¶ Helicopter Crashes
|
| 6 to 7 Hostile AI |
| 3-4 Red Keys |
Heli Crashes are difficult and risky, but provide unique rewards.
These Events are rare, and only a few periodically spawn on even the most populated servers. Heli Crashes are always in outdoor areas, with little more than hills and trees to use as cover. The Heli Guard AI is some of the more difficult variants in the game, only comparable to the Convoy guards. The reward crate is very exposed, usually in an open area. But, the reward crate is very valuable, dropping at least three Red Keys, and some Dynamite sticks. PvP is very common at these events, Heli Crashes often result in multiple players engaging in a sniper battle, or mid range outdoor combat.
¶ Fighting the AI
Even experienced players can be killed by these guards if they don't approach this event correctly. So, understanding how they function is critical when approaching a Heli Crash. When this Event spawns, the Heli Guards will be standing around the Crashed Mi-8, guarding the reward crate. There will be 6 to 7 guards total. The Guards stand around the Heli in a circular pattern, scanning for any players. Here is an image of what this can look like;
The Guards have excellent vision, awareness, and aim. They use some decent weapons, these are RPK-mods, AK-Mods, AK-SMs, and Mosins. Once a player opens fire on the Guards, they will most often immediately return fire, even at long distance. Their awareness and vision is great, and their accuracy is very good. Players will often get shot through bushes, their arms and legs can be shot from behind trees, and the Guards will track a player moving even behind cover for an amount of time. This makes them challenging to fight, and an unprepared player will likely be run down.
Like Epic Mission AI, the best strategy for fighting them is to either be very close, or very far away. This is so you can either drop them with shotguns before they can open fire, or drop them with snipers outside of their effective range. If you do attempt to fight the Guards at medium ranges, say ~100M, make sure you have very good cover. They will kill you much faster than you can kill all of them at that range. A very popular choice for fighting the Guards is to grab a good sniper, like a Mosin, VSD or NK417, in combination with a good 4x scope. This is typically done from very far away as to stay out of their effective range. A good distance to choose is around 275M, although futher couldn't hurt. Make sure you crouch while sniping, if you stand up, they are more likely to spot you, or hit you. Going prone is a bit risky, since it limits your movement
Another method is to fight them up close, however this depends on the location that the Heli crashes in. Most of the time, there will be little to no cover around the Heli, so this strategy is impossible. But there are a few Heli Crashes that land in an area with large rocks, or thicc trees. Using these as effective cover, you could bait the bots closer into you, and kill them with something as simple as an M133.
¶ PvP & Looting
If you play on a PvE server, this section does not apply. However, most players will have to deal with some sort of PvP during a Heli Crash. The amount of PvP can vary heavily on the location of the crash itself.
One of the most risky parts of the Heli Crash, is actually trying to profit from it. The bots and the reward itself are pretty much always exposed in an open area without cover. This makes it very easy for a patient player to wait while you kill the bots, and then snipe you at the reward crate. Other thing to look out for is fresh spawns waiting for you to kill or bait away the Guards, so that they can get to the reward crate while the guards are distracted. Looting bots is even riskier, since you do not have the Heli itself to use as cover. So, its very important to be quick at Heli crashes, taking only what you absolutely need from the reward.
Here is an image of the Heli Reward, its always located on the left side of the Heli, under the wing;
The types of players you will see contesting the Heli Loot can vary drastically, fresh spawns will try to pick up guns from the dead Guards, and fully geared teams will try to take control of the area to take everything. So, its extremely important to be mindful of your position, and be ready for anything. One of the things that makes this difficult is that in a lot of crash areas, bushes provide tons of concealment for a sneaky player. Map knowledge can be very important during these events, because any little feature in the terrain can give you the upper hand in the fight.
Once the Loot Crate has been opened, and the Heli Guards killed, the crash and event itself will only despawn if there are no players within render distance (400M). So as long as there is at least one player within 400M of the event, it will not despawn, letting you know someone is around
¶ Rewards
You will always get at least one item from each of the spawn pools listed below:
¶ Red Key Spawns (3-4)
¶ Possible Medical Pool (6-8 Items Max)
¶ Possible Repair Kit Pool (1-2 Items Max)
- Tier One Repair Kit
- Tier Two Repair Kit
- Tier One Armor Repair Kit
- Tier Two Armor Repair Kit
¶ Possible Ammo Pool: (6-7 Items Max)
- 9x19 (100)
- .45 ACP (100)
- 5.45x39 (100)
- 5.56x45 (100)
- 7.62x39 (100)
- 7.62x54R (50)
- 308 (50)
- 50 BGM (10)
- VG-25 (3)
¶ Possible Explosive Pool:
- Cellphone
- Dynamite Stick