Flying Jets | Battlefield 3 Tips: The Bunker

Following on from his previous tips were Battlefield Bootcamp host Jonno Stanton brought you advanced helicopter tactics, this time, Jono gives us his advice on getting the most out of jets in Battlefield 3.

Let’s face it, if you’re daunted by the prospect of piloting a helicopter, then jets can be an even scarier prospect. Their speed can make it difficult to just navigate without crashing, let alone actually take down people in the air and on the ground.

’Jets are not always the most popular vehicle to get in, because unless you're really good, you won't get a lot of points' says Jonno. ’A lot of time, you end up dogfighting, and it's only if you're really good that you get the chance to attack the land.’

So how should you get that all-important practice in? 'For the jets, try out Air Superiority mode' says Jonno, referencing the new mode that was included with the End Game DLC. 'You can check out some of the more rare vehicles that the better players usually get into straight away.' Of course, there’s always a race by the seasoned jet fighters to get to their vehicle as quickly as possible, but Jonno advises, 'The good thing is that jets respawn quickly, so if you die, you don't have to wait too long to get back into them.’

Jonno has a really good tip if you’re truly brand new to jets and just want an open area to practice flying around. 'A really good map to learn the jets on is Caspian Border on Conquest mode' he says. 'There are four jets, two for each side, and there's a lot of open space to practice dogfighting and attacking ground targets. It's a relatively jet-friendly environment!' he says.

In fact, Conquest mode is a good practice area in general for all vehicle types, says Jonno. 'If you want to get into the vehicles, Conquest is the best mode in general, I'd say, rather than Rush. In Rush, you'll only usually get one helicopter or one jet, whereas on Conquest there are two or three jets and two helicopters, meaning you're more likely to get in one!'

Highway to the Danger Zone

As mentioned in the previously in the Advanced Helicopter Tactics post, if you want to give yourself the edge, then make sure you’ve got the game installed to your hard drive no matter what platform you play on, as the quicker you spawn into a game, the closer you’ll be to things like jets.

'You essentially spawn in a line depending on how quickly you spawn into the game' says Jonno. 'On some maps, you can spawn into a jet, and in others you have to run for it, so make sure you give yourself an edge.'

Jonno is a console player, but we’ve spoken to serious Battlefield PC players who have invested in a joystick to make things a little bit easier, while others in the forum have even reported using an Xbox 360 joypad specifically for flying!

Once you’ve got to the level where you can competently fly around without nose-diving into the ground, you still need to be able to take down enemies in order to score those precious points.

'The hardest thing to learn with jets is attacking the ground targets without hitting the ground yourself' says Jonno. 'That's touched on in one of the Bootcamp episodes we've got coming up, but it's still trial and error, because the jets do handle quite realistically. You can't just press right to turn right - it's affected by your speed, among other things.’

And finally...

Thanks for reading this week's Battlefield Bunker, we hope you enjoyed it and found it useful.

We’ll be back again next week with the final chapter of Jonno’s tips, this time on tanks, but if you have any questions that you want putting to one of our experts, please leave them in the comments below, and if you’re not doing so already, make sure you watch Battlefield Bootcamp on EA Vision.