In this thread I'd like to describe scorestreaks, how to most efficiently kill them, use them and how the fare against each other. This thread is probably the last big write up I'll do for this game, partially because there's little more interesting things to say and also because it's 2018.

If you want some info on a specific streak I encourage you to use the find function of your browser to find it, this is a huge, disgustingly sized post and it can be a pain in the butt to sift through it.

At this point I know that many of the subreddit regulars all basically know how streaks work and what works well on them and so on. That being said, I've found that the game continues to have new players based both on my time in game, as well as posts made on this subreddit. This thread is largely for those new players who are either new to the series entirely, or otherwise are wondering exactly how streaks in this game might compare to other games in the series.

This thread is also meant to help players who have been playing for a while to get a better appreciation of how streaks function and how to make the most of them. It's pretty easy to get set in your ways in Call of Duty and my hope is that this thread might encourage long-time players to try things that they haven't really used before.

I'm not going to go into perfect detail on every streak, since many of them are incredibly straight-forward and don't really have a lot of nuance. For the ones that do, expect much more info.

###Perks Versus Scorestreaks

There are a few perks in BO3 that counter specific functions from Scorestreaks. This section will take a brief look at how they work.

Blind Eye

Prevents air streaks from detecting the user, except for UAVs and HATRs. For AI controlled streaks like the Wraith this means that they flat-out won't shoot at you, though can still kill you if a teammate is standing to close to you or you otherwise move in front of the fire. For user controlled air streaks like the Hellstorm or DART, they can still see you and potentially kill but cannot lock on to you and you do not show up highlighted in some way.

Blind Eye is potentially very powerful but its value is entirely dependent on how many strong air streaks you need to deal with. It's not a bad idea to have a Blind Eye class available to switch to when things get hairy, but it's not often a great perk to start a match with.

Flak Jacket

Decreases damage from enemy explosions by 65%. Note that you can still easily die from your own explosives.

While this isn't specifically an anti-scorestreak perk, many of the streaks that cause explosive damage have a much harder time against Flak Jacket users. In particular it greatly reduces the lethality of the HC-XD and DART (probably the best DART counter, really) and Cerberus rockets, while making a burst Hellstorm missile and Lightning Strike survivable, assuming they aren't nearly a direct hit. Beyond its protection from certain streaks, Flak Jacket is generally always worth using.

Ghost

Prevents detection from UAVs while the player is running, walking or stopping will allow you to be detected by UAVs. If a UAV is present you still appear on the map while firing a weapon without a suppressor or by boost jumping. You can determine if you're moving enough to be undetected by looking at the minimap: if your icon is faded you are moving quickly enough for the perk to kick in, if it looks as it does normal then you can be detected. The perk also kicks in if you are using scorestreaks of your own, so if you call in an HC-XD while an enemy UAV is up, it won't be able to detect your defenseless body.

Like Blind Eye, Ghost can be very good but is entirely dependent on the opposition calling in UAVs. Unlike Blind Eye, UAVs are generally a bit more common than other air streaks and the tactical benefit you get in not showing up on the radar is pretty massive. Because the enemy team will likely wind up focusing on targets that they can see, being able to flank them or otherwise surprise them with Ghost can turn enemy UAVs into a personal advantage for the player. Having said that, shooting down UAVs is a more valuable decision for your team as a whole, so keep that in mind.

Hard Wired

Prevents the player from being affected by Counter-UAVs and the Power Core, while also providing immunity to EMP grenades, the map loss effect of Smoke grenades, making traps like the Trip Mine, C4 and Shock Chargers from detonating and also decreasing the effectiveness of the opposing perks Sixth Sense and Tracker.

Hard Wired's anti-scorestreak bonuses are decent, though very situational. Counter-UAVs are fairly common and can cause a lot of problems if you can't verbally communicate with your team and while the Power Core is uncommon, being immune to its debilitating effects is very useful. Hard Wired is mostly useful due to its variety of other immunities, specifically its resistance to Sixth Sense and it's a fairly decent option on most classes.

Cold Blooded

Prevents the player from being targeted by AI-controlled ground streaks, while also preventing the player from being highlighted when a player is controlling ground streaks. The player can still be killed by ground streaks if a teammate is nearby (like with RAPS) or they stand in front of a teammate who is being targeted (like with a Sentry Gun). This perk also makes the player not trigger the BOA 3 sight and prevents being highlighted through an IR scope.

Cold Blooded is similar to Blind Eye in that it's very situational and probably not worth spawning in with at the start of a match. It's mostly only useful dealing with automated ground streaks, since not being highlighted isn't really a huge bonus if the enemy is controlling something like an HC-XD or Cerberus. Notably it provides coverage against RAPS, which are arguably the most dangerous of the high-end automated streaks, though note that if you're near a teammate without Cold Blooded or destroy a RAPS drone while standing to close, they can still kill you. The bonuses against BOA 3 and Infrared scopes are basically a non-factor, since Infrared is almost never used and the BOA 3 just doesn't change colour, they can still see and shoot you just fine.

Engineer

Allows the player to see enemy scorestreaks and equipment (like HIVES and trip mines) on the minimap and through walls, showing them with a red highlight. It also enables the player to re-roll Care Packages and booby trap enemy Care Packages.

Personally I think this perk is extremely underrated. Being able to see exactly where streaks are on a map has a number of uses: UAVs and HATRs can be shot down much faster if you don't have to scan the sky to find them, HC-XDs and DARTs can be destroyed much more easily and quickly (especially with EMP grenades), Hellstorms can be easily detected and shot down before they can burst, many immobile or slow moving streaks can be flanked or avoided much more easily and so on. Engineer is best used on a class that has the means to destroy streaks, with things like EMP grenades and launchers. Extremely effective as an overall proactive measure against streaks, though you still need to be careful as it doesn't provide any actual protection other than giving you intel.

The other benefits of Engineer are fairly situational but extremely powerful when they come into play; being able to see HIVEs turns them from a death trap into a joke, re-rolling care packages can provide immense gains (turning a Guardian into RAPS is pretty remarkable) and being able to booby trap enemy crates, while difficult to do, is hilarious and can provide some wild multikills.

###Killing Scorestreaks

Every streak is BO3 is capable of being destroyed and there are usually a number of ways to accomplish that. In this first section we'll look at the various means of killing streaks and how effective each one is.

Quick tip: when a streak comes in, don't just immediately pull out a launcher and look for it, first consider where you are and where enemy is. For instance if you're near the middle of the map, consider backing off towards your spawn before you try to shoot down the streak. I realize this is probably obvious to lots of folks, but I often see people try to shoot down UAVs and such from very unsafe locations.

Launchers

The XM-53 and BlackCell are usually the most effective way to deal with the grand majority of scorestreaks, particularly aerial options. For air streaks:

UAV/Counter UAV/Care Package: 1 rocket

Hellstorm/Rolling Thunder: 1 rocket (good luck with that)

Talon: 2 rockets

Wraith: 1 rocket to destroy flak drone, 2 for aircraft

HATR: 3 rockets

RAPS: 4 rockets

Mothership: 6 rockets

For ground streaks:

Guardian: 1 rocket

Sentry: 1 rocket from behind, 2 at the front

Cerberus: 3 rockets required

Power Core: 3 rockets

GI Unit: 4 rockets

Notably launchers are the only tool capable of damaging and destroying a HATR.

The L4 Siege works a bit differently in that its rockets do about half the damage of the XM-53 and BlackCell to scorestreaks. It generally requires double the rockets of the other launchers for each target. It therefore needs Scavenger support to potentially take out larger streaks.

The MAX-GL can conceivably kill streaks, but it requires careful aim and direct hits to be worth it. It can be worth it against slower moving air targets, the Counter-UAV in particular is pretty easy to hit. Definitely requires a lot of practice to get a feel for the arc though. Decent against ground targets, particularly if your target is already damaged.

Bottom line, the XM-53 and BlackCell are your best bet for killing streaks, L4 Siege is a bit too unreliable against higher-end streaks and the MAX-GL is workable against certain streaks, but requires a bit too much practice to be reliable.

Primary Weapons

Generally speaking, most firearms aren't really worth killing streaks with for a number of reasons: it often takes a long time to kill even basic streaks (like UAVs), firing for long periods of time exposes you on the minimap, guns require FMJ to get the most out of them and it is usually a poor use of your potentially limited ammo. Specifically, here's a brief overview of each weapon class versus streaks:

SMG: can equip FMJ, but not many really have the range for dealing with aerial streaks and the ones that might don't really do enough damage for it to be worth it, not even remotely ammo or time efficient.

AR: Better range than SMGs and can equip FMJ, but still not enough range to deal with higher aerial streaks and usually have to expend too much ammo and time to kill streaks.

LMG: Better than SMGs and ARs due to higher ammo counts and drastically higher range. Still a bit slow though. From my experience the 48 Dredge probably has the easiest time due to its high accuracy and raw damage.

Sniper Rifles: All bolt action snipers are very poor at killing streaks, but the Drakon is potentially one of the best weapons in the game against streaks if FMJ is used. P-06 is adequate as well, but not really on the same level as the Drakon.

Shotguns: Decent against HC-XD and DART due to their hip fire spread, largely worthless against everything else. FMJ is not available. Banshii does decent damage against aerial streaks but is very difficult to use against them while doing poor damage to ground streaks.

Pistols: None really have the range or damage to be worth using against any streak, including close range ground streaks. Rift E9 is too imprecise to be realistically effective against most air streaks.

Specials: NX Shadowclaw can tear up ground streaks fairly quickly, but it takes a lot of ammo to do so and it ranges from ineffective to unusable against aerial streaks. D13 Sector causes a lot of damage to ground streaks, but relies on lucky ricochets to kill them quickly, it otherwise takes too long to reload to be worth using over a launcher. Ballistic Knife is a joke.

Melee: Universally terrible, the only things they seem to kill quickly are the HC-XD and DART, AKA the two things you don't want to destroy when you're standing right next to them.

Bottom line, even if you have something like an LMG with FMJ and a number of helpful attachments, it's still not going to be as effective against high end streaks as something like the BlackCell. Some firearms can work in a pinch against weaker streaks (notably the slow and awkward Counter-UAV) but it's still very situational.

As an aside, I personally think the best anti-scorestreak FMJ firearms are as follows: 48 Dredge, Gorgon, BRM, Drakon, NX ShadowClaw. I haven't tried absolutely everything though (close range FMJ Vesper may be good against ground streaks?) so don't take that as gospel.

Specialist Weapons

Specialist weapons vary in effectiveness against streaks. Can absolutely be worth it if you've got the right streak and your class doesn't already have a launcher.

Gravity Spikes: Instantly demolishes ground streaks, but useless against aerial streaks aside from very low flying Talons and DARTs. Usually results in quick death if you spike an HC-XD or DART.

Sparrow: Fairly straightforward to use but might require a bit of practice due to a lack of a hitscan projectile. Somewhat less effective against higher streaks (notably the RAPS deploy ship) then comparable weapons like the Tempest or Annihilator. Great against earlier streaks though. It's a bit quicker to get then the other two aforementioned weapons as a compromise.

Tempest: Fairly effective against most streaks. Mostly held back by its charging requirement. Despite what the weapon table indicates, it seems to do about the same damage to streaks as the Annihilator.

War Machine: Fantastic against ground streaks when scoring a direct hit, largely useless against air targets due to its relatively low shot velocity and arc.

Annihilator: Solid all-rounder that can kill almost anything very quickly. Only really held back by a lack of zoom (vs aerial targets), slower fire rate and low ammo. Pretty similar to the Tempest in terms of damage done.

HIVE: fairly decent against ground streaks, but not very practical due to low ammo, delay between deployment/effect and potentially awkward due to the projectile's arc.

Scythe: fairly good against just about anything with no range reduction, but doesn't really have the ammo to kill certain notable high end streaks (RAPS deploy ship in particular). Having to sustain fire makes you incredibly obvious on the minimap as well.

Ripper: Extremely deadly against anything you can reach with it, but getting close to something like a Cerberus or GI Unit is generally a bad idea and can lead to a quick death. Either have Cold Blooded or EMP these targets before approaching if you can; the GI Unit in particular is pretty quick about turning around and instantly killing players with a melee. Notably able to kill a GI Unit in about a second. Very inflexible.

Purifier: Doesn't really do enough damage to justify using it against ground streaks. I'm not honestly sure if it damages the Cerberus at all, every time someone has tried to burn my Cerberus while I'm piloting it seems to indicate it doesn't do anything.

Heatwave: Not a weapon, but emits a powerful EMP effect when activated which destroys ground streaks.

Bottom line, most specialist options are situational, but a few like the Sparrow, Tempest, Scythe and especially the Annihilator can do very well in a pinch.

Equipment

Different pieces of equipment vary greatly in usefulness against scorestreaks. For the most part they are only really relevant against ground streaks with a couple of notable exceptions.

Frag Grenade/Semtex: deals moderate damage to scorestreaks.

Thermite: Generally pretty bad, can throw in front of an HC-XD to stop it I suppose.

Combat Axe: Very low damage. Destroying an HC-XD with one completes a Dark Ops challenge.

Trip Mine: Can trigger against nearby streaks including the HC-XD and DART, though will normally only kill them if they're moving quite slowly. Unimpressive beyond that.

C4: Similar to the Trip Mine but far more flexible due it having non-directional explosion. Can also be used to instantly kill a Cerberus following two EMPs; seriously you can kill a Cerberus within a couple seconds of its drop by doing this.

Concussion/Flashbang: can briefly stun certain streaks, otherwise not useful.

EMP: Absolutely the best piece of equipment for killing streaks. Instantly kills HC-XDs, DARTs and Guardians, kills Sentry Guns and Talons in two. Everything else gets stunned for a lengthy period of time. Stops Cerberus and GI Unit for a lengthy period of time, allowing you to damage them without danger of retaliation. Can stop whole groups of RAPS drones simultaneously, which can save the lives of teammates. Has a wide blast radius and goes through cover and walls, so you can just throw it near a streak to destroy or damage it.

Smoke: Doesn't cause damage, but confuses the targeting of AI controlled streaks. For instance, a Cerberus in a Smokescreen cannot target enemies, neither can a Sentry Gun. Not quite as effective as an EMP (as it does no damage), but it can make it much easier to get around streaks or otherwise damage them without retaliation.

Trophy System: Has a chance to stop explosive scorestreak projectiles. The actual form of the projectile seems to vary somewhat; Cerberus rockets for instance seem to always be intercepted and destroyed, while Hellstorm missiles and Lightning Strike bombs are not consistently stopped. DART missiles are consistently intercepted. It's not a perfect defence but it can potentially help you out in a dangerous situation.

Shock Charge: effect varies on the streak, HC-XDs are knocked back, most everything else is stunned briefly similar to Concussion grenades. Not really worth using against streaks.

Black Hat: Okay so this one's kind of special. The Black Hat does not destroy enemy streaks, it instead converts them and turns them into your streak. This sounds incredibly powerful on paper, but in practice it's not even remotely practical; it takes a very long time to hack streaks, often takes multiple Black Hats to even do it, the enemy team is alerted that you are hacking, you show up on the minimap, need a direct line of site to hack streaks (even when combined with Engineer) and higher level streaks take so long that it's not realistically possible or even time efficient to try it. Kind of an interesting idea and maybe useful if you happen to pull it off against a lower-end streak, but I cannot recommend it as a serious option.

Other Scorestreaks

Some scorestreaks are capable of destroying other scorestreaks with one streak, the Power Core, being basically built around the idea. Specifically how well streaks do against other streaks varies dramatically. Some of other the better options include:

DART

Hellstorm

Cerberus

More specific details can be found below in each scorestreak's section.

###Choosing streaks

One other thing I want to mention before everything else is that there's absolutely nothing wrong with picking the earlier streaks. Even if you're a very good player and are still able to get some of the higher streaks frequently, there's a lot of value in picking lower score options. In BO3, many of the earlier streaks have multiple potential uses besides their standard usage while many of the higher level streaks are extremely vulnerable against more experienced players.

As I detail the streaks I will try to also provide other situations in which they can provide other functions, for instance how the DART is extremely effective against other streaks.

Remember that high level streaks won't necessarily win a game by themselves, a lot of it comes down to how your opposition reacts to them and how much your team is able to take advantage of them (though having said that, please don't constantly blame your teammates for losing games, it's not very sporting).

###Scorestreaks

####HC-XD

The HC-XD is good at killing enemy players, but that's about all it's good for. While it can do decent damage to ground-based scorestreaks it doesn't really do enough damage to destroy other streaks at full health. It's capable of killing Flak Jacket users if the device is nearly touching them when it explodes.

It is possible to attach C4 to friendly HC-XDs, allowing two players to use the HC to carry an additional charge of explosives. Basically how it works is that one player calls in the HC, the second attaches the C4 and then detonates it when the first player drives close enough to an enemy. In Core, detonating the C4 will not destroy the HC-XD.

There are a few downsides to this strategy, the first being the amount of cooperation involved, which isn't necessarily a major difficulty, but it does require two players to be communicating. The second issue is that adding a C4 means that if the HC is destroyed by the enemy, they will get more points than usual.

The HC-XD will not be destroyed by the blast from Flash/Concussion grenades or Shock Charges, but the former will cause it to be stunned briefly while the latter knocks it back quite a bit.

Always try to flank your enemies when using the HC-XD and try to avoid driving directly in a straight line if you can avoid it. It's not especially hard to destroy an HC-XD you need to make sure that you can get to your target before you explode.

Counters

The HC-XD has a soft-counter in Flak Jacket, but it can still kill users of the perk if the HC can get close enough. Beyond that, most of the issues with the problems with the HC-XD stem from its vulnerability. It will die in one hit from basically anything, be it a bullet, nearby explosion and so on.

Engineer provides probably the best defense against HC-XDs besides Flak Jacket, since you can easily see them as soon as they're activated and either avoid them or destroy them. Engineer pairs particularly well with EMP grenades for this; once you see the red outline of an HC-XD, all you really need to do is toss an EMP in its general direction to blow it up.

HC-XDs are also fairly loud, even if you haven't got EMP you can usually hear them very clearly once they get close enough to you.

####UAV

There's very little to say about the UAV. It flies over the map in a clockwise rotation and sweeps the map giving you the location of enemy players who are not making use of the Ghost perk. The more friendly UAVs present, the more frequently you get updates on player location. Note that a UAV will pick up Psychosis clones.

Enemy UAVs can be fairly hard to see if they fly in front of the Sun, most notably on Hunted. If you've got Engineer and can't quite see where the UAV is with your launcher, try aiming into the light.

Counters

The two main counters are either using Ghost or shooting down the UAV with a launcher. Of the two, Ghost requires the least amount of effort but the gains are a bit selfish; other people on your team without Ghost remain vulnerable and the enemy team still has an advantage against those players. To help out your team I strongly recommend shooting down the streak if possible. If you're currently in around where the enemy is spawning though, Ghost definitely wins out between the two.

UAVs can conceivably be shot down through gunfire, but it does make you very obvious on the minimap and your aim has to be good in order for it to be worth it. Try aiming for the front of the UAV if you can, the hitbox is a little funky the further back on the UAV you go. UAVs are also vulnerable to any specialist weapon that can hit it.

Also note that the height in which a UAV flies can vary dramatically and it's not actually vulnerable to gunfire on some maps. For instance I don't think I've ever been able to shoot down a UAV on Infection without a launcher or streak of my own; they're just too high up for the bullets to reach. I believe Infection is the only base map where they fly so high though, I haven't really noticed the phenomena on any other maps, including DLC.

DARTs and Hellstorm missiles can also destroy UAVs, though with the latter you cannot lock onto it so you need to fly the Hellstorm into it without bursting. It is possible to destroy a UAV with a mini-missile from a burst Hellstorm, but the spread is fairly inconsistent and it's possible to miss the UAV even if you burst directly above it.

####Care Package

Drops in a package with a random scorestreak on a spot you paint following a delay. A drop ship will come into the map to drop the streak and is vulnerable before and during the drop, though it needs to be destroyed immediately after it enters the map for the streak to be lost or dropped elsewhere. Earlier streaks tend to be more common in care packages though anything except for the Mothership can potentially be earned. Engineer allows the player to replace the contents of a package with something different.

The amount of time it takes for the package to arrive seems to vary on the map, though I've not really been able to figure out any correlation. For example Nuketown packages tend to show up fairly quickly, but Aquarium packages tend to be slower. Initially I thought there might be a correlation based on map size but it doesn't really seem that way: they tend to come in pretty quick on a map as huge as Rupture.

Additionally I'm not really sure how the game determines what direction they come in from the map.

You have to be very careful with the timing and location of the Care Package, since it can be stolen by enemies. Generally speaking it's best to call in a Care Package in the area where your team is spawning, though you still need to check the map and get a sense as to where your teammates are. If your team is pushing forward quite a bit, wait before calling your streak in, since the enemy team could start spawning very close to you.

Engineer allows you to reroll the contents of your package to something totally different. I can't find any specific figures indicating how likely it is to get each streak, but if it's anything like previous games rerolling a package probably has better odds at higher streaks than whatever you got initially. I'm not entirely certain of that of course, but it certainly seems that way. Teammates can also reroll your package if they have Engineer, so it's possible to have a friend bail you out if you get something you really don't want. Conversely it can also lead to teammates turning your RAPS into an HC-XD if you aren't quick enough, so watch out for that, funny though it is.

Counters

It's possible to shoot down the Care Package transport before it can drop its payload, but unless you do get a lock and fire immediately as the transport gets to the map there's a good chance it will still get to the drop point before your rocket hits. The direction the transport comes into the map will also directly affect your odds of killing it, since the more your rocket has to turn to hit its target the longer it will take and the less likely success will be.

If you are able to shoot down the transport in time, it can be lost outside the confines of the map, can end up on a location that is inaccessible (on top of a building for example) or in the best case, wind up near your team for a quick steal. Generally speaking I would only shoot down the ship if you either get an early lock or need the points.

It's possible to attempt to steal a Care Package, but it's a strategy that is only really worth trying if you are close enough to the deployment as it's called in. I wouldn't advise trying to immediately dash towards where the package is likely coming in, odds are you'll get killed and you probably wouldn't have enough time to pull it off. It's worth trying if you're fairly close to the location and play very carefully though.

Beyond that, if a Care Package comes in and you can't do anything about it, just wait and see what happens. Maybe they just got an easily destroyed HC-XD, who knows.

####Counter-UAV

The Counter-UAV floats through the air and removes use of the minimap for enemy players, except for those who equip Hard Wired. It usually flies around near the center of the map, sometimes slowly moving about in straight lines. Works well for covering a Care Package drop.

Basically anything that can be made stronger by the enemy not being able to see their map is enhanced by use of the Counter-UAV. With one of these up you can safely fire away with an unsuppressed weapon without fear of being detected on the map.

Counters

Hard Wired totally counters the effects of the Counter-UAV, making the user completely immune to radar jamming. Like Ghost, this is great for the individual but not necessarily great for the team, so it's often better to shoot down the Counter-UAV if possible.

The hitbox for the Counter-UAV is a big bigger and more solid than the standard UAV and when combined with its low mobility it becomes a very easy streak to kill with regular firearms. The Counter-UAV's movement is fairly slow though a bit unpredictable; it doesn't seem to react to being shot at, but it will occasionally move in a straight line across the sky. Like UAVs, it also seems to vary in height based on the map and can be untouchable by firearms on maps like Infection.

Like the UAV, the Counter-UAV can also be taken out by other streaks like the DART and Hellstorm, but it tends to be a bit easier for the latter due to the Counter-UAV's more uniform hit box.

####DART

The DART is a remote controlled drone that is capable of firing three missiles. These missiles are able to lock onto enemy players and equipment, including all scorestreaks aside from the HATR. The DART itself is also an explosive munition and explodes on contact with any solid object. The DART does not do more damage on a crash if it still has more missiles left to fire.

The DART is an incredibly powerful streak for its cost, with its munitions having a very wide splash damage effect that is virtually always lethal unless the target has Flak Jacket. The Dart can be slowed down by holding down whatever your ADS button/trigger is, making sharper turns vastly easier, particularly in buildings.

When calling in a DART, don't throw it directly in front of you, particularly if you're in your spawn. The reason for this is that the DART will explode when hitting any solid object, including your own teammates; so if someone spawns in at juuuust the wrong time you can lose your DART very easily. Trying aiming upwards and throwing your DART into the air at a more vertical angle. The downsides of this are that you can't do it in a room that doesn't have a very high ceiling and if there's an enemy right nearby it can take a bit longer to intercept them, but it's still the best possible way to deploy a DART.

The lock-on functionality of the DART is both a blessing and a curse, depending on circumstances. At longer distances where the enemy is either not aware of you or otherwise cannot easily get behind cover, the lock allows you to get off frightfully accurate shots that are very difficult to evade, particularly when fired from a much higher elevation than the enemy.

When firing at an enemy that is in a window or behind cover that is at least waist high, the lock-on is of questionable use. The problem is that guided DART missiles tend to aim towards the center of your target, around the abdomen, which can usually result in the missile harmlessly impacting cover, causing no damage. For these targets it's often better to free-fire the missile at the target's general area. If you're currently locked-on to a target that you don't think the missile will be able to hit, simply turn hard to break the lock and then turn back and quickly fire before you lock again.

It's possible to fly a DART underwater with no ill effects. There's not a whole lot of situations where this is really that useful, but it's a quick and easy way to sneak into the hunting lodge on Hunted.

The main downside to the DART is that it takes a lot of practice and a lot of knowledge of map geometry to really get the most out of the thing and not crash quickly. If you haven't had a whole lot of luck with the DART I encourage you to stick with it, it can be very potent once you get skilled with it.

Like with the HC-XD, it's possible to throw a C4 onto a DART. This is incredibly impractical for a whole bunch of reasons: the DART's small hitbox makes it very difficult to actually land the C4, it requires enormous coordination from both players and it runs the risk of the DART potentially hitting an obstacle due to the need to fly lower. It's quite incredible to pull it off, but it's not really something that's going to win the day.

Versus Scorestreaks

The DART is far and away the most versatile anti-scorestreak scorestreak in the game as far as cost and potential go. While the Hellstorm missile is capable of killing any streak in one hit, the DART has advantages including being easier to use against certain targets (notably more slippery targets like UAVs), having more potential chances to destroy targets and not necessarily being out of commission after taking down a scorestreak.

The DART can easily destroy all aerial streaks aside from the HATR and Mothership, the former it cannot reach and the latter it does not have enough ammo to destroy, though it will damage a Mothership severely. UAVs and Counter-UAVs die in a single guided rocket, a Wraith will die in three (without activating the Wraith's flak drone, oddly) and the RAPS deploy ship can be destroyed with three guided missiles plus the DART itself. The Talon is also destroyed in one shot.

Match ups against ground streaks are particularly good, with the Guardian and Sentry Gun dying in a single hit each, with the Cerberus being destroyed in two shots. Power Cores can be killed in two shots, but of course that requires you to throw your DART after the Power Core is deployed. GI Units can be destroyed in a few shots of the DART.

Counters

Like the HC-XD, the DART is extremely fragile in every respect. A single bullet can destroy it instantly, though at close range it can lead to the death of the shooter as well. In a very general sense, the faster a weapon fires, the better it probably is against the DART. The Haymaker 12 is a surprisingly decent DART counter. Don't try to use a launcher, it's not worth it.

EMP grenades are the best equipment counter to a DART by far, due to their high vertical area of effect. Just throwing an EMP in a DART's general direction is usually enough.

Flak Jacket can seriously ruin a DART pilot's day, usually turning an easy single shot kill into a more complicated 2-3 shots, depending on how close the target is to the blast radius. Blind Eye removes the ability for the DART to lock onto a target, but quite frankly if you've got enough practice with the DART, free-firing is not at all difficult and the blast radius of the DART's missiles are substantial enough that it's not a particularly great counter. Engineer is a particularly good proactive solution if you want to actively hunt and destroy the DART. Because the DART can potentially come from a variety of heights and angles and has a fairly small profile when it's coming right at you, being able to highlight it easily with Engineer makes a pretty huge difference, especially when combined with EMP grenades.

Any other streak that can target the DART can kill it, though in practice it's not difficult for a DART pilot to either destroy these streaks before they can retaliate or otherwise stay out of their line of fire. A player-controlled Cerberus can take out a DART fairly easily due to the high rate of fire of their minigun.

It's possible to dogfight with an enemy DART and shoot it down with your own. This is the tightest shit in the entire game.

####Guardian

The Guardian is a placed microwave radiation emitter that creates a cone of radiation straight ahead out to a medium distance. Standing in front of the Guardian causes low damage while greatly slowly and disorienting the player. While the damage from the Guardian is not overly impressive, it can add up rather quickly when in front of the device for even brief periods of time and kill easily kill an injured player. The emission from the Guardian causes a great deal of visual distortion along its effective range, similar to staring down a long desert road on a hot sunny day.

Note that the Guardian only affects enemy players and the person who placed it is immune to its effect. It also causes no effect to enemy scorestreaks whatsoever (at least from what I can tell) and so is unable to kill enemy streaks.

Outside of unusual circumstances, the Guardian's usage is pretty unimpressive in more open areas. Additionally it doesn't fare well in longer sight lines due to its limited range, meaning that even if it's pointing right at an enemy player, if they're fair enough away they can easily shoot and destroy the Guardian easily.

When placing a Guardian indoors, I don't recommend placing it parallel to an entrance to the room, pointing outwards. Aside from the potential vulnerability of the Guardian when placed this way, doing this makes the Guardian very predictable and easy to avoid. Instead, I would recommend placing the Guardian so that its effect is not leaving the room at all while still covering the entrance. This makes it considerably harder to deal with and harder to notice as well, particularly if an enemy is quickly sprinting into the room without looking.

If possible and safe enough, I'd also recommend repositioning your Guardian after a few enemies fall victim to it. One of the keys of getting the most out of a Guardian is trying to stay unpredictable, since they aren't exactly hardy streaks and enemy players can quickly wise up to their location.

Note that if you're killed while holding your Guardian, one of two things will happen: if the Guardian is in a position where it can be placed (highlighted yellow) it will drop to that spot and activate, however if it's in a position where it cannot be dropped, it will be destroyed.

Counters

While there is no actual perk that can prevent the effects of a Guardian, they're actually pretty easy to deal with. The distortion caused by the radiation is a major giveaway and simply looking for that once you hear there's an enemy Guardian is usually enough. Engineer can also help you see where a Guardian is immediately after it has been deployed. If you can flank a Guardian it is usually pretty easy to destroy.

Guardians have low enough health that they can be destroyed fairly easily by sustained gunfire. Rockets work well enough too, but they are not really necessary. EMP grenades are by far the best tool against a Guardian, with a single grenade destroying the streak. Simply throwing an EMP in a Guardian's general direction will do the job.

A DART can also kill a Guardian in a single shot, which is pretty easy since the Guardian cannot retaliate. An unburst Hellstorm can do the same thing.

####Lightning Strike

The player calls in three airstrikes by choosing locations on a map, which gets a brief UAV-style ping to show where enemy players are. When the map is brought out to activate the streak, the enemy team is informed that the strikes are being targeted, even if the streak is canceled and the map is put away. Bombs from the strike go straight to the ground with no angle.

Though the Lightning Strike gives you a radar sweep when you first bring it out, I'd advise you to try to target the strikes a bit further ahead of where your target is in the direction that you think they're probably headed (unless aiming at an objective in something like Domination). If the enemy is near a building they can hide in, it's also worth targeting a strike right outside of the entrance if possible, since the substantial blast radius can often kill players who assume they might be safe.

Because the enemy team is warned when the targeting tablet is brought out by the player, they can often safely get to cover if you take too long to call in your strike.

It's also possible to equip the tablet and then unequip it, warning the enemy team of the targeting but not actually doing it, allowing you to call in a strike a bit later when they might not be expecting it. There's a big downside to this though since you don't get a second radar sweep when pulling out the tablet a second time, meaning that you either need to have a UAV up to help you figure out your targets or know first-hand where enemies are.

The munitions dropped by a Lightning Strike are fairly powerful, though they don't really do enough damage to actually destroy most hostile streaks. For example, even three strikes targeting a Cerberus aren't enough to destroy it, though they will damage it quite severely.

Counters

Ultimately the best defense against a Lightning Strike comes down to listening for the notification that one is being targeted and getting indoors and away from entrances ASAP. The blast of a Lightning Strike is not able to breach walls like the Rolling Thunder, so getting inside is usually enough. Beyond that Flak Jacket can potentially keep you alive if you're far enough from the center of impact.

Notably the only way to destroy a Lightning Strike is by using a Power Core immediately after the strike begins. This destroys the jets and cancels the strike while giving the player who dropped the Power Core the rare TKO medal.

####Hellstorm Missile

The player controls a very large missile that is fired from high above the map, usually coming down at a slight incline. The missile can be steered, but cannot turn around and at best can fly parallel to the ground, though I can't imagine you'd ever want to do this. Hellstorm Missiles can either be used to collide with a target directly or they can burst into a number of smaller mini-missiles that are capable of tracking targets. You can track enemy players by keeping the missile pointed at them; if they've got a white square around them, at least one missile should go after them. The missile can be boosted to greatly hasten its descent.

The Hellstorm Missile is somewhat similar to a Lightning Strike but is generally more versatile and considerably more precise at the cost of not being able to hit multiple sides areas of the map like the previous strike.

Unless you're aiming to kill a scorestreak (more on that below) it's usually better to burst the missile at some point. Busting a missile greatly improves your area of affect, the extent of which varies depending on how high you burst the missile. In general, bursting your missile at a higher altitude can cover more area and theoretically track more targets, but makes it much easier for an enemy to survive the burst if they haven't been locked-on. Bursting higher in the air also gives you less time to adjust your angle, which can lead to problems if, for example, your trajectory causes you to miss enemies hiding behind a wall.

Bursting lower to the ground decreases your burst's area of effect, but greatly concentrates the bombing area and makes it harder to survive if your enemy is either not locked onto or has a degree of cover. Downsides to this approach include potentially having less targets tracked by your burst and also leaving your Hellstorm vulnerable to being shot down.

You can also kill enemies by simply not bursting your missile, which still provides a pretty wide blast radius (seems to be about as big as an individual Lightning Strike bomb) and has the most control by far of all options. This is generally best if an enemy is hiding in a spot with partial cover (IE, on top of them but not in front) and you need to position the missile just right to score the kill. Keep in mind that your missile is vulnerable the entire time you're guiding it to your target.

Versus Scorestreaks

From what I can tell, the Hellstorm can kill any streak in the game with one direct hit. The catch is that in order to do this you can't burst the missile, you need to hit your target with the missile intact in order for it to work. Notably, the following things will die to the Hellstorm:

Mothership

RAPS Deploy Ship

Wraith

HATR (only other way to kill it without a launcher)

This functionality grants the Hellstorm missile versatility dwarfing the DART. The catch is that it uses up the entirety of your missile, so you need to commit to your target and be aware that you aren't going to get any other kills with it. Still, besides the Power Core it's by far the best at killing the higher-end scorestreaks. It does end to not be especially cost effective against lower streaks like UAVs though, best to just use launchers in that case.

Counters

The best way to avoid a Hellstorm is to get inside as fast as you possibly can. You might be out of luck if you're in an open area with many teammates around you (as they will likely attract the missile), but even a small shelter can protect from the Hellstorm. It cannot penetrate any cover like the Rolling Thunder can, so you're usually safe indoors unless the missile comes in at a weird angle or if you're standing too close to an entrance or window.

It's possible to shoot down a Hellstorm missile with a gun and can actually be fairly straight-forward depending on the speed and trajectory of the missile, as well as what kind of weapon you have. There seems to be a range early in its descent where the Hellstorm is immune to weapons on most maps, so you may have to wait temporarily before one of your shots registers. Note that it's possible to get the credit for killing a Hellstorm and still having it burst; there seems to be a brief period of time where the missile is still technically killable but has released its payload.

EMPs can kill a Hellstorm due to their seemingly massive vertical area of effect, but it's something I've had a huge amount of trouble replicating.

Blind Eye can prevent a Hellstorm missile from achieving a lock, but it doesn't offer any protection from splash damage, so it's only helpful if you're far enough away from where the burst was centered. Flak Jacket can keep you alive so long as you don't either take a direct impact from a missile or otherwise get caught in the middle of multiple explosions. Engineer can let you know exactly where a missile is coming from, which can greatly assist in either getting out of the way, or possibly shooting it down entirely.

####Hardened Sentry

A placed auto turret gun that automatically tracks and fires at enemies, can also be remote controlled by the player who placed it. Compared to previous games, the Hardened Sentry differs by having much more health than usual, while also having armored plating that reduces damage from frontal attacks, but it has no extra defense from attacks at the rear.

Uses

Placing the Sentry properly is the most important part of using this streak. You want two things when placing a Sentry: a good line of sight for the Sentry to easily pick up targets and a well-defended area behind the Sentry so that enemies can't easily get behind it and kill it. These qualities can cause the Sentry's effectiveness to vary greatly from map to map; on smaller maps the Sentry Gun can be exceedingly powerful (especially if the other team can't seem to destroy it), while on larger maps with more flanking opportunities, like Hunted, it takes a bit more thought and a bit more luck for the Sentry to be particularly effective.

When placing a Sentry Gun you also need to have a sense as to where your team is spawning, how they are playing (rushing forward really quickly, hanging back a bit, etc.) and what paths the enemy team tends to be using. It's important to place a Sentry in a location where the enemy cannot easily flank it, either due to cover from your teammates or from being in a position that is difficult to get to without being exposed to the Sentry's line of sight. If you think your spawns are about to flip, or already have, either don't place your Sentry or position it in such a way that it can actually take advantage of that fact.

Resist the urge to deploy a Sentry Gun in a window, for instance the windows on the buildings in Nuketown, or the ground floor window near the bridge on the one side of Combine. While this can theoretically help defend the front of your Sentry, it's not really necessary since the front of your Sentry is already hard to damage and more importantly, it greatly narrows the cone of fire possible by the Sentry.

Note that a Sentry Gun has a horizontal range of fire that's a bit higher than 90 degrees, maybe closer to 110 or 120 degrees. While it can't quite turn and look directly next to it, this gives Sentry Guns a degree of flexibility when it comes to placing it. Sentry Guns also have a fairly good degree of vertical targeting as well, though the closer the target gets to the turret, the less vertical tolerance it has.

Note also that the detection range for a Sentry Gun does seem to have a maximum range, but that only really comes into play on particularly large sightlines, the size of which most maps don't have.

Most other AI-controlled streaks will easily defeat a Sentry Gun.

Note that placing a Sentry Gun near a set of spawn points will prevent the enemy team from spawning there, which can be used to anchor your team's spawn and make it much harder for spawns to be flipped. When Sentry Guns are used by a team in larger numbers and placed correctly it can also potentially lead to spawnkilling shenanigans, but please don't do this because it's very shitty to do and also makes your breath smell like shit. (thanks to reddit user EonsHD for suggesting this section)

Counters

Coldblooded makes a player completely immune to a Sentry Gun's tracking, but it's still possible to be killed if they're standing too close to a teammate that the device is firing at. Engineer is also a useful perk to determine not only where an enemy Sentry Gun is, but also where it's facing and is therefore useful in either moving around it safely or finding a safe way to dispose of it.

Launchers can destroy a Sentry Gun from the front in two shots and from the back in one. Shooting a Sentry Gun with a firearm from the front is very time consuming and generally not worth the time it takes to do it, unless firing from behind.

EMP grenades are far and away the best way to kill a Sentry Gun, since throwing just two in the general direction of the streak will destroy it instantly. If you don't have two EMPs, one EMP followed by a rocket, C4 or what have you will generally accomplish the same thing. Paired with Engineer, EMPs can kill a Sentry almost immediately after it is placed. Similarly, Firebreak's Heatwave can dispatch a Sentry Gun instantly.

Smoke grenades can also confuse the tracking system of a Sentry, with the streak being unable to track targets obscured by smoke. This is effective when locking down an objective in particular, but can also be used to fire rockets at the Sentry with it being unable to retaliate.

DARTs and Hellstorm missiles can easily destroy a Sentry Gun, regardless of what angle they hit it from. RAPS drones are also very good at killing the Sentry Gun, although it may be able to gun down a number of them if they land too far away.

####Cerberus

A small ground-based armor-clad drone armed with a minigun and rocket launcher that needs to be brought into the map similar to a care package delivery. The Cerberus can either be remote controlled or otherwise controlled by the AI, in which case it wanders around the map in search of enemies. The Cerberus has a slow movement speed and cannot turn very quickly either. To counter this, the Cerberus is very difficult to kill outside of a few specific counters and is exceptionally well-armed.

When calling in a Cerberus, it's generally a good idea to avoid calling it into the middle of the map, since it's usually painfully obvious to the enemy team where it's going to be which can result in it being badly damaged by launchers, if not destroyed entirely, as soon as it is active.

If you choose to leave the Cerberus to AI control, it can be a nuisance to the enemy team, but is a bit inconsistent. While it is generally accurate with its minigun, AI launched rockets tend to be fairly inaccurate and fire at less than opportune times. The Cerberus AI is also completely fooled by Coldblooded and will flat-out ignore players that have it. In addition, the Cerberus AI is very simple and not the greatest at predicting where enemies are going to come from, which can be a major problem on small maps like Nuketown in particular, where the drone can become easily flanked.

When manually controlled, the Cerberus has enormous potential and is astonishingly deadly if it can be kept alive for long enough. Controlling the drone is relatively straightforward but there's a few things to consider: for one, the Cerberus is not always great at moving up stairs, the higher the angle the more likely it is that it'll have a hard time. For another, the Cerberus is, for lack of a better word, fat, and can get stuck in doors if a friendly player gets in the way. Finally, inclines greatly affect the ability to aim with your Cerberus, since it has a limited ability to aim down and aim up.

Note that by pressing the jump button you can have the Cerberus raise up slightly and increase its height. You won't always need to do this, but it can make it easier to make trickier shots that you don't quite have the height for otherwise.

When using the Cerberus, try not to extend too far into the enemy spawn, in fact, avoid going to their spawn altogether. As an example, if you're playing Nuketown, try to stick with the midfield and let the enemies come to you. Understanding where the enemies are spawning is key to success with the Cerberus so you want to make it as obvious as you possibly can. You basically always want your enemies to coming to you, preferably from the same direction if you can manage it.

The minigun doesn't do a whole lot of damage on its own, but shoots so quickly that it can very quickly kill enemy players. It's your main tool with the Cerberus and is particularly nasty at longer ranges, at close range it can run into problems if your enemy gets behind you.

The rockets on the Cerberus are strange, to put it simply. They seem to be affected by the Cerberus' motion and are not even remotely precise, often swerving off course even at close range. The main use of the rockets is less to hit a target directly and more to saturate a small area, for instance the second floor windows on Nuketown, to either flush enemies out or kill them outright. For long range shooting with rockets, I'd recommend coming to a full stop before you fire in order to make things a bit easier. Note that you can shoot three rocket before needing to reload and there is no way to reload without firing off all of your available rockets.

Versus Scorestreaks

The Cerberus can and will kill any other ground streak it comes across, even with AI control. The only ground streak that can challenge it are RAPS drones, but it can often kill several of them before they take it down. The Cerberus can beat the Sentry Gun, Talon and GI Unit and can usually get out of the situation without taking much damage.

It is possible to destroy air streaks with the Cerberus if you can get at a good enough angle to hit them, but it's generally not time effective since you're usually limited to using your minigun and it takes a while for it to kill most streaks, including UAVs.

Counters

It takes a few rockets to kill a Cerberus, which is fairly easy to do so long as you can flank it and back off after firing a shot. While it can be simple to sneak up on an AI Cerberus, always use caution as a good pilot can easily kill a player attempting to lock on. Don't bother shooting the Cerberus with a firearm, even with FMJ it takes too long to kill it unless it's already badly damaged.

Two EMP grenades will stun and badly damage a Cerberus, following up with a rocket or C4 will destroy the Cerberus. EMP grenades are by far the best way to destroy the Cerberus without a specialist weapon or streak, the stun effect alone can last for several seconds which make it far easier to lock onto the streak. I would even go so far to say that the main reason I've always found the Cerberus to be so deadly is that enemy players almost never seem to use EMP grenades.

A direct hit from the Hellstorm and DART can kill it, making it extremely vulnerable to both streaks. Most specialist weapons can kill the Cerberus, but it requires multiple hits to take down due to the drone's strong armor.

####Rolling Thunder

Calls in a bunch of drones along a long area with huge splash damage that is capable of penetrating cover, particularly thin ceilings. Rolling Thunder drones can be destroyed by gun fire, though it's fairly tricky to do. EMP grenades can do the job as well, though it's a lot harder to do than you'd think. Drones smash into the bombing area in groups of three. Unlike the Lightning Strike, there is no alert to the enemy team when you start to target the strike, but they are notified once the strike begins.

There's really two major things to consider when calling in a Rolling Thunder: where to target to have the best chance of hitting your enemies, and how to avoid calling in the strike without killing yourself. The Rolling Thunder's splash damage range is enormous along its long bombing line and it's notoriously easy to accidentally die while calling it in. So keep your own position in mind when calling it in and try to avoid running into the area.

Rolling Thunder is surprisingly weak against most other streaks. While the overall damage caused by the whole line of bombs is immense, each line of three drones doesn't really do enough to kill most streaks. It seems somewhat inconsistent though, I've seen Sentry Guns be destroyed by a Rolling Thunder strike on rare occasions, but other times they seem to be perfectly fine; odds are direct impacts from the drone might be causing more damage, but I'm not entirely sure and there's no real way to actually plan around that fact. Had a heck of a time testing that.

There's very little to say about this streak. It's very straightforward and its usefulness is highly situation and in some respects dependent on the map. On smaller maps it tends to be much more useful.

Counters

Getting indoors is usually enough, but due to the blast potentially penetrating cover you can still be killed if you're in a building with a thin ceiling or are otherwise near a vulnerable doorway.

In terms of perks, the two of any major importance are Flak Jacket and Engineer; the former can potentially save your life if you're far enough away from the blast and the latter allows you to see where they're coming from and therefore avoid them.

While it's possible to shoot down Rolling Thunder drones, it's much harder than it was when the game first came out and generally takes more than a few shots to drop a drone. They give a pretty decent point bonus when they're detonated, but I still don't think it's a great idea since it's tricky to pull off and odds are you aren't going to be saving your life if you're in the middle of the bombing line.

An Aside

I don't think the Rolling Thunder is especially good, but it can be incredibly powerful in the right circumstances. The main issue is the cost of it, 950 is just a bit too much for what it can do. It's still worth picking, but you have to really get a sense as to when it's worth calling it in.

####Talon

Small aerial drone that can either be flown by the AI or remotely driven by the player. Can fly quite high and potentially hit targets from very far away, but has a weak weapon and minimal armor.

In a sense, the Talon is the aerial counterpart of the Cerberus, but is far more mobile at the cost of survivability, lethality and versatility. When controlled by the AI, it spends most of its time flying near the player and generally shoots at attackers. Unfortunately it is not remarkably bright and isn't especially proactive about targeting enemy players, though it does seem to focus on targeting enemies that are attacking the player. AI Talons also have a tendency to get caught up on level geometry, particularly indoors. While they will rarely get stuck, it usually slows them down quite a bit.

Also note that when the player who calls it in dies, the Talon will usually book it over to where the player has spawned and tends to ignore enemies as it does this, which leaves it extremely vulnerable.

Controlling a Talon is generally the best bet. It's pretty straightforward to control and while its weapon does minimal damage per shot, it's simple to aim and can be effective at longer ranges. When flying a Talon it's important to be aware of how vulnerable it is and try to use it in a more hit-and-run fashion; a Talon isn't usually going to work so hot if multiple players start shooting at it.

Counters

Talons can be destroyed by two rockets, though there's often not much need for that; even bullet-firing weapons can take them down fairly quickly, particularly when combined with FMJ.

Two EMP grenades will instantly kill a Talon and it's not even particularly hard to do. The Talon also seems to be notably weak to C4 when it's flying low enough, with one C4 detonation being enough to ground it. It also has problems against Trip Mines when flying indoors, since it can't really move quickly enough to either descend or get out of the way in time, though it depends on circumstance.

The Talon will lose to just about every other streak: DARTs and Hellstorms can dispatch one easily and Sentry Guns, GI Units and especially Cerberuses can wipe it out without any issues. Specialist weapons fare particularly well against it too, with even Gravity Spikes wiping a Talon out if it's low enough to the ground.

An Aside

I don't want to dunk on the Talon too much, since it's not really bad or anything, but it's generally not worth its cost at all. It's astonishingly easy to destroy for a 1050 point streak and it's not especially versatile.

####Wraith

The Wraith is an active-camo equipped stealth chopper accompanied by a defensive drone. The Wraith has to be pointed at a specific spot in the map, though it will usually automatically change its general location if it can't find targets to hit. The Wraith is very deadly and is one of the better options of the high-end offensive streaks.

The Wraith's has two major defensive measures: first is that it can cloak to make it immune to target locks from infantry launchers (though not immune to damage) and make it harder to spot, second is that it has a small drone flying around it that will impact any approaching launcher projectiles, though the drone will be destroyed in the process. As a Wraith has enough armor on its own to die to two rockets, it effectively requires three to be launched due to the presence of the drone.

Quite frankly, there's not a whole lot more to say on using the Wraith. Aside from where you initially send it, it will target enemies on its own and move to a different location if it can't hit anyone. Note that it seems to be limited to attacking enemy players and will not fire at enemy streaks. Wraiths also tend to focus their attention on enemies that are currently shooting at them, so keep that in mind.

If you've called in a Wraith, be aware that if the enemy team isn't trying to shoot it down and you're not getting many kills with it, you've probably got a lot of enemies hiding indoors. Keep this in mind if you're trying to track down enemy players.

Counters

Blind Eye is the greatest counter against a Wraith and the streak's existence alone is a good argument for having a Blind Eye class available. With this perk the Wraith will not retaliate against a player, meaning that they can easily and quickly shoot it down before it can cause too much damage. When a Wraith isn't shooting at you, it's actually very easy to destroy and isn't a major problem assuming you can take it out quickly.

Without Blind Eye it's still possible to take on a Wraith, but it's much trickier and requires you to be aware of where exactly the Wraith is and whether or not it can fire back. The key is to quickly lock and fire, and immediately get to cover so that you can avoid its retaliation. This makes killing a Wraith without Blind Eye considerably more dangerous and usually much more time-consuming.

Note that while you can attack a Wraith with guns, particularly those with FMJ, you probably want to use Blind Eye to do so, otherwise you'll be extremely vulnerable. Most longer-ranged specialist weapons can kill the Wraith too, but often require a few shots and still benefit from Blind Eye.

Engineer is also a decent perk if you for whatever reason don't have a Blind Eye class, since it can in the very least give you the exact location of the Wraith at all times, which can make it far easier to avoid.

Another major weakness of the Wraith is that it's vulnerable to a number of much more easily obtained streaks. A DART can kill the Wraith in three rockets and can even lock onto the Wraith when it's cloaked. A Hellstorm missile kills the Wraith easily, though the Wraith can sometimes move a bit erratically so this can be possible to whiff. Even a Cerberus can kill a Wraith with enough luck with its rockets, though it's a bit more of a crapshoot than the other options.

In the unlikely event that a Mothership gets called in, it can easily dispatch a Wraith.

Long story short, switch to a class with Blind Eye and fire away.

####HATR

The HATR is similar to the Blackbird and VSAT of previous games, showing the exact location of each enemy and what direction they are facing in real-time, though the HATR is unique in that it can actually be shot down.

When a HATR is called in, it will fly across the map and is vulnerable at all times. It is unique among scorestreaks in that it cannot be hit by bullet weapons and seems to be immune to specialist weapons as well.

There's very little to say about it besides that. You use it and gain an incredibly massive advantage for a limited period of times.

Counters

No perks counter the HATR, though Engineer makes it much harder to see should you want to shoot at it with a launcher. The HATR can be very hard to see otherwise depending on the map.

Launchers capable of lock-on can kill a HATR in three shots, which doesn't sound hard in theory, but is made much trickier by the fact that you will be displayed on the minimap the entire time you're trying to do this. It's best to try to destroy a HATR from your own spawn, but even then an aggressive enemy team can potentially still take you out if they move quickly enough.

The only low-level scorestreak counter to the HATR is the Counter-UAV and it does that job admirably, though note that enemies using Hard-Wired will still be able to see players displayed by the HATR. This makes the Counter-UAV an inconsistent option at best and is dependent on exactly how the enemy team is playing.

Beyond that, the Power Core will instantly destroy a HATR and is by far the easiest way to get rid of one, only held back by how difficult it can be to earn one. A Hellstorm can actually kill a HATR, but it's very hard to pull off due to the HATR's movement and the low margin for error; since both streaks start at very high altitudes you don't have much time to maneuver the Hellstorm to the HATR.

Long story short, if a HATR is up and you haven't got a Counter-UAV or Power Core ready to go, switch to something with a launcher. It's way too powerful to be left unattended.

####Power Core

The Power Core is a large piece of placed equipment that immediately destroys all enemy equipment in use, shuts down the HUDs (including the minimap) and electronics (optical sights), active specialist abilities (but not weapons) of enemy players while also reducing the effectiveness of their thruster packs. The thruster pack debuff isn't a total shutdown, but it gives players affected by it roughly a 50% decrease to maximum thruster fuel for the duration.

Like the HATR, there's not a whole lot to say about the Power Core, but it's important to place it in a place that isn't immediately available to the enemy team. Placing it in your team's spawn is usually a good bet, particularly tucked away in a corner or dead end that the enemy will either have a hard time getting to or otherwise may not see. Note that the Power Core itself makes a very loud humming noise and it's painfully obvious when you are near one.

The Power Core is essentially the ultimate counter to enemy scorestreaks, so if you earn one in hectic fight, it might be worth holding onto it until you need it (IE, right as a RAPS deploy ship is coming in) rather than dropping it immediately. Note that if you do this you might actually make the enemy calling in the streaks leave the game, for better or worse. I've seen that happen many times when playing with the Power Core.

Counters

Hard Wired will protect you from the negative effects of the Power Core, though your equipment and any scorestreaks in play will still be destroyed. Engineer can also let you know exactly where the Power Core is located.

Destroying a Power Core is notoriously difficult for a variety of reasons; it's usually hidden away on the enemies' side of the map, it will probably be well-protected by at least the person who put it down, it has an enormous amount of health, and so on.

If you're in a position to try to destroy the Power Core, it takes at least three rockets to kill it or a great deal of sustained gunfire from an FMJ equipped weapon. Unlike other streaks, the Power Core seems to be outright immune to EMP grenades, so don't bother trying that.

DARTs and Hellstorm missiles can potentially damage a Power Core, but note that you need to have Hard Wired to even be able to use them and you have to call them in after the Power Core has been placed. Placing a Power Core will destroy an enemy Power Core.

Honestly I'd recommend just having at least one Hard Wired class to deal with the thing, it's generally hard to actually find and kill it, so it's much easier to slap on Hard Wired and hope for the best.

####RAPS

Calls in a heavily armored transport that begins dropping waves of RAPS drones, which then roll around the map and explode when they come into contact with players and ground streaks. The RAPS deploy ship will fly to different parts of the map to drop the drones to spread them out. There's no way to really control when it starts, once the streak is select the ship comes in.

Of the higher end streaks, RAPS is no doubt the best in terms of cost, ease of use and potential power. The drones are extremely powerful and can kill a player with one explosion, or two if they have Flak Jacket. The drones are also extremely powerful against ground streaks and will usually overrun streaks like the Sentry Gun and Cerberus without major issues. RAPS drones have a particularly powerful blast radius and are nearly impossible to survive without Flak Jacket.

The RAPS drones have a few problems though. While they are powerful outdoors, particularly on long stretches where they can build up speed, they can run into problems indoors. Frankly, RAPS drones are not especially smart and are can be very clumsy indoors, piles on top of each other in doorways like some awful round and explosive version of the Three Stooges. RAPS drones also explode after a set period of time if they live that long.

RAPS drones are not able to jump or otherwise move vertically either, so they can be avoided by staying at higher elevations or areas that require boost jumping to reach. For instance the large floating rock on Infection is usually safe from RAPS. Note that with sufficient speed and a ramp, RAPS can actually fly off of inclines and stay airborne for a time, so keep that in mind.

Note that RAPS effectiveness varies quite a bit depending on the map. On smaller maps where it's harder to avoid the drones, like Combine, it can be frightfully effective. On larger maps like Hunted, it can actually be a bit disappointing.

Another advantage of RAPS is that, at least from my experience, most players either don't seem to really know what do about them or just accept them. Combined with how well defended the deploy ship is, it's not uncommon to get the full number drone waves from a deploy ship.

Counters

Cold Blooded makes RAPS drones ignore the user and while it doesn't prevent the player from dying when a drone explodes due to a nearby unprotected ally, it's probably the main reason to have a Cold Blooded class ready to go. Flak Jacket can help, but it requires the player to be proactive about avoiding the drones and is overall less effective than Cold Blooded. Engineer is the same way; it makes it easier to find paths away from the drones, but you still have to play around them.

The RAPS deploy ship requires four rockets to destroy or an immense amount of FMJ-enhanced gunfire to take down. If you've got a launcher handy when RAPS are called in I strongly suggest that you make killing it your priority. If you're ready for it, it's pretty easy to kill a deploy ship after it's only dropped one wave of drones, which is considerably less dangerous to you and your team than if it were to drop three.

Specialist weapons are usually a good bet against the deploy ship and weapons like the Tempest and Annihilator can kill the ship in a handful of shots. Just about any specialist weapon that can reach the ship can kill it quickly.

The Power Core is the only sure-fire way to kill the deploy ship before it can drop any of its payload. Beyond that, a Hellstorm can destroy a ship instantly though it's a bit trickier to do and while the DART cannot destroy it, it can cause extreme damage to the ship.

The drones themselves are fairly fragile and can be destroyed through sustained gunfire, particularly from FMJ equipped weapons. As the drones often travel in packs, this is still rather risky as you can quickly be overrun. The XM-53 and BlackCell are poor choices, but the MAX-GL and L4 Siege are actually fairly effective against drones as well.

EMPs and C4 can be used to temporarily disable and destroy multiple drones at once, respectively. EMPs in particular are very useful and can give you and your teammates enough to get away from the drones to either escape or destroy them.

But just to emphasize, please destroy the ship, it's by far your best bet.

####GI Unit

The ~G-Unit~ GI Unit is an autonomous robot called in by a deploy ship. The robot will attempt to follow and cover its summoner by default, but it can also be directed to guard a specific area instead. The GI Unit is highly mobile, to the point that it is able to quickly reach just about anywhere regular players can get to. The GI Unit is also extremely well armored and can take a considerable amount of punishment before dying. The GI Unit has a BRM with infinite ammo and is extremely accurate, making it very deadly at any range. When in melee range, the robot will swiftly kill enemies with a lethal melee attack. The GI Unit doesn't generally react to enemy attacks.

The GI Unit is very powerful, but it's a bit too expensive in relation to its usefulness as the streak has a number of issues. For starters, the GI Unit, while accurate and aggressive, isn't remarkably intelligent and has a tendency to prioritize targets that are less of a threat. For another, the heightened agility of the GI Unit can work against it, since the robot will sometimes take the time the jump up on to higher surfaces (even things like cars) and it will not fire while doing so and it's almost never to the unit's benefit. Finally, the player needs to take caution when calling in the GI Unit as it's not placed in a crate like the Cerberus; so if there are any obstructions between the ground and the deploy ship, even just things like thin branches, it's possible the GI Unit to be caught up on the obstruction and it will die instantly. You need to be absolutely sure that there are no potential obstructions when you call in the robot.

Beyond that, the GI Unit is potentially very deadly and is far and away the best of the ground units to be controlled by the AI. I find it's a bit of a toss-up though; sometimes a GI Unit will constantly mop the floor with the enemy team, other times it's actually worse than just about every other streak. It tends to depend solely on how your enemies are equipped and how experienced they are with dealing with it.

Counters

Cold Blooded makes the GI Unit completely ignore a player that has it and is by far the best perk counter. And really it's the only perk counter, the only other thing that can help is Engineer.

The GI Unit can be killed by both launchers and FMJ weapons, though the former are usually more effective. In comparison to other ground streaks, the GI Unit is much harder to get a lock on due to its fast and erratic movement and tendency to shoot at visible enemy players and on top of that, it takes four rockets. But even then it's still your best bet in terms of time efficiency.

EMP grenades are the absolute greatest tool to use against a GI Unit and will shut it down for several seconds and damage it severely. If you've got a class with EMP grenades and a GI Unit is giving your team grief, I strongly recommend giving it a shot, it makes dealing with it a whole lot easier.

Specialist weapons work decently well, but the Ripper is a massive outlier, particularly with how easy it is to earn and how quickly it can kill a GI Unit. Stabbing the robot with the Ripper counts as a stab, meaning that you can immediately stab it again and again, allowing the streak to be taken down in about two seconds. Make sure the GI Unit has either been affected by an EMP or you have Cold Blooded though, since otherwise it will usually turn around and beat you down before you can kill it.

DARTs and Hellstorms are both extremely effective against the GI Unit, though it takes a few rockets from the DART to finish it off. A Cerberus can also defeat a GI Unit rather soundly, even when the drone is AI controlled. The GI Unit tends to defeat other AI ground streaks easily though.

####Mothership

The highest streak, a massive player controlled VTOL warship armed with both a powerful minigun and guided rockets. It takes some time for the Mothership to arrive to the map when it is called in, during which point the player remains vulnerable. The Mothership can be told to hover over a different area, which can be useful to help gain sight on enemy players. It's also possible to change the targeting view to an infrared mode, though its use isn't really required. Leaving the Mothership manually causes the streak to leave the map permanently. Uniquely, two allied players can also link up to the Mothership and utilize additional miniguns on the streak, though they are of lesser effectiveness than the main weapon.

The Mothership has colossal power and makes it extremely dangerous to be outside for the duration of the streak. The minigun is the Mothership's main weapon, with a very high rate of fire, extreme damage and (from what I can tell) a very small amount of splash damage. The rockets fire by the Mothership are, by contrast, actually a bit disappointing since the four rockets converge on the same point and don't really offer much of an advantage over the minigun aside from killing some streaks faster.

Also note that the Mothership is far and away the best armored scorestreak and is exceedingly difficult to take out with basic launcher, though it's possible if the enemy team is making it their priority.

Generally speaking it's not all that hard to use the Mothership: basically you just shoot at enemy players and tell the Mothership to move to a different location when you aren't able to hit anyone. If you're having trouble hitting people, don't be afraid to use the streak's zoom function to get a better look; players are small and you're flying high in the air so it can be hard to hit more mobile targets.

Note that the Mothership can easily kill just about any streak that's underneath it, which is almost every other lethal streak.

Countering

Blind Eye stops a player from being highlighted by the Mothership, though it's still very capable of seeing and killing players with the perk. Flak Jacket allows you to survive at least one hit from the Mothership's minigun which can be useful but is hardly a proper counter.

It takes six rockets to kill a Mothership, meaning it can be tricky to kill one on your own without dying. Making matters worse is that there are multiple locations that need to be damaged to kill a Mothership. If you can pull it off on your own, fantastic, but it usually requires a team effort to kill it in good time.

FMJ weapons aren't worth it and leave you way too vulnerable. Specialist weapons fare better, but still aren't particularly worth it.

Really the best way to destroy the Mothership is to either deploy a Power Core, or better yet, fly a Hellstorm into it. The Hellstorm will kill the Mothership instantly and is probably the best overall counter to it. A DART can hurt a Mothership, but from what I can tell a single DART can't destroy it on its own.

Honestly though? If you haven't got a Hellstorm or Power Core and it doesn't seem like your team is going to help, I'd suggest just staying indoors if you can and avoid the thing. If you're in the situation where the enemy has called in a Mothership you're probably in a pretty bad position already and there's a decent chance the battle is already lost.

That's it, I'm done.

Most of the info from this post comes from the weapon spreadsheet found on this sub, as well an embarrassing amount of testing I had done. Credit also to some guy named Tabor Hill, who made a video years ago about how many rockets it takes to kill each streak. From what I can tell it was accurate.

Please let me know if I've made any mistakes!

**tldr: always use the DART

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