The Cavalry Scout, played

What you plant

• Field Camera · Recon 1 · 55 energy · 120 s cooldown. Set at your feet (range 1.5): an 80-life cloaked camera with 15 sight that detects invisible units within 15, for 300 s.
• Motion Sensor CS · Recon 3 · 40 energy · 270 s cooldown. An 80-life cloaked sensor that lives 270 s and radars 55 around it: enemy blips on the minimap, no identity. Cloaked units are filtered out of the radar. Its own sight is 3.
• Flare Gun · Recon 2 · 40 energy plus 10 % of your maximum energy · 45 s cooldown · range 30. 45 s of vision in 15 and detection in 15, a slow within 6; the enemy sees by it too.
• When the AO is cleared for a new chapter, every camera, sensor and flare a player owns is killed and removed. Plant again once the chapter turns.

What you point

• Binoculars · Recon 2 · 15 energy · 24 s cooldown · range 46. Unfogs and detects 13 around the point for 9 s.
• Laser Designator · Recon 3 · 30 energy · 45 s cooldown · range 19. The target loses 5 armor for 45 s and its sight is shared with every player; everyone reads that it has been designated as a priority target, it is pinged, and a priority target tag hangs over it until the mark ends. Pointing it at a unit already marked repeats none of the announcement, ping or tag.
• Heartbeat · Recon 4 · passive. Every 10 s, massive hostiles within 40 of you get a red boss ping on everyone's map for 3 s.
• Camouflage · Recon 1, level = Recon level. 5/6/7/8 s of cloak for 35/32/28/24 energy on a 25/24/23/22 s cooldown, at -10 % / -5 % / 0 / +10 % move speed. Attacking breaks it; armored and massive undead detect it.

What a call does

• Call For Fire CS · Recon 4 · 90 energy · 5 s cooldown · range 38.
• Shells come from one pool shared with the Platoon Leader and the Fire Support Specialist: 175 at the start, +50 when Chapter 2 opens, +25 per level of the FSS's Call For Fire skill. At 0 the call fails with "Out of shells".
• 9 s after the call the target area (5 radius) is revealed to everyone and the incoming sound plays; the first shell launches 1 s after that. The FSS's IDF levels shorten his own calls only. One fire mission at a time: a second call waits for the first to finish.
• Allies get a red Fire Mission ping at the point for 8 s, and computer-owned biological units within 5 of it are ordered to move clear. The undead are the exception: they are told to sprint but not to leave the circle, so the shells still land on them.
• Each shell: 1000 to 1100 damage at the impact, 60 % of it at 2, 40 % at 4; 100 less on mechanical, 250 less on heroic targets. Every FSS Call For Fire level adds 600 per shell for every caller.
• Your own Whiz Kid carries over to the shells: the script copies Whiz Kid onto the unit that fires each one. The wiki's class page says the opposite.
• A shell aimed outside the AO is not fired and goes back to the pool. Ask for more shells than the pool holds and the call fires what is left.

Your settings, typed in chat

• -s 1 to -s 10: shells per call. Default 1.
• -r 2 to -r 10: the landing radius. Default 2.
• -i 0.2 to -i 5: seconds between shells. Default 0.2.
• -d c: shells land at random inside the radius (default). -d 0 to -d 360, or -d n, -d ne and so on: a line of shells in that direction, one radius apart.
• Type -s, -r, -i or -d alone to read the current value.
• Off for everyone during the PVPlague Vectors mission ("IDF unavailable"), and off for the scout for all of Infested: the ability is disabled at hero creation there.
• The community's CFF page: ask the FSS first, his calls land faster and he needs the shells for his other fire. On the scout, use it to hold a spot you saw the wave coming to, or to take down a Morbus without walking there, 2 or 3 shells depending on difficulty.

The claymore

• Claymore CS · Recon 4 · 70 energy · 40 s cooldown, set at your feet. A 20-life claymore with no sight of its own; it can be turned.
• Select it and detonate toward a point up to 8 away: 500 damage in a 60 degree cone 8 deep in that direction, plus 20 % of that in a 0.5 circle around it. Explosives hurt allies.
• Disarm CS on it turns it into the Claymore item. Disarm is the only source of that item.

Disarm and the frag

• Disarm CS · Recon 1 · 5 energy · 3 s cooldown · range 1.5. On a planted explosive charge: back to an item. On a Combat Engineer's satchel: arms it, and it goes off 10 s later, so a scout can blow the engineer's cave charge for him.
• Frag Grenade · range 12. A frag sets off a planted Explosive Charge (1800 to 2200 damage), which is what the wiki's explosives build is about: Whiz Kid adds 30 % to explosives; the wiki's explosives build pairs it with charges and claymores.

Marksmanship, in numbers

• Scout Skills per level: +1 weapon range, +4 dexterity; +2 sight at 1, +5 from 2 on. Level 3: Vision Aura, +1 sight to allies within 18. Level 4: Analyze Weakness, -10 armor on every hostile within 18, refreshed every second and gone about 1 s after they leave.
• Soldier Skills 2 is the scout's MOS ability: +2 weapon range, +8 dexterity and a 12 % chance of double damage on biological targets. A SOF-AR adds 20 points to that chance.
• Steel Saber swaps the Carbine for the Steel Saber Carbine: 45 to 53 damage at range 16, same rate, same splash. It is earned by winning a regular game on Nightmare or Apocalypse as a Cavalry Scout, and only a Cavalry Scout can pick it.

Armor made for you

• Special Ops Kevlar: anyone can carry it, only the scout and the Ghost get its bonus: +4 armor, 40 shields with 1 regeneration, +0.05 move speed, 15 % evasion.
• Kevlar Body Armor is the wiki's pick for survival.
• The wiki's rule: the scout has no priority on any item. Armors and a Kinetic Integrator go to the medics, damage items to the damage classes. The Special Ops Kevlar sits outside that rule: its bonus works on you and the Ghost and on nobody else.

SI pairs from the wiki

First	Second	For
Twinkle Toes	Light Armor or Barbaric	a recon build
Twinkle Toes	Steel Saber	a damage build
Whiz Kid	Energetic	explosives: charges and claymores as often as the energy allows
Veteran	Steel Saber	firepower for the team; scout with extra caution

Quick Thinking or Hawk Eye stand in for Steel Saber while it is not unlocked.

Roles and habits

• The wiki's role: vision first, so the team knows what is coming and where; a modest damage dealer later. During a long hold, go find items and bring them back.
• The wiki's item split: HK42 and Kevlar Body Armor for speed and survival; M5 MAR, MGL, 40mm Grenade Item, Explosive Charge and MRL with Whiz Kid; US MCR or SOF-AR, Aim Assist and a Scope for damage.
• You and the Ghost both carry a motion sensor: agree on where each goes so they do not cover the same ground.
• The build in this guide is the wiki's DPS order: Recon 4, then Marksmanship and Soldier Skills interleaved, the frag last. Its other order, for the explosives build: Recon 4, Frag 4, Marksmanship 1, Soldier Skills 4, then Marksmanship 4. Soldier Skills 3 and 4 are there for the +0.1 move speed and the Rifle Butt.