How to Rank Up and Level Up Classes, Weapons and Vehicles Fast in BF3

Better Late Than Never

Alright, so Battlefield 3 has been out for some time now and you have just decided to join the fray. A little late. While a plethora of mighty BF3 Eagles tear you apart with their advanced weaponry, you shall shake your sharpened stick at them menacingly. Perhaps you'll get fed up and take to the air for some fine dog fighting, only to find that every vehicle you enter needs points to unlock the simplest and most vital of upgrades; the ability to deter incoming rockets.

Face it, you have a lot of catching up to do and it's going to be an uphill battle. Especially when Johnny McNooberville slays you over and over again with his "LOL!" advanced tech as you find yourself being rewarded for all your skill and covert abilities with that reward you just can't seem to return, death.

Fear not, I am going to forward on to you some tips on how to rank up and level up classes fast, and how to get weapon and vehicle unlocks faster in Battlefield 3.

Recon

 

T-UGS & MAV: The first unlock you'll get with Recon is one of the most valuable for quick upgrades, the T-UGS. This is a little item that goes in your third slot and is used by placing it on the ground. Once placed it will ping out and mark enemy locations within a certain perimeter on your (and your team's) mini-map. The MAV (which is the fourth Recon unlock) works the same but doesn't have to be placed, it can be flown out and landed without the player having to enter a hot zone. If an enemy that has been marked by either of these devices is killed, you will receive a spot bonus and a motion sensor bonus.

For every five motion sensor assists you get, you also get the Surveillance Efficiency Ribbon. This is worth 200 XP. Get 50 of those ribbons and you'll receive the Surveillance Medal which is worth 10,000 XP.

The trick here is to find a typical match-long chokepoint and place it in a central but relatively safe position. The items are susceptible to enemy fire and explosives, so you will have to make sure they are placed in a spot where grenades/m320/rockets aren't spammed but are still in the middle of the action. The Alleyway in Bazaar is a great zone for this (especially since you can land the MAV on a roof to keep it safe). My personal favorite however is in a corner hidden under a pile of newspapers at the B objective in Metro on a 64 man server.

Radio Beacon: Always place a radio beacon. This is quite simple, you get spawn bonuses for people using it to spawn back in and can earn a medal after a bit of time. Make sure it's in a safe but advanced spot and it'll be used more frequently by your squadmates. Also, after 100 spawns on your radio beacon, you will receive the Radio Beacon Medal for 10,000 XP.

Assault

 

Medkits & Defibs:You start with Medkits (a third slot item) and will have the Defibrillator (fourth slot) as your first Assault unlock. Drop Medkits in spots that are not prone to heavy rocket/grenade spams, but still in the midst of a large number of your teammates. For every second a teammate is being healed by your Medkit you get 10 points, if it's a squadmate you get 20 points. You also will be helping your team by not being a noob, so thank you.

The Defibs can turn the tides of battle in ridiculous ways if used right. Half your team just got wiped on a bad rush? Not if you run around reviving them! If you want to be super effective at gaining points this way stand to the side of a chokepoint and resurrect your teammates as they fall. A great method of this is in Metro from the US side as any teammates that get killed on the escalators at B will roll down them to the bottom for you to (relatively) safely revive them! You get 100 points per resurrection, which is ridiculous, and 110 points for a squad revive. Not only this but you will also get the Medical Efficiency Ribbon (200 points) for every five revives, and a Medical Efficiency Medal (10,000 points) for every 50 of those Ribbons! You will also be playing an integral part of keeping your team alive and at the forefront of battle, so if you play assault do your job and revive your teammates!

M320: This is your second Assault unlock and if you use it, odds are you are going to hear about it... a lot. The M320, or aptly dubbed Noobtube, is a devastating grenade launcher that can be strapped to any rifle with an undersling rail attachment. If you are going to use this weapon be sure that your specialization for the kit is set to Grenades so you get double the ammo. If you can be in an area with a Support's Resupply Kit at reach you will become an incredibly annoying force. The M320 works best at range from splash damage and is relatively useless at close range. Stay back and lob grenades to the roof/floor/walls in spots you feel the enemy has bunkered in. Not only will this weapon keep you at a distance from the main battle (keeping you alive) it will garner you a stupid amount of kills and assists. Being at the back of the fight supporting will also give you the opportunity to locate and jump in on reviving nearby teammates safely. This weapon of course works best in small confined levels like Metro or Bazaar.

Support

 

Ammo Boxes: Drop Ammo for your team! Each time a teammate picks up a bit of ammo you get 10 points (2o for a squadmate). For every seven times you get that bonus you get a 200 XP Resupply Ribbon. For every 50 of those Ribbons you get a 10,000 XP Resupply Medal. Plus you will keep your team well stocked and deadly, so do it!

C4 Explosives & Claymores: If you can sneak up on an enemy vehicle, throw a few C4 satchels on it and blow it to hell. You'll get the enemy kill points, plus vehicle destruction points (this adds up to a nice chunk I assure you). Another incredibly mean method is to place the satchels on an unoccupied vehicle and wait for an enemy to enter it only to blow it to hell. You can even toss 'em on a Recon's MAV and let him fly it into a hot zone effectively becoming a mobile enemy wiping bomb.You can also use C4 by placing it at a chokepoint and waiting for the enemy to come trotting around the corner or through the doorway into it as you maniacally flip the switch and turn him into mist.

Claymores are much simpler in use. Find a spot at the top of a staircase or around a corner and plant them. Explosives will destroy your Claymores so make sure they're generally out of sight and away from regular explosive spamming spots. These take no effort on your part and will detonate the moment an enemy comes around said corner or ascends said staircase. They're like that infomercial ad, "set it and forget it!".

Suppression: One of the first unlocks you will get for most of your heavy machine guns is the Extended Magazine upgrade. This will double your clip size and is great if you are running for suppressing fire and easy kills/assists. If your team is engaged in a heavy firefight with another large chunk of enemies, open fire in their vicinity. Every suppression is worth 50 points and kill assists are worth whatever damage you have done to the enemy.

There is also a Suppression Ribbon you can get for every 14 Suppression Assists worth 200 XP and a matching Suppression Medal for 10,000 XP after obtaining 50 of those Ribbons.

Engineer

 

Repair: If you repair a vehicle, you get 10 XP per second, however this only applies if someone else is in the vehicle; you cant just hop out and repair your own empty vehicle. Now this is a dangerous thing to be doing since if your vehicle is under fire odds are you're looking at death if you try it mid battle, this requires strategy and timing. If you're not having much luck hop into a transport helicopter and pick a seat which allows you to use your weapons. Now pull out the blowtorch and use it on the side of the opening, you can repair it while you're flying in it! If you have a decent pilot and a couple gunners you can get a whole whack of repair bonuses and some passenger kill bonuses. For every seven repair bonuses you get a Maintenance Efficiency Ribbon worth 200 XP, 50 of those and a whopping 10,000 XP Medal follows.

Explosives: Using your starter rocket launchers look if the enemy is rolling out heavy armour, if so go for the tank kills. Use the Explosives Perk if you have it unlocked (gives you more explosives ammo) and try to get some shots on the back (the weakest point) or just lay into it and blow the thing to hell. 150 points if you disable and blow it up plus 100 points for anyone trapped inside when it blows.

If the enemy is dominating the skies pull out your FIM-92 Stinger/SA-18 IGLA anti-air rocket launcher (your first unlock) with your Explosives Perk (for extra ammo) and start laying into the sky. Your rockets can be deterred by flares, but since you can basically hold a lock and reload fast your next shot will hit for sure unless they got some serious dodging skills. Most air vehicles take 2 rockets to take down, so this isn't an easy thing to accomplish some times. Look for vehicles that are already under stress from a teammate and have perhaps already fired their flares or just survived a battle with one of your teammates but have come out damaged... pounce on them!

Finally, the M15 AT Mine (your second unlock) the anti-tank mine. Basically pop a few of these in a zone where there is a heavy enemy vehicle presence, or at narrow choke points that vehicles only have one path through. One spot that's almost guaranteed to yield vehicle destructions is on the road leading directly from the enemy's spawn. You will find many unwary poor souls rolling out of their spawn just to get turned into mist and bone chip. I will also hate you. Using the Explosive Perk will give you 5 of these (3 normally). As a side note, if you die your mines will go away after 20 seconds, so exercise patience and safety, and use largely travelled spots to set your traps.

There is also an Anti-Vehicle Ribbon (200 XP) and Medal (10,000 XP) that you can get quite quickly just by being an explosives mad Engineer.

Vehicles

 

Jets & Choppers: An easy way on how to get your jet and chopper flares. If you're super frustrated, join a Conquest map in an empty or relatively empty server and hover (or land) the chopper at the objective. The helicopter will receive the points for the cap and you will unlock the ever-so needed Flares really quickly.

With jets this isn't as easy to do, especially just to get those Flares. Go to Caspian Border on Conquest in an empty server and join US. Drive your plane over the hill to the right and continue towards the radio tower. Do not lift off, do everything you can to turn your plane towards the tower while keeping it on the ground. If done right you should crash (but not blow up) into the hill leading up to Objective A.Let it cap and boom, 250 points (300 is needed for Flares). You can use the newly spawned tank to push your jet down the hill and try to take off and land at another location, but hopefully you should already have enough points worked up from assists from previous jet usage, right?

Vehicle Caps: If you want your vehicle upgrades quickly just use said vehicle to cap an objective. All points (kills, caps, bonuses, etc) earned while in a vehicle will go towards leveling that vehicle, not the current kit. That co-axle mounted machine gun, or IR-Smoke upgrade will soon be yours making the vehicle much easier and more useful to play if you stay in your vehicle while capping points. If you find yourself sucking in vehicles or heavily outclassed by enemy gear, you can join an empty conquest server and tool around to all five cap points for 1,250 points!

Anti-Air Vehicles: Yes these little tanks are great at taking out enemy flying units. They are even more devastating on the ground. If your team has air dominance or you are having a lull in shooting down aircrafts use the mobile AA for infantry decimation! These tanks are deadly and can wipe out a ridiculous amount of troops if used properly. Watch your perimeter for bomb-planting enemies and any incoming tanks to keep alive and don't forget to lay into any Engineers that try to peek out at you for a quick rocket shot. Once you get the anti-air missiles, belt speed upgrades for your machine guns and the proximity scanner you're going to be death on wheels.

Other Important Tips

 

Spotting: Make sure this is bound to an easily mashable key. Basically, if you see an enemy, spot 'em. This puts a marker over their head and will mark them on your team's mini-map. This goes for soldiers and any vehicle. This is also extremely helpful for your friends in the air to know where enemy jets and choppers are and to help locate and destroy enemy land vehicles.Just because you don't see an enemy doesn't mean there isn't one either, mash the bloody key while swirling your reticle in an area that looks promising and odds are you'll end up marking an enemy that you just didn't see tucked away. For every enemy killed that you have 'spotted', you will receive 10 points and know that you have helped your team by not being a noob.

Squad Up: It still boggles me how many high level players still don't seem to grasp this concept. Join a squad when you join a game. It's easy! Select one of the squads, then at  the bottom right of the squad select box there should be a little join button. Click it! This is integral to a lot of games as when you or any teammate spawn, you will be able to spawn directly on one of your other squadmates! Not only does this help keep everyone at the front line, it also gives extra point bonuses from squadmate Defibs and Ammo/Medkit usage! You also get points for having squadmates spawn on you! For every seven squadmates that spawn on you, you get a Squad Spawn Ribbon which is worth 200 XP.

But there's more! This also gives you a chance at the Ace Squad Ribbon, which is worth 500 XP and is obtained by being in the best squad during the round. 50 of those ribbons and you get yourself the 10,000 XP Ace Squad Medal.

Another great factor is that this will give you great bonuses if any of your teammates have any squad specializations (double ammo, suppression resistance, double grenades, explosion resistance, etc). Also, you won't look like a noob.

Ribbons, Stars & Medals: Ribbons are worth 200 or 500 XP. Weapon specific Service Stars (awarded after every 100 kills) are worth 2,000 XP. Each item you unlock is also usually worth a couple hundred XP. Medals are worth 10,000 XP. Basically, keep an eye on these and if you find you're close to getting one, make that little extra effort to nab it. If you just need one or two more ribbons for that Medal, go get those two Ribbons and get your extra 10,000+ XP. These are the easiest way to level up as you have the ability to earn dozens of Ribbons every round if you can play it smart!

Quick Weapon Upgrades: If you got a new weapon and want to quickly get some kills to grind out a few helpful items before joining a huge fray, join a Team Deathmatch with it. You'll get that scope, flash muzzle or foregrip in much shorter time. This generally isn't necessary, but if you find yourself just getting rolled constantly in the large maps or just don't have the skill to ramp up those kills quickly in a normal map, try a few rounds in TDM and see if that helps you.

Base Raping/Repelling Smart: Yes baserape sucks, but your team could've prevented it... probably. If you find yourself in a baseraped situation, blindly running into the enemy to get sacrificed isn't going to win the game back. Instead use this as an opportunity to grind out some easy points. Camp out near the back as a sniper and go all 'ducks in a gallery' on them. Plant Claymores in spawn border locations for the greedy players that get in too close. Keep your allies well supplied with Ammo or Medkits. Stand to the side and get some quick resurrection points by Defibbing all those mindless meatsacks that go peaking around a perilous corner. Pull out the Mortar and potshot juicy locations. Spam grenades and rockets into pockets of enemies.

If you're super stealthy you can even sneak past the invaders and go cap one of objectives to get things rolling again. As lame as it is to do in a team based game, bait your teammates. Those people you're baiting are just the noobs that got you in this mess and are going to continue blindly running headfirst into enemy fire, use their constant sacrificing to your point advantage!

If you're a baseraper, well I'm sure you don't need any tips on how to rack up the kills on people while they're stuck in their spawn. But generally the same rules apply, just play smart and don't be one of the ones that charge into a meatgrinder.