25. Avoid Being Spotted by Drones During Prep Phase
https://youtu.be/0RIJFp8RQ30?t=558
This is one of the first pieces of advice that any experienced Cav player would tell you. That is because the moment that the attacking team spots a Cav on the defending team, chances are, they’ll stay close together so that they can avoid your interrogation skill. They will also expect you to get behind them, so they could be checking their backs more often when there's a Cav.
So, the first thing you do is leave all the reinforcing to your teammates and just run like hell to a hiding spot where drones aren’t likely to go. Don’t feel guilty about not helping with the reinforcements because you’ll be able to help the team more if you’re not detected by the enemies early on. Make sure to also use the Silent Step ability while running towards a hiding spot so that drones won’t hear and follow you.
24. Use Awkward Angles to Avoid Drones
https://youtu.be/0RIJFp8RQ30?t=363
Apart from the advice given above, you shouldn’t just avoid Attacker drones during the prep phase. You should avoid them as well while the round is on-going, because experienced players will definitely case an area first with drones before entering, especially in Ranked or Ranked modes. Heck, a lot of players also drone even in Quick Matches.
And the best way to avoid being spotted by drones when you’re preparing for an ambush is to use weird and awkward angles. Why weird and awkward angles? Because they’re the angles that aren’t getting droned that much. So, you have to get into the mentality of an Attacker. Which angles do you usually drone when you’re in attack mode? Don’t wait on those areas and choose areas which are unlikely to be droned instead.
23. Communicate with Your Team on Rotation Holes
https://youtu.be/80gzwo_X8GM?t=285
Before you leave the objective spot to hide from drones during the prep phase, you should communicate with your team first, especially if you’re playing in a stack, that you would be running out to hide from drones. That way, they will know that you won’t be using your impact grenades or shotguns to create rotation holes.
That, or you can ask if anyone in your team can create the rotation holes instead. And if someone says he’ll do it, then of course you’re free to just zoom out to get into a hiding spot. If no one answers, then it’s best to just sacrifice one of your impact grenades to create it before running out of the objective spot. Impact grenades are very useful for Cav when it comes to escaping, but rotation holes are very important as well, so it wouldn’t be much of a loss to use one impact grenade for that.
22. Rebind Your Grenade to Your Mouse
As mentioned in the entries above, Caveira would have to make use of her impact grenades a lot, that’s why it’s the most recommended secondary gadget for her. And that’s because the impact grenades are a great utility tool for her when she quickly needs to flank opponents or when escaping from them. It’s also great for times when there’s no one else in the team that can make rotation holes. Cav can use one of her impact grenades to make a rotation hole in the objective area before she dips to hunt.
And because of the situations where Caveira would be mostly using her impact grenades in, the player should be able to do it quickly and precisely. That is why I recommend binding the grenade key to one of the side buttons of your mouse. Preferably the one closest to your thumb. That way you can use your impact grenades without taking your fingers off the ‘wasd’ keys, and you can throw them with more precision because you’d be able to control your mouse while doing it.
21. Use Spatial Sound
https://youtu.be/owFtYlzj9kI?t=13
One of Caveira’s special abilities, the Silent Step, allows her to move, even sprint silently. And that’s why she’s so deadly as a roamer, because she can go from one place to another very quickly but also silently. That shows how hearing sound cues that your enemies make is very important in Siege. And of course, that goes for the hunter too. Which in this case is you, the Caveira player.
When playing Caveira, you need to be very aware of your surroundings, because that will let you hunt Attackers better, and escape from them better when they start hunting you. Luckily, there’s a free tool from Windows that can help you enhance your audio in Siege. Just click the sound icon on the bottom right of your taskbar, hover the cursor to spatial sound, and select Windows Sonic for Headphones. This will allow you to differentiate sounds that are coming from the bottom, above, or in the same level better.
20. Create Hiding Spots
https://youtu.be/80gzwo_X8GM?t=4
Just as shown in the clips above, you can destroy some items in the game in order to create space for you and make them your hiding spot. With a lot of these items, you can use melee to destroy them, but sometimes melee is not enough, or it’ll take too long. And that’s one of the reasons why it’s recommended for Caveira to equip her shotgun as her primary. Her shotgun is one of the most destructive shotguns in the game, so it’ll be easy for her to destroy items, especially big ones, in order to make room for a hiding spot.
Make sure also to think like an Attacker when picking your hiding spots. It’s best to assume that your enemies are experienced and so they will expect you or your teammates to hide in the usual hiding spots. So, putting your mind into the perspective of Attackers will help you pick the spot that is rarely used so that the Attackers won’t be expecting you there. And most importantly, they probably won’t drone that spot.
19. You Don't Wanna Use Cav Every Round
This kind of has the same principle as the tip that you should avoid being seen by drones during the prep phase. After you successfully use Cav during the first round, even if enemies aren’t able to scan you in the second, experienced players would be wary of you and would expect that there’s a Caveira again. This just goes double in the third round, especially if you’re successful as Cav again during the second.
Even though Caveira is a really powerful operator, she’s not invincible, and there are a lot of ways to counter her. So, it’s safe to assume that your enemies will be implementing measures to counter you if you keep using Cav. That could be through coordinating and sticking to each other more while using anti-Cav operators such as Jackal, Caveira, and Lion. They could start using Gridlock too which has an excellent special gadget that can make Cav’s life really difficult.
18. Destroy Hatches Early
Using your shotgun, you should destroy hatches very early on during the prep phase and before the Attacker drones start coming. Destroying hatches on or near your objective spot allows you or your teammates to flank or get behind enemies later on when needed, and it could also allow you to go down to a lower floor faster in order to get into a hiding spot so that the Attacker drones won’t be able to scan you.
Those destroyed hatches can also help you escape later on when the Attackers are hunting you, get behind them, and perform a counter attack. The best thing about Cav is that she has many avenues of escape. Be it through her shotgun or impact grenades, and she can move from point A to point B quickly and silently. So, the more paths of escape that you have as Cav, like those destroyed hatches, the more effective you’ll be.
17. Destroy Attacker Drones with Melee
As much as possible of course. During your time roaming around the map, you’d likely encounter Attacker drones that are left on the ground or on a spot for gathering intel. While it’s good to destroy them with your Luison, because it will be done silently and of course, without alerting the Attackers. It’s still better to use Melee when doing it.
And that’s because you shouldn’t really waste even one bullet of your Luision. As most handguns are, the Luison’s magazine capacity isn’t that large, so even one bullet missing from its magazine can have an unforeseen negative effect on your gameplay. Plus, that will make you reload more often, and as a roamer, you should avoid that, because the reload sound cue is quite loud and could alert the Attackers to your presence.
16. Get A Good Handle on Valkyrie's Cams
If you have a Valkyrie on your team, you should really familiarize yourself on where she has placed her cams, because the intel on her cams will be very helpful for you. Valkyrie’s cams offer 180-degree view of the surroundings, and if the Valkyrie on your team knows what she’s doing, her cams will be on spots where you and your team will really have a good handle on enemy positions.
So, instead of just blindly roaming around and hoping to encounter an Attacker that’s also roaming the map alone, rely on Valkyrie’s cams instead so that you’ll know where your enemies are and you can time your attack. If three of Valkyrie’s cams aren’t picking enemies they are pushing around the objective area, then chances are, they’re already hunting you and you have to find another spot.
15. Remember That You Can Cancel Your Silent Step
https://youtu.be/0RIJFp8RQ30?t=232
Caveira’s Silent Step lasts for ten seconds, and what I’ve noticed over the years of playing Siege is that a lot of players, especially beginners, just let the Silent Step ability remain active even when they’re just crouching or hiding. And it’s probably because they are not aware that by hitting the special gadget button again, they will be able to cancel the Silent Step and of course, the sooner you finish using the skill, the sooner its cooldown will start.
So, suppose to say that you canceled the Silent Step after just 5 seconds, that will allow the skill to go back to its full capacity much quicker. And the more you’re able to use the Silent Step, the more effective you’ll be as a roamer. Especially when there’s a Jackal on the opposing team. Because when you use the Silent Step, you won’t leave footprints for Jackal to track you with, and the Silent Step will also prevent Jackal from pinging your real current location in case he’s able to track you.
14. Make Sure You've Memorized the Maps
https://youtu.be/Xk540yUnT9E?t=119
You won’t be able to play Cav like a pro if you haven’t mastered the maps. It’s often said that Siege is a hard game, but veteran Siege players would tell you that it starts getting much easier once you’ve familiarized yourself with the maps. Regardless of the operator, having mastery of the map will go a long way when it comes to winning matches.
But map familiarity is even more important for roamers like Caveira, because knowing the ins and outs of every map will allow her to plan her path of attack well, as well as know where to escape the instant that the Attackers begin hunting her. As I said in the other entries above, Cav’s main strength is her ability to go from point A to point B silently and quickly. But if the player isn’t familiar with the maps, then it’ll be hard for her to go where she really wants to go in the first place.
13. Remember Where Frost Deployed Her Traps
https://youtu.be/z9T_rW9ckvM?t=16
Frost is one of the best operator combos for Caveira because her Welcome Mats immediately puts Attackers who step onto them in a down-but-not-out state. Especially if you’re playing with a coordinated team, you can ask Frost to not immediately kill Attackers who get caught in her Welcome Mats, and instead reserve them for your Interrogation ability.
Whenever Caveira’s Interrogation ability is successful, it brings the Defenders much closer to winning the round, because it will tag the remaining Attackers in real time, allowing the Defenders to know exactly where they are, so pre-firing them would be so easy. That’s why it’ll be best for Cav to know where Frost laid her Welcome Mats, so that when an Attacker gets trapped with one of them, she’ll know where to go in order to perform her dreaded Interrogation ability.
12. Use an Injured Attacker as Bait
https://youtu.be/HKmZSIxHCCw?t=8
This tip will be more effective when the Attackers know that there’s a Caveira on the Defender team. And yes, I mentioned it a lot that when you’re playing Caveira, you should do your best not to be detected during the prep phase. But there are times in the game that no matter how fast we go away from the objective spot and find a hiding place, we would still get found by a lucky drone.
Thing is, there’s also a positive effect to you being exposed early on. Because Caveira’s presence can unsettle the Attackers and force them to stay close to one another. Now that might make it harder for you to perform your Interrogation skill, but it’ll be easier to predict their movements. Like if you’re able to put one of them in a down-but-not-out state, chances are another Attacker will come near the injured Attacker to prevent an Interrogation. And that will be your cue to frag the Attacker who came to his buddy’s rescue.
11. Don't Sleep on Her Submachine Gun
https://youtu.be/We_QXSK-tYs?t=18
While most experienced players including me would recommend you to equip the SPAS-15 shotgun as Caveira’s primary weapon, there are also situations where her M12 submachine gun would be better, especially when you’re fighting against opponents that are in a coordinated team and their members aren’t straying too far from one another.
When they’re all pushing together, it’ll be very hard for Caveira’s shotgun to be effective against them, so your best bet would be to take the opportunity of being able to get behind them and just strafe them with Caveira’s M12, and after fragging an opponent, quickly change position to confuse the enemies. With this tactic, you might not be able to perform your Interrogation ability well, but you’ll be contributing a lot to your team by picking off the Attackers one by one.
10. Use the Silent Step A Lot When There's a Jackal
https://youtu.be/6FevU-wdhu8?t=11
While Jackal is the best counter against roamers, Caveira is just built differently, and she can really mess Jackal’s ability up. That is because while the Silent Step is active, Caveira won’t be leaving footprints for Jackal to scan with using his special gadget. That alone can really mess up Jackal’s hunt, even if he knows that there’s a Caveira on the Defender team. That is because he wouldn’t know where Caveira went and where she came from.
Another thing that can really mess up Jackal’s tracking ability is that even when he manages to scan Caveira’s footprints and initially pings her, once she uses the Silent Step ability again, that ping from Jackal’s special gadget won’t follow her while the Silent Step is active. Instead, it will keep pinging Caveira’s last position before she uses the Silent Step.
9. Take Advantage of Her Darker Cosmetics
https://youtu.be/80gzwo_X8GM?t=600
Even though Ubisoft has made most of the lighting in the maps more neutral, darker areas in the maps still exists, and it is still generally better for Caveira to wear darker cosmetics, especially those with irregular patterns, in order to lessen the chances of your enemies spotting you when you’re prepping for an ambush while in a hiding spot. Darker cosmetics with irregular patterns would make it so that your enemies could mistake some of your exposed pixels as just another item in the map.
So, if you got the extra renown or R6 credits, consider getting Caveira’s Black Leopard or her Bloodwood uniforms and headgears. The Black Leopard even more so, because it has an irregular pattern and its colors would really blend well to most surroundings and backdrops in the game. Most of the cosmetics could really be mistaken as just one of the objects in the game, especially when you’re crouching or on prone.
8. Don't Sleep on the Proximity Alarms
https://youtu.be/0RIJFp8RQ30?t=202
While it’s recommended for Cav players to choose the impact grenades as her secondary weapon, there are also some situations where it’s better to equip the proximity alarms instead. Especially when you already have the SPAS-15 shotgun as your primary which you can use for creating rotation holes and for destroying hatches, and if your teammates don’t have proximity alarms.
First off, the proximity alarms are really great for defending the objective spot, because they can really mess up the Attacker’s rhythm and make them hesitant to keep pushing because they would know that their positions have been compromised and that the Defenders have been alerted. They’re also great for Caveira when she’s waiting for an ambush. She can use the proximity alarm as something like a trap, and once it goes off, she’ll know that she’ll have a prey in that direction.
7. Your Loadout Should Depend on the Map
Don’t be too rigid on your loadout choices. Like I mentioned in the other entries above, even though the SPAS-15 shotgun is generally the best primary for Caveira, there are also certain situations and maps where the M12 would be better. And of course, this also heavily depends on the player, because some players are just not that comfortable without a fully automatic weapon as their primary.
So, I highly advise Caveira players, especially the ones that are new to the game, to keep assessing the situation and the maps, and see which loadout setup would be best to use. Generally, for maps with tight corners and pathways, the shotgun would be really great. And for maps that have wide angles, like Villa for example, the M12 would work best as Caveira’s primary, because she would be able to contribute more by being able to strafe opponents at medium range.
6. Get as Close as You Can
https://youtu.be/uJgW_ZdrxiE?t=89
Caveira doesn’t really do well at longer distances. That is because both her Luison and M12 have very high damage drop-off, and of course, her other weapon, the SPAS-15 is a shotgun. But most importantly, the reason why you’d want to get as close as you can to your enemy before taking him down is because with that method, you’d be able to perform the interrogation faster. And of course, the faster you can interrogate a downed Attacker, the higher the success rate of your Interrogation will be.
That is because that downed Attacker would have much less time to call his teammates, and on the other hand, even if his teammates saw in the outline that he’s being interrogated, they’ll have less time to respond. The Luison’s heavy damage also works really well at close range. At close distances, the Luison can take down an opponent in just a couple of shots regardless of their armor rating. But as I said above, its weakness is its very high damage drop-off.
5. Use Interrogation as Bait
https://youtu.be/80gzwo_X8GM?t=674
Interrogation takes five seconds to perform, and in Siege time, that’s quite long. In many cases, that’s enough time for other Attackers to respond and kill you before you finish interrogating their downed teammate. But a good Caveira player knows when to go through an interrogation and when she has to cancel it. A great Caveira player, however, wouldn’t just cancel the interrogation and run away. She will use it to her advantage in order to take down more enemies.
Interrogation can be a really useful bait if you want to take down one or more Attackers, because chances are, once the Attacker team realizes that one of their teammates are being interrogated and that teammate is not that far from their location, they will try to respond in order to kill Caveira first because Interrogation being successful means really bad news for Attackers. But if you cancel at the right time and counter the responding Attacker first, then you’ll have more kills on your hand.
4. Her Impact Grenades Are Very Important
https://youtu.be/80gzwo_X8GM?t=604
While I did say in one of the above entries that her Proximity Alarms are not to be slept on in certain situations and maps. Generally, the impact grenades are her best secondary gadgets. That is because overall, the impact grenades are just great utility tools, especially for creating rotation holes or escape holes, which are very important for Caveira’s gameplay. The impact grenades’ value even became higher with the addition of Osa to the game because it’s the best counter for her.
This is also why it’s very important for Caveira to communicate with her team before the start of the round in order to ask if anyone else can create a rotation hole in the objective spot. That’s because it’s going to be much better for Caveira to roam with two impact grenades instead of one. With two impact grenades, it’s going to be very hard to catch her when Attackers are hunting her, because she would be able to make more paths of escape.
3. Take Advantage of her Shotgun
https://youtu.be/J7UKb4ZwOj8?t=184
Caveira’s SPAS-15 is one of the most destructive shotguns in the game. With just two shots from it, it can create a hole big enough for a rotation hole, and as long as the angle of the shot is right, it can destroy an unreinforced hatch with just one shot. That’s why it’s a great utility tool for Caveira in contributing to her team by making rotation holes in the objective spot, and for making more escape routes in order to aid her roaming capabilities.
But the SPAS-15 shotgun isn’t just a great utility tool. It’s a devastating weapon at close range, so for sudden encounters, it can take down an enemy with just one shot. But its advantage over most shotguns in the game is that it has a fast rate of fire and fast reload speed. Making it a great option for close range engagements, especially when Caveira is dealing with more than one enemy.
2. Definitely Get a Good Audio Hardware
https://youtu.be/sV1wd9BFqw8?t=554
We talked about spatial sound in one of the above entries and how it’s important for Caveira to be able to tell the difference if the sound is coming from the same level as her, below, or above. But even spatial sound won’t help you that much if you’re still rocking an old stereo headset. If you truly want to excel as Caveira whose gameplay heavily relies on the player’s ability to detect enemy sound cues, you should get a 7.1 headset or better.
Many Siege Esports players either use 7.1 headsets or high-quality earphones. High quality earphones will produce a more detailed sound without a lot of bass, so the quiet sounds in the game like footsteps, will be picked up a lot more.
1. Don't Get Greedy
https://youtu.be/80gzwo_X8GM?t=633
After internalizing and applying all the tips above and getting more experience playing Caveira, this is the tip that every player should really remember. And that is to not be greedy when it comes to performing interrogations or even just downing opponents. One thing I noticed when watching pros play is that their trigger discipline is on another level than most normal players. A lot of players would just instantly pull the trigger when they see an enemy, but a lot of times, it’s better not to.
Like when you’ve successfully put an Attacker in a down-but-not-out state, if you feel that enemies will be able to frag you before the Interrogation finishes, you should just let go, and either use the downed attacker as bait or just kill him and run away. There are also times when you’ll manage to sneak behind an enemy but you shouldn’t really down him yet with your Luison even though you could at that moment. You should observe the surroundings first and if you’re sure that his teammates are far away, that will be the right time to injure him and perform an interrogation.
Attention operator, please be advised. There is a new directive from Six. Read up on these related articles, and prepare for deployment:
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