My advice for grinding Competitive solo

So, I managed to get to Fabled last season completely solo and unlocked 3 pinnacles weapons all at once. And I haven’t touched a Hand Cannon ever since. Anyway, at the time, my KDA was around 1.04; not terrible, but not great. I started thinking about how I played, changed my strats, (switched to Hunter), and my KDA has risen to 1.09 this season. Not much, but something. Anyway, I’ve seen some Competitive advice posts, and I thought I’d post my own.

This is advice meant for solo players who are just okay at PvP, like me. Yes, some of this advice might contradict itself. Yes, some of this advice might be bad. But, this is what's worked for me. And yes, maybe some of this advice is obvious to some of you, but it's not obvious to everyone.

This turned out to be a lot longer post than I expected. A lot, a lot longer. I'm going to try to format it with spoiler tags to make it easier to get through.

(Also, in the off chance someone really likes this, you don't have to give me gold. I barely use reddit these days and gold would be wasted on me.)

I call this advice the 4 C’s of Crucible: Calm, Cooperation, Combat, and Communication

Calm (staying calm and avoiding stress):

The point of playing a game is to have fun. So, it’s important to stay calm and relaxed. This can be hard to do in Destiny 2, especially in Crucible, especially especially in Competitive. And keep in mind, half the teams in Crucible win and half the teams lose, every day, no matter what. The statistics are against you.

But playing stressed out and angry defeats the point of playing at all. And people who are stressed and frustrated tend to play worse, and people who are calm and relaxed tend to play better.

Recognize the game is unfair and move on:

• The classes aren’t balanced. Some weapons are better than others. There’s nothing you can do about that, so just try to ignore it, even though that’s easier said than done. Just try and play your best. Dwelling on the flaws in the game will only make you hate playing the game, and what’s the point in that?
• Remember, even a game like Chess, a nearly perfect strategy game played and "patched" for over a thousand years, isn’t completely balanced because whoever goes first has the advantage.

Recognize that luck is a big part of winning and losing:

• Sometimes your actions make or break a game, but not always. Sometimes you just get lucky or unlucky. Sometimes half your team quits. Sometimes half the opposing team quits. Sometimes your team has one player, named like skillz666 or something, that carries you to victory with 34 kills. Sometimes you’re just having a bad day. Sometimes you’re in a shootout and an opponent spawns right behind you. Sometimes you respawn right in line of sight of two opponents and die before you can move. It happens. Don’t dwell on it, just try to ignore it and focus on the next moment.

Try to ignore the bad and focus on the good:

• Yes, I know it’s easier said than done, but try not to dwell on the bad, unfair, unlucky moments you have in the game. Try to think about the good things that happened. The time you managed to kill two opponents with only half health. The time you rescued your teammate who went on to get heavy and win the round. The time you defused the bomb because the other team was hunting your teammates on the other side of the map. Etc, etc. Try to dwell on the good moments; this won’t eliminate your stress and frustration, but it’ll help.

If you’re not having fun, or you hit a lose streak, stop playing for a while:

• Here’s a strategy I used occasionally, and when I did, it greatly lowered my stress levels: Keep playing if you have a win streak. Once you lose two games in a row, stop playing. Do something else, in the game or in real life. Stop playing for an hour or stop playing for a whole day. The point is to get some distance from the game and to relax. Also, it’s possible that you you were playing Competitive during a particularly bad time when a lot of skilled players were on, so just come back to it later.

Don’t give up, don’t quit a match:

• You usually don’t know if you’ll lose a match until it’s over. I’ve been on a team of 4 against a team of 3 and lost. I’ve been on a team of 3 against a team of 4 and won. I was on a team of blueberries against a 4 stack and we steam rolled them. I’ve gotten destroyed on the first couple rounds only to rally and win the match. I’ve been on teams where we lost 5 rounds in a row and then rallied with 6 wins in a row and won the match; the opposite has happened too. You don’t know how a match will play out until it plays out; don’t get discouraged because of a bad start, there’s still a chance. All you do by quitting is ruin the game for your teammates.

Don’t get intimidated by stacks:

• I was once on a team of blueberries against a 4 stack and we obliterated them. We beat them so fast that my super hadn’t even charged. Another time, I had a good match in competitive so one of the blueberries suggested we all team up. We became a 4 stack and we lost the next 2 matches in a row and everyone left the fireteam. Just because you see a stack doesn’t mean they’re any good.

Adjust your playstyle to relieve the most stressful parts of the game:

• When I first started in Crucible I used roaming supers because I saw everyone else using them. But then I realized that I’m not good with roaming supers. But I also hate how helpless I feel against Spectral Blades or any Titan super (I mean, Sentinel Shield has a shield, is a damage sink, has a powerful melee, AND a ranged attack, ANNNNDDD the ranged attack bounces off of walls apparently forever?? WTH Bungo?!?! What is balance even? No, don’t think like that, got to stay calm...). So, I switched my loadout to quick, panic-button, super-killers like Slova Bomb and Blade Barrage. This greatly improved my time playing and reduced a lot of my stress.
• Also, as I played, I moved more towards snipers and pulse rifles and a big reason was because I was doing terribly at close or mid range. I don’t have the twitch “skills” a lot of players have and swinging my view around really fast just makes it hard for me to tell what’s going on, so long range combat eliminated most of my frustrations with that. Also, sniper kills in crucible are perhaps the most satisfying feeling in Crucible next to getting a headshot with a knife as a Hunter. If you adjust your playstyle to avoid frustration and to have the most fun then you’re just going to enjoy playing that much more.

Blame Bungo and vent in chat:

• If anything bad happens, just blame Bungie. Write in chat “bungo’s matchmaking is garbage”. Feels good doesn’t it? “I HATE BUNGO!” That’s right! Bungie has earned your hatred with their terrible game! “destiny 2 should be banned and all copies should be thrown into the sun” You have MY vote Mr. or Mrs. President! “titan supers are OP” YES! Yes they are! Let your team know about it! “wtf blade barrage curves around walls?” Apparently?!?! IDK!?! “JOTTTUUUUUNNNNN” ArrrgggghghhhhJotun!! “the class and weapon imbalance in destiny is a clear violation of the geneva conventions” If you start a legal fund to send Bungie to the Hague, I’ll donate my life savings.
• None of this helps you win matches, but it can help relieve some of the stress.

Cooperation:

Cooperating with your team in a team based game is obvious. But cooperation is especially important when you’re a solo blueberry and it’s much harder to do than when you’re playing with friends. I hate using voice chat or having friends, so this is what I’ve learned:

Stick together:

• Don’t cluster, but stay close to your team (clustering gets you killed with rockets and that thousand voices nonsense). Work together to take down opponents. Hang back. Don’t rush forward, don’t rush ahead of your team. Pick off damaged opponents or damage opponents so your teammates can finish them off. Look at where your team is moving and move with them. Look at who your team is shooting at and shoot with them.

Move as a team:

• This is so important that I’m repeating it. In game types like Survival and Clash there’s really not much reason to split up; hunting like a pack is a winning strategy most of the time. That’s probably why Saladin keeps talking about wolves and what not during Iron Banner. Countdown and Control have more reason to split up, but if you’re attacking in Countdown then there’s usually not much reason to.

Team shoot:

• If your teammate is shooting at an opponent, shoot at that same opponent; don’t shoot at someone else.

You can focus fire roaming supers:

• This only works if you stick together, team shoot, and have some space. You can focus fire a roaming super as a team. Snipers, rifles, shotguns, whatever. I’ve stopped a few spectral blades with a split second, hipfire shotgun blast because the Hunter was already damaged by my teammates. One time, I saw a Titan cast Hammer of Sol behind cover and when he came out I shot him with a sniper round. It didn’t kill him (took 3/4s of his health), but the rest of my team was there and shot him with hand cannons. He only had time to throw one hammer and never killed anyone.

The “Back and Forth”:

• This is an advanced version of “Team Shoot”. One player will be firing and then moves back into cover as the other teammate moves out from the same cover and keeps firing at the same opponent. The opponent is basically fighting one Guardian with double or triple or quadruple health, depending on how many players are doing this. You can do this without communication just by paying attention to your teammates and by them paying attention to you. I’ve been up against three opponents at a time and broken all their shields, but killed none of them because they kept moving back into cover and my own teammates went galavanting off to who the hell knows where while I was aiming down sights.

Flanking! Don’t stick together?:

• Sometimes splitting off from your team and flanking the enemies is an absolutely devastating strategy. If your opponents aren’t paying attention then you will catch them completely by surprise and steamroll them. Or if they notice you, they’ll shoot you instantly and get a free kill. It can go either way, so I don’t have any great advice on when to do this except “use your intuition”.

Run Away! Regroup!:

• This one is pretty obvious, although almost no one ever does it, including me. It’s so easy to get stuck in Destiny’s combat loop that when your teammates have died and you’re personally up against 3 Guardians it’s easy to forget that, “Wait. I can just run back to spawn and regroup with my team. I don’t have to just die.” If you find yourself suddenly alone, with enemies closing in on radar, literally just run away. Regroup with your team and try again. You’ll keep the opposing team from getting a cheap kill and you can lend support to your teammates faster than by dying and respawning.
• One time I spent 15 seconds (a lifetime in Competitive) dodging and sliding away from a couple guardians who had me surrounded in a room on Vostok (EDZ map at the saltzwerkz). I have no idea how I made it out of there alive, but I did. My opponents got aggressive chasing me down and ran right into my teammates who I just regrouped with. I didn’t make a single final blow, but I kept the opponents from getting an easy point and gave my teammates 2.

Regroup even when you’re not in danger:

• Even if there are no opponents around and you find yourself alone, look for your team and regroup with them. Don’t try to go into battle solo. If you can go solo against the other team in Competitive then you don’t need any of my advice.

Pay attention to what your teammates are doing:

• Look at your teammates. Where are they going? What route are they taking? What weapon are they using? Try to adapt your strategy to support your teammates. Are your teammates running up ahead? Then maybe cover them with a sniper or a scout rifle. Are your teammates running down a certain path? Maybe run down a different, but nearby path so you can shoot your opponents from another direction? Is your teammate grabbing heavy? Guard them so they don’t get sniped. Did one of your teammates behind you start shooting somewhere else? Turn around, run back, and help them take out the opponents trying to flank you. Those examples probably aren’t the best, but the point is: just look at what your team is doing and use your intuition for how to respond.

When in doubt, follow the guy at the top of your team:

• Just follow the best player in your team. They seem to know what they’re doing and maybe you can get some assist points off of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• I have a funny story about this. On a second round of Survival I was the person with the most kills. As I ran forward I checked my radar to see where my team was going and… oh no, they’re all following ME. I’m assuming they were following me because I was at the top of our team, but I started panicking. “What if I lead them into a slaughter???” So, we were playing on Solitude (big Cabal building on the edge of Martian cliffs) and I ended up leading my entire team in a giant circle around the entire perimeter of the map until we reached the enemies’ spawn location. The enemy wasn’t there of course, so we moved into the middle of the map where we found the enemy in a very confused state. We did end up winning the round, but I dropped to third place in my team and my team stopped following me after that. Lol.

Control heavy:

• Every crucible advice post says the same thing, and I’ll repeat: control heavy. You don’t even have to get heavy. You just have to keep your opponents from getting it. One time I was playing as a Hunter with that spinny staff super that deflects shots. Our teams start having a shootout over heavy, so I activated my super and ran out there spinning my lightning staff. The enemies started running backwards to get away from me. I ended up chasing them all the way back to their spawn and then dodged behind cover when my super ended and ran back to my team. I didn’t make a single kill, but my teammate got heavy and the opponents didn’t get a kill either, so I consider it a successful maneuver.

Use heavy as bait:

• Heavy can be so important that many people get greedy over it and make mistakes. One of my favorite things is to do is to leave heavy sitting there as I wait for someone to show up. I hang back, crouch, with a sniper or a pulse rifle, and I try to pick off anyone who goes for it. Doesn’t always work, but sometimes it works amazingly and I keep doing it until my teammate grabs the heavy.

Distract your opponents, keep them occupied:

• You don’t have to kill your opponents to help your team. Distract them, draw their attention towards you. This takes their attention away from your teammates who can then move in while your opponents are distracted. Sometimes even just being a presence on your opponents’ radar is enough to distract them and make them nervous as they try to figure out where you’re coming from. I mean, this isn’t the best tactic, but if you don’t have any other good options it can do in a pinch.

Do something unexpected to distract and confuse your enemies:

• A big part of any multiplayer game boils down to predictability; you do routine strategies and deal with predictable behavior from your enemies with routine counter strategies. Sometimes, rarely, when someone does something unexpected it makes people freeze and can throw things into chaos, and sometimes it can give you an advantage.
• One time on Wormhaven (Hive map on Titan) I stood on that balcony with the glass wall (it kind of looks down on heavy and Point B). I stood on the side of the glass overlooking Heavy, my opponents stood on the other side of the glass in the hallway leading to their spawn area. It was a stalemate because no one wanted to rush and get shotgunned. I said, “To hell with it” and popped the tea drinking emote. Three opponents stared at me through the glass, watching me drink tea, not knowing what to do. They probably didn’t want to rush because they thought I was taunting them into a shotgun trap, which I was. So, they kind of just strafed back and forth, occasionally shooting the glass, until some of my teammates circled around, killed two of them, and started chasing down the third. This usually doesn’t work on players who know what they’re doing, but a little bit of the unexpected can sometimes tip the scales in your favor.

Killing even one opponent can make them break:

• Sometimes killing just one of opponent in a group is enough to break their defenses and send them into chaos. Not always, but that first kill can make your opponents retreat or try to go separate routes, which means they’re splitting up while your team is sticking together.

Play the objective:

• PLAY THE !@#$%^&* OBJECTIVE! … stay calm… stay calm… Okay, so play the objective, fellow Lightbearers. We can't win Control unless we control the zones, no matter how many final blows you get. That’s the ticket! Excellent work! gj. nj. glhf.

Lord of Wolves? More like bored of wolves, amiright?

• I don’t worry about the meta too much. I honestly never used Lord of Wolves when it became “OP” and I did fine against it with regular shotguns. When it did become a problem I switched to a long range loadout and killed wolf lords from a distance. Your teammates are probably already playing the meta anyway so you might as well diversify your team’s tactics with something different. If you like the meta, go for it, but don’t feel like you need to play a certain way just because everyone else is.

Do something to appease Machi, the God of Matchmaking:

• You know what’s easier than cooperating and working with your team? Just lucking out in matchmaking. Destiny 2 doesn’t use algorithms to make teams. Destiny’s matchmaking is entirely done by Machi the God of Matchmaking, whose inscrutable and indecipherable will cannot be predicted nor understood. Luckily, you can get on Machi’s good side through a variety of actions. Here are the things that please Machi: telling a friend how much their friendship means to you, equipping Jotunn, finishing your homework before playing video games, playing as a Titan, eating all your vegetables at dinner, playing as a Titan, sacrificing a black bull with a silver dagger and sending its heart to Bungie studios, or equipping Jotunn. Give it a try!

Combat:

Okay, so you’re staying relaxed, cooperating with your team, but you still need to play good, or at least good enough. So, here are some things I’ve learned playing Competitive, and playing Crucible in general.

Staying alive is almost as important as getting final blows:

• When you’re alive, you’re distracting your opponents and making them more hesitant. When you’re alive, you are charging your super; when you’re dead, you’re not. When you’re alive there’s a better chance of getting into the “flow” of gameplay; when you die, it breaks your rhythm. When you’re dead, your team is basically down one player until you can regroup with them. I could go on, but you get the point. Staying alive is important.

Don’t get stuck in a rut, don’t act out of habit:

• If you pay attention to why you’re doing badly, you’ll notice it’s often because you’ve fallen into a rut or bad habit. Are you in a long shootout in the same spot and no one is really dying? Move to some other spot. Do you keep dying very quickly after spawning? Maybe it’s because you’re rushing and being too aggressive; break that habit and hang back. Etc, etc.
• Sometimes I’ll be playing and not hitting any of my shots. I’ll mentally step back and pay attention to what I’m doing and realize… I’m not even aiming at my opponents, my aim is slightly off! Maybe it’s because my eyes are getting tired from looking at the screen for too long, I don’t know. But I’ll start focusing more on how I’m aiming and I’ll start to do a little better.

Shoot where your opponent is going to be, not where they are right now:

• There is physics and latency in Destiny. Shoot where your opponent is going to be in the next split second. I sometimes find myself falling into the habit of shooting where the opponent is right now, and then I have to consciously remind myself to change how I’m aiming.

Shoot before you see the enemy (with primary ammo weapons):

• If you’re shooting right when you see the enemy then you’re wasting precious milliseconds. Start shooting before you even see them because by the time you see them your bullets will already be hitting them. If you’re behind cover and you know your enemy is off in the distance, start shooting as you leave cover so that you’re shooting the wall as you move. If your opponent is behind cover, start shooting before they pop out of cover.

Get behind cover before you think you need to:

• This is sometimes hard to do because we get stuck in a rut of trying to kill our opponents no matter what. But there’s no point in dying when you can stay alive. Move back behind cover before you think you actually need to. Sometimes this means moving out from cover and immediately moving back into cover while shooting the whole time.

Keep shooting until you’re back in cover (with primary ammo):

• As you’re moving back behind cover, keep shooting at your enemy. Don’t stop until you’re shooting wall.

Don’t engage the enemy until you’re fully healed:

• This isn’t possible in every situation, but when you can, stay behind cover until you’re fully healed. Many of us get behind cover when we’re shot but we have this instinctive urge to immediately pop out again right away. This is just a good way to get killed. Wait till you’re healed up or run to a different location to give yourself time to heal. This slows down the pace of the game, but greatly improves your life span.

Keep shooting even when your enemy is behind cover:

• If your opponent has dropped behind cover, keep shooting because they’ll probably pop out right away and you’ll kill them. If they don’t pop out right away then you’ll need to a different tactic, obviously.

Never stop shooting:

• Never stop shooting.

Start shooting before you aim down sights (with primary ammo, mid range weapons):

• If you see an opponent and you're going to aim down sights, start shooting at the same time as you start aiming down sights, not after. This doesn't make much sense long range, but with mid or close range, the few bullets that hit your opponent while you're still hip firing or in the process of aiming could make the difference between victory or death.

Swipe your aim/"Draw" bullets along your opponent's body:

• This may seem strange, but with long range weapons especially, like pulse and scout rifles, I find it helps to "swing" my aim along my opponents, swinging my crosshairs along their body up to their head. It's almost like I'm painting a line with bullets. I don't know how else to describe it, but swinging my aim while I'm shooting helps me with accuracy a lot.

Pay attention to your radar:

• I can’t count how many times I got flanked because I was staring down my scope instead of checking my radar regularly.

Pay attention to your surroundings:

• Where are you standing? Where are the lines of sight? Where are your teammates? Do you have cover on your left and right so you don’t have to worry about getting sniped from the side? Are your teammates to your right or your left so you don’t have to worry about getting flanked?

What about those players that are dancing left and right as they kill you in two handcannon shots?:

• I don’t know how to deal with them. They are lunatics. That’s why I usually stick to long range weapons when I play matches against those maniacs.

Find Your Playstyle:

• You gotta figure out what works best for you. I’ve learned over time that I’m more of a long range fighter, so I prefer pulse rifles and snipers. As I approached Fabled last season I felt like getting more aggressive so I switched to shotgun + ace of spades. Recently I went back to sniper + pulse. But sometimes I'm just in a more aggressive mood and I'll do some combination of Recluse, shotgun, hand cannon.

Don't be afraid to adjust your loadout during a match:

• Some maps tend to have more emphasis on long range combat, some maps feel like there tends to be more close to mid range combat. So, adjust your loadout appropriately once you know what map you’re playing on. Obviously every map is designed for opportunities for all types of combat, but some definitely tend to skew more towards one end than the other (cough, cough, Equinox). Also, regardless of map, some matches just tend to be more close ranged than long ranged and vice versa, depending on how aggressively your team and the opposing team are playing. There have been many matches where both teams were playing really aggressively, which results in a lot more close range combat, so I took a moment as I was respawning to change my loadout to something for mid and close range (shotguns, Recluse, hand cannons) and it improved my game alot.

Pick your battles:

• Bungie’s map designers go to a lot of work to make certain areas of a Crucible map play out in a certain way. Some areas are meant for close to mid range cat and mouse style fights, other parts are clearly meant to function as long range/sniping arenas. Choose to fight in an area that works with your playstyle and loadout as much as possible. I have beaten many players who are much better than me just because I was fighting them in an area of a map that favored my loadout and playstyle over theirs. Also, if you keep doing badly in one part of a map, maybe try engaging opponents in a different part, if possible.

Try to think several steps ahead of your opponents:

• Your opponent just went behind some cover. Which side do you think they’ll pop back out of (once you start paying attention, you’ll be able to intuit what they’re doing)? If it’s a pillar or block, your opponent will usually appear on the other side of the cover from where he hid behind. Start shooting on the side they’re going to pop out of BEFORE they actually pop out of it. Let’s say you’re playing Control and the other team is capturing one of your zones. Once they capture it where do you think they’ll go? Let’s say you see an opponent on your radar that’s just around the corner? What do you think: are they a) waiting for you to come out so they can shotgun you, b) getting ready to pop out and throw a grenade, or c) waiting for their shields to charge hoping you don’t rush them? After you’ve seen enough of these situations you can usually intuit what your opponent is about to do and what’s the best strategy to use.

Sniper Advice (1/3) cover the usual routes and wait:

• Snipers are kind of a unique in Crucible, in my opinion, because they rely on thinking ahead of your enemies more so than any other weapon. One of the keys to using a sniper successfully is to know the routes people usually take through a map, go to that route, aim at head height along that route, and just wait. Then when your opponents show up they practically put their face into your crosshairs. And that's when you shoot. You might have to adjust or twitch your aim a little, but not much. I've started multiple matches killing two opponents in two seconds with a sniper because they were both running the exact same route and I barely had to shift my aim between shots.

Snipers (2/3), long range firefight:

• This is, again, about aiming where you know your opponent will show up and waiting. You just aim where their head will be, wait for them to pop their head out of cover, and you shoot. Sometimes you’re the one behind cover in which case you aim at the wall at the same height that you think your enemy will be, move out of cover, and shoot. Many times me and an opponent shoot ourselves simultaneously doing this; it always makes me laugh and makes me wish we had “death emotes” that we could use while dead so I could give my opponent a thumbs up or just laugh.

Snipers (3/3), swing your shot (sniper bullets curve around walls):

• This might only be possible with mouse aim, I don’t know (no, I am not trying to throw shade at console players). But basically, when I see an enemy and my aim with the sniper is off, or they’re jumping or running, I just swing my aim in the direction of their movement and let my instincts click the mouse. A lot of the time they end up dead and I don’t even know how. I have shot opponents using this method as they were moving into cover and they died from my sniper shot AFTER they were already behind the wall. Now this is probably due to a combination of bullet physics, visual latency, internet speeds, etc., but I like to think that swinging your aim makes the bullets curve around walls. I usually have a sniper aim perk on one of my armor pieces, so that probably helps too. But I cannot stress how many times I have swung my shot with a sniper rifle and gotten a kill without having any idea of how I actually pulled it off.

What about those players who can shoot a sniper round between three obstacles and get a heashot, while sliding?:

• I… I don’t know… I think… I think they might be demons. Bungie should look into this. Could be trouble down the road.
• After writing that last point I actually managed to headshot someone with a sniper while sliding, and I still have no idea how I did it. Maybe I was possessed by a demon in that 2 second moment.

Weapon and Armor perks are probably important:

• I don't pay too much attention to perks or mods in Destiny 2. I make sure my armor is giving me extra Resistance, make sure I get some Aiming perks and secondary scavenger on my armor, and that's it. I usually get a super mod for my armor to make sure my super is charging as fast as possible. But that's about it for me. However, paying close attention to your perks probably can give you a big boost to your KDA. I don't have any advice for this, but I'm sure there's some build guides out there.

Just play as a Titan:

• Just like weapons, some classes are just better than others in PvP. By which I mean Titans. Warlocks are amazing at PvE, but Titans are clearly the PvP class. When you play as a Titan, you have more damage resistance than other classes. Your melee let’s you dive from across an entire room and kill your opponents in one hit. When you play as a Titan, any other class’ melee does nothing to you, NOTHING. You get a stupid mask that heals you every time you kill someone. Your supers are better than everyone else’s. When you play as a Titan, Bungie gives you a special chest piece that turns your opponent’s bullets into Bitcoins. When you play as a Titan, Bungie sends a team of doctors and nutritionists to your house to make sure you’re fueled up for peak performance. That’s how much Bungie loves their Titans. I have a friend who works at Bungie and she said that for the Shadowkeep expansion they’re renaming the Titan class to the “Master Chief class” because that’s how much Bungie loves their Titans. I’m an idiot because I’m a Warlock main with a Hunter alt. Don’t make my mistake, kids.

Just play as a Titan (serious version):

• In all seriousness, some classes and subclasses are better in Crucible, or better in certain situations in Crucible, than others. I got to Fabled last season exclusively with my Warlock. This season I started a Hunter character and I do so much better in Crucible with my Hunter. That dodge ability ALONE is responsible for extending my life expectancy and keeping me alive in situations where I’d die with my Warlock. So, pick a class that works well for you in PvP, which of course is going to be a Titan because OMG TITANS ARE SO OP IN CRUCIBLE!!!

Communication:

When you’re playing solo, and you’re not using voice chat, then there’s not many opportunities to use chat effectively. But, there are some.

Get everyone onto the same page:

• I honestly cannot count how many times we’ve lost a couple rounds and then me or some other blueberry will type in chat, “hey lets stick together” or “let’s go B this time”, and suddenly the next round our whole team is sticking together and wiping the floor with the opponents, leading up to our eventual win. Seriously, it is shocking how well this works sometimes. Other times you’ll say “let’s stick together” and everyone still galavants off to be a lone wolf hero and you lose; it happens. But it doesn’t hurt to remind your teammates “we need to control heavy” or “play the objective, we need zones”. It sometimes can make a difference. But remember to be polite about it. No one is going to listen to you if you act like an ass.

Giving directions in text?:

• Should you use text chat to tell your teammates where opponents are or whatever? Like "they're going to tree" or "all at B"? Eh, probably not necessary. With voice chat it makes sense, but text is usually too slow. I've seen a text chat help a team sometimes, but usually gameplay goes by too fast to make a difference.

Compliment your teammates:

• It’s never hurts to compliment your teammates. It’ll make you feel good, it’ll make them feel good, it’ll relax everyone a little and people usually play better when they’re relaxed. It can be something simple like “nj”, “good job”, “well played”, or “*extremely shaxx voice* THAT WAS AMAZING”. I was once playing a Survival match, it was the last round, it was overtime, just me against one last opponent. I’m standing on the overtime zone with Luna and one shell left in Parcel of Stardust. I’m strafing back and forth behind a block of cover trying to anticipate which direction he’s going to attack me (left?, right?, is he going to jump over the box?), he pops around to my left, we see each other, we fire wildly with our shotguns, we’re both hurt, neither of us are dead, and then I melee him and win the game. My teammate wrote in chat, “MYYYY BOYYYYY!!! HE CAME THROUGH IN THE END!!!!”. I have no idea who this guy was, but that made my day. Complimenting your teammates or commenting on something cool they did just makes the experience more fun and relaxing for everyone.

Don’t be toxic; your own attitude is preventing you from enjoying the game:

• There’s is no good reason to be rude. It doesn’t help you, it will make you feel worse about your losses, and it just makes the game worse for everyone. If I get killed by cayde$weed420 and he teabags my corpse, I tend to feel pity for him. Because if he’s gloating over one kill then he’s playing with a mindset that’s going to cause him to have a tantrum when he inevitably loses (statistically he’ll evenutally lose no matter what) and the game is going to be a lot less fun for him. It’s like a pendulum: you swing it too far in one direction (gloating about “pwning” the noobs) and eventually it has to swing to the other direction (getting furious about getting “pwned” by the noobs in return). The more calm you remain, the less that pendulum swings.
• Also, don’t ever insult your teammates. There is literally no point in being rude to your teammates. That sort of behavior just stresses people out and people usually play worse when they’re stressed, so you’re just hurting yourself by making your teammates play even worse than you think they are. Don’t ever call your teammates “trash”, especially not when you’re at the bottom of your team list; you know who you are, I’ve played with you. Here’s a good message, “we can beat these guys if we don’t rush and we stick together”; here’s a bad message which I actually saw in chat once, “smdh you could beat these guys if you stopped rushing and stuck together”. Being condescending or judgmental isn’t going to help you or anyone else. And by being toxic it makes you focus on the worst parts of the game which in turn makes you even more frustrated which in turn makes you play worse, so why do that to yourself.

Respond to toxic gamers by being a cheesy doofus:

• A lot of these toxic players are people who take the game too seriously. You can’t have fun if you’re taking the game too seriously. In my opinion, the best way to deal with this behavior and keep it from ruining your own experience is to be cheesy. If a toxic teammate is saying “you all are trash”, respond with “no, we are recycling”. This is exactly the type of dumb, dad-joke level tomfoolery that is the exact antidote to toxic chat. And what can the toxic player do in response to that? Nothing. Dad jokes are impervious to criticism because everyone knows they’re dumb, you know they’re dumb, so what’s even left to say? Nothing. Like, if they respond “i'm at the top of the list. ur trash” all you have to do is repeat, “no no. we are recycling. like newspaper.” HOW THE HELL ARE THEY GONNA RESPOND TO THAT??? THEY CAN’T! YOU’RE INVINCIBLE! Or what if a toxic teammate is like, “you are trash, why are you even playing comp”. You can respond with, “I thought this was CP... casual playlist?” If they don’t get that this is a joke and say, “no! this is competitive playlist go play quickplay if you suck this bad”, you can just respond, “no no, this is casual playlist, bungie said so.” There’s nothing he say to that. You’re impervious with your nonsense dad joke lameness.
• Or you can just turn off chat/ignore it.
• Actually, one time I did the “i thought this was casual playlist” joke and one of my other teammates wrote “actually yeah it basically is these days”. Hahahaha! Bungie. Fix Competitive.

Anyway, I hope that helps some of you loners out there. Good luck and have fun.