Fail! bungie. Fail! So this is how you rank up? I could of sworn the reason for the ranking system on team slayer or team doubles. Is to win as a team not as an individual. face palm. I have players betraying me now thanks! I am not playing this game anymore and so is 1000x of people. I put this on the mlgforums, collegeforums, and other gaming forums. wtf is this?!?!?! Bungie ranking system = EPIC FAIL! 1. This is the first and most important tip. Do not play to win. Play for rating. The loss penalty multiplies your rating by .96. This is almost insignificant unless you are very close in rating to someone on the winning team. 2. Always have a power weapon. If the map you're playing on has rockets, get rockets every time they respawn. Rockets, when used appropriately, are 4 easy kills. Sniper is another important weapon to control, since it allows you to get easy kills across the map. If possible, have a power weapon at all times. 3. Limit your deaths. Yes, they're only worth a third of a kill or assist. But the person who kills you gets a kill from it, which might give him enough kills to score higher than you. Ideally, you want to have rockets or sniper and camp with your teammate(s) and you want to be the one who kills the enemy when they push. Now, here's where it gets tricky and you have to think a little bit. Since Bungie's rating system doesn't show in game, it's hard to tell where everyone stands. However, you can see who is higher on your team and other team by the ordering of names. Try and estimate how high everone else's ratings are when playing, because it will be very helpful for these next strategies. Advanced tactics: 1. Your teammate has picked up rockets and the other team has gotten him one shot. He manages to duck around a corner. If he is higher than you on the list and the game is not close (other team has low ratings), kill him and take his rockets. He will lose points, which brings him closer to you on the list. The other team gains a kill and maybe an assist, but if the score isn't close it won't bring them closer to you. Now you have rockets and can get 4 easy kills. In fact, killing your teammate for rockets (Don't betray, that will get you booted) is almost always worth it, as long as you can use the rockets properly. You'll have to try and play it off as an accident so your teammate doesn't go emo and try to betray you though. 2. Don't teamshot. You most likely won't get an assist and only one of you will pick up a kill. Instead, fire 1 or 2 quick shots into the body, wait for bloom to fully reset (DMR) and then go for the headshot the moment his shields drop. If it goes well, your teammate won't get an assist and you will get the kill. However, if you are carrying your team to the extent it doesn't matter, go for the teamshot and take the chance that you get the kill. 3. Don't always call out. If you get a guy one shot and you can't possibly finish him without getting lucky, call it out. If you see a guy sneaking up to someone on your team with more rating than you, don't call it out. Let him die and then jump the guy on the other team for an easy kill. Unless of course said guy has too many kills and his rating is too high. Then you jump him. 4. Assists are bad. Sure you get the points for a kill from an assist, but that means that somebody else got the kill points too. You want to prevent that from happening unless the person who got the kill is significantly lower than you in rating. So basically assist cleaned up by high rating guy = bad and assist cleaned up by low rating guy = good. It really comes down to common sense. If someone has a higher rating than you, prevent them from getting kills or assists and make sure that they die. This also applies to people that are slightly under you in rating. You want to break away from the pack and be 1st. Of course, getting 1st every game is impossible, so you may have to settle for 2nd or 3rd. Just be sure that you're placing in the top half every game at least. Just remember that the ranking system is exactly like rumble pit or LW. Top half will either push you up or keep you where you are, while a bottom half placing is going to hurt you quite a bit. The most important things to remember from this are the basic tips, which will keep you consistently placing top half. The advanced stuff is more for very tactical players who can think and adapt very well, and will help ensure a top 2 placing every game if done right. That's all I have, good luck getting Onyx guys! Feel free to post comments, questions, or additional tips that I may have missed.