Best Strategies for Escort Missions

Escort missions are notorious among gamers for their difficulty, frustration, and the often bafflingly poor survival instincts of the non-player character (NPC) you are tasked with protecting. Success requires a complete shift in tactical priority: you are no longer the primary target; the NPC is. Mastering escort missions hinges on effective preparation, meticulous route control, and aggressive threat elimination to ensure your often fragile ally reaches their destination intact.

1. Pre-Mission Analysis and Preparation

Never rush into an escort mission without fully understanding the environment, the threats, and the specific behavior of the entity you are protecting.

• Analyze the NPC’s Movement and Behavior: Does the NPC run, walk, or stop when enemies are present? Some NPCs will only move when you are close, allowing you to control the pace. Others rush blindly ahead. Adapt your strategy to their known movement pattern (or lack thereof).
• Scout and Clear the Route: If possible, run the mission path without the NPC first. This allows you to identify:
  • Ambush Points: Where enemies spawn or are staged to attack the NPC directly.
  • Environmental Hazards: Areas with falling debris, landmines, or pitfalls that the NPC might walk into.
  • Alternative Routes: Identify a slower, safer, and less populated route, even if it adds extra time.
• Optimize Your Loadout for Defense and Crowd Control: Your primary weapons should focus on quick crowd control and area denial, not single-target damage.
  • Weapons: Shotguns, splash damage explosives, or weapons with a high stun chance are often superior to high-precision sniper rifles.
  • Utility: Carry items that can create temporary cover (smoke grenades), slow enemies (stasis mines), or draw aggro away from the NPC (decoys or flares).

2. Route Control and Tactical Positioning

The key to a successful escort is dictating the flow of the battle and minimizing the time the NPC spends exposed.

• The “Forward Screen” Principle (Point Position): Your primary position should be ahead of the NPC. By moving forward, you trigger enemy spawns or patrols before the NPC enters the hostile zone. This allows you to eliminate threats or gain initial aggro far away from your escort.
• Funneling and Chokepoints: Use narrow corridors or doors to your advantage. Focus your fire and utility on the point where enemies must approach. If the mission allows, set up automated defenses (turrets, traps) at these chokepoints.
• Always Face the Spawn: Once an engagement starts, position yourself between the NPC and the direction where new enemies are spawning. Never let an enemy unit gain a clean line of sight or pathing route directly to the NPC.
• The “Bubble” Defense: In open areas, use your character to create a perimeter around the NPC. Maintain a constant rotation of movement, scanning 360 degrees to ensure no enemy breaches the personal space (the “bubble”) of the escort target.

3. Aggro Management and Threat Prioritization

The escort target is often very fragile, making immediate threat assessment and threat diversion the highest priority during combat.

• Aggressively Take the Aggro: Use abilities, noise, or high-damage attacks to force the enemies to focus their attention on you, not the NPC. Many games have mechanics where the closest or most damaging player draws the enemy’s attention. Utilize this.
• Prioritize High-Damage or Crowd Control Threats: If multiple enemies attack, neutralize the threats in this order:
  1. Immediate Threat to NPC: Enemies using explosive area-of-effect (AoE) attacks or those that are actively engaging the NPC.
  2. Ranged/Snipers: Threats that can hit the NPC from afar, typically behind the frontline.
  3. Basic Melee/Low-Threat Units: The remaining enemies that pose less immediate risk.
• Use the NPC as Cover (A Last Resort): If you must briefly use a healing item or reload, and the NPC is standing near a solid object, use that time to briefly put the NPC behind you or behind cover. However, never rely on the NPC’s body positioning as actual cover, as many escort targets are vulnerable to splash damage.

By taking an extremely proactive and defensive stance, treating the entire mission as one large defensive zone that must be carefully cleared, you dramatically increase the chances of the escort mission’s success.