If you didn’t get enough out of our Hybrid build guide or are simply curious about how the folks at 5th Cell play Hybrid, check out these tips and tricks from the QA team. If you need more, there’s even some level guides available now as well.

Attacking

Jump Jetting

• Dodging: Get used to moving around while you’re attacking to avoid enemy fire. Not only will this tactic make it hard for your enemy to shoot you but the bots won’t be able to hit you if you’re moving in a circular motion.
• Boost Timing: Use boost often, but make sure you have it ready when you need it. Boost right when you take off and a second before you land to get through the landing sequence faster. If you boost too late, you won’t be able to fire for a short time after landing.
• Retreat: Make sure to retreat if you’re low on heath or something unexpected occurs. If you’re low on heath, try not to land at a cover in the enemies view since the landing sequence is slow.
• Scanning: You can use your selection arrow to identify an enemy’s position even if they are obscured from view. Select a cover you think an enemy is hiding and jump jet to it. While jetting to the cover press the vault button (Y) to move your selection arrow to the far side of cover and move it from side to side. If your arrow gets displaced from one of the main 3 positions there is an enemy there. Read More

For those of you out there still fighting the good fight between Variants and Paladins, we’ve got some extra assets for the war effort. 5th Cell was kind enough to send us some full images of each map currently available in Hybrid. They’ve color-coded the maps and we’ve added IDs to each cover (they’re different from the ones in-game because these are easier) for your assistance. Orange cover areas are ground-based, purple ones are below ground/other cover, and green ones are on the walls. We’ve provided some simple tips for you to design map strategies around, but feel free to download the maps and work your own magic on them.

Airfield

• Combat tends to localize over N, N1 and N2, controlling N1 and N2 simultaneously leads to map domination
• There’s a route from R1 – R3 and B1 – B3 which is great for escapes and surprise attacks
• R and B are the most defensible positions on the map, artifact/overlord gameplay will almost always centralize around those two points
• Having people at both R1/R3 and B1/B3 respectively is the key to removing map dominance from N1/N2
• The B2/R2 and B4/R4 spots on the map are great hiding places for catching people off guard, waiting for regeneration or resetting cooldowns

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Update: We now have a section on general tips & tricks sent to us by the QA team at 5th cell as well as level guides coming soon.

Welcome to our Hybrid build guide! This guide will provide builds to use throughout each of Hybrid‘s modes and are designed to account, collectively, for a good 90% of the game. Hybrid is designed with a lot of variety, in fact it’s one of the things we liked in our review, so ultimately you and your team mates will deviate from builds, even the ones we have made for you here. However, it’s important to have a starting point, especially if you’re not familiar with Hybrid regarding what actually matters and what doesn’t. For instance, most shooters don’t subscribe to the idea of “suppression”, it’s usually not very effective, but it works in Hybrid and it works well.

Do enjoy the builds we’ve provided for you here, but keep in mind that these are starting points! Add your own flare or personal preference to really do well with them. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment on the guide and in a few weeks we’ll add good ones to a community section at the bottom of the guide. While the builds we’ve created for you here are more general, feel free to get ridiculously specific- all the way down to map and mode.

Enjoy the guide, and enjoy the game!

P.S. Variants represent clan tag [XF] Read More

Ever since the dawn of time man has dreamed of flight.

Okay well that might be a bit hyperbolic, but certainly the popularity of science fiction and the curious mind of one Leonardo Da Vinci are why we are so in love with jetpacks. Strapping a super-powered engine to your back and floating around the sky, all the while hoping your butt doesn’t get singed, this must indeed be the pinnacle of mankind’s achievements, should we ever arrive there. In the mean time, Hybrid‘s got all the jetpackin-est action we could hope for and more, and it’s one of the best implementations of a jetpack in gaming history. No, that’s not hyperbolic.

Hybrid is a simple game, when you strip away some of the superficiality. It’s a third person shooter that’s one part cover-camper and one part on-rails bullet hell. Sound strange? It should. This three versus three competitive multiplayer (only) game mixes the strategy of locking to cover with the skill and reflex-reliance of strafing and shooting while flying through the air.

The whole game centers around this mechanic, wherein you select a location to travel to, rather than manually moving there and directing your character. Once in the air, you can speed up, strafe in all directions with your jetpack, return to your previous cover or select a new location. When in cover, you can move along the walls or hop over them, but that’s it. The game is loadout-based with a dense armory system which grants you an unlock for any weapons or abilities you’d like from a specific category every time you level up (like Gotham City Impostors).

On top of the actual gameplay during matches, there is also this massive global war meta game to account for. Five continents divided into 20 districts each must be fought over to gain dark matter for your faction. The Variant and Paladin factions contest these zones, completing matches in a zone they select to progress its capture; the better the team does, the more progress they make. The first faction to 100 dark matter wins the season and is awarded with a special helmet and achievement. Read More

Third-person shooter Hybrid released Wednesday with a fairly turbulent launch. For most of the day the servers were unavailable, leading Microsoft to pull the game from the marketplace to prevent players from purchasing something they couldn’t play. As an online only game, Hybrid’s release yesterday reiterated that when the plug is pulled on the servers, the plug is pulled on the game itself. As such, the value of the game relies upon players continuing to purchase and play it. The game will eventually peak and decay until the moment there are no longer enough players to sustain the servers and developer 5th Cell decides to pull the plug causing the game to cease to exist. As such, 5th Cell has done everything they can to keep players interested long term creating a Meta Game involving a war between two factions: Variant and Paladin. The issue is the Meta Game is broken.

Hybrid focuses on three on three squad-based matches. The game adds a unique twist in the sense that ground movement is limited to moving along cover and flipping from one side of a wall to another. The majority of movement occurs in the air. Players can beeline from one cover to the next using their jetpacks and changing their end destination to any visible cover. Players can move up and down or left and right while in the air in order to strafe and avoid incoming fire. Imagine having a string between the two covers that can be pulled in various directions to an extent, but the movement is tethered. The result is a highly unique and interesting flow of combat that Todd will be discussing in depth in his forthcoming review.

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Check out the world war in Hybrid, the new Trials Evo track and the sales and specials going on!
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Update: 10:00 PM EST

5th Cell has located the problem and is now fixed. The game has shown up on the marketplace for download/purchase. They did say it might …
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While Hybrid may be a match-based multiplayer shooter, the newest trailer shows how the overarching game can be just as important as a single battle. When you start the game, …
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5th Cell’s third-person shooter Hybrid will have a bountiful list of unlockables, including helmets, weapons, and specializations, all of which can be earned through natural progression. Those who want to get these …
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Developers 5th Cell and Mojang have announced that they’ll be teaming up to bring Minecraft helmet skins to Hybrid. Players who manage to reach level 20 in the upcoming …
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