For new players

Enlisted for beginners: twelve things worth knowing in your first week

By Nancy Wilson, responsible editor Published 21 September 2026

None of this is secret knowledge. It is the set of things that, in our experience, separate a first evening that ends in annoyance from one that ends with you queueing for another match.

1. Do the tutorial, then play low-rated matches deliberately

The tutorial teaches the squad system, which is the part of Enlisted that behaves unlike other shooters. After it, resist the urge to equip everything you unlock: a low battle rating keeps you in calmer matches while the habits form. See how battle rating works.

2. Bring an engineer and build a rally point first

Before you take a shot, put a forward spawn somewhere sensible. Everything downstream — how quickly your team recovers from a lost push, how long you can pressure a point — depends on it.

3. Your squad is your life total

You are not one soldier with unlimited respawns. Each death spends a soldier, and when the squad is gone it is gone for the match. Pushing a corner five times in a row costs you the squad, not thirty seconds.

4. Treat AI squadmates as a resource, not as friends

They follow, they shoot, they die in the open. Leaving them in cover while you scout a corner keeps bodies in reserve; marching them across a street because you are in a hurry burns them.

5. The objective is the scoreboard

Enlisted rewards being inside the capture zone. A high kill count outside it loses matches. If you are unsure what to do, go to the point.

6. Switch squads to answer problems

A tank on the point is an anti-tank problem. A defended building is an assault or flamethrower problem. An open approach is a machine gun problem. Cycling to the right squad is more effective than trying harder with the wrong one.

7. Move between pieces of cover, not across open ground

Time-to-kill is short. Plan the next two metres of cover before you leave the one you are in, and prone or crouch when crossing a sight line you cannot avoid.

8. Listen

Footsteps, reloads, engine noise and the direction of incoming fire all carry information. Headphones do more for your win rate than a graphics upgrade.

9. Don't main the sniper squad in week one

It is the most appealing squad and the least useful one while you are still learning where the fighting happens. Learn the maps from inside the objective first.

10. Respect what vehicles can and cannot do

A tank in the open with no infantry around it is food for anti-tank squads. If you take one out, move with your team and use buildings; if you are on foot against one, mine its route rather than charging it.

11. Decide about spending after a week, not on day one

The store is advertised to you inside the client. Nothing in it is required to play, and the only way to know whether the game is worth money to you is to play it unspent for a while first. See what is free and what costs money.

12. Check the patch notes before trusting any guide

Including this one. Enlisted is a live game; squads, ratings and balance change. The publisher's news page is the place where changes are announced, and it outranks anything written here.

Sources

• enlisted.net — official site, patch notes and news
• The in-game tutorial and client, as played by the editor

Where this page and the publisher's own information diverge, the publisher's information prevails.

Trademark notice. Enlisted is a trademark of its respective owners. boricen.online is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Darkflow Software or Gaijin Entertainment.
By Nancy Wilson, 21 September 2026. Corrections: info@boricen.online.