Universal Mechanics And Abilities

Introduction

All titans on titanfall 2 have a set of default abilities and gameplay mechanics that are shared on all titans.

Doomed State

Titans that have taken enough damage will enter a state called doomed state, during this state the Titan will have a grey health bar and multiple flames coming off the chassis, any color scheme will be replaced by a burnt, damaged, and greyish look. A doomed state doesn’t remove or inhibit any abilities but makes the Titan vulnerable to terminations and death. Doom state will always happen but a few exceptions can bypass it killing the Titan instantly, those are, the flame core, legion power shot aegis, and Titan Falls. While doomed rodeos will kill the Titan if successful. An amped satchel will also instantly kill a doomed Titan at full doomed health. If doomed, it is heavily recommended that you eject to prevent your death. You can hold onto a doomed titan to deal any last-minute damage and such but that has considerable risk. While doomed some enemy titans will want to initiate a termination on you making them predictable, punish that immediately with any traps and electric smoke if possible. On frontier defense enemy titans can’t initiate terminations but it is still better to eject regardless. Only 2 instances allow a doomed titan to be healed back to normal, an amped battery inserted into any doomed titan, or a doomed survival of the fittest monarch getting a regular battery.

Melee

All Titans have the ability to melee, pressing “F” or the melee ability will have your Titan punch (swing sword for Ronin) in the middle of your screen. Melees don’t have a cooldown and can be spammed. Melees don’t do much damage but can push enemies back making it a less than moderate crowd control ability. Melees will aim where the titan is looking. Melee does very little damage so it should be used as a last resort, it is best to combo it with electric smoke to prove the best outcomes. Melees’ hitbox is interesting as it doesn’t need to directly hit a target for it to register, melees will one-shot all small enemies and pilots making it a good clean-up tool, and Melees will prevent stalkers from exploding. Melees can push nuke titans back making it a good tool to push back a nuke that gets too close to the harvester. The melee reach goes farther than expected so it can be surprisingly good at a short distance.

Termination

Terminations are a cinematic execution of the enemy titan. A Titan version of the pilot execution, it is activated by using melee on an enemy doomed titan. Once initiated it will use the selected or random termination depending on what the pilot selected before Titanfall. During termination, both titans cannot be damaged by anything making them immune. Terminations are quite awesome but can punish the Titan who does the termination. Termination can guarantee survival if a nuke eject goes off during the in-game cinematic but can also kill you if the ejection is initiated just after you terminate. Just one example, terminations can also help protect damage from thermite and even Titan falls. Terminations will kill any pilot inside the Titan. Terminations can be a good choice if all abilities are on cooldown to prevent the doom Titan from hurting you. Terminations are a fun and cool way to play TitanFall, just make sure you don’t sacrifice health to achieve a termination as that can make your team lose the match or round, terminations should be used as an advantage when the opportunity presents itself, the game sense and skill is needed to prevent your demise.

Dash

All Titans come with a dash ability. Dash has its separate cooldown and will cool down one dash at a time if multiple are available on your Titan type. All Titans but Northstar and Ronin have 1 dash, the latter have 2 dashes. The dash ability is a valuable tool that can avoid damage and death. It will help with terminations and help to outflank enemies. Dashes help roamers to be much easier and faster. Dashes are the main tool to avoid all thermite sources, nuke ejections, regular ejections, warp falls or Titan falls, arc waves, satchels and other ordinances, Northstar bullets, cluster missiles, tone rockets, and more, you get the picture. Dash length can be extended by crouching after initiating a dash to make your Titan “surf” the ground. Dashes can be used to stop the momentum from abilities like a legion power shot or sword core. Dashes to the side that the pilot presses, to dash back press the back button then dash, same thing with left and right and forward. By default, dashes go forward if you only press space or your dash button. Some parts of some maps act like ramps making them lift your Titan off the ground at correct angles and distance. The skills for dashing easily develop since every Titan has the ability. Make sure to time it well in battles and you should do fine. (Titans like Ronin will have specific movement guides with the dash in their respective guide)

Core Meter

Not to be mistaken with Titan meter which is the meter you have as a pilot, core meter is the meter that all titans have that represents how much damage and kills you have dealt. At the start of the match, you get 0 core (or 20 if Overcore is selected) All small enemy kills give 1 core meter (or 5 on private match) and reapers give 5 core meters upon death (private match is 20 core), terminations give 5 core and any core meter from the melee (20+ on private match), Titan kills do not earn any extra core meter. Normal and amped batteries give 10 core meters to the Titan it’s inserted into. The core meter is earned from dealing damage to titans as well, the more damage you do the more core meter you earn. At 20 core meter, the electric smoke is earned. At 100 core meter, the Titan core can be activated, and a verbal statement from your Titan AI. Will tell you and remind you that you have a core ready. Once your core meter reaches 100 you cannot earn anymore until titan death or core usage. Exiting your Titan does not remove the stored core. The abilities that don’t earn you core meter are the cores themselves, inserting batteries during core does not add any additional time, or the 10 core so put batteries in after core finishes, dome shield damage and titan fall kills. Any damage or kills that your Titan AI themselves are reduced therefore making Titan a.is a nonviable core meter farm. (Monarch’s energy thief kit allows for more core gains and a battery steal termination, which will be explained in her respective guide.)

Electric Smoke

All piloted titans gain an ability called electric smoke once a 20-core meter is earned. When electric smoke activates it will carpet and spread out all around the Titan that casted it. Electric smoke activates with (c or another key). Electric smoke can only be earned once (or twice with the counter-ready kit) per core making it a rare and valuable ability. Only 5 electric smokes can be reserved for use, any more will disappear once earned unless an electric smoke is used before 20 core meter is earned. Electric smoke does not do friendly fire nor damage the user’s titan. Electric smoke acts as a detection barrier with an area of effect damage. Essentially making you invisible to all sonar, tone, archer lock-on, smart core lock-on, turret lock-on, removes minimap signature, removes Titan silhouette, and smothers thermite upon activation. Since electric smoke damages enemies it can be used as an ambush and a small enemy cleanup, stalkers will not explode in electric smoke. Drones will die to two electric smokes if moving. Electric smokes generate core meter making it a very good tool to get your core faster, essentially Electric smoke can feed itself if used properly. Electric smoke will visibly block areas for your allies but they can still use all lock-on and sonar abilities. Electric smoke does not block projectiles so fire away if enemies are in it. This also is the reason why you don’t necessarily want to stand inside an electric smoke even if it’s an allied one. Electric smoke is hands down one of the best abilities all players must learn to use. On multilayer, it can directly counter hostile Titan rodeos. Its uses shine even more on frontier defense; it makes all enemies unable to “lock and attack” anyone caught inside or behind the electric smoke. Electric smoke is a get-out-of-jail-free card and even more.

Most Titans can combo defensive abilities with electric smoke to make themselves unkillable(more elaborated for each Titan in its respective guides). Electric smoke can buy you and your teams a ton of time making master and insane much easier. Make sure team members communicate how many smokes they have so they can switch around on who smokes the wave. Electric smoke is the ability that keeps experienced players from not dying often, or not at all. Monarch’s electric smokes gain many buffs and utility with the Maelstrom kit the Aegis 2 energized smoke and Aegis 11 energized smoke level 2. making it an ideal way to do more damage while healing the monarch and its allies. (More elaborated on the monarch guide).

Ejection

All pilots inside Titans have the option to initiate an ejection. Ejections can be initiated manually or automatically depending on the situation. Manually ejecting for specific reasons requires you to press X and then E three times. When doomed your Titan a.I will tell you to eject bypassing pressing X for the entire doomed state, press e three times and you will be ejected saving the pilot and giving the pilot a second chance, when you eject you will be flung up into the air at high speeds. Pilots will hit the ceiling if the ejection is under a ceiling. The pilot will not be harmed. Another type of ejection called nuke eject that can be selected before Titanfall. (Will be elaborated in Titan kit guide). Make sure to eject before death as ejection has a delay. Very good game sense and prediction is needed for quick and last-second ejections. Don’t be surprised if your ejection is too late so it is a good idea to press X while being damaged at very low health before reaching doom state to ensure your survival. Furthermore, that can help you survive enemy nuke ejects. On a final note, when you eject the pilot will be vulnerable in the air to be sniped by sniper titans and tone titans on frontier defense.

Titan AI

All Titans have an AI that will automatically do certain actions. The pilot who owns the Titan has some control as to what the auto Titan does. Unoccupied Titans will automatically be controlled by the onboard AI as shown when you look at it. Auto titans can be controlled by their pilot by pressing the titanfall button, two modes can be activated but only one can be active at once. Follow mode and guard mode. Follow mode makes the auto Titan follow the pilot wherever the pilot is, if the pilot is dead it will stay still until spawned in again. Guard mode is initiated when pressing the Titanfall button. Guard mode will make the Titan stay still and kill anything in sight. Pilots can equip an enhanced AI kit for a better auto-titan (more explained in the Titan kit guide). Your Titan AI will tell you when the different modes are initiated, also at the bottom left of the screen will tell you what mode it’s currently at. Titan AI mechanics are easy, when going pilot only just make sure to know how to use them properly as discussed above.

Chassis Shields

All titans can gain extra shields by various methods. Any amount of chassis shields will make the Titan they are on immune to the weak point vulnerability damage. Not to be mistaken by other shields like gun shields and particle walls, chassis shields stay on the Titan indefinitely until damaged. A chassis shield is gained by putting a battery inside Titan which restores 100 percent shields. Monarch energy siphon applies energy to the Monarch Titan or Allies if the energy transfer kit is selected. Legion Aegis level 11 allows damage to the gun shield to give him chassis shields. Ronin Aegis 20 gives his sword core the passive ability that earns him shields per swing that hits any enemy.

Weak Point Vulnerabilities

All titans and reapers have weak point vulnerabilities. WPVs are easily seen by the darker red areas on the chassis. WPVs are areas that take increased damage from attacks, damage increase varies widely from different weapons and abilities but all pilots should focus on hitting WPVs regardless. Enemies also will be able to hit your weak points so make sure to use defensive abilities and evasion tactics to avoid extra damage. All pilot weapons cannot damage titans unless WPV are hit, the exceptions to this are grenade launchers and ordinances. Reapers get damaged without hitting WPV but with a significant damage reduction. Only 2 instances happen where a titan can remove their vulnerabilities, The Scorch tempered plating kit removes his own WPV. If a player selects a superior chassis kit on Monarch and reaches upgrade core level 3 they will have no weak point vulnerabilities.

All titans arsenals consist of these abilities that are categorized

Primary Weapon

The main weapon that the Titan carries, will always have a primary fire and a secondary aim/alt fire.

Ordnance Ability

Offensive focused ability, these usually do burst damage and/or apply debuffs.

Tactical Ability

Utility focused ability, these have the most variance. They can be used for combos, self buff and such with the goal to enhance the titans mechanics that suit the titans play style.

Defensive Ability

Defensive abilities focus on preventing damage by means of blocking projectiles or by crowd control methods.

Core

All Titans will have a final ability that is earned after gaining 100 core meter. Titan cores do not stack, so make sure to use them when available. After the core is finished, your Titan will start at 0 (or 20 if Overcore is selected) core. Titan cores vary a lot per Titan, so their specific core guides will be on the Titans’ respective guides. Be warned that activating cores does not make you immune to damage or terminations.