Struggling Against Xeno? (Updated Guide)
Hey you, yes you. Are you struggling as Survivor against Xenomorph?
Well I have the news for you, consider this a mini guide on how to play against Xenomorph and tips and tricks for dealing with Xenomorph.
The Part Where I Talk About Turrets...
First off, turrets, at least in the current state, are far from weak like people have been saying. Turrets actually have bugged hitboxes and sometimes hits do not register due to elevation differences or things directly blocking the hit, it is very important to consider this when playing as/against Xenomorph.
So, where you should you place turrets?
Turrets should always be placed in the outside of a loop, preferably on the longer side. It is important to consider line of sight blockers when placing turrets, you want a position with the most viability.
A visual example using 1 loop has been provided below:
In the example above...
- The light blue represents walls and windows.
- The red represents lockers.
- The yellow represents pallets.
- The greens represent totems and hooks.
The purple is where you should place the turret, notice how it has a wide line of sight since it is placed on the outside of the loop, thus controlling more area than just the loop itself (thus providing slowdown even when not looping since it blocks a huge path). When placing turrets, you always need to keep line of sight in mind and place them with thought rather than carelessness.
It is also important to note that line of sight of the Killer itself is only broken up by things that have physical collision, so placing turrets inside of bushes, tall grass, or another form of foliage is a really good idea since it makes things tougher for the Xenomorph to hit.
I would provide an example for every single loop but due to RNG this topic has a lot of nuance to it, so it is important that you learn this skill by yourself!
Double turret strategy...
Double turrets can be really strong when placed right but can be rather time consuming compared to conventional strategies.
To elaborate, when two turrets are placed side by side, they still build up the heat meter at relatively the same rate, however one of them will act as a distraction while the other turret will completely remove Xeno from their power.
While not the best visual aid, I have provided an example below:
From my experience with playing as/against Xenomorph, when done right, this strategy will always guarantee that Xeno loses their power and can effectively create a safezone on the map for you. There are downsides and upsides to this strategy, so I would recommend experimenting.
Information...
Turrets can provide a lot of information that most people otherwise ignore:
- While carrying a turret, you will hear beeping from the motion sensor when the Xenomorph is close, this effects also applies when the Xenomorph is in a tunnel, you can use this information to avoid being caught while carrying a turret.
- Turrets become disabled whenever the Xenomorph enters a tunnel, if a turret is close by while you are working on a Generator (and you are aware of the possibility of information perks), you can quickly assume when you need to leave the Generator in advance with this information.
The Part Where I Talk About The Tail Attack...
Now that you have a basic understanding of where you place turrets, it is now time to move onto the tail attack.
Xenomorph's tail attack actually has a lingering hitbox, kind of like a long and narrow cylinder that pulses in and out of existence. Keep this in mind when facing the Xenomorph since there are various techs that can be used with this lingering hitbox.
- Xenomorph can actually hit over objects with this, by aiming upwards and dragging down, the Xenomorph can hook over the objects to hit Survivors. This can be insanely tricky to pull off since the window for doing so is quite small, but you must keep this in mind when playing as/against Xenomorph.
Xenomorph should be treated like Nemesis in a sense.
The best course of action when facing against Xenomorph is to greed pallets and bait them into hitting things they shouldnt, while not conventional, I have found that the best way of doing this is to look forwards when going into a window or pallet but moving out of the way before getting too close to it.
A visual example has been provided below:
What about playing against a Xenomorph that knows what they are doing?
You can rely on audio cues from Xenomorph's tail attack to potentially avoid being hit (but it requires a bit more experience to pull off) or use your knowledge of the Killer and their playstyle and adjust accordingly... just like any Killer, it is important to be flexible, unpredictable, and never give them an easy hit.
Read the Killer, react, if they change up how they play, you also need to change up how you play, this is an important skill to pick up on to begin with and doing well against Xenomorph heavily relies on this.
The Part Where I Talk About Perks...
There are a lot of perks that make Xenomorph far weaker. Obviously these perks are not necessary but can help a lot, I have made a small list to help with this:
- Urban Evasion: Helps with avoiding the Tail Attack by providing more flexibility in movement.
- Sprint Burst: Insane Speed-Boost that can help with avoiding the Tail Attack and allow you to put yourself in a better position after they come from a tunnel.
- Made For This: Makes evading the Tail Attack easier, 3% can make a significant difference from going down or not.
- Overcome: If the Tail Attack or Basic Attack does hit you, you can use this perk to get a significant amount of distance and waste a lot of time.
- Resilience: Makes windows far safer to take, also provides a lot of general utility.
- Wiretap: With the recent changes to Wiretap, you can place it on a blocked or regressing Generator, it can help a lot with not being mindgamed.
- Fixated/Self-Aware: Makes carrying turrets much easier, general utility perk.
- Residual Manifest: Removes a lot of the information Xenomorph receives while in their tunnels, which can sometimes disorient and confuse them while they are traveling around (note that this is semi-countered by marking exit spots however not every Xenomorph Ive seen has done it, it depends on the Killer mostly).
Closing Statements...
Xenomorph is still a rather new Killer, and rather than dismissing them as weak or stating that they are overpowered, I think people should use the opportunity to learn how to play against them.
I also realized how much I suck at drawing on a mousepad... I normally use a drawing tablet... Im good at drawing, I swear.
Also, Im not trying to make this an "end all be all" guide since Xeno has a lot of nuance to them, as always, I would encourage learning more about the Killer ingame more than anything else, Ill continue to update the guide when I have access to new information, so if you do want to live behind some tips and tricks for other players, Ill test them out personally then add them with proper credit where it is due.
Comments
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Thanks for this
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Also keep in mind, that mindgame will not work on most good / vet killers. I go into every match expecting every survivor to do the last minute dodge, so it never works.
So a note to struggling xeno players, be patient. Anticipate the mindgame; free m1 if they try it, tail attack if they don’t. Also don’t respect every single pallet..
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Your drawings are adorable, don't apologize for them. <3
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Something important to note, unlike Nemesis tentacle that will keep the hitbox throughout the entire animation. Xenomorph's hitbox goes away once it collides with anything.
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On thing about the "just dodge the tail". you can't do that based on input, you only can gamble.
the tail has a wind up time of 200ms. if both players have an average ping of 50 ms, that means 50ms go by until the survivor can see the tail wind up. if the survivor has the world fastest reaction time he lose another 180ms before his finger can press a button. so you got hit 30 ms before you can react to any audio or visual clues. and dont forget the additional 100ms that takes to show the survivors action on the killers screen, which has priority for hits. I don't even want to get started on the size of the hitbox and how many meters you move in ms and how the xeno can drag the lingering hitbox.
in summary: it is not possible to dodge the tail attack just by reacting. you can only gamble and if the killer is somewhat competent, then he aims for the middle of your hitbox and always hits because of ping.
edit: corrected the ping math
Post edited by Nirgendwohin on7 -
It's like death slinger quickscoping in that sense except this dumb killer suffers zero repercussion for missing.
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How do you stop the Xeno from getting a free hit on you or your teammate when grabbing a turret while the Xeno exits the tunnel in the first place? That appears to be a very common problem, especially in early game. The person goes to grab a turret, Xeno explodes the turret while exiting the tunnel. Alternatively you get the turret, but walk 2 steps before Xeno jumps out of the tunnel, and you are either locked into the ~2s drop item animation, or forced to waddle towards a loop while carrying the turret, hoping the injured chase will be better off.
Also to echo Nirgendwohin, what about when the Xeno calls your bluff at a loop? They just get a free M1 instead. Where is the counterplay? Where is the slowdown on miss?
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Which is exactly why Xeno's tail is going to get a deserved nerf eventually. Killer mains can fight against it by saying "lol it's not that strong git gud bro!" but they know it will happen.
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How about putting up two turrets within the same vicinity? It seems like two turrets should knock Xeno out of their power even with the resistance addon
Tail mechanics aside, it seems like when people are complaining about the turrets, it’s like complaining that one EMP that activated automatically when Singularity is nearby didn’t remove their infection. If it becomes too easy to remove Alien from runner mode with one flamethrower, it’s Singularity 2.0 all over again.
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I appreciate this and will keep the tips about turrets in mind. As for the tail attack, if you fake a window / pallet to avoid the hit you'll get hit by M1 unless you have enough distance on the killer, so far I think the best course of action is just holding w and pre-dropping (if you're far enough to avoid the tail).
(and I love the Kirby-like survivor drawing btw)
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Believe it or not, but I was intending on adding this, but didnt because I had college classes, now that Im done with my colleges classes, I have updated the guide by including the double Flamethrower Turret strategy as well as perks that help against Xenomorph.
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This also its best to make distance and not loop
A xeno player wants you to loop as they get more chances to hit you with their tail quicker than having to close the distance again before hitting you with their tail
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Thanks for teaching.
I like this
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