Insurgency: Sandstorm Beginner’s Guide - An Overview for New Players

First released in December 2018 for the PC, Insurgency: Sandstorm is a tactical first-person shooter (FPS) developed by New World Interactive. It sets itself apart from other titles in the genre by focusing on realism and letting players concentrate on critical thinking rather than run-and-gun tactics to win matches, and its massive modding scene. Here, we'll cover everything you need to know about the game so you can get started on the right foot.

Insurgency: Sandstorm Beginner’s Guide

As mentioned earlier, Insurgency: Sandstorm sets itself apart from other FPS games with its emphasis on tactical realism and immersive gameplay. This particular title uses unique features and mechanics to achieve these goals. These notable features and systems to know and understand, especially for beginners, include the following:

Supply Points (SP

SP is a restricted form of currency that players use to equip weapons, gear, and attachments, affecting their load-outs. Allocation changes depending on class, game mode, ruleset, team performance, or MVP status.

Game Modes

Although primarily an online multiplayer FPS, Insurgency: Sandstorm has different game modes, offering variety and increasing replayability. These game modes are the following:

• Co-Op: Involves players taking objective points from the enemy, with options like Checkpoint Security and Checkpoint Insurgents modes.
• Push: A versus mode wherein attackers must capture objectives and destroy the final cache to win, gaining respawn waves and time extensions for each objective taken.
• Firefight: A PVP mode wherein players win by completing objectives or eliminating the opposing team.
• Skirmish: A versus mode wherein players must capture all enemy objectives and destroy the enemy weapon cache.
• Competitive: A game mode wherein players play in Firefight mode with special conditions. Winning or losing affects a player's global rank.

Mods

Insurgency: Sandstorm has a rich modding community wherein players can create, download, and install different mods. These mods can range from changing weapon appearances to new and unique game modes. Players can access many available mods through the game's main menu. Here, players can simply select a mod and install it directly. Alternatively, Insurgency: Sandstorm server administrators can also contact our support staff for modding assistance.

Player Classes

There are two major categories for classes in Insurgency: Sandstorm - Security and Insurgents. Each class within them, regardless of its main category, has unique benefits and weaknesses. For instance, certain classes are generally great for support roles, while other classes tend to be better at being vanguards. The classes players can select in Insurgency: Sandstorm servers are the following:

• Rifleman
• Breacher
• Advisor
• Demolitions
• Marksman
• Gunner
• Observer
• Commander
• Flanker
• Sharpshooter

Stats

Each combatant in Insurgency: Sandstorm relies on various stats for survival: Health, Stamina, Weight, Damage, and Movement Speed. These stats generally work like other FPS titles at the surface level. However, New World Interactive sprinkled in some factors to make these stats unique from the rest.

Health

Each player is assigned a specific health level of 100 hit points. It may seem a lot, but a player’s health can rapidly diminish when they sustain damage. Players must strategically avoid taking damage to survive since no other healing options are available besides resupplying at a Supply Crate. Specific temporary game modes and customized rules in Task Force 666 offer unique health and healing features, allowing players to boost their health through enemy eliminations.

Stamina

Stamina indicates how tired a character is, impacting their capacity to run fast, leap, and focus. High stamina allows for extended periods of effectiveness, especially during combat. Alternatively, low stamina can restrict capabilities. Some factors can also affect a player’s stamina. Some examples include injury and the player’s current weight. Weapon sway and vision problems can occur when a player has low stamina. Managing stamina is important, as it helps balance a player’s currently held items and activity.

Weight

Weight measures how much a player carries, affecting how fast they can move and how much stamina they can spend. This stat is defined by the carried items, including weapons and other equipment. Despite having Supply Points available, exceeding the weight limit is avoided during loadout. Additionally, there is no weight limit for items that are picked up.

Damage

Damage is the amount of health removed from a player or entity caused by certain actions. In Insurgency: Sandstorm, the base damage output is typically set to an “Always High” setting, resulting in a low “time-to-kill.” Damage output can be influenced by various factors, including the caliber of the weapon, type of ammunition, accuracy of the shot, and worn armor.

Movement Speed

Like damage, various factors influence a player’s movement speed, including stamina and weight. In particular, players carrying lightweight items move faster than encumbered ones. Additionally, eight types of movement exist in Insurgency: Sandstorm, which is the following:

• Walking
• Jogging
• Sprinting
• Crawling
• Sliding
• Driving
• Tactical Walk
• Crouch-Walk

Weapon Mechanics

Thanks to its focus on realism, using weapons in Insurgency: Sandstorm should “feel” like you’re handling these weapons in real life. Each weapon has unique properties, making them easier or more challenging to use. Despite these dissimilarities, each weapon can deal devastating damage at the hands of an expert.

Aiming

Simply use the right mouse button on the PC (by default) to aim. This action enables more accurate shooting while using the gun's sights. Also, pay attention to the Aim Down Sight Speed (ADS Speed), which is determined by the weight of the weapon and items, such as the Aiming Grip, affecting how quickly the action is completed. Faster aiming is achieved with lighter weapons.

Focus

When playing on PC, pressing LEFT SHIFT (by default) enables Focus while aiming. This action steadies the weapon, reduces movement, and slightly magnifies the view, increasing accuracy. However, stamina depletes while using Focus. Focus automatically ends when the player's stamina is unavailable.

Recoil

The recoil or kickback in guns is the rearward force produced by firing. The factors that influence recoil include the weapon's caliber and fire rate, which means weapons with more powerful calibers and faster rates lead to increased recoil. Additionally, the recoil may be either vertical or horizontal, impacting where the weapon kicks upon being fired. Players need to counteract recoil in order to shoot with accuracy, making necessary adjustments to either their aim or stance. In Insurgency: Sandstorm, recoil can be decreased by crouching or by equipping attachments like Bipods. Taking a lower stance can reduce recoil, and lying prone offers the most stability. Controlling vertical recoil involves aiming lower or adjusting the aim, whereas managing horizontal recoil is trickier and typically necessitates attachments for reduction.

Reloading

Reloading in the Insurgency franchise typically requires pressing the R key on the PC (by default) to replenish a weapon with fresh ammo from a magazine. The majority of firearms utilize magazines for ammunition, replacing the empty magazine with a fully loaded one. Partial reloads can also happen with a magazine with some remaining bullets. Empty reloads occur when the magazine is fully empty, but these actions are slower since the chamber requires reloading. Players can also trigger quick reloads, but they’ll permanently remove the leftover bullets in the thrown magazine. Although the reloading mechanic in the Insurgency series is reasonably the same, Sandstorm has some notable exceptions. In particular, the MR 73 and Mosin-Nagant in Insurgency: Sandstorm have full reload animations that aren’t slowed, thanks to their stripper clip attachments.

Fire Modes

Altering a weapon's firing mode changes how it shoots. Automatic firearms have the ability to switch to semi-automatic mode, allowing for the firing of one bullet with each pull of the trigger, improving accuracy and handling. Certain firearms have the capability of firing in bursts, shooting 2-3 rounds with each pull of the trigger to find a middle ground between manageability and firepower. Changing between different firing modes allows shooters to select between quantity and precision.

Weapon Length and Collision

Unlike most FPS titles, Insurgency: Sandstorm gives weapons hitboxes. Named Weapon Collision, this event happens when a weapon is too lengthy for its area, leading to the character raising the gun and being unable to shoot at targets in front until there is sufficient space for the weapon to fit.

The Heads-Up Display (HUD)

Arguably, the feature that separates Insurgency: Sandstorm from other FPS titles (apart from its focus on realism) is the HUD. Sandstorm's HUD, or lack thereof, displays minimal information to the player. It only shows a handful of elements, particularly objective information, ammunition count, fire modes, element marking, match time, and server chat. The HUD also disappears after some time and won't reappear even when performing actions such as shooting. That means players must consider every bullet and magazine in their inventories to prevent accidentally running out of ammunition mid-fight.