What grows this track: Helicopter use. What you're actually doing: Air lift (getting squads to the Control Zone or Hot Zone fast) and, once you've progressed, attack-helicopter tempo work that can swing a fight in seconds.
What Pilot does for the squad
Helicopters are the fastest way to answer a Control Zone that just moved, reinforce a losing fight, or make a Hot Zone push worth the risk. Ferrying friendlies pays cash directly, same as ground transport — and an attack helicopter adds a threat that ground-based anti-armor tools often can't easily answer.
Starter loadout
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| MH-6 (light transport heli) | $6,250 |
| Fuel Can | $150 |
| Repair Tool | $150 |
At $6,550, Pilot is the most expensive role to get into on day one — you likely won't afford this on your very first life. Bank cash from ground roles first, or coordinate with your squad to prioritize getting one Pilot airborne early.
You still need a personal weapon. The above is your vehicle kit — it doesn't arm you. Add a weapon with two magazines and an ammo box for its calibre, a bag to carry them, and the Emergency Resuscitator, which is free. You will end up on foot, usually at the worst moment. Full walkthrough: How To: Buy a Weapon.
What it earns
A full MH-6 (6 passengers) into the Hot Zone pays around $1,500 a trip, plus roughly $250 per passenger who survives. The helicopter costs $6,250 — about three good runs and it has paid for itself, after which every flight is profit. You aren't buying a weapon, you're buying a business. See How To: Make Money.
Growing into it
- Z20 Lakota ($7,400, Pilot Lvl 10) is the heavier 13-seat transport once you've got some track level — beta wikis called it the UH-1Y; the vendor calls it the Lakota.
- AH-6M [Miniguns] ($7,000) and Z20 Lakota [Miniguns] ($8,000, two M134D miniguns, flares) add direct gun runs to your utility.
- AH-6R [Rockets] ($12,500) steps into serious anti-armor and anti-fortification air power.
- HAVOC ($18,000) is the top-tier attack helicopter — a major investment that should be a squad-level priority, not an impulse buy.
How to play it well
- Fly predictable routes into unpredictable ones. Enemy AA and Recon players learn your flight paths fast — vary your approach and altitude rather than repeating the same lane every extraction.
- Land in cover, not in the open, for pickups. A hovering helicopter in the open is the single easiest target on the map for enemy launchers.
- Talk to Recon before flying toward a contested zone. If Recon has called enemy AA or armor near your route, that's exactly the information that keeps you alive.
- **Prioritize getting your squad into the fight over farming kills yourself** in a transport heli — the fare you're carrying is worth more to your team's score than a gun run.
- In attack helis, use terrain to break line of sight between gun runs instead of loitering over the same spot.
Common mistakes
- Hovering stationary over a landing zone under active fire instead of a quick touch-and-go.
- Flying the same predictable route to the Control Zone every single time.
- Ignoring fuel until you're stranded mid-air over hostile territory.
- Buying an attack helicopter before your squad can actually protect the investment (no ground support, no Recon calling threats).
Drills to run
- Route variation: fly at least three different approach paths to the same objective across a session instead of repeating one.
- Fast extraction: practice touch-and-go landings under time pressure rather than idling on the ground.
- Threat-aware flying: before every flight into a contested area, explicitly ask your Recon player for a threat check over voice.
See also: Requesting Transport, Setting Up Air Defense, Vehicles Reference.