Afghan



Description: Each side of this rocky desert map is fairly defensible, but given all of the narrow entry passages, one good enemy rush can trap you and your team in your base, where you will wind up frantically swatting at multiple enemy flanks. The middle of the map, however, is nice and open, and the ruins of an ancient jumbo jet add ambiance and a little cover. But be warned: get caught out in the central area and you’re a snipers dream (especially due to the overlooking bunkers), so either bolt through or take the long way round. While not the most secret-laden map, there are a few tricks and quirks to Afghan that can give you the advantage.

High Ledge: This ledge at ‘air defence west’ is a great sniping spot, and it’s made better by the pile of mattresses beneath it. Your cushiony friends below make a normally deadly fall survivable, creating a quick getaway route, especially if your opponent doesn’t know the trick and hesitates.

Big Bunker: The cliff top bunker here is a great spot for long-range defense, but like any stronghold, someone will come along and clear it out every once in a while. Stay vigilant.

Cavern: This roomy cavern leads directly to one of the flags in CTF matches. Its is the most obvious entryway and is thus a poor route to launch a real attack. However, with a riot shield and some guts, creating chaos in the cave is a great way to distract the defenders while your teammates sneak around from one of the side entrances.

Gas Tanks: Use your environment! A pile of explosive gas tanks in the Southwest corner of this map can be used to scatter attacker’s limbs like jenga blocks. If for some reason you’re completely out of ammo, a strange quirk will cause the tanks to explode if you jump on them from enough distance and height. That’ll surprise ‘em (and kill you)

Plane: The cockpit of this bit of wreckage is a good place to hide when defending the bombsite within it. You’re backed into a corner and exposed to grenade attacks, but headstrong enemies will often run into the plane too quickly to catch you before you aerate their chests with bullets.

Derail



Description) This locale is a small shipping town in the snowy back-country. A derailed train splits the map in half, west to east. A small town with a garage and gas station covers the maps east side, while warehouses, offices, power stations and other industrial elements dominate the west side. A frozen creek that can be used for cover cuts through the center of the map North to South. Exploit this maps wooded cover as much as you can. This is a very sniper-heavy map.

Tips) Look for several crashed train cars that you can enter in the middle of this map. Watch out for enemies hiding inside, and use them whenever you wish, for example to watch an objective or snipe. This map contains many sniping lanes, especially down the center near the trains, so you may have to duck the train cars from time to time. The North woods and the wooded area just North of the water tower are great sniping spots as is the warehouse’s third floor balcony. The roofs of the garage and gas station are also high vantage points. Just be careful getting to them, as many snipers focus their attention on them.

Estate



1) Side Entrance: The lodge house has several entrances, most of which will get you killed most of the time. However, come around to the side and you’ll find a pile of logs that create a convenient path up to the second floor. Anyone inside will probably be focused on defending the doors or peering into the distance and looking for heads to snipe, so your surprise attack has a decent chance of wreaking a little havoc. Any way you enter, it’s rarely a bad idea to toss a stun grenade in first.

2) Greenhouse: The greenhouse next to the estate gets a lot of traffic, so it would be wise to lurk around behind it waiting for battles to erupt inside. Running directly through it can be dangerous, but most of the paths to the estate are dangerous, so that’s pretty avoidable

3) Gully: The central gully and path to the house is a popular one, but it can also be well covered by anyone on the second floor of the house. You’ll see a lot of the map’s action in this area, which either means that you’ll avoid it or gravitate to it, depending on how frantic you like your matches.

4) Roof Access: Yet another pile of logs on the back of this shack provides easy access to the roof, where large portions of the map can be covered. If you’re running near the area, remember to glance up in case you’re being scoped out by a prone sniper.

5) The Long Way: This eastern side of the map is the least used, and is the safest, but longest, way to approach the estate.

6) Power Station: The power station doesn’t get a whole lot of action, but it can still be a dangerous place. Watch out for snipers on the building at number 4, and be wary of running up the central path at number 3, as that tends to end in a flurry of gunfire and a respawn.

Favela



Description: Favela is a challenging map. The term “Favela” means “shantytown,” and shanty towns are full of tight corridors and blind corners. The trick with objective based matches is to know when to stick to the cluttered streets and when to rise to the rooftops. It’s much easier to lose pursuers on the streets – every time they unload a round you’re already around the next corner. There’s less cover on the rooftops, but travel is faster and you can cover larger areas of ground. In general, use the low ground for offense (e.g. carrying a flag) and the high ground for defense, but break that rule if your opponents seem to be neglecting either area. In Team Deathmatch and Free-for-all, your verticality will depend on how you like to play.

Main Street: This large street is the biggest open area in the map, and darting through it can be dangerous, since its easily covered by the nearby rooftops. Use the cars as cover and weapons, and avoid sticking around for too long.

Shortcut: You can leap the gap between buildings – a shortcut to reach the larger buildings without being exposed for to long. Going unseen is a key to succeeding in this map.

Griffters Green House 3rd Level: This building is the highest point on the map, and can be used to cover a lot of ground – just watch out for any crack shots on / in surrounding buildings.

Street Maze: Rooftop snipers will have a harder time picking you off if you stick to this street maze. You can spend the whole match in this central section and still see a lot of action.

High rise



Description: The uncharacteristic, but entirely welcome setting – the roof of an unfinished skyscraper, and parts of its interior office space and access passages – makes Highrise a gem of a map. It’s also full of strategic quirks, choke points, and sniping spots if you know where to look for them. Expect average players to hover around the interior sections at opposite sides of the map, and run through the central throughways.

Beams: Access the beams from the roof of the elevators. These suspended beams can (and should) be utilized, though don’t run around on them for too long because they offer little cover. What they do offer is a path to the second floor of the northern interior, which is a great place to hunker down and practice marksmanship. You can leap onto one of these beams from the helipad on the right side of the map.

Interiors: The two opposing interiors offer some extra-personal combat. Stay in a crouch and sneak through the cubicles – anyone who foolishly lets their head stick out above one of the half-walls can easily be fragged to pieces through the thin dividers (watch as papers go everywhere). Shotguns (remember these are secondary weapons now) are particularly effective. And remember to use your environment when the opportunity arises – a large copy machine will explode after being beaten into submission, just like cars.

Scaffolding: A bit of scaffolding at the southeast of the exterior gives you access to a barely perceptible ledge that runs along the side of the building, which is an excellent secret route for carrying flags or bombs in objective modes. Even if the enemy kills you while you’re carrying the objective, they’ll have a tough time retrieving it from its perch, giving you and your team the opportunity to catch them while they’re distracted.

Red Pit: There’s a passageway (not visible) which runs across the entire map, from the norther interior to the southern. Here, in the middle, an opening exposes a passage to the air, making lower-level travelers vulnerable for a second. This isn’t the most secretive route – everyone knows its there – but if you’re lucky, you’ll make it to the other side and pop up behind the opposing team without tipping anyone off. Slaughter time!

Parkour Opp: There’s a piece of scaffolding hanging out about 10 feet from the edge of the building at the southeast corner (outside). If you enjoy a little parkour, and don’t mind dying a few times, you can leap from the building , grab onto scaffolding by pressing the Jump/Action button, climb it like a ladder, shimmy across a slither of the ledge, walk up another piece of scaffolding, and reach the roof of the southern interior – the highest point of the map. You might also find a little surprise up there!

Invasion



(Description) This war-torn part of the city features a large, two-story base at the north-west corner. One team starts on the convoy road near the base, but the map is covered with multiple buildings, offering several upper levels from which to gain decent vantage points. Watch for snipers camped in the eastern part of the map, in the sniper apartment and the loft. Payers usually frequent these two areas. Much fighting occurs in the map’s center, in and around the cafe, but the conflict moves around the map quite a lot. Gear up with good all-purpose kit.

(Tips) While the U.S. base may seem like a good place to camp and see off enemies, it may not be the best choice. Three stairways lead up to the second level along with a ladder accessible from the base’s south side. You can hold this second level with three players if one takes the window facing south to watch the south stairs and ladder, one player watches the northwest stairs and another watches the northeast stairs.

Be carefull venturing through this map’s top-middle section, near the courtyard and alcove areas. There are many places to hide there, including the trees and you are exposed when you move through this area. Think about taking the long way round to reach your destination. Head south towards the bathrooms, then back up through the middle between the coffee shop and boutique. This map favours a run and gun play style.

Karachi



(Description) This map is set in a burned-out desert town at dusk, with clear conditions and decent visibility. Ground zero dots the center of this map, so watch your step, as claymores can lurk in this rubble. This map’s southern sections has an outdoor market with a couple of multi-storey buildings. The northern section features a good size hotel, bus station and cafe. With a large parking lot to the east and a warehouse and waterfront to the west, there are plenty of places to get into trouble. There aren’t many lines of fire for sniping, but you may have to make a long shot or two.

(Tips) There are many ways to move around this map without being noticed. To get from East to West, try going through the parking lot to the store room, and move upstairs. Up there, you can move to the apartments and easily get to the waterfront. Use this maps upper levels to circumvent enemies and appear where they least expect you. The shacks are a great place to spring an ambush. Set up in the shacks northeast corner to reduce nearby choke points to two. The hotel’s second level and the apartments are also defensible areas, as they have limited choke points.

Quarry



Description: This working stone quarry features massive elevation changes. It’s a clear afternoon but enemies can lurk both high and low. So, despite the daylight, enemies can evade your detection. It’s a large map with multiple roads and paths throughout. There are many buildings , such as warehouses, garages and offices. Two huge tanks with a platform around them for elevated engagements stand in the map’s northeast section. A heavy-duty crane with three player-accessible levels sits in the maps center. You can climb many of the chiseled out marble blocks. While it may take time to scale them , finding a nice corner up top can be worth the effort.

Tips: The Quarry features a perimeter path obstructed only in two places: The loading bay in the southeast corner, and the storage facility in the northwest corner. If your plan is to move around the maps outer edge, duck into the buildings when you get to them, then exit and continue.

The large building complex in the southern region is a big engagement spot. It features multiple access points, over – and underpass, and a second level that connects all three buildings with catwalks. This is not a good place to defend but it is a good place to eye-up the map, for example the loading bay’s second level windows. You can see enemies setting up on the tanks or coming down the industrial road.

Another hot zone is near the tank garage, equipment garage and crane. These three areas are semi-connected and feature multiple levels and great overviews of the map. The adjacent marble blocks on the equipment garage’s south side let you look all the way south and east across the map. Enemy sniper also look here often as well, so keep an low profile.

A long chute from the back road’s east end to the red tanks feature some explosive barrels; you can snipe these barrels to kill hidden enemies. Try firing your javelin in this direction to cause a huge explosion. A large, explosive truck is just outside the warehouse 14 building to the south. Blow it up to cause a huge smoke screen you can use for cover.

Rundown



scription: This suburban town’s main feature is a crescent-shaped river splitting it from North to South. Three bridges facilitate pedestrian vehicle traffic, and you can engage in combat in the river itself. A large, two-story Villa in the map’s northeast corner overlooks a cluster of homes in the Neighbourhood across the street. This map has a little of everything, from a Fish Market and Church to a Cantina and a Gas Station. Move from building to building or cover to cover and watch for second story shooters.

Tips: This map can easily create a standoff. Because you have to cross the river for many objectives, you must use one of the three bridges or the stairs in the river by the church. This small number of choke points could encourage both teams to just sit tight and watch them, waiting for the enemy to cross. Use te secret stairs by the church if you want to remain hidden while you cross.

The boathouse offers a great view of the Neighbourhood area, and the Catina has a small window to watch East. The Drug Store can provide snipers with a great line of sight across the river to the Neighbourhood. One of this maps hot zones is the Neighbourhood and it’s 2nd levels. Bridges and catwalks connect the three forward buildings in the Neighbourhood. The northernmost room has windows useful for sniping across the river. In search and destroy, you can use the middle buildings north side, second floor window to watch over one of the plant sites. Use the villas second level balcony to watch over the other. There are many places to hide on seek on this map so watch your back!

This map offers decent cover for making your way round its perimeter. Use small chunks of cover, like cows or hay bales, if you need to hide quickly and wait for enemies to pass. Jump into the river to escape enemies if you have to, but move quickly in it as it makes quite a bit of noise. Try no move from high point to high point as staying on the ground limits your field of view even with a scope. Don’t stick around in windows too long, as this is where snipers first look for counter snipers. Try settings up further back from windows, in the shadows, to be less visible to enemies.

Rust




Description: Rust is a very small oil refinery complex in the desert. Lots of blowing sand at sunset makes discerning friend and foe difficult. The main refinery has three levels, though not full ones. It features many little places to climb to and look down, although most players who get up there won’t last very long. Use the available cover, as it’s hard to stay alive here. The pace is very fast and grenades fly everywhere.

Tips: You can jump climb several areas on the main refinery to reach higher ground. Definitely crouch if you reach one the Refinery’s highest points. It’s just a matter of time before and enemy spots and kills you, so seize the moment and kill as many of them as you can.

If you hang on long enough to acquire a Killstreak Reward, they can be deadly on this map. One Killstreak can take out the entire team. On this map, Killstreak acquisition ends up being the key to many victories.

You can use the refinery’s lower areas to proceed from one side to the other, but be ready for enemies doing the same. You can use the map’s perimeter to circle around enemies, especially with blowing sand and dust masking your movements. Your best bets are to either find a good hiding place down on the ground and rack up Killstreaks, or ground pound to circle the enemy in the center.