THE FINALS: Class Guides for Ranked Mode

Yeah, the game bars you from launching ranked straightaway.

That is a good thing, because there are a lot of mechanics to learn about the game – and you can hone your aim, find your main, acquire these crucial tools as you get your practice on, prior to ranked.

Know that;

Lights – Natural flankers of the game with 150 health.
Mediums – Multi-faceted supports of the game with 250 health.
Heavies – Explosive and defensive anchors of the game with 325 health.

In addition, some weapons and gadgets are more valuable than others, due to their balancing, handling, time-to-kill, or even their use-cases. I hesitate to argue which weapons are necessarily better, but I will only be recommending the ones that I see high value in mastering.

For example, SR-84, a light sniper, is notoriously weak at dispatching other classes;

it one-shots lights in the head, but you need a head and a follow-up body shot to dispatch a medium. Bolt takes a bit of time in between the shots, so that delay makes the weapon feel like a turn-based weapon against other automatics that CAN dispatch YOU in the same time frame.

Not everything is about time-to-kill, you can make anything work in this game. I genuinely believe that. Some happen to be easier to get kills with, and therefore will be the tools I will recommend for the job at hand, of winning games in ranked mode.

But for the purpose of this guide, for the easement of climbing ranked, I will be recommending high impact choices. Low impact choices can be argued to death, I see their potential in a different way, but… yeah. That’s my thought on the matter.

As a light, there are a lot of things that can one shot you. Too many things, some would argue; but know that you are the fastest, and therefore the most mobile class in the game.

With 150 health, you really should not be opening up new fights, or chase for kills; because in ranked, more often than not, playing around cash outs and vaults win the game. That said, for you lights, your objectives are your teammates; if they are engaged in a firefight, it should be your natural instinct to assist in that firefight from a different angle, such that your enemies start panicking.

With that having been noted – as to how you should approach playing lights, though I could not bear to run ranked this time around (I did so for open beta 2 for a while) – here are some items that are highly valued that you might want to carry into ranked, as well as some weapon recommendations (that stem from TTK data as well as my own observations in ranked mode).

 Glitch Grenades.

They will disable people’s entire kits – no abilities & gadgets. No other class has access to glitch nades, though there are glitch mines that medium can bring.

 Evasive Dash.

You can dash around your enemies to throw off their aim, flank faster, or even get to the objective sooner; relatively short range, but 3 charges.

 Stun Gun.

Despite its nerf (in which, in previous beta branches of the game, it used to desensitize people’s aim; imagine having your DPI suddenly lowered by a big magnitude. It was the tool to assure 1 v 1 fights into your favour) – mobility lock and glitch effect are highly valued, as now you can force a target to engage you in only-hipfire duel (for them). If they are isolated, even better, but note that they can still win the duel in many cases with fairly accurate hipfire against your 150 health. You can choose to flank around the target from where you shot the stun gun from, so they are thrown off even harder.

 SH1900, the double barrel shotgun.

This thing can kill heavies before you have to reload; so when lights say they can’t deal with heavies, the question they should be asking is if they brought the right tool for the job & if you engaged them in an intelligent fashion. You can, with this weapon, though you have to be up close and personal.

 XP-54.

Often referred as MP5 by so many others due to its iconic appearance, this weapon ought to be light’s go-to at-range weapon. Its clean sights and beaming (melting) capability will allow you to be more effective team-shotter (meaning, you are target prioritizing with your teammates, hence team-shotting).

 Vanishing Bomb.

This gadget allows for few seconds of invisibility without needing to take Cloaking Device as your ability. This can be used alone, but it can also give invisibility to your teammates – quite the sneaky tool that opens up interesting stealth plays.

As a medium, slight uptick in health means you are little bit more durable to abuse than the light friends you may have. Your tools are often vital in getting the team to the objective – or reviving your teammates and keeping them alive, so they can win the fights. Your weapons are still very lethal, mind you; you still have a gun, so you should not forget to use them.

 Healing Beam.

Your lights will come back to you for this, and your heavies will hold you dear for it. However, it does have a finite charge – so know that you can run out, and you should probably inform the team at that point if they are already in a firefight; that your heal, as a resource, will not be available for few seconds.

 Recon Senses.

This is a map hack that is available in-game so that you can see all of the enemy teams within a certain distance (the strength of the enemy lights diminishes as the distance increases). If you do not see a value in a map hack, consider: this gives you the precognition to be able to disengage preemptively out of what would have been an assured third-partying mess, where you are the meat in the sandwich. That in itself is value enough, but now you can even know which direction the enemies are coming from; you can direct your team to focus fire down a target.

Which one is more valuable, between Healing Beam and Recon Sense? I would just say that the Healing Beam is the safer pick, though I see plays that are very difficult to make without Recon Sense existing in the game, too. They are both good; in the right hands, and with the right teammates.

 AKM.

A solid gun with a manageable recoil. If you want a higher skill floor version of this gun with slightly lower time-to-kill, I would recommend you to try out an FCAR; but FCAR is unforgiving for it only offers 20 shots in the magazine. You have been warned.

 Zipline.

Zipline does make you and the rest of your team quite vulnerable while you are riding it – as you are giving your enemies a straight line in which to shoot and trace at. However, it is a slightly more predictable and precise tool than a Jump Pad; while Jump Pad offers speed and agility, Zipline gives you careful placements and precision.

If it was not for Suspended Structures and Moving Platforms mutators, I would be more split in my recommendation towards Zipline; but since they exist, my recommendation for mobility goes to the Zipline.

 Explosive Mines.

It makes lights consider their career choice, but this tool is an excellent instant-trap. You can even directly throw these at enemies – and they will do a significant chunk of even heavy’s health. I use these in three different ways;

1) Mine up the enemy respawn statues. If their teammates go to pick them up manually, as using Revive Tokens in ranked is something that everyone tries to avoid doing, odds are they will be hit in their attempt. Mine once for lights, twice for mediums and heavies for increased lethality.

2) Mine up the Cash Out; they pair up surprisingly well with your friendly heavy’s defensive C4 on the point. They will be hit trying to secure some money, and those affected will be far easier to take down.

3) Mine up the pathways. Staircases, attic entrances, windows that lights use, hallways, even just behind you as you are moving from point A to point B. If there is a team on the trail, they might just hit that and give you information on their whereabouts (you still get hit markers on your mines dealing damage).

 Defibrillator.

Could you imagine that this tool used to be even better? Well, you can revive people after charging this thing up and hitting their statues with it; it revives them back to half of their health, so if you are wielding a healing beam, you should tap them with it immediately (it should be your muscle memory to do so). They have brief period of invincibility as they are revived, so you can attempt to hide behind your friend that you just revived, too.

 APS Turret.

Honourable mention goes to the APS turret, for this thing can counter ANY enemy projectiles. A thrown C4, a Dome Shield, Grenades of every single variety… (Actually, I’m not sure if it counters Vanishing Bomb). It can make a point quite defensive to hold, as you can nullify many of the enemy gadgets at play.

Admittedly, heavy class is my favourite at the moment. While lacking mobility tools and agility to deal with certain situations well, heavy well makes up for it in defensive shields and explosives.

 Mesh Shield.

This ability makes you hold up a shield that your teammates can shoot through. So with the right kind of coordination, your other two teammates, if they are right next to you, can focus on dealing damage as they are covered in safety of your shield – provided you are staring at the danger.

Great tool for absorbing damage, but it can also “counter” thrown projectiles such as flying canisters with C4s attached to them, or RPG shots. Master this tool, and keep a watchful eye on its health, for the shield will inevitably fall to enough gunfire.

 Lewis Gun.

Though it may look little worse than the M60 due to its higher time-to-kill, I would argue that its stability and damage per shot makes it much more generous weapon to employ than heavy’s other LMG. It offers good hipfire as well, so that you may attempt to win that duel in which you start out stunned by a light.

 SA1216.

4-shot-burst SA1216 is a powerhouse that cannot be ignored. If you see a heavy with this weapon, your mission objective against that player becomes putting distance between you and the person, if you do not have a shotgun yourself. It will swat lights off like flies, and make mediums regret having brought the AKM to a CQC fight.

 Dome Shield.

While it offers less health than the Mesh Shield, Dome Shield’s strength lies in its placement options; and the fact that you can now be the gun behind the shield as well. Last ditch attempt, in which it seems infeasible to kill everyone else around the cash out point? You might survive that steal attempt with this shield, though it may get countered by a glitch grenade easily, or two people focusing their gunfire at you.

 C4.

When people ask me what weapon is my main for my heavy, I genuinely tell them it’s C4. Two main uses for C4s are as follows:

1. You can attach C4s onto canisters (I prefer in the order of red > orange > green > gray, avoid foams as it will not play well with C4 explosion and may render the explosion powerless) and launch it at people, detonate at the right time and net a kill quite easily. I have had numerous full team-wipes from two C4s strapped to a canister.

2. Defensive C4s to guard the cash out; if you hear a steal attempt, and you haven’t heard an explosion (or a glitch grenade) from an already placed C4, odds are that they failed to disarm it. Right click, and you may have secured a point for few seconds longer with a kill, or brought the cash out down another floor, disjointing their steal attempt.

 RPG-7.

Last but not the least, the RPG. It one-shots lights, counters other explosives by detonating them, and generally a good response in opening or closing a firefight. Bring those cranes down, make roof-peek holes, or just take out that light and damage the other two significantly with your good aim. Your call.

Look at that team of purples. Well, they happen to be running one medium, two lights; and they weren’t performing so hot.

What if I told you that you could dictate flow of the game (if your team is in a position to do so), such that you might be paired up with them on the final round?

There are a lot of opportunities in the rounds to desync vaults, third party teams, and HELP the other team win so that you may have an easier time next round.

Though it may sound like bad manners, assume that you are on the final round. Your team has been very competent against the enemy team, you have already secured a cash out of 10k. The next cash box is spawning at the hospital of Seoul…

Why, it would not be the worst idea in the world to simply keep them locked in the hospital, or vice versa. You could hold the cash, and you could make them come get it. Blow up the small bridge to the right, and they will have to make the painful push that is green roof of the Seoul hospital – my favorite place in the whole game – where their disadvantageous low ground with barely any cover, will almost assure 15 minutes of total agony as they try again and again to get to the box, but only to repeat their failures.

You are now playing the game behind the game. The enemy team will be tilted, psychologically hurt, and mentally disturbed that you would go this far to win a game. (One of my pug friends call me “malevolent” for executing such strategies).

In addition – hilariously enough, I have been in games where people worked together to knock obvious cheaters down from their 1st or 2nd place – and you just know that in your heart of hearts, people CAN still band together for the common good, against the evil that attempts to undermine this clever little game by deciding to cheat.

Yeah, I have hit top 500 in the leaderboards in 10 days of the game having been out (I made Diamond 4 yesterday afternoon).

I have hit Diamond rank twice in closed beta 2 and open beta as well.

Does this mean that I am instantly better than those are currently Bronzes – Golds? Absolutely not (though some people will make it seem like otherwise); it just means that I have had much more time to sink into the game, and that I won with better efficiency than some people. Treat others how you wish to be treated, your position in ranked is literally determined by the formula of:

Let t define time, w define efficiency (winrate).

fame points = t * w (it is obviously more complex than this formula, because you gain so much more for winning the entire tournament than consistently reaching round 2 and getting knocked).

You are bracketed into different leagues in an accumulative way; ranks do not decay, so if you keep playing and consistently clear out of Knockout Round 1 (the only round in which punishes you for losing – other rounds will still give you points, just meager amounts than what you would have received if you won).

As such, with enough determination and time – anyone can achieve Diamond!

I foresee a lot of burned bridges and burned out people because of how toxic the grind can feel. But as long as your teammates are communicating and working together and getting few dubs in, you will all make Diamond eventually. Some slower than others, some faster than others. It is an achievable goal, however, and I want everyone to be fully cognizant of the mechanics of the ranked tournament. That’s why I am elaborating quite a bit in this section of the guide.

To be Diamond 4, you need total of 28500 fame points.

You acquire about 630 – 650 points for winning the tournament; there exists a variance for the points that you receive, and that appears to be dependent on two things; what rank you are currently (platinum rank holders lose a bit more than bronze ranks for losing the same game) and what position in the round that you held per each round (you get awarded more fame points for being first place than second place).

Assuming 615 (I chose a slightly lower number than what I have been seeing, in case of consistent 2nd round holds or something like that) for every win, you need 46.34… 47 total wins to hit 28500 fame points. Suddenly, it does not sound like that much.

I have seen a lot of people be needlessly toxic in my times of LFGing, so I wanted to say something in my closing remarks and argue the point of: the position of your rank, just determines the instantaneous position you hold in a leaderboard, and how little that means to your average player who wants to just have fun playing the game.

I will not be making the effort to remain in the 500 – that belongs to the pro players and the Twitch/YouTube/Kick streamers, who are hoping that this can be their full time gig. I wish I could, too, but I just like thinking, talking, and playing the game. Hence why this guide exists; I have the Finals brainrot, truly.

Anyhow, I mostly used Medium or Heavy to hit my rank. Here are my loadouts and reserves are follows (yes, reserves are important, in case you need to swap some tools out for a counter… or throw enemies off on the final round).

Good luck with your games, peeps.