Terminology

The following is a list of random terms and phrased commonly used to describe events in game. Many are common RPG/MMO terms, but several deviate greatly from what one would expect. For example, in NOTD, Hp commonly refers to Hollow Point Ammo, rather than Health. =General Terminology=

Kite
Kiting is the process of skillfully micromanaging your character to avoid attacks while also quickly counteracting from a safe distance. This skill is commonplace in ranked StarCraft 2 matches. Weapons like the Shotgun, Flamethrower MK-3, and Stinger MK-3 are very well suited to kiting. Kiting helps to reduce Hits taken and overall increases player skill.

DPS
Damage Per Second. In NOTD this refers to the high damage output weapons and characters. Some characters are built in an offensive manner and deal out high damage. Examples would be the Arms Assault, Combat Engineer, and Operations Commando. These so called DPS classes are needed to be able to kill hordes fast enough and to whittle down a boss's health.

AoE
Area of Effect. Skills that have a large range and splash and are designed to take out large amounts of weak enemies. Certain characters have trees and skills designed to deal maximum damage over a large area. The Forward Observer is the prime example of an AoE class.

Mobs
Mobs are large groups of enemies that the players must kill. Generally they are defeated by a combination defensive skills, high splash and damage weapons and characters, and a tanking character to draw agro and absorb damage.

Tanks
Tanks are any Heavy Class. These classes have large health pools and high armor. They each have a skill tree designed to draw enemies away from allies as well as absorb large amounts of damage. On top of this, Tanks are immune to Rating lost from Hits.

Facetanking
Generally refers to non tanking classes taking excessive amounts of hits, and poor play in general. It is an insult, and is usually a result of new, lazy, or unskilled players being a severe detriment to the team.

In specific instances it will refer to a players taking a large amount of hits from Parasites. This is because they have a low threat level and are targeted last. A large amount of Venom will both greatly slow the player, drain his health, and threaten his life. This is extremely taxing on a Medic.

Loot
Loot is generally referred to as the rare items found during the later stages of a campaign. This includes powerful weapons like the XM814 Heavy Machine Gun, AER138 Laser Rifle, and Barrett M112; as well as valuable items like High-Capacity Magazines and the Arc Reactor. Often a team's Recon will venture out to hunt for loot after a supply drop, or the team as a whole will venture out to find loot.

Build
A build is the skills and order in which said skills are bought by a player throughout a campaign. Generally most player's will stick to a single skill tree, trying in theory to gain their ultimate skill as fast as possible. There are few successful "Hybrid Builds" that utilize skills from both trees, without sacrificing too much utility.

Stuns
Quite literally, any skill that stuns. These are useful for temporarily disabling any enemy, notably Bosses. A few stuns that are often overlooked are the Medic's Nano-Shock, Demo's Sap, and oddly enough, the Rifleman's Repulse are all often forgotten. One of the most common uses for stuns is freeing an ally snared by a Hugger.

Stunlock
Stunlocking is a process through which players rotate using various stuns on an enemy, typically a boss, one after another to keep it immobilized as long as possible. It's a very common tactic to defeat Menoetes and Eileithyia. =Class related=

Rofl/Roflman
Refers to the Rifleman.
 * Crofl - Refers to a Combat Rifleman
 * Surv Rifle/Rofl - Refers to a Survival Rifleman

Med
Refers to the Medic.
 * FA Med - Refers to a Field Aid Medic
 * Nano Med - Refers to a Nano-Tech Medic

Assa
Refers to the Assault.
 * Arms Assa - Refers to a Arms Assault
 * Assa tank - Refers to a Protection Assault

Rec
Refers to the Recon.
 * SSCon or Survcon - Refers to a Surveillance Recon
 * Mobcon or Mobrecon - Refers to a Mobility Recon

MM
Refers to the Marksman.
 * AssMM or AMM - Refers to a Assassination Marksman
 * SubMM or SMM - Refers to a Subtlety Marksman

Demo
Refers to the Demolition.

Engi
Refers to the Engineer.
 * FS Engi - Refers to a Field Support Engineer

Comm
Refers to the Commando.
 * Opcomm or Nukemando - Refers to a Operations Commando

Flamer
Refers to the Flamethrower. Can also refer to the Flamethrower MK-3.
 * Pyrobat - Refers to a Pyro Flamethrower
 * Orderbat - Refers to a Order Flamethrower

FO
Refers to the Forward Observer.
 * Arty FO - Refers to a Fire Support Forward Observer

Tech
Refers to the Technician.

Chem/CE
Refers to the Chemical Expert. Chem can also refer to the Chemical Leak mission.
 * GS Chem - Refers to a Ground Support Chemical Expert

Path/PF
Refers to the Pathfinder.

PO/Sex-Ops (seriously, people do use this term)
Refers to the Psi-Ops. =Skill Related=

FF
Refers to the Rifleman's starting skill: Focus Fire. This skill boosts the Rifleman's damage and sight range but decreases his attack speed. Lasts for 5 seconds.

SL
Refers to the Medic's Surgical Laser skill. This is important not because it is a healing skill, but because will cure most Ailments, notably Cripple.

AV
Refers to the Medic's Anti-Venom skill. It cures Venom, which is among the most common Ailments. It is difficult for new players to find because the hotkey requires two button pressed sequentially, x then v.

OSOK
Simply put, the Marksman's legendary One Shot, One Kill. This skill provides instant damage that's upwards of a thousand to a single target. It can instantly kill or severely maim even the largest Agrons and Slashers on Nightmare. It is also an incredibly effective skill against bosses.

SS
Can mean one of two skills. Either the Marksman's Shadowstep, or the Recon's Supply Station. Generally speaking the team has little need for the former, and players are referring to the latter.

That being said, the Supply Station is an incredibly useful skill. It provides up to 50 rounds of ammunition, health, and energy to those who stand within its radius. This is good for quickly replenishing the energy reserves of high usage classes, especially Medics and Marksmen. If used effectively over the course of the campaign, with allies making sure to maximize its effectiveness, it can literally generate thousands of rounds of ammunition across the team, saving dozens, if not hundreds of Magazines.

BHS
Refers to the Combat Engineer's Boom! Headshot skill in the combat tree. This skill increases the attack speed of the Engineer and the X1 and their attacks stun and reduce armor while the skill is active.

OD
Refers to the Combat Engineer's Overdrive skill which is the combat tree ultimate skill. When the skill is activated, the X1 begins to use it's thermal lances to burn through all then enemies that are encountered. This easily melts most zombies with ease and severely injure the larger ones. =Weapon Specific=

Gauss
Refers to the UA GPR-12. This is the starting weapon for most classes. It is commonly known as Gauss as it used to be named the Gauss Rifle.

Flamer
Can refer to the Flamethrower MK-3 but can also refer to the Flamethrower class as well, a class that utilises the Flamethrower MK-3 well.

Sniper
Usually means the M45 Marksman Rifle, which is 1 of 2 types of sniper rifles in the game. It is more common than the other sniper rifle which is the Barrett M112,but deals less damage.

HK
Refers to the UA420 Assault Rifle. Was formerly known as the HK420 Assault Rifle.

SMG
Refers to the MP9A2 Sub-Machine Gun, an incredibly fast firing weapon but has a large armor reduction, making it awful against enemies such as Hulks.

Shotty
Refers to the 590A5 Combat Shotgun, the only shotgun in the game.

HMG
Refers to the XM814 Heavy Machine Gun, a gun that has a great damage output but also a long reload. Only recommended for classes that can mitigate the reload one way or another, especially in Nightmare Mode where all reloads take twice as long.]

L3
Refers to the L3 Grenade Launcher.

Bar
Refers to the Barrett M112, a rarer, more powerful sniper than the M45 Marksman Rifle. A few people may refer it to the Crowbar instead.

CB
Refers to the Crowbar, a weapon that deals high damage but can only be used at a very close range. =Item Specific=

Mags
Simply put, the source of ammunition in NOTD. Players start with a healthy amount, but nowhere near enough to last an entire campaign. Replacement magazines are scattered all about the map. They can be grabbed like any other item and stored in your inventory. When "Equipped" they are transferred to the active ammo pool, where they factor in weight, but can be used to fire weaponry. As difficulty increases, Magazines become increasingly rare.

AB
Refers to ammo boxes, these are somewhat rare item containers that can be used to store large amounts of ammunition. They are very useful for slow classes or players with small inventory sizes.

AP
Armor Piercing ammunition. It reduces enemy armor, making most weapons deal extra damage to said target. It also boosts the damage output of the character who has equipped it.

HP
Hollow Point ammunition. It increases damage output by a flat 12% and is easily the rarest ammo modification. Best given to a high damage dealing class.

FMJ
Full Metal Jacket ammunition. It is generally disliked as it reduces weapon range, but does greatly increase fire rate. Best used on classes that favor slow weapons, or weapons that already have great range.

HE
High Explosive ammunition. It augments the power of incendiary based weapons and skills. Best given to classes who specialize in such abilities.

Kits
Medkits, common healing items that restore 125 health over 15 seconds. A stack of medkits is common place in almost any players inventory.

Bands
A shortened term for Bandages, these heal 50 health instantly, as well as curing an Open Wound.

Arc
Arc Reactors, powerful and rare items that increases the user's energy regeneration. They do not appear during chapter 1 in Recruit Mode. Often given to Medics.

TS
Refers to Thermal Sights, an item that gives detection to the user.

RS
Refers to the Riot Shield, an item that increases armor by one but reduces attack speed by 2%. =Enemy Specific=

Hulks
Powerful zombies with thick armor that are basically immune to UA GPR-12. Best to kill them with flamethrowers.

Infs
Infested Marines, somewhat common ranged enemies that stack ailments incredibly quickly. Their fast attack can cut through most player's health at alarming rates. Worse still they may fire up at players on high ground with vision from their infested allies. Always be wary of their presence.

Devos
Devourers, large black roaches that can climb ledges and explode into banelings when killed. They are very dangerous to the unwary.

Gargs/Muta
Mutalisks that can move nearly as fast as a player. They can be very dangerous to lone players if they are not prepared.

BB/BBQ
Brain Bugs, huge annoying enemies that act as sponges for damage. They are somewhat rare and not a threat to large groups of players.

FBB
The Fearsome Brain Bug is an optional Mini-boss that is a Brain Bug with a significant buff to its damage, and health. It only appears on game modes Normal and above. It can be a threat to a lone player. It grants 1 Karma point to the team as a reward for killing it.

Tart
Tartarus, otherwise known as the first boss new players will see. Avoid his acid attacks and try to shoot him in the back for best damage.

Ere
Erebos, the second boss of the Easy Company Campaign, he is almost immune to the UA GPR-12 and the Flamethrower MK-3 and M45 Marksman Rifle will prove much more effective. He has a strong melee and rains bombs from the sky.