Desert Thunder

Operation: Desert Thunder is the "14th" map released in Combat Arms. However, instead of being a newer map, it is a highly-modified add-on version of Sand Hog, made especially for Fireteam. Taking place in the same city, but in a different location, it features narrow streets crawling with Sand Hog terrorists who would not hesitate to eliminate the UAF group of soldiers that were there to rescue the last surviving soldier who was captured on a Intel-collecting mission.thumb|370px|right|Desert Thunder Fire Team

The map is the precursor to Sand Hog itself, the downed helicopter being the same one that dropped you off earlier.

Mission Objectives:

"Mogadishu's military, the Sand Hog, is suspected of illegally supplying weapons to nearby countries and have been placed on the UAF's expulsion list. The local government has refused to take action until UAF headquarters provides concrete evidence. An infiltration team was sent in three days ago and signaled that they had obtained some vital Intel, but they failed to make it to the extraction point. They are believed to be captured or killed. Your mission is to infiltrate the mission area and gather the necessary Intel. If possible, find and rescue the infiltration team."

Mission Briefing
Desert Thunder is a "prequel" of Sand Hog's storyline. Here are some elements that you will encounter.*The enemy is the "Sand Hog", a group of Somalian insurgents. Unlike in other game modes, they are purely AI controlled.
 * Players will go up against a unique "tank" (what looks like a BTR-80), which fires explosive shots and can only be killed by shots to an open hatch on its top.
 * Players must advance from area to area, separated by gates or obstacles.
 * Ammo packs, explosive packs, and health packs drop from killed enemies and can be picked up by players.
 * Messages are constantly sent to keep you updated on the situation.
 * You can respawn at different intervals in the game, unless the player has a Respawn Token.
 * As you proceed, there are more and more cutscenes.Fireteam 1.jpg

Modes


 * Normal = Easy AI


 * Hard = Hard AI


 * Extreme = Very Hard AI

Endings Rewards Unlocked Areas*Sector 1: The Insertion Route
 * You detonate the entrance to the city; just to find yourselves at a whole new area (Sand Hog).
 * Shemagh
 * Elite Shemagh
 * Sector 2: The Temple
 * Sector 3: The Road
 * Sector 4: The Town

Enemies
 * Scout - Wears goggles; visible face. Prefers to use an AK-47.
 * Guard - Armed men wearing a Shemagh. Usually equipped with a LAW/RPG or M24.LAW_and_RPG-7.jpg
 * Royal Guard - Special guard equipped with black armor, and wearing an Elite Shemagh. Prefers to use the UZI or in some cases the AK-47.

Pre-Game Preparation
 How to succeed in Fireteam 

The first thing you need to know about fireteam is that just because your enemies are AI controlled doesn't mean that they are completely stupid (though they will frequently do things like throwing grenades when you are right next to them).

The most important thing you need to have is good teammates. I would recommend that if you join a game full of noobs, and they're playing extreme, then LEAVE! If you have a suppressor (including S1, because it actually just moves some recoil from up to side-to-side) detach it, as it will require more shots to kill an AI and does nothing to prevent the AI from knowing where you are (they automatically know where you are). Take your time! It is extremely rare that you will fail because of running out of time.

The most important thing you have to have to do good is to bring the standard "DT Gear" consisting of an AR you can control easily (a scope is recomended), a RPG (or a LAW if you are low on GP) and as many nades as the remaning slots of your backpack allows. Speed gear and a high slot backpack are also recomended.

Bringing shotguns/sniper rifles/sub-machine guns/machine guns and any other explosive apart from grenades will usually get you kicked and/or called a noob.

Health crates: now this might sound selfish, but its best for the team. when you see a health crate that's open to grab, you quickly check 3 things in this order: 1. your own hp, 2: the people next to you. If they have more hp than you then take the crate, if not, 3. check the leaderboard. if there is a noob with 20 kills and 2 hp and you are at Part 4 of fireteam, and you have 50 hp but with 55 kills, then ignore the noob and take the crate, it's better for the team.

Lastly, a great place to actually play desert thunder is in Black market, as most of the high ranks and pros play there, although you could get kicked if your clears are really low and/or not follow instructions or bringing "noob" weapons. Some rooms will be specific and say "No Farming" and in doing so will get you a kick.

Walkthough
When you start, waste your grenade by throwing it somewhere with a bunch of enemies. you will almost 100% make it to the next part, recovering your grenade back. Next, take out your pistol and sprint through the alley, careful to avoid enemies trying to melee you. Open the doors to your right to clear the area.

After you recover/respawn if you somehow end up dead, clear the guys on the floor then snipe the dudes up top. If you are first there, ALWAYS trigger the RIGHT gate and continue up the RIGHT GATE. Then, activate the doors with the black soldiers and use your nade. Once you clear out the black soldiers, head into the room and open the door. You're done the 2nd part.

After the wall explodes, you can either, continue straight, carefully to avoid getting hit by the tank. How to: get your grenade out(faster than knife) and wait until the tank fires, then sprint and jump to the left and take cover. Then after the tank shoots your cover, head to the tank and knife the tank cover until fire comes out, if you keep knifing after that point, the tank will blow and you will die. Instead, jump up on the bus and pistol the tank. Activate the barbed wire, chuck your nade, and run back to the bus.Use your AR and RPG for good combos. Clear the area for your last respawn. conserve your health starting now.

Now, if you reached the second spawn point in time, then it will tell you what site to go to. just look around the map for the upside down triangle with the letter in it. If you didn't reach it in time, then look up at the UAV. Where it goes is where you go.

Site A: Go to the left and down the middle alley. turning left at the end. When you go upstairs, enemies will sometimes spawn behind you, check your mini-map at all times for yellow dots (NPCs)

Site B: Go to the left and then down the middle alley. Clear the few soldiers there. Then you will spawn 9-10 soldiers and some will appear in the building. Use your RPG. Again crouch to reload. Clear the area in front, above and to the right of the trash bins. Then continue in the building underground. Clear the room then open the door on the left. Clear that then continue to the right where more soldiers will spawn. go straight into the room in front of you. Don't touch the doors to the right until you have extracted the info. After you extract, then continue up the stairs where more soldiers will spawn.

Site C: Go through the middle and when you reach the end, run through your extraction zone (be careful as as soon as you sprint past the building directly opposite the extraction zone, 4 enemies will spawn) and at the metal fences, 3 enemies will spawn, take them out and open the doors, clearing all the enemies.

Escape Area: It doesn't matter what site you got assigned, always go to the extraction zone (if you're not doing the sites) through the middle, turning left at the end. NPCs will spawn at the extraction zone, throw your nades and use your rpgs.

Strategies

 * There are many obstacles in this map (wooden boxes, pillars, etc.), it is beneficial for you to hide behind them.
 * NEVER bring Respawn Tokens to desert thunder, as it wastes time and doesn't help the team whatsoever. Respawning over and over again will make your team angry and kick you, resulting in a waste of a respawn token.
 * Jumping up the ramp and not opening the gates is considered a glitch and can result in a hefty 30 day ban.
 * Never ever bring any of the following to a Desert Thunder game; Mines, Smoke, Flash, Gas, Fire, Machine Guns, Sub-machine Guns, Shotguns, Snipers, M79s and respawn tokens
 * Once the doors are open upstairs in the Temple (sector two), make sure to watch both sides of you as the enemies will walk around and shoot you from the side.
 * Most of the time, the terrorists will drop grenades when killed, be careful or you will die.
 * A certain type of enemy soldier will shoot with a RPG, be careful and make sure to kill those soldiers before the regular enemy soldiers.
 * Enemy soldiers will often be caught together, when this happens, throw a grenade and if aimed accurately, should eliminate the entire pack for a combo.
 * Be careful of grenades, enemies will throw quite a few, some will drop grenades on death.
 * Assault rifles are probably the best weapons for this mode, as yellow kits drop frequently, which give assault rifle ammo.
 * You can rush the tank by using going up the road that the tank is on while using a knife (be sure to kill the NPC in the bus first). There are two places where you have to get to on the road where you are safe from the tank's fire. For the first one there will usually be a NPC waiting for you. Once you get to the bus the tank can't shoot you anymore with its cannon.
 * The tank has an open chamber in the back, exposing its inner workings. Shoot it enough times and the tank will be eliminated. The fire it will not harm you.
 * If you don't make it to the hostage on time, he will die without telling you the co-ordinates, which can hinder your team in the town section. However, there is usually an UAV (small disk like object) hovering above the right target, so try to spot that in order to find out which target is right.
 * Beating Fireteam on "Hard" or "Extreme", you can unlock the enemy headgear, which are known as Shemaghs. Beating it on "Hard" will give you a white Shemagh, while beating it on "Extreme" will yield a Royal Guard's black Shemagh. Both last one day and will be in storage until you activate it, like NX weapons. The Shemagh provides decent headshot protection 27% while the Elite Shemagh provides exceptional headshot protection of 32%.
 * When you enter the main street, enemies will spawn in the bus up the street. RPG the bus for a nice combo.

Section 1 (Insertion Route)
 (Section 1 Ends) 
 * "This is Colonel Coleman.The current mission is to rescue ......(TBC)."
 * "We've recieved word that the hostage will be excecuted any minute now. Hurry and get to the target area. Once there we will radio you more details."
 * "In case you end up without any ammo or first aid the enemy will drop them when they die"
 * "You won't be able to use enemy ammo for sniper rifles or machine guns. so be sure to conserve your ammo as much as possible."
 * "The hostage we are rescuing was able to successfully infiltrate....(TBC)"
 * "In order to get the green light for Sand Hog's explusion, we will need concrete evidence to present to the Parliament"

Section 2 (The Temple)
(Section 2 Ends, Hostage cutscene plays) 
 * "It looks like the enemy is about to execute the hostage! There is no time! Hurry! m..., move (TBC)"
 * "Our UAV have sent us images. The hostage appears to be on the second floor of the temple."
 * "The stairway is locked! find another stairway!"Combat-Arms_26.jpg
 * "Watch out for the guards in black! They are Sand Hog's Elite Royal Guard!"

Section 3 (The Road)
 (Section 3 Ends) 

Section 4 (The Town)
 (Section 4 Ends, Final Cutscene plays) 

Trivia

 * The area where the bomb is exploded is actually the same gate as the one at the back of Alpha site in Sand Hog. So basically, you went through this whole map, fought plenty of AIs, and blew up a door just to find yourself at Sand Hog, right next to the Helicopter that dropped you off earlier.
 * Don't stand under the collapsing section in the temple, or, rush immediately to it either. If you are caught in the blast radius, you will die. And approaching ground zero too soon after the explosion will cause you to die also in a manner similar to suffocation.
 * Similarly, don't get too close to an exploding tank (if it wasn't obvious enough), but give it five seconds - leaping near it too quickly will cause a nasty death.
 * There are hidden NPCs in the map ranging from outside the map to inside building structures. Any hacker killing the NPCs will notify Nexon to ban them.
 * The "tank" that shoots is actually an APC based on the Russian BTR-80, but it has a tank cannon instead of a machine gun.
 * When you enter the room where the hostage is, there should be a piece of paper floating down when the guys hits the floor. If you can't see the paper you should turn your resolution up a bit.
 * -IMPORTANT- If there is a hacker in the room, LEAVE IMMEDIATELY. As mentioned above, there are the "hidden" NPC's, and even if you were not hacking, you can now be suspended for 30 days if you benefit from the hacker.
 * For an unknown reason, the enemies have ranks like regular players, maybe to show the real players which of the enemies are stronger than others, vice versa.
 * When killed on death the enemy drops a grenade. This is surprisingly similar to the perk martydom in the Call of Duty Series.
 * This is the first and currently the only map in Combat Arms to display a human corpse in it.
 * In Korea's version of Desert Thunder, the ending cutscene displays one of the 3 helicopters flying above you shot down by a rocket.
 * As of the 12/15/2010 update players can now join Fireteam matches in progress, with the window for joining open for up to 3 minutes in Desert Thunder.