Advanced Engineer

Advanced Engineer Hotwire (GDI) Technician (Nod)
Hotwire Technician
Function	Support/Defense Infantry
Health	100
Armor	125 (Recruit) 150 (Veteran) 175 (Elite) 200 (Heroic)
Armor Type	Flak
Primary Weapon	Advanced Repair Gun
Sidearm	Silenced Pistol
Speed	100
Explosives	Remote C4 x2 Timed C4 x2 Proximity C4 x3
Cost	$350

Advanced Engineers are improved Engineers, possessing Advanced Repair Guns and enough explosives to bring down a single building by themselves.

Appearance

Hotwire

Hotwire is a female wearing brown camouflage pants, a blue shirt and a blue beret. She has tactical facepaint under her eyes.

Technician

Technicians wear black suits with red-colored stripes on it; their head are covered by a helmet, along with a gas mask with red goggles to cover their face.

Strategy

Usage

Advanced Engineer is a necessity against any enemy team rushes and infiltration. Being the only infantry to possess Advanced Repair Gun, it is marginally more useful against enemy Vehicle rushes than free Engineers. A group of 3 or 4 Advanced Engineers can keep a building alive against most vehicle rushes.

Advanced Engineer is also the only infantry capable of planting Proximity C4, better known as "mines". It is advised for new players to learn where to place Proximity C4 from veterans in order to avoid mismanaging the mines or overmining, which will often lead to the team accusing the newcomer of team hampering.

Mine placement, paramount for base defense, is a complicated topic, and there is no perfect mine placement. Still, it is recommended to place 3 Proximity C4 near the doors of each Building, in order to deter enemy players from getting in. In flying levels (the ones that allow the purchase of aerial Vehicles), mines should be placed differently: for the Hand of Nod, in addition to the three Proximity C4 per door, a minimum of six mines should be placed inside the second floor and onto the descending ramp to prevent players to throw C4 on the Master Control Terminal. The three mines in Airstrip should be placed further back towards the MCT, if a player can reach and jump down from the control tower; lastly, the ramp of the Weapons Factory should also have three mines, in order to prevent enemy players placing Superweapon Beacons onto the intricate roof of the Weapons Factory.

Advanced Engineers can also blow up enemy buildings, by reaching the Master Control Terminal of the enemy Buildings, throw two Timed C4 and two Remote C4 onto the Master Control Terminal, wait for the timed C4 to detonate, and then blow the Remote C4.

Although highly unreliable and greatly dependent on luck, sneaking is also the least team-dependent wise and cost-effective. Some Advanced Engineer like to weaken the Proximity C4 found at the doors with his/her Advanced Repair Gunas much as possible before removing them all in rapid succession.

Advanced Engineer may also employ a tactic called "Harvester Walking" in order to sneak into the enemy base. The Advanced Engineer will follow the Harvester from behind and on the sides; the Harvester will provide cover for them, blocking the view of automated defenses, thus leading the sneaky player inside unharmed. For example, when the Harvester finishes collecting Tiberium outside the base, the Advanced Engineer may follow it, "hugging" it from behind, thus creating an artificial safe entry point allowing for sneaking, and then proceed to sabotage a building, usually being the Refinery or the Advanced Guard Tower/Obelisk.

Patrols are advised to check their Harvesters to avoid infiltrators employing such technique.

Counters

Any strategy against Engineer will work against Advanced Engineer. However, possessing more C4s in total, they can bring down Buildings if they managed to reach the Master Control Terminal. Mines do not serve as a good counter against Advanced Engineers, as their Advanced Repair Gun disarms those rather quickly. The only warning you will get if a player infiltrates a building is when the mine counter decreases. A good player detonates all their C4s in rapid succession, causing the building to die in roughly 3 seconds even with full health and armor.

Vehicles should be wary of Advanced Engineers because they can easily destroy the vehicle if they manage to attach their C4 onto the vehicle. Most of the time, backing away will be good enough to avoid their C4 (except Mammoth Tanks, they are often too slow). Caution is advised: the player should look at the minimap while backing away in order to not bump into obstacles, other vehicles, or lose their vehicles by backing into water or lava.

To counter vehicles, Advanced Engineers should to be taken out first, since they can repair vehicles with their Advanced Repair Guns, possibly nullifying most of the damage dealt to the vehicle. Still, concentrate fire will often be able to power through the Advanced Engineer's repairs and destroy the vehicles. Most vehicles are piloted by Advanced Engineers, since they can retreat and repair their own vehicle or repair allied vehicles if the Advanced Engineers loses their vehicle.

Trivia

• This class becomes priceless after losing infantry production building, as it is impossible to acquire from Mystery Crates while being the only infantry capable of placing Proximity C4. The (un)lucky player possessing an Advanced Engineer after losing the infantry production building should rarely come out of their base, but rather spend the rest of the game repairing building Master Control Terminal, and replacing mines lost on potential sneakers.
  • Even if the enemy team has lost the infantry production building, base patrols should still be on lookout for enemy players that still are Advanced Engineers, but willing to risk and lose their infantry to pull off an infiltration.

See also

• Shai "Hotwire" Aviv on the Command & Conquer Wiki
• Technician on the Command & Conquer Wiki