Enemy On Board is a Top-Down SciFi Shooting Game by Windwalk Games. The developers of EOB have worked on games like League of Legends, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind and Garry's Mod among others. With that kind of backdrop, it's no surprise that expectations for EOB are high. The dev team does a good job of meeting those expectations with a fun casual game that can be both thrilling and great for just killing time. The developers are handing out keys to access a first version of the game at random through their website and the game's official Discord channel with more players added on each test round. Here are some quick tips for new players who get their hands on the passkey for one of the test periods.
Tips for human crew members
Don't trust anybody
Friendships mean nothing in EOB. Anyone can be an alien in this game and there is no way to know who it is unless you see them transform. Treat everyone with caution and suspicion. Going alone with another player to repair a generator makes you an easy target for foreign players if there are no witnesses around.
Team up with cyborgs
Towards the end of each match, the aliens are forced to transform and the cyborg stations are unlocked, giving players the chance to transform into cyborgs. Cyborgs have much better weapons such as swords and guns for manipulating aliens. Even though cyborgs are much more dangerous to aliens, they are not invulnerable. If you're not a cyborg, team up with them and move as a group to take out aliens or cover everyone's escape.
Traps the exhaust capsule
When playing as an alien, a common strategy towards the end of the game is to have one or two players stay near the escape pod to take out the weakened humans who try to run. The best way to counter this is to place a ton of traps around the exit. The escape hatch is in the same place every part so far, so if you've seen it you know exactly where it's going to be. Place traps all over the hallway leading to it and keep a stun gun handy so you can slow down the aliens and secure an escape.
Door hatches
As the combat phase approaches, start placing traps at the gates of common areas. Coordinate with your team so that you can slow down the aliens if they transform early or try to team up with you once the cyborg stations are available. Molotov cocktails can also be useful for this. Coordinate with your team to lead the aliens into a room like the armory, drop a molotov near the doors, then trap the doors and hit them with the stun gun if they try to escape. You won't do a ton of damage but it will help you reduce it a bit.
Hang on to the stim serum for emergencies
It is easy to get trapped in a corner by a foreign player, especially in some of the small side passages. If you take a Stim Serum, use it to walk away and return to the Armory or Repair Room. If you happen to see the transformation and alien, try writing down their name to pass it on to your team. The serum is especially useful if you are in poor health and need to get away and find some bandages.
Watch where you throw!
Molotov cocktails are an extremely useful and boring tool. The fire can block out large areas, giving you some time to escape the aliens or access the escape pod. Fire can also block large areas allowing the alien you seek to escape and heal themselves. Stop throwing molotovs in front of the only exit to an area.
Don't ghost
Ghosting is a boring practice that ruins the experience. If you are in a separate conversation with other players and you are killed, do not immediately go out who killed you. It just takes away the fun of the game.
Extraterrestrial advice
Use the armory and repair room to your advantage.
Players usually congregate in the armory or repair room while waiting for the generator's next objective. This makes it the perfect place to get evolution points for infesters. Use the infection ability in these confined spaces to get the most points to use later. It's harder to make out a single stranger in a room full of pink haze. This tip is actually in the tutorial, but playing in one of the recent beta periods I saw a lot of infesters give themselves away by rubbing and infecting a single player.
Don't target players alone ... unless you're a leech
If you're playing as an Infector, infecting a single person is a dead giveaway. If you're alone with another player, they'll know you're an infector as soon as they see that pink haze after you've infected them. Unless you kill them promptly before or after infecting them, they're bound to try and tell their team. The reverse is true if you are a leech. Most of the time, players will find themselves at generator repair points alone or with another person. This makes them the perfect target for leech powers. The pink ray that appears when you leech a victim is not visible to them. Other players can see this ray, so targeting single players is the best way to go.
Egg hallways and generators
There are a lot of narrow side passages which are great for spiders to place eggs because players will blindly walk through them either to get to a generator or to flee from an alien. Because these sideways are so narrow, most players won't go right past your eggs, earning you easy progression points. The same can be said for the areas around the generators. There are four rounds for the generator repair with short pauses in between. Use the breaks to take off from the group and place eggs. Fortunately, the animation for egg laying is not really obvious.
Transform quickly from the start
At the start of the game, players will have decent gear but nothing terribly powerful. Once players gain access to the armory, they become much more of a problem. This is only made worse when the cyborg stations are brought online and everyone has a chance to transform into more powerful cyborgs. Transforming as early as possible can give you the chance to overwhelm and kill or weaken a few players before they get to the armory. Having said that, it will also make you a target, so hit one or two and then find a quiet place to hide until you come back. Aliens will transform during the combat phase towards the end of the match, so hang on to evolution points until the bitter end doesn't help anyone.
Transform coordinates
Communication with your team is essential in this game, especially for aliens. If you and another alien have enough evolution points saved to both transform you, do it. Keep in mind that transformations only last 15 seconds, so find a hidden spot near where players will meet, like the repair room or escape pod. Fighting two aliens is much more difficult for a group of players than just aiming for one.
Keep an eye on the clock
Time is everything in EOB. The matches go quickly and everything is very fast. Transformations take 15 seconds. If you change back before finishing a human or anywhere a human can see you, you will immediately become a target. There is a timer at the top of the screen that shows each phase of each match. These phases do not last long and the challenges will have to be completed quickly or everyone will lose. Keep an eye out for the timer or the armory opening and the combat phase will sneak up on you. Getting caught when the cyborg stations are available will almost guarantee you a loss.
Their arsenal is your arsenal
Players are still fighting each other while trying to figure out who is an outsider and who is not. If the armory is open and someone hits you, push them back with something much bigger. Just because you're a stranger doesn't mean you can't prick someone with the vaccine or use shivs. You can damage them and if someone says something you can claim self defense so use bandages. You can also exhaust some of the res
