Getting Started With Dreadnought

I’ve been alpha testing Dreadnought since January 2016. When Dreadnought put out a surprise announcement about closed beta, I was excited to dive even deeper into the game. Unfortunately, when Dreadnought actually started last week, I had to work so I got a little behind the curve. I couldn’t find out how to get pre-approved to stream early, so I just waited until Friday like everyone else. Dreadnought is capital starship combat. I’ve put together a quick little guide to help anyone checking out Dreadnought for the first time.

Choosing Dreadnought Ship Types

I have started focusing on three ship roles. The Destroyer, the Tactical Cruiser, and the Dreadnought itself. I tried the Corvette and the Artillery Cruiser as well, but didn’t find them suited to my playstyle. What each ship in Dreadnought does is easy to equate to classes in an MMORPG. The Destroyer is your Warrior, the standard damage dealer. The Tactical Cruiser is your healer. A Dreadnought is clearly your tank or frontline member. The Corvette is your rogue with stealth and escape tricks. The Artillery Cruiser is your hunter, or longest ranged class. I made a video from some of the better games over the last three days for each of the three ship roles. These are good examples of what you can expect when playing each ship.

Destroyer

There’s always that one class or role in a game that’s a jack of all trades. This is the Destroyer in Dreadnought. It is perfectly average at everything, and I do mean perfect. You can’t ignore the firepower, it has great mobility, and offers a decent distraction for enemies to draw fire from your teammates. In fact, my best game to date was while playing a Destroyer. If you aren’t sure what to play, or want to do a little bit of everything, start with a Destroyer.

Tactical Cruiser

This is your support role ship. The first in the line is the Aion, a more healing focused ship. As you progress, their armament and focus changes. Healing is very easy. In fact, one of my viewers equated it to being “a left click simulator”. It can actually be a pretty active role, and there’s no staring at a tiny box, clicking on health bars. It’s all visual based, and you’ll be looking around A LOT. If you want easy points, or like support roles, this is the ship for you.

Dreadnought

Ahh, yes! Saving the best for last, my favorite, the Dreadnought. It’s your job to draw the fire from your teammates, and dish it out at the same time. You put out enough damage to ensure you’ll get the attention of the enemy team. You’re also extremely slow, and maneuver about as nimbly as a double-decker bus with no wheels. Your job is to hang around medium range and slug it out. When you like being on the front lines, you want a Dreadnought.

Corvette and Artillery Cruiser

I don’t feel like I did a good enough job to show off my gameplay with these ships. Still, I do feel like I can give a good explanation of how they work between having played them, and playing against them. The Corvette is perfect for hit-and-run sneak attacks. Generally it’s target is another Corvette, Tactical Cruiser or Artillery Cruiser, but it can really be anyone your team needs gone. Creep in, blow everything you have, then get out. The Artillery Cruiser is simply a sniper. It has some useful utility tools to cloak and get away, but it’s defining attribute is that sweet, sweet range.

Strategery, Tips and Tricks

There are a few universal things you should be doing. At ship select, make sure you have a balanced team. Not necessarily one of everything, but if there is no Tactical Cruiser to heal, step up and heal. If there’s no Dreadnought to tank, be the Dreadnought your team needs you to be. Once in the game, stay close together. Don’t go charging in on your own, out of range of your own team. Put some pressure on your target until it’s close to dying, then maybe charge in. Use the terrain to your advantage. That’s why it’s there, after all. You can block missiles targeting you if you put something between you and them (along their trajectory). Finally, use your Z axis. I see so many people moving forward, back, left, right – but not up or down. Using that third axis is a key skill you will need to master this game. It will save you when using the aforementioned terrain more times than you can count.

More Dreadnought To Come

Dreadnought is essentially a World of Tanks clone in space, and I love it. I’ll be streaming it quite a bit, and invite you to come check it out. It’s easily everything I had wanted from SWTOR’s Galactic Starfighter expansion! To get in right now, you need a beta code or to purchase a founder’s pack. They come in $9.99 and $39.99 flavors, and in a surprising and welcome move, they come with 2 and 4 recruit packs respectively. Recruit Packs are extra codes for your friends, which reward them with both premium currency AND a premium ship! These are the best founders packs I have seen in any game to date. To sign up for a beta key, just head to the Dreadnought website then wait. On launch day, Dreadnought will be free to play. Capital ships are what got me first interested in Star Wars in the first place, and this is as close to living that dream as I have gotten. So far…