David Carrington

UPDATE: Parrots were amazing for getting XP quickly. So good that they have now been slightly nerfed: you get 30% less points for marking enemies.

In Homefront multiplayer, knowing where your enemy is coming from is a huge advantage. That’s where the Parrot drone comes in – a remote controlled mini UAV that highlights enemy players by just looking at them.

Most of my Homefront XP  has come from using Parrot drones very effectively. I can often earn multiple Apache helicopters and tanks simply from using the Parrot. The leaderboard screen says I earn 1000 XP per minute, so they can’t be that bad to use. Here’s some general tips:

Parrot Drone Setup:

• Create a specific class with drone perks.
• Speed is more valuable than health.
• Penny Pincher perk reduces the cost of the drone from 250 BP to 200 BP.
• My second purchasable is usually a Rhino Drone, since I like to take down enemy aircraft and drones.
• Hide your player. In a building, out of sight, out of the way. Walls are good, a roof is better.
• Avoid lying down in your spawn point, make at least some effort to hide or move a bit. People like attacking spawns in this game.
• My favourite perk setup is: speed, battery, and “Grizzled” for the XP boost.
• The “Crater-to-Order” self-destruct perk turns your drone into a remote control bomb – which can discourage people from blowing it up. You get the usual 130 BP for killing someone using this.

How to use a Parrot Drone:

• Mark players (duh) – it’s worth 30 BP 20 BP each time.
• Mark players again! When their red marker is flashing, it’s time to earn another 30 BP 20 BP.
• Vehicles start flashing much sooner than players. Following and marking a single vehicle can be very profitable.
• Mark people you know your team are going to kill. A kill assist earns you another 40 BP. Enemy snipers on sniping maps, people at capture points, people near your team, and mark as much as possible near your team’s vehicles – especially for helicopters that can have a much harder time seeing individual enemies.
• Mark people in their spawn points. Dangerous, but quick points.
• The higher your drone is, the harder it is to see targets you can mark.
• Fly evasively, especially under fire – zig zags, various heights, spirals, etc. When being shot at I will usually go into an upward or downward spin.
• Hide your drone in trees. Sometimes works :)
• You can hold X to stop using your Parrot and run around on foot again.
• After exiting your Parrot (or other) drone, you can re-enter it by calling it up again.
• Avoid getting your own drone marked – I personally do this by tending to fly higher up than other drones.
• If you mark a drone, the controlling player also gets marked.
• You can mark all sorts of vehicles, including drones and helicopters, as long as you’re in range.

Taking down Parrot drones:

• Shoot it! They only take a few hits, or a couple more if they’re using the health perk. The LMG’s are the best weapon type for taking out vehicles.
• Rhino Drone. It’s one of the few things in the game that actually locks on two vehicles.
• Proximity RPGs, whatever they’re called – one hit and boom. Don’t even try to use a regular RPG – it’s funny how many people try!
• Kill the owner. Getting killed while controlling a drone will destroy it.

If you have any more tips, let me know and I’ll add them up here :)