Tactical

Tacticals are the main and most important ability pilots will use. They vary from use to use. They will play the biggest role in the pilots playstyle.

There are 7 to choose from

Cloak

Pilot turns invisible, invisibility will be more effective to enemy titans.

Cloak is the default and very useful ability on Titanfall 2, On frontier defense it is the perfect ability to recon and avoid death. Cloak will immediately stop once a weapon is fired. Rodeoing titans while cloak is active will cause you to temporarily be visible but you will turn invisible once again after you are off the titan. Throwing any ordnance while cloaked will not stop the cloak. Sonar from Tone or pulse blade will make you visible while cloaked. If you receive any damage while cloaked it will make you visible. Executions will reveal you, melee will temporarily reveal you. Cloak is good for pilots who want to rodeo without the fear of being seen, It will also allow you to use ordnance in circumstances that would be too dangerous such as avoiding stalkers or ticks. There is no need to use the Low Profile kit since the frontier defense enemies don’t count jump jet trails as a sign of a pilot. Some strategies that cloak can be used for are as follows: if you plan to farm titan batteries. If you are a pilot who uses nuke rodeos consider equipping cloak. An all around solid choice and beginner friendly. Exercise trigger discipline when cloaked so you don’t remove it too fast.

Pilse Blade

Expose all enemies through surfaces with a sonar emitting throwing knife.

Pulse blade can be useful on insane but is outshined by many other tacticals as this one provides no pilot buff. Additionally if the sonar blade hits a small enemy or pilot it is an instant kill. Sonar blades can work well with good players and communication. Pulse blade can make openings for plays by revealing enemies. Enemies revealed by pulse blade Overall this tactical is not recommended. Sonar blade will contribute to support score.

Grapple

Grapple is the perfect all around parkour ability. There is a learning curve to the grapple hook but with time a good pilot will be able to slingshot themselves with momentum for faster air mobility. It can be very advantageous to use grapple on maps with lots of buildings and high rooftops. Grapple can be used on reapers and titans regardless of its ally or foe. Hence making rodeo easier. Grapples can be used to get out of dangerous situations like nuclear ejection. Grappling onto ticks will cause them to be pulled towards you so be careful. This tactical is all about mobility so pilots who need to prefer parkour will benefit from this. Pilots that main snipers can also benefit with it like on Angle City or Colony allowing you to go up to places that can’t be reached or that will take considerable time to reach. Grappling hook is also a good beginner friendly ability for those who have trouble wall riding properly. Grappling hook does lose some of its usefulness with skilled pilots that can parkour without it in favor of using other tacticals. Grappling hook has physics mechanics so learn them to make the most out of it. Enemy Titans that you grapple on will have an audio que and a visual warning that they are being grappled too. (More elaborated about grapple in the movement guide).

Stim

Quickly heals and boosts your speed for a short time.

Stim is the bread and butter for run and gun pilots. Being able to get an instant momentum boost while giving you a boost to healing can help in many ways. Stim can help you evade death such as a nuke ejection. Stim can be used as a quick way to regain health. Since stim has a long cooldown using the Power Cell kit can help. When you plan to use stim avoid grabbing onto ledges as it will cancel your momentum. Avoid using your jump kit to change direction, only if you must as it will cease all momentum from stim. Wall riding and crouch hopping will allow the pilot to get the most out of the speed boost. Stim is excellent for pilot-only runs where you need to reach point A to point B fast. Many weapons do well with stim like alternator or shotguns, or any weapon with the Gunrunner mod, assuming the pilot has the skill for certain weapons. Stim can clear the distance and decrease death when rodeoing enemy titans. A perfect tactical for those who like the fast paced pilot gameplay.

A-Wall

Pilot sized Particle shield that amps outgoing shots.

A-Wall is the best tactical for pilots who like to sit back and hold the left mouse button, the perfect tactical for holding down an area since it is not mobile. A-Wall will deploy to where the pilot is looking, be mindful that the pilot tosses the projector so look at your feet if you want the A-Wall right in front of you. All ordinances benefit from the A-wall. A wall is perfect for maps that spawn lots of titans first wave like Rise. Combining SMR with A-wall is heavily recommended. Its value drops considerably after wave one when amped weapons can be bought. So equip a different tactical after wave one is completed. A-wall will block incoming shots acting like a shield so this will help with survivability. A-wall has a very long cooldown so it is heavily recommended that you equip the Power Cell kit when it’s equipped.

Phase Shift

Teleports pilot into an alternate space for a short time.

Upon activation the pilot will teleport into another reality for a few seconds. This is the best survival tool that any pilot can hope for, although it requires game sense and timing since the activation takes a bit before you’re immune. Once activated you are immune to any and all damage while active. Phase dash is recommended if you have Nuclear ejection equipped on maps with ceilings to avoid death. Phase dash can also be used to prevent death from nuke eject rodeo. Phase dash adds a lot of survivability to your pilot if used correctly. If you are going to use it to prevent your death from a nuclear ejection, make sure to time it correctly by waiting a second and then activating it so the after blast of the nuke ejection doesn’t kill you. Since you die very fast as a pilot it requires a huge amount of skill and game sense to predict and prevent death. A solid choice for preventing death. All pilots can benefit from learning how to use this Tactical.

Holo Pilot

Creates a holographic copy of yourself mimicking the actions you were doing.

Holo Pilot’s will travel in a “straight” line and don’t have collisions with enemies or ally units. Holo Pilot has amazing utility and survivability on frontier defense, since all enemies treat it as an actual pilot, you can bait out attacks on titans and such to help you survive or to find openings to attack. Holo pilot is very useful for stalkers as they will focus their EPG shots at them instead of you. Holo pilot has 2 charges and it has a very short cooldown making this a very good distraction tactical. Holo pilot in the right hands can reduce the risk of death of your team by a huge amount. In summary Holo pilot is a bit of an underdog, it provides no direct way of dealing extra damage so keep that in mind. Avoid using holo pilot on maps that require lots of moving around like Angel City or War Games, instead a good stim or grapple will do better.

(Bonus information) Rodeo cooldown bounty

Pulling a battery will instantly refresh your tactical

Adding a battery to friendly Titan replenishes tactical cooldown

A useful hidden tip when you rodeo, if you activate your tactical or if your tactical is on cooldown already and do a hostile rodeo, you will gain back your lost cooldown time when on the titan(only if your tactical is active during rodeo sequence) and reduced cooldown time. This is most apparent on cloak since it gives a big bounty once successful, continuing your already long cloak timer. This is useful for pilots who use stim as well since its cooldown passes fast. Essentially you can do multiple rodeos at the same time while spamming your tactical, this is most useful with stim, cloak and grapple.