again, they really like to tease him :(

Totally expecting a medic and a recon for the next update. So, there's a chance for Phoenix.
 

Valkrai

Member
Totally expecting a medic and a recon for the next update. So, there's a chance for Phoenix.

That and the last tweet showing the 2 new characters added last updated also had Phoenix in it makes me think he may be coming with Open Beta or next update. I'm hoping so, Phoenix is my favorite merc despite his weak weapon when he was available.
 

Karak

Member
Yeah, I mean look at something like CS:GO. It's still pay to play, but it's totally different now compared to when it launched. If people now look at the reviews they won't get the full picture. Sites are trying to adapt to this, but I don't know if they'll be able to keep up or manage to transition.

.
Ya not sure. Its a changed game environment for sure.
 

Miker

Member
I've enjoyed my time in the closed beta so far. It's got a good sense of speed to it that recent shooters have been missing. I'm still worried that it won't reach the critical mass playerbase needed to keep it going, but we'll see how open beta develops.
 

Karak

Member
My review of what you get and how it performs.

Long story short. It has amazing gameplay, unique characters, and runs really well but is infected by Free 2 Play purchase loops and brain dead costs for some items.

That being said the game is incredibly fun.
 
If anyone is wondering whether the game is p2w or not, it definitely isn't. Loadout cards do not give stronger weapons and only give you some small perks. Beyond bronze cards, the only thing you get are skins/cosmetic changes. And bronze cards are easy to trade up for, or to purchase for free through the store.

The characters themselves can all be bought for free as well. There is also a free rotation similar to MOBAs.
 

Kade

Member
I haven't played in a while and decided to check it out again and I forgot how fun Proxy is. Got 4500 points on attacking side on Terminal running around the map like it's Quake and planting mines. It's kind of broken and I thought they'd fix it but you can place mines on the bombsite making it impossible to defuse or plant and most people don't even bother checking for mines but that's not my fault.
 
I'll give it a shot since it's in Open Beta now.

Does it use the Nexon launcher and I can use my current Nexon account?
 
Saw the open beta trailer. Will definitely be checking out the game. Uncertain if it'll run on my laptop though, might have to wait till I get my desktop fixed. How does it run?
 
Saw the open beta trailer. Will definitely be checking out the game. Uncertain if it'll run on my laptop though, might have to wait till I get my desktop fixed. How does it run?

Depends on your HW. I have a i3-2330m GTX 525m notebook and without low config got fluctuating fps between 20-40. With low configs I managed to increase the baseline and the max. So, it's mostly like 30-60+ now with the occasional short drop into lower fps.
 
Got too level five and it's fun.

- These opinions come from quick join objective matches:

1) If you're on a defending team, and the team is even a little competent you will win

2) Bit of a grind to get levels

3) I don't like getting load out cards for mercs I can't use from those cases.
 

derFeef

Member
The fire support classes are a bit too samey, not to mention that only Skyhammer has indoor options. Love Arty though, Stark AR for life.
 
I just played for about an hour and I quite enjoyed it. Looks pretty nice, runs well on my aging Phenom II, and controls nicely (once I jacked up mouse sensitivity).
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
I got my closed beta key last week (lol) and only played a few hours. It was pretty fun, but a little too fast in terms of round time, and uninteresting objectives.

I loved Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. That game was a lot more interesting in terms of variety. I did feel it got "broken" somewhat when people settled on strategies, from what I've seen of Dirty Bomb, the simpler structure should combat that possibility.

I don't exactly get the unlock system, but at least the progression is connected to character skills rather than stats, making it so newbs and vets are on a level playing field.
 
So how has the open beta launch been so far? I haven't had the chance to get on and play quite yet.

The fire support classes are a bit too samey, not to mention that only Skyhammer has indoor options. Love Arty though, Stark AR for life.

Personally my favorite support/fops merc is Stoker, who has a molotov cocktail and ammo dispenser (like kira).
 
The open beta has been fine. It was a little weird for an hour two earlier where it was going kinda slow and putting me in damn near empty games.

It's fine now though.
 

LtOrange

Member
Struggling to win games when I am not on the defending team. People seem to be having a really hard time focusing on the objective.
 

derFeef

Member
Attacking is way harder. It's almost always an uphill battle, except if the enemy team is really incompetent.
 
I remember when it migrated to Steam and during the stress test weekends it was definitely "biased" towards defending, but when the proper closed beta started I had a long period where the attacking teams kept winning most of the matches. Sometimes pretty easily. Depends on the teams, though I agree attacking is harder by nature I guess. I usually perform better on defense.
 

jem0208

Member
Finally got round to downloading and playing this again and damn, I can't remember it being this addicting in the beta. This game is so damn fun.


Couple of issues I've noticed though is that like a few people have said, defending seems a bit too easy. Also I'm getting pretty bizarre lag in the menus. It runs fine in game but in the server browser it feels like the framerate is tanking to sub 20 levels. Really weird.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Finally got round to downloading and playing this again and damn, I can't remember it being this addicting in the beta. This game is so damn fun.


Couple of issues I've noticed though is that like a few people have said, defending seems a bit too easy. Also I'm getting pretty bizarre lag in the menus. It runs fine in game but in the server browser it feels like the framerate is tanking to sub 20 levels. Really weird.

I've had the same bug for a while.

The game is running at >100 FPS on a gsync monitor, yet it feels like it is running <10 FPS.

2500K
970
Win 10
 

mkenyon

Banned
Struggling to win games when I am not on the defending team. People seem to be having a really hard time focusing on the objective.
The game becomes horribly unbalanced towards defense once you move out of 5v5. It's okay at 6v6. But at 7v7/8v8, there should be no hope of balance.

It's balanced around 5v5 Matchmaking.
 

Khronico

Member
I've had the same bug for a while.

The game is running at >100 FPS on a gsync monitor, yet it feels like it is running <10 FPS.

2500K
970
Win 10

Yeah same here, menus are a slideshow yet in matches I get locked 60 with maxed out settings.

---

Overall so far I'm really enjoying the game (Really like playing as Proxy). It's really fast paced and the movement feels really good (especially with lighter characters).

Only problem so far is for some reason a lot of rando medics do not know that you charge the defibs to give more health on revive =/
 

Miker

Member
Only problem so far is for some reason a lot of rando medics do not know that you charge the defibs to give more health on revive =/

I didn't know this and I've played for a while now (~5 hours). Is this information in the menus somewhere?
 

jediyoshi

Member
Only problem so far is for some reason a lot of rando medics do not know that you charge the defibs to give more health on revive =/

I deliberately usually don't. Makes sense in something slower like BF, but the trade off of making it to the next person in time or not being caught off guard is better.
 
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