The Last Of Us Multiplayer Guide: From Mere Surviving to Total Domination

I’ve said a lot about Naughty Dog and The Last Of Us previously in my articles, and so I won’t take much of your time to introduce you to The Last Of Us Factions. It is the most intense and addictive format of multiplaying ever. Where every bad match you have costs you points and people. Where every wrong decision leads you to your deathbed and teamwork is the key to success, at all times. So if you prefer the FPS style MP format of Far Cry 3 online or Crysis 3 Hunter Mode, it’s better you refrain from reading any further.

Most of the people I know have compared the complexity and challenges in The Last Of Us as close to you know what, Dark Souls! And to tell you more, this one is Dark Souls with limited guns and even more limited ammo. Survival is like a thorn stuck in your feet, it’s painful but it’s unavoidable. I have had around 10 hours of Multiplayer experience into The Last Of Us, and I feel it is time not to praise the game but to tell you more on how to dominate and win every single The Last Of Us Factions/Multiplayer Match. Well, let’s say try to dominate.

Welcome to The Last of Us: Factions Post-Apocalyptic Rulebook:

 1. Choose Your Swag

The Character Loadout or like I’d like to call it, the Swag, is the key to even begin on this perilous journey. There are four classes to choose, the Assault, the Support, the Ninja and the Sniper. For a change, I really do not have a favourite loadout. I prefer to mix them up and see how my team needs me. As an Assault, you have to be really daring but at the same time the team’s logical gunman. You cannot expect yourself to roam around searching for supplies while they’re getting hit. You cannot be too brave to face them all by yourself. You need a second or two to reload that gun, right? As a sniper, you must move along with your team, but make sure you are further from the gunshots, secluded in a corner with perfect aims on your targets. As a sniper, you can’t rely on your primary gun when enemies come near you, and the handgun isn’t worth it. My verdict, do not engage in personal fights. As a Stealth Ninja, make sure you do not engage in fire unless you have to. The enemies can’t read your position on their radar, so make it to good use. Sneak in from behind, snap their necks open with shivs. Or use the epic TLOU bow as it doesn’t blow your cover. As Support, make sure you stick around your teammates. It’s easy to fight, and it’s even harder to be a support in TLOU MP. Perhaps the reason why every team has a Support player who bags the most points at the end of every round. The Support’s primary job is to craft items and pass on, or heal a fallen teammate. Healing is extremely necessary, you cannot allow a single teammate to die, because rounds are based on who survives, and at what cost, till the end.

Besides the compulsory loadout, you also have points to customise your own loadout. There are various custom advantages available. Some hide you from enemy map while you’re crouched (Covert Training), while others give you the power to heal your mates by simply aiming at him from a distance (Healer). Each Loadout asset is equal to a reasonable cost deduction, so you really can’t become a master of all. My favourite combination would be:

Marathon Runner Level 1– Sprint for 15 points longer and energy replenishes by 15%. It’s a gift of an asset because there will be times when you would just run into danger and you will need to turn your back and run back to where your teammates are.

Covert Training Level 2 – You start with a shiv (for stealth takedown) on every respawn. Plus you don’t show up on enemy radar while crouched and crouch walking.

Healer Level 1 – You heal teammates 30 times faster and with 30% more health. This is a must!

Hawk Eye 1 – Marks enemy that lasts for 3 seconds longer than a normal person marking him.

2. Live and Die as a Wolfpack

The most important thing about TLOU Factions is that it teaches you on how to master your communications and win or die as a team. If you have teammates who run into every single trap, then you are surely going to end up on the losing side. This isn’t your Counterstrike where you can just camp for days and nights, the levels are pretty open and you often show up on your enemy’s radar. My verdict, stick around, but not too close enough ( a single Molotov or Shrapnel Blast can kill all of you. Watch out for each other’s backs and always respond to your radar. Do not run towards a red blip on your map, which might as well be a trap. Do not fire guns when you’re not in range, it’s going to cost you bullets. Find covers, chase them like a wolfpack.

When someone from your team is down, help him out before the enemies execute him and turn him into a corpse. But if you try to become Mr. Charity, you are probably going to go down along with him. If the enemy is still in sight and healthy then cover your fallen friend and keep firing at the target until he is down. You will have some seconds on you. Use that to heal your friend. Stay together until the end.  If all of your mates are dead and you’re the last one standing, listen to what they say on the mouth pieces. They are turned into spectators who can see your position versus any incoming enemy. Hear them out and work accordingly, you can never fail.

3. Always Mark Your Enemy

Probably this part of the article should be taught to you by someone like Raphael Varane or John Terry, jokes apart, always mark your opposition if they appear on eye sight. The first itch is always to draw first blood, but no, take your time, press R3, when he’s marked, it is easier to shoot him down like a team. All eyes upon one, as you laugh on the dreadful face of the marked enemy as he is going down. Marking an enemy has two plus points: 1. Your teammates can co-ordinate on you to take him down. 2. He somehow becomes weaker as soon as he is marked, an in-game benefit maybe.

The enemy escapes the mark after the countdown, and your job is to secure he is dead and cold before he runs for an escape. Engage in 1 vs 4; that will easily get you more heads, instead of going 1 vs 1. Mark upto 3 enemies, but you can never get the time to secure all three heads in one marked timespan.

4. Never be the first one to Fire

Every time you fire, you are shown on the enemy map. Even if you finish off your enemy and run into a cover, your blip stays for some time. It becomes a mouse trap for your enemies to finish you off. If there’s a 1 vs 1 scenario, always opt for melee and run out of danger to heal yourself. There are plenty health kits in the maps, use them to stay protected. Like always.

Remember Troy? How Achilles’ mother told him not to be the first one to step on the Trojan sands, because the first one always dies. So….

5. Scavenge and Craft As Much

There’s a reason why there are item stashes left in the world. For you to tread on as many as you can, get your daily supplies, make the concoction, and create better ammo. After a certain point of time, scavenging becomes halfway easy because by then you already remember where to find those stashes. But the latter half is the more painful, escaping the eyes of the enemies to collect items from the stashes. Always get a friend to guard your back and together you can find and make molotovs, smoke bombs, shrapnel bombs and stuff from the items.

Also, you can find stuff like tapes and scissors that can upgrade your melee weapon into one having a sharp edge. One full blow and the enemy will be gone from the game, unlike when you’re hitting him with just the bat or raining punches on each other.  These boxes also open and give you points that you can spend in the store (while the game is on) to buy ammo, bulletproofs and loads more. After you have executed an enemy, remember to collect the stash left on his corpse, as it will give you better items to craft as reward.

Every scavenging act will easily give you supply parts that you will come back with.

6. Reload and Buy Items whenever you are not being attacked

There may be an instance when you will be leading a gunfight and suddenly you will run out of ammo and fall dead out of no reasons. That’s why you should always check your gun status before you venture out into the unknown.

Buy ammo if you have run out of any, or maybe pair yourself up in a bulletproof jacket. All this not while someone is attacking you, but while you have the time for yourself in TLOU Factions.

7. Keep a tab on the supplies

Sticking to the team is the core aim of any TLOU team, but it is you who will fight for your supplies at the end of the day. If your team thrives and you suck, you will come home empty handed. If you fight well and still lose out, you are not that wasted. Supply items are wanted by the survivors you are supporting in the RPG format dashboard of TLOU Factions. The more the population, the more the demands. Keep doing challenges as they appear on the dashboard to keep them alive. Every kill, every heal, every scavenging, every crafting, every round win is tallied as supply points. Be on top.

The Last Of Us Factions have been a rollercoaster revelation for me, majorly because I didn’t look forward to a MP mode much as I looked forward to Joel and Ellie’s story. It’s not luck at the end of the day that makes you win a round, look out for enemies, look back on your allies, and plan every move before you shoot that first bullet. Have a great fight ahead, and stick to your Firefly or Hunter partners.