Quick cryo guide for people who mostly do solos and are intimidated
So I play mostly solos and with my one friend on duos (we do duos vs trios when we play) and he and I finally cracked into cryo this weekend. We were pretty nervous bc of all the hype, but this map is super awesome and I think we figured out at least a beginner strategy that helped us ex fil more than a few times.
I wanted to give you guys some quick tips if you’re thinking about jumping in but feel apprehensive bc of all of the chatter online. If you’re someone who does mostly solos, this is for yall (I probably play solo 70% of time).
First off, I played cryo as a solo/duo doing crew fill. I have literally never done crew fill until this last weekend bc I like solos and my buddy and I prefer to be a more coordinated duo on the other maps.
In short, crew fill on this map is usually pretty good. Most people have comms and will work with you even if they dont have comms. You will even run into super experienced people who you Sherpa you, and this is super nice too.
The name of the game this late in the season is to learn the map, and it is possible!! (Won’t feel this way at first).
There’s a good map resource on here: https://www.shackmaps.com/marathon/cryo-archive. My buddy and I try to have it open when we are trying to get from one zone to another and to see where stuff is. YOU WILL GET LOST. It’s ok. You’ll learn, trust me. But the way to learn pathing is just to play and figure out how all the spawns connect to each other. The steps below are your strategy to minimize PVP and maximize extracting, which my buddy and I have gotten pretty good at by following these steps.
Here’s how you do it:
Buy enough gear just to meet 5k limit. If you have a v11 punch and shotgun in secondary, this will get you close once you add heals/backpack/shield/equipment. Ideally you’ve saved up some blue shields to go in. Pretty much need blue backpacks to get most bang for your buck. Punch is very ammo efficient and very good at killing players and bots. Look for 4/5 stacks of ammo, and even 2 stacks of heals/shields is pretty good if you’re careful.
First mission when infill: security clearance level 2. You need it to skate around periphery of map. You get it by picking up security cards (1 bar) or hacking monitors (3 bars). Level 1 needs 3 bars, level 2 needs 6 bars (9 total at first). Purple shield bots ALWAYS drop a security card. So when you see a purple bot, kill it, take its tag. Monitors spawn in same locations but aren’t always usable (RNG part of it). Every zone has scanners on walls that will show you unused security monitors AND ex fil monitors nearby, and these need level 1 clearance. Always hit these up if you see one and have level 1 clearance.
Once you have level 2, rotate around the outter aspects of map WITHOUT going into control. Control is cancer. I’ll go into it in a second, but everyone has access to this zone almost immediately and it’s 3 stories of pain early game.
**but BigP, my team couldn’t reach level 2 clearance in our spawn, what do we do??**
There’s two things you can do. You can 1) brave control and go onto the bottom most floor and look for tags/monitors. Super sketchy, cause people in this zone are looking for blood and it’s full of bots looking to do the same. Often you will only need 1-3 bars to get level 2, and this is quite doable in terms of quickly running around monitors/desks lookig for more monitors to hack and tags. GET IN GET OUT. Thief super good at using drone to get tags with minimal risk, same with assassin.
Then there’s 2) wait in your spawn just beyond the red barrier you took down and wait for more purple boys to spawn and kill for more tags. Probably even riskier, as everyone spawn rushes this map. I think purple boys spawn every 2 mins, so if you need 3 tags that could be 6 mins in your spawn which is almost guaranteed to have a team come in and fuck you up.
As you rotate around the periphery of map, you’ll encounter other team spawns with bots (and sometimes teams struggling to get level 2). These are your tag farms and easier PvP encounters. Kill bots and load up. Fight players if you are up to it, as it’s less riskier to fight here and not get 3rd parties. (Take tags off other teams if you kill them!) Sometimes you’ll find monitors people missed. Look thru each spawn thoroughly, but only spend 2-3 mins there as other people are rotating too. Never stay in one place too long. THIS IS WHEN YOU CAN START LOOTING NORMAL BOXES. But again don’t spend too much time.
Now it’s around 10 mins left and you want level 3 clearance so you can use an ex fil monitor. Rotate until you get enough clearance (9 bars to get level 3 from level 2). If you are around 5 mins and don’t have level 3, you need to start freaking out and find shit, probably even braving control to do so.
Once at level 3, you can find ex fil monitor and hit it. You’re ex fil will pop up on map and you gotta high tail it there. This part is hard if you didn’t give yourself at least 5 mins to ex fil, esp if you’re new bc you don’t know pathing well. Give yourself even more time if you are nervous, bc going thru the map quickly is the goal at first.
In between all of this, try and loot as much as you can. I would really limit looting until level 2 though, bc teams are looking to thin the herd. Once you’re rotating, it’s much safer to start looting. The basic loot on this map is fricken awesome, so don’t even worry about safe rooms/vaults quite yet. If you can ex fil after rotating around the map, you will be ahead.
All in all, if you can ex fil even 1/5 attempts, you’ll often get ahead. The loot on here is SO good. It’s like every box has the potential to have purple salvage/guns/heals/ammo. That’s why I want more anxious folks to try it, bc it’s like hitting pinwheel on steroids just by doing the basic security clearance mechanic. If you start hitting safe rooms/vaults, your loot potential goes up like crazy.
Tldr: get in with minimal loadout (blue shield/backpack highly recommended at least), blitz to level 2 clearance by any means, rotate around map killing purple bots and hacking security monitors in each spawn, loot once rotating, and get level 3 before 5 mins left to hit ex fil monitor. If you can get to this point, running to ex fil is hard just bc of figuring out pathing, which comes with play. Dying bc you can’t find your way will happen less and less over time. If you can consistently get to level 2 and rotate most matches, you’re winning big and will come out on top eventually.
Worry about vaults/safe rooms as you get better moving around the map and you’ll be swimming in dough. I made 100k in like 2 hrs once. And many of my successful runs I never fought a team!! It’s all about rotating quick and safely.
Try it out this weekend!! This map is sooooo fun man. It can be disheartening at first, but you’ll notice yourself learning how to get from one spot to another better and better over time.
Happy running!!!