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.

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
Since this map is an expansion of Sand Hog's storyline, Nexon added a few things to keep it interesting.

Here are a few different things different about this map:
 * 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", 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.Fireteam 1.jpg

Modes

Normal = Easy AI

Hard = Hard AI

Extreme = Very Hard AI

Endings Rewards: Locations Enemies
 * You detonate the entrance to the city; just to find yourselves at a whole new area (Sand Hog).
 * Shemagh-on Hard
 * Elite Shemagh- on Extreme
 * Sector 1: The Insertion Route
 * Sector 2: The Temple
 * Sector 3: The Road
 * Sector 4: The Town
 * Grunt (Either have a tan uniform with helmet or grey with White Shemagh)
 * LAW Grunts (The same as the grunts with the White Shemagh but they have a LAW strapped to their back. This is their primary weapon of choice.)
 * Royal Guard (Black Uniform)

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 win is a good arsenal of weapons. I recommend L9+variants, Low recoil guns like M416 CQB, AK-103 w/ itech for reduced recoil, etc. are also useful.

Now, if you're trying to show up your teammates with more points and win at the same time, use Shotguns. All shotguns are well suited for fireteam except for double barrel+variants obviously because you have to reload every 2 shots. The reason shotguns are good is because they shoot multiple bullets at the same time, each one earning 15 pts. In extreme, you could get over 200 points just from a single guy.

I would not recommend machine guns except for the Mk. 48 MOD 0. Because of the scope you can ensure that most of your shots hit at medium-long range rather than wasting 50 ammo on 1 guy.

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 1 kill and 2 hp and you are at Part 4 of fireteam, and you have 50 hp but with 80 kills, then ignore the noob and take the crate, it's better for the team.

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. After you throw the nade, stick to the left side and use the Itech scope and shoot in a straight line down. aim for enemies that could be left or right. if you do this correctly, you should get at least 9 combo with the nade. 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 L9 the dudes up top. Most games are against opening the gates at the side of the temple because it spawns more enemies. Anyways, do not shoot down the LEFT trip mines, because gates have been proven to be faster. 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. (By the way, if you're having trouble jumping the ledge and into the room, hug the wall as much as possible, sprint, and then jump. If you REALLY have a hard time getting through, and everyone else is already outside, then open the gates, clear the spawned enemies, and go on.)

After the wall explodes, you can either, 1. continue straight and clear the alley, but don't use your grenade. Or you can 2. Go clear the tank first. 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, the tank will blow and you will die. instead, jump up on the bus and pistol (i prefer Desert Eagle) the tank. Activate the barbed wire, chuck your nade, and run (speed hack) back to the bus. L9/M416 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: The easiest one in my opinion. Go to the left and stay left. Try not to spawn too many soldiers by going down the middle. Again, i persist you to take down the RPG guys first. Go to the left, hide behind the concrete blocks and L9. Duck and reload. If you rush it, then you will get RPGed multiple times at the same time. Go in the building and extract. Careful of the enemies on the stairs.

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. Hide behind the trash bins and M416/L9. 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. Pain in the ass site.

Site C: Go to the right go straight down the wide road. Clear the area there. Go straight and then left and you will see your extraction building. There will be a semi opened area on your left where soldiers will spawn. Clear and enter the building. The first building doesn't have the info, but clear it and continue in the alley and activate the second door, where the computer is. Extract and exit.

Escape Area: It doesn't matter what site you got assigned, but except for site C, you will eventually see a alley with pillars. If you are C, then you will activate an explosion and soldiers will come. Clear the explosion or pillar area and then go straight, and activate the barbed wire. Throw your last grenade there and then run (speed hack) back to camp and L9/M416 them. There will be quite a few so take your time. After clear and finish.

Alternate Walkthrough
First off, always have a good weapon.I recommend Assault Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, and especially Machine Guns. Why? Machine guns carry a total of 200 bullets, while Assault Rifles have only a total of 120 bullets. Doesn't matter if you have to waste 50 bullets on one guy. Using the Machine gun can really gun down the Sand Hog ( and using a minigun and rip apart the enemy).

First, at the start, use your guns to kick some mother**ing ass. There are stacks of bricks, pillars, walls, and some metal scrap that can serve as a really good cover. Use your grenade if you have to. No matter what difficulty, you usually shouldn't die. If you do, it's okay.

At the temple, kill the enemies and the people up on the second floor. If you are playing normal, feel free to touch the gates. The enemies are weak, so if someone opens it, don't blame them. just fight your way up. It's no sweat, unless it's hard or extreme. If someone does open the gates, however, RELAX... It might take a little more time, but it's better than losing a teammate. Shoot down the C4 mine on the LEFT. DO NOT SHOOT THE RIGHT!!!! Once you did it, get close to the doors and be ready. The royal guards are here. Use you nades and throw it. If you are lucky, you can score a 3-6 combo. After, get to the doors. If you are fast enough to get there, watch the cutscene. If not, it's too bad ( 'cause the guy's dead).

About the tank, I say you do not charge headon to tank. Did you really think that an ordinary UAF soldier can easily destroy a tank. To be on the safe side, go into the alleyway. Don't use your nade just yet. Save it. Once you cleared the alleyway, there will be a ledge. Do not go directly into the building. Get on the ledge and carefully approach the tank. It can't shoot you on the ledge, but if you drop, kiss your hard military butt goodbye. Once, you smashed the tank (doesn't matter if you shot or knife it), approach the barbed wire and rush back. Use your nade and throw. Then gun them down....

The last part: just follow the guy-on-top's walkthrough about A,B, and C.

Now about planting the bomb, follow the top-person's walkthrough. I have a trivia for you. Did you know our bomb site is an entrance covered with metal while in Korean Combat Arms, it's a large entrance with 2 wooden doors? Ah well, good job.

There is another way to fast advance in Sector:1 by "Kamikaze" style. It works without problems in normal and hard mode and it's recommended if your teammates are noobs and moving slowly in mission didn't care about time. Let them start with covering fire and it could be even one guy then you just run never stopping, just run and jump if neccesary until reaching wall between the field and temple to hide there. Now your team can advance because enemies don't respawn any longer. You can try it in extreme mode too, but if you die too fast because your team is weak, it'll be too risky to attempt.

Strategies

 * There are many obstacles in this map (wooden boxes, pillars, etc.), it is beneficial for you to hide behind them while sniping.
 * 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, enemies will drop grenades when killed, be careful or you can shot the boobie trabs and they explode then get your knife out and jump up.
 * A certain type of enemy soldier will shoot with a LAW, 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 multi kill or more.
 * 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.
 * There is a cinematic scene featured if you beat a 3, 5 or 7 minute timer (depending on which difficulty is selected). In it, the team will rescue a captured member of the infiltration team who dies of unknown causes (although he touches his neck before falling over), who will give you the co-ordinates of the intel before dying. If you don't make it to the room on time, the hostage 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%.

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!"
 * "Watch out for the guards in black! They are

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- series, 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.