If you have an enemy jet on your tail during a dogfight and you can't shake 'em, fly as high as possible and do an Immelman turn at the last second and cut your engines so the guy flies straight up into the flight ceiling and stalls while you're now facing the other way and slowly start falling back down giving you a good chance to escape and re-engage.



Remember that your cannon in your jet isn't always aimed at the center of the screen so follow the crosshair even if it's offcenter since turns affect where it's at on the HUD.



When firing sidewinders at an enemy jet, always try to wait until you can fire the missiles behind him so the missiles have an easier flight path to follow to hit your target. Don't fire if you don't have a good angle of attack or if the enemy jet is in the middle of turning. The missiles in BF3 are very forgiving though as they can do crazy maneuvers and still hit your target.



When piloting a chopper and you see an enemy chopper coming towards, ALWAYS try to gain as much altitude and get the high ground on them so you and your gunner can shoot at them while they have to keep pulling up to get shots off making it harder for them to hit you while you're consistently hitting them.

Vehicles can now drift making it easier to turn corners at high speeds so use powersliding to your advantage.



Be careful trying to drive over shallow water because if it's deep enough, the game will kick everyone out of the vehicle as it goes through it. So just slight changes in the water depth can lead to death if enemies are shooting at you.



Make sure to use smoke to your advantage when you have the M320 grenade launcher unlocked for Assault. Firing all of your smoke for your friends as they rush the objective might not net you any points, but it makes capturing the objective a lot easier since you're concealed from snipers.



Use semi-auto or burst fire for long range shots by pressing "V" to select your fire mode. Semi-auto makes long range engagements a lot easier since you aren't fighting recoil the whole time. Semi-auto and burst helped a lot in BF2 and appear to be just as useful in BF3.



BF3 is one of the few games where you have to lead your target if they're running. The weapons aren't laser guns in this game so adjust accordingly and remember that bullet drop will affect you at long ranges as well.

Welcome to duty soldier! No, not that "duty", but Battlefield 3, a game that rewards teamwork and achieving objectives. This isn't one of those panzy games that's all about kills so don't think you're any help if you sit in a corner and pick people off nowhere near the objective while your MRE heats up. If it were up to me, which it should be, you'd be put in the brig for playing like that if it isn't helping the team at all.For those of you straight out of boot with no clue what you're doing, you better listen now! The multiplayer focuses around two main modes, Rush and Conquest. I'll give you a rundown of what to expect on both modes and how you can help your team slaughter your enemies.Rush is a mode that focuses on intense action between two sides, the "Attackers" and "Defenders". The attacking side must try to arm and destroy two MCOMM stations while the defenders try to stop them from arming them and defusing the charges if they need to. Once both points are destroyed, the defenders are pushed back and the attackers now must arm two more MCOMM stations further along the map. The attackers have a limited amount of lives, known as tickets, that deplete every time one of them is killed. When the attackers advance to the next section, their tickets are restored as they try for the next group of stations. Once the attackers have no tickets (lives) left, the defenders win.As an attacker, you shouldn't sit there and go for kills unless you're guarding the MCOMMS from being defused. Continue to push up with your squad and arm those objectives! The smoke grenades from the Assault class's M320 launcher are perfect for concealing your team from enemy sniper fire. The key to this mode as an attacker is to attack as a group instead of going in one after another just to get picked off. Have a squad member stay somewhere safe near the objective so the rest of your squad can spawn right by the objective making it a lot easier for your team to advance. As a sniper, you can also drop a mobile spawnpoint once you unlock it which will give your squad another place to spawn even if you're all dead just as long as the spawnpoint doesn't get destroyed. Use any vehicles to your advantage by covering the MCOMMs and transporting friendlies directly to the action. Dropping a full squad off gives your teammates enough support for one guy to arm the objective since the defenders have multiple enemies to shoot. Sometimes being the decoy is just what the team needs to win so stop worrying about your KDR and do what needs to be done for the win!As a defender, it's pretty self explanatory but I don't expect a recruit like you to understand so here it goes anyway. You must stop those Rambo wannabes from arming the MCOMM stations by whatever means possible, except cheating so stop thinking that way. Having a squadmate or mobile spawnpoint near one of the objectives can prevent a loss since you can get to the charge quicker and defuse it with the help of your squadmates. Have your squad focus on just one of the stations since the attackers need to destroy both to advance. Sniping while defending is probably where this class helps the most since you can safely watch a station from afar and call out any other enemies you see, so use that "Q" button! Keep killing those persistent clowns until their ticket count reaches 0 and you've won!Now to the mode that made Battlefield what it is, Conquest. In this mode, there are points scatteredaround the map that your team must capture and hold to bleed your enemy's tickets. The more bases you hold, the faster those cowards lose so capture and hold those bases. Here's where your panzy camping tactics can actually be of use to the team. So your brave teammates have captured a point and your country's flag is flying high? Then spawn on that point and defend it from a corner where you feel safe. Want to play with the big boys? Then help take other flags with your squad and annoy the hell out of the enemy as they desperately try to take them back to avoid getting yelled at by some Armchair General on their team.Conquest is also where you can find the most vehicular mayhem in a game. Some maps have everything from small transport vehicles to APCs, tanks, anti-air vehicles, transport and attack helicopters, and even jets in an intricate game of rock-paper-scissors. Having a good soldier in control of a vehicle can change the outcome of the battle. Having a tank roll in to support infantry at a flag can not only help in capturing that objective, but also stop the lowly infantry from shitting their pants during a firefight, and NO ONE likes a smelly soldier standing next to you in the heat of battle. Jets are important in gaining air superiority since they can keep friendly tanks from getting blown to bits by enemy choppers or jets, so having good pilots in the air help the troops on the ground without them even knowing it. Just don't be one of those guys who stand on the runway all day hoping to get a jet just to crash it two seconds later. We're still not sure how they passed basic training if they can't realize that you can spawn directly into the jets in BF3 instead of camping the runway, but let them learn the hard way as people beat them to the jets by spawning directly into the cockpit as they go back to waiting just to be disappointed again.EXTRA OP'S NOTE: Please, for the love of all things that are worth loving in this world DO NOT STAND AND WAIT FOR JETS AT THE RUNWAY, if you REALLY REALLY want a Jet, just wait at the Deploy screen until one appears and Spawn directly into the Jet. I guarantee 99% of the time the guy spawning from the Deploy screen will beat you into the Plane, plus, personally nothing pisses me off more than seeing half my team not contributing to the ongoing battle because they are standing around in the base hoping to be the lucky one with the lowest ping at that particular moment so that they can shout "YAY I'M FLYING A JET" *BOOM* Shot Down.Follow these basic instructions and you just might go from green to grizzled before the rest. Over and out.