Matchups I’m not doing the exhaustive list here, but these are just a few tips for fighting some opponents
Focus spammers Standard ambushing works best here. Twin and triplet are probably the weakest of the standard focus spammers against you, lacking recoil to dodge and having fairly dodgable bullets. Machine gun and especially sprayer is more formidable, with recoil to help dodge your bullets, a more powerful stream that covers a wider area, and an unpredictable bullet pattern that makes dodging a lot more difficult. Keep your distance if you have to – they can’t chase that well while firing at you, so if they recoil towards you, you can use this to launch a surprise attack. Sprayers can also block even 7/7 bullets just by pointing at them, so your surprise has to be good enough that they don’t have time to shoot at the bullet (especially with weaker bullets). However if a sprayer traps itself/you trap it, it will often have to point in a certain direction to recoil out of a bad situation, so that gives you a potential easy shot. Autogunners are just as bad. They’re easier to hit but they can spray their bullets everywhere; it’s about impossible to take no damage (which is really bad if you don’t have regen and are trying to get a clear 30 secs to regenerate). They also have an auto cannon that will track you, and if they’re smart enough to use it then you could be in for a hard time. Also without recoil they can chase you easily. However, they really struggle to block your bullets and you should still outrun a 7ms AG without too much difficulty with any good build. When targeted by the auto cannon I find it best to back off enough to get it to forget you if possible, so you can come in for a surprise without being tracked and shot at.
Octo tank and triple twin Triple twin is easier than all of the above. Triangulate its location and it’s direction of movement by watching streams from multiple cannons before you get close enough to see it, so you can come in for the perfect surprise attack (remember you want to go to where it WILL be, not where it is now). Octo is exactly the same, but a bit more challenging. A higher bullet speed octo is actually often easier for me to kill often because bigger gaps between bullets let you get closer without having to shoot, and the greater speed offers more up-to-date information on where the bullet was shot from (and hence where the octo is). 5/7/7/7/7 glass builds or similar can be a problem though, especially if the octo is good enough to move erratically so it’s hard to home in on its position. Don’t worry if you can’t get close and DON’T let yourself take loads of damage trying to sneak up on an octo, that’s a stupid way to die. If they chase you directly octos can’t hide their movement as easily, giving you a much easier ambush opportunity, so it’s usually better if the octo gets aggressive on you somehow. Be extra careful of side walls and other enemies here though, that’s how octos kill (squashing you into something). Hurricanes are more annoyingly hard to kill than glass but pose much less threat as well. I tend to ignore them unless I can catch them with an ambush as they head up or down.
Octo tank and triple twin Triple twin is easier than all of the above. Triangulate its location and it’s direction of movement by watching streams from multiple cannons before you get close enough to see it, so you can come in for the perfect surprise attack (remember you want to go to where it WILL be, not where it is now). Octo is exactly the same, but a bit more challenging. A higher bullet speed octo is actually often easier for me to kill often because bigger gaps between bullets let you get closer without having to shoot, and the greater speed offers more up-to-date information on where the bullet was shot from (and hence where the octo is). 5/7/7/7/7 glass builds or similar can be a problem though, especially if the octo is good enough to move erratically so it’s hard to home in on its position. Don’t worry if you can’t get close and DON’T let yourself take loads of damage trying to sneak up on an octo, that’s a stupid way to die. If they chase you directly octos can’t hide their movement as easily, giving you a much easier ambush opportunity, so it’s usually better if the octo gets aggressive on you somehow. Be extra careful of side walls and other enemies here though, that’s how octos kill (squashing you into something). Hurricanes are more annoyingly hard to kill than glass but pose much less threat as well. I tend to ignore them unless I can catch them with an ambush as they head up or down.
Note on side walls If something is able to chase you to a side wall they are always able to kill you. While you’re running you can both shoot at and back away from the opponent at the same time – two ways to keep yourself safe. But when you reach the side wall, you can only either shoot at the opponent and be unable to move, or try and escape fast down the wall which means using recoil and so leaving you entirely vulnerable. So obviously NEVER let yourself retreat into a wall – if you can’t kill something as they push you to the wall then you’ll definitely not be able to kill them when trapped against the wall, but for some reason I watch as hybrids run to the wall and die over and over in games. Instead when running I always try and run to where there’s lots of safety and space, even if it means not getting away from the opponent as fast, because running fast into a bad situation is going to make you look like a bit of an idiot when the thing chasing you finds you there. Anyway, back to bullet triangles…
Bullet tri-angles cont. So the reason I mention all this is that bullet tri-angles are the ultimate chasers. Giving ground to them continuously is almost always a bad idea because most can’t be outrun, and they can manoeuvre much much easier when chasing you than when you force them to attack a mostly still target. Slow examples that are out runnable are really easy to kill because if they can’t keep up with you then they tend to have very low movement speed and struggle to dodge your bullets, meaning a normal surprise attack or just straight up walking up and shooting them are viable. Faster bullet tri-angles are much more of a problem. Winning in a straight 1v1 is still entirely possible on most, but only if you can get close enough. I tend to try and move back as little as I possibly can while remaining safe and push into every shot. The intention is to force the bullet tri-angle to turn back at least briefly if you can’t hit it. Unlike other tanks they can’t shoot directly at you and back off at the same time easily, so to retreat they must turn the front cannon away from you and give you respite. Never give the chance to enter the chase that bullet tri-angles excel at. In the seconds the opponent turns away, it gives a chance to change position, and maybe get far away enough to try for another surprise attack when the bullet tri-angle comes back. You want to get them in and out of your FOV as much as possible to maximise your chance of killing with an ambush while not doing this by running yourself into a side wall; it’s a tricky balance. Higher bullet speed examples are much more dangerous for obvious reasons, but even a low bs tri-angle can sometimes weave their bullets dangerously around you, so make sure you keep yourself in a safe position and clear bullets whenever you can (Ambush is still always better than 1v1).
Auto 5 About the nastiest tank you can face that has the same FOV as you. Hard to get close to with all around auto targeting, and small fast bullets that are hard to block and dodge. Luckily the fast glass builds that can chase you down are extremely rare (auto 5 is a great tank but almost no good players seem to use it). Run if you have to, sometimes these are just unkillable. You can once again locate them from outside your FOV by tri-angulating their position based on the bullets being fired at different angles, and I’ve occasionally got offscreen kills by shooting at where I expect the auto 5 to be from below them without them knowing you’re there, but you still have to be pretty lucky to have a chance of this working.
Gunner trapper Quite similar to auto 5 with lots of small fast powerful bullets, and can see you coming due to a greater FOV (though at least it can’t auto track you outside it’s FOV like A5). Another very dangerous opponent if played well, but once again it almost never is. This time however you’re fairly unlikely to be chased all across the map, as to chase you at high speeds GT needs to abandon its trap defences, making it a lot more vulnerable. Never walk into a GT trap nest, you will turn yourself into free food.
Auto-trapper Like a more defensive gunner trapper. Rarely killable unless they chase you recklessly, but just run away and you shouldn’t be in much danger.
Streamliner Even more FOV, nasty as A5/GT. But once again almost every streamliner is an idiot and I tend to be able to somehow surprise almost every one I come across. This one can chase you very well if it’s smart, but a fast glass build is pretty delicate, so use that to your advantage if possible.
Predator Really lethal if it spots you. If you get targeted, it’s a survival game until the predator gets distracted (don’t try anything offensive). On the other hand, when scoping they’re very vulnerable to surprise from other directions so it’s perfectly possible to notice them shooting at something (pred bullets are very distinctive), then sneaking around and ambushing them while they’re scoping. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work, and never stay too close for too long though. Once again, there are genuinely predators bad enough to just walk up to and kill sometimes which is always fun, but don’t expect that sort of thing.
Assassin branch The “true” counters of the destroyers. Ranger in particular is a godlike enemy, absolutely unsurprisable, and able to track you down from across the map. They also shoot bullets surprisingly faster than predators, which makes their attack a lot more lethal (even though predator has more raw power), because you can easily block any amount of sniper power with a hybrid bullet, providing you have the chance to see it coming and shoot. So fear the ranger. Luckily most rangers/stalkers don’t last long in FFA, and in teams a base is always available, so as long as you can survive for a bit you should live through it.
Factory Idk really, run away and hope you catch it without drone cover is the best I can really do. Be really careful of being squashed into a wall.
Necromancer Depends how good it is. Don’t get too close unless you can destroy all the drones. Again necro will squash you quite easily into a wall if it gets the chance and have drones, so if the necro is good be very careful, a repel wave can push you easily into a bad position.
Battleship Hybrid’s other technical top-level counter. However unlike snipers you often have a better idea of where they are, so run and shoot ftw. Somehow, I end up ambush killing loads of battleships actually, if they don’t have much movement speed and don’t know how to use battleship. Luckily again nobody really knows how to use battleship to its full hybrid destroying potential so generally you can just survive until something else kills it.
Overlord Fk this tank.
Low level overseer This is the actual most dangerous thing for a hybrid as far as I can tell. It shouldn’t be, but most people don’t know how to use BS, A5 or snipers, and LOTS of people know how to use overlord because ‘omg I’m so pro look I just kill everything with overlord it’s easy’. Anyway, once you kill the overlord, you get back something much smaller and faster but just as deadly. All you can hope is that your resident salty overlord is so salty that they kill themselves trying to kill you, or can’t accept that a non-drone class might possess skills and hence underestimate you multiple times.
Low level sniper For those too salty to have the patience to get to overseer. Technically more of a threat due to being smaller, faster and more impossible to hit. However unlike overseer they can’t block your surprises with drones, so I like to run fast and then unexpectedly dash back, catching them as they recoil to chase me up or down (risky though). As long as you don’t die the environment will either kill them or turn them into overseers, neither of which really fixes the problem but oh well.
Other destroyers Destroyer 1v1s are scary. I prefer to try running and ambushing whenever I can but it’s less reliable than with other tanks. If the opponent has just shot then ambushing is easy (but you have no way of knowing this usually), otherwise they can shoot right back, blocking your bullet, or actually ambushing you back if you misjudge position. I like to attack while letting myself fall back and trying to bait the opponent into recoiling after me (works best if you have more movement speed). If the opponent matches you in everything then I try 1v1 (or alternatively go straight to 1v1 if they look really bad).
In a destroyer 1v1 never ever swerve recoil. Make sure you always fall directly behind your bullet, minimising being exposed. The goal is to push the opponent into a wall where they’re unable to fall back to defend themselves and are therefore easy to kill. Keep pushing forward whenever you can, but don’t go overaggressive. Try to steadily and systematically advance, blocking or dodging each incoming attack while maintaining a safe distance. Destroyers are always scared of each other, so you want to make your opponent keep moving back to feel safe, until they cannot move back anymore. Unfortunately, that means you need to be willing to play closer to your opponent than they are to you, as well as to actually do that without dying. If the opponent is skilled enough to resist this (I’ve only ever seen a couple of examples of this), try to bring the 1v1 around the map to give you the greatest advantage. In a battle of persistence, the winner will be the one who survives both the enemy destroyer and the rest of the environment the best.(edited)
That last sentence actually sums up hybrid play pretty well… to be the winner you can’t necessarily kill the environment like some other tanks cough overlord cough, but you will succeed by simply staying alive, and taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. And nobody is perfect… I regularly fail in stupid ways to things I know were coming. Everyone does sometimes. Hope that was informative without too much rambling, thanks for reading