Engineer Basics

[This info is current as of Update 7 but may change]

Introduction

The Engineer is one of the three dedicated support roles that can be selected when deploying onto the battlefield in Hell Let Loose. An effective engineer can be a formidable force on the battlefield, locking down strongpoints and supplying your team with tanks, bombing runs, and manpower. This guide aims to give you an overview of the fundamentals and helpful tips to enhance your understanding of the engineer role. We’ll take a look at the loadout of the engineer and then dive into some basic info, tips, and tactics.

Kit

The Engineer is given a unique set of tools that equip you to kill tanks, fortify strongpoints, supply your team with resources, and hold the line against enemy assaults. As an Engineer, you are equipped with your primary rifle which is the Karabiner 98 for the Axis and the M1 Carbine for the Allies, Anti Personnel mines, an Anti Tank mine, and your most powerful tool: the wrench. Their kit equips them to support their squad and team in defense and offense alike. They are one of the few roles given a wrench and although they cannot build an AT gun like the AT role, they are uniquely equipped to support friendly armor by repairing them with their wrench and building repair stations.

US

M1 Carbine - Semi-Automatic

12 magazines, 15 rounds each, 180 rounds total

German

Karibiner 98K - Bolt Action

12 magazines, 5 rounds each, 60 rounds total

Common

Wrench

Bandage - 2

Anti Personnel Mine - 2

Anti Tank Mine - 1

Score and XP

As an engineer you will earn a steady stream of Support Score and Combat Effectiveness Score from the actions that you take on the battlefield. Building nodes, fortifications, and repair stations will increase your support score while increasing the effectiveness of your team. Planting Anti Personnel and Anti Tank mines, getting kills with mines, destroying vehicles with mines, and killing enemy infantry with your rifle will increase your Combat Effectiveness Score.

Function

The primary function of an engineer is to support their team with resources and combat enhancing fortifications to help with zone control and sector denial.

Force Multiplier

As an effective engineer you have the tools to turn even the most open strongpoints into impassible kill boxes, making life hell for the enemy. Effective fortifications limit lanes of entry and/or approach into a point, allowing a small number of defenders to go toe to toe with a superior enemy force. This allows your team to hold points for longer while potentially freeing up more squads to push the offensive.

Resources

Munitions, Fuel, and Manpower. The three resources your team has at their disposal during a match. The commander uses these resources to activate their abilities such as recon planes, bombing runs, and airhead garrisons. Munitions are used by infantry to fire artillery and AT guns. Fuel is used to spawn armor for your team, making it crucial for supporting your tank crews. Manpower reduces spawn times and is spent in overtime during the offensive game type.

Gameplay Tips

An engineer who focuses on effectively supporting their team using the powerful tools given to them by the devs can be a powerful force modifier on the battlefield who not only increases the scores of their squad, gaining more xp for both his rank and role, but also helps their team to win battles. This section aims to help you understand and master the specialized playstyle of the engineer to make you an effective supporting player.

Nodes

Placement is everything with nodes. You cannot place nodes in your own HQ sector, the first two columns (or rows) of the map closest to your team’s HQ spawns. This section is marked by the red line on the image below. As you travel further across the map, the earning power of your nodes increases by 5 resource points per minute for every sector (2 columns or rows) that you travel. The deeper you place your nodes, the more you will earn. You can only place nodes up to one sector past your team’s furthest currently controlled sector; in the image below, the furthest sector you can place nodes in is the E and F column. Once your team has captured Flak Pits, you can place them in C and D column, and so on. Always aim to place your nodes as deep as you can safely place them.

Placing nodes in contested territory can be dangerous as you traverse through enemy territory. To keep your nodes and squad safe, you should try to place your nodes away from high traffic areas. The picture below shows a rough path of the heaviest foot traffic that infantry players will follow during the course of the match.

Although there will always be squads flanking and travelling wide of the yellow line marked, the foot traffic will be a lot lower, making areas along rows 7 and 8 much safer than the north side of the map. It would be best to place your nodes in E8 at the start of the match to get them out of the way of the enemy and close to the C-D sector so they can be moved after capturing Flak Pits.

Mines

The engineer is equipped with 2 Anti personnel mines and 1 Anti Tank mine per resupply. Mines can be an effective way to limit the movement of enemy infantry and armor in a controlled or contested sector by stopping them dead in their tracks. AP mines are highly effective when placed in choke points to limit infantry access to trenches, doorways, and holes in fence lines and barbed wire. AT mines can limit the ability of enemy armor to move safely down roadways and through predictable funnels like gaps in hedgerows and fences around compounds. AT mines can also be used to hunt tanks if you can get around the backside of a tank and detonate a mine right at their back, killing them in one shot.

Veteran players are adept at spotting mines and will take them out if they are not properly concealed. Some effective places to hide AP mines include slats of wood in trenches, tufts of grass, rubble, behind sandbags just outside a doorway, under the lip of a doorstop, or even in a foxhole you suspect an enemy might charge blindly into during a push. AT mines can be similarly hidden in grass or in rubble both on and off roadways.

An effective strategy for mine placement is to pair your AP and AT mines together to make a squad killer trap. Place your AP mine in a concealed choke point and hide an AT mine within 4 meters of it to make a deadly trap that has the potential to kill a squad as they come to assault your position.

The effective range of an AP mine is about 10 meters to wound and 4 meters to set off nearby mines. An AT mine has an effective wounding range of about 20 meters and chain reaction range of about 15 meters. Keep this in mind when placing minefields and squad killers.

Fortifications

Barbed wire, sandbags, Belgian gates, and tank traps are some of the most effective tools in an engineer’s toolkit. And some of the most underutilized tools. They can be used to turn open flanks into fatal funnels and open spaces into defensible firing positions. As an engineer it is always advantageous to look for good places to set up fortifications. Focus on creating controlled paths with your barbed wire, leaving narrow funnels for the enemy to run through to set up choke points where encroaching squads will meet your machineguns, or a well placed mine. Limit the freedom of enemy armor by blocking off roads and doorways with gates and tank traps and provide cover for shooters and AT guns with your sandbags. Get creative with your setup and always look for better ways to control the map.

Removal

As of Update 7 there are only three roles (more specifically loadouts) in the game that are capable of removing enemy fortifications: The engineer, standard AT, and Ammo Carrier for the Spotter. Taking down barbed wire, tank traps, and Belgian gates can prove crucial to opening up strongpoints and roadways for infantry and tanks alike and the engineer is the only role that is always equipped to take on this task.

Repairs

So far you do not earn XP for repairing vehicles but the devs have mentioned that this may be a change they’ll address in the future. Even still, keeping your armored allies alive and at peak operating condition is crucial to the success of combined arms tactics. There are three roles that can repair armor with wrenches: Engineer, Standard Issue AT, and Ammo Carrier Spotter. When using your wrench to repair a tank, USE PROXIMITY CHAT TO LET THE CREW KNOW. This is important so that they don’t run you over, can coordinate with you if they need to move, or know of enemy infantry in the area. As an engineer you are the only role capable of setting up a repair station to automatically repair nearby tanks. A well placed repair station can prove to be an effective force multiplier for your armor.