Titanfall is the Xbox One’s first big hit, and that’s because it’s not like other shooters. Several unique spins on the genre like building-scaling parkour and building-crushing giant robots give it a different flow and demand that you learn some new skills to excel.

If you’re looking to be just as heroic in Titanfall as you might have been in other shooters, you’ll have to learn a few new tricks. Here are some of the top techniques for improving your game and helping your team drive the enemy pilots and Titans into retreat.

1. Don't always summon your Titan

"Titan" is right in the name, so given the choice, piloting your giant, robotic Titan is always the way to go, right? Wrong. Titans have weaknesses. They don’t have access to as many map objectives, they're less mobile than a skilled pilot, they have difficulty escaping hairy situations, and it’s easy to accidentally deploy them in vulnerable spots.

Sometimes you're better off staying out of the big honking machine. Only summon your Titan if you’re certain that it’s going to give you the edge in that particular moment, and only do it when it won’t end up surrounded right off the bat. Remember you can spawn into your Titan after you die, too. You don't have to do a risky field deployment.

Image: EA/Respawn

2. Stick to the AI until you're confident

Titanfall is newbie-friendly in a lot of cool ways. It’s easy to play Call of Duty: Ghosts or Battlefield 4 and feel like you're just dying over and over without accomplishing anything. Thankfully, Titanfall mixes it up with AI cannon fodder that are easy pickings for newbies. Practice your skills on the mindless minions and avoid enemy players if you feel you’re outclassed. Each minion killed still contributes to your team’s objective in Attrition mode.

3. Use the Smart Pistol if you're new to shooters

Likewise, Titanfall has a weapon that helps players who haven't put a hundred hours into practicing lightning-quick, razor-sharp aiming. The smart pistol takes a few seconds to lock on, but it'll hit any target in your field of view automatically. Use it to brush up on pure tactics and mobility while your accuracy is still in development.

Image: EA/Respanwn

4. Wallrun to keep your speed up

It’s faster to run on walls and leap through the air in Titanfall than it is to run on the ground. Trust us: it's science. It takes some practice to keep your momentum leaping from one building to the next — it's almost a game in itself. It's worth it, though. Once you master the parkour techniques and learn the best routes, you’ll be able to cross most maps in just a few seconds. That's a huge advantage over the poor saps slugging their way through the mud below.

5. Play the Titan defensively

Titans are powerful machines; they can tear through AI minions and pilots on foot like a chainsaw through paper. Other Titans? Less so.

These towering hunks of metal need to be aware of cover and the angles that expose them to danger just as much as infantry do. In fact, because Titans don't have the speedy parkour escape techniques pilots have, it's even more important to stay aware.

Don’t move out ahead of the pack if you’re fighting with fellow Titans. You simply can’t win if you’re outnumbered. Hang back and position yourself so that you can always dash out of view of your enemies if the tide turns against you.

Image: EA/Respawn

6. As a pilot, only attack a Titan if it's busy

If you're on foot and a Titan can see you for more than two or three seconds, you will die. You’re severely outgunned. So don't let that happen.

Take it a step further and don't attack a Titan unless it's too busy to retaliate. Remember that when you shoot an enemy, he or she gets a direction indicator on his or her screen that shows where the fire is coming from. Most players will turn that way and fight back.

Approach it like you’re a pickpocket: Make your move when the target is so overwhelmed by other goings on that he or she won't even have the mental bandwidth to register what you're doing.

7. Make sure you can see more places than can see you

We've saved this one for last because it's classic good sense for shooters. It's just as true in Titanfall as it's ever been. Much of what separates the pros from the newbies is spatial awareness. At any given moment, think about how much of the battlefield you can see and shoot, and contrast that with what portion of the battlefield can see and shoot you. If the latter is a bigger set than the former, change positions because the odds are not in your favor. This alone will improve a new player's game significantly.

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