• Veteran is an Enforcer, high-health low-speed Pro
  
• Specializes in team assissting and gank initiating.
  
• Possesses the highest number of grapples, allowing him to constantly keep enemies pinned down.
  
• Has wide variety of mobility tools, making him one of the most mobile Enforcers.

Here's an example of me (Spark) two-teaming with fellow Veteran against this unlucky Gunner.

Default ammo amount - 3
Damage* - 46-414 (Bots) or 46-207 (Players)
The Veteran's only ranged weapon (Ka-Claw isn't actually a weapon). It fires falcon heads, that will follow anything hostile they'll fly nearby, be it bot, player or turrets, and then explode, dealing damage in small AOE without falloff. It's not the best ranged weapon, especially at the very beginning, mostly because of it's low ammo count, but it's a good harrassing tool. Shoot in your enemy's general direction, and they'll either have to take damage and retreat a bit to regain some health or dodge projectiles, making it harder for them to aim, and, possibly, still being damaged by a head or two. Secondary fire - Veteran hits the ground with Falcon, stunning nearby bots, turrets and deployables (Combat Kitties, Firebase, Ghetto Blasters, etc.), slowing enemy Pros and providing knockback immunity during the animation period. The knockback includes pretty much anything that can move you (Assault's bombs, Support's Ground Strike, Megabeth's Diskus, Gunner's Slam, even enemy Vet's Ka-Claw).



Damage* - 118-710 (Bots) or 118-355 (Players)
The main source of Veteran's damage, a stool with some really nasty spikes attached to it. A single attack click provides 2 swings, each one will deal equal damage. Secondary fire - Veteran grapples an enemy, dealing some damage and preventing enemy from moving, making it a good ganking target. Attempting to reload Hot Seat will result in lunge - another good mobility tool in Vet's arsenal, that increases your speed slightly during lunge animation.



*Damage goes as: Lvl 1, Pass. Offense 1 - Lvl 15, Pass. Offense 4.

The most used skill of all three. Veteran throws out an energy claw, pulling any unlucky enemy Pro to him, dealing a small amount of damage and providing a good ganking chance. Most part of your skill is defined by how good you can use the Ka-Claw. Precision, knowledge of enemy Pros and prediction is key.



Veteran's second grapple - an uppercut, followed by a powerful dropkick, throwing an enemy away. The least used skill, but it doesn't mean it's useless. First of all - free Ringouts! Nobody cares how much health you have - you are one-hit killed. Second - fully upgraded, it provides the biggest amount of damage. It also can be used to push someone away from you, giving yourself some breathing room, reposition an enemy or push them into hazards (Fuzz, activated Shellies, turrets and deployables, etc). Or you can use it as a finishing move, when you need to keep enemy grappled, but everything else is on cooldown.



Veteran's third grapple - Veteran uses his jet to charge in front of him, damaging bots and grappling Pros. Can be used as air tackle - when used in air, Veteran will push enemies, rather than grappling them, allowing him to push Pros to teammates or ringing them out. One of Vet's mobility tools - use it in conjunction with jets to cover big distances quickly.



My skill build nowadays looks like this:
1. Ka-Claw
2. Freight Train
3. Passive Offense
4. Ka-Claw
5. Freight Train
6. Passive Offense
7. Skip
8. Ka-Claw + Freight Train
9. Passive Offense
10 -15. Shifting Skid Row Throw with Passive Defense

Focusing on upgrading Ka-Claw is always a good idea, since you'd like to have as much assissts/kills as possible to annoy enemy team and help yours. Freight Train is most used mobility tool, and upgrading it at least once cuts the recharge rate at least in half ( approx. 16 sec. at level 1 and 8 sec. at level 2), so upgrading it is a good idea too. Getting Passive Offensive early increases your general DPS output and increases effectiveness of Flying Falcons, making them alot more devastating rather than just harassing. If you feel somewhat low on health, try getting Passive Defense at level 7 instead of skipping, it will give you about 300+ HP at your disposal, enough at times to make a great escape and think of your revenge plans.

Fire rate and skill recovery are Veteran's best friends. Fire rate provides more DPS without any penalties (who needs accuracy on homing and melee weapons, anyway?), while higher skill recovery will ensure you always have a spare grapple ready, while slowing down your health regeneration a bit. It is also possible to increase your maximum amount of Falcons by 1 (up to 4) using magazine size endorsments. The required amount of percent for that is 16.75*, after that you'll just get additional reload penalty. This might help you in long range harrassment. Other endorsements aren't as useful, but can still come in handy (i.e. Health, Health Recovery or Speed).

*3/100*16.75 = 0.5025, The system rounds it up to 1, so there's no point in any more Ammo Mule endorsements.

• Can't Stun/Slow This - Pretty much any Pro has some ability that can slow or stun enemies, so those might come in handy.
  
• Massive Air - Since you will use jets quite often, you might want to get this.
  
• Hot Hands - You can use this to give yourself bigger chances of getting a kill, but your team is probably going to help you with your prey, so it's preferably to get something else.
  
• Bot Buster - Veteran is not actually about killing bots, but if you feel like killing bots today - this might be for you, just make sure you can survive long enough for this product to be effective.
  
• Death Dodger - Might be useful at times. Situation: An Assassin harrasses you by jumping around and left-clicking you. Try Skid Row Throwing her and retreating as fast as you can, this might give you enough time to teleport back to base and, possibly, get revenge on her.
  
• Investing for the Unenhanced - Mostly getting assists and being not the best botkiller, Veteran is quite oftenly seen to be a bit lower level than other Pros. This can boost your cash and experience, but it's not really recommended.
  
• Jumpy Spunky - Useful for breaking enemy grapples. Juice during grapple, quickly jump and Freight train to freedom.
  
• Asbest-O-s - If you are certain there's a Tank, Cheston or a Pro with Hot Hands (like Commandos), you can take this one.
  
• Generous Kill - I used this one when I started playing Veteran to help teammates survive in team fights, but then I realised that everyone was focusing on enemy Veteran grapples, so he can barely gets kills, so this one is not recommended, unless you can actually kill people, that's where I tell you "Go ahead". The same applies to Inspire.

It feels like i'm compensating for the rest of the guide, but well... Here we go.

• You can use Ka-Claw to Ringout enemies. This can be by two ways: Ka-Clawing people right out of the ring, or Ka-Clawing people to the edge of the ring and air tackling with Freight Train or grappling by Skid Row Throw.
  
• Lunging at Jumppads will add momentum to your jump, launching you further than usual. Use it to reach enemy base or retreat to yours quickly.
  
• As was already said, Freight Train is a great mobility tool, use it in conjunction with lunge to cover huge distances quickly. It can also be used to avoid being rungout, but using it does not reset the momentum of your jump, unlike the Megabeth's "Shoot the Moon" or Karl's "Prop Hop", that will actually stop them in mid-flight. Also, a little side note - using Freight Train airborne depletes your Jets' charge completely, so you can't jump normally for a split second.
  
• On Bullet Gorge, there's a place that can be used for early Jungle access, as seen in the picture (As far as I'm concerned, any Pro with Jets can get there, not just Veteran). It is located to the left from your spawn location. Jump jet directly up onto it, then into the Jungle. But be aware of enemy Pros doing the same, specifically Assaults, Karls, Megabeths and any Commandos, since they are commonly found in the Jungle in the beginning of the game.
  
  
• Lunge can actually hurt enemy bots and players (somewhere about 8 damage), which can lead to wierd situations such as hurting another lunging Pro and sending him far away.
  
• You can cover bigger distances by lunging down the edge.
  
• Passive Offense does not affect your grapple damage, but Total Recoil does, since it actually increases damage rating, which affects everything damage-related. If you think your grapples lack that "Oomphf" they should have - get it. If you think you're not tanky enough - GobiNumb is your choice. (For more information about damage rating and what it affects you can look Pave's "Damage Rating 101" guide, quite useful thing)
  
• You can contribute to your team greatly by holding off Jackbots. Stun him with Flying Falcon, hit him with the Hot Seat, wait for stun to wear off, then grapple him (if he's on high health and/or close to the Moneyball/turrets), repeat. This will deal massive damage to Jackbot and prevent it from destroying turrets on lane/breaching the Moneyball, just make sure there are no enemies around or there are reammates to defend you/help you finish off Jackbot.
  
• Interesting irrelevant fact - during grapples Pros take half the damage they would normally.
  
• You can't Ka-Claw an enemy, who is grappling someone, interrupting grapple (like Cheston's bananas or Karl's Short Circuit). But you can Ka-Claw an enemy right when the grapple finishes, so he won't have a chance to avoid being pulled. It may also give your teammate time to escape and/or finish off the enemy.
  
• Chaingrappling - multiple Pros grapple the same enemy, preventing him from retaliating, usually leading to death. A video example of this can be seen at the beginning of the guide. This can be done the same way grapplers' Ka-Clawing is done - click the grappling button right after the grappling animation stops, preventing the enemy from doing anything.
  
• It is possible to to perform a hit-and-run turret dive. Lunging next to the turret and stunning it allows you to hit it about 4 times before stun wears off. But if you're not careful enough, an enemy Pro can grapple you, making it hard to escape.
  
• Knockback sometimes can be used as escape or mobility tool (like rocket jumps, but you sacrifice more health). For example: you see a Gunner's rocket flying after you, and you have about 50% health left. Start jetting in the direction you need to go right before it hits you, which will send you flying quite fast, allowing in quick getaway. It is also recommended to have "Massive Air" product for additional air control, so making a getaway won't become an awkward ringout.
  
• There's also a bug when with Flying Falcons, when Veteran uses it's ammo without actually shooting projectiles and vice-versa, shooting more projectiles than intended. I've yet to find out what causes it.
  
• Your jets can ignite people who are underneath and slightly behind you. It's almost impossible to use effectively, but sometimes it can finish off a Pro.
  
• Hiding behind the bots when using Ka-Claw is a good idea, because your enemies won't see your pulling animation, thus making it hard to avoid getting pulled. But be warned that friendly bots can bodyblock your victim, so it may not reach your grappling distance.
  
• As was said above, Ka-Clawing is really important, but if you're not really good at aiming (like me), try a bit another tactic - sneak attacks. Sneak from behind, air tackle enemy away from teammates with Freight Train, then hit them with Hot Seat and/or grapple with it (if it's safe). It's surprisingly effective, sometimes it is possible to get behind a Defender, healing an Enforcer or two, push him to your team and get (usually) a free kill and a chance to push lane.

Save for me spinal fluid, I'm making consommé! Some people say, "Artemis is not even a Sharpsooter". They might be right, she is quite effective at CQC, so approach with caution. Try catching her off-guard, then pushing her to your teammates or ringing her out, this will piss her off. If she sees you approahcing her, then watch out for her "Death Combo" - Biological Warfare, Outerang and grapple, this will take at least half your health if Outerang hits you twice, and following shots from Foie Gras or Artemis's teammates might do the rest to get you killed. She is still a Sharpshooter though, and has a fitting weapon - Skewer, so don't stay in one place - jump, zigzag, just do something so she can't get easy headshots. Irradiation takes a huge chunk of your armor and makes you always visible in Team Vision, but it can be fixed by Support, Combat Girl or Regenitol vendor.


A real nuisance. She is fast, but very weak. Take a quick look around anytime you can, she might be running around behind you, destroying your bots or grappling teammates. Cloaking makes her invisible to bots and turrets, removes her from enemy Team Vision and hides her playername and healthbar, so watch out for her cloaking and stalking you when you are on low health. If you happen to be in a situation like that, try hugging your Rokkit turret for a couple of seconds, it might scare her off. If it doesn't, you have three options: grappling her before she gets you, retreat to the spawn room, if she's not fast enough or drop dead under the cold steel pressure. She also has Smoke Bombs ready for use. When she tosses one out, she will either Leap from you (Low health or overwhelmed) or jump around you and swing her melee, then grapple (High health or hope to get Inspire health). When this happens, it is possible to see the healthbars (especially if you hit someone, the damage numbers appear, for easier notification), predict her movements (Assassins are quite predictable) and stop her dead with a grapple (Freight Train might work, but I usually try using Hot Seat grapple).


That damn black dude! Impossible, IMPOSSIBLE to grapple (unless he's new). Uses Fly constantly, while flying 100 km away from surface, which makes him immune to Ka-Claws (unless you get him to Fly cellar with your Ka-Claw, draining his Fly, which is unlikely). Wanna get some health? Assault is already flying above you, shooting you with his Assault Rifle. Tosses Bombs and grenades everywhere, dealing no-falloff damage to anyone unlucky enough. Charges everywhere for easy escape and speed-light fast movement. Shortly, EZ mode activate. Cooperating with teammates is the only way of defeating him. Ka-Claw him any chance you get, if you're lucky, you might get him to surface level, where he can be dealt with more easily.


Potassium! Quite agile for an Enforcer. Tommy Gun deals tons of damage, try not to stand in front of him for too long. Family Jewel deals quite some damage too, so melee fights with him are really dangerous. Explosive Barrels deal big damage and ignite you, so having healer nearby is advisable. Rampage allows him to move around map really fast, and using Roar he can get out of a possible gank easily. Watchout for bananas - they will mess you up anytime, whether you are grappling someone or just walk around, trying to get a good Ka-Claw angle - they will stun you for about half a second, stopping you from anything you were doing. Experienced Chestons can even stop you from grappling themselves with these by throwing it at you point blank (sometimes after you grappled them), then grappling you (oh, the irony!), leading to a possible gank, if his teammates are quick enough. Also, healers love Chestons, so the are very possibly to hang out with him.


Meow! Very weak on her own, she is able to lay deadly Kitty nests, where she can deal with an opponent without breaking a sweat. But overwhelmed she has no chances, so if you see a CG without any teammates covering her, get her out of the way, this might free a lane for your bots. Fortifying makes her Kitties slow anything down and shoot almost twice (or maybe even thrice) as fast, so if you are grappled in a fortified Kitty nest - you are really dead. But there is a bug, when you grapple CG inside her nest, Kitties won't shoot you (they shoot Bouncers that grapple her, and, occasionally, Pros, so it IS a bug). When she dies, her Kitties disappear, so kill her instead of Kitties, if she's low on health. Ka-Clawing her out of nest works too. If you are able to get behind her, do it - she possibly won't expect an attack from behind, then she'll have to either go back to turrets or Kitties, while getting brutally bludgeoned. Her Combat Laser might screw you up if you are not careful or if a Combat Girl is really accurate. While it is possible to see where the laser will be, sometimes you might not be able to run away (grappling, Ka-Clawing, falling, etc.).


Aloha, brah! He is really slow, but has a minigun, so approaching him in front is NOT advisable. His mortars do huge damage at range, so don't stay in one place for too long, he might accidenatlly kill you. After getting Ka-Clawed he will Slam, pushing you out of grapple range and allowing him to get some follow-up shots at you or escape, or just to stop mid-flight, staying at safe zone (in turret range range, for example). In Deployed state he can not be pulled, but hitting him some time, then Ka-Clawing him just before he tries to get out might do the trick (it's quite hard, but pulling him to a dangerous zone almost a guaranteed kill). His Rockets are very damaging and hard to avoid (unless they're unupgraded, then you can still avoid those), so staying with healer is advisable.


Yehaaw! Sharpshooter with an arguably highest DPS potential, especially at close-mid range. Lucinda seems to be a bit weaker than Sniper Rifle, but still really damaging. As with all SS, run around and don't let them get easy headshots. At CQC she can use her Love Pistol to hurt you a bit, then use Kneecap to slow you down and proceed with Trigger Happy Lucinda, possibly finishing you off, if you are not careful (or skip the Love Pistol part, if you are already low on health or the player is high skilled) Gun Flurry is rarely used against Pros, but sometimes it can be, when she tries to finish off a very low health enemy, but weapons need to be reloaded, sometimes it works (I got killed like that couple of times). Also, her grapple is second longest in-game, so if you got grappled by her when she has teammates around, death is inevitable.


Just a typical human being. Has possibly biggest DPS potential out of all Strikers. His burst damage combo (Alt. fire from Handler + Karl Junior + Prop Hop + follow-up shots with Handler) is devastating, and if you are stunned with Short Circuit during that combo, it's Karl's way of saying: "You are not allowed to live". Prop Hop can save him from your Ka-Claw, which can be frustrating. He can also use Short Circuit to stun both you and himself, stalling you and allowing for his skills to cooldown, letting him run away/hurting you enough to make you flee. Approach with extreme caution, if he's fed too much, there is almost no possible way to win, unless everyone miraculously gets Bacon and you get a bazzilion Jackbots at once.

The most inventing mind of all times. Has somewhat less healing potential than other Defenders, but experienced players can heal their teams constantly. Mona Laser does moderate damage up close while charging his healing laser, so try avoiding it. Balestra is quite damaging up close too, but loses part of it's damage at long distances. He can be somewhat hard to grapple because of his wings, allowing him to glide for a prolonged time. Leo usually jumps around a couple of times, then uses his heal ability (if it's charged) and tries to grapple you, waiting for teammates to show up. His grapple is the longest in the game, so sometimes you are not guaranteed to live if he does. Also, sometimes he uses Drillcopter and then proceeds to grapple in it's effective area, dealing you extra damage. He also can use his Venice Defense turret to get armor and teleport himself back to spawn, so try not to let him do that. Grapple or push him during teleportation animation to prevent it.


This party's well attended! His Robo Bots are a real headache, they are fragile, but very small, fast, evasive and deal enough damage to make you retrace your steps a bit or even get back to spawn to regenerate health. The Ghetto Blaster slows anything down in it's AoE, which he can use to escape or close the gap between himself and an enemy in order to get some Bass Blaster shots or a grapple. The Sound Blast makes a great escape tool, so he will use it any opportunity he gets, usually with Ghetto Blaster, but your Freight Train might do the trick to catch up with him. His Sound Wave deals possibly the biggest damage per projectile, and can even be exploded in the air, which experienced Robos can use to deal damage TWICE. High damage multiplied by two plus at least somewhat good aim equals high chances of death or critically low health at least, so avoid Sound Wave projectiles as long as you can.


My band name is Hacksaw Circumsicion! Rocket Ma'am deals huge damage, while also can be laser pointed, the advice is the same as with Robo's Sound Wave - avoid as long as you can. When approached in front, she can toss Derby Discu at you, then proceed to shooting with any of her weapons. When caught off-guard, she will possibly use Whirlish Derby to keep you at distance, then Shoot the Moon or rocket jump to safety, so having a teammate(s) close is advisable, since there's almost no possible way you can outrace her. She can also Shoot the Moon if you try to retreat, so run away as fast as you possibly can, because after that skill use she will have like a katillion speed, comparable to that of Commandos.


One Sharpshooter to rule them all. Sniper is possibly the most teamplaying Sharshooter of all three. Firstly, he has a huge tunnel vision because of Sniper Rifle's scope, so he has to rely on his teammates to protect him. Secondly, he has Freeze Traps, that not just allow him to get headshots off anyone unlucky or silly enough to get caught by these, but also lets his teammates to finish him off. So try getting rid of him as quickly as possible, Ka-Clawing him while he is scoped might actually get him, if he's not fast enough or is looking in the other direction. He can hardly retaliate in CQC, so if you get him close to you, he possibly is not gonna make it alive. But remember about Freeze Traps, they can mess you up if you're not aware enough. They can be noticed by slight glow, after some time of gameplay you will notice those without a problem. His Throw grapple can get you rungout or keep you at a distance while he retreats back to spawn/turret hugging. His Flak is quite mean, since he can throw it at you without having an eye contact by bouncing it off a wall, so if you are hiding by a turret at low health and think you are safe - think again. But in summary, he can't fight on his own, he needs teammates to cover him, unless there's a huge distance between both of you.


Looks like this thing's coming down... To the wire. Not as annoying as an Assassin, but can still be a pain in the back. Huge DPS from Voltage Spike and his electric charges can get you low on health in seconds, so get him "grounded" by a grapple. If he sees he can't fight anymore, he will Arc Flash to safety, making it impossible follow him. Think standing by ring edges is a good idea? Flip Switch will make you change your point of view. He also has a blinding ability, so if he tries to Megahurtz you - put him down, if there's a teammate nearby, or run away, or he'll jump around you 'till you die.


When a tree dies, only the woodpeckers profit. He's like a Mario in disguise - jumpy, helps people, has an awesome stache. His Firebase has the biggest DPS out of all deployables, so never come close to it without proper cover. His Heal/Hurt Gun can slow you down and aim the Firebase at you, so you get out of there as fast as you can. Shotgun deals huge damage while having somewhat short effective range (sometimes it seems like he shoots bazillion meters away without falloff), so stay away if you're not sure you can handle him. Try to Ka-Claw him into your turret's range in the beginning, so his teammates have to retreat to their base, allowing you to push a bit. If he tries to escape, he will Overclock while spamming Air Strike behind him and hoping a teammate will help him out and/or draining health out of you, so try not to get headcrabbed when chasing him.


Third time's the charm. Jet Gun does huge damage up close, so stay away from him for a while. If you get an opportunity to get him wounded or killed with minimal damage taken - do it, there might not be another one. Watch out for his Charges, they can send you flying quite the distance. His Product Grenade blocks your screen, and at level 4 deals huge damage by splitting, if you're not fast enough to get out. His Shield blocks huge chunk of your damage, but doesn't defend him from grapples. Also somehow they are prone to get rungout by the momentum of the Ka-Claw when they try to retaliate using jets (especially if they have no Charge), so Ka-Clawing them into your base or out of ring sometimes leads to them being killed in a wierd fashion (same applies to some Gunners too).


...I also like strawberry shortcake. The only way of beating enemy Veteran is outsmarting him. Don't get caught, block Ka-Claws with EMP stun, push him off the ring - try thinking what would have you done if you were him, and do anything possible to counter that.


...Was Bullseye here, did I miss him?! Two words - Shifty Shuffle. Never, NEVER try to grapple Wascot when he sees you coming, he always has Shifty Shuffle ready to activate. Just don't let him to jump around you or get grappled by him. Push him with Freight Train, jump around, wait for it to finish, after that he is almost defenseless and can be easily dealt with. His Crook Hook can stun you while he closes proximity between you and himself, after that he will use Shifty Shuffle and try to grapple you or jump around, swing his melee, so run away, you can't win this alone. Party Pooper decreases damage, so he can use this during escape or fight to give himself more chances of survival.

I once saw a guy calling Veteran a Commando. That's possibly the best way to describe his playstyle. While he can handle things on his own (he's an Enforcer after all), he's more effective when cooperating with teammates or setting up ambushes and being a bit sneaky and witty. When he's actually quite easy to play, some advanced tactics may require some (and by that I mean alot) of practice. Heck, even I'm not the best Veteran out there, this title belongs to either Infinity Canvas or vlad.aka.47 (either way, be afraid of them, they're dangerous). Ka-Claw requies some aim, not as much as Sharpshooters do to get headshots, but enough to actually get something (random spam doesn't really works well). Ka-Clawing enemies into your teammates, turrets or out of the ring is really effective. Don't forget about Freight Train, use it to move around the arena really fast, but try to make sure you have one for emergencies (you can never have enough grapples, you know).

Usage of bonus flight momentum.
Usage of bonus flight momentum

Same, but clearer.
Same, but clearer