The Minimap is the most powerful tool in 2142

Even tho the minimap is small it should be your best friend. I often play by 70% minimap and only 30% my main window. The minimap decides over life and death. It should guide the next seconds of your action.


You can change the Zoom Level of your minimap in 3 steps using the N key on your keyboard.

Zoom Step 1: Big overview. Used for General Map overview and deciding where to head next and how the other Squads are doing. Also often used on large vehicle maps and to find far targets for tank fire.

Zoom Step 2: Medium Zoom. Often used for indirect fire. Used to aim Rockets and Grenades.

Zoom Step 3: Largest Zoom. This one is the Close Quarter Combat setting. This setting makes it the easiest to go for revives and see the directions the enemies are facing.


I love having my minimap rotating. It gives me a much faster overview on what is going on behind me and infront of me. With a static minimap you often have to look first in which way your soldier is facing. Newer players sometiems prefer the static minimap since they do not know the maps well enough and get confused by the rotating one. Your ultimate goal should be a rotating one tho. Your rotating minimap has the letters N E S W rotating with it.

Things that make enemies apear on your minimap:

- Q spot! Yes I am putting this first since it should always be used. After you Q spot something it will continue to blink on your minimap for 4-5 times while your whole team will see it.

You can Q-Spot out 3-4 enemies quickly before getting spamblocked. You can even Q-Spot for yourself. If an enemy is about to run away around a corner you can Q-Spot him and see where he is heading to on the minimap.

On a good team Q Spotting an enemy is already killing him halfway.


Q Spot Q Spot Q Spot! Repeat with me! I will Q Spot whenever I can !


- UAV the easiest way to see things on the minimap. It can be destroyed but people barely do this on nonvehicle maps. You are also dependant on the good will of your commander

- IDS small but deadly. One of the most overpowered unlocks. Keeping one up should always be the No1 priority of a Support guy. An IDS is your little sanctuary - a bubble of life. You will not have the fear of being flanked closeby and can concentrate on the things that are infront of you. An IDS will not spot vehicles so sometimes you will thing yuo are safe but there will be a buggy trying to mow you down waiting around the corner.

- PDS The PDS will detect Vehicles in a large Radius. it will also detect enemies on ladders, in Rorsches, in Pods and enemies parachuting. Because PDS blibs habe the same size as a common UAV it often gets misstaken as a UAV by newer players. The only way to find out is to use your brain and get a feeling for it. When your "UAV" on Berlin crossroad shows no enemy infantry... there could be something wrong with it and it could be a PDS

- Otus / Recon helm combo. This combo will have a large radius of scanning that easily beats out IDS range.

- Sentry Gun. If a Sentry Gun activates it will "Q-Spot" the enemy it is engaging.

- Pulsemeter / Recon helm combo. This combo is almost never used anymore there days. But a Pulsemeter is basically a 180° front arc Otus. It will produce diamonds with your Support helmet (it will NOT produce diamonds if you do not have the support helmet!!!) and dots on your minimap if you have a recon with his helmet in the Squad.

- Radar Grenade. A good unlock which stands in the shadow of too many other useful unlocks. Only to be used in special cases.


UAV IDS PDS RadarGrenade and QSpot will make the enemies visible to the whole team.

Otus and Pulsemeter combos will make them visible on your Squads Netbat only

Friendlies on the minimap:

- Dead people will always look streight NORTH on your minimap. This way you can notice dead people even if you are not a medic or if for some reason the medic symbol doesn´t show.


- Look at the friendlies and the direction they face. Are they covering your butt or just randomly staring around?

How to us the minimap to your advantage:

- The minimap can be your personal wallhack. You will know behind which cover enemies do hide. You will know which of your next steps will be safe and which is risky.

- Reload! An often underestimated fact is that you can see when you are clear to reload your main weapon. Maybe you can run away for cover and reload. Maybe not reload and pull out your sidearms or even get out your defib to revive fallen Squadmates that still have a full magazine.

- Indirect fire weapons! The biggest advantage the minimap can give you. You can aim Rockets, Grenades and Mortars at the dots on your minimap. Kill the enemy while your life is safe and you are easily reviveable.

- RDX. While this is an "indirect fire" weapon the possibilities are just too great. You can throw RDX down the stairs a Squad is rushing up without ever seeing them directly. You can trap corners with RDX and hide elsewhere.

- Let it dermit your next action. You can see if a revive is clear or if you are better off first suppressing the enemy looking at the wounded body. While this sounds small it is a VERY BIG factor in the success of a Squad. It is the difference between you and your SL being both dead on the floor or you both teabagging the enemy that killed your SL first.

- You can see which direction PAC Tanks face. Because they have no turrent they will only be able to shot in the direction their body faces.

- The sniper minimap feature will always be aligned north on your minimap. You cannot really see in which direction they face. The only times a Sniper symbol will be missaligned is when they are in a Rorsch, Parachute or Podding down.

Counter minimap tricks:

- The Recon Ghost. It will erase your position from the minimap 60 meters around it and draw it to the ghosts position. A Ghost can really screw the mind of even the best players.

- Kill the darn UAV. You can destroy the enemy UAV easily with a SAWW. But even on an infantry map it can be killed by 1-2 Supports shooting at it.

- If you know the enemy can see you and you can see them use the minimap to your advantage. Turn your back to the corner the enemy will come around soon so they will think they just snuck up on you. Then turn around the last second and mow them down with their guard down.

- Snipe the Otus. While the Otus can be put back quickly many SLs will forget in the heat of the fight.

A Blind Squad is a dead Squad !

This is truth. You will get hit by Grenades, Rockets, be flanked and destroyed from within by another Squad utilising the Minimaptools. Only a very steep difference in general skill can outweight this.