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This is the first upgrade chamber available, and it also does the job of
healing all friendly players and chambers near it. A must have at any decent
strongpoint. Remember, you need at least three to get the most out of any of
the upgrades.
Abilities - Carapace - This increases the amount of armor you have.
Regeneration - Lets you regenerate health without a Gorge or
Defensive Chamber.
Redemption - This will save you if you are about to be killed.
Not 100% effective.

Movement Chamber

Often the second type of Chamber to be built, this allows you to move to
the furthest hive from it's location by Using it. Also provides some nice
upgrades.
Abilities - Adrenaline - Increases the speed your energy recharges
Celerity - Increases your top speed
Silence - Makes you move quietly. What a surprise.

Sensory Chamber

The last Chamber to get built, it acts as an early warning device. If it
can see an enemy, it puts the enemy on the Hive Sight.

Abilities - Cloaking - The only worthwhile upgrade, you can cloak when not
moving or attacking. Great for ambushes.
Adv. Hive Sight - You can make enemy structures/units glow.
Yay.
Scent of Fear - When an enemy is wounded, you can track them
via the orange circle on your hive sight.
Yay again.

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4. Detailed Strategies

4.1 Frontiersmen

These strategies are based on what I have read in the Natural Selection
forums, and from what I have seen work in the game itself. If you have any
alternate strategies, email them to me, and I will gladly post them. Remember,
these are just a framework. You must decide where and when to do things based
on the different maps, what the enemy is doing, and what your own teammates are
doing. Remember, in this game, any of the above variables can radically shift
a strategy.

4.1.1 Commanders

Just because you are in charge does not make you God. The Marines can
vote you out if you are a bad Commander, so be sure to support your troops. It
is alright to ignore the one guy who begs for all the best equipment, then
proceeds to wander off alone and die. However, if a group of Marines are doing
your bidding, support them. And remember, you can use the Space Bar to zoom in
on radio messages. If you hear a request for ammo, zoom in on that person and
give them ammo. This function is invaluable.

Stage One - Getting Started

When you start a game, get in that Command Console and immediately place
an Infantry Portal. Once this is up, place an Armory. These actions must be
performed QUICKLY. The dreaded Skulk rush is coming, and if they kill the
Command Console, you are dead. Once you kill those Skulks, get an Observatory
up. This will provide early warning for your base defense. Now, go grab the
nearest resource nozzle to your position. Whether you defend it at this time
is up to you. Put a Turret Factory at your base, and get two or three Sentry
Turrets up. Now that you have a relatively secure foothold, it is time to
expand a bit.

Stage Two - Taking the First Hive

It may seem to be a little early for this, but trust me. You want to
secure one Hive early, in order to deny it to the enemy. Using that nice
Observatory that you built, use Scanner Sweep over a hive site. If you see no
Kharaa, send a squad of Marines to that location. Quickly, get a Turret
Factory and some turrets up, then get a Resource Tower down. There is always a
nozzle at a Hive site. Next, get a Phase Gate up at both the main base and at
the Hive. This will allow you to shift reinforcements between the two bases.
You may want to add an Armory to supply Marines at this base, but that is up to
you. Now that this is done, it is time for...

Stage Three - Consolidation

This stage involves securing more resources, and locking down your main
base. You need resources to do the latter, so that usually comes first. Have
your Marines search for resources, and get a Tower, Turret Factory, and some
Turrets up at these locations. Not only are you getting more resources, you
are denying them to the Kharaa and creating a small roadblock. To get the
resources, they must get past the turrets. After you have several of these set
up, it is time to patch up the main base. Get some more turrets up, and move
the defense line outwards. Usually, there are several rooms that a Fade can
stand in and bombard the base from. If you defend these rooms AND the main
base, you prevent this problem from surfacing. Now, it is time to get some
that heavy firepower that your teammates probably have been begging for. Build
another Armory at your main base, and then upgrade one of them. At the same
time, get an Arms Lab up and running, and begin some of those upgrades. Get
the Motion Tracking upgrade, and get a Prototype Lab up. Research Heavy Armor,
and you may want to get Jetpacks. Now it is time to begin assembling a strike
force to smack down Hive Two.

Stage Four - Storming Hive Two

This is the hardest part of the game. Fades will be in abundance, and are
a danger to even a Marine with all upgrades, Heavy Armor, and an HMG. You will
need to find the Hive that has the least defenses, and hit that. Get a strike
force of Marines with Heavy Armor, Welders, and various heavy guns to a room
next to the Hive site. DON'T RUSH INTO THE HIVE! This is where the assault
tends to go awry, as people rush in, get caught in webs, and pelted with goo.
This is a stupid way to die. Don't do it. Instead, get a Turret Factory up,
and get some turrets up. The enemy will be hitting you constantly, so be
liberal with the ammo and health packs. After the turrets are up, upgrade the
Factory, and get a Phase Gate up. You may want to put an Armory down, to give
reloads. After the Factory is upgraded, drop some SIEGE TURRETS! Drop several
of these dispensers of doom, and watch the Fades rush you to kill these things.
As the cannons are firing, advance into the room slowly, killing chambers as
you go. Once the Hive is dead, secure this hive site like you did the first.
Good work, you have just crippled the other team.

Stage Five - The Clean-up

You may think that, since the Kharaa are limited to Skulks, Gorges, and
Lerks, that the battle is over, you are wrong. They can still strech this out.
However, this is still easy. First thing you need to do is kill every resource
tower that is outside of the final hive. That hive will have a TON of Defense
and Offense Chambers in it. Now that their resource flow is now a trickle,
start killing off the final hive with the same strategy that you used on the
second hive. Now is not the time to get stupid. You may go slowly, but it
will be slower still if you constantly have to retake your position. Kill the
hive, hunt down any last Kharaa, and watch the victory message come up!

4.1.2 Marines

Now, you do not have to worry about the big picture. Let the Commander do
this, he can see it better. Literally. If you do your job right, and follow
the orders he gives, you should be fine. Remember, if your Commander is
completely incompetent, (e.g. he builds three Command Consoles in the middle of
nowhere, he doesn't put Infantry Portals up, he gives stupid orders, he gets in
and goes AFK, etc.) remember you can vote to eject him using your right-click
menu. However, just because you can do this, does not give you the right to
abuse the priviledge.

Cover Your Teammates! Work as a TEAM.

The most common mistake I see is that people do not work together, or do
not work well as a team. Walking around alone is just asking for someone to
kill you. Two Marines with LMGs can do a lot more than a solo Marine. When
building structures, make sure somebody is covering you. Don't have the whole
team go to build that Armory at the start, or else the Skulk rush will kill
the whole team. Three Marines covering the rest of the squad will stomp the
Skulk rush. I cannot emphasize the importance of working as a team. An
organized team will defeat an unorganized team every time. Like Benjamin
Franklin said, "Either we shall hang together, or we shall hang seperately."
The makers of this mod made sure to punish you if you didn't work as a team.
If you don't believe me, try to kill three Skulks by yourself. When you
respawn, you will have learned your lesson.

Listen to the Commander!

Another bad habit to get into is ignoring the Commander. The Commander
has the best view of the battle, and is your only source of resupply. Getting
on his bad side is not advised. However, he does tend to reward those who are
polite when asking for supplies. Be nice to him, being Commander is hard work.
If he tells you to go somewhere or do something, there usually is a reason
behind the order.

Don't Beg for Weapons.

Don't whine when you don't immediately get the best weapons and armor when
you respawn. It is annoying, and does not set a good image for you. Each item
costs resources, and maybe the Commander is saving up for an Armor Upgrade.
Bottom line, don't whine. Also, don't whine for ammo when an Armory is nearby.
Just walk over there and hold Use. Problem solved.

Use the Radio Commands!

If you beg for ammo over the team chat, the Commander has no way of
knowing where you are on the map. If you use your pull-down menu, and ask for
ammo or health that way. Also, inform him if you see an enemy, or need a
building. Just use a command in conjunction with your text message, and this
will make both of your jobs much easier.

Your Equipment

Light Machinegun - This weapon is what you spawn with, and is enough to
keep the Skulks away. It does relatively light damage per shot, but you can
empty a clip in a few seconds. At 50 rounds a clip, you can do 500 damage per
clip, if every shot hits. This weapon will reload quickly, and you can carry
a lot of ammo for it. This weapon is good enough for anybody against anything
up to a Fade. It is light, accurate, and best of all, FREE! Feel free to
spray at anything, as you have enough ammo to keep you happy. It is very rare
that I run out of ammo for this. Usually I die first. This weapon is useless
against a Fade or Onos, so you need something with a bit more punch. Don't
bother firing at a Resource Collector with this, you just waste ammo. Use your
knife. Speaking of which...

Knife - Useless? Yes! Except against a target that doesn't fire back,
like a Resource Collector or the various upgrade Chambers. Other than that,
don't try to knife an enemy. It's better to do like Monty Python and run away.

Pistol - Ahh, the Pistol. Not good as a primary weapon, but as a backup,
it is perfect. You empty your clip at that Skulk, and it is still running at
you? Whip this out and dispense some justice. At 20 damage per shot, and dead
accurate, this weapon won't fail you. However, you can only hold 30 extra
rounds, so don't go running around with this out, unless you have a Grenade
Launcher. Even then, you should be in a group, so don't use this as your main
weapon.

Shotgun - This weapon is neglected by the majority of NS players, and I
see this as a great injustice. Everyone goes straight for the HMGs, yet this
gun can do a LOT of damage in a hurry. Use it close up, to maximize the number
of pellets hitting the target, and you will be amazed at how fast you can kill
a Fade. Three or four shots usually puts a Fade down, so this is a great
support weapon. Early on, after the Armory has been built, if you need heavy
firepower, consider this weapon instead of going for the Adv. Armory upgrade.
The only downsides to this weapon are the pump action, which slows the rate of
fire down, and the small magazine. Still, a great support weapon.

Heavy Machinegun - The mainstay of any Marine hit squad, this gun chews
through the lighter classes very quickly, and should be distributed liberally.
Combined with Heavy Armor and a Welder, you are pretty much unstoppable, unless
you come across some lines of Offense Chambers. Remember, you are PRETTY MUCH
unstoppable, not INVINCIBLE. When I play Kharaa, I wait until that one Marine
goes to reload, then I tear him up. A concentrated bombardment by Fades,
Offense Chambers, all backed up by Webs and Defense Chambers, will knock you
back to respawn. Remember, work as a team, and if you see heavy defenses, call
in some Siege Turrets. With the firepower you have, you can hold off the enemy
until these get put up. Works best in groups, with supporting fire from
Shotguns and...

Grenade Launcher - Supporting fire at it's best, this weapon is not
designed to be an assault weapon. The purpose of this weapon is to clear an
area of Kharaa units. This weapon cannot damage structures, so don't think
that you don't need the Siege Turrets. However, if a Fade gets in a vent and
starts bombarding your position, four grenades tend to be an incentive to stop
that action. Also, an Onos is not invincible. Grenades, supporting the other
weapons, will put an Onos down in a hurry. The name of the game is support and
indirect firepower. If you can get behind a wall and bounce the grenades
around a corner, do so. Anything that you can do to avoid getting shot at is
always good, as if a Fade corners you, you will DIE before he does. Just
remember my golden rule: "There is no problem that cannot be solved with the
liberal application of high explosives."

Welder - Everyone should have one of these. It is that simple. This tool
is the only way to repair Armor and structures, so if a squad has these, their
chances of success increase greatly. Heavy Armor benefits the most from these,
yet anything that can be repaired likes having a Welder around. Also, note
those yellow symbols found on walls, grates, and doors. These tell you that
you can weld a barricade over this. You can force the Skulks out of the vents
and into your death trap if you do this. Less surprises are always good.
Remember, if someone screams for health, he probably needs to be welded. If